Pelican and Pig

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 and welcome back for episode two, part two of my interview with Nick and Audra Guidry. Yesterday in part one we talked about what the business is going to be like once we reopen, kind of talked about all kinds of, it's kind of my HR episode, it was really interesting and I love the perspective that they gave from being owners of a restaurant who genuinely care about the people that work for them and I just love that. Please go out and support your locally owned and operated restaurants and today we're going to talk about what it takes to be the Eater Nashville number one restaurant of the year, what it takes to be a husband and wife team to run that restaurant, and how did they meet? Was this love at first sight? What do they do on their first date?

01:18We're going to cover all of that today so let's welcome back in Nick and Audra Guidry. All right so welcome back to Nashville Restaurant Radio. This is episode two with Nick and Audra Guidry, the chef and owners of the Pelican and Pig and Slow Hand Coffee and Bake Shop. Welcome back guys. Thanks for having us. I really am curious and I know that this is out there but I want this Pelican and Pig was Eater Nashville's number one restaurant of the year last year. You opened in January of 2019 and this restaurant was born out of kind of a love story I'm guessing? Yes. So how did you guys meet? Audra I want to hear your side of the story. Oh my goodness. We were both in the food truck world. I was working on another truck and he had just recently opened Slow Hand Coffee as a food truck. That was its first iteration. We just met at a food truck gathering a couple of weeks into it. We kind of started to get to know each other and he reached out about buying pastry because that's kind of a natural pairing with coffee.

02:38So you're the baker? Yes, I'm the baker. We just kind of got to talking and you know one thing led to another. We started throwing around ideas about how we could marry what we do together. Long story short, we sat down in a coffee shop one day right after I'd come on. I think that was my first day actually. Started bouncing ideas around talking about wholesale and I think within a week we had 20 wholesale clients. We were selling pastry desserts on top of doing the food truck and it just was a springboard to everything that's happened since. Quite literally every year since then Slow Hand has evolved and evolved for the better. It was that meeting of the minds at our friend's coffee shop that day was kind of a loaded meeting that we didn't see. I mean we hoped but we didn't know what the future held for that. We had worked together on a couple of other projects and our thought processes lined up together. We bounced ideas off of each other really well. Our ideas complemented each other without even meaning to and it just on a business level made a lot of sense to forge that relationship and like she said, I brought her on board at Slow Hand with the intention of growing a wholesale business and seeing where that went while we still ran the food truck. Like she said, sitting down and plotting it out that day and then within seven days servicing 20 new accounts, that was something that we couldn't wrap our heads around and if you had told me that's what was going to

04:38happen that day we sat down, I wouldn't have believed you. But it really just shot off like a rocket and came out of nowhere but everything just kept evolving every year. I think we did that for a year and then we opened our downtown spot. Yeah we were working out of a community kitchen, Casa Azafran over on Nolensville and we were sharing the space with several other small businesses and it got to a point where our product and equipment were just kind of taking over this neutral space and they sat us down one day and were like what's your plan here. There was a space downtown on 10th Avenue South behind the frisk that I had worked at in a previous business actually, loved the building, knew the foot traffic and the patterns of the neighborhood, so I took Nick over to see that space one day and he equally loved it. Were you guys business partners at this point or were you guys like also like an item? We were just business partners at this point. Yeah so another long story short, I knew the landlord of the space and I think within 48 hours we had a lease signed, keys in hand and we're working on our first space. Yeah.

05:56When did it change? Everything leads back to a coffee shop oddly. So I've known the guys at Dose Coffee and Tea for many years now and that was where we were sitting when we planned the wholesale part of it and we were sitting in Barista Parlor on the east side the day that we decided that meeting that we had at Casa Azafran with the leadership of that organization when they said guys we need y'all to have a plan you know we love having you here but you're clearly growing to a point that you need the next step in place and I think we went that morning and just sat down at Barista Parlor kind of talking about what do we do, where do we go and like she said she had just shown me that space and she pulled up the landlord's name and I looked him up online, shot him an email, he responded within a couple hours and literally I mean two or three days we had looked at the space, negotiated the deal, signed the lease and we were steamrolling ahead and nearly everything we've done since then has always come back to you sitting in a coffee shop. Is that where your first date was?

07:17Oh my god I don't even remember. I don't know what our official first date would have been you know it just when you work side by side with somebody for so many years and so closely and so intimately on developing businesses and hashing ideas out and trying to figure out how to guide these businesses successfully and kind of the future of these businesses and like I said I mean year one was the food truck, year two was the wholesale business, year three was the store downtown and we had that for two and a half years before they told us that they were selling the building which is the reason that Slowhen on the east side and Pelican Pig even exist. If they hadn't sold that building we'd still be downtown and we never would have done this or we wouldn't have done it so quickly. We always would have done it, we wouldn't have done it so quickly but I think just you know we were working side by side 18 hours a day, 14 hours a day you know depending on what we had going on and I think there's just a natural progression when you click that well with somebody and you enjoy somebody's company that much and you know it doesn't help that they're smoking hot. I'm sure that can be a thing.

08:48Can you come blush over the radio? When did you know that we had an official first date? It just kind of naturally evolved I guess. So you just became, did you guys have like an official conversation like so are we like a boyfriend girlfriend thing? I'm sure. It definitely evolved to that there was you know we we it went from a point of business relationship to a point of there's something else here and you know you go through the dating phase before that conversation comes about because you're also trying to be very protective because there's a and and we got asked this question multiple times from whether it was customers on our wholesale customers or even you know when we met with the landlord downtown on 10th Avenue the day we went and physically looked at the space and I got to meet him for the first time one of the first questions he asked me was are y'all business partners or y'all relationship partners and that was the first time it was kind of like oh I don't know what are we well I mean I can't read Audrey's over here like tell me what are we? At that point we were just business partners but I mean it was there was definitely something growing there you know and I don't think either one of us had really opened up to each other about that but that was the first time that I saw that a personal relationship could be a problem for the bit for or seem like a problem to perspective business situations so you know our relationship at that time was developing behind the scenes but we weren't letting it be seen publicly and not because we're embarrassed by it but because you know we would pick up a new wholesale customer and it would be so are y'all husband and wife y'all boyfriend and girlfriend or y'all business partners because if y'all's relationships go south what does that

10:52mean for my supply you know are y'all going to go separate ways so people were looking at it as your personal relationship could affect this business relationship so that's a real thing it is and that's kind of what I said when when our old landlord downtown asked me that question that's when I first saw that like oh this is a real this is a real thought in people's mind this is a real concern in people's minds so we kind of trained ourselves for the first couple years to just keep it quiet and I don't think outwardly it I think us not talking about it was the only part that was keeping it quiet because later you know a couple years later as we as we announced kind of our personal relationship several of our customers who became friends of ours kind of looked at it like wait y'all weren't this is news you know we always knew this so I mean clearly something that was visual you know it we weren't hiding it well but it was more of just a protecting the business side before anything else and then and then once we saw that I think people I think we needed to establish that we were serious as a business before we could let people see us as people so how did you propose oh man so this is a great story actually my 30th birthday he didn't tell me where we were going he made reservations at catbird seat we're all going to see you know it's a it's obviously an enormous meal to have and I was certain that he wouldn't spend that much money on just a birthday 30 is a big deal so I was completely expecting it that night it didn't happen so the next day I was just kind of being a smart alec we had gone to burger shack in nolensville

12:56you know just had burger and fries and then we went over to the winery errington errington vineyards and yeah I kind of threw out a remark you know you hate giving me your last name something along those lines in his mind he's thinking okay just wait so we get out there I've got the ring in my pocket at this point it's freezing no one's there and we walked down the hill at the vineyard and he proposed there oh definitely threw me off the night before you're thinking it's coming the night before you're already you're like telling you like told your friends I think tonight's the night and then nothing you're frustrated I was you had this whole you this is a whole plan you had going the whole time isn't it nick oh absolutely yeah I mean I also wanted I I think I think it was it was more a I wanted to separate the two events because turning 30 is a big deal you know and she doesn't think so she thinks it's just another birthday but you know that's you didn't turn 22 30 is a 30 40 those are mile markers and to me 30 was a big deal and our relationship was a big deal and and you know I adored her so I figured let's let's do something really nice that that we've been talking about wanting to do for a while for your 30th birthday so you know I made the reservation at catbird and uh I did not have intentions of proposing that night that was I wanted to separate the two events I knew I was going to do it the next day but I didn't at the time realize that was what was going through her head I thought we'd just out for a birthday dinner well that's super considerate and if you look back at it at hindsight it's like the person who has their birthday on February 13th you know and you go out and you're like well we're going to celebrate both today you're like no the day you

14:57getting a minded having a ring on her birthday I think she would have liked that as a birthday present but it was also you know she's so laid back and our relationship has always been so laid back and so easy that I wanted I almost wanted the proposal to kind of match the energy of us and our relationship and doing it on a fancy night when we're gussied up you know yeah that's the Hollywood romance kind of thing but that wasn't who we were you know yes we like to go out to eat we like to that's really our one hobby but I knew going out to the winery going out walking through the vineyards getting a cheeseburger you know that was one it was going to kind of throw her for a loop which I definitely wanted to do because she hates surprises and I told she needs to get used to it because I'll surprise her for the rest of our lives but going out to the winery I think was just a little more it was a little more our speed and and so I had never intended to propose that night but it was definitely going through her mind wow that's awesome so who in the relationship is the logical one plus one will always equal two it never equals three or four and this is what we're doing and who's the dreamer the one that's like oh we got this let's spend it to be honest with you I think it's kind of a 50-50 situation we're both that person we're not ones to just jump off a cliff and hope we land yeah yeah I agree with that I mean I think there is an absolute balance between the two of us you know I think we're both logical level-headed thinkers we're not necessarily I mean we're impulsive in the way that normal people can be impulsive but we're not impulsive people and I think that on a business level my mind goes to logic before

17:03anything else of you know I mean currently we have probably five of the five other restaurant concepts in our back pocket that we'd like to launch one day but we know now is not the right time you know and and so I think we're both the dreamers in that we have ideas of of what we want to do but I definitely think that having someone complimenting and and so like-minded to go okay we have this idea but how do we should we does it make sense you know have those questions be first rather than oh let's do it and then figure it all out later I think that's what's made our personal and business relationship work so well yeah that's that's exactly I think what you want and I was going to say this before maybe it's a terrible timing but I proposed to my wife we celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary in September but I proposed to her 16 years ago at Ruth's Chris at least you're still willing to admit it though on what and well you know the the sous chef is a good friend of mine my best friend is a waiter there and I had the whole thing planned out at the restaurant it had nothing to do with Ruth's Chris it was just that you know I had I had an inside connection and we had a nice dinner but in hindsight you look back today and I'm like oh 16 years ago Ruth's Chris was a little different back then I think you're in here yeah a lot of the restaurants that we have today that I probably would have gone to weren't open then right yeah I mean in years ago was a very different place a very different place Ruth's Chris was the nice steakhouse in town yeah so anyhow uh how long have you guys been married when did you get married uh it's actually gonna be three years on may 13th so you guys still have like lots of fun stuff you guys did the business partner thing what are you doing now like how have

19:04you been staying busy during quarantine pg version well we're almost five months pregnant with our first child together so we're going oh my god congratulations yeah thank you we're going through that uh right now but a lot of people have asked this I think just because we're so accustomed to being together for long periods of time every day uh in and out every day this is no problem for us you know we're this is this is no different than every other day um we're not being forced into a situation where I'm having all of a sudden to spend all this time with somebody that I'm not used to doing that with uh this is normal we still drive each other crazy in the same way we do every other day yeah have you revealed whether or not it's a boy or a girl we don't know yet uh it's going to be about another month the doctor situation right now is is very interesting he's not allowed to go along to any of the ultrasound appointments or anything so that's kind of depressing but um well I will tell you another quick story about me that was unsolicited when we found out we were pregnant with our first child um who is six and a half now we have been trying for a really long time told we couldn't get pregnant and we went in my wife took a pregnancy test we went in and the doctor said to the first ultrasound she goes that's a big baby me what does that mean and hold on so she does some measurements on the ultrasound and everything and I'm like I'm holding my wife's hand I'm looking at her I'm like what what is a big baby what is it is his head big like what does that mean her mind at this point I'm scared and she I said so how she goes how far along you think you are she's like I really have no idea I was told I couldn't get pregnant so I mean eight ten weeks whatever and she said well you're at 21 weeks wow so we the day we did our first ultrasound we found out we're having a boy

21:11wow we were five months when we found out that's crazy can you imagine I knew that yeah I kind of knew the minute we got pregnant wow I mean I did too it's going back to what she said earlier it was kind of a testament to just being with someone so much throughout the day and every single day you know I mean I we know each other very well and and when something is off or different about each other we immediately pick up on it and I think we both just knew exactly at the same time that something was different and and this was a real possibility well this isn't a show about relationships but I always find it incredibly fascinating when a couple husband and wife can share a business like this and they can work in sync so well and I just love hearing stories like this slow hand coffee let's talk about coffee for a second what where did your do you have a passion for coffee when did this start uh your food truck that was a coffee shop yeah um I've my background is is kind of been I wouldn't not interesting in that everybody wants to hear it way but interesting in in in kind of an unconventional way you know I think most people in our positions um you know they they went to culinary school they worked in kitchens for 20 years they da da da da da da da da and here they are opening the first place I kind of went a different route and my career was really centered around I always knew I wanted to open my own business I knew that that this is what I wanted to do I wanted a coffee shop I wanted restaurants I wanted all these things but for me you know cooking was was kind of I don't know it

23:17was kind of second nature to me not to say I'm the greatest cook in the world but I understood cooking um you know my younger brother on the other side it took him a long time to figure out cooking you know it just it was one of those passions I always had food and beverage was always a passion of mine and so my career was centered more around the business side and you know I knew that cooking was something I could figure out if I didn't know how to do something I could I could read a book I could talk to someone I could you know whatever I could figure those things out I could figure out how to make a sauce and practice practice practice until I got it down but the business side was the part that scared me so my career was centered around gathering as much information and as many experiences I could that would set me up for success to run a business um through that path I just somehow discovered coffee um I did not grow up drinking coffee I did not like coffee my my dad tried to get me you know let me taste his coffee growing up I always thought it tasted like dirt or chalk it just was never my thing but I uh right out of college I got a job at a sign company um they were a national level sign company making signs for some of the larger businesses out there and um it was it was pretty miserable it was a you know one of those dead-end jobs that goes nowhere there's there's no upward mobility in the company um everything is just a lateral move and it was just not a place I enjoyed working um not to say it was a bad company it was just not it didn't strike it didn't set uh what am I trying to say it didn't hit any notes for me it didn't fulfill me in in the ways that I wanted my work to be fulfilled and um I think that's that's another way that we're very alike in that

25:21for I think both of us to feel successful I think we both need jobs that do work that means something and and whether that's producing pastries or or cooking something over a fire it just when you produce something that that someone consumes and you get that instant gratification of feedback it just it means something to you as an emotional connection with that and um this job was not that for me so I started looking for another job and the only background I even had from college was a little bit of marketing so I found a marketing job at a small coffee roaster in Raleigh North Carolina uh I was living in Charleston South Carolina at the time and I took that job and one of the interview questions they asked me was uh do you drink coffee what's your favorite coffee drink and at that point I didn't drink coffee but I lied through my teeth and I knew a coffee that my dad drank and so I told him oh you know I love to drink Sumatra coffee from Sumatra that that's my favorite because that was my dad's favorite it's the only thing I had to go off of and I ended up getting that job so I did that for oh man four years something like that five years I I don't really remember how many years just a lot of years and because I worked there I kind of forced myself to drink the coffee so that I knew the product that I was helping market and that was kind of where my love of coffee took off and I took some barista jobs to get the experience in the cafe level and and then from there I took a job at a coffee roaster based out of Sacramento and I moved to St. Louis and I was kind of a regional rep manager kind of role there and that was just kind of where coffee came from I just kind of developed a passion for coffee there

27:22but it was all with the mindset of understanding business and the business side of things and I also I wanted to stay in hospitality you know outside of that job with the sign company and then like a two-month job in college at Best Buy all of my jobs have been in hospitality in some way shape or form and that's just a side of the business I always enjoyed and like I said I I use these opportunities to gain as much knowledge as I could to be able to operate a hospitality business successfully and and you know that's not to say that we have all the knowledge that we need to be successful we're certainly learning every day but yeah that I mean that's where coffee came from it just I coffee was what I knew so that's what I started with and and started the food truck as a coffee shop on wheels of sorts and so that's your passion for kind of that giving love through food or through coffee you mentioned in this whole thing is that when you create food people consume it and that's your way of like instant gratification is there some basis behind the bar at Pelican and Pig like the the food bar that you have because you've got an actual bar bar that you've got a bar around the kitchen is some of that because you can prepare food put it in front of somebody and have an interaction with them to talk about what's happening in real time absolutely you know the the way we built this restaurant out was really centered around how we like to dine and you know we've eaten at a lot of places I mean our entire two-week honeymoon was traveling through California solely centered around eating and drinking you know any vacation we have that that's our hobbies we we intake food we check out new venues bars restaurants whatever just to see what other people are doing to get inspiration from new places and

29:26so the layout the the service style the food everything at Pelican and Pig was centered around how we like to eat and I think you're seeing more of it now but for so long the kitchen was kind of behind closed doors and part of why I did this was also to help break the or at least chip away at the financial barrier of front of house versus back of house so my initial intention in building that chef's counter was that the kitchen would be the ones serving the chef's counter so that you would get this higher end finer dining experience in a I'll say fine casual more comfortable kind of experience where you know I always say our restaurant is yours experience how you wish to you know do it with respect and within the confines of of our culture but if you want to come in in a coat and tie great if you want to come in and shorts and a ball cap that's fine too you know it's I don't want our place to be the place that you're not sure what fork to use you're not sure where to put your hands that's that's not the style of what we do so that was the original intention was so that the kitchen would serve that counter and provide that different level of service that what that you rarely saw around town and and I took a lot of that from catbird from that that night before I proposed when we were dining at catbird that just really struck me as this is a cool way to dine you know the the people cooking the food are the ones serving it to you and telling you about it so for sure yeah so I hoped that that would really take with people and you know in doing so in in having the kitchen serve that counter it would allow them

31:29to receive the tips from that counter so there was a little bit more of an financial incentive to back of house you know rather than putting them putting baby in a corner so to speak we put them out in the front and created the stage you know the entire restaurant is centered around that kitchen it's the first thing you see when you come in the door the dining room is kind of wrapped around it and that was that was what we were going for um one of the things that I think we quickly figured out is back of the house people don't like serving they they they like the financial aspect of it but I think generally you know personality type yeah we've had some surprising people you know in our kitchen that just come alive when when they get to talk to people and I think that's really cool but as a whole I think our back of house is just more comfortable doing what they do and talking to the people but not necessarily serving them so that sort of naturally progressed to we're going to put a server in charge of the the counter but it's it's definitely still a unique dining experience because if you're sitting in the counter you get to talk to the kitchen you get to talk to people and um you know generally I think people are really really in tune to food and beverage and we get asked a lot of questions about so what are you making there or where did that come from where is your your meat from and and uh you know not everybody wants to sit up there but I think those that do are really invested in it and yeah I mean exactly what you said earlier is is it's that's that mentality is really part of it it's it's providing that nourishment to people and connecting with people on that level and you know I mean I think my wife and I are both fairly socially awkward you know as as most back of house people I think possibly are but uh our love language is is providing

33:33service to people and feeding people and seeing people smile and nod and you know getting to see that person take their first bite of food and they immediately start nodding their head that's a good feeling you know to know that you've created something that somebody enjoys that much really gives us a lot of joy um and kind of propels us forward I eat there one night and I sat at the bar and was with a bunch of restaurant people and some food industry people and what they just had we felt like an open tab and they said just order like one of everything so we we got to literally sit there and order like one of everything and watch you make all of this stuff you right in front of us making everything and plus your heart you had a bunch of food people who felt like they're you know we want to know everything about what you're doing you have to go this is a brussels sprout and I'm you know and it's like just let them cook guys just let them cook and we'll just eat it but then you kind of came once we got all the food and we were talking about you kind of identified some of the things that we've really dug and then you kind of dug into your bag of tricks and you said hey I've been working on this one dish I'm going to go ahead and make it for you and I love your feedback so not only did we get to try everything and then give you feedback directly which I'm sure you love and if you can see my fingers doing quotes people at the bar telling you it's good or bad after a bunch of alcohol but when you made that dish I think it was one of the better things that we had of the night but I could see your creativity going and you wanted us to try this and you wanted honest feedback it wasn't just a but I felt like such an insider I felt it was so much more of an actual experience and it became super memorable which I think is what we're all shooting for right not just I'm just giving you food to fill your belly but I'm creating this experience for you that's differentiates what we do versus what

35:35everybody else does and I just I totally appreciate that and just loved that experience that was created right there at the chef's bar yeah I mean I think that kind of nails exactly what I'm talking about you know it's it's what are they there's something in film where they talk about like the fourth wall or the third wall or something like that where breaking that wall you're looking directly in the camera talking to the the people watching the program you're you're tearing down that barrier in between you and for me this was exactly what you're saying it was a way to do that too and you know we didn't open this restaurant for fame we didn't open this restaurant for media for press for to get famous we did it because this is what we love we love just cooking and being creative and you know we don't take ourselves too seriously we we're creatively playful I think in in the dishes that we create and we cook for ourselves we cook for you and not for other industry people we're not trying to be we're not trying to impress people we're trying to we're trying to create something really cool and really good and kind of break down those barriers and those experiences are really kind of why we do this and you know I'll come up with a dish and I'll taste it I'll you know I always go to my wife first have her taste it we taste for the things that that we know to taste for salt acid you know those types of things I'll let my my cooks my sous chef whoever taste as well but sometimes the best feedback comes from the people in front of you because um you know I oddly enough my my wife's love of him is I think newfound but I saw an interview of uh with John Mayer many years ago I love John Mayer you know as you should I'm not a super fan of of his music but I think he is

37:40very musically talented and I think uh I think his grasp on the knowledge of what you need is is on a whole other level so he was doing an interview and um it he said something along the lines of you can have the best what you think is the best idea in the world but the the consumer is always smarter than you and I don't you know that doesn't necessarily mean on an education level but they're going to tell you this idea that you think is amazing might suck so having you know I have if I have this elaborate idea for I'm going to do this this and this and this and we think it's awesome but if it doesn't sell is it really that great of an idea so this is this is a way for us to be able to do exactly that you know we might be in service one night and we hit a slower pocket or or we've got somebody sitting in the counter that just seems really invested in in asking questions and they're really in it and you kind of take that opportunity to say hey you know like you guys I've got this dish I'm working on uh give this a shot I'll put it down in front of them let me know what you think about it it's not finished but I want your thoughts on it and I actually do you don't even have to put it in quotes I do love the feedback because it gives me insight into what people actually think and what people actually want um you know there's been dishes that I put down in front of people that I thought oh this is going to be amazing you know it tastes really good and then I put it down in front of them like it tastes good but it doesn't make sense so you know at that point you know they step back and you either simplify or or adjust and for me that's what it's about it's it's not just on a business level being able to get that feedback and and make my business more successful or make a dish more successful but it's creating that bond with somebody of if you leave here happier than you

39:44came in we've done our jobs right and if me providing that experience of hey here's a secret little thing that I don't even have on the menu and I'm not even sure it's ever going to hit the menu but let me know what you think about it it it creates that level of trust too of I'm trusting you to taste something that nobody else is potentially going to taste for a while and I'm going to let you tell me what you think so it's it's kind of speaking to our customer base of we're putting that trust in you like you're putting your trust in us to sit here and enjoy our food uh let me know what you think which it goes back to your what you're talking about as being a community restaurant where they were in a student tie or jeans and a t-shirt we we value the people that come in and dine with us we're creating there's no pretentiousness here it doesn't matter who you are if you want to come in and have an experience we're here for you Audra what what exactly so I mean if chef we know what he does what do you do on a daily basis what does your day look like oh wait uh it it kind of depends on the day so for the most part um I have transitioned over to being more of a presence in slow hand I'm the executive pastry chef over there but I also deal with front of house management um that's proved to be an interesting balance um yeah I am solely responsible for the entire pastry program um as well as the pastry and bread production at Pelican uh on the weekends I work you know from five or six in the morning till 10 o'clock at night because I also am the front of house manager for Pelican um so I get to kind of split my duties between uh production and then front of house management that's kind of where I started um was in the front of house I was a server retail I worked my way up to management um so I do have a background in that so when it came time to

41:46roll out Pelican he was definitely more the back of house personality and I just kind of naturally transitioned to um front of house what's the thing you miss the most about being open every day um honestly there's never really been any reins on what I'm allowed to do uh we you know I can go in with an off-the-wall idea and if I want to produce that and try to work out an idea or a concept you know that's that's kind of um up to me so having the creative freedom to just kind of do whatever I want uh on a whim or based on what's you know inspiring me you know inspiring me that day that's what I miss but I also miss our people you know you spend so much time around these people and you know we've we've got 23 friends that we've come to look forward seeing every day yeah I can imagine that that's uh just hearing the the stories on a daily basis come into work all the different people that just say um you know I listen what happened last night I mean just all of the daily getting to know you stuff that you hear I'm sure that that on a regular basis you you got to start missing some of that yeah for sure and I think I think everybody out there does I think there's a side of this thing getting back open that um there's a glimmer of hope that we'll get back to some level of normalcy but I don't know I don't know yeah I don't know what normal is going to look like I know I know it's going to be weird for a little bit but I also think I mean humans as as by nature are just creatures of habit you know I think some things are going to change but I think everybody eventually is going to go back into the the good parts of their old ruts you know they're going to go back to their same places they're going to go out the same nights of the week they're going to

43:47spend the same amount of money but I think it's just going to be a little bit more cautious in the approach but I think by nature we'll we'll get back to you know an over under plus 10 15 percent of of what we knew normal was but with new procedures yeah so okay um what are you guys so you guys are anticipated we talked about this on yesterday's show about waiting until kind of phase two see what goes on hopefully we can see what these other kind of the the rural cities have happened I'm I'm I think this is like must watch tv what's going to happen I want to hear the stories on all the socials about what happened when servers went to work today and what it was like waiting on tables because I I don't literally nobody knows what's going to happen today so I'm I'm just I got popcorn ready like I just want to learn everything I think it all starts today yeah I'm curious to see how everything rolls out and and what procedures people are taking and you know I think in our place specifically I think in our place specifically too something this whole thing has and talking to other restaurant people this whole thing has created new lines of thought that we never figured we would have to come up with solutions for we never thought we'd have to think about and you know like us having an open kitchen I was on a phone call with uh the owners of Peninsula the other day and we were talking about kind of the optics of everything and and you know for us having an open kitchen if we open sooner rather than later you know one of the things that that we need to put in place not necessarily to be a safer restaurant because those things will be in place but there's a different level of the perception of being a safer restaurant and

45:52being an open kitchen you know I already require myself to wear gloves we use proper sanitation they're all trained on how to wash their hands they wash their hands properly but there's a certain level of of at ease that people go to when you see the people cooking your food are wearing gloves so you know they don't need to uh because they're proper they're practicing proper sanitation they're not touching cooked food with their bare hands that type of thing but I require it just to put the minds on the other side of counter at ease but taking that further you know is it something where we need we would need to have our staff wearing masks our kitchen staff wearing masks just to make people more comfortable that they're not breathing in the vicinity of their food and then that opens up another can of worms of if we're in the kitchen supposed to be communicating with each other and we have masks on our face what issues does that cause in you know me personally I'm I'm deaf in one ear so my hearing is is 50 to begin with so I you know in a kitchen it's already hard to hear if I put a mask on someone's face half of my level of hearing is is watching mouths and reading lips if I can't see them am I going to hear you know and and our staff too if they're communicating with each other is there going to be a barrier there wearing these masks so there's just there's so many different facets that we have to evaluate on what makes the most sense and and operationally you know do we put masks on our servers and if we do is there going to be communication issues there where they're repeating something back to a guest and and it gets misunderstood because there's a piece of cloth in front of their face I don't know but all those things kind of take into account and and I think that's that's largely why we we're kind of just watching and waiting through this first phase that makes complete sense I think I think that's I think a lot of

47:55people are going to do the same thing and I just I think you guys are amazing I thank you for taking all the time that you did today to kind of talk about what this labor market is going to look like what's going on right now just your vulnerability and honesty to talk about the PPP program and how you feel with your staff and then to talk about your relationship and all of that stuff I'm so excited to be able to go back and dine at the Pelican and Pig again when this whole thing is over and when we kind of come back to a new normal I don't know what that looks like but I think it will happen and I feel like everything's going to be better we're going to learn a lot of lessons that we're going to grow from and I just thank you both for for joining me today absolutely thank you for having us and we very much look forward to having everybody back yeah so uh so thanks guys so much and we will once we get back open I'd love to have you both come on and kind of tell me and our listeners what it's what it was like what some of the challenges you have we're probably going to do a bunch of episodes about this I'd like to get somebody on that can tell me about what it was like today so thank you guys again and best of luck to you and stay safe the best luck with your new uh child I know this is that's just I'm so excited for you thank you I appreciate it all right guys Nick and Audra Guidry thank you so much for joining us today and I just want to say I apologize to everybody out there for my sound issues I did it I my microphone wasn't working and I didn't know until the thing was over so I do apologize about that thanks for sticking in there if you do like this podcast and I hope that you did I'll love it if you would subscribe to it we're trying to build up a big listener base tell your friends about it if you see this post on the social share it put it in your story let other people know about it it means a lot to me I appreciate it

49:58as always I hope you guys are all doing well and staying safe love you guys bye