Brandon Styll sits down with Leesa Leclaire, President and CEO of the Greater Nashville Hospitality Association (GNHA), to discuss the state of Nashville's hospitality industry and the advocacy work GNHA does on behalf of restaurants, hotels, and attractions.
Brandon Styll sits down with Leesa Leclaire, President and CEO of the Greater Nashville Hospitality Association (GNHA), to discuss the state of Nashville's hospitality industry and the advocacy work GNHA does on behalf of restaurants, hotels, and attractions. Leesa shares her path from a teenage donut shop server in Rochester, Minnesota to hotel general manager by age 30, and ultimately leading Nashville's hospitality advocacy organization.
The conversation covers downtown safety, the Red Frogs volunteer program, Safe Bar certification, updated bartender training laws, valet parking regulations, and how GNHA helps members navigate legislative issues like the curb-space fee changes that affected restaurants like The Palm and Supper Club. Leesa shares striking statistics about Nashville tourism, including 16.8 million visitors, 73,000 industry workers, and $10.7 billion in visitor spending.
Brandon also opens with updates on his Gordon Food Service warehouse tour in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, and the growing Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance (NARA), which now has 23 restaurants and is negotiating vendor deals on members' behalf.
"Can you think about all of the ways that food intersects with our world, from taking your mind off of your work to connecting people to learning to new experiences? It's just a remarkable world."
Leesa Leclaire, 24:53
"On busy weekends downtown is the largest city in Tennessee. There's so many people down there."
Leesa Leclaire, 43:13
"The formula changed at The Palm Restaurant from about a 500 dollar fee per year to use that curb space to somewhere around 65,000. They quit doing valet parking because it doesn't make sense."
Leesa Leclaire, 54:49
"Nashville alone had 16.8 million visitors. Visitor spending is 10.7 billion dollars. Our industry employs 73,000 workers in Nashville. Visitors spend 29.5 million dollars a day."
Leesa Leclaire, 01:11:19
00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon Food Service. I always say it, but we got a great one today. We have got Lisa LeClair. She is the president of the Greater Nashville Hospitality Association, GNHA for short. And this is a good conversation about the state of the industry. I just loved it. I just love talking to people who are as passionate about the industry as you can be and she's one of those people. And I think that you're going to enjoy this. So we're going to jump into that, but I got to tell you a story. Yesterday I took a trip to Shepherdsville, Kentucky.
01:07It's 160 miles away and it is where the Gordon Food Service warehouse is. Have you guys ever done a warehouse tour? And if you haven't and you have a major broadliner that you work with, ask to go do that. It's great to see where your food comes from. I have been to all of the major distributors, all of their facilities, and I'll tell you that the Gordon Food Service, their facility is absolutely amazing. It's all done by cranes and robots and conveyor belts. And if you want to see what I'm talking about, go to the Nashville Restaurant Radio Instagram page and I am posting a video of what it looks like as they, so typically in a warehouse you have a, it's like a skid loader, you know, you have a forklift and they drive around and they have somebody who picks each package and then they build a pallet. That's not the way they do it at GFS. You can, they have a pick row and they pick the item, they put a sticker on it and they put on a conveyor belt and that conveyor belt goes through and it scans it and everything is routed to the specific truck and it's very, very, very meticulous about how this thing works.
02:20And I post a video of all these packages coming through on the conveyor belt and it's flawless. I mean, they're 99.9% perfect on their pick rates, which is if you've ever opened a package and you're walking like, what is this? Why is this here? Why did, man, people are stupid. They don't have that problem. And that's one of the reasons why I love GFS. There are presenting sponsor and they're amazing. And it was a really nice trip to go out there and do that. So I just, I implore you, go visit your broadliners facility. They'd love to have you see where the food comes from. And if you don't have a main broadliner, maybe NARA is for you, the Nashville area restaurant Alliance. It's interesting. This episode with the greater Nashville hospitality association, because they're looking at it from like a legislative point, like what can we do to help get, you know, remove obstacles for you. And what I'm doing with NARA is I am helping you negotiate vendor deals. As you go through, you're a busy person and you don't have the opportunities really to negotiate these deals down. And I've been doing it. We've got 23 restaurants now on board and I've negotiated five different broadline deals and everybody seems to be very, very happy with the results. I intend on doing this a lot more.
03:38I've got six meetings this week. We're going out, we're building. So if you're interested in having somebody come through and just audit what you're buying, how you're buying, I've got some great vendor members. And one of those vendor members is Adams Keegan and Adams Keegan is a payroll company. They do so much more than payroll. They remove administrative burdens like HR administration, payroll, benefits management, garnishments, unemployment claims, compliance, 401k and much, much more. If you listen to the show, you know, one of my favorite things to do is really source out amazing vendors who care about your business. I think the biggest problem that we have right now in our industry, as far as cost goes, is just a lack of trust. And right now we have so many things with tariffs and all prices going up. It is now more important than ever that you have negotiated the best possible terms with a company that cares about you. And that's what Ty Reedy is doing over there at Adams Keegan. If you don't have a payroll company or you use some payroll company that's an 800 number or some national company, they're local and they care about your business. And I've been doing this for years. We've been working with Robin's Insurance Company and Matthew Clements over there. I've got so many people that are just like, dude's the best. He is absolutely the best for an insurance provider.
05:02When you need it, Matthew Clements is there for you. Jason Ellis was super source. Jason Ellis was super source. I've been talking about him for four and a half years, changing the game in dish machine and chemicals. If you have a dish machine in your restaurant and you use one of the national brands, this guy doesn't have any contracts. He comes in and he earns your business every single week and he saves you thousands, thousands upon thousands of dollars a year. And he helps you. He'll educate your staff. He'll do all the things that you want somebody who cares about your business to do. And that is why I'm getting such massive response from CNB Lennon. I mean, this Lennon company, you don't have to sign a contract, right? So there's no risk involved. You don't have to sign some five-year contract. I mean, most Lennon companies say, well, I don't make my money back until year six. And it's like, come on, these guys want to earn it every single week. Plus there's no fees. You're not paying clean green service fees. You're not paying any kind of replacement costs. And I have negotiated an exclusive deal for all NARA members. So if you are unhappy with your Lennon company, and like I always say, you probably are, you should try CNB Lens. We've moved all of our restaurants to them and they are absolutely amazing. Just the service from the driver has been amazing. But this is why we're getting this type of response from you guys. I get people reaching out all the time. Tell me more about CNB Lennon's. I want to give them a shot. I want to try this. This is the kind of brands we have. And Adams Keegan, to get back to my original statement, is our new HR payroll all-in-one solution. And they are amazing.
06:35If you want to get a hold of Ty, his number is 615-707-9615, or you can visit Adams Keegan, that's A-D-A-M-S-K-E-E-G-A-N dot com for free HR consultation and payroll management. You know, if you also, there's another one, if you need an accounting services, Grumberg Accounting is doing an amazing job out there. They're my accountant and my communication with Marta. You can go back and listen to our episode with Marta Grumberg. If you need a really good accounting solution, Grumberg Accounting is doing just an amazing job. If you have other vendors who you absolutely love who are doing a fantastic job, tell them to hit me up because I want to learn more. I want more vendors to join me over here at NARA and I've got a bunch. We are also working with a CO2 company, Volunteer Welding. If you're using new CO2 or some other company that's probably charging you too much, I can't say that they are, but the chances are they are.
07:38Volunteer Welding, we've put together a pretty good program with them too. So if you're more interested in NARA and you want me to come visit you, go to Nashville Restaurant Radio's Instagram page, send me a DM and say, hey man, come talk to me. And it doesn't cost you anything, it's just a matter of coming in and sitting down and looking at what you're doing and seeing where I can help save you money and hold some people accountable. So it's a lot of fun that we're having. Another big announcement, I don't know if you guys saw on the news, but there was a big THC legislation and I think a lot of people were like, well what does that mean for my THC beverages? I've got Ken Peltier coming on on our next episode. So the next episode was with Vince Lanni and Ken Peltier is going to come on and he's going to break it down what that means. Doesn't look like anything's going to be changing for your five milligram THC beverages. So Calexo shouldn't affect you whatsoever. It's just now going to be managed through the Tennessee Alcohol Beverage Commission and there's some other details but he's going to come on and break it down so you guys can know exactly what that means. So keep buying Calexo. The more people that, the more we can normalize and destigmatize the idea of a five milligram THC beverage, the more we'll be selling and we're doing really well at Green Hills Grill and Chago's with it. If you want to try Calexo, I think you can go to Scout's Pub over in West Haven. You can go to the Rose Pepper in East Nashville. They have Calexo so if you want to try it in East Nashville, swing in a Rose Pepper and try a Calexo or if you're in Green Hills, the Green Hills Grill or in the Belmont area, Chago's Belmont Cantina. We will be happy to serve you a Calexo and you can try it. So really good stuff. We are going to jump into this episode. Lisa and Claire, thank you for listening to all of my announcements. I hope that you guys are doing great. You're going to love this conversation that starts right now. Super excited today to welcome in Lisa LeClair. She is the president
09:39and CEO of the Greater Nashville Hospitality Association. It's been a long time. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Well thank you for having me. It's a great pleasure to be here. I love your program and love what you're doing. This is terrific. Well thank you so much. I'm a big fan of yours as well and I don't know why we haven't connected on this show sooner but I have a feeling like we're going to learn a lot about the overall industry today and what's happening in Nashville. And there is a lot isn't there? Well I mean it's the restaurant world and it's a really happening city and man it feels like every day it's just a new, there's so many trends, there's so many people coming into town, there's influencers, there's I mean and just in chefs that are influencing other chefs and we're just growing rapidly. We are absolutely bonkers crazy. I love it. We live in a crazy political world to where all kinds of things are happening and that's kind of a world in which you get involved in. So tell me a little bit about the Greater Nashville Hospitality Association.
10:45Yeah thanks for asking. So we are a advocacy organization that really represents restaurants, hotels, attractions and all of the businesses that support them and the purpose is for us to make sure that we're help educating the public, our elected officials and our members, keeping everybody informed on what's happening legislatively so that if there's a change in liquor laws for instance or in licensing for bartenders we're trying to help keep our legislatively keeping the decisions those folks are making not prohibitive to us doing business and then additionally when those laws and changes are made keeping our membership in informed on what's happening and how to stay on top of things. Well I have two questions. THC beverages 2018 hemp bill or the farm bill allows us now to sell THC beverages on premise and in liquor stores. Is that coming to a change? Is there anything going on around that because I hear whispers that they're trying to get rid of that they're trying to tax it this way or there's going to be all these stipulations coming up. Is that anywhere is that all just hearsay? Well right now it's not on my radar so we work with a lobbyist who is keeping track of things at the state level and that has not come up that I am aware of. Well that's good.
12:24Yeah I think so too and is it THC or is it CBD or is there a difference? I don't know. There is a difference so there's a hemp derived THC right so we're we can the farm bill allows people to grow hemp okay which is a there's delta 8 delta 9 delta there's these different strains of what they call hot THC so CBD is a cannabinoid and it takes the the it's a it's a strain of the hemp plant that has lots of medical benefits but it doesn't have any psychoactive I see capabilities so in delta 9 which is a THC which does have psychoactive there is a small there's a loophole in that farm bill that allows so much of that to come out like this brand I have behind me this colexo okay is a five milligram THC hemp derived THC which has psychoactive abilities and it also has five milligrams of CBD so those two combined add the cannabinoids and it's you know you drink one it's like a kind of a glass of wine okay and they have it scientifically derived or it hits your system within 15 minutes and it's gone for most people within an hour I'm gonna confess I've never had one of those beverages I have wine and I drink water and I drink coffee and that's pretty much it that's it but but I am gonna put one of those on my radar I will tell you a story I grew up in Minnesota I think we talked about this and my my father was in the spirits business for many many many years a salesperson and my mother was having some hip pain and we were suggesting that maybe to help take the edge off our pain that she'd try these beverages and in Minnesota the THC is legal yeah and um and my father says oh I have one of those in the pantry let me go get one for your mother I love that story like I happen to have one here not that I don't drink them all the
14:29time no and so then of course the story goes on dad why do you have one of those he's 90 years old by the way and so he had some young a person he knew who was starting a business and he was trying to help him and the gentleman brought dad some of his beverages well it's really fantastic that this is even a possibility because you know it's a great thing if you're if you don't drink alcohol it's not it's an alcohol-free alternative to something that doesn't leave you hungover and doesn't do all these things and if you have one it can help with sleep it can help with anxiety it can help with you know ADD there's a million medical benefits to THC that you know back in the day when it when it's not legal you got to go buy it from somebody in a back corner alley and you don't know what you're getting and it's like you people have to you'd smoke it and then it's but now if you want only five milligrams of a certain strain that you know the way you're going to you can take exactly what you know you're not going to get too high you know you're not going to do this it's like I can manage it like taking an advil or three or whatever it is like you know what it's gonna do and so it's really great that that's an opportunity and you can offer that in restaurants and you know it's a it's a really nice alternative and it's growing like crazy it is it is indeed I see it everywhere as I mentioned with my 90 year old father I love it um how did you get into this how did you get when did you start were you like a restaurant worker back in the day you know what that was my very first job I um I was 14 and um I went to work on weekends at a donut shop uh in town I lived in Rochester Minnesota a little town and uh Saturdays and Sundays I'd get up early and and um serve tables coffee and and donuts in the morning moved on to become a bus girl at a at a uh cafeteria um I'll never forget Mr. Latz was
16:29the owner and and kept in touch with him for years and years and years uh and how old were you at that time ah like 14 15 pretty young pretty young well this is I'm gonna go off on a small tangent here but this is something I tell my managers all the time we hire people that are 15 16 to be essays like a server assistant and I always get complaints that oh they won't do what I say they don't do this and they get frustrated with them and I go guys we have such an amazing opportunity because you're their first boss like you have the opportunity to show them like what leadership is and really coach them through the stuff and set a high standard for them like they don't know any different they're just they're kids and you get frustrated because they're kids but like there's a different way you have to approach them and what an amazing gift to be somebody's first boss and the ability to show them what a good boss looks like and to put your arms around him and care for him like you're just saying right now my first boss Mr. Latz when I was back in the day like you these are memorable things for these people I just think it's an amazing opportunity I I agree and and and honestly that was 50 years ago now I know I can't believe I'm that old my mother always says she's not old enough to have a daughter my age but but it's no I agree a hundred percent you know I grew up in a large family there were five girls and so if you wanted to buy anything five girls yeah five girls no boys no boys and I'm the oldest of those five so if you wanted a new pair of jeans you needed to figure out how to make money and so you know you either found a job or you did babysitting and yeah I was I was into it I I had a lot of fun doing it so you went from working a donut shop to busing in a cafe and keep going well I fell into the hotel business I I was really good with the numbers I as a high schooler I I worked in a
18:31grocery store doing the books on the weekends so I counted everybody's money and made the reports it was a lot of fun I really enjoyed it small little family owned grocery store in Rochester and and then I didn't go to college because I couldn't decide what to study my dad was going to pay for it and everything but I just didn't know what to do and so I just kept going with this sort of accounting path I was on landed in a hotel and this is in the late 80s no it's not it's in the early 80s and I had a female general manager which which was unheard of at the time and and I remember her name today Susan Sponsal and she was a great inspiration I had so much fun working in that hotel and I was an hourly employee in accounting Susan came to me one day and she said Lisa you know you're really good with numbers but you're really good with people why don't you let's move you to the front desk I think you should be the front desk manager and I looked at her and I said oh my gosh I don't even know how to check somebody in or out she said you will figure that out and she was correct and and from there I just really took every opportunity that came my way that made sense that I could work with and to learn and to grow and eventually set my sights on being a general manager of a hotel by the time I was 30 which I did with a few geographic moves I lived in Nashville for a year Atlantic Beach North Carolina Myrtle Beach South Carolina Raleigh North Carolina wow I know it was a lot of moving but what a joy and what an adventure adventure just learning way to see the the world and outside of Minnesota and I landed my first gm job when I was 29 and counting in Vero Beach Florida wow that's like spring training capital for what the Dodgers the Dodgers back in the day yeah
20:37Sandy Sandy Koufax used to come to my hotel he would tell me Lisa the kid my kids with kids stay at your hotel my kids who don't have kids can stay at my house he was a lot of fun I want to go back to this female general manager that you had and you know we're getting rid of DEI and all these things and I think that when you're a young woman and you're in a job and you see a female general manager back in the 80s what was that like for you did seeing somebody in that position of power was it just like a I can do it I mean that's why when you see people who look like you in positions like that it inspires so many people I think it's so important I want to take that idea on a tangent in a minute here but I will tell you you are exactly correct having that female leader and she replaced an older gentleman who had been the general manager who was also a good good leader good person but her style and just her presence was so uh different from his and um yeah it was it was really inspiring it was a lot of fun hello it kind of uh oh I drawing a blank at the hermitage hotel she's yes Deepa Tell Deepa Tell thank you so much our board chair for GNHA and and a good friend and uh an amazing woman yes she's one of the people in the city I look up to kind of the most I mean she is such an absolute leader and in every respect I mean I think that she just she inspires me just hearing her talking to her seeing her like just she handles herself so such great I just love her she really does have you had her on the show yeah okay good good good good good yeah she she's I was going to recommend that we do that if you had not you know I need to have her back on the show I mean I'll tell you that much I mean she's into so many things and and maybe with uh Jean George when he's here sometime wouldn't that be something that would be something oh let's see if we could
22:41is this mobile can we take this you I've seen you at you've seen me take this somewhere yeah I can take this to druzy and dar and set up a little studio there yes all right we'll talk to her about that I'm doing that more more more these days taking the studio with me that's pretty amazing it's kind of a pain but I mean you know it is it is what it is it's a lot of stuff for sure it's kind of fun to to make it mobile and go somewhere like being at Tennessee flavors was such a neat kind of a thing because you can just sit down talk and and go and well I cannot wait to hear that because I I do recall a couple of the faces that you had sitting at the table and one of them was our chief of police John Drake thank you you helped make that happen you were the one that made that happen and I was really excited I nicest guy I've met in a long time just like he was so excited to be like genuine and he felt he seemed like a kid on Christmas morning just being in that environment he loves to cook so much that like just being there around all those people he was like I just love this this is so great I want to do this like this is so much fun I love it he found his people he found his people I think he's got his people in the police department don't get me wrong and and I think they do a phenomenal job but yes to find that passion that is outside of what your day-to-day work life is is important well and you'll he said I like to cook it takes me off them takes my brain off of you know what and everybody has like their hobbies that they can kind of clock out and go do but you gotta imagine as chief of police I mean I look back on Christmas day bombing and you look back on covenant school shooting and the dude is right there and that is like traumatic stuff I mean to be a first responder to be somebody who's anytime the worst thing in the town happens that guy is right there in the middle of it and you kind of go yeah you probably do need something to take your mind off of your daily and I didn't we didn't go into that stuff in that conversation but when he said I like to I like to cook that's my
24:46way to unwind it was like man what I can imagine that's very important for you can you can you think about all of the ways that food intersects with our world from taking your mind off of your work to connecting people to learning to new experiences it's just a remarkable world isn't it I made dinner with my 11 year old the other night and we made steaks we made steaks with mashed potatoes and all this stuff and he is getting he likes to cook he thinks it's great well we went outside and we you know cooked the steaks and we turned them to make the diamonds and we timed it and we did all the things to get him a perfect medium rare and and we kind of had the steaks cooking I said all right let's set the table and we definitely don't set the table here for some reason it's just that we we just eat and I said let's set the table and he goes why and I go because we're preparing this bounty for our family and let's set the table so that when the family comes they can fully enjoy the gift of what we're creating for them and how key is it but like when you're talking to an 11 year old and he doesn't get it and so he set the table like perfect so everybody sits down then when everybody sat down the look in his eyes when everybody was eating and enjoying the food I go this is what this is about buddy like we're making we're nourishing our family and we're all gathering around this thing and we're talking about our days and we're just but everybody's enjoying the food that we created and I think he saw it I think he saw it in his brain was like oh this is me being of service to you and I think it I think he could feel it in his heart and it was a special moment it was like this is what food can do this is what gathering can do this is what real connection when you're not looking at a screen can do you know think about that and and my first experience with that first boss and you encouraging your team to work with these young people and and setting that mindset for that
26:47young person what a difference that will be in his life I think I think I'm hoping way to go dad he'll come in every once in a while and work at Chago's with me and he's the cutest little kid on the planet but he you'd think he was 30 I tell him I go you could manage a fast food restaurant tomorrow no no shade to fast food restaurant managers I'm just saying like he will come into Chago's and you know just like father son work day and he'll bus tables and the other day he said we're on the way and I go all right here's the deal I'll pay you two ways I'll give you X amount of dollars or I'll give you a lower amount plus a dollar per table that you bus and he stopped for me and he goes I can bust more than five tables it was the difference of five dollars an hour and he goes I can bust more than five tables an hour I'll take the performance based compensation and I said that's my guy and he should say 11 years old 11 and he and he beat the you know he he beat the average of he did more than five tables an hour but when he when there's no tables to bus he sees me walk around the restaurant and just talk to people because that's one of my I do table visits on a that's all I really do I bust tables and I do the same thing so he starts walking over and doing table visits I love it I mean he's 11 hey folks how was everything this evening did you enjoy your burrito did you enjoy the tacos can I take that away for you and I'll watch him do this he does it naturally I didn't say do it he just he saw me do it so that's what I'm gonna do and tables like look around like am I being filmed like what's going on here this is crazy and then I'll go back to this is my son you know working and they're like no he came over and asked her everything was that we're enjoying ourselves and he was very polite and very conversational like oh my gosh this kid so he gets that from you clearly can I interview you know how did you get into this industry by default I was I was 18 I was in high school and I sold tires at Sears okay and I graduated
28:53then I sold cars because I was told my whole life I should be in sales and I hated selling cars it was so dishonest it was such a devalue their trade in and see if you can over tell them tell them they're gonna pay nine hundred dollars a month but they only said they could pay two or tell them it's nine then we'll get them to 350 and it's like it just was slimy I didn't like it then I got a job at J Alexander's same year I was 18 years old on Whitebridge Road and you had to I think it was my third day that I went in and I missed the down home chicken sandwich I missed the trainers like are there any more spreadables on on my test you know I'm taking a test and he said are there any more spreadables on that and I go I don't know what a spreadable is what do you mean like what's like ketchup he's like yeah like a condiment he said I don't think so he goes oh has barbecue sauce you fail 89 you have to come back you go home like you're not working today come back tomorrow and I was like really what so I went home and I studied and then I came in I took it seriously and it was the best place I could have ever started because full hands in full that the fundamentals of consistency and team service were drilled into me and I think I got fired from that job for eating a chip or something I pulled a chip out of the Hobart and I was eating it and it was like you can't do that and I wasn't very good at it and I was kind of a 18 year old mess but they fired me then I went to work at like Ruby Tuesdays and I was a bartender there at like 19 and I met the people was what really endeared me these were people that were from everywhere and I just fell in love with the whole thing you can come in and make money and if you're really good you can excel and it's really kind of your own thing and I just it was my purpose it was just my thing I worked at Taco Bell when I was 16 and Pizza Hut and loved making food that looked
30:53really good and I would get so excited to work the drive-through welcome to the border man take your order you know and people would just get so tickled from these things and I just thought I mean working with people every day I get to make their days better by what I do and it's almost like a you're performing like I was a comedian or I was a entertainer but didn't need to be the star of the show I just would identify where I fit into these people's dining experience if it was I'm gonna bring you water and stay away and shut up or if I could tell you needed to be cheered up or you wanted to be navigated around the entire menu or whatever it was I just found that and I loved it I didn't care about the money of it these people aren't going to leave me a tip my favorite table was the two little old women that would sit down and they you knew that they were gonna split a you know soup and salad and they're gonna have a $16 check and leave you a dollar I never cared I was like I'm gonna see if I can't make their experience I would greet the table with a bowl of lemons and two waters and extra sugars and I would say are we doing soup and salad can I split that for you and those women always slip you a 20 at the end of it and I would be like thank you and I it just was like something that was so natural to me and it didn't feel like work you know people say if you don't work a day and you know if you do something you love you won't work a day in your life I really honestly felt that way and it was my thing and I I was hired at age 22 I was at MTSU I worked at the Boundary and then I went to Amerigo in Brentwood and I was tapped to go be one of the opening trainers at Char in Jackson, Mississippi Wow. So there's a Char in Green Hills there's one in Memphis but the original one in Jackson I was one of the opening trainers for Char when I got back to Nashville I said hey we want you to come back and manage the Jackson Amerigo which was like the big restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi and they were crushing it the original Amerigo and so I said I left school and I was like yeah
32:55I'll go do that like that's that's what I want to do I can sit in a classroom and somebody can tell me about business or I can go I want to be in restaurants right Bill and Al who owned the restaurant at the time Bill recently just passed away but they're they live there and I got to work under them and be where the owners were and I just learned so much I got my level one sommelier when I was there and then they moved me back to Nashville and you know kind of I got married and my wife said you're not allowed to work in the restaurant business anymore and I she wanted to see me okay apparently that was a thing for newlyweds you had to see each other I don't know what this is about but I went to work for creation gardens in 2005 and I was in the food sales leadership for gosh 15 years before I got back in as the director of operations for our current company in 2018 and so you know been in a thousand kitchens met so many people I'm just genuinely curious about every person and just love this community and it's just a special place and so there's my kind of my why I love that I love that story and sharing that with your son and all the connections there beautiful it's neat and this community around here when you're back to the greater Nashville hospitality association I mean I've been in this community since gosh well since I was 18 and you know I'm 46 so I mean you're talking a few years yeah and you've seen a lot you've seen Nashville change a lot I think right now we're seeing this onslaught of these chains and these people coming to Nashville and these local restaurants not being able to afford raised rents and you're seeing vendors do predatory things you're a small restaurant we're going to charge you twice as much because we know you're on your heels we know you're out there hustling as best you can and you're not watching and you're not watching and I think that the level of trust we have with vendors in this city is it's going away and there are some
34:56really good vendors out there and there's some that will just take advantage of you the second you turn your shoulder and it's a there's just a lot of things happening that somebody needs to own in and fix black sheep tequila it shares six exclusive styles with the oldest released tequila with a line of six artisanal handcrafted luxury tequilas labor-intensive old world handcrafted process produces a single estate small batch line of tequilas for perfect flavor and balance no salt no lime required a true flight black sheep tequila cultivates highland blue weber agave that requires seven to ten years to reach full maturity under the brilliant sunshine of los otos de jalisco as done in the old world approach black sheep tequila continues the handcrafted heritage so much so that they have won double gold at the world san francisco world spirits competition this is the best tequila in the world and their headquarters is nashville so these guys are amazing they're doing amazing product everybody i've tasted on has said this is the best tequila i've ever had there's zero burn it is just delicious you need to call your ajax turner rep today they have a brand new amogrande which is their their entry level line so you can have the best tequila in the world as your well yes this is a true thing so pick it up it find liquor stores everywhere look for black sheep tequila or order it today through ajax turner charpies bakery is a locally owned and family operated wholesale bakery providing bread to nashville's best eateries they have operated in nashville since 1986 yes next year will be 40 years they providing high quality fresh bread daily for restaurants catering companies hospitals and universities the bread is also free from any preservatives
36:57and artificial flavors they're right off of white bridge road erin mosso and her team been doing this for a long time and you know what i love about them is that they're local and they care they care about your business that's like the number one thing you're going to hear me talk about is do they care about your business and i 100 believe that they do if you would like to be working with the bakery that cares about your business give them a call six one five three five six zero eight seven two that's six one five three five six zero eight seven two now you can always visit them at sharpies.com that's c h a r p i e r s dot com and they have pictures of all of the bread that they can have for you and contact information go check them out sharpies bakery hey guys today we are talking about robin's insurance and restaurants carry a very unique set of risks we can customize a menu of insurance solutions to meet your specific needs reviewing the options and developing a plan for restaurant insurance coverage is a perfect recipe every restaurant owner has heard the statistics about how tough it is to survive and thrive in the business but getting adequate insurance at least gives you a fighting chance to mitigate some of those risks it's well worth considering a custom-built restaurant insurance policy as it'll not only make life simpler but it may even overcome some risks you haven't even considered for example you'll usually want to cover risks to properties such as the building and equipment along with liability to customers and staff right yeah that's easy but remember there's an important difference between general liabilities such as a customer slipping on a spoiled drink and a professional liability such as about a food poisoning from bad food or inadequate preparation other elements that are easily overlooked include the risk of fraud and data theft that come with handling cash and card payments the risk of spoiled food you have to throw away if there's a power outage or refrigerator failure and the risk of lost business if you close for repairs after a fire protect your restaurant business by contacting them today it's so easy and when any of those situations happen what you
39:01don't want to do is get and dial an 800 number and be put on hold to talk to somebody you have to explain your business to that is why you call matthew clements matthew clements at robin's insurance when any of those scenarios happen you pick up the phone you dial 863-409-9372 matthew answers goes how can i help you you tell him your problem he's your friend you know him why would you not have an agent that you work with every single day any of these situations right here you need guidance you need support and matthew clements and his team at robin's insurance are there to provide it you should call him today i'm going to put that number down one more time that's 863-409-9372 call matthew clements today it's going away and there are some really good vendors out there and there's some that'll just take advantage of you the second you turn your shoulder and it's a there's just a lot of things happening that somebody needs to own and it's it's an interesting place for us to be i agree you know i think about things like pending tariffs potentially you know adding adding a layer to that which is which is concerning i think about our safety all the time we've got a we've got an upcoming event april 1st with um john drake chief drake is actually one of our speakers um along with district attorney glenn funk uh and city councilman uh jacob coupon and um you know we're just gonna talk about safety because that that has to be number one right if we're not perceived or or really a safe place then nobody's going to come and i think we need the balance of the visitors and the locals going to our restaurants to make sure that that there's that balance that that keeps
41:03everybody afloat i think i think that makes sense i was at edley's yesterday meeting with some of their team over in sylvan park and we had that exact conversation that you know they they have a nice combination of their neighborhood folks coming in plus the visitors and that is important to them yeah it just is so when you say safety i mean is is because to me i mean i guess it's extending outside of downtown but i mean downtown you really hear about people getting drugged at bars phones being stolen wallets being stolen and just so much how much of your time and energy focuses on downtown versus the suburbs because that's the big economic engine yeah there's a fair amount for sure um one one of the reasons that we're having this event with um district attorney funk and and chief drake is that um from the suburbs i don't know if you'd call metro center a suburb i guess i guess it's kind of a surrounding area it's not down metro centers i think it's if you're on priceline it's still considered downtown it might be it might be it might be so so um like the maxwell house hotel right right and and and then beyond i mean i the last time i drove through there i was blown away by how much is growing out there as well and we have some new hotels that were having some some trouble with break-ins in the parking lots really and when i was working out at the airport area we had trouble with break-ins in the parking lot now i don't think that's unique to hotels i think i think i read an article that it was happening at the fire department and i don't remember which firehouse it was but i think it happens in a lot of places and um you know if you're a visitor and you're visiting a hotel whether you're downtown or not downtown and and there's damage to your car or an item missing that's that's a problem and and those kind of things um get out you know downtown is is ripe for it just because of the sheer numbers of people um there's a statistic that our our
43:05nashville downtown partnership shares that on um busy weekends downtown is the largest city in tennessee there's so many people down there it's it's it can get downtown nashville downtown it's insane it is it really is but but but what if also what a fun place i mean it's it's like any big city you just kind of have to watch yourself um i go downtown a lot i i like to see the shows i like to go to good restaurants and um more often than not i i don't carry a purse i keep you know things on me that are pretty close and i have my phone on a strap so that i don't lose it and um yeah it's uh you just take some precautions as i would do if i were in paris or uh and i mean paris france not paris tennessee but i might do it in paris tennessee too um i think that uh yeah i think you just have to be aware of your surroundings and you know for those who are downtown and getting blotto drunk you're not aware of your surroundings i'm sorry and um and shame on you we are trying to keep you safe with things like safe bar i'm sure you're familiar with love the safe bar program indeed and and the red frogs have you met the red frogs have not oh my goodness what are the red frogs oh we have to get them on on the program because because you will you will just love dan he um he's australian um and he brought his program here from australia um they are volunteers that are set up downtown on friday evenings um between the the nashville uh department of nightlife and the downtown partnership and gnha and a group of us got together and helped find them a permanent space and a permit so they have a tent where um they have volunteers that come and they will help people from 8 p.m till 2 a.m friday evening so far and if you need to charge your phone you know how your phone dies sometimes and never at the
45:09right moment um and you can't find your friends or whatever information you need you can charge your phone for free um they have chairs set up under a tent so in the summertime when it's warm uh you can sit down you can get some shade you can get some water um the red frog started in australia as a result of something that they do coming out of high school called schoolies and i'm not sure i really get it but it's a it's a week-long binge that kids go on and this group like a purge yeah it's something like that or i don't know what it does but anyway it's getting ready for adulthood in some way shape or form and and this group was um really determined to help make sure that kids don't either go to the hospital or jail and so that's their purpose is to be downtown um kind of keeping an eye on on our um our visitors or anybody else who's downtown they also go to festivals like um i don't know if they were at bonnaroo or not but they were at cma fest um and in the summertime they also hand out during if they've got a daytime gig they hand out sunscreen to keep people safe wow it's a great thing i'll get you introduced to dan because it would be fun to have him on the show and and he is a character and a good spirit for sure so when you have chief drake and glenn funk and these people um speaking what are they going to be speaking about just about safety are they talking about preventative measures that we the business owners or that hey we're just gonna way over serve people all the time and you have to deal with it are they gonna talk about what what they're doing i mean because i mean you know that's that's the thing is that i think the perception is hey look people are getting roofied all the time this is this is out of control like and we seem to be fueling the fire the tourism i mean we just keep bringing hey come here and get as well i mean the perception
47:10i think of what nashville is now is kind of the nash vegas thing i mean the perception is come here get shit faced act like a complete idiot and it's fine you'll that's what you that's what we want come spend all your money get drugged get raped do whatever and go home and that's nashville and i don't like that well i think i think if you asked anybody in our industry they don't like that either and that is not the goal uh the goal is to come and have a wonderful time you know our our convention and visitors corp did a um a campaign last year on um it was all around uh come here have fun but don't get so blotto drunk that you don't remember you know make a memory remember what fun you had um i think the red frogs i think the safe bar all of those things are are measures that we can put into place um so that we are truly looking out for the good of people one thing that concerns me is that if people are you know in their hotel room or their airbnb or wherever they are and and they're having a few cocktails before they head downtown you know that just adds to it hundred percent you pre-gaming pre-gaming exactly and and so um i think that really puts a lot of burden on our bartenders in in venues and restaurants and you've got to really be paying attention a state law was passed uh last year that was uh effective this year where the bartender training uh and the server training is going to be happening to every two years now instead of every five years so there's some additional refreshing of that training and what to look for um and i think that's a good tool i i think it's a good tool but i mean maybe if you work downtown i mean because my restaurants are in the suburbs i'm in brentwood i'm in green hills i mean belmont is is not downtown by any means but i don't get a
49:12lot of i'm serving the same people and it's almost that getting your abc license is a pain in the ass i mean it's just not something that any server wants to do and so the five-year thing is like that's great we're constantly preaching don't do this don't do you know don't over serve and we have those conversations with our guests but it's not very frequent so i'm glad to hear that it's almost like well now we're gonna move it to every two years well that's good but now also for everybody else who's doing responsibly it just makes them have to go through this rigmarole and the abc is going to come in and we get fined for every person that doesn't have one and now that's just going to make all of us have to manage it even more because downtown is there a way to make it a if you're within that part of davidson county i mean because it seems like we're making rules for the whole city that downtown it really applies to downtown and that affects everybody out there and i i wanted to be safe i want it to be safe i mean safe bar is an amazing thing but how many downtown honky tonks are safe safe bar certified i mean the center for sexual assault does this they have the the what are they called the coasters that will tell if there's a drug in there but like there's like three three of them are from what i last read well i think there's more than that and and i think they're gaining traction i think over the last year the last number i recall hearing was somewhere around 18 still not that's way better than three absolutely i mean there's way more than 18 i mean if i'm a responsible business owner down there i mean i think some of this falls back on the owners downtown to go hey this isn't just a profit right i gotta push this many out a night because now you're over serving people they're getting waste they're falling into the river they're dying and hey my numbers look good now we we we but that reflects on everybody in the city and that affects everybody it does indeed it sorry i get a little passionate about this i can tell hey listen we we are all for all of this safety and
51:12and making things a better place and keeping nashville safe i think that that is a very high priority and anything that we can do to keep moving in that direction you will see us get behind for sure i love that yep sorry i'll get off my soap box well i just it seems it just seems to me that there's a lot of focus on downtown and a lot of restaurants outside of downtown need support and help also and how do you how does the the gnha actually how much time do you spend working on other places other than downtown what what does the gnha necessarily mean you're lobbying and things are there things you do for specific restaurants we have actually um i will tell you that um there's a restaurant called supper club over on belcourt belcourt yeah absolutely right down the street from us okay perfect perfect have you met rob rob's been on the show rob higgins yes yes yes awesome awesome rob well so i got to know rob and and he sits on the tourism and convention commission of which i'm the chair it's a metro commission that oversees the tax dollars generated by visitors in our hotels that go back into promoting more tourism um and anyway so i've gotten to know rob and i keep an eye on you'll just laugh at this i keep an eye on the the beer board agendas i keep an eye on the traffic and parking commission meeting agendas and the transportation licensing commission agendas for a variety of reasons but on traffic and parking they really regulate all of the um street access um and so if you have a valet lane that is in a in a street lane they regulate that and i saw on one agenda one day that
53:14um they were going to remove the valet lane at supper club and so i reached out to rob and i said hey i i just want to make sure you know that the valet lane in front of your restaurant is on the agenda are you aware now i think um i think n dot had reached out to his manager but i don't think rob knew about it yet and so um so we were able to to at least speak on his behalf at the meeting now the the valet lane was actually in a crosswalk and it really did have to get removed or moved and so our ask of n dot was can we help him find somewhere else and the parking company that he uses for his valet parking was at the same meeting speaking on his behalf um and and doing the same thing where where where on the block can we find him someplace because that was really important to a restaurant um we got involved a couple years ago the traffic and parking commission uh and and dot came up with a formula for how much they were going to charge per car length that could have potentially been used for paid parking and now you're using it for valet parking you should be paying for that curb space right and i think everybody would agree with that to a certain point um uh but the formula yeah well i can share with you that the formula changed um at the palm restaurant for instance downtown um from about a 500 dollar fee per year to use that curb space to somewhere around 65 000 i was like 500 a year sounds great absolutely i can totally handle that 65 000 a year that does not sound great they quit doing valet parking because it doesn't make sense right and um so we went back to end dot and um and actually they
55:18came to us too and said listen we don't think this number is the right number it's not fair and that is correct um so they came up with a new formula um so for instance if you were the palm and you were using that curb um only from 4 p.m to midnight the formula allowed um for just that portion of the street value if you will for whatever the parking value will that was now what your valet fee was which was more fair than charging them 24 hours a day for seven days a week yeah yeah and that's not what they're using so to your point the palm is a downtown example but but club is an outside and and that valet parking applies to all of nashville and we know there's valet parking in east nashville there's valet parking in parking in general it's just a real pain oh it is a it is a it is a special um piece of property isn't it that we have i mean i don't have chagos cantina i have a loading zone out front and we've petitioned to we've talked to our city councilman um we've done kind of all the stuff we can people park there all day long in the loading zone and it says loading zone but we would like just parking for chagos people or or just for takeout we love to do takeout but there's just students park there all day long and nobody manages it and it's just i think we can help you with that it's a real issue and so i really do think we can help you with that one of my favorite things um and and it's a secret weapon it's not supposed to be a secret but it's called hub nashville hub nashville there's an app that you can put on your telephone and you can also do it online um and you can actually call them but you can report that that car is parked there they will dispatch that to end dot and end dot has enforcement people that will come out in either ticket um and help you manage that it's
57:19a pretty remarkable opportunity and and if we can get more people to use hub nashville so that we can you know now you've got a record of this happening um and we can request those records at any time to see what kind of patterns exist what kind of response times exist i mean i think it's a really great tool for the city to use i like it well i don't i don't know the solution for it i just it's just a it gets frustrating when the same car is parked there for three days and you're like i have four parking spaces for my entire business yeah yeah and they're right in front of the business and it's a public street but i don't know if we can do you just kind of like i'd like to be able to have some sort of parking sure there's no handicap parking there's nothing there's just no parking well i think we knew that going in that's our own that's our own fault like we knew that going in but also it's a thing i i have a friend who lives not too far from there walkable very walkable so when i go to chaco i park with my friend and then we can walk down well thank you you're welcome and there's parking look there's two parking garages on belmont right campus right and they've said we can use i mean they're right across the street but they're up a hill that's like 99 it is a hill it is a hill and it's like i you know i guess the hill would be on the going up the hill would be after you've had your meal which is probably a good idea anyway right true story you can walk up the hill okay what so you you work with legislators you are helping create um policies and parking and all of the other things what else do you do i mean you have a famous boyfriend i do indeed and can i tell a fun story about him from yesterday sure oh so um i was i had the good fortune to be a judge this year at the pro start competition for the high school students yeah that the tennessee hospitality association does fantastic event up in noxville it was it was it was great and um the student uh group that won and now i'm not
59:21going to get the the name of the school right i want to say it was black man i say black man it's black man and um anyway so chef max at music city center and his executive sous chef uh raquel garahan um actually brought the kids into music city center yesterday and they spent a few hours together um preparing the meal that they're going to compete at the national level with and he was so excited about it they had such a great experience um he said the kids were enthusiastic the meals that are the yeah they have three they have to do an appetizer an entree and a dessert and and they were just remarkable these students he was impressed with their uh culinary teacher um and i'll send you some photos because it was it was really um he was really excited about the opportunity to work with these kids and the good work that they were doing he is the uh the consummate coach he is you're exactly correct he's very good at what he does he's a very he's an amazing chef and the amount of food he puts out at the music city center is mind-boggling it really is but i think his greatest quality and the thing that he would probably tell you the same thing is that he's constantly looking to make every person around him better he's not in it for the accolades let me show you what i can do he gets every bit of his like all the joy he gets is when his team when he's able to develop people and then they go get an executive chef job somewhere and they worked under him like that's just the most refreshing most amazing thing because he gets his joy when other people succeed he that's how he
01:01:21succeeds and it's so cool correct and and i and i think that for him comes from others who gave that to him right um i'm sure he's told the story and has he been on the show i can't remember yes okay of course he has i'll go back and listen to that one anyway he um you know he ended up as a young man in uh canada not speaking english fortunately for him he landed in a french speaking province but he um he had no english and uh he was in his early 20s and um became an executive chef there by the time he was 23-ish i think but along that along that way he always had people who were encouraging him and probably a few who knocked him around a little bit you know back back in those days that was a more uh prominent thing with chefs but um yeah i think i think that's where he gets that spirit from and um truly truly loves to see his team excel it's fun he learned so many techniques you know i think throughout all of his time as an executive chef and he was that used to be the chef at the kennedy center he's done so many but like the techniques he uses are so perfect it's like john stockton you know like the bounce pass like he was he would he could see things and it was just all about the fundamentals and i think that teaching those techniques you can see right in the middle of the door right there right in the middle spine of the door the little chef hat it says chef max oh the famous chef hat the famous chef hat right i see it i got it i got it i should have written mine closer to his well well we've brought the door from the old studio back to the new studio and lisa was kind enough to sign the door and we were talking about chef max there's a signature right there there's i recognize it right away yes indeed he's one of my we talked about this when you were on for the tennessee flavors but he's one of my favorite people awesome awesome i i've heard told this story before too but when i first met him um i knew he was coming to town and i worked for fresh point
01:03:23i was the sales manager at fresh point and music city center was coming and that was the whale of all whales that you wanted to get and so perry seal over at hillwood country club knew this and i sold perry seal stuff and there was creation gardens which is my former company and i told him i said they were doing a wild game dinner he goes you know who's coming don't you and i go who he goes chef max nopfel and i didn't know it was kind of fell but it was chef max nopfel from uh the new executive chef at the music city center i was like oh my god like i am dying like there's there are 15 layers to get to this guy and he goes if you want to come to the uh the wild game dinner i'll put you next to him you can sit next to him and i was like oh my word it was like the biggest thing in the world and i remember us getting to he sat me right next to him at the game and i was so nervous because i don't want to i don't want i just i'm what do you do this guy is so legendary i was just freaking out and i remember talking to him throughout the meal we didn't even really talk about produce or any things i want i was just so fascinated he was so kind and so generous with his time and i was just like i want to work not because of the amount of business this is like i just want to be in your orbit like i don't i just want to be in your orbit now because i can learn so much from you like he just was a wealth of knowledge and so we've been friends ever since i love that i love that and he has talked about you and i connecting on this show for a very long time too so shame on us for not doing it soon well now we've done it we did it here we are what are we missing we got about 10 minutes left oh we do that's how fast an hour goes like wow i say it's the tastiest hour of talk in nashville although we never talk about food so we've talked a little bit about food well on the show on the show i say it's not about food it's about food people correct correct and you do you do do that you do honor that if you find
01:05:25somebody who's really interesting then go try their food absolutely i don't need them to tell me what their favorite meatball dish is or whatever it is like go eat it if you think they're cool you like their story go eat their food go check it out i have to tell you the funniest story so 100 of the time people who are not necessarily in our industry will ask max what's your favorite meal to cook and and i can always see him just take a deep breath he always wants to be kind about it i've never asked that question on the show of course you're not because you're in the industry but the people who are not are always like you know what's your favorite cuisine to cook or what's your favorite meal to cook and and he's always very kind about it because he you know he's so curious about all food um and and so normally he just shares that he's curious about all food and so he does a lot of different cuisines it's hard to answer that question it is it is but that's the question people would ask of course of course i'm kind of proud to say i've never even thought about it but until just now i was like i don't think i've ever seen what's your favorite thing to cook i've never asked that question i don't maybe once but it's been over 400 interviews yeah that's not a question it's just not it's just not everybody who likes who loves to cook just loves to cook it's not there's not a favorite maybe there's a specialty but there's not a favorite yeah yeah so you have a bunch of stats in front of you i do i you know i just wanted to share that um one part of our purpose is to share the positive impact of our our industry and i know we've talked a little bit about downtown and some of the challenges about downtown but um downtown is just a little piece of nashville really um and our our convention and visitors corp does a great job i think of promoting our neighborhoods they have free training on their website for people in the industry that can learn about other neighborhoods because it's that important to them to make sure that that you know visitors come downtown but i mean really
01:07:26could you do that three nights in a row let me just say i couldn't people do i i imagine they probably do but they're way younger than me and haven't maybe seen the rest of the world like like i have but anyway um the benefits of the visitors coming to nashville um really contribute to every nashvillian and and for everybody in middle tennessee you know we're we're here in franklin and franklin has a convention and visitors bureau and um and they do a great job of promoting visitors to come to franklin and what a great place to come i uh i didn't know much i mean i never really came to franklin before i'm i like i stayed in my world but now living here like we'll ride our bikes downtown like just to go there's like a little killen's ice cream shop that we like to drive to or ride our bikes too we we go down to waldo's or you know whatever but it's real easy but man that downtown franklin is just hopping there is just people it's very idyllic it is it is you just go down there it's like this is the most quaint little i can't believe we live close to this this is insane well it's it's always when i have visitors it's it's always there's a day where we do an errington vineyards yeah and then visit um franklin because the shops are fun the restaurants are fun just the yeah just the beauty of the city the town is fun but but a lot of history too those folks who come and visit and then leave do leave a lot of dollars here for us in in middle tennessee that we need to be um aware of and conscious of because wait one thing that i saw happen a few years back is um there was a sentiment that we don't want the tourists here they're they're taking over our town and um and and they don't leave anything in belview for instance or i live in inglewood they don't live any leave anything in inglewood and it's just not true those tax dollars go throughout the city um there's a
01:09:30and the state and the state that's correct that's correct i was just at a function with um commissioner ezell uh our state commissioner of tourist development 27 percent of all new taxes last year for the state of tennessee were generated in middle tennessee it's a it's it's a huge dollars like almost two billion dollars for the state last year and um we just can't lose sight of that especially in a state where we don't have income tax um we have relatively low property taxes and um part of that is because of the the tax base that is generated by folks who come and then leave so be kind be kind to one another and be kind to our visitors and then they move to franklin they might or mount julie so many people from california and places well that's true too that's true but some companies are moving here from there and that's that that's generating a whole different buzz here but i think it's because we have created such a beautiful place oh god created a good portion of it and then we just enhanced it with music and food and entertainment and fun and good people there's actually some good dining out here too oh there is absolutely the new sat the sapphire and there's an edge and culicino and all the places there's a lot of neat little place i've found recently i'm like oh i like this it's kind of nice it's right next to my house this is great awesome but that's happening out here so there's the tax dollars do go everywhere absolutely absolutely absolutely so what other do you have other stats you want to share oh let's talk about how i see lots of numbers with millions on them over there and billions and billions uh let's see here nashville alone uh let's see what the time frame was here we had 16.8 million visitors uh and that that's a lot of people that's a lot of darn people um but uh there's a 1.1 1.1 billion in tax revenue just that's just for nashville
01:11:36davidson county uh visitor spending is 10.7 billion dollars it our industry employs 73,000 workers in nashville wow 73,000 um visitors spend 29.5 million dollars a day and you know we get into this i asked freddie o'connell this but like you'd think with that kind of money we could put some subsidies together for affordable housing 73,000 workers we've got to get places for people to live so that they're not driving 45 minutes in to make the wages you know like we we it's happening it is happening it is happening you know we have the barnes fund which has been going on for some time now and i know they're looking at some spending of those dollars um i i learned this just yesterday i didn't realize that one percent of the occupancy tax on airbnb goes to a fund for affordable housing i had no idea the the other statistic i learned yesterday was there are about 9,000 per night accommodations available on airbnb so i think we have somewhere around 44,000 hotel rooms in davidson county and 9,000 a night and that's per night uh and 9,000 a night in airbnb accommodations it's a lot it's a lot but it generates a lot of taxes as well that's amazing and i for the record i want to say that i'm not anti-tourism good i'm not anti any of that people you know you talk to people out here and like i i those infotainment or the the transpertainment it drives me crazy and i'm like what like when are you downtown driving around like i i see people on the the transpertainment things well see for me like they're dancing they're
01:13:40like they're having the time of their lives they're having a blast and it doesn't affect me i'm not down there i don't live i imagine if you lived in a high rise there and you heard all the screaming and all the things that would be annoying to you but it doesn't i have no opinion about it because i don't live down there and it doesn't i think they're having a good time i just think that we need to be a safe the safety piece of you know the drugging people and all of the theft and the over serving and all those things that's that's the stuff i'd like to see managed i mean i other than go downtown have a great time but do you need to get that drunk and how do we manage some of that yeah i'd like to see a solution around that that's the only thing for me because that's i think that's what gives people go home and they go well we went there janie got her purse stolen and sarah got roofied and i like i don't want that story being told everywhere you go i think it's a lot less than than than what we hear you know i think that one one downside if there will of of social media is that things can go viral and and seem like it's happening a lot more than it is happening i think statistically it happens a lot less than what what what yes exactly you see a shark attack and you're like oh my god i'm never going in the water like yeah but 42 million people went in the water every day this week and one person got bit by a shark and that's the thing that makes the headlines and scares 150 million people from wanting to go in water and it's like the statistic of getting eaten by a shark is very is really hard to do even airplane travel recently has had exactly has taken a hit and again statistically it's there's still thousands of flights every day absolutely one flight three weeks ago ended up upside down on a runway and you go well i'm not flying but there were three incidents in a very short period
01:15:45which was suspicious of course and and then um at the federal level things that are happening with with cuts cutbacks and and that conversation statistically it still is safer than than than any of that noise i guess i completely and and and i think the same story holds true for downtown all right well i i i can see that for sure all right we do the the final thing that we do here i didn't i never warned people and i always mean to warn people but i'm going to put you on the spot okay we do the gordon food service final thought if you've listened to show you know that we do this so we do the gordon food service final thought where you get to say you get to take us out whatever you want to say as long as you want to say it just you're speaking to the audience you can say whatever you want lisa leclerc take us out so cool what what power um um brandon thank you thank you again for having me i i um uh admire what you're doing um i think this is an exciting opportunity um i will tell you that um our little organization and and we are small we're you know we started a standalone um organization in 2022 just recognizing that as an industry we were growing like crazy but but our voice wasn't as um loud as we thought it should be um or prominent and i think we've made a big difference from 2022 to where we are in 2025 and that does happen um when we get members at the table so we encourage people to join us a restaurant can join the organization for 365 dollars uh for a year and sounds like a dollar a day it's a dollar a day and um and and we do have some benefits that go along with that we have we have a variety that are on our website at www.gnha.net um one of the benefits if you have live music in particular is that we offer an up to 20 discount on your bmi fees i know nobody loves
01:17:50to have bmi fees but one of my favorite members uh andy marshall with a marshall hospitality shared with me that um he joined our organization because joining that getting the discount on the bmi fees more than paid for the membership and so um we just encourage people to participate in what we're doing um we want to hear your voices uh we want to speak for you and um you know we want to make sure that the industry is well thought of on a variety of levels we we have a workforce problem and so uh we spend a bit of time working on that through our local high school academies through the pro start program with our state hospitality association we work with our post-secondary schools like nashville state community college and their culinary program we were a sponsor at tennessee flavors um we want people to really understand that this industry we we have we all have the the downsides of what we do but um i think you can have a really terrific career um you can find your people um and i i think it's just a really really great industry to be in especially in middle tennessee we are very fortunate that the industry is as prominent as it is here and we want to keep it like that well said thank you lisa leclerc thank you so much for joining us today i thank you for making the trip out here it was a beautiful drive this morning so that was easy i had the little there was a first frozen morning we've had in a long time so there was like there was frost everywhere i had to drive to belview this morning to drop my dogs off oh my goodness so i had to i woke up this morning i was like oh my gosh so i got to experience the same thing down del rio and old matches it was a lot of fun um thank you again for coming and thank you for everything you're doing for our industry um like she said go sign up a dollar a day at gnaj.net and um stay in touch we're going
01:19:59to we should do this again like annually and do like an annual update and like this is our annual gnaj show where you can come ready with all the numbers and stats and it'll be really fun to see how our city progresses thank you and have a wonderful day thank you lisa leclerc big thank you for coming out to visit us and talk in studio so much fun to learn about the things that she is doing and everything that's going on in nashville hated to give her a little pushback but i really am downtown to me is a different city and i really value so many of you who are out there in the suburbs in the nashville area who are just hustling every single day and aren't seeing the massive people coming downtown and uh that is what the nashville area restaurant alliance is doing and we are fighting for you to help you save money and to make more money to be sustainable because i'm tired of seeing restaurants close and if i can be a part of that then that's what i want to do so thank you for joining us today obviously recorded this a few weeks ago talking about the frost on the ground and um it's been a minute to get this out been working really hard on nara we're gonna have a nara episode in just a couple weeks we'll have the vencelani episode next week and then after that we are gonna do the nara launch and we'll have our website nara nashville dot com ready to go and uh yeah lots of fun fun things so if you guys are uh out there we hope that you are being safe love you guys bye