Stephen Faust

00:00Hello, music city and welcome to Nashville restaurant radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon food service and man, welcome to 2025. Happy new year, everybody. Here we go. This, this is the first show of 2025 and my guest today is chef Stephen Faust. Stephen is the chef partner owner at McGuffin catering and they do, he's been on the show before, I think it was 2023 in middle of 2023. He, he does movie sets, TV shows. He's here in town filming a show called Scarpetta with Nicole Kidman. Just finished the Matlock series not long ago in LA. He lives in LA, but he's in Nashville. So I thought, Hey, you're here.

01:02We had breakfast. Let's do this today. So this is a fun conversation. It's about 40 minutes long and we'll get to it in just a minute, but I want to give you an update on everything else. So before Thanksgiving I moved from our beloved house over in West Nashville. We moved to the Franklin and not too far away from where we live, but that was, that is a form of torture. I truly believe it. We lived on a really busy road and our, we wanted a place where our kids can like ride their bikes and we, we have accomplished this. But let me tell you, one thing I have learned is that I will never move during the holidays again. That is an absolute insane thing to do. And it keeps you very, very busy. I'm still not done moving probably 80 to 85% there, but I also do not have the studio anymore. So the studio, which was in Hillsborough village is no more, but the fantastic door from the studio that has everybody's amazing signatures on it. I was able to keep the door.

02:09I got a new door and they let me keep the door. So the door is in my brand new studio, which I'm coming to you from today. And this is our first interview that we have done live in studio for Nashville restaurant radio, a little side note here. I'll do a little plug for these. I don't really talk about them very much. I host two other podcasts. I don't know if you know this or not, but there is a Brentwood chamber of commerce. So they're admirable. We have a lot of people in Brentwood and the chamber of commerce does events there. And we decided that we were going to host a podcast for them. It is called the Brentwood up podcast. And you can find that on Spotify. If you want to hear me talking to Brentwood business owners about what their life is like, it's pretty interesting. It's about 30 minute episodes. And then I cohost, I'm a bit part and Deborah Sunderland's podcast, it is called shut up and thrive. And she is amazing. She is a business coach and we talk with CEOs and business owners about what their life is like and what challenges they are going through. It's just a different perspective.

03:09I kind of just do the intro and then she does the episode. But if you wanted to check that out, it's called shut up and thrive. And it is on Spotify as well. And it's a, it's a, it's an interesting one. It's a motivational kind of the idea there is tell the inner critic inside. I talked about this today in the show, but tell the inner critic inside of you to shut up so that you can thrive. I say the shut up for me is stop blaming everybody else for where you are in life. Stop blaming everything, turn it inward, figure it out, go make it happen. Easier said than done. But there's there's steps in order to get this thing done. So moved a new studio and the new studio is in my home and it is just like the other studio. But I think it sounds better in here because I've soundproofed it and it's all the old equipment and all the same stuff. It looks like the old studio. I'm passionate to look just like the old studio, but we're still going to do the show and we're going to make this thing happen. One of the things I've been doing, and you've noticed we had an episode with black sheep tequila.

04:14We're going to be putting out a new episode. It's not a new episode, but it's a previous episode with Ken Peltier and Ken is one of the partners over at Calexo. Callie Sober was a great partner with us for a little while and now we are going to start working with Calexo. Calexo was the first brand that I spoke with. They were brand new and they didn't have distribution in Tennessee. So I loved their stuff. They have three flavors. This is a THC beverage and they are so good. There is a cucumber citrone. There is something called, uh, semi-tropic and I think it's called Callie Rose. The other flavor here. Citrus Rose. I'm sorry. It's called Citrus Rose. They are the best tasting THC beverages I have sampled and they are absolutely delicious. They're distributed through Lippman Brothers. I highly, highly recommend if you are looking to get into the THC space.

05:16And I'll tell you that we started this at Chagos. We do a margarita. And we now will be able to carry the Calexo. So if you want to come try it, we have been wanting to carry it. And now they're distributed by Lippman Brothers. So we are going to have the Calexo semi-tropic in the cucumber citrone. The Citrus Rose and the semi-tropic are not the same, but they're a little too similar. So I would pick one and definitely go with them. They also make these in mocktails that have no THC whatsoever. It's just a straight Calexo, a Citrus Rose, cucumber citrone and the semi-tropic. Semi-tropic is one of the best things I've ever tasted in my life. Like it is that good and it does have the THC. I also love the one that doesn't have anything in it, just the straight one that doesn't have anything in it. And it's, it's delicious. So that'll be something that we're going to be continuing to talk about. But next episode is going to be a replay with Ken Peltier and I'll bring him on again. But this is us talking about, can you sell it in restaurants? Because every retail has it, but can you sell it in restaurants? We've been trying it at Chago's. People love it.

06:17We sell a lot of THC products, just this THC margarita that we sell. And it's, it does really well and nobody's acting crazy. They have one, maybe two, and nobody has, we've had any issues with it so far. There's a lot to it. And we discussed that in my conversation with Ken Peltier. And so next time we're going to put this out next week, check it out, listen to it and kind of get your idea. But if you want to try this product, let me know that you're going to try the Calexo. And we definitely want you to, if you're thinking, if you're on the border with which THC brand, I kind of want to try it. I'm happy to talk to you about it as well, because, and I have samples, if you want to try it, if you want to just message me and say, Hey, I want to try either one of those and I will make sure that you get a sample sent to you or I bring it to you or you can come get it or whatever it is. But I have samples for you to try. Black Sheep Tequila is a new, new sponsor of the show. And like we just had the CEO of Black Sheep Tequila on, best tequila in the world, double gold, three years in a row.

07:19I love that. I didn't know what that means. You get all these different bottles that have these, you know, metals on them and you're like, come on, man, why do you have to put metals on it? I didn't understand that. But to understand what double gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition means, it's pretty damn impressive. And we have changed at Chagos, our Cadillac Margarita, to have the Black Sheep and people are loving it. Turned on so many people to this new tequila and everybody who's come in studio. I have some bottles in here that we're giving tastes away. So if you come on the show, make sure you ask for a taste of the Black Sheep Tequila, because I'd love to let you try it. Everybody's loved it. Just absolutely over the top there. And Yeho and Reposado are just fantastic. From what I'm hearing, I have not personally had them, obviously. So our final, we have another new sponsor is called C&B Linen. Now, this is one I talked about on the last episode. If you are starting the new year off, like a lot of people are, and you're looking into this thing and you're saying, what, what do I need to be using my linen company? They're, they're crazy.

08:22C&B Linens, let me tell you, they're doing this differently. And here's something different. You like to work on pars, right? Or maybe you hate working on pars, these building you to your pars. I outlined this a few episodes ago, how to save money on linens. Linen companies have got creative for how they're charging you. They've started pulling this ARC, service fees, gas fees. Look at your invoice, whatever you're doing right now. Stop, pause on this and go pull up your linen invoice and look at it. Tell me if you can decipher it, because what C&B Linen does is first of all, they don't make you sign a contract, no contracts, right? So if you're not happy with who you're using and your contract is coming up, this is a chance for you to try something out. There's no creative ways to make their money. And if you don't want to work like the pars, like where you're doing 2000 guests a week or 3000, it fluctuates. We do a bunch of events, so our pars change every week. Our linen company doesn't like that. So what they do is you can just order linens.

09:26You can say, I need 2000 linens this week. And when you run low, you can order more, obviously have specific delivery days, but you can just order it like you're ordering food and you never pay for one piece of linen twice. There's no replacement cost. There's no service fees. There's no gas fees. It's only the price of linen. Now, you may pay a couple cents more per linen. But man, when they're charging you all this extra stuff, believe me, this is this is a game changer when it comes to linens. I haven't been as excited about a new sponsor as I have been for C&B Linen. And we're testing them out right now. You can go to the brand new Carrington Row in Brentwood, which is basically like there's like a Germantown Cafe in Brentwood now. Carrington Row, Park Cafe and Germantown Cafe, kind of the same group. And they are using the they're using them. They're using C&B Linen. Everything's been working out really well so far, and they're saving money. So we're testing them out. Very well may see them soon at the Green Hills Grill, Marible and Chagos. And I think you once I'm in a contract right now.

10:29So once that happens, we're definitely going to be making a switch. I think that you guys should give them a shot. You guys should give them a call. We're going to have some more details for you. Go in the show notes. You can find all the information, but C&B Linen. Now, that leads me to hey, Brandon, you haven't had done an episode in a long time. And you've been talking to a lot of vendors. That's because I've been interviewing vendors. The next episode that we do will probably be with Crystal back in the studio. And we are going to outline my new thing that I'm trying. Now, don't blow my phone up. I've kind of talked about I'm not going to do the full announcement yet, but we're slowly going to be starting the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance. This is called NARA for short. And my goal is to help you succeed. You know, we have so many conversations in the studio with people who are chefs, they're creative people, they're business people. But at the same point, what's everybody else doing?

11:30What are they doing? So I am working with a lot of these vendors and I'm negotiating specific deals for you. If you're an independent restaurant, my goal is to help you save and make more money. And if I can get enough restaurants together and we can all work with these companies, Robin's Insurance is on board. SuperSource is on board. CMB Lennon is on board. We are working with all of the broadliners. Gordon Food Service, obviously, is my preferred there. They've done an amazing job for so many people. But no matter who you work with, there are things we can do in ways I can help you make money. And this is something we're going to outline in further episodes. But we are starting the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance. So if you feel like you're on an island and you need some help and you need some help negotiating some better deals, my goal is if you look down your P&L and you can't say specifically why you use every single vendor, CO2, right?

12:30If you're using new CO2, you're probably paying two to three times what you should be paying from a good local provider. And I'm still interviewing CO2 brands right here in Nashville, because every single line item I am going to have a partner with and we're going to pre-negotiate a better deal for you based around volume. Kind of like what back in the day, there was this thing called the Nashville Originals. And I will get into this story later, but there was about 35 restaurants that banded together. But they they really ended up just selling gift cards. And I want to bring that back, but not have it as a board where I'm actually going in and actively advocating for you. One of the things I've kind of said on the show is that I'm the director of operations for a restaurant group, but I'm kind of a luxury position because I'm looking at numbers, I'm looking at P&Ls, I'm looking at projections, and I'm negotiating every single vendor deal for all three of my restaurants. And a lot of restaurateurs don't have a director of operations.

13:31They have a general manager, they have themselves, and they're hustling. And my goal is to kind of help be the director of operations for all of y'all. How can I get in there and help you manage all of these things at little to no cost for you? So like I said, we are going to be discussing this ad nauseum at a longer interview with Crystal. We're going to talk about it together with her. And she's going to ask me the questions and talk to an independent restaurant owner and kind of find out what they're doing, what they're going, like she is. So that'll be a lot of fun. And I'm excited to put that out there. I'm excited to slowly get it going. If you are somebody who's struggling or you have questions or you're buying from multiple broadliners right now, or you just don't like your broadliner or anything like that, or you don't really know, feel free to reach out to me at Brandon Styll underscore on Instagram. Or you can email me Brandon at New Light Hospitality dot com.

14:32And I am happy to engage in a conversation. I don't know if I can get to you immediately. I have already we have several restaurants that are already signed up and where I'm actively working to help them. But I also do a full time job. So my goal is to transition some of that to to working for everybody. And that's probably going to happen in the next couple of months. So cats out of the bag a little bit here. But just to let you guys know, we'll do a big formal episode and then I'll slowly start building restaurants. So if you're one of those people and you want to get involved and you think this is something that might be able to help you, I am willing to sit down and talk and do a quick kind of consultation with you and see if there's anything we can do immediately. Any of my vendors that might be able to help you save some money right now. And the major thing is we have we have a code of conduct that's going to be our core values that everybody has to abide by. So my goal is to create real partnerships and don't want to just have vendors who you use. I want to have people who are invested in the success of your business, just like you.

15:32And through this code of conduct that we have as a as a cooperative, as an alliance, I think it's going to foster some really great relationships with some really great people. And I'm interviewing people all the time. So if you're a vendor and you are an upstanding company that wants to be transparent and you provide a service to restaurants and you actually care that that restaurant is here next year and that they're profitable and if you're one of those vendors and that's a prerequisite that you you care, then then I'm willing to talk to you also. So this is both sides. And I am so excited because this is my wheelhouse. This is what I do every day. And this is something that I'm really super excited to roll out to everybody in Nashville. So happy two thousand twenty five. Happy New Year. Let's jump in right now with Stephen Faust. All right. Super excited today to welcome in a good friend of mine, Stephen Faust.

16:36He is a partner in MacGuffin Catering, owner chef and partner. All kinds of fun things going on there. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. I don't know if you can say Happy New Year this late into the new year, being it's January the 11th today. And we're going to put this episode out today. First a lot of first happening today. First episode in the studio. First episode of two thousand twenty five. Lots of good things. I'm excited to see you, man. It's never too late to say Happy New Year. I yeah, I'm with you. There's like that meme with Larry David that's like, you can't say Happy New Year after January 7th. You know, I don't know if that's a thing or not, but I'm in. First time you see somebody in the New Year. I think you can say Happy New Year, right? Well, it's kind of like having a Christmas tree set up. It's brings such joy. So why not keep it up longer? And I guess you know that because you're in my home. That's right. And you see my Christmas tree still. I told my wife that I said, it's time to take the Christmas tree down.

17:36And she said, but I like it. I go, well, we'll keep it up. I don't give a shit. Like, let's go. I don't know. Who's going to the stuff outside is down. It came down before New Year's Day. There was a 70 degree day. And then I looked at the weather. I was like, it's going to be freezing for like 10 days. That's a good call. I'm going to knock it out today. It is early. So you you live in L.A. Yep. A lot of stuff happening in L.A. right now. Sure is. And you give me an update on like. What's going on? Well, we're in Lakenyada, Flintridge, which is the city right next to Pasadena and Altadena, which is burned and had has just had so much. Destruction. So how did this thing start? Do we do we know? Is there like a gender reveal that went wrong and like what what? How did the wildfires begin? Well, there were 80 to 100 mile per hour winds. That'll do it. You know, already. We call those the Santana's. Yes, exactly. And rumor has it that a power line snapped off and sparked the fire, at least in that one.

18:41I'm not sure about the Palisades area, which is another horrendous area of destruction. That's just heartbreaking to hear about that as well. But as far as I know, that's what it how it started. You know, nothing's been confirmed at this point. However. Being so close and those winds just fueled the fires unbelievably fast. So it's kind of like gasoline on a fire with those winds. I mean, 100 percent. Ever had a bonfire, you know, when you blow on the bottom of it, we get it going again. Or smoker. Yeah, or smoke. Yeah, that too. Anyhow, so my family had to evacuate Tuesday night. Mandatory evacuations for our area, which is the next city over. And what is that like? Well, what happens when you get to evacuate your home? Do you get like a text message to somebody come knock on your door? Is there a letter like what happens? What is the actual process of that? I believe what happened later. There was a text message from the city, mandatory evacuation and emails and phone calls.

19:44And those were notifications. But he was proactive. My husband was proactive and started packing things. And, you know, I got on the phone and it was and you weren't there. I wasn't there. So you're in Tennessee and he has to evacuate with the kids. And he called me and it was 1130 p.m. our time and, you know, I had a 130 a.m. wake up call. But of course, after the call, I never went back to sleep. But I say, pack this, pack this, get this stuff, important documents, get pictures, computer. Didn't even care about pictures. Just like get dog food, get everything that you think you're going to need for a couple of days because you don't know when you're going to come back or if you're going to come back. That's the thing. If you're going to come back. Right. So it's a very traumatic experience. I can't I can't even fathom. So and I have felt the tremendous sense of powerlessness being here and knowing I can't do anything about this.

20:45I mean, they're safe. That's all that matters. Our home is still standing. And like I said earlier, at the end of the day, the only thing that we lost is food because there's been no power and had to throw away two refrigerators, freezers full of food. Big deal compared in comparison. Yeah, I mean, we know friends who've lost their homes. Just just I wouldn't even know where to begin. We were just start talking. You said a friend, you just just found out that a friend just lost their house. Yeah, I think that's a once in a that's just I've had a friend had a fire in his house like to be in an area where you get a text message that a friend loses everything. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, these are good friends who we're camping with earlier in the year or late last year or last year at this point. And it's like, what can we do? Offer clothing offer can offer food, but whatever assistance that we're able to.

21:47And the great part about a tragedy like this, people come out and they really, truly generally want to help. And I think that's just such a silver lining of all this. Is the sense of community that has gone on and that people are coming together to help. It's a good show of humanity. Well, you know, here in 2020, when we had the tornadoes in East Nashville and North Nashville, we the city that my sister was a director for Hands on Nashville, and she said they had to turn people away. We just we have too much help. And sometimes we live in a world where it's so negative and there's so much blame and there's so many things that sometimes these tragedies like this really kind of gets to show the human side of this world. And there are really good people out there. And I hate that, that that's the thing that has to bring everybody together. Yeah, we're right near the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena. And from my understanding, they've had to turn away donations as well, because just to the outpouring has been tremendous.

22:52So human spirit is a special thing. Sure is. So for you, do you go? How are you still here? I mean, do you think like, well, shouldn't you be there? I mean, they're safe. Your family's safe. Is that a tough thing for you? It has been tough because I have not been there emotionally to comfort and to give emotional support. At the same time, I'm I'm here working and I'm your provider. You've got writing that this is that this is the balance of life. You know, you have to have all these things and if they're safe, then, you know, you've got to do this stuff. As you know, you miss dental appointments, school events and all that stuff in the because we are the providers. Not that we. I hope I don't look back and later in life and regret this, but I know. I'm able to give us a life that is comfortable.

23:54Yeah, for the other 300 days out of the year. Yeah. You know, to be able to provide for people so that they can live a life. I mean, it's I think this is this is a lot of business owners and a lot of people that are they have this that's a burden of responsibility. You know, honestly, that you have to kind of find balance. That's my hardest thing is finding that balance of time. I built an igloo yesterday with my nine year old and we had so much fun in the snow. But I know that that's fleeting. Like I have to take that moment and go. I have to think every single second of this, like how important this is, because I got to I got to go to work today at two thirty and I'll be there until ten thirty and I won't get to see him again. There'll be a sleep when I get home. You know, and that's it. Definitely have to take advantage of the time off. We had two weeks off at Christmas for the Christmas break. And I went home and was able to spend so much time with my family that I just. It's priceless. And you bought a house. I did. Congratulations. So the house that you evacuated from as a rental house, the new house is the new house. It's safe. It's safe. It's unscathed.

24:56OK, good. Well, I I know that that's something that I'm curious about because I have family in Riverside, but it's not really affecting Riverside. They certainly have wildfires out there, as far as I know. Right. I don't think I've heard anything from them, but I haven't heard anything about that either. OK. Well, good deal. You're in town. So we'll move on that. I know it's look, it's a sensitive topic, but I think people out there read stuff in the news and you're actively living this every day as somebody who's in the middle of it all. I think it's an important perspective for people to understand that it's not something that's happening 2000 miles away and doesn't affect people. There are people here in Nashville that it's affecting every day, you know, and that's a that's a thing. You're here shooting. So McGuffin catering. You've been on the show before. We've had you on the show. This is your second time to repeat guest. Oh, I'm a part of that exclusive club now. There's like 10 or 12 people that have been on twice. I mean, you know, it is an exclusive club, and I couldn't be more excited to have you here. Remind people again exactly what McGuffin catering does.

25:56We cater film and just film shoots, whether it be television, movies, commercials, music videos. That is our niche. And we feed the cast and crew. Now, you mentioned earlier craft services. What is craft services you mentioned on the show? We were talking earlier and you mentioned it. Craft service is. They're the group of individuals that feed. The crew in between meals, so we provide a hot breakfast snacks. Yes, snacks, beverages. You know, they have coffees and teas and OK, you know, they'll put out snacks throughout the day. We do the meals, we do breakfast. And then six hours later, we serve a lunch, which it's not. It's more of a gourmet dinner. OK, that they get. So that's that's our job is to feed the crew the two hot meals because they have to be fed every six hours per contracts.

26:59Wow. OK, that's that's not easy to do. Where are you filming like? So if they're filming downtown Franklin, do you go to the actual location and feed them on location? Or is there like a set that you guys are stationed at that you set up every day? No, we have a commissary that we park at, which is where we keep our equipment. But then every day we drive to location wherever that may be, whether it's Friday or Thursday. We're in Spring Hill for breakfast and then had to move to the Green Door Gourmet, which is off Charlotte Pike for lunch. Yeah. And then make that happen. And that was an hour drive. So Green Door Gourmet, that's the farm. The farm. Yeah. And then some days were on this show. We move around a lot. So we're they have it's a. Can you say what show you're filming right now? Yeah, it's called Scarpetta, which is based on the case, Scarpetta Books and stars Nicole Kidman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bobby Carnavale and Simon Baker.

28:06Wow. So that's really cool. Do you get to see any of the fun stuff of the filming and all this stuff? Or you're just working? We're working. But, you know, it not to be a Debbie Downer, watching a film being made is probably one of the boringest, almost boring thing to watch because they do take after take after take. So you get to see the same thing over and over. So the sexy thing of being on the set isn't really a thing. It's just people always say, God, your job just seems so glamorous. And I said, well, if you consider getting up at one o'clock in the morning every day and then, you know, finishing five, six o'clock at night. Glamorous. Yeah. Then it's the most glamorous thing you've ever seen. Yeah. I love that. So any challenges so far with the snow like this, do they just not shoot when it snows like this? Yeah. Friday. They just shut down for the day because they knew it would be. It's they can definitely film during snow, but it's safety.

29:08And they don't want the crew to be have to drive in unsafe conditions. So they put the crew's health and welfare ahead of shooting a lot of times. Monday is questionable because there's going to be a black ice. I'm already preparing for my kids to not go to school. So Monday is questionable as well. So here I am. We'd all love to be working, earning a living. And rather than me sitting in my little rental house that I have and go like, what am I going to do today? Because I don't have my family here. And the roads are, you know, I could drive, but do I need to? Come record a podcast. Why not? Let's have breakfast with Brandon. And then go record a podcast. Well, we were, we did have breakfast today. And I was, I was, we were talking about just some of like the service things, you know, because I have independent restaurants that we're working in. And service is so important. Now on a set like this, is there an opportunity for service?

30:13Absolutely. I think one of my strengths is getting to know crew members names. So rather than have somebody just come up and hi, how are you? What do you want? Or not even hi, how are you? Just what do you want? Yeah. It's about making connections and building relationships in this business because it's a huge business, but it's also a very small, especially here in Nashville. It's such a small market and there's not a ton of filmmakers that work on a set. So I've gotten to know them very well over the years. So it's built relationships and friendships and, you know, hang out with some of them after work. And for us, we're the first people they see in the morning. Yeah. We talked about that. Yeah. They were getting up the first thing they come in and you're the first person that they're going to see. So for us to start the day, you know, I'm already, I've got high energy anyways. And even if I've been up since one o'clock in the morning, by the time the cruise starts showing up at five o'clock AM or whenever the time may be, I'm still, I've still got that high energy.

31:22And I'm caffeinated at that point a lot more than they are. So I'm, I'm like a mayor. I shake hands, kiss babies, and just want them to feel welcome. That's awesome. So, you know, we're talking about just the power of using people's names. And I think it's the most underutilized thing in our industry. So many people don't expect service now. You don't expect people to know who you are, but if you can remember people's names and use their names and genuinely greet them and welcome them, people will come back. People will come back and they love that. And that's no different on the set. Correct. And I think that's where I've been successful in this business because I make that a priority. I tell my staff at the beginning of every show that we do, we are here to build relationships and not only that, but the crew, especially at lunchtime, they get 30 to 45 minute break from, from the hard work that they're doing all day.

32:23And we want them to feel relaxed, comfortable, maybe laugh. We play music during lunch. You know, we have different stations going on oftentimes. And so make them excited for the 30 to 45 minute break that they get throughout the day. And that can be a drab time if you're just going to go grab something and sit by yourself and eat something versus somebody who's energetic and cares that you enjoy what you're having that can make, can make a big difference in a day to somebody. It used to be that the old, he would say, well, what's for lunch? And they'd go chicken, meat and fish, chicken, meat and fish. That was the answer. That's the standard because we have to provide three proteins. You have to contractually contractually. I put it in, you know, we put it into our contracts, provide those amongst a ton of other things. But I realized long ago that I want people to not come with that mentality. I want them to come and go, what are they going to do special for us today? Thursday, pack you a lunch. I ain't no, no, no. I've got food here.

33:29I've got good food on the set. Yeah. Tuesday, uh, Tuesday or Wednesday. I don't remember what, but we did Mexican food and it's not just the typical Mexican food. I had a case of, I had a case of Birria station, which is, it's Birria meat inside of a corn tortilla with cheese. And so it's a, do you have the consomme? Yeah, you bet. We did. He did. So that's something you don't see all the time. No. And, you know, I had other things going on at Churro Sunday bar and, you know, different things that make people excited to come to work because I don't want to come to work and be bored. And the best part about my job, which is different from restaurants, restaurants, I used to make the same thing every single day, year in and year out. Here, I set the menus. Nobody tells me what to make. I come up with these menus with my team and on this shoot, we've had roughly 40, 45 days in so far. We have not repeated any menu at all. How long is this shoot?

34:33This goes till the end of February. So it's essentially, I believe it's four months, four and a half months total. Oh, that's not, that's like, that is actually a long time to be away from the family and to be this far away. Did they get to come out here at all to see you? They chose not to just for the school's sake. Yeah. With the children going to school, it just makes it more complicated. So how often do you get to go home? I've been going home on average once a month. Okay. So we had two weeks off at Christmas. We had the Thanksgiving break. I'm going to take the long weekend next weekend for Martin Luther King. So I've had enough time to go home. Well, you get to use some Titans tickets. I did. You did get to use some of those Titans tickets. So you've had seasoned tickets to Titans for a long time. What do you think's going on with the Titans? We just changed gears right away. I'm sorry. I, this is my ADD working. No, no, no, no. I've just, I heard the rumors that Rand was going to get fired, uh, the general manager and it's like, he's been here for two years.

35:35Give him a chance. And he's the scapegoat, I guess. Uh, it's just frustrating as a fan to see the team in rebuilding mode again. Again. I've got the first pick of the draft. Do you, are you a cam ward guy or should do her Sanders guy? Or do you love this guy? I was disappointed by love. It says everybody, but I think ever from what the experts say, I listened to a, uh, another podcast called locked on Titans and this guy has, he knows this stuff about the Titans. Experts are saying they should trade down and get more draft picks and pick up with an office offensive lineman rather than the two quarterbacks who were probably to go in the top 10, who may not be worth their great assault. Yeah. That's an interesting take. I think we did that last time. We had two and then we traded up to something else and then we got a bunch of picks and that was one was like, we're going to be really good. We got some players. We traded AJ Brown.

36:38That was the best. Oh God. That was the worst move ever. Go to, it's like, it's like the opposite of the, uh, Philip Forsberg trade. You know, we got the best deal in the world for the prize. We traded Martin erat to Washington mid season for this rookie Philip Forsberg, nothing for we get traded like a guy at the end of his career for like an absolute 15 year superstar. That's the opposite of what we did there. Well, okay. Sorry, right. I could talk football forever because, uh, me too. I'm a, I'm a big Titans fan. I do want to send out a congratulations to Brian Baxter, Brian Baxter of, uh, formerly of the catbird seat. He won our Nashville restaurant radio, fantasy football championship. So, oh, wait, wait. There it is. There it is. There it is. Brian Baxter. Congratulations. Uh, he is our 2024 fan, 2024, 25 fantasy football champion. I lost to him in the finals. I made, I made it to the finals and I lost it. It's okay. It happens.

37:43Yeah. Um, so, uh, what, what's, what else we get? We can talk more about MacGuffin catering, but, uh, that is January. The world loves a dry January. You've been doing dry January for 28 years. How many years? 28 years, not dry. You also do dry February, March through December as do I, I remember sending you, uh, last year said, let's do dry February, February 29th, 30th and 31st. Let's do it. So we can do that. Then you corrected me and said, Oh, that's the leap year this year. So we can only actually do two, two extra days. Well, it's okay. What do we, uh, how's that? How is that going? Great. Great sobriety has been good for you. It's been good. We're going to get into that in just a moment after these words from our sponsors. And I will tell you, it is the new year. And like everybody you start off the new year and you want to do things the best you possibly can for the year. And insurance is no different.

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39:52This is another long time sponsor of the show. As you start the year off, you're looking at labor, you're looking at how much you spent on everything. What can we do different in 2025? Well, if you're still baking bread, the mess, all of the things, and you don't want to buy frozen bread, I totally understand that. You want your bread to be delicious. That's why at all three of our restaurants, we use Sharpies Bakery. I get fresh bread delivered daily. I get endless comments about how wonderful our bread is. And I support a local business in the process. That's what Sharpies Bakery does. Hey, look, if you have a special recipe that look, they don't make my bread, give them the recipe. They'll make it for you. Stop spending the expensive labor on that. Have it delivered every day and have fresh bread whenever you want it without the mess, without having to pay extra people to come in. This is what you need. They're local. They're right off Whitebridge Road. They're amazing. Sharpies Bakery, Erin Mosso, her number is 615-319-6453. And of course I'm talking to you about SuperSource. Jason Ellison's SuperSource is the best for dish, machine, and chemicals.

40:56Look guys, no contracts. One of the things we're going to be doing with NARA is as we get this thing going and as we sit down and do a consultation with you, we're going to look at your dish machine contract. And if it's, here's the thing about these contracts is they auto renew and they're like five to seven year contracts. So if you don't send the letter within 60 days of your contract, it automatically renews for another five to seven years. And then you're stuck paying and then they increase the price on you and tough. It says in line three, article seven, that this contract auto renews. What we're going to be doing is we're going to be managing that for you. We're going to have, we have a CRM, everything in there. So we will know when your contract is up and we'll notify you and we will say, Hey look, your contract's up in 90 days. Who do you want to use? What do you want to do? You won't ever have to worry about that with Jason Ellison because they don't do contracts, but this is the time to make the switch. Everybody I talked to is like, dude, that guy is legit. He's amazing. Supersource is the company you need to make their own chemicals, dish machine rentals. If you are a NARA member, I've got a special discount for you.

42:03So if you are somebody out there who is a, who uses Supersource, let me know, give me a call. I want to know how great they are. Plus if you join NARA, there might be something I could do for you. Anyhow, you can call Jason yourself. His number is 770-337-1143. I highly recommend going into the new year with new vendors, making new decisions to take control of your P&L and make more money with vendors who actually care about you. This is going to be our goal in 2025 is for me to help you win. So all three of these vendors are people that I trust, that I love, that I think will do a fantastic job for you. Pick up the phone and call them now. What do we, how's that, how is that going? Great. Great. So sobriety has been good for you? It's been good. I've been really good. I mean, otherwise I wouldn't be sticking with it. I never, since moving back to the LA area, you know, I had to have a tremendous home group here in Franklin and just, I've never found a group.

43:07I've traveled the world and had meetings all over the world, all over the states everywhere, and never had a home group as good as the one here in Franklin that I attend. So it's been a treat being back here and being a part of that group again, back in where we are. I haven't found my tribe there yet. So that's been the struggle. So, but I still reach out to a minimum of three alcoholics every day. And now I'm part of a larger a group text message group with a bunch of sober men. And, you know, that's been tremendously helpful too. Support. I mean, not doing this alone, I think, is what you're telling me. And I talk about this because I think a lot of people do dry January and I've heard lots of stories. Tom Holland said, I did dry January and I immediately started feeling so much better that I thought, why, why wouldn't I want to feel this way all the time?

44:10And so I realized, and I just stopped drinking and now so many things are better. And I think a lot of people start defining their relationship with alcohol. And I think you kind of get towards the middle, towards the end of the month and you're like, am I going to keep drinking or am I going to keep this thing going? And I think that the way you do it is you find support. You find other people who can help you, who share this way of life and you lean on them. Right. And then eventually you get to help lean on other people. Exactly. But they have other people lean on you. And it doesn't, to do that, don't have to walk into the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous or another 12 step organization. There's a lot of other groups out there that have helped people have a neighbor friend who's never been into a meeting, but she's been sober for three years. My sister's the same way. For me, it works for me. Yeah. And you know, I've grown tremendously both spiritually, just my whole body and mind has awoken. And it's indescribable what a difference and how I am today than I was when I first got here.

45:20So that doesn't just happen because you quit drinking, because you quit drinking. Now there's some physical stuff that happens because you put drinking, but you're actually putting in the work too. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's, once you, I think I never forget, um, a gentleman told me, my buddy Ray, he said, uh, man, until you get to a year, the fog doesn't lift and you get to, when that fog lifts, your life's going to completely change. And I didn't know what the hell he was talking about, but once you put enough work in and then all of a sudden it becomes a way of life, you go, Oh, this is, this is actually pretty cool. This, this is a neat, a neat thing, but it doesn't just happen. Like there's, there's, there's work to do. There's a fog that you don't know that you have because you can't see it. There's a fog that when it lifts, you kind of go, Oh, wow. I didn't even realize that that was there and how much it was clouding what I was actually seeing, not only in myself, but in others and what you do in life. That's very true. Um, I just know that how, where I came from, I was living in sun Valley, Idaho, a beautiful ski resort town and I lived at the base of the mountains and I would never lift my head up enough to see the mountains because I just felt like shit about by myself, myself. I just, I just had that such low self esteem that I always walked around with my head down and wouldn't look at people in the eyes. And after I got sober, I really started to notice the beauty of the nature and everything around me.

47:00It's, it was, it's indescribable. The how you say the fog lifted it literally lifted it, lifted up my head. Yeah. You know, it's funny you said, but the self esteem I'm going to tell a little story about Deborah. I was telling you earlier about, I'm sure she's fine with me saying this, but I'm my worst critic. You know, I say I hate myself a lot of the time I lay in bed and I think about all the things I should have done or didn't do or whatever. And I just beat the shit out of myself. And, um, it's really, really tough. My, my wife, we're talking about our kid, we have an 11 year old and the other day he was showing me something I did on Fortnite and he was really, he's really good at Fortnite. But in this particular time he was playing this game and he lost relatively quick. And he's like, that doesn't really happen. And like, it's okay, man, but he showed me how he went in and he built all of these things to prepare himself so that then he can go into battle and do all this. And I was like really blown away by what this kid is doing. I mean his thought process around this game is, is incredible.

48:04He wants to be a professional in all this stuff. And I was like, well, that's awesome, dude. I'm gonna go to bed. Like it's really fun. Thank you for doing that. My wife went up there to talk to him and he was sad. He was like, man, I wish I would have done better for dad. I wish I would have shown him, you know, I can do so much better. It's hard when people watch you play. And he was like, self-doubting. My wife said, you know, my therapist said that kids are, when they turn into teenagers, it's not that they hate their parents, it's that they learn to hate themselves. And then it outward comes out. And I said, that's funny. Cause my coach told me the other day, she said, what would unconditional love say about you? And I said, I don't, I don't know what that means. Like she's like, with your heart, not your head. And I said, I don't know what that means. I don't know how to do that. And this is part of the work, right? As to learning how to use your heart. And I said, I guess what unconditional love would say about me is that I'm good enough and I'm, you know, a good person and that, uh, I'm exactly where I need to be and that life is, it's okay.

49:07And, and all these things. She was like, that's good. That's exactly what it is because our worst critic lives inside of us and we tell ourselves, so you have to unconditionally love yourself. There are things you're going to do, things that are not good, not bad. They're just, there are results that are going to happen and you have to look at it and say, what part do I play in the result that I didn't want? But that doesn't inherently mean that you are bad. And that's where my self esteem takes the hit or my ego takes a hit is that I start beating myself up. So what does unconditional love say about you? And I've been practicing that and that's a self esteem kind of a thing. And I think that's a major problem. When you can't unconditionally love yourself, it's painful and you want to drink. Yeah. I think what you mentioned about saying negative things about yourself and you know, those thoughts creep into my head all the time too. It's like, Oh, I'm a bad person or you know, whatever, however, I'm feeling negatively about myself. Those are the broken records of my past.

50:11When I put down the drink, when I put, I became a different person, but that record, that broken record of thoughts is still spinning around. And I have to quell those thoughts. And when I first would hear people tell me, Oh, you're a good person or you're so nice. I was like, boy, I'm holding a full, I'm pulling one over on you. Aren't I? I still think that. Yeah. And I'm not the jerk that I was when I got sober. Yes, I can. I be that person at a drop of a dime. Yes, I can. However, I have to say those positive attributes about myself. I have to tell myself that, you know, I am, I am a good guy. I remember early in sobriety. I don't remember if I said this on the last podcast, but I used to look in the mirror and pulled the Stuart's Molly, which was, I'm kind enough. I'm good enough. And gosh, darn it. People like me. And I would literally look in the mirror into my eyes, which I could never do before and say those words. And they sunk in, because in my mind, I'm the piece of shit that got arrested, spent time in jail, broke a lot of hearts, stole, lied, cheated. You know, I was that, I was that guy.

51:30And I'm not today. That's a, I think a lot of people out there that would resonate with them. There's this broken record playing these hits from the past. That's what they are. They're hits from the past. It's not too late to change all of that. And I think it's good to talk about this right now and the dry January time where people are defining that relationship. I can, I can take something from this. This is for those people that might want to, that might need to hear this, I guess, in January, starting off. Did you have any New Year's? Do you believe in New Year's resolutions? I don't, I just make goals and which is kind of the same thing, right? But different spin on it. My goal is to just get back in shape. Last year I had a foot surgery and broke my foot afterwards. And so I was off work for five weeks and I've just have been unable to exercise. So I'm going to eat better.

52:35I'm going to slowly start exercising again. Healthy getting back in shape. Let's get back there. Yeah. No, that's my hardest thing. I'm, uh, I'm going to go snowboarding in February. I'm training for it right now. I need a carrot. I need it. I need a carrot. I need something to look forward to. Like I, it's really hard for me to just go to the gym every day to not eat that Reese's peanut butter heart that I saw at the gas station. It's hard. It's really difficult for me. But if I know I'm going to be going somewhere, doing physical activity for three days straight, I can, I can fucking do it. I can, I can get up every morning at 5 a.m. I can go to the gym. I can eat a salad. I can stretch every night. I can eat healthy and I can get myself there. But the day I get home, I'm going to be like, well, I've already conquered that. I'm done. And then, so I need to like schedule a vacation in April. That's going to be somewhere where I'm going to be wearing minimal clothes.

53:40And then I go, all right. Do I want the dad bod or the beach bod? A little bit of, I have a good mixture of both. That's a dad beach bod. How about that? It's a thing. You know, I'm, I'm proud of my little dad bod. I've got a major dad bod. I think that's a thing that a lot of people like that, but I don't know. As long as my wife likes, that's all I care about. You know, that's it. Well, what else has been going on, man? Well, right before this show, work wise, we just finished Matlock out in Los Angeles at Hollywood at Paramount Studios, which was a seventh, seven month run. And it was funny on the first podcast that I came here with USB, who are some of the best people that you like to work with? And I met, I mentioned that Kathy Bates was just the most amazing woman on the planet. And literally after that podcast, that was in April 23. I think it was May 23.

54:43I just reached out to her and said, Hey, how you doing? Just thinking about you and told her, said, we're thinking about relocating out to Los Angeles. And she said, I'm really sorry. She's a Tennessee native born and raised in Memphis. She said, I'm really sorry that Tennessee isn't working out for your family, but I just finished a pilot and I want you to come out and cater it for me. So it gave, it was extra motivation to move out there. Cause I knew I had that show where she said I would have it. And then of course, we were right in the middle of a Hollywood strike, which shut down the industry for over six months. So the writer's strike, the writers, that was a big deal. It was still a lot of people not back to work on that. So it was just shocking. But that's just, it's a Hollywood, the way they've restructured Hollywood, it's a thing now. So I'm very grateful that after the strike ended, I went right back to work on in one show and then we're right into that, into Matlock. And yeah, that was such a great show.

55:45And it's drinking tremendous in the ratings. I mean, after two, two airings, they picked it up for a second season or I've already been told I'm coming back for it. So it's, it's quite an honor to be a part of that and to work with someone who I just adore. I love watching your socials cause all the pictures and just different things with you and all these actors and your whole team and how excited you are out there. It's fun. Where do people follow you on socials? Let's get that out of the way real fast. It's at chef Steven Faust on Instagram. There you go. And that's D S D E P H. Yeah. Yeah. F A U S T. Yeah. So you can follow him and you can see all the fun movie stuff he's doing. And what makes Kathy Bates so special? Just a tremendous heart. She, along with Jamie Lee Curtis on this one, the crew wore name badges all the time. Yeah. So she would get to know them on a personal level and or just a, even a name basis, but that is super important to her and I noticed that that's important to Jamie as well. Uh, so that not just the, the dolly grip in the dolly or the camera person or whomever, everybody, everybody doesn't matter.

57:09You know, people oftentimes say, well, I'm just a PA on the show, which is a production assistant. There's no such thing as just a on in a restaurant, on my crew, on a movie set, there's no such thing. Everybody plays an integral integral part. So I think it's really special that when somebody on those levels really cares about the humanity and really wants to get to know the people. It's amazing. Hey, you Google, grab me a water. It's amazing. And it's such a unique side of hospitality. What you're doing. It's not the, like you said, every day cooking the same thing to different people or same people, but different things every day, different scene locations, different sets. And just the planning involved in all of it just seems like absolute chaos, but also not. Yeah, I've just been doing this for so long.

58:11But now 24 years now that there's not much that will deter me from from getting the job done. And logistically, I'm a logistical expert. I mean, I know how to just do everything that needs to be done. If something breaks here or an oven decides not to work while we pivot, we're going to set up the barbecue and grill everything on the barbecue or or or the grill outside. Or we make adjustments. And that's where it takes someone who can think quickly on their feet. And fortunately, I do that well. So when my family was. Packing up the other day to leave, the logistics side of me came in and said, did you grab the important documents, computer, the data data data? Did you grab all that stuff since to you? Yeah, because that's the way my mind works. It's like, let's get all the important things first.

59:13Helpful. I love it. Well, man, it has been an absolute pleasure having you here. I'm so excited for 2025 and what it has to offer for you and your family. Congratulations on the new home. Thank you. Congratulations in 28 years of sobriety. Congratulations on just so many things. I'm so excited for you and excited that you came in to be the first episode of 2025 on on the podcast. This is neat. Yeah. We miss anything else we need to chat about. No, I think we got another movie lined up here in Nashville right after this. And then from there, it should take me right into Matlock, which. So 2025 is shaving up to be a great year again. So I'm very thankful and so glad to reach out today and said, hey, let's get together. Me too. That's sometimes impromptu. Conversations are the best and always good to see you. Yeah, great to see you. All right, man. Thank you. So there it is.

01:00:13Stephen Faust, first interview of 2025. New vendors, new opportunities for you are out there. Go get it. Make 2025 the best year possible. I am so excited about what we're going to be doing here at Nashville Restaurant Radio. You know, one of the things that we're going to be doing, and I'll outline this again in the future in the next episode with Crystal. But what we're going to be doing is I get confused sometimes as to who I'm talking to. Right. I have PR companies message me, hey, we would like you to talk about this restaurant or this or this or this. And I'm happy to do that. And I love when they do that because I'm able to bring in new guests and it gives me a new lots of people come on the show because of great PR companies. And so I don't know if I'm talking to people that are dining in restaurants. I don't know if I'm talking to people that are working in restaurants. I'm talking to owners of restaurants with Nara. This podcast is going to be focused towards the people who work in restaurants.

01:01:15This is going to be an industry podcast. I'm talking to restaurant owners. I'm going to talk about inside baseball stuff. How are we going to make it more profitable? And if people want to listen to that, who are guests also and learn about this industry? Great. But there's going to be more industry adjacent people as far as vendors and other people who really want to help you. So if you want to take your restaurant to the next level this year, hopefully this podcast is a place where you can start and listen. And through Nara, you can learn more. And we can really grab a hold of some of the details that you're working on inside the business that I can help you manage. Like I said in the ad, we're going to be looking at every contract that you have. We're going to look at every single specific thing that you're doing in those contracts and we're going to keep track of them for you. So you'll never be in a situation where a great vendor comes along and you love. And if here's another thing, if you have vendors that you currently love, that's awesome. You don't have to change. Nara is not about you changing to my vendors. I've talked about if you have a vendor that you love. Great. Keep them.

01:02:16But we're going to have options for you. And I'm going to let you know when your contracts are up so that you can start making good decisions. Uber Eats is another one of those partners that we're working with. So if you have issues with your third party vendor or you want to reduce your percentage on that, going exclusive, whatever it might be, Uber Eats is joined on as a partner. Really excited to have Uber Eats involved with us. And they're going to do a great job for you. They're a new one as well. And so we got we got some great vendors. We're going to keep adding more and more and more. If you know any, let me know. But this is an area that we're going to be talking about on the show. We're going to be traveling to Waynesboro to meet with the owner of CNB Lennon in a couple of weeks, and we're going to do a full tour. We'll take some videos. You can learn more about them. A lot of that type of content is what you're going to start getting from us to really help propel your restaurant to the next level. So that's what we got going for you today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the year.

01:03:18And we look forward to a brand new 2025 with Nashville Restaurant Radio and NARA. Hope you guys are being safe out there and all the snow and ice. Love you guys. Bye.