Nina Singto

00:00Welcome 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 I am your host. Happy Monday to you and yours. I hope that you had a wonderful Father's Day and that this week it started off wonderfully. Hopefully, we can be a part of that with our guest today, Nina Singto. I wanted to learn a little bit about Nina. She is the owner of Thai Issan over there off of Demumbrian and Division Street, right at the Buddy Killin' Circle, where she calls the Naked People Roundabout next to Tailgate Brewery. She is an absolutely amazing person. Her family obviously runs King Market, and she just, she talks about it all today. She doesn't hold back at all, and I just love that about her.

01:13We had a really good conversation about her food, about what it's been like post pandemic. We're still in the pandemic, but when people come into a restaurant and just kind of how they act, we talked about Yelp reviews. We talked about wearing masks. We talked about all kinds of stuff today. So hang out. We got a little bit to talk about here before we get into that, but if you did not, if you didn't catch it, we do a show now on Fridays. Every Friday it is called the Nashville Restaurant Radio Roundup. It is presented by Springer Mountain Farms Chicken, and it is just going to be a whip around coverage of everything that's happening inside of our city and the restaurant business right now. So if you work in the industry, you want to know what restaurants are opening, what restaurants are closing. You want to know the best place to go to get a drink, best happy hours, the newest place we're going to be spotlighting different areas, just all kinds of everything that's happening in the restaurant scene. You're looking for a job. We're going to be highlighting the top jobs out there. If people have moved jobs, new chefs, whatever it might be, that's going to be on our Friday show. If you know somebody who's coming to Nashville and they want to learn where to go, what to do, share them. Let them know that we have the Nashville Restaurant Radio Roundup every single Friday so they can be familiar with what's going on in our town. But talking about Springer Mountain Farms Chicken, just to let you know that they are a family-owned business nestled in the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains with over 50 years of experience raising chickens. They exercise great care in all that they do and their dedication to providing their chickens with a quality life and healthy diet results in a healthier, more delicious chicken for you and your family to enjoy. Try Springer Mountain Farms Chicken today by locating a store or a restaurant near you or ordering online, which you can do at SpringerMountainFarms.com.

03:08All right, let's get on with the show. Ladies and gentlemen, here's Nina and here we are today with Nina Singto, the owner and executive chef of Thai Esan. How are we doing today, Nina? I'm good. How are you, Brandon? Happy Father's Day. Thank you very, very much and happy Father's Day to your husband. Thank you. Yes, we had a rough night last night. It was so busy. That's a good thing. Yeah, it is a very good thing. It's a very good problem to have even though you tell everyone you close at nine, but people keep on coming in. But we got to get this money, got bills to pay, you know, due to the crisis that we're going through. So somebody comes in, you say that you close at nine, but you're still busy at nine o'clock. You don't cut it off, do you? I don't to me right now during the crisis that we're in and we got bills to pay and my employee needs a job. I stay, you know, being a business owner is hard. Some of the sacrifice that you have to do for yourself and your employee, but we stay an extra hour. It's fine.

04:11That's not yeah. I mean, I've always been a fan people that, you know, restaurants that say they close at nine. Obviously, there's a common courtesy for guests not to come in at 855. There's else in the building and you come in, eat fast, order fast. But as a restaurant, people that turn people away before they close. I've never sure that like serve people till you're closed. Yes. And you know, we were actually we had patio half patio and half restaurant. We had a party of 12 coming in at 910. What do you do? You take the party or you turn them away? I took that party. And yeah, I'm gonna take it. I mean, and there's people that we know, even though they're like an hour and a half late, but it's okay. Because the people still eating there till like 1030. But they were really, really nice by the hurry up came in eight and left within an hour and a half. So but I do have a problem. Brandon, if you've dine in with us at six o'clock, and we close at nine, and you're still sitting there talking, not even ordering drinks, or anything, and just sitting there talking, and I gotta go home after a long night, and you still sitting there talking, you gotta go at 930.

05:22Oh, let's also that's a great topic I wanted to bring up. Because one of the things I'm trying to do on this podcast is educate the guest. Right now, now maybe tomorrow when we open phase three, but right now restaurants are only able to serve 50% capacity. So if you go out to eat right now, the industry term is people are camping. Yeah, they pitched a tent and started camping. Yes, do not sit at a table for longer than your meal, go somewhere else, go set out stand outside, because if a restaurant's busy, that real estate you're sitting in is very, very valuable. Don't just sit there and drink water after water, and a table that could possibly be turned. I mean, get air, eat, have a good time, order drinks, order food, you're going to continue to spend money, stay there. But if you're just kind of done and you're hanging out, get up and go somewhere else so that table can be set. But my thing is people don't understand that, Brandon. I feel like I know you've been quarantined, and I know you want to be out. But my place is not the place to be hanging out when especially we have to turn those tables, you know what I mean? And it's hard to tell them, okay, you give them the check, and they just sit there look at you like you're dumb.

06:28And you'd be like, man, the kitchen's about to be closed. Would you like anything else? And they look at you be like, no, thank you. And watch them just sit and talk. And you at this time, it's very hard for us to kick a customer out, knowing that we need the revenue because we don't want that reputation. You know what I mean? Of course not. No, I mean, we're in this hospitality business because we want to take care of people. But right now, at this particular time, and I think that's why you get these crazy help reviews from people that are like, well, we were only sitting there for three and a half hours. And the restaurant manager is like, look, we're only allowed to seat half capacity, we need you to move on. Like this is rude. Right. But they don't get that. And you know, that's another big thing about Yelp is I feel like Yelp are the meanest people that just want to be food bloggers that don't know anything about food. I'm so against it. I know I was a Yelp before, but then I came to realize this ain't no joke, but I only yell when I'm mad. And that's what Yelpers do. They yell when they're mad. And that's I mean, that ruins business, you know what I mean? It does ruin business. And I had, you know, I had Jim Myers, who's been a longtime culinary writer in Nashville on the show a couple of years ago. And I asked him, I said, what's the art of writing a review? Because everybody out there, really, everybody that has a heartbeat and a telephone is essentially a restaurant critic now. Right, right. There's a, he said, I had a responsibility and it wasn't to the restaurant. It was to other diners. When I went to really review a restaurant was to give them a heads up. This was more of a consumer beware of what you're about to encounter versus a, Hey, this is my friend who owns a restaurant.

08:12And I feel like so many people go and make reviews right now out of spite. Right. If you have a bad experience and you can identify that it's a one off, not good experience, speak to somebody in the restaurant, talk to it, find the manager and say, Hey, this particular situation didn't happen well for me. And I didn't enjoy it. And if they don't, if they go, well, tough man, it's Tuesday. And you know, then I think that's something you want to let other people know. But if the manager takes care of it and they do what they need to do, you don't let it go online. Yes. Yes. I mean, yup, it's good for just food pictures, but I don't really go in and read the reviewer and think, cause I really don't care. Cause I like to go and experience and have my, you know, my own experience and my own review. But really at this, this time of day, I don't really care. I just want to eat and I just want to leave. If I had a bad experience with who, you know, I go back and experience again. If I have the second one, okay, then we can yelp about it. You know what I'm saying? So let's, I want to learn a little about you. So you, you are, I love watching your Instagram.

09:15You put some of the most beautiful looking food up there. All I can see recently is people posting about crawfish, these spicy Thai crawfish you're doing, which I know they're out and I think you're doing shrimp. I'm doing shrimp next week. Next week you're doing shrimp. My brother brought some crawfish out to the pool the other day and I was like in heaven. Okay. People doesn't understand this crawfish of mine is killing. It started out with David Wingo. We love David Wingo. You know, David Wingo, David Wingo. Uh huh. It's one of the Maddie heart grow and all them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it started out one weekend at the old Taysan that I did a crawfish on the patio. I guess it's so memorable. Everyone keep asking me to bring it back. So I brought it back. I was just doing it for that one weekend, but then it just blew up. And then I did it for like six, seven weeks, I guess every weekend, 300 pounds. Brendan, every single weekend was sold out. I was like, okay, but it's really good. Like it's just not just eating crawfish. It's just like that flavor. You can eat it with rice. Some people use leftover juice and put it on their scallops, put it on their pasta. I mean, you can do so many things with that sauce and it's a very, very powerful sauce. I must say it's, it's fantastic. Um, it's like the perfect blend of flavors, you know, and I don't know how to even describe just that perfect blend of flavors with little crawfish. Yeah. And what about that hotness though? Oh my gosh. The papaya, is it papaya salad? I'm Lordy. I'm telling you this Nina hot has gotten Nashville all stripped up.

11:03I'm like, it's getting out of hand. It's a good thing. You know, we love it. So where does that, let's get back to your, I want to start off and kind of talk about your history. Um, where does, you know, your family, obviously Kings market, but like, tell me about you kind of give me the whole story. All right. So I'm from Arkansas. Originally I was a refugee kid. So growing up, I mean, like, um, we came to the United States in maybe 1983. Um, my parents always worked like two, three jobs just to keep us, you know, to make a living really. Cause back then they were working only for like three bucks an hour. So growing up, I was always into food. I was into watching grandma cook. I was just always into food. And, um, I just love cooking. My grandma has a passion for cooking and I grew up, you know, with our parents not being around, had to cook and, um, provide for the family, like my brothers and stuff. So I started out with just, you know, cooking ramen, doing simple stuff, and then just growing into the world food with grandma. That's how I got self-taught myself. And then when I came, when I after I graduated high school, I wanted to do parents like, I'm not sending you to culinary school. It's expensive. So you're going to have to do something else. So I got into, um, cosmetology did hair at salon effects. Do you remember salon effects, Brandon? Whoa. Yeah.

12:39Yeah. Yeah. I was there for about six, seven years. And then when family opened up king market, my mom was like, Hey, can you put your career to the side and come help us, um, open king market? You'll run the front and the back. And I said, okay. So I ended up serving, which, okay. I love people. I love seeing people loving the food, you know, and then one day I just went to the kitchen and be like, you know what, let me take over. So I serve, I cook, I did everything Brandon. And then one year I just told my mom, like, look, it's time for me to go and do my own thing. Since king market, I've been here at the king market about seven years now. It's time for me to go and do my own thing. And they're like, okay, what do you want to do? I said, I want to go open my own restaurant. My mom was like, you think you can do it? I'm like, it's not think. I know I can do it. You know, uh, one thing about me is I'm going to go get her. And if I'm going to do it, Brandon. And it was scary coming from Antioch to 12 south because I left that area for a while and coming back. Oh, it was so scary. What was scary about it? Well, you know, the clientele was different. You know, you went from Antioch serving in Antioch, right? And the clientele's different. And then going to 12 south was just like, whoa, I don't know what the hell I got myself into. But you know what, failing was not in my head. I knew I had to make it and damn it. I made it. So that's, um, so I want to go back to king market a little bit of when you went to king, she worked, you said that you cooked with your grandmother. I cook with my grandmother growing up. Is that where you really authentic Thai cook? Yes. From your grandmother.

14:33From my grandmother. My grandma only taught me one thing growing up was like, you're going to cook, do it right and do it passion and people can taste it. But if you be sloppy about it, people can taste that too. So that's one thing about me is when I do it, I do it passion. So, and that's why my food is so authentic and good. So what did you, so you went to king market, you were doing hair, you're doing hair, and then you went to king's market, king market. Yeah. King market. Worked with your family. What was it like working with your mom and dad? Oh my God, let me tell you, it was the hardest day. I'm like, did I really left my career to be in this business with family? I'll tell you, Brandon, working with family is hard. It's, it's, I'm telling you, it's a whole new world. Yeah. You know, and I love my family and death, but one thing is working with family is hard. And to all restaurant owners that have partners and everything, you guys know this for sure that it's hard to work with partners. It's hard to work with family, but at the end of the day, that's still your family, you know?

15:42So yeah, I was serving, I was serving. And then one day I was just like, you know what, let me go in and cook because we did have a chef there. You did chef? We have a chef at king market. Yeah. But when people start coming in and start requesting me to cook, I just went in there and cook. So was there ever any aspirations of, did you have any ownership in king market? No, no, no, no, no. I was just a daughter. It was my mom and her two brothers. They were all partners in that. So was that an option at all going into, so was it, was it kind of an, I'm going to start my own thing or maybe I could join in the ownership of king market? Was that ever even? No, I didn't want to start ownership at that time. I was still kind of young and wow. So I didn't want no part of that. I just want to go in, do what I need to do and come home. That's it. I didn't think about having my own business. I didn't think whatever. I was there from 10 to six and out. Yeah. When you decided to do Tai-I-San, what was that like? I mean, what finding the location? Do you have partners? What was it like? At the time I was partner with my aunt. Yes, I did have partner and as when I was starting Tai-I-San, I just knew that, okay, well, it's better off. Like, well, we're just going to get into that later. Well, I felt like when I went to 12 South, I just knew I had to grow myself. So I was the front and I was the back as well. So I come out and greet customers that go back in and cook, you know, just trying to build that clientele. So I was the first month, but then I was thinking, okay, you know what, let me brand me. Let me show what I have. This is my restaurant. Let me show what I have. So now I took control of the whole back. So that's when I decided that I had to put my hands on this food for it to be very good, for it to show who I am. But I think you just described what is kind of

17:49the American dream, right? So you want to start your own place and it's very grassroots. You didn't have this backing from some gigantic corporation. You kind of went into it in 12 South, which is a different clientele. Very different. Early grassroots. I think that when you start a business, you can't afford to have like front of the house managers and back of the house. I mean, you're seeing people at the front door and then you're cooking the food to be something that's incredibly special. I almost feel like there's something that's so incredible about that because there's passion behind everything that you do and people that come in recognize that. That's what's special. I think that's the thing that probably annoys you the most. We talked about Yelpers is that some random person comes in and doesn't like it and just completely trashes all over your hard work and your passion and it hurts. Yeah, it hurts, you know, and it really hurts when you tell me my food's not good. But who are you to tell me when you come in? This is my thing about people coming into a restaurant, tell me my food is not authentic, Brandon, is you come in and creating your own menu.

19:02It's like you try to have it your way. No, if you don't have it your way, then it's not going to be authentic. So that's a good point. So if you come in and you pick the drunken noodles and you take out six ingredients and replace them with your special ingredients that you need, your modifications and then say you don't like it, well, that wasn't my dish. Right, exactly. So you coming to tell me, okay, we had an incident a couple weeks ago, you want drunken noodles, you don't want no soy, you don't want no oyster. Girl, then what are you doing here? What are you doing here? You know Asian restaurant use soy and you know the Asian restaurant use oysters. That's the main thing. Yeah. What do you want me to do? Alfredo, I don't have that for you. You know what I mean? So she made up her own thing and was like, this is not authentic. I mean, what do you want? Well, what's wrong with you? What's your allergic? What's the issue here? Her issue is she's allergic to any fish and any fish, shellfish and something like, well, we have gluten-free, but she didn't want gluten-free. Then what do you want? So you know what at the end was? She just wanted steamed drunken noodles with some vegetables in it and she put her own soy sauce in it.

20:10Well, you did that. You could have just stayed home. Yeah, you could do that. Easy. Easy. Yeah, I just don't feel like, to me, I try to cater to everybody, but Brenda, when you really come into my restaurant and make your own menu and I have to spend 30 minutes just to figure out what you like, I rather not have you come. There it is. I mean, that's a real thing. There's a flow. I mean, I don't think people recognize that when you put together a menu, there's some, it's not, and this is another point here is that what you're doing isn't, you don't just have like all these ingredients sitting around just right there in one spot. I mean, you have to set up your kitchen based upon the flow of your menu. So each individual dish, you have a mise en place, everything that's right there to make this. And when I have to go back into the dry storage to get this one ingredient for one dish and then over to this side of the restaurant to get another ingredient for another dish, it messes up the entire flow. It's not just that one person that wants that one dish. It throws off every person because now it takes me five minutes to make your dish where normally it takes me 47 and a half seconds to make that dish. And that's the funny thing about that is, is that that's how specific you have to be when you own a restaurant because you make sure that all these things come out on time. When everyone wants to do their own menu, it throws everything off and then they complain about it. They complain about it and then it's starting to be like, you're taking advantage of me. You know what I'm saying? I feel like, yeah, I'm trying to cater to you what you want. I mean, it's easily to be substituted, but you really need to look at our menu if it's our first time coming in. You know, you really need to look at our menu and you know, we do walk per walk, meaning order per order on a walk and it's time consuming.

21:57And it throws everybody behind and then now the next table's not getting their food because we're still working on this one table. And that's the thing about, I feel about it. It's like I can cater only so much, but when you come in and make a scene about it and it's already causing 30 minutes, I just rather not you come. And we did tell her like, you know what, we tried our best and if our best is not good enough, this restaurant is just not for you. And that's a, that's a bold stance that sometimes you have to take. I mean, it's not a popular stance amongst people that, you know, want to come out and eat, but I mean, that's kind of the other side of being a business owner is that you have that, you have that choice. Like, hey, like people that want to order my food because they like my food, I'd let them get better service than have to change everything I'm doing to appease one person. Right. All right. People like go somewhere else. Right. And I know a lot of restaurant business business owner knows this. I mean, this is a hard world we're working in. It's hard. And especially nowadays, it's getting to be to a point where they know that we need their money and we know that we need them. They're making it harder for us too. So talk about that. Meaning are as a restaurant owner is different now. We can't really turn people away because they've been sitting there for three hours because we do need them and we do, you know, want their, you know, their business. And then just like people come in telling my server that, okay, your food here is just way too spicy, but you already know our spice level is high, but they come with their friends and they're like, okay, I want medium. And our servers would tell them, okay, mediums are really on the really with spicy side. They're like, oh no, we had your medium before because they want to show out why their friends there. My servers always be telling them that we can always give you a spice wrap on the side. And they're going in telling them it's too spicy. So we go remake the food. Then they're like, oh, we just decide we don't like this food. It's just too bland. You know, just stuff like that. It's just always something ever since

24:01we opened backup dining, we have more problems ever than we did before. And I feel like right now it's just end up taking advantage of us. You know what I mean? So let's, let's talk about Thai food. I think some of this is some of it could be a lack of education from people that don't understand what you're doing. Maybe there's people that don't understand spice levels or what the type of food is. There are people coming in uneducated about your food and then complaining about because I all raving reviews. All I hear is everybody saying how amazing it is. And it is. Well, thank you. I love spicy food. So have you tried my, have you tried Nina hot yet? I don't know. I'm not had Nina hot. No. Well, you need to come in one day and try Nina hot. Okay. Will it light me up? I mean, salad Nina hot. No, I think that was like a media. Yeah, you got to talk to Justin about that Nina hot brother would love the Nina hot. He eats fire though. So that's a thing. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you say? I was just off a second. What did you ask me earlier about educating themselves? I mean, just about Thai food. I mean, people that come in to eat that might not know about your cuisine. Let's give people a heads up as to exactly what you're doing, how you're doing the style, just everything about your cuisine. My cuisine is bold and flavor like it's there. The spices there, the flavors there. There's just everything that I mean, I've been to Thailand in February. Okay. Uh, right before shut down. And I'm telling you, I went on a food tour, Brendan, my food is more authentic than Thailand. Okay. I've been to the street of Thailand. I've been to the core of Thailand and Bangkok. Uh, and I'm telling you, I tried almost every dish that I have on my menu. And honestly, Brendan, mine is good.

26:01Mine is good. Mine is very authentic. If I don't know how much more authentic they want me to be, but I'm telling you, my favorite, my flavor that I cook, it's bold. It's good. It's fresh, you know, and that's all I have to say about it. And if you want to come in and critique about them, Hey, I said, I've been to Thailand and my food is good. But then there's people that said they've been to Thailand and, um, order with it. Okay. So we had a lady that ordered pack a pile. She just went to Thailand this couple of years ago and told me my pack a pile is not Thailand. She said, that don't taste like Thailand. I said, what do you want me to do? And more MSG. I mean, what more authentic do you want me to do? Like, seriously, people that think that they went to Thailand and come eat my food, seriously think my food is not real. Well, you have to understand that's a third world country and we're America. Maybe she's more potent. I don't know, but I know my food's good and I'm going to stick to it.

27:06I love it. So, okay. So that's good. So your food is bold. You have fresh flavors when you come or Nina hot is, I mean, I think that, that that's something you have to try. If you like hot, if you're the guy that goes to Hattie B's and gets the shut the clock up, right. Then you need to, right. Yes, for sure. And I love Hattie B's, but there's pretty hot too. They're spicy. Yeah. Medium. I'm like the medium. I like a good flavor. I like a good spice. I thought the, the papaya was, the salad was fantastic. Like that's exactly where I need it to be. Yeah. And I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit in pain. Yeah. But I'm not going to complain. I think the spice is the hardest thing as a restaurateur to, to articulate because every restaurant I've ever worked in, if you had that one dish, if it's a, I worked at a place recently, had a, had a Buffalo cauliflower dish. It was like, you know, it's cauliflower that was baked, but then they put like a Buffalo sauce on it, which was mildly, I mean, it's a light, light, light spice. But I mean, you never know. People go, is this hot? And you go, not really. I mean, but my not really, who, you know, this woman that ordered it, she's doesn't that people, some people just don't eat things with flavor. You know, people that don't eat things that are spicy ever a little bit of red pepper will light them up. And then people like my brother, who, like I said, like to eat fire, really challenge them. So when you're a place that has a heavy spice, the challenge of articulating that to the guest has to be probably one of the hardest things you do. Oh yeah, for sure. Have you tried your brother's hot sauce? I mean, it's, it's your brother hot sauce times maybe five more. That's Nina hot sauce. What his hot sauce times five equals Nina hot. Oh, I think that you just threw the gauntlet down. He may, he may take a challenge

29:07to that one. Yeah, but his home, but his hot sauce is good. I mean, you get those street tacos and you put some of that hot sauce. Oh, it's like heaven. It's good. For those of you who don't know, my brother, his name is Justin. He owns a marketing company here in town and he's a foodie. He's a guy that loves going out to eat, but he's also known. One of the things I know him for, I think a lot of people know him for his music, as well as his ability to eat really hot food and love it. And he grows peppers. He and a couple of his friends grow like Carolina Reapers and all these Thai chilies and jalapenos and ghost peppers. He grow him and his friends have this, all these pepper plants. And then they take all these peppers once a year and they go to their buddy's house and they, they bake them and they chop them and they puree them and they make this sauce. It's every year he gets a batch of sauce and they call it homegrown hell. And it's good. Like it is a really good hot sauce. It's some good sauce, y'all. Get some. I mean, I think he should start bottling it because I'm telling you, every time I get those food truck tacos and put it on, oh my God, just devour it. It's so good, Brandon. It's so good. He does bottle it. I mean, it's bottled, but he just doesn't sell it. He gives it away as like Christmas. You gotta be like in an inner circle and you have to like hang out with him. Like, so I like spicy things to him, you know, kind of throw that. Do you have any of that sauce? And he usually has a jar or two of it like hanging out with him for that one person he meets that's like, dude, I love spicy. He's like, oh yeah, try it. Yep. Yep. Yep. I'm glad I'm his inner circle because I'm telling you, I'd be waiting for that sauce every single year. He drops me off two sauce, two bottles, and it lasts me a good long time until I get the next batch. Yeah. Cause you can only use so much.

31:04Yeah. He, yeah, he, he's got, I've got mine. I love it. I think it's the best drop or two and I'm good. Yeah, I love it. So what's it? So we're right now in a crazy time to pivot a little. We've just, we're still in the pandemic phase three tomorrow today because this is coming up. Is it today? I'm sorry. Oh, it's Monday. Today. This today is Sunday. We're recording this on Thursday, but this will come out tomorrow on Monday. Oh, listening today. It starts phase three. Um, are you excited about it? Are you nervous? What are your kind of your thoughts about this? I don't even think about it, Brandon. I just go whatever phrase we're in and we just keep it moving. I mean, I, I do the guidelines. What's more important to me is guidelines. You know, it's just wearing our masks and being sanitized. That's all. I mean, I don't really look into the phase. I mean, I just know that tomorrow be like 75% and the bar's seating is open and that's all I look at. You know, if anything, the bar seating people are excited to sit at the bar. I, yeah, I always think that sitting at the bar is the best place to sit. That's the fastest service. I like the bartenders. They, you know, the talk, they're always kind of right there. Yeah, it's great. So what do you think about these four restaurants and bars downtown having their beer license pulled for a week? Because I don't want to put my opinion in it. I just don't feel like it's fair. Not during this time. I feel for them.

32:45I mean, it's sad, but I just feel like, hey, guidelines are guidelines. But at the end of the day, it's like, I don't like to put my opinion in there. I just feel like it's just not fair. That's all. It's not fair because people are trying to make a living, Brandon. You know what I mean? And during this crash, you have to excuse that. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just not gonna put my opinion in it. I had my opinion the other day and I had it shut down in it. I'm just like, okay, let me just keep my mouth shut. I said my opinion the other day on we have a show that I put out every Friday. It's called the roundup and over a roundup of the restaurant scene in Nashville. And I said, you know, I understand the double standard that's going on out there and people work against their livelihood. But there's also a government mandate. They're saying that you're not allowed to do these things. And if you're a restaurant owner and you decide to go against that because you for whatever reason you say, hey, look, this isn't fair. I'm just gonna go ahead and do it. You take a risk. Yeah, for sure. And if that happens, that you know, there's repercussions to you taking that risk. And I think it's a thing a lot of people are following by the rules. And if you're one of the people that isn't, you know, I don't know.

34:03Again, it's that double edged sword you have. Yeah, we're not there to know the whole story either. So I just kind of someone asked me about it. Like, hey, Nina, what do you think about it? I'm like, you know, I'm trying my own business and try to keep it going at my own restaurant, trying to follow guidelines, you know what I mean? So but I just keep the opinion to myself. Well, I mean, I think it's stupid. I think people should be able to say they should be able to sit at the bar the entire time just separate. I don't know why four people can sit at a table right across from each other versus I don't understand. I don't get the bar thing. Like, Brandon, what about I sit at the restaurant and see the Mumbran bar neck to neck, shoulder to shoulder, and it's okay. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. I don't understand it either. But you know, hopefully we'll get back to a new normal here pretty soon. I hope so too. If anything, the mask thing, we need a new game in this mask thing because I can't breathe. I mean, it's definitely a another topic for everybody. I wear a mask everywhere that I go, but I'm not wearing a mask, like 24 7. I have really bad lungs. And I wear a mask and I always I kind of feel weird sometimes because I walk through and nobody else is wearing a mask. And I'm like, and every time I walk into a restaurant, I'm always wearing a mask.

35:26Adversely, people that work there and the other guests, I do that. But I it is hard to, I can't imagine me for eight, 12 hours at a time, especially behind a grill. Yeah, it's hard. It's really hard. But we just got to do what we got to do. I mean, what can you do? But how the so the mass is like the new normal now. So hopefully, hey, I think this Halloween be a good costume. Anybody? Halloween people are gonna be going without masks. Get my normal face. Right. I mean, like back then, it's like you can't wear a mask entering a store. And now it's like, you have to wear a mask entering store. So it's into banks with masks and sunglasses on and you're like, right, right. There haven't been like 40 bank robberies right now, because people like I was wearing a mask and that was normal. Right. I don't know. But this whole math thing is crazy.

36:28I never thought that I was gonna live to see this pandemic. Yeah, no, I didn't think that was gonna happen my age. What do you think is gonna happen in the next six months? Gosh, hopefully no mass. That's it. Because I just, you know, we were in the restaurant business. So it's hard serving at the patio is hard for us in front of a flaming walk. Okay, it's hard. I'm not gonna lie. There's times where I just need to sit down and drink some water. There's times that I feel like I just need to go to the hospital. Because I can't breathe. You know, I'm a little thick girl. So you know how hard that walking, walking around the restaurant, cooking, serving, breathing. I mean, it's hard. There's times I just be like, you know what, let me just go sit myself in a corner without this mess. So what do you do for fun? What do you do when you're working? Yeah. How do you, how do you relax? I don't, Brandon. That's the thing is I don't relax. I cook like today. It's Father's Day.

37:28I just told my husband like, you know what, I'm going to go out to eat. But normally my relaxation is just being in the kitchen and just cooking every single time that I have. I like to spend it in my kitchen, in my house. Okay. That's my fun. Great house to be in. No, I just have a regular house. It's just, I love the kitchen. No, I'm just, I lived in that house. That would be, have you cooking all the time? I would be 9,000 pounds. That would just be happy as a tick. Yeah. If you, I mean, if people know, I love to cook and I love to have people over. I mean, I like, like right now after this, I'm heading out to Kroger, go get groceries for the week. And normally any other Sunday, I would have like three meals already done by 10 o'clock in the morning. Wow. I love to cook. Yeah. I love it. Okay. So what do you, what are you, where are you guys going for your husband's day today? Where are you going for father? He said he wanted steak, but you know, with me having high cholesterol, I'm like, can we not do steak all the day? Cause I can't help myself. I love steak, but I think we're going to end up at a Korean barbecue today. And then tonight we're going to go to hot pot. Nice. So yeah, that's what's planned, but I don't know. I mean, anything can change from here to till he wakes up. What about you? What you gonna do?

39:01Well, it's raining. So I think that's my first father's day gift that I got because I've been watering my yard. Cause I'm a yard nerd and I've put a bunch. So I've won, I've been watering and I'm like, it's finally raining. So I'll probably want to go get a hike in. If it doesn't rain for the while, I like to go hiking. I do like a daily hike over the Warner parks. I do every day. Oh, I don't walk. So I don't know. This one thing I don't do is I don't walk Brendan. I mean, I feel like I walk enough in the restaurant and we was going to go hiking last week and I'm just like, I can't, I can't. I already seen the waterfall. I've seen it in pictures and this is all I need. I mean, so I have an Apple watch and there's little activity rings on the Apple watch. This is so shallow. But I'm at day 25 of closing all three of my rings and I want to do a full month days of closing all three activity rings. Cause I've had it since March and my best days of like three activity rings is like three. So I've tried to work really hard at doing exercise every day and do something for like my mind. Like they can just turn everything off and I go walk through the woods and I just have like this, it's an hour that I just have like to myself and it's amazing.

40:22It's rejuvenating for me and I've been doing it every single day. So I'm going to try and do that today. If it, the rain doesn't, if it holds off a little bit, I don't care. I'll even walk in the rain. I really don't care. It's gorgeous outside. Yeah, that's nice. I mean, a little hour time for yourself and, and is it, was it Percy Warner you want to? Yeah, I live kind of in the Bellevue area. So Percy Warner, Edwin Warner, I'll do the red trail if I'm gets a lot of energy or the blue trail or the white trail. You know, I go and just kind of either one, whichever however froggy I'm feeling. I try and mix them up. So I don't do the same one every day. That's awesome. Really good. Yeah, we did the hidden lake trail over off Newsome station the other day. Yeah, that's right. It's not as pretty as the Warner, but you know, that was a lot of fun. So then we're going to do, planning on doing the pool this afternoon and I'm going, I'm cooking rib eyes for all the, the dads. So my dad, brother-in-law and me we're doing, I'm going to get like the big tomahawk rib eyes and that's nice. It's for the ladies and doing rib eyes with baked potatoes. We're going like, okay. That's all just baked potato and rib eyes. I will probably throw a vegetable in there, probably do, you know, corn on the cob or something that's indicative of the season.

41:45You want to do something? Corn on the cob with that butter. Country Crock is the best. Oh, I love Country Crock. I can't live without Country Crock. I love it. I grew up on that. Oh my God, let me tell you. Country Crock use some Irish butter. My wife gets it at Costco. I can't think of the name of it right now. Oh, well, yeah. Anybody knows me. I'm a fast food girl and I love Country Crock butter. So, all right. What's your favorite fast food restaurant? Burger King. Burger King, huh? Yeah, this is a serious topic. I feel like, okay, let me tell you about this. So, I'm a big Whopper girl. Just growing up with it because, you know, we have history with it because, you know, growing up as refugee, we don't get it often, right? So, now that I can afford it, I try to go once a week and people are like, oh, you eat that? Well, one thing is, you know, being a chef, I can cook it myself, but to me, I grew up on Whoppers. I love Whoppers and I'm not ashamed to say I love Whoppers and anybody that comes into a restaurant, that's all I talk about, is getting a Whopper once a week. Brandon, tell me, you're, I mean, you can't be a snob about now that you're, you know, whatever. Like other chefs, they're like, oh, I don't eat that junk. Yes, you do. You grew up on it. Yes, you do. Quit lying.

43:10A super guilty pleasure. I mean, I think that the patty melt at Hardee's is one of my absolute favorites. I love the beer battered onion rings at Hardee's and if I go to Burger King, I love the rodeo burger. It's a, you know, it's like the burger with the onion rings in the middle of the, I never get to eat onion rings. So every time I go get fast food that has onion rings, I'm like, hell yes. Yes, Sonic has the best onion rings. Like has really, they're the big and they're like, there's like the is really like a big thick breading. Yes. I love the toaster sandwiches, like the bacon cheeseburger toaster at Sonic. That's a really good one. And then if you get the tots, you cover them with cheese. Well, see, I'm not a cheese girl, so I mean, I don't do cheese bread. Okay. Okay. But, but I did tell you yesterday, I had my first Hugh baby. Oh, I gobbled that in three bites, three bites. So that's one of the, I think that in my opinion, is the best. That's where the second place we ate out at after the pandemic like opened and we could like go there. We took the kids to, we drove through Hugh babies in Charlotte and we, we drove and sat in the park parking lot. We had like a little date with the kids in the back seat and we all sat there and they just looked at the, the playland across the street and they were like one, they love, they love that. That's the best. I loved it. I mean, I'm actually going back today to get another one because I went to, I was running errands around a hundred oaks yesterday and my kids was hungry. So I'm like, okay, let me try Hugh baby. Been meaning to try it.

44:41And let me tell you what, the kids got their food cold because I was sitting there in the parking lot devouring that three bite of Hugh baby. Okay. I'm going to not one up this, but if you're going to go out and try something today, try Joyland. Oh, that's on that side. I'm not going to go on that side. That's going to be on my list. Yes. I heard it's incredible. It's, it's out of control. It's real easy. You order from your phone and then it says, come pick it up 15 and you pull right up to the front of the restaurant and then you call them and they just bring it out, set it on your hood and you're like, yeah, they're amazing. Sean Brock, it's got it. Bear Creek Farms meat. The burgers are like 12 bucks, but it is legit. Oh, my mouth is watering. Okay. I'll do that. This is waffle fries. You get regular, you can get Mexican Coke in a bottle. Waffle fries, like Chick-fil-A waffle fries or better, better. They're made with his, uh, Jimmy corn meal. Like this. Anything you want to say to the Nashville community? Any, any like final last words? Anything you want to talk about? Yes. When you come see us at Tai-I-San, hold on. I don't know what to say. I had it at the tip of my tongue.

45:59Yeah, just ask for Nina. When you come to Tai-I-San, you don't know what you're about to order. Just ask for Nina. I'm always there. I want to make sure that all you guys are happy, um, making sure your food is authentic and to your liking, to your platter. I love that. So if you do go to Tai-I-San, which is, um, used to be on 12 South. Now we're on Music Row, right? Um, at the round about the Naked Statue. I will say Naked Statue because people don't know where the round about it. I don't understand, but we're at the Naked Statue. Buddy Killin' Circle. Excuse me? It's called the Buddy Killin' Circle, I believe. They don't know that either. The Naked People statues. The Naked Statue across from Tailgate Brewery. That's all day, every day we tell our people, um, and if they do come, please park at the Tai-I-San parking. It's free. So you do have a hard time, huh? Where do people park when they come there? Uh, they, we have a parking garage, um, and it has Tai-I-San sign on there. They can just park there. It's free. Okay. So there's plenty of parking. There's plenty of parking. Yes. And then there's some street parking. And if you do decide to do a pickup order, you can just park right there at the front patio, which your emergency light on because the landlord said so.

47:15Okay. Right there in front of the building, put your flashers on, run in, get your order. But if you go to Tai-I-San and you don't know what to order, ask, say, hey, I need help. This is what I like. She'll hook you up. She'll help you out exactly what to order and you're going to love it. Yes. You're going to love it and you're going to be happy and you're going to come back because I make sure that you're going to get to come back. That's right. And she needs it. And so if you're listening to this and you go, I want to go try that food, go check it out. Yes. Tons of accolades since you've been open. Best Thai in Nashville. It's the best Thai. It's the best heat. It's the best everything. And you get free entertainment there because all of our staff is very entertainable. Very entertainable. I like that. Yeah. It's really fun. Like Brandon, you need to come and sit down with us one day. You'll see it. Once we go full blast capacity, all of our staff, front of the house, everyone's a character there. Well, I'm going to see you this week. I'm going to come in this week and say hi to myself and just kind of like... Okay, text me before you come.

48:23Okay. So I can get that special spice ready for you. Why am I so afraid? We'll do a video of me eating this Nina hot. I'm going to do it. Okay. Let's do it. We'll do it together. I love it. I love it. All right. Awesome. Yeah. Thanks for joining us on Nashville Restaurant Radio and please, whenever you want to come back on, you ever have something you want to say, whatever it might be, give me a call. Text me. Let me know. I'd love to have you back on the show anytime. I sure will. Thank you so much, Brandon. This is so much fun. I'll see you later this week and I'll go get some burgers later this week as well. So thank you. I have no affiliation with them. I just love them. I mean, to me, I support everything and everybody. So I mean, whatever. Good. So have a wonderful rest of your, tell your husband happy father's day and I'm not to go wake him up because I'm getting hungry. Gotta go. I'll see you when the church crowd come out. So, but thank you so much, Brandon. I can't wait. Thank you. And I see you later this week. Okay.

49:27All right. What an amazing interview. So excited to have Nina Singto on the show. She's just a ray of light and I can't wait to get in there and go try the Nina hot. That is going to happen. I am going to go this week. I've already talked to my brother. We're going in and we're going to eat it. I'm so excited and I hope you guys enjoyed that. Again, subscribe to the podcast. Thanks for watching and or listening. You can watch. We're on YouTube now. So I hope you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.