Pat Martin

00:00Hello, visit musiccity.com, welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. This is the first edition of a feature series. We are super excited to be working with our friends over at visit musiccity.com to bring you the locals perspective. Today we welcome in Pat Martin, welcome him back to the show to talk about his new book Life of Fire. Pat is the owner at Martin's Barbecue, which is a must visit here in Nashville, as well as Hugh Baby's Burgers and Barbecue. I'm going to give you a pro tip right off the bat. This is it. First time, there's going to be lots of them, but the brisket burger at Martin's is a 10 out of 10. Now he's known for a whole hog, you're going to learn that today, but if that's not your thing, the brisket burger, what you will think of me, trust me.

01:02So spring has sprung here in Nashville and wow, there are some really great things going on and I want to tell you about a few of them. Saturdays in May through June 18th, if you head over to the Music City Food Truck Park and Flea Market, you'll find amazing food, live music, drinks, and of course, shopping. One of the coolest settings in Nashville, and I absolutely love this place, been going there for years, is Arrington Vineyards and they host live jazz and bluegrass bands every single weekend. So do a wine tasting, have a picnic, and listen to some great music and just some of the most gorgeous scenery you're going to see in Nashville. Before you hit the neon lights of Broadway, night visions at the Nashville Zoo is family fun that you're not going to soon forget. Watch as a whimsical imagery comes to life all around you. The wild display of sight and sound and if you're going to be in Nashville on May 14th, grab your fanciest hat and visit the Iroquois Steeplechase.

02:09This is held at Nashville's Percy Warner Park. It is always held the second Saturday in May and is always a great time and I will tell you, if you're heading over to Percy Warner Park, if you're here in Nashville and you love to hike, my favorite place to go is the Deep Well entrance for Percy Warner Park and I love the White Trail. It's a two and a half mile trail, it's beautiful, it's under the canopy of trees, so it doesn't really matter what the temperature is outside, it's just gorgeous. You can see wildlife and just it's a great little workout, nice little place to get out of the downtown setting. So if you want some more details on all of these events, head over to visit musiccity.com and you can get all those details that you need and stay tuned after the interview for our all new Nashville hot list. The number one question people ask when they come to Nashville is where should we go eat and there's a ton of amazing, amazing restaurants in Nashville, but if you want to eat like a local, hang out after the interviews, I'm going to tell you the five places that you've got to eat when you come to Nashville.

03:17You cannot go wrong, this is your Nashville hot list. So let's jump in right now, we're going to be talking with pit master Pat, he's the author of Life of Fire, Pat Martin. Super excited today to welcome in Pat Martin, he's the owner of Martin's Barbecue, he's also the owner of Hugh Baby's Barbecue and Burger Shop and author of Life of Fire. Welcome to Nashville Astronaut Radio. Thanks for having me, I appreciate it, I'm really excited to be here. You know I'm more excited because we talked, gosh it was about a year ago, maybe longer. Yeah it was longer than that. It was longer a year and a half ago because one of the parts of our conversation I said was what are you most excited about when this thing's over and I said isn't it going to be crazy to walk into a grocery store without a mask and you said sports, I need my sports.

04:19And we're back, how are you doing? I'm doing good, thanks for asking, it is, it does feel 95% like it did in 2019. So you know excited about, I went and saw a concert the other night, my morning jacket down in Memphis, my buddy's one of the band members and I literally caught myself looking around going man this was like not a thing, you know, I mean it was in the Orpheum, so it was big but charming but still it was packed with a crowd and it was just kind of a little bit surreal to be sitting there with whatever, a couple, three, four, I don't know maybe five thousand people in there all crowded together so it feels good. I went to a hockey game when we first came back and there was 200 people in the auditorium in Bridgestone Arena, 200 people, my friend is the chef for the arena and said hey you want to come out, it's family night, 200, my kids got on the Jumbotron 13 times, it's like making some Preds fans.

05:28Yeah it's a little more spacious like the Preds or football, like I went to some games last year but being in that tight of an environment at the Orpheum which would be basically comparable, it's Memphis' Ryman and beautiful, beautiful place, it is the Ryman Auditorium in Memphis, Tennessee and for R&B and the blues but to be in there it's very charming but again it's very tight and enclosed and yeah I was like this feels good to be sitting back in a tight place like this. I do notice that you have in most of the pictures in this amazing book, Life of Fire, you are wearing either a Pred shirt or a Nashville SC shirt representing your teams, are you excited about the Nashville SC new stadium opening? Hugely excited, I've got a couple tickets, I'm actually not going to be here for the opening game, my son's a soccer player now and wearing those shirts was by design you know I wanted there to be nuances of the book that were unspoken that said Nashville and that wasn't just the Titans you know what I mean so that was by design but I'm going to miss that first game, I'm actually going to be on a going on for like a almost two week book tour thing signing so from Palm Springs, Denver, Chicago, Austin, so I'm going to miss that game with my son and that really really really bums me out so my wife's going to take him but Lord willing I'll be back and the very next Sunday on the 8th is their second home game and I'm going to take him to that one so I'm really pumped to go in there and see that stadium and soccer wasn't a thing like a lot of us just no different than hockey was 25 years ago like you know we all knew soccer we all kind of played it when we were little but then when you get to middle school you'd start doing the other sports and man I'm excited about that league coming to this town it really says something

07:29about it's the most progressive sport as far as like dipping its toe in politically and really yeah and you know and they they don't I think it's great for the city that we have MLS and I don't think it's really spoken enough of I could tell there was a lot of pictures with the Nashville SC the hat the whole thing I'm equally excited I'm a huge Preds fan but I'm super excited to every time I watch the World Cup I find myself way more passionate about watching Team USA play and I'm like I had no idea was this into soccer and I just every four years I get that but now I'm excited because I'm such I love everything Nashville I'm dying to get a baseball team but when you know I'm definitely going to be there with you and I'm excited about the Nashville SC you're doing a book tour you've got this amazing book you're a humble guy is it interesting is it weird to you to go places and sign your autograph yeah it's I mean what it's awkward is it yeah it's um yeah it's awkward it's um it feels good to have the project done it's equally it feels equally as good to have a project done as I am proud to speak to my roots and barbecue in it but yeah doing a tour and signing my name in there for people is a little it is a little surreal yeah I love all the shoutouts to local people you know I went to high school with Ward Boone and you know all these people in there I'm like this is crazy I love I just love you giving all the push and I read the book in it's so well written because it's written in your voice it's your speak it's not somebody's come over and made it sound this different way like I read it and I was like that that's how he would have said it and it kept it in the book I love you mention you give a roadmap for what you need to do a whole hog cook and you say get these Yeti chairs listen I'm a spy I'm a representative for Yeti but these are some they're the most comfortable chair I mean and I'm not saying this is like a laugh here but if they

09:39were if they fit in an interior design mode like I would rather sit on a Yeti chair than any chair at home like they're the most comfortable chair there is I mean period bar none end of discussion and you know the voice thing was by design I did want my voice I wanted it to be a like I said before it's a procedural book I wanted to be able to mentor somebody on cooking this style of barbecue without me being there to mentor them so it's written in prose when Clarkson Potter asked me to do the book I started by telling them what I didn't want the book to be and I did not want it to be some these every year Father's Day stupid cheesy whatever so-and-so won this competition barbecue thing with you know mango whatever injected baby back ribs and foil wrapped this and all that so I told him what I didn't want it to be and I also told him that I didn't want it to be recipe driven I wanted to be procedural driven and I wanted to deep dive is as far down the rabbit hole as the rabbit hole goes on not missing any of the little things that affect a cook but also affect your quality of life as a cook so that's why I bring up the Yeti chair because you're doing this for 30 hours man if you if you tackle the whole hog you know I mean from front from beginning to end it's the it's you don't cook it for 30 hours but it's a 30 hour process and if you're not taking care of yourself your back feet and everything else then it's it sucks I fell in love and this is what I want to talk about I was reading the book and that you hope you open it up to the very middle page and probably do it right now I've got the book in hand look at that was right here he says I love a good road trip yeah and I'm reading this and I'm like oh I want to get this if you asked me to jump in a truck and drive across the country tomorrow I'd do it he said I can fly to Florida in two and a half hours but much rather hop in a truck and drive there and hit every little spot on the way there and it spoke to my soul like I

11:39love I told my wife said let's just go to Florida I want to go to Florida and she's like that's a long drive and I go yeah that's the adventure like when you get off and right past Birmingham and you'd that to go to destiny all the little back roads those little towns those are the best places to best places and we don't get to do that as much we got kids now but like I I fell in love with that and in the way that you broke it down with how to do a whole hog cook how to build the actual pit and then the detail that you go into with it's gonna be 30 hours I know I'm talking a lot here but I was literally laughing out loud when you said there's gonna be the one guy who's gonna want to do shots he's gonna start acting crazy give everybody a role this person does this this person is that you have the overnight guy you go don't make the shot guy the overnight guy make him be the guy that carries the wood there's a role for the idiot buddy okay he's got to be there he means not gonna not be there you know he because the story the experience isn't the same without the idiot buddy he's got to be there you just have to control and contain the idiot buddy but that's the level of detail that you go into it's not just a hey like you have to manage your friends and who's did you have to manage who's gonna be doing what responsibilities is you can't do it alone but it's a 30-hour ordeal and you get some really good friends together for 30 hours one guy's gonna act a fool don't make him be the guy that spreads the coals from 1 o'clock in the morning to 8 o'clock in the morning sorry that's right and good well it's just it's um look man this is like most people don't I get to do this for a living you know but like to your point like a lot of people who even halfway enjoy cooking especially men this is kind of like a bucket list thing that most of them never actually end up doing because there's not me or somebody another pitmaster or a book to really go into that dive but when they do do it if you know we've all know

13:44the people like I do that why I used to do that one a year and caught once a year in college we dig a hole in the ground or we do this that any other there's always the stories of we sat up and drank all night and right you know I've been there when I was in my 20s and it's just it is horrible the next day you don't enjoy it and so what are you doing it for if it's horrible it is no different than the road trip that you know hopefully obviously nobody's drinking and driving but if you just drove all night and didn't get any rest and didn't manage for that and you get to the beach the next day and you're exhausted you're exhausted you just wasted an entire day at the beach there's so many you got to manage it there's so many little aspects of things which you do them multiple times you figure out ways to game it I was in Phoenix last week and I brought my phone jack holder thing that sticks to the window that you can set your phone in and the guys were we ran out of car and the guys were laughing at me and I go I'm driving I'm the I'm a non-drinker so I'm always a designated driver sure but I I don't like looking down at GPS man town I don't know so I brought the little thing so I can just drive and look the whole time they're like that's so smart to go well it's not my first time yeah but it could be your first time and you outline all of those little things you're prepared so you would be the guy that if we ever do this together I would probably pick you to be the overnight guy I would love to do that and because you're not drinking and you plan and you're prepared and you're worried about what could go wrong that's exactly the person you need every aspect of it I'm in I'm focused in my I think that my absolute favorite moment was you said leave your phone inside the overnight guy you're sitting there from one to six enjoy the moonlight enjoy the sounds of being outside don't just you can go in a rabbit hole just looking at your phone all night long so leave your phone what an amazing experience that would be and that like I said I'm reading this and it's just speaking to me I'm like I need six hours alone by a fire where I'm managing something by myself that's right it was just magical moment yeah yeah no ambient noise there's

15:45not a lot of traffic or cars there's no you know even birds and just you know daytime noise you know it's very it is very peaceful and so it's fun so on my question to you today is if I'm coming to Nashville right so if I'm out there and I'm listening to this and I'm visit musiccity.com and I'm planning my trip around Nashville all this preparation and I'm coming to Nashville what are some things in Pat Martin's opinion that you got to do we live here we know all about Nashville what are some things that I want to do when I come to Nashville road trip in Nashville what's my game plan that's a great question Nashville really does have first of all it's it's centered the whole town the backbone of the city is the arts absolutely and I don't just mean music you know which we'll get into in a second but like you know say in the arts right now the first thing that pops to mind is is that the frist art museum is completely even if you're not into art right now they have a Van Gogh exhibit over there that's 3d that is absolutely mesmerizing and again literally if you're not even into art or know how to appreciate art you just go there you're just wowed by it clearly the restaurant scene here is I think Nashville I think Nashville pound for pound is top three culinary cities on the Eastern Seaboard I'm not a best person so you'll never hear me say Nashville's the best or I'm the best or this restaurant's the best or whatever but it's common it's in the conversation of the top three and the Eastern Seaboard in my opinion so I would I would definitely go down you have a kind of a plethora of chef driven restaurants and again back to the art these chefs are creating art that you're getting to eat okay it's no different than art that a musician's doing you get to hear and to go to Locust catbird seed I'm just city house bastion I mean man folk Ralph and I mean any of those spots like

17:48I could literally just keep going yeah on that's the creative side on the other side of you know restaurants you've got the old back the the the old Nashville meet-and-threes Arnold's is so famous but it's not cliche no you know and you have to hit it like and so that's like a daytime deal there's just the restaurant scene you could literally just come here to eat honestly and not even really hit bars bars you know Wilbur Street Tavern you've got these little Betty's over here on the west side which is close to my house a villager down the street from us here villager man or the darts back yeah but but those all those kind of scenes I mean yeah everybody's gonna hit their downtown Nashville's Nashville's definitely developed that reputation but it is such a small part of what Nashville is is a city and and then of course the music you know and there are just so many great little bars and small music venues that are playing stuff that is just peel your head back man you know you don't ever do you go down to which exit and but I'm thinking about the place on the gults a little bluegrass a blue station and station and you don't even know you could be in there in Peter Frampton just walk on stage and pick a guitar up and sit down with some guys of you know a mechanic during the week and they just jam out like that's and you're not going to get that on the planet anywhere on the planet nowhere right and in sports obviously I mean I think our sports are are we have a very classy we've got some we've got some opinionated country folks that especially on football but you know you start you start talking about when you're talking about hockey before and obviously the Predators and the Titans but now MLS is here it's such a progressive nod towards our city it is the sport of the future in our country and like let's just call it like it is whether you want to admit it or not and and then all those strong rumors the legitimate rumors of baseball coming here so

19:54Nashville is just it's exciting to live in the city it is exciting and if you're coming to Nashville hopefully the Predators make the playoffs we're right there in that wild card spot right now but playoff the playoff atmosphere regular game atmosphere in Bridgestone arena is so electric I was unbeatable the very I was at the very first playoff game we ever played against the Red Wings and I get chills thinking about that day yeah and the catfish on the ice and just like the whole and then the way the standing ovation during the TV timeout is something that every time gets me it's just like one of those like wow what what is this moment it's an SEC football atmosphere inside of a hockey arena 17,500 people yeah it is yeah so if you have a chance if you're coming to Nashville and you have a chance to go to a game buy you some Preds gear and get in there and join the join the team it's a lot of fun amen amen all right Pat well we are we're going to leave it at that for you today thank you so much for joining us we cannot wait to catch up with you again soon if you're coming to Nashville go check out Martin's barbecue there's multiple locations around town and if you see a hue babies the best damn burger in the city I'm telling you right now it is I try I mean we we just executing a really good cheeseburger I mean it's not there's nothing cheffy about it or anything it's just a good old good old top cheeseburger like I said he's humble well I told you the story last time we're on last time we're on our last interview but we went to California and the first thing we're on our way home from the airport and I go we got to go to in and out go to in and out it's middle of pandemic so we pull off and they're eating in the parking lot and my kids are like yeah I'm like guys this is in and out like we like you babies better and I was like and I got done with my hamburger I think I do too I this is kind of you got to do disclosure when I go to California I don't go to California but hitting it in and out no you have to I mean I'm with you yeah but I live here and I get a few babies whenever I want to

21:59and it makes me really really happy thanks man Pat Martin thanks for joining us oh thanks for having me appreciate you thank you so much to Pat Martin for joining us here on Nashville Restaurant Radio and now it is time that we have promised your Nashville hot list now if you're out there and you don't go to any of these restaurants or you do go to one of these restaurants and you have an amazing experience and you feel so much as you want to go on Instagram and post about it use the hashtag Nashville hot list I'd love to share your experience so here we go we're gonna talk about the Nashville hot list today and it's going to be a mix of a several different style of restaurants we may do one where it's all brunch or all meet-and-threes or all barbecue but today we have a little bit mixed in together in no particular order these are just five restaurants that we think you're gonna have an amazing time at number one we're talking brunch we're talking ANSI blue one of the best brunches in the city they do a jazz brunch and once a month they do a drag brunch chef star may and Marcy were just on the show and they have an amazing brunch they as well as all of your coffee drinks it is in Hillsboro Village it is beautiful and they have a great wall with neon to take selfies behind number two Nicky's coal-fired Caroline and Tony Galzin the husband and wife duo behind Nicky's coal-fired in the nations are doing amazing things they have wood-fired pizza house-made pasta and their Nicky's coal-fired bagel shop is something you definitely want to check out so go in the nations to Nicky's coal fired you'll thank me later we're also talking about our guest today Pat Martin and Martin's barbecue if you're in Nashville and you want to do barbecue you cannot go wrong at Martin's make sure to test his whole hog style of barbecue and like I said before pro tip the brisket burger is

24:03to die for if you're looking for a meet-and-three let's go back to the Elliston Place soda shop yes it's been around forever and it's brand-newly renovated it is better better than ever you can get your fresh-made shakes or malts and your favorite phosphate and say hi to Miss Linda and my good friend Craig the final restaurant is the place you want to go for dinner there's not a ton of seating here so if you're coming to Nashville make sure you make your reservation on talk for Bastion Bastion is Josh Hobbiger's restaurant him and his wife Lauren run it it is a member of strategic hospitality and he is the mind behind the catbird seat so it sells out quick but if you're coming you can plan ahead make sure to make your reservation at Bastion that is your Nashville hot list for the month of May we're gonna bring you a new one next month thank you for listening we hope you have a wonderful time on your stay in Nashville we hope that everything you do you are being safe love you guys bye