Live from the Gordon Foodservice show Feat. Brian Baxter, Bill Laviolette, Brett Michel and more

00:00Very excited to be partnering with C&B Linen. If you know me it's my number one topic of conversation is linen companies and how shady linen companies can be. I have just disgusted with how the business practices work in this industry which is why I was so excited when I found C&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 gonna 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 CNBLenny. Hear it from his, straight from his mouth, exactly what they do. Or you give them a call at 931-722-7616 or you can DM me at Brandon Styll on Instagram for my exclusive pricing through the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance.

01:49Welcome 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. Today we are coming to you live from the Gordon Food Service show. I am here at the show. We are just beginning. It is 9 a.m. and everybody is kind of filtering in. I'm hoping that people get to walk around and see all of these amazing booths. Now this place is gigantic and they've got a tech center. They're doing all your paper goods. They have a education showcase. Just lots of lots of things. This is not just fried foods and things. There's so much going on here and I'm excited to talk to people about what they see. I don't know what to expect today. I usually record like an intro after the fact. I'm doing this now to kind of set some expectations. What I'd like to meet is some restaurant owners.

03:07I'd like for them to tell me what their challenges are. I'd like for them to tell me what's going really well. I'd like to know how their market is doing. So since we're in Louisville, this is going to encompass Cincinnati, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Nashville, Bowling Green, Louisville, kind of all over this area. So we're going to get to talk to restaurateurs who I have never met. Some probably I will. I know some people who are going to be here who said they're going to stop by. But really, this is just a random episode. So if you like hearing random restaurant owners tell their stories, this will undoubtedly be a fun one. It's one of my most favorite things to do because I have no idea who's going to walk up. I have no idea what the conversation is going to be. We just sit down and it's two people who love this industry and want to talk about it. So that's what we're going to do today. And I'm glad you are here for the ride. So I don't know who that's going to be, but let's jump in with our first guest. All right, we are here at the Gordon Food Service Show and I have been walking around just kind of finding people. And I have ran into Nick Florek.

04:16And Nick Florek is the head of Back of House and the Tech Cafe here. And since I was just in FS Tech, I said, Nick, you've got to come join me. It's nice to meet you in person. It's nice to meet you in person too. I know we've met remotely and it's good to meet you face to face. So how excited are you today to be here at the Gordon Food Service Show? Tell me what you're feeling. Very excited. This is my first time at the Louisville Food Show, actually, and it's great to see the size of it, the amount of people that are here, the energy. And we've got a new booth this year as well with a bunch of partners, a bunch of fun tech solutions that are going to be interesting for the restaurant operators that come. So a lot of people think Gordon Food Service, food service is in the name. And now you're with the Tech Cafe. What is Back of House? Yeah, so Back of House, the website's backofhouse.io. We are a restaurant, your restaurant technology people is how we bill ourselves, but we're your strategic technology partner. So we've got consultants that any restaurant operator can talk to to get advice on the world of point-of-sale systems, on the latest in customer marketing tools, things that will help them run their restaurant better, run their restaurant and help their restaurant grow. And then we have a vetted marketplace of third party technology solutions. So everybody from Toast to owner.com, which is a full automated website, AI-based website and marketing solution to labor solutions, like push operations and seven shifts. So we got a range of the leaders in the industry.

05:48So tech and AI is kind of everything right now. And I just got back from FS Tech. So that was fresh on my brain. But so if I'm a restaurant owner and I'm really good at visiting tables, I'm really good, my P&L looks good, but my marketing isn't there and I haven't really entered into the tech world and I know that everything is going to be going to AI and tech. But I don't even know where to begin. I can go to Back of House and you kind of house all of that in one place. And then I can get a hold of somebody to help me walk through how this all works. Yes, exactly. So we have resources you can read online if you just want to browse and learn and educate yourself. You can do that, but you can schedule time to talk to somebody who's a restaurant person first. So all the consultants that we have, they are people who have run restaurants, worked in restaurants, owned restaurants, but also know this word of third party technology. But this sounds expensive. So if I'm a restaurant owner and I do this, I don't have a ton of money to talk to somebody. How much does all this cost to help somebody out? If you're a Gordon Food Service customer, we have a partnership with them. So it's completely free. So you can talk to our consultants for free as long as you buy from GFS. Otherwise, it's just $1.99 for the consultation process. And we explain on the website how that goes. But it involves a written report where we'll understand the situation that you are looking to solve, do some research, do a diagnostic, and then we'll provide that report. So you have the information in your hand. And then what we also do is we've pre-negotiated a lot of deals with some of these companies. So if you work with us, we can usually get you set up in a financially advantageous way. So the money really pays for itself.

07:27That's amazing. So if I'm any restaurant owner out there who wants to delve into the tech world, it just wants to learn more and kind of understand what my business needs, Back of House is the way to go. Yeah, 100%. Absolutely. OK, so now that everybody knows about Back of the House, or Back of House, it's backofhouse.io. Backofhouse.io. So you can check it out or contact your Gordon Food Service rep and ask them, say, hey, tell me more about Back of House, and they can kind of walk you through it as well. Yeah, they can get you in touch. They know our team. They know at least at a high level the resources we have available for all restaurant owners and can get you in touch. I love that. So the buzzword right now is AI, artificial intelligence. And I think if you're a restaurant person, that word, you hear it everywhere. But like, what is it? How is it applicable to me? You keep hearing AI in the restaurant world. Like, what are some applications right now that people don't even know about?

08:29What can you break down AI in restaurants for me a little bit? Yeah. So first, AI, I mean, it's a buzzword everywhere right now. People are using it in all kinds of different ways, but there are some pretty discreet applications that are being used in restaurants. So one is to answer phones. So I don't know if you have this experience that you get frustrated with when you call a customer service line and you have to press button one and then press button two. Nobody likes doing that. Nobody likes doing that. It's hard to get in touch with a person. So imagine if you didn't do that, you were talking to basically you knew wasn't a person, but felt like a conversation with a person. That's what AI phone answering is. A lot of restaurants are using it to take orders. You can upload your full menu, any details about your restaurant. And the AI also learns from every conversation. So it improves over time. A lot of pizza restaurants are using it right now. OK, so like for actual order taking. But like, what about for me who runs, you know, like a fine dining restaurant, but there's nobody there from 11 o'clock to 9 o'clock in the morning.

09:36Could I answer the phone when people call after hours, before hours and help them? 24 7, I can answer the phone. Yeah, see, that's that's yeah, it's really cool. Yeah, it's exciting. So so there's that one of the companies we work with is Lomond AI and another is Kia, Kea. You can check them out on our website. Other applications are our marketing. I think most restaurants to be in business now, you have to have a website. There are a few that I know don't, but at least I think 98 percent or at least be on social media. But what the big companies do as far as customer segmentation and identifying specific groups of customers and sending out targeted messages where you used to need a lot of resources to do that. You can use AI now and you don't have to have all those resources. So you can set up a website and set up a system where you have automated push notifications that go out to people who might have an app that you have or email marketing that goes out to your highest value customers that might have not been there in the last couple of weeks or the last couple of Saturdays that you see at least once a month or something and nudge them with an offer.

10:47And you can do this all with AI so you're not actually managing all the details of it yourself. Well, it can scour through all of your reservations, all of your people, even in toast, people that or whatever POS system you're using. It can scan when people come in, it can learn their algorithm essentially. Oh, well, Diane eats here every Thursday and she has a bottle of wine and she brings two people and she's done this every month for the last three months. Well, this Thursday she didn't show up. It can recognize that and say, hey, Diane, we missed you last night. Yeah, right. Yeah, all of that. And this is why your POS becomes critical. It's capturing all this information. And I think a lot of restaurant owners have all this information that they're sitting on a goldmine that's underutilized now. So whether it's your POS company and a feature that they have that they can help you integrate A.I. into improving your operations or marketing or strategically to customers or if it's working with another partner, we work with owner.com, which is one that I love that that will do this automated email and and text promotions for you on autopilot.

11:50And it's very hands off and you're just approving the messages ahead of time. I love that. I've always said like a restaurant is just a data creating machine. Like how many guests did you have? How many did you serve per hour? What is your drink times? What is the average spend? How many people order appetizers versus desserts? And what's your turn time? There's just a million different things that happen in a restaurant. And the problem with local restaurants is we don't have people disseminate this information. There's just not enough people and not even to know where to look. But through A.I., it can generate a lot. It can know what to do with this data and let kind of give you prompts. Hey, do you want to do this? This is what's going on. You go, wow, I didn't even recognize that was a thing. And you can be proactive about marketing to people in specific about marketing to people with data that's generated that you didn't even know the data was being generated. A.I. can find that and tell you what to do with it. Yeah. And guess what? All the third party companies that you're working with, DoorDash, Grubhub, they are doing this and you're paying them high fees to do this on your behalf. Now you have the power to do it yourself.

12:54And all the chains that are opening around you. Now speaking specifically of Nashville, where there's just so many chains coming in and just different people coming in and they're all doing it, too. Yes. So if you're a local restaurant, you need to get on this because this is the wave of the future. Do not get left behind. Yeah. And one of the I mean, everybody is familiar, I hope, with Starbucks. Imagine everybody. Yes. And it's it's one of the big examples that I like to share because Starbucks launched a program in 2020. Sorry, 2024. That was a deep focus on integrating A.I. into everything that they do. So it was called their deeper program. They've seen R.O.I. of 30 percent on the program and it runs everything from the customer experience, from the app to their operations. So if you have the Starbucks app and it's an app that I have and I'm not an app person, but I use it because it's sticky. I like it. I like getting the rewards. They're learning everything about me. They get the cash up front that I load on the Starbucks card.

13:54They send me push notifications if I haven't been there in a while with deals of things customized to bring you back, typically order to bring me back to their monitoring, their machine wear and tear. And they're proactively able to identify what locations and what machines they need to update, how to optimize their schedules of labor. It's a whole gamut of things. And this is what chains are going to be doing. An independent restaurant has the opportunity and ability to do this now just the same way. I think there's a fear out there from people that, well, that that's just going to take over a lot of people's jobs. You know, this AI is going to all of a sudden we're not going to need people. And I think that at FSTech, the big conversation was, no, it's not necessarily going to take away people's jobs, but it's going to make your jobs, the jobs that are dangerous, the jobs that are mundane and the jobs that are really expensive. It makes good people better versus taking away jobs. You can utilize AI to really enhance your operations versus taking people away. Yeah. And one stat that I'm doing a talk on AI in restaurants here at the Food Show a little later that I mentioned is the World Economic Forum estimates by 2030, there'll actually be 170 million jobs created.

15:05There will be jobs that will be lost, but that number is significantly more than they estimate the jobs that will be lost. So it's really a repurposing of people to high value added tasks. And AI will never fully replace a human, at least the way the technology exists today, you never know what the future will hold, but AI doesn't have emotional intelligence, it doesn't understand the context of the situation, it doesn't have, it can't build relationships with people, and especially in hospitality, which is a relationship-focused industry that's always going to be a human-driven business. And if anything, it allows your employees to do things that they're more passionate about, the reason they got into hospitality versus building prep lists, for example. 100%. No, then that's what I'm talking about. I mean, it can make your life so much easier so you can focus on the things that really matter, and that is that connection with people and human interaction. Yeah, exactly. Spending that time getting to know your team and developing your team and coaching them and training them because you're not sitting there doing all this mundane work.

16:07Yeah, exactly. I love it. Well, Nick, anything else you want to throw in there? Did we touch on the main part of the Tech Cafe and what Back of House does today? We could do this for an hour. No, I think we did touch on the main cafe. I would encourage people to come by and visit it at any Gordon Food Service food show in the future, but backofhouse.io is a resource for any restaurant operator in the restaurant industry. Just start there and learn what we're about and feel free to reach out. You heard it from the man himself. Nick Florek, thank you so much for joining us today. And go visit backofhouse.io. If you need to learn more about tech, you just want to talk to somebody. If you're a GFS customer, it's completely free. And if you're not a GFS customer, start buying from GFS. Yeah, or start buying from GFS. GFS customer. Yes, Nick, thank you so much for joining us today and have a great show. Thank you for having me. Running a restaurant is tough. Staff turnover, rising costs, and the endless tasks that bog you down and take you away from what you love.

17:09Let Adams Keegan lighten that load. They're a privately held Tennessee based restaurant and hospitality focused outsourced HR, payroll, and benefits firm. The team at Adams Keegan removes the administrative burdens of HR administration, payroll benefits management, garnishments, unemployment claims, compliance, 401k, and so much more. From their proprietary HRIS platform to seamless payroll and competitive benefits that keep your team smiling, they've got you covered. Adams Keegan lets you focus on what you do best, creating unforgettable dining experiences while they handle the rest. Essentially, think of Adams Keegan as your back office HR department right here in Music City. One of the many things I love about Adams Keegan is that unlike big publicly traded companies out there, they have an incredibly high standard of customer service. And that's what we all need is really good customer service in these areas. They don't give you a 1-800 number and make you fill out an IT ticket submission. They surround every client with a team of experts, all based right here in Tennessee.

18:11You can call them today at 615-627-0821 or visit adamskeegan.com. That's A-D-A-M-S-K-E-E-G-A-N dot com for your free HR consultation and see how they can create a customized solution to help your restaurant thrive. We are here at the Gordon Food Service Show. We're joined with Jennifer Harrison, and she is the owner of The Restaurant. The Restaurant, yes. All right, so that's a very interesting name for a restaurant. Was it hard to find a name for the restaurant? Well, let's just call it The Restaurant. No. Tell me your story. OK, so I'm like the only restaurant. You have to live in the county that we live in to know what I'm saying. In Indian Mountain. And now where is Indian Mountain? OK, Stewart County, Tennessee. We're west of Clarksville. West of Clarksville. We're just a small town, Dover, Indian Mountain, Bumpus Mills. Where else? I'm nervous. Anyway, so my restaurant is like the only one on that side of the bridge.

19:14OK, so it's The Restaurant. It's The Restaurant. So it was Cathy's Cafe for like 16 years, and then I came in and bought it. And I changed the name, and I thought, well, everybody calls it The Restaurant anyway. Let's go to the restaurant. I love that. You know, the whole, let's go to the restaurant. Let's go to the restaurant. Because, you know, we have that southern twang there. It's a thing. Yeah, so everybody was already calling it The Restaurant. So when I bought it, I changed the name to The Restaurant. And then my sign says 79 because it's Highway 79. So now people call it The Highway 79 Restaurant, The Restaurant, you know. Just whatever you want to call it. Just come. Just come to The Restaurant. I don't care what you call it. Just come to The Restaurant. Right, right. I love that. So did you grow up in the restaurant business? What made you want to buy Cathy's Cafe? So this gets interesting. I'm a nurse. You're a nurse. I was a nurse. I still am, but I don't practice for 25 years. Thank you for your, everything you're doing there. Because that's not an easy job. No, it wasn't. It wasn't very stressful. But not like the restaurant. It's a different kind of stress. Yeah.

20:14So when COVID came about, I decided to take a break. I stayed home for maybe two weeks, and I saw I couldn't do that. I cannot be that person. I have to stay busy. So I started a lawn care business. You started a, well, naturally from nurse, you would start a lawn care. That's what I was going to guess. Do I look like I'm going to come cut your grass? But I did. I did landscaping. I did mowing. I did, you know, I cleared land. You know, I did all that. Me and my sons, my two sons. Nice. Yeah. I did that a couple of months, and then the restaurant went up for sale. Cathy's Cafe. Cathy's Cafe. Well, we called it The Restaurant. But yeah. And so the lady that owned it was actually my husband's aunt. And so she kind of persuaded me a little bit. You know, we'd go down there and eat. Hoodwinked? Yeah. She was like, It's easy. Don't worry about it. She said, I'll show you. You just unlock the doors. People show up. It's easy. Come on. It's like throwing a dinner party every night.

21:15Yeah. No. So I did. I went in there, I thought, OK, we'll do this. We'll do this. So we went, you know, did our thing, took it over. We bought it one day. The very next day, we reopened it. We shut it down as Cathy's Cafe. And then the very next day, you know, we was up all night cleaning, you know, stocking everything like I wanted it. And we just ran with it. Wow. We just ran with it. OK, so this is great. And I love that story. Welcome to our world of insanity. I am insane. Before, like when Cathy was talking you into this thing and you said, yes, your perception of the restaurant business versus reality. Now, it's like that Instagram versus like reality. Oh, my gosh. What are some of the things that you've learned in the last several years? I've learned that the restaurant business is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. And I always thought nursing was. But at least nursing, you do get to go home. You're not your own boss. You know, you do. There are clock in and clock out.

22:16Yeah, there's state law saying you can only work so many hours. But with the restaurant, it's 24 7. It doesn't stop. You're really married to it. Yeah, you are. And the first couple of years, I was like, what am I doing? You know, bags under my eyes, working doubles, you know, it was just so stressful. But I finally got the hang of it. I've had it five years. What was was there like a watershed like aha moment where you went, oh, this is the thing I need to do that doesn't make it that hard. I contend that people say restaurant business is really hard. And I say I wake up in the morning with a mindset that is like, I have no clue what's going to happen today. And when I wake up knowing that my day can do twists and turns all over the place, then when the twists and turns happen, it's a little easier and I'm ready for them. Was it a mindset shift like that where you're just kind of like, well, this is what my day is going to be. So it makes it feel easier. Or was there something that you did that all of a sudden made it easier? Yes, I finally took myself out of the schedule, you know, because I was on the grill.

23:18I was waitressing. I was doing dishes. I was doing all this, plus trying to run the business. Yeah. And I finally had to just let go of that part of it because it was literally driving me insane. Yeah. So I finally just said, you know, I can't do this. I can only do this. So I finally had to just have that aha moment and say, I own the place. I have to make sure that it runs the way it's supposed to run. So I have to take myself out and put somebody in that place. And you have to find work life balance. You have to be able to spend time with your two sons and how many other people. I mean, if you don't have that, then you really are married to the restaurant. And that's not fair to everybody else. And you need to be a mom and a grandmother and a wife and all those other things on top of a restaurant owner. Well, I love that. So what brings you here today? Are you looking for anything specific or are you just kind of here to hang out and with all the other crazy people in the world? I love coming to this because I get ideas, you know, every year.

24:19This is actually my second year doing this. But I get ideas and then I go home and I put them into my menu and I see if it works. If it doesn't, we start again. If not, you know, I have things that I got last year, ideas that just took off. Wow. But then I had, you know, a couple of things that, you know. But yeah, yeah, I love it. Well, thank you so much for stopping and talking with me. I was so fun to learn about the restaurant. And if I'm ever west of Clarksville in Stewart County on the other side of the river, I'm going to go to the restaurant. I'm going to check it out. I will. What kind of food do you serve? Oh, my gosh, we do like meat and threes. We do deli specials every day. It's like a country southern place, but we have the best cheeseburgers around the best cheeseburger. What makes the best cheeseburger the best cheeseburger, by the way? Because it's real ground beef. We throw it on the grill, we hand pat it and we cook it. I mean, it's just it's real. It's a real burger. Real burger. Real burger. Yes.

25:21You know, there's one thing I love. It is a real burger. A real burger. I am a carnivore. Yes. Yes, it's a thing. Yes. And also we do fish. We have really good fish. We do catfish Fridays and Saturdays. Catfish Fridays and Saturdays. Heck yeah. I know a lot of people excited about that. Yes, it's really good. How would you have a website? Any way people could like look you up? I have a Facebook. OK. Facebook, Instagram, Facebook is just under the restaurant. Indian Mound, Tennessee. Indian Mound, Tennessee, the restaurant. Yes. And I put my specials on there every week, daily, you know. Who do you bring with you? This is my best friend ever. This is Tandy. Hi, Tandy. She's she's my PR. She's my my supporter. She's like, I'll come eat a bunch of food at the Gordon Food Service show. Why not? Yeah. I would recommend hitting the Tech Cafe over there. There's like a technology cafe in Bacahouse. I just had Nick Florek on the show from Bacahouse and he is amazing. There's a lot of really cool stuff that will help your restaurant to really own your guest data and all the different things that you don't even probably understand that are happening in your restaurant that you can capture through AI and all the different stuff. Right.

26:28That's the idea. That's the wave of the future. You should go check it out. OK. Jennifer Harrison, owner of the restaurant. Thank you for joining us today on Nashville Restaurant Radio. Thank you so much. Find a policy that actually fits your operation, your staff and your budget so you can focus on serving guests, not stressing about what ifs. It's an ever changing market. Anything could go wrong. If you want to work with someone who knows hospitality from the inside and out, reach out to me. Call my cell phone. 863-409-9372 or go to robinsins.com.

27:31We are back at the Gordon food service show and we are joined with Camden Dotson. He is with the bear in the butcher. Where is the bear in the butcher? Lexington, Kentucky, on Euclid Avenue. Lexington, Kentucky. What do you do there? I am a cook and a catering specialist. A cook and a catering specialist. And they send you to these events to to learn things. What are you hoping to find today? Hopefully looking to find some new products, just get some new fresh ideas. We tend to revamp our menu every season or so. Like we have our summer menu right now and then we'll be going into our fall slash winter menu here soon. So just looking to get some fresh ideas and fresh concepts, you know. I love that. Tell me about the bear in the butcher. We do our world famous smoked chicken wings. World famous? Yes, world famous smoked chicken wings. OK, I like it. We have a little bit of bar flair, a little bit of upscale bar flair. All the cocktails and drinks, if you can imagine.

28:34All your good select bourbons, of course. It's like a fine dining restaurant. Not really a fine dining. It's on the same street as the University of Kentucky. So it's like a more upscale bar in a way. Gotcha. OK, people come there to watch Kentucky play and watch soccer and all kinds of stuff. I love it. Oh, do you have a soccer team there or is it just a. We're just big soccer fans there. Interesting. And people just kind of flock to it. I love it. Like MLS or like national soccer. I think like MLS more so, not not really myself, but more so like my superiors and things like that. Gotcha, gotcha. So how long have you been in this business? I've been with Bear and the Butcher a little over a year and a half, but I've been cooking about seven or eight years. What do you love about it? I love the freedom to get to express myself. And let's be honest, everybody needs a little bit of a break. Away from the home life and everything that's going on at home. So it just gives me a little bit of structure when I feel like I have none in my outside life.

29:39Like things like things I can't control, like bills and unfortunately death, because I lost my father about a month and a half ago. Oh, man, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for your loss. Sorry. Sorry to bring up such a depressing topic. But it's a thing that's part of your life, man. Yes, we talked about on here. Just been kind of powering through that. And so it's an escape for you. You get to go to work. We call it in our restaurant. We call it I've got two restaurants in Nashville and we call it emotional tranquility. We want you to have emotional tranquility when you come to work. It's a it's an oasis away from all the other bullshit that you might be dealing with around the world. Like you get to come in and it's like, I know what I'm doing. I can. Everything else goes away and I can just be a part of this community. And that's emotional tranquility. That's what you're describing. Yes, sir. You say that you have a young daughter. I do. How old is she? She is two right now and she'll be three on October 24th. When did you stop saying months? Because I'll go somewhere like, how old is your child? Oh, it's just 32 months. You're like, so now I got to do math to figure out how old your kid is.

30:42You said two, almost three. That's great. Yeah, I stopped after about a year. OK, that kind of got on my nerves also. Yeah, you're like, what? She's 73 months like, oh, shit. What is that six? Like, I don't know how old that is. What is this? I got it. I didn't remember times tables to know how old your child is. Yes, sir. So three union special for the three year birthday. We're going to go to a place called Eckert's Orchard the morning of her birthday and pick pumpkins. Oh, nice. Like a farm tour type thing. Yeah. Hay wagon ride stuff like that. Love that. Oh, yeah. And then we're going to have our little birthday party at our house in the afternoon for family, close friends and, you know, stuff like that. I love that. And that's what working in this industry can do. It can help create those opportunities for you to be able to have families. Every time somebody says, I just work in the restaurant, it's not my real job. I go real job. This is a real job for a lot of people. And it pays for very real birthday parties and very real life things that you have to do. And it always frustrates me when I hear that.

31:44No, I as much as the pay isn't the greatest sometimes in our industry. It's it supports my family. It keeps us afloat. And I love the people that I work for that were like a tight knit community. I like to think we're all very close. Yeah, I just love what I do, man. Like you said, it's it's an emotional like a tranquil escape. Just gives you something to kind of be in control of even when it's busy. You're in control of how fast it goes or how fast you push push out tickets and stuff like that. Yeah, 100 percent. Well, man, thanks for stopping by. This is fun. I just want to learn a little about you. I see you walk by a couple of times like, man, I got to meet Camden over here. See what he's doing. And thanks for sharing anything you want to say to the people listening to this in Nashville and around the world. Any of my cooks out there, if you struggle with depression, please, please, please, please get help. I promise it's not the end of the road.

32:45Just please, please, please, please get help. Any substance abuse also, please, please just get help. I promise I promise someone will be there to listen. You are important. You're out there and you are struggling and a lot of people are struggling. That that's a very powerful message. I can tell you're getting emotional about it. Have you lost somebody close because of this? Like I was saying, about a month and a half ago, I lost my dad. He was my stepdad, but more like a real dad, because my father and I didn't have the greatest relationship. And I know that's something that people in our industry also struggle with is like relationships with their parents sometimes, because, you know, work in different places over the years. So I've been cooking about seven, but I've been in restaurants, hosting bussing tables, prepping since probably about 2015, so about 10 years. You just see a lot of this. What do you think it is about this industry that people tend to, you know, there's a lot there's a lot of substance abuse and there's a lot of this, you know, the suicide rates.

33:52What what what do you think it is about this industry that attracts people like that or that causes that? I think it's the crunch and such, the high demand that that's expected of us at times that just drive people to abuse certain things and just kind of get lost in it. Like I won't I won't name a name, but I used to work for a chef that was bad on the bottle and he'd go through a fifth about over two or three days. Wow. Yeah. At work? Not at work, but like in his personal life. And he'd come come to work with booze on his breath, you know, stuff like that. So not that it was hard to work around or anything, except there would be times where he would be at work drunk. But I just think it's the crunch. And like I said, the high demand that pushes us to the extremes that we go to sometimes. Do you have any kind of solutions? I mean, what can we do better as an industry? Not everyone deals with therapy well, but I myself am getting into therapy here in the next couple of weeks, just from the traumatic experience.

34:57And I have major depression and anxiety disorder anyways. Just finding somebody to talk to, I find, finding somebody healthy that's not in the industry and may not understand the pressures that we face, but they can kind of hear you on a level playing field and just just hear you out. Yeah, I think that I've always said that a shift is trauma. And you go from prepping and doing these things to all of a sudden. You got 30 tickets and you're slammed. And people, they're not polite in that moment. When you're at your peak, when you're performing at your peak, you don't have time for niceties. There's not a lot of, hey, when you have a moment, will you send me? I mean, I need to decide it like you just yell it out and you got to yell heard or whatever. And it's it's we don't after the fact, come back and say, hey, man, in the middle of the shift, put my hand on your shoulder and say, hey, when I yelled, that wasn't towards you.

35:58And I want to apologize the way that I spoke to you. And I want to make sure that we're good. We don't leave the restaurant. You know, they say if you're married, like, don't go to bed angry. Yes, 100 percent. Like, I'm a big don't leave the restaurant angry. Because in the industry, we don't teach emotional regulation and we don't teach how to deal with that. So if you leave angry, there's a really easy solution on how to make that go away. And a lot of people choose alcohol, a lot of people choose drugs. I just want to numb the way that I feel leaving here because I don't feel that emotional tranquility and regulating those emotions is really difficult. And I think that before we leave, like that's part of leadership is to say, hey, I want to talk to you about what in the middle of the shift, I kind of said, hey, I need you to bust that table. And I didn't say it nicely. I want you to know I'm not mad at you that you're doing a great job or whatever it is. Don't leave Matt. And I think that's an important part of leadership when it comes to restaurants that we circle back because shifts are trauma. Yeah, I got to throw one out there for all the cooks.

37:00Is everybody with me on hating brunch? That's that's that's a next level beast. And I still don't understand why after so many years of this, brunch is just the absolute worst. Well, because you're cooking a menu that you're not used to cooking. It's almost like you're stepping outside of your everyday system to do something. The guests that come in are a different clientele because it's brunch clientele. They're expecting something. And it just makes everything harder on that shift. And everyone's half half awake, still still sleepy. Hasn't maybe had coffee yet. Well, you're coming in after Saturday night. It's a busy night and it's not like any other day. I mean, it's a whole separate thing. Or if it's you do brunch Saturday and Sunday, coming in Friday. It's what we do with Saturday and Sunday. It's a thing we do. We run 11 to 2 Saturday and Sunday and then we switch to lunch, dinner. Well, man, it was very impactful what you said. I appreciate that. And I think it's a really good message that I try and champion. I'm an alcoholic. So I'm October will be six years since I've had a drink.

38:04And so I'm working it out. I'm doing my thing. Ben's Friends, if you have friends that listen to this, there's an organization called Ben's Friends. And Ben's Friends is not AA, but it's for restaurant workers. Oh, right. And they do national zoom meetings. And then in Nashville, we have a meeting every Thursday at one o'clock at Oku in Germantown, where if you're in the industry and you might be struggling or whatever, I think it's welcome to everybody if you have a desire to quit drinking or drugs or whatever it might be to be with like minded people who experience the same things you're experiencing. Check out Ben's Friends dot org. It's originated out of Charleston, South Carolina. And it's a great organization to help people in the industry. Tell your friends about anybody that might be struggling. Say, hey, check out Ben's Friends. You can do a zoom call anonymously. I mean, it's not like you have to be on there and say, I'm an alcoholic. You have to do any of that. You can just hear other people's stories and what they're going through and know that you're not alone. Yes, sir, that because you're not. There's millions of people out there who are doing the same thing.

39:04And if you think that you might have a problem, it's OK to raise your hand. That's the hardest thing, I think, for our industry is raising your hand and saying, hey, I'm not OK, you know, because a lot of people aren't OK. And it's OK not to be OK. Like nobody's going to tell you, oh, you're weak or that this myth that you have to be a man and suck it up and don't have do. The main thing you can do is raise your hand and say, I'm not OK. In all honesty, I mean, and I'm wearing pink today. So, I mean, like the guy wearing pink shoes and the pink shirt saying the manliest thing you can do is say that and I'm 100 percent. I'm not wrong. I agree with you. Camden, thank you for joining us today. If I could say one last thing, you can myself struggle with the. Yeah, addiction. Mm hmm. I didn't know if I could say that on here or not, but say whatever you want, man. I started with a marijuana addiction myself. So I use it for pain mentally, physically to go to sleep at night, to eat all the different things.

40:09But thank you for your time today. It's like you could feel that I was walking around just kind of scared and like you kind of helped me loosen up a little bit. And I appreciate that so much. Yeah. Hey, I love every every single person in this industry is special. And we all have a spirit of service in us and we all want to make other people happy and we want to create hospitality. And no matter what you do in this, you're in this industry for a reason. And we're all in this thing together. It's not like one person's better than the other. We all have a role in this thing and everybody's special. And I just love getting this moment to speak with you. Thank you for everything to me. Thank you so much. Camden, enjoy the rest of your show, man. Thanks for stopping by. Yes, sir. Sharpier'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, catering companies, hospitals and universities.

41:12Their 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 100 percent believe that they do. If you would like to be working with a bakery that cares about your business, give them a call 615-356-0872. That's 615-356-0872. Now, you can always visit them at Sharpier.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S dot com. And they have pictures of all of the bread that they can have for you. And contact information. Go check them out Sharpier's Bakery. All right, we are back at the Gordon Food Service Show, and we are joined with a previous guest of the podcast under a different role.

42:14Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Baxter has joined the podcast. Here we are. How you doing, man? I'm good. Thanks for having me again. Again. Third time. Yeah. I just mentioned to you, my number one episode of all time was Will Gadara until Brian Baxter. Your last episode has eclipsed the number one episode of all time on Nashville Restaurant Radio. Another one there. How does that feel, man? Soak that in. Soak that in. Number one of all time. That's just because I just listened to it on repeat. It's like I've listened to it 100 times. So last time we had you on the show was one of my favorite shows we ever did because I dined at the catbird seat the night before. And then I had you on the next day. So I likened it to seeing like seeing your favorite band play and then getting to interview the band afterwards and talk about the concert. Tell me what you're doing now. So working down in Columbia, which is a short junk kind of south at a restaurant called Prong and Pine.

43:17South of Spring Hill, right? Yeah. Yeah. Mule Town. Yeah, exactly. You're prime and pint. Prime and pint. Is this your restaurant? It's not my restaurant. So Gabe Howard, the owner. And then we got Nick Gabe and Gabe is here. Gabe, say hi. Hello. Hello. And the GM is here, too. Hey, guys, how are you? So we got everybody here today. What are you guys hoping to find here today? Great deals. Yeah. Really good egg rolls in the freezer section. We're looking for a really good chicken tender. Maybe some pizza that's already made. I can just throw in an oven. Yeah. What are you guys doing at the Prime and Pint kind of food? So steakhouse. Oh, I don't know if I would say like southern inspired steakhouse, but a little bit. So, you know, the couple local steaks working with Halperns as well and then trying to, you know, use as many local vegetables as we can. There are lots of farmers out in Colombia.

44:17There are. Yeah. Obviously, it's difficult with, you know, not it's not like a menu that rotates every day. Yeah. But it is seasonal. So, you know, we're getting ready to make some fall changes and kind of mix up the sides a little bit. I have to say, I have not been out there yet, obviously. I need to go make the trip out to Colombia. How is business down there? It's it's like Nashville business, I think. From what I hear, it's ebbs and flows in the week. Yeah. Down there. But, you know, weekends are bumping. And then Thursday nights, we're doing prime rib, which would be my favorite night to go. Yeah. Come down and check it out. We do a pretty good burger. So on Wednesdays, we highlight that. Are you making are you grinding the burger yourself? We're not grinding it, but we're using Bear Creek Farms. Oh, hell yeah. So getting what we can from Leanne and smashing some burgers through their smash burgers. Yeah, they're not like crust burger smashed, but smash them down, let them get crispy little house sauce.

45:25So, Gabe, how did you get Brian to come in and do this? You know, the stars aligned. We you know, I had this idea a couple of years ago to go and open a restaurant in my community. You know, we had looked at where were we going to go to Franklin or go to Nashville and just kept getting back to why would we go anywhere else than where we live and, you know, own some other businesses. And so we opened April 1st of last year. And after about five months of being open and thinking, hey, man, we're starting to kind of figure this thing out. Our our chef decided to not show up in the morning and happens. And, you know, so we started putting some feelers out there. And Brian had just finished his residency at the catbird seat and got introduced to him. And, you know, we were first just kind of looking at was there a short term fix where Brian could come in and get his back opened up? And, you know, we really realized as a restaurant, there were so many things that, you know, were not in place.

46:31Our team wasn't properly trained. You know, all those all those hard lessons in the restaurant life that, you know, I didn't come from a restaurant background at all. Serial entrepreneur. And, you know, I thought I thought I'd experienced some tough businesses. This this one might be it might take the cake in every way. But got to talk to Brian and I mean, a lot of, you know, common common interest, you know, wanting to know where our food was coming from, wanting to support as much as we could. Local food, good food, scratch food. And, you know, just I just asked him, I said, hey, if we could, you know, make something work here, is this a fit? And here we are. I guess we're I guess we're at a year. Wow. Already there. Congratulations. Already there today might be a year. Exactly. Look at that. Look at that. But Brian has been incredible to to our team.

47:36You know, when he does go and do guest, you know, chef experiences in other parts of the country, our team, they run they run the show. They do a great job. And Nick Rogers just came on with us about a month ago, six weeks ago. Nick, where'd you come from? Um, I came from the tree business, to be honest with you. The tree business. Yeah, I was a GM with Moon Valley Nurseries for seven years. And I was in the restaurant business for 19 years prior to that. And I I live in Colombia. I guess I guess he missed it. And it gets in your blood. It gets in your blood. There's there's an endorphin rush in the middle of a shift that you can't rival anywhere else. Well, I'll tell you, is is Prime and Pie became my favorite restaurant, you know, living in Colombia and just living, you know, four or five miles down the road and got to know Gabe. And, you know, got to know the crew there. And, you know, I parted ways with the Moon Valley and took some time off. And I was at the restaurant one night and just kind of got talking.

48:37And, you know, I really do have a passion for for not only food and but making people happy, you know, hospitality, hospitality, and and I really have a love for building teams and, you know, just making sure that the community is happy. And obviously the owner and chef's house. So this is so cool to be able to learn and to have you three here. I mean, this is Prime and Pint in Colombia. Is is I think I think I'm letting people in in Nashville on a little secret. I don't I don't know. Like, I'm like, you guys got to go check this out. I mean, I'm going to go. My 20 year wedding anniversary was yesterday. OK. And we were going to come to Louisville and do like a big dinner. And I'm sitting and thinking like, oh, we live in Franklin. That's not that far of a trip down to Colombia. I'm like, that sounds like a dinner. I'm going to bring the wife down and do like a anniversary dinner and kind of make it special. And, you know, Brandon, I'll tell you, you know, just being in the in the in the dining room on a daily basis, every single day, we're open and talking to our clients and our guests.

49:42And, you know, a lot of them are coming down from that or Nashville, come from Brentwood, Franklin. Yeah. You know, they're they're finding out what we can actually do and what Brian actually does in the kitchen. And it's just been awesome. What he does in the kitchen is nothing short of amazing. Are you bringing a full big full composed plates? Yes. Do you have a tasting menu? What are you doing there? What's the food? What can I expect to eat? You need to plant the seed of the dinner. I know I do have a dinner coming up. We haven't released tickets yet. I need to do that. What is the dinner? So started doing a pop up once a month on a Sunday called Never Sometimes, which is a song title from my one of my favorite bands growing up, Newfound Glory, which are also from Florida. So we're, you know, 12 to 15 courses. Wow. Kind of very similar. I mean, it's not a counter like Capricci, but cooking something completely different than what we do on a regular basis down there. Can you count me in for two tickets on the first one? Yeah. Like, don't sell out.

50:43Like, hold me back two tickets. I want to come. Whatever that Sunday is. Just know that I want to I want to I want to be part of the first one. Yeah, it'll be well, this will be our third or the next one that you release tickets to. September 28th will be the next one. September 28th. Make sure you know before they go on sale. Let me know before they go on. There's not not very many. So we do 24 people. Yeah, that's yeah, that's that would be a night of dining. I do not want to miss. But we'd also love to have you for the regular menu. So, yeah, I think of kind of classic steakhouse that I grew up going to where, you know, kind of ordering your protein comes with little roast of potatoes to hopefully entice you to try some of our sides, some kind of classic appetizers. Crab cakes, probably one of my favorites, just grown up in Florida. You know, so what's the secret to a great crab cake? Don't do too much to it. But make sure you season it.

51:45Season it. Where was I? Less filler is better. Yeah, I was at we did the big Nara event in August and we did the after party at Black Rabbit in the crab cakes at the Black Rabbit were the best I'd ever had in my life. I just want to shout out to Tracey, I'll show you over there because that crab cake was it. I was like, I get to eat these all night long. So now I have to come try your crab cakes and it may not ride. The Pepsi challenge. Trey's got he's got it dialed in down there, but he does. You know, maybe the best in Colombia. Well, Judge, we'll come out. We'll check it out. I'm sure it's I'm sure it is absolutely amazing. You've made oysters that I actually liked. One of my jokes is I like country music like I keep trying it and I don't I know I don't like it like oysters. Every time somebody offers an oyster, I'm like, I'm not going to like it. Every time I'm like, I'll eat it. But I'm like, I still don't like it. Actually, I think we had an oyster last time we were at Capri. I was like, I think I like that oyster. First time I've actually eaten oyster that I liked. So cool. I'll take that.

52:47That's a it's a thing. Yeah. You do good stuff. Colombia has got a lot of good things going on in the food scene. We've got Mama Mila's, which is a an Italian restaurant. If you haven't followed Mama Mila online, go follow her online. She's got some of the funniest videos out there. You've got George over at Gold's Deli. You've got Eric over at Prevail Bakery. There is some there is some real talent in in Colombia. You've got Damien over at Whiskey Alley kind of doing, you know, Mediterranean and some Cajun influence. And so there is I don't know if the foodies are moving out of Nashville and moving down to Colombia or coming in from across the country. But a lot of good things going on in Colombia. That might be my favorite thing anybody's ever said on the podcast. Where? I'm a huge community guy. I love the local people. Everybody is creating hospitality.

53:47It's not you can't eat in my restaurant every day of the week. Go come to Colombia, eat at some of my friends restaurants and sharing their names and what they're doing. I think it's just the coolest thing that you can possibly just shows how you guys are intertwined into the community. I love that one at the very core. I mean, that's what started from a point for me was being part of the community and wanting to do it in my own community. It's a tough business. It's a tough industry. And we're excited to get to be a part of it. And, you know, as we move into this next year, we're going to continue to get better and refine. And, you know, we'll keep we'll keep pouring into our friends that are, you know, going through some of the same struggles. Those roller coaster rides of record highs and record lows. It is a thing. All right, guys, I know you have a lot to do here. There's a lot to be done. Anything that you're looking for specifically? Oh, so good. I'm back. Some to go packaging. I was trying to find some specialty stuff from Andremoto, but different, different division, you know, checking in with Hal Burns, kind of seeing what Mark on being in it.

54:59I went to this is my first time at one of these. Oh, really? So. Yeah, just kind of taking it in, trying not to eat too much. I went to Mark on this past year in Salinas. Like I went into the fields and like saw where they're packing. That's awesome. I got to make a packet strawberries and cabbage and broccolini and like you're in the actual fields. And Mark does a really good job. Like their stuff is really, really good. And they've got a great showing here. But GFS does a great job with the Mark on brand all together. It was so much fun going out there and doing that. You guys, you guys buy your food from GFS? Some stuff. I mean, yeah, like, you know, dry of our paper. Yeah. You know, certain certain vegetables that we keep on. We got like a local where you can. And then some things, potatoes and stuff you can get from a broadliner. I love that we run specials, you know, throughout the week. So always, always good to pop in and see what's available.

56:00Anything else you guys want to talk about? Anything final words for you before you go check out the rest of the show? Nick looks like he's got something to say over there. What do you got, Nick? Come down to Prime and Pint. Straight to the point. Everyone's doing it. How do we follow you guys in the socials? It's Instagram is just Prime and Pint all spelled out. Prime like the meat and Pint like the pint glass. All right. I love it. Nick, Gabe, Brian, thanks for stopping by and talking to me, guys. I mean, the world you'll see me probably September 28th at this dinner. And then I will. We got to make it a regular spot because that's that's so awesome. It's not that far either. So it's a good little trip to go eat great food. And it seems like there's a bunch of other great the dining scene there in Colombia is really taken off. That's right. And we need to come down to Colombia and try and get all those people do like a full big Columbia week or something, get all those guys on the show. One hundred percent. We're going to do it. Thank you, guys. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks.

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58:05You 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. Hey, Louisville, it's Quarterpats Quarter. Five minutes to the at work of traffic on the Nines. Pretty good at that. I used to do it. That's right. I knew that. I did it as a kid all the time. And then I did it briefly in college. I like the people that get on here and they do like the Saturday Night Live, like sweaty balls. Traffic on the Nines. All right, guys, we have that rock block, rock block Wednesday, rock blocks. We could do like a full interview that way. We're joined today with Bill Laviolette. Let me tell you about Bill. Where's your little toy thing in it, Nick? There we go. We're joined with Bill Laviolette today.

59:08Well, that's really sad there, Brandon. Well, let me tell you a scary story. Hey, was anybody watching the latest of the Kardashians last night? Can I tell you? Yeah, all right. Somebody's lips popped. It was great. It was amazing. They were speaking in vocal fry the whole time. All right. Hey, we're joined with Bill Laviolette again. Again, returning champion. And this is I think you've been listening to us just mess around on the microphone here because wait, that was on that was on microphone. Check one, two. What is this? The five foot assassin with all the business. So we teased this that you would be here at the Gordon Food Service show on our last episode, teased or taunted, taunted that you'd be there. Have you got any feedback from the show? Anybody listen to it and said, you're I people, I think it's resonating people. I saw a bunch of comments on the I'll have to go check that out. Yeah. And people were like, do you listen to the show is great. Love the guy. Got in my feels. I was people from like out of town who were listening to it. And we're like, every time we're in town, we love that place.

01:00:09I love it. That's great to hear. It always blows my mind when people say I came from look, I don't care if you came from Mount Juliet for crying out loud, but it always blows my mind that we are we have become a destination. But the craziest thing is when somebody says, hey, I'm from Australia and my my mates were here on a bachelor party or whatever and told me that when we came to Nashville, we had to come here. And my first thought is, how are you talking about or why are you talking about this place in Australia? That blows my mind that somebody would even know what this little barbecue shop is on literally on the bottom underside of the world. And that just that will never grow old to me. It's just like, wow. I it's it's. When I look at the podcast, like who's listening to the show, right? And you look at 42 different countries that have downloads of your show and you're like, who's listening in Singapore?

01:01:12You know, who's doing? We talked about you're the number one barbecue restaurant for people from Singapore, which is huge. You know, again, again, reigning champion, reigning champion with the only only mechanical bull. Which we learned. Oh, absolutely. Probably. Look, I'm going to go not only the only barbecue restaurant in Nashville, the mechanical bull, not only the only barbecue restaurant in Tennessee with mechanical bull. I'm going to go. Now I'm going to go in the Western Hemisphere. Wow. And until until until someone disputes me. Yeah, it's true until it's not. It's the best barbecue in the country, in the Western Hemisphere. And with a mechanical bull, I'm not going to go the best barbecue in the Western Hemisphere with a mechanical bull. I'm just going to say that with a mechanical bull, I'll never go out and say, like, I'm the best. I just do my best. Oh, there's the humility I'm looking for. It's true. Like, I'm not going to I'll let I'll let you say it all day long. But myself, loathing will not allow me to say.

01:02:17OK, so what are you here today to do learn? Are you looking is this a day away from the restaurant where you get to just walk around and talk to other crazy people who own restaurants or is this a are you here specifically looking for something? I just well, I just got a text message saying we were out of potatoes. So that's not good. So maybe I'm here looking for potatoes today. That I'm just hanging out, checking things out, just hanging out, just checking things out. What did you do last night? Hung out, went and had a decent, not great dinner. I have to say where. Yeah, I was a little bummed out. I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah. That's oh, for two on dinners in Louisville, Louisville, I'm trying. Um, yeah, just kind of hung out. It was a beautiful night to be outside, though, and that's what I did. I dined alfresco and enjoyed it. I enjoyed that. I did that, too.

01:03:18You did? Yeah. Nice. I just ate at the the lobby bar. Oh, that's not too bad. I did go to the club sandwich. I went basic. Oh, I totally forgot what I did. I told you. I'll tell you what I did last night. It was really cool, actually. So I went to the little mixer for the little slugger. Oh, yeah, I went there. I didn't see you. I got there at like seven o'clock. I was there for 30 minutes. Oh, I must have been on my third tour of the factory. It was so I didn't go tour the factory, but I got I do like the whirlwind museum. Right. So cool. I am for those of for those of you who know me, I am a huge baseball fan. Houston Astros fan. Die hard. That's and I watched the end of the baseball game last night. That's what I did. But do you have the ability to go on a self-guided tour? The Louisville slugger, you know, factory. It's pretty rad at my own pace. I went through it three times just to make sure I didn't miss anything. And yes, I know it looks like somebody's woodworking workshop, and I'm totally cool with that.

01:04:22But one of the coolest things I got to do last night was hold Roberto Clemente's bat. And that that was pretty awesome. Just to know that that was an actual game used bat by arguably the greatest right fielder after play the game and even a better humanitarian. Yeah, that was that was cool. And so being able to because I've been to the Louisville slugger museum before, but on the guided tours and, you know, it's my first time and and, you know, you have to kind of go at their pace. Excuse me. So when I had the opportunity not only to do it once, but to do it twice. And I'm like, well, two times is fun, but three times it's even better. So I did three times. I love that. They have like Babe Ruth's bat. Yeah, they have Roberto Clemente, they have all these bats that you can hold and like take a picture of you holding these bat. There was probably 40 bats. Oh, yeah. 40 different you could Chris Brian or, you know, there's a bunch of different people bat and they're all game used bats.

01:05:24Yeah, I mean, that's his I mean, that's I think that's the neat thing. What I love about baseball, there's so much history behind baseball, just American history. Some good, some bad history nonetheless. But when you have the opportunity to kind of connect to history and I'm that's another thing I am besides baseball fan. I love, love history. I love it. When you can can absorb yourself into something historic and try to put yourself back into that whatever. I really dig that. And I just I think of all the years that I've been coming to the GFS. What do you call this food show? It's called the GFS show. This arguably that last night mixer was arguably number one. Well, yeah, for a baseball guy. Absolutely. It was really neat. If I'm a baseball guy, too. Yeah, if I had nothing to do with the show and I just saw Louisville Slugger Museum, I'm there.

01:06:24I'm totally there. Yeah, I had a whole night planned. Yesterday was my 20 year wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary to you. Thank you. So my wife and I were going to come up here and do a whole dinner, a whole fun day in Louisville and night in Louisville and kind of check it out and spend the time together. But she got COVID. So that that was a button that. Yes, that is that I'll do. We'll do that twice because that was not good. And I'll tell you, everybody, how do you feel about that COVID last minute? I was like, hey, is there something going on? Because I didn't have any plans. I was going to hang out with her and right. And then he was like, yeah, we're doing a little. Oh, all right. I'm leaving early. Let's go. Right. So she was like, no, go do your thing. And so it was neat. It was really neat. Yeah. It's good to have you here, man. Thanks. It's always good to be here. Always good to see you go over to the tech cafe, tech cafe. It's really cool. Back a house, I guess. I've had Nick Florek on a little while ago. Lots of really cool things they've got going on.

01:07:26I will really meet. I'm a simple man. I cook with fire. A.I. A.C. The robots scare me. Yeah, well, I cook I cook almost Halloween. Cook with fire and sticks. Yeah. Yeah. It's not going to tell you cook any differently. But tell you all your guests come in. It'll tell you all about them. True. And how to market to them. The nice thing is robots will never take my job. No, I say that now. I'm like, you better knock on wood, man. I didn't mean to say that, robots. I apologize. They're listening. I know they are. To everything. Everything. Which I don't know if it's good or bad. Time will tell. Yeah. You know what? It's always good to make a friend and be a friend. Every time I every time I put something in chat GPT, I'm like, thank you. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you. You're excellent. And if I get the wrong answer, I'm like, oh, well, that's on me. Let me try to let me write this question better for you. When A.I. takes over, I want them to be like, oh, totally. This guy was always very polite and kind, but they were always on our side. They're always on your side. Right. Let them live. Exactly.

01:08:27He's one of us. One of us. So that's all I'm that's all I'm doing. All right. Anything you want to say to the general public out there? This was, well, nice to catch up. Yeah. Nice to see you again. Thank you to all those who might be out there and have listened to the episode. I truly appreciate that. To those of you who haven't, it's OK if you don't listen to it. I wouldn't want to listen to an hour and a half of me either. But all of that being said, I truly invite you to the world famous Shock and Lose Barbecue, beautiful, crime free, Madison, Tennessee. And let us make you lunch one day, because I would love to serve. Because that's what I got up in the morning to do. Now I'm going to go find some potatoes for my guys back home. So, well, thank you, Bill. It's good to see you, sir. Good to see you as well. Be good. Hello, restaurant people. Y'all know I don't just hype just anything. I've been watching this brand Pony Boy Slings for a while now. And I got to say, I love their vibe. More importantly, people seem to absolutely love this product.

01:09:29So I did what I do. I reached out. I heard their story. And now I'm pumped to say Pony Boy Slings is the newest sponsor of Nashville Restaurant Radio. This is a bourbon based canned cocktail. Seven percent alcohol by volume. That's kind of the sweet spot for a real drink. It's made with real bourbon, real juice, no preservative, zero artificial flavors or colors, full flavor. This is not for the basic. It is designed for those in between moments. Pre-shift hangs, post service wind downs, brunch coolers, patio sips, golf carts. If you have a patio, anything for a happy hour, this is absolutely perfect. And all you have to do is just chill it, pop it and giddy up. It's premium, it's legit and is made by bartenders for people who actually care about quality cocktails. Oh, and if you want to start carrying it, Pony Boy Slings is distributed by best brands. So reach out to your rep and ask for it by name. Pony Boy Slings, real bourbon, real juice, real good.

01:10:33Welcome back to the Gordon Food Service Show. I am joined with Daryl Denning, and he is the owner of Panache Catering. What's going on, man? Not much. I'm just enjoying the show today. Are you here for anything specific? Are you looking for anything specific? Not really, but just some new ideas that I could probably present, you know, in our company that will, you know, broaden our current, you know, catalog here. All right. Tell me about Panache Catering. Well, Panache, we do primarily social corporate and metro school system. OK, so social, corporate and metro schools. Yes. Tell me each category, what that looks like. So if I'm socially, if I just want to throw a dinner party, I can call you and say, hey, will you cater my dinner party? Absolutely. We'll come right out to your house, redesign it, get you get everybody fed and full. And and you're staying and serving the food and doing the whole thing and service full service. Yes. What's what's your style of food that you're serving?

01:11:35We do a little contemporary American. Contemporary American. Yes. OK, so social corporate. I'm having a big meeting and I need a bunch of people here. I need great food for that. I'm going to call Panache Catering for that. Absolutely. We do anywhere between 50 and thousands of meals. I mean, guests for any particular event. Wow. What's the largest event you've ever done? The largest event I've ever done was. Pinnacle Pinnacle, the financial. Yeah. Yeah. How many people was that for? It was maybe a couple of thousand. Wow. That's that's a lot of people to do at one time. Yeah. And we serve their holiday Thanksgiving holiday meal each each year. Right around Thanksgiving, right in their bank facility. And tell me about Metro Schools, what do you do for Metro Schools? Well, we supply meals for the Metro Charter School. So we feed about fifteen hundred students a day.

01:12:39Wow. Yeah. Through the whole school system. That's incredible. Do you do like box lunches type thing? We do. We have satellite kitchens. OK, we do vended meals as well. So that's dependent on the contract that they have grant money for. That's how we pursue it and proceed. What's your history? How did you get into starting it? How long has Panache been around? Panache has been around twenty five years. I'm a former hospitality executive. I work for Hyatt Hotels. OK. And when I came to Nashville, I was asked to come work for a Gaylord where I retired back in 2007. Really? Yes. So that's when I started Panache. OK. It's in your blood. If it's in your blood, you want to keep doing it. Well, look, you got to think about my last name is Denning. I was going to ask you, is this real? Is this a real last name? It's dining versus Denning. I was like, this last name is dining.

01:13:39I say Denning. OK, but it's right there. Yes, right there. So that's what you were predestined for this. I was predestined for this, yes. And I'm doing very well with it. So it gives me the life that I need to keep moving. What do you do for fun? I travel to Kentucky to Gordon Food Show. You're just like me. Yeah, we do the same thing for fun. Right. And I travel a little bit, too. So, yeah. Where's your favorite place to go? I'd like to go to an island. You know, you're a beach vacation guy. I'm a beach vacation guy. Yeah, I can I can feel that. Sand, drinks, bikinis. All the things. All the great things, yeah. Man, I love it. Well, thank you for stopping by and chatting. I thought you'd be like five minutes. We're going to talk. What am I missing? Anything else you want to talk about? Just reach out if you ever need us. Yeah. How would people do that? If I if I wanted to host a catering event for my corporate or personal social way, how would I how would I greet you?

01:14:43You can go to our website is panachnashville.com. P-A-N-A-C-H-E-Nashville.com. And that's how are you on Instagram? We're not on Instagram. Not on Instagram. All right. So you can go to panachnashville.com. And I assume that there's a contact form on there. There's a link that will take you to the website and all that we offer. Well, enjoy the rest of your Gordon food service show. And hopefully you find everything that you need. And I know Sarah takes great care of you. Yes, she does. Thank you so much. You're welcome. OK. I'm sure you've heard the news. Keeping your restaurants finances in check shouldn't feel like an endless juggling act. At Groomberg Accounting, we specialize in full cycle bookkeeping for food service businesses. We handle every sale, invoice, expense and payment from open to close. Plus, we provide real time reports, meals, tax filing and expert consulting to help your business grow. With clean, accurate books and custom financial analysis, you'll always know where your business stands. No set up fees nationwide service.

01:15:45Let us handle the numbers so you can focus on serving great food and creating unforgettable experiences. Book your free consultation today. Groomberg Accounting dot com. Specialized bookkeeping and financial services for the food industry. We are back. Gordon Food Service Show. And I am joined with Woods Murphy. Woods Murphy is the general manager at La Peep in Velmede. And I've known you since I was like 10. Yeah, I mean, we grew up in the same neighborhood and I haven't seen you in probably 25 years. It's been a while. Yes. And you were were you the owner at the corner pub in the woods? I was. I was for the first 12 years it was open. I was a primary owner and we sold the corner pub right before Covid. Right before Covid. It's good timing. Yeah. So I've been at La Peep for the last four years since running it. And I like the the morning hours. Good for an older restaurateur. I like that location over there. La Peep right there in Velmede.

01:16:47What's the shopping center called? Honestly, I'm not sure. Like thoroughbred shopping center or something. It's right there. Is Rose Pony by you? Yeah, Rose Pony. Right by Rose Pony. Yes. What are you hoping to see here? Different breakfast items. A lot of the sausages, you know, checking out to what the latest and greatest is in the food world. Are you are you guys getting into technology at all? Are you going to the tech cafe over there? I haven't made it over there yet, but I am interested. It's really interesting. Are you guys using any tech at La Peep? I mean, just the toast software right now. Just toast software. Yeah. Very nice. How have you been? How's life been treating you? Good. Good. Like I said, this kind of you got the old man hours go in six 30 out of there to 30 have the rest of the day. That's fantastic. What do you do with the rest of your day? The summer I've been going to the pool and playing golf. That's unheard of for the restaurant world to be like, you know, we're just going to the pool, playing golf, working early in the mornings.

01:17:54I do not miss the late nights. And are you still in this? Are you still living in the same area? Yeah, I'm still in Bellevue. Nice. And it's so crazy just seeing you. The MSI, I was like, what's Murphy? Wow. And you still catch up my brother. I did. I do. We're working on a little little something. OK. So my brother owns a company called Tallboy Marketing, and they work with all kinds of different companies. But I guess they're working with you. Yeah. No, no. My dad made a seasoning salt growing up and called Murph's Magic Mix. It would have been around when we were kids. And you have some kind of working on, you know, he's going to help me develop a website and you bring it. You still do that? I do. What is in Murph's Magic Mix? I can't tell you that. It's magic. It is magic. What? OK, what kind of a seasoning is it? Pretty much use it on anything. Use it on like the Frank's Red Sauce, the put that shit on anything. Well, more like your steaks, your burgers, chicken, fish. And then I've kind of expanded his line.

01:18:55He used to make a lemon pepper to make his. But then I've come up with the chicken seasoning and kind of working on broadening the brand and, you know, kind of had fun making up different stuff. Yeah, that's really cool, man. Justin makes I used to do this hot sauce every year and you make this spicy mix. And it's delicious, man. I put on my steaks, too. I've had fun catching up with your brother. Very, very cool. Well, it's it's great to see you. Gosh, there's like a million different things that I want to check in with you about. And I don't even know where to begin. Who did you bring with you over there? My girlfriend, Sabrina. Hi, Sabrina. She just came out for the free food. Hello. Have you tried anything good so far? The free food wise? Everything's very good today. Everything's. Is this your first one of these shows you've been to? You came last year also. OK, well, I did this last year. I guess I missed you last year. Well, good. Well, hey, I just wanted to pull you real quick and have a quick conversation.

01:19:55We'll definitely catch up. Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance. Love to get you guys involved there. Check it out. And enjoy the rest of your show, man. Oh, man. Thanks for it. Good to see you. You too, bud. 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 taking 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 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.

01:20:57He is here to help you succeed. That's Jason Ellis with Super Source 770-337-1143. OK, we are back at the Gordon Food Service show. We are joined with James Pope. James is the owner of Moe Better Barbecue and Fish. It's a food truck in Franklin, Tennessee, from my neck of the woods. Oh, man, we're just up here enjoying ourselves. This is the first time we've been to an actual food show. So we're enjoying ourselves experiencing, taking in the experience and just get an opportunity to meet new people and see the different types of food that Gordon Food Service actually offers. I love that. So you're just this your first time. What do you it's so much to take in because there's every vendor in the world. And then you've got the tech cafe and you've got seafood and produce. Anything that you've seen so far that you're just blown away by? Well, I'm blown away by the whole idea, because honestly, when you get the opportunity to see so much in such a confined spot, it just it's a lot to take in.

01:22:05And and the fact that didn't really know until a day that going to offer so many different services. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of stuff that they do. They're a full house for a partnership is why the word I like to use for everything that you're doing inside of your building or your truck. Exactly. It is. And this is I think this is from what I've gathered so far, it's a prime opportunity for anybody with a small business to be able to get a start with a a good to a good provider. Yeah. Where they can build itself up slowly and have a successful business as well. I completely agree with you. And anything in anything particular that you were kind of shocked that they offered? Well, you didn't know. Well, I was I was really impressed with so with the POS systems. Oh, yeah. I didn't realize they offered. I didn't even know they offered POS system.

01:23:07But then I realized when I found out they offered so many different different companies of it, that really kind of blowed my mind. And the features and benefits that these POS systems will do and the data that it will collect for you and what you can do with that data, it will blow your mind. Oh, exactly. It will. And with the POS systems, and I was talking to one of the guys over there and some of the stuff that it does compared to what I use now, it really it advanced. It'll be it'll make my service actually step up to the next level. Oh, 100 percent. Yeah, there's a lot of that stuff. Well, that's the point. Well, I'm glad you're here to see that stuff. This is fantastic. Yeah, I'm glad we had the opportunity to go to come this year. This is a I've been dealing with God. I've been dealing with Gordon Food Service ever since they moved to Cool Springs. And yeah, so I was probably one of the first customers. So you go to the store. Yes, I go inside the store quite often. And then I stopped using the store and actually took up on a joke.

01:24:10Joke sales rep. So now my food is delivered to me. Well, that's nice. Makes life a lot easier. I'll bet. So, yeah, yeah. So where are you located? We're in Franklin, Tennessee. We we covered the whole Franklin area. You can find us on on on Thursdays in Birdwood, Tennessee, if you ever heard of Birdwood. And then on Fridays, we are here. We are at Franklin either on Columbia Avenue or we at the Expo AgCenter. And what are you going to what do you what kind of tell me about your food? Why is your food special? Well, my food is special, one, because it's all made from scratch. We do all in-house cooking. I do I do my own marinating for my for my meats. I do I smoke my own meat. I slow smoke with a cherry wood. Oh, man, I love a cherry wood. It's nothing like a slow, slow, slow cooked meat or cherry wood. Oh, man. And I do all my own meats with cherry wood. And then she does all the desserts, all our desserts as well.

01:25:13We got homemade dessert. So we can we're talking about strawberry cake. Oh, caramel cake, banana pudding. I mean, so we covered the whole nine yards and got to make our own fruit, our homemade fruit tea. So we we we are we covered. All right. I'm in. I'm going to come find you at the AgCenter. I'm going to come find you on Columbia Boulevard. And I'm going to come eat because I'm right down the road. Well, we sure appreciate it. Hey, James, it sure was a pleasure to meet you today. You too. We got kind of a line happening here now. We've got people coming in. I see that. Go visit James over at Mo better BBQ and fish in Franklin. He's got a truck. Everything is scratch made. And you're definitely going to see me over there. You can be like, hey, I remember you in the pink outfit. Thank you, sir. Have a wonderful rest of your time here. All right. Appreciate you. All right. Hey, restaurant folks, real talk. How many times have you ever said we need to do more marketing, but don't know where to start? That is where Miles Hospitality Marketing comes in.

01:26:14They work exclusively with independent restaurants and small hospitality groups, helping you build a smarter, more strategic marketing plan without hiring a full time team. The best part owner Christine Miles brings over 25 years of restaurant hospitality marketing experience. She brings that to the table. She loves working with beloved neighborhood spots, and she knows what works in real world restaurants where they need help with branding, digital marketing, social media, email, or just figuring out what's actually worth your time. Miles Hospitality Marketing gets it from quick wins to long term growth. They offer everything from graphic design to full fractional CMO services. Check them out at mileshm.com. That's M Y L L S H M dot com. Mention Nashville Restaurant Radio and get a free hour of consulting Miles Hospitality Marketing because your marketing should work as hard as you do. We are back at the Gordon Food Service show and we're it's a family affair here.

01:27:17See, this is the fun part about being in a show is that you never know who's going to come by. And we are joined with Derek Doughty. That's that right? Yes, sir. He is the owner at Archer's. We're joined with his son, Sterling. Sterling, do you work in the restaurant at all? He's learning a little bit. How old are you, Sterling? 11? 11. I have 10 and 12 year old boys and they both work at one of my restaurants. They come in bus tables and they hustle and they make it happen. They love it. It's a great thing. Oh, yeah, he can. He can do it. He also loves making the ice cream sundaes that we have to. Oh, so you like to your back of the house, doing some back of the house stuff. Yeah, right. Little bit. Yeah. And he takes good care of the customers up front. We have more like a a casual quick serve restaurant where it's a little different. You step back in time. It's the whole theme is the 80s and 90s nostalgia. So you really. Yeah. So when you walk in, you have those retro 80s and 90s and what not arcade.

01:28:18So we have the Ski Gallaga and all the stuff. Gallaga. You know, love it. You remember the Pizza Hut? They had those little tables. Yeah. We got those in. Yes, we do have Gallaga. And fun fact, speaking of arcade games, you know, Burger Time, that old video game Burger Time back in the day. Yes. We actually bought BurgerTime.com. So if you even have that machine, too, but if you go to archersandhardened.com or BurgerTime.com, it's going to point to our restaurant. So we're expanding that. And we that's really cool. We deal with mainly you talk right into the mic. Oh, I apologize. There you go. I'm so used to having a conversation, not, you know, go right here. There we are. Oh, hey, there was there. But the main main entrees that we serve are just smash burgers, pizzas and some chicken sandwiches and wings. But we are a scratch kitchen. So everything is built from scratch. Even the buns, the sauces, fries, everything. Wow. So we put in a lot of high end quality.

01:29:20All the ingredients are highest quality we can get. But we use many chef techniques that you wouldn't get in most areas here, like from flambéing and whatnot, to make sure that the customer, our guests gets the the best experience possible. So we have Saturday morning cartoons playing. You have the retro pinball, skeeball, anything to take you down memory lane, 80s, 90s music. Some in 2000s kind of mixed. So we just want you to have a good time. And I'll tell you, just my personal back story. I didn't think I was ever going to own a restaurant. I didn't have that in mind. An accidental restaurant tour. Accidentally, yes. But it's been the best thing ever. I mean, over 20 years ago, I started I started at Altgar and I moved to Florida. And then when I moved back home to Kentucky, that's when we just kind of went from there, opening up a restaurant, helping out the community. I love that. So archers in Hardin, where is Hardin in the world? Hardin, you'll miss it if you blink. That's where it's at in the world.

01:30:21OK, so if you were in the Western Western area of the Kentucky state, you were going to see mainly Paducah or Murray being your bigger towns. We're right next to Murray State. We're about 10 minutes out. You have to pass us. OK. You know, one of those old towns that you've seen that have just a blinking stoplight, that's that's you like radiator springs. Some like that. Yes, absolutely. It's so crazy. You have an 11 year old. That's probably something that you know what that is. Right. Right. Yeah, I do. I love I love. I'm a big Pixar fan, too. So we even bought a railroad track right next to the restaurant and put a caboose on it, too. So that way we can even kind of put not only a landmark there, but bring in more attraction to as well. Really. Do you have like a do you have like a table in there? Can people eat inside of the caboose? They could, but I wouldn't recommend it right now because I don't have a AC or anything. Oh, yeah, that's probably true. Right now, it's just a big glorified paperweight people can take pictures of and whatnot. So if I'm ever driving up or down 24 towards like Paducah, I'm going to go to Hardin and you're going to find archers.

01:31:27And there's really cool 80s and 90s nostalgia. Definitely something you should go check out if you're up there. What are you hoping to find here today at the Gordon Food Service show? I'm there's several things, actually. I'm here for a dual purpose, not only for myself as a restaurateur and experimenting with different. Well, see what else is out there to see what I can experiment and bring to the restaurant. But also our restaurant was featured in a few things that were not public. One, have you ever heard of Mr. Beast Burger? Yeah. OK. Well, you started off as the first test site for a sit down location in Hardin. Really? The Jersey location. We actually led the sales of the nation for about four months straight. And then we decided to part ways and, you know, do our own thing. But that was some useless information about where we started. And it's still on there to stay. I got to figure out how to get it off. But the other part is Mr. Cool out of Mayfield. They deal with their worldwide company deals with many splits and things like that. And they got into the restaurant world recently after a few years of research and development, and they just installed our very first prototype in the world for a walk in freezer.

01:32:32It was an all in one unit. And it's supposed to disrupt the restaurant industry. So that way, it'll be it'll cost less than a compressor. But that way. Wow. And all these people from China and other places, there are all these people. I don't even know big wigs. Research and developers have been there for the last five days. And it just was just installed recently. And it's been phenomenal. I can't believe it. All the technologies they got on it. So they're about to release that. And they want us to kind of not only be the testing grounds for their prototypes, how do you get how do they even get contacted to do that? I my my history was I was in marketing. I was the guy that brought in corporations that would have like a high ticket service, for example. We I've been on the back end or behind the scenes of some of your celebrities. And we're there to close the deals and or market them out. Got it. So you have a great spokesman. You got to have a great team behind. Yeah, absolutely. So that's kind of my weird background. But it was just actually, believe it or not, giving back in the community and networking has really sparked a lot of networking conversations.

01:33:40We are very weird at our restaurant, like obnoxious to where we even have a Bentley GT as our delivery driver, our delivery vehicle. And we let kids go in and play and all that stuff. So we deliver pizzas and a Bentley GT. So we're weird. That's really interesting. Last time, last year and a half, it was a Maserati Gran Turismo. We had pizzas on the on the tag on the license plate. And so we were weird. I mean, if you ever got I love that, though, we're being weird is like the greatest thing on the planet, man. It's all about good times, man. Yeah, about good time. So if you serve great food, you have a great energy and you give back to people. I mean, things just happen. But I couldn't get here with obviously without God. That's not, you know, as first and foremost. But I would have to say it has all been a family house, a family fair of everybody coming together to make it happen. Not just one person, as anybody in the restaurant industry knows. It takes a team. I see you have your lovely wife here. Absolutely. That she keeps me organized. You would not believe I'm like a squirrel with shining object syndrome.

01:34:41If it wasn't for her, you know, I'd be all over the place. Are you a are you a traction guy? I'm a I like to. Yes. And more like a hybrid. I like to get traction, but also like to scale and go back into frameworks. I'm a big framework guy. OK, likes to break things down. I hope I'm answering that correctly. Well, Traction is a book by Gina Wickman. Those reference. And he talks about shiny things a lot in that. I don't know if you were like an EOS person. I need to probably be more like the one thing. But, you know, instead of chasing two rabbits, you know, I have ADHD. So I'm one of those people. I'm all over the place, like diagnosed. And I have to like hone in on things. That's why the headphones help in an event like this, where I can make it good. I'm going to jump over to Sterling over here. Hey, it's your turn, man. All right. Tell me what it's like having a dad who's a restaurant owner. It's pretty cool. And having an Asian mom and a dad who's a restaurant owner and a mom who's an Asian mom.

01:35:46Why? Tell me about that. Why is that cool? And they're. Kind of like the best parents ever. Oh, he's lying. I can tell you what not to do. He's saying the best parents ever. Well, do you get to eat for free at the restaurant? Yes. It's pretty nice, isn't it? Yeah. Are you saying that because you just got out of school to go eat at the food convention? What do you think of the food show? Are you enjoying the food show? Yeah. I'm getting full very fast. Yeah, it happens. What's your favorite thing you've eaten today so far? I'm not really sure right now. A lot of chicken tenders, a lot of pizza. Probably sausage. Sausage. Oh, yeah. You have the grilled sausage earlier. What's your favorite thing to eat? What's your favorite food to eat at Archer's? The classic pizza. Classic pizza. So you got pizza, burgers, chicken tenders, all the things there. Yeah. Oh, man, that sounds like a dream. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

01:36:48And just to give you a little visual aid and everything, we have these super smash burgers. Super smash. They are probably about nine or ten inches in diameter just to give you a just kind of give you a tenet. Holy cow. See that picture? I think it's massive. Is that an onion ring on there? Oh, yeah, that's our beer battered onion rings we make, too. That's a six patties on it. It's wide, not tall, but in course, the bun is. Do you have like a challenge where somebody eats all of it within a certain amount of time that it's like free or something? We have a bigger one for the challenge. Oh, you do a challenge like that? But if we're not doing a challenge this year, we tried that before. It was cool, but it's kind of cliche. You know, a burger challenge. Everybody seems to have a burger challenge. Not to, you know, on anybody. But we have a 16 inch diameter bun. OK, do you make it yourself? We personally don't, but our partners, Kurchoff's Bakery and Paducah, they do. OK, we give them our see. I'm not a baker and I like to scale, you know.

01:37:49So I wanted to make sure that, yes, we have our team that can do in their recipes and everything else. But if I take a recipe and delegate it to a bakery that takes a lot of pride in their their best, I mean, the area. We have a business relationship for three years. We give them the recipe. They fulfill it. And then we'll just keep on going back and forth every week. And so it's always fresh every two or three days. I'm always getting buns and dough. So that's just a little something. But going back to the challenge, per se, we're going to do more like a tournament, like an MMA kind of tournament style where you get somebody that comes in and they get to talk smack. They get them in the props and all that good stuff. And we pair them up, go head to head like a tournament style. So you're going to have the qualifications, semifinals and finals, things like that kind of make it fun. Gamified. I like that. Right. I mean, see how I get behind what you're doing over there, man. I love it. How does anybody else want to share a burger challenge and getting everybody involved? So when you've got individuals doing a face off and head to head and then they promote, oh, man, it just makes it that much more fun. I hate it. People love a bracket. People love themselves a bracket telling you got to get that heavyweight belt champion on there, the shirt and all that fun stuff.

01:38:54The bragging rights. You mentioned your website earlier. Tell us again how people can find you. They're listening. I want to go check that out. How can you find you? Tell me the whole thing. It's archers in Hardin H I R D I N dot com. Or if some of them just heard the burger time story and just go burger time dot com, it's still going to point to the same address. And yes, I'm still working on the website to make it pretty. But, you know, how long have you been open about three years? This August is three years. Wow. Yeah, I love it. And I used to have another restaurant. I I was that idiot that thought, hey, if I could do one, I could do two. No, I was either that had to thought I could do three. Oh, man, I I did not think it through because this restaurant was one caliber, the other one was a complete different altogether scratch kitchen. So what I quickly realized was not only the prep times and the skill sets that were required, but the amount of time and then running both at the same time was a that was a opener.

01:39:56So best to do just one in that there. That's all our focus. But, man, I can tell you this much right now. Appreciate you bringing us on here. Yeah, I think high energy here. I'll tell you what, I've been here last year. I don't know if you were here. I didn't see you, but I was. I can tell you this much next time. I'm going to every year I'm going to come back here and I'm going to say hi to you if you're here. And you brought a lot of great energy here next time. Thank you so much. Next time I get through Paducah, if I have to go to Metropolis or something, you know, it's not that far. It's right over the river. You what? You send us a message on Facebook or anything like that. It only goes to me and my wife here. So we'll we'll take care of you. We'll take care of you. We're big foodies. You'll take care of me. I don't accept free food. No, but you but I will come in and pay for it and I will enjoy it. How about this? Would you accept being a taste tester on some of our undisclosed items? See? Potentially. OK, potentially, you go. But I'm here to support you, not take from you. No, I appreciate it. But, you know, if you're going out of your way, hey, we don't mind going a little extra, too. We do that for you name it. We have a lot of newcomers that come in and they could probably tell you.

01:41:00We like to give away some free ice cream cones or anything else. Just for them to simply coming in and blessing us with their presence. Well, Sterling, it was nice to meet you over there. Thanks for joining us on the podcast. Hey, we appreciate and thank you. Seriously, thank you. You made his day. I guarantee you. Good. Well, that's what we're here for. We're here to make days. Go visit Archers in Hardin. And thank you for joining us today on Nashville Restaurant Radio. All right. Wow. So thank you so much for listening. We have one more interview left. And I feel like we've saved one of the best for last. We have Brett Mickle. And Brett is the general manager of Gordon Food Service. The whole operation that they have right there in Shepherdsville. And he's I guess you could say the company president for that area. And it was nice for him to join us, join us for about 10 minutes. But I have really enjoyed this episode is like when you're in the moment there. And as I kind of said in the intro, I had no idea what to expect. And after seeing Nick Florek from back of house and talking with Jennifer Hansen from The Restaurant and Bill LaBulette, coming back by Camden Dodson, that point with Camden Dodson, about 32 minutes into the episode where he started talking about mental health issues and people that care about you.

01:42:21I just thought that was a really special moment. I did not. I didn't expect that. I didn't know where that interview was going. But, man, it was really awesome. And then talking to Brian Baxter, stopping by Daryl Denning, Woods Murphy, who I haven't seen since. You know, gosh, it's probably been 20 years. So many amazing people. James Pope, Sterling, Doughty, Derek Doughty, those guys from Archers, I cannot wait. I really want to go check that place out. And then this kind of the ice cream on top was was Brett Mickle. And this was a fun interview. I mean, this is the guy that I work with through the sponsorship for the show. But also when I'm doing vendor negotiations, he seems to really understand what local and independent restaurants need. And I kind of want to talk to him about that and what makes that different. And I just want to say a big thank you to Gordon Food Service for everything that they do for me and supporting this podcast. I would not be able to do this podcast every day if it wasn't for these amazing sponsors.

01:43:24And Gordon Food Service has been an amazing partner with us. And I just wanted to officially say thank you for allowing me to come to the Gordon Food Service show, because these connections are real. They're real. And it's so nice to meet these people. And you know what? I'm just this little podcast over here. But when you sit down with people from Hardin and the woman who owned the restaurant, you know, they've never been on a podcast. They've heard of podcasts. And then we talk and it's amazing the overarching theme about how hard this industry is. That is every day it is a challenge and for new people in the industry and people who are there at that show just looking for ideas because it can be a grind. And I was really honored and humbled to be among all those people. And, you know, for Sterling in that last one there, for him to sit down and be on a podcast at his age, that was just it was a really special day. So thank you if you've made it all the way this way through. Thank you for listening. It means the world to me. And stay tuned. We've got some amazing episode.

01:44:25We've got Julio Hernandez from Maiz de la Vida coming up soon. And enjoy this last interview with Brett Mikkel, the GM at GFS. So we are back at the Gordon Food Service show. And this has been so much fun. And now we are joined. This is a big one. So I've wanted to have this guy on the show for a while. We got to do a full episode with you. You say that to all your guests, Brandon. I don't know if that's true. So you must be a listener. So you must be a listener if you know that that's because that's what I do. It's a thing. Brett Mikkel is the general manager of Gordon Food Service. Yes, sir. The whole operation in Shepherd'sville. Yeah, yeah. So responsible for our food business in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. So three or four states. It's been a joy. Moved to Louisville 20 years ago with my family and haven't looked back. It's been a great experience. Wow. Yeah. Well, thank you for all that you do. I know that through me working with Nara and my two restaurants, you guys have been an amazing support to everything that we do.

01:45:31And I just appreciate you understanding what local restaurants go through and leaning in to wanting to help local restaurants succeed. Brandon, thank you. So you didn't ask me this and you may not even know this, but part of, I think, my own personal kind of commitment to that started when I was 14 years old. My first job was in a local restaurant, 14 years old. Well, what restaurant was it? Up in South Bend, Indiana, Jim's. And the owner, of course, is Jim. And yeah, as I think I spoke to him today a couple of times. Yeah, he's here in spirit. But yeah, my sister was a babysitter for his family. And boy, when I turned 14, oh, you could get a work permit. And boy, I can't wait to make two dollars and eighty five cents an hour. I'm rich. I'm loaded. I'm the dishwasher. At 14, you are. Yeah. So that's back in 1984. And ever since, it's just kind of been, I'd say, part of my love. I love the food business. How long have you been with Gordon Food Service?

01:46:33Thirty two years. Wow. What did you start? What position did you start at at Gordon Food Service? Started out in sales and really much like today. We call it a sales associate, which basically means here's a laptop or here's a price list. Go knock on a bunch of doors. So it's just new account calling one on one. Started off in South Bend, Indiana, home of the Notre Dame, fighting Irish. Yes, I've heard this. We're unaware of that. I would remind you. Touchdown Jesus. Touchdown Jesus. I was there last weekend. Really? Oh, did you go to Notre Dame? No. Probably what? Not smart enough, for sure. But love the university. Grew up around it. Went to a handful of basketball or football games. And to this day, for I believe it's 15 consecutive years, I've taken my two boys and my dad. So my two boys now, they're 26 and 21. My dad's 80. And so it's also three generations going to the Notre Dame game.

01:47:34It's a it's a fall tradition for us. That is fantastic. I love those type of things. And I have two boys and I every year I take them on individual baseball trips. Sure. So every year we went to Cincinnati and Atlanta this year. But I take one boy and we go on a trip so that it's not both of us. But I want it. We'll get to a we're all going to go. Is it MLB MLB? Yeah, yeah, we'll do the Braves and the Reds. We saw the Reds play the Padres and the Braves play the Angels. I'm from Southern California originally. So I'm an Angels fan. Sure. So it's fun to see. What a good way to spend time with your boys. Oh, well, the road trip in itself, the road in the car. Exactly. They're not fighting there. It's one on one. We get to stay in a cool hotel and do the whole thing. And yeah, yeah, you had me at the road trip. Yeah, it's six hours from Louisville to South Bend and picked up my my dad and my two boys in Indianapolis on the way. And 20 hours later, I'm home in bed at two in the morning. Great, great day. What does it take to put something like this on? How long have you guys been preparing for this?

01:48:35How many employees do you have here? This is massive. It is. So it's it's a joy. It's it's basically an all year planning experience. And that's true. I mean, the week this is over, we're probably already thinking about last year. So, for example, right now, I'm thinking about, boy, we've got to do something better about parking. Like good news, we've had 3500 people here. Bad news, we ran out of parking. Well, there's also the well, this is a tough week because you have the louder than life event happening. So there's a huge stage that's taking up 90 percent of the parking. Last year, parking was no problem. You're right. I yesterday we noticed this. I'm sure someone other than me probably was aware of this, but I personally wasn't aware of it until yesterday. I pulled in. There's a massive music stage. Yeah, two of them. There's about 500 parking spaces underneath that stage. And I'm like, could we not move that stage? Could we not accommodate some some folks from out of town that need to park? Yeah, it's a it's a thing. Now, luckily, I got here at like, you know, eight o'clock in the morning.

01:49:38So I got parking for me. It was great. Oh, you got 3500 people in here. And all of a sudden, it's so there's there's 100 sales employees, probably another 20 marketing employees that are putting most of this on. So from a Gordon Food Service employee perspective, I'd say about 120 people helping. Now, the vendors is really they're unsung. I mean, they're they're setting up their own area, their own displays. There's 500 vendors maybe, you know, making their own little special place. Yeah. And behind us, we, of course, have some others. Here's a here's a 50 foot truck behind us with five of our drivers or GFS transport. Those are my boys over there. I love them. I'm next to them so far every year. And they're they're they're keeping me hyped up over here. What's funny is if you work in the restaurant business and from a food distributor's perspective, that position touches our customer more than any other position in the company. So we call them sales servicemen.

01:50:40We don't we don't call them drivers because what they're doing is they're servicing the sale. Right. Well, they're more customer facing than anybody there. They know the ins and outs of what's going on in that kitchen. Two or three days a week, two or three days a week. They're pulling up to that back door and trying to accommodate a chef or someone having a difficult time in a kitchen. And that can go well or that can not go well. So it's in a critical role for us, for sure, is have a great driver. OK, so if I'm rallying the troops, I've got 100 salespeople. I've got all the marketing. I've got these people before the event. I'm the GM here. Yeah. What do I want the customers that are coming in? What do I want them to take away from the show? What do I want people to leave here? If I'm a customer, what I want every salesperson to know, hey, every guest, every customer that comes in here, I want them leaving knowing what. So a couple of things. First of all, we are in the hospitality business, period. And so we need to be hospitable. By definition, they need to have a great time. So you asked a question about what do they need to know?

01:51:42I would answer it with how do they need to feel? So we we want them to feel like we care. We want them to feel like we're available to change a delivery day or or able to maybe bring in a different product that we haven't had in the past. So we want them to feel like we care. Special. Yeah. You you run a unique business, Mr. customer, every every customer is 3500 here today. It's unique. There's not one that's the same. Right. And so we want them to feel like they are really the only customer. We want them to feel special. I think a lot of people have achieved that. The feedback that I'm getting is I didn't know they had all this stuff. They have so much more than I knew about. And I think that's really opening the eyes of a lot of these operators as to just the amount people have. Not everybody can come to this. I've been to your facility a couple of times. Yeah. I've seen. Yeah. It's absolutely amazing. I've spent a lot of time with you guys.

01:52:42And I don't think people understand how many ways you guys partner with a restaurant. We sure try. We sure try. Yeah. And so that could be a new product that helps save time or labor. The technology cafe over here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have to find ways in the restaurant world to marry new technology with care and compassion and and and hospitality. So technology can equal. I don't care about my customer because now they're all online. Right. Like like a kiosk at McDonald's, for example. But it's taking somebody's job. Yeah. Yeah. And that only works if you find a way to marry the technology with a human that cares about the restaurant and the menu and the customer and so forth. So that that's exactly what that technology hub is all about. It's it's we can't bury our head in the sand and say technology doesn't matter in the restaurant world. Yes, it does. And a big way in a big way. Big way. However, technology can't bury its head in the ground and say people don't matter in the restaurant world either.

01:53:46Right. Because they matter in an even bigger way. Oh, you better believe it. Yep. Yep. Do you care about me when I come in on a Friday night with my wife for anniversary? Congratulations, by the way. I don't know if that's been mentioned yet. It has been. It has been. Yes. Twenty year anniversary. Yes. Congratulations, Brandon. Thank you so much. It's a it's a for the greatest accomplishment I think I've ever achieved. Yeah. Is she on the is she on the mend? How does she feel? She was sick earlier this week. She had COVID. She is on the mend. She's much better. Today is like day five of it. So I think she's like turn in that corner, but still not good enough to go to a food show. Oh, tell her, tell her we're thinking about it. We're having a terrible time. We're having just a really awful time here. OK, yeah, she hasn't missed a thing. I told her I said last night the Louisville Slugger Museum was horrible. I didn't get to hold Babe Ruth's bat. It wasn't a thing. I mean, that what a great showing. Whose idea was it to do it there? So Carol Pence, we have an event coordinator named Carol Pence. And we've certainly had different events at different venues.

01:54:48That was unexpected. So living in Louisville, we did not expect for that to be such a winner. Maybe because we drive by it every day. Yeah. And folks, particularly from out of state. Can I take a picture with Babe Ruth's bat? I want to see, you know, a bat from the eighteen hundreds that was used. You know, it well, they had Babe Ruth's notched bat, right? So they had a bat that he used the year at 60. They think it's 60 home runs. The first 21 home runs he hit that year. They had the bat that he used. And every time he hit a home run, he put a notch in the bat. And eventually the bat broke after 21 home runs. And he sent it back to him with a letter that said, hey, you got to be kidding. I'm doing great with this bat. Send me some more. And they had that bat there. I've never heard. I should know that story. I've not heard that. You've got to be kidding. It was really cool. I was like, very cool. Actually, Babe Ruth's bat that he hit the first 21 home runs with.

01:55:50Well, I hope that slugger said, yes, sir. Please keep making notches in those bats. They did. Here's a new bat. Good. They sold replicas of the notched bat there, too. It's really neat. I got my kids a T-shirt. It was the whole thing. All right. All right. OK, back to Gordon, food service stuff. What is on anything fun on the horizon for GFS? What are we doing around here? Yeah. Well, products, a couple of things come to mind. It's amazing how lots of folks in our country, they fly. They've flown and vacationed and traveled all around the world. And with that comes expectations on menus and expectations on new cuisine. And so we're trying to bring some ethnic flavors and some really worldwide flavors to the average restaurant. So an example of that here today is Grand Saison. That's that's our own brand. Well, it's pupusas from El Salvador and it's baria, which is a hot, a hot flavor.

01:56:55Very is very hot. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, if you're in Clarksville, Tennessee, if you're in Paducah, Kentucky, guess what? Maybe you haven't flown all around the world or maybe you have. And and so we're trying to listen to what's happening out there in kind of the world cuisine and these ethnic flavors. We're trying to bring pretty mainstream to our average restaurant in Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee. And it seems to be seems to be desire. There seems to be demand for for those kind of worldwide flavors. We're trying to bring that to the customers. I love that. Well, that's a it's very smart. I've seen a lot of people. You know, I live in a pretty urban area. Everybody. Are you yourself in Nashville? I mean, I live in Franklin, Tennessee. Oh, yeah. But in Nashville, where I'm talking to all these people, they're they're seeing that the trends are here. Yeah, we're seeing this stuff. But if you're in Hardin, Kentucky, or you're on the other side of the river on the other side of Paducah or Evansville or so many southern Illinois people, there's just all these different people that might not see that.

01:58:01Yeah. Offer that on their menu really puts them in an innovative. It's really innovation for them. Innovations actually may be easier today than it might have been years and years ago. Of course. Of course. You can any television channel probably has a cooking show. And of course, there's all kinds of apps on food and so forth. So we're definitely trying to listen to what's happened out there and make that available at a at a price point. That's like our private label point, not not imported from Italy or not imported from Korea in that you're stocking. Yeah. And then we stock every day. Right. And so that's attractive if you're in every day America. That's pretty attractive right now. And I guess, you know, this this show, I mean, where I love the fact that your facility in Shepherdsville, which is huge. Yeah. Where how many cities are you servicing out of that one facility? So that is a bit unique. Good question. We're servicing four states out of our distribution center in Shepherdsville. Really, really four and a half. It'd be Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, across Illinois into Missouri.

01:59:03So call that four or five states. St. Louis. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. St. Louis. It's St. Louis, Memphis, Nashville, Lexington, Louisville, Evansville. So it's maybe seven medium sized markets. So Memphis, St. Louis and Nashville would be the biggest markets we serve. Sure. Lexington and Louisville would be. Slightly smaller. Most of our competitors would have distribution centers in every one of those towns. I just mentioned Gordon's 30 years ago said, hey, we want to do it differently. We want to build great, big distribution centers, go all in on automation and and help help reduce cost. So we'd rather have one mortgage payment, not five. We'd rather have one utility bill, not five. So we'd rather have one large automated center versus five or six not automated centers. Which allows you to keep your costs down. Yeah. And profitability up. Yeah. So I've asked.

02:00:04Yeah. So I'm one general manager. Our competitors probably have five. So I've gone to the Gordon family. I've said, hey, I'm worth five times the salary you're paying me. Would you pay me five times? Would you pay me five? How did that go? They got two or three. Yeah. They gave me a 2% raise for the next year and said, hey, have a nice day. Yeah. No, I'm thrilled. You give yourself a raise. You'll get it. Yeah. The Gordon family. They've been great to work for five generations. I admire what they've done. Five generations of family owned business. Pretty impressive. You're the guy to ask this question. The major three competitors we have in the market are Cisco, GFS, I'm sorry, Cisco, PFG and U.S. Food. Correct. All public company. Yeah. We're the only private one. So what is the advantage of being a family owned company versus being a public company? Sure. I think it's a little different for an employee compared to a customer who might answer that question for an employee, for me and for our employees. I believe that they would say we care.

02:01:06I believe they would say that the Gordon family have values and they are real people. For example, Kara Gordon, the president of our company, has been to our building twice this year. She's had some focus group with focus group settings with our own frontline hourly employees. And she she matters. She's the ultimate decision maker right now. And she's listening to our employees. I think they would say that's the difference. They they care from an employee's perspective. From a customer's perspective, I think we as a family owned business, we can have a slightly longer view of success. We are not really interested in necessarily a quarterly earnings statement for the stock price for the price of a score. Is the driving force behind what you're doing? That's not the language we use. We're not we're not paying attention to that on a weekly, monthly, quarterly basis. We can afford to say, hey, we're going to invest large amounts of capital.

02:02:08We're going to invest into future technology or future equipment. And we know it's not going to pay off. It might be a year, two years, five years. If you're private, you can make these longer term investments. Well, it's a great answer. Yeah, well, I mean, if you just if you look at it, I mean, that's just one of those things. I love that because you guys, it feels to me like. You care when it comes down to helping the customer, and you don't have to go through channels and shareholders and, well, it's not part of our policy. It's like we can go, we can be a little more nimble and we can ask the question and we can probably do things that other companies can't because I can look at it one one by one individual basis and say that does maybe not be what we're going to do, but it makes sense for you. And I understand why you want to do that. And we're going to make that decision and do it. That's sure the way I see it. Yeah, sure. The way I see it. Yeah, sure. The way I see it. I hope our sales team views it that way. I hope our transportation views it that way, that we can literally empower them to make meaningful decisions right there in front of the customer, right in Nashville, Tennessee or right in St.

02:03:10Louis, Missouri. And they really don't have a whole lot of like layers to go through to make decisions. So. I love that. Well. Well, we're getting a thumbs up. We're getting a thumbs up from is it part the oh, very nice. Sergio from Caso Times. OK. Manchester, Tennessee. OK. Oh, this is awesome. Sergio, you want to come talk on the show? I think he's next. You're next. You know, the radio. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sergio, you stand in line here, buddy. So, Brett, we've got you here right now. We're going to give you the Gordon Food Service final thought. We have a Gordon. We have the Gordon Food Service final. We do this on every show. Do you OK? By the way, you guys are my fantastic presenting sponsor for the podcast. If you didn't know that, we appreciate you very, very much. And so every guest that comes on gets to have the Gordon Food Service final thought.

02:04:11You get to say whatever you want to take us off the episode, to take us out of it. They get to kind of I called it Jerry's final thought. The Jerry's final thought. So whatever you want to say, you're speaking to all the restaurant owners in Nashville. This is good. You get to take us out, whatever you want to say. OK, well, here you go. So I don't know if this is deep or shallow. I don't know. I would say here's what's on my mind. This has been a difficult couple of weeks in our country. Maybe maybe several months. And food is good. Food brings us together. Keep it up in a in a world which I just think is fractured and broken. And there's political mean spirited debate where you're on this side or you're on that side. You know what? Food brings us together. And I would just say, let's really just continue to stand up, whether you're a food distributor, a restaurant or some kind of provider. We can really bring people together in a meaningful way around a table where we care about one another, we get to know one another.

02:05:13And we can be the, I would say, antidote for some of this, you know, polarizing, in some cases, even like mean spirited debate going on in our world. How about how about we all just go and have some pizza together? How about we have spaghetti and meatballs? How about we enjoy each other's company around some great food in a restaurant near you? How does that sound? I think that sounds I just it's almost like you're watching my reels on Instagram. I just posted Will Gadara, who wrote on reasonable hospitality, was on the show and he said this is three years ago. He said this, but he said, we have a responsibility to create hospitality. And it's so unique what we can do when people walk in the door. We can create a magical little world inside of our restaurant that is completely different than anybody else does. And we can do our own brand of it. And I believe right now we have more of a responsibility than ever as people who create experiences and create hospitality to show that.

02:06:17Because right now, if there's one thing that people need, it's a little bit of an escape. It's a little bit of a reprieve from every news channel. Everything you're seeing is just this polarizing, divisive conversation, no matter what you're watching. I don't want any part of that. I am turning my back on that. I don't want any part of the walk into your restaurant. Or if you're a sales rep for GFS, when you walk into that kitchen, the things that you can create just from providing, by listening, by listening to what people want and giving it to them and providing genuine hospitality is something that's so special. And we forget it, but that's what we do. That's why we're here. That's what we're here to do. I don't think any other industry can do what you just said. Any other industry. Agreed. And it's our responsibility right now, I think, to recognize that and to lean into it. And so it's almost like you're channeling exactly what's going through my brain. That's all right. That's awesome. Well, it's great being on your show. Brett Neckel. Thank you so much for coming to Louisville on your anniversary. Wow. Wow. Your bride is mending back home.

02:07:20So thank you so much. Now you say it like that, I feel like. Everyone's like, yeah, what's he doing there? What is this? Maybe you should be home. Maybe I should be home. Now, I will tell you, I was at FS Tech in Florida this past weekend and I left a day or I flew home to take care of her. I changed my flight, flew home, totally take care of her. And then she got a little bit better. And I said, hey, it's the Louisville Slugger Museum. I need to go. It's big time. I got to go. All right. You redeemed yourself. All right. Brett Neckel, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Brandon. This was great. Yep.