Shane Nasby

00:00Hey everyone, it's Brandon Styll, host of Nashville Restaurant Radio. I know what you're thinking about right now. We are so close to being reopened. Whether you're a restaurant or a hotel, there's a big gamble right now. Are we going to be busy? Is the mass amount of people just gonna flood or is it gonna be a trickle? And one way for you to ensure that your business is ready to go is to put together a marketing plan. And that's why Kurt's Hospitality has spent the last several weeks putting together plans to drive business after we are allowed to reopen. They are a full-service sales, marketing, and public relations agency dedicated to growing revenue for their clients. Doesn't that feel nice? Somebody who's out there working every day to get people into your business. That makes much more sense than just trying to post stuff on Facebook. So give them a call. There's no stupid questions right now. Nobody knows what's gonna happen. It's always nice to have somebody to bounce ideas off of. 615-456-3953 or visit him on the web at KurtzHospitality.com. That's K-U-R-T-Z-Hospitality.com.

01:17Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City! And welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We've got a great one today. I just love this conversation with Shane Nasby. He is the pitmaster and owner at Honey Fire Barbecue in Bellevue. And if you have not been to Honey Fire in Bellevue, you need to take the trip. Not only is it the best little town in Nashville, it is where I call home. So, so excited to support one of my local chefs. So everybody sit back, relax, and enjoy my interview with Shane, the NAS, Nasby. Alright, we're here now with Shane Nasby and Shane is the owner and pitmaster at Honey Fire Barbecue in Bellevue. How you doing, Shane? I'm good. How are you doing?

02:29Well, I'm doing pretty good. I mean, I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of this whole quarantine thing. Well, hopefully you can get the unhanging of it sooner than later, right? No kidding. I started to last night. I went and got, I picked up some to-go food from Honey Fire last night. Oh, yeah. Did you visit the food truck out back and pick up your order? I absolutely did. It was touchless. It was flawless and the food was magnificent. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Yeah, man. I've eaten there probably a dozen times and every time I have the bourbon baked beans, I just like, they're the perfect level of like the textures, the level of spice on it, everything. That's just the best damn side. I love it. Oh, thank you. Yeah, a lot of people think they're a little spicy, but and some people say they're not spicy enough. We just got to find that happy medium. We can't please everybody with them, but you know, we tried to find that little zone with them. Spice is such a crazy thing because it's subjective and every time I've been in a restaurant and a guest has said, is it spicy? That's like the hardest thing in the world to answer because my brother literally can eat fire and nothing is spicy to him, yet some people just the tiny little touch of anything is like, I can't eat it. So it's so hard to balance that. Yeah, we have trained our, the people who run the point of sale, we have trained them. There's three or four things that that's mandatory that they say every time. So when someone orders the baked beans, we say those are a little spicy. Are you okay with some heat? And that's otherwise half the time they come back because someone gets just a little nibble of a jalapeno and they're lit up and then some people are like, you said these were spicy. They're not spicy at all, you know. So you're exactly right. I guess your point is well taken there. Mine is the level of spice on there is my happy, happy place.

04:22So it's perfect for me. Good deal. So let's get, I want to get started and kind of tell, I have a million questions asked. You've been interviewed like three million times. So there's probably a list of things that everybody asked you. Can you give me like a 90 second elevator speech just kind of about your restaurant, the name, all that good stuff and just get all that stuff out of the way? I can. So 2015, I was sitting in an office in Britwood. My full-time job for quite a while was marketing and sales in the healthcare industry. I just looking out the window and just kind of longing for something else. You know, I was about to turn 40, had a little midlife crisis. I covered my arm in tattoos, bought a Harley and started a business all within like six months. So I would, I think it's safe to say I had a midlife crisis. So I came home and chatted with my wife and I had been doing competition barbecue for seven or eight years at that point and had a lot of success in that. And 20 years ago I was managing front of the house and multiple restaurants, some even in Nashville. And so I had some restaurant experience and then I had dove into the barbecue world and the competition world. So it just all made sense. So we took what, what we had in our savings and got a little barbecue food trailer and built it out. And so we started that thing and we were Honeyfire Kitchen. It was basically barbecue, but I just branded it Honeyfire Kitchen. I dropped the barbecue, put kitchen on there because it was a lot more appealing in terms of, you know, ladies were doing the majority of the ordering for catering, whether it's corporate or weddings. So it just was a lot more appealing to them to have the word kitchen instead of barbecue in there. So before you knew it, we were rocking and rolling. We had a full fledged catering company and we were booked like a year out every, every weekend. So, um, it, it exploded really quick. We got a lot of momentum. And then a couple of years later, uh, 27, late 2017, uh, long time friend of mine, uh, Ben Clay Baker approached me. Uh, we've been friends

06:25for a long time and he's just like, man, if you ever want to go break a mortar, you know, he's a commercial real estate guy. He's like, I can help you figure it out and help you with it. So we did. And I've, I've lived in Bellevue. We've lived in Bellevue for almost a decade. My wife and I have, so it's definitely our home. It's our community. It's where the whole thing got birth. So it just made sense to look here first. We looked at, you know, spots all over the city, but, um, just seeing the need in Bellevue and just seeing the growth in Bellevue and the fact that these were our people, it just made sense to put our roots here. I've lived in the Bellevue area since 1989 and I was at the opening of the Bellevue center when it opened the old mall. Is that what that is? The old, yeah, the old mall used to call Bellevue center mall. I was at the opening weekend. It was crazy and lots of memories over there. And when they decided to tear the whole thing down and reopen it, um, I was super excited because I've just been a West side Bellevue guy, like for what seems like my entire life. So, uh, I, for one was super, super excited when you opened. Uh, I was there like day ones.

07:32Well, well, that's awesome. Like we, we love this community and we don't plan on moving, um, outside of the Bellevue community anytime in the near future. So, uh, yeah, it's, it's definitely, uh, it's definitely when we tell people all the time. In fact, we have napkin inserts that we just leave on the table that explain that we're local. A lot of people think because of the, the, the design and the layout of our building that we're a franchise, everyone assumes we're either corporate or franchise. And so I had to put these little napkin inserts that explain we are, we are as local as it gets, you know, literally this was birth, uh, half a mile from where we're currently at, you know, so. So you stole one of my questions. Thanks. Uh, well, so I mean, you, you, you, one of the things I noticed about you is that your attention to detail is impeccable. I mean, you've referenced your, your food truck and you said you called it honey fire kitchen versus barbecue based upon the demographic and perception of what kitchen versus barbecue is knowing that women were ordering and that they would order from a kitchen. They wouldn't order barbecue.

08:36Like you had, you, you hone in on these, these things that you said you were in marketing and sales. But when I first walked into the restaurant, exactly what you just said, I walked in and went, how many of these are there? Because every single detail is perfect. The, the black and white, the, the menu boards, everything about your restaurant is so detail oriented. And I just, I just loved that. I was going to ask, this is locally owned and operated so that everybody knows, but you have inserts. What? Yeah, we're at school. Well, I appreciate that. And that's the biggest thing. Like, like my whole, like 15 years ago, prior to doing sales and marketing in the healthcare world, I actually had my own branding agency back at Indianapolis, you know, in the mid about 2006, seven, eight. And then when the recession hit that all kind of crumbled. But yeah, so we were, we, we did, you know, branding and marketing was kind of our thing. And like, I just, I knew what I wanted this to be. I didn't, you know, I wanted to, I wanted to kind of create my own lane in the barbecue world. And my food had already done that. We can get into that in a little bit, but, you know, I just, I want to do everything a little bit different. I'm not ever going to be the kind of person that looks at someone else's stuff and be like, all right, let's just do what they do. I want to create my own lane and blaze my own trails and everything down to, you know, the light fixtures and, you know, the, you know, the, the tabletops and, you know, we were, we were precise and picking out everything. And my wife helped with a lot of the interior design. You know, I knew exactly what I wanted, but she would actually help me track down, you know, a lot of the details. So.

10:16So I got two follow-ups there. One is, do you, when you created all of this, were you creating it with the idea of I'm going to franchise this at some point? Not necessarily. I just knew what I wanted. I tend to work backwards in the business world. So I create, I see exactly what I want it to be in my head. And with, with the layout, the branding, the building, and also with like the menu. And I create it all on paper. And then I retroactively, I go back and I just fill the gaps, you know, like, so yeah, I, I wanted to be open and I wanted to be flexible because to be honest with you, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wanted to see how the first year or so went, you know, with the one location. And if we open, you know, more than one, you know, I did want, I did want to create a process to where, if we did decide to franchise, which we haven't made that decision or even grow corporately or however we wanted to do it, that it would be, it would be a seamless thing and it would be appealing to someone if they came in and be like, heck yeah, I'll put one of these in California. You know, so we wanted it to be appealing for sure.

11:22Okay. Tell me about your wife. So when you guys, you said that, I think that you, your wife and Ben are partners in this thing. You said she did a lot of the interior design. My wife is a partner in my company and she is integral in so many ways. I know you get a lot of press. Tell me about your wife. What is she doing? My wife is actually a singer. She's not super active in the restaurant world. She helped us get, you know, rolling with it in the beginning and she still helps like with a lot of the writing. She used to be a corporate writer for a stint. But yeah, she's a singer and she, you know, takes care of our kids, but she's also, you know, passionate about music and she does a little bit of session work here and there and has done some background vocals with some country singers on stage. And so, yeah, so that's kind of her lane. She's getting into a voiceover work. So she kind of has her own dreams and goals, but she certainly supports me and mine as well. So. And you've got two kids, right? A boy and a girl. Yeah, we do. No one in Harper and one boy is 11 and Harper is eight. So how are they handling quarantine?

12:26You know, it was fine the first three or four weeks. I think now, you know, we're, we're at a point where they just, they just want to hug, you know, people and they want to play with their friends and they're over video games and over, you know, which we limit that time anyway. So even with the limited time, they're like not as interested. They just want to be with people. So I think they're like all of us. I think the first two or three weeks we're like, okay, we can do this. And now we're all like, man, we need people time. I mean, it's so important. And I think it, yeah. Hmm. Yeah. So you, you, you mentioned your, your, your 92nd elevator speech that you kind of had a midlife crisis, so to speak. You covered your arms in tattoos. You bought a Harley. I saw you're now selling your Harley. I am the goal is just to get a bigger one. Okay. So that one, that one is, it was built for speed and you know, it was my little sporty bike, but I didn't realize when I got it and kind of built it out that my wife was going to, would, would want to ride with me so much.

13:29So it's not really a two person bike. So the idea is to just trade it for something or, you know, sell it and then get something that's more comfortable for both of us to take a little longer trips on stuff. So. So, okay. So is that still for sale? You know, it's pending pickup in a couple of days, but you know how that stuff goes. That could fall through very easily. Does it give you a, say, Hey, if you want to buy Shane's motorcycle and it's beautiful, I saw it. I was like, I, my wife never let me, but I was like, honey, that's a really nice bike. So tattoos, you said you cover your arm in tattoos. What you have, you have sleeves. It looks like you have a line on one of your arms. Are you a Leo or what's like the most significant tattoo that you have? Okay. Well, so the tattoos, so it's, it's interesting. My wife and I have been married for, we're going into our 16th year here. And yeah, so we've, we've had, oh, great. So we've, we've had, we've had some, some, not just in our marriage, but just in life, you know, like with businesses failing and just, we've had some really dark seasons. And, you know, I just, I wanted to be an encouragement to people and just let people know like, Hey, you know, they're just seasons, they'll pass.

14:45But we've had a couple of dark seasons where it's just like, we couldn't get breakthrough in anything bad, you know, just, it was just sad. It was just sad seasons of life. So the left arm represents our past. And if you, it's kind of got the, the Japanese water, which is the black water. And then I have four lotuses, two larger ones, and then two buds that represent me and my wife and our two children. And then the midst of it, there is a snake, you know, so basically just kind of for us, it just represents beauty that grows. Cause if you know anything about a lotus, it, it is a beautiful flower, but it grows in swamps in dark, murky places. So it just let you know that beauty can grow in dark places. And even though you're there, like in the dark places, kind of the enemy, the enemy is also there. And that kind of just represents a snake, you know, that's darkness, depression, anxiety, stress, sadness. It's, it's there lurking, but it's not going to destroy you. And so on the other side we have on my right arm represents the future and the places that we're going. So there's a lot of navigation there. There's maps.

15:49There's, there's the ship, there is the telescope and the compass, and there's multiple roses. And then there is the, the lion, which for me is, you know, is, is the lion of Judah, but it's like, I don't know if you're familiar with the lion, the witch and the wardrobe, Aslan. Yep. So yeah, big fan of that series and that book. So that's kind of where that came from. So yeah, so it's the past on the left arm and then the future. And there's a live, there's a few spots remaining and just kind of as things happen throughout life, I'll, I'll wrap that thing up and I get that right arm finished. So, Wow. So that, that was, that's, it's pretty deep. Yeah. You know, I didn't want to just throw stuff on there. And that's kind of why I waited, you know, I just didn't want to hodgepodge and just eventually have a sleeve, you know, like I went in and I knocked it out and knew exactly what I wanted. Had it planned out before I went in there. Shocker. How old were you when you get your first tattoo? Oh, I was 15. Um, and it was, it was exactly what, so I was growing up in the cornfields of Indiana and, um, I was turning 16. Actually I was turning 16 like that next day.

17:00And I went with all my high school buddies who were like seniors and I was like a sophomore and they're like, Hey, I'll pay for you to get a tattoo. And there was this guy that used, that would do them. And, um, he didn't card anybody. And I went in and my high school in football, my high school nickname was NAS, N A Z. And all my buddies had got like their football numbers and their nicknames put on there. And I'm really fortunate that I didn't have, we didn't have enough money between us to get the number. We only had enough money to get the word NAS, you know, on there. So I had on my left arm for, from the time I was probably 15, until I was, uh, until it got covered up by the sleeve, you know, a few years ago, um, I had NAS on my left arm and it was such crappy lettering that nobody really felt like what it said. They're like, Oh, what's that? And I'm like, uh, and then I never wanted to tell people what it was. I never wanted to say, Oh, my old high school football nickname was NAS, you know? So like it was, uh, I was just like, Oh, it's, so my, my line for 20 years was when people say, Oh, what does that, what does that mean?

18:10I was just like, Oh, it means I made a mistake when I was 15. I left it at that. Does it, do you have a nickname now? I don't. Before this interview, you didn't. Oh yeah, exactly. It was walking into honey fire tomorrow going, what's up NAS? Hey, I'm okay with that. Like my son is in gymnastics and competes on the men's team and he's kind of in here. He wants that nickname. Like he's, you know, he's like, Oh, I want to be called NAS. So his buddy sometimes calling that. So. Well, that's pretty cool. Yeah. So, um, you mentioned, Hey, like I don't want to get too deep here, but you mentioned having some tough times and pulling through them. And then you mentioned lion Judah. Are you religious? What are some things that you, how did you pull through those things? Just because I like inspirational stuff. And I know that there's a bunch of people out there right now who are going through tough times and looking for advice, looking for perspective from people who have overcome. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So, you know, I think that's a big part of our story. And, uh, you know, we, we are, you know, I am, I am a strong believer and I'm a Christian and, but I'm also not the kind that just, you know, covers our doors and fishes and you know, clothes, you know, we're not trying like, I don't, I want people to know that by just my kindness and my giving and just my heart and not, not what I think. And in, in terms of my political views or passing judgment on anybody, like I, I think, I think just, I just love people. I love giving. Um, and I think that was all birthed out of growing up poor. Um, you know, we had enough, like my mom, you know, I was, I'm not ashamed to say that I was, I was born to a 16 year old.

19:56I was raised in a trailer in Indiana. Like, you know, times were, times were tough growing up and, um, we didn't have a whole lot and I never had a whole lot. Um, but we had enough, you know, my mom worked her tail off and gave us enough. And like, um, it was just me and her, you know, growing up, um, my dad was in a picture, but he, we got in and lived with him. Uh, so, you know, I, I grew, I grew up without a lot and, you know, so, so to, and then once, once I got married, like we, you know, I've always had the entrepreneur spirit and sometimes that just didn't work out, you know, and there were times where, you know, we were living in, I was four months behind on rent. There was time in just back in 2011, like before, like when I was in between entrepreneurial pursuits, you know, we, uh, we were in Indiana and we had a snowstorm and, you know, I had no, we had, we lived in a little farmhouse and we had no propane in our heat and I had to, you know, I had little space heaters and we had our whole, our wife and kid bundled in one little room trying to, you know, survive off space heaters and, um, ended up having to borrow money off of a neighbor just to get propane in our tank. Like there's, um, there's, there's, there's hardships there, but it was, it was all in pursuit of the dream. And, um, you know, like I always knew that, you know, we were going to do something and I always, I've always been a believer in breakthrough.

21:18I've never once said like in the midst of all of those hardships, you know, and even once we got a little bit of momentum, like then our marriage started to get a lot of tension in it. And, you know, we had a lot of resistance on our marriage. And so even when those dark seasons would come, we always, I always maintained a level of faith. I'm just like, I know there's another side to this. We always hear the cliches of like, Oh, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, but I really do believe that is if you maintain a proper perspective and you do maintain a mindset and you maintain a posture and a heart of giving and love and just, you have that level of faith. I'm telling you, it, you will get breakthrough and it happened not only with business, but for us with our marriage, like our marriage is thriving. We're year 16 and it's better than it's ever been. Um, and it's not because we did anything, anything, um, you know, we didn't go to the right counselor or do the right things, but it was, it's just literally, it's just sacrificing and it's just fighting for it. And a lot of times fighting just means, um, posturing your heart right and being humble and being kind, uh, whenever you don't want to. And, um, so yes, that's a, that's a long answer. I'd have, you know, um, but ultimately it is, uh, you know, dark seasons, you can get out of them. You can fight out of them, but it's not, but a lot of times fighting just means humbling yourself and just being quiet and, uh, just trusting the process.

22:48No, I that's huge, man. Thank you for sharing that. I mean, I think that, um, I've, I'm, I've grew up in a Christian household and I've just recently really got back into finding my faith. And the biggest thing I've been learning is that nobody's perfect. Like every single person out there makes mistakes or everybody is sin. There's the whole, everybody out there makes mistakes and it's okay. Like, we can learn from those mistakes and we can get better and grow and things happen. And I think that there's always a plan and having that faith is, uh, is instrumental in bouncing back up. So, yeah, a hundred percent. Uh, I totally agree. So let's move on to, I want to, I do want to jump into food. So you mentioned your mom growing up in Indiana. Um, when did your, like, did she cook? Was she like somebody that made homemade meals? And you kind of like, where did the love for food and crevice come from?

23:50Well, I think my earliest memory, so my grandparents, um, their names were Cletus and Audrey Nolan. And we actually have a food challenge on our menu called the Cletus named after my grandfather. So they actually owned a little diner, uh, on high U S 40 highway 40, um, right there in the middle of the cornfields in Indiana. It was called the midway cafe, um, because it was midway between two towns. One was 10 miles one way. And the other was 10 miles the other way. And that was the only place you were going to get anything, um, between those two towns. So, uh, this little cafe, I just, I just, my earliest memories were being five, six, seven years old. And my mother was a waitress there. My, my grandpa was the line cook and they had a little bar there, diner area, not cocktails or anything, but just like a little diner bar. And my grandma would just work the bar. My mom would work the tables and my grandpa would be back there. And, and so, um, and I just would be begging for quarters to put in the jukebox to play Bob Seeger old time rock and roll over and over. And, uh, that was kind of like, this is my memories. It's just, it was a lot of breakfast.

24:55They were heavy on those breakfast and lunch only. So just the small, the sausage, the pancakes, the eggs, it's like all of that cooking, all of the local farmers from the fields coming in for their breakfast and then their lunch. Um, that was where, yeah, there was a love for food, but it was also just seeing just that, that environment, that community, that hospitality, that that's where my love, I think probably was birthed for just serving, you know, the community and providing meals. That sounds like a John Cougar melon camp song. If it, yes. I mean that whole story. There you go. I love this. I love John Cougar America right there. Yeah. I love that. Okay. So you, you did that. And then you kind of worked in restaurants. You worked, you had some history with the Hard Rock Cafe. I did. So I was a corporate trainer for Hard Rock. And back in 99 or 2000, I opened the one in Indianapolis, which was downtown. Um, and then actually that's kind of what it was 99, maybe 2000 that I transferred to the one in Nashville.

26:00And, um, this was before internet and finding a place to stay. So I literally moved down here, uh, and had a job at the Hard Rock Cafe on Broadway. This was 20 years ago. So it didn't look anything like it does now. You know, he had the occasional tourists with the cowboy boots and fanny pack come in, but it wasn't near as packed like it is now. But so yeah, that was my job. I lived out of my truck for the first week until I was able to, you know, find a little apartment because I couldn't, you know, like I said, that was before you just hopped online and found something, you know, so, so you don't, you don't strike me. You look, you look at, I think that like if I looked at you maybe 20 years ago, I don't know if you had all the tattoos then, but you look like the guy that could be a trainer at the Hard Rock Cafe, but like all the pieces of flair. And cause I remember the Hard Rock, I used to love the Hard Rock Cafe. I remember the Hard Rock Cafe opened in downtown Nashville. The, you gotta like clap and like go around and do the whole thing. Like what was it like being a corporate trainer for the Hard Rock Cafe? Um, man, here's what I remember about it.

27:04Like that kind of stuff was such a minor detail. I mean, for a 21 year old kid to be a, have any type of leadership and you're opening like new stores and launching new stores for a brand like Hard Rock. That's just, you know, was so iconic back then. Like you were so iconic. I just, the things that I remember are the late night party and, and like the, after the shift, everybody goes to the bar across the street. You stay out till five, six, seven in the morning. Like, um, so those weren't my greatest days in a lot of aspects of my life. Um, but being a, but being a trainer in terms of like the, the food part of it, it was, you know, you're just training the menu. You're just creating fun ways to get people to remember things. Like our signature drink was the hurricane. So whenever I would teach people at the bar, you know, how to remember how to make a hurricane, it was really easy. I would just come up with these acronyms like GLADMOP. GLADMOP is how you make a hurricane. Grenadine, light rum, amaretto, dark rum, mango juice, orange juice, pineapple juice. Can everybody say GLADMOP? You know, so, um, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, exactly. So that's how you do that.

28:10The corporate trainer for, I just, I don't know, every time I went there, you have these, all of the pins, all the buttons, that just the enthusiasm you had to have on a regular basis. And it was always a party, loud music. And I don't know, I just, I don't see you as like, I love this. I love to see you doing that. You know what? I have changed a lot in 20 years. Like they, I used to jump up on the tables and dance and like try to get the, all the, you know, cause you just try to get everybody hyped up. And that was me. Yeah. Um, I have mellowed out a ton. Like now, I think I went from an extreme extrovert to now I'm borderline extreme introvert. Like, you know, I like to, I enjoy, I enjoy being around people and talking with people a little bit throughout the day. Like I need that in my life, but I also really need to be away and be by myself and have that solitude. So yeah. You probably find that on your bike too, I imagine, right? Oh yeah. I call it, I call it wind therapy. You know, I get out there and, and I go, and like a lot of times I just need to be by myself and I never like have a plan in mind.

29:14I just go down country roads and head out towards Fairview down to Columbia, all back roads. And yes, it's, it's therapeutic for me for sure. Do you know what I do in that time is I don't have a motorcycle, but I, um, what, when I could, I would drive Uber on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I would just go pick people up and drive them around town and ask them questions. And I just got to have like 12 random conversations with people that they would tell you their stories, what they did the night before or whatever. And that was kind of my therapy was just driving people around and talking about Nashville. I've always wanted to do that. Like I've always wanted to just sign up to drive Uber and Uber and just do it a couple of times, but I have a big gas guzzling truck. So I'm like, yeah, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. So. You know what it does? It's the funnest thing I do. I try not to tell my wife how much fun I have doing it because then like, she's going to be like, ah, you're having too much fun. Wait a minute. Um, but I do, I just talk to people and I, it's funny cause I had this girl come in from Australia and I picked her up at Opry land and she wanted to go to five daughters. And I said, okay.

30:22And she said, I really, where's the best barbecue in town? And I said, um, I really love peg leg porker because I do. And we're downtown. And she goes, I went there the day. It was really good. Uh, but they're closed today. It was a Sunday. She goes, where, where else is there? And I said, well, you know, in Bellevue, we have a place called honey fire. She goes, where's Bellevue? And I said, it's like 15, 20 minutes from here. She's like, I have a meeting in three hours. If you don't mind taking me. And I said, yeah, no problem. And then five daughters didn't have the doughnut shoe. So I took her to the doughnut den and then we drove through Bellevue. I drove her like through by the Bellevue houses and we drove all the way to Bellevue. I took her to honey fire and she left me a $25 tip and then left a comment. The best barbecue ever had. Thank you so much for the recommendation. Oh, I love to hear that. That's a great story. Like little things like that you get to do. And I just know that this girl was back to New Zealand or Australia as much from it. And she says, you know what? I got to went to Nashville and I met this Uber driver that took me around like a local and took me to places that he loves. And I just, I don't know.

31:30I get a huge, I get some pride out of that. I think it's super fun. Oh, that is super cool. See, that's the part that I would enjoy. And then I would, all it would take is one, you know, jerk to like make me be like, okay, I don't think I ever want to do this again. And you know what? Those people are out there too. You know, but it's all about perspective. You can have fun with them too. What are you passionate about right now? What's the thing right now that you're just, is it the PPP? Is it coronavirus? Is it feeding people in food insecure places? Like what are you passionate about right now? Well, two things that we've always been passionate about that we've kind of just built, you know, we, we, we love our, our active duty military and our soldiers and our veterans. We've always taken care of them with a Christmas dinner, the last four or five years, uh, before Campbell, um, buying gifts and things like that for them just to show our appreciation. And anytime a veteran walks in, um, especially we have, we have a couple of regulars that are World War II veterans. Um, and I've even posted some of that on my Instagram.

32:34If you go back and you look and, um, with some pictures and some stories. And, uh, so we always take care of them. And then the homeless community, we work with people loving Nashville. So the first Monday of every month, um, we, we, you know, we take meals down there, um, and serve up to 400 people. So it's honey fire, honey fire day, the first Monday of every month. And, uh, they haven't missed a Monday in 10 years. And we've done a couple of dinners with, uh, you know, some fundraiser dinners with husk and Hattie B's, some special events to raise some money for that. And then we also did our big, um, outreach for Thanksgiving where we fed over 400, uh, members of our homeless community. And, uh, we joined forces with, uh, uh, chef, uh, Nina from Ty's saying, and, you know, John Lasseter from Hattie B's and, uh, and Trey from farmhouse and black rabbit, uh, and then Monique, um, and her and Tom, you know, from morph. So we just kind of all, uh, went down there and we just, we all participated. We all just brought like one dish for 400 people and we are just lined it up and we just served the Thanksgiving that I think those pictures are on our Instagram as well too, if you go back. Uh, but right now, to answer your question, uh, you know, with, with our frontline workers, it was my mother who I kind of told the story, you know, a little bit earlier.

33:51Um, she, uh, I have so much admiration for her because she, you know, she went back and got her high school GED. She put herself through college and she has been a critical care nurse, um, for 25 years in the same unit at a hospital in Indy. And, um, and she's still there. She's working on the frontline. She's wearing her spacesuit. She's working directly with COVID patients, um, in the critical care unit. And so, I mean, that, that has a special place in my heart for that reason, but also like just right now we are, we're, what I'm doing today is I'm taking a meal down to St. Thomas here at 11 o'clock and we're feeding 40 of the doctors and the nurses in the hospital staff. Um, a lot of our people in our community are donating and buying meals. We've had a couple of our regulars and celebrities step up and stroke checks and say, Hey, I want to take a, I want to take a truckload down there. Uh, Randy Travis, you know, is providing today's meal and the last one. So, um, you know, it's, it's great to, um, I don't all, I don't want it to be all about honey fire. Like I like to get other people involved. Um, and because I think it, I think it encourages all to give like when we minister to others, ministers to ourself. So, um, to make it a community thing more than just a honey fire thing has been important for us.

35:05Well, I absolutely love what you're doing. I love that you're giving back and helping and that's just, um, it's so vital right now and, um, you're just amazing. So, all right, well let's, let's transition into talking about kind of your food and what you're doing right now in the restaurant. Tell me about your menu. Tell me the, just the, your concept when you began, because there's a lot of theories about menus. Why did you do the menu way you did it? Um, well, so when you cook competition barbecue, like KCBS is the sanctioning body, the Kansas city barbecue society. When you cook those, uh, we cook on that circuit, you know, you cook, uh, ribs, brisket, chicken, and pork. And that's the four categories that you get judged in. And so I, like I said, I've been doing that for over a decade and started to have a lot of success in that. And so I kind of just had honed in on those four categories and how to cook each specific meat to the flavor profile, which the judges, no matter what city you go to, you're going to score well. And I just, I, you know, anybody who cooks competition knows that, you know, the sweet heat flavor profile is what judges like. Um, even though that's not what everybody likes and trust me, I hear it a lot, you know, like it's too sweet, it's too this, it's too that, you know, but what we found for the general consensus was in competition world, that flavor profile is what wins. So basically what I did is I just, you know, I want to, I want to take that and I just want to do that. This is this, I wanted that to be the foundation of our menu. So, uh, the sauce had taken, has taken me years and years of just tweaking and tweaking and it's the same sauce that I use in competitions. Um, so, you know, the ribs are a Kansas city style rib. They're sweet. Um, uh, they're not, you know, I also kind of wanted to carve out cause I'm, I'm friends with, you know, a lot of all of these, most of these barbecue guys in town, like close friends with like Carrie and you know, Pat Martin comes in here.

37:06He's been in here multiple times and you know, we're, you know, we hang out and chat whenever he's in here. And, um, you know, so I wanted to create my own lane and I want to, and there's multiple lanes and even in the barbecue world. So, um, there's just not a lot of Kansas city sweet style barbecue in Nashville. Um, so that's what our ribs are, but what, you know, so we actually have a sausage that's kind of a Kansas city sweet style. That's really popular. Um, and then we, you know, I wanted the brisket to be a little bit more traditional. So we do a Texas style brisket, which is a really simple, it's salt and pepper only, um, salt, pepper and smoke. And that's it. We don't do anything else to it. We leave the fat on it. You know, um, we do it exactly like they do it in Texas. The only difference would be they use oak down there. We use hickory here because that's what we have. Um, in terms of, you know, the pull the pork. So we, we do pork shoulder sandwiches. Um, we do those as like a West Tennessee style. Um, that is, we pull it right off the shoulder. Um, you know, whenever that ticket prints, our guys have hot gloves on, they dig right down in that shoulder and they pull it right off and they put it on the bun. Uh, you hit it with some of our sauce and then you top it with some creamy coleslaw.

38:12That's, you know, that's, that's how they do it in West Tennessee. And that's kind of the way we wanted to mimic that part of it. And then, you know, so I think we're pulling from a lot of different regions. And I tell people this a lot, you know, it kind of represents Nashville because Nashville is just a melting pot of so many people from so many regions. And that's kind of what our menu is. Um, we don't, when people say, what style is this? Well, they taste the sauce and they say Kansas city style, but you know, the brisket is definitely not Kansas city style and pulled pork isn't necessarily that either. So, um, it, it, it really is a melting pot of all the different regions. Um, um, so yeah, you're going to have a little something for everybody. Yeah. I mean, I'd like to think so. Um, the only, the only thing is, is if you, you know, a lot of people come in and they want like a vinegar sauce or something like that, that's, we don't have those things. Uh, we'd have a sweet, we're trying to keep it simple. You know, I, you know, took my buddy's advice, carry a peg leg, you know, and it's just keep it simple. You know, he's got a sweet and his spicy and his Alabama white. And so we did the same thing in terms of just limiting our options and just creating your lane and trying to be excellent in your lane and not trying to please everybody under the moon, try to please nobody, right?

39:21Well, yeah, but I mean, that's part of the deal when you own a restaurant is, you know, right now I'm working with a couple of restaurants where I try to identify what the menu is going to look like coming out of this thing reopening. And there's like five to seven dishes that we call dogs, you know, anybody that looks at a menu, the things that don't really sell that you can't cross pollinate a bunch of the ingredients, but you keep them on there because one guy has ordered it for years and he would be upset if you got rid of it. So you keep it on there for Dr. Johnson. And like this, this, this, we got to get rid of that stuff. Yeah. And there's, there's a side of this thing that you've got to have, you've got to know who you are and you got to stick to your guns. And when you start doing all, when you try and be all things to all people, you fail. Yeah, totally. And, and that's kind of what we did. So I wanted to be creative with them, with the items that we already had. So for us, like our Southwest, like we wanted a salad on the menu, but I wasn't going to order all of this extra stuff just to create the one salad. So we did the Southwestern chicken, Southwestern salad, which has the sweet corn and the black beans and everything that we already had in house. It's like, let's, what do we have here that we can make a killer salad with?

40:25So that's what we did the baby back egg roll. So limiting waste is a big one. So the baby back egg rolls, I implemented those probably four months after we opened because I want to serve fresh ribs daily. And we were having occasionally, we would have some at the end of the night, two, three, four racks left over. And I don't want to reheat those and serve those the next day. So we're pulling the meat off of those. We're wrapping them in egg rolls with some coleslaw and some sauce. So that's where the baby back egg rolls came from. So it's being creative with what you have, limiting waste. And, yeah, just trying to, trying to find something that pleases the masses without breaking the bank. Well, you've done a hell of a job. The ribs I had last night were wonderful. They were, they were tangy. They were, they were tender, but they had a level of smoke to them. That was a perfect level of smoke. It wasn't done in an oven. You can tell that they were smoked. And I loved just the, the, the flavor that they, they had. You said you use hickory versus, um, mesquite. Was it mesquite you said? Uh, yeah.

41:28Now I have a, I have a bonfire pit in my backyard and I have a lot of cedar because that's the kind of trees that I have. And I have a lot of ash. And, um, I, I, I have bonfires and I cut through a couple cinder blocks in the bonfire pit. And I put a, uh, just like a grate from my grill over it. And I do wood fire cooking and a lot of times I'll cook over cedar or just whatever wood I'm burning it. I don't really have a particular wood. Is that bad? Uh, no. I mean, um, are you talking about just to burn it or to cook on it? To cook on it. I mean, I'm, I mean, I don't, I don't have like a, I'm in my backyard. I'm just foraging wood. I mean, I've got a supply of wood, but it's wood that I've forged. Does it matter? Can I get sick from cooking over like cedar or ash or something like that? I mean, does it have to be? I don't know if it definitely affects the flavor because I can tell you this, like there have been times where I have, I've had every kind of smoker under the moon and like an offset stick burner, which is takes, you know, basically firewood. Um, you know, I've been in circus circumstances where I've ran out of hickory and, or whatever, any kind of fruit wood or pecan or whatever I typically use.

42:41And I've had to like, just go to the gas station or the grocery store and it's like the wood that they have up front, which is just a various hodgepodge of different woods. And it definitely hot sticks. Yeah. The, it doesn't have, it can, it's pretty gross. I'm not, it affects the meat pretty significantly. So, I typically try to stay away from like, I would never cook with cedar or pine or even mesquite is really popular in Texas, but I don't love the flavor that it puts on meat. Um, that's just a personal preference there. But, um, yeah, so you're always safe with any kind of fruit wood, but anything that produces edible food is typically pretty good. Um, okay. That's good. I didn't know that. Yeah. So, and fruit fruits, any like your, your cherries, your apples, um, those are really good. And then, um, you know, but you have to get what you can get in abundance at an affordable rate. So in Tennessee that's hickory and a lot of times when I do competitions, I'll do a hickory fruit wood blend. Um, so I'll usually, I love the combination of cherry and hickory or, you know, pecans are really smooth. Um, so.

43:46Well, there you go. I'm learning. I see that's, I'm glad I asked that question. Well, I love what you're doing, man. I love everything about your restaurant. I love everything about you. I think that you are an inspiration. And, um, I just, I'm so glad that you're in Bellevue. Sorry, everybody else in the city, but I'm glad you're in Bellevue. And, um, I appreciate you taking the time for us today. And it's been fun. I appreciate it. We're glad we're in Bellevue too. And, uh, we're grateful to be here and hopefully, uh, hopefully we'll all be here. All of us and our restaurant family and friends, you know, you know, all the other restaurant owners and chefs that, you know, I'm so close with, I hope we can all just get through this and we're all, uh, we all get better because of it, you know, stronger. I think we will. Hey, one last question. Are you, you're a basketball guy. Are you watching the last dance? You know what? I have watched the first episode. I need to sit back. I need to go back and watch them. Um, because I just, we just haven't had a, believe it or not, my kids, but the quarantine, my kids and, you know, everyone else in my household has just kind of been kind of having the TV.

44:52We've had internet issues. So, you know, every time I sit down to, you know, want to watch it, it just something else comes up, but I want to, I'm a huge, I'm a huge Jordan. I have so much respect for him, but I grew up a huge Pacer fan and I was actually there game seven in Market Square arena, whatever, you know, I'm sorry, game six, whenever the Pacers took it to game seven and Eastern conference finals in 1998, I think we're Reggie pushed off of Jordan and hit a Reggie Miller, hit a three pointer. Like I was in like the second to the top row all by myself. So I am a basketball fan. So. That's amazing. Well, I, hey, we'll do this again when you guys are reopened. If you have the time, I'd love to talk to you. I'd love to come in there and do this person in person. Thank you again. Best of luck to you. Thank you for doing what you're doing today. And we'll talk to you soon. All right. Appreciate you. Thank you. Big thanks to Shane Nasby for taking the time today. I know he had a huge to go order that was going out to the hospital today and took the time right before this to speak with us. What a great guy. We just, I'm having so much fun doing these podcasts, getting to connect with these amazing people in our city.

45:57Hopefully you're able to listen to these and maybe identify places that you'd like to go out and eat. But for the people of Bellevue, we're all blessed and it's as good as anywhere else you're going to get. So if you haven't made the trip out to Bellevue, come to Bellevue, come to the new Bellevue one, check it out. There's a bunch of restaurants there. There is an Eastern peak. There is a Desano pizza. There is the honey fire. There's a, there's lots of stuff going in over there. There's a brand new Chick-fil-A on the way. So we've got lots of neat things happening in the Bellevue area. And there's a new Tito's going in in Bellevue. So we're excited. We've got some, some things going on on the West side. So thank you guys for listening today and I hope that you're all staying safe. Love you guys. Bye.