Matt Bolus

00:00Hey everyone, it's Brandon Styll, host of Nashville Restaurant Radio, and you know that I'm a big fan of having a plan and proactively using this time to make your business better. Times are tough, but reopening and recovery doesn't have to be. That's why I want to tell you about Kurt's Hospitality Marketing. It's a full-service sales, marketing, and public relations agency dedicated to growing revenues for their clients. You've heard Janet right here on Nashville Restaurant Radio, and we've talked about all things, ideas to help restaurant owners, hotel owners stay clean and prepare for when we reopen. So give her a call, 615-456-3953, or check them out on the web, www.KurtzHospitality.com. That's K-U-R-T-Z-Hospitality.com. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City, and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll, and afternoon delight. Afternoon delight. Here's my Anchorman reference for you. Part 2, Matt Bolas, starts now. So you opened the 404 Kitchen in 2014, right? Okay, so you were nominated for Best New Restaurant, James Beard, James Beard Award in 2014. Yes. Okay. What was that like? Oh my gosh. And it was mind-numbing almost, completely unexpected. I almost dropped

02:01my daughter, who was an infant at the time. I was holding her, I was watching it live on the TV, and they said the 404 Kitchen is like, I almost let her go. You know, and it was, it was great. I got a, later on that day, I got a call from Seth Thomas Keller. And I don't say that. You got a call from Thomas Keller? Yeah, I did. And I don't say that to name drop. I say that because it kind of corresponds with with our conversation earlier. Hey, chef, congratulations, and so happy. And just not long before that, I had cooked a dinner with him for his Bouchon book tour, which is where I got to know him. And he said, you know, what, what are your plans now? And I said, I, chef, I don't know. I've got to figure out what to do. I need to, you know, I need to make sure I got to change the food. I got to do this. I got to do that. He says, bullshit. I'm sorry, chef.

03:10You know, you don't say a whole lot when you're on the phone with Jeff Keller. And he said, he said, why would you change anything? I said, I don't know, chef. He said, I don't care what you read about yourself or what you hear in the, in the, in the news or on a newspaper article or in a magazine about the restaurant. He said, that's all yesterday. He said, it's what you plan to do tomorrow. That's going to make the difference. And what you do today, it's going to make the difference. And he said, if what you're doing today got you here today, why would you make it different tomorrow? So I, I don't know, chef. He said, well, you should think about that. And that was the end of the conversation really. But it made me realize like, oh, don't change. Yeah. Just, just be you and, and be happy with being you. Be happy with being the 404 and what it is. We're not trying to be anybody else, you know, uh, it meant a lot to me. And it's a lot that, that, um, I think about a lot, you know, I don't, I rarely read, uh, articles that we're in. I never read reviews that we get, whether they be, uh, you know, in the Tennessee and, or, or on open table. No, I don't. They, they, um, I don't know, they sometimes the, the, the critic articles are, are easier for me to read, um, to decide whether I agree or disagree or, you know, um, but, you know, when, when, when you read the one star review, because they try to get in Friday night at seven o'clock with 10 people for weeks and have never been allowed. So they leave a one star review, you know, that you just, that one gets you kind of angrily laughing, right? But then you, you have the lady that, that, that it really leaves you a one star review because she ordered the food and the drinks and everything was fantastic. Um, but she took her leftovers home and the next day, the crispy potatoes weren't crispy anymore. And she found that to be ridiculous.

05:14I think, what do you, yeah, you know, or the, or the guys that, uh, came in, in, uh, January of last year and, uh, you know, they were just this kind of a hard couple to deal with these two gentlemen and, um, with one of our best managers on there and, and, you know, the kind of person that just knows how to take a beating and keep smiling and, and really they're like, their main goal is just to, to, to satiate the guests and really make them feel good about the experience. Right. And this person just wanted a cucumber salad and, or cucumbers in their salad. I forget what it was. And this manager tried everything they could to figure it out. And, um, I went back to the guests, you know, so I'm just so sorry that there's no cucumbers in house. We've checked the bar, we've checked the neighboring restaurants, everything where we, is there anything else we can get you? And he said, yeah, the turnip trucks, just a couple of blocks over and I'm not going to be the one that goes over there to get them. Okay. Well, man, that's, uh, that's just a surly attitude. Well, we went and got them and we made this cucumber salad, uh, and he still left us a one-star review because it shouldn't have been so much trouble for us to run a couple of blocks down the road to get cucumbers for him. But, but also said the food was great. It's like, what, you know, so that's why I don't read that stuff. Yeah. And the only reason I know about that is because we talked about in the management meeting, like how should we have handled this? What should we have done different? Um, but you know, it's, it's, it's, um, do you just have to take the beating sometimes? Yeah. My goal is I'm, I'm in this business one because I love to cook, right? Um, um, in a, in a, in an ideal world, um, where none of us had to work for money, I would just have this big indoor outdoor kitchen, uh, and I would be like the community cooker.

07:12You know, I would just cook, I would go get food from the garden and from, from local farms and I would just cook all day and all night and, and friends and family and neighbors and whatever would just come over and eat and we'd all have this jolly good time. Um, I just love to cook that much. I love to, to you, to watch shows about cooking. I love to read cookbooks. Uh, I love to talk about cooking. Uh, I love to learn about cooking. Um, and that's the first reason. Yeah. Very right. The second reason is it's, you know, to me, I believe it's my God-given talent. It's one of those things where if I applied very little effort, I can make good food. If I applied a lot of effort, I think I can make really decent food. Um, I'll never tell you about the perfect dish I cook because I haven't cooked a perfect dish yet. Uh, my, my theory and opinion is, uh, once I cook the quote perfect dish, I'm, I'm going to retire. You can't get any better than perfect, right? So I've always tried to make things better. Um, I had a great conversation about, uh, with, uh, Will Ghidara from, uh, 11 Madison, not so long ago about Grant Atkins and, uh, some meals that we'd had at Alinea. And he said, no, the one thing I love about Grant and, and I had, I completely agree with it. I never thought about it this way.

08:33He said, you and I can sit here for an hour and come up with, with one of the best ideas we've ever had. And we take it to Grant said, Hey, chef, this is what we want to do. And Grant, he was like, gosh, guys, that is, that is a great idea. I love this entire thing. How do we make it better? And he said, we'll go back to the drawing board and, you know, spend a whole day on it. Come back and say, okay, chefs, you're right. We took this great idea and we made it even better. And we explained it to him and, and, and Grant's super positive about that. Oh my God. You know, you did, you made it even better. This is fantastic. I'm absolutely in love with this. How do we make it better? It's always about making the guest experience better, right? Right. And so at some point, I want you, I want you to smile. I want you to be happy. I want you to forget about COVID-19 and the stock market and the car deal that you just didn't get you paid too much for and your boss and everything else. And I want you to sit with your friends. I don't care if they're a former vice president or the pop star that you live next door to or the, or the plumber that you've known for 30 years. Don't care. Demographics don't matter. Economics don't matter.

09:41Sit down and enjoy some food. All right. That's my goal. I want you to be my bread together. That's it. That's it. Cause we can't cause cause when you're out to eat or when you're at your own kitchen table for that brief period of time, you can forget about everything else. You don't have to escape to the fantasy world of Harry Potter, Alice in the one lander or Disney or whatever else. You can do it right in your own dining room or in the dining room of a restaurant. It's your own fantasy. It's your own creation, right? We serve you food. We serve you drinks. We do the dishes. All you have to do is come and enjoy. That's it. I think that's what the thing that people out there are missing the most right now of all the things that people are missing. I think that fellowship, going out, getting dressed up, not getting dressed up, whatever, just feeling that vibe of going out, spending time with their friends, connecting is something that people are sorely missing. I think that you're right. I think people are going to come back quickly. They are. And you know, that's that double edged sword. That's that we're happy to have you.

10:51And it's almost a triple edge. If you, if you think about it, because you get bombarded and you're on a skeleton staff, there's going to be some mishaps, right? And mishaps lead to negative reviews because these people are going to review. I saw a meme the other day like how many, how many of those social media quote influencers that that jockeyed for free meals all the time have you talked to recently? And I was like, yeah, we haven't heard from a single one. I saw that same post. Was that Delia Joe Ramsey's post? Yeah, exactly. Nailed it, Delia. Love it. You know, it's funny because you, if you saw in that same post, I said come on National Restaurant Radio and talk about it. Did you not? She's, she's going to be on tomorrow. Yes. Tell Delia I said hello. Yes. Hi Delia. I'm very excited about it. Yeah, it's true. But again, I'm hoping. Where are they? Is this, they're on unemployment, I'm sure. Can't you get unemployment for not being able to influence anymore? I don't know. Or would you then have to prove your income?

12:06And that's a real tricky situation. Again, we're not giving advice, right? We're not giving legal advice for unemployment advice. No, and I kind of fall into that category now. You know, as a, as a restaurant consultant going into being a podcaster, I'm, I'm dabbling on the side of being an influencer. So yeah, we'll see. Yeah, but you're not, you know what, you're not busting stops for all the free stuff. You know, dinner for 10 with drinks included. We're not going to write positive reviews about you. Oh, okay. Not all in like that. I'm not saying that, you know, that, um, but no, I, it's, it's my hope that this, this scenario, one of the positive things that comes out of this scenario is the sense of community, right? And that we realize a little less time on your phone and more time with family. Now we can't, we can't technically see friends though. I love these people that are doing these, these block parties, social, social distancing block parties, right? Cause I, where'd you grow up?

13:11Uh, here I'm in Nashville and I've lived here for 32 years. Did you all have parties in the neighborhood sometimes where all the neighbors got together and it was just food everywhere and kids playing and adults out having fun and drinking and watching kids play and listen to laughter and you know, and then everybody helped clean up and we all went home, right? I haven't seen one of those in decades, but now you're seeing them. We go to 12 south where everybody's out in their front yard in their chairs and they're all playing in their front yard, but they're talking back and forth or the people that are playing music on our patio. My chef de cuisine said her next door neighbors were playing, I think it was classical music and taking requests and somebody threw some money out on the sidewalk. So they put a hat down there and families were walking by with their dogs and their kids and they would throw tips in the hat and these guys just sat out there and played music. Like, yes, let's do that. Let's walk through the neighborhoods and enjoy the fresh air and the sunshine, right? And listen to the music.

14:18Man, I didn't, dude, I didn't even know you played music and you're so talented. This is fantastic. Like get to know each other again. And then one day when we can all get together again, don't forget that and invite each other over. Have that dinner, sit in the garden, you know, have a sip by the fire pit and smoke cigars together. I don't care what it is, but don't forget that sense of community. Whatever you do, don't forget it. It's an amazing gift. I've said, I told my wife that I said, you know, it's weird because while we're so distant from so many people, I don't know if I've ever felt so connected because I get to do this podcast and I get to have hour long conversations with people that I haven't seen in a while or that I don't know super well. Like yourself, like just being able to sit and talk to you for an hour and learn all about you and have good like is cathartic for me. Like I love it. Like I'm having so much fun.

15:21No, I completely agree. Yeah. Like I said, people that I haven't talked to in forever that I'll reach out to you just like, Hey, you know, don't know why your name popped up in my head thinking about you. Hope you're well. Or that random text that you get. I was making coconut cakes yesterday at Adele's and this FaceTime came in and I turned it on as one of my buddies I hadn't talked to in a while. And he and I have never FaceTime. This is a big strong family man played me NFL, you know, a big FaceTimer driving down the road. He's like, man, I don't know. I just thought about you. I want to check in and see how are you? How are the kids? How's, how's Kelly? You know, just like this is, this is fantastic. Cause we're, cause we are, we're getting to know each other. Everybody's getting to know each other on a more personal level, even at a distance. And it's fantastic. And maybe that's what this is all about. I think everything happens for a reason. What did that make you feel like when you got that phone call and you reconnected with that guy? How did it make you feel like, just made you feel good all over? Appreciate it? 100% that, that, you know, that, that somebody else, and it is, it's nice to know that somebody just randomly thought of you in a positive way. Not like, God, that SOB, I used to work for him, you know, whatever. No, it's, it's, hey, I want to check on that. I want to see how he's doing.

16:50Um, and, and, and to me it comes, it makes you think of other people. And so you want to reach out to them. And I said in the podcast today, I said, people are hurting right now. There are people out there. If you have a friend that you know, maybe they drink too much or maybe whatever and they're alone, like pick up the phone and like stop listening right now and call them. It makes them feel one phone call from one person when you feel alone, can change your entire outlook on your life. You never know what it can do for somebody, right? You don't know what's happening behind a closed door, much less behind a field brain. And that one phone call, that one, hey, Brandon, thinking about you, man, miss you, dude, hope you're well, even if you don't talk to him, just that message, that sound of your voice, that could mean the difference in some pretty big ways. It really can. And it doesn't take, you know what, it doesn't take you a second to do it. It doesn't. I'll tell you, just for me, personally, it's funny. Chef Julio Hernandez, um, who is at Nectar Urban Canteen, a friend of mine for a long time, but when I put these podcasts out, he always like, he shares them and he's like, dude, I love the podcast. This great sense of messages, but it like, it's one thing. It's one person sending a message and it doesn't take but a second to do. But like it, like, it makes me feel so sped, like it's just the best thing. I'm like, Julio, you're, you're like my favorite person, man. Thank you so much. Just, it's amazing how one person putting one message out there just makes me feel amazing. Yeah, right. To me, like I said, um, it's brought me closer to a number of people and I intend on continuing that because, um, I never need to know if it helps or not. It just makes me feel better that I've, that I've talked to somebody. Um, uh, you know, you put the smile on your face for a second. Um, hopefully put the smile on their face for a second

18:53and I hope we all continue that because it used to be that way. You know, you called your parents on Sunday, you went to the church or, or Sunday supper at a friend's house or whatever it is. And I think we all need to remember that. Um, once this is all over and not go back to the way it was, but go back to the way we want it to be. I think this is a big reset button for our entire world. Yeah, I hope so. I really do because I, you know, as I get older and, and you know, when you ever see that, that old guy or that old lady sit on the porch and just rock and stare out into the fields or at the mountains and wonder, man, how in the world do they do that? I gotta go, go, go, go, go, go. And, and now I get it, you know, I find that, uh, the kids running around the garden or the, or the waves crashing on the beach or whatever. And I can, I can sit and stare at it for a long, long time and feel very accomplished at the end of that. Uh, and I hope that we're all kind of getting that sense too, that where you're at right now is where you're supposed to be, make the best of it and it's going to be the best it can be.

20:06The one thing I've wanted to convey through all of this and I think what you just touched on is perspective. Yeah. You know, I think we've, we can all sit back and step into somebody else's shoes or just kind of change your perspective for one minute. That guy right now that made you go down the street to get cucumbers, you know, I bet he kind of feels like, I bet he kind of feels like a jerk right now. You know what? And the grand scheme of all things you give in a restaurant, a one star because they didn't go down the street to like, dude, order off the menu. Stop it. Like who are, why are you that special that you need to like, maybe that guy right now has a little perspective and goes, eh, maybe I was a little over the top back then. Yeah. Maybe I can change. You know, you talk about restaurants and yeah, you go to a restaurant because you're hungry for pizza and you walk into a salad joint, they're not going to have pizza. Well, that's not their fault. That's your fault, right? But maybe you walk into the salad joint because your body's like, Hey man, I would like some lettuce and some vegetables, not some crust and cheese.

21:18You know, think about it. Um, so we, we need to quit blaming other people for stuff. You know, personal accountability, man. That's it. That's it. If I go out and, and run around at the hospitals without a mask or gloves or, or washing my hands and, and constantly rubbing my face, am I going to get sick? Probably am. And that's beyond the virus. I'm probably going to get sick. My fault, right? I start licking doorknobs. You're going to get something, my man. So that's a thing. And also too, like beyond personal, personal responsibility for that, it's, it's, it's just one of the things that you, you're responsible for your attitude and your actions and your feelings, right? And I'm not going to let those affect me. If you're a jerk and, and, and when I act like that, that's, that's on you. I'm not going to say it's cool because I don't think it's cool to be that way, but that's on you. Um, I'm going to, I'm going to continue to be really great with me and really great with the people around me. And I, as a, as a chef and a restaurateur, I'm going to do my best to really make you have a great day.

22:37Because I know sometimes people have bad days and they come off bad and, and you could turn them around, you know, and I've seen it before with the end of the meal. It's like, wow, you know, I had a bad day and I came in really hungry and I didn't want to be nice to anybody. This has been so much fun and thank you. Right. Um, and some people just say, they just, I don't know what they're upset about and I'm sorry that they're upset, but that's it. Let it go. Well, I've always, as an operations guy, I've always said this, when people walk into your establishment, you have no idea where they're coming from. You don't know if they just came from a funeral. You don't know if they just had to put their dog down, you know, they just got divorced, they just broke up or if they just got engaged, they just won the lottery. You don't know if it's the best day of the life, the worst day of the life, whatever, but your job, the second they walk in the door is to make them feel welcomed, like you're welcoming home your grandmother to your house. Whatever happened when they walked through the door, you have no idea and whatever you're feeling at the moment, if you had a bad day, it's not okay. You need to come in and every person that walks through the door, it's like a bright ray of sunshine. This is an oasis. When you're here, none of that matters. We're going to do everything in our power to make the rest of your day amazing, which I think in a weird way, like the it's always Friday in here for TGI Fridays is a great way to describe it, but we have to be intentional every single day with every single thing that we do to create that environment. I've told all the people that work on our team, guys, I don't want you to work here because you have to work. We all have to work. I want you to work with us because you want to, right? I want this to be your safe zone. If you're having a fight with your spouse or your significant other, if you just lost a parent, I'm trying to think of honest scenarios that have happened to me. If you are facing legal troubles, whatever it is

24:38negative in your world, you know that you can come here to this restaurant, to this kitchen, to this whatever. You don't have to worry about those for the time being, right? You can make pasta or you can create those cocktails or yeah, and you can lean on us, right? None of us in this world are angels and we need to not judge people because like you said, you don't know where we've come from, right? You don't know what's happened to us today much less than the past month, whatever. And so stop judging, start helping. And I've tried to create that culture at the restaurant and think we're really there. You need to get a little drama looking, and that's just the restaurant business. But for the most part, I guarantee there's not a line cook, a server, a manager, a SOM, a porter or anything. I couldn't call them to hey, I need your help with something right away. Where do I need to be? And all this social distancing, everything would just stop. Where do I need to be? What do I need to do? And that's it. That's the safe zone I want because then maybe if you could take for that second and clear your head and go wow, all right, you know what this problem is? It's as bad as I thought it was when I got here because it's not, right? If you stay in the future or if you take your brain to the future and bring it back to the present, you've come up with something that's just categorically false because you have no clue to, you know, you can't predict the future. So stop. Stop your brain from working. Make me that great pasta that you're super good at because even if we don't serve it together, I'm, you know, I eat like a homeless fat kid and that's what I want right now. And it's going to make me happy and loads of other people happy. And you're going to be happy watching it. And then I'm going to sit down to hey man, you know, let's talk about that girlfriend issue. Let's talk about that girlfriend issue. Ah, you know, she was just blowing off steam.

26:40I was just blown. It's no big deal. I've already texted her. We're cool. Okay, great. You know, and that's that's it. Sometimes just taking your mind off it for a minute will do the trick. Yep. The same thing with food though. I'm telling you, it's the greatest equalizer. It is the absolute greatest equalizer. And if people remember that the breaking bread, the spending time with others and listening, being present, listening to their story, even if you don't want to listen to it, but you listen to it because you might get something you really like or you want to talk about to get them off that story. But being present and enjoying the moment, no matter how long, no matter how brief, to me, that's what the restaurants are here for. Not just sustenance. That's what restaurateurs want to do. Hugh Acheson said this is not just about nutrition. It's about nourishment. And you know, eating is one thing, but it's the experience. It's a mental, physical, spiritual nourishment. Yes. Yeah, it's all of those things is what a real it's what eating in the 404 kitchen. Yeah. You know, it's still one of my favorite movies, Ratatouille, that bite when, when ego was that is, is that the critics name ego?

28:09When he eats the Ratatouille. And I mean, I can tell you moments like that. Alan Benton, the guy that makes the bacon bacon. Yeah. He has a sausage that he sells. And every time I'm there, first time I did it, I never even do it. I've known Alan for a long time and never had the sausage. I always just had the bacon. But I took it home to my parents' house in Knoxville. And the next morning, got up and started cooking everybody breakfast. And the smell hit me. And it was just like, wow, this, this, this, this great feeling kind of hit me. And I couldn't believe it. I couldn't figure out what it was. And my mom came in and said, what are you cooking? And I said, I said, putting the sausage is from Alan. And she said, it smells just like Burton's farmhouse. And that was it. So I used to go spend every summer at my grandfather's farm up in Cape City. And, you know, learned how to drive a tractor before I could drive a car and got paid 25 cents for every bull for all that gig. And then true, you know, raking hay, topping tobacco, counting cows, all that good stuff. That's what his house smelled like. And for the rest of the day, I just thought about, you know, standing up on the farm and hanging out with my grandparents and funny things that happened, you know, but it was great. It was just like that moment.

29:32Right. And there's been plenty of them, but that's, that's it. That's what food does. It, it nourishes so many things besides just your physical being. I mean, truly your soul, your brain, your, it can nourish your relationships if you let it. You know, it's so important. There's a, there's a, you mentioned bacon and I did an interview with Nathan Gifford. Are you familiar with Gifford's bacon? And he, he was telling me that when he was a kid, he would go to school and he knew when he was six years old that he wanted, five years old, that he wanted to be a, he wanted to be in the food business because if you got to school an hour early, it was just him, his brother and his mom. She's a single parent. And if you got to school an hour early, then they would feed you breakfast. But if you didn't get there an hour earlier, they wouldn't. So he would go an hour early so he could eat breakfast. And when you get there, the, the, the, the cafeteria smelled like bacon and sausage. And to this day, when he cooks bacon and sausage, it makes him feel warm inside. And it's kind of his passion and it's centered around an emotion, a feeling of security. And I just think that's exactly what we're talking about here. That's that, that moment where food and life just, they're a total parallel.

30:51Isn't it great? I mean, it literally, it's great. And it could be, you know, and you could take rival politicians and sit them down over dinner and say, here's the deal, guys, no politics. Don't buy anything else you want, no politics. I've gotten to know a fairly polarizing political figure over the years. And, and I've had friends and family have, you know, comments about working for this person. And I laugh. Well, we don't talk about politics. We talk about the Beatles and, and, and football and, and urban and cigars and, and farming and, and food and we talk about life, right? Because we know that we would probably share some, some viewpoints that weren't similar if we started talking politics. And that's okay. It is okay. And, and, you know, the great thing is we just don't because this person's spent all their life in politics. And I think they want to talk about something different and I love it. And, and it's been just fascinating person to get to know. And it, you know, it's just one of those things like, cool. I, and, and if you don't like that, that I cook for this person, great. And if you do great because honestly, your opinion doesn't matter. I, I enjoy it. I enjoy it for, for a lot of reasons.

32:22Yeah. And cooking, cooking is nonpartisan. That's correct. I mean, it is, it truly is, you know, I've been talking about the spirit of service with, with this whole thing and just the void that's left in chef's hearts because they can't see that, that they put the food out there and they can't see the end result. I'll do a self, a selfless or a plug here for myself. I started a hashtag called Replate Challenge. And the idea is when you sell your food to go, right? When you make this food, source these products, it's good. Yeah. When people get home, yeah, let's see, put it on your plate at home and check it out. And, you know, let's, let's, I would love for, I wanted to honor the chefs and then you guys can, hey guys, do the Replate Challenge when they get home and they plate your food on their plate where you get to see your creation and some through somebody else's eyes. And that's what a cool way to honor chefs, like just a neat thing to do. So, and then somebody, somebody, if I'm not mistaken, did the hashtag clean plate challenge because they had, they had just crushed everything they put on their plate, which I thought was fantastic too. Listen to me, the biggest compliment in the world is not you saying that, hey, I've been to the 404, I loved it. Hey, I've been to Gertie's, I loved it. Hey, you're fasting, whatever. All fantastic, right? And I appreciate it all. It's when I see you again, it's when you come into my restaurant the second time, the third time, the 10th time, whatever it may be, a repeat guest is the best compliment I can ever get. Because it means you, you meant all that, right? It wasn't lip service. It was, it was sincere. And the people that we see now every week for curbside service, and, you know, we wave at them through the windows with our gloves on and our mask on and it's like, hey, how are you? Yeah, good to see you again. I'll see you next week. And there's a lot of

34:25times, and it's funny because you would yell at your kids for doing things. Like, did you just text me from upstairs? Like, get your lazy butt up and come downstairs and talk to me. But we're texting from, you know, 15 feet away because right now we can't go out and give them a hug. But it is, you know, it's just, hey, I'm seeing you again. You, you appreciate what we're doing. And that is a massive compliment, massive compliment. So yeah, I love, I love the plate challenge. It's great. I am going to say that this was one of my favorite interviews. I, I still enjoy, I just love talking to people and I want you to come back on the show once things kind of normalize and I want to talk about the actual food you're cooking and I want to talk more business. I want to talk about the process of moving your restaurant across the street. Okay. I want to talk about Adele's, your partnership with the hospitality group.

35:26Yeah. I want to talk about all that stuff and I want to get in depth and learn a lot about your restaurant. And if people listen to this, I'm sorry we didn't get a whole lot into the 404's menu today, but I, I, this has been just the best conversation. I've loved it. Well, good, man. I appreciate being on. I mean, this really was a fantastically fun conversation. And not what I expected, not that I expected it to be bad, but no, we went on a, we went on a run of, of, of good conversation, I think. So we loved it. You know, I want to do is I want to do this in person. So once we're able to kind of un-socially distance each other, I want to come sit in the restaurant or in the kitchen and have this conversation while you're cooking. Maybe we'll do some video with it, but I think it'd be cool for us to be there live. Anytime. You're welcome. Anytime. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you very much. And thank you for taking the time today and best of luck to you and the next year family, everything going on for the next few weeks until some of this normalizes. Same to you, Brandon.

36:28I appreciate it, man. All right. So Matt Bolas, 404 Kitchen, we are going to set this up to do another interview where we do get more in depth in his food and cooking style and some of the business behind it. But that was a really cool part. The second part of that interview I thought was just so telling and so great. Just the idea of reviews and people. I love the story of the guy, the cucumbers. Oh my gosh. So thank you guys for listening. Again, if you like it, please subscribe. Love to have you guys get this every new episode into your inbox. And thank you for listening. Hope you're being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.