Ryan Reisdorf

00:00Hey, I'm Matthew Clements with Robbins Insurance Agency, you know, before I got into insurance, I worked in the hospitality space So I do understand firsthand how tough it can be to keep things running smoothly Now I love to help business owners like you protect what you've built whether it's a restaurant bar hotel catering operation I know the risks you're up against and how to cover them properly. This isn't a one-size-fits-all coverage I'm gonna help you find a policy that actually fits your operation your staff and your budget So you can focus on serving guests not stressing about what-ifs It's an ever-changing market anything could go wrong. If you want to work with someone who knows hospitality from the insides and out Reach out to me Call my cell phone eight six three four. Oh nine nine three seven two or go to Robbins ins com Welcome to Nashville restaurant radio the tastiest hour of talk in MusicCity. Now. Here's your host Brandon Styll Hello MusicCity And welcome to Nashville restaurant radio. My name is Brandon Styll And Welcome to Nashville restaurant radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host we are powered by Gordon food service and Today is a fun little preview of Nara connect we have got Ryan Reisdorf and he is the owner and founder of Placemat and when I say that this is a preview of Nara connect he will be there He will have a table and he will be hanging out to meet with you So if you walk up and you see placemat and you listen to this episode You may have some actual questions for him something to learn about plus if you walk up and you didn't hear this episode I still want you to go talk to him Maybe you can tell somebody else about what he does because this is really interesting

02:02I kind of give him some pushback during this interview because I tend to look at things from a big picture kind of a way Where I'm thinking what's in it for the restaurant? And he's looking at a bunch of different ways. He wants to help the restaurants, but he also wants to help the consumer He's looking to solve multiple problems and I kind of pressed him on some of the things and but this is this is what we do When we work with vendors When we work with people who are trying to help restaurants I press them I ask them the right questions and I want to know what's in it for me and what's in it for our restaurants and where's the profit margin and I want to know all of these things because it's really important if I'm going to Recommend them or have them at Nara connect. I want to be able to trust them to know that they're gonna do something really cool So I'm excited to bring him there and that is a good segue into the fact that Nara connect is in four days It is this Thursday at 3 o'clock at the Music City Center And this is for us. This is for the restaurant local independent restaurant people in Nashville. It is half Social connect let's get together half of it is Independent vendor show and when I say it's independent vendor show What I mean is I'm tired of seeing restaurants close I have so many restaurants that I absolutely love and have loved that are no longer around and it makes me sad and There's a variable cornucopia of reasons why restaurants close But one of the main reasons is rent is rising Nashville is growing lots of chains are coming in and it's making it more difficult for the small guys 2022 I went to the restaurant leadership conference and Really? It's a bunch of CEOs and chain people, you know I hop is there and oh Charlie's and Applebee's and Brinker and all these people and The guy led off the show and he said What a great thing this pandemic has done it has burned off the deadwood off the forest and now we can grow our canopy

04:08dead wood to him meant mom-and-pop restaurants that were getting in the way of their world dominance and Then they went into AI and they started talking about a lot of things that You know, I looked around the room I saw one guy who I knew who wasn't a chain guy Charlie Eblen was there and he is with Single tree barbecue and Murphy's bro, but he's also like a he owes a podcast single tree nation. Go check it out. It's really good stuff He's gonna be at the Nara Connect. You should meet him. He's got a really big beard But other than that Nobody's there. Nobody gets to hear that information and it's just out of control and it made me realize that they're right They're out there they have all the tech they have all the ideas they have the the volume and they're negotiating deals with vendors that you can't even compete with and so What I've done is is I've got a bunch of vendors together and I've asked them a bunch of questions and I've said hey If I can get a hundred restaurants to join together in a group Can I get better deals can I negotiate better deals and I can do that with ten restaurants nevertheless a hundred we get a hundred I think we could get anything that we want As a collective group of independent restaurants, and that's what we're gonna be talking about How do we band together in order to help every single one of us?

05:31Are we better in numbers and then we're gonna go meet a bunch of the vendors who have said yes We can help you out. We can do things. We care about you, too Obviously the big chains they negotiate these deals. There's not a lot of margin and I am They're willing to do it But it takes both sides It takes a little bit of push and a pull from both sides So maybe not getting delivery seven days a week. Maybe you could get them five days but I could make you $40,000 this year or You know volunteer welding and your co2 and having a local company come by CMB Lennon Negotiate a deal for every single member in our that will guarantee save you money with no fees and these are no contract deals With CMB Lennon and super source and they're taking over the city right now These companies are doing amazing things because they do care and we're bringing them all together We will have three of the four major broadliners US foods sis US foods PFG and GFS will all be there and We just need you Right. So there's gonna be fun door prizes. Everybody who comes gets a NARA t-shirt Nashville area restaurant Alliance t-shirt. I've got two different kinds. You can choose what you like Everybody's gonna have really cool stuff. We've got Belmead Bourbon is gonna be there Calexo is gonna be there We'll have some other beverage brands there. I think that Music City or the nation's brewing will be there That's Fat Bottom Brewery Bravazzi. There's gonna be lots of samples chef met the vendor show By the way is gonna be inside of the kitchen at the Music City Center So we're gonna have a big ballroom and then after we're gonna be in there for about an hour or so Meeting greeting hanging out and then we're gonna go into the kitchen That's huge commercial kitchen of the Music City Center where all the vendors are gonna be chef Max Who's the executive chef the Music City Center? He's gonna be there cooking up some food It's just gonna be a big party

07:34CMB Lenin's has stepped up and said hey, let's throw an after party. We want to throw an after party Let's bring everybody out and show them a good time Let's bring all these restaurant tours who are constantly taking care of other people and let's take care of them And I said, you know what? I love that idea So if you come there is gonna be an after party at 630 So don't plan on going back to the office if you can or back to the restaurant If you can take the rest of the night off We'd love to come hang with you and there will be beverages and food and all kinds of fun things it's gonna be at a restaurant downtown and we are not gonna announce where that is going to be it as a local restaurant and We are super excited to have you here's how you get in it's free by the way If you're a restaurant owner an executive chef or general manager of a locally operated local restaurant You go to Nara Excuse me Nara Nashville calm that's in a ra Nashville calm and you're gonna click the little if you're on a desktop, it's released It's on the top It just says Nara connect you click the Nara connect button It takes you to a page that tells you about Nara connect and then it says register here There's a big old button you hit the register here takes 20 seconds It's an event bright thing. You just do it real quick and then we'll have a lanyard for you and you'll be in My fear is a bunch of people like yeah, I'm coming I'm just they don't register and then we're gonna be full and I mean like I can let you into the vendor show in an hour I mean, it's gonna be tough, but I want everybody to be in so please go register and That's it that's all you got to do and then you just got to show up Did I also mention this is gonna be a benefit for the giving kitchen all the vendors who are there have all?

09:10Said hey, look, we're down. Let's all donate a little bit of money and we're gonna call that money to Present to the giving kitchen Leah Melnick from the giving kitchen will be there She's gonna tell you about dining with gratitude Their big mission in October and tell you kind of about what the giving kitchen does If you don't know who they are, you will get to learn it's a ten minute She's gonna be up there talking and I think this is gonna be a lot of fun If you're a restaurant that is big and you're here your local restaurant But you do really well and you negotiate really good deals We want you there too. If you can't even like take advantage of the things that we're offering and it's all free If you can't we still want you there. We want to see you there. We want you to see other people there We want you to shake hands share phone numbers meet new connections Let's build this community of local restaurants in town and let's Let's let's let's do it. That's what I'm here for. So this episode day with Ryan Reisdorf is really fun, it's a placement and I hope that you enjoy it and I hope to see you on Thursday It's the last episode that we're gonna do. We've got an episode coming up next week with Oh, what the heck is his name? I forget his name. He is the Brand ambassador for Robert Mondavi and I think his name is Steve. He is going to be here Talking about Mondavi wines. What's happening in the wine world?

10:33We're also joined with Jessica and Jennifer Alexander from Lippman Brothers It's a fun episode. We laugh a lot we talk a lot It's really cool and I'm excited for you guys to hear that that one's me come out Plus we're gonna have a full recap of what happens at Nara connect we're gonna have video Follow me on the socials because you're gonna want to watch this also go to Instagram and follow Nara Nashville Nara Nashville go follow Nara Nashville because if you are a restaurant and you are a member of Nara Nashville We are going to start sharing all of your posts when you post something. We're gonna put it back out there We want to be there's a whole marketing promotion how we're gonna market our members And so this is a it's a cool thing can't wait to explain everything to you. So let's jump in With Ryan Reisdorf. This is Nashville restaurant radio Super excited today to welcome in Ryan Reisdorf Said that right right? You got it nailed it Ryan Reisdorf. He is the founder and owner of placemat Right on right on my eyes. Yes. Oh, that's not the right button. That's the right button We'll give you that Thank you Ryan welcome to Nashville restaurant radio, thank you for having me I'm excited to have you here we've I feel like we've wasted half the episode talking before the actual episode just about stuff that that's going on and There's a lot of passion in you. Yeah tons tons. I could see that. It's like this is you're entering to a stage where you're you're Working with people and you're you're starting to see a lot of stuff that's happening in this industry here in town. Yep I think that's really interesting. I can't wait to get into it. First off What is place? I know what a placemat is. Yeah, what is placemat?

12:29placemat is a booking service that offers at home in-home dining experience for guests while simultaneously providing additional revenue streams to restaurants chefs culinary talent looking to make more money diversifying revenue to Bring a little bit more financial stability to a restaurant business to a you know a brick-and-mortar or an individual that is trying to sharpen their skills provide experiences and Work a little bit more efficiently with their time Okay, so that sounded very P re like that's like this is this is the technical thing I would say if I was reading this on your website, that sounds like what it is Yeah, can you tell me what it is in layman's terms? Just like if I give you ten seconds to tell me what placemat is how would you say?

13:30What placemat is yeah placemat is it brings in-home dining experiences to your home your Airbnb wherever? there's a kitchen to provide a Three hour dinner experience from arrival to departure where the food is made in the home kitchen That was 15 seconds. Yeah, it's close better Provide in-home dining to your house or once so if I'm a restaurant, yep, right? I would sign up with placemat. Yep, and you have a website. Yeah, and then if I was coming to Nashville and I was a Here in business whatever and I wanted to host a dinner at my Airbnb or a bachelorette party I don't want to go out and get there. We're all hung over and I want to do a dinner at my house But I want mayor bowl Right. Yep, then I would go to this website now go to mayor bowl and I would book Somebody from mayor bowl to come to my Airbnb and cook us all dinner. Yeah, and it's mayor bowls menu and these menus have to be conducive of walking into a home where your real equipment is it's an oven in a stovetop and This is the beauty of What we provide for users is being able to essentially pull a rabbit out of a hat We all know, you know as users or you know growing up we love when other people are Cooking for us and how that makes us feel it's an act of love. Totally and the service side of that in the hospitality side of that is Invaluable when somebody else is taking care of like a heavy load for you of you know, preparing a meal for a group of You know eight to two fifty people like That's magic Eight to fifty. Yeah, we do parties of fifty. Oh, we've yeah We've done we've done all sorts of sizes of parties, but we've we've really Nailed our our party sizes, but we've done

15:35parties of two to 220 so who cooks the food the The individual representing the restaurant or culinary talent that we have under our brand that so you have people that will cook the food for The restaurant no, no, no for the restaurant provides somebody. Okay that it could be on a slow night It could be a day that the restaurant may be closed or it could be an employee that is looking for Extra work so you could designate a server who has a great personality and is an entertainer to Learn how to cook Steaks and whatever and you bring pretty much prepped food Yeah You're not coming there with onions and peppers and slight cutting everything up and cook You don't have the commercial equipment to do all it you're showing up with You know basic ingredients and you're just kind of preparing it in front of people. Yes, so there there is There is an element of a minimal preparation You know another term within you know, like kind of the industry that we like to use, you know A lot of people love to think it's it's oh, it's catering. Well, it's not catered glorified it Yeah, or low touch we We want to when you walk into a home, let's just say with you know Aluminum pans full of food that's already cooked and you just throw it in the oven like well as the user or the consumer standing on the other side of that that kitchen island or you know witnessing this does like the value of That experience go down because like nothing's happening other than warming things up And so there has to be this this blend of minimal preparation, you know finishing proteins chopping vegetables throwing them on a sheet tray in the oven and Then it's assembling these these menu items in a beautiful way because we all eat with our eyes and That's where the magic is is like, yeah I'll throw a couple sheet trays of vegetables in the oven and finish proteins whether it be on a grill or on the stovetop and

17:37then You're you're assembling those those family-style dishes in front of the guests in Something we take, you know great pride in in reduce, you know touch points and friction is all menus that are provided by restaurants or our culinary talent it the menus are sort of family style because We can serve that guests can sit around a table and share and pass the food around versus intricate, you know plated meals that cost time and touch points To wait for everybody to get done if somebody wants to do that, can they do that, you know? Sure, but we we really take pride in the family style experience because okay You know certain restaurants around town and across the country like we're kind of going back to that shared Menu items at you know particular restaurants and to me That's how I grew up With my family and enjoying meals is family-style nothing was plated and you know If my my mom was plating my dinner every night that would that would be amazing, but also wild But we have funny that we never eat family style here at our house Isn't whatever it's everything is plated dude, like every single thing that we do Well, it's like we have she has the family style stuff on the island and then she makes plates Yeah, and then it's a composed plate you sit down and you have a plate of food It's not but I didn't realize that until just now when you were saying it and I was like, what do I know?

19:15We get a plated meal every single it's like an individual meal Yeah, so we when we seek partnerships or representatives to represent, you know the route the the restaurant or you know when our brand goes into people's homes is We want to make it as easy as possible but if we had notes on to a reservation of like plated this plated that and Remove this like it complicates things. Oh, we're just trying to remove the chaos and streamline the operation of walking into an Airbnb a Home in Brentwood a home in leapers fork wherever it is. Like the objective doesn't change It's very very interesting where'd you come up with this idea? Oh man It was eight years ago and I came to Nashville to finish my nursing degree at Belmont University and I I'm a type 1 diabetic and I really believe in eating right, you know practicing a healthy lifestyle and I was sitting in class and I was so bothered by The idea that I was all I was learning was treatment You know a disease or a chronic illness occurred but it didn't really talk about Why it occurred why it occurred or what happened? Yeah what happened?

20:46And here I was living my life in a preventative way to you know control my my disease of type 1 diabetes And the next pages or the next slides on the lecture were was treatment the medication and I was like what What am I supposed to do with this if I don't know how this occurred? And so As we all know, you know, Nashville is was The Bachelorette capital of the world and I you know, I'm a numbers guy. I love data. I find it fascinating and Someone told me once that there's you know, on average, there's around 200 Bachelorette parties every weekend in Nashville I was like my my mind blew I was like no way But I believe it they're on every corner, you know, Wednesday, Thursday to to Sunday And so I found that fascinating so I saw that and then I looked at You know, where are they staying? Oh, okay. It's you know hotels. Yeah, but also Airbnbs, you know, just starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together and then Looking further at Airbnb in Davidson County. There was 5,000 units available And that could you know sleep one person to a group of you know, 15 Whatever it may be, but I I locked into 200 200 200 Bachelorette parties to 5,000 Airbnbs Looked at the Airbnbs and I'm like What are they using the Airbnbs for?

22:19And that was like the one thing I could say about everyone was to sleep or maybe not sleep And then I looked a little further, you know walking through the door visually is like, okay, they all have kitchens Are these groups coming in and cooking meals in their kitchens of the Airbnbs And I was like no, they're not And the only food that I you know, I like to make a joke about it, but it's The the the crummy veggie trays from Kroger and you know, the dips and seltzer waters. That's was that's what was occupying the The fridge and maybe a couple pounds of bacon And You know, I I was sitting there and then I saw you know from a cafe to a You know Award-winning restaurant in Davidson County. There is again around 5,000 restaurants and I was like Why isn't there something? That cohesively connects all of these things together and I In between classes during my lectures Learned how to you know kind of code and built a website to take bookings for people to have Bookings for people to have in-home dining experiences and I try to be efficient with my time and energy and I was like i'm not going to build something from scratch So I don't have those capabilities, but I have inspiration and the inspiration truly came from user experiences that we're all familiar with as users and that was booking a hotel Booking a flight booking a rental car um Because those things those user experiences we we don't talk to somebody But we get the the end product with a couple clicks of a button and that was the inspiration Did you and is this only available in nashville? No, we I mean this has been a uh an absolute

24:23hustle, uh These last several years, uh, we've had how long has placemat been in existence, uh Uh Eight years april 17th 2017 was the first booking Uh that we ever got and that was uh That was a wild Experience um I i'm a i'm a nursing student again, and I I just I I Go into these, you know like these stories because I want to also offer like some inspiration like anyone can do this um, and we all have the capabilities, but it's execution, but I was I was sitting there in class and I Went on to airbnb and I I went to 160 airbnb hosts and at the time You did not have to put a credit card information down to to book a a stay But what this did was it opened up a message box To these hosts and all I would do is copy and paste a template. I am a belmont nursing student I have this business and I want to bring dining experiences into your guests because your guests will have a higher rate of satisfaction with your your place of stay And at the time as a host you had to respond within 24 hours. Otherwise your rating went down. So You know jackpot. Um But I didn't know what was next because I was just you know building this plane, you know while I was flying it and People were like send send a one sheet or more information I was like, I don't have any more information like this is the this is the deal. This is it. This is it I'll give you 75 dollars If we get a confirmed booking So like airbnb hosts in the early days were like the sales force To drive, you know some sort of traffic and I remember I took a meeting at frothy monkey on 12 south

26:24With a property management group They managed 24 properties in nashville and that's where I was like, oh this could scale we could do 24 a night Um, which one was that? Uh, it was it was two gentlemen, uh, donald jenkins and nick weir Okay, because there's harley homes right over there. Do you know harley homes? Uh, i've heard yeah, i've heard of it around the corner 21st and blare and he has like 350 but there's 24 Within walking distance to chago is my restaurant over and I met with him But like I didn't know if he was one of your guys. He's like the best dude ever. He's harley is amazing. Um good guy But we We sat in that meeting and I just made everything up I was like, yeah, i've been doing this for months. Here's our pricing, you know, we're Providing a convenient solution to food in this wonderful city and you know, they're like, oh, this is amazing. Like we'll be in touch And two days later they called me and they're like, hey, are you guys, uh by chance available on friday? I was like shit Uh, yeah, of course we are. Oh, I didn't have a chef and I was not the chef um, I knew how to cook certain things but I was like, uh We might be booked Well, I gotta call you back. Let me see if we can work some stuff around and this was just like Again building up pent up demand and short selling it. Um And I I hung up the phone and Uh, I was living with my best friend at the time and uh, I was like you gotta come help me with this We're gonna do it and uh We ended up doing it. We we called them back and confirmed it. Uh, and It's my roommate and I at the time And we showed up with you know, two three bags of whole foods groceries and just got to work in This kitchen in uh Bell mead and it it wasn't an airbnb It was just the people I met with looking for this. Oh, wow uh

28:25That was a wild experience. Um To midwestern, you know boys just providing midwestern hospitality um and So when you had the idea that hey, we need to get restaurants involved here and they can come cook the food Yeah, I was like how can we outsource this how can we find people but It was so pivotal for me in my roommate at the time my best friend, um to Do this ourselves to understand operationally in the structure of what is it like to walk into somebody's home? Because if I tell you like hey, we've got a gig for you this friday and i'm just like go do it you're gonna nail it like Expectations aren't going to be met. It's not going to be clear. The objective is going to be you know, fuzzy And so those early days were so pivotal of forming The operational structure of what is it like to walk into a home? That you don't know anything about And You know, that's the last several years. We formulated that playbook I can now give you a sheet of paper that Shows you everything you need to do and what to say and how to do it that's helpful. Um, yeah to to to maximize, you know Our our capacities as a business how much so let's just say I sign up I want to be on placemat at the green hills grill. Yeah, right We do a ton of takeout and delivery but like if people want me to come cook a green hills grill meal at their house What kind of revenue can I generate I mean is it like I could increase sales 275 dollars a week. I mean am I talking can I do like five grand a week? Can I do?

30:08Oh, yeah, you what what what is the ceiling and floor of that? Well, that's it's uh, we We do not want to ever compromise the restaurant business model as it is That is not what we're trying to do and to form a strong long-lasting relationship partnership We cannot expect that but What the restaurant can do is like what is the capacity for the restaurant and it's its team of you know Liaisons ambassadors to go into homes the answer your question with revenue is our greatest year, um 2021 we did 1.2 million dollars in revenue Um, that's great Yeah, and so we want to be able to be like hey restaurant This can be you but that also comes with shifts in the operation shifts in the expectation of your staff your employees, but I truly believe From what i've learned through this is that like when hiring individuals for your restaurant, I think the best type type of ambassadors for your brand Are the individuals that are proud to go to work that love to go to work there?

31:22And are then out in the community sharing that experience To keep driving people there the awareness the the wherewithal so it can also be like a marketing platform In which you're getting paid for yeah, yeah where you can get out there and tell your story to people who are spending money Yeah, especially locals in the area of your Yeah for them What's the best success story that you have as a restaurant? Give me an example of a restaurant success story of somebody who Maybe wasn't doing the sales or needed that and then they came on and it helped them or that they've really enjoyed working with you yeah, I think um there's so there's a There's a difference in types of restaurants and you know that are open forward thinking See the the opportunity at hand And then there's other restaurants that say like hell no, it's never going to work. I think the greatest um you know success story for me and I have a it's it's close to my heart, but um I went to i've been had been going to margo Cafe for years as a patron because I loved you know margo In hadley's approach to the food. Yeah, there was no frills. Um No ego, none of it and I could go to margo. Um In my sweatpants Or I could go to margo, you know on a date a suit a suit I could come as you are In their their approach to the food is so simple And that's something that I I I want simple not not tight Like that's not my palette but like simple ingredients don't complicate complicate this with the process or how it was made And so I went to meet with um margo and I was like I just you know Give me 15 minutes your time. I went in there and met with her and she's like, oh, this is cool This is great. You know saw that kind of like forward thinking momentum

33:24and you know I got margo's kind of like, you know validation from it, but then I had to go meet, you know The head honcho the executive chef at the time hadley. Yeah hadley is amazing. Um, he is amazing and He was the first restaurant when I started pitching this to say yes And so I think I have to give a lot of credit to him and margo for allowing us to grow into other restaurants and refining our pitch and what does this look like and Answering the questions that i've never heard of before When presenting to something new, um, but I think the the biggest success is starting with our first restaurant that we ever brought on board was margo cafe It's funny. She was my second interview ever on the podcast amazing as far as like people who said yes And were willing to take a shot on me march 17th 2020 wow, I interviewed carrie bringle and margo mccormick back-to-back wow and Live in there and it was probably the most transformative interview i've ever done in my life Of all the interviews i've done That interview with margo Was so impactful for a young, you know guy trying to figure out how to do this, but that's that's a whole nother story um We're going to take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors Running a restaurant is tough staff turnover rising cost and the endless tasks that bog you down and take you away from what you love Let adams keegan lighten that load their privately held tennessee-based restaurant and hospitality focused outsourced hr Payroll and benefits firm the team at adams keegan removes the administrative burdens of hr administration payroll benefits management Garnishments unemployment claims compliance 401k and so much more from their proprietary Hris platform to seamless payroll and competitive benefits that keep your team smiling They've got you covered adams keegan lets you focus on what you do best creating unforgettable dining experiences while they handle the rest

35:29Essentially think of adams keegan as your back office hr department right here in music city One of the many things I love about adams keegan is that unlike big publicly traded companies out there They have an incredibly high standard of customer service and that that's what we all need is really good customer service in these areas They don't give you a 1-800 number and make you fill out an it ticket submission They surround every client with a team of experts all based right here in tennessee You can call them today at six one five six two seven zero eight two one or visit adams keegan.com That's a d a m s K e e g an.com for your free hr consultation and see how they can create a customized solution to help your restaurant thrive Hello Restaurant people Y'all know I don't just hype just anything. I've been watching this brand pony boy Slings for a while now and I gotta say I love their vibe on social media more importantly people seem to absolutely love this product So I did what I do. I reached out. I heard their story and now i'm pumped to say Pony boy slings is the newest sponsor of nashville restaurant radio This is a bourbon based canned cocktail seven percent alcohol by volume That's kind of the sweet spot for a real drink. It's made with real bourbon real juice No preservative zero artificial flavors or colors full flavor This is not for the basic. It is designed for those in between moments. Um Pre-shift hangs post service wind downs brunch coolers patio sips golf carts If you have a patio anything for a happy hour, this is absolutely perfect And all you have to do is just chill it pop it and giddy up It's premium. It's legit and it's made by bartenders for people who actually care about quality cocktails Oh, and if you want to start carrying it pony boy slings is distributed by best brands

37:31So reach out to your rep and ask for it by name pony boy slings real bourbon real juice real good Very excited to be partnering with c and b linen If you know me It's my number one topic of conversation is linen companies and how shady linen companies can be I am just disgusted with how the business practices work in this industry Which is why I was so excited when I found c and b linen. They're out of waynesboro, tennessee and They don't charge any fees So the linen price that you have whatever that first linen price is that's your price And so you may say well every year they must raise the price on this seven-year contract, right? No, because they don't do any contracts there's no gas fees. There's no clean green service fees. There's no replacement cost. There's Nothing. The only price you pay is the price that you pay for the actual product I know it's too good to be true. No contracts. They do formats They'll make custom formats for you. They do fresh linens cleaning supplies And guys, I just did a tour of their facility and it is immaculate. It is state of the art Uh, i'm gonna post pictures on my instagram You can go find them and you can see how absolutely gorgeous this is to the point that they even wash and sanitize every one of their used laundry carts It's just absolutely amazing if you're looking for a linen company You can trust who wants to earn your business every single week Go back and listen to our episode with jason cruz the owner of cnb linen hear it from his straight from his mouth Exactly what they do or you give them a call at 9 3 1 7 2 2 7616 or you can dm me at brandon still on instagram for my exclusive pricing through The nashville area restaurant alliance. Hey everyone. We all know running a restaurant is tough between managing staff food costs and service Who really has time to chase down numbers?

39:34That's where grumburg accounting comes in they specialize in bookkeeping and financial consulting for restaurants bars and catering businesses with over 10 Years of experience helping food service businesses thrive They will track down your prime costs identify waste and improve profitability while turning your numbers into strategy with clearer monthly reports and personalized guidance Already have a cpa. Great. They'll work with them need one. They'll introduce you They handle pos integration payroll vendor tracking and budgeting so you can focus on what matters From catching unpaid sales tax to inflated food costs They catch what others miss giving you real-time financial insight so you can make confident decisions They're your dedicated partner Not just a bookkeeping service with customizable solutions for every restaurant's unique needs Let them handle the numbers so you can focus on your team and your guests Oh, yeah, and your food grumburg accounting that's g r u m b e r g accounting.com there's there's also like one other thing that I think is important that we were kind of talking about before like What makes margo and you know margo herself?

40:46in her brand successful And sustainable is they've been around for 20 plus years She you know invests in the wellness and happiness of their employees And she's not complicating anything She does it right in all aspects, but she she's Genuine with her love Of her staff and the people who dine there in its real community. Yep. It's not Pretentious. Yep. It's not a I want this I want that it's just you show up there and it feels good It feels like you're in a neighborhood and they make food with love and they give love with service and you leave there and you go That was just amazing and it's a whole vibe there and she does she cares. She's passionate. She does things the right way. Yep So yeah, I gotta I gotta give credit to the number one I love that. Okay I you came and talked to me at maribola. I thought this was really interesting and then we talked about Nara and how you know, how can we work with nara and I love your passion around Wanting to help people right? So this started so i'm just gonna paraphrase it started as this business where Look i'd like to be able to provide healthy food to people when they're out of town or when they're at their home They don't have to go out to a restaurant. I'm sure the pandemic probably helped you Yeah, I mean, it's probably nice people staying at home like oh, I guess I want food cooked at my house a little difficult to get in the house with the no contact and all this stuff, but um Transition to hey look, let's get restaurants involved What's your overall mission now, I mean because everything evolves right so initially healthy food Let's create the problem of there's 5 000 airbnbs 200 bachelorette parties. Let's get them food inside their house

42:48And then you trend let's get restaurants to provide this food um I see it feels to me like you want to be a solution for restaurants as well Like you want to come in and say hey I can help you build sales through this and Market your restaurant to these people. Maybe they'll come back and dine in And provide health so there's there's a bunch of solutions here And i'm just i'm just looking at it from if i'm a restaurant owner and i'm listening to this What's going to make me want to call placemat because I want to be involved in that. Yeah, it's uh It's so the your question of like what's the mission now it's we've stayed kind of on track and on course, um It's twofold. Um But first and foremost something that is really really really important to me when we look um At our communities. It can be nashville. It can be you know, middle market. It can be small market. Um What is really?

43:50important to me is Financial sustainability to the most important assets of these communities and that is If we have a solution To put more money in the most important asset your employees pockets That's going to allow them to live the life that they are choosing and wanting to actually live um and with you know increasing their hourly wage by Of them, you know enabling them to go into people's homes On the day that they're off or building this into their schedule like guess what happens When they're able to make maybe a thousand dollars extra a week a month What's your average order size? Uh, it's 12 guests usually 12 guests is your average Yeah order and then what is the typical per person cost? Uh, 125 Is that a flat rate across? Hey, it's 125 a guest or is there tiers? No, it's 125 per guest to start Um as we entered the market with a full, you know launch because It's again. There's there's tricks to this and you got to understand what our users willing to pay Um, is that including like gratuity and it does not include gratuity But that includes the the representative or the chef from the restaurant and it doesn't need to be the chef It's just that ambassador Um, it includes the food and the service and these experiences are from arrival departure again three hours Okay um but we have to A restaurant a brand has to create the value for that $125 But if I come in and say hey, we're gonna do this for 500 bucks a person Yeah, people will pay for that. But how many bookings are you gonna get and is that the story we want to tell?

45:36To users to partners We really want this financial transaction to be something that Goes into the employees pockets Not the restaurant making more profit necessarily, but if they decide how to you know, divvy up that revenue Why not pay that employee who's representing the brand and marketing the brand? A little bit extra because this is going to help with retention Um, the gig economy in the culinary world has kind of gotten a little wild So, you know if I work at a restaurant as you know, a line cook or a sous chef, whatever it may be I can go online today and pick up gigs at other restaurants and how are you going to protect that asset again of your employees from staying at your restaurant And this to me is a big question of like What are we willing to do? For our again our most important piece our employees that show up every day that make sacrifices and There's not always enough money to pay them And our solution provides revenue that doesn't affect the bottom line to pay people more So like it it's the way we look at and then The the second piece of this is like when when people have more money They're able to do things they can get their car repaired. They could buy a new car. They can You know, they can Pay rent they can pay for health insurance. They can you know Be seen by a doctor they can go on vacation um but Ultimately what we're we would love to shift is this approach on a healthy Lifestyle That enables us to live, you know in a life of well-being And when we you put again, you know a little bit more financial stability behind somebody they they make better decisions um, they can make better decisions and We want the industry, you know, there's a growing trend of users wanting healthier options

47:42but if restaurants aren't Willing to be flexible in the types of foods that they're making like what's going to happen in, you know five years from now And so we're trying to be ahead of it and assist the restaurants in these partnerships of like we're not asking to make healthy food today, but Be a little bit more cognizant about what users and consumers want What's the number one objection you get from like a restaurant owner who says I don't what it was the number one objection that you Yeah, this is this is wild. Um and it's it's uh, so the number one objection that we have heard is uh Staffing And staffing is like we don't have somebody that can go do this and i'm like well like you know, I like I believe you and you know all that to be said but like What happens if you were to you know survey your staff do they want to make an extra Three four five hundred dollars on a given night to go make our food in someone's home Like how many hands you think will go up?

48:49Well, I mean their hands may go up I may not be able to spare them just because somebody could go work for three hours somewhere else it's an extra body that I have to keep on staff that I can't hire somebody for six hours a week if they have two of those a week I've got to find another role for them to do in the restaurant, right? Yeah, and so to to that point is like we're we're asking like what's the restaurant's capability and availability? Yeah, we're not saying hey give us seven nights a week like we're not no, I understand that but i'm just i'm just saying like Restaurants are staffed. We don't I don't have extra people Like i'm not going to keep extra people on staff because that's It's not respectful to them So I bring in nine servers for a shift that I need four or if I bring in Seven servers for a shift that I need four because I have extra staff then nobody makes money Yeah, right and then we're shooting ourselves in the foot So it's like i'm pretty specific I have a headcount number of full-time and part-time people that I keep on staff so that I have it Dialed into where everybody can maximize the amount of money they're making and I can still make every guest a repeat guest so in this particular scenario and it's Just send somebody over to a house to cook. It's like well, I don't I have enough line same deal in the kitchen. I don't have extra kitchen people because They all most people in the kitchen work two jobs. They work here lunch and their dinner Like there's always somebody doing there's not a lot of extra hours so to speak Sure, and so it's almost like so i'd have to hire somebody Who could facilitate this and if it's two nights a week Or maybe it's three nights a week I gotta find another position for them two other days a week and I don't have just like extra shifts Now it's nice to have the extra person in case somebody quits and then yeah, i'm just i'm just rabbit hunting this with you No, yeah, and I think that's you bring up a great, you know objection and you know I think it's if you were to ask the staff that you had are they open willing to

50:51To take on this work on a you know on a on this basis because when Restaurants partner with us they get a login to our platform that allows them to upload their availability And so there's a little bit of coaching and training of like hey, you know Do you want to do you want to have availability to go into this home on this tuesday night? Answers no totally fine. There's no risk. There's no loss to the restaurant. But if the answer is yes Put that date up these bookings come in with a minimum of 10 days notice. Well, that's nice Yeah, so we're it's not like hey 10 days notice is good. I can find somebody in 10 days to do There we go. That's the thing. Yeah, so that's just kind of like the approach of again, we we have to be really cognizant of the restaurant's operation and their their staffing and we're trying to make it as easy as possible for them to create availability And generate, you know supplemental diversified revenue Heard No, I I'm just taking it all in no, i'm learning and I will tell you that Ryan's going to be at the narah connect event Which is going to be uh This week coming up this thursday. Yeah 14th 14th. Yeah And Come talk to him come find out about placemat if some of the interests you see where I see this really being an amazing tool is For restaurants that want to add a little bit more sales that need a little Boost in marketing if you're a newer restaurant or you want to get your name out there I look at placemat as a marketing platform as somebody who could go to placemat and they can see the restaurant and just for visibility Hey, do I want to order from this place? Oh, what is that place? I need to go to their website and check them out. Yep You're going to visit the website to the restaurant. You're going to see it. Oh this menu looks amazing Hey, we should go dine there. I I think it's just for visibility getting in there seeing it And then when you actually do book it, I mean at 125 a person for 12 people

52:56You're looking at a 1500 dollar Deal right there and it's like hey if I can really lean into that and I can get several of these a week It's almost it's it's a nice little side hustle where you're able to actually get Your staff a little bit more money, but as well you can start building sales And if you take advantage of it and you're proactive with it Hey, we're going to give everybody here a ten dollar comp to come in. You know, I mean you can market it However, you can show up there Do all the things and then hand somebody something and send them home with that and come back see if or you can We're only here once we're never going to be back. Okay, maybe you don't do that, but we you're going to a home in belmeade It's a great opportunity to market learn people's names. I mean it can be really interesting and good for the restaurant I I just see it as something that's a little different if you're stuck if you're like, what do we do next? I think that So many people right now marketing is such a mystery Yeah, and when I say marketing is a mystery, there's just so much tech and there's so much data out there Like what do you market? Do you do a funny reel on tiktok? Do you organically post on instagram?

54:04Do you do ads? Do you do print? Do you do? Radio like how do you market is it for walls marketing? Like this is just a unique interesting way to get the word out for what you're doing and if people Talk about great experiences I mean if I hosted the green hills grill here at my house and they crushed it and the guy had all the energy and all The enthusiasm I'd tell a hundred people. Yeah, it's I mean I would be like I had this great experience and it wasn't crazy expensive or feeding 12 people Wasn't catering. It was way more personal And who doesn't want to have a chef or somebody come to your house and cook you a dinner? Like you'd have in a restaurant family style. Yeah, it's a great idea. I mean I see it How are you guys marketing? What placemat does are you on like all the socials and are you? Yeah, we I you know us is getting our foundation set and making sure that you know, our language is aligned with you know, our partners and all of that we We're making sure we're sturdy in that in those regards, but everything that we have done In terms of marketing is it's all been word of mouth Wow all word of mouth. Um and I am so grateful for the opportunities that we have been given over the last several years where there are a-list celebrities that we have gone into their home that like We have no business being in their home in terms of like culinary talent But it's the service that we are providing and the food that we are providing Where these these high profile clients aren't having to lift a finger and they've been a huge marketing engine for us because their word is So strong in those communities and it just keeps leading us to more and more people um And then we get a shout out, you know, whether it be on instagram From one of these high profile people like boom. It's a wildfire again

56:05um, we recently um signed up with uh Sprout house agency a pr firm that works with you know, uh, james beard restaurants. They're really helping us craft You know our messaging our pitch and creating those relationships to help us keep Widening our net and you know, uh being concise with how we present ourselves And what we're doing and creating that that story and that narrative uh but We have continued to stay on the tracks of what we know. We're really good at and that's providing, you know really good customer service, um Being tech enabled and then providing a wonderful unforgettable feel-good food experience in three hours in somebody's home How many restaurants do you have on the platform right now we have uh around 40 And we haven't gone live with this yet. We're still slowly testing it out and these restaurants are across the country So your placemat is national. This is a question I asked you earlier. Are you In all 50 states not all 50 states we've done continental united states, yeah But there's there's mid-level markets. That's uh, you know, madison wisconsin where i'm from Austin texas rosemary beach down in seaside florida Scottsdale see I imagine that would be a massive market down there. Yeah families on vacation You don't want to go wait in line Somebody can come to my house and cook this house on the beach and cook dinner Yeah, that seems like that's that's The same thing as nashville but down there I I do I don't come to nashville and hang out So I can envision that I can envision that for me um, but then that same family that's on vacation like can go home and Hopefully have it wherever they live too someday. Um and we We are really just trying to form, you know lasting partnerships with restaurants, you know independent to you know mid-size range chains, uh to help bring a little bit more sustainability to kind of a

58:11um a business that we don't know where it's headed right now and We're trying to think ahead of what what is next? But we we do need help in terms of relationships with restaurants support From restaurants, um and also the belief in what we're trying to do for the business because we're we're really looking at that That employee level Of how do you retain talent? How do you keep them happy? How do you pay them more? I see that solution. I I feel like That's a double-edged sword. Yeah, right because what i'm going to tell you is We all want to keep our staff yeah, we all want to keep our staff happy I want them to make all the money in the world Yeah But I want the restaurant to be profitable. Totally I have to pay Lots of overhead and lots of bills and Gordon food service. I got to pay a big chunk every single month and there's a lot of A lot of things that hit you in a restaurant and I need to drive profitability That's my number one thing i'm looking to do because then I can employ more people then I can Really pay people more when i'm profitable You know, it's hard to make decisions as to taking people out and there's a food cost associated with it for Well, I really want johnny to go make an extra three hundred dollars today There's a lot of operational things that have to go down a chef's gotta get all this stuff together and it's a it's a It's a process. Yeah, i'm looking for What does the restaurant get out of this?

59:55Yeah, especially if i'm a small business if i'm a local business owner of a small restaurant Who's working 75 hours a week because they can't afford to have staff in the first place. Yep I want to know where where's the profit from this? Am I going to sign up for this? And is it going to help me pay my bills? Yeah, here's here's the thing is we never want to tell a restaurant how to Utilize the revenue that they generate with us. That's not our job. Yeah, no, not at all. Um, so It's again, what is that incentive? What is that tool? What is that ask out of your employee? So are you saying that you can Pay the guy doing the food that money or we can take it and put it towards the restaurant It's however, like we're paying the restaurant So we're like the money is then distributed. However, they need to distribute it to pay the person to do it the food costs And the restaurant but we can't come in saying hey Make sure you're paying that person doing this Well, I don't want to Not pay the person. I mean, that's not a thing. I mean you want to make you you want to for their time energy That's a tough thing to go to somebody's house that you'd it takes a certain type of personality to walk in room people You don't know. Yeah, I mean most cooks for all intents purposes aren't In the front of the house because they don't want to be in the front of the house There's a side that I could stay behind here. I make my dish. I spin it in the window And i'm on to the next dish. I don't have to entertain while i'm cooking Yeah, and that's you're kind of Mixing those two things together It sounds perfect for a guy like me I would have more I used to drive uber because I loved meeting people. I just loved talking to the chem to nashville I just learned a lot From driving uber around town This is right at my alley I would love to go into somebody's house and meet all these people. Where are you from? Like i'm just naturally curious I just want to learn about oh you're a doctor. What kind of doctor I just would jump right in Yeah, I think that's super interesting. You'd be damn good and I would love that Yeah, and that's what we we're trying to to bring those people along the ride with us because people

01:01:56Love those types of experiences Have you guys ever thought about hiring a like in nashville having 15 people? Who are ready and willing who are trained chefs who can cook anybody's food and you create a menu So let's just say you go to the green hills grill again. We'll use my restaurants as a as a guinea pig here but I have a kit That I could give to any chef And then they go make with perfect instructions and you can kind of hey i've done this one before We make it kind of foolproof. You just go in here's all the food. Here's all the ingredients You kind of put them all together in front of the people do the show And that's what I guess you lose some of the marketing side of that. Yeah. Well, it's you're essentially we've thought about that That's kind of like licensing. Uh, yeah the brand and the menu of the restaurant and Yeah, that that may work but there's there's again a little bit of friction of like, how do I know? I'm going to represent the restaurant the right way You got to get the right people and you got to build trust. Yeah, so um You know, we've thought about that option. Um And explored it just a little bit but that's you know, we're we're just kind of keep driving down this road Um because we're seeing traction with it and we love it. We're seeing an appetite with it from you know partners Um as well as users Like they they can imagine it's a great experience. Yeah And it sounds cool like my favorite restaurant come to my house When when when have you ever had that in uh, I've never had that That's not something i've ever done and it sounds really cool um, yeah, so that's that's what we're we're Building and we are so close and we're just looking to build, you know more relationships with restaurants, but we're not um We're not and i'm not going to leave a restaurant A stray or set them up for failure because guess what happens and placemat takes the hit

01:03:59We'll we ruin, you know trust and loyalty and you know, your voice is probably louder than ours Oh, I can imagine. Um, and i'm i'm not That's not what i'm trying to do and obviously that's not the intention and we just want we want to Slowly build these relationships because there's a learning curve. Yeah with it. Well, it sounds like you're You're you're flexible You know, you're constantly evolving in what you're doing and you're taking best practices here taking best practices there And I love the concept. I see it being something that's huge I mean really can be a big revenue stream for somebody if they can really hit it right and they can You got to kind of put an sop around it you got to say these are the eight different dinner experiences we can do then you have everything if you can figure it out to where it's not a We'll put this thing together Yeah, when you can run numbers behind it and say this is what my percentage of food cost is for this This is what my layer and you can run and because that's the thing I don't think a lot of people do I think a lot of people just go Oh, that sounds cool. We'll do it or they don't do it if you can Actually figure out a food cost around it what your percentage is what you're charging and all the things for 125 And you figure that out It's a math problem at that point. Yeah, can I make money doing this or can I not?

01:05:18Yeah, how is it? Is it a value? Is it something we can do? um We we've spent the last several years building all that out. Um And that's you know, fortunately what we have to be able to show and sometimes it's delivering That information not that information in these these preliminary pitches or you know conversations, but We have all that and that's why we you know Coined the term were placemat as an unrestaurant because we took the model and did it upside down We didn't you know, we did not build uh an establishment. We did not have a you know, a brick and mortar And all we waited were For people to knock on the door To ask for a table and we executed the those tables So the overhead for us is so small and the overhead for a restaurant to partner with us is so small That makes sense. Yep All of it. Sorry I've given you i'm giving you a little bit of pushback on some of these items because I know my listeners are local restaurants And they're thinking some of the same things of course and I want to represent. Yeah. Well, I mean I love your attitude I love your drive. I love your hustle. I love trying to find solutions And I think it's a really neat concept I think it's really really cool and I think it's it's Especially for what we're doing here in nashville. I think it could absolutely just blow up you get a bunch of the right restaurants in there and it's something that could Really be special totally and I again like I We need we need those conversations and we need You know, I would love to talk to anybody and even if there's pushback because i've faced the pushback but When I get that pushback we we evolve we we change a little bit to appease that that friction and that pushback because We our business relies on partners and if we don't have partners, we don't have the business

01:07:22Um, and so we have to recognize what partners want in need in order to do this Um, and we've you know the trials and the tests that we have done already with it have been You know phenomenal and we we learn from them what what works what doesn't work and we we're on this feedback loop of We have users and partners and we need to to understand the feedback loop of both of them in order to be successful Collexo is an art and design collective of bipoc, lgbtq Women and allies focused on creating delightful drinking opportunities for all focusing on quality taste and experience We delight humankind by creating delicious and health-conscious drinking experiences that shift perspectives encouraging real life connection to ourselves And our communities cheers. This is what colexo says on their website. They have three Amazing flavors. They have the cucumber citron five milligrams of hemp derived thc Citrus rose, which also has five milligrams of hemp derived thc And they have my personal favorite the semi Tropic it has five milligrams of hemp derived thc as well These products are available by ellipman brothers if you'd like to order for your restaurant or if you want to go try them yourself you can visit drink colexo dot co Or you can pick them up at killjoy in east nashville. This is an amazing company They're not some conglomerate who's jumping into the thc game They are a craft thc beverage company where just like you and I this is their only focus This is the only product that they make so they put a hundred percent of their detail and love into it Please enjoy responsibly Sharpie's bakery is a locally owned and family operated wholesale bakery providing bread to nashville's best eateries They have operated in nashville since 1986 Yes, next year will be 40 years

01:09:24They providing high quality fresh bread daily for restaurants catering companies hospitals and universities The bread is also free from any preservatives and artificial flavors They're right off of white bridge road erin mosso and her team been doing this for a long time And you know what I love about them is that they're local and they care they care about your business That's like the number one thing you're going to hear me talk about is Do they care about your business and I 100% believe that they do If you would like to be working with a bakery that cares about your business give them a call 615 356 0 8 7 2 That's 6 1 5 3 5 6 0 8 7 2 now. You can always visit them at sharpies.com. That's charpiers.com And they have pictures of all of the bread that they can have for you and contact information go check them out sharpie's bakery Y'all today we are talking As always about super source and you know one cool thing about super source is did you know that they develop?

01:10:32Most of their cleaning products and chemicals in their in-house facility They're environmentally conscious and only use dyes that are safe for the employees and the environment They carry a number of products for keeping your dishes flatware services floors restrooms Laundry basically your entire facility clean bright and smelling and feeling new This is just one of the many reasons super source is taking over this city for dish machine and chemicals You need to call jason ellis his number seven seven zero three three seven eleven forty three And he would love it if you give him a call and let him come down and just check out your operation Meet him Say hi see if there's any way he can help he is here to help you succeed. That's jason ellis with super source seven seven zero three three seven eleven forty three Heard if I was a restaurant and I wanted to learn more about you I could probably come To the nara connect event on thursday august the 14th from three to six I would have to go to nara nashville.com I click the nara connect tab and then I would hit register and it's free and you could go and you can meet Ryan in person there at the event inside the kitchen of the music city center. Yep. Have you ever been in the kitchen?

01:11:50These are not it's freaking cool man. It's massive. It's bigger than my house. I mean, I don't have like a big house, but like it's huge and that's going to be great, but if I was One of the unlucky ones that didn't get a ticket because they ran out of tickets How would I get a hold of you? If I wanted to learn more about place matt and I wanted you to come by my restaurant sit down with me and tell Me this story and kind of answer any of the questions I might have What's your phone number? What's your email address? What's the website? Tell me everything. Yeah, I i'll share this and I appreciate that my I am flexible and willing to come to people. Um, I will come at any hour of the day I get up early on sundays. Yeah, sure whenever whenever um My email is ryan at eat placemat.com to see what we're building ryan At eat placemat.com you got to say it real Real normal like okay eat placemat.com. Um To see what we're building, uh our restaurant platform Uh, that is called not catering.com Um not catering.com. Yeah, it's uh, it's cheeky. It's funny. We'll we'll change it but um trying to stand out um and make it a little bit more memorable, um And then yeah phone number 608-575-1321, uh, call me text me I like I I live in east nashville. I Can drive I you know, i'm out and about Happy to come to you Besides margo. What's your favorite restaurant in east nashville? That's a that's a loaded question. There's a lot of loaded for lunch And then we'll do dinner. Uh Lunch I I love a piece. I love uh, I love lola um

01:13:50Those are near and dear to my heart. Um I A piece that's 12 south though. Yeah. Yeah, okay in in east nashville for lunch I you know, I I this is my newly found spot, uh Is alabri hey, uh, but they're not only for lunch Some days they are. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, they were just dinner. No, uh, alabria is amazing edgar victoria is doing amazing stuff over there edgar victoria is uh, The man he he's he's a legend. Um, and his story is Incredible. Um, I refuse to sit at any of the tables um, i'm not i'm not a You know stingy about this, but I I just love sitting at that counter with my friends. Uh, and just hearing edgar just Go after it. Um and share his stories and talk about drifting and whatever's on his mind because he's He has so much again passionate him. Um He's an artist. Yeah, and his food is incredible. Um, I don't think there's anything like it um There's not yeah there there really isn't but he's He's a very you know salt of the earth guy, um, and I respect the hell out of him and his hustle and Everything that he's been through and done. Um Um Lachlan table Is classic another favorite, uh of mine, um Roberta's at urban cowboy Is he go is a favorite?

01:15:36Uh, let's see. What else is there? Um That's good. That's good. That's I can go on I'll just say you got three of the best sandwich shops in the world over there with east side bond me Yeah, you got fat belly pretzel and bill's yeah, uh sandwich palette. I mean there's three of them that are just like Monsters and then I like pelican and pig too. I think pelican pigs a delicious dinner All right, you know and they've been around for a little bit and I think that a lot of people sleep on some of the the people who've Been crushing it for a little while I say a little while. I mean what five six years they've been but that's Like 20 years and in restaurant years Uh, I think everybody wants to talk about the new thing. What's the new thing that comes out and i'm like I love you mentioned lochlin table Because they've been doing it for a long time and they've been serving the community in the best way for a long time Same as margo And I think that nick and audre do a good job over at pelican and pig too Some some great stuff over in east nashville. I love going east nashville. So yeah my favorite things to do There's culture over there. Oh man, it's diverse. Uh, I feel like i'm at home over there. I don't feel like i'm at home out here It's a little weird. It's beautiful, but it's a little weird pelican and pig Right next door like the slow hand the pastries like that's that's theirs, too I know. Yeah, that's I know that pearl diver two doors down or next door to them. Yeah, uh Secret bodega opened up in there, which is a you know Uh another great spot Um, there's a lot over there noko. Yeah. Oh, yeah. John. Murray is another guy that he just his story and what he's trying to do and transforming the industry is like Mad respect to him He's amazing. Yeah, great guy And it reminds me to check a text message All right We're at an hour. Yeah, that's how fast an hour goes. We're just talking about we didn't get into all the the uh, You got another hour

01:17:37Do I know? We could go for three or four more actually It's crazy. I want you guys to come meet ryan at the nara connect event I think we still have like 25 more seats available Which in two weeks is gonna go really fast. So I think it's gonna be a full house And we've got some some amazing people gonna be there. I'm excited to see a bunch of my friends at this event I'm excited to have you ryan there introduce everybody to Not catering not catering place matt. Yep, where you can um you know, you all have that employee who's the guy who can cook or the woman who can cook and But they just have that personality. You're like man You're the one to do this and if you can add a you know, a few thousand dollars extra in sales in a week It's not the end of the world do it like go do it. I mean i'm thinking chagos, right? I'm like, hey, let's get you signed up over chagos That'd be a good thing people love to have mexican food and we'll come to your house and do it No, can I bring alcohol? Yeah, so we we right now are not uh Getting into that. Okay, not not on this conversation, but just not not providing that I was like Why did you want to talk about it? No, that's that's not a piece of what right now does right now Um that just it changes again pricing and liability and things like that something else that we we do I do want to mention is we cover all liability for restaurants That was my those were my question I was gonna ask is what about insurance what if my guy burns himself or Catches the place on fire. Yeah, we have coverage for that um, which We're you know being ahead of that these questions. Yeah, uh, but we have coverage for that that liability um But you know, we would love to to offer alcohol and you know drink service and stuff, but that just adds things to the The whole function adds liabilities Yeah, and you know people love byob, you know, oh if you're an airbnb or your house, you've got your own stuff I'm not gonna Paying extra for food is one thing but when I can have a bottle of jack daniels there my own wine. Yeah, then

01:19:42It makes sense. I just didn't know like because if you're a margarita or you show up with a pitcher of margaritas or a gallon of margaritas That adds to a mexican experience and you know, somebody doesn't want to make mixed drinks or something you could bring Something Mixed drinks or some kind of a batch something are there make cocktails for people kind of like what erin Vaccaro was talking about with the liquor labs like people just love that experience You could almost do a all right. We have a signature drink. We have a signature drink at maribor called the mother bubbles Champagne and all this stuff You should we're gonna teach you how to make the mother bubbles and we're all gonna have champagne drinks and we're gonna cook this food I could see that being something. Yeah, I think down the road as we get feedback But we're focusing right now on the the food and the experience. I love it all right, um We'll have to do this again because we have so much to talk about um Just in the state of the world with restaurants and as you go and meet more restaurants I can tell you're a guy that cares you're a guy that cares about the team. You're a guy that cares about providing healthy food to people um And that's that's somebody asked me this it was the most important thing you can have and I go you just got to care Yeah, you got to care you got to care about what you're doing and it's it's evident and i'm I really appreciate that. I mean it's It's a true story, man. I appreciate it. Love having you here The last thing we do on this show is I give you this is called the gordon food service final thought So you get to take us out Whatever you want to say Does not matter whatever you want to say Uh But you get to have the last word of the podcast and then I don't get to respond and we will uh, We'll shut it down Wow put me on the spot 439 times i've done that to people and they go. I didn't know and I go It's kind of the point. It's fun like this final thought on this is I I wouldn't be here today in you know in In this room, um with the nashville restaurant radio if I wasn't inspired by

01:21:49the The city and community of nashville and what it has to offer to tourists to people that live here alike and I think there is opportunity on every corner and we are trying to Cultivate and create a community with What I believe is one of the most important things in the city is the service in the restaurant industry And we need that That support together with them. Um more than anything and we're trying to create a a shift in the culture and Provide something that is unique That you can only find with these given restaurants and these partners but I believe in change and looking at things differently and I would love to To show that to anybody who's willing to take us up on that because I Am very very optimistic. I care a lot about You know this city in which I have called home the last 10 years and came here to do something completely different, but I I want to To to show that to people and provide something new different unique. Um And that I am not the the benefactor of it, but the restaurants and its employees are the ones benefiting from this the most All right Very nice great final thought great Ryan risedorf Got it. Thank you for joining us today on nashville restaurant radio. We will see you on thursday august 14th Three to six three to six. I love it man. Take care. Thanks for coming today. Thank you Big thank you to ryan for joining us here on the show We hope to see you guys on thursday for the nara connect event Let me know what you thought of the show Find the post on instagram. Give me your thoughts and um We'll see you on thursday. Hope you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys

01:23:51Bye