Ronald Cerdas and Adriana Ortega

00:00Here we are. It is mid-November, almost Thanksgiving, and the busy season is upon us. If your restaurant does events, parties, anything, Christmas party season is here and you need staff. We know, it is all over the town. You gotta find people. How do you do it? Well, let me tell you, poached jobs is the way to go. Poached is the number one hospitality hiring site. They've been doing it for many, many years. You will find the most qualified candidates for shifts, staffs, and management. And let me tell you, this is perfect time because if you go to poached.com forward slash N-R-R, you can hire for free. It's even easier if you go to nashvillerestaurantradio.com, click our sponsors tab, scroll down and find poached, just click that link, and you can hire for free. You're gonna use the promo code NashvilleRestaurantRadio, and your first hire is going to free. Whatever you wanna do for the whole month, hire your holiday help right now at poached jobs.

01:03They are amazing. Go now. The end of the year is approaching. I know, it's so amazing. It's that fast. And what are you gonna do for payroll and taxes? I mean, this is a really important time of the year. Performance management is gonna be huge. As you look into 2023, is your company doing everything they possibly can to optimize all these things? Let me tell you, NetChex is the company for you. Lauren Domaine is your rep. They're going to have a brand new episode this Friday. I want you guys to stay tuned because they're gonna be talking about some of the amazing things that they can offer you going into 2023. All it takes is a phone call, 615-319-9200. There's no commitments. You just sit down and talk to an absolute professional. Lauren is working with restaurants. That's what her specialist, that's what she specializes in, is working with restaurants. So all you have to do is give her a call. Again, that's 615-319-9200 and have a conversation about what you're doing for HR, payroll, and your taxes right now.

02:05And stay tuned this Friday for a full episode with Anna and Lauren from NetChex. ["The Tastiest Hour of Talk in Music City"] Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. ["The Tastiest Hour of Talk in Music City"] Hello, Music City! And welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. We are powered by Gordon Food Service. My name is Brandon Styll and I am joined by Caroline Galzin. Hiya. How you doing? I'm great, how are you? I am marvelous. This weather last week was amazing because I had the top off in the Jeep and I'm like living California lifestyle and now I'm like freezing. It is really cold. Winter is here. I don't know what this is. Whenever I complain about it being cold, people are always like, you're from Chicago.

03:07And I actually, I kind of am from Chicago but I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. So I'm used to this time of year, a winter coat is like a long sleeve t-shirt. Yeah. So it's cold. It is cold. I put my Christmas lights up the other day. I posted about it. Well, I know we were talking before about your kind of like epic Christmas decoration in your neighborhood. Has this happened yet? I know you said you were waiting for a warm day. It did, I did it on Thursday. It was 75 degrees and sunny and I rented a lift from like Home Depot, like a 35 foot boom lift because I don't know, it was kind of expensive but I was like, I'm gonna splurge. You went for it. I dove head first in because it's dangerous. My yard is not like level. No, it's not at all. It's like on a hill. Yeah, it's like when you put a ladder and you try and go up to like the second floor to put lights up, it's like every time I'm like, I'm probably gonna die next time.

04:07So I was able to like rent this thing and I used it all day. I cleaned out the gutters. I trimmed a bunch of trees and then I put up all the lights and it was amazing. I got it done like nothing. You go check my Instagram. I'm gonna post a little video that I did. I took the kids up. My kids got home from school and it was dark because it gets dark at like two o'clock now and we went to the very top. They were like, we wanna ride on the thing. So I was like, I gotta go to work. Is your wife freaking out? No, no, she's no, the thing's safe. I mean, it's scariest shit. So we get the kids on there and we go all the way up 35 feet and I'm standing there. I'm like, I didn't take one video of this thing so I'm gonna take a video going back down and it's attached to my car, right? So my car, it's like, I'm towing this huge boom lift but it's still attached to my car. I've gotta take it back to Home Depot. I'm taking the kids up for one last ride up to the top and I'm videoing it going down. It's really cool. You hear my wife go, hey, stop. And I stopped. I'm like, what? She goes, you're gonna hit your car.

05:08Oh God. It was extended out. It was going down and I almost crashed into my car and I was like. Your brand new car. Yeah, well, it's yeah, my new car and I'm like, oh my God. I was so thankful. It's like, thank you, honey. I'm putting that video up and you can see where I almost crashed into my car. I gotta check this out. Yeah, it's gonna be on my at Brandon underscore in our Instagram page. You can see it there. All right, I'm gonna make a reel out of it. I'm gonna take a look. That's wild. So that was me and now my lights are done. I have a little more work to do today. I'm just wrapping some trees and stuff but already getting messages from the neighbors like, dude, what are you doing over there? It's way too early. I'm gonna have to invite myself to come over for a holiday visit to see you guys because I gotta check this out now. You need to, yeah, it's gonna be epic. After today, it's gonna be epic. Oh, today's the. I'm finishing, I'm wrapping all of the trees in the front yard now today. I did the house. Sure. But now I've gotta go to the trees. Okay, sounds like you got your work cut out for you. I'm totally Clark Griswolding to show this thing. You've been in Chicago.

06:09Yeah, I went up to Chicago for a little while, visited my in-laws and actually one of my best friends was celebrating her 50th birthday and we went to this really, really cool place in Elkhorn, Wisconsin which is just north of Lake Geneva if you're familiar with the geography of Wisconsin and it's called Camp Wandawega and it's this old camp that's been a bunch of different things over the years but basically some people bought it a few years ago and turned it into this kind of like bougie retreat. Like a glamping kind of a thing. It's very much a glamping situation. So we rented a house at Camp Wandawega with friends for a couple of nights to celebrate Jennifer's birthday and we ate a bunch of food and drank a bunch of wine and did bonfires and canoeing and it was a blast. It was a blast. We had a great time. That sounds like so much fun. It was really neat. I'm definitely not a roughing it kinda gal but by any means I like plumbing, I like amenities.

07:14I don't even really love to stay in an Airbnb I'm much more of a hotel kind of girl. Really? Oh yeah. Why? Amenities, I like amenities. But Airbnbs have all kinds of amenities. I mean I stay. They have like stocked pantries and like kitchens and stuff. I don't know, I'd rather call room service. Oh. You and my wife are, you know, but here's the thing. I used to be like a, I don't really give a shit. I'll stay in a travel lodge with five dudes. I'll sleep on the floor like I don't care. My wife is very much like you. And then when we started dating, we started traveling and I was like, we'll just stay at like the motel section. She's like, no, we're gonna stay at the Hilton. And we stay at the Hilton. I go, oh, this is a horse of a different color. Right. And you start staying in like really nice hotels. Now I'm like a snob. Oh, yeah, me too. I've learned like, I'm not staying at the travel lodge. Stop it. Oh God, no. That's not for me either. I think we were talking about this a little bit with Arnold where we were saying like, we really like to treat ourselves and we're bougie.

08:17And when we go out, you know, we're always taking care of other people. So I think that's where some of that comes from too. I feel like I spend so much of my time taking care of others. I want to be taken care of. And I, again, I just like the amenities. I like to sleep in a nice bed. I can't, I don't even really like staying at friends houses to be completely honest. Like I love my friends and they have wonderful homes, but I just like my own space. I couldn't agree more. Yeah. I mean, I don't mind staying in like, I'll stay in an Airbnb if like we go to the beach and we got like a beach house or something. I don't want to stay in a hotel. Cause you know, you got all your beach gear and you want to get groceries for the week, but. All right. So we had a staycation in Nashville and we stayed, we got a room at the Hermitage hotel. Oh, nice. Which. I've never stayed there. Fancy. Sure. Very fancy. And our kids were gone. We had babysitter for the night and we're laying in this room at like 10 30 at night. And we're both laying there. And I'm like, there's sirens for downtown.

09:18We're just laying in bed. And I looked at her and I go, do you want to go home? And she goes, kind of. And I was like, I kind of want to sleep in my bed. And I kind of, we went out like to dinner. It was like our anniversary, we went to dinner, but like now we're just in a room that isn't ours. And I don't have any of like my stuff really. And I don't have, like, it just was this thing. And I was like, we could just get up and like, there's no kids at our house. I will say. We left. Did you really leave? We left at like 11 o'clock at night. We were home 20 minutes later. And we were like, ah, in our own bed. I agree with you so much. Like we left the night at the Hermitage hotel to go stay in our own house. We can't do staycations. It's that bad. There is nothing like staying in your own bed. That's for sure. And I guess also, if you have kids, it makes sense to be like, oh, what a treat. We have a, you know, house without kids. Our house with no kids. Because how often does that happen? Very rarely. Right. Like once every six months. Well, now you know. Maybe.

10:19Six months from now when they go somewhere else again for the night, don't waste your money on the hotel. So we have a really big episode today. Yes. We talked to Ben Sticks a couple of weeks ago. And he, the owner of the Beehive, which is a vegan company and a deli. They make all kinds of vegan goods. And then today we're talking with Ronald and Adriana. Yep. From Succulent Vegan Tacos. There's like a whole theme, I think, here of maybe inspiring people as we ramp up to the new year for some, you know, health changes, some wellness goals maybe. Yeah. Well, I think just selfishly educating myself because I didn't know a whole lot about it and talking to Ben and then Ronald and Adriana, they are, this is my favorite thing about this podcast is getting to meet people like them and like just talk to them and learn their story. I love these two. They're so sweet. And I love their story. I think it's so cool.

11:21I love the way that they kind of went about planning and starting their business. They're so meticulous. And I think that what they do is so awesome. I loved doing this interview. It was so much fun. We're not gonna make you wait too much longer before we jump in with them. Stay tuned after the interview as we're gonna get a recap of the interview and we're gonna talk to Caroline about kind of her first three episodes. What do you think she's listening? She's listened back to herself on the episodes and we're gonna get kind of a recap of her thoughts so far. I promise I won't talk about reality TV on this one. Well, I'm gonna talk about reality TV. So you have to keep that. You're gonna sabotage me. I'm gonna sabotage. We're gonna do it. Enjoy this episode with Succulent Vegan Tacos. Super excited today to welcome in Adriana Ortega and Ronald Cerdes. You got it, yeah. Hey, I'm working on it here. Look at that. They are the owners of Succulent Vegan Tacos.

12:25They operate out of the Nashville Farmers Market and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us. It's an honor. I have to start off with an admission that I have not eaten your tacos yet. You have to come. I did a little bit of research coming into this thing and I'm like mouth-watering, looking at pictures and learning about it. And also we have Caroline here today. Hi, I'm so excited to be here with you all. Yes, Caroline is brand new on the show. So you guys are getting like, this is like her first day on the job. Oh, wow, that's amazing. Yeah. It's not my first day on Nashville Restaurant Radio, but my first day in a while. I think that last winter is probably the last time I was on the show. So I'm so thrilled to be back and so happy to be with you guys. I've heard so much about your tacos. Of course, we have a lot of mutual friends that you may or may not know, but I can't wait to try your food. I was doing a little bit of research myself last night looking at your website and the beautiful photos and it just looks and sounds amazing, especially the vegan past store is what really caught my eye. Me too.

13:34You too? Oh my gosh. Sounds great. Yeah, that's her best seller. It is? Yeah. Okay, see? I'd say everyone's favorite, my favorite. I think Adrienne's favorite too. My favorite too, yeah. Love it. So can you guys tell us like your story a little bit? Or where do you come from? What is your, how long have you been in Nashville? Have you, are you guys both vegans? Like, what is your, tell me kind of like your 90 second elevator pitch. Well, I'm originally from Mexico city. Okay. I moved directly from Mexico city to Nashville in 2000. So it's going to be 22 years. Yeah. You're in Nashville. Yeah, Nashville is the only city that I have lived in the United States. And I was already a vegetarian, not vegan, but I make the transition when Ronald become vegan. And then after I changed to being vegan, everything changed because a lot of things that you are not aware, I became like, oh, you know, this is more than just eating like non-animal products.

14:44It's the whole culture around it. So, Ron, you were the vegan, you were a vegetarian. She was a vegetarian. I was a vegetarian. For a long time. Like before you moved here. Yeah, before even moved here. You were in Mexico city, you were a vegetarian. What was there like a moment that you said, I don't want to do this. I don't want to eat meat anymore. Do you? Well, my family, I'm coming from a family where my dad's side was a vegetarian. Okay. So all my life grew up with that part of the family. Okay, well that makes sense. So that's why I was vegetarian. It's very easy in Mexico to be vegetarian or vegan, but you don't even realize it because just how the food it is in there. Is that an appropriate question to ask? What? Like, why are you a vegetarian? Or like, tell me your story behind becoming a vegan. Because like, I'm an alcoholic. I don't drink. But people go, why don't you drink?

15:46It's like. Do people really ask you that? All the time. It's crazy. They're like, why don't you drink? And I'm like, because I can't just have one. You should say, because I'm pregnant. Yeah. That is the best. I'm gonna start using that. Like, I don't know. Like, I'm just, I'm learning, right? So I mean, I'm a carnivore through and through. But I don't wanna be insensitive. So me asking the question of like, tell me your story behind it, is that insensitive? No, it's not. You know, and our stories are so different from each other. So you will see, you know, like, I feel that my side is more boring than Ronald. Because, you know, maybe you will relate more with him than me. Because, you know, again, I grew up in part of my family was vegetarian, me growing up and, you know, like looking at that. So basically, I grew up eating meat. But what happened is that for a period of time, I stopped eating any meat, like chicken, beef, or whatever it was without me realizing it.

16:50And then when I ate chicken, I got sick. Oh, okay, that makes sense. Yeah, so that's when I realized like, okay, I don't really need it. So it was, I was already like in my 20s. So I make that choice to make it, to be just vegetarian. But I was still eating consuming eggs or animal products, milk, eggs, cheese. So Ronald, did you grow up vegan or was that a role? Ronald was completely different. I'm original from Costa Rica. I moved to Nashville the first time in 97. You're a graduate of high school. Then I went to Cougars. Sorry, then I went back to Costa Rica, then I moved back to Nashville. So yeah, I've been here for a while. Same as Adriana. This is the only city that I lived here in the US. Love it. What is your relationship? We're married. You guys are married? Yes. Excellent, okay. So my vegan story basically happened back in 2015.

17:56I've always eaten meat all my life. Being from Costa Rica, you eat a lot of meat there. So basically I watched a documentary. So that's usually how most of the stories happen. What documentary was it? It's called Forks Over Knives. It's on Netflix. Everybody should watch it. So it basically talks about how eating meat or stop eating meat makes very sick people get better. Interesting. So my family has a history, my dad's side of the family has a history of colon cancer. So that's something that has been on my head all the time for a while and it's very scary because there's a couple of family members that have died of that. So after watching that documentary and seeing how a plant-based diet basically can revert a lot of those diseases from you. And there's a lot of other, just not colon cancer, but a lot of other like diabetes.

19:01There's a bunch of other things. Like disease. Yeah, exactly. So I decided I'm gonna try to do this for a couple of weeks. We were starting living together back then and I didn't tell Adriana, because I mean, I was like, she's vegetarian so it's gonna be easy. And then she started noticing, why aren't you eating anything? Why didn't you tell her? I don't know, I was afraid. Why were you afraid to tell her? I don't know. It was crazy. I was just, it was like an experiment for me at first. And then you start realizing how everything impacts. Yeah, the benefits. Yeah, the benefits and how the meat industry impacts a lot of other things. Like environment, health, a lot of things. So that's when you start getting conscious about all those things. And then after less than a month, I was like, okay, this is something that I'm gonna stick with. And you get to start learning new recipes, how to transform some stuff that you used to eat and make them vegan.

20:09And I thought they tasted great. So I've never been like, oh, I miss this because I can try to make a version of it or something similar to it or something inspired from it that still tastes good. And fun fact, after we, I mean, I find out he was. How did you find out? Well, I just noticed. Sneaking soy into bed. Why is there so much cheese in the fridge, uneaten? I think it was like that. I was buying stuff that we use, probably it was cheese or something like that. And he was not touching it. You're like, what's going on here? Yeah, and I was like, okay, so what's going on? But then after, well, we were like, okay, let's try to do this. The fun thing is we start gaining weight because we went crazy cooking and eating everything that we can make vegan. What was your profession at this time?

21:11I worked for insurance company. I worked there for 14 years, but I was working from home. So it was very easy for me to cook at home. When did the idea to open your own restaurant, what happened, when did that happen? That happened in 2016 after we came from Mexico City. It was my first time visiting Mexico City and first time we were there, well, vegan, of course. So we tried the most amazing vegan food. Was there a lot of vegan options in Mexico City? Oh yes. Street food, actually street vegan food. Yeah, like paquerias on the street. Like tacos, stalls in the streets. They were amazing. Which is torta that are called tortas. There were restaurants too. So, and there were like regular restaurants that have regular food that is not labeled as vegan, but it is vegan. They had like mushroom tacos, flor de calabaza, quesadillas without the cheese because on Mexico City they have quesadillas without cheese.

22:15That's a fun fact about Mexico City. And so many good things that you can eat there. So when we got back here, we were like, oh my God, we miss this so much. Where can we find something similar? And you couldn't find anything similar here. Because you know, Mexican restaurants here are very, everything has either large chicken stock, you know. Very meat heavy. Yes. Yeah, and besides, it's not really close to what you can find in Mexico. Not at all. It's a little bit different. Did you notice when they started talking about food, how they lit up? Oh, definitely. They started talking about it in Mexico and they were like, and they started smiling and they got all like, no food, let me tell you about the food on the street. They both just like lit up. Oh, I can definitely relate to that. You know, when you think about just an incredible dining experience and that memory of you're like, oh, it was so great. It was so great. So would you say that, I don't wanna skip ahead too much, but is the food that you serve now reminiscent of that food that you experienced on that trip or does it kind of have your own spin on it or?

23:24It's a little bit of everything. Of course, I grew up in Mexico. I grew up in the city going to the markets. Me, growing up, I always liked food. So I always looked how the woman in the market make the tortillas, the quesadillas, the, you know, like I'm very aware of the ingredients of how to prepare things and I always liked to cook. So basically, yes, it was an inspiration and when we go back, we always get inspired and we try to replicate some stuff or get inspired by things that we saw, but some of the recipes are also, you know, I mean, everything is cooked in a traditional way. We have a mix of things. For example, we have like what is considered more like street food and we also have what basically my mom can make at home. Okay.

24:25Is it all kind of more of Mexico City inspired or do you have kind of the Costa Rican influence as well? Not really. I mean, it's, you know, the concept is Mexico City style. That's what we fell in love with, you know, and that's what we wanted to bring. So the Costa Rican side is just in me, but the food is, it's all Mexican. I think the black bean side is like the only Costa Rican touch that we have. Yeah, it's a little touch, but nobody can see it. So whose idea was it? Did you guys, you guys sitting around making food one night and then one of you said, we should own a, we should start a restaurant, like we should do this. Like, how did that come about? So basically when we were missing the food and we couldn't find anything like that, we were like, well, we should start something like that. And Adriana was like, yes, and she started like cooking and I'm like, wow, why haven't you showed me all these great recipes that you're doing now? And Ronald, were you a cook as well?

25:25I love to cook, you know, but I'm, you know, random cook, I can, you know, I love to cook. I'm not a chef, of course, but I can, you know. You can hold your own. Exactly. Well, you're a chef now. I guess I am. Yeah, man. I give you that title. Hell yeah. We're gonna take a short break to hear a word from our sponsors. I think one of the most overlooked things that you can do on a P&L, which is your profit and loss statement, is dish machine and chemicals. It's just one of those things you don't focus on until it's too late. Let Jason Ellis from SuperSource come in and do an audit of what you're currently doing and why you're doing it. His number is 771-337-1143. We believe here at Nash Restaurant Radio that every single thing that you do should be done intentionally in a restaurant. And allowing some company to come in and just fix your dish machine without you knowing what's really happening is exactly what we're talking about. The thing Jason does the best is he can help educate you on exactly what's going on with all of your dish machines and chemicals.

26:27He can do staff trainings to understand why you're using what you're using, again, to be intentional. They don't make you sign any type of contract. They are week to week and can get you a brand new dish machine with three free months of dish machine rental. You need to check them out. Go to nashvillerestaurantradio.com. Click the Sponsors tab and then you will see SuperSource. Click that tab for a special or give Jason Ellis a call at 770-337-1143. We are supported by Robins Insurance, a local insurance agency providing customized insurance policies, sound guidance, and attentive service. Robins Insurance is the go-to agency for hospitality professionals in Nashville. Listen, Robins knows how hard industry professionals work every single day. They also know how devastating accidents can be. Be it a grease fire that damages the kitchen, a severe storm that cuts off power, or a customer slip and fall incident. Both the extensive experience and the savvy to create a policy that protects your business from accidents like those, you can rest easy knowing that the work you've put in will not be for nothing.

27:38Visit Robins website at robinsins.com to request a consultation or call Matthew Clements directly. His number is 863-409-9372. Protection you can trust. That's Robins. You know, what chefs want, some people still call it creation gardens, but what chefs want has been, was our first advertiser on the show. Monty Crawford saw what we were doing. He goes, I wanna be part of it, dude. I love it. And I just, I love that. They're so perfect because they work with locally owned and operated restaurants better than anyone. And let me tell you how they do it. No minimums, no fees, no fuel surcharges, no surcharges any time. They deliver seven days a week. They have 24 seven customer support. You can call, text, chat, email anytime from anywhere, or you can reach them at 502-587-9012. They have a diverse line of products. Their chefs have access to thousands of items across many different categories that allow them to receive fresh product daily.

28:43What Chefs Want is the perfect addition to any broad line company as they've got all of your fresh produce delivered daily, plus custom meats, anything that you need that your broadliner can't get. Give them a call, 800-600-8510, or visit them at whatchefswant.com. So basically, yeah, so Adriana basically was like, okay, let me, you know, we started like, doing what kind of tacos can we make and. Yeah, we started trying, you know, like the recipes or trying with the meat substitutes or the substitutes that we were using. So we came up with some recipes, and then I was like, okay, let's do it. And Ronald was a little hesitant. He was like. I was like, I don't think we're ready. He was, no, we are not ready. And I was like, so when are you gonna be ready? Yeah. And at this point, did you guys have a plan of like, okay, here's how we're gonna sell this. We're gonna, you know, try this thing or that thing. Did you know anyone in the restaurant industry that was. No, we didn't. That is the other part. We didn't know anything about a commercial kitchen at all.

29:47We didn't know anybody. Well, besides, I was a banker. I work in the bank industry until we opened our business. So I knew some people, I mean, some of my customers were restaurant owners, but besides knowing that, I knew what, you know, the financing side it was. Yeah. And I knew that usually banks, they don't like restaurants because it's very risky. So I knew, I mean, with all that information that I had, I was like, okay, we need to figure out to do this in a way that is sustainable and that is gonna be successful. So then we start planning. Okay, so how we are gonna launch it and then how we are gonna keep trying. So we found the Grow Local Kitchen at the Nashville Farms Market. That is a great program. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, familiar with those guys. Yeah, so as soon as I saw that, I was like, this is the perfect spot because, you know, in that way we can keep doing this.

30:55You can buy your vegetables right there. Exactly, that's what we do all the time, man. Makes it really easy. Without risking, you know, like we keep our jobs. So it's not that we quit everything and we start. So we start little by little trying, you know, trying the market, building up our following, social media and all that, trying the recipes, see what people like, what they don't like. Who does the social media? I do. You do. Yeah. So basically, yeah, that's how it- You drew the short straw, huh? That's how it started. You know, we, you know, we, of course, registered the business and everything. And there was a veg fest coming up in a couple months. And that's when Adriana was like, I think we should do it now. We should launch it there because a lot of people are gonna be there. And I was a little bit afraid because, you know, I'm always the, she's always the risk, you know. I own a business with my spouse and that's exactly how we are. And I think we balance each other that way because, you know, she's the one that goes, let's do it. And I'm like, okay, we'll follow.

31:56It definitely relates to that. I'm like, you have a banker and an insurance salesman. Well, that's where I can't relate, unfortunately. Of both of those industries, right? I mean, like the banking is so, you know, it's just numbers based, it's math most of the time. And then being risk averse and understanding insurance. Like, let's just throw our hats in the ring and the number one highest turnover, the highest fail rate business that's out there. Yeah. So it's interesting. I mean, that's just, that's not a combination you hear too often. But it sounds like you guys having the backgrounds that you did went into it in a very smart way where it was, you know, kind of, hey, let's give this a try and see if there's a market for it before we throw it all out there as so many people do. I think a lot of people in other industries look at the restaurant industry and say, oh, it's a bunch of unskilled quote unquote workers. I can do that, that's easy. Find out the hard way. What lessons have you learned so far? That was the idea. And besides that, we wanted to learn too.

32:58Yeah. Because remember, we. Had no idea. You know, we didn't have an idea how to run a commercial kitchen. We are not chefs, so. So how did that first event go for you guys? It went great. So basically, you know, I started promoting on social media on Facebook, you know, pages to get people, you know, excited about it. And there's a very good vegan community in Nashville. So a lot of, you know, people were excited about it. Everybody was supported. And then when we showed up to the VegFest, there was a huge line. We, you know, we sold out within two hours. That's amazing. It was crazy. And then we had to do it all over again the next day. So we're like, oh my God, this is amazing. Trial by fire. We were learning. Yeah. And then, you know, it was a great event. And then, you know, we were so excited. And then our next pop-up, you know, because we started doing pop-ups inside the Nashville Farmers Market at the Grow Local Kitchen. Again, like Adriana said, it's a great thing because you can cook there and you can sell there, you know.

34:02So people, you know, that are there can eat there. And then we had our first pop-up there. We came from this huge event where everything was so exciting. And our first pop-up, you know, it was a little bit slower. Did you do one of the lunchtime pop-ups? Yes. And it was during the week, you know, when it's not as busy as it gets on the weekends, you know. And it was not a full vegan market. Exactly. And was this before the pandemic? Oh yeah, that was back in 2017. So, you know, we learned from that, you know, that you will have good days, you will have slower days, but you kept on going. And then every other, you know, we had a pop-up once a month, a couple days once a month. And then, you know, every other pop-up kept getting better, kept getting better, you know, and the following people that came from the last one kept coming back. And so that's how it has been, you know, ever since. And it's been great. We, you know, we're really, I think, you know, we took the risk, but at the same time, we were careful not to do something huge.

35:04You know, at first we started small, and then back in 2020, we got the opportunity to open a spot at the National Farmers Market where we grew. So now we can, you know, be there full-time. And, you know, it has been great. So I have to ask, when in 2020? In the middle of the pandemic. In the middle of the pandemic. So what made you decide that that was the right time to take that leap? It was just, you know, basically it was the pandemic, because the farmers market is a great place, but it's a hard place to get into. To find a spot in there. To find a spot in there. So, of course, the pandemic hit, and then they... Spots are open. Exactly. Yeah. Spots were open. So it happened that somebody left a spot in there because of the pandemic. And because we were part of the Grow Local Kitchen program, and we were residents.

36:09So those spots are open for people that has been in there. So they, you know, it's a process. You have to do a presentation. You have to go through the board and several steps. So we, I mean, we knew it was a pandemic, but we also were careful during, you know, since 2017, how we were doing the business and all that. So we were, you know, we were prepared. Yeah. Yeah. So when the opportunity opened, we were ready. So we went through the whole process and we were so lucky because we got this spot. Congratulations. Yeah, I was saying, congratulations. What a, I don't know. It's just one of those things that just kind of happens that is supposed to happen. And, you know, it was very unexpected and in the middle of so much uncertainty. And we were looking for a spot before, you know, like right at the beginning of 2020. And when that opportunity came in May, we're like, well, this is meant to be because even if we're in the middle of a pandemic, you know, we, I think we're ready.

37:15And it was a great way to open a spot too, because since we didn't have the full, you know, knowledge of how to run a restaurant, we'll learn little by little without having to have, you know, everybody there at once. So it has been a learning process. And I think it worked out great for us because now we know how, you know. What mistakes, you know, I think that mistakes are the greatest thing that we can all, I think it's like the greatest gift in this world is making mistakes. And then obviously learning from those mistakes as outsiders coming into this business, what's the biggest mistake you guys think that you've made and what did you learn from it? Oh, you know. For those of you, they both just looked at each other like, do you want to say it? No. For us, I think more, it has been, you know, learning the kitchen side. Learning the hard way. The quantities, the how to handle, you know, some products, their life, you know. So those are, I think.

38:16Dealing with vendors. Yes. Yeah, especially during the pandemic, you know, finding out that your favorite baskets or your favorite products are no longer available. And what do you do to find something similar or, you know, little things like that? Was there a company or somebody that helped you through that who went above and beyond that you want to give a shout out to? Well. And if the answer's no, it's okay because. 100%, yeah. No, but everybody has been so helpful. You know, it was a difficult situation because everybody have shortage and stuff like that. But our, you know, food distributor was so good. The farmer's market has been so good too. So, you know, we are grateful for all the help. Also, you know, other vegan business, they have been great as well. Because, you know, again, it's a small community and we all support each other.

39:16So those have been. So I was reading on the East, I'm in a part of a Facebook group called the East Nashville Facebook group. And I saw a post just the other day of a woman who works at the Wild Cow. You guys familiar with the Wild Cow? And she said, hey, look, we would love to have you guys come by. We really need the business. And I thought it was a very vulnerable post. And like 150 comments later, everybody's like, oh my God, we're totally gonna come by and support you. How has business been? How's the traffic over there? Are you guys doing well? I mean. Yeah, we, again, we are grateful. Of course, you know, we, those are the things that we have learning. Health seasons, you know, peak. Sure. And then they go down and then you have the lows and then you have the highs. We still learning on that because remember we open on the pandemic. So we have nothing to compare it with. It was completely different. I mean, coming from a pandemic, none to ups, downs, it has been an adjustment.

40:18Your year to year is probably pretty good. Yeah. You're looking. But it is such a, it's been, I can really relate to how hard it is to predict. And you know, my business opened in 2016. And I will say that this kind of last quarter of this year is the first time that we really feel like we're back on track where we would have been if not for the pandemic. Exactly. And for us, you know, we are learning that that now is the normal. Yes. Now is the more normal feeling time. And you're like, this is going to be great. So, you know, and again, for us, it's a little bit different. It's our business is more what is considered Fast casual. Fast casual. So we don't have a seating like other restaurants. Sure. They have that expense of have servers have. So, and the firms and market is always a great place because, you know, it's a place where everybody likes to go and hang out on the weekends. Yeah. Tourists coming. Locals. Locals.

41:18Everybody lives around there. So it's a little bit different. So we are very grateful, but yes, we support each other when we need it. I mean, I'm talking about all our businesses. The vegan community is always great. And every, you know, even the East Nashville page, everybody's very, sometimes it gets, sometimes it gets. Sometimes it gets entertaining. Yeah. It's a good way to put it. But I mean, it's not really, I mean, we live there. It's a great, you know, community and everybody shows up for whoever needs it. So I love East Nashville. It's my favorite places. I mean, so I guess if you look at perspective, you know, I think people say you opened a business in 2020. What's, are you crazy? It's like this whole thing's happening. But you know what? There was a real level of empathy that people, that the consumer or guests, the customers that come in, that they had with restaurants where people understood local and they wanted to support you. And I guess when you're starting off and you're growing and you make mistakes or you're trying to learn, you can't pick a better time. Yeah, I think that there were definite advantages to, you know, what you were able to do in 2020.

42:22And I think, you know, I guess kind of maybe one of my thoughts about what would be great about opening a business in 2020 is I think that there was less fear of that perception of trying something that didn't work. And I think that customers were a lot more forgiving about, hey, we're working through some kinks. We're trying some new things here. You know, even though my business had already been open for several years, we were able to try new and different things without that fear of failure that we would have had before, so. Or the backlash. Exactly, the backlash. The consumer backlash of, you know, you open your restaurant right now and the expectation is you guys are, people go online and they're giving reviews on, we tried second-hand vegan tacos and they don't have their shit together. And you're like, well, we just opened. Like, there should be a grace period to feed a figure. But you kind of naturally had that built in with the pandemic to kind of figure out all of the little kinks and stuff. And now when business is back and we're all running, you've kind of worked through those and you can kind of, it's like a machine now, you know?

43:23Perspective-wise, I was saying, I think it's interesting because I never really looked at it like that. Yeah, I know that's something that we've talked about, Brandon, is kind of that, you know, people are feeling that fatigue of, I don't know, how nice they were maybe a little bit during the pandemic. Is that something that you guys have seen at all? Do you feel like customers are maybe a little less patient than they were at one time? Or have you guys just been so lucky to have great experiences all around? Yeah, to be honest, yes, you know, we love our customers, they're always great. You know, even, you know, the ones that have been with us since we were a pop-up, you know, and the new ones, and you know, I don't think we've had like bad experiences. Sometimes, I mean, we have a little bit of everything. It's the farmer's market, so everybody, you know, we can get one or two crumpies. Sure, we're trying to get you guys to dish the dirt. Yeah, well, no, I think that, again, coming from banking and coming from insurance, let's look at your lives five years ago. You're, I don't know what you did in the banking industry, but it's not, I mean, it might be, please don't take this the wrong way.

44:26Working in a restaurant is exciting, and you wake up every day, and you have no idea what's gonna happen. I mean, you, every day, I write, yeah, I write a game script, and I'm like, this is what I want to have happen today, and it never goes that way. But in insurance, I mean, people call you when stuff is bad, when things aren't going well, and if you did sales, or if you were in just, I don't know what you did there, but like insurance, like people are calling you because they need something, and it's, there's a very finite script, and the same thing with banking, like this, every day, it's a completely new story. Do you guys, is that, is that energizing for you? Like, is that something that, like, drives you? Like, in the past, life was very much the same day, I'm in a cubicle, da-da-da-da-da, now, shit, we could do anything. Yeah, we love, you know, we love it. We love it, and it is scary sometimes, because sometimes, I completely agree, I am like, you know, like, so, what is gonna happen today?

45:27People is gonna still like it, they're not, like, you know, many things go through your head, but at the same time, I mean, because of my background, or, you know, I still being competitive, so I like challenges, so, but yes, but sometimes it's scary, it's scary, and then you go, as you said, you wake up, and then you don't know what to expect, how the day is gonna go. You don't know if it's gonna be a great day, or it's gonna be, like, slow. Definitely. How does the business affect your relationship? And do you guys need, like, everybody asks that, because, you know. I need a day off, you go do what you wanna do, I'll be here at the restaurant, like, I mean, can I ask that to her, too? One of the things that, you know, we're there all the time. We cook, we both cook everything. So, we're- Yeah, and make, I mean, I myself make the tacos, so.

46:27Yeah, so we have to be there every day. We are the ones that do everything there. We're there all the time. We're all the time back home, too. I don't know, I think it works out great. What do you guys do for fun outside of making tacos? We go out to eat. Where's your favorite place to go? What's your favorite place? Well, we love all, of course, all the vegan restaurants. And then, I mean, everything, like Sunflower Cafe, Wild Cow, The Beehive, Grace, all those places, we love them, and we love all those places that have vegan options. We love Thai. Nicky's Coal Fired, maybe? Nicky's Coal, you know, she's one of the owners of Nicky's Coal Fired. Oh, really? I am. Oh, my God. We always have plant-based options on our menu. So we will be there. Oh, yes. Please come see us. And then we do an expanded plant-based menu in January. I always see that you do collaborations with Beehive. We do.

47:27We've worked with those guys for a long time, and we're huge fans. They're great. You know, the al pastor that we make is made with their... Seitan. Oh, I love that. Yeah, we've used that since we opened. Yeah, we use their products. And the chorizo, too. All the chorizo, all the time, yeah. We just had Ben Sticks on the show a couple weeks ago. He's amazing. Yeah, he's a great person. So we love all that. So what does the future hold for you guys? Any big plans for the next 12 months, maybe to hire a chef so you can take some time off, or any expansion plans, anything like that? I don't think hiring a chef, because... Not yet. Yeah. I mean, we wish that we can do it, but it's so hard to find. I understand. I think everybody's aware that it's so hard to find people to work. Yeah, especially now. At this moment. Yeah. So if you know of somebody. Yeah, send them your way. Send them your way. Send them your way. Hell no. Not...

48:27Brandon. They're hard to find. Absolutely. You guys seem like... You know what? This is one of the reasons why I love doing this podcast, because I get to meet people like you, who I didn't know your story beforehand, but I want to support you guys. I want to come out, and I'm definitely going to come out and try your tacos. Hopefully, you know... I'm thinking about doing a meatless January kind of a thing. You should do it. And just seeing what it's about. Yes. We did a meatless Monday for like... I mean, we did it for a solid week. That's one day? We did one Monday, and then... All right, dad joke. Seriously. It's difficult. You know, it's like eating healthy, and then trying to go like, I need to eat healthy real quick. And it's like, there's a McDonald's on every corner, and there's no... You really found it difficult to do no meat one day a week? Well, this was a couple years ago. Listen, no judgment. I mean, just a massive...

49:27Yeah, I did. One day a week? Yeah. Oh, brother. I know. I like meat. I'm going to bring you some vegetables. Oh, yeah. We're going to make this happen. Or some succulent vegan tacos. Yeah, come over. We'll feed you all the tacos. I know. I'm in. We're definitely going to do it. And also on the weekends, we have a rotating specials that are not on the regular menu, but we try just to bring a little bit of what Mexico City food offers. So on the weekends, we rotate that all the time. Hey, one last break to tell you about my good friends over at Corson Fire and Security. Kevin Rose is their restaurant specialist, and he is here to make your life easier. I keep telling you, you got to have a guy. You got to have a guy for pretty much everything that you do. When it comes to your fire extinguishers, your fire sprinkler systems, your fire alarm systems, kitchen fire systems. I mean, access control systems, video surveillance, security systems, and monitoring. And they do it all.

50:28I've called him so many times as we've started working with him at my restaurants, Greenhouse Grill and Mayor Bull, because we just, we had a company that didn't do the right things, and he's come in and showed us all the right things. I've learned so much from working with somebody who actually cares. And I tell you what, if you want to work with a company that actually cares, you need to give them a call. Kevin Rose. His cell number is 615-974-2932. Or you can email him at kevin.rose at corson.com. That's K-O-O-R-S-E-N dot com. Corson Fire and Security. Hey, while we're talking about having a guy that you need, Dan Maher is your guy over at Southern Health Insurance. If you don't have health insurance, if the restaurant you work at or whatever job you have doesn't offer it, you can get health insurance today. Email Dan. It's dan at southernhealthins.com. Or you can call him. It's a direct line to him. It's his cell phone number 832-816-8602.

51:31So let's just say that you are not just somebody working in a restaurant, but you own a restaurant and you own a restaurant and you want to offer insurance, but God, it's so expensive. And I don't know who to call. Dan's your guy for that too. If you have one single restaurant or if you have 50 restaurants, he can take care of you, offer you, he can set you up for affordable insurance for your employees. Guys, this is the most important thing you can offer when it comes to, if you actually care about your employees and you want them to have help, medical health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance, guys, this is what you need to do. Dan Maher over at Southern Health Insurance is the guy that can set you up. So if you or your team are young at heart, mostly healthy, healthy or part of a growing family, this is a no-brainer. Again, his number is 832-816-8602 or email dan at southernhealthins.com. We absolutely love partnering with Sharpies Bakery.

52:34Erin Mosso has been selling bread, fresh-baked bread to locally-owned and operated restaurants six days a week for 36 years. Yes, her father started the company 36 years ago and Erin took it over five years ago and it is doing amazing things. I have so many guests that come in the studio that are like, I love Sharpies, they saved me so much time and the bread is so good. We've got round buns, specialty round buns, dinner rolls, hoagies, baguettes, they do cheesecake, they do flourless chocolate, tortes, they do specialty loaf breads and regular loaf breads and boules, boules, B-O-U-L-E-S, sourdough, long tuscan, wheat, multigrain, they got everything. You should go check them out at sharpies.com. That is Sharpies, C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com or you should give them a call at 615-356-0872. Supporting local is so damn important and Erin Mosso and all of our friends over at Sharpies Bakery do that daily.

53:39Give her a call right now. Well, I would plug everything you got. Tell us your socials, tell us everything that you guys are doing and then I'm gonna ask you for a final thought, our Gordon Food Service final thought where you get to kind of say whatever you want to our entire listening audience. That'll finish it up, but tell us what do we need to know? Yeah, well. You're opening, what days are you open? Are you closed any days? How do we follow you? Yeah, we're open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for our full menu. We're closed on Mondays and you can find us on social media, Facebook, Instagram at succulentvegantacos and our email is succulentvegantacos at gmail.com. Pretty easy. Our website is succulentvegantacos.com and just give us a follow and come by and we'll be waiting for you. Just come and try something vegan. Give it a try. You know, vegan food can be delicious. So just come open-minded. We wish everybody can come and try.

54:42We will definitely encourage. I will definitely be there. Yeah, I'm definitely gonna do that too. Final thought, the Gordon Food Service final thought. They're our title sponsor. They, we like have this every single episode. You finish the show off whatever you wanna say if it's literally whatever you wanna say for as long as you wanna say it. You guys get to take us out of the interview. You can both say something. One of you could say something. It's coming up to you. Mic is yours. Just, I would like to say that again. That is also our mission statement. I just say it, but I won't say it again. That our mission is just to bring delicious food without sacrificing. I mean, it's like to bring vegan food without sacrificing any flavors or harm any animals, basically. Yeah, and I mean, we want to welcome everyone. We have a lot of customers that are not vegan.

55:43We're also kosher certified. So everyone is welcome. So everybody's welcome to come and try. If you like it, great. If you don't, then. If you have also allergies, we are very sensitive with that. We try to accommodate or cook with stuff that accommodates a lot of allergies. To a lot of allergies, yeah. So we're very welcoming to everyone. We hope to see everyone at Salkilin at some point. And thank you so much for having us. It's been a great experience to be here. Well, thank you guys for being here. I know it's early in the morning. Thank you. Thanks for making it out. We will see you guys soon at the Farmer's Market. Yes, we will see you there. All right, cool. Thank you. All right, wow. Thank you so much to Ronald and Adriana for joining us here in studio. Caroline? Yeah. What did you think? Like I said, I love those guys. I love their story.

56:44I love that they were just like, hey, we are gonna roll the dice here and let's see what happens. And that is those kind of pandemic stories that I love so much of like, you know what? We have lemonade, we have lemons. Yeah, let's see if we can make some lemonade. And I think that they have. I think that, I loved it as well. I think that they've got a hard journey ahead of them. Yeah, they're still in the early days. And I remember those early days, Tony and I started doing pop-ups. That's kind of how we got our start. Not in the industry, but when we moved to Nashville and we're pursuing opening our own business and that pop-up life is hard, but you stick to it. Banking and insurance and you go, now let's run a restaurant. I'm reading a book right now called Unreasonable Hospitality by Will, I think it's Will Gaudera. He was the owner at 11 Madison Park. Oh yeah. Number one restaurant in the world, the whole thing. But there's a quote that he says, and I'm gonna bring up this quote and I love it because it was, whatever you do for a living, you can choose to be in the hospitality business.

57:54Okay, so what do you think that means? I think that means that try harder, be nicer to people, go above and beyond. You don't have to, when you go to the bank, sometimes you go to the bank and they give the kid a sucker or something, that's hospitality and banking. You don't have to do that. Sure. Everything that you do, it's grocery store public, so they take your groceries out to your car for you. All these little things that people do are all these little fun, I think you can make hospitality in any business you have, it's all an attitude and it's a mindset. Absolutely, and I think that what you said, attitude is part of the key to why I think that Succulent Vegan Tacos is doing the business that they're doing and why I think that they're gonna continue to have so much success because we've all seen that person who starts a restaurant because they're like, wow, wouldn't it be fun to have a place to hang out with my friends every weekend? That's not the way to do it. I mean, not at all and they are really, really hard workers.

58:56I mean, they're in there every day and that's just what you gotta do in those early days and if you think that you're gonna open your business and sit at the bar and hobnob and kick it with your friends, that's just good luck to you. There's a restaurant tour that said every time I walk in, I see the owner sitting at the bar drinking wine and just start the countdown. Absolutely. Just start the countdown. Absolutely. Because that's not how it works. So speaking of how it works. How does it work? I have no clue, but I know that you've done some traveling and we've put out, this is our third interview together and we've got Jen Heidinger Kendrick coming up next week. She's the founder of The Giving Kitchen. Love The Giving Kitchen. I'm so excited to chat with her. I have a fun episode with our friends over at NetChex that I did an interview with Anna and Lauren and they're amazing with them and then Lauren's daughter, Anna's daughter was in studio because she was following her mom for the day. I love that so much.

59:58I remember doing the kind of like, take your daughter to work day or like a kid gets to go to work and I loved that. It was my favorite thing when I was a kid. I like made her talk. I was like, you're gonna speak. I'm gonna ask you a question. She's like, I don't want to be on the microphone at all. And she sat right next to me in this chair and I was like, you're gonna do it. And so that was a lot of fun. So we did that. That's coming up too. What are your thoughts as you listen back? I just like my least favorite thing, hearing myself. I go back and listen to something like, it's so cringy. But you just have to do it. Cringy to hear yourself talk. Well, so here is- What's your self-talk notes? Oh God. Okay, the two things that I cannot quit hearing and I want to apologize to everyone listening is the word yes. Yes, yes. I never knew that I said the word should be pronounced yes. And I say yes, yes, yes. I just, I'm like, oh God. And then the word sure. I'm like, yes, sure, yes, sure. I just, oh God, I'm dying. I can't. So I sincerely apologize to everyone listening.

01:01:01Please keep listening. And I'm going to really reel it in with the valley girl yes in the shore of it all. I noticed that too. Yeah, it was bad. Sorry, guys. I'm new to this. No, no, it's not bad. But I just, how you say yes, you're like, yes. I'm like, yes, queen. Like it's like a whole thing. I'm like, oh God, that's horrible. It's not horrible. Hey, look, it is what it is. I mean, it's just- Listen, noted and corrected, yes. With an E, yes. Just speak how you speak. You don't have to change for anybody. I know, but I'm changing for me. Okay, so you don't like the way it sounds. I don't. Yes, and sure. And sure. Is that it? Listen, I mean, do you have some additional critiques for me? No, I'm just teasing. Those were really kind of my two main takeaways in terms of like corrections for myself. But besides corrections for myself, I love it. I think it's a lot of fun and I enjoyed the episodes listening back to them and I really hope everybody listening enjoyed them as well.

01:02:06I heard we got a good review from Mrs. Still, so. Oh, yeah. Yes, you know what? We've got a lot of really good reviews. Oh, good. I got a great review. I love getting feedback, whether it's good or bad. I do too, actually. I get a couple messages a week where somebody will message me and say, hey man, I love the show. I just found it. Somebody told me about it. Somebody, I met somebody. I had a message the other day. We got Jamie Pruitt was wearing a hat. He's over at Frothy Bakery. He was wearing a hat and somebody said, hey, what is that? What is that? And he told them about it and then they went back and they listened and the guy messaged me and said, hey, look, I loved it. I've been listening now and I'm back. I'm in April of 2020, but I'm gonna go through and listen to them all. And I was like, damn, that's a. Ambitious. That's a lot of listening. I love that. But he said it was really cool to go back into the pandemic and hear what people were going through in the moment. I actually did go back a couple of months ago, even before you asked me to join you as a co-host and listen to the episode Tony and I recorded because I just kind of as a self-reflection exercise, I wanted to hear myself talk about where I was in that moment in 2020 and think about where I am now.

01:03:23There was a lot. There's a lot of that. There's a lot of that reflection. I look back at myself and just the interviews I did and I'm like, man, I've grown a lot. Like just in just, it's been such an amazing experience for me to talk to over 250 different people in this industry throughout all of this and just glean these different ideas and perspectives. It was just, it's been super helpful to me. Excuse me there. I had a little cough. So no, it's been a lot of fun to go back and I always appreciate feedback. Feel free to message us and let us know. I'll have recommendations of people you wanna hear. We have a list of people that are kind of on our top list and then topics. Topics are coming. Topics are coming. So we're gonna do a few episodes where we just tackle some interesting topics. If there is a topic out there, you would really like us to tackle. Give us an example of a couple of topics we're looking at right now, Caroline. Well, so kind of the top two on the topic list right now is one is about tipping.

01:04:29And I think that there is so much conversation around tipping in the industry. Do we change our models from how they've always been? Should we be tipping at a coffee shop or not? Should there be shared tips? Kind of all of these issues around tipping, which is something that's so interesting to me. I think we talked to Arnold a little bit about that as well and I think that these are conversations I'm having with a lot of my peers in the industry. Another topic that I really wanna tackle is where Nashville's growth is headed and what that looks like for the restaurant industry, particularly as it relates to independent restaurants. How sustainable is the future for independent restaurants in Nashville? Another great topic. Which I think is relevant certainly to us here and to so many who I assume are listening that are in the industry. I think another topic that's been brought up is unions.

01:05:32Organizing as an entire industry, what that would look like. And I think that- That's a real spicy topic. It's a real spicy topic. And I think that that's different for- But I think it warrants discussion. I definitely think that we need to have that discussion. I think that we need to bring some people in that are for it maybe. And it's really hard to get somebody on air that wants to speak against it. Just because it's, you know, I don't know. I think that we can foster that conversation in a meaningful way to present both sides. Absolutely. I do think that it's a topic that, you know, like we said, a lot of people don't wanna tackle this. And, you know, we're not necessarily hard hitting journalists here, but we are involved in the restaurant industry. And I think that these discussions are coming whether we want to talk about them or not. So let's get ahead of it. Let's talk about it. So what we're gonna do the month of December is we're gonna have a bunch of, it's gonna be like an advertiser month. We really wanna prepare you for 2023. We wanna bring these advertisers to you. We're gonna be giving away money. We're gonna be giving away cash.

01:06:33Yes. Next month for- Not yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Giving away cash for anybody. Lots of specials from our advertisers. So we're gonna interview almost all of them next month. You're gonna get a lot of content from our advertisers for the whole month of December. Last year I took the whole month of December off just because we're busy as hell and it's hard to continue to do podcasts. But we're gonna spend this December kind of working on some of these topics and coming up with new ideas for January so we can come January super strong. And this is that time for it. I know we haven't even hit Thanksgiving yet, but now is the time to plan for next year. Yeah, I mean, if you're not planning for next year right now, I mean, I know that there's the looming December and what it's gonna be, but once that's over, you're gonna be tired and then it's January. Start planning those conversations now. Start having these specialists, course and fire. Have them come in and look at all your stuff right now. Right now is a good time to do that. So then January, you can make sure you're set. Dishwasher, chemicals, net checks.

01:07:34Your taxes, are they up to date? Your bookkeeping, payroll. Turn around and look at all the sponsors we have back here. Gordon Food Service is another, that's the big one. Going into a new year, look to see who you're buying your products from and. Can we save some money and make some more money? Can we save, but you know, I think it's time to stop looking at it as in just, can I save some money? I think you've got to look at it as where can I build the relationship? Because in this industry, buying from five different companies, you're just gonna lose. Like finding a company that wants to work with you and help grow with you and then putting all of your purchases towards them and building that relationship is a huge deal. And there's a lot in that and we're gonna delve into that next month. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, who is the person that you're gonna call that's gonna be there for you when the supply chain is not there for you? And you need that. You need the company that's gonna go, hey, look, you've committed to us.

01:08:34We're gonna commit to you. And we need to foster relationships where we stop looking at these broad line vendors as the bad guy. Because when you, like anytime that you've split all of your purchases between five different companies, nobody's gonna give you their all. You're picking apart people. Like the relationships don't work that way. You know, ask anybody. I've got five girlfriends. This one's good at this. Like none of them are gonna give you your all. Like when you commit everything to one person, you get what you give. No side piece vendors. No side piece vendors. I'm gonna get a bumper sticker that says that. No side piece vendors. It's very specific. Unless there's specific companies that work really well as side piece vendors. Sure. What chefs want. Sure. Is a great company. They are a great accompaniment. Like they do an amazing job at produce. Absolutely. That is amazing. They have an amazing meat program, amazing seafood program. And they work really well with your main broad line vendor. And they're also a really generous company. I feel like anytime we ask them to step up to sponsor something or help us with a nonprofit, you know, any kind of fundraising event, they've always been there for us.

01:09:40I really love our relationship with them. I mean, in the pandemic happened right after the tornado. I mean, they offered, I had Monty Crawford on. If you go back and listen to that episode with Monty Crawford, they offered to Cisco. They told Cisco, we will deliver your products out of our trucks for you. Like how can we help you when their warehouse went down and Cisco was like, no, thanks, you can go away. And I mean, I guess that's, but like what a nice offer. That's a nice gesture. And then they had all this extra produce. So they just started setting up at people's restaurants, giving away produce to restaurant employees. Like, look, we're not gonna throw it away. We want to feed, it's hard to get food out there. We're just feeding people in the industry. Like they're really, I mean, they're tailor-made for locally owned and operated restaurants. I mean, they're just amazing. They're an amazing company. Absolutely. They're good people. Okay, so that's a little upcoming. I've got some amazing feedback on you, Caroline. People love you on the show. Wow, thank you so much. They're like, wow, where's she been? That's really kind, thank you. I'm like, you can be off the show.

01:10:41Just bring Caroline. What are you doing? What are you doing here? No, not even, not even. Had a lot of fun. My wife surprised me the other day. Just, I was doing the Christmas lights. You'll never believe this. We're doing Christmas lights and I'm outside all day. It's a Thursday at 75, it's a gorgeous day. And she's like, hey, let me grab some lunch. Do you want anything? We're at a Jersey Mike's. And I'm like, yeah, get me the number eight or the Italian several, whatever it is. And so she's gone. She's gone for a little while and I'm getting hungry and I'm keep going and I'm exhausted. I'm like, she needs to get back so I can eat. I just need to sit down tired. And she shows up and I'm like, hey, you're home. Like great to help her carry stuff. And I go, did you get the food? She's like, sure did. She busts out two East side bond meat, Josh Hobbiger, bond meat. Wow. I'm like, you went to East side and she's like, yeah, it's Thursday. It came out today. That's awesome. She drove all the East side bond meat to get me the Josh Hobbiger. Okay, so what's Josh's sandwich? It's like a carnitas, it's like this carnitas sub, like a bond meat with like, of course, the fresh cilantro and the fresh vegetables, but it had like jalapenos, it has a nice spice to it.

01:11:50I don't even know what was in it. I know it was fucking delicious. That sounds good. Yeah, it's amazing. Maybe I'll make my way over there this week. You need to, it ends, it ends, I think Thursday. I think it's Thursday to Thursday. So get over there if you can, because it is really good. You know, I love all of those subs, I'm like dying. They're great, love those guys. Stay tuned, he's gonna announce who the special final one is here on this show next week, I think next week. Yay. All right, guys, we will see you next week. We'll see you Friday with a new episode from Net Checks. It's just me on the Net Checks episode Friday. Sorry, guys. But Jen Heidinger Kendrick will be next week with Caroline and myself, it'll be a lot of fun. Cheers. That's a good one, I like cheers, that was good. I'm like, y'all be safe out there. Oh, sorry, did I cut you off to your outro? You were great, I just. Cheers, you know what I feel like I say cheers a lot when I drop food off to a table, I'm like, you have everything you need, cheers. Bon appétit, cheers. I definitely don't say bon appétit. All right, here we go, ready?

01:12:53So be ready next Tuesday with Jen Heidinger Kendrick. I hope that you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Cheers. Bye.