Margot McCormack and Hadley Long

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02:13Their phone number is 615-751-2340. That is the Chandler James Retail Team. Give them a call today. Welcome 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 we are powered by Gordon Food Service. I'm gonna be your host today and today is a fun, fun episode. We're talking with Margaux McCormick and her executive chef Hadley Long. Now we started this interview back last week in the Tennessee Flavors episode and today is finally the continuation.

03:14Sorry, we're a day late getting this out here but you know what, it was a busy weekend and I just didn't get it done in time. So here we go. I do wanna say I had dinner at Margaux for my birthday. My wife took me out to Margaux on our birthday and it was amazing. Such an amazing community vibe in that restaurant and I wanna give a shout out to our server. His name was Greg and the guy was amazing. And if you're listening to this right now and you've had Greg before, you're like, oh yeah, he's fantastic. The guy just did an amazing, amazing job and he was very sweet and very knowledgeable about the menu and everything was absolutely delicious. Highly recommend you go check out Margaux for all of the reasons you're about to hear in this interview. The second part of this interview, the first part is what we did on Tennessee Flavors and then the rest of the interview really just goes into the care and everything that is Margaux Cafe and Bar because it is just an amazing place and it's one of the OGs in our city.

04:15This is one of the things that made East Nashville what it is, made five points what it is. It's pretty damn special. So I'm super excited to share this with you. Do wanna tell you we've got an episode coming up Friday with Kelly Probst and he is the director of seafood purchasing over at What Chefs Want and this is a fun episode. You do not wanna miss. Alaskan halibut season starts on Friday and then we've got, we're going into St. Patrick's Day. Lots of fun stuff happening this coming week. Weather's beautiful outside and spring is happening. So this is just the best time of year. I absolutely love it. Thank you again for all of the wonderful birthday wishes and I don't have much more to say today. This is gonna be a quick intro and let's jump in right now with Margaux and Hadley. We are super excited today to welcome back to Nashville Restaurant Radio Margaux McCormick and I'd like to welcome Chef Hadley Long who is the executive chef at Margaux Cafe and Bar to Nashville Restaurant Radio.

05:26Welcome back, Chef. Thanks for having us. And welcome, Chef. We're very excited to be here. So today's gonna be a fun episode. So if you're listening to this, you are right now listening to our special Tennessee Flavors episode and we're gonna talk about Tennessee Flavors because I'm so excited about this event but we're gonna continue the conversation past this. You can find this interview in a couple of weeks. Look for it on Nashville Restaurant Radio. Tennessee Flavors, March 5th. You guys are gonna be there. How many years have you been doing this, Chef? Golly, you know, I was just sitting here thinking you were gonna ask me that and I have no idea. I feel like I've been doing it forever since they started it. I think they've done 12 or 15 years. Okay, all of those. All of those. Every single one of them. How important is it to you to support the Randy Rayburn Culinary Arts School at Nashville State? You know, Randy and I go way back. He was all over Nashville when I was coming up at Faison's. He was at, obviously, F. Scott's, which is where I was for a short time, not with him, and then Sunset and always had high regard for him.

06:41He was a big guy in Nashville. Still is. Yeah. So, you know, anything that Randy reaches out for and says, hey, can you help me? Can you do this for me? I'm like, absolutely, I'm there. Because I know it's gonna be a good cause. I know it's gonna be worth my while. And that he wouldn't ask if he didn't need it. Yeah, and Chef Hadley, how long have you been, I think I saw the post not too incredibly long ago that our new executive chef, Hadley Long, how long have you been the executive chef over at Margot? I've been the executive chef for two years. Well, maybe it's been a lot longer than that since I saw the announcement. Yeah, it's been a good thing. I think it was June. June 20, what year is it? I always think, what year is it now? I don't know. 2022. Well, the last three years was the longest decade of my life. So I'm trying to put it all together. It's been a whirlwind. So did you do this last year with him? We have been, you know, I don't think I was physically there in body, but I definitely was there, I'm sure, in helping them get all the things ready for it.

07:47Margot probably went to do the event, and I think Lou went with you maybe last year. And, you know, we made all the things beforehand to make it happen. I'm trying to remember what- We don't have a deep roster, so sometimes- This is maybe most of the kitchen. This is it right here. Yeah, this is a quarter of the kitchen. So sometimes you have to go on your own, but you have the staff to help you get everything ready, and then they send you off and wish you well. If I'm gonna be attending the Tennessee Flavors this year, what should I be excited about to try when I walk by the Margot table? Oh, God, you know, I thought you were gonna ask that, and I don't think we've really gotten a grip on what we're making yet, but we usually like to focus on vegetables, because everyone else is so pork belly, chicken wing, barbecue happy, that we like to do something a little bit more refined. And a lot of people who come or who are vegetarian or would like some, they're very, very appreciative.

08:50So we've gotten a lot of positive feedback doing that. But this year we're sending our sous chef, Lou the Sous, and Caroline Shrope, they're going to head up the team this year. So we need to get with them and figure out what they're thinking about. So Lou the Sous will be there, and you're probably gonna be something vegetable centric, potentially a vegetarian dish. So if you're a vegetarian showing up to this thing, now you know there's gonna be high quality vegetarian option from Margot. That's what I need to know right there. That is the thing that I wanna know what's coming on. You don't have to tell us exactly what it is. Little teaser. It's a surprise. It's a surprise. I like it. Now tell me, I did an interview not too long ago with Hal Holdenbache and White Squirrel Farms. He loves White Squirrel Farms. And we had, I can't think of the guy's name from White Squirrel Farms.

09:53Do you know who I'm talking about? Very interesting dude. Loved this conversation because he grows his vegetables and he puts chakra rocks around the vegetables and he grows happy vegetables. Mystic vegetables. And then his vegetables come into, he wants to sell them to a good environment. And so he actually measures the vegetables, how happy they are. And then they come into Chef Hal's kitchen and they're treated well. And that's why his vegetables taste better. I kid you not go back and listen to this episode. It is fantastic. That's definitely worth a listen. Hadley's right in there. Yeah. New age vibe. Let's get spiritual about it. So that sounds wonderful. Do you guys do anything like that with your vegetables? Are you serving happy vegetables that have been like petted and? We definitely like to think that we serve happy vegetables for sure. We have lots of farmer friends of all different types and we'd feature lots of female chefs. We like to, or female farmers, pardon me. We have two main farms at the moment that we support.

10:55We have Sam at Farm and Fiddle. And we also have Brittany from Blue Heron Farm. And in the past, we've also always worked with Tana from Eaton's Creek Organics. So those are our three main. But Tana's unfortunately now retired. So we have the next gen of wonderful female farmers and other farmers that we support, which is one of our, I think, main focuses and one of the many things that we love the most about what we do on a day-to-day basis. So I think that if you ask the question vegetable centric, you just said you like to cook that. What is your favorite thing to cook? And I'll ask both of you this question. You can think about it. I'm gonna ask Chef Marko first. Oh God. If I would say your favorite, the thing that makes you feel happy and like this, I love cooking this and I love sharing it with people because this is like, if you think ratatouille, when he makes that ratatouille and he puts it out there and then he just ego, Anton ego eats it and he's like, oh, that's it.

11:58Just brings him back to his childhood. Is there a dish like that for you? Golly, I like to cook so many different things. I really like to cook a beautiful piece of fish. I love to make pasta. I love a good salad. But I think this just in your describing the ratatouille dish and I don't wanna make any mistake in thinking that we're bringing brunch back, but I always got a lot of satisfaction and kudos for the way that I cook eggs. People were like, oh my God, your eggs are fantastic. Be it a poached egg or scrambled egg or an omelet. They were just like, so I think my eggs are top notch. Is there something special that you do to the eggs that makes them top notch? Is it the eggs you're buying or? Well, I think the Kentucky proud eggs sure have something to do with it, but I'm really not that, you know, we call ourselves a French inspired restaurant and then I start thinking about all the things that we do that are totally against the French way and the egg cookery is one of them.

13:06I like to start off with brown butter, which in culinary school and perhaps in France, if you brown your egg, you fail. That's a fail. So they want an egg with no color at all. I mean, yellow, but no brown. Sure. So it's a very slow process. You know, it's a very tedious process. When you're making 200 and some odd brunches, you don't have that kind of time, but also I think the brown butter brings a certain flavor to the eggs. And so that's, and also at the look, I don't think Americans really like yellow runny looking eggs. You don't think they do? No, I think rarely you get a person that says soft scramble, but it's more, hey, my egg isn't done enough or that kind of thing. And I know my wife wants a done egg. She does not want any drippy yolk anywhere. I can see that.

14:09I mean, I can see how that could be a thing, just the way that we're raised in this country and the way that we eat eggs. It is a full hard scramble. Sometimes you took some cheese on top of it, but if it's under a little bit, it's like, oh, this isn't done. I think those are the most delicious eggs in my opinion too. What about you, Chef Hadley? What is your comfort dish you love to cook? If you're- Love to cook. That's always the question I think that we're often always asked and you always think, oh, I'm surely gonna have a great answer for this. I like cooking vegetables. We were just talking about vegetables and I felt like I draw my main inspiration from vegetables. Obviously seasonality comes into play. So whatever time of year that we find ourselves in, I think is just a pinpoint for maybe the inspiration behind our point of view. We love just lots of delicious salads. We love making wonderful sauces that make things that are crisp, light and easy, feel luxurious and super flavorful and bold with herbs and things like that.

15:18We do lots of fun in-dive things. We like to play with that particularly this time of year. It always kind of reminds me of the winter wedge salad with crispy lettuces, but thick, delicious blue cheese. Curly in-dive or Belgian in-dive? We like both. We had some curly last week, but we do the Belgian in-dive probably the most because I think it has a very dramatic look and we're into the drama and making things look pretty. And yeah, we just love that. We do lots of beats at work, which we love, eating, serving and also eating ourselves. So yeah, I think for me, I always start with the vegetable and then I like to think adding the protein on maybe towards the end of it, if it's a protein-centric dish. I think most people maybe go around with the protein first as the inspiration, but I do think- And then they find everything around that. I feel like I'm maybe opposite of that. Yeah, we tend to start with the season and say what's in season now because chicken doesn't have a season really.

16:24You know, steak, you know, your proteins are pretty much the same. So it's an opportunity to say, oh, what are these beautiful vegetables that we have to use first? And then we'll figure out like, what goes better with this? I love that. So, and this is a, you know, this time of year, obviously in February is a really difficult time if you love to cook vegetables, especially local vegetables, but man, do you get excited because the end of March is coming and you start getting ramps and fiddlehead ferns and all this stuff starts- I have to hold him back. I have to hold him back and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, it's too early to get that. The spring peas are like calling my name. I can't wait for that. And come fall, I'm like, nope, nope, you gotta wait until October to get the Brussels sprouts. And you gotta make sure this is ripe. And, but, you know, as soon as we get into a food, then we're like, okay, we've had enough of this. Let's move on. Cause sometimes we can kill ourselves with corn or tomatoes or all the other favorites. I wanna take this interview in a different direction. I wanna talk about, I guess with like a writer's room, you know, if you're a musician, you guys have writing sessions when you're writing a menu, how that process works, but we're gonna say goodbye right now to all of the people listening for the Tennessee Flavors episode, right?

17:42So we're gonna say goodbye. Thank you for listening to the Tennessee Flavors episode. Come back in a couple of weeks when the full interview with Chef Margot and Chef Hadley is put out. We're gonna continue on to the next question about how we create all of this stuff. And we're just gonna chit chat about life and all of the things. And you not long ago went to Julia Child's house, I believe. You stayed in her house. Yes. I wanna know all the stuff around that cause that was so fascinating. I mean, watching you on social media, I'm like, that is the coolest thing. So we'll get into all that in the next interview and we're gonna jump in with that right after this word from our sponsors. We'll see you later. Y'all today we are talking as always about SuperSource. And you know, one cool thing about SuperSource 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.

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21:12When you're, do you say we're gonna do a spring menu or we're gonna do a menu for this week? Do you do seasonal menus for a day, for a week, for a month? How is that process laid out and what you guys do? We have a framework. So French inspired, seasonal, local, southern, procured. So it needs to fit that framework in order to work. French inspired, seasonal, local, southern sourced. Okay, so local can be regional. What do you consider the 250 miles in Nashville, something like that? We don't have a- Not a definition. Designation. Just not from Wyoming. Sure. Okay. And then it's really everything. It's taking inventory of what you have the night before. The menu is different every day. Every day. Every day. And then there's, Hadley will get on the phone with the purveyors, the fish and the meat and the farmers.

22:15And then we may have some ideas in our minds and then we'll come in the next day expecting rain or the opposite. And you just, you're like, oh, no, no, no. It's gonna rain today. We can't serve that. We have to change this. Give me an example. Like what do you, like if it's a rainy day, you don't want to serve what? Something, well, I mean, depending upon the time of year, if it's rainy, we feel like something a little bit more comforting would maybe be the better idea instead of maybe some sort of tartar or something that's served cold or raw. If it was gonna be tuna and it was gonna be tartar, but it's raining, maybe we change it to tuna confit or so we cook the fish or sear the fish. So it's just kind of taking everything into consideration to consider the guests' enjoyment. And also, we want to enjoy what we're cooking too. And I think that's an important part of the process as well.

23:19Otherwise, I think you get lost in the sauce a little bit. Yeah, and a lot of times we'll just say, hey, I want to make my mom squash today or ooh, I had this the other day at a restaurant and I want to try that out. I want to try my spin on that or somebody sees something in a magazine or online that they want to try out. I'm like, okay. Yeah, and it all comes together. Every time I talk to you, it makes my heart happy. Now, let me explain that because I talk to a lot of people who operate a business and this is a business that we do, but you operate your business in such a compassionate way that every single day you're thinking about the guest and how to just show love. And that's what you, you don't change menus every day based around the weather because that's too hard to do, but you're doing that every day because you care about every individual guest that when they walk into Marko, they're going to get, it's your love, is showing love.

24:29This is what you're going to enjoy, what you need today in our building. And I don't ever hear anybody do that. Well, I mean- Do you know other people that do that? No. And you're the only restaurant I know that will actually change their menu because it's raining and I want to comfort people who come in when it's raining with a food and a dish that matches the weather outside. Like, that's amazing to me. I think it's important to keep ourselves, yes, keeping the guests in mind at most, but also like we are here, it takes a lot to do what we do every single day in the industry, but personally for us. And I think it is important to, you know, to strive towards, you know, the guest fulfillment, but also personal fulfillment. And I think that's something we connect on extremely well. And- Yeah, like a lot of times it's just like, what do I want for dinner?

25:29Or would I want a hot soup tonight? Would I want grits or- Rice or whatever the- Mandarin orange salad. You know what I want, hot water cornbread or grits? Well, today's gonna be rainy. I think grits, creamy, mmm, cheesy. Hot water cornbread's good for a hot summer day or a hot spring day. Do I want a creamy sauce with my steak tonight or a butter or a vinaigrette? Well, I don't think I want a vinaigrette because it's raining. And that's just- And that's bright, Nicky. Maybe it's just my preconceived notion, but that's how I eat. Like, mmm, it's raining. I'm gonna have tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Duh. It's a thing. You know, mashed potatoes. Hadley made high-brow, low-brow pork meatballs last night that was really like- I baked, I made essentially a meatball, a big meatball in the version of a meatloaf. So just tried to take comforting, simple dishes, classics, if you want, and try to reimagine them in different ways.

26:34And people were very pumped. And, you know, it's also just fun to, you know, to jazz it up and also jazz it down, for lack of a term, you know what I mean? Hadley's very good at putting a spin on the classics. And I love what he does with that. Which is a talent in itself. It is. Because introducing people to brand new food all the time is exhausting because they don't understand it. But if you say, this is a margarita, but it's, if you like a margarita, you're probably gonna like this tequila-smoked margarita that has this like, so you're doing the dishes. Like this is a meatloaf. But I did a variation of meatloaf that's my own spin that is local, French-inspired, Southern-sourced, all of the things that are who you are. And then you kind of do that and then people go, oh, I know meatloaf. So I trust them, I'm gonna give this a shot. And then before you know it, they've tried something outside of their comfort zone and they love it.

27:34And that's a special moment for them. Totally. Well, I think also being around for so long, we have earned the guest trust. And I think that's very important if you're thinking about changing your menu all the time because it could be a disaster. There could be not so good outcomes. You have to perfect this. This is not an easy thing. And yeah, we don't close down for three months and go into our lab and work on our recipes and go off into the wilderness and zen out or whatever. We do this all on our feet. So you have to know some basics. You have to know how to make a vinaigrette. You have to know how to make aioli and a groubiche and I could go on forever, but you have to have that framework, that foundation, so that you can do this. And also, some people are like, French? You're not French. And I'm like, well, you have to really know French food to get it. A meatloaf is essentially pâté. But you have to understand how that comes about to go, oh, duh.

28:37Chicken liver mousse or fried chicken livers, they all have their connection. You also plan. Okay, let's get 20 pounds of codfish instead of 15 so that we have some leftover so that we make a brondade tomorrow or we make a brondade hush puppy or something like that. So our leftovers are not the kitchen sink. They're purposeful. It's very intentional with almost every single thing you do. And I'm gonna go back to our first interview. You were the very, it was St. Patrick's Day, 2020, 2020, March 17th, 2020. March 14th was my first episode. I started talking in a microphone and then I had messaged you and I said, hey, I'd love to talk. And you're like, what are you doing? And you said, if you want to come to Margot, we can talk. And we went upstairs and I had just this Amazon USB microphone set in the middle of the table.

29:40The sound quality is terrible if you go back and listen way back then. But you said something that changed my life. I don't know if you know this. I told you last time you were in. I said, what are you gonna do if they close you down? And you said, I don't know. You said, I'm really afraid for my staff. And there was a love that you had for the people. And this is a family. I don't know, I can't let my family go. This isn't a thing. And you said, this is the way a lot of people show their love is that we create food and we give it to people and that's how we show love and the way that they enjoy it is how I receive love. And you go, I don't know what I'm gonna do when I can't do that. That's what I do. And it changed me thinking about it that way because it made sense. Because if you love hospitality and that is your love language, these acts of service and you wanna just give love and by giving love is how you receive love, it makes complete, there's a side of you go, is that really true?

30:46Is that really like a true statement? Are you saying that? I knew in the moment it was 100% true. But hearing this, hearing that, no, we change it based around the weather because that's exactly what you're doing. I wanna show you love when you come in here. I want you to feel that. And by you enjoying it is how you receive it. This is still the case? This is what's going on here? Well, I have to say that since we spoke, maybe a little after, we weathered the COVID storm and we got back on our feet and we really rocked it out for another year and I don't know. And we survived. And it was very important for me that we survive. And afterwards, somewhere along the way, I decided that Hadley deserved a promotion and that I also deserved to not work anymore. How's that working out for you?

31:47Well, the first year I was still pretty clingy and Hadley was like, go away, stop nitpicking me. But he had it all, he had it all together, but I was sort of the net. I wanted to make sure that he was okay and I'm kind of mother hen-ish anyway. But in the last year, I have been pretty much hands off as far as in the kitchen. I haven't cooked since I don't know when. I have every faith and trust and respect for what Hadley does and the way he is managing the kitchen and the people that we have on our team are amazing. Destin Wisher, our front of the house manager, has the team under control there. So I don't have a lot to do. It feels weird. It definitely feels weird. And sometimes I feel guilty about it, like, oh my God, they're there and they're working so hard and I'm sitting at home watching a movie.

32:50But I continue the business to continue to employ people. I could potentially just be done, but part of me doesn't wanna let go of the restaurant because it is such a big part of me even if I'm not cooking. And I know what it's like to, you know, Marche is gone, lost forever. And at first it was like a gut punch and then I got over it. But now there's a certain wistful, you know, sadness about it, especially when people talk about it. I'm like, oh no. But it's sort of like the new, the next gen for Margo right now. And Hadley's worked for me for so long that he's part of the fabric, part of the identity. So people weren't like, oh my God, who's that? And is this gonna taste good? And they don't freak out. They have every ounce of faith and, you know, respect for him as well. And he, I've pushed him out to meet the customers.

33:51He's got some real good fans out there. Because this is the next step for him is to become an executive chef or to own his own restaurant. And so I'm trying to give him this platform, like inviting him to come along today to talk and, you know, make his name. So I'll be quiet now. I'm excited you're here, no. I'll be quiet now and he can talk. All right, Hadley, it's up to you. Go, tell us. Well, tell us your story, man. Where did you, where are you originally from? I'm from here. You're a Nashvilleian. Yes. You're a unicorn-like. A unicorn, so sparkly. Yeah, we grew up in Nashville, technically a little bit south of Franklin in College Grove, Tennessee. Oh, yeah. But my parents are from Nashville and yeah, my, where I'm doing exactly what my mom probably wanted me not to do because she used to work in the industry for a long time. And, but no, now she's super happy and knows that it's exactly, you know, where I should be and to be creative and to work for someone so wonderful and who's given me such an awesome platform has just been such an awesome journey.

35:02And I mean, it's awesome. I mean, it's been 12 amazing years and we have done so many different things. I think we have done more things than we thought that we would ever do in a manner of ways in the kitchen and outside the kitchen. We have met some amazing people. I think that that's one of the best parts about being in this industry is, you know, the customers, of course, but the staff is just insane. It gives me chill bumps talking about just the people that we've met along the way. And some people have been there for a short time and some people have been there for a long time. I've been there 12 years, but Destin and Greg have been there longer than I have. Greg's been there 20 years. Destin's been there coming on 19, I believe. So, I mean, it's an amazing group to have found myself in. And I remember first meeting Margot a long time ago.

36:05I was in school and in Washington, D.C. I needed to graduate and you had to do an externship. So talking about, you know, I didn't go to school here in Nashville, but I went to a small French culinary school in Washington, D.C. And you had to, you know, fulfill an internship. And I wanted to come home to do that because this is the industry and where I wanted to start. And you did that at Margot. And I did that at Margot. And I started as the extern at Marche and kind of, you know, quickly started doing that and- A cherry picked him. I remember her coming up to me, maybe my second week or so of working. And she was like, well, I've heard good things about you. And I was like, oh, okay. And she's like, well, normally we don't hear good things about the brand new person. And I was like, well, thinking to myself, thank God. You know what I mean? And yeah, I stayed on after the six months or so that I had to do that.

37:09And it's been good ever since, you know what I mean? What were the traits? What were the traits as a new guy coming in to do an internship that you saw in him that made you think he could be somebody, he could be a star on my team? Well, it really started before I even knew him. He had gotten in touch with me via email about the externship. And he was very well-spoken, very articulate in his email and also very respectful. And if you just look at the guy and listen to the guy for two seconds, he just has this exuberance, this energy that I really like. We don't like people that are dead behind the eyes. We say that, we're like, dead behind the eyes, no. We want people that have some spark, some sparkle, something that they're gonna contribute. We want personality. I mean, we're big personalities, so it's hard to fit some more in there, but we're gonna try. Well, the more of those people that get together, I saw an ad that you guys put out, I don't know how long it was.

38:11It says, we are now accepting an application for one, it was like one position. We are now accepting your application for this position. And I was like, God, what an amazing culture. So many people, hiring people is so hard, but you put out, we're gonna replace one person and we're now accepting applications for this one job. And it's like, that's unheard of in a restaurant. When we get them, we don't let them go. We try to make it the best place that they can be. But going back to Hadley, he was very respectful. He worked neat and clean. He was enthusiastic. He wanted to know. You know, a lot of people you just say do this and they're like, okay. And they don't say, well, what am I doing? Or what is this for? Why am I doing it this way? He also had a good, great foundation. Like he had skills, which is important. But yeah, I just like the guy.

39:14Well, I think that's, so being likable is a big part of this thing. So if you're out there and you wanna do an externship, and we just had Brian Baxter in here from the catbird seat and he has people send him letters all the time because they wanna do these different things. Being well-spoken, being curious, being friendly, asking the right, I think that the most questions you can ask and make mistakes, it's okay to make mistakes and own them. I think personal accountability is the thing that if I see somebody who really owns their mistakes and they're trying, they're stepping outside their box to learn things and they make mistakes, and I go, that's on me, it won't happen again. That's, I'm like, you're on. It's very hard to find. Yeah, it's like, who lost this? Nobody says a word. Who broke this? Nobody says anything. Like I had a kid one time, I interviewed him, and he was 19, 18, 19 years old, and he was going to NYU law school, smart kid. But he came in, he goes, I wanna wait at tables, this is at Mayor Bowl. And I said, okay, you've never waited at tables, this is kind of a, you know, we've got a lot of wines, like this, we need, we're looking for our experience.

40:16He says, I will tell you this, I'm very smart, I'm very intuitive, and I'm going to make mistakes, but I'll never make the same mistake twice. I'll learn from my mistakes and I'll continue to grow, but I want this job, and I think I can do a really good job for you, and I was like, you're hired. Like I don't, you're gonna make mistakes, but you'll never make the same mistakes twice, you're gonna learn from your mistakes, and you're gonna raise your hand when you make the mistakes. I'm like, that's all I need. Like, you're gonna constantly keep getting better. Like, what a great interview thing. You made a comment, you said, your mom does not want you to do this. And maybe his tongue in cheek, I don't know, but I think if you ask, I have eight and 10 year old boys, if you ask my wife, do you want our children to be in the restaurant business? You know what she's gonna say? Not only no, but she's gonna say, hell no. I don't want our kids to do this. And I have my 10 year old comes with me, we have a new restaurant down the street, Chagos, and he'll come with, other kid goes to soccer practice, he'll come to work with me and he'll bus tables, and he is good, like he's 10, doesn't stand next to me, he goes and looks for tables, he's like, can't take, like he pre-buses and like, he's 10, it's just fun and guests love it when he does, but I think he likes it.

41:19And my wife is like, no, I don't like him doing that. Why do you think that is? It's a rough life. You know, I'm fortunate, well, I had one relationship crash and burn because we never saw each other. I'm fortunate that my relationship with my wife now, it's, I don't know, 28 some years, she worked in the restaurant with me. So she knows and continues to know, you know, what's going on. What to expect. But Hadley is newly engaged and he's gonna wanna spend some time with his wife. He's also an uncle to two young boys and may wanna start his own family. And I think it's just extra hard. Because of the time, the hours, like that it's just not Monday through Friday, nine to five. And I think, you know, and I think we're all kind of constantly searching for that work life balance. And I think that that's something that Margo, myself and Destin have put a lot of time into trying to figure out that for ourselves within our new frame.

42:27And I think that's something that we're trying to focus on, which is awesome. And just, you know, allowing people the moment to, you know, have our full life at the restaurant and also have an extremely full life outside of the restaurant. And I think that is something that also, you know, prolongs our experience and, you know, just gives us longevity and, you know, being happy at two places is, you know, is important instead of just being maybe happy at one place. So I think that's the thing that we've been really working on a lot lately, which is great. I also think it's really physically demanding. And if you're not in a good restaurant, you can also be mentally and psychologically bad. So we're on it on all fronts, trying to create, you know, the best atmosphere for our staff and how to take care of people. And we, it really, that really woke up to me after COVID. I was like, wait a minute. We gotta, even though we're doing all these things, we gotta do better.

43:30Which that's, I mean, that's an amazing thing to, I think a lot of people have tried to figure that out, but it's like a moving target. It's hard. I mean, I think that- And it baby steps. Your generation X, I assume, are you- Oh, I'm baby boomer. You're a boomer? Okay, boomer. So my kids call me and I'm like, no, no, no, I'm X. I'm a zennial. I'm not even, I'm not even there. I don't know where I was going with that question. My brain just fogged out on me. I just think that there's a different mentality today than there was back then of just hard work and what that means. I'm old enough to be almost everybody on my stack's mother. And sometimes in the beginning, he used to call me mom because his mom and I are similar age, but they're very different. Very, very different than I was. And so I have to learn and try to empathize and okay, I'm feeling young. It's just different.

44:32I feel like experiencing the new, I'm a millennial, and we're experiencing the new, what are they called? Gen Z. Yeah, like we're experiencing now a little bit more of a taste of that sect of people. And it's very interesting to see just how it all ebbs and flows and you see similar characters kind of now that I feel like I'm into my second generation at the restaurant. I see characters who are being introduced that feel like they're being reintroduced in a different kind of a way, which is exciting, but also scary. Yeah, there was a point where a good amount of my staff left to pursue other things. It was just their time to go. They'd been there a long time and they went. And we got a new bunch of people and they were all really young and I hated them. And I was like, oh my God. And it took me, took me a minute.

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48:45You know, I was from Southern California, moved here when I was nine. I've lived in Nashville for 36 years now. So man, good minute of time I've lived here. But it wasn't, they would take us to the beach in the morning and drop us off at like 10 a.m. and just pick us up at like five or six that night. Different world. And it was like nine, like a nine year old just dropping you off at the beach. Have a good time, we'll see you, we'll pick you up at like five. Like, okay, and you just be there for the whole day. But I'm also really good with change. Like things just happen and I go, hmm, okay. I can adjust the pandemic to me. I was kind of fine. I like being alone. I like being in my house. Like it was kind of great to a degree. I mean, besides all the other stuff. But I think today kids, everything is digital. Everything's online and the attention span is so short that if you don't have something to do all the time, like that level of comfort of a phone or that comfort of constantly needing distraction is probably the biggest thing that I deal with with new generations.

49:51Like, hey, just focus. Or when change does come out, hey guys, we're changing everything. Oh, there's a massive, like we're not okay with change. And I'm like, oh, change is good. That's what we do here, right? That's something I've noticed with the newer generations is that the attention span and change is like, we don't like it. We want it to be this way. Is you guys seeing any of that? I feel like I see a lot of being connected to the phone and a lot of being disconnected outwardly. Like if the phone is in, then the real people are out. I feel like that can be the hard, different, yeah. I think that that is an interesting subsect of our life now or the new generation, I guess. I'm also a phone call guy. I don't know about you. Just random. I can text. I'm fine at texting, but like I'm very, I talk a lot with my hands and I can be sarcastic at times and I can be funny.

50:52I have inflections. That's just the way that I am. Doesn't necessarily come over on text messages. Yeah, I had to learn how to text. I mean, it's a whole awesome, LOL, like I'm, this is sarcasm. I'm being, yesterday I texted one of my managers. She said, hey, I can't get a COA for this. And then I went, awesome. She was like, no, I said I can't. And I'm like, no, that was sarcasm. I'm like, awesome. Like, well, I guess we'll move it different. But I had to like write this back to the person. I'm a pick up the phone and go, hey, what's going on? Let's talk about it real quick. And that's just something with me. I'm a phone person because it just, you can hear what I'm saying. No need to read between the lines. My kids don't know how to use a phone. Like dad just texts me. Just call me. Just answer the phone. It's a thing. Do you want your son to work in a restaurant? I really don't. He wants to. He's been in the restaurant since he was a little baby. He used to sweep down at Marche and servers would give him money. And I'd be like, stop it. And then he would seat people with their menus and they would give him money too.

51:58And I was like, okay, this is just an unrealistic situation. It's not gonna happen for you later on. I do believe that everybody would benefit from working in the service industry for some period of time to see the way that people treat each other and to make sure that they don't end up being one of those entitled assholes that sometimes we are unfortunately have to deal with. So he probably will see some of the restaurant. I'm not sure how much. I mean, he's 13. Your kid would run circles around him. And I said, you can't start yet because they would lock you in dry storage and not let you out into the end of the night. He's just not there, I think. And I was talking to one of my employees yesterday and he was like, oh, 16. He'll be fine when he's 16. So there'll probably be a little something back waiting for a summer.

53:00We've employed a number of young men who have gone on and been really great. They're doing really cool things. And I like their young energy. I pretend, I'm like, oh, okay, I have a kid now. This is what it would be like for him to have a job. And I try to treat them the way that I would want somebody treating him. Sure. But very rewarding, very rewarding working with them. I love it. Okay, we're getting close on time now. It's 12, 15. If you're listening to this, this is what time it is here. We have a 15 minute cutoff. I really want to talk and have the, I could, we'll bring you back on another time, do a full interview with you because I have so many things I would like to talk to you about. You went to France and you stayed in Julia Child's house. What was that experience like for you? And how do you do, how did that even happen? Is that something anybody can do?

54:02You can, probably not anybody because they have changed the way it works now. And it's much, much, much more cost prohibitive for the average person to do. I don't, we can't remember between Heather, my wife and myself, who found it on, it was on Facebook. We're like scrolling along. So it might've been her cause I don't scroll a lot. It was Julia Child's house, south of France. And I was like, okay, we're doing that. I don't, we're doing that. Whatever this cost, we're doing it. Yeah. So, and it was expensive for us. And we got our good friends, Cindy Wall and Keith Miles, to come with us and to share. It's a three bedroom house. So, and my son was there and then her daughter came with her then boyfriend from France and Italy. So we had a good house full.

55:04It was really, I feel like I still am like, absorbing the trip. Just being where she was is like hallowed ground. And then to think about Richard Olney or James Beard being there and them having these big parties. I'm like, so cool. And it's a very laid back. It's not fancy at all. It's very simple, but it's beautiful. It's in a very small town, but you can straight away to the, you know, the Boulangerie or the Petitier, all the markets around. So we had a, we went out a little bit, but we also just, I wanted to stay there and cook in the kitchen. Cook in Julia Child's kitchen. And is it her pots and pans and things?

56:07I mean, essentially. So they say, I'm sure that things get broken or go missing or whatnot, but I doubt that the knives were hers, but you know, the big butcher block table and the way things look certainly read true when you look back at pictures or whatever. And yeah, that would be the kind of house that I would want in the south of France. Just simple. And it had a pool and the outdoors were really beautiful. There was a massive table outside on the patio, which is where we ate all the meals. And I was just like, this is just amazing. I mean, it's just almost like surreal being there. We just, I took my family to Memphis last week to a basketball game, and then we went to Graceland. And I'd eaten 10 year old boys at Graceland. You'd think they're like, dad, what is this? They loved it. Well, it's wild. It is. Have you been to Graceland? You guys been to Graceland? Yeah, it's pretty cool. I imagine it's- Such a blast. I mean, it's like a time capsule, but I imagine being in Julia Child's house is almost like if you got to go to Graceland and cook like this is Elvis's house, or if you recorded something at Graceland in the jungle room where he recorded one of his albums, if you got to record an album in the jungle room where Elvis did it, it'd be a similar kind of a thing.

57:28I don't know. Yeah, we were joking the whole time about like, if you're doing something and Julia didn't like it, would she like, you know, mess your cutting board up or cause your- Do like a spirit here? Yeah, cause your pot to boil over or something like that. Yeah. But yeah, there were photographs, pictures, and memorabilia, and I was like, wow, you know, pretty neat. That's so cool. It looked very quintessential. You were giddy about it. I was giddy, giddy, giddy, giddy. You told me in that first interview, you said, we're gonna have all this time off, maybe get, do you say you have a place in Cape Cod? Was that, you were like, maybe I'll get to go to my place in Cape Cod. I never get to go cause I'm always working. Maybe this is a sign that I need to slow down a little bit, and maybe I can take some time for myself. Maybe I can do that garden I've always wanted. Maybe I can do these things. So it sounds like you did get to do some of that stuff. I spent the month of June, last June in Cape Cod for the first time.

58:30That was the longest I'd been away from home ever. And it was nice, but it was, you know, again, weird. But yeah, I kind of have to, I have to slow it down. I need to take care of myself and look after the fam and, you know, also look over these guys. But, you know, they don't need me in their way. They're good. I can see the level of trust you have for him. It's taken a long time. I mean, but there's a, 13 years you've been with the company? In May, it'll be 13 years. 13 years. I mean, that's like 80 years in real life. We counted in dog years. It's like 80 years in dog life. In restaurant years, that's like 80 years. It's a long time. I mean, the average tenure, I think, is like six months in the average restaurant around the world. I mean, that's fantastic. Well, he's done good work from day one and he's been so intent on his flavors, his plates, the seriousness which with he approaches, but also the playfulness and the, you know, I think from the very beginning, you know, he's like owns it.

59:42This is mine, you know. So that's the kind of person you want. And I'm like, okay, yeah, it's you. You're looking after me, so. All right, we're right at the end here. And thank you guys so much for coming in today. This has been so much fun for me. We still have 10 minutes, so we're gonna have a little bit of fun here on this last 10 minutes. Let's talk about what you guys like to do. Your favorite places around Nashville. Hadley, we'll start with you. Favorite place to go to dinner, maybe you and your fiance. Favorite place to go to dinner. Oh, we have so many spots. We also like to go to so many similar spots. Love 210 Jack. We love Dozen Bakery for not for dinner, but just in general hangs. Pizza, we love Dices and Smith and Lentz. You know, we try to support the local, you know, individually ran places, cause that's just our soul. Oh man, so many awesome places. He likes Kisser.

01:00:43Love Kisser, oh my gosh. I have not made it over to the new iteration. I went when they were the Patterson House doing the pop-up, I went to that, but I have not, I don't make it out a lot to eat these days, and I wish I did, but I get to talk to you guys and learn about it, so this is good. You know, it is a place that is worth going and waiting to sit down. I think we have a friend, Lauren, who works there, and we love seeing her go and do her thing there, and they're just very nice, kind people, and they deserve all the accolades that they've recently received, and it's just delicious food. It's Japanese, and it's not like anything else we have, per se, in Nashville, and it seems fresh, which is cool. Oh, I like that. For me, I'm kind of local. We are fortunate in East Nashville to have so many amazing places to eat. Fat Belly, Mitchell's, Eastside Bond Me. There you go. We've got great food trucks, Brave Idiot. For dinner, I love to go to Lyra.

01:01:46It's awesome. Okay, can I talk about that for a second? Lyra, I think is one of the absolute best restaurants in this city, and what Harant is doing over there is so good and so different. Like, it's not just like every restaurant you go to, and it is, God, it is, every time I've gone there, I've just been so blown away, and I've got three times I've been there. And we've made points to go there. So good, and I'm glad you said that, because that's one of those restaurants I like to shout out to. Yeah, but we also, I love 210 Jack. I love the ramen there. I love the vegetarian ramen. We also love City House for the Belly Ham Pizza, among other things, Baja Burrito. Love Baja. Such a Nashville staple, too, which is amazing. Yeah, we went Monday, it was a beautiful, sunny day. I'm like, Baja, let's go, and everybody was there. So we've got our favorites that we go to, and then we try new things. But most nights I'm at home making chicken nuggets or something super fun.

01:02:52Well, that's real life. Yes, it's real life. Every day is, when people, I used to, I drove Uber for a little while back early, right around when I first started on the podcast, I was just driving Uber, because it was just a fun thing to do. And people would say, where's your favorite place to go in Nashville? It's your favorite place to be in Nashville. And I go, my living room. Because literally it's my favorite place to go in Nashville. My couch. This is the fireplace on, in this room is my happy spot. We like SS Guy. Have you guys been SS Guy yet? Love it. It's so good. Yeah, we have Chad and Gracie coming on next week from when this is gonna air. That episode will be on probably next week from Eastside Bond Me and You Are Here Hospitality. Well, there's just so many places. I can't even get to all of them. There's so many. Well, that's why we wanna keep talking about the local places. But I think that there's so many new restaurants that pop up that I think people start to forget about the people that made this city what it is.

01:03:55East Nashville's fantastic. Do you know why it's fantastic? Because of trailblazers like you. People like you, who way before this was cool, came in and started doing this and created the culture that East Nashville is what it is because of people like you. It's not there because there was a Mr. Gaddies or something like, this is here because of people like Margot who created the culture of this whole side of our city. And that's what, that's another super special thing about. That's why we have to, that's why I love having you on the show to bring me like, oh, I kind of forgot about, well, stop, don't forget about Margot. This place is amazing and you're curating dishes every single day for the weather. Like, I'm blown away by this. That's such care though. I mean, that's just amazing. So I'm a big fan of the local legends. The people that have been here, that have been doing it. But then there's been a lot of newcomers that have come who have really embraced the culture in the community and have jumped in.

01:04:56And I love that, especially like Chad and Gracie have just came in from California and are like, we wanna be a part of this thing and give back. And I love those people who come in and do stuff like that. So long story short, thank you for everything you do, continue to do and have done for the culinary community here in Nashville. And Hadley, it's so nice to meet you, to have you in here, to learn about you and to learn kind of about some of your history. We definitely have to do this again. And I wanna do the whole thing. We have one final thing that we do here on the show. And this is the Gordon Food Service Final Thought. So this is whatever you wanna say. There's no anything around this. So you get to say whatever you wanna say for as long as you want to take us out of the show. So who wants to start? Hadley. I'll start. We love Nashville and we're happy to be a part of old or older Nashville. And we're happy to meet new Nashville along the way and making food for people and introducing people to food in a way that's comfortable and delicious and thought provoking, but also classic is just what we try to do every single day.

01:06:11And we're happy to be here with everyone to continue doing that. So thank you, Nashville, we love you. I love that. Yeah, kind of the same. We were embraced by East Nashville, but we're also embraced by Nashville as a whole. Just a fun fact, when I filled out my culinary application, I got a scholarship from the Southern Restaurant Association. And I wrote down that I wanted to make Nashville a dining destination. And this was back in 1987. And so I feel very accomplished and I feel that I have helped do that. At first I was like, man, that's just bullshit, but it's turned out. 100%. Well, thank you guys again for your time today. I look forward to seeing Sue the Lou, Lou the Sue at the Tennessee Flavors event that we just had a little while ago.

01:07:11If you heard the first part versus now, we're way past that event now. But thank you guys again for coming in. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Sure, thank you. Big thank you to Margo and Chef Hadley for joining us here on Nashville Restaurant Radio. Again, join us this Friday for a special episode with Kelly Probst. And then coming up next week, our interview with Chad Newton and Gracie Nguyen from Eastside Bon Me. And you are here at Hospitality. You get to hear what they're up to. They're celebrating four years of Eastside Bon Me. And they're two of my favorite people in the city. And I'm excited to have them in studio. So we got lots of fun stuff coming up. We got Brett Tuck from Brown's Diner coming up soon. All kinds of fun interviews. Thank you for hanging with us today. And we hope that you are being safe out there. We love you guys. Bye-bye.