Pepsi, Gordon Food Service, and a Full Preview of the Independent Restaurant Show

00:00Welcome 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 joined today with Vince Lanni. Hi, Vince. Hey, what's up? This is typically where I would say we are powered by Gordon Food Service, yet today I'm not going to say that. Today I'm going to say we are powered by Pepsi. We have been very busy around here. Vince is our guest today as a co-host and guest. This is a monologue episode to get you up to speed on everything that is going on with us because we haven't been putting out a lot of interview episodes recently, but that will be changing very soon.

01:13First off, I want to address the change in presenting sponsorship. We have had an amazing, amazing partnership with the folks over at GFS for several years. When we initially were looking for a main sponsor for the podcast to keep this thing going and all of that, GFS stood up and they said, we'd love to be a part of it. We'd love to be a part of what you're doing. We want to support local. We want to support you. We have had an amazing relationship over these years. Nothing has happened to that relationship and when the opportunity came about for me to find a company, I chose GFS because I trust them and I like them. I think they do a fantastic job and we've had a great relationship. With NARA, one of the main things that we do here is broad line vendor negotiations. We help consolidate your purchases. We create RFPs. We bid them out to broad line vendors. One of the areas of concern was, and for myself was, is there a conflict of interest that GFS is the presenting sponsor for the podcast when we're working with everybody?

02:31Vince, do you feel like it's a conflict of interest? I think it's close enough where it muddies the water. I can see people thinking there's a conflict of interest. Whether there is or isn't, it has nothing to do with it. In the actuality of what we do, there's nothing different when it comes to everybody has a fair shot. We're not sharing any information, nothing along those lines, but the perception that there could be was real and it was brought to my attention from another broad liner that, hey, GFS is just going to win because they're your sponsor. I took that to heart. The process has shown that that's not true because they haven't won everyone, but I can see that. That's the thing. That is why we have pivoted. We've pivoted to another brand that is in the same boat wanting to support local restaurants, support the restaurant community in Nashville. That brand is Pepsi.

03:38I love Pepsi. Now, this has been an interesting thing because we work with restaurants and one of the things we ask restaurants is, where can we help you? Where do you need help? One of the questions we ask is, you use Coke. Would you like to hear from Pepsi? Oh, we're in the South. We're in the South and it's a Coke area, but we're hurting right now. We do need help. This is where Pepsi has really come in strong. If you haven't looked into Pepsi, they've been an amazing partner. Not just to us, to the restaurants. That's what I'm saying. They've come in and they've supported marketing funding, funding on the front end, the actual rebates.

04:39Private events and catering that they're going to. Actually supporting the restaurants. Supporting direct sales and investments. Yeah, we had a really cool party that they threw at Pringle Smoke and Oasis last month that was just awesome. It was just to support restaurants. I think that there's this kind of perception that it's the South, but man, there's a ton of restaurants that use Pepsi. We couldn't be more excited. That are Southern brands like Pringle Smoke and Oasis. Pringle Smoke and Oasis, the Southern. There's a ton of great brands using Pepsi. When we first wanted to work with a beverage partner for Nara, we met with both of them and they were both lovely. They're both very nice people. I have nothing negative to say about the Coke brand, but Pepsi, you could see it in their eyes when we met how excited they were to go, man, this is an opportunity that we really want to lean into because we love supporting local restaurants.

05:41I thought, man, how awesome is that? That's it. Who's leaning in? Who really wants it and who really wants to help? Who's just happy to be part of it, but not leaning in fully? There's a huge difference. Pepsi's really leaned in. They've leaned in and said, man, let's do everything we can to help support local restaurants. We are very excited to have Pepsi as our new presenting sponsor. There it is. That is our big news, as far as what you'll be hearing me say. This is now Nashville Restaurant Radio presented by Pepsi. We're very excited to have them here. Today's episode is going to be an update on all the things that we're seeing. We want to talk about new members, some restaurants we've been visiting, and then, of course, on September 1st, we're going to be hosting the Independent Restaurant Show.

06:41I want to tell you some of the brands that will be there and just talk about what we've been up to. Let's do it. Before we get into interviews with a bunch of other people. You want to start us off? Yeah. Is it time for my monologue? I didn't have anything prepared. Or was that your monologue? That was my monologue. It's your monologue now. I feel like George Costanza in Seinfeld when I had 30 minutes to prepare a monologue. I'm really excited to have Pepsi as our presenting sponsor and just working with us and helping independent restaurants in general. Then we have our Independent Restaurant Show. Let's start there. We'll start with the Independent Restaurant Show. September 1st, 3 to 6 p.m. at Fat Bottom Brewery in the Nations at their outdoor-indoor pavilion.

07:44We have a live band. I don't want to mention our special guest speaker yet. We're not going to say who the special guest speaker is, but it's a big one. But at 445 that day, the show goes from 3 to 6. It is free to anybody who is a restaurant worker, restaurant leadership, restaurant owner. If you are a vendor and you're not part of the show, it is not for you, unfortunately. Yeah, don't come. Or contact me or Vince, Brandon or Vince, at naranashville.com. Learn how you can be part of the next event. Learn how you can be part of NARA. Don't overstep. The vendors that we're going to have there are people that we've met with multiple times. We've worked with multiple times. We have a commitment to excellence that we kind of make every single vendor agree to. And so if you're using a NARA vendor, there's somebody who we've spoke with that we are going to help hold accountable. And so if you're a vendor that hasn't gone through that vetting process, we don't want you there kind of doing your thing without us fully vetting you.

08:49Well, it's also like a safe space for restauranteurs to come and mingle with each other when they're not at a vendor's table. Our Connect events are for connecting restaurants together as well. So we don't want people getting inside conversations and stuff. We want them to go see the vendors at the tables, and we want them to meet each other, and that's really important. Yeah, and we also want you to know that these vendors are people that we trust and that we love. Let's talk about some of the vendors. You have a lot of really great vendors. This is going to be awesome. Was it over 30? Yeah, we're like over 35. We're not going to mention them all today, but I will tell you, you go to restaurant shows. You've been to a Cisco show. You've been to a GFS show, a PFG show, whatever. It's a bunch of people there that are just trying to sell you fried mozzarella sticks or, hey, we can do this chicken cheap or whatever it is. This show has a little bit of everything.

09:52Our goal was to have somebody represented all the way up and down your P&L so that you could learn about really cool brands. I'll start off and say we have five tables that are going to be outside. We have Distillworks, and tell them about Distillworks. Yeah, they're awesome. They've done our website. If you want a good example of what they can do, just go to our website, nara.nashville.com. It's been incredible. They give us monthly reporting too on it and what's going on with SEO and how our pages are ranking, how our member pages are ranking too because they're all separate pages on the website that are now ranking on the first page of Google. If you're a member with a listing on our website, that website is now on the first page of Google for your keywords, which is possibly bumping a competitor off the first page. Just being on our website is actively helping other restaurants in terms of SEO.

10:55Which is search engine optimization, how people find you. Distillworks does a lot of SEO and website work. They focus on local. They're a local brand that want to help local restaurants. Yeah, exactly. And they'll shoot it to you straight. They'll do a free audit for you and tell you how your site's performing now, how it's ranking now. They'll give you all that information. They'll be honest and say where they can help you. If you're already successful and just have a couple tweaks, they'll give you some free suggestions. They'll connect you with another partner who might be able to help more in terms of retention and stuff. So, yeah, really great vendor partner. We're happy to have them. Super excited to have them. Right next to them is going to be Shared Spirits. Oh, Shared Spirits. So you've heard me talk about Shared Spirits. Shared Spirits is an awesome marketplace online where people can go and find your restaurant. And then you can buy them a drink. You can buy people a drink at other restaurants and text it to them.

11:57And it's all paid for. It's a really cool technology. Justin Maestas will be there with his team to sign you up. It takes like five minutes to sign up for Shared Spirits, and it's free if you're a restaurant. It's a marketplace you want to be on. You're going to learn all about it while we're there. Kitchen Guard. Kitchen Guard is where they do hood cleanings, and they're the best. I mean, Kurt Kowalski and his team, they will send you pictures of every single thing that they do. They fix it so that it doesn't happen again. This is buildup that you have. You see a hood that's – or not a hood, but like a stack, a smoked stack. I don't know what you'd call it. Outside of a restaurant, it just has all that grease coming out of it. They make sure that that's not a thing, and they can fix that for you as well. We're going to have Kathy Devereaux there from KDS of Tennessee. She is somebody who goes and finds tax loopholes where there's all kinds of government programs out there, and she will come in and find ways to help save you a bunch of money and get tax credits you didn't even know that you had.

13:02I think everyone needs to stop at that table, right? It's a big one. These are companies you didn't even know that existed that are here to help you. Of course, C&B Linen is going to be there front and center. We love C&B Linen. They also own a company called Guesswork IT. If you don't have a CTO or a chief technology officer, Guesswork IT can do all these things for your restaurant, set you up Wi-Fi, just connect everything. Think about it like you have a smart home at work. They can do that at home, a smart home where on your app, you can turn on your lights, open your garage door, turn the microwave on, whatever it is. They can make that efficiencies for your restaurant. Nice. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Then, of course, next to them is going to be our presenting sponsor, Pepsi. Pepsi. So you're going to learn about Pepsi. You know the thing that most people forget about Pepsi is that they have Mountain Dew. Yeah. And Mountain Dew is the number one selling soft drink.

14:06Nothing more selling than Mountain Dew. They got Mountain Dew, man. And Mountain Dew is one of those things that your staff will be really happy you switched to Pepsi because you'll have Mountain Dew. Yeah, and they're Celsius, too, which is – that's my energy drink of choice. It is your energy. Nara doesn't run on Dunkin'. It runs on Celsius, right? It does. We have this really cool Pepsi cooler now in the studio that has Celsius in it that Vince loves. We are going to have two different THC brands there. So North Canna is going to be there, and they're going to be giving samples as well as Wild, W-Y-L-D, is going to be there giving samples. We're super excited to have both of these brands there. I think non-alcoholic options are really big right now. If you know, I think GLP-1s are a real issue when it comes to restaurants. One in six people are on a GLP-1, which is like an Ozempic-type drug, and it causes you to eat less, and they don't drink as much.

15:10And having non-alcoholic options for people – plus, Gen Z doesn't drink, really, I mean, for the most part. Having non-alcoholic options is a big opportunity, and THC brands are really crushing. If you have questions about how to get your license or what to do, they're going to be there to help answer those questions and maybe give you some support. Very cool. It's also not just Gen Z not drinking. I mean, I'm a millennial who doesn't drink. I just run marathons instead, so sometimes it's like that. I'm a Gen Xer who doesn't drink. We're also going to have OneTap. You've heard me talk about OneTap. You'll be able to meet Eric and Drew and the team from OneTap. This is your solution for all maintenance issues. They're absolutely amazing, and they're going to be there to display what they're doing. You can test it out. I almost think we shouldn't give too much of that away. People need to go and actually do it there and tap it and see it in person because it's so cool. I probably can't explain it enough. Another brand that's going to be there, another guy, Justin Cook, is going to be there, and he is an EOS facilitator.

16:15This guy – one of the number one things I see in restaurants is really just disorganization. It's manager meetings that don't get results. It's org charts. It's follow-up. It's high-level communication across the board, and that's hard to do as an independent restaurant. If you only have one unit or maybe two or three, how do we scale this thing? What do we do? It's hard to do, but it's harder to operate and not do it. 100%. You don't know what you don't know. Justin is an EOS facilitator, which is the entrepreneurial operating system based around the book Traction by Gina Wickman. He is going to be there scheduling one-on-one demos where he can come in and help you identify what areas of opportunity you have in operational success. It was a game changer in our restaurants. I personally worked with Justin. He is unbelievable, and I'm excited that he is going to be there. The next one is R4 Humidity Cooler Control Solutions.

17:19Oh, yeah. What do you think about them, Vince? They're real cool. I use them at home, too. I got the little thing in my fridge. But no, the data we saw at a recent test that we did was awesome. We did a test at Puckett's in Franklin. Yeah, and it was like a 50% reduction to get the cooler back to the right humidity level time-wise. Like in half the time than it used to. It got it back down to that level. So, obviously, products fresher are longer. The product doesn't get shocked. Yeah, it doesn't get the shock. Less moisture in your cooler. Less taxing on the unit itself, so hopefully it lasts longer without repairs. Also, your energy bill is saving money. This is a really cool option, and thank you to everybody over at Puckett's. This is how we vet vendors. This guy comes in and makes all these claims, and we go, I want to see it. Let's see it. We tested the humidity, and Puckett's cooler is outside. So, you open, literally, to an outside deal. And these are 100-degree. And we tested it in the worst three months of the year.

18:22We did, and there's tons of humidity outside. And the data was incredible how much it cooled down, how fast it got back down to 33 degrees in that cooler versus it staying at 57 degrees when that door opens and all that cold air comes out. It cooled a lot faster. I think the ROI in that is just in energy costs alone. You'll pay for the actual product. It's relatively inexpensive, whatever you're thinking this is. So, we're really excited to have them there. You can meet Pete and his brother, David. I'm like, why am I? Pete and David, they're the owners of the company, and they're brothers. And they are just the coolest guys. Absolutely love them. Nobody knows about this product yet. Go follow them on Instagram, r4humidity. They're really cool. We're also going to have, okay, so if you need a professional headshot, right? We have Pliny Crane, who is a great local marketing company.

19:22They're going to have, so dress up if you're coming because we're going to have, they're going to be shooting your professional headshots for free. You need a headshot? Pliny Crane's going to be there doing headshots, then sending them over to you. Nice. How about that? Yeah. Did you know they were doing that? No. Yeah. Maybe I'll get some. I am 100% going to be doing a new headshot because I need a new headshot. Yeah. So, you'll not only get to meet Kerry and Carter and Drew and all the guys over at Pliny Crane. They're going to be doing free headshots for you. On top of this, we're going to have raffle tickets. Everybody who comes gets a raffle ticket. We're going to be giving away custom dunks. We have some other prizes. The next brand where it's going to be there is Toast. Toast POS Systems. We are giving away three pairs of custom Toast dunks. Very cool. They're orange and white. They say Nara and Toast on them. There will be a raffle for those, but we're giving away three pairs of custom Toast dunks.

20:28There might be some Pepsi dunks. There might be. Every single vendor is going to have extra raffle tickets that you can have. Trovedor Rum. This is a local Nashville brand. I want to say, what is the guy's name? Why can't I think of his name right now? Raul? Raul Malo. It was his rum before he passed, but this is a brand that is carried on by the people over at You Are Here Hospitality, which is Chad and Gracie. Amazing people. Just the best people in the world. They do Eastside Bon Me, Suiza Super Quesadilla, Golden Prawn No. 3. They also have a rum brand, and they're going to be there pouring this rum. It's a Nashville-based rum brand, and we're really excited to have them there. You get to drink some rum while you're there. Speaking of drinking alcohol, we will have alcohol at this event. Empire Distributors will be there. They will have a table.

21:30They're going to be serving an assortment of different things. Whatever they're going to be serving, there will be. I don't know if it's wine, liquor, whatever it will be, but you will definitely have beer in the form of Fat Bottom Brews. Fat Bottoms can have a whole bar set up there. All of their different brews you can try. Fat Bottom Brewing, can I just say, has been an absolutely amazing partner. They are actually the only partner that we have as both a vendor partner and a restaurant member. Did you know that? That's true. That's a fun fact. Fun fact. We were able to successfully negotiate their vendor deal. They also own Teddy's Tavern downtown. How was their last week? Amazing place. I love their hop water. It's delicious, and they're also hosting this event for us. They've been so kind. They hosted our vendor event, but they're going to have a full bar there. If you have a choice right now and you can put a Fat Bottom Brew on your draft, do that, because they are supporting local restaurants right and left through us.

22:30We would love it if you would support them. B&A Brokers. There's going to be B&A Brokers, and then we also have Joseph's Gourmet Pasta. All these brokers work with brands, and then they sell to Cisco or GFS or PFG or U.S. Foods, one of these different brands. We actually have a broker coming. These are people who probably sell the food that you currently buy, and you can negotiate better deals on the food you currently buy with them directly. We're bringing them on to talk about that. They're going to showcase some of the brands that they have. Brokers are the ones that are at all the food shows. They're going to be providing food at this show for you to try and taste. I'm excited to have them there as well. You know who else is going to be there? Who else is going to be there? DoorDash. DoorDash. They do third-party vendor deliveries. I've heard of them.

23:30You've heard of them? DoorDash. They're going to be there. They're going to have special offers for local restaurant owners. You can meet the people at DoorDash. If you want to speak to the people at DoorDash, you want to sign up for DoorDash, you want to talk about exclusivity with DoorDash, they will be there in person. All right. Let's talk about SuperSource. You get to meet… I can't say enough good things about SuperSource. You get to meet the king, Jason Ellis. The king. And you know who he always brings with him? His wife and his two daughters. You get to meet the whole Ellis family. I don't know if that's who he's bringing this time, but I imagine it will be. So Jason Ellis and his wife and kids, they're always there. He's a just… What do I need to say about him? I've been hearing about him for five years on the show. The guy is amazing. We will have Christine Miles. So this is one I'd kind of put on… She has a company now. It used to be Christine Miles Hospitality Marketing. Her company is now called The Repeat Guest.

24:30Okay. Now this is probably… This and Distillworks are two that if you're earmarking who you want to go talk to, these are two companies that do the work you know you need to do but don't know how to do. Yes. And they do it price effectively. Yes. Right? Yeah. And they kind of work hand in hand with each other too. They do. And we've introduced them. It's both Christine's. You have Christine. Yeah. They're spelled differently, but yeah. Spelled differently. Two Christine's. But The Repeat Guest, what Christine does… So there's data out there. Your restaurant is a data machine, and every day you're just… Somebody walks in the door, how long before they get greeted by a guest? What did they order? Is this their first time in? How long did it take for them to come back? All of these things are data points that you don't necessarily know what to do with. Christine Miles and The Repeat Guest, she is a marketing company that figures out how to get the guests that have been in your building back into your building.

25:31So she takes all that data that is created through Toast, through Rezzy, through OpenTable, through Talk, and she takes that data and then tells you what to do with it. And you create marketing strategies, drip campaigns, email campaigns, flyers, whatever it might be. It's a huge part of marketing that is undertapped, I think, for local restaurants. Everyone thinks about, like, oh, how do I get more people in? How do I get more people in? And most marketing is targeted at new customers, but you got to get your people. You need the repeat guests. That's the number one thing that will drive more sales consistently. We had a statement in our mission statement in my restaurants was, what can I do to make every guest a repeat guest? What can I do to make every… Every day ask yourself that question. What can I do to make every guest a repeat guest? Christine will come in and show you exactly how to do that. And like I said, it's cost-effective. This is the stuff that all the chains do. Every single chain knows this information, and they strategically market to people who have already been in their building.

26:35And local restaurants don't do this. She exists to help local restaurants do this. And I cannot wait for you guys to meet her and learn more about what she's doing. These two companies are not side-by-side, but they're both companies that you will definitely need. Robbins Insurance, Matthew Clements is going to be there in person talking about Robbins Insurance. If you don't use Robbins Insurance, what's wrong with you? This guy does all the major restaurants in town. He writes the most business from anybody. You say insurance is one thing, but when you're the guy that writes the most restaurant insurance in one city, you get the best rates. Yeah. And so when your society's number one guy… Whatever other guy you have or whatever other company you're using, and you don't have to wait until the end of the year or whatever it is. You can still get started with him now. Anytime. Well, you can at least get a quote. He can take over existing policies that you have.

27:36That's what I mean. He can take over the policy or whatever. And you know what the best part is, is that he will come dine in your restaurant. You will know him. You'll have a personal relationship with Matthew Clements. Yeah, no 800 numbers, no BS. That's great. But when you need your insurance guy, it's never like, oh, I'll call him next week. It's like, holy shit, we need to call him right now. This just happened. I'll call my insurance guy. When he answers the phone and says, I'm on it, that's a nice feeling to know the guy that you're calling and to get the best possible value and the best service. That's what Matthew Clements is providing. We're also going to have Dickinson Wright attorneys will be there. So these are restaurant attorneys. They do liquor laws. If you want to know what to do with the THC, I want to get THC in my building. I don't know how to do it. They will help you through all of this stuff. They are really, really awesome. This is what they focus on. So we're going to have restaurant and liquor attorney there. So you can talk to an attorney when you come to this show. You're seeing a pattern here. We're going across the board.

28:36Last one, I got two more. Joe Offitagado. Joe Offitagado. This guy, I met him. We had on the way to the oil guy. This is the oil guy. We were on our way to NRA Chicago, and we had a long call with this guy, and he claimed that he owned his own orchard in Sicily. They have this perfect olive oil that he can do. He has all the supply we can buy. He can sell you official Italian olive oil from his family's orchard at an amazing price. I was like, that's no possible way. And he came to our last vendor showcase, and everybody in that building got to try his olive oil. Yeah, it was great. Oh, my God. I've never had olive oil that tastes like this. It was delicious. I was like, put your money where your mouth is. Let me try it. And the guy came, and it was to die for. So he is going to be there.

29:36If you're a restaurant that uses olive oil in any kind of large amount or small amount, and you want to purchase it at a much better price and increase the quality like tenfold, you're going to come meet Joe Offitagado, and you're going to try this olive oil at the show. It's going to be awesome. The last people I'm going to talk about, there's two more people, and we have others. We're going to still be releasing more names coming up, the delivered people. We have fire companies, all these different things that are coming. Twine Graphics is going to be there. So Twine Graphics is not a newer partner. They've been with us about three or four months. They have been so awesome. I saw Brandon again at the gym this morning. Brandon Hagan and John Bond are the owners of Twine Graphics. They're in downtown Franklin, and they do screen printing, any kind of promotional, any kind of merch that you have. They have tents they can make, and we've got pens, and I have koozies for my wedding, too. They do everything. They do everything. We have lots of NARA hats, lots of NARA shirts.

30:38We will have a table. NARA will have a table where we will have shirts and hats and all those things for members if you don't have any. If you're not a member, we will be selling them to people that are not members. If you are a member, we've got some free merch for you. But Twine Graphics is going to be there. Now, here's what I did. I said, Twine Graphics, here's what I want to do. I want to support the Giving Kitchen. You and I are both the chairs of the Engagement Council for the Giving Kitchen. Which they'll be there, too. Giving Kitchen will be right next door to Twine. Now, Twine has created a custom design for the Independent Restaurant Show September 1st from 3 to 6 at Fat Bottom Brewery. It is a cool Independent Restaurant Show, NARA Independent Restaurant Show design. They're bringing a screen printer. They're going to be screen printing shirts live in front of you that are going to be custom shirts one time for this one event that they're going to be making.

31:39These shirts are going to not be free. All you have to do to get a shirt is make a donation to the Giving Kitchen. That's all you got to do. Minimum $10 donation. At least $10, you get a shirt, and that's a donation. Giving Kitchen, you get a free shirt. We've got 100 shirts coming. So, if you want to have one of 100 shirts, get there, go get in line, and tell them you want a shirt. It doesn't get more exclusive than that. I mean, a custom pair of Dunks is the only way to get more exclusive than one of these 100 shirts. Yeah, you get 98 shirts because I'm sure as hell going to get one, and I know you're going to get one. So, we took two right off the top. So, there's two off the top. You get 98 shirts that are going to be available, and I need a 2XL, so that's a thing. If you ever wondered how a screen printing works, they're going to do it right there live. So, you get to come meet the guys from Twine, get a custom shirt, and then the Giving Kitchen is right next door.

32:39Now, in my garage right now, I have several cases of a single barrel of Maker's Mark that was made exclusively for Giving Kitchen. Giving Kitchen will be there, signing people up for dining with gratitude. But if you were to make a donation for that shirt for every $50, let's just say, look, $10 is great, but I want to give $50. Oh, now we're talking. You give a $50 donation, and you get an individual raffle ticket. Not for the grand raffle. This is a separate raffle that we're going to be giving away four bottles of Maker's Mark, the special edition Maker's Mark bottles. So, if you want a shirt for every $50, if you want to say, hey, look, I want to give $100 to the Giving Kitchen, great. You can get two shirts, make two $50 donations to Giving Kitchen, get two shirts, and then you'll get two raffle tickets. And maybe you're the only person that makes two $50 donations. Maybe you get two bottles, whatever it might be. But for every $50 donation, you will get a special raffle ticket to hopefully get a bottle of custom, this super rare Giving Kitchen Maker's Mark.

33:48How about that? Very cool. So, this is going to be fun. On top of that, we are going to have the Downriver Collective playing music from 3 o'clock to 3.45. At 3.45, we're going to do our first set of raffles. This is for the things, the general raffles. You've got to be there for this. You've got to be there at 3.45. The band's going to come back on at 4 o'clock. From 4 o'clock to 4.40, they're going to play. And then at 4.40, I'm going to get up, and I'm going to do a special introduction for our big guest that we are going to have. And this one is going to be a big guest. If you're a local, independent restaurant owner, you need to be there. You're going to want to hear this. Yeah. We will have news coverage. Yeah. This person speaking. It's going to be big. And we are going to announce it. We're going to be on all the TV shows the week before, and we are going to announce it. I just want to make sure that I announce it the correct way.

34:49Don't want to create too much hype. Yeah, yeah. Go right now to naranashville.com. Click on the NARA Connect and register for the show. It is filling up. We have 200 spots available. I don't want the fire marshal to get upset because we have too many people there. But if you're a NARA member, don't sleep on this. Go register now. This can be an owner. This can be a general manager. This can be an executive chef. This could be a bar manager, director of operations, anybody in leadership. Hey, if you're a bartender and you want to come, awesome. I'm good with that. If you work in a restaurant and you want to kind of see this thing, plus you want to connect with a bunch of other restaurant people, that's what this is for. So this is going to be an awesome, awesome time. We just spent 30 minutes talking about the restaurant show. All right. What else do we got? Well, I'm not done with the restaurant show. Oh, okay.

35:49This has been a labor of love for a long time of putting all of this together. If you're wondering why we haven't had shows out, putting all of these things together, vetting all these vendors, meeting with the restaurants, we're on a wait list, right? We've got 90 restaurants now that are on board, and we're saving people a lot of money. When I first talked to you, Vince, in like October or September of last year, and we started talking about this, what have you learned so far in the past? You started March 1st full-time at NARA. What has been your experience so far? I mean, it's been amazing. It's everything that I've wanted to do. From my career I always felt like I can do a lot to help people, help in the restaurant within those four walls, but I want to help more.

36:49I'm really grateful because this gave me that avenue to be able to do that. You started to ask what I learned. I learned a lot about the vendor side of things, too, because I always was coming from the lens of the operator, whether it's the owner or the director of ops or the general manager. It's been really cool to see the other side of it and learn that and learn and create win-win-win scenarios instead of just looking for my restaurant to win. So it's been really cool to learn that and see the strength of partnership and good relationships. Not that I didn't have those in operations, but to see it happen on such a grander level is really cool. It really is. One thing that we do when we leave a meeting, when we just save somebody $100,000 a year, it's the best feeling.

37:49It's the best feeling to walk into a restaurateur and talk to them and go, tell us what's going on right now. We have some questions we ask. Where do you need? Where are you at? We do a Broadline Vendor RFP and we end up saving them $100,000 a year. We get in the car and it's like a high-five fun moment to kind of go, we just facilitated that. Yeah, it's really cool. We just helped that person maybe hire a director of operations. We just helped them not close because they were struggling and now we've got something in place that's really going to help them. Yeah, and even for other restaurants who aren't doing the Broadline Vendor deals, but they're all the other vendors that we have that are either providing great services that can increase their sales and better their operations or save them money in other ways. When I find a restaurant that leans in to what we're doing, they're like, who else do you got? What are all of your other vendors? And they really lean into it.

38:49It's really cool, one, to make those connections for everybody and to put people and rooms together, but two, to see all the other ways they're saving money up and down their P&L. I think that a lot of people think that if you save money, you have to sacrifice something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? I think that not only introducing them to a company that does a fantastic job that's going to increase the quality, increase communication, but we're going to do all of that at less than what you're paying now. Yeah. That's that win-win-win. That's the real relational side of it that is a lot of fun. Yeah. I think it's fun that you have this idea to do all of these things and to see it in action when it works. That's the time for me. I'm like, hell yeah, man. That was fun. Yeah. No, I agree. Yeah. All right, so that is – I'm going to call it on the episode today. Okay.

39:49We can do this. I think that we want to do this a little bit more often than we have. We've recorded one or two of these I haven't released. Yeah. Just because I don't know if it's something you necessarily want to hear or don't want to hear, but I think we do have something to promote today, the independent restaurant show. I wanted to walk through exactly what that was going to look like, what the time frame looked like, and who's going to be there. I think people are going to go, what does it mean to be an independent restaurant show? It's an independent restaurant party. If you're an independent restaurant operator and you – we have a new vendor, a new restaurant member, and she's new to town. She's two years into Nashville. She's a sweet woman. She said the hardest thing for her is that she doesn't know everybody yet. She goes, I don't know who to trust. People come in and try and sell me stuff all the time. I don't know what your reputation is. I don't know if what you're doing is good. I go, then we're the perfect scenario for you because I can tell you.

40:53You can call me and say, hey, what about this person? I can tell you all about that company. Or if I don't know about them, we're going to do a demo. We're going to learn about them. But we can help you decipher those things. I think that was just a great moment for me to go, then this is why your membership is – you're going to love this because you can now call me whenever somebody walks in and says, you need this. I can go, no, you don't need that. Or I will find out if you do need that. But we also have somebody that will do this, and they do it 10 times better. It's a thing. It's a thing. Let's drink some Pepsi and wrap up. All right. We're going to do that. Guys, have a wonderful week out there. Thank you for listening. Go register right now at nara.nashville.com for the independent restaurant show. We want to see a huge, huge number of you out there. And if you are not a member of the alliance yet, go to nara.nashville.com, join the wait list because we're getting as many people as possible.

42:00Yeah. Starting September, we're going to come meet with you. Yeah. Get after it. Right after the show. Probably the week before the show, we're going to be pretty slammed doing a bunch of TV stuff. But the week after the show, we're going to be onboarding probably 10 new members. Yeah. So if you're going to be one of those members, we'd love for you just to join that wait list, and let's learn some more. But for us today, we hope that you guys are being safe out there. As always, love you guys. Bye. Bye.