Sam Sanchez

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City, and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll, and I am your host. I will be joined today by Jen Ichikawa on the show as we interview Sam Sanchez. Who is Sam Sanchez, you ask? Sam Sanchez is the namesake for Sam's Place and Sam's Sports Bar. He's also a part owner in Sperry's, so he's kind of a legend here in this town, and I've known Sam for a really long time, and we talked to Sam about his times in the old Bellevue location as well as his location in 21st Avenue, and we just kind of catch up.

01:06I do have to warn you, the audio was really tough, so it's kind of patchy in places. I'm editing it to make it sound a lot better, but hopefully it turns out all right, and I apologize. We are going to get that fixed. I want to say that I went out to dinner the other night for my wife's birthday, and we were Sunday night, we went out to Hathorn for St. Vito's Focaccia. Now we had their chef Michael Hanna on the show on May the 4th, Star Wars Day, May the 4th be with you, and just an amazing guy, and I've been dying to eat his Sphensione pizza forever, and my wife's 40th birthday, and so we go. Guys, if you have an opportunity on Sunday nights, make the reservation now, because his pizza is, it's unlike anything I've ever had, and the Focaccia is so light and so fluffy, and just the flavors were fantastic.

02:10He's got a great green bean appetizer, the salad was wonderful, pretty much everything there. I just got to give shout out to Chef Michael Hanna for that amazing, amazing dinner, and while I was there, he came out to the table and I said, dude, I would love to have you come on our show talking shift. So that is going to be this coming Sunday, the 29th, it's going to be from 9 to 11, and it is on the Facebook page for Nashville Restaurant Radio. It's going to be live, and you can join the show. If you have a story that you want to tell, join the show. We will also be joined by Alex Wendkos, who is the owner at Dino's in East Nashville, and a super, super cool person. She was just on our show last week, and so we've got a couple of veterans from Nashville Restaurant Radio going to come in, and we're just going to talk some shift. We're going to tell some stories. I'm going to get Alex to tell the full story of Smoke and Pot on the top of Dino's with Arcade Fire and just all of the different things that they're doing.

03:13I know I've got a couple stories from the past week, and I want your stories. If you are out there and you've got a crazy story, something that's happened in the restaurant, we're going to have topics every 30 minutes for you to chime in on the chat, or you can literally click the link and come on the show. So lots of really cool stuff going on there, and we would just love to have you there. Brandon's Book Club, the Zoom call, which is going to be on StreamYard as well. We're going to do that live also, and it is going to be at 7 o'clock Sunday night. So from 7 to 8, we've got the Brandon's Book Club call. We're talking about Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. We'd love to hear your take on that book. And then from 9 to 11, we're going to be talking shift all night long, from 9 to 11. It's going to be lots of fun with Michael Hanna and Alex Wendkos. All right. Let's check in on-brand real quick with our friends over at Sharpies. So we are super excited today to welcome in Erin Mosso for our on-brand segment.

04:17She is the owner of Sharpies Bakery. How you doing today, Erin? Great. How are you? You know what? If I was any better, I'd be twins. So how are things in the bread baking world? They're blowing up. Things have been pretty crazy the last two months since everybody started going out again. We're pretty much back to normal after 15 months of craziness. So it's kicking our ass a little bit, but it's good. Just a little bit more time. We'll be back too. I love it. You know what? Those are good problems to have. Hopefully that this resurgence in the coronavirus doesn't keep everybody back out. We can wear masks and everybody go get vaccinated. We'll be OK. Yes, absolutely. I hope so, too. You know, we're just finally catching up. You know, we were it took so many months to figure out how to operate when everybody was shut down and only doing takeout. And then it stayed the same for basically, you know, eight months.

05:17And then all of a sudden, two months ago, everything just blew up again. So just getting used to that business and the pace again and making sure we have enough people here. We're ready. Yeah. You guys are celebrating 35 years of being a bakery that is serving Nashville restaurants and you guys deliver six days a week. Yes. You have a lot of people that take you up on you get deliveries every single day. Yeah, absolutely. We have a lot of people who are getting fresh bread in or doing a lot of volume, some that aren't doing a lot of volume, just get it every morning or afternoon, whatever they choose. And then a lot of people get three to four days a week, but we definitely have multiple customers. They get it every single day, which I think is the best option. What's the secret to your success 35 years in business? What's that? What's what makes you unique? What's the thing that really people love about Sharpies? I think people love Sharpies because of the people that work here.

06:18I mean, obviously, we start out with a great product that's fresh, that was worked on. Honestly, my dad was people loved him and he talked to people and he was straight up and honest and people liked that and I try to continue that. But that basically, you know, we'll do whatever you need. Like if we can do it, we'll do it. You know, if you forget something, if you make a mistake, we got you covered. I love that. And then, you know, you guys leave in one of the cool things I think is you have over a hundred and thirty different types of bread that you make. Nobody has their own recipe, their own thing that they're just they're growing too fast and they can't make enough bread. You guys will take that recipe and produce the bread and bring it to them every day so they don't have to painstakingly do that every single day. Do a lot of people take you up on that? I think so. I mean, I definitely have talked to a lot of restaurant owners and other people who have this idea that they're going to make their own bread every day, which is awesome. But it can become overwhelming if you, you know, are just making bread in the kitchen that's, you know, while you're also doing all of your other stuff, it can just take up so much time and we can do it for you and take that off your plate and have backup for you as well.

07:34I would love to name drop right now. So if we are talking, if you're out there and you're on the fence and you're thinking, hey, I should should I buy bread? Should I make my bread? Should I buy the frozen bread from my broadliner? What are some restaurants that you are currently working with? Who are some of the names of people that you're delivering to all the time? We're always delivering to all the Burger Republic's, Sam's, all the different Sam's and Sperry's locations. Perfect as he's on the show today. Yeah, we love them. Gabby's probably our oldest, our customer that we've had the longest is Libby at Vandy Deli. She's probably been ordering from us for 25 years. Wow. So you go from like Sperry's Steakhouse to like the Vanderbilt Deli. So it doesn't matter what type of restaurant you are. You guys are really a perfect fit for pretty much anybody who owns a restaurant. Absolutely. I mean, we do a high end steakhouse places like Morton's or Ruth Chris, their table bread.

08:38But then we also sell a lot of delis, food trucks, food carts, anything. Wow. Well, you guys are out there killing it. I know that a lot of people, if you don't know who Sharpies is, you can go online at sharpies.com or you can contact Erin. Just give her a call 615-356-0872 and you can ask her any of the questions that you want to know. You can come down. I'm sure you do bakery tours or she can come to you. But they are wanting to grow and they would love to talk to you about your restaurant. So check them out. Give them a call today, right? Yes, today. And you can also email us. Yeah, we've got a new website, sharpies.com. So you can look at pictures of the breads just to get an idea of the kind of things we're making and browse the photos. If you're watching this right now on YouTube, you see that it says she is the owner of Sharpies. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.

09:41So that's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com. You can see the pictures and get everything going. Thank you so much for joining us today, Erin. You're the best. Thank you. All right. Talk to you soon. All right. Bye. Bye. Man, I really like her. She is so cool. I just, every time I talk to Erin, I just love talking about bread and I know that sounds weird, but she's one of my favorite people who work with and I love all the sponsors, really. These guys I talk to every day, I work with all of them in my restaurants and I use them and I vouch for them. These are not just people that support the show. They're also people that I vet and I believe in. So if you guys need a good bakery, give Sharpies a call. Erin Moos will definitely take care of you. Like I said before, let's jump in here with Mr. Sam Sanchez. Thank you for joining us today. You know, I've done a bunker day. Oh, thanks for having me. What's that? Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Well, you know, we had Bob Tappen on our show, The Roundup, about seven, eight months ago, just to kind of check in and see how things are going.

10:49And you've been one of those people, I've known you for almost 20 years, I guess. Yeah, pretty much. Has it been that long? Yep. Yeah, because I've known your brother for, yeah, I mean, I think I met you five minutes after I met him. So my brother and you go way back. And then I've passed 20 years, past 20 years, yeah. Back when your brother could chug a beer in about a second and a half. I think he can still do that. He's one of those guys that can take like a cup of beer and just go, just like turn it around and it's gone and you're like, what? I remember my brother, the first time I ever funneled a beer was in Panama City Beach. And we got there after a 311 concert in Montgomery, Alabama. And my brother got a funnel and we got a box of beer in a styrofoam cooler. We walked down to the beach and I go, what are you going to do with that? And he poured a beer into a funnel and he goes, watch this.

11:53And it disappeared and I went, oh my gosh, this is the cool, that changed my life. Contest upon contest on the beach in Florida, funneling beers. So yes, I think that one of my earliest memories was the Sam's in Bellevue. I don't think a lot of people realized you had a Sam's in Bellevue. Yeah. Wow. The Sam's in Bellevue was an interesting animal because we kind of like to, it wasn't a mistake. The problem is before liquor by the drink was approved going out west, we were the first stop at like a 30 minute drive for liquor by the drink, which same thing by beer. And so being the first place that had live music, pool tables, sports bar sometimes brought some very interesting characters that would drive 30 minutes to the first bar.

13:03And usually there was some pent up anxiety that needed to get out. And sometimes that really showed up at the restaurant. So it's the only Sam's we've ever had to have a bouncer at, Big Roy. And I'll tell you, I smell a story coming on. Come on, give me a story from back in the day, something that happened with Big Roy. Oh my God. Okay. Well, first of all, I say Big Roy, because you'd look at him and think he's not. You might think, oh man, this guy is long bearded, six foot six, 350 pounds. He's not. He's six, two, slim, but had that country boy strong about him. I remember one time though, a fight had broken out in the pool hall, in the pool room. And he said, watch the door. I'm like, okay, well, let's see, he's going to have a fight and I'll watch the door.

14:06I'm like, I'm good with that. And then all of a sudden I hear somebody's got a knife. And I'm like, oh shit, this is not going to be good. And I thought, so then I grabbed somebody, I said, you watch the door, I need to get back there. So I run back there. But before I get back there, Roy has one under each arm, he's got one over here and one right here. And he is, and he's trying to reach to grab his fingers because once he's got him in the, once he's got the finger, like then he can start doing pressure because then, you know, I'm not saying he was causing them pain, but he had them both around the neck. And I remember saying, I remember saying, I'm going to call the cops. He goes, no, no, no, no, no, I got this. I'm like, don't call the cops. You've got this. One guy had a knife. He got the knife taken away from him. Now he's under the arm of the two guys. I'm like, okay. So it turns out it wasn't the two guys that were fighting, it was the one guy that started the fight and his buddy, both underneath their arms. And Roy grabbed both of them, went out the door.

15:08I remember I was like, watch out for his head. I was like, well, and then, cause since it was a double door, since he gave one a quick knock to the head, it was time for the other one. I said, you want me to get that? Meaning the second door, Roy slammed the other head into the door jam. So I'm like, oh, I get it now. I get it. And so he gets them both out there. Yeah. He gets them both out there and looks at him and says, you can leave, not come back for, I think he said four weeks or he said four weekends because they were weekend warriors because they work Monday through Friday. So Friday, Saturday night is when they went to Nashville party. And then I'll tell you that he ended up telling them, I can either call the cops and have you both arrested or both of y'all can leave. So I come back in four weeks on and not pull this type of shit again. I'm like, okay.

16:09I'm looking at Roy going, why not call the cops? And the both guys looked at him and said, all right, Roy, yeah, sorry, man. And they both started walking off. I said, Roy, did you know them? He goes, yeah, I've known those two guys for a little bit of years. And he goes, yeah, they started drinking and they started getting trouble. I could get them arrested. But, you know, I said, so they're not, but you told them not to come back. He goes, well, for four weeks, I'm like, okay. And he says, keep watching the door. I'm not done yet. So he had to go back and talk to the other guy and find out what the deal was. And we kind of did his own little investigation and say, okay, no problem. You can stay. Those guys are gone. You know, whatever you said, don't say it to anybody else. Don't, don't make the guy want to pull a knife on you. And I looked at him and said, wow, he handled all this by himself. And then within 15 minutes, he's back at the door. Like just another night, just another, no big deal.

17:10And I was looking, I'm going, oh, you know, but I'll tell you Roy was, Roy would handle his own, his own scuffles. And he didn't think necessarily what I would think, just call the cops, get the cops here and let's get this year out. Roy knew that, you know, you get the cops involved. It's going to, somebody's going to get arrested, someone's going to jail. Someone's going to have a really, really, really bad, bad night. Instead. He just said, break up the fight, quit being idiots and we'll see y'all soon. Okay. Do you know what Roy's up to today? No, I know I don't, but I don't. But he was, like I said, he was one of those, uh, he had that country boy strong where he would sit down, put down a salad, a cheeseburger. And then, um, maybe not a dessert, but something else, you know, maybe, and then maybe like a big plate of vegetables and, uh, about five hours later, he wanted to do the same thing, no idea where Roy is, but he, he was, he was our, our only bouncer ever.

18:24You, you had, well, in Hillsborough village, didn't you have like police that would watch the front door and like check IDs, like off duty police or something along those lines? Yes. We had, um, cause it was 21 and over for a while because you guys, after the smoking ban went into play, you guys kept the, you guys kept Sam sports bar in the village, you were the only barge you could smoke at. Yes. Uh, and we did that because we had those giant garage doors. Okay, guys, this is the first spot where we had some technical difficulties and we had a little bit of a pause, but we're going to pick back up the conversation once we all got back in. Sorry about your, there, I would be interjecting and talking more, but my mic was not working, so, uh, thanks for hanging in there. Let's see what happens. Um, all right. So lots of good times at the Bellevue location. Was that your first store? That was actually our second store, uh, the second store and we never expected to have the trouble.

19:30I mean, we were, we were, we were the first bar and so we didn't expect to have the, um, the power drinking and party and, and stuff that went on because the village was nothing like that. You know, the village was, uh, it was a bar, but it wasn't a, uh, it wasn't a, and maybe it was, you know, somebody said it's because you have pool tables and when you have pool tables, you have gambling and when you have gambling, you have fighting, right? Makes sense. Yeah. Um, and you know, we didn't want to pull the pool tables out cause it was a giant revenue stream for us. Um, so that's, that's where, uh, the bouncer came in. Now, yes, at the village, we did have, um, non, non armed security at the front door to care, I mean, to check IDs, but they were never really considered a bouncer, uh, Roy was a bouncer.

20:36He checked IDs, but he was all, he was, he was a bouncer. He broke up, he was ready to go. Yes, exactly. You know, um, our secure, our guy at the door, our non, uh, our non armed security guard would handle situations, but mainly he was a third party witness in case something happened. And it's just, we didn't have fights, which a fight at the village store was like, Oh man, you know, my dad's law firm is going to sue your dad's CPA firm. You know, it, it wasn't, it wasn't, uh, you know, they weren't ever going, you know, it, and if they were, it was a couple of shoves and both friends kind of like grabbed them and said, stop it and quit being an idiot, you know, but I'd say that that 21st Avenue store, um, in the Sam's in the village, I cannot tell you how many memories I have there of sitting at the bar, talking to other chefs, other restaurant people.

21:39Um, my brother told me I would be an uncle for the first time sitting in that building, um, I met Jesse Dashner there who went on to be an amazing, um, person in my life and fresh point so many, so many amazing times at that location. Every time I drive by it, I get reminiscent and sad that it's not there anymore. That was an OG. Like that was the spot that everybody went. You miss it? Oh my God. You know, after, um, after we left, uh, 21st Avenue, um, I don't think, I think I drove past it twice and I think three years because I did as much as I could to keep from driving past it. Um, it just, I mean, that store had so many memories and I remember, you know, I remember taking a brick when they were, when they were doing, uh, when they were knocking it down and digging it out and doing everything.

22:46I remember going and getting a brick from there and thinking, God, this is the only thing I have left of it. Uh, and you know what? I actually have one of my greatest presence ever. Uh, greatest present. I actually have something that, uh, you might think is pretty cool. Cause everybody looks at it and goes, yeah, that's it. We're going to think we're going to see this folks. Look at that. Oh, that's cute. That's the old Hillsborough village. I remember, yeah, man. What a, what an amazing time we went to the, we went and saw the Anthony Bourdain movie, um, road runner at the bell court and we went to the villager and it felt for a moment like I was in Hillsborough village. Then you stepped outside again and it was just like, where are we again? I don't understand this place. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, Hillsborough village at one time, you know, we called the vodka triangle, you know, cause we had, uh, you know, there was the trace, uh, Sam's and sunset grill.

23:56And so that's where, you know, the vodka triangle came from. Um, and can I ask you a question? Yeah. I think there's a, I don't know if I ever, I think there's like speculation as to why that location closed. I know there was a fire, but like, what was the official, like, why did you move out of that spot? Um, our lease was up and the, uh, the landlord had timed it so that boss is he on Bosco's Sam's the parking lot and that little green strip, uh, right next to, uh, the chicken coop, little green strip grass there in my front yard and he wanted, yeah, yeah. He wanted to sell the entire block at one time with no tenants. Cause at the time he thought he would be able to get the most money for it. And, uh, just everything lined up timing was almost where he, he made our lease.

25:02He extended our lease. I want to say, uh, two years. So it would equal up to where Bosco's was. So that at that time, and we even said, well, how about if we go month to month? And he said, no, come January one, you're going to be done and no month to month. And, uh, so, yeah, and he asked, well, can we have first right of refusal for the purchase? And he said, yeah, but you're not going to, you're not going to like what the price is going to be. So it's going to be way up there. And he goes, it's, it's the price is the price is going to be so that somebody comes in, scrapes it and redevelopes this entire block. He said, so unless you have the knowledge and the background and the finances to put together something like that, you know, it's because you'd hate to learn on such on a eight or $10 million project, how to do it. That's not something you just step into. I said, okay.

26:04So, um, that's why we moved out. However, about five months before the lease was up, um, right before football season and it, it makes it, you know, you always have those people that kick back and go, Oh gee, it's funny how all of a sudden it caught on fire when y'all are going to close and it's like, really? No, you, the first day in sports bar school, they teach you don't burn your restaurant down right before football season. That's a stupid idea. So when people say things like that, I'm like, yeah, right before the busiest time of the year, I'm going to fire. I'm going to find a restaurant down as a urine idea. Um, but, um, and we could have, we could have busted our butt and opened in like three months, but open in three months. And then all of a sudden, you know, be open for two months and then which page is that on in the restaurant guide? Yeah.

27:05This is like on page one. Don't burn down your restaurant before football season. Oh, more technical difficulties. Um, Sam, go ahead and tell your story and he'll just kind of try to work it out. Okay. Uh, let's see. Went to school for criminal justice. Um, didn't, uh, after, uh, after I graduated from school, I had to, I mean, I've always worked in the re always worked in the restaurant and bar and college, and I knew that I didn't want to go into the criminal justice world because it's, um, it's a calling. It's a definite calling, you know, if you're, and to me, uh, I just didn't think financially I was going to enjoy it enough to, to make it a career. So since I always bark, I'd always bartended and served in college at a little place, uh, right off campus and watching it, um, I would give them some, you know, it was owned by three guys that were fraternity brothers.

28:16And, um, as, as it operated, I would give them an idea here and here, here and there that made their, you know, their business more functional. And, you know, occasionally they, you know, in the beginning, they wouldn't listen to me and having worked, having done everything, I'd say, Hey, you know, if we put a hole here where we can slide, because you had to walk past through, you had, because it was such a small place, you had to, the bar back had to get the beer out of the cooler, walk down the line, which means he's telling the guys, Hey, I'm coming behind you while the guys are cooking. So, uh, I said, okay, I got an idea. If we put a hole here in the wall and we slide the beer boxes through as much as we need, and then we have this one guy and then there was another one where just good suggestions I had that, uh, and I just kind of learned that I had a little bit of a knack for it and I really enjoyed it because I know people.

29:17And, um, when I got out of school, so when I graduated, I went to Houston and I started working for a restaurant and met these two girls that were, uh, used to come in middle of the afternoon and they would, you know, their bill was 20 bucks and they would tip 20 bucks. And I wanted to find out who they weren't turned out there were two servers and they worked at Houston's in Houston, Texas, the Houston's there because the original Houston's was here. And, uh, that was back when that was an 86, um, back when you had to know somebody to get a job at Houston. So you couldn't just go in and apply. It was such, it was the wait to work there. And the way they did it was you had to know somebody because that person had to be one of the best servers and also to put their name on you. So if you ended up not doing well, they would turn around and said, I thought you, I thought you vouched for this person.

30:21And, uh, you know, and it, you, you had to wear, you pretty much went in with a press shirt tie and a jacket. And if you didn't have a tie and jacket on, your interview would last about 30 seconds, you know, uh, it was, they judged you by the second you rolled in. And, uh, it went from there. And a lot of people work there 18 months to two years, because it was pretty much the military of the restaurant business. So, I mean, it was strict and, uh, you either, you either didn't, you really, really didn't like it or you really, really loved them, became part of that culture. And I ended up loving it and worked for Houston for 11 years after that. I'm like dying to go there because they talk about it on armchair expert all the time, which is my favorite podcast. And I, I mean, outside of this one. Um, so I'm like dying to go there, but I'm from Tampa and burns steakhouse is like that too.

31:24Like that is like servers. They're make six figures and like you, they're there for 20 plus years. And it's very like, you're, you're like, you have to start in the dessert room if you even get hired and they can't move to the main dining room for years. It's, it's crazy. Well, it's always, that's always been one of those things. Can you guys hear me again? Yeah. I've always been one of the things that I've always been impressed about. Sam's is that even starting in the village was that it wasn't just a sports bar, it was a sports bar, but you had that level of service when you maintained that Houston style of the service standards. If you greet somebody in 60 seconds, you get the drinks back quickly and your food, the food has to be consistent every single day, best damn pizzas you'd ever have, I mean, you can still get those at Sam's today, but I remember that was one of the things that you could go to this bar at one o'clock in the morning and it was like a late night hangout, but the food was amazing and that's, I assume that's a carryover.

32:32You were at Houston's, then you went to Princeton's? Well, well, I worked for Houston's and then Don Shula Steakhouse came looking for me and you know, they, they, the Don Shula's in South Florida was connected to a hotel, you know, so it was more, it was kind of considered a hotel restaurant and that's what they were trying to do. They were trying to create a really, really good restaurant in a restaurant hotel, because as you know, the reputation for most restaurant hotels or most hotel restaurants is that it's an afterthought, you know, the food is okay. Um, it's good if you're having a big event as far as like just grabbing a quick bite to eat, it's better to go to like an independent right around the corner, because it's usually much better, but this restaurant, this hotel wanted to have Shula's, so Don Shula's from Miami Dolphins and they had opened and they had a really rocky open and it turned out the general manager.

33:36So I was replacing the general manager. So I trained in Miami lakes in Miami. And then after that took over at the Fort Lauderdale Shula's, which is the shoe was on the beach and that is a, um, it, my office overlooked, I couldn't see a one a, cause it was right here because I was a second level, but my office, I turned around and I could look down and see the bar here and then right over here to see a one a, I guess I was three stories up and then after that it was all ocean, so my office had a beautiful view of the ocean if I just looked straight out and it was, so I worked for a shoe was for about two years, but it was, it was fun working at a touristy hotel that was one of the high end restaurants on the, on, on the street, on a one a.

34:39So yeah, so there was there and absolutely loved it. Working for the coach. I'm going to talk about an awesome, awesome, awesome leader, coach Don awesome leader, tremendous man. So, so, so, so nice. Couldn't say enough about him. Uh, and then I were, and then I moved, I'm sorry, who's now my business partner now was working for a company called Princeton's and they were opening a Nashville store and so they wanted somebody with a Houston's background and to run the prisons. Uh, but they couldn't, there's, there were two in Alabama and they want to promote anybody from Alabama. They wanted somebody that kind of had a little bit more of a, a big city influence and that's when they came looking for me in South Florida and I thought, okay, great, a, you know, lower cost of living, more money and, um, Sure.

35:41And he wants to grow how many restaurants and yeah, he had this big grand idea and, you know, eventually being a partner and of course that sucked me in. I said, okay, great. Sure. And, uh, and it turned out that that wasn't, uh, that wasn't the case at all. He, um, he had these big dreams and unfortunately, uh, he, um, they were just big dreams, um, and I think, uh, he basically ran out of money. Eventually he had some poor, poor locations and, um, and I knew that his decision-making, uh, he wanted to make all the decisions and the problem was is that when you're a physician and you're making restaurant decisions, it's not always a good idea that if you've never bust a table, but you're making restaurant decisions. So, um, I knew eventually that wasn't, you know, because Houston's was a, very much had the culture of everybody that's done, everybody that's gone up through there has pretty much done everything.

36:53So, uh, yeah, that's when I started looking around for a place and found the location on 21st Avenue. Uh, I drove past it after leaving a meeting with an investor and a owner of one of the restaurants. And I looked up and that meeting had gone south with, with my investor and the restaurant owner, uh, to buy that. That meeting went south fast. And so I was leaving that meeting very disappointed because I thought here it goes, here's my spot. Here's a chance. I got somebody backing me up. I've got, uh, this location. It's a good location. And like, it just, it just blew up completely. And so when I made a left turn and looked up and saw that 21st Avenue location for lease, it was a Jonathan's, wasn't it? Yes, it was. Yes. It was a Jonathan's grill back then. Yeah. Yeah. It was, uh, I think I want to say it was the original Jonathan's. Yeah, it was. It was owned by Jonathan Neville, which I've never seen him.

37:56Never met him. Um, I just, do you know him now? Are you guys close? Um, I've, I've never met him. I've never seen him. I don't even know what it looks like. I don't, I've never met him either, but like, he's gotta be your biggest direct competitor as far as like sports bars and what he's doing. Right. Well, um, you know, I, I had heard a story that he supposedly told that didn't put, didn't put Al and I in a good light. And so ever since then, I, I said, you know, it was complete, a complete made up story because I had never met the person and his story was so regardless. What was the story? That he had taught Al and I the sports bar business and he had sold the business to him.

38:57I mean, he's told the business to us for just a crazy amount. And, uh, and, and, and, and which is one of the reasons I took it, you know, which is one of the reasons I looked up and said, man, that's opportunity because they were always busy and it was inconsistent food, inconsistent service, and they were always busy. And I was like, you know, I could do that really well. Imagine how busy it would be. Yeah. It was like consistent food and consistent service. I was like, that's Houston's all the way. I can do that with my eyes closed. So I didn't even go home at that point. I made a right turn, took off, went and found my, uh, went, went to find Al who had bought sparrows from his dad about a year earlier. And I ran in the back door. And I'll tell you that year he was, he took it over from his dad. You want to talk about somebody putting in there, you know, putting their head in the business 16 hours a day for seven days a week for a year.

40:00That's what Al did when it came, when he took over his dad's restaurant, because, uh, it was on the way down and that would have been 25 years ago. Wow. Yeah. So he, he was, um, so he, so I showed up and I say, Al, we have this opportunity. I said, you know, that Jonathan's will be able to go out. So it's, I said, I go, I've been in there plenty of times, inconsistent, good, inconsistent service. I said, and they're packed. And he's like, and he, he was just about putting all the systems in place at sparrows. So he was starting to build a breathing room. So, uh, it was kind of like, uh, huh. So he thought about it and thought about it and said, how much money can get your hands on? And, uh, he told me, I said, you know, I said, I don't know. I said, I guess, uh, you know, I said, I do have a home that I've been putting a lot of, I've put a lot of bills up. So, you know, it probably appraises for more.

41:02I said, I know I can get a HELOC for, I don't know, maybe a hundred thousand. And I said, I think about another 50. So maybe about another 150,000. And he said, huh, that's not going to be enough. I said, okay, well, uh, I said, no, no, no, I came up. I said, I said 50,000 in equity, 50,000 in cash. I said, so that's about a hundred thousand. He goes, we're going to need 200,000 in each. And I'm looking at him going, I don't know where I'm going to get a hundred thousand dollars. I was like, he goes, hmm, your parents are in-laws. I said, no, nobody's going to hand me a hundred thousand dollars for that. He goes, huh. He goes, are you sure you're probably only going to appraise for 50,000 more? He said, yeah. He's like, well, let's go ahead and get another appraisal. Let's, let's, let's see. I said, well, I don't have any. I just think it. He goes, oh, well, let's, let's just go ahead and let's see what you can get on your HELOC, your home equity loan. And I said, well, all right. Because I bought, I bought the, the, not the rundown house, but the house that needed updated, you know, in a nice neighborhood.

42:04I need, I bought the house that needed to be redone. Sure. That's the house you want to buy. Yeah, exactly. I've redone it. So sure enough, guy comes back, does the appraisal on my house. And, you know, I've got 500 bucks in cash on me right then. I said, so what do you think this house is going to appraise up? And he said, hmm. He said, you probably have a, a line of credit for about a hundred thousand dollars. And I said, you know, minus what I owed, you know, 80% of what you don't know. And I said, a hundred thousand. I said, I'll give you, I'll give you 500 bucks if you make it so I can have a hundred and fifty thousand dollar line of credit. And he looked at me and said, you keep your 500 bucks and I'll give you another 25. How about that? And so that gave me a hundred and twenty five thousand dollar line of credit. And I had 50,000 and I had 50,000 in cash.

43:06So that gave us a hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. Al came up with a hundred and seventy five thousand. So we're at three hundred and fifty thousand, obviously. And then we brought in a third partner, which is a long-term friend, childhood friend of Al's. And he came in with 50,000 and went, and then they own 10%, 10% at fifty thousand dollars. So we eventually bought him out. It didn't take long for us to say, okay, I think five years later down the road. Oh yeah, five years down the road, he did, he made a really good investment and he did well. And were you always a part owner in Sperry's or did you, after you and Al kind of did this thing with Sam's, did you then buy into Sperry's? How did that work out? Well, I have a very, very small interest in Bellmead. Very small interest. Okay. Tiny. In fact, just the interest that it does well, because I own half of Cool Springs.

44:06It was about 13 years ago. He said, you know, I'm thinking about going to Cool Springs. I said, with Sperry's? He said, yeah. And I said, well, okay. And he said, you want half? And I said, well, sure. Different conversation. Yeah, yeah. At this point, there's actually, you know, there's actually money. Let's roll. Yeah, let's do this. And that's where coming into, I think we're 12 or 13 years, 12 years that we've been open. Once a very, very good. But, you know, that's, and then that's how it's basically when you go into a restaurant, you can bring in somebody you know, and you trust that's willing to take half the risk because, you know, there's a lot of risk in the restaurant business. Well, two people who are vested like that puts, you know, one of the things you always want is you want to hire people that think like an owner, right?

45:09And if you have two owners that think like owners who are operators, it helps. Yeah, and Al had worked for Houston's for, I believe, three years. So he also had that same Houston's mentality and the same culture. And then I met Bob Tappen when he opened Brick Tops on West End. Bob's a military guy, and he is a old school Houston's guy. What was it like bringing him on? I mean, this was 10, 12 years ago. Yep, 12 years ago, 11 years ago. Well, it's somewhere in there. Well, another backstory in Houston, at Houston's in Boca Raton, Florida, Houston's transferred me from Houston, Texas, to Boca Raton, Florida, as a server. Just as a server. Yeah. So my girlfriend at the time and I, they said, we'll move y'all if y'all want to be, you know, top servers at one of the stores in Houston.

46:10And so they said, would you be willing to go to Boca Raton, Florida? I said, absolutely, we would. And so I'm a server. And who's the salad, daytime salad man? Bob Tappen. So that's going back usually 30 years. So, you know, we always go back and we talk about 1990 when he was a salad man and I was a server. And that's how long I've known Bob. And Bob originally came to Nashville to help me open Princeton's. And I think Bob had seen the writing on the wall where the owner was making a lot of poor decisions and wasn't really listening to the experienced restaurant guys, like he said he would do, which is one of the reasons he's like, no, I'm going to finance it. I'm going to do locations. You guys run the restaurants, you guys. And unfortunately, you know, that wasn't the case.

47:12And he just made poor decisions. So Bob saw that early and he went back to Houston after, I guess, about a year. And then after that, he was with Houston's for several years. Open Palm Beach Grill and then worked for Back Bay Restaurant in Boston and worked for another restaurant company out of Minnesota. And then the president of Brick Tops hired him to Nashville and opened Brick Tops. So before they opened Brick Tops, he was the original culinary person. Yeah, he's like the corporate chef for them. Yeah, yeah. I have a question about- And he was with them. So Brandon and I were talking about this earlier and I live in downtown Franklin. So I've been to the Cool Springs Ferries quite a few times. And are the lack of windows intentional?

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51:32You can also check them out at supersource.com, or you can call Jason Ellis directly at 770-337-1143. So Brandon and I were talking about this earlier, and I live in downtown Franklin, so I've been to the Cool Springs Ferries quite a few times. Are the lack of windows intentional? I told him, I was like, it feels like a casino where you don't know how long you've been there. Is that intentional? Absolutely. Yeah, because that's another interesting story. It's one of those things about my business partner. One of the things when we said, well, we're thinking about doing another Sparys in Cool Springs, and people would say, you can never duplicate Sparys. You can't duplicate Sparys. There's no way, because that used to be an old garden building, and so all of a sudden that caught up in Al's County, and he said, that's it. We're going to duplicate Sparys exactly, so that when you walk in the front door, you think you're in the middle of Belle Meade, right off Highway 100. So we sent in an architect that went in to measure everything and to duplicate the one on the west end. There's no windows, so yes, it was intentional, because we were duplicating the exact build out. Is that like the number one comment that you get about it? It feels like I'm in Belle Meade, and you just kind of smile every time.

53:18Oh yeah, people say that. People say, yeah, you know, we went in there. We went in. It was my first time. We went in. We had dinner. We were meeting friends. We had drinks. Then we had appetizers, and we had dinner, and then we had after dinner drinks, and by that time, it was later in the night, and so when we walked out the front door, I was like, where the hell am I? Because now they're in a parking lot in Franklin, and they're expecting to see the highway, and it's just like a shock to them, because of course, did you have a couple martinis during appetizers? Did you have a couple glasses of wine at dinner? Did you have a cafe Sperry or an after dinner cocktail? Maybe a little feeling, feeling, feeling good. They walk out. They're like, whoa, where the hell am I? We actually, and one of the spots in the West End store, if you're there late enough and you're in the bar, there's a side door. That's the emergency exit, and a lot of people, because it leads straight out to the parking lot. Instead of getting up, going all the way out to the front door, going all the way out to the front of the building, and then walking to the back of the building, you can just go out that side door, and bam, you're right there in the parking lot. A lot of people know that. So during construction, we said, how are we going to put like a fake door right there?

54:40Because it's the emergency exit at West End, and I said, and so my business partner goes, we'll just get an emergency exit sign and put it right there, and just put like a fake door that won't open. The fire marshal said, no, you're not. There's no such thing as a fake emergency exit. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. So needless to say, that's the only thing that doesn't duplicate the West End store. Well, I'll tell you what. I was pregnant, and I wanted that Bananas Foster so badly, but we never made it there, because I was pregnant during the pandemic, so we didn't go out a lot. What was your experience like throughout the pandemic, Sam? I saw a news piece on you where you were talking about how insurance companies are worthless when it comes to the pandemic loss of business protection, which I think there's a bunch of lawsuits out there right now against insurance companies for just not covering it.

55:43I think their stance was, we'd go out of business if we paid everybody, and it's like, so we get to go out of business? No, we have insurance for? Yeah, that was the business interruption insurance, and that was a, the first thing we did, one of the first things is we get this email from our insurance company that says, hey, by the way, don't bother putting a claim in for business interruption insurance for the pandemic, because it's not going to be covered. It's like, what? Wait a minute, I haven't even filed a claim yet, and you're telling me don't bother? So you're just sending a blanket statement to all your clients. Hey, by the way, don't even bother trying to. So you think that, oh, don't bother turning in that car accident, you know, it's like insurance companies, like, wow, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. So when we got an email like that, I called a friend of mine, and I said, Blair Durham, you know, Durham Durham, or Durham, Bart Durham, Bart Durham, yes, a friend of mine. And I said, Hey, you know, what, what, what, what, what's, you know, is this, is this the real deal? And he said, you know, Sam, there's, let me look into it. You know, I've heard some stuff. Let me, let me get back to you. And I think about a week later, he, he, he handed me off to an attorney that was putting together, he thought, yeah, he's got some, it's got some teeth in it. Let's just go ahead and let's go ahead and file the business interruption. And, you know, of course, they're gonna deny it. But then at that point, if they deny it, then that can put you in a, you know, then we can file lawsuits along there. And of course,

57:44at this time, you know, we are, we, we haven't, we haven't terminated any of our management. I mean, we servers and cooks, we didn't have the cooks to further cook anything. And we didn't have the servers to serve anything, we were closed. But we, we decided not to get rid of any of our management, keep all of our managers, people that we even we hired, but they hadn't officially started yet. We even kept those people, we just thought that was the right thing to do because, you know, most of them were family people. They had wife and kids and we just, we just didn't feel right about getting rid of them. So of course, I'm like, yeah, yeah, you what? Yeah, put us in that lawsuit. Sure. And said, you know, because that's the we couldn't, it was hard for us to wrap our head at the time when we said, okay, this is business interruption. That's what we have. And they're saying they're not going to cover it. Well, you know, and you know, you have a great point, wait, you're gonna, you're not going to go out of business, but you want us to go out of business. And so at that point, it's we, we jumped on that only to find out probably about six months later, that that it didn't have no, there was no judge that was willing to take on the big case. And, and there was only once one judge said, maybe this has teeth. And then when it got kicked up, it was in Mississippi, and we got kicked up to the next level that was kicked out. So and by that time, there was PPP money rolling out. And so they just assumed that everybody was going to be able to benefit from the PPP money.

59:41And that should protect insurance companies. And to this day, I think, yes, all the insurance company would have crashed and burned, they would have definitely. So as I put it, you know, everybody was either everybody was going down, or, you know, what they ended up doing is just picking in Jews who was who actually went down and got money, but it was very, it was very enlightening, knowing that the insurance company could just all of a sudden say, no, we're not going to cover that. It was a scary time. I read more during the pandemic, regarding, regarding PPP. Okay, well, should I just continue? Yeah, go ahead, Brandon. Okay. During that time, I just, I read every bit of information that was coming out regarding any kind of business assistance, any kind of business, interruption, you know, law, all I could do is read every single day, any anything that would come out that would give us a heads up on how soon the pandemic was going to be over, how soon the lockdown was going to be over, how soon, you know, what were the regulations for for that the CDC was putting out on a daily basis.

01:01:22We stayed on top of it so much so that we actually put somebody, one of our HR person officially became the pandemic person that was in charge of reading the, on a daily basis, all the details. And I'm going to say it was on Thursday is when a lot of the CDC and state rules and regulations started coming out. So she would stay on top of the, all the information on a Thursday, kind of type up a, a cliff notes of it, and then what it meant for us as restaurants and what we had to do and keep us that would keep us pretty much in line and keep us up to the second knowledgeable of what we could and couldn't do. And so she would put out constantly. Sure. I assume the pivots that you had to make for Sam's and for Sperry's were very different.

01:02:23I mean, I know like I, the restaurant my husband and I own with our partners already had a really great to go business and we're fast casual so we didn't have to build an entire new facet to our business, right? Like we did a lot of to go and that was fine because we'd been used to that. Obviously it was numbers we weren't accustomed to, but still we were able to kind of continue that. Whereas I was at Maribol and we did a ton of to go, but it was, our guests weren't used to doing the amount of to go that they were then doing. So what did the pivots look like for Sam's and then for Sperry's? Those are so different, right? You know, different entities. Right. Well, they had the same problems. It was just maybe in a different, like a little bit different perspective as in like Sperry's to go, we had nicer to go containers, very much a pick up a nice dinner where that we had before the to go boxes were just your styrofoam to go box, biodegradable to go box and you're pretty much your leftovers.

01:03:34Well, we put to go's in that because yeah, we may have three to go's a night at Sperry's. I mean, next to none, maybe six to eight entrees with some sides. That was it. Of course, that turns into $4,000 worth of to go. And so the nicer containers, nicer just trying to make it nicer so that it was taking away the Sperry's experience. And then with Sam's, we just use, yeah, we kind of went a little bit further out and did something with to go. So the problems were similar. There was good thing that the Sperry's was only open at night because we even though the cool spring store is open during the day, now during the pandemic, we were only open for the five hours in the evening from four hours, four from five to nine, four to nine. So five hours. Yeah. And it made easier because we would bring in servers and you had a box up and take care of it. But and that was a way for some of our servers to make money doing to go. And same thing for Sam's. We had to kind of change around to switching from what used to be 3% of our business to, you know, not turned into, well, I mean, 100% of our business during that. But we easily started doing 10 times what we were doing in to go. Oh, yeah. Speaking of like pandemic pivots and just operating the restaurants, you've got a pretty good team in place. How often are you in the building? Like, are you active and actually operating? I know you've had some surgeries and different things over the years.

01:05:38I see you most at the car wash in Bellevue seems to be like our meeting place because I think you and I share the same affinity for washing cars, which is weird. But it's something we share. How often are you in the in the restaurants? Well, yeah, that's a I'm glad you set up the I've had some issues when I had my eighth and ninth spinal surgery. My eighth surgery was a I have rods going from my pelvic. I have six rods and about 30 screws from my pelvic to my shoulder buds. And the rods go from my pelvic up to my shoulders and screws that kind of tied in. And they're not straight up and down. They kind of those rods. The rods work like that. So I'm allowed I'm able to move back and forth. It's called a biometric spinal surgery by a neuro a neuro and an ortho surgeon both work on you together for about six hours. And so that the neuro says, OK, from each of their perspective of kind of a surgery that they don't really they have an idea what they're going to do, but they don't until they have you wide open and say, OK, we're going to run it like this and run it like that in order so that he can move around still still do this. And so, like I said, those two surgeons work together because generally an ortho has a way he does things and a neuro has a way he does things. But if you get them together and they're both discussing your surgery, you come out with a much more successful surgery.

01:07:23So, of course, after that, I had to learn to walk again. So I was in the hospital and I guess all together for a little over three weeks when I got out of the physical therapy that and then still then I had to walk. And if you look at me now, you can tell that I still don't walk, I guess, correctly or the way I used to. But I can walk now and that's great. And then six, six, six months after that. So pretty much all the duties I had kind of like got moved over and Bob took on some and some other people on some of my duties. And then about six months after that, I was driving coming from the hills from from Hendersonville. And I had just had, oh, my God, I had, of course, when you turn 50 and, you know, you need a colonoscopy and another GI and they check me completely check you out, you know, from top to bottom, you know, you know, OK. And I had a, I get this phone call from a gentleman says, Good evening, Mr. Sanchez. My name is Dr. Berlin.

01:08:36I'm going to be your oncologist. Why do I need an oncologist? Well, I'm sorry, Dr. Berlin, I said, unfortunately, I said, you have the wrong number. Yes, my name is Sam Sanchez, but somewhere you've got the wrong file because I don't have an oncologist. And after that, he says, does Max Cabell work on you recently? And I said, yeah. He said he was going to send your results to be looked at. And I said, yeah, I think he said those exact words as well. He was sending them to an oncologist to look at him. And that would be me. He said, we need to get you back in here for another upper GI because we found some things. OK, so I'm driving down the road and I said, this is real. This is happening. This guy is officially my oncologist. He doesn't just make a phone call. And I said, OK, I need to pull over because I'm sure you're going to say words that I need to write down and then I need to Google once I get home because I pulled over on the side of the highway right there and just started trying to write down everything that he'd told me. So that was six months after my surgery. I barely walk him. I'm making jokes by saying I can sum up my whole week by saying how many times I fell down. Like, oh, no, I only fell down. I used to fall down twice a day and now I'm only falling down once a day. And so that's like, oh, yeah, I only fell down three times this week. And they were really fall downs where I would be walking and then all of a sudden my foot decided I didn't want to go anymore and I'd fall down.

01:10:15So it was funny, but they were fall downs. I'd walk to a restaurant and as I'm walking, all of a sudden I would fall down. People freak out when you fall down and then we go, man, that's Sam. He fell down in his own restaurant. I was like, no, no, no, no, I'm falling down all the time these days and I try to make a joke out of it and make light of it. But really for me, I was actually keeping score. Like, God, I only fell down three times this week. Last week I fell down five times, so I'm getting better. Did you ever hurt yourself when you fall down? No, no, because they were like slow motion fall downs because it was really, I was walking again, but my muscles hadn't built up. So they were slow motion fall downs, if that makes sense. So you pulled over with what the oncologist- I'm sorry. I pulled over and he said, we just need you back in here because you have tumors in your stomach and they are not the type of tumors that usually end up in your stomach. And so I went in and had those checked out and sure enough they said, okay, we're going to, we're going to see, we're pretty sure these aren't the aggressive tumors. We're pretty sure that we're going to send these off and have them looked at. Now the lab that takes a look at these, it's going to take about three weeks because they're, it's in Montana. I'm like, wait, what?

01:11:55And he says, yeah, it's kind of, it's a specialty lab and it's going to take a little while. Of course, he goes, I said three weeks. He goes, yeah, it might take two weeks, but it's a specialty lab. I said, I'm really having trouble processing this. I said, can you send me to another lab and pay more money and figure this out? And he goes, no, like I said, this is a specialty lab. This is how long it takes. We're pretty sure they're not aggressive tumors. So you're safe. You're good. Of course, I'm scratching my head on, okay, this isn't good. Okay. This is not good. And it turned out they were, they were not the aggressive tumors, but they were still growing. And so he said, well, we're going to wait six months to see if these tumors are getting bigger or they're, or what's happening. I said, well, are we going to treat them? And he said, no, we should see how fast they're growing. So I got to, so for six months, I had, I kind of waited around and to find out if we were going to have the surgery. He said, if we, he is, we have, we can wait six months. We can do the surgery because the surgery is so evasive that you, you don't want to just do it. You want to be sure that that's what you absolutely positively should do. He is, and I'm not sure if that's, I'm not a hundred percent positive. We need to take a, I think we need to take a look, give it some time. And I said, time, how long?

01:13:27He said, we're going to look at it in six months. Very long, six months, very long, six months. I was still, I was still working and doing things, but in the back of my mind, you know, my, my mind always kind of went back to, oh, by the way, you know, you have cancer in your stomach. So at the end of six months, he said, okay, you know, they're, they're out, they're getting bigger very slowly, but they're getting bigger. So I think we should probably move forward with the surgery if you're good with it. And I said, okay, so what happens is we cut out the bottom half of your stomach. He said, we, we cut out the bottom half of your stomach because the bottom half of your stomach is where the nutrients are that are feeding the tumors. Once we cut about the bottom half of the stomach, what tumors we don't get will probably get smaller and smaller and smaller. So we're not even going, we're not even sure if we're going to be able to get them off. He said, no. I said, all right. He said, but they should stop growing. And if they don't think if they're not growing, then eventually they'll just go away. I said, so, all right. So that was a, that was a little over a week in the hospital where they cut out the bottom half of my stomach.

01:14:41And, uh, pretty big surgery. So we're, I'm sorry, long, long. So, uh, that was three years ago. And so after that, after, after the back surgery and then the stomach surgery, pretty much all my duties had been shift, shifted to other people. And then after that, it was kind of, you know, kind of, kind of got to reflect and say, okay, do I really want to go back to working as many hours a week? And, uh, we put some people in places in order for me to not work as much. And so now I get to kind of work as much or as little as I want to. Yeah. That's nice. You got to be able to kind of enjoy that a little bit. That's why I probably see you at the car wash place all the time. Yes. What is it? What is it with you? Cause I know you're a car guy. I know you like cars. I've seen you in many different cars. What is it about, for me, washing cars is, um, just to be weird. I like the immediate gratification of taking a car and cleaning it and like, wow, it looks so clean. I just did that because so many things in my life I start working on a six month project or we're working on farmers markets for October. And it's like, we talk about it in June and then July, and then you start putting pieces together.

01:15:55You don't get to see the final result until six months later. I wash a car. I mow my yard. And an hour later, I see a result and that makes me happy. What is it with you? You just, is it just, I just like to do something. Are you bored or are you, what's, what's your car washing thing? You know, um, I, you're, you're right. I'm, I'm kind of a car guy. Um, uh, I think, uh, I, you're, you're right. We do have projects that last forever. We, we think about a restaurant and then six months later we break ground and then five months later providing everything runs smooth. We're a, we're turning the key, you know, and then, then we have that first year. That's just brutal. So I guess maybe it's gratification, but I mean, I, I, I do like to, uh, jump around and play with cars. Like I, I, I, every, probably about every year I get crazy and I look for a car and I decide that I like the particular car and it can be this color or this color or this color.

01:16:57And I'll look around and find it somewhere in the country and then throw some crazy offer at them. Sometimes they take it and sometimes they don't. Uh, so, uh, do you get a new car every year? No, well, I have, I have my one truck. I have my truck that I drive. It's, um, like an Escalade. Yeah. It's an, it's a, it's an 18 Escalade that I drive and that's my everyday car. And then I have a fun play around car and that's the one that I like. And I don't buy brand new. I buy generally two or three years old. Yeah. Uh, like right now. Yeah. Uh, it's a Ferrari, California. Yeah. What color? Um, black black. Yeah. I told my, uh, I told my fiance, I said, uh, she's like, uh, what are you doing today? And I said, really?

01:18:00And she's like, when she stopped and she's looking at me and she's like, yes, really. But, um, I'm going to not sell to buy Ferrari. She's like, what color is it? What color black? She's like, are you going to be home today? I was like, yeah. She's like, early enough that we ride. Yeah. She's like, she's like, okay. Uh, and she's, she's had a few of those conversations before, right? Where are you going today? Uh, going to go buy a motorcycle. And I was like, okay. Where is it? It's in Alabama. Oh, okay. I guess I'll see you later tonight. It's like, yeah. Wow. And usually, usually Bob, who's our director of operations, who was the salad man 32 years ago, uh, it's usually my partner in crime in most of these. I'll bet he drives for his last, for his, yeah, for his last motorcycle, we, uh, we went to North Carolina and picked it up. So the last time I saw Bob, I was, it was when we had that big snow this past year and it was just iced over. It was on Valentine's day. It was like four days after Valentine's day. I, I live, I don't live too far from you. Uh, but I, um, I was dry. I did drive downtown. I took high 100 all the way and I drove back and I saw Bob outside of Sam's place and he was shoveling the drive, like shoveling out front of the, and I pulled over and I said, Hey man, I just saw you out here. Nobody else on the street. And I go, what are you doing? He goes, I couldn't, I, I, I couldn't stay home another day. It's three days. I've been at home. I'm done.

01:19:42I'm shoveling the thing. We're open in the damn place. I couldn't do it. And I just started laughing. I was like, I feel you, man. I'm going stir crazy in the house all day long. I got to get out and do something. One thing about, one thing about Bob's our director of operations and Roger is our area director is uh, their motto is play to win. They're playing to win. You know, uh, many years I used to tell them, I don't know if you remember the village. I always say village never closes. We don't close. It's like when we turn in, when, when there's a, when there's a hurricane or when there's a storm or when there's an ice storm, we're like, um, we're like the red cross. We stay open because this is true. This is true. I keep, I, to this day, you know, during these whatever, during an ice storm or whatnot, you know, you may not be able to work, may not be able to work, but you can't work. You can't get to school. You can't get to work. You can't get to the place that you need to do.

01:20:46But you know what? You know, you know where you can make it to? You can make it to the bar. Yeah, it's, it's amazing. People will always do that. Yeah. So, so that's why we, I always said, you know, we don't close. We, we stay open. And what's funny is all of a sudden you start hearing, and now it's even crazier because back going way back when, yeah, people would call each other, but now it's immediate. It's text. Like, where are you? And all of a sudden you're on social media and they're on social media. And then there's so much of it that you're, you're, you're, you're open. And then there's a crowd and there's people going, there's people, people, all of a sudden somebody with a big four wheel drive goes and picks up three or four more people and they show up there before you know it. It is busy. It's a zoo. It's crazy busy. Now, you know, and then I remember one time we, we tried to close. I was like, okay, we don't have power. We had the front garage doors open. I'm like, yeah, we don't have power. I said, I said, technically we can stay open because we can serve chips and salsa. I said, but you know, we're working off one register that has a battery back. So we're going to have to shut it down pretty soon. So I said, so start telling your tables that we're going to have to start shutting it down. They can have one more round. And I want to say this is probably about six o'clock at night. All of a sudden you got, no, don't close, don't close. And all of a sudden people, one after the other, I'm like, look guys, I only have four servers tonight. I said, I usually run with seven. I said, I don't, I said, I don't have a, I said, I have a dishwasher and I have one cook. I said, my cook's going to quit on me if I, you know, and he was like, no, no, don't, don't close. Don't close. And I'm like, look, I don't even have anybody to bust the table. They all turned around and went up and started bussing tables and took them all to the back. And I looked back and there's another regular, you know, a good, jolly guest back there. And he's like, oh, I used to wash dishes. And he's like

01:22:48putting dishes through the rack, through, through, you know, we had half power. That's what it was. We had half power because we had some lights on. And I don't know how exactly it worked, but just some of the building had power and some of it didn't. The dishwasher worked, some of the lights worked, and that's why one register was working. And they said, no, don't close, don't close. So I'm like, all right, guys, you know what? You know, I started, I said, once we run out of glassware, I suggest putting things in styrofoam cups, anything and everything, please start putting giraffes in. And yeah, customers wouldn't let me close because we were the only place open. That's such a testament to Nashville, I feel. I mean, that's like, that's to me the essence of the city, right? Where they will really support the businesses they love that are local, that they feel make whatever neighborhood they're in. I mean, whether it's Franklin, East Nashville, Hillsborough Village, whatever, it's a very Nashville story, I feel. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, there would be, yeah, there were plenty of times where, I mean, I could probably give you several stories of where Nashvilleans jump in.

01:24:00And that's all about Nashville. You know, I remember right after this, you know, after 2010 during the big flood, kind of people would just, I mean, groups of people would come in where they had gone and volunteered at this whole one section and they had worked all day and then they said, all right, everybody, let's go for beers, happy hour at Sam's. And then they end up, you know, at our place. And they're all wearing the same color t-shirts or something like that or, you know, whatnot. But yeah. Brandon's lagging. He's trying to talk. Yeah. Jen, can you hear me? No. I was going to wrap. I feel like I'm, am I back on now? Yeah, you're fine now. Okay. Sam, I just want to say thank you for taking the time today. And I'm sorry about the technical issues with the internet and the sound, but some good stories and you've been somebody who's been a good friend of me for a really long time. And I appreciate everything you've done for me over my career and supporting me as a salesperson and all the different ventures that I've had and, um, for, for creating these places that have created so many memories for so many people in our industry, I bet you people are going to hear this and go, man, that Sam's and Hillsborough village was our place. I mean, everybody who worked in a restaurant anywhere there spent time at that bar and knew Maha and knew, uh, Jesse and all the people that were, were bartending there and just, it was just an amazing, amazing place in all of your places.

01:25:38Continue to do that in North Alabama. You've now, now you've got, and just, um, thanks for taking the time today. We've got to do this again with a little bit better connection. But one of the things that I always do, I like the guest to take us out of the show. So kind of a Jerry's final thought, whatever you want to say to the people of Nashville, the restaurateurs, the people that work in restaurants that are listening to this right now, the floor is yours. Whatever you want to say to take us out, as long as you want to say it, go. Oh man, you know, God, I wish you'd give me a, I wish you'd given me a, a pre heads up a heads up on this question because you know, one thing I'd have to say is like, you know, Nashville has been very, very, very good to me. Just the people of Nashville and I can't, I can't go somewhere and, and not have this happen to me where, you know what, it's funny. You should say that. I was like, yeah, that's, you know, I've introduced myself and then, you know, I always say my name is Sam Sanchez. I never just come out and say Sam. And I hate saying, oh, I'm the owner just because, you know, you hear that people do that stuff all the time. So I keep it quiet. It never fails, but somebody goes, Hey, you know, Sam, this is Sam. This is, you know, and they go, Oh, I didn't know there was a real Sam. Oh, okay. And then they go, and then they go into a story and every single person has a Sam story. If you, if, and they do, and they'll tell me their story. And I, when sometimes I'm even in the story, I just don't remember it because it might just been a five minute window of my crazy day that, cause back then we, like I said, we used to be one of the spots and it was just five minutes of a crazy day. And they would tell me the story that it either ended, they're a crazy story

01:27:39and they, it would either start at Sam's or end at Sam's or somebody they met at Sam's or something that happened there or, and I love, love, love here in the, one of these days I should probably start jotting down Sam stories that people would tell me because I think so many people, you know, so many people would tell me, Oh, I met my fiance there. Oh, I asked her, or they tell me a crazy, like, hey, this is, I met my fiance, I met this girl here at trivia night and I'm going to ask her, marry her. Can I ask her to marry me here? I'm like, dude, take her somewhere, take her somewhere nice, please. Don't do it here. Okay. Don't do it here. Cause we met here. I'm like, you know, so he, he truly meant as a compliment, but obviously I want him to take his soon to be wife to a nice place to ask him, but nevertheless somebody has, and the awesome, and it's funny you should say the people that volunteer and how awesome the people in Nashville are that, and people don't get it. You can try to explain to them because I say this guy that just moved up from Miami, I said, you're going to have a weird experience because people from Nashville, in South Florida and Miami, people ask you what time it is to see what kind of watch you're wearing.

01:28:59People in Nashville ask you what time it is to start a conversation because that's how people are in Nashville. They want to have, they want to talk to you. They want to be nice. And that's just the culture of Nashville. And I love it. Cause Nashville has been very good to me. I love Nashville. I love that. That's amazing. Sam, I have one question. You've had, I want to, I usually just leave it at that and say, let's go. But you've lived a pretty full life. You've got to experience a lot throughout your life and your journey and all these restaurants and all these travels as a young man, you know, running the Don Chulas with the view of the ocean, which is pretty, pretty nice, probably a good time of your life. I imagine. What's left on your bucket list? What's left that you want to do right now? What are you still thirsty for? You know, I think what is on my, you know, I think this sounds funny and it's not what I'm really thirsty. You know, I guess what's exciting for me right now is that I have a fiance and she is awesome. And I think the, I'm thirsty for the life. She and I are going to have relatively soon. And, and then after that, it's going to be, you know, I live for, to do things. I, let's see, my, my weekend was Thursday. I went to see Friday. I'm sorry.

01:30:43Thursday was Bob's BBB, Bob's bullets, bikes and bourbon. So that was Thursday night. We start off at the, at the, at the armory motorcycles and let's throw bourbon in the middle of it. Yeah. Well, no bourbons at the end. Okay. Okay. Yeah. We had to do that. No, no bourbon before bullets. And then, then Saturday, Bob called me up and says, Hey, you want, you want to ride down to North Alabama? I was like, sure. Yeah. And then we rode down to Alabama and came back to 300 mile ride. And then Sunday went out on the boat. And I had some friends that were going to go with me and they ended up backing. They ended up having an issue and couldn't go up, but I still went out and enjoyed myself on the lake. So I keep myself busy. Um, so what's on my burb on my, on my, I think I'm ready for the other, I think I'm ready for us to go back to the point where we're able to, uh, travel to Europe and do a, uh, um, uh, a Europe, um, adventure and have things planned out and either rent a motorcycle or have motorcycles sent to Europe. So we can either decide to either take a convertible and discover Europe or, or parts of Europe or take motorcycle. That's a nice motorcycle trip. So that's, that's, after things settle down, you know, there's not a, uh, you know, um, Brandon, I do one of the, I, it, and this is probably for another time, uh, where that I, I know, I hear, uh, I'll just leave it off of this for kind of a teaser for next time.

01:32:48My story with having dinner, uh, having my kicking back feeling like I made it. And then, um, and, uh, in the middle of a, uh, in the middle of lunch, kicking back, having a glass of wine with coach, I'm sure the all time most winning football coach in the NFL, the only NFL coach with the perfect season. He's sitting across from me, really interested in what I've had to say about the restaurant. And then a bird comes and takes a big shit on me. Literally a seagull flies by and takes a big shit on me. And they say that's good luck, you know, so I tell people all the time, I'm the luckiest guy. There you go. It was all that bird. We have him to think. All right. Thank you so much for joining us. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, Sam Sanchez, a lot of really cool stories there. I am so sorry about the audio quality. My microphone worked for maybe half of that interview. I had so many questions I was trying to ask and I would just look at the microphone. I just look at the screen and be like, ah, I'm going crazy. So Sam offered to do that interview again and we may go to his house and do it. I really want to see the Ferrari and just a great conversation. Just really enjoyed catching up with Sam Sanchez. Go visit Sam's restaurants. He's got a great place, Sam's Place in Belmead.

01:34:22He's on Old Hickory Lake, North Alabama. Go check out. I know you guys all go to Sperry's. But thank you guys for listening. We'll see you this coming Sunday. Hope that you guys are being safe. Love you guys. Bye-bye.