Philip Krajeck

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 we are powered by Gordon Food Service. Caroline Galzin will be joining us shortly. We have a big show today. Really excited after this big weekend in Nashville. We are talking with Philip Krajek. Philip is the chef and owner at Rolf and Daughters as well as Folk, which we do talk about how to pronounce that name in the show. This was a fun episode. I wanted to talk to Philip for a really long time because I don't know a lot about him.

01:00You know, he's kind of a private guy doing research for this interview. I couldn't find any other interviews with him. He just really hasn't talked to a bunch of people and we're honored that he decided to come in today and speak with us here at Nashville Restaurant Radio. If you are new to the show, we are a podcast where we are talking to local restaurant leaders, industry professionals, people that can help you operate a restaurant better, where if you're a guest wanting to go eat at restaurants, we're giving you the history behind why you should eat at these restaurants like we do with Philip today. If you follow us on NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com, you can find us or you can follow us on Instagram at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio. I am at Brandon underscore NRR and Caroline is at Galzin Gal. And one thing that we do that's pretty fun around here is we like to do live interviews. So this interview, we recorded it live on our YouTube channel, which you can go to our YouTube channel right now and you can watch this interview as well.

02:02We next week have recording artist Montel Jordan from This Is How We Do It fame. And that episode right now is live on YouTube as well. We did that episode live. So if you are a follower, if you followed us on YouTube, you would get a notification when we went live and you could have joined these episodes. It's a new kind of channel. We're hoping to build it up a little bit. So go follow us, go subscribe to our YouTube channel and you'll be notified when we go live with our guests when we do it. So it's a fun episode today. Philip Kraychick, we're really excited to bring this to you. Hope that you have a wonderful rest of your week. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I know the restaurant world is gearing up for a really big weekend. So sit back, relax and enjoy this episode with Philip Kraychick right after these words from our sponsors. We have John Ho with Parks Realty, Housepotality on Instagram in studio to tell you why as a restaurant worker, you can buy a home.

03:06John? Thank you, Brandon. There's three things that are fallacies when it comes to buying a home from the hospitality industry. Number one is that you need perfect credit. Number two is that you need tens of thousands of dollars for down payment. And number three is that you need two years of work history at the same place. John, you're a restaurant veteran, been in the industry a long time. How do you as a real estate agent overcome those three myths? The first thing we do is we pick a premier partner for lending and that's Foundation Mortgage. They're going to be our first stop to get people pre-qualified in the hospitality industry. Number two, we understand that hospitality workers don't work nine to five. So our phones are on 24 hours a day. Amazing. I wanted to call you. How do I do it? You can get me at my cell phone, shoot me a text or give me a call, it's 615-483-0315. 615-483-0315 or Amanda Gardner at Foundation Mortgage, 865-230-1031, 865-230-1031. Follow John on Instagram at Housepotality and follow Amanda on Instagram at mortgageamanda.

04:13Super excited today. This has been a long time coming for me. I've wanted to do this interview for a really long time. Philip Krayjek. Hello. Did I say that correctly? You said it perfectly. Krayjek, who is the chef and owner of Rolf and Daughters and I want to say, it's funny because I'll say if I'm pronouncing phonetically, I will say folk. But if I say these are my folks, there's two different ways to say this word. If I'm saying the word alone, I say folk, but I would introduce people as these are my folks. How do you say the name of your second restaurant? Folk. Okay, so it's folk. Yeah, just folk. Not folk. It's folk. Potato, potato. Okay. Well, I just want to make sure because we're not going to correct anybody. You're not going to correct, but it's folk.

05:13It is for me. Yeah. Okay. Well, and I would say yours is the correct one. It's your place, right? Did you come up with the name? I did. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, it's not like, I mean, who cares? It's a name. I mean, honestly, that's how I feel about it. It's like, I don't care how people pronounce it. It's just about the content. I regularly get calls and emails for Nicky's coal fried, which I couldn't imagine what that would be, but that's pretty common. Let's workshop that idea. Nicky's coal fried. So it's like, okay, yeah. A coal fryer. Right. Right. And what's the specialty? Do you heat the oil with coal? Right. Yeah. In the center of the restaurant. There's like an element of danger and risk to it. I love that. What do I mean? We've got a real idea here. I feel like it's got to be fried chicken. That just feels like the right thing. It's on the sixth floor of the new concept downtown on Broadway that Morgan Whelan's doing. Yes. Morgan Whelan. Yes, absolutely. I like that. It's like Morgan Whelan.

06:14Philip, it's good to have you here, man. It's good to be here. I did a lot of research on you and I can find, I mean, there's so many conversations with you that are all centered around your restaurant, but I kind of want to learn today, like, who What are the things that make you tick? Where do you come from? And why are you the way you are? And what is that? Wow. So there's a long side. So where are you? Do you have a sofa I can lay on? Yes. Where are you originally from? So I'm from a little bit everywhere and I think that's getting into why I am the way I am. My father was in the Air Force when I was really young. I was born in Germany. Like our American home was Florida in the Panhandle. My mother is Norwegian from Oslo, Norway. My parents met in London while my father was stationed there. Yeah.

07:16And so later on in my father's career, he started working for NATO. NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium. So essentially from fifth grade until graduating from high school, I lived in Brussels. Really? Full time. Yeah. Went to international school there. Learned how to speak French, traveled a ton. We lived in a small neighborhood at the last metro stop and unbeknownst to me at the time, I was really into food. But it was just normal there. My mom would on a Saturday morning send me down to go pick up some croissants and go to the farmer's market and, you know, pick up different things to cook. And we had a pate shop in our neighborhood, a butcher shop. We had a bakery. We had a patisserie. The farmer's market was every other day. So you didn't grow up on McDonald's. Like most kids who are that age just go to like fast food all the time. Your fast food was...

08:17What's twisted about it was like McDonald's was really, you know, that's what we wanted, but we weren't getting it. You know, like McDonald's became this really big treat. And so, yeah, I mean, fast food for me then was more like kebabs and gyros and falafel at the like myriad of different shops that are all over every dense European city. I think the best meal I ever ate one day was in... Right outside of Amsterdam in Harlem. Harlem. I mean, for me, with the town of Harlem outside of Amsterdam, I had a darner kebab at like two o'clock in the morning. I've never been that high before. Right. You mean an extra delicious? Yeah, well, you can eat mushrooms there and do all this stuff. And we were doing it. We took the train ride back to Harlem. We were walking around Harlem and I got a darner kebab and it was the best tasting thing I think I've ever had in my life. I had an experience kind of like that.

09:17There's this place in my neighborhood in Chicago that in my 20s, I would go every night at like, you know, two or three o'clock in the morning after a long night of drinking and get this falafel sandwich that I was obsessed with. Oh my God, there's nothing more delicious than the falafel sandwich at Five Faces. And one day I was on my way to work. I needed something quick to eat. I'm like, you know what? I think I'm going to stop and get that falafel sandwich. It's so good. It was literally inedible, inedible as a sober person. I blew my mind. Anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt you. When you go back to those times, what's the food that you look at that you remember the most? I mean, there's a few my favorite like dish. We would go to one restaurant and get poulet frites and it's like half a roast chicken. You get a little gravy boat with like all the chicken drippings and mushrooms and a little cream and then Belgian frites, which are the best in the world.

10:19And, you know, that's it was perfect. That's the dish. That's the dish if I had to pick one. But, you know, it's like there was a free stand in the first neighborhood we lived in when I moved there that my mom would cook dinner and make salad and cook protein. But you would always go out and buy frites from the shop and bring them home. And that's what everybody did. And there was one spot that just like to this day in my memory. And again, if I went back, it might be different. I wasn't drunk at the time. But, you know, it's like the benchmark for me with like how good a freak can be or a French fry can be. And it's really fucking high. Oh, I bet. Yeah. OK, so you're living in Belgium and that was from you say from fifth five years old or fifth grade? From fifth grade to graduate high school. Yeah, I was there a long time. Yeah, it's eight years. When you graduated high school, did you was cooking something that you wanted to pursue at that time or did you go to college?

11:23I didn't know. You know, I was a little bit of like contrarian and, you know, I I was a little like I was trying to do the things that I thought I was supposed to do. Right. Like your parental programming. But, you know, so I said, OK, I'm going to go back to the States. I'm going to go to university and try to do the thing that I know I don't want to do. And so, you know, needless to say, it didn't work. Where where did you go to school? I went to school at Stetson University in central Florida. So like in that moment, I went through a lot of culture shock, even though like I'm American, I have an American passport, grew up visiting Florida and traveling all over the Midwest because my father's from Minnesota, you know, like actually living in the place and living somewhere where there was like no food culture or anything. That's like when I started to recognize, oh, like I like food and where is it?

12:28Yeah. And I became interested in cooking and I started cooking for myself. I started to, you know, do some research into it. And eventually, you know, had like I'm skipping all the bad stuff here. But, you know, like spoke of my family and it's no point. But, you know, it's like I talked to my family and I decided to go to hotel school in Europe. So I ended up going to Switzerland for two years to like study, work and do all that jazz. When you left Belgium to go back to America, to go to college, essentially, I mean, what was that experience like? I mean, you have all your friends. These are such formative years. And I think you kind of just grab that, but formative years from fifth grade through high school and then you're leaving all of your friends and you're pretty cultured at that point, right? Because you're different. I mean, when you're, you know, like the reality that we are in, you're with 36 nationalities in our graduating class, right?

13:31So Brussels is where the EU headquarters is. It's where NATO is based. There's a bunch of, you know, international corporate European headquarters there. So you have people from all over and a lot of times people live there for three years, five years. So, like, I'd kind of been used to like a little bit of churn and the people that you become friends with or go to school with in a way that's different from a person who grew up in one static place, right, with other people who just like grow up in a static place. So for me, like, wasn't that big a deal. I also had some friends that were like going to Rollins College in Orlando, which was a 45 minute drive away. So it just, you know, didn't feel like at that point in my life, I was like, you're super adaptable. And so I felt really comfortable adapting to, yeah, new situation back in America going to college. Interesting, that's just an interesting dynamic.

14:31I know that my sister lived in Europe for 11 years, no, 13 years. She was in Europe. She lived in her husband originally was in the army and I think it was the army, but she lived in Heidelberg, Germany. Yeah. And Kaiser Schlautern after that. And I would go visit her. That's what we would go drive around. But her coming back was she was like, I don't this is really hard. I don't want to be back in America because she fell in love with the whole everything about. Well, I feel like also coming from Europe, it would be one thing to come from Europe and move to like New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, but central Florida. And and I I actually am originally Florida, man. I'm originally from not too far from Pensacola. So I'm familiar with the the panhandle culture, which is it's different. It's definitely different. I think that begs the question. Why Nashville? There's probably a question you get asked a lot. Yeah, I mean, somewhere in the journey before I went to hotel school, I spent a year and a half living in Huntsville, Alabama.

15:35Which is a much cooler town than people give it credit for today. I mean, it is. There's more engineers there per capita, right? Than any other city. What took you to Huntsville? You know, I had family there and I was a little bit like I wasn't going to school and I was just trying to figure it out. I needed a place to land while I was on my journey to, you know, figure out that I wanted to cook. I actually met my wife there crazy in Huntsville, in Huntsville. And but I used to I used to come to Nashville a lot. Like when I was young, I skateboarded a lot. You know, I like to go to was really into like DJ culture, b-boy culture, rave culture. And there were a lot of parties and things happening in Nashville at that time. In the like, you know, whatever warehouse party scene. I used to go to raves at Marathon Motorworks before any of that was just an empty place. Sure. Yeah. I'd go there and just go crazy. I've been to their cannery, you know, some weird abandoned tall building, fourth floor that I don't remember.

16:41And, you know, I had friends here that are still here. And so I made some connections then. And then, you know, later on in my career, I cooked in the panhandle. Right. And I was cooking on 30A. And so I, you know, you meet so many people from Nashville. And so, yeah, that's like that was another big part of the draw. And I don't know if you want me to like talk more about that portion of it, but. Oh, I know it's very interesting. General, I mean, I think that this is part of this one time. I just want to learn you. Yeah. More about you. I mean, we can learn about your cooking style. We go eat there. If you want to learn about his cooking, go eat at Ralph and Daughters. Go to folk eat there. I want to know about just more. Yeah. Well, so, I mean, as I talked about it, like it was in the panhandle up until 2010. And I became really close with quite a few people that were Nashvilleans and I would come up and visit.

17:43The main one was really the Palmer family that owns Bloomsbury Farm. Yeah. Lauren and. Yep. Yeah. Teresa and Myron used to come to the restaurant that I was the chef at all the time. Which restaurant was it? Fish out of water. Fish out of water. Yeah. Is it still open? Yeah, but it's. Where is it? It's in watercolors on the beach. Oh, OK. It's I've been there. Don't go. Yeah, I wouldn't go. Yeah. It's really kind of transitioned into something else. Like a touristy kind of place. Yeah, exactly. I will say, though, I do think that there are some kind of there's a bit of an underrated like dining scene along the coast of Alabama and Florida. You know, the access to fresh, sustainable seafood is unbelievable. And there are some really, really great places. Where should you go if you're down there? Because I know you probably go down there. We love Bochamps, like in Justin, which is fantastic. And they have like their own boat that they go out and catch their own fish and bring it back in. It's I mean, my I have a couple of favorite spots.

18:44But like on 30, a is Black Bear Bakery, which there are a few locations now. I know. Yeah. Phil McDonald. Like I cooked with him many moons ago. And he where he ended up going to Brooklyn and worked for Andrew Tarlo and a bunch of Tarlo's different restaurants and came back and opened something that the area really needed. And it's seasonal and it's awesome. A line out the door every single day. Yeah, it's crazy busy. They're killing it. But the place I grew up going to is on Highway 20 north side of the bay called Knicks or like, you know, Knicks and the Sticks is what everybody would call it, because they put one on 38, but it was never any good. And it's an old fish camp. And so you had to you would try to go early. You eat like 435, you know, and it's like you order a dozen blue crabs on a cafeteria tray and you drink pictures of Amberbach. I can't think of another place I've ever been and like drank pictures of Amberbach other than there. And it's incredible. It's just like fried shrimp and there's Galaga in the corner and families eating.

19:48And I mean, we would go there as kids. So that's a place that, you know, is in that area that I tell everybody to go check out. That's awesome. I don't know that one. I'm going to add it to the list because we go to that area. Good amount. There's also an Emeril Lagasse restaurant there in Miramar that he actually lives there. And we have seen him on the line cooking or expediting almost every time we've been there. Did he have a towel on his shoulder? Oh, that's a great question. I don't know. Tony would know Tony was much. I feel like that and a couple of other things. I'm not not an Emeril fan, but obviously, like not the level that Tony is. So Tony got quite the thrill the first time we went there and he was there. But it's actually a really, really great restaurant. That's awesome. Yeah, it's really cool. Anyway. So, OK, Huntsville. You meet your wife, Anastasia is her name. Yeah, Anastasia. She's from Huntsville. And Huntsville is crazy because she's not from Huntsville. She's not from Huntsville, but she was living there.

20:48We had an interesting engineer. No, her brother, her brother's an electrical engineer who that's why she was spending some time there. So her father's from Alabama, from Huntsville. And her mother's Greek. But she grew up with her mother in Greece. And I think that's like was our connection. Yeah, I don't think I know. Yeah, yeah. Good thing you guys have children. Yeah, we have two girls. Yep. How old are they? 25 and 23. Twenty five and twenty three. How long have you all been married? Twenty six years. Twenty six years on May 19th. Wow. Nice. What's the secret to a long marriage? Happy, long marriage. It's work, you know. Yeah. Work maintenance. Yeah. We're interviewing somebody tomorrow, Montel Jordan, as in this is how we do at amazing. That guy will be sitting in your chair tomorrow. And he and his wife, I just listened to a podcast with them and they have this thing where they said divorce is off the table.

21:55That is not an option. They have decided divorce is off the table. It is not an option no matter what. And that's they work through it and fidelity. All the things like they just work through it. That is not an option for them. I mean, I think there's that'll be an interesting conversation where I'd like to hear more about that. His wife, Kristen, will be here, too. Oh, OK. Amazing. And it's going to be very interesting. Wow. Can you what time? You want to come back? No, I'm just going to going to log in. They'll be here at 9 a.m. Yeah. I just know that that's like kind of one of their secrets and that they just that he's in that reference. He goes, do you know that they don't give pilots parachutes when you get on an airplane? Because that's too many options. He goes, when you give yourself out in a relationship, there's that's too many options. The option has to be you figure it out. You you build it together. And I thought that was just like, wow, that's hardcore. Yeah, that's intense. Like it almost like it's almost like to me, I'm like a rule breaker.

22:56I'm like, that sounds like a fucking dare. You know what I mean? Like, oh, really, that's off the table. We'll watch this shit. Like, I don't know. That's just to me. That's just me. Yeah. So Phil or we'll get into that more tomorrow. Are either of your daughters following in your culinary footsteps at all? No, they're not. I mean, in some aspects, yes, they both worked at RALF for four years each. Wow. What did they do there? Hosting, running, polishing bar back and, you know, learn to kind of like appreciate food and cooking and how our dad works. Yeah, knowing, knowing their lifestyle. Exactly. Well, it sounds like attention to detail, too. I mean, that's one of those things that you've got to focus on to do all those things. Sure. Exactly. But both girls are like very academically oriented. Our eldest is in law school in New York right now.

23:58The youngest is finishing up at Georgia Tech and has a tech job that she's going into. Both are very into food. You know, our eldest did undergrad in Portland, Oregon. And, you know, she was part of a CSA buying seconds. Right. And she's constantly calling me and, you know, talking about like, what is she going to do with the 20 pounds of, you know, bruised sweet potatoes that she got? And, you know, and she's like become a really great cook. And it's the same with our younger daughter, Maya. She's also cooking all the time. And, you know, like I talked to her yesterday and she's like, I just got to doing pilates. I'm going to go make some miso soup and get on with my day. And I'm just like, this is amazing. When I was her age, it was not like that. It's like, I'm going to smoke a ball, eat some ramen. I don't know. Yeah, that was me.

24:59Because that sounds like what it was like. Yeah, it's fairly accurate. Do you take them to Europe? Do you do you do you is it important to you that they have? Yeah, I understand that side of your story. So something that a lot of Greek Americans do it is they send their kids to Greece for the summer to like live with the grandparents or family members. And we did that like essentially as soon as we felt comfortable throwing them on a plane as an unaccompanied minor, we would just like do that. And they would stay with their grandmother who owned a pastry shop cafe on the beach near the city where they grew up. And so they would help out a little bit. They would they were like really immersed in the culture. They speak Greek. My mother-in-law is like the best home cook I've ever experienced in my entire life.

26:00She is pickling, fermenting, preserving. Like I've been on a car ride with her from Thessaloniki, which is the second largest city in the north to Athens. On a side road, and she would see someone's yard with a lemon tree in it. And the lemons are overripe and falling off the tree. And she'll like hop out of the car and start grabbing the lemons. You know, does she knock on the door? She's like, no, no, absolutely not. And they might come out and yell at her. And she's like, no, no, no, I'm going to yell at you because you should have picked these and you don't deserve them. So I'm going to take them and I mean, she's like she's next level. And I'm actually going to see her in three weeks. So we're we're going to be in Greece. And that's what I'm looking forward to. It's like there it's you know, it's not about restaurant food. It's about home cooking. And everyone, you know, has their small little multi-generational like olive grove where they take their olives to the communal mill or they, you know, brine their own olives.

27:02They preserve their own grape leaves. They they do so many different things. And so, yeah, it's always that I find that to be very inspiring. I think you take that inspiration and I love this statement. I think Andy Little said this one day, but he said just there's a respect for food. He goes, look, if you take a potato and you grow a potato and you go water it every day for three, six weeks or however long it takes to have a potato and you grow it and then you pull that thing out of the dirt and you did that, you respect the shit. You do different things with that potato than what you would do if you buy a sack of potatoes. And I think that's kind of the idea around those lemons, right? These lemons, this is one of God's gifts. This beautiful ripe lemon. I'm not going to let it go to waste. And I think that you incorporate a lot of that in what you do at Roff. We're talking about harvesting full animals and respecting local products, seasonal items at the peak of their freshness.

28:03Let's use them, but let's use all of it. Is that you say it inspired you? Is that part of the inspiration for Roff? 100 percent. I think, you know, whenever you're opening a restaurant or doing something. And Carolyn, I'm sure you run across this. It's people are like, oh, what are you doing? Like, how do you put it in a box? And I really didn't know how to do that. But I think we called it like modern peasant food. And it's the most accurate description, even though it's completely inaccurate. But, you know, I think the peasant part of it is the respect for the something in its entirety. Right. And trying not to waste any of it. You're not just using the tenderloin, you're using exactly. And that's how the like food culture has evolved for thousands and thousands of years. And obviously, we've become disconnected from it. And then, you know, I think as chefs, we're stewards of, you know, like continuing these ideas and pushing them forward and evolving them.

29:13And so it's a really strong anchor for what we do. So, you know, like using every part of an animal, preserving some of it, you know, pickling, tureening, fermenting, whatever's involved in the same with vegetables. Also using that to create a larder of seasonings, create depth in your food. And not because it's cool or trendy, but because it just like makes sense as someone who chooses to do this as a professional and has like a lot of passion and care and intention in the work. Are you are you someone who's cooking a lot at home as well? Yeah. What are you cooking? What are you cooking when you're at home? I mean, I roast a lot of chicken because it's easy, you know, and I buy. I buy a lot of chickens from our, you know, guys, Sam Yoder, a Jolly Barnyard and throw them in the freezer and they're always around.

30:19I don't know. It depends. I cook a lot of Southeast Asian food. I cook a lot of Japanese food in the summertime. It's just like tons of vegetable dishes. It's really it really just depends on, you know, what the moment is. But we love like, you know, we have friends over all the time. I go over to, you know, I was at a buddy's house on Sunday and we just hung out out in Fairview and, you know, made a bunch of made a bunch of Thai food, you know, and like just chilled out. So, yeah, that's whatever whatever is interesting or whatever I'm craving. You know, what's your favorite place to go out in town that does that style of Japanese style food? Hmm. I mean, I'm anywhere that does it really well. I love kisser. You know, it's new brand brand new, but it's very close to my house. And Brian and Lena are incredibly talented, wonderful people. And the food's great. And it's open for lunch.

31:21And I like, you know, it's I just it's clean, delicious. Yeah, it's just like everything I want in that style. So if you're cooking Japanese style food, you're eating Thai food, the French or daughter's making me. So is there going to be a concept coming in the future for you? No, are you practicing in a future restaurant? No, no, I feel like that would be disingenuous if I was like trying to do something that like I hadn't professionally worked in. Or as I'm not connected to it through the journey of like my existence. It's only something that I enjoy eating. And, you know, through cooking for 20 plus years, you learn a decent bit about how to do a thing or two. And, you know, like as cooks, we all love that food. And staff meal is a really easy way that we've like taught ourselves a lot throughout the years. And, yeah, so no, definitely not going to do that.

32:22So we know that you do have a new project that you're working on. You know, I'd love to hear one, anything that you can tell us about that. I know it's probably still pretty under wraps, but I would also I would also love to hear how opening a restaurant today in Nashville is different than it was how many years ago, 12, 10 years ago. Yeah, I mean, Rolf is a little over 10. Yeah, because it's such a different. Yeah, so focus five. So I don't know yet. Yeah. And it's still it's still, you know, we're still a good bit out on this next thing. So you're not at that place yet. Yeah. I mean, to be honest, like I would have preferred nobody that wasn't announced. Oh, really? That wasn't your decision. No, it's kind of a thing that people do to try and move real estate. Right. Totally understand. So which I respect the hustle. But no, not really. Well, yeah, they wanted to say more and I was able to like help like quiet it down.

33:23I'll say that it's just like it's very small. It's much smaller than anything we've done before. Is it something that you have a specific concept in mind? Are you still kind of working through them? No, I have. I have. I have it all kind of mapped out of my brain. And we're deep in the design right now. And a really close friend who's a talented designer is working on it. And I'm just I'm excited. It's very it's a little more personal. Not that any actually, I don't know. It's a little more like selfish, I think, you know, it's just something that I've been experiencing a lot lately in my travel. And so I want to like kind of create this space. And it's going to be a little more flexible and less rigid than what we've done before. Nice. Give us some room to like evolve. All right. So here's where I feel like we're at now. We've learned a little about your past. You know where you're you're from growing up, cooking, kind of where you're at.

34:28What I'm gathering so far as I get to know you. And I am going to finish that thought right after these words from our sponsors. We are supported by Robbins Insurance. An independent insurance agency known for providing customized insurance policies, sound guidance and attentive service. Robbins is also known for delivering exceptional coverage to Nashville's restaurants and bars, whether it's a fryer fire that sets off the sprinkler system and leaves your restaurant sopping wet on a busy Saturday night, or it's a once in a decade tornado that cuts off your electricity and subsequently spoils all the food in your walk-in. Robbins has seen it all, and they know how to create policies that will get your business back on its feet as quickly as possible in the event a disaster strikes. Look, when it comes to ensuring your restaurant, bar, brewery, bakery, grocery store, hotel or whatever, you need someone who knows the industry, who understands your business and who will create a policy that protects your space, your staff and your concept. That's Robbins.

35:32Visit Robbins website at Robbinsins.com That's R-O-B-I-N-S, I-N-S dot com to request your insurance consultation. Once again, that's Robbinsins.com. When you hear that sound, it's probably too late. You need a guy. I want to be your guy. I'm Kevin with Course in Fire and Security, and I'm a restaurant territory account manager. Do you know who's doing your inspections at your restaurant? Please reach out to me at six one five nine seven four. Two nine three two. And I'll be glad to come out and take a quick look and look at all your fire safety inspection needs. If you're building your restaurant, we can help with that, too. As far as kitchen suppression, fire extinguishers, emergency lights. We do it all. One stop, one shop. Call Kevin at six one five nine seven four two nine three two. Let me be your guy, Nashville. Hey, this is Jason Ellis with Nashville SuperSource.

36:33We're so proud to be a sponsor for Nashville Restaurant Radio. We would love the opportunity to discuss your chemical and dish machine program with you if you have any needs or any questions about your current program, opening a new restaurant or just need a double set of eyes on that. We'd love the opportunity to help you with that. My number is seven seven zero three three seven one one four three. We don't do any contracts, no minimums, weekly service to make sure that all your equipment is functioning properly. Make sure you have everything that you need. Again, my name is Jason Ellis. Seven seven zero three three seven one one four three. Is it when you open a restaurant, there's it's a business and there's a business plan to put together and there's obviously profits. There's a PNL. There's all the things you got to do for us. But this seems more spiritual to me. Like what you're doing isn't a I'm going to make this amount of profit this day, this day, this day. We got to run full hands in, full hands out like you're not like what you're doing is I'm taking what I know. And it's like a spiritual thing for you. The restaurant and what the concept is and how you're doing it and what the guest is experiencing is it feels different.

37:40I don't know if spiritual is the word. I think the thing is cultural is what I'm looking for. At least, you know, in my head when I. So talking about, you know, the moving from. Europe to the US, like the food was a big part of it, but the culture of eating was a really big influence on me because it was the way the restaurants feel, the conviviality of it, the accessibility, which is more difficult now than ever. But so it's, you know, I it's important to me that have to have restaurants that feel a little more like they bring a culture and perspective than it is to just say, like, I'm going to be the first one to bring X concept to market because I think we're going to crush it. But at the same time, I mean, it's a balance. It's you have to think about, like, if we're going to build. I want to build a restaurant that makes sense now. It made sense 20 years ago or it makes sense 20 years from now.

38:43And so the men. Yeah. And the mental reference points domestically are like Zuni Cafe, you know, or Gramercy Tavern and like these institutions that I still yearn to eat at personally that have aged so well and that are cooking, you know, genuine soulful food that feels in time all the time. And I think that's like, you know, if in 20, 30 years from now, it's like I can look back at Rolf and feel like, OK, that might be what one of those restaurants would look like if it had opened in this space and time. You know, I think that that's like a huge goal for me. I love that. Yeah, you guys definitely have evolved a lot and updated throughout the throughout your tenure run. And did you guys just recently renovate the restaurant? Did I see that? Yeah, yeah, we're always like tinkering with things.

39:43But yeah, Rolf, we did a major dining room renovation in the beginning of 2020, which nobody really saw until we reopened. And it took until like three months ago to fix like the last tiny little electrical thing. But yeah, we did. We've, you know, renovated the dining room. We just renovated the bathrooms. We're about to redo the kitchen. And, you know, it's 10 years old and it's a busy restaurant. And things, you know, get destroyed. Oh, yeah. And the maintenance is important. And also, as you like, stay in a place a lot and live and breathe in it, you know, you start to realize things about it and how can we improve it? And I think that's a constant part of it. I think, you know, you look at European restaurants and chefs, they're always like reinventing their kitchens and reinvesting or, you know, it's not like we're trying to be Noma or anything and open a whole new location. It's just like keeping our eye on things and not letting it fade, you know.

40:50And I think that's really important. It's really important for us who are like breathing life into it to feel good about the place we're in and not that something's breaking all the time or that it's loud or whatever. And so from like, you know, I've had people who are very financially motivated. They're like, what are you doing? Why are you doing all these things? Like you can. That's all profits that you're just putting into the business for no reason. No, it's not. It's the opposite to me. It's just reinvesting in the long term viability and sustainability of what we're doing. Yeah, absolutely. What, you know, when you think about kind of what's next for dining in Nashville, whether it's new restaurants that are opening here, what you're thinking about with your new concept or even kind of the next direction for folk and Rolf and daughters, what do you see over the next few years? It's a good question. You know, I generally think there's kind of two directions. I think small, independent things are going to get smaller, you know, and we're seeing that right now in real time because of labor challenges, because the startup costs, because the square foot cost to build out a restaurant.

42:04And we've all been kind of running these fundamentally unsustainable, casual fine dining concepts that in today's, you know, expectations from workers and inflation and business and all the things just don't make sense anymore. Right. We try. We all tried, but we've all had to make those changes. Right. Exactly. And so I think that's the seems to be the most viable direction for small, independent businesses. And then you're going to see more of the big box. You know, the big partnerships with developers, the big restaurants, those coming from outside markets, local groups doing that, you know, and that will continue to grow. What do you think about that? Do you think that's good for Nashville to have these kind of, you know, bigger large restaurant group concepts coming to town or, you know? Yeah, I mean, I think it's fine. And, you know, some of it, it depends on the space and each one is different. You know, if it's one where they have a good work culture and they are actually teaching people and like improving the skill set of the people who work in the restaurant to make them professionals, it's fantastic.

43:20Right. Because that's better for all of us because people aren't just going to stay in one spot. And that helps to elevate the standard with which we operate and our overall service and food standards in the town. But I don't know. I mean, like how many places can you have? Yeah, that's the that's the big question. And, you know, going to places and, you know, it's like looking at a menu. I don't I don't go to those spots too much because I'm just like not that interested. For the most part, there's some that I do like big box places. Yeah, the bigger box places. But, you know, you can go read a menu and you're like, oh, you're claiming this thing's this and it's not like I just know. What's an example of that? Oh, I don't want to be that guy. Come on. Name names. I did see. OK, I'm just going to tell a scenario. OK, good. Hypothetically. Have you guys heard of Cumberland River crawfish? What?

44:23No, I don't know. Apparently, that's the thing. Wait, really? It's I saw it on a menu. Apparently, that's the thing. Is that a thing? Does anybody know about Cumberland River crawfish? I mean, I guess there are probably technically a type of crawfish around the river because I used to see crawfish in central Alabama growing up in like ditches. Totally. It was a crop like it would rain and there'd be a crawfish in the. I don't know if I would eat Cumberland River crawfish. Yes, I don't know. That's a thing I would want to. Hit us in the comments and let us know about the farming operation. Are they being harvested at such a rate that we can put them on menus? And who's doing the harvesting? I think he's saying no. I just don't know. Cumberland River crawfish. You got to tell me off air. I know that I know that may pop water gets its water from the Cumberland River. It falls for like 50. Do they really? Yeah. Yeah, may pop waters from the Cumberland River. Does our water come from the Cumberland here? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, that's why it makes sense. Cumberland Punch. Would you like Pellegrino, Pana or Cumberland Punch?

45:23Oh, I've never heard that. You never heard Cumberland Punch? No. Oh, sounds very Cumberland Seltzer with the soda stream. Yeah, Cumberland Seltzer. Otherwise, yeah, it's wonderful. Yes. Okay, I'm going to go back a little bit to 2012. Okay. Late 2012, you're opening Rolf and Daughters. Did you and your wildest dreams expect what was going to happen with Rolf and Daughters with the accolades? You're opening a restaurant. You have these aspirations. I want to do things right. I want to make this food that means so much to me. I want to use these local farmers. I want to use the best of what I can respectfully create. You open the doors and then you just get hit in the first two years. Bon Appetit, I think. Maybe top three best new restaurants of 2013. That's a pretty big accolade. Right. All of a sudden, you're not just opening this restaurant. Did your whole life just shift at that point?

46:25What did you think about that? Well, just to go to the opening in the first like four, five, I don't know. It's a bit of a blackout period when you open a restaurant, right? Where you work a lot and the memory gets a little hazy. But I think in the first four to six months, I definitely questioned whether or not I was doing the right thing because, you know, when I opened, I intentionally made the pastas cheaper than they should have been because I just didn't think people put the same value into it. And we had to build some trust. But, you know, you get the comments. It's like we charged for bread. It's like, well, we bake it. Well, you're one of the first people to do that. Right. Yeah. Because, you know, if you've worked in enough restaurants, you've seen bread in the trash. All day. All day. And it's just baked in the cost of everything else. So, like, why not not do that and just charge for it?

47:26If you want bread, just pay for it. And the whole attack on carbs. I mean, that's the thing. At Greenhouse Grill, we don't do bread. And people are like, why don't you do bread? And I go, because it costs $39,000 a year for bread. And most of it gets put in the trash can. Right. If you want it, we'll get you some bread. Yeah. Yeah, it's wild. So, you know, people would complain about that. Or people would order a pasta. And they'd be like, why can't I pick my protein and Alfredo or marinara or pesto? Alfredo was a really big thing in Nashville for a while. Because we moved here around the time that you moved here and we're opening. And I remember that was a big thing. Alfredo. Everybody wants Alfredo. The real Italian, there's no real Italian place in Nashville. I mean, you had Mario's back in the day. People know the Olive Garden. That's what people know. They know the Olive Garden and maybe Amerigo for some, you know, for other people. But that was similar. I think chicken margarita. Do you want scallion cream sauce or tomato sauce with your angel hair and chicken?

48:27It's a simple thing. So what you're doing is, hey, this isn't those places. So you second guess that a little bit, you're saying? No, I mean, yeah. I think, you know, strategically, when we opened, we didn't like I had aspirations to evolve the restaurant. But knew that we had to come in, especially as an outsider, had only been in town for like a year and a half. That we needed to be a little more approachable. And people had to come in and, you know, be able to understand without it feeling too foreign. I think the, you know, the analogy was like, we have to get people to trust us. And then we can hold their hand and walk them to our side of the street that we want to be on. And that's been a really long journey. But yeah, I mean, in the first six or so months, we got a lot of that pushback. And when you're working, you know, whatever, you get in at nine in the morning and you're leaving at one, pouring yourself into a restaurant. You know, that's, it's tough. But then, you know, all of the craziness happened.

49:32And I think, you know, to your question, like, it changed, but it just got insanely busy. And I was, you know, personally too busy to, like, my shit didn't change at all. You know, my life didn't, you know, just worked a lot. And invested the time in building the systems and, you know, evolving the restaurant and the team to get to the point where we are today. Do you listen to critics? So in those times, do you read Yelp reviews? Do you give a shit about any of that stuff? Not really. Yeah, I mean, I'm just curious because some people really do. And some people just like, you know what, that's not my thing. The only thing we look at is like the Rezzy or whatever system we're using at the time. We look at those reviews because they're internally facing. And I feel like because of that, it's a more honest assessment. And we have all the information associated with it.

50:35Like, you can see what table, what time, you know. So there's transparency for us in looking back. Yeah. So we'll look at those once a month. But it's not, yeah, I mean, I think it's just like maddening to do that. And in the, like, era of anonymous commenting, you know, and people saying whatever they want, whenever they want. Like, you just have to tune it out. I think if you have a genuine idea and you're looking for a cultural thing and your leaders are going to lead, they're going to blaze the trail and they're going to introduce people to new things. And if you, my brother famously says, like, if you ask the general population, people would choose Velveeta. I like a triple cream brie or, you know, whatever it's like. Right. The masses are going to use white cheese dip versus something that is much more, and so when you look at these Yelp reviews, it's pretty much of the masses who went there think this. And it's like, but that's not my, I'm going to continue forging ahead.

51:36And if people want to come enjoy this culinary experience versus Olive Garden, this is what I'm doing. And I can't listen to that. Right. I do have, I could share one story that kind of relates to this world. Please do. Early on in folk, in the first few months, we started getting phone calls of, from angry folks and we were trying to figure, you know, they're, we get a phone call, our host answers it, and it's like, how dare you disrespect the police? It's very, you know, like, how dare you? How dare you? We're like, what, what are you talking about? They're like, you guys booted, uniformed officers from your restaurant. Because they had guns on them. Like, what, what, nobody, you know, this hasn't happened. Nothing like this is what, you know, it's like, all right, that's weird. We got two, you know, one call one night, a message the next day and another call.

52:40And then we started getting comments on Instagram. And I'm like, what is happening right now? So I started like, we're getting canceled. I'm like, all right, where are we going to go? I'm like, all right, where are we? Is someone trying to, you know, cancel us for this thing? So I had a, it was a Sunday and I'm like, all right, I got it. I got an hour. I'm going to sit in the office and try to figure this out. So we, you know, I'm clicking on all the names on everybody has commented. And then I'm trying to open them up in Facebook. And I'm cross referencing and I get into Facebook and I go, you know, I find a thread. Where someone wrote that, you know, I guess uniformed officers came into the restaurant to try and eat, but we told them they couldn't because they had firearms on them. And there was a massive common thread with it. And so I, you know, like tracked that to someone else's post.

53:45And we, I mess, we messaged the woman who posted it and was like, Hey, can we call you? What's going on? You know, like called her. She told us that she'd heard from a friend who has a friend who was, you know, who knows the police officer who said this happened. And so, you know, we called her and said, all right, And actually, I forgot this part, we called that like the sergeant who oversees the precinct for our area and like invited him in for a coffee and like, you know, pastry during the day, just to like, ask him, like, had he heard any of this and like, what was going on? And we were concerned about it. And he's like, no, you know, but I'll keep my ear to the ground. And if I hear the room, anything goes wrong, I'll call the police. Keep my ear to the ground. And if I hear the room, anything pop up, we'll shut it down. I also got a call from what is the it's like an organization that's like tangential to the police officers.

54:55It's almost like the fraternal order of police, the like head of the fraternal order of police for Nashville, like reached out to me directly to talk about this. And I was and I'm like, hey, we are bewildered about what's going on right now. You know, this didn't happen. This didn't happen. I was like, you know, and I explained him like every time we've had anything going, there was a neighborhood party and it was cold. We brought the officers that were working at this event. We brought them hot coffee. You know, like I, we don't know what's happening. And he's like, okay, well, I'll help dispel the rumors. And anyway, so we got what we think our patient zero in this scenario called her directly and said, hey, we're the restaurant that you've been making accusations about. And we just want to let we just want to ask where you heard it and like what you think happened because we have we're totally lost right now.

56:01And she apologized profusely and went on, went on Facebook. She said, you know, she said she genuinely heard this rumor, went on to everywhere that she'd posted and wrote like, hey, I got some bad intel. That's so bizarre. And it was, it was like, it took a week from start to finish to kind of like get it all sorted. But that's like, you know, how twisted things can get in a moment in our modern world, right? It's a real like metaphor for like all the other things. It's a small version of like so many things that are going on. But, you know, you add that into the like challenge and the chaos wrangling that you do as someone who owns and operates a restaurant. There's so much dumb shit that you have to deal with as as a small business owner. And then to have to deal with it as a small business owner. As a small business owner. And then to have something like extra dumb like that. Like, oh, great. Now I get to deal with this. Especially when every single day, all you do is just serve people.

57:06I mean, that's what we do, right? That's like try to be a part of a community. We serve people. And that's it's not that to have somebody just drum something like that. Oh, that's your reputation. That's everything about you. And it's antithesis of what you would do. It's like, what the fuck, man? Have you guys heard about these the like Google review hostage situation? I've heard a little bit about it. Yeah, it happened to a friend of mine in Chicago where there's these people that I believe are overseas that start writing one start Google reviews. And we'll write 10 different people write one star Google reviews of your business and then email you and say, hey, we're going to have 10 different people a day writing these one star reviews until you send us $500 in Amazon gift cards or something along these lines. And Google, famously, is there's not a person at Google that you can talk to for your business page ever. Like no humans. It's like all AI now. So anyway, yeah, more dumb shit.

58:07I'm going to edit that part out when I do. So I don't want anybody to get that idea. I don't want anybody to learn anybody that's like, fuck, that's a good idea. Let's like I don't want anyone to know that that could possibly even be a thing because it's just another thing. I mean, this job is is crazy. I mean, the things you just want to serve people, you want to create this food, you want to create these experiences, and then it's just all this. Yeah, but I think there's a certain part of all of us that are like in it and fully in it that enjoys the dance and the curve balls and the unexpected. On occasion, on occasion, I do feel like and I don't know if you ever feel this as well, I do feel like it's gotten it's some of it has shifted from dumb to frightening. In some cases, you know, we recently hosted an event that I won't speak about it too publicly, but it's a local organization that we've supported for a long time and we're hosting an event at Nicky's and we had to consider canceling the event because of some legitimate security threats and, you know, around possibly hosting this event at the restaurant and, you know, to live in a world where I'm like, hey, I've always, you know, stood up for what I think is right and supported people and organizations that I think are the right thing to do.

59:24And now we have to worry about, hey, I can't have just a nice cocktail party for a group. I have to worry that some cuckoo is going to show up, you know? Yeah, it's a it's a thing. It's sad. Yeah, sorry. I didn't mean to like, no, drop the energy with that. But so let's let's I'm going to take it back to my initial question. And you kind of answered it, but where are we? Yeah. Well, no, I mean, I think that you we started Ralph and Daughters. You started Ralph and Daughters and it gets we kind of got off intention of what is it when you the superstardom, you know, of where you're at today. And I would consider you a superstar. Do you consider yourself a superstar? Absolutely not. No. Yeah, I mean, I think I'm less I'm not, you know, it takes a certain type of character to be that chef, you know, that's like very public facing. And I'm I'm personally not interested in that. No, like it feels uncomfortable to me. And, you know, I've done some things because like they seemed interesting or whatever.

01:00:28But I'm not chasing that part. Yeah, I think it's really more about like the process of all of it. You know, the process of cooking, the process of like mentoring a team. And building things and learning from them and evolving. You know, I think that's the journey and that's the that's the juice for me. You know, and I think, yeah, I mean, we've been there for 10 years and like things have kind of, you know, it's like we've had this really good balance and level. We're very fortunate to consistently be busy, you know, and I'm very thankful for that. And it's also a lot of hard work that like we are constantly fighting to be consistent. I think that's the, you know, it's the hardest thing for us to do in our industry, especially given recent times. And so, yeah, I'm just like happy and thankful for all of that.

01:01:32But I'm really, yeah, like it's not about me. It's about an idea and a collective, like pushing for it. I love that. We have about 10 minutes left. Can I, can we just do like a couple rapid fire, just like fun, dumb, I was going to ask you that I want to do 10 minutes of rapid fire questions. OK, go ahead. You start. We'll go alternate. All right. What's your favorite movie when you took my train spotting, train spotting. All right. I don't know if that's true, but I like it. Favorite comedy. That's a drama. Like, what about like, like stupid? Like if you're watching Zoolander, Zoolander. Love. That's a good one. Great movie. Very quotable. What is the best concert you've ever been to? Wow, that's tough. Are you a concert guy? Do you like to go to shows? Yeah, I go to shows. Um, you know, I saw Beastie Boys and the Goats in 1994 in Brussels and maybe smoked spliffs with my history teacher.

01:02:38It was like the last week school. Like, that was very memorable. That was very memorable. I saw you two at the Georgia Dome in public enemy open form in 92. That third row center, like right in front of the stage. My dad got these random tickets. I got to go see that. And that was, I mean, epic 92 public enemy. I was more excited about public enemy than I was you two by far. Sure. But you two. It's an interesting combination. Zoo TV tour. Yeah, I remember that. That was insane. George Bush was president then. Okay. The mustache. Is this something you've always had? I mean, see all the, it's the only facial hair I can really grow. So can you shave it at this point if you, if you wanted to? I don't know. Is it part of your persona now? It's just who I, I wouldn't. I've done it like once in a few years ago and I didn't recognize myself. It is weird, right? It just felt fucking weird. My dad had a mustache my whole life growing up and one day he shaved it. And me and my brother freaked out and we couldn't look at him for a week.

01:03:40Yeah. But if you ever want to go incognito, you know, you've got, you've got that. If you're like, I want to go to this restaurant, but I don't want people to know who I am. Just shave the mustache. You'll be set. All right. He's like, yeah, I don't need to have that. All right. What is your, what's your favorite food guilty pleasure? Like junk food or fast food or just like something dumb? You love to eat. I mean, chips, some sort of, I mean, I'm a sucker for a jalapeno chip. Like a kettle, like a jalapeno kettle. Jalapeno kettle. Miss Vicky's. Like a Dorito, like whatever mega blasted flavor version of a Dorito. I'll say like for a second, I have a friend who turned me on to this. Kroger. I don't drink soda at all, but Kroger. Fisco brand. If you're listening, like, let's do this again. They stopped doing it, but they were making like soda flavored seltzers. And there was one that tasted just like Dr. Pepper. Like you would crack it and smell it and it smelled like a Dr. Pepper, but it was just water.

01:04:46And I could drink so many of that. They were so good. Your wife doesn't count in this. Who's your best friend? Who do you hang with? Who's like your, your, your go-to? You get arrested tonight. Who are you calling? My friend Cheyenne, who's an attorney. Calling her first. Well, no, I mean, I'm really, I have a really close friend, Bob. I was just at his house in Fairview on Sunday. I don't know. I have, I have. Do you hang with mostly chefs? No. Or do you hang with almost no chefs? Mostly none, except for our team. I find that like, I don't want to talk too much about the industry or what I'm doing, what I'm not working. So I like to have, I think like the friends that I, I'm really close with are all, you know, creative in their own industry and have like a lot of them have their own businesses and, you know, go through some of the, some similar parallel challenges to like what I have.

01:05:54And, you know, I like to be able to talk to those people and like learn from what they're doing and share. But I sometimes feel like it just gets so, it just gets to be too much. And I like to have that like separation. I get that. That's like, I, people are always like, oh, do you watch this show? This show, like the food network shows and all this. I'm like, never, never, ever, ever. Well, that's a good next question. Do you watch any trash TV? Do you watch any like, like I love The Bachelor. Below Deck. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, it's lit. You know, I love to watch Below Deck and think about in a different life. If I was in my twenties and I had known that this was an option, I would absolutely be trying to get a job on a yacht. Yeah. It's just, it's just got that perfect mix of like scripted reality chaos. The guests, like it's a real, you know, it's like when you just want to turn your brain off. It's a, it's a great go to. We just had Will Godera on the show last month and he said what he does, his alone time, his personal time as he watches, he's watching Outer Banks.

01:07:01He goes, I just turn on trash TV soap opera and it just lets my brain turn off. Right. I play solitaire on my phone or I just, and I'll watch TV, but I just, I'm like doing something with my brain repetitively. Sure. Just moving cards over and over and I can, and then I, and I, and I always wake up with my phone on my chest. I'm like, oh, put it away. It's like meditation for ADD. It's exactly what it is. I'm doing like two things at one time. It's crazy. All right, Caroline, you got another one? Oh no, go ahead. Kitchen track, like favorite band. You said your favorite concert. What do you listen to in the kitchen? Do you have like, like Pearl Jam for me is my all time. Like that's my band. I mean, it's constantly, it's constantly changing. You know, like usually when I listen to music is when we're rolling pasta and it ranges from like hip hop, rap music. So currency or the new Larry June album. Like those are things, both those albums were produced by Alchemist.

01:08:01I'm really into those. It's a lot of like new jazz that's getting, that I listen to, all coming out of the UK. And I listen, I have like two radio shows that I listen to religiously every week on BBC Radio 6. And Nashville restaurant. Oh, damn it. What shows? Giles Peterson worldwide. I've listened to it for like 20 years. It's a three hour show. I learned a ton about music through it and BNGB. And those are like two things and I'll play them. Everybody like thinks I'm insane because they're like BBC news announcer. Comes on every hour. Like, and now attend Downing Street, you know, and it's, it's great though. Nice. What's one thing that America can learn from Europe? We're going to take one more break to hear a final word from our sponsors. What Chefs Want story is incredibly unique. The owner Ron Trenier met with a bunch of chefs in Louisville back in the early 2000s and asked them one simple question.

01:09:05What do you want? And the chefs, they responded emphatically. We want deliveries on Sunday. We want to be able to split any item that you sell. We want a frictionless experience where we feel like we're being served. And so, you know what he did? Something crazy. He did just that. So What Chefs Want is not only a company that's delivering fresh produce, fresh seafood, fresh custom cut meats, specialty items, dairy, gourmet, all of that seven days a week. They also offer 24-7 customer support. You want to call? You want to text? You want to email? You can talk to somebody 24-7. Get your delivery seven days a week. An amazing selection of products. That is What Chefs Want. So if you ever wonder why do they call it that? That's your reason. Check them out at whatchefswant.com. Hey guys, we are supported by Charpier's Bakery and we've been supported by Charpier's Bakery for the last year.

01:10:08And I tell you, I couldn't be more proud of this partnership. Guys, they're a locally owned and operated bakery right here in Nashville for the last 36 years. Yes, they deliver fresh baked bread daily to your restaurant's back door. And man, is it good. You want to know what kind of bread they make? Go check them out at charpier'sbakery.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S, bakery.com. So they have over 200 types of bread. And if you're wondering, well, hey, look, it's a special recipe that I like to use that, you know, we bake it in our house and it's just, it's a kind of a pain, but we like to do it. They can take your recipe and make that bread for you without any of the hassle, the mess, the labor. They'll just deliver it right to your door every single day. It is freshly baked. They love to give you a tour of their facility. Give Erin Mosso a call. Her number is 615-319-6453. You should do it now. What's one thing that America can learn from Europe? How to drive.

01:11:10Yeah, that was wow. That's a good one. I don't know. I think like the really specific to our world is that, you know, in Europe, they're not just chasing trends with food and beverage. You know, it's there. There are trends, but, you know, people really value and appreciate tradition. And like just a good restaurant, you know, and I think in our like modern, you know, social media affected brains, like we're always looking for the new shiny light, like a moth. And so, you know, we lose appreciation for institutions that are of value. Is there a food or a type of restaurant that Nashville doesn't have that you think we could really use? Like for me, that answer is always going to be a really just great 100 menu item Jewish deli. Yeah, I mean, that would be amazing.

01:12:11Yeah, that would be amazing. Sushi, you know, we don't have like, I mean, it's always very expensive, but like real, you know, someone who has spent their life committed to this singular act. That's what I always say about Nashville, too. It's not that we can't get the product here. It's that nobody knows how to cut fish. Like we don't have people who know how to cut fish. I mean, there's, of course, you know, if you go to Locust, or I haven't been to Kisser yet, but I don't know if they're doing raw stuff, like just like an everyday, like I can order sushi delivery for dinner type of place. Yeah. I mean, I'm even, you know, those, I mean, both those places are incredible. I love Locust and... But I'm not getting Postmates of Locust. Right. But I'm even thinking about like, okay, it's a counter. And it's just like, you know, submission to whatever it is that day. Like that's my, I'm kind of over tasting menus. Like I don't really, you know, I travel and eat a lot, but I go for, you know, places that are a little more like, I don't know, simplified.

01:13:19And I just like, I've become bored. It's like, if I see another mini tartlet, you know, at another restaurant as a part of the seven, like small bite, you know, one biters that you're going to get. It's just like, it gets kind of boring and it's all the same. So it's like looking for things that are soulful. But yeah. And like great Chinese food and Szechuan, like specifically. Yeah. It's like crave Szechuan. Yeah. Soup for me, soup dumplings. I'd love a place where I can just go anytime and get a soup dumpling. That'd be amazing. Yeah. Can we get Din Tai Fung to open up here? I could try. There'd be a plea right there. Yeah. If you're listening. If a legit soup dumpling place opened here, it would be packed all the time. Philip Krajicek, is this what you thought it was going to be? This is great. Thank you so much. Did you have a good time? Super fun. Thank you so much for coming in here. We do, we have one final thing and this is a super easy thing.

01:14:20It is called the Gordon Food Service Final Thought. So you get to take us out. We do this whole thing. We talk, whatever it is. This is your turn to say whatever you want. It could, you could say nib high football rules. I don't care from Billy Madison. I think that's from Billy Madison. But whatever you want to say, as long as you want to say it, you get to say the final word of the episode. Go. I feel a lot of pressure right now on this. Heats on. If I wasn't cooking, I'd be a professional tennis player. It's the one bit of information we didn't get out of the episode. He said that that's the thing you didn't mine out of this interview. It's all it's hyperbole. But anyway, if I wasn't doing this, you'd be a tennis player. All right. Well, I'll take that as a good final thought. Yeah, that's what I said. Whatever you want to say. Yeah, I had no. Yeah, I got nothing. You said great. Yeah. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you. And you guys, if you're out there, go, go eat at Rolf and Daughters.

01:15:23It's at 700 Taylor Street. And then you should go eat at Folk. I don't know the address to Folk. 823 Meridian. 823 Meridian. It's in East Nashville. In East Nashville, right next to my favorite bar, which is Wilburn Street Tavern, known by Teresa Mason. It's a great bar. So good. I told you this story, but this is going to take 12 seconds. I ate at Folk was the first dinner that I went out with my wife after I got sober. After the whole thing, and I was scared to death. I didn't think I could go out to eat at a place and not order alcohol. It was just the first time we went out to like a nice restaurant. And your server went over the entire menu. And I explained to them that I hadn't been that I'm newly sober, this and that. The kindness and the care and everything about that meal, I will remember for the rest of my life. The knowledge that server had of the menu, the knowledge you had where everything came from. And the care that came with bringing every single plate was an inspiration to me operating my own restaurants. Just in how this is how it is done.

01:16:24This is what a real professional does. And I wanted to say thank you for that. Thank you for sharing that. We I'm just overly blessed to have the best team. It really was. Okay. There it is. Philip Kraychuk. Thank you so much. So grateful for Chef Philip Kraychuk to come in studio and talk to us. It was such a fun conversation and hope that you enjoyed it. I hope that you had a wonderful time this weekend with all of the excitement. Hopefully you had great guests and you made a whole bunch of money. That will be our goal. And I hope that you are all ready for Mother's Day because it is coming up. This is going to be a big one. And I'm tired. So I'm going to put this episode out. Hope you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.