Mark Waldo

00:00Hello 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 gotta say I love their vibe on social media. More importantly people seem to absolutely love this product. So 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. We've got an episode coming with the owner soon but for now here's what you need to know and stay tuned for that one. 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 it's 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.

01:34Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon Food Service and we've got a good one for you today. I was really excited to do this interview with Mark Waldo. Yes the Mark Waldo from Waldo's Chicken and Beer. It is his namesake, it is his restaurant and he came in studio to kind of tell me his story which was fascinating. I don't know if you know this his first location was in Germantown. They have 25 locations now so when you want to know how to scale something and how to grow it and how do you keep a culture alive and I've you know I'm just a big fan of what they do over there. If you've ever never had Waldo's Chicken go check it out. They're they're very friendly, the food is delicious like it's just it's a great vibe over there so and you hear me just gush about it in this interview because it's a true story. So it's a fun one.

02:54Big shout out to Jake Howell over at Peninsula. Obviously a James Beard huge for for Nashville and Craig and everybody over at Peninsula. What a great honor. That's just this just I'm so proud of them so excited. Their food is amazing. Shout out to Brian Lee Weaver for coming on the show in 2020 and saying his favorite restaurant in Nashville was Peninsula because that's that's OG. I've eaten there it's fantastic and definitely would recommend to go there if you can get a table. Been in communication with Jake and he has agreed to do the show so hopefully we will get a Jake Howell interview and episode coming soon so stay tuned. If you are following Nashville Restaurant Radio on Instagram, follow on Instagram. If you are following Nashville Restaurant Radio on Spotify or Apple podcasts or Amazon or wherever you're following us you will get the notification. If you're not following us go follow go subscribe wherever it is. It's free and you get all the notifications when new episodes come out. Like the bonus episode yesterday where I told kind of my story of the last year on the Shut Up and Thrive podcast. You'll get notifications for that because I you know it's just a thing. Also hey we're on LinkedIn go follow me or Nashville Restaurant Radio on LinkedIn. That is a fun thing. We post I post some random videos on LinkedIn just some different business stuff stuff I'm thinking hopefully it can help resonate with somebody so if you're a leader in a restaurant you want to hear my thoughts I guess go find us on LinkedIn. But as far as today is going let's jump in right now with Mark Waldo.

04:56Super excited today to welcome in the founder of Waldo's Chicken and Beer Mark Waldo. That's me. What's up man? How you doing? I'm fantastic. I'm really excited to have you here. I'm excited to be here. First podcast. First podcast ever. Wow little nervous? A little bit yeah. Well I will tell you I you have a great PR company and they reached out a little while ago and I didn't know anything about Waldo's and then I moved into this house and we went to what we have a Waldo's like a mile from here and we were moving and I popped in and I was like I'll just get so there's some there's a Waldo's over there I'll run in and I ran it I went to the drive-thru and I told the guy he was like oh what do you what do you want I go I I don't know man it's my first time here I've never been like what's good and he goes you got to get the grilled chicken or the the fried chicken you got to do the three-piece box or whatever the four-piece box and so I got this tough you guys you got to have some of these sauces I'm gonna hook you up with some sauces and then I got to the front and the guys like hey you got to have some cheddar biscuits too these things are delicious I'm just throwing those in there for him I'll throw a couple extra sauces you got to try but it was unlike any experience I'd had at a drive-thru and what was considered you know what I didn't know what this place was I thought it was just a fast-food little thing and but I was like blown away by the service and the friendliness all right so that's one and then I brought it home and we ate this stuff and I was like holy shit this is delicious yep and then I was I was leaving work I was in Belle Meade okay and I swing through I was like well I want some of that delicious chicken again so I swing through the Belle Meade location and it's so fun because there's a railroad track right next to it and there's a sign that says next to the little biscuits if the free biscuits if there's a train driving by while you're there and then I pull up so I the train was not driving by while I was there but I still pulled up the front window and

06:57the person in the window just leaned out and goes what's up man how you doing I said I'm good I'm good and said hey you having a good day and I was like yeah he's like they're making the chicken I'm just you know just checking in on you but uh but immediately my first two experience and we've gone back 50 times you get a big portion of my check is whenever the kids say where do you want to eat they go let's do all those let's do it so I told him I was having Mark Waldo on there like oh my god this is amazing but my first so I'm immediately became really interested in finding out about your story finding out about you and finding out what it is about your culture that allows people to not just be robotic and be personable and to care because I think that's hard to find in a fast casual concept and you nail it well we appreciate it we really do you know we talk a lot about service versus hospitality yeah everybody knows you know Chick-fil-A's the best in the business when it comes to service all right delivering your goods getting them to you quick my pleasure they're so fast though they don't have time to really be hospitable yeah right and so you know for us it's a service is kind of like the customer contract you expect to get your food you expect to get your silverware the all the things you need but you know what's southern hospitality it's making connections right you know the corny saying we all have is an old Maya Angelou quote and it's they'll never remember what you said they'll never remember what you did but they will always remember how they made you feel right and so you know for us it's like you know it's a feeling right when you had those experiences the food is important that's what you came for and we're obsessive about our food but how do we make you feel when you come and spend time with us that's really important something we just talk about all the time and so you know when we're

09:01passing the Kool-Aid around the table right that's we want everyone to drink the Kool-Aid on when people come and spend time with us we want them to feel like southern hospitality right we want them to leave and be like man that was something else that was special the food is a bonus right but but how you feel when you leave is really important to us it's an experience it is we went there last week after a my kids play soccer right here at the soccer field and so after the game everybody's like what he goes well let's go to Waldo's right so we go to Waldo's packed right all the baseball games were ending soccer games were ending but it was like the community was there Levi behind the bar was amazing he's you know just running it the manager everybody's so kind and it was just like this is it doesn't feel like a chain or something because it's not really I mean it isn't it isn't you know like that was my initial perception was that Waldo's is this chain in your first location was in Germantown in 2019 so you're a Nashville guy yeah we are I've been here almost 15 years so you know it's I'm not one of the old school like you know born and raised but been here long enough to see obviously a lot of changes not just in sure but in the restaurant industry too you know 2010 was a different time in Nashville it was it was definitely a lot has happened in the last 15 years if there's I should be retired from living here for the last 15 years if I was smart right because it's just grown so much but you know that's that store that highway 96 store you're talking about that feeling that vibe it's like you know that's it's a hundred percent driven by the leadership there and the people there and you know our general manager there Casey Gunter he's just like the most affable outgoing charismatic great leader in there with his people and he's just always smiling always hey buddy how you doing you know I know exactly who you're talking about because I've met him multiple times big

11:03beard right yeah all those people right he's he's purports that Kool-Aid every day of let's have fun today life too short not to let's let's get out there let's meet all the people in there let's figure out what that guy's favorite thing is or they've never tried that sauce or I heard him talking about the onion rings let's just go bring him some onion rings and people kind of it becomes infectious in a really positive way and then they get on board with it and it's like an organism right it's like the it grows and it evolves and you know when we open that restaurant I can remember it being so slow that first week we opened and I was like oh man did we make a huge mistake like what do we do over here and here we are what three four years later and number one store in the company and is it really oh yeah and and I can't attribute it to anything else other than you know the people that we have in there right and the environment that they create for themselves which is ultimately the environment that all the guests get to enjoy right 100% Danny Meyers says you take care of your people they'll take care of the customer don't focus on the customer focus on your people and if your people love what they're doing and they're having fun and they feel like they've got the autonomy to make decisions and get out there and you know we tell them all the time you know as weird as it may sound like if you're not giving away some food every day what are we doing you know we've got these people in our dining room they've never tried the banana pudding gee go get go get them some right like what are we doing that's that's your biggest opportunity and it's like for some you know an average hourly employee they're like this is crazy my boss wants me to give away food right I thought we're supposed to sell the food we do we want to right so of course bills but I think that it's that culture in that environment that when they really buy into it and they really realize where that's who we really are it can be really powerful and the guests can feel it right you can feel when the people are having fun at work in the food versus when they're not

13:04having fun at work I think a hundred percent I made a LinkedIn post that was a first time I ever do I was in traffic and kind of in downtown Frank I was heading out to Maribol I'm the director of operations for three restaurants here in town Maribol Green Hills Grill and Chagos Cantina and I just had this conversation with my team because somebody was like well I didn't want to buy the whole thing and I went by the table yeah if that happened like by the table do it like but we have to be visiting tables you have to be curious and to find out that information from people and I made this comment and I just never done like a car video before but I was like hell I'm gonna test this thing out and I was like hot take comps are good right so I mean if I look at a P&L and I see that my comps are really low like I know we're not perfect we're going to make mistakes but we have to be going out and talking to the guests and learning what what we didn't do very well and take care of it when I see low comps I look at are we not visiting tables are we not out there trying to build and it's like well that's the antithesis we're supposed to have lower comps we can make more and I'm like good that's we're here to make every guest a repeat guest make them happy and it's an investment it's an investment and we we really try and break it out so we can see the comps when we stepped on our toe messed up we messed up versus a first-time guest kind of an investment and so you know one of my partners he's always like gross sales I'm like no no no no net cash sales and he's like why are you looking at net cash sales I'm like cuz that's what we're putting in the bank you know that's all I care about and he's like no no no gross sales are important because you put that food out right and that's that's those are that's marketing that you're that you're investing in right and so it's I never really looked at it from that perspective and comps can get crazy Casey Gunter Highway 96 I remember one period it was like dude you know this is crazy you know what why are you why is

15:07your comp line that high and so you know you got to kind of circle it back build the budget right like well it's an indicator line it you see that and you go where are we missing let's and then it opens a conversation to say man I bought 500 banana puddings last week right a whole soccer team come in and everything it took him 45 minutes and I bought the whole thing and I gave him gift cards to come back and now they're regulars like I want to hear that story yeah I don't just want to look at it and go yeah comps really high great doing a good job was there errors did we go back and fix them what's our action plan but it it's an indicator line not that you're in trouble for it but like let's learn from it you know and and having a strategy behind it yeah right you know we've got a saying which is generosity is our default you know we always just want to be overly generous and everything that we do you know we'll get approached all the time by somebody hey we got this event coming up we're church we're we've got a really small budget would you do 25% off and I'm like guys you know I don't want to ever discount what we do right so we work really hard scratch made kitchen right like we give you our best every single day I don't want to ever ever dilute that and say it's worth you know oh I'm gonna bring you 75% today no we bring 100% every day but generosity is our default I'm gonna go to them and say tell you what this one's on us 100% what you're just gonna give away you know catering for 60 people 100% off absolutely now I want you to see the bill I want you to see what it cost right I want you to see you know this is a relationship that we're gonna build right but we definitely going back to how you make somebody feel when you're willing to support that event or when you're willing to come to the table and take care of them like that boy all of a sudden there's this immediate connection they have with who we are you know in the community and just long term it just really impactful do you have a like listed core values oh yeah what

17:13are your actual core values you know so our core values are you know we want to be the leaders in the restaurant industry all right through being exemplary employers all right taking care of our people we want to run restaurants that have you know we want to obsess over perfect scratch-made food Wow customer service in a clean and safe environment monumental to our mission statement right we want to all be willing students and always seek to learn and develop and the last one of our core values is to have fun because life's too short not to I love that we have that same core value we just call it cheers yeah because we want you to create cheers more people are cheers it's impossible not to smile when you cheers but I love that we love our community I think restaurants are pillars of the community that's why I love local restaurants why do this show is because I want to highlight people who are in their communities making their communities better and let people know the story behind it and that's exactly it yeah look we're here we've invested in this land and we've created a restaurant here but this is the place where people come after the soccer games this place people come after their baseball games they come for family dinners on Tuesday night so they drive through on their way home and giving back to that community making that community better is almost in my opinion of a local restaurant that's what we do that's what makes them special yeah it's a gathering place and you know it's easy to say you're a part of the community when it's 75 and sunny and it's a Wednesday afternoon but you know who are the stores on that snow day right or the tornado that hit the night before and there's all the internets down or you know you had that in Germantown didn't you yeah oh yeah you know and everyone thought we were crazy because we opened the next day and our parking lots got caution tape all the way around it because the building next

19:16door was considered a collapse hazard so they wouldn't let anyone park on our lot they let us open the fire marshal came by we had a huge hole in our roof I mean literally you could see look up and see where a car had hit and gashed a huge hole in our roof everyone else in the strip center we're closed no one can park on the lot there's caution tape up I said man I want to be I know I'm not gonna do any sales today you know and I think we did we did get a $250 that day but everyone that walked in there firefighters policemen people that were moving out of the apartment across the street right because they had like two hours to get all their stuff out give them a free drink let them use our bathroom right give them a place to sit down and get on some Wi-Fi right I mean that's when the going gets tough right like who really is there for the community and we are just obsessive about you know and we go through incredible links on something like a snow day to make sure our people are safe right you know all of our when we see snow coming we're booking people hotel rooms across the street from the restaurant you know hey who wants to work right and you know it's so funny on some of these snow days you'll get people on the internet going oh you know but here's the tyrannical restaurant that's forcing their people to come into work and it just drives me crazy cuz I'm like if you really people want to make money well well they a lot of them rely on their hours yeah right that's how they pay their rent that's how they buy groceries pay for their cell phone bill that's how they live their lives and so you know we see all in tears yeah when we see snow come and that's exactly what we do we say who wants to work we know that there's gonna be snow storm on Tuesday so Wednesday it's gonna be tough to get to work who wants to who wants to sign up everyone that signs up get them hotels or we get them rides right safe rides into work so they don't have to drive right and we will lose a lot of money on that day because no one's really getting out on a snow day right

21:16because it just snowed and the roads are all locked up and everything but the people that are and the people that need somewhere to go and want something to eat or drink or a place to gather like we want to be there for our people let them clock in do their job clock out I mean there's some stores on a snow day we maybe only can get three people that want to work and come in we'll just sell chicken fingers and french fries we don't care but you're open we're open open for people and then they start learning oh last year when it snowed waddles will be open so they know when it snows we can walk over there we can I never want the guests to worry about if we're showing up today I want them to know that you know when we say we want to be part of the community we really mean it so what does that come from with you what's your backstory I mean if you moved here in 2010 you opened this thing in 2019 what did you do prior to that that instilled this sense of service and and I don't know community yeah so I grew up in Birmingham Alabama and kind of my first foray into the restaurant industry was you know washing dishes and bussing tables for a barbecue restaurant in Birmingham called Jim and Nick's oh yeah I thought I was going to say dreamland I was like dude I love dreamland oh man I mean what a great brand I mean they just nailed it you know it's it's been interesting to see them kind of growth and kind of not grow over the years but yeah so grew up in that Jim and Nick's world and Nick is kind of probably my first real mentor ever in the restaurant business he was a groomsman in my wedding super close with them to this day and I really think watching Nick's obsessive you know nature around being open right doing anything for his people doing anything for a guess I mean I think they added up comps one year for the Birmingham

23:18market and it was just like a staggering number and and but it was like an obsessive culture you know and this is way back in the day you know before they didn't need transactions or anybody else owned them they were still all locally owned and operated I mean an obsessive culture over everybody leaves happy and if you had a table and you were a server and your table didn't leave happy and it got back to Nick it was like man you you were in trouble right and you just knew it and it was kind of watching the way he led his team the things that were sacred to him about the business and about food and about a hospitality that stuff that that stuck with me for a real long time right to this day and so you know I've had a lot of great mentors you know as I've gotten older and gotten into the real professional world of being in the restaurant and you're still pretty young I am yes how old are you 39 years old yeah man I mean to have 21 restaurants 25 20 I guess the internet was wrong for me I was like 21 you growing like 25 restaurants now at 39 years old yeah it's been a wild ride but a lot of those a lot of what I learned in that those early days informed a lot about kind of who I am and what's important to me today you know so I grew up there went to Alabama graduated with a you know a business degree I didn't learn anything full to school is that's where the OG dreamland is yeah that's right you're back to dreamland like that right over the river now I want barbecue yeah you're there ribs very 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 am 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

25:22Tennessee 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 C&B linen hear it from his straight from his mouth exactly what they do or you give them a call at nine three one seven two two seventy six sixteen or you can DM me at Brandon still on Instagram for my exclusive pricing through the Nashville area restaurant Alliance Nara for short running a restaurant is tough staff turnover rising cost and the endless tasks that bog you down and take you away from what you love let Adams Keegan lighten that load there are 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 HR IS platform to seamless payroll and competitive benefits that keep your team smiling they've got you covered

27:24Adams 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 that Adams Keegan is that unlike big publicly traded companies out there they have an incredibly high standard of customer service and that 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 you 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.com for your free HR consultation and see how they can create a customized solution to help your restaurant thrive 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 their bread is also free from any preservatives and artificial flavors they're right off of White Bridge Road Erin Moser and her team been doing this for a long time 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 gonna hear me talk about is do they care about your business and I 100% believe that they do if you would like to be working with the bakery that cares about your business give them a call 615-356-0872 that's 615-356-0872 now you can always visit them at Sharpier's.com that's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com and they have pictures of all of the bread that they can have for you and

29:26contact information go check them out Sharpier's Bakery 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 flat where 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 he is here to help you succeed that's Jason Ellis with SuperSource 770-337-1143 big time white bread white bread those guys just put it on the table they said white bread and sauce you don't need napkins just wipe your face with this white bread and then eat it you know I love that brand really really did I mean I can remember being in high school and we would drive to Tuscaloosa and go get dreamland now Archibald that's a hole in the wall have you been to Archibald's I don't think so oh man is that in Tuscaloosa too yeah it is it's kind of right outside of town and when I tell you I mean I'm in a podcast in your house mm-hmm right you go eat at Archibald's you're in the backyard of his house oh wow it's a cinder block shack and there's a picnic table sitting out there and you might as well be in his living room having lunch I mean it's it's it's really a great experience I love that I'm real cool brand gonna do that next time I'm in Tuscaloosa there you go so you know graduated from there I graduated in 2008

31:29which was not a great time to be graduating from college all my friends were coming back into town because they all just gotten laid off right yeah well you're in an economic downturn and the whole thing is no one was hiring nobody's hiring everything is shot nobody had and it was everything was lean bad yeah and you know if you did have a job you were doing three other people's jobs too right because they were just trimming fat everywhere everywhere had a buddy and he you know kind of a trust fund situation and he said hey I'm gonna you know I don't know what else to do in my life I'm gonna buy a bar in downtown Tuscaloosa okay that sounds like fun I need someone to run it for me though like all right man I'm your I'm your guy right so I'm your huckleberry I am your huckleberry so we demoed it we built it and I ran it for like two years I had no idea what I was doing I had no business running a four million dollar it was right by the state four million dollar it was it was you know Nick Saban we won a national championship that first year it was just crazy crazy and I mean I truly had no idea what I was doing and it was it was all will no skill ran that for two years and then you know kind of realized that I wasn't gonna live very long if I stayed in the bar industry so got out of that and wound up moving to New Orleans yeah random moved to New Orleans and Tuscaloosa that's not that random I mean it's not that far from Tuscaloosa I mean it's couple hours yeah and I always loved the city yeah excited about it moved to New Orleans had some odds and ends jobs and wound up working for Hillstone Group out of there which owns Houston's yeah yeah so worked on at the Houston's on st. Charles Avenue and I think for me that is a big formative moment in my life where I went to work for a restaurant right but I realized like wow you can really have a career in the restaurant industry well and there was discipline and it was so

33:30it was the teamwork when you when you see how efficiency works you know I did this whole speech that day to the team about full hands in full hands out and some people were looking at me like I was speaking a different language and I was like we're gonna get back to fundamentals or where the child goes and I said the official if you're walking from one end of the restaurant to the other end there's nothing in your hands that's a wasted trip and I'm going through this whole thing and feel like that makes a lot of sense Houston's and Jay Alexander's were two that were very similar in that but you learn a lot about operations in the in that building yes an organization right and it was you know just even the way you wrote your checks when they everything had an abbreviation yep every month this that yeah Sal was circled if you didn't you know you they graded your your shorthand yeah at the end of the shift and if you know you got a bad score you got written up right and it was like I really realize like you can be in the restaurant industry and it not just be a job you can have a career I mean there were guys they were making you know hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year you know waiting tables but they were pros right they were professionals they'd done it all over the country you know I remember Paul he worked at the New York Houston's and he was telling me war stories of how much money he made up there and just blew my mind right and so that was that's another great experience in my life that's got a lot to do with you know the things that I do and I believe in today was the those you know that year and a half I worked for Houston's Robert Hardy he was my GM I mean what a what a badass I mean that guy was incredible and super high volume I mean I think ten or twelve million dollars and you know 2009 when I was down there you know working a busy as a restaurant was a busy restaurant right so and so worked for Houston's for a while I ended up detouring and I actually waited on a guy who was there and he had a small startup medical device company

35:32based out of New Orleans and he ended up you know putting an opportunity in front of me and I took a huge pay cut and went to work for him in the medical device world and you know totally off the beaten path for me did had no idea what I was doing but that's never really scared me from anything in life so but you're an ADD guy bad right none of that affects us no no no shiny you know shiny new thing you know I'm gonna get to go and be in the operating room and exciting and makes your brain stimulation you need stimulation and new things you don't know anything about most people would say scary wait a minute I've there's a lot of people like us with that this ADHD just go hell yeah that's let's grip and rip it let's make it happen let's figure it out and then you go and you figure it out until you get good at it and had a great career there actually ended up kind of peeling off from my company and started my own little distributorship and that's a when I moved to Nashville was they moved the headquarters up here and I followed them up here and you know ran that for a little while and then you know I just kind of started doing the math in my head I said you know there's there's about 30 customers I have in the medical device industry in Nashville and there's what about eight hundred thousand people that eat out every day I like my numbers a little bit better in the restaurant world than I did the med device world so wrap my company up sold it back to my old boss and kind of for the first time in my career didn't know what I was gonna do didn't have a job had a little bit of pocket change from you know getting out but really didn't know what was next for me and Nick Jim and next he found out I was a free agent and picked up the phone and called me and said hey man I got this pork processing plant in the middle of nowhere North Alabama you got to check it out man it's it's awesome and so you know naturally I did I drove down there and I mean it was total mess like in Decatur Eva, Alabama

37:36okay and if you've ever been to Eve, Alabama I've got some questions to ask why why what were you what body were you burying out there yes so but once again ADD right didn't know anything about manufacturing didn't know anything about slaughtering processing making you know food like that and making value at a price I knew nothing about it but I saw this group that I really liked you know fresh hospitality sure John Michael Bodner Michael Bodner and Nick was still involved at that point and you know really felt like you know this is not a great business it's losing a lot of money and nobody really knows what we're doing but I really like the guys that I'd be doing it with so you know what the hell what do I have to lose so jumped right in and you know to this day still a partner there we have we now have an operating partner that runs the business every day but that's really my jump back into the food business so jump back in running a pork processing plant and you know a couple years into that we had my partner Mike Bodner had done a public-private partnership with the University of West Virginia okay hang in there with me I'm following I don't know so he builds a student union that connects the the bus system with the the rail system that gets all the kids to class and he gets all the food service inside the building so we did like seven different concepts in there you know burgers Mexican coffee shop just it's like a food hall it's a food hall yeah one of those failed and so he's got a 600 square foot slot in a food court and he's like man I don't know what to do with it and I'm like let me throw something together come on I've always wanted to have my own brand I've always wanted to put my hat in the ring bike put me in coach right sure why not so I was 2017 and we did two birds so the two birds the fried chicken and the

39:39rotisserie chicken which is all that you guys do you do two birds at Waldo's so we got fried chicken and rotisserie chicken and you know we went and put a flag in the ground up there and you know killed it did really really well right but do you really know if you have something if you're selling chicken fingers and mac and cheese to college kids on their meal print well you know on their meal program you really don't it's kind of a loaded deck right yeah so we didn't really do anything with it and I actually kind of detoured once again and ran a little barbecue and burger shop here in Nashville it's kind of I guess you could you know they'll come they'll tell you you're the CEO or whatever right but you know the area supervisor right and built some restaurants for that group and ran that business for a couple years and I just kind of realized lead follow or get out of the way and I didn't really feel like I was getting to lead and I wasn't really interested in following so I got out of the way and we had an opportunity over there in Germantown and we said you know what let's change the name because it had already two birds have been trademarked from a company in California okay and so let's change the name let's call it Waldo's let's hang a shingle and you know let's take this thing to Maine and Maine and do our first brick-and-mortar and so that was 2019 so 2019 Waldo's chicken and beer why beer it's funny you asked that question so if you know where that location is there's a Jack Brown's right next to yeah yeah yeah and I actually know the CEO over there and I told him this story the other day I was like you know you guys are the only reason we have beer in our name because I felt like if I was gonna be right next door to Jack Brown's I was gonna have to sell beer because they sell a ton of beer right they had a killer beer program burgers and beer yeah man they have a great brand I love those guys they really do a good job but you know that was the beer and there is a point where I was like man let's just shell the beer let's get rid of all this other stuff we're doing let's just be like everybody else it's

41:43so chicken fingers and french fries Texas toast and slaw and you know let's in the tender sauce just call it a day and I'm so glad we didn't and had a lot of my people in my corner saying hold on you know you're too early to make a decision like that so we hung in there we kept the full program in place and really glad that we did because it's a it's really become who we are as a company today well I love it because my wife gets the salad with the rotisserie buffalo rotisserie chicken yeah and that's I can now go there because it's where we want to go somewhere my wife is like I'm not eating fried chicken a day or whatever and it's like well they have rotisserie chicken or you know like you said you get done with the game well we're gonna get take the kids somewhere well they all like it and guess what dad mom let's have a beer let's have a margarita right you know let's stay for a minute let's let this be a little bit of an our afternoon activity so we talk a lot about the veto vote and our business and the veto vote the veto vote so this is a great story at Outback years ago they did a study and they got a bunch of these hidden cameras and they got a group of people together and they said the next time your family sits down to decide where they're gonna go to dinner I want you to record it the whole interaction and I don't we don't we don't want them to know right we want to get real-life footage of what a family looks like when they're amazing yes so what does that look like hey let's let's all go out to dinner and guess what four or five restaurants get named and what's the next thing that happens somebody vetoes one oh man I can't get this there oh it's too expensive but there's nothing on the menu for me there I don't like that place there you go all right so the veto is the next thing that happens and what they realize is if you can survive that veto process and you can be one of those one or two or three names that are left you might not get it every single time but you're gonna get it right and so we really like to think about how do I have a program for the

43:44guest right that helps me survive that that exact moment that occurs with everybody's family knows it right where do you want to go let's go here let's go here let's go here and then here comes the vetoes right so surviving the surviving the veto vote is is important so and you know there's brands out there that just hang their hat on just one thing and they say look we're gonna be you know canes you know we're gonna when you want to be gluttonous and just eat chicken fingers and french fries right like they're gonna win right they're gonna get that that that that glut vote or whatever but if we talk about how do I get someone to eat lunch with me during the week but also come in and eat dinner with me on the weekend we just feel like we got to have a bigger program in place than a lot of the other chicken guys out there that really just kind of do one thing yeah and I think that you did well I love that because I love chicken tenders and I love your onion rings thank you for doing onion rings because my people don't appreciate it it's a lost art but those onion rings are freaking amazing it's a labor of love too I mean it's a big thick and they're there oh they're so good hand breaded hand breaded breaded I mean there's a lot of labor that goes into making an onion ring right but it's it's hard to beat and everyone's used to getting onion rings that are probably coming out of a bag right or maybe battered and it's just a little bit different but they when you make them perfect right that that panko a little bit of kick with a cayenne that we put in it yeah it's it's they're hard to beat and your sauces are all are they all house made we make everything in house because they're there they're in little portion cups they're like they're like the actual ones you would buy from you know GFS or something that's right they're not in a neat little package container that you've made in a mess no no there's no there's no kitchen somewhere that's put in a bunch of additives and preservatives and everything in there and there's no manufacturing line it runs down that seals them and then puts them in a case

45:47and delivers them to you I mean that is bringing in raw materials following a recipe right and then sitting there and portioning every single one out because we make everything in house see you can and you can tell you can tell the difference my wife loves the jalapeno ranch that is her absolute favorite oh good I'm a big blue cheese guy well man we love our blue cheese oh it's good yeah it's delicious so where do you procure I mean if you're not if you're purchasing everything individually to make these everything from scratch who are your vendors who are you buying from so we're interesting in that you know I've worked in some other concepts they've got a lot of proprietary items we really don't because everything that we make is from ingredients right and not you know a pre-manufactured product that's somewhere else so there's no need to there's no need to go out do you need to know I'm just looking at the cat trying to come in here I'm hearing the assembly is a thundering oh no it's a cat trying to get in the room sorry so we really don't most of our proprietary items it's our seasonings right chicken seasoning and fry seasoning and then all of our packaging everything else is just coming in as you know I'm a broadliner yeah from a broadliner do you have one broadliner used for all locations no we've got Benny Keith services our Oklahoma and our Arkansas market sure performance food groups they hit the rest of the system so they've been good partners to us you know we were Cisco guys for a long time but that tornado obviously changed things right it was it was you know I that's an interesting thing so Cisco lost the business because of the fact that they lost the warehouse yeah they really did and they what a great house a pre tornado I mean it was really loved those guys they did a great job but you know how they had no choice I mean they had no plan it was over you know and well because I have had some friends over at Cisco and I've worked I was a district sales manager for US

47:50foods for and one of my many different things I've done I was a district sales manager for US foods for four years and the logistics around what they were able to do when you have to close your warehouse and you're still getting people I mean it's a challenge but when you're getting it from Clara and you're getting it from Memphis and from Louisville and from Knoxville and you're trying to do an entire city I know the pandemic probably helped them a little bit because everyone's in as busy and they had to close but I was pretty impressed with what they were able to do but a lot of people weren't a lot of it just kind of felt like let's just go ahead and get our ducks in a row with somebody else because you know it there was a lot of unknowns at that point yeah there was that's interesting all right you've expanded when you when you had your first location in Germantown when did you know it was time to expand well and did you have like help with that are you part of fresh hospitality so I'm not fresh hospitality you know on the surface level looks like a like a hospitality group like a restaurant group you know we've got another one of our corny sayings is we're a company of restaurants not a restaurant company and fresh hospitality really is more my partner than anything right so I'm not a part of fresh hospitality they're a part of my business and so they're okay they're my partner and you know board members incredible mentors and incredible you know advisors for me really helping me make sure you know mr. B tells me all the time I'm here to let you make the small mistakes and make sure you don't make the big mistakes right which is so huge right like letting me make mistakes is really part of the learning process right and you know he lets me run my company and and get out there and get dirty and make decisions but at the same time if he sees you know me going down a pathway

49:52sees you heading towards the iceberg he's gonna yeah he's drop anchor yeah he's gonna blow the whistle right and so I'm really blessed to have those guys as a part of my business and part of my company so you know when did we know it was time to expand you know we didn't because year one was brutal man I mean brutal we if we were able to patch together 10k in sales for the week it was like a huge deal right so low awareness we still didn't know who we were gonna be when we grew up right and you know no drive-through which drive throughs you know turned into a big part of our business today it was really challenging I can remember my wife looking at me at one point and just basically saying I love all the other things we've got going on right now but this thing's got to go because it feels like we've got four mortgages like we can't keep doing this right this is a thing it's expensive every month every month right you know the rent still do and you know your people want to get paid and you know it was it was definitely but I think it was a great experience and as we have grown and you know we've obviously you know come a long way from there I always remembering what that felt like and always knowing that like that's that's can be a real reality in our industry is you know really helps ground us and humble us and you know remember where you came from and that you know you just don't show up to a busy restaurant you got to earn it with your guests and with your people every day every day and so you know I wouldn't change it you know for anything because I think that we really learned a lot about one who we wanted to be when we grew up but two that you know you got to stay humble for sure in our business well now where you're at you've got 25 restaurants 25 open how do you maintain this level of service and intensity in that that culture over 25 what does your day look

51:56like well yeah I'll say this to get to 25 I could have never done it even though she wanted to close the first one you know if my wife wasn't so supportive and our family business and you know letting me go out and be on the road the way that I am and you know burning up the way that I do there's no way we could have ever gotten there so often are you how often are you on the road oh all the time yeah 52 weeks a year yeah for sure how you have kids five-year-old and three-year-old yeah so we started a company and had a couple kids along the way so I would be remiss to not just say that my wife's patience through this whole thing has been incredible and has really allowed me to you know get to where we are today but you know I get asked this question a lot you know how do you how do you manage 25 restaurants how do you know how do you do it right and it's just a simplest answer and it's you know you got to surround yourself with good people at the end of the day our local owner program and our operating you know partner program is truly the key to our success you know our secret sauce is not in our food it's in our people and you know bringing on the right ones that are aligned with us that are culturally aligned with us that are how do you know that they are I mean because I got three restaurants and as feel like every week I get hit by a two by four in the back of my head and I'm like I didn't see that coming and 25 yeah you got to kiss a lot of frogs to find the prince right and you know we we we we not batting a thousand right you know we've definitely turned over some partners and gone down some roads and said oh man did we get that one wrong but that's part of the business right I think if the easiest way to say how do you know is we talk about like big gets like and you know when you've got great people that you're working with they always tend to attract other great people yeah right and we've really gotten to the point as a company where we're really interested in finding other

54:00people that are like those other people so we really know what we're looking for now right you know what you're looking for yeah and it's a blueprint there is and it's not formulaic right it's really more of an art and then a science and figuring out is someone culturally aligned with us but we can find people that are culturally aligned with us and are really passionate the way we are about the aspects of the business that we are if you get those people on board and put them in the right position and you support them correctly it's amazing what those folks can do on their own you know running their own business basically inside of our business how involved are you in that process do you have an HR team that kind of vets people do you do like disk profiles or use we use a company called culture index to really identify the psyche behind everybody and we're big Jim Collins good to great right right people right seats everybody on the bus but rowing in the same direction same mission in the right aces in places all that stuff yeah do you have a team that does that or is that's did they actually interview with you Calexo is an art and design collective of BIPOC LGBTQ women and allies focused on creating delightful drinking opportunities for all focusing on quality taste and experience we delight humankind by creating delicious and health-conscious drinking experiences that shift perspectives encouraging real-life connection to ourselves and our communities Cheers this is what Calexo says on their website they have three amazing flavors they have the cucumber citron five milligrams of hemp derived THC citrus rose which also has five milligrams of hemp derived THC and they have my personal favorite the semi-tropic it has five milligrams of hemp derived THC as well these products are available by a Lippman Brothers if you'd like to order for your restaurant

56:01or if you want to go try them yourself you can visit drink calexo.co or you can pick them up at Killjoy in East Nashville this is an amazing company they're not some conglomerate who's jumping into the THC game they are a craft THC beverage company work just like you and I this is their only focus is the only product that they make so they put a hundred percent of their detail and love into it please enjoy responsibly hey I'm Matthew Clements with Robbins Insurance Agency you know before I got into insurance I worked in the hospitality space so I do understand firsthand how tough it can be to keep things running smoothly now I love to help business owners like you protect what you've built whether it's a restaurant bar hotel catering operation I know the risks you're up against and how to cover them properly this isn't a one-size-fits-all coverage I'm gonna help you 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 insides and out reach out to me call my cell phone eight six three four oh nine nine three seven two or go to Robbins ins.com 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 the bread is also free from any preservatives and artificial flavors they're right off of White Bridge Road Erin Moser and her team been doing this for a long time 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 gonna hear me talk about is do they care about your business and I 100% believe

58:06that they do if you would like to be working with the bakery that cares about your business give them a call six one five three five six zero eight seven two that's six one five three five six zero eight seven two now you can always visit them at Sharpier's.com that's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com and they have pictures of all of the bread that they can have for you and contact information go check them out Sharpier's bakery and we're big Jim Collins good to great right right people right seats everybody on the bus but rowing in the same direction same mission in the right aces in places all that stuff like do you have a team that does that or is that did they actually interview with you so we're really passionate like all the way to the store level like you know we don't want some HR department and never never land that's what restaurant companies have right a company of restaurants I want that whether it's a local partner a general manager or an assistant manager I want them to make their people decisions right you know Bill Parcell says if I'm gonna cook you dinner at least let me do the grocery store shopping right so I want them to make those decisions because when they do when they make good ones they feel the impact of the good decision and when they don't they feel the impact of the bad decision and then it becomes their journey to manage through that right and it's a long journey when you hire the wrong people and so I think that's the you know if if hiring the wrong person you just ship it off to the HR department say hey man you know I messed up I hired the wrong guy and he's causing all these problems that's like that's like passing trash right yeah versus I got to own this right people's the number one you know I tell everybody the most important decisions I make or who I hire who I fire who I promote and who I demote right that's my business in a nutshell and so but all the way up to the partner level like I got to own those decisions and so yeah I mean we

01:00:09were pretty intensive on a lot of interviews I like other partners to interview a potential partner go spend time in their store hands-on days you know really putting in the effort on the front end to make sure that one they know what we're all about right and what they're signing up for with us right there's nothing worse than it's just as big of a decision for them as it is for us yeah 100% so I want to make sure they really you know their hearts beating faster right when they're inside of a Waldo's but I've got to also make sure like they they look at you know we say you know working as a partner at Waldo's is a lifestyle not a job right and you got to really find people that that's real right that this is you know that important to them they want to live it every day and it becomes kind of part of who they are as a person not just you know clocking in and clocking out yeah I I think there's some real value in what you were just saying about letting them make the mistakes yep because I feel like I hold on so tightly because I've got three I can be in all three every day if I want to and I see things and there's a there's a drama triangle that we talked about that goes from victim villain and hero there's gonna be one of those three in every scenario and I love to be the hero I love coming in and going oh you're short somebody let me come in and fix that for you look what I did oh I got a cape on save your syndrome you want to save everybody I want to save everybody but what that does is it robs them of their learning mm-hmm when you come in and hero them when you hero there's a victim and there's a villain yep name those people in this and you kind of go the general manager whoever the person I bailed out didn't have to touch that because I just well Brandon will fix it yep Brandon will fix it and it's almost like when you

01:02:12have 25 you can't do that they have to kind of learn but you have to go back it's more of a coaching hey when you get that kind of stung a little bit like how did that feel what are you learning from that and then that's a good yeah something that I miss sometimes because I tend to hero when I hire the wrong operating partner in Dothan Alabama right it's in and the way long drive away it's not you know there's no direct flights right so you know you you got to go in there on your own and fix that problem right you live that whole you know it always gets worse before it gets better kind of deal you start to get a little more cautionary in the decisions that you make because you realize there you got to own all your decisions and I think that ownership piece is so important and what we do so yeah from an like who do we surround ourselves with we really like collaboration and that getting a lot of people's opinion and input on who this person is and how they interviewed and you know do you know them have you ever worked with them in the past but I think ultimately you know personally owning our people decisions is the best way for people to develop and grow and learn and we've got some tools that we've built like our last partners meeting I had I wrote out twelve values and traits that I thought created the perfect operating partner and a lot of other people have done this before but I didn't just stop there I also had all my operating partners write twelve values and traits of what they thought was the right company to work for so two-way street right so we always tend to look out right when we think about people and problems right you know that nice to have somebody else looking in well you know here's the classic one oh so-and-so called out for work today and you know they're the villain right for the call out and I'm always the first to say when

01:04:15did you post the schedule oh you posted it on Sunday right the other ship was on Tuesday great you get 48 hours you have 48 hours to figure their life out when were you supposed to schedule right Wednesday right because that gets them half a day Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday sample four and a half days to get childcare to move meetings around to get their shift covered right and so you know it's it's looking in the mirror is really important and so that that exercise for us and our partners of what do I think is the the values that a great operating partner should have but what are the values that you think are important for me right that's kind of growing this company and the the values of the company and it was I mean we spent basically the whole that we didn't read P&L's right we didn't we didn't vote on national contracts or right it wasn't about administrative or you know financial analysis right it was all about who are y'all and who am I and who are we right together and what are our values and traits and so now what I found myself doing when I do you know interview an operating partner I read all 12 of them before I sit down so they're very top of mind and you know those are the questions I need to ask right like that's that's my blueprint for who I'm looking for you know what we did when we wrote our core values I did three meetings and I took me and the owner and our our corporate chef was the owner's brother and we went to the his lake house and we all had to come with two people who worked at one of the two restaurants at the time who we would clone if you could clone an employee who would it be right and so we came and I had you know my big post-it notes on the walls and I put Josh Worley and he's our kitchen manager he was that the chef at Mary Bull but the guy's amazing and then we had to write down all of the traits about these people as to why we would clone them and then that kind of there we took all those traits and was like these are these these are the reasons

01:06:18and then I took the management team at Green Hills Grill and asked them the same thing the management at Mary Bull same thing we went through and they it was amazing how these three kind of stone tablets all matched yep and then I took all of those and made them wordy and before you had GPT you had to do that on your own and it was it was really amazing because it really defined what we were and we did it together so everybody all the leadership team had like this buy-in on those core values and then we made that our foundation for everything that we did but it's a game changer when everybody has buy-in on that stuff yeah the collaboration piece is super important when they're part of the process of figuring out whether it's that exercise or a labor schedule or anything when they help you get to the answer with you they believe in the answer yeah if you just give them the answer and tell them you know to get this is what you're doing do it get here every day not how did we get there there's a lot less buy-in and it feels a lot more like you're their boss and it feels a lot less like you're their partner right and so I want people to feel ownership with us and partnership with us so I'm not the you know I'm not the micromanager if we've got a problem I want all of us to get into a room and get there to the answer and like that's a perfect example of everyone was bought in on all those values and traits you guys define for your employees because they were all part of winding up for those values and traits it was kind of fun to go back to the people who we said we would clone yeah and tell them the story around it oh because then they were like really you would clone me and these are the things you saw it was a great opportunity to tell a story about them and how we felt just to give positive feedback because you know we can anybody out there can tend to find what's wrong it's easy to find what's wrong but sometimes looking for what's right is the right thing to do for sure which is one of our core values do the right thing but it's just it was just a

01:08:20fun opportunity so we're nearing the end first podcast so far how you doing I'm doing great I'm hanging in I told you is this it's pretty chill it's just a conversation you get to talk about your business it's a lot of you know a lot about it so this is good what's the proudest moment so far that you've had as the owner of Waldo's the Waldo's chip was the proudest moment so far for you you know it's probably not what you're gonna think it is I'll give you you need a little backstory right all right I'm running the I'm running my burger business you know back in you know 2015 16 17 whatever 16 17 with a little bit of 18 and I had a guy an area supervisor from Captain D's I hired him to be my area supervisor Derek Rodriguez I love Derek Rodriguez you know Derek I have some Jason's deli previously yeah I know Derek really well all right he's he's awesome fantastic Jason's deli yep yeah Captain D's Martin's yep so I hired him over and he worked for me you know when I was flipping burgers and when I left to go up in Waldo's he was like man I really want to go with you like that Derek you've got like six kids you know I've got two dogs and my wife has a great job and you know this thing could go belly up and you know I can afford the bruises and scrapes and scars I'm really nervous about putting you in harm's way why don't you stay where you're at why don't you keep doing what you're doing okay great well Derek hangs in there and you know years later we'd always kept in touch and I mean he was just dogged and coming towards me and saying hey and I really want to join I really want to join me I don't know Derek you're in a good spot where you're at why don't you stay there and you know basically the timing ended up right and he was gonna make a move regardless I said well if you're leaving I'm you're not going to work for anyone else other than me brought Derek on and made him a partner all right and this is something

01:10:20that Derek has been working basically his whole professional career yeah restaurant industry is to be an owner right and have real ownership and you know there was there's definitely hard days and there's a one point where he was sitting in his truck when we were opening that Bell meat store he's the partner of the Bell meat in the Charlotte Avenue store and I couldn't tell if he was asleep or awake he was you know so gassed but when he got his first distribution check that's probably the proudest moment I've ever had in my career I love that because you know what we were willing to do as a company was to give someone an opportunity to that could impact their family and their life in a way no one else had been willing to and see it actually come to fruition and know what the impact that had for Derek and his kids and his wife which I mean just what an incredible family you know feeling that moment of his success for me was just like man this is why we do this right this is what's like you know what's it makes it all worth it at the end of the day and there's been a lot of other great examples of that but that was one that was like man I can if if nothing else right comes from all this it was worth it to see Derek get this new opportunity in life and be successful well that was a hell of an answer yeah and I love that because I know Derek and he's a good dude and every salt of the year think he lives in Bellevue he used to live in Bellevue I've always seen him at like the gas station and he had the same car as my wife and it was like a and so every time I'd see him like what's that mean we'd always catch up like at the Shell station and I've just seen him in restaurants forever I used to when I used to sell food I used to be the produce guy in Nashville and I met him when he was at Jason's deli and he managed like the Huntsville and I also managed I met him because he would manage the Huntsville Jason's deli and I would do North Alabama so I was like I do know North Alabama okay just not Eva Alabama or whatever that I know Florence Decatur Huntsville area it's in the neighborhood but you don't need to go

01:12:21to know what's your go-to order if you go if you're ordering food I know it's it's tough but like what's the go-to what if I've never been to Waldo's okay what do I have to get man I mean I've obviously eaten enough chicken tenders in the last five years and change that you know you know honestly if I'm really ordering Waldo's just to have a good time right I'm getting tenders and fries two pieces of toast tender sauce and honey mustard and I'm wrapping those tenders up in the bread and I'm dipping them in there oh I never even thought of that and I'm wrapping the tenders in the bread yeah and I'm getting down on that honey mustard and I'm dipping those fries and that tender sauce but what do I eat normally every day I like to get a little rotisserie chicken pull it off the bone get some white beans and some collard greens and make myself a little bowl a little bit of barbecue sauce right on the top maybe some chopped onion on there nice and light plenty of protein right doesn't don't blow me out of the water for the rest of the day sure right you know I eat a lot of rotisserie chicken these days it's a brown sugar braised brown sugar brine brown sugar brine and then all of our chicken and the other chicken the fried chicken is brined in pickle juice so the chicken tenders and the thigh which goes on that like foul mouth sandwich and goji sandwich yes that's a pickle brine and then we've got a hot pepper brine that we do the wings and the bone-in chicken in oh I did not know that yep all right well I want to try I've never had the wings oh the wings are fun I get the four-piece chicken with onion rings and I am like the wings are phenomenal that is my order and I just I start to crave it I'm like it's so comforting I know I'm going to absolutely love it and it's so easy because it's I mean right down the three minutes I mean it's it's I can say I'm gonna go get all those and be back in ten minutes and if you tell Casey you forgot to order biscuits he'll probably just give them to you now I know yeah I know this is my first time here we know

01:14:27you Brandon you come in here all the time how do you know Levi and everybody this is what it's going on here all right we're gonna let you off the hot seat where we do we call this the tastiest hour of talk in Nashville and we are at one hour exactly it's amazing how fast an hour goes I felt like we just started you haven't survived yet okay there's one more thing okay we have the Gordon Food Service final thought okay so this is where I let you take us out you get to say whatever I'm putting you on the spot you get to say whatever you want this could be literally anything but you get to you get to take us out of the show so the mic is gonna be on you and you get to make a final statement and then we'll tell everybody goodbye you know just really lucky to get to be in the industry that I'm in because there's not a better industry out in the world there's nowhere else where you receive your raw materials manufacture your product have your sales team close your sale and deliver your goods all within a 10-hour period this is where the only business out there and I'm blessed to get to do it with the people that I do it with because at the end of the day my people are the reason why we've been successful and so you know I'm blessed to be in this business I'm blessed to have the partners that I have and you know I just can't wait to see what's next for Walter's chicken and beer I love it thank you so much for spending this time with us and appreciate it it's been a lot of fun man I really appreciate this thank you all right