Brandon Styll broadcasts live from the TN Flavors event at Nashville State Community College's Randy Rayburn School for Culinary Arts in Antioch. The fundraiser supports the school's culinary program, and Brandon catches up with chefs, restaurateurs, civic leaders, and industry...
Brandon Styll broadcasts live from the TN Flavors event at Nashville State Community College's Randy Rayburn School for Culinary Arts in Antioch. The fundraiser supports the school's culinary program, and Brandon catches up with chefs, restaurateurs, civic leaders, and industry figures as they serve tasting portions to attendees. Conversations range from handmade pasta and homemade biscuits to vodka with a veteran-support mission and the future of Antioch as a dining and arts destination.
Guests include Lou the Sioux and Chef Christopher from Cafe Margot, Heroes Vodka founder Travis McVeigh, brothers Carmelo and Corrado Savarino of Savarino's bakery, Nashville State hospitality director and council member Tom Druffel, Metro Police Chief John Drake, GNHA president Lisa LeClair, longtime restaurateur Craig Clift of Midtown Cafe and Elliston Place Soda Shop, Alyssa Gingery of Buttermilk Ranch, and Antioch council member Joy Styles. The episode doubles as a love letter to Nashville's restaurant community and a preview of major redevelopment around the old Hickory Hollow Mall site.
"The biggest killer of veterans is isolation, so it gets people out of their house and out into sporting events. We have relays, we have different things across the country."
Travis McVeigh, 12:39
"I love cooking. It takes my mind away from what I do. I've done themed dinners on Christmas, Swedish, Peruvian, German, and this year I'm doing France."
Chief John Drake, 37:12
"Randy always wanted, people always wanted Randy to expand that bar. He was like, why would I do that? People want that compact energy that's created by rubbing elbows."
Craig Clift, 01:01:48
"We were a food and retail desert for over 10 years. Look at us now. We've got Tanger, we can shop, we can eat again. Tennessee Flavors, they've decided to do it here where the culinary school is."
Joy Styles, 01:27:20
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 and I have finally gotten around to putting together our episode from Tennessee Flavors. This was an amazing evening. I had so much fun out there in Antioch at the Old Hickory Hollow Mall and let me tell you who you're going to hear from today. We started off so the way the event starts is you get in, you load in all your stuff, all the chefs and everybody are there and so I get set up and I'm kind of walking around checking it out saying hi to everybody and I run into Lou the Sioux over at Cafe Margot and her chef Christopher who's there with her and I said guys come over and chat with me for a little bit and so they they had all their stuff set up so they came over and talked. That was a real quick conversation and then I'm walking around and I meet Travis McVeigh and he is the founder of Heroes Vodka. You guys have probably all heard about Heroes Vodka but hey I wanted to learn more so Travis McVeigh joined us and then we talk with Carmelo and Corrado Savarino. They are brothers and they own Savarino's. You guys may remember the OG Savarino's on Belcourt in Hillsborough Village. That was a nice conversation and then we're visited by the multi-talented Tom Druffle. He is the director of hospitality at Nashville State and he's also a councilman. He's council member district 23 and then it starts getting really interesting because the chief of police John Drake is there and John Drake sits
02:03down and talks to me about why he wants to become a chef which I did not know this and that was just a lovely conversation with the chief of police. One of the nicest guys I've met in a long time. After the chief of police gets up we sit down and talk with Lisa LeClair. She is the CEO and president of the Greater Nashville Hospitality Association and in this interview here I say we've got to do this again. Well we did it again. So we have an hour-long interview with Lisa LeClair hopefully going to come out in the next week or two and I'm excited to share that. She is just an amazing person and we had such a great conversation. So Lisa gets up and then I run into my good friend Craig Clift and he's the owner managing partner. He's just retired actually but he's one of the owners over at Midtown Cafe as well as the Elliston Place soda shop and that interview was probably the longest one we did and we just reminisced about old school days. Sunset Grill, F. Scott's, Back in the Day, all of the things. I've known Craig for 20 years so that was a lot of fun to get back and just kind of talk and then one of my other favorite people in the city, Alyssa, again Jerry stops by. She was next door to me and she kept feeding me tuna and it was amazing and I just love everything they do over at Buttermilk Ranch.
03:19You've heard Alyssa on the show several times. We just get along. It's really fun. We love joking around. We have just kind of a funny conversation. It doesn't really have anything to do with Buttermilk Ranch but it's a lot of fun and then our final interview is with Joy Stiles and Joy is the councilwoman for District 32 which is Antioch so we get to learn all about the things that are coming to Antioch and I tell you what if you want a ray of sunshine in your life she is it. She was so just bubbly and full of energy and just I just wanted to be in her orbit. I really enjoyed that and that's the show so it's about an hour and a half. We'll put commercials in between each one so that you can kind of identify when they start and stop. Audio is okay. It's not the best. I mean we're literally recording in the middle of like hundreds of people and there's a band and all this stuff so hopefully it translates well in your car if you're hiking or whatever you're doing. Stay tuned because we've got an interview with Olivia Britton. She is the publisher for Infocus magazine and she's the executive director of the Music City Food and Wine Festival that is coming in the kind of towards the end of April that April 23rd through the 27th and it is a massive massive event. We're going to talk all about it and I will be there. We'll be recording so if you hear these interviews like hey I want to do that find me at the Music City Food and Wine Festival. We've got an episode with team Heidi coming up. I've got Vince Lanni, Lisa LeClair, lots of stuff. We've got interviews for days and I am excited to put them out there for you. On that note I'm I don't want to waste any more time. Let's jump in right now. First interview Lou the Sioux and Chef Christopher.
05:12Well here we are ladies and gentlemen. We are at the Tennessee Flavors. We're before the event has started and I have ran into one of my favorite people in the city Lou the Sioux from Margaux Cafe and Bar and Chef Christopher otherwise known as Cheftifer. Yes. How's it going guys? It's great. How are you doing? I'm wonderful. What are you guys cooking tonight? So tonight Christopher here is really really into making homemade pasta which we don't do a lot at the restaurant. We go through Mr. Aaron's but which is a great place to go through fantastic. He is the best but tonight we thought we would let Christopher showcase some of his talents so we made an Annalini pasta. Christopher do you want to tell them about that a little bit? This is the thing I love is that like when you come to events like these like Tennessee Flavors you're supporting Nashville State and you get to try things that aren't on the menu like this is a special like you get a sneak peek into Chef Christopher's individual pasta. Tell us about it. So the pasta we made is called Annalini. It's a sort of like a small ravioli. We filled it with a confit fennel and mascarpone filling. We serve that with a traditional Italian bolognese. Wow.
06:35That sounds delicious. How long have you been at Margaux? Maybe about nine months. What are you thinking so far? It's a very cool spot you know. It's farm to table, new menu, new ideas every day and you don't see that in every restaurant here in Nashville and it's a great opportunity. It's a true story and they let you test it out here at Tennessee Flavors. Oh yeah and you know this is just as much fun for us because we get to kind of just focus on one item whereas usually we're focusing on a whole menu that we have to do in a short span of time every single day but being able to just like really hone in on just doing this pasta dish is so much fun for us. I love that and you get to see the people try it and taste it and be right there and hand it to them and thank them for coming. What does this because you guys I saw you here last year. What does this event mean to you? Oh my gosh. You know it means so much just watching these students you know come up and it's a whole new generation of culinary talent in Nashville and getting to see all the different ideas that people are coming up with to do this event and bringing everybody together. It's just Nashville is a big city but it's a small community it feels like. It really is. I think that's a really great way to put it. Thank you. Is this your first time Christopher? Yes this is my first time. What are you what are you anticipating tonight? What are you excited about? It's a bunch of new I'm just very curious to see what everybody brought to the table today and we're looking forward to trying out new things that I've never thought about too so.
08:13Well I love it. Well thank you guys for joining me. You have a lot to do to get ready and this is the first one of the night so I get to like warm it up and see how this thing's going to work and test the equipment. So thank you so much for joining us and have so much fun tonight. Yeah thank you so much. Thank you. You got it. 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 Tennessee. 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.
09:30You 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 at fine liquor stores everywhere look for Black Sheep Tequila or order it today through Ajax Turner. All right we are back at Tennessee flavors and I am sitting here with none other than the founder of Heroes Vodka Travis McVeigh. How you doing today man? Good great to be here great to be an exciting night. It is going to be an exciting night we're doing the pre-gaming right now. Checking the whole thing out what are you guys serving tonight? The founders tea it celebrates our rebellious spirit so it's a Heroes Vodka sweet tea and lemonade with a little bit of fresh mint leaves in it. That's like a minty Arnold Palmer minty spiked Arnold Palmer. Exactly yes I like that very good spring summer drink. So I've had people come into the restaurants they've talked about Heroes Vodka you're the hero here. Tell me the origin of this vodka. Well I had the honor to serve as a marine guard for president Bush senior a long time ago and two of my buddies unfortunately were killed later on in service to our country one in Afghanistan and one as a state trooper so I wanted to create something that provides exceptional taste and superior value to our consumers but at the same time celebrating service and sacrifice so we donate 10% of all the profits back to American veterans and their families.
10:55So far about $250,000 we've won seven gold medals and five silver so far. Seven gold medals? Yes. Where do you win gold medals at? I like the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. I've never heard of that one before. Oh it's one of the big ones yes. I'm just kidding that's the big one isn't it? Yes it's one of the big ones yes and Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association so that's a very big one too as well it's our latest gold we just got this year. Why vodka? I want to celebrate servicemen and I want to raise money let's make a vodka? Well I had a great business advisor he's an old Korean war veteran I went to a small business association administration building which one of the benefits that we have and I was talking about that I found that vodka is seasonless you can make it today and sell it tomorrow it's gender neutral and it outsells all the other spirits combined just about so why not make something that can make the most money and do the most good? I love that now tell me what makes the vodka so good? It's the Buffalo Trace I mean the most award-winning distiller there is actually we have a private contract with them so that was. So Buffalo Trace makes your vodka? Yes yes so we're very honored to do that Mark Brown their CEO took a personal interest in my story they have about 50 veterans that works there I was made on 11-11-11 which only happens once in a century we just did our new repackaging it looks really great. It does look really nice looks really sharp. Yeah and on the ones you don't see it's getting ready to go to the store to have my my picture on the back of it and you can scan the QR code it has me telling the story of the brand. Wow okay so what part of the brand story can you tell us right now I mean more than what did you than what you just that's mostly that right there yes let's talk about the funds you're raising you said two hundred and fifty thousand dollars so far raised for where does that money go? So we we teamed up with Team RWB which is team red white and blue so the biggest killer of veterans is isolation so it gets people out of their house and out into sporting events we have relays we have different things across the country it has it creates the communities over a thousand chapters I think across the country is founded by an army veteran Mike Erwin so a great guy so it's a great organization also the night stalkers association which is the most
12:57elite helicopter pilot station up here in Fort Campbell so we really do a lot for them and because they did so much for our country so we also do a lot of for local charities like operations stand down I'll sign bottles and donate things like that and speak about veteran owned businesses wow man I love that yeah well thank you what a great story what a great idea and what a great way to give back yeah so you can find us in most of the stores here locally total wine uh gosh there's so many around here so many local restaurants carry us well so local restaurants this is is this a super premium vodka is this something that's affordable I can make as a house like a well wine or like or well vodka I can make well the great thing about it is I know how much vodka cost to be made and it doesn't really cost that much like I say you don't have to age it so it's your ingredients and have the most award-winning distillery making it and me knowing that and knowing how much we can give back it's it's around anywhere between 12 to 14 dollars so very affordable but very affordable it shouldn't cost that much you know and it's good and you're doing exactly so if you make this your well vodka this is something that you're actually giving back to yeah you're giving back your well allows you to have freedom exactly you know like some of the biggest brands out there like Tito's and Smirnoff just think what we could do for the veteran community yeah that's amazing wow yeah thank you so much for just talking by just five minutes learning your story I'd love to have you come by in studio sometime and really get more into it because just the idea that the number one killer of veterans is being at home alone I mean yes I don't think people recognize what veterans are dealing with I think we hear about it but the actual mental illness is still a big taboo you know like what goes on being alone and just the things that happen to veterans the things they've seen I have some friends or veterans and it's it's it's pretty hairy you lose that sense of purpose you know going from what you was doing to coming back into you know civilian life it's a big transition I'd love to learn more about that but it's a pleasure to meet you today and thank you for your service thank you for the soap box yeah well hey anytime that you need a soap box you can come stand on this one all right cheers thank you so much trevis very excited to be partnering with c and b
15:03linen if you know me it's my number one topic of conversation is linen companies and how shady linen companies can be I am just disgusted with how the business practices work in this industry which is why I was so excited when I found c and b linen they're out of waynesboro tennessee and they don't charge any fees so the linen price that you have whatever that first linen price is that's your price and so you may say well every year they must raise the price on this seven year contract right no because they don't do any contracts there's no gas fees there's no clean green service fees there's no replacement cost there's nothing the only price you pay is the price that you pay for the actual product I know it's too good to be true no contracts they do formats they'll make custom formats for you they do fresh linens cleaning supplies and guys I just did a tour of their facility and it is immaculate it is state of the art I'm going to post pictures on my Instagram you can go find them and you can see how absolutely gorgeous this is to the point that they even wash and sanitize every one of their used laundry carts it's just absolutely amazing if you're looking for a linen company you can trust who wants to earn your business every single week go back and listen to our episode with Jason Cruz the owner of cnb linen hear it from his straight from his mouth exactly what they do or you give them a call at 931722 7616 or you can dm me at Brandon Styll on Instagram for my exclusive pricing through the Nashville area restaurant alliance NARA for short we are joined back here at Tennessee flavors with Carmelo and Corrado Savarino welcome gentlemen welcome thank you for having us thank you so I used to live in Hillsborough village and there was this restaurant called Savarino's it was famous because Guy Fieri was there and I used to go there with my wife and it was delicious
17:09and then it closed and I was like I saw you guys and I go is this the same place and yes and no yes it's uh well my parents had it um they started it they wanted to retire so they closed it and I when they closed I moved to Columbia Tennessee and I opened up a small little shop there just doing breads for other restaurants but now about two years ago I opened to the public so we do all kinds of stuff we do breads cookies pastries cakes I saw you guys have some canolis over there you're serving tonight yes we'll make them the shells cream everything in house I didn't get to try one yet but I see I'd like desserts so I'm gonna bring your plate right over hell yeah I'll go over and get it I'm absolutely I'll go get it but what are you guys most excited about for tonight what about you Corrado just the amazing food meet more people I love meeting people and I love food more than that I love food and meeting people you are in the right business my friend this is exactly what you should be doing what role do you play at the new version of Savarino's I pretty much do everything so back at the old place I was really young I think we closed down when I was 15 so I was just there helping out washing dishes stuff like that now I do I mainly run the retail side okay I do all that and then when I'm not there I'll do like the deliveries and I make like pretty much all the we serve we sell like single portion takeout food uh-huh I do pretty much all of them um that's pretty much it uh other than that I just run around do everything how about you Carmelo um well I wake up in the morning do the bread I start with the bread and what time do you get up every day uh probably three o'clock in the morning damn that's early yep um long long time you go to bed at night um probably 10 11 sometimes okay so tonight's not gonna be too late of a night no uh usually when
19:10I get home I'm working like four hours of sleep every night how do you function I don't know I don't know it's a sorry kids or anything no okay well that's how you function then yeah no I go home once I leave the bakery we go home I plan for the day the next day I do my orderings I catch up on my messages now it's you know the thing yes the thing so this is awesome that you guys are here I love this because we're here today to support Nashville State the Randy Rayburn School of Culinary Arts what does this event mean to you uh I mean it I like joining it uh I used to work for Randy Rayburn when my parents closed the restaurant um I did a couple months at work that cabana restaurant yeah right there yeah I did there I worked there for a little bit so I mean I know Randy for a long time so it's great that they're going to continue the tradition for the school and help them out help them out um so it's I like like my brother said earlier you know we get to see new people check out new restaurants oh we got try out all the new foods and that stuff yeah Papa Savarino is is around the corner hanging out just watching his kids now yes we should get him on the mic scared he does that a lot he said no you don't want me on the microphone that's the thing you come to Tennessee Flavor Gene have no idea who you're going to see there's so many people just walking around hanging out and this is the fun thing is we spend so much time within the four walls of our restaurants that we don't get to get out and see all these people in one place anybody you're really excited about trying yes um the convention center usually brings out some good food chef max does it well I haven't really got around to see who else is here um but I know there's got to be every year we have amazing amazing restaurants here so I'm gonna get around once I get off and uh check your check them out and see what everybody's bringing around well let's end this so we can go get a cannoli all right thank you guys so much for joining us here today on
21:14Nashville Restaurant Radio have fun tonight and thank you for being here to support Nashville State sounds good thank you for having us all right buddy you Calexo is an art and design collective of BIPOC LGBTQ women and allies focused on creating delightful drinking opportunities for all focusing on quality taste and experience we delight humankind by creating delicious and health-conscious drinking experiences that shift perspectives encouraging real-life connection to ourselves and our communities cheers this is what Calexo says on their website they have three amazing flavors they have the cucumber citron five milligrams of hemp derived THC citrus rose which also has five milligrams of hemp derived THC and they have my personal favorite the semi tropic it has five milligrams of hemp derived THC as well these products are available by Lippman Brothers if you'd like to order for your restaurant or if you want to go try them yourself you can visit drink calexo.co or you can pick them up at Killjoy in East Nashville this is an amazing company they're not some conglomerate who's jumping into the THC game they are a craft THC beverage company where just like you and I this is their only focus this is the only product that they make so they put a hundred percent of their detail and love into it please enjoy responsibly all right we are back at the Nashville state event it is called Tennessee flavors we're here with Tom Druffel is it did I say that right you got it and Tom you have I've been called worse you wear a couple hats around here yeah uh director of hospitality at uh here at talk director hospitality in the program here and then uh also metro council and district 23 metro council district you run hospitality here tell me what that means when you are running hospitality at Nashville state what do you do on a daily basis well we have a hotel restaurant program that
23:18we teach our kids how to be the next leadership and managers in hotel and restaurant and we have a culinary program that's got 250 and we're kicking out some of the best chefs in the country right here I love that what is for anybody who's listening who's not in this program what's something that's super important in the world of hospitality and hotel and management leadership well and from a council perspective I just put in a resolution to uh try to coordinate uh youth programs you know we have this opportunity where a lot of our youth don't have anything to do there in the summer uh and you know I'm trying to combine and work toward where we have uh more workforce development and trying to provide uh opportunities and pathways for these kids that have nothing to do and and they're they're their next generation we need to do something for them and I think we hear all the time we don't have enough workers where are the workers now affordable housing is a thing but when you look at where are the workers well we have to develop these people first and motivate them and bring them in and this is that's a great opportunity to get them introduced into the hospitality industry so they can blossom and be our next chefs you're absolutely right and and uh you know we have uh so much talent potential in our in our city we just got to engage it bring it to light and uh and really provide an opportunity for a lot of our kids you know when you you have a lot of these you know we go on spring break actually I don't very much but uh we go on a summer vacation sure I've been working with kids for 50 years a lot of these kids in inner cities don't really have a place to go and so they're sitting there and why not take that time to make a difference where we can help grow them into these jobs and have them ready to go once they get out of high school that is amazing I I absolutely love that tell me so since you're a council member district 23 what brought you into this life why why would you want to do this well that's a good question I'm not sure I sort of I'm just curious
25:20volunteered into it but um but the reality is uh I've been working with uh at risk youth for 45 50 years uh in different you know Chicago LA Atlanta and places like that and then I started working with the academies of Nashville uh I was first volunteer there where we're trying to improve their graduation rate bringing in uh workforce development ideas building partnerships uh pretty successful there and the next step is where do you where do you grow it right yeah and and so really my whole world besides taking care of my neighborhood is where do we find the way to increase the opportunities for these youth and if you know where they what they do during the summer there's not a lot of positive opportunities there's another councilman walking by right there that's yeah Bo Mitchell yeah Bo Mitchell he's a uh representative state representative sorry yeah Ellen Bellevue so what we got to do is we got to get better at it so you can improve um uh their school success by 20% reduced youth justice by 20% with summer programming I mean so when you take a look at all the work hard work that MNPS does we can add to it by by adding we have NASA power youth and other programs but we need to expand it because a lot of kids are still getting missed in those programs yeah so we need to really do something at a much stronger level so I actually just filed a resolution today to to bring ask for the mayor to put together a working committee to help do this for a long period of time if you go back to uh mayor dean for example mayor dean had a youth master plan back in 2010 these couple things got moved forward but then a new mayor comes in and that goes and maybe a little different changes of priorities what we need is a long sustainable program it's a generational issue it needs generational solution solutions if we don't do that it's just going to go up and down
27:22we need to go against uh through you know governance after governance so we're consistently long-term approach and my goal is to put together ask the mayor to put together all the all the non-profits and all the groups that need to be a part of that equation uh sit down and come up with a long-term strategy and plan so there's a consistent approach uh and I think people when they see a vision where we can take some of our youth that are sometimes they get in trouble sometimes they just could be a could use a little bit more mentorship uh or a better career uh we can do a lot more with that if we if we get it you know we're better together is that no I love that I mean you're really trying to build a more sustainable Nashville and help now with youths in summertime how can we build some is sustainable for a long time to help them develop to make our city better in the future it's not just something that's going to happen today but we have to put something together that's going to last for a long time well that you can elevate these kids right yeah elevate them and it actually improves in the years proves affordable housing but now their salaries have been elevated because now we've built skills whether it's a carpenter or you know a manager whatever it is you know we restaurant workers I mean everything we we're elevating their abilities uh which creates that we're also giving them uh options where you know if you when you know what you want to do you get excited about right I do I took me three different majors before I figured out what I want to do once I got what I want to do it's like this is exciting I want to be in the hotel restaurant business is that what you did yeah that's your career yeah I graduated from Florida State I was a teaching tennis pro working in a club and uh they said well there's a hotel restaurant major eventually went out and went worked for uh Marriott 18 years with Marriott as a regional vice president of a division they went on to work in a couple national brands wow as an operating director and then semi-retired here and wanted to do more for the kids and uh we
29:23have we just have to focus I think people when they see a vision see the strategies they're going to jump in you know the academies of Nashville for example there's there's hundreds of people partners and I think there is even more potential to expand what they could do I ran the hospitality academies when we first started that group uh to help uh with the schools every one of them said what more can we do for these kids so what we need to do is just capitalize on that interest and potential and show a vision that we want to get Judge Callaway who I love to death out of business right yeah no kidding she she is amazing but we got to get in front of we got to be there in front of the problems and some of that is by youth programs it's you know summer and after school programs we do that well we can actually make a dent in what's going on I love I love the multifaceted solutions you're coming up with what just that is that not only just fix helping further education and mentorship and making them better but also reducing crime rates and reducing that idle time that people need to fill doing things they probably shouldn't be doing well you know in Nashville State and TCAT for example Nashville State has a perfect place you know we got kitchens open during the summer right what can we do with these kids when you think about the potential of getting them in and then you know working with giving them options on terms of career the potential is gigantic we got some great schools we got we got employers here that are willing to give in all they got we just got to put them all together tell me what this event means to you tonight well you know this is very cool you get to see all the people that are involved in the hospitality business I was on the hospitality board for years and you know you get to see people enjoying food that's our business yeah when you see them smile happy and going back for more that's always a good chef's comment right
31:26absolutely I think a lot of chefs are here because you know you get to actually interact all these chefs are in a kitchen and they make the food and they don't necessarily get to interact with the guest as they're serving them and they're standing here handing the food to people meeting people seeing their guests and that's a lot of fun well we need to celebrate our people we have a hospitality olympics for example and you know we work pretty hard you know after I was it charles a dishwasher you know what's going on and when you put all the hours in how do we celebrate our successes in the hospitality business we don't have much time to do that this is usually it has alcohol in it yeah well this is this is a great way to celebrate our business and it really is so very proud of it you know randy rayburn and of course paul dr brennan who's runs our culinary programs an amazing guy amazing guy i love paul we have so much most people don't know what's out here i didn't know that much until i started getting involved i taught at tsu for seven years at tsu yeah i taught their hospitality program as an adjunct and i got here and i go i didn't know you guys had all this and i'm in the business so here we are and loving it loving to see all the people that are out here and enjoying enjoying their times well tom it's an absolute pleasure talking with you oh thank you for taking 10 minutes to talk to me today well i got if you talk about kids i got another 30 45 minutes people sell shut up droffle and get up no i think it's great no i i looked and that's it's a passion of mine too let's let's make a difference anybody out there that ever wants an interest let's let's go out and talk to a kid and get involved i love it all right well thank you for joining us today well you gotta do it again some time thank you so much sharpie's 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
33:33catering companies hospitals and universities their bread is also free from any preservatives and 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 hundred percent 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 sharpie's.com that's c-h-a-r-p-i-e-r-s.com and they have pictures of all of the bread that they can have for you and contact information go check them out sharpie's bakery we are back at tennessee flavors and you know you never know who's going to pop up over here i am sitting with uh chief police yes yes chief john drake welcome to nashville restaurant radio it's awesome so awesome to be here you know i have a love for cooking and the culinary arts and uh and that was what brought me here and this has been an amazing event so far have do you go to a lot of events like these like for pleasure no this is my first one i reached out to dr jackson about joining the culinary school here because i love cooking and she said hey we have an event the flavor tennessee flavors and uh she thought i would love being here and and seeing it so uh it's been really really really really exciting well it's an honor to meet you first of all and second of all thank you for all that you do for our city thank you thank you it's my honor i've done it for this coming up sunday it'd be six week 37 years with the department so it's been an honor to be able to serve the city that long so we're not going to talk about police stuff today let's talk about what you do when you're not being the chief of police okay you like cooking what do you like
35:33to cook i love cooking i love cooking seafood i do sea bass and halibut i made a a seafood stew actually uh i had a halibut uh mussels clams shrimp on a pasta and that sounds delicious really really good yes okay where's your favorite restaurant to go eat in now you don't have to say like you don't say your favorite because that's not fair because you don't want to alienate anybody where do you like to go eat what are some great restaurants that you like to go eat at so i love bourbon steakhouse i love hall's chop house hall's catch i have a theme going so far okay joe muir is really good so joe muir people so the seafood side of that i don't think a lot i had the guys from joe muir on this the podcast a couple months ago it's kind of in that little new area not everybody knows about it man is it delicious yeah it is delicious and it's coming on strong i hope we get more seafood restaurants here but i love it um and i love a good steak too so uh those are my my go-to's are really steaks so steaks and seafood i love that yeah well i got a restaurant in brintwood uh mirror bowl that you gotta come by and try have you ever had mirror bowl before i love it i used to go to mirror bowls when it was on second avenue and i haven't been since it left so i would love to go okay well it's i'm gonna we're gonna talk when we we hang up this uh when i hit stop record i'm gonna learn more about it all right so what is it about cooking that really inspires you and you're thinking about actually going to nashville state i really am so 10 culinary school i really am considering it i've reached out to dr jackson to have an initial conversation i just love it takes my mind away from what i do and i love the art of cooking i uh i fix i can fix really anything i've done themed dinners on christmas and i've done swedish peruvian german uh this year i'm doing uh france or france uh and so i just love the challenge of it and and then bringing something good uh to the family you know new experiences and so that's what hospitality is i cooked dinner with my mine i have two boys or 11 and 9 and i cooked dinner
37:38with my 11 year old and he actually got the grill out and he was turning the steaks making the diamonds on the steaks and then i said let's set the table and he goes why do we have to set the table and i go because this is hospitality when you create this food this is love you're giving love to everybody else by this putting all this food together and cooking it and setting it out there you're showing hospitality to our family and that's what we're gonna do and he set the table he did it perfectly then when people sat down like he was excited to serve them and it was just a it was a neat moment to kind of see like this is what this is the joy of cooking and this is cooking is a form of love it is and that's a great lesson learned for them you sit down at a prepared table that eases the tensions and and you're just kind of ready to mingle mix and mingle with people and so i i love that part of it now do you drink wine or anything with your meals i do i love a good cabernet i love red wine uh so i uh probably will have a glass of red wine tonight so uh well there's lots of red wine here and then there's heroes vodka there's all kinds of stuff going on here okay anybody here tonight who you're excited to try uh so i've done music city center i've done um uh joe's and there's another place a peruvian place up there limo peruvian cafe marcio over there is the chef's name he's the owner and his wife is here okay nicest guy you'll ever meet wow you gotta go try their stuff it's delicious and their cheesecake it's very sweet but it's very good oh wow okay yeah i'm trying to try not to do the desserts because i have a weakness for desserts so we'll we'll see that is mine too i would say chef drake thank you chief drake yes it's an honor to have you on the show thank you so much for joining us today such an honor to be here thank you so much all right man thank you 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
39:39insurance 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 liability 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 don'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 he 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 gonna put that number down one more time that's 863-409-9372 call Matthew Clements today okay so wow um chief of police how about that that was a big one good good i was honored to meet uh i don't want to call him chef drake maybe one day he'll be chef drake he thinks
41:42he wants to be a chef drake chief drake yeah he's he's he's amazing you know he and his team work so hard in our city to keep the city safe and it is such an important part of um what keeps people coming back to nashville it really is and i think he's doing a fantastic job i've always been a big fan of his i've lived here a long time but you you know i told him afterwards he said i like to to cook to get my mind off of everything i'm dealing with and i was like you know what christmas morning i woke up to that bombing and you know the covenant school shooting like i can feel all the feels i feel about but that dude is at ground zero in the middle of it on the news like he's in all of that i can imagine you'd want to do something to not think about all that stuff absolutely and you know his um i i had him speak at one of our events a couple years ago now and and he told the story of that morning that the family gets together at christmas morning and they all wear the same pajamas and um you know he really felt terrible because he had to leave his family and so that part of his life is really important to him too which is special i love it we didn't do a traditional intro this is lisa leclerc that's correct and lisa is the president and ceo is it the greater nashville hospital greater nashville hospitality association it's it's a mouthful we we oftentimes say g n h a greater nashville hospitality association i don't understand what that is so it's a funny thing but it's it's helpful because that's a mouthful for sure so we're going to do a full episode sometime we're going to put it in the books because i want to learn more about what you're doing and all the things you're doing for nashville's hospitality community perfect um but i got you for five minutes right now well let's do this you never know who you're going to run into here at tennessee flavors first off how you doing i i'm doing great you know our um our industry is thriving um and part of that is
43:48thanks to chief drake and his team keeping us safe uh part of it is uh thanks to our convention and visitors corporation you know i don't know if you know this but during covid when everything was shut down they kept working and they did all kinds of sales efforts to keep people coming back to nashville when we were able to accept groups again so bless their hearts and and uh we just keep growing and growing we had charles starkes here today who is the uh ceo for the music city center and without that big center we wouldn't have all the conventions and visitors we have here so this is it's a win-win-win i love it i was just talking to chef max a minute ago and he said he had one day off in january chef max knopfelt from the music city center you know him right i sure do i sure do and i can attest to the fact that he had only one day off um that's probably not good for anybody's soul no it's a lot but he loves what he does too and so he's such a passionate guy i i you know what of all the people in the city that i know who are chefs like he's one of those guys that like i think i love him like i like i think like if that's a thing like i think i love that guy like he's so special and he's like the nicest dude every time i see him it's a warm smile it's a bear hug like it's just i don't know i love him i just i think i love him and i will tell you that um i know the interview process that he went through to get the job here and part of what keeps him here uh is the wonderful community of nashville but um charles starkson he hit it off when he first came in for his interview and and he came to work here because of charles and what his vision was for what music city center could do it's not your regular convention center type food for sure no not even close to being regular and i've been to a bunch of events there with him and he was the acf uh chef of the year last year i got to see him
45:52win that that was really cool yeah i just can be a better guy anywho he's also your boyfriend he is okay we'll let the cat out of the bag with everybody here you love him too probably i kind of do i kind of do yeah we're you know what we're good together we um we have a lot of shared interests in hospitality and people and we like to go out and eat we like to go see all the live music we can here in nashville and um yeah so it's it's it's been a good fit tell me what the greater nashville hospitality alliance does for restaurants so um for restaurants um we we work with hotels restaurants attractions and all the businesses hospitality adjacent correct got it and our role our role really is um about advocacy uh we you know we we keep an eye on um things that are happening at the traffic and parking commission meeting which can impact a restaurant because they might be looking at their valet lane or they might need a valet lane and and the traffic and parking commission is the commission that either takes it away or hands out the the permit for it you guys step in and lobby we do we do and and and help get uh the restaurants connected with uh their city council persons the the people on that traffic and parking commission or at and dot if they have problems um there's a little restaurant on third avenue north you might know black rabbit i've heard of this trey siachi yes love trey exactly trey and um tommy hartzog the two of them uh own that one together and um trey called me not trey um tommy called me one day and they had put a crosswalk there at bankers alley and the signs were on the side of the street but they had never painted the street and so i got him in touch with n dot and and we
47:54communicated that it hadn't been painted and within the next two days that crosswalk was painted there wow so okay well that's a good example of what you're doing do you love what you do you know i do love what i do and i do love connecting people i mean i think that is my um superpower if you will i i like to get to know people and to get to know what their needs are and then try to make that connection so when you come back to do a full interview i want to learn about your history okay why you're a connector because i i like to be a connector also so but like there's something in your past like i want to learn the whole story of lisa leclerc we could come up with some good stories to share i think there's a couple of them right we might not tell them all but we can sell some good ones i'm sure well there's a before and after podcast moment that we have it's so funny because every time a guest comes in the studio and we sit down like hey how you doing and they're like oh my god this this this and stop we have to record this this is all the best stuff this best stuff happens before and after the interview i'm like no no we got to get this stuff on here you can edit this right so you can um just like tape it all and then or is this i i always tell people i am not here to have i'm not here to make the front page okay if you say something you don't want to be said i will take it out no problem i'm not a journalist i'm not trying there's no gotcha moment i want to share best practices i want to share struggles i want people who typically work all day long within the four walls of the restaurant who don't get to get out and see other people i want to share their experiences about what's happening with them so that somebody out there who's driving in their car on the way to work goes you know what i'm not alone there are other people who feel the same way i do i haven't been out of my restaurant in six months i don't know what the hell is going on but wow i feel better knowing that other people are having the same struggles i am or maybe
49:57they found a really cool solution to a common issue and i'm able to share that solution with people go that's the thing i was missing because when i was in food sales and i was a 17 years i did food sales in nashville and you get into a thousand restaurants and you realize nobody knows what anybody else is doing it is funny and especially in restaurants especially if they're individually owned and maybe you just have one store yeah yeah you you don't have the time to break away you're you're going to restaurant depot and then you get back from restaurant depot and the the sewers flooding and then the host didn't show up and then there's a snake in the front and people won't come in and you're like these are all things that just happen on a daily basis and it's like when do i have time to go talk to other restaurateurs about what they're doing for an hour yeah you know and so i i consider myself as a director of operations to have a luxury position i have plenty to do but also you know when you know everybody you're like come on in let's just share this stuff i get to selfishly pick their brains too for my own problems i if i'm running through so i go hey what do you think about this new technology i'm looking for ideas i think that is terrific and what a great resource this is so thank you for doing what you're doing well it's my and thank you for doing what you're doing well let's do it together again shall we yes all right lisa leclerc thank you for joining us on nashville restaurant radio it was a delight thank you for being here y'all today we are talking as always about super source and you know one cool thing about super source is did you know that they develop most of their cleaning products and chemicals in their in-house facility they're environmentally conscious and only use dyes that are safe for the employees and the environment they carry a number of products for keeping your dishes flatware services floors restrooms laundry basically your entire facility clean bright and smelling and feeling new this is just one of the many reasons super source is
52:03taking over this city for dish machine and chemicals you need to call jason ellis his number 770-337-1143 and he would love it if you would give him a call and let him come down and just check out your operation meet him say hi see if there's any way he can help he is here to help you succeed that's jason ellis with super source 770-337-1143 all right so we are back yet again here at tennessee flavors with a good friend of mine how long have i known you craig so since you were one very tall like grocery grocery decrease in gardens so that was 2005 i think i met you maybe it was a midtown cafe no cabana so we open we open cabana in 2005 okay so that's when it was 2005 my brother-in-law running around yep and i talked to him today no kidding yep so he i'm helping him get a job with somebody so he was i was his referral and so i talked to the ceo of the company that he's working on getting a job with today i'm gonna get this microphone fixed just like that sorry no you're great dude i i love seeing you at things like this i said to you when you first walked in i said last time i saw you was last year at this event that is correct since then you said you've retired uh that is correct also tell me about that but you're here as craig from the elliston place so this is craig clift yes craig um are you i don't know how what what what what is your title now so retiree i guess at this point so my birthday was january 31 and so i retired on my birthday um and when i say retire that does not mean i'm going to quit doing things i'm just not scheduled at any restaurant for any scheduled shift yeah that's me exactly i'm retired too yeah holy shit see the things that you learn but i work
54:05all the time so i've worked more in those last three weeks so so i literally retired on my birthday which was a friday and and ultimately i think that saturday yeah that saturday um one of somebody somebody called out with covid and so immediately i was back in for their seven days or whatever and so you know it's one of those things between between elliston and midtown cafe i'm at one of those restaurants doing something whether it's at home in front of a computer or whether it is in that building you know fixing a problem or fixing a leak or you know now did you so last year we took a selfie with me you and and randy and deb piquet yep and that was my last photo with randy you and randy were so incredibly close so i was hired at a restaurant called f scott's in 1987 i was hired on may 20th when i was after my freshman year in college he was hired as the journal manager on may 21st so he was hired the next day so that was the you know beginning i'd never been in the restaurant business i'd never done anything he walked in the next day and looked at me and i'd been hired by the management that had kind of started f scott's and they were going away when randy came in and so i literally he walked in the door and he goes kid you have no experience i would have never hired you but being that you need this summer job if you want to stick around and learn something stick around that was 37 years ago me 38 and now when randy passed yep did you take over the midtown cafe are you the owner of the midtown cafe now i hear that or do is that a fact that is correct so i am i already had he had given me a five percent ownership about a year ago um and he had bought out a silent partner that he had for years um of a five percent and so he he literally bought from that guy bought him out
56:08and the next day sold me that five percent for ten dollars wow and then upon his passing i was given another percentage of that restaurant so i own that restaurant with his 11 year old son and his 17 year old son so they have no real operating ability but the 17 year old is going to work with me this summer which i know would make randy unbelievably happy because his son had never showed any interest in the restaurant whatsoever um and so but he is showing interest he wants to learn and i looked at him and said okay you're going to start where randy and i did he goes i'm going to wash dishes aren't i absolutely and somebody nudged me and said you know randy never washed dishes right i said oh randy washed dishes he just wasn't ever actually a dishwasher that's right yeah i don't think i ever had the title of dishwasher but we had a dishwasher who crazy story and this is way off topic we don't have time for this but his sister passed away and i had i was like i'll wash dishes and i i loved it i got back there i knocked it out man you can put some headphones on as long as now i will spray you if you if you throw a bunch of water on me or thing i will yeah you start throwing you start throwing stuff you start throwing that silverware in that bucket and it splashes on me you're getting it you're getting this right no doubt no doubt you're gonna shower i love it so 37 years 37 years now you guys don't have cabana where's a midtown cafe and elliston place yep so elliston is not actually randy randy was brought in by uh tony jarentine to to basically put together a team and then once randy brought me onto that team randy randy went back to midtown he walked away and said okay i got my guy here and he's like i'm good and so um so that's when we sold cabana and so you know tony and randy looked at me at the end of what was 2020 and he goes he goes wait a minute you don't have a job first of the year i said no i don't they said all right well why don't you just be the gm and so i've been the general manager and everything for the last really five years
58:11of elliston in this whole process and everything and so now since my birthday in january i've been trying to actually work myself out of elliston i'm still going to be there for them i'm still going to support them because there's there's 38 employees that i've grown very attached to yeah so i'm going to make sure that i want to be a part of their lives and part of of elliston because i believe in elliston um but i'm not i was walking six miles a day on the interior of that restaurant as you know that's the way oh you look great uh well being heart surgery next week but other than that what is this heart surgery happen next week you know it's one of those things that uh i've got a bone valve at 57 years old and they say guy looked at me and said uh oh i can fix that no problem so well there you go best of luck with that how are things going at the ellison place store shop every everything else like they're elliston you know it's one of these things of where you know we've got we don't have a lot around us we got a new hotel opening up in the next month or so which is 300 rooms that'd be great that'd be great because there's not a lot else there's elliston but we close at four o'clock every day um because we found we were we were staying open till eight and that just didn't make sense because by the time everything in the in the hospital district kind of was shutting down and things like that we were really a destination place we're kind of out on an island and so it's like okay let's let's not do this let's we can revisit it again later on as as we build back up and tony owns the side that elliston's on but he has just recently acquired the opposite side also so between the rj capital that owns xvn and all that part and then tony and what he's taken um you know tony's got i mean i've seen plans that are just fantastic so his his his hopes would be to bring back you know all the old-school nashville which would be literally gold rush which i got an email today that i've got gold rush we have it federally trademarked so we have a federal trademark on gold rush restaurant
01:00:17and so i have to use it or rand or tony has to use it so i you know in this consulting stage that i'm falling into i have a feeling that somewhere in that i'm probably going to end up and recreating gold rush oh man gold rush you know you think back to the days of like sunset grill cabana when sam sports bar hillsboro village was just the best place well it was the place it was deep i mean that's where you if you you could sit at that bar with maha or jesse hearing those people and see every chef and everybody and every smoking cigarettes and doing shots but it was just well it depended on the time of night now it was what was it music business was it the hospitality industry after 11 12 one o'clock i'm talking late night barbecue chicken pizza 12 30 at night the amount of human bodies that came through sunset grill was insane and i had no idea i'd come from f scott's and i'd come from we're a busy restaurant but i had no idea that you know we went from lunch into dinner which was you know it was it was a nice formal dinner and we would do 300 covers 350 and all of a sudden we would literally empty out at 9 30 at night and but by 10 30 every seat in the house because we did that half price dessert half price menu and half you know the dessert trios and all that stuff at sunset and all of a sudden you'd look around and at midnight there'd be 300 people 400 people in the building and that stupid little bar that everybody tried to get it randy always wanted randy to expand that bar always wanted to and he he was like why would i do that look people want that that compact that that that energy that's created by rubbing elbows and rubbing shoulders and excuse me i got to get to the bathroom you know it's it's that thing it's unbelievable unbelievable that i you know it's funny because i don't think about that bar too often and you look back to sitting in that little corner it's like like a like a triangle it's like a triangle kind of size tiny tiny little
01:02:20bar and he had lottery tickets when they first started selling lottery tickets you could buy lottery tickets at the bar i remember that i was like what are you doing well that that goes back to where randy supported all these different things that came into nashville i mean he was a huge supporter of getting the titans into nashville is a big big thing and so you know that was big i mean he was huge in music city you know convention center i mean big huge so i mean he was always doing what was best for the community and so that you know that was one of them is hey we're gonna do lottery we're gonna sell them we're gonna sell them i'm like really we don't have a place that stupid machine was so big i was like you know we have no room no place to put a machine in that thing and those things were huge those things were huge when they first started the lottery so i did my rehearsal dinner at sunset grill in the back room you did 2003 yep i got into a fist fight out in front of uh cabana that night yeah you're not yeah you're not the only one yeah i broke it look i have a scar from the surgery i had to have on my hand i remember walking with my tail between my legs because i sold produce to the trace cabana yep and sunset correct and i showed up there and this guy was mouthing off to my wife i was picking her up from a girl's night yeah and randy was there buying him drinks and i pulled up and this guy's like wagon is i go hey dude no i'm this isn't gonna happen like sorry she's drunk and the guy goes you better tell your bleep bleep bleep bleep and i'm like whoa easy easy like i'm taking her home it's okay like just go away and he what are you gonna do about it then he spit on me and what do you do i was walking away you would spit on me so so you know i came out of fine dining i came out of scotts up scotts at one point was the one of the most fine dining restaurants in this town right it was oh it was i mean that's an institution so that's what i come to you know green hills if you don't know where that was i was in green hills and so i went to you know from there to sunset and of course we were still you know fine dining big wine lists all
01:04:24this stuff and then i go to cabana and cabana we didn't expect it to be what it became but in oh five oh six oh seven that place was there was no broadway there was you mean it i always called it was the it was the all the pretty people oh it was like it was ridiculous i mean every night we'd do the same thing that sunset did which is we'd do dinner we'd do a couple hundred two or three hundred lobster mac and cheese was to brian yule was an amazing chef by the way amazing chef and so it's one of these things where all of a sudden at 10 o'clock you know we we we set timers and so we had at 10 o'clock you know the the lights went down music went up you know i became a dj there for 10 years but yeah my first so i'd never experienced dj nightclub any of that and that's what nashville wanted that's what we became because that's what nashville wanted us to become so i i had a guy named johnny jackson who used to soul satisfaction so johnny jackson comes in and he and i get him because it's like okay i don't know any dj i'm gonna get him because that's the only guy i know he'll bring people to our new year's eve first new year's eve i was there i was at that okay thousand people in the building thousand people on the sidewalk trying to get in brian yule's brother carrie which was this six foot six guy was just huge huge guy you know and and he's out there about tears because he's like i don't know what to tell these people they're throwing money at me they're doing they just want to come in and so johnny had told me said look said charge 15 at the door i'll take 10 you take five dollars plus the food and drinks and all that i said okay great i didn't know any better at the end of the night he worked for four hours at the end of the night cash i paid that man ten thousand dollars because we had a thousand people coming to that building through that night so he made ten thousand dollars cash i looked at brian and randy the next day like the day after whatever and i said um i need five thousand
01:06:26dollars i'm buying dj equipment because i can do what he did last night and we're not paying ten thousand dollars for that so so i became dj2c craig cliff so i became dj2c for 10 years and i dj'd and i dj'd weddings and i dj'd but i did i did not know that every friday and saturday night that back room and we had you know i went in and bought all the dj lights so all up in that room was all this all this stuff that you never saw until i turned it on and we had a rocking sound system in there and we would we would go and i did music videos so i i dj'd music videos um so i still have my 30 000 music video you know library and so we just it became this unbelievable thing was such a cool place but the fights and i mean i did i had to learn how i learned how to i learned how to squash fights and learn how to well that was the that was the one like the time i get into a fight i'm the sober one oh yeah because i was just there to pick her up yeah you know she called me like ten o'clock and said i'm not drinking and then all of a sudden as randy's here buying shots and then she was and then i was like i'll come get you and i was like oh gosh i tried to not i was like hey it's fine dude just go away just go away apparently that guy was inside telling you that he's gonna put you out of business and he's gonna do all this stuff i had a lot of those threats what what what randy and i had really good lawyers and really good insurance but it was they chose to run a really good business we did we ran a good business and we were smart and we did we had we had you know we had four security guys on any given night those years and it's like um one of them actually went on to now he owns like restaurants bars and all this stuff he was he was just my rock solid security guy and he and i became really good friends and i've consulted him several times on several different occasions when you get done with your open heart surgery we we've tripled our allotted time here so we could do that we could do
01:08:27this all day long and i think people would like to hear that so when you get done with your open heart surgery i mean and you will i mean and you're gonna come back oh yeah well let's do a full episode we just reminisce on all the things and i want to pick your brain about some of the unique things that you've learned and how you operate because you do it so well and some of that wisdom that you and randy kind of together through the years have brought up i think there's some really good gems to share with the community i love to do that i like a great plan all right greg it's always a pleasure to see you thanks man hi man hello this is jen heidinger kendrick founder of giving kitchen let me tell you a little more giving kitchen is a james beard award-winning non-profit that provides emergency assistance to food service workers nationally headquartered in atlanta since 2013 giving kitchen has served over 19 000 food service workers and awarded over 12 million dollars to food service workers in crisis giving kitchen helps food service workers that get hurt or sick lose a family member or suffer a housing disaster like a flood or a fire by offering financial assistance to cover rent and utilities if you know someone that works in a bar or restaurant that is in crisis tell them ask for help from giving kitchen by visiting giving kitchen dot org slash help like pick your swag no we're recording now okay bro i have to be professional no you don't we were just talking i'm talking with alissa gingeri yes who you'll hear me quote many times in the next couple podcasts you'll hear i know i feel like i need to start listening again i need to find more time in the day i don't i don't have a lot of time i don't have a lot of time i am you don't really like the show just just say it no i do like the show okay i would have never come on the show in the beginning i would have never signed the door right in the middle if i didn't enjoy the show it is a big signature right in the middle it is mo better mo fat mo better um wait can we talk about something is that i had a woman
01:10:28obviously you know i'm not from nashville and i moved from new york city and um nashville in the south is very sacred with their biscuits and grits and um all the respect in the world it's a thing yeah totally get it yeah i mean i didn't have that growing up i had like the pillsbury can that you like knock on the side of the table and you twist it um but i had a woman come up to me and she's like oh my god i love your biscuits like they're so good and i was like oh thank you so much and she's like do you use butter in your biscuits and i was like yeah actually like it's a new zealand butter we laminate it like we do our croissants and she was like yeah you're gonna have to stop doing that it's lard you can't use anything but lard and i was like but you enjoyed the biscuit right did you just say you loved it i was like i'm pretty sure you liked it though and she was like yeah but i don't like it anymore because you don't use lard and that's like sacrilegious to the south and i was like okay see so i'm really sorry to all the southerners that i have apparently made mad because we put butter in our biscuits i hate rules i hate rules let me tell you you can't put pineapple on a pizza you can't put ketchup on a hot dog ham and pineapple on a pizza is like i'm from new york city like that's gross like you can't but who gives a shit you can if that's what makes you happy do it i'm not gonna eat that like i don't you you don't have to eat anything you don't like but you don't judge me for liking it no but also if i got a pizza and it was really good and it had the ham and pineapple on it i'd be like all right you won me over i mean piggy pizzas there's like the hawaiian pizza true i look i'm a i'm a purist the old school like pizza hut pan pizza with pepperoni and pineapples a damn good pizza or like the elio's one like the rectangle like old school you'd have to put in your toaster and it burned the roof of your mouth every time that was like some kid shit right there my wife bought uh bagel bites the other day for the kids and i was like oh i think i got sick on those a few
01:12:32times just because i ate like 30 of them see i don't have any kids and i'd probably like eat all the bad stuff i'd be like okay these are mine now oh like every time i go to publics i just buy like super golden crisp and captain crunch and like the most cocoa crispies and like come home and she's like god bless you eat like a five-year-old and i'm like i am i eat one bad meal a day and i like to have a sugary cereal in the morning it makes me happy you gotta ingest some monsanto and you know get your day started i love some monsanto oh give me more monsanto don't get me started with that you can see that our professional interview here with elisa again jerry is taking off yes it's going very very swimmingly um i told her i said just get her she's next to me here today so i request did you know that i requested to be next to you did you really oh my gosh thank you i told him last year i said um i said i was put in the corner by the bathrooms last year it was a last minute thing and i was really happy i was like back there that's a diss and i said i'd like to be in the main hall and if you could put me next to the buttermilk ranch i'd appreciate it and she did can you put me next to the important people well i was like i love elisa and i can just cut up with her all night there's gonna be a little time i'd much rather go over and just cut up with elisa because she's hilarious and we can just talk for hours and so i try i try you know this is what we would be doing if you weren't recording yes yes 100 but we are recording and we're you know for a good cause national state i love this program tell me what this means to you let's get the professional start the interview what is being because you were here last year yes and you guys have done this um a lot of respect for randy rayburn um i am currently on the culinary advisory for national state for you yeah you know like i've got plenty of time don't let anybody in there uh i know right like look at this girl from new york like let's just throw around this part no um
01:14:33so i'm trying to work with paul in regards to setting up a pastry program so there's a more of an availability to the students to learn baking and pastry even if it's just the bare bones basics of it um i partnered with carpagiani which is like the ferrari or Lamborghini of gelato machinery so we're gonna try and get some you know pastry equipment in here we're gonna try and build that program so even if it's like almost like an elective for them they still get the access to the knowledge of that it's just a matter of finding time for myself to try and build that program with paul but also finding other pastry instructors that are willing to take time out of their busy day and their normal lives to come and try and build this program and build our culinary students of nashville well look at you i know you know that's really impressive thank you so much i mean you're surprised no not at all i mean we're very busy and you've got a lot going on i've got a lot going on yes you know i think it's always special when you talk to somebody who operates a business and is heavily involved in the operations of the business when you take time to help mentor people and work on this craft and i just had tom druffel sitting here talking about the kids and i believe that children are our future yeah but they are investing your time and energy and that's really special and it's not easy to do and it takes a lot of energy and time to do that so thank you for that yeah i think i mean i do it with my staff too like i think i tell everybody like whether they're like a dishwasher or a server or a cook that my goal is that i know the industry is transient i feel like we've talked about this a long time ago but like my goal is that they just leave better than when they started and if they do like i feel like i did my job so any way that i can help support this program obviously randy rayburn
01:16:38was really close to um you know all of us in the pennington group and um obviously egger you know he was his godfather and i think he did really great things with this program and for me coming in as a pastry end of it and that's where i think this program lacks a lot or they just haven't had the ability to do it or the knowledge to set up the kitchen properly but then also find the right instructors for it you know any anything that i can do i feel like i have to give it back and i'm so fortunate um with my restaurant but uh the restaurant itself is a good foundation for people to learn pastry but i think going through an actual program would be amazing so look at her plate of food like i know she's sharing she's waiting to come on right she's after you she's got dibs i love it i love it well like she's got armful she's got did you bring food to share is that the question brandon's not a sweet person he's you know oh girl get that seer tuna i love it yes yes what are you serving tonight alissa um we are so i collabed with urban grub um we uh chef hannah miller moved from hawaii to join our team which i'm super happy to have her she's awesome but we collabed with urban grub so me and hannah kind of did a little collaboration so we've got a croissant crisp which is our cube that we turned into like a little cracker a little bit of extra virgin olive oil salt pepper then we've got an edamame hummus a seared tuna micro cilantro and a little bit of balsamic soy reduction over the top it was good i'm not a big pastry guy so like the crisp on the bottom wasn't how did you feel how did you feel about that bite you know you've had a lot of bites tonight what uh what was your thoughts on those bites now that you've eaten a lot of food and talked to a lot of people not trying to put you on the spot here anything i thought it was the best i had all night long oh thank you i thought it was the best i've
01:18:39had all night long it was absolutely delicious i can go home and go to sleep and sleep peacefully now brandon loves our food all right best in show there you go until the next guest sits down until the next yes until the next guest comes i really did absolutely love that was a really good cut of tuna i loved the edamame hummus the croissant was perfect like everything it was a really good balanced bite you like just switch it up and do some different things more than a bite it was like too big it was a help it was a generous helping yeah this is the south i like to generously give nice generous portions lisa this was a pleasure please come on the show again we don't have to have a topic we can just shoot the shit for like an hour i think your guests miss me and my banter my listeners you would be the the host misses you what are you talking about i would love to come back sometimes it gets so serious i'm like i just but you i just mentioned you on the episode with elodie and then you're going to be mentioned again on the show with uh henry roberts that is coming up next week a popular little person right now you know what you're a visionary and you transcend all shows that i do thank you well i look forward to coming and visiting the new studio in franklin yes and coming back on the podcast all right so we will uh thank you for being here hey thank you so much it's always fun to see you always thanks for being my neighbor tonight oh you're welcome can you you didn't have a choice can you request it next time yes i just don't want to be near the bathrooms thank you so much you got it all right well i tell you what i always have a good time talking to elissa and jerry that was so much fun i am not going to do an outro on this one we have one more interview and is with joy styles and one of my favorite conversations of the day was with her she was so excited about antioc and everything that's going on in antioc and i don't know a whole lot about antioc lived here a long time but uh i don't spend a lot of time in antioc um i don't spend a lot of time anywhere except for like work so that's i think that's a thing uh thank you guys
01:20:44so much for listening this has been a lot of fun and i think that the uh the nashville state this tennessee flavors event raises money so that kids can get a culinary education and it's and thank you to every single person who donated their time and energy to be there to support that school i know i want to say thank you to the gentleman who are on the show mer mercel flores from limu peruvian cuisine didn't get him on this episode he was slammed man his table had like a line at it all night long i didn't get chef max the music city center he was slammed all night long but there were so many uh great people there and we just had an absolute blast thank you for listening today i want to give a shout out to gordon food service they have been an amazing partner with me for a really long time and i'm excited that uh we've got a back in our restaurants and if you want to uh colexo is another sponsor that i love having and they uh they are now in rose pepper you can go to rose pepper and you're going to try colexo you're on the east side go to rose pepper you can go to chaugo's cantina you can go to the green hills grill or you can pick them up at killjoy right there in east nashville uh thank you again everybody and i was in the middle of talking about gfs when i my brain went off sideways about uh colexo but thank you gfs for everything you guys do you guys been amazing partners are excited to have you back and i'm enjoying nara working with all of the different broadliners but gfs seems to be coming out on top so far uh they really know how to take care of people and they're genuine and you know i i've said this before but i love about gfs is they're very transparent they're regular people they're not a publicly owned company they're a family-owned company so they have flexibility they don't have shareholders that they have to hit that you know margin for they believe they're they're strong
01:22:50they're gonna one of their core values is war room mentality they're gonna go to bat but that they seem to really understand what local restaurants need in nashville and i love that about them so if you want to learn more about gfs feel free to you can reach out to me you can reach out to uh them the person you're going to want to talk to over at gfs is paul hunter if you're looking to just talk to somebody about what you're currently doing you want to learn more about gfs i'm telling you you should his number 615-945-6753 so all right last episode last conversation with joy styles no outro this is it guys thank you for listening i hope that you are being safe out there talk to you soon love you guys bye like i said you never know who is going to show up here at tennessee flavors we've had the chief of police yes john drake's been on the show yep we had tom druffel who is a city council member district 23 correct and now we have joy styles who is another council member district 32 the district that you are sitting in right this minute really yes this is my district welcome thank you for allowing having me here don't we do amazing things in anioch it's what i keep telling people sure right on oh that's it when there's all this noise out here you have to almost like eat the microphone you gotta be in there so i want to i can do that so joy yes i love i've been i've been coming to this area i've lived in nashville 37 years so i've certainly seen a lot of things i used to shop here when this was a mall yes you know what i mean this was the hickory hollow mall for a long time it was for decades in fact but now we have a new plan so nashville state stays here we keep the community center we keep the library the ford i center but now we're going to get the
01:24:52anioch performing arts center we're doing 400 units of artist housing we're going to have 50 forward out here a new transit center we're doing all the things plus a huge green space are you making all this happen who me you will tell me about yourself did you grow up here in nashville no i'm from the i'm a weird mix okay born in grand rapids michigan then my parents got divorced and so i spent my summers and christmases in michigan and the school year i'm right outside philadelphia in a town called brunvar okay i thought you were going to say in florida and i was like you got to spend michigan in the summers and florida in the winters that's not too bad i mean i really miss winter like i love it when we get a clip of like 17 degree days my friends think i'm crazy but i'm like yes north face jacket go my winter clothes are way better than my summer clothes yes because winter clothing is better than summer clothing like coats boots hats coat i was like i'm way more confident with more clothes on how about that it's bad what it is so i'm just weird like a nice jacket midwestern northeastern raised by two southerners individual so i'm a real hodgepodge and how long have you been in nashville crazy i have been here in august it will be 19 years i thought i'd be here for three years 19 years so much that you decided to join city council run for it elected into city council yes and you're crazy what do you i have so many questions for you oh i have so many answers you're so fun you have such a vibe oh you have an energy about you it's infectious i love it look at you making me blush on air but you're doing all of these amazing things for the city what drives you to do that honestly because i know how great this area was and is and so revitalizing
01:26:57this area is critical this used to be the hub of the city right this was the first mall so we have to bring that excitement back so revitalizing this site bringing people here so they have an opportunity to remember the past but be excited about the future so knowing that you can have art permanently here on the site you don't have to go downtown you get to choose to go downtown that's new it's different we were a food and retail desert for over 10 years look at us now we've got tanger we can shop we can eat again tennessee flavors they've decided to do it here where the culinary school is and not do it out in west nashville so we're booming we are a magnet baby we're bringing you in i believe you i live i've i've lived on the west side for the last 20 years so i don't get to make it out here as much distance i mean it's it's a distance and your life is over there but i didn't even know all this stuff was happening over here well so now you have to come back and you have to go to tanger and then when pop stroke opens which is tiger woods golf concept so there'll be 18 holes indoors 18 outdoors we'll have our first rooftop bar deck restaurants so like i said all of the things century farms same area as tanger look at you many many things coming i well i love it i think that's amazing um i talk to restaurant owners uh i love to eat people in the industry where where's some of your favorite place people what do you want to say to them i want them to know that we are ground zero for growth and change and if you want to come to a new spot to put your flag down and say hey we came out here to be part of the revitalization reach out to me we just opened a restaurant called expectations at tanger and they're actually out of canada really really great food so when you come out
01:29:00and go shopping i want you to go over there and get something to eat over there if you're a restaurant and you're doing well and you want to expand yes this is a great place to expand to everybody's looking for the next the next mount juliet the next thing we are the hottest we are the fastest growing part of davidson county right now so when people are thinking about a new place i spend a lot of time going to my favorite restaurants and saying hey have you thought about a second location or maybe for some people might be a third or fourth location but if you don't have representation out here you can't tell me oh we've got one in east nashville or we have one downtown well that's nowhere close to where we live and people out here spend money we like to go to eat and previously we were traveling 30 minutes to go eat or go shop so being able to have options here is really critical i would love anyone who's listening right now if you have a coal-fired or brick oven pizza place and you're looking for a new location please know that i am looking for one i lived in new york before i lived here i miss pizza and i have to travel across town to get pizza go to nicky's went to nicky's do you know what i miss do you remember za yes in hillsborough village correct yeah really great pizza they were from the east coast i loved it i was very sad when they disappeared i just ate sunday and today's what day is today tuesday yeah two days ago i ate at uh coal town which is in franklin is it pizza coal fired pizza be quiet it's called coal town it's right in uh west haven is it really oh i love west haven okay so i live like five minutes from there and we wrote my kid and we rode our bikes down to west and we never really even been there at all we rode our bikes and i was like what is this place we're gonna go to oscar's talker shop exercise eat enjoy the weather all the things oh it was a first sunny day that was like let's get on the bikes let's do it
01:31:03okay but now you told me about a new pizza place so now it's on my list now you gotta go thank you very much hey come move to any exactly hey you've got some some new folks waiting for you that are willing to you know buy some good pizza we need pizza i don't have any i just have like the national chains and i love a good fresh handmade pizza that you hear it guys your city councilman district 32 in ania she's pleading with you if you have a pizza place come open it there there's nothing please you can do it or anybody listening wanting to hear about you know maybe some thai food i'm missing thai i've got lots of others uh i've got guatemalan i've got honduran i've got ethiopian food i've got mexican food um we have vietnamese so people talk about the lack of diversity in food in nashville because they're not in any that is correct so this is ground zero so we're also getting chinatown i don't know if you know that so we're going to do chinatown across the street and there's oh it's going to be amazing we're going to have a fast casual like 3,500 square foot uh food bar is going to be in the grocery store that's under construction right now two new buildings are being built there'll be spa retail uh shopping and other fast casual asian food i'm doing the things so this is the most diverse part of the city so we have to highlight that this is what we tell visitors when you go to the website one of the things that i wanted to do when i first got into office was to make sure that the visitors and convention bureau website had a page for anioch because it didn't it does now i don't you know we haven't videotaped this this is all audio but if you would look at me right now i just have like this pomegranate on my face because you just like your name joy like you just you just you just have it thank you i know why you do what you do i love it this is the best we've got to build where we're all
01:33:09working together to make this place great and when i think about the future out here i think about chinatown being across the street i think about this being an arts and innovation hub we kicked off the innovation with a robotics competition that had people from mississippi and mareville and johnson city and murphysboro all of those things and then we're going to have the artist housing we're going to have live work spaces it's going to be amazing like you're going to come to anionc for one thing and you're going to stay the rest of the day you are a treasure to this area and i i believe you 100 there's no starwood is coming you're bringing back starwood amphitheater i'm revitalizing the site as we speak to be another amphitheater not to be another amphitheater to be something great another alternative it's going to revitalize the rest of murphysboro road down to the county line what is it it'll be on the news tonight at 10 o'clock we're doing a little snippet well this isn't going to come out tonight this isn't live right now this will come out tomorrow or the next day this will be out friday well they'll be able to pull it up oh what is it so look at it i can't reveal it yet because we're still in the design phase all right is it a lot is it a is it a mixed use development i will say entertainment there will be homages to starwood there will definitely be artistic endeavors on that site because it's is starwood so i am working now on kind of a rehearsal space performance space something that's there because everyone that lives in anioch southeast nashville has to travel across town to go and rehearse and i used to be an artist so i would have to go downtown or to metro center if i wanted to rehearse it was horrible yeah you want to be able to go somewhere that's like within 10 15 minutes of your house and i was driving way more than that so i want things to be easy i want this area this district to be ground zero for anyone who's coming to town fresh with a dream
01:35:12whatever it is it's you know the culinary arts if you're a woodworker if you're a songwriter a musician that you come to this site when we have our units built you live here because it's affordable and you're able to still pay for rent do your art and still be able you know if you need to make a little side side money that while you're building your craft but this is like an enclave of artisans 24 seven okay i'm excited i didn't know all this was happening in anioch this is this is the fun of tennessee flavors you show up and i'm like wow and you heard it here first just wait till you come back next year so you know and i will be back next year i think this is like my 15th year doing i'm just letting you know next time we talk you will tell me that you have been to tangor you've been to pop stroke it's amazing you're looking forward to the next phase at century farms you're excited about what's coming at starwood you're excited about the renderings for the artist housing because it's all gonna be happening joy styles ladies and gentlemen she is the city council represent city council member councilwoman councilwoman thank you i i look i'm a cretin i don't know these things never a cretin but such a great word well done i'm a i'm a simpleton i like cretin it's good i'm a cretin yes you have joy styles councilwoman district 32 anioch you're going to revitalize this entire place i believe in you thank you for joining us today no i'm so excited to be sitting here with you and chatting and so happy that you are here representing tennessee flavors and i'm excited that this is the second year that they believed in bringing it out to the school where the culinary program takes place right seems like a no-brainer and i'm sure last year they were like oh we're gonna roll the dice is it gonna be
01:37:14successful and look because we're amazing it is successful we've outlasted everybody i think the restaurants are rolling out now so we've got everybody getting out of here you have a bunch of you did it right she's got like a half pan full of that fried chicken the guy was cooking the fried chicken in the parking lot next to me are you kidding before the event i pulled up and i was like what are you doing man and he's like i'm smoky joes and i said oh i said i looks like chicken and he gave me a big old chicken wing or is a chicken drum like right there in the park like out of my car and i'm like well hell let's dig in i'm just saying i'm gonna be hungry and i'm gonna be saying oh i wish i had taken some things from tennessee flavors because you know they didn't eat all of this stuff a lot of extra food look this is wonderful banana pudding from the soda shop now i've got the fish i've got the tuna from urban grubs like many of my from urban legit with the edamame hummus come on fresh you get you fresh this is what i'm saying i'm trying foodie too i love it i love food i love food so when i say like we have all these different cultural foods here and then trying to bring some of the staples that people like here in tennessee like we have princess at tanger on purpose i said we need to have something that is nashville based and hot chicken is ours so why would we not have princes over at tinker you gotta do it joy styles thank you for joining us today it's so nice to meet you it was so nice to meet you and enjoy bike riding to west haven we like to bike ride downtown into like the factory and all these little places in franklin it's great yes franklin's having a whole let's be clear one of my favorite activities of the year is a dickens christmas i get hot chocolate i get donuts i get hot apple cider i'm doing the things and i'm looking at the dickensian garb i'm loving it i think my wife had covid that week and we missed it or something have we like was like that's this week we missed it we couldn't go we just moved there so we're we're it's a long story figure you
01:39:19figured however we're like learning all the little things that are close to you it's a new neighborhood i'm like i don't know this stuff and like oh that place is really oh there's a sapphire over here oh there's an edge there's a this there's there's lots of great little restaurants and there's a restaurant next to the um it's close to the square and it it's steak and chops it's on the second it's a two-story restaurant it's right across from the uh parking garage oh my gosh i wish i could remember what what street grays it's not gray red pony 55 south maybe it's 55 south corking cow corking cow corking cow corking cow 55 south corking cow red pony all the same guy look here it's good i it was delicious not only was it delicious it was ambiance because that's part of it right it's a tiny little back end restaurant you're having intimate conversation and then you get really good meat i'm just this is a vibe see there's there's grays there's 55 south there's corking cow there's culicino there's the harpeth is that the italian restaurant on the corner first of all there's culicino there's two hands we now have there's the coletown oscars taco shop yes there's all these little places like i didn't know all this food was over here i didn't know that italian restaurant was there and i ate there and i said omg this is giving me new york vibes as well i lived in new york for 10 years before i came here i'm learning i'm learning i'm able to learn all these things in any october okay so a year from now we do this all again is that what we're saying deal high five we're in thank you guys for joining us that's going to be a wrap on tennessee flavors 2025 thanks joy styles