Olivia Britton

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03:20It's just absolutely amazing. If you're looking for a linen company, you can trust who wants to earn your business every single week. Go back and listen to our episode with Jason Cruz, the owner of CNBLenny. Hear it from his straight from his mouth, exactly what they do. Or you give them a call at 9 3 1 7 2 2 76 16. Or you can DM me at Brandon Styll on Instagram for my exclusive pricing through the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance, NARA for short. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon Food Service and today we're talking with Olivia Britton.

04:26She is the publisher of In Focus Magazine and the executive, I don't know what that's executive producer, I guess, of the the Music City Food and Wine Festival. Yes, it is back and it is coming up in just a couple weeks. It is going to be April 24th through the 27th, I believe, are the exact dates. We're going to talk a lot about it and it's a three to four day event, depending how you look at it. And it's going to be a big tasting, grand tasting, I believe on the 26th, where they're going to do the Iron Fork and all kinds of fun stuff. And I believe we are going to be there doing live interviews. This is a different event than they used to do in the past with the Music City Food and Wine Festival. Not the same old people that did it. They've purchased the rights or got the rights to it somehow. And it is a fun event. And I would love to see, you know, one thing, we're at Team Heidi and there were so many chefs and restaurant people just like hanging out at the event because it was there to support restaurant workers.

05:31And I love that. I'd love to see some more chefs and restaurant workers there on Saturday night, just to kind of show community for us all to get together and see each other and celebrate what is food and wine in Music City. So that's what that's kind of why we're doing this episode today. I wanted to learn more about it. I wanted to help promote it. This is not a paid promotion, but it kind of feels like a promotion. And we're working with Olivia, I've known her for years. And it's so fun to kind of see all this stuff come together and hopefully learn a lot more about the event. I am excited to be back. I've been in California all week long, kind of spending some time with family. And if you go to my Instagram stories, you'll see some photos and things of what I did. I went fishing. My cousin, Blake, passed away last year on April the 13th from a plane crash. And I've been feeling sad. If you listen to our other podcast, it is called Shut Up and Thrive, and Shut Up and Thrive episode, I talk about my sadness I've been feeling.

06:37And it's really been kind of overwhelming. And I went to California to kind of feel some of that sadness. So I went to the site where his plane crashed, he was in a plane crash. And it was an interesting week. And I think it was very positive. I think it was really positive for me. I needed that. It's back to work. And it's back to, I have so many episodes coming out. So if you want to learn more about that, you can read my Instagram stories at Brandon Styll. You can find me on Instagram and you can see all the pictures. I also caught the biggest fish on the boat. We went fishing. The last thing that we did with Blake and Trent, my other cousin, the last thing that we did together before he passed was we all went fishing. When my grandfather was passing, I was in California and we spent a day and we went out fishing. So we wanted to recreate that trip. And I caught the biggest fish on the boat. And it was a rockfish and you can see a picture of it. It's pretty cool. It was a good time. Yeah, so lots of episodes coming up. This is Olivia Britton. We've got Vince Lanni, Jason Cruz from, he's the owner of C&B Linen.

07:42We have Lisa LeClair. She is the president of the Greater Nashville Hospitality Association and our Team Heidi episode is coming out soon. But what the episode, this episode just needed to come out because, hey, the event's coming up. So we're going to go ahead and start the show before they sell out. And I'm excited to share this content with you. I don't know what else to say. So we're going to go ahead and start the show. Olivia Britton, let's roll. Super excited today to welcome in Olivia Britton. Hello. Hello. It is a pleasure to have you here. I feel like it's been so long since I've seen you from back in the Iron Fork days when I was with U.S. Foods and like would announce the secret ingredient and the whole thing. Yeah. And I was just running by like a chicken with my head cut off. But you know, you, I have to give you guys a shout out because you guys would just hustle all night long. There are so many moving parts to an event like that.

08:44Yeah. And you guys crushed it every year. Like it was just so smooth and you were so kind. You had grace throughout the whole thing and you could have been freaking out and you, which you never saw. You were like a swan, you know, like. Yeah. You got to keep it cool. Got to keep it casual. It'll get, it'll get done. You know, that's the thing with events is like there is an end to the event. And so you're just like, we're going to power through and we're going to get it done and we're going to smile while we're doing it and it's fine. Everything's fine. You might feel like that, that guy from the meme where he's like, everything's on fire and you're like, it's fine. Everything's fine. But you're smiling through it and you're getting through it. It's a lot like a restaurant, like on a Friday night where it's just three deep at the bar and it's just chaos all night long. But you're like, eventually everybody will leave, we will clean up and we will go home. And then you have an event hangover and then you lay in bed until like one in the morning watching Instagram stories of everybody posting about the event. And then you're like happy and smiling because it looks so great and everyone have fun. So it all comes together. I love it. So you are the publisher of in focus magazine. Correct. Yes. What does that mean? Right. So our, I guess I'll start more from the top.

09:45So our company, FW Publishing, we own a group of publications here in Nashville. So in focus magazine, the Nashville scene, Nashville post, and then we also just launched a Williamson County branch of the Nashville scene. I know. I love it. Maribel just won best brunch. Oh, there you go. In the Williamson scene. Williamson scene. Best stuff. Yeah, that's us. So obviously, you know, Williamson County, there's a lot to cover there. So we felt like it made sense to cover that and have its own kind of Nashville scene centric focus. But yeah, so my title, I guess, as in focus publisher mainly is about all of our marketing and revenue and advertising and also kind of just steering the sales ship for in focus magazine. Okay. I also oversee and execute all of our signature events. I help with our social media. I coordinate really closely with Janet, who's our editor and is fabulous. And she does all of the beautiful coverage every single month that you see in the magazine. Janet Kurtz. Yeah, Janet Kurtz. Yeah. Love Janet Kurtz. She's a gem, like the best person. The best. The best co worker in this. She and I basically do the whole thing.

10:47So it's a lot of fun. You know, Janet and I, when I first started this podcast, she was like instrumental for me. Really? Yeah. She knows everyone. She's so well connected. She was doing her, Janet, the Kurtz hospitality kind of thing. And we were both freaking out because of the pandemic. And so she would come on and we did a few episodes together, but like we talked almost every day, just like, what are you doing? How can we help each other? And like, because we're both just like trying to figure this thing out because it was scary. Yeah. That was a crazy time. Yeah. She joined the team, I think, in 2022. So it's been almost three full years with her on the team as our editor in chief. But yeah, she and I work closely together on a lot of things, but mainly my job as publisher is overseeing everything not editorial. I let Janet kind of focus on that and she does a fabulous job. I focus on pretty much everything else. So our sales, marketing. A dynamic duo. Yeah. So we have a pretty, you know, robust team of sales team members and marketing and then obviously our president, Mike Smith, you know, runs the show and in focus.

11:48He's been with he's been with the company for 30 years, so he's seen in focus and every iteration. So he is super involved and gives me a lot of really great advice and helps me, you know, steer the ship a lot. But yeah, it's a lot of fun. So I came into this role kind of unexpectedly, honestly, because I have always been on the events and marketing side, you know, like when I worked with you in Iron Fork and, you know, have been the event director for the whole company. So I oversaw 20 to 30 events a year across the post, which, you know, 250 person cocktail networking style events all the way up to the big best in Nashville, you know, 2500 people and all kinds of moving parts. Yeah, yeah. And then I, you know, went and had a baby and took a few months off and then it was great and super fortunate to have a flexible job where, you know, they let me take some time off to do that and then decided to come back full time. I love that, like, you took some time off to produce a life. Yeah, right. Like, yeah, like you get some nice rest in that time, like you went on sabbatical or something.

12:49Yeah, I mean, obviously, it was honestly amazing, you know, maternity leave, that's what that's called. That's not time off. That's maternity leave. True, true, true. You're doing a lot during that time. Yes. Yeah. I mean, but it was it was just really nice. You know, I felt like I had a lot of friends that had to rush back to work, you know, and I didn't, which was really great. So really good for me and my family and for my daughter, Charlotte. And then I decided to come back to work full time. And at that same time, we so we've been talking about doing this food and wine festival for three years, actually. And it just all kind of made sense in the summer of twenty twenty three when I was going on maternity leave. OK, well, let's put a pin in it. And then when I come back eventually full time sometime in twenty twenty four, we'll really get this thing going. And so there is a need for me to step in as publisher. And then also, I just couldn't let go of the event side of my life, which I love so much. And so that's how I got into doing Music City Food and Wine, too. Well, I think that's what we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about the Music City Food and Wine Festival.

13:50But I I want to go back a little bit further. OK, like 10 seconds. Sure. You love the events. I do. You love the. What about putting together an event? What dopamine hit do you get from that? Like, what is the thing that drives you to want to do this more and more? So I think it's two things. So obviously an event is like three hours, right? Which is kind of crazy if you think about it. You know, the Iron Fork event, it's three hours long. It's six to nine p.m. But I'm working on it for a year. You know, so it sounds kind of crazy. You're putting all this time and money and effort and energy into something that's so short lived. But so I think on the front end of it, my favorite thing is just working with all of the amazing humans that make this come to life, you know, like collaborating with people on ideas, talking to, you know, upper level sponsors all the way to a, you know, a small local restaurant all the way to the florist, to the bartenders, to the permit holders. And you're it's just a massive network of talking.

14:53That's really all it is. It's just me chatting with people and coordinating details, which I love to do. I love just working with people and, you know, brainstorming ideas. And a lot of times they come to me with ideas on how to make an event better. Or they have an idea for, you know, an activation or sponsorship or a restaurant wants to serve this really cool bite. They have to work with me about a podcast wants to come live during the event. Yeah. So I think a lot of it is that I think a lot of it is just I really genuinely do just love talking with people and working with people in that sense. And then there is nothing quite like when an event runs really, really well. And you have people coming up to you saying, this is so much fun. This is so great. I met so many new customers. I had such an awesome time. I met I saw a friend or a coworker that I worked with years ago, and I haven't seen them in years. And I saw this at this event. And just hearing that feedback in real time is really gratifying, honestly. Have you ever had an event crash and burn? So, no, unless the weather gods just smited me like that's the only thing.

15:57We had an event in 2019. We called it Fest of Nashville. It was a play on words for Best of Nashville Festival. I'll be honest. We couldn't come up with a better name. But in retrospect, the name may have jinxed us now, but it was a lot of fun. And it was basically an open to the public festival where you could come and purchase food and shop from and meet all of the winning businesses, whereas the Best of Nashville Party is typically invitation only. Right. So the festival concept for is it to be a big community event. In the first year, we're about an hour in. Everything's running really smoothly. And then all of a sudden, one of my coworkers comes up to me and I'm just in the zone. And she comes up to me and goes, so have you checked the radar recently? And I just said, I don't think I want to know. And she goes, no, you need to know. You need to know there is a massive thunderstorm headed our way. And within 20 minutes, the floodgates just the skies opened. It was torrentially downpouring. One of those pop up summer storms that just came out of nowhere.

16:59We're trying to cover stage equipment where people are hiding in a parking garage, taking shelter from the lightning. And yeah, that wasn't fun, I have to say. But it was fine. All the attendees and sponsors and vendors like totally understood. You know, it was just completely out of our control. I think I remember when you're at the Iron Fork, where like the the breakers kept popping because people had all these different and it's like they're in the middle of cooking. You have 60 minutes or whatever to cook this meal and all their equipment kept popping like they couldn't cook. And it was like, oh, hey, we don't have electricity. And all of a sudden, you're just like, oh, shit, what do we do? That is like a moment where you just have to rely on like the team of people that are supposed to make that happen, which is like the venue, the maintenance director, me, the chefs. We had like three volunteers and you're just like all hands on deck, like just getting it taken care of. You're running around the back. You're just unplugging things and plugging things back in, hoping something will turn on. You're checking the breakers. You're doing all kinds of fun stuff.

18:00But yeah, I mean, stuff like that always happens. I think I'm just so it's inevitable. Right. In an event that something's going to go wrong. I just try and focus on everything that could go right. Well, I think that you have to going into it, have some sort of expectation that if things go wrong, you can't freak out. You have to maintain a level of sure we're going to fix it. It's OK. Yeah, I have to regulate right now. I can't. Yeah. Lose my shit, so to speak, like you've got to stay together. Yeah, because I mean, if one of the chefs or restaurants or attendees or someone saw you freaking out, they would think something's oh, really wrong. Right. Where I think to a lot of times in events, it feels so much bigger than it is because of just the pressure of the moment. We just said you spent a year. Right. There's a buildup of a year in every conversation, a year's worth of work for three hours of payoff. And you're like. We should have had. How do you not have a plan like you do this? That's why experience helps, because when you do this a lot, you know. Yeah, we have a plan. It's just we don't say it out loud to you, but it's in my brain. But there's a plan for all kinds of stuff. Yeah.

19:02OK, so thank you. I'm just curious about that, because that's a it's an interesting thing is like I love working restaurants because I love the chaos of it. Like I said, I've never felt more alive when I'm 3D behind a bar. And you're like, what do you want? And you're just making drinks as fast you can. It's just like every sense. Every single thing that you're doing is firing on all cylinders. And you're like, this is the the highest I can get. There's an adrenaline rush for sure. For sure. There's also an adrenaline crash where you want to lay in bed for two days after because your feet hurt because you've been standing on them for 15 hours the day before. And running around. And I remember one time because we also do multi-day festivals and things like that, too. I remember one time we did an event and it was just the footprint of the event was just massive. Like all of the tents were just really spread out. So we're just walking back and forth. And I checked my, you know, my Apple Watch tracker. And I had walked 22 miles in one day. Yeah, that's a marathon. Yeah. And I have to say, I did not feel great the next day.

20:04No, it'll hit you hard. It's like Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day this past year at Maribor, we got up and down the stairs. Like, I think I walked like 62 flights of stairs and like the same thing, like twenty two thousand steps. I don't know how many miles, but like twenty two thousand steps. And I get in my car and I was just like. Yeah, you don't even know your. I don't know if I can drive home right now. Like I am exhausted. Yeah, it's it really is an adrenaline because you just you have no choice. Right. Like someone on the other side of the event needs something. So, yeah, I have to walk over there and address it. So, yeah. Well, that's it. You said a multi day event. That's a great segue. Yeah. To what you are doing for the Music City Food and Wine Festival. So is it the Music City Food and Wine Festival? Correct. So there used to be a Music City Food and Wine Festival. Is this the same thing? It is not. The name is the same. And that's about it. Yeah. So we, you know, at the Nashville scene and have to be publishing. And like I said, we've been talking about this for a couple of years now. And we kind of been joking internally.

21:04We already do like a food and wine event, basically just spread throughout the year. You know, Iron Fork is a massive tasting event. We have our food fair market that we do. Obviously, we have the big best of Nashville experience. We are bringing back to life an event that in focus used to do for years called Alfresco, and we're, you know, kind of bringing elements of that back to life. So really, we just thought, well, why don't we just work smarter, not harder? I mean, we're working hard, like, but, you know, why don't we just basically take some elements of existing events that are already proven, have great, you know, revenue models and sponsors and marketing behind them and put them all in one massive weekend. And then we just decided to call it Music City Food and Wine Festival, because that's exactly what it is. It's a food and wine festival in Music City. That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Did you have to purchase that name was that you have the trademark? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we knew that the old festival, you know, it seemed apparent to us that they weren't planning to return after the pandemic. And, you know, we just kind of thought, who better than a local company to produce this and really focus on all of the amazing hospitality and restaurant industry connections that we have and just kind of pull them all together into one massive weekend.

22:12I'm also really excited. You know, we're working. I don't know if you know this, but we're working with the cork dorks team. So they do Nashville Wine and Food Festival. They're actually no longer hosting their own event. They're going to operate as part of Music City Food and Wine Festival. The cork dorks team, cork dorks, wine and beer and spirits. You know, they have a location in Green Hills in Midtown, and they have fabulous wine connections. And they hosted, you know, an event for about 10 years. And they they're really focused on wine education. And, you know, it not just be a wine event where a bunch of people walk up, slam a glass of wine and then walk away and they don't really care what they're drinking, they're just there to get drunk. That's not what we want that to be. All our Brewers Festival. Yeah, there's quite a few in town. Shug beer. Yeah, there's quite a few in August day. Yeah. I mean, we, you know, that's like but things that we've heard from feedback from restaurants and chefs and other events that, you know, we're trying to be really conscientious of when planning the new festival. But yeah, cork dorks were teaming up with them and they're curating all of the wine placements at the festival, which is really exciting.

23:15And they've got some really, really fabulous wines that's coming. My brother's a sommelier. So I'm extremely spoiled because I've been, you know, given the since I was, you know, 21, sure, 21. Since I was 21 years old, I have been drinking wine. No, but he is me too. Yeah, he he actually used to work at the West Side Spirits down here in West Haven. And so, yeah, so. But anyways, I've been introduced to really fabulous wines for, you know, 10 plus years of my life. And so I'm really excited that they're coming in because they have really great wine connections. We just have Black Sheep Tequila. You see all their stuff here. This Amo Grande is their newest. Oh, nice. Yeah. And the CEO was in the restaurant yesterday and we were tasting I just tasted some people on this Black Sheep and I said, this is the best tequila I've ever had. And I said, apparently, it's great. I don't drink anymore. But like, apparently, it's great. And I said, I did my level one sommelier in 2003. Cool. It's been a long time. Twenty two years, I guess, now.

24:16I said, but the worst part about learning this much is that everything's more expensive now. Yeah. When you develop a good palate. You're not drinking Franzia. Well, when you know the difference, like, oh, shit. So I inadvertently now have to pay a lot more for my alcohol because I can actually tell the difference. Yeah, it's it's hard. Yeah. I mean, my brother, you know, like Thanksgiving 10 years ago was like, do you want a more oaky or a buttery Chardonnay for the turkey? And I'm like, I don't know. A white one that's crisp. Like that's not cold. Yeah. Cold and crisp with turkey. But that's as far as my wine knowledge went. But I've gotten a bit into it more now. And it's it's fun. It's a lot of fun. You can start because it's a conversation piece. It's a whole thing for sure. So there will be edgy. So and I tell my staff all the time, I said, you know, wine is the most intimidating thing to people. Right. So this comes back to the festival. When a person comes and sits down at Mirable, we have 130 different bottles of wine. If they don't have that wine education and they look at that list, it's intimidating. So having suggestions to say, hey, these three are excellent.

25:20Most people will go, that sounds great. I'll have that because it gets them off the seat of I'm going to order something I can't pronounce. I'm going to look stupid. And I don't want to look stupid. And it's like a whole thing. But if you come to the Music City Food and Wine Festival, this is an opportunity to learn more. But so you don't have to be that person in a restaurant where you don't know. And I tell servers all the time. We go, guys, this is going to this information we're sharing with you now. This education we do every day will last you for the rest of your life, the rest of your life. When you go dine, you'll know about wine. A Pinot Noir is a Pinot Noir in the United States or in California or France or anywhere. I don't know how to say that. I don't know how to say Pinot Noir or Montepulciano de Bruzzo. So that's a cool aspect of what you're doing there. I didn't know you were doing that at the festival. I'm really excited. Yeah. So I mean, we're really trying to build a cohesive schedule that is everything, experiential, food, wine, spirits, cocktail competitions, the Iron Fork Chef competition.

26:20We have in-restaurant dining experiences. So we're doing a whole lot. I've been talking about it so much. I feel like I've got a little spiel in my head of the rundown of what the festival schedule is. That's good you say that because that's the next thing we're going to do. Right after I ask you this question. Do we know who's competing in the Iron Fork? We do. We have our chefs. I'm very excited. Yeah. Do you want me to tell you? I want you to tell me. Okay. Have you announced this yet? We do. Yeah. Okay. It's out there. So it's on our website. We're doing a big push for it probably next week just to really focus on the Iron Fork Chef competition because I think that is such a beloved event and people just know what that is. So we want to make sure people know that that event is now part of Music City Food and Wine Festival. So our competitor line up this year. So we have Chris Crary from The One Hotel. Very excited about him. That's awesome. Yeah. He's the culinary director there. We have Giovanna Orsina from Tutti di Gio, which I'm super excited about. She is super fun. Obviously, they have kind of a cult following up at their store in Hermitage and their food. If you haven't had it, it is to die for. Some of the best pasta I've ever had.

27:22So she's coming in. I'm super excited. I think she'll be kind of an underdog, wild card maybe. There's no underdogs. You have no idea in these competitions who's going to come out and just cry because you don't know what the secret ingredient is. Yeah. Right. That's the fun thing. Yeah. And then we have Edgar Victoria from Alibre Hawachan. Okay. He's going to win. Yeah. Sorry. I've had a couple of people say that. He's killing it. He just opened his new shop over on the East Side. I know. And then we have Jess Lambert with Etch, et cetera. So Deb Paquette's right hand, she's learned from the best. So I don't know. She could be an underdog too in a way. I don't know if that's an underdog at all. Yeah. I don't think any of those people. They're all killer. They're all amazing. I'm super excited. I just know that Edgar is going to... The thing about Edgar is he's just so creative. He's an artist. Right. But his flavor profiles are beyond. So not only will the food taste good, he's going to present it. You're going to go, what is this work of art? A piece of art. That's honestly one of my favorite parts of the competition and is just seeing how they come up with just creative plating and how they integrate the secret ingredient.

28:31I always stand on the end of the judges table next to Jess Benfield and I'm like, give me a bite. So it's nice. It's not a bad part of the job to be able to try a bite of these amazing dishes. That's for sure. A hundred percent. Jess, how many times has Jess won it? She's won it a couple of times, right? She's won it twice. Yeah. So she won it I think in 2014. I don't want to say that wrong, but I know she's won it. And then the next year, the very next... She won one of the ones I was at. Like the ones where I don't know... Yeah, it might've been 2016 or 2017. I think the one that you guys were a part of was one of our champion rounds. And so she came back. So we invited the past four years of champions to come back and battle again. And so she won a second time. So, yeah. I think we did watermelon radish and we did like plantains. Yep. Do you know what I really wanted to do? I wanted to do as a secret ingredient, black sheep tequila. It shares six exclusive styles with the oldest released tequila with a line of six artisanal, handcrafted luxury tequilas.

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31:35If you'd like to order them for your restaurant, or if you want to go try them yourself, you can visit drinkcalexo.co or you can pick them up at Killjoy in East Nashville. This is an amazing company. They're not some conglomerate who's jumping into the THC game. They are a craft THC beverage company where just like you and I, this is their only focus. This is the only product that they make. So they put a hundred percent of their detail and love into it. Please enjoy responsibly. Sharpier's Bakery is a locally owned and family operated wholesale bakery providing bread to Nashville's best eateries. They have operated in Nashville since 1986. Yes, next year will be 40 years. They providing high quality fresh bread daily for restaurants, catering companies, hospitals, and universities. Their bread is also free from any preservatives and artificial flavors. They're right off of White Bridge Road. Erin Moso and her team have been doing this for a long time.

32:36You know what I love about them is that they're local and they care. They care about your business. That's like the number one thing you're gonna hear me talk about is do they care about your business? And I hundred percent believe that they do. If you would like to be working with a bakery that cares about your business, give them a call. 615-356-0872. That's 615-356-0872. Now you can always visit them at sharpiers.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S dot com. And they have pictures of all of the bread that they can have for you and contact information. Go check them out Sharpier's Bakery. Do you know what I really wanted to do? I wanted to do as a secret ingredient, butter. I've thought about that, but I think I would love for it to be like a weird butter. You know, like something- Like blue gruh. Yeah, something very unique or just something, you know, extra special, like a flavor profile that'd be kind of hard to work in. Last year, the secret ingredient was dark cocoa powder.

33:38It was there. Yeah, and I think Julio's eyes just lit up as soon as we announced that. And we were like, oh man, maybe we should have thought about that. I thought it was funny too. We've had, you know, Nina Singto with Taya Sane and she's obviously like a competitor queen. She's on all the shows all the time and she's killing it. One of my favorite people. She's so nice. But I remember I asked her what she didn't want the secret ingredient to be. Like as a joke, I was like, what would you just be absolutely devastated if it was? And she said a slice of Kraft American cheese. And I had thought that was hysterical. I never would have thought of that as a secret ingredient. Yeah. So who creates the secret ingredient now? So we work closely with US Foods as the presenting sponsor since they provide all of the pantry items. And Chef Ed over there and I and a few other people. Ed Butler. Yeah, a few of I, we just kind of pick our, you know, put our heads together, pick each other's brains. And also we usually do kind of look at the chefs that are competing and like what their specialty is and like try and do something that they wouldn't be extremely happy with. But it doesn't always work out.

34:39Something different. Well, that's why I was like, the secret ingredient is butter. And people are like, butter is in kind of everything. How do you make that the focal point? How do you make this as the focal point of the dish? And like, it seems like, well, that could be easy, but it's like, no, you have to really, that's a sauce. I don't know. Deb Paquette does like a butter trio at a restaurant. Like the truffle butter and all these different things. Like you could do, and there's a lot, I don't know. Yeah, you could do that. Yeah, I mean, I think that's something that people with the chef competition, that's part of the scorecard is you are actually integrating it into the dish. It's not just a little garnish on top, and that's all. So it is fun to see how people weave that in. And I think Charles Hunter III with the Salted Table a couple years ago, he made biscuits from scratch. Like, I mean, they're doing all kinds of crazy stuff. I remember one year, Julia Sullivan made pasta, handmade pasta in an hour. And I just was like- I was there for that one. Yeah, I mean, it's just insane. They're so talented. It's, and the cool thing about the event, if you've never been to the Iron Fork, I'll paint a little picture.

35:44There's a stage, and it'll be a little different because this will be at Centennial Park, right? It's usually at the Musicians Hall of Fame. Yeah, it's going to be on a much larger scale. Much larger scale. But you can, like, watch the chefs cook. There's, like, you know, stanchions. You can stand behind, and they announce the secret ingredient. There's a mad dash over to the pantry. They grab all the pantry items. You have the chef, a sous chef, and then I think that Nashville State potentially provides- Yeah, we work with No See College of Art. No See College of Art, sorry. Yeah. Then you have culinary students there kind of helping as additional help. And then they have a plan, and they execute a dish. How long do they have to cook it? They have exactly one hour. So one hour. And then you stagger them 15 minutes? Yeah, about 10 or 15 minutes. So basically their starting time starts every 10 minutes, and then their presentation time to the judges is every 10 minutes. That way the judges can actually, you know, take a bite. And it's hot. Yeah, and it's hot and fresh. You know, I think the chef that gets the last time, they do have a little bit of a competitive edge because they have 30 extra minutes to like brainstorm, but they cannot shop the pantry.

36:46So they have to go to the pantry first. Yeah, and so then they just have to sit there and sit on whatever they're doing. So we always tell the chefs to like come in with like three or four ideas of what you want to make, and then just be able to quickly pivot depending on what the secret ingredient is. Is there a limit on how much you can get from the pantry? Because I just try and bring the whole damn pantry over. If I was the last person, I'd be like, get a shopping cart. We're grabbing one of everything so that we can play. Yeah, I mean, we give them a few bus tubs and we say fill it as much as you can. You know, obviously don't be, you know, rude to your fellow chefs and take all of the salt. Taking all the flavor. Yeah, no chicken. I took every single piece of chicken. No, we have it pre-portioned out like in sections so it's easy to grab for the chefs. But yeah, they can grab whatever they want. But once they get it, they can't go back. The pantry is pretty impressive. U.S. Foods does a really good job. That was one of the hardest things for it because I was in charge of the pantry and Ed Butler was an integral part. But like getting all that stuff and then merchandising and setting it up and do all of the things.

37:47I'm excited to see it. We're actually going to do a round pantry this year so chefs can walk around and it'll be like kind of a focal point of the event too. I think it is so beautiful and you know, it's bountiful with all this amazing produce and spices. And so it'll be kind of a focal point at the event, which I'm really excited about. And then you may remember, but all of the pantry gets donated to the Nashville Food Project at the end of the night, which is great. And it's a significant amount of food that is going to them on behalf of U.S. Foods, which is great. That's amazing. That's a really cool event. Okay, so thank you for indulging me. I feel like we're going to go over our 30 minute time. Let's walk through what this year's music is. Again, just to reiterate to people, if you just started listening at the 27 minute mark, this is not the old food and wine festival that I think got a bad name for some reason. I don't know what it was, but I want people to know this is a completely different event ran by different people. And it's amazing.

38:50We're super excited. It's a three day event. Yeah. So tell me about day one. Let's walk through what day one is. We'll walk through at day two. We'll walk through at day three. And then we'll for sure let you go. So we, you know, technically it's growing into like a four and a five day event just with some of the in restaurant promotions that we're doing. So we kind of wanted to have two different types of events. We haunted. We wanted to have events where we could actually encourage people to go patron and eat at the restaurants. And we also, of course, wanted to have a traditional festival, which is all in one place at Centennial Park. So we start the week off with a series of intimate dinners that are taking place on Wednesday and Thursday night. Those are very similar kind of concept that Diane Nashville just did. They did these, you know, week long of amazing chef collaboration. Yeah. So we have six restaurants that are doing those across Wednesday and Thursday evening. They're going to be a mix of prefix, you know, special dinners or just open reservations. And it's a special menu for the night or a ticketed event. The lineup is killer, I think. So we've got Margo over in East Nashville, which I'm super excited about.

39:52What is that place called again? Margo. I've never heard of it. I was like, come on, you're pulling my leg on that one. This little place called Bourbon Steak. Maybe you've heard of that one. Is that like a New Orleans style steak? Yeah, I don't know. I don't get it. It's somewhere in a hotel. Somewhere in a hotel up top of Nashville with a beautiful view somehow. Yeah. I think they have steak. I don't know. Mays de la Vida. And bourbon? Yeah. Mays de la Vida. Oh, I know that one. Yeah. I'm super excited. He gave me a little sneak peek. He is going to do like a just full seafood Mexican fusion menu. Is it at Mays de la Vida? At the restaurant. Yeah. Julio will be there, you know, preparing the dishes. We have Nelson's Greenbrier Distillery. Their restaurant is awesome over at the new location. And then we also have, oh gosh, oh, Taylor. Vivek Surti is hosting one. I mean, just absolutely killer. That's the one you want to go. The Taylor and the Mays de la Vida are, I guarantee you. My hope is that all the reservations book out well in advance. And then we also are hosting one at Deacon's New South, which I'm excited about.

40:53Yeah, they have a chef coming in from South Dakota. And his whole focus is cooking with rare game. So like, you know, elk and wild boar. And so they're doing a really cool menu with that. Duck and, you know, bison and all of that. So it'll be really cool. And then that'd be a little different, like a wild game dinner. That's awesome. Yeah. So they're all really cool concepts, which I think is fun. A dinner you wouldn't get any other time of the year. And then, of course, we'll have beverage pairings with those. So those are Wednesday and Thursday evening. We have a list on our website where you can go and we'll have all of the different host restaurants available for you to go and make a reservation directly with them. What website is that? MusicCityFoodandWineFest.com Okay, so you go to www.MusicCityFoodandWineFest, not Festival Fest.com. If you don't feel like typing all of that in, you can also just type mcfwf.com. It's a shorthand version. There's a neat acronym that just goes straight there. Yeah. Look at you guys. Thought of everything. I hope so. Probably not. So yeah, Wednesday and Thursday night, we'll have a list of all the amazing restaurants you can go to and you'll make reservations directly with the restaurant.

41:59So the restaurants are keeping all of those proceeds. They're getting all of that, you know. That's amazing. Yeah. And some of them are doing some give back. I think Julio is going to do some tie-in with the Giving Kitchen. You know, he's big on big work with them. He is on their National Engagement Council. He sure is. So I'm sure there'll be some really cool charity components there too. I'm going to see. This is going to come out after this, but he'll be at the Team Heidi event on March 16th. I'm really excited to go see him there because he always pulls out. Yeah, he, I mean, yeah, I'm excited. I think he's going to kill it at the Grand Tasting too, which we'll get to. This is Wednesday and Thursday. We're not even ending the weekend. You have all these chefs collaborate, these big dinners at the restaurants. You're promoting the actual restaurants. Go to these restaurants and help them. Yes. I love that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think the Nashville experience can be captured by sampling food from restaurants, but there's no better way than to go actually eat there and patron them and tip your servers well and do all of that. So that's amazing. Yeah. Then we move into our first event at Centennial Park. So our Friday night is our first event at Centennial Park. It is our Feast Supper to Savor.

43:01It is basically a reimagination of an old and focused event that we used to do called Alfresco. So the concept is just a big, beautiful outdoor dining experience under the stars. You're dining Alfresco and it is just absolutely amazing culinary experience. And so it's about 250 people. You can really only get a ticket to that if you're buying our top level ticket, which is our culinary connoisseur. And then it's also going to be a place where we have a lot of sponsors and partners and press and local media. They are podcasters. Yeah, maybe a podcaster too. But yeah, I'm really excited. I mean, it's going to be an over the top experience. So five courses and the chefs that are collaborating on that are Chris Crary from The One Hotel. One Hotel is kind of presenting that dinner. It's very similar to an event they used to do called Supper That Sustains Us. So we're kind of pulling in some elements from their event that they do. Big table stuff going on there. Are you familiar with Big Table? Yeah, I actually went to a Big Table event last week. Huge table and the whole thing. Exactly. Yeah. So we'll have, you know, long, beautiful tablescapes. It's going to be served family style, which is also really fun.

44:02I think that kind of makes you talk to the people you're sitting next to. Otherwise, it can feel a little stuffy. So I'm excited about that. But yeah, the chefs that are collaborating on that dinner are- Community style. Yeah, community style. Correct. Chris Crary from The One Hotel, Hal Holdenbach from Lachlan Table, and Junior from NoCo and Kase by NoCo. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So that's going to be pretty cool. You can go ahead and say James Beard nominee, Junior. Right. Yeah, I mean, we have multiple James Beard. James Beard nominee, Hal Holdenbach. You got both of them there. You got the whole thing. Yeah. So I'm super excited. And so there'll be, of course, you know, a cocktail hour. There'll be some past hors d'oeuvres. And, you know, we also are going to have a silent auction, which is benefiting Centennial Park Conservancy, which is one of our nonprofits helping to support their park beautification fund. Obviously, they're our host, and we want to keep doing the event at a beautiful park for years to come. And then, you know, there'll be a wine pairing with each of those courses. So really fabulous experience. That sounds like a fun night.

45:03Yeah. So if you're a culinary connoisseur, you can buy tickets to that. Yes. And that's Friday night. Friday night. And then we get into Saturday. Now Saturday. We're praying for beautiful weather. Has this been covered? Is there? Yeah, we're playing. We got a big old tent, but we are praying for beautiful weather. So Saturday morning, we actually kind of go back into a in-restaurant hosted event, which I'm excited about. So we're doing something called Big Gay Brunch. I am super excited about this. Big Gay Brunch. Yes. It is basically 10 restaurants across the city hosting their version of a fabulous brunch. And so, I mean, there's so many of these across the city that do drag brunches or performances or things like that. So this basically is just a really fun kind of way to go get out and, you know. What are the 10 restaurants? Do you know them off the top of your head? Yeah, we've got a few. So Arnold at International Market is hosting one. My next door neighbor. Yeah, I mean, I'm super excited about that. I love him. Yeah. L.A. Jackson is hosting one. Margot in East Nashville is also hosting one. Hell yeah. Yeah. Who else? Nelson Greenbrier Distillery. They have a brunch they're going to do. Acme, the rooftop of Acme is doing like a disco brunch.

46:05So it's really cool. It's a mix of regular restaurants that do brunch service, restaurants that don't do brunch service. They're just doing this. Margot doesn't do brunch anymore, but they're doing this for Music City. Marche reboot. Exactly. And then also, you know, hotel rooftops that have awesome brunch service. So it'll be super fun. So again, we're just kind of helping spread the word. You go, you visit, you make reservations, you eat at those restaurants Saturday morning. The premise there is we don't have an event until Saturday evening. So we wanted to give people who are in town visiting Nashville a whole slew of events that they could build out their weekend for. Wow. Yeah. All right. So you go do this big gay brunch and that sounds fabulous. And then you're going to go that night back to Centennial Park. And this is the grand tasting, the heart of the festival and Iron Fork. Yes. So the Iron Fork event is now happening during the grand tasting on Saturday night. So Iron Fork basically was a grand tasting. We had 25 to 30 restaurants, spirit booths, wine booths.

47:07So really, we're just taking that concept and just making it on a much bigger scale. How many restaurants are we going to have at the grand tasting now? We have 45, which. So we've doubled the size essentially of what the Iron Fork was for, 45. Yeah. And are you still accepting, are you looking to get to 75 or what is your max here? Yeah. So we're actually not taking any more restaurants for the grand tasting. We're on a bit of a wait list, which is a very, very fortunate problem to have, you know, with us having that many restaurants that are willing to donate their time and their resources and their energy on a Saturday night in the spring. They're willing to come out of their restaurant and pop up at our event. We recognize how amazing that is. And we're super grateful. But at a certain point you got so many tents that you could fill and we all of our tents are full. Wow. Yeah. The thing I hear people say all the time is I don't even know what's happening in the restaurant scene anymore because it's there's so many restaurants out there. And if you're one of those people who just can't keep up with how many restaurants there are, this is the event for you because you can show up and you can meet and try 45 different restaurants.

48:16If you want to fill your dance card for the entire summer, like where do we need to go eat? Don't go to Yelp. Don't go to Open Table. Go to the Music City Food and Wine Festival. And there you can actually get a sample and go, oh, we got to go here. We got it. And this is where you're going to fill your entire, all your date nights for the entire summer and beyond is in one night. Yeah. And fun fact, a lot of the restaurants will also like print off like, hey, come visit us and you get a free appetizer. Hey, come, you know, patron with us. And, you know, they have like little coupons there for you to come back. And I love it because it's a it's a great mix of restaurants. You've got sports bars. You've got Daddy's Dogs. You've got Las Palmas. You've got, you know, kind of some of the OG people that have been doing scene events for years. But then you also have 888, Sushi Bar, Doko, Margo, Bayes de la Vida. Like you have James Beard Award nominee and, you know, some of the best restaurants in town, you know, more fine dining. Establishments too. And they never show up with here's a pretzel. I mean, like you're getting. No, they're doing like a wagyu beef bite on a crostini with truffle.

49:17Like, I mean, it's absurd the quality of food that you get at the event. And they always bring their A game, which is awesome. And yeah, well, I mean, it's an opportunity for them to how many people, how many tickets do you have to sell? So there's 45 restaurants, you can sell like 5,000 tickets. How many tickets are you going to sell to this thing? Yeah, I mean, we're hoping to sell around 2,000. You know, I think that's pretty much double what we do at Iron Fork. And we sell out Iron Fork every year. So I feel pretty good about that. But that creates a good guest experience too. I think one thing that I've been to, you know, I've been on a few research trips for Food and Wine Festival. It's a really hard job. It sounds terrible. Sorry you had to do that. Terrible. Where did you go for research trips? So we went to the South Walk and Wine and Food Festival, which was super fun. Yeah. Down in Destin. That was awesome. Made a beach trip out of it. And then our team has gone to Euphoria in South. Yeah, Greenville, South Carolina. And then, yeah, so it's been awesome. Obviously, I've been to a lot of the food and wine events here in Nashville too. But I think a guest experience is important. If you're waiting 20 minutes in line for each of these restaurants, you're wasting the events short.

50:20You know, it's only three and a half hours long. So we want to get to all 45 if that's the case. Yeah, I mean, and I don't know if anybody's stomach should eat all 45 restaurants. But we want you to be able to have the choice. And so plus we have all of the wine booths. We have cocktail vendors. And then, of course, the chef competition. And then we also do a mixology competition at the event. That's kind of new. But that's going to be a lot of fun. We've been doing the mixology competition for a while now. It's been 10 years, I would say. We've only been doing it for two years as part of Iron Fork. But really? Yeah, I think we maybe did it. I think you did it back then. And then you came back. OK. So yeah, I'm excited about that. So you won't be bored. You'll come in and you will have just an absolute slew of options in terms of food, wine, entertainment, all of that. OK, so I used to be a drinker. And food and wine to me together would be really exciting. If I'm paying a premium to go to this thing, every time I would... And this is I'm going to knock you on the Iron Fork right now. Because every time you go to the Iron Fork, they have all these alcohol distributors.

51:22And you go, hey, I don't drink. And they kind of go, well, you can go get a Coke. Or there's a water over there. Like, there's no... Yeah. There hasn't been good non-alcoholic options. Is there going to be a non-alcoholic presence? Yeah. So that's actually... I'm making a concerted effort to do that. Because as someone who... I was pregnant and I went to a few events and I could only drink water. And you're like, ugh, I mean, it's fine. But we'll have water abundant. We'll have definitely some non-alcoholic options available at the bars. But also hoping to secure some non-alcoholic... Just seltzers. So we have Chuala Tonic Water there on board. We have Cantrip THC Seltzer on board. Oh, wow. That's cool. Yeah. So we'll have a few non-alcoholic, but also not sober-friendly. You know, California sober or alcohol sober. We'll have a few options. No alcohol. Alcohol-free is what I like to call it. Yep. That's my official term as I'm alcohol-free. I'll try a THC drink every once in a while. It's not like I drink them all the time. But yeah, they're pretty yummy. But yeah, we'll have definitely some non-alcoholic options for sure.

52:24Because just with the scale of the event, you have to. Well, I also think that when you're buying a ticket, how much are tickets to go to this thing? Yeah, they're $99 right now for a general admission ticket. Okay, so $99 for a ticket. And that includes all the alcohol. You're like, well, if I don't drink, that's half of it. There's not usually something for non-drinker. So it's like if there is a bunch of non-alcoholic options, it kind of makes it more fun. Oh, yeah, for sure. You know, because then I can be a part of the sampling and tasting as well. But just I miss out on all of the wine, but I still have to pay the full price. Right. But that's a personal decision of mine anyway. Yeah, no, I think but it's definitely, you know, Sober Curious is a big movement right now. I think a lot of people are focused on that. So we definitely want to have an opportunity for them to come and enjoy. We've done a designated driver ticket in the past, but with this type style of event, there's alcohol abundant. It's kind of hard to manage that. But yeah, there'll definitely be some good options there. I'm a designated driver, sure you are. That's always fun to manage. But yeah, so tickets are on sale now for the general admission, grunt tasting.

53:29Okay, and I would get those at musiccityfoodandwinefest.com. Correct, yeah. mcfwf.com Yeah, yeah, you can also just go to the Nashville Scene or Infocus or any of our websites and there's ads all over the place for them. And so there's 2,000 tickets. There's a lot more than 2,000 people in Nashville that like to go out to eat. Yeah. I'm going to tell you right now that if you say, we'll just see what we're doing that weekend, which is the weekend of April 23rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, like right there in that whole. The grand tasting on Saturday is April 26th. April 26th on Saturday. So just let people know the dates. It's a month away. And you should probably go get tickets now because when it sells out, then you're going to have to buy them on like StubHub and you're going to pay $300 a ticket. Right. I will say, funny story, we sold out of our Margarita Festival tickets last year, which is, I mean, again, we're super fortunate to sell out any of our events. We love it. But I had people contacting me on my personal Facebook messenger. I had people calling my cell phone.

54:30I had a lady show up at 8 a.m. the morning of the event as we're loading tents in and setting up tables, asking if she could buy a ticket for four times what we charged for it because she was like one of the only people in her friend group that hadn't gotten a ticket. So like I didn't charge her four times, but I was like, okay, we can sell you one more ticket. You're standing in front of me in person. I'm not going to tell you no. If you stalk Olivia, if you walk up to her at Kroger and be like, hey. No, no, no, bad, bad idea to bring that up. No, but I just meaning all that to say, like I feel like people definitely get FOMO and they miss out on this. And so we don't want you to do that. That's the point. That's the point. She's going to tell you no if you find her at the Exxon station. She's going to say no. Right. Right. That's the final answer. So get your, they're available now. Yeah, get them now. Just go get them now. Get them while they're hot. They're just the retail price of $99. That's right. It's not even a hundred dollars. It's 99. Well, tax and fees and all that fun stuff that ticket pages do now.

55:30But no, yeah, it's like, I mean, honestly, from a value perspective, you can't go out to eat and try a bunch of different bites from a tapas restaurant for less than a hundred dollars. You know, if you're, you know, from the quality of restaurants that you're trying and then also you get the entertainment and the competition and all of that. I would be remiss to say we, if I didn't say that we have weekend VIP passes available too. So, you know. You can do it all though, because you said the food connoisseur. How do you get the food connoisseur package? Yeah. So the food connoisseur package includes a seat at the Friday night dinner, this really amazing dinner, VIP level to the grand tasting on Saturday. And then also Sunday, which I haven't even had a chance to tell you about yet. We'll do Sunday because we're, again, way over on time. It's okay. I could talk about this. I was just thinking, I was like, we could probably do this. People are sitting driving in their car and going, we get it, dude. We get it. It's a food event. It's going to be cool. Like we should get our tickets done. Thank you. There's so many moving parts though. I mean, you know, we really wanted to create different types of experiences. So Sunday is a very different experience.

56:31So Sunday is our food fair market. It's open to the public. So you can come and you can shop. You don't have to have a ticket to come. We're going to have over 50 amazing food vendors. So where Saturday you buy a ticket and it's all-inclusive of your food and drink. Sunday you come and you shop the market and you actually are buying food from these businesses. A lot of businesses are doing like smaller versions of like their food truck food. So you can get like a bite of something for five to eight dollars. You can try multiple things. We'll also have product vendors. So hot sauces, jams, jellies, olive oils, sourdough. You can find all of your favorite local vendors that you don't necessarily know about that have. Amazing products. Yeah. And then on the stage all day on Sunday. So we're going to have just a killer lineup of chef demonstrations and talent performances and live music and a panel and all kinds of really cool entertainment all day long as well. I will be playing the kazoo at noon. If you guys want to see my talent performance. Yeah, it's going to be good. No, but I mean, I keep I keep bringing up Julio, but he's doing it.

57:32He's doing a demo when I asked him what he wanted to do and if he would be a part of the festival, he just said, yeah. And I was like, yeah, what? He's like all of it. So he's done and done. So he's coming in and he's doing a tortilla making demo. We have Ivy Childers with Southbound Tequila, which is one of our sponsors. She is awesome. And she's going to do a cocktail for a crowd demo. How to batch cocktails for a crowd. If you've got pool parties, graduations and summer events. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, we've got Brian Morris from Hattie B's. He's going to come in and do a really cool demo. Chef Jamika Pasoa from she's actually an adjunct professor at Nashville State. I know exactly who she is. She was on the show last year at the Tennessee Flavor. She's amazing. Yeah, she's killer. And she's going to do a demo. I'm excited. I think she's going to do a cool concept where actually go and shop the market and go around and get a basket of food from all these amazing vendors and then prepare a dish with it. Like your own little baby iron fork. Yeah, pretty much. Local vendors. Yeah, so it'll be a lot of fun. So we'll have a lot going on on Sunday as well. And if you buy the weekend VIP ticket, what that gets you is access to our brunch garden.

58:34So Sunday morning, we will have a ticketed area for our VIP pass holders where we'll have a brunch garden. You can get a couple of brunch cocktails, mimosas, espresso martinis, bloody marys, and then brunch food, which is all provided by Puckett's Restaurant. I love it. Well, our last episode, we had Claire Crowell on and there's your deacons and the whole thing. So that's what I'm saying. I mean, every time I talk about this event, I'm kind of going back to what I said at the beginning. But it's just so cool. I mean, every person that we're involving is also worked with another business or another restaurant or another influencer, media partner, or podcaster. It's just so awesome. The nonprofit connections, too. I mean, the nonprofits that we're working with on this event. So, you know, we've got Celebrate Nashville Cultural Festival. We're hoping to feature some of their minority-owned businesses at the food fair on Sunday and kind of highlight some of the businesses that are there at their festival in the fall. We've got the Nashville Food Project, Giving Kitchen, Second Harvest. I mean, we're working with so many amazing organizations. I love that. Yeah, it's a lot.

59:36I tell you that Monday, you're going to be. I want to know what your text me on Monday and tell me what your Apple watch, how many miles you walked from Thursday to Monday. I know. I want to be like, I walked 123 miles. Like, are you training for this right now? I actually have thought about, do I need to train for this? I'm going to the gym when I leave here because I'm going to be in California, the beginning of April, and I'm doing a six mile hike. It's like up a side of a mountain. I'm like, I want to be ready. So like I'm every day getting after it. Yeah, I will say we are working with the best of the best in the festival world, which is the Good Neighbor Festivals team. So Jack Davis and Kelsey and Katie and the team over there, they do Nashville Pride, Tomato Art Fest. So multi-day events are their wheelhouse. And so they're helping me run the show. So my hope is that with their support, I'm not quite walking 22 miles a day. We'll see. Nine miles. Nine miles a day. We'll see. No, I definitely have already considered booking a massage appointment for myself on Monday or Tuesday. See, same advice.

01:00:38Don't do that the weekend before. Like do that now. Get the time and the person you want and just and have that to look forward to. Yeah, right. That'll be the end of the tunnel. I love it. Olivia, anything else we miss? What else do we need to tell people about you, about in focus? We can get talked about in focus. Oh, I know. There's so much about your day job there. Yeah. She is the executive director of the Music City Wine and Food Festival. Yep. Did I say that right? I was thinking Food and Wine Festival. Food and Wine, yeah. I was going to say Wine and Food. Food and Wine Festival. Yeah. It's happening April 23rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th. Yep. And you can get your tickets now. Yeah. At Music City Food and Wine Fest. Fest. Fest. Dot com. Or the first letter of each one of those words. Dot com. If you figure out the acronym, hopefully I am going to be there. It's my son's birthday weekend, and it's double digits. He's 10. Oh, wow.

01:01:38His birthday is the 24th. OK. And so the 26th, the grand tasting day, is the Saturday of his birthday. And that's a big weekend. I'm going to try and figure it out. Hopefully we can come and do the podcast there live. The great thing is, is we've got three days of events, you know? So that's a good point. Yeah. There's something for everybody. Thank you so much for coming out here and sitting down with me and talking about this. I'm so excited for the event. Go get your tickets now. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Thanks. Thanks, Olivia. Bye. And there it is. Olivia Britton, thank you so much for coming to the studio and having this conversation. It's so nice to catch up. And so nice of all of you to stay this long and listen. I hope to see you at the Music City Food and Wine Festival. And stay tuned. Like I said, lots of episodes coming up. Wherever you're listening to this, make sure that you click that subscribe button. You'll get notified. So I'm going to start putting out episodes fast and furious here over the next week, week and a half.

01:02:39I should have five episodes coming out in the next week and a half. So we're just going to be coming out and you'll know when they come out. If you follow us on Instagram at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio, or if you are a subscriber, wherever you listen to podcasts, it'll send you that notification that a new episode is out. And I always put them out early and then I promote them the next day. So you'll be one of the first to be able to listen. Thanks again for listening. Hope you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.