Max Palmer

00:00We are so excited to introduce you to the future of restaurant technology. GoTab is it. With GoTab QR-based online ordering and payment processing solution to the all-in-one restaurant POS software, you have the flexibility to adjust your service model based on your guest preferences and staffing levels. Our system even allows easy menu management based on what you have in stock. Unlike traditional restaurant POS hardware, you don't have to be locked in to one way of doing things that starts and ends with the server taking manual orders and swiping credit cards. You can hand off more of that control to your guests. Free up your staff's time to focus on great customer service and creating customer loyalty. You can even continue to use the more traditional server-focused ordering and payment processes for guests who prefer table-side interactions. Guys, to have that option is everything right now. Go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com, click the Sponsors tab, and you will find a $500 gift under the GoTab tab.

01:06Do a 30-minute demo and I will give you a free hat or I will give you a free t-shirt for Nashville Restaurant Radio. Just DM us on Instagram and let us know you set that up. Go check them out right now. We are super excited to introduce Maintain IQ for Restaurants. Maintain IQ is a modern digital checklist system that simplifies your operations. They are designed specifically for restaurants. You can standardize, track, and manage food safety procedures, temp logs, daily checklists, preventative maintenance, and ongoing repairs. He's saying that managers will save up to 10 hours per week. You can reduce repairs and maintenance spend by $5,000 a year. Staff will know what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Everything is digitally recorded. Minimize liability, ensuring safety, cleaning, and compliance standards are upheld. This is the best thing since sliced bread, guys. And we're gonna talk about that in just a sec with Sharpies.

02:08But we are talking about a checklist to do every single thing in your restaurant that's all kept nice and neat in a little app. You need to call Will Joxon. His number is 888-534-0261 and set up a 30-minute demo. If you do that, I'll give you a free Nashville Restaurant Radio hat or I'll give you a free Nashville Restaurant Radio t-shirt to send me a message on Instagram. Check out Maintain IQ. ["Maintain IQ"] Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. We are powered by Gordon Food Service and my name is Brandon Styll. I am your host today. We've got a fun one today. We are talking with Max Palmer.

03:09And Max is the owner at the Bagel Shop. I believe he owns the Bagel Shop with his wife. She was unable to make it to the show. But this, this is a fun one because I didn't know too much about him before getting, you know, before sitting and talking to him. I love their shirts. That they have at Bagel Shop. Say, get a load of this BS. And I assume that's Bagel Shop, but I mean, come on. That's Brandon Styll. That's me all over the place. Max, if you're listening to this, I forgot. I need one of those shirts, dude. You gotta save a double extra large for me because that is awesome. I love it. Kind of like I loved our conversation. I love it when people come in and I have the expectation of the way that a conversation is gonna go. And then it completely, like I'm completely shocked and surprised at what happens. And this story, and this is really just him. He gets to tell his entire story. It's really fun. This is a pandemic thing. Like this is another one of those, like Bad Luck Burger Club or these, these people that, I mean, he was making bagels in his house.

04:09Like broken oven, making bagels and just fricking hustled, man. Just made it happen and kept networking and kept talking and kept working hard and working two jobs. And just like, this is like the American dream. And I am here for it. So I hope that you enjoy this episode with Max Palmer. I am on vacation this week. So this is, I can't even take a vacation. I gotta put out new content even when I'm on vacation with the family, spending some time in Florida. So wish me fun. I'm sure if you follow me at Brandon underscore NRR, you will get to see lots of pictures of that because I'll be posting that kind of stuff because I don't know, because that's what I do. So thank you guys again for listening. Not a lot to say today. Hope you have a wonderful, wonderful week. We did have our first episode with Kayla Ellis and the gospel of cocktail podcast last Wednesday with Robert Chambers. And we have another episode coming up this Wednesday. It is brand new, surprise guest, surprise guest.

05:10You can check it out. It'll be out on Wednesday. I'm so excited to put this out. So much positive feedback from what this episode did. A lot of people in the bar community saying, wow, I can't believe I feel heard. Like this was a great, great insight into what we do. And I know I just, I couldn't be more proud and excited to work with Kayla as she is such a sharp person and so genuine and just so, I don't know, I love her perspective. And I love that she's sharing other people's perspective. So stay tuned. We got five more episodes of the gospel of cocktail with Kayla Ellis coming up each Wednesday for the next five weeks. So go back and listen to the previous one. It's that good. I'm telling you, you're gonna love it. And then enjoy this interview today with Max Palmer. Super excited today to welcome in Max Palmer. He's the owner at Bagel Shop Nashville. What's up, Max? What's going on? Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio.

06:12Happy to be here. This is so exciting. Yeah, I know. So you walked in maybe five, six minutes ago. We've been getting all of this stuff together. And I always do this thing. We'll walk in and like, hey man, what's going on? How are you doing? And I'm like, hey, stop, stop. We can't have the conversation. I like to do this on air. We don't wanna get all the good stuff out of the way before we get started. I know, right? So what were we talking about? We could just jump back into that. You had asked me something. Well, you asked where I was from. And you said Mississippi. Originally, yes. Jackson, Mississippi. Jackson, Mississippi, born and raised. You said I lived there for two and a half years. And I said, I'm sorry. I think I lived in a place called like the Players Club or something. I don't, I don't. Makes sense. I lived, there was a place called Time Out. Oh yeah. And I was right behind Time Out. There was like a bunch of- Yeah, I know exactly where that is. Yeah. So I used to manage the Amerigo Restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi, right there on Old Canton. Right, I mean, they're all in that same little strip. Yeah. Wow, I love Amerigos.

07:12You know what? I've been here for 10 years and I've never been to the one here. What? I don't know. I guess I've just like, maybe it won't live up the expectation to what I grew up on, but it probably will. It will. The people who run that, I mean, I love all their stuff. They got Char, because they have a Char back in Mississippi. I opened that Char. All right. So back when that was first on Highland Village. Yeah. So I was the, when that restaurant first opened, I was one of the opening trainers for Char. Wow. Yeah. Going back in the day. Very far. Yeah. I remember. It was 2002, I think. Yeah. 2001, 2002. Wow. It's been a while. 20 years. That's insane. I remember when it, I mean, I remember when that place opened, it was like, oh my gosh, a steak house in Jackson, Mississippi. Yeah. And it looks good. It was really good too. Yeah. I mean, I haven't been in a long time. You know, another thing, I still haven't been to the one here. You should go to the one here. I've been told it's very good. It's, you know what? It's good. And go to Amerigo, because Amerigo is everything that you remember it.

08:17They haven't changed too much, but Four Top Hospitality runs a really good, they're operationally really good restaurants. Anywhere that you go, they do a fantastic job. They have this one dish, I think it's called like straw and hay. Yeah. I have just like, it's like one of those like memories, you know, sometimes when you're thinking about food and like the flavor will come back into your mouth, it's like one of those things is like, there it is. And it's so basic. It was just like a green fettuccine and like an egg yolk fettuccine. So good though. With like a little bit of peas and a white sauce and ham. Just little cubes of ham. Little cubes of ham. That's all it was. Can't go wrong though. I mean, like, what's bad about that? Well, my fettuccine Imperial to me was the all time because it had the sliced mushrooms, the sliced ham and chicken with the fettuccine and the white sauce. I mean, something about Amerigo is just comfort. This is just becoming an Amerigo's podcast now. Yeah, it is. And I haven't had any of those guys on yet, so. Get on it. Well, no, it's a longer story. Okay. But yes, that company has changed hands three times.

09:18So back in the day, that was Bill and Al, Bill Latham and Al Roberts were Jacksonians. Right. And then they sold it and then the company in the bottom went under and then all the old GMs bought it back. Nice, right back in the hands of the people who needed it. Yeah, and I mean, so they understood the culture, how to do it and they all work really well together. It's a good company. Now they've got Etch and Etcetra with Deb Paquette. So they're doing neat things. So Jackson, Mississippi, and what brought you to Nashville? Did you go straight from Jackson to Nashville? So older brother moved here in probably 2007, 2008. Now how many siblings do you have? I have two. I have an older brother and a little brother. I have an older brother and a little sister. So you're the middle child. I am. They both live here now, which is awesome. So older brother moved up here to do what everybody comes to Nashville to do, music. And being born and raised in Jackson, it's kind of a bubble.

10:22You know the same people and that's all you know. And I love it going back home and getting to hang out with my friends and my family and things like that, eating the food. I mean, the food down there is one of a kind. Going down and eating at new restaurants or eating at old restaurants, it's just like, it's so good. I love it. You had Tico's. Oh yeah. Talk about some steak. So. I love talking to Jack's Mississippi stuff with people. It's like, what, you know Tico's? Yeah, because it's a bubble. Like everybody knows the same thing if you've been there for like more than six weeks. So when I was there, they still had the doc. Oh yeah. How old are you? That's before me. I'm 31. Okay, so I'm 10, 12 years older than you. But like my mom is a musician. So like, and my brother's musician and everybody in my family does music. So they've all like played there or been there and done things like that. Doc was a shit show. My mom's a jazz singer. Wow. And my brother did music there and then moved up here to do it. So your younger brother's, your younger brother do music? No, he's trying to be a doctor.

11:24Wow. That's. Yeah, he goes to Fandy med school right now. Okay. And do you do music? I do. What do you play? I'm a drummer, I guess by trade as much as I can call it that. But I mean, I like writing music, playing guitar, singing, anything I can do. We have a very musical family. So it's just kind of how it's always been. I bet holidays are fun. Yeah, I think anytime we bring like an outsider, like if somebody gets a new significant other, we kind of scare them a bit because it's like, all right, time for the, well, we're all Jewish. So it's like time for the Hanukkah jam session. And it's like, what? We're like, what, what's going on? And then we just kind of like indoctrinate them in. And then they just like, we're like, here, take this tambourine and go. And we have, we have a lot of fun. I imagine that would be a ton of fun. Yeah. Can I be a significant other just to experience that? Come on, we'll see you there. I want to show up for that. It's great. I could play a mean tambourine. That's it though. B-Y-O-T. I can play a few chords on the guitar, but that's it. So that's cool.

12:25So you're married? I'm married. Me and my wife are both owners of the business. She went on a little vacation today with our daughter. So. How old is your daughter? She's two and a half. Nice. Yeah. How long have you guys been married? We got married in 2018. So going on four years. Okay. Four years. So a year and a half in and they let's have a kid and. It's the story. I mean, we can get into how Bagel Shop got created based on like the situation that we had. Let's do it. So I, my, my working background, I have my bachelor's degree in marketing and advertising. I went to the University of Southern Mississippi. Okay. Moved up here like four days after I graduated because I did not want to move back to Jackson. I felt like if I did, I would be stuck there forever. So my brother lent me his couch for the first month or two when I was living here, I got a job working at just like, it was this weird business that claimed to be a marketing business, but it was really like here, go to a Home Depot every day and walk around like in a suit and walk around and tell people, or ask people if they like their cabinets.

13:37And if they like their cabinets, you can walk away, but if they don't like the way their cabinets look, then tell them we can send somebody out to their house for free to give them a cabinet refacing consultation. It was so bad. I was, I'm not like a door-to-door sales kind of guy and that's how it was, but it was, it wasn't framed to me that way when I got the job. Did people in Home Depot, would you get kicked out immediately by doing that? Well, they worked. It was like, Home Depot was a client of this business. Okay, so they allowed you to be there to do that? To harass their customers? You know the same people like when you go to Home Depot, there's that guy who's like standing by that big HVAC and he's like, here, tell me what you think about this. Spin the wheel and you get $500 off your HVAC or a piece of gum. Same thing, but I didn't have like a spin the wheel. I just had to like walk around with like a piece of paper and just like, hi, my name's Max. I work for this marketing company. Do you like your cabinets? I lasted like a month and I was like, no way. So I- You would have got me in my old house. You'd walk up to me and I'd be like, I hate my cabinets. It's the worst thing in my house. You're like, what?

14:37Did you ever have any bed like that? There was like, I hate them. Like, can you help me? Like, holy shit. Yeah, yeah. Every once in a while, but most people were like, I gotta go buy. Yeah. You know, it's like the mall and there's people in the center. They're just like trying to get you. You're like, no. No. So I did that for a little bit, moved out of my brother's, ended up just like picking up service industry jobs here and there. I worked at a few restaurants here in town. I worked for, well, my first job outside of that was working at Antique Archaeology, which is like the American Pickers shop. Yeah. And did you, so you worked for the American Pickers? Yeah. I guess I worked for them, but like they weren't ever there. It was really just like, it's just like a tourist destination. Yeah. I had never heard of the show before. Really? So when I got there, I was like, what are all these people doing in here, buying these like, branded t-shirts. I thought we were an antique shop. Not really. No, it's like a museum store, I guess. I saw them pick this on the show and they want to see stuff. And they just take pictures and then- Was all that stuff for sale? Some of it.

15:38A lot of it was like just for photo op. So I did that for a little bit. It was just like a summer job is what they called it. So it was seasonal. After the season ended, I ended up going to get a job. It's like a crazy thing. Did you ever know about Soul Shine Pizza from Jackson? Oh yeah, yeah. They had a shop here for a little bit. There was a Soul Shine in Midtown. A division. Exactly. My mom is friends with the owner of that space. So like they were opening up a new spot, Slider House. So I got a job there. My brother did all their marketing for both those restaurants. Nice. So I worked at Slider House. That was like my first like restaurant job. I was just serving, waiting tables. I did that for- That was right after it first opened? It was like right after it first opened. Okay. I did that for six to eight months. And then I ended up meeting my girlfriend at the time, wife now, over Twitter. She was still in Mississippi. She like sent me a DM one day and the rest was history.

16:39Slid right into your DMs, huh? Yeah, it was crazy. What was the circumstances around that? Did you post something and she was like, I'm from Mississippi, you look cute, what's up? Basically, no, it was, I had posted something about some playlist I was listening to and she was like, oh my gosh, what's on your playlist? Oh. Oh. And then I told her and she was like, oh, I love those bands. And then from then on, the rest was history. Come to find out later, she had never heard of any of those bands. She's just lying to me to get me to respond to her. It obviously worked out in her favor. Wow. Yeah. So she moved to Nashville? Eventually, she was in school at Mississippi State at the time. This was like right around the time when Lyft and Uber were coming a thing here. Yeah. And the money was good in it when it first started. So I had quit my job at Slider House because I wanted to be able to go down to Mississippi to visit her anytime I wanted to, make my own hours type of job, gig economy type thing. It was just getting started. So I started driving for Lyft and Uber and I was making money for that.

17:41And then on the weekends, I would either drive down to Mississippi and hang out with her or she would come up here and we'd get time to hang then. But I had like a lot of freedom just because I was making my own hours. How much fun was that? Because I did that too. It was a lot of fun when it first got started. It was like, I mean, it was the first time I was like, I can make this much money just driving people around like to the airport and back. It was crazy. I just liked meeting all, my dad is retired and my dad was sitting on the pool one day and he said, I'm going to, he goes, I'm gonna start driving Uber. And I was like, what? What are you talking about? And he's like, I'm bored. I want to talk to people. So he got, I got a Tahoe, let's make it happen. So he came home one day and he was like, oh my God, this is insane. The people get in your car and then they're out of control. He goes, it's hilarious. He goes, I just, I'm gonna fly on the wall in his cars and people just say whatever they want. I mean, really. And I was like, I want to do it. I want to do it.

18:41So then I finally talked my wife into it. And yeah, I mean, you had the freedom. I stopped drinking, but I get off of work. And I would just be like, instead of going to a bar, I just turn on the app and I could drive for like two hours. And I'm like, anytime I got a ride that was anywhere close to my house, I'm like, I'm done. Thanks. But I mean, it was, so. Exactly. You enjoyed it? I really did. And like, I have always been, I love working with people, like customer service type of things has always just been really interesting to me because I'm, I like talking to people. I like meeting people. So it was a cool way to just like meet random people that I would obviously never come in contact with outside of that. 100%. So I did that for a while. What's the biggest difference between Uber and Lyft in your opinion? People always ask, which one's better? I don't really know. You know, I ended, moving on to the story, I ended up like working for Lyft, the company. Really? When they opened their On Second Avenue. Location on Second. Okay. So I've always kind of liked Lyft a little bit more. All right.

19:41For the insiders. Yes, exactly. So I did that for a while. You know, I eventually like, my mom, like I said, she's a musician, but she also is an interior designer, owns a furniture store. She needed somebody to come and run her social media and advertising for her for a few months while the person that was doing it went out on maternity leave. You got that marketing degree. And I didn't have anything to do here. I was like, oh, I'm just driving my car. She was like, just come home and you can like sleep in at our house. You can live here for a few months. I just need you for like three months. Three months ended up turning into like almost a year because I picked up a job at an ad agency in Mississippi while I was there. It was like never meant to be, but this begins like the whole time that I was doing that, I had this like idea in my head that I wanted to open a coffee shop because there's not a ton in Mississippi anyway. No. And I've always like kind of been like a coffee guy. And I see you went to Breast at Parlo this morning.

20:43It was right up the street. Jealous. Looking for my coffee now. He said, I'm like, where the hell is my coffee? And I moved back to Mississippi. I was like, there's so many coffee options in Nashville. There's nothing here. I should start my own. I should open my own business. My mom, like I said, an entrepreneur, my brother, entrepreneur. So we're a very entrepreneurial family. So she was helping me get that started. I like, I only lasted at that ad agency for a little bit. It was like a bunch of old people and they just like, they wanted me to do social media and they weren't really getting social media at the time. Like social media had like just become like really big for businesses in like 2015. This is around that time. So, you know, I left that job and I just picked up a job like working at Whole Foods coffee shop or I did that for a little bit. I got another job at another cafe while I was there. The whole time I was like on the side, like sketching out ideas to open up my own coffee shop. I ended up like getting the keys to a space but I never went through with it because I got a random phone call from a barista parlor here in town that I applied to like months before.

21:55And they were like, hey, we're hiring. Would you be interested in moving back? And I was like, I had been looking for a reason to get back to Nashville, but just like I didn't have one. So I was like, yes, absolutely. So I like packed up my car and moved back just within like a couple of weeks. I was like, I think I still have the keys to that space I was going to rent. I just like never went back. So I kind of put that on the back burner. I was living back here for a while. That job at Barista lasted eight months. It was cool because I got a lot more like insight into like how cafes should run. What's the most important thing when it comes to running a cafe? Oh man. What'd you learn? I learned a lot about just like the behind the scenes. Like I was so used to just like seeing it from an outsider's perspective of just like, okay, so this is how like the layout of something should look or things like that. But I was like working in the back of the house there. So I was learning more about like ingredients that go in things and how to purchase like coffees and things like that.

22:58Probably a lot of preparation. It's a lot more prepping than I thought it would be. See that there's like, oh, I have to be ready for all these people to come in. You have to have everything stocked and in place and yeah. So I did that for a little bit and then I got the job at Lyft downtown. And that just like kind of took me away. Where's your girlfriend through all this? She's here at this point. Okay, so you moved, when you came back to town, she came with you? She came just a little bit after. Okay. So. And how long have you been dating at this point? Probably like two years. No, probably like three years, two, three years. Wow. And it was all long distance for the first while. Wow. Yeah, so she finished school and moved up here. We got our place together. And then she was working. What part of town were you in? Our first place was in East. Nice. It was just like this really bad duplex. Like our air conditioning never worked. It was right next to the train station. I think we only lasted like four months before we just bailed because like our landlord refused to fix the AC.

23:59She was like, oh, it's working today. I was like, but it's not gonna work tomorrow. She eventually was like, okay, if you guys want to move out, just go. I think she just wanted us to leave. So we left. Then we moved over right off 12 South, which was a really cool spot. It was like another little duplex, but it was really cheap. And hey, right off 12 South cheap, like doesn't make sense. Those things don't correlate. It was really cool. And we were living with roommates at the time, but then we eventually got our own place. We bought a house in Madison. Oh, wow. Okay. Different Madison than you're used to. Yeah, exactly. And then we sold that house after like a year and a half. We had some issues. It was like one of those like quick renovations and they didn't do a great job. It was like a converted attic that they turned into an extra bedroom, but they forgot to insulate it. So in the summer, it was like 110 degrees up there and you just could not get airflow.

25:00We got out of there fast. Now we live by the airport out in Donaldson and we love it. So what year were you doing this? Where are we at time-wise? You're in the house that's really hot upstairs. That was 18. Okay. 2018. All right. At this point, I got a job working for Smile Direct Club, the teeth aligners company on their marketing team because I was like, I need to get back into the marketing side of things, use my degree. I had a nice job, pretty good salary, good team I was working with. Everything was great. Then I was there for about a year. So this is 2019, coming on the end of 2019. We have our baby in November of 2019. You guys were married at this point. We are, we got married in October of 18. Okay, how did you propose to her? Took her down to New Orleans and proposed right along the river. Okay. Yeah, it was really nice. And I just like, I did this really funny, I'm just not like- Was she expecting it?

26:03You know, I thought she would be, but she wasn't. Oh, she got a full shock, like full. Yeah. Did you guys talk about a ring and all that stuff? She knew that my mom had given me her old engagement ring. Okay. So she knew that I had it, but she didn't know when it was coming. Okay. So I remember I got like this Polaroid camera and I took a bunch of pictures of the ring and put them in this Polaroid photo album with photos of us in it. And then, so we went down to New Orleans, she thought it was just a vacation. We flew down, we're like walking around, walking along the water and I sat down and I was like, here, take a look at this photo album that I made. And she was like going through it, I was like, oh, here's pictures of us at this thing, here's pictures of us in Asheville, here's pictures of us in New York. And she's like, wait, what is this? And she's flipping through it and there's like photos of a ring. And then she like looked at me and then I got down and- Nice. And then like my mom and my little brother come running out, they were there to surprise us. Oh, so nobody knew they were even there. Oh yeah, she didn't know. It was all a big surprise, it was great and we had a great time.

27:06That's awesome. Yeah, so then we get married. We have a kid, like I said, in November of 19, our daughter Elliot. Then, probably like two weeks later, I'm back at work. Well, maybe like a month, that took like two weeks to a month off. I go back to work and it's time for like our yearly review. And I remember I was like, all right, I hope I get a good raise today. And I go into this meeting and my boss is like, okay, thanks for coming in. Just letting you know your job no longer exists. We're laying off a bunch of people. You can take this job making like half as much as you were making before or you can take the severance. I was like, I'm gonna take the severance, bye. And I left. Wow. I was like, it was also two weeks before Christmas at this time. It was like, great, all this thing. And I had no idea what to do. This is Smile Direct Club. Yes, shout out. Shout out to Smile Direct Club and the way they let people go. Good job, Smile Direct Club. You know, we can say that because it's all gonna work out. Wait till we get further into the story. All right, I'm in. Here's your climax.

28:06So I'm just like sitting at home, I don't know what to do. And my wife is like, you need to find something to do. Meanwhile, like two years before when I was working at Lyft, I saw this video on YouTube about these guys trying bagels. Like it was like this website. I mean, obviously it was on YouTube. This website called YouTube, you ever heard of it? I don't know, what's it, you what? What is it? YouTube. Interesting, I'll have to check that out. So I watched this video of these guys. They would like try foods at different price points. It was like this silly Buzzfeed video thing. It was like, I bet I could do this. So like, this is like two years before when I was working at Lyft, I started making bagels just because. At home? At home, and I was like giving them out to my friends at work. Nice. And they really liked it, but then like life has its way. Oh, it's like at Lyft, I'm like, were you like at the airport in the holding lot? You're like handing out bagels at the office. I see you with all those people smoking cigarettes in that lot, the airport is walking around. Hey, you want a bagel? Hey, you want a bagel? Extra cash. But then, you know, like.

29:07It's not a bad idea, by the way. It's really not. If somebody put like a coffee shop in the middle of that parking lot, they would bank. Probably. Bank. Yeah. There's a, for people that don't know what we're talking about, just real quick, I don't want to interrupt your story. There is a lot in the middle of the airport, and it's an Uber and Lyft lot. And you pull in, and there's like five porta potties, and then there's like, there's like a, of space, there's like a hundred cars. And you pull in, and it's geo tags. So when you pull into this lot, and then you get put into a queue, right? So you say, there's nine cars ahead of you. So you park, and then that number continues to decrease until finally, boom, hey, you have a ride. Go, then you drive to pick somebody up. You go to the Uber Lyft pickup spot. You could, any time that you pull in there, right? Tell me if I'm wrong. You'll pull in there any time of the day, and there's 50 cars in there. And you could be number six in line when you first pull in, you're like, what the fuck are all these people doing in this lot? And they're just hanging out, smoking cigarettes.

30:09There's just, there's 50 cars in there, people just hanging out, smoking cigarettes. And I'm like, what, is this just like something you do to get away from the house? I'm here to like go, I don't want to sit here for five minutes. I want to just go. And there's just, there's just people hanging out. So I don't know what that is, but that's a thing. And now we're about to make it a coffee shop. If you could put a coffee shop in there, all these people smoking cigarettes would then buy coffee from you. Just a little business idea, guys. All right, someone take it, but just like give us a, like just a little bit. I mean, I'm thinking bagel shop. B&A. B&A. In the lot. Parking lot. In the Uber Lyft B&A bagel shop. I love it. All right, that's our next one. You know, like peach truck puts up like a little tent. And they just sit there and they sling peaches. Just put up a little tent there. I got bagels and coffee. Let's roll. All right, we'll talk more. Yeah, let's make that happen. Come on. Okay, so I'm making bagels. I'm giving them out to my friends at work. And then life gets in the way and then I just like stop.

31:10So fast forward back to me getting laid off. My wife's like, you should start making bagels again. Like, why not? So I'm doing that. And I'm just like playing around at home. Just trying to like pass time. She was working at the Lyft office during this time. Okay, so you guys are right there with each other. Yeah. She's in the Lyft office, you're there too. Yes. Got it. So we're trying to figure out what to do. But at this point, like she's at home on maternity leave. I'm at home jobless. And we're just like trying to figure out what to do with this crying newborn. And she's like, you need to start doing something because you're killing me and I need you to find something to do. What do you, let's explore that. You're just at home. She's like, you just need to not be here. It's not that, I'm just like really bored. I just have nothing to do. I was like, Mr. Ma, I was like, when we came home from my wife's first baby, I took like a week off, but I was like, everything in the house has to be sanitized and cleaned.

32:15And I was like, so gung ho. And she's like, where did that guy go? What happened to him? I'm like, oh, he died long time ago. No, no, no, he's got three jobs now. So I start picking up doing bagels again. And I'm just like trying to remember how to do it because I haven't done it in a few years. And like, I got really lucky. I just really put everything up to luck because like this entire story is just about to get crazy. I'm making bagels at home. My brother, my older brother, stops doing music a few years before and he has this business in town called Aerobar. It's a mobile bartending service. They have like these trailers where you can pull them up to places and they'll bartend weddings, events, things like that. And he's like, I need to do a photo shoot, but I'm doing coffee service, so I need some breakfast. Can you provide me with bagels? I was like, I'll provide bagels for your photo shoot if you can also take professional photos of me and the bagels while I'm there. He's like, done.

33:17So I go to this place, we get these like really beautiful professional photos done. And I'm like, okay, let's use my marketing degree. I started an Instagram page and I made it look really professional based on the photos I had. And like, I just use my advertising background and I was like, okay, here's my target audience. Here's the types of people that I think are gonna like it. Here's the voice of my brand. And I just like build out this business that doesn't actually exist. So I was like, okay, we're gonna call it Bagel Shop because if you Google bagel shops in Nashville, it's the first one that pops up. Hey, that's a good point. We love SEO. Yeah, hell yeah. So we're doing that. I get these really nice photos. And then all of a sudden like people start finding me and they're like, hey, I wanna try your bagels. Hey, I wanna try your bagels. They look really good in these photos. And I'm just like sitting at home like what's happening right now. And so this is probably around like, this is March, right? When I'm doing this. March of 2020, so this is. Exactly.

34:17All right, so I'm gonna put a pause there for one second. We're gonna take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors. Oh yeah. It's crazy, okay? All right. Did you know the number one cause of methane or greenhouse gases in landfills is your food waste? Restaurants waste so much food. All the food people don't eat. All of the scraps that come from all of your prep, it all gets put in a dumpster and then gets buried in a landfill. And as it decomposes, creates methane gas. Well, thank God, Jeffrey Ezell and his brother Clay have come up with the compost company. You can now compost your food waste. They take it to their farm. They create organic soil out of it. They then sell that to Whole Foods as well as local farmers and landscapers. So it's literally coming full circle in your community. If you're a restaurant owner or manager, you need to be calling Jeffrey Ezell at 615-866-8152 and they will set you up with the green bags and the green trash cans that they will come empty twice a week. If you work in a restaurant and you would love to have this option, instead of putting food into a trash can, you can start composting.

35:21Tell your manager to call Jeffrey Ezell that's 615-866-8152 or follow him at The Compost Company on Instagram. You know, what chefs want, some people still call it creation gardens, but what chefs want has been, was our first advertiser on the show. Monty Crawford saw what we're doing. He goes, I want to be part of it, dude. I love it. And I just, I love that. They're so perfect because they work with locally-owned and operated restaurants better than anyone. And let me tell you how they do it. No minimums, no fees, no fuel surcharges, no surcharges any time. They deliver seven days a week. They have 24 seven customer support. You can call, text, chat, email anytime from anywhere, or you can reach them at 502-587-9012. They have a diverse line of products. Their chefs have access to thousands of items across many different categories that allow them to receive fresh product daily. What chefs want is the perfect addition to any broad line company, as they've got all of your fresh produce delivered daily, plus custom meats, anything that you need that your broadliner can't get.

36:31Give them a call, 800-600-8510, or visit them at whatchefswant.com. I think one of the most overlooked things that you can do on a P&L, which is your profit and loss statement, is dish machine and chemicals. It's just one of those things you don't focus on until it's too late. Let Jason Ellis from SuperSource come in and do an audit of what you're currently doing and why you're doing it. His number is 771-337-1143. We believe here at Nash Restaurant Radio that every single thing that you do should be done intentionally in a restaurant. And allowing some company to come in and just fix your dish machine without you knowing what's really happening is exactly what we're talking about. The thing Jason does the best is he can help educate you on exactly what's going on with all of your dish machines and chemicals. He can do staff trainings to understand why you're using what you're using, again, to be intentional. They don't make you sign any type of contract. They are week to week and can get you a brand new dish machine with three free months of dish machine rental.

37:34You need to check them out. Go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com, click the Sponsors tab and then you will see SuperSource. Click that tab for a special or give Jason Ellis a call at 770-337-1143. So we're back. All right. Thanks for taking that break. Take a word from our amazing sponsors. SuperSource, which is one of these guys you're telling me you're excited about using them. I'm hoping so. You're gonna love him. That's what I've been told. He's the best. Good word of mouth recommendations. It really is like strictly word of mouth that I've heard. Have you heard anything bad about Jason Ellis over at SuperSource? I have not heard anything bad about Jason Ellis over at SuperSource. All good. So he's an amazing guy. I'm excited for you guys to hook up. So where were we in our story? We were talking about this. You had these professional photos made. You created an Instagram page. It looks very professional. You've created the bagel shop Nashville, yet there was no bagel shop Nashville. Exactly. So people start reaching out and they wanna try it.

38:35And if I could go back in time and take back all of these terrible bagels that I gave to these people when I first started, I would. Like I remember there was a coffee shop in town that wanted to wholesale when I was making them from my house. I was like, okay. And I had like no clue what I was doing. And I remember I gave this person, I was like, I'll bring you some to try. And they were just so bad. And I never heard from them again. And I was like, okay, something needs to change. So I'm talking like the amount of YouTube videos I watched and the amount of blogs I read and the amount of things that I just like researched to make sure like my product was good at this point because I had not been liking the product I was making at the time. Now people were still like interested in it, but I was like, okay, just like give me a little bit to try to figure out what I'm doing. So I'm trying all these new ways of trying all these things. Meanwhile, like we're literally just doing this out of our house. Like I had a KitchenAid mixer that almost broke because like bagel dough is so dense. The mixer is just not strong enough. So we like, we started doing like bagels by the dozen by hand.

39:40I would probably do like two dozen a day. And that was like, that was my max. And I was like just waking up in the morning, getting everything together, rolling the dough, putting it in the fridge. We do like a 24 hour, 12 to 24 hour, like proof at the time. And we would just like wake up the next morning, hopefully before Elliot wakes up, bake the bagels, but like I can only do like six at a time on my home oven. So I'm struggling here. Yeah, you're struggling. You're not doing the volume you need to be doing. No way, but I'm getting more interest. So then at this point, it's middle of March, things are closed, grocery stores, nobody's going out, nobody's doing anything. Great time to start a business. It really is. So I was like, wait a minute, what if I start delivering? And this is like before people started doing all their like delivery services. Because my whole idea was like, I wanted it to be a pop-up business, but nobody was doing pop-ups right then because of COVID.

40:42Yeah. So I was kind of nervous about doing anything at the time. I was like, should I look for another job? Should I keep trying this? I ended up picking up a job back at Lyft and I would like literally wake up in the morning, get the bagels ready, clock into my job, finish the bagels between meetings, do more bagels, go back to work. And this is all like when everybody was working from home. So I was able to do it all like in between things. For those few months I was working at Lyft and I probably gave it like 30% of my time. Sorry for anybody who's listening to this. Like I knew it. I knew that guy had potential. He just wasn't giving us his 100%. Yeah. So I started delivering and I would do my most two dozen a day at my house and take those two dozen out in the afternoon. How much did you charge for two dozen bagels? I mean, you had to charge like 50 bucks a bagel to make ends meet, right? No, I was charging like, we were doing it at the least.

41:43The least you could order was half a dozen. So I would take orders over Instagram message. They'd send me their address, they'd Venmo me money and then I would do it. Probably, I think we were doing like $12 for six. No, we were doing 15 for six and 20 for 12. Okay, well. And I was doing free delivery because gas prices two years ago aren't nowhere near they are today. Nope. So I was just like taking them to people's houses and then I'd go home and repeat the process. And that was every day up until about June. Okay, so now restaurants are open. May 12th, they kind of reopen. Now you're June, it's still very. Still very slow. Very much in the middle of the pandemic. But I got to the point where I was like, I cannot do this in my house anymore. There's no way. I had already broken an oven. I had to buy a new oven. Yeah, it's like St. Vito's for Cacheria making all these pizzas in his house and then. Exactly. You gotta find a place. Exactly, so we found Citizen Kitchen in East. Laura Wilson.

42:43Exactly, who basically just like brought us from where we were to just like a whole other level. Because like we were able to do so much more. We had an actual mixer. We had an actual like big kettle for boiling the bagels. We had a big convection ovens for doing much more than we could. And then we started picking up like farmers markets and I was still doing the deliveries throughout the week. And then the Fairlane Hotel gives me a call. They have what they call the Union Teller, which is their coffee shop, deli, lunch spot in their hotel. They were running it at this time. And the chef called me and he was like, hi. She called me and said that she had seen the bagels and she really wanted to try it. So she came over to my house one day and tried it and really loved it. And she was like, we want them. And I was like, really? I had never done a wholesale before. This was all brand new to me. So we were doing that for a little bit.

43:47Figuring out our pars and everything. And then like a couple months later, I called them. I'm like, hey, what do you guys need for tomorrow? They're like, oh, we closed. They just, this was, I mean, it was still like downtown Nashville was pretty deserted still at the time. Like tourism hadn't really come back yet. So I just found out one day that they didn't need the bagels anymore and that was it for that. So I started doing more deliveries and more farmers markets. We started wholesaling to Barista Parlor for a while. We were wholesaling to Elegy Coffee for a while. What was that like though? I mean, so I, you sound busy. I was very busy. But I mean, the dynamic here is you're in the middle of a pandemic. You have a small child, newborn, really. You're not, I mean, you're kind of employed, right? You're employing yourself. Yes, slightly. You're hustling, but I mean, every single day is a new day that you have no idea what it's really gonna bring.

44:48Yeah. Am I off here? No, you're right. So the way things would work is I would just like open up orders on our website on like Sundays and I would give people like 48 hours to get your order in. And that was it. After that, that's how many I'm making for the week. How did that work with your wife though? I mean, like family dynamic, it takes a certain type of person. Okay, what I'm getting at is that's not every day that people get to do stuff. Like people get beaten down and they go, I can't handle this. This is a global pandemic. This is a lot. How did you keep pushing through every single day? Was it because she supported you so much? Did it cause fights? Like what was your life like in that moment? You got a newborn. That's one of the toughest times in any marriage is having a newborn and then throw a global pandemic and hey, I'm gonna start this business from scratch out of our kitchen. And I have no idea what it's gonna bring. What was your daily life like then? Can you go back to that time? Yeah, I mean, you know, I've been so lucky that she's been there the whole time and she's been in the kitchen with me every day.

45:52Like she was always there with me. It really was just the two of us. However, she was helping. She was helping, but she would like still be working. She was back at work at this point when we moved into the kitchen and she would be like clocking in at Citizen, taking meetings and answering people's questions on the internet while like rolling bagels with her other hand. So like we were tag teaming everything and we, I mean, like business wise, we work really well together. I'm like, she's, I'm very more like the ideas guy and she's more of like the, let me make this happen girl. So you're the visionary and she's the integrator. Like I hate calling people on the phone, but she loves calling people on the phone. So it's like one of those situations, like very like yin to my yang. It's good. And also at this point, our daughter has, she's in daycare. So like we wake up in the morning, take her to daycare at seven, go straight to East Nashville for the kitchen. And then she, like my wife goes home to finish the rest of her day while I'm out doing deliveries.

46:54You guys are hustling. We did not stop for a year. I mean, we still haven't stopped. I don't know what I'm doing. So, so like we're running, we're doing markets, we're delivering, we're doing wholesales, we're doing all these things. We brought on like a friend who had lost their job. Like we had a couple of friends who had lost their jobs and in the beginning of the pandemic who had just, we had taught them the basics and we were like, cause come help us like boil bagels or throw them in the oven or help us out and do something. Sure. And Citizen was a great place for us to learn cause we were around so many other people that had taught us a lot of things. We had kind of gotten to the point where we had started to outgrow Citizen though because I was maxing out the mixer that they had and I couldn't do anymore. I was maxing out the space I had or I'd get there and I would, they would have one mixer that is strong enough for my bagels and someone else is using it. And I'm paying by the hour to be there. So I'm just like twiddling my thumbs, waiting for this person to be done, wasting my money that I've paid to get in here.

47:54Hard earned money. Exactly. Every dollar counts. Exactly. I get to a point where I'm like, I gotta start figuring out something else. Can I ask you one quick question? You gotta start figuring out a new solution. But who were the people, you said that you were in this community of people there at Citizen Kitchen. Was there anybody in particular who helped you? Like anybody that you could shout out right now that said like, you know, this guy was really helpful to me. I'm just curious. Yeah, I mean, somebody who really was there for us, aside from Lara, Lara was always such a big proponent of our product. Like she sold the products upstairs at her shop, did a lot of things. And she's like one of the most amazing human beings ever. She's incredible. Yeah, she's awesome. The Jay, forget his last name, who owns like the broth stop and works at or sells alfresco pasta. Okay. He helped us out with a lot of things. He was kind of always there. There was like another company that started right around the same time we did, who was making sourdough cinnamon rolls and we had like a lot in common. So we would always kind of like bounce ideas off of each other.

48:56And that was really good to have. And then like our friend, Katie Pies, she was like, she was kind of like the other baker who was there, who had been there a lot longer and who had baked a lot more than we had. So kind of gave us tips on things like that, which was really great. That's awesome. So it was really good to have a community. Good, I just, I asked that because I'm just curious, like when people spend their time and their energy to help one another and they're brotherly and neighborly, I just, I like to give shout outs for those people. Because I think that's awesome. I think everybody should do that. Exactly, so like we build our entire business on the backs of Nashville locals and community. Like the people we met, we would go to the farmer's markets twice a week. We would go to Richland Market, Richland Park Farmer's Market on Saturdays, and then the East Nashville Market on Tuesdays. We would have so many just like friends that we would made via bagel. And they would just like come and they would come every single week and get their bagels and they'd talk to us and they would say, like sometimes we'd bring the baby and they'd be like, oh my gosh, she's getting so big.

49:58I remember when she was so much smaller and you know, all these things. And we just made so many friends and it was awesome. And we built this real big following of people. Like there was like this one guy, I would literally deliver bagels to him every single week. He was just like the first person to order every Sunday. As soon as I opened it, I swear he had an alarm on his calendar, like on his phone. It was like, they're open, let's go. And it was really cool to like meet those people and see those people. So. You're essentially creating community around something that you're doing is bringing people to you and creating that community. But also they're all in it together. Badly Bird Club, these guys last week said, everybody's a part of the club. I go, who is this club? And they go, anybody who's there is part of this club. You're probably a part of the club, right? Cause I'm a member. You're a member. Hell yeah, I'm a member now too. I'm really excited about this club. Card-carrying member. So, but I mean, like it's just kind of those cool things. Like it's like that club. Hey, you're part of the Bagel Club too. Yeah. Well, all these people, and that's probably probably these friends, the Badly Bird Club, Bad Luck Burger Club guys, like Ella Brie Hey, and you probably see all those guys a lot.

51:03Yeah, all the time. Yeah. So like, like I'm saying, like we're building this business in a time where like a lot of people are feeling separated. And it's like, if there's anything we can do to bring these people together, we'll make it happen. I love that. And like. That's what I was doing. So like, there's also not a lot bagel-wise going on in the city when we get started. Like there was Star Bagel. There's Proper Bagel. That was really it at the time. So then we come in doing something a little bit different. And then Nicky's Coalfired started doing their bagels. Mr. Aaron's Goods. Mr. Aaron started doing his. Exactly. So like, there's like become this bagel Renaissance here in Nashville. And I swear, if you don't know anything about bagels, it is the world's most divisive carbohydrate. Like people feel very strongly about their bagels. Oh yeah, yeah. Like I had no clue. I'm from Mississippi. People import water from New York. H&S does that. Okay. Is that who it is?

52:03The H&S, they water from New York cause they think they. Or they have like a system that creates the water to be filtered like it is in New York. It's crazy that like the way that people, these customers and these friends that we've made and people like that feel so strongly about their bagels. They like fight. Wow. They're like, no, this is the best bagel. No, this is the best kind of bagel. New York style, Montreal. And I'm over here like a little Southern boy from Mississippi. Like I have no idea what this is. I just know that I like the product that I make. And that's it. So I've never been like, we make X style bagels. It's just like, I'm making bagels. Bagels. Exactly. That's what they are. I'm doing the best I can here. There's a hole in the middle of them. Yeah. So we're doing all this and we're doing it for a while. And I'm, like I said, I'm starting to be like, okay, I think I need to, we need to figure out next steps. So I'm like, is it a smart time to open a restaurant? This is like November of 2020. I was very scared.

53:04And then one day the owner of the Fairlane, Ethan, gives me a call. He's like, hey, we loved when you guys had your bagels here and our shop has been sitting empty for the last six or so months. It's like literally completely built out to be a bagel shop. Do you guys want to rent it? I was like, how much? How much? And he was like, I'll give you guys a good deal because we need something. So like we go in, I'm telling you like every single piece of equipment that you need for a bagel restaurant, deli, coffee shop, it's already there. Wow. So like, I mean, I'm immediately like, I can't lose. That's a great. That's one of those opportunities that you kind of pray about. This is what I'm telling you. Like luck has somehow been in my favor this whole time. I don't know if it's luck. I don't believe in luck. That's what my mom says. She says, it's because you guys are really good people and you really feel strong. Karma's real. I think that when you put good energy out there, when you do the right thing and you hustle and you make it happen, you know, I'm an alcoholic, right?

54:09So I do, I have a higher power. I put all that shit aside and I say, higher power, just do whatever, you know, and I try to not stress about things and it always works out within those types of situations. Like just keep doing the next right thing and it'll happen. Like just, if you just, if you kind of put it out of your control and it sounds like that's exactly what's going on and I believe that, I believe. I mean, I totally get it. I feel the same way. Like I just have never looked backwards. It's always just been like, what's next? And I'm not gonna let anything stop me. So I. What's next? I'm not gonna let anything stop me. Right in on my gravestone. That could be like your final thought here today. The Gordon food source, you know what? What's next? Nobody's gonna stop me. Hell yeah. So I, I'm like so scared to sign a lease, right? Because downtown Nashville at this point is still very scary as in there's still no businesses back open. Tourism has barely started coming back.

55:09But I was like. It's back now. I mean, we'll get there. So I ended up, I said, they said, let's try it for a year. We'll see what happens. So I signed the papers and we moved in. And if you can't get, if you haven't figured it out so far, I have zero restaurant experience, zero management experience, zero ownership experience, except for managing myself. So I was like, I'm about to dive deep into something that I have never done before. How scary is that? It was very scary. I didn't know how to hire. I didn't know how to run payroll. I don't know how to order things and like pass health inspections. I don't know any of these things. It's all brand new. But like I said, like I built this community of like people that I could ask questions to and people that were so willing to help me that it's like, I never felt bad asking anybody for a question, like ask anybody questions or anything like that. So we move in.

56:12I somehow get a staff of people in January when like people are still scared to leave their house. And we started figuring out how to use the kitchen and figuring out how to use all this equipment that I had never touched before, I'd never seen. It's like, we went from having like a 30 quart mixture to a 120 quart spiral mixer when I've been used to just using like this small little planetary thing. So like we had just been- You don't have to pay by the hour for it. I don't. All you want. Have a good time. Exactly. So, and the hotel has been such a good proponent of our business, like they said, like anything you guys need, let us know. We are here for you. If you have questions, we can help. We've done this. Good stuff. It's been really great. And so we open in March with our team and a lot of trial and error, obviously, like figuring out how things run and things like that. And it's like as soon, this is like, I signed the lease before anybody, like vaccinations were even out. So I was still very scared, but it was like, like right when we opened, everybody can get their vaccine now.

57:17Everybody started coming out of the woodworks and businesses started opening back up. And we started like building this place where people could go when they came to Nashville. They're uniquely poised to capture that too. Exactly. And there was no bagels downtown. People really do, like they search for bagels and they go places. It's crazy. And I was able to bring like my whole idea for opening a cafe years prior. Here it is. We have our coffee shop side of the place. And I was able to really like bring in all that. And then people started coming out and it's been great. The one thing that we did lose and I didn't, I thought that I was gonna be able to make a difference is that all the locals that were ordering from us weekly, they're not going downtown. Like, Nashvilleians do not go to downtown Nashville. Are we trying to avoid it if we can? Unless there's a hockey game. I'm the same way. I was like, maybe they'll come cause they love me. Or maybe they'll come cause like right on the outskirts of downtown and there's free parking, like two streets over. Where is the Fairlane? It's at the corner of 4th and Union.

58:19Okay. Oh yeah, okay, I gotcha. So you're not going to Broadway. You don't have to even pass through Broadway to get there. Nope. But it just, I couldn't get them there. As much as I tried, as much, I mean, so like we had like Uber Eats and we had our like door dashes and that's where you get your locals. You don't make any money with those. It's like you barely break even using a delivery service. It's just like. If you break even. I know. I mean, really it's just to, for cashflow. I mean, I think that just to bring money in and take money out. So. Keep employees. Yeah, really. And we had a lot of, I mean, I mean, and obviously if working, owning a small business downtown is very hard just because I have no idea. And I still have no idea how to like, how I can guess the amount of people that are coming. Like if I don't realize there's a concert in town, then I'm selling out early. Or who knows? You could have one, like last Saturday, you could make X amount of money.

59:21And then this coming up Saturday, you make like half as much. There's no consistency downtown from what I've realized. And you know, it kind of evens itself out. So there's been no problems. But like. But you could probably do a podcast here with the event calendar that you have to go over all the time. Exactly. You're constantly looking like, oh, I got a concert at the Ryman. There's somebody at Bridgestone and Descend. And there's a block party and oh God. Yes. And you're extra prep. And it's so crazy because when I opened, I was like, I want to be this cool one-off place that has these like fancy foods and fancy drinks. So we had like, we were looking to try to get all these like fancy sodas and things like that. And then I realized a month later, I was like, my entire Saturday, Sunday crowd is hungover bachelorettes, hungover bachelor parties, and just like random family tourists. And you know, all they want is like a greasy egg, bagel sandwich, and a Powerade. Like, that's it. It's like, it's so different than what I thought it was going to be, just because I had no idea what to expect. To sell Pedialyte.

01:00:22We have. And it sells like crazy. I imagine. So, I mean, like looking back at our sales over the past year, I'm pretty sure it was like 94% like new customers. And it's not because like people aren't coming back. It's just saying that that's how much of our business is tourism. Wow. It's like people that we have a lot of regulars that live downtown, but not a lot of regulars that come from out of downtown. So it's interesting. What was it? You just did a pop-up with Henrietta Redd. Yes, last weekend. It was amazing. So tell me about that. Yeah, so we slightly announced our second location a couple months ago. Really? Yes. And this is one of those things it's like I miss my Nashville people. I miss my community. I miss everything that we built our business on. So we said we gotta figure out how to get that back.

01:01:22And I think our only option was to open up another location. You're going to Germantown? I'm not telling you where it is. Why? It's a secret. You can make the announcement right now. This won't come out for another week. I still can't say. What part of town? You can't even say what part of town? It's in Donaldson. Okay. Which is like booming right now. It's huge. Yes, we got a very cool spot and it's going to be very awesome. That is awesome. And it's going to be close to B&A. It's going to have free parking. Close to B&A. Set up that stand. Let's go. We'll have just like a little pop-up train. Right now. Yes. I bet you we can make that happen. I bet we could. I bet you made that happen. Easily. We'll just give them like a percentage. Yeah, they need to make that. Anyway. Okay, we'll get to it later. We're going to do that. It's going to start from here. You're going to have like the bagel pop-up. Yeah. At the parking lot. When we announced the new shop, I was like, okay, I got to get back to Nashville people.

01:02:23Some people might have forgotten about us over the past year since we opened downtown and they haven't come to see us or we haven't been able to deliver. So we've been doing a lot of pop-ups this summer. We did something at Urban Cowboy earlier this summer. We've been like popping up outside of Ranger Stitch like at the Porter East. Yeah. And then I was trying to figure out something to do. And then Julia from Henry at Red was like, hey, we're trying to do like a really cool brunch July 4th weekend. What if we like turned our shop into like a Russ and Daughters type space? Which has always been like the dream. Russ and Daughters is like huge deli in New York City. Oh, okay, I didn't know. I was like, I don't know what that is. Very, very well known, very old, very classic. It's delicious food. Okay. I was like, a hundred percent let's make it happen. So we went out there and put together a menu of just like all these really cool deli classics. And we were able to put this really cool collaboration on. And it was one of those things that was like, this felt like getting back to why I started the business.

01:03:26How cool is Julia? It was, she's amazing. That entire team has been so, they were so great to work with and everything about Henry at a Red I've always loved. And it's just cool to work with such cool people. But they're pros. And they're such pros. That's the thing, when I think about Julia Sullivan and her whole restaurant, every time I've been there, they're so, they're just pros. They're the people that are the, they have all the restaurant experience. Every move is intentional. And they're just like, damn, you guys are really good. They're just, I love restaurants that operate really efficiently and just kill it. And she's one of those people. Yes. And I learned a lot from people like her because I've owned the restaurant. We've been open for over a year and I still am figuring out how a line should be run properly. Yeah. And it's like, all we do is scramble eggs on ours. And they're over here doing so many different stations and things like that. It's like, this is crazy. So it's been great.

01:04:27So for the past few months, my wife and I have really been focused on getting ready for the new shop. And it's moving slowly but surely. We're gonna submit to permitting in the next two weeks. And then that's gonna take like half a year because of how backed up permitting is right now. I mean, everybody's telling me like, you gotta wait at least eight to 12 weeks to get permits approved. Gosh. Gosh. So there's a lot. What an amazing story. I mean, again, kind of like the Bad Luck Burger guys, this is so inspirational, I think, to anybody who's out there right now who has an idea or some kind of a passion. And they're like scared to do it. And I mean, the pandemic essentially forced you to step outside your comfort zone, start doing something different and follow a dream that you had of opening a coffee shop. And then you just keep doing the right thing, keep pushing ahead and good things happen.

01:05:27This opportunity with the Fairlane, what an amazing opportunity. Now you're looking at number two, like this was a guy making six bagels a day to a dozen bagels a day, two dozen bagels a day out of his house, breaking ovens to now about to open your second location and things are going great. I mean, that's awesome. That's one of the coolest stories I've heard in a while. I love that. It's crazy. Congratulations, man. Thank you. I like, I still, I think probably everybody does, but it's like slight imposter syndrome all the time. Oh yeah. But it's what saved me is the fact that Nashville's restaurant community is so awesome. Like whenever I first got started, I remember I talked on the phone to the owner of, well, the chef at Tootin Jack. Jess? Uh-huh. She called me one day and we just talked and I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm trying to do this. She's like, let me know anything you need. And then I talked to Crystal from the Girl Cheesery and she was super helpful.

01:06:30Jess and Crystal are like best friends too. Exactly. So they put me in contact with each other and everybody has just been like, oh, I don't know this, but you could call this person or you should call this person. They'd be more than happy to talk to you or this person would be more than happy to help out. And then I get relationships like with Julia and who randomly just is like, hey, you guys, I love your stuff. She was such a big proponent of us during the pandemic because they were doing a delivery service called the Party Line. Yeah. And they randomly called me one day and they were like, hey, you wanna sell your bagels? And I was still at my house at this point. I remember I was like working from home, like for Lyft, when I just got a message from them, I was like, what, like you know who I am? It was like one of those situations. But it's, I mean, it's been so much fun. I have learned more in the past year than I've probably learned in like the past 15 years just because of the amount of like things, one that I had to learn. And I mean, I've been so lucky because I've had my wife who's just like been my rock throughout this whole thing and we've been there for each other every day.

01:07:31Anytime we need something, one of us is willing to just like step up and make it happen. And it's been awesome. It's been really cool. I mean, I haven't had, I've had, barely had a day off in the past few years, but it's fine. But yeah, well, I mean, it's different. It is. It's different, like people say, Brandon, how do you do two restaurants and the podcast and be a dad and all this stuff? And I'm like, a podcast is a passion. Like I love, like sitting here today, talking to you, hearing like this story and being able to share your story with everybody in the city. I mean, I think 40 different countries have listened to this podcast. And you go, man, I hope somebody out there hears this and goes, you know, I wanna do something like that. I wanna start my, I have a passion for something and I wanna follow it. Cause there's nothing worse than sitting here and saying I've worked for two years and I haven't had a day off for somebody else. I've worked this hard for somebody else. And I just, I have nothing really to show for it.

01:08:31Like you saying, it's okay when it's your business. When this is your business and you're building something, like it doesn't feel like work. They say that if you do something you love, you'll never work a day in your life. And while it's a lot of work, it's still fun. It's fun because you're building something that you believe in and you're passionate about. And you can see it changing the community and people's lives. And you're like, this is pretty fun. Yeah, I mean, it's been a wild ride, but there's nothing about it that I would change. You know? Yeah. It's been so fun and I don't know, I don't foresee it stopping anytime soon. Well, I'm excited that you came in here to tell this story. I think, again, I think it's just inspirational. I mean, there's nothing better than when somebody, and I've had this happen to me multiple times where people come up to me and be like, like, because of you guys, I started my dream, or I stopped what I was doing and went and moved towards my dream. I was like, wow.

01:09:32The fact that anybody can find my story inspirational is incredible. Perseverance, man. Yeah. Don't give up. There's a quote right here on my door from Rick Warren and it says, endurance is built. Hold on a second. I'm gonna read the exact part. I did like a whole episode on this. All right. Endurance develops every time you reject the temptation to give up. There you go. And in the restaurant game, you have to have endurance. You have to fight the temptation to go, fuck this. I know. I'm done. This is too hard. This is a grind, like, you've gotta beat that. And when you do, when you just, and that's not an option, you get that endurance in you, you can go forever. For sure. I love it. Yep. Well, man, anything else you wanna talk about? I mean, we're at that hour mark. I try and, I'd say it's the tastiest hour of talk in Music City.

01:10:33I love it. We're one hour in, isn't there a, we're about, we're getting close to the Gordon Food Service final thought. Wow. Is there anything else you wanna, you'd talk about? Anything you wanna know? Not that I... Secrets of the universe? Do you have the secrets of the universe? Yes, but I'll tell you when you tell me your location is. I'll tell you off air. Me too. No, I think I'm good, man. Awesome. I'm great. Well, this is the time then. The Gordon Food Service final thought is you get to surmise the conversation or say whatever you wanna say to the community who's listening to this podcast. Yeah. Whatever you wanna say, for as long as you wanna say it, the mic is yours. All right. Definitely, I think the most important thing is to have people on your side who are gonna always be there to help you out. Just a phone call away or a text away. Having that group of people who you can really call your team is the most important, especially anytime that you feel like you might wanna give up or try something else.

01:11:38Just persevere, like you said, and don't give up on your dreams. Like Shia LaBeouf once said, just do it. I mean, my thought has always been what's the worst that could happen? I have to go back to work a day job, but I'm just gonna keep on trucking. Like Jerry Garcia, keep on trucking. Exactly, in the words of the dead. Well, Max, it's a pleasure to have you here. Thanks for being here. Of course, thank you. Please give our best to your lovely wife. I will. Sorry she wasn't able to be here, but next time. Absolutely. We'll have to do this again. Yes. And I'm gonna come try your bagels. Come on. Let's do it. All right. Thanks, man. Yeah. All right, thank you, big thank you to Max Palmer for joining us in studio to tell us his story. I told you, it's fascinating. The guy's amazing, right? The level of hard work, I mean, it's inspiring listening to people like that.

01:12:39And you know what else is inspiring? I wanna tell you guys real quick, we've got a contest coming up. And this contest is gonna be brought to you by NetChex. But it is gonna be a bracket style tournament, 64 teams. Now these teams, and I'm doing air quotes, these teams are gonna be Mexican restaurants. Everybody's passionate about their favorite Mexican restaurant where you can go get your favorite margaritas, your favorite combination plate, whatever it is. We've got a bunch of them here in Nashville. And I think everybody, in everybody's neighborhood, you're all kinda like, mine's the best, right? So if it's Tito's or I like El Aguivero in Bellevue, that's like my favorite. I love Cancun too, on the border. I mean, there's so many Mestizos. We got margaritas, gosh, there's so many Mexican restaurants that we just love going to. So that's where you're gonna get to the bottom of it. And we're gonna do a 64 team tournament. You're gonna be able to find the bracket the last week of July at NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com. And then the final thing we're gonna do on September the 15th is the day before Mexico's Independence Day. We are gonna throw a party at the winning Mexican restaurant.

01:13:41So the best restaurant and best Mexican restaurant in Middle Tennessee will be crowned. We will have mariachi band. We're gonna have a full-on Mexican Independence Day party at that restaurant. We're gonna be doing interviews live, all kinds of cool things. We're gonna have prizes for the final four. Just lots of neat stuff. This is all brought to you by NetChex. And just stay tuned. Follow us at NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com. Follow us, I'm sorry, at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio on Instagram. Follow us on Facebook. And in those areas, we'll be posting all the links. Or just go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com the last week of July. We'll be talking about it on every episode up until then. And that's the big announcement that I forgot to say at the beginning of the show. So if you stayed this long, we are really excited about this. We're excited about you voting. And thank you guys for listening today. This was a lot of fun. And we will see you next week. Don't forget Kayla Ellis this Wednesday.

01:14:42And next Wednesday, this coming Monday, we're gonna be doing a replay episode with Rich Wolowski, who is the CEO of Gordon Food Service. Just kind of hear some of the backstory on my relationship with them. And we thank you guys again for listening. Hope you have a wonderful week. Love you guys, bye.