Brandon Styll hosts a loose, freewheeling Talkin' Shift episode recorded live with his brother-in-law Ryan Easterly (of 291 Colorado Whiskey) and Andrea Chaires, owner of East Nashville's Rose Pepper Cantina.
Brandon Styll hosts a loose, freewheeling Talkin' Shift episode recorded live with his brother-in-law Ryan Easterly (of 291 Colorado Whiskey) and Andrea Chaires, owner of East Nashville's Rose Pepper Cantina. The episode opens with a memorable first for the podcast: Ryan calls his girlfriend Annie live on air and proposes to her, and she says yes.
The bulk of the conversation is Andrea telling the story of how she inherited Rose Pepper from her father with no restaurant experience, walking into the role as a former lawyer and ad agency creative. She digs into how she taught herself the business by recreating restaurant data documents, working every position in the house, and leaning on a long-tenured staff. She also explains how she built the now-famous Rose Pepper sign and social media voice, why she changes the sign twice a week, and how she thinks about brand voice and audience.
Along the way the trio talks Gordon Food Service, staff parties (Soundwave vs pontoon boats vs Airbnbs), family meal culture, fostering dogs, Halloween's coveted 12-foot Home Depot skeleton, and Andrea's recent Best of Nashville wins.
"Now you sneak up on that plate. That's hot."
Andrea Chaires, 01:04:21
"I don't know everything, but I'll figure it out. I've fucked up so many times. I've spent so much money on things I didn't need to, but I have learned."
Andrea Chaires, 55:12
"It's hard to lead people when you've never done their job."
Andrea Chaires, 53:45
"If you expect your staff to come in and do stuff, family meal, you've got to provide that network. You break bread."
Ryan Easterly, 01:39:11
"For as casual as it may seem, it is very thought through. It is very intentional and I spend a lot of time on it."
Andrea Chaires, 02:00:45
00:00Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Talkin' Shift podcast. My name is Brandon Styll, and this week I am hosting with my brother-in-law. His name is Ryan Easterly. Some of you know him as Beaver. And I also have Andrea Cherez, who is the owner of the Rose Pepper. We are in studio for two hours, just Talkin' Shift. There's no interview. It's just kind of all of us hanging out, talking. In this episode, we actually have a proposal that happens in the episode. And then we just talk with Andrea and Ryan and just kind of hang out. We have so much fun. So it's an interesting show because we recorded it live and you have to do it via StreamYard. And that is a over-the-internet thing. It was raining. The internet kind of cuts in and out. So I'm so sorry. At some point, if the sound kind of wavers or anything like that, that's what's going on there. And I almost didn't put this episode out just because it's long and it's just people hanging out and talking. But we did have a lot of fun.
01:02And Andrea was just amazing. She told so many stories. And of course, Ryan proposed to his girlfriend. So we've got a proposal right towards the beginning. If you can stick with it, I think this is a fun time. And we'd love for you to join us on Sunday nights from nine to 11, where we're gonna be Talkin' Shift. We will be putting out communications on the front. If you're wondering if we're doing a show, check the Nashville Restaurant Radio page. And you can watch the show live Sunday nights from nine to 11 on the Nashville Restaurant Radio Facebook page. We want for you to call in. We want for you to join into the show. So if you have a restaurant story, something crazy happened this week. You've got a celebrity story, a good tipper, a bad tipper. Those have to be bad things. You can tell good things too. We would love for you to join us Talkin' Shift Sunday nights. Yeah. So this is a fun episode and I hope that you enjoy it. This episode is gonna be brought to you commercial free by Poached Restaurant Jobs. Poached is a hospitality job site, P-O-A-C-H-E-D.
02:03Now here's the deal. I've previously said that Poached is free if you go on and create a job. And that is not true unless you're a listener of the show. So what you'll need to do is you need to go to poachedjobs.com. Or if you go to nashvillerestaurantradio.com, you can click the Sponsors tab. There's a link there under the Poached tab. And from there, when you create your job post, if you use the promo code NashvilleRestaurantRadio, you will get to post for free. So my listeners post for free. Everybody else in Nashville does not get to post for free. It is a free post. So use the promo code NashvilleRestaurantRadio and you can get employees right now and it costs you nothing. So let's jump in with this episode. It is going to be commercial free, like I said, from Poached and we're going to jump in what seems like the show's already going. Hope you guys enjoy this one. The fun has already begun. Are we live now? We are live in Hillsborough Village.
03:05It's amazing. But you do know me. I do, I understand. All right, we are live right now. We are in Hillsborough Village. I am joined with the amazing Andrea Cherez. Hi there everybody. Welcome to the, welcome to talking show. What's that? What is that? Cherez. The name. It's kind of a funny story behind that actually. It's Chitis. You're like an enigma. Yeah, I'm a mystery wrapped in an enigma, dipped in bacon. But no, and so it's Chitis, but my grandfather started pronouncing it as Cherez to sound less Hispanic back in the day, you know, that was like a little bit of an issue and he thought it sounded a little bit more European. So now we say Cherez. It took me a while to learn that. Is that where rose pepper came from? No, so rose pepper, like all of my dad's favorite things, the name came to him in a dream. Rose pepper. That's amazing. I like Pornhub.
04:06Did that come to you in a dream? Yes. I mentioned like the name Nashville Restaurant Radio, how it was like, when I first said like Nashville Restaurant Radio, I was like, it's like Dirk Diggler in the movie. You know where he's like, I got the best name, man. It's like in bright lights. I'm gonna have Ryan fix his microphone. Oh, is it still? Yeah, so for everybody, if you're just listening and not watching, Ryan's got a problem with keeping his microphone erect. It's my brother. You know, so his brother's helping him. Get it where it needs to be. 17 years. There we go. 17 years of brotherhood. Get comfortable in there. 17 years of brotherhood. Okay. Yes. We're also joined today with Ryan Easterly, who we have already established as my brother-in-law. You are my wife's brother. And what are you doing these days, Ryan? You brought a bunch of bourbon here tonight.
05:06And whiskey. And whiskey. And whiskey. What do you got? I got a wee pin. Oops. That's okay. His answer is just. No. Oh, you mean a wee remote? No, we're gonna be playing video games later. Yes. Yeah, we'll be playing wee later. Wee tennis. Yeah. Brandon is a bowling pro. Are you? Yes. I do enjoy bowling, yes. Have you ever bowled a perfect game? No. I once got over a hundred and it was amazing. That's almost a perfect game. Yeah, I mean, it was pretty good. I got like half a strike at one time. A hundred is my shit. Yeah, like a couple of times. No. A hundred is nothing. We will skip what Ryan does. And I will tell you that I used to work when Merchants had a restaurant in Cool Springs. Merchants Cool Springs was in 1997. I was before the Boundary. I was serving your country, dude. Thank you for that.
06:06It's amazing. Thank you. And we would work doubles every day. We would go to Chili's in between shifts and drink two for one, seven and sevens because we were like 20s. Yeah, sure, that's what you do. That's what you did. I was 19 years old. I had a really good fake ID. And then what we used to do is we would go to the Franklin Lanes. We decided that if we go to the Franklin Lanes, we could bowl and drink beer and spend less money and get less wasted. And still come back to work. And then we did this every day for like a year. And it was all kind of like fun and games, just something to do while we were drinking. And then all of a sudden it was like, hey, I bowled like a 190 there. I'm getting close to a two. I hate playing with that. And then I bought your own ball. And then I had my own shoes. Oh, you had your own ball and your own shoes. Two balls, everybody. Brandon has two balls right now. They're very heavy. They're too heavy. Yeah, they're so heavy. I've been told.
07:07His brother tells me. So anyway, anyway, folks. That's awesome. I dated somebody once that was a big and bowling. He has shoes. Do you have shoes? I do. I do have. Yeah. He had bowling shoes. His whole family had bowling shoes and multiple balls. And he had like this gold glitter ball that he would only use for picking up spares. But his uncle, very sweet guy, probably never been with a woman, very shy kind of guy. Anyway, multiple 300s, multiple 300s name on the wall a bunch of times. And I would go and just, you know. Nobody fuck with the Jesus. Yeah. I'm so lost. Like what happened with the guy with the no girl? Oh, the uncle of my boyfriend would, he would get multiple 300s, multiple perfect scores in bowling all the time.
08:09I think, I think because of all of that, you know, pent up energy, not, you know, not spent in romantic relationships. He focused on bowling maybe. I hope he doesn't hear this. He might get upset. Have you been in a relationship? Is that something that you do? I've been in a relationship. No, not anymore. I don't really, I don't participate in romance anymore. No. Oh. We're just jumping right into it. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think Ryan's asking the hard hitting questions tonight. Yeah. I thought that was this is, Hey, I have something I want to do. There is something that we have going on tonight. I think Ryan has been celebrating tonight already in advance of what's about to happen. Ryan, your, your girlfriend, her name is Annie and she is not listening right now. No. And we're going to call her right now. Should we? What is going to happen? I think we should. Is she, the thing that she was doing end or is it still happening? I think she's available to be called right now. Now. Oh, well, I think she said 908 is what she said. Oh, eight.
09:09I think we should just call her. I think we're just going to call her right now. Let's just do it. Here we go, Ryan. You're going to be live on talk and shift with your girlfriend, Annie. Here you go. Get your sound effects ready. Hello. Oh. Hello. Hey. Hey. What are you doing? What are you wearing? Hey, Annie. This is Brandon. This is Andrea, owner of Rose Pepper. What are you wearing? Green leopard print sweater. Hell yeah. And jeans. Jeans. Yeah. Yeah, you are. Yeah. Well, we're rocking it out. We are all in studio right now. We are recording a podcast called Talkin' Shift and we're going to be talking about restaurant things throughout the shift. And Ryan said, hey, will you call Annie? I want to get her on the show. And I said, okay. So I called Annie and now you're on the show. Congratulations. Well, thank you. Hi, honey. You're like such a celebrity now. Oh yeah. Hey, man, how are you? We're having a great time here.
10:09Hey, hello there. Oh my gosh. Ryan. Honey, I'm not gonna lie. You've seen me before. It's very clear that I like to eat and I have great opinions, so. We love that. Ask me anything. All right. Well, I'll let Ryan ask the first question then I'll ask the follow up. Okay. Okay. What are you wearing? Jeans and a green leopard print shirt. So you know that Rachel spilled the beans yesterday, right? Do you guys know what spilled the beans means? Yeah. I own a Mexican restaurant. I know what spilled the beans means, yeah. Very literal way. Yeah, yeah. So my baby sister spilled the beans yesterday, right? Hello? Okay. Yeah, yeah. So after the beans being spilled. Yeah. I guess there's just, just one more question. And that question is, Ann, will you marry me?
11:12What? Yes, I will. Oh, there you go. All right. Yes. Oh, shit. Woo. That was a long pause. That is a relief. That was a long pause. That was a long pause. You had a sword there for a second. Well, congratulations. Holy cow. Hold on. I'm not sure if I should say that. I should say what I'm really thinking. I had a thing for my friend. What are you really thinking? I love what you did. I had a thing for my friend. I don't know if you were gonna build up to it a little bit. Like you're like, I love you so much. Well, I do. He's on the spot here too. Ann, you're the best thing since last break. I love you. Aw, that's sweet. Well, that's sweet, honey. I'm glad that, thank you. Thanks.
12:12And he doesn't, you don't have a ring here right now to give her. It's her mother's ring. She has her mother's ring. Okay, so you have, okay, wonderful. Yes. I bet it's beautiful. It's a... I'm gonna go pick out this setting. Aw, that'll be nice. Aw, congratulations. Great, great. Well, that's a first. That is a first for... He's been giddy the whole time since I met him 10 minutes ago. He's been giddy, yeah. Aw, that's so sweet. Congratulations. Oh, let me be so happy. Well, thank you. We have lots to celebrate later on tonight when he gets done. I'm gonna steal him for the next hour and 45 minutes, however. Or if you want to do a poll to audience kind of thing. Ooh, I like that. Should we have like a wedding or just go to the justice of the peace type of thing? I like it. I like it. All right, we'll put that out there. I'm gonna put that out there right now. Crowd source it. That's really smart.
13:13That's really smart. Somebody might send this to the Cayman Islands or something. Yeah, they might. Shoot, you don't know who's watching this show. No clue. But I will tell you, I don't know who's watching this show. We've got several people watching right now. And I will say, if you'd like to join. Someone's watching and they're gonna have opinions. Yeah, they very well may. We love opinions. For sure. Yeah. I love you, sugar. Aw. All right, I love you too. Bye, Annie. We're getting married. Welcome to the family. Yay, married. Aw, hey. To be the first to welcome her to the family. I like that. I love her butt. All right. Thank you so much, Annie. We're gonna let you go. Bye. Perfect. Congratulations. Love you. Where's my cat? Wow. All right, so right now, if you. That's wonderful. Wonderful news. High five, that was beautiful. So if you are listening to this right now on Facebook, you can go to, if you're watching the broadcast, you will see in the comment section that there's a link to StreamYard.
14:14If you wanna join the show, you have questions that you'd like to ask. If you wanna tell a story, if you need advice, if you wanna talk about where they should get married, if that should be Justice Peace or going on an actual wedding. I have a great story. Whatever you wanna weigh in on, just click that link and you can join the show. I'll see you here and you can join the show. I'm great at advice, so please, ask away. Absolutely. No, absolutely, please. What's your story? It's a story. All right, Ryan's gonna tell us a story. You can also call and there's a number there that is on the comment section. If you call that number, you can join the show via telephone. Oh, great. Yeah, what's your story about, Ryan? Woody Harrelson. Woody Harrelson? What happened with Woody Harrelson? Tell us all about it. He smoked the dope. He smoked the dope with Woody Harrelson? With Woody. Yeah, how long ago was that? Three hours ago. Of course. On the set of The Hunger Games. Yeah. Now, that's a story. He's in my trunk right now.
15:15That's impossible, because he's in mine. Yeah. But. You carry him with you, too? Yeah. A little piece. Well, in my heart. Everywhere I go. Yeah, definitely not actually in my trunk. Yeah, yeah. Probably. Let's, yeah, not that, don't go check. Sorry, Woody. So, you got to smoke weed with Woody Harrelson. That's pretty badass. How did that happen, Ryan? Jesus. Uh-huh. No. Jesus? I'm like, you can't. It's like, uh, what? No. So, um, I used to run Cabana. Cabana was a really fun spot in Hillsborough Village. Yeah, I've been there. Girl, I love roast pepper so much. Oh, I love it. Thank you. I mean, like the memes and the, your sonnets. It's a whole other job. Girl, it's brilliant. I mean, like, it's worldwide. I mean, like, it's social media. It's like, yeah, it's, you know. I came from, I came from marketing and advertising.
16:17Yeah. Before I was in marketing and advertising for a decade and then I became a lawyer and then I. You're a lawyer? Oh yeah. Really? Yeah, I mean, I'm not practicing now. I just, you know. So you're gorgeous and you're smart. Wow. Brandon. And funny too. Good job, buddy. Don't forget, I'm funny too. Wait, wait, I just got engaged. I mean, like, you missed your chance. I know, I know. I'm trying not to cry now. I'm gonna just wait and do it while I drive home and just, you know, the tears and the rain is gonna hit the windshield. She's gonna tell Woody all about it on the way home. Woody is, he loves this kind of stuff. Like, we're gonna just smoke all of the weed and just talk about it. Me and Woody Harrelson. Wow. Oh, we go back like car seats, it's great. Back like car seats? Yeah. That's impressive. That's way back. No, that's impressive. Depending on the car, obviously, but yeah. Yeah, well, obviously. Depending which car it may be. Worldwide, I'm serious. Rose pepper worldwide. Am I wrong? I'm not wrong. No, I mean. I mean, they're brilliant. They're so funny. It's a lot of work. It's, but you know. Is that you? Yeah, that's me.
17:17That's all me. I run all of our social media stuff. I love my girlfriend, but I'm my fiance now. I mean, we're engaged. Yeah, you're your fiance. Look at that. Yeah. I'm engaged. That's so great. That's so great. But you're so smart. We've had a few proposals on the sign, you know. We've had a few. Oh, I should do it for you. Yeah, yeah. We've definitely had a few of those. It's been, it's really sweet. Marry me. The first time, it was, you know, years ago, the first time I got one of those requests and I was kind of like still up my own butt about developing my brand. And it was kind of last minute. And I was like, no. And the guy like wrote a little paper sign in front of it. And then I felt like a real shit head. And so, and so then after that, I was like, okay, it's fine. Just a little bit of money to pay whoever's gonna change the sign and change it back up. Like, you know, it's like a hundred bucks or something to give to the person that changes the sign. And then they have, cause they have to take it down and put up the new one, then take down the new one and put up the old one. Kind of a thing. So it's like, and you got to get a ladder and a whole thing. It's not easy. So they're getting there. I have so many ideas, but I just like get in there and I'm just tired. I do too. I'm sorry, my nose is running. Do you have a tissue?
18:17I do. Hold on. Can you wrap, like you just flow. You're like, like your words are like Jesus. You're so sweet. You're so sweet. I have a runny nose too. I know. It's so hot in life. You guys, I don't know if those of you that are watching right now can see, but it is hot under these lights. It's no cocaine. There's no cocaine here. It's just whiskey. And you know, I love you. I love you too. Oh, are you my friend? We're friends. Did we just become best friends? Because of Brandon Styll. I know. He is the hardest working man in show business. The hardest working man in show business. Please, get the shit out of me. What? What is that? Thank you. Was that a diaper? What is that? That's intense. Damn. I appreciate it. I'm engaged. ASMR. Yes, you are. Damn. Congratulations. I mean, like I wish I was engaged to you. Well, you know, ultimately I don't, I don't date. I don't do anything like that. So it's like, yeah.
19:18Cause you're taken now and you know, all the, all the good ones are taken. So I'm not gonna worry about it. Yeah. You're doing great, Andrea. I appreciate it, Brandon. As are you. As are you. You are crushing it right now. I'm trying. I'm trying, you know. That's my best friend. Might as well, right? And. But so, okay. So I slink tacos and do memes for a living and you make whiskey and verbal. What do you do? I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't make it. What do you do with it? How do you, how are you involved in these, these bottles of stories? Do you like stories? I do like stories. Yeah. So three years ago, I have a friend that is a whiskey expert. His name is Fred Minnick. Great guy. Does podcasts, writes books like, like good dude. Yeah. So this, this festival that happens in Louisville, Kentucky, Fred curates the whiskey experience. Yeah. So up there helping him and I see these two characters and one's got a hat on crooked and the other's got like long white hair, kind of like looks like Moses.
20:26And we're in the middle of a set and this, this Moses looking guy with long hair comes over and like takes a bottle of whiskey out of the box. And I'm like, hey buddy, can I help you? Yeah. And he's like, he's like, oh, he's like, no, no, it's cool. It's my whiskey. I'm like, yeah, great. Cool. Can I help you? And he's like, no, no, no, I'm Michael Myers. And I'm like, fuck you. I would be like, I love the hell out of this movie. So I married an ax murderer. I mean, you got Lanesville, different thing, different Mike Myers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So three years ago, I meet this Moses, Michael Myers person and now he's my boss. And I focus on- Does he love you telling that story? Is this actually Mike Myers, the actor? No, no, no, no, no. Okay, okay, I was getting confused here. Michael Myers is a fashion photographer. Okay. Angelina Jolie, Sam Elliott.
21:27Okay. The Olsen twins. Sam Elliott, Jesus Christ, Sam Elliott. She'd be in a relationship for that. I'd give romance a try for Sam Elliott. Our whiskey is in the rich. Wow. Sam Elliott made sure- So am I like three degrees of separation from Sam Elliott right now? Cause that's wonderful. Sam, Sam, call me. No, my boy, Mike Myers. I mean, he's brilliant. So what do you do specifically for the company? I'm just awesome. You're just, you're professionally awesome? It makes two of us. No, I'm business development. Let me see, is that your card? Yeah, you can have it. Look, look, we letterpress those. We have a letterpress. They're foiled. Yes, yes. They're not letterpress, they're foiled. Whatever. Yeah. I don't know. I was in printing too. They're great though. Foil's wonderful. You're so smart. This is about a hundred pound cover stock. I don't know, you're my best friend now. Yes, best friends. Brandon, I love her. Thank you.
22:28No, I'm in love with my girlfriend, my fiance. Business development, I see. I wasn't sure what you did for them. He's developed business. I don't know what I knew for him. It sounds great. Sounds like a great gig. I love it. Yeah. He's built fences. Did you? And decks. Love the deck. It was a good pandemic pivot for Ryan. I see, I see. Yes. How many did you build throughout the pandemic? Oh man. I mean, this was like every day he was posting pictures of these decks that were just like amazing. I'm like, how do you even know I follow, what is it? What is it on Instagram? Dr. Deck. Oh, right. Oh, it's amazing. He does the best decks. Oh my God, Brandon, I love you for her. She's, Annie, you're my baby. I love you. But this girl, like, you're going to have some grilled corn. Oh man. All right. Do you like grilled corn? I love, I'm a Mexican. I love grilled corn. Of course. Do you like beans? Love it.
23:28I love beans. I love beans. It's great. Thank you, Rachel Moran. Thanks, you little mother fucker. Sorry. Oh, Rachel's the best. She did, I don't think she meant to do that. She ruined my life. No, she didn't. She's amazing. I was just gonna, I was trying to find the day that- When you get home, you need to get on one knee though still and say like, thanks for saying yes or so. You have to. No, you have to. No, you have to. You're obligated. All right. I mean, yes. What were you looking for? I was looking for a place that you were on the show. Oh, it was not too long ago, right? Year and a half maybe? Oh God, no, not that long. Has it not, I thought, it feels like a long time. But I was- I cannot find it. Like it- It was pandemic times for sure. Yeah. Your father- Okay, it was on August the 1st. Yeah, my father started Rose Pepper and his father founded Es Fernandos. But you're, you've, I mean, you're your own person. Like, I mean- Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I never really had any plans to like- I'm blown away.
24:30Yeah. I mean, I didn't grow up in the restaurant at all. I had never worked other than three days. I mean, you're educated, you're smart, you're beautiful, you're funny. I mean, like, hey, girl. I mean, I have a whole package. I know, I know. I own my own house. It has a beautiful view of the river. What? It has a beautiful view of the river. It has lots of red wasps in it, apparently. It sure does, it sure does. They're in my bedroom. I have French doors in my bedroom that lead out to my deck. Wow. And I think there might be a nest under the deck as it attaches to the house or something, but I've had just an outrageous number of live wasp interactions, including one that like snuck into the bathroom when I had the door closed to like attack me coming out of the shower. So that was really interesting. Let me tell you the visual that I had for you. Yeah. I called her a few days ago and I said, hey, I would love to have you come and co-host this show with me on Sunday night with my brother-in-law. It's gonna be a lot of fun. It's at the studio. And she said, sure, let's do it. And she goes, it's hard for me to concentrate now because I'm on a mission. And I was like, you're on a mission. She's like, I'm killing wasps.
25:32Yeah. I just got back from- My whole life was about it. Home Depot and I have bought all of the stuff. Boggers, the shootout spray, you know, the 20 foot spray. I envisioned you in camo with like eye black and like a commando and like you were like, come get it motherfucker. Like I can just see you like ready to go. That was the visual. I was like, oh, she's having a really intense moment. It's a lot. It was a lot of wasps. I got stung by one a few weeks, like maybe two months ago or something like that was when I first started to suspect there was a problem. I picked up, I know it's Tennessee and I shouldn't have, but I just picked up some shorts off the ground and kind of gave them a shake, but whatever, and put them on and then it was in the waistband and it stung me right on my stomach. And it was just kind of strange. Okay, well, you know, it happens, they get in. You think that there's like something's burning you, don't you? You're like, was it on fire? I was just worried that it was a spider bite. It was a brown recluse bite because I've never had one and I don't know what they're like.
26:33You don't want one. And so- I haven't either. Yeah, so then I figured out it was the wasp and then I saw another one a week later. And then I hosed everything down and hadn't seen any. And then, you know, in this last week, I saw another two live ones in the bedroom. So I said, screw this. And I got all of the foggers that are remotely safe for indoor use, stuck them in my bedroom, slept on the couch, discovered I need a much more comfortable couch. Slept all of that two hours on the couch because I wasn't about to sleep in that guest room. Nobody's been in there for months. So, you know, that's a spider room. So I got spider room. I got wasp room. I made the same thing. If you don't go in the room, then the spiders go there. So we have a guest bedroom. Yeah. If I can't sleep, I have this fear that I'm constantly keeping my wife awake because I hos and turn them on my phone. And she's like, hey, when you turn your brightness down, I'm like, you know what? I'll just go to the guest bedroom. And every time I go in the guest bedroom, I have to like turn all the lights on, take all the sheets off. I look under the pillows. I'm like, no, no, no. The fucking spiders have moved in. I'm not gonna be in here. Yeah, I feel, you know, I've had one friend in the three years I've been in that house.
27:35I've had one friend come and visit me, but we like tore the room apart first. And I bought a new mattress and everything for her. I just thought I was the only one who thought that. Oh, absolutely not. No, there's no way I'm getting on that bed. There's no way I'm getting on that bed. Not for nobody, not for love, not for money. So yeah, so I slept on the couch. It was incredibly uncomfortable. And then I went down there to go detox everything and fuck me, there was four dead wasps near the door. So I don't think that it's a nest in the room. I don't think that, cause it's all like right by that door. But like, I gotta do something to that room now cause it's that I, it doesn't feel like mine now. You need to sage it, you gotta like light some sage. I know, but you can't do sage unless you're a native person. So, but you can do things like, yeah, it's a sacred herb and you're not supposed to use it without, you know, permission first. Oh, I have totally fucked that one up too. Yeah, you can look it up. You can look it up. But there's other things that you can use though. I think you can use like rosemary and stuff like that have sort of the same, you know, properties, but you're not supposed to use sage.
28:41And it's a lot of times it's not ethically gathered and you know, and it's stolen off of land that it shouldn't be stolen off of and stuff like that. Yeah, it's like a whole thing. So, you know what, that is why we do a hard hitting journalism like this today. I think probably if you were to buy it from a native person that has like a business and is selling it, then I think it's probably fine. What about like from like a produce company? No, is it indigenous owned? I mean, if you're using it for like a ritualistic purpose, not really supposed to is my understanding. Now I am part, you know, native, but you know. I am, I am. But even so, I just, I'll get some rosemary and burn that. I'm so confused. Yeah, yeah. It's like a cultural appropriation thing. Well, I mean. You know. Is it a Native American thing? I'm an Indian. Oh, I'm an Osage Indian, so that's good. Well, there you go. Actually, I actually become a member of the tribe.
29:41Did you? Yeah, I'm a member of the tribe. That's wonderful. So I haven't been fucking up this whole time. So I guess you're fine. Yeah, you know, and it's, you always kind of learn something new. It's interesting because I've had a little bit, I came up against it. You know, I never want to piss off anybody like too much. But these are things, you know, that I learned about over time and the thing with Sage. And I did a sign once years ago, like maybe six years ago, that said something about like tequila is my holiday spirit animal. And nobody gave me anything, any crap about it. But eventually over time, I've seen people like, well, it'd be nice if we didn't make jokes about spirit animals, because it's like a serious thing for my culture. That's the thing. Like nobody was like pouting, nobody was whatever. They're like, but it is like kind of a real thing for my culture. So it'd be cool if we like didn't do that. And I was like, oh, fair enough. And I'm not going to put anything like that back out again. You know, what is it, what is that line from Maya Angelou? It's like, you know, do what you do until you know better.
30:42When you know better, do better. Like kind of thing. Oh, I live by that. Yeah. That's like the best quote in the world. Cause it's like, you never want, I had this question watching football last week and the Washington commanders are now a team and they were playing in Washington. Oh, is it no longer? Finally, it's not the Washington football team. Did they change it? Yeah. Well, no, now they're the Washington commanders. Yeah. So we're watching, it was like the commanders and the, you know, whoever's playing. And I thought, if you go to the game, do you still wear your red skin? I mean, when I was in DC, I went to law school in DC or in the DC area. I went to law school in Arlington, Virginia, but very few people that I knew there would wear that logo. They would wear, they would wear off-brand merch that just said like the Washington football team. Or like Washington or something. Well, I'm like- Or the Caucasians. The Washington Caucasians is one of my favorite shirts. Yes. Yeah, I thought that was a great shirt. Like they've said, this is not okay. This is offensive to indigenous people and we're going to change the name.
31:46So if I put a shirt on that says red skins and go to the game- Yeah, don't do that. Like, I was like, and they're showing people in the crowd and like, there's people all over. And I'm like- Yeah, that's cool for them, but you know better, so do better. Yeah, but like that, I was just like, don't do that. Yeah. Don't do that. Oh, people will do what people will do, but you can control yourself. You just say, you know better, do better. That is beautiful. I mean, that just flowed out of your face. You know better, do better. I mean, like- I never shut the fuck up, so. Well, and that's amazing. I love it. I love it. You know better, do better. If you don't know better, then seek to know better. And when you do learn- But this is kind of my thing about when people, fuck up and do something that is insensitive that pisses somebody off. And whether or not they come to, if in that way they come to an understanding like, oh yeah, that was mean of me. That was insensitive of me. And that was whatever. Now you know better. Now I'm not going to hate you because you fucked up this one time. If I see that you now trying to do better. Yeah. Because you didn't know better then, but you know better now.
32:47So let's move forward. Now, if that continues, you know, then you can get, you know, then I'll get plenty angry with somebody. But, but otherwise, yeah, okay. You didn't know. If you know better and then you still continue to get angry. Yeah. Girl. Yes ma'am. He's a tough crowd. This guy, just made it just like that. I love it. But yeah, so we're going to be a throuple. Yes. Wasn't Annie, Annie, get ready. I'm kidding. I'm kidding, Annie. I'm not going to do that. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. That's not going to be a thing. It's not for, listen, I don't judge anybody in relationships. If that lifestyle works for you, it's just not my thing. What are you talking about? What in the hell? Thruples, I guess. Oh my God. Oh no. I just mean like relationships in general, like it's not for me. Yeah. Like romantic relationships, like romantic relationships. I can't do it.
33:47I don't want anybody in my house. I don't want anybody. I don't want to like have to share my refrigerator with somebody. I don't want to share a bathroom with somebody. Like I could, I could entertain the idea of a romantic relationship if we were like neighbors, maybe. I just don't want anybody in my house. That's fine. That's fair. We have a very, don't we have a very similar culture profile, the little thing that we did? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Aren't we like really similar on that? I think so. I think that's, I think that's accurate. Because I just, one day I said, I just want to be alone today. I don't. You live with my sister and your children. Yes. Brandon. I know. Yeah. But like, and that's a 24 hour thing, like all the time. Sometimes I'm like, I have such a hard time. I just need to be alone today. Am I living your dream? Nothing against you. I really struggle with spending extended amounts of time with people. Like, I don't know. I just do. Like, I don't know. As long, you know, of course everybody's got their friends that you can be comfortable being alone with.
34:49But usually if I'm like on a, just even a short trip, you know, with friends, I'm like, I gotta just go get a drink by myself for a minute. Like, I'm gonna go eat some pancakes on my own. Space is very important. Yeah. I'm not trying to be prickly. I'm not trying to be anything, but like, I just need like a minute for myself. You know, I don't know. I kind of, I went to Louisville a couple of weeks ago and I went to a concert. I went to Louisville a couple of weeks ago. Did you go to the Louder Than Life Festival? I went to Bourbon and Beyond. Oh, okay. So you were there the week before. I went to the next one. My assistant, Carson played on the big stage. On the big stage. Yeah. That's awesome. Can I get a half a... Woo! Yeah, he's real fancy. I went to go see Pearl Jam. Oh, nice. They're like my all time favorite. Yeah. And then my assistant, Fleet St. Girda, isn't it? Is it Greta or Girda? It's Greta. It's Greta? Greta Van Fleet. They're living in Nashville now. I'm gonna share the link for those. You won't ever see them though. Who? You won't? I saw- There are just hiding behind bushes. They're like four foot one. I could say that because I'm six foot six, but like they're so tiny. They're just like, they're like, they're adorable.
35:51What size shoe do you wear? Eight and a half. Fourteen? Eight and a half? Oh, me? Eight and a half. Yeah. I'm a 13 or 14. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Hmm. What is it? National Restaurant Radio? Did you share the link on the Facebook one? Okay. If you're out there now watching, please join the show. You want to jump in on this conversation or you want to add your own story, whatever you want to do. Please feel free to use the link in the comment section. It is the stream yard link. You can click that join us right now, right in the middle of this conversation or there is a phone number listed on the comments. You can just type in that number and call and you can join the show kind of like Annie did earlier. When Ryan proposed to her, you're talking about Annie earlier in the show. Yeah. She is a lucky girl. She is that. Oh, I want to see our feet real quick. We are talking with Ryan Easterly from 291 Colorado Whiskey Company. Do you want to hear that story? I don't know if we have enough time. Oh, that was really sweet.
36:52I love you. That's she just text that. Oh, and I got that was really sweet. I love you. Oh, that's my girl. Look at that. And so it's like a real sweet. Oh, 211 Ryan proposed to his, uh, his girlfriend to start the show three years, three years because my baby sister ruined it. He's been very, he was very excited when we first, when he first came in here, my baby sister ruined my, and then told me about how his baby sister ruined everything. Uh, but that he was really excited to do it. Baby sister is a lovely, lovely person and she, you know, you, you know her. I've known her for a long time. Yes. That's 17 years. Yeah. 18, 19. God damn. Well, we've been together for 19 years in November together or married, married. We just had our 17 year wedding. Wow. But we've, we dated for almost two years. We got married in September. First day was in November. I met him. It was two years. He met my sister. Really? We were having my sister and I were having dinner and this, this guy shows up and he asked her on date in front of me.
37:53It's like, did you know that that was her brother? Yeah. I'm like, how does balls like, I mean, there's six foot six. I'm like, what do you want to call your sister? I mean, I'm sorry, honey. I'm sorry. That was a layup. And like I'm on dinner with my sister and this motherfucker walks up and he's like, Hey, and I'm like, I'm like, are you serious? Are you going to? Yeah. Yeah. Like, like he dropped dead, like dead, dead. I mean, and this motherfucker, but he adores my sister. I mean, like this guy. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. I will. Can I tell you the real story? Sure. His parents. Sure. I love a good story. The parents were regulars in the bar. It was a Sunday night and I was counting inventory and they had said, we have a daughter. We'd like you. Oh, 20. Hey. 23. Right.
38:54And I'm like a single 23 year old guy. And I get grand people in there. I was like, you know, we have a daughter and it's like, of course, of course you do. Right. Yeah. Well, they'd say like, you know, we have a daughter who's single. And I was like, of course. That's very nice. Yeah. Well, this night I'm counting the bar inventory and they come in after this funeral and I was like, holy shit. That's your daughter. So I didn't ask her, remember heavy cream? I did not. Yes. I did not ask her out that night. Yes. Baby here. Can you hand me that whiskey? I don't want that rye. Which one do you want? Right. What? I'll just take the single barrier whiskey, not the rye. I mean, you know, wherever you want. Thank you. Get it. Sweet. You're going to get married. Are you going to wear a powder blue tuxedo with a ruffle shirt? If you want me to. Like, I mean, whether you do a big wedding, are you going to be my best friend? That's the thing. Absolutely. Absolutely. What's the differences here between these two? That's the Bourbon and ones are Colorado whiskey is our flagship in your right hand.
39:58That's a flagship. Do you want whiskey or bourbon whiskey? That's all right. That is cask strength. Sixty four percent. Yeah. It's one hundred and twenty eight proof. That's a monster. So that two ninety one bourbon whiskey, Kentucky, Colorado bourbon whiskey is what they're drinking. Yes. I am drinking water. No, I'm drinking my liquid death, which is my favorite type of water. It is. It is water. Water is water with bubbles, angry water, water that's so angry. It makes me feel kind of normal when I drink like a tall boy like this. I love like if you go to a sand dam theater, they sell these and like I can sit and watch a concert and I can drink like 10 of these and they are chugging beer. They're so popular with people that are sober, that are trying to cut back on booze. I honestly have started thinking about maybe carrying some at the restaurant. Yeah. Yeah. No, there's not any space, but it might be fun. Yeah.
40:58It's a you know, and the water tastes really good. So I mean, it's kind of gimmicky with like liquid death, but it's nice, but it's people love it. Yeah. Everybody that I know that drinks it loves it. Yeah. Yeah. It's a can. So it's not like at this bar. I don't know. Something about it. Yeah. If they liquid death, Nashville restaurant radio, talking shift, the official drink of talking shift. Yes. Come on. Come on. Liquid death. Where are you at? Bubbles. I will tell you that Gordon food service is our title sponsor on our main show and they are awesome. And I like to give them shout outs whenever I can. Awesome. There's a little quick little shout out to Gordon food service. Gordon's food service is the best. They are my favorite people. Look at this. We have a we have a personal testimony over here. They took us out to Louisville a couple of months ago to look at the big, the big warehouse. What did you think about our distribution center? Excuse me. The DC. I thought it was super cool. I thought it was like a little city kind of.
42:00And it's because you've got like the truck wash and repair station, which I really wanted to check out, but it was like not part of the tour, but I thought of course it makes sense that you would maintain your own fleet. Like it's cheaper that way. Yeah. I didn't see they're putting in a micro greens hydroponic installation, shipping container installation on the main campus there, but I didn't see it. It was, they were just about to get it going. And then, but the whole like, I've never been in a warehouse like that before. Certainly not one that's like 30 degrees. Is there not? I don't know. It's all automated. It's all robots. It's miles and miles of track. I did, I did get to put them on the spot a little bit, which was fun because I don't know if you know this, but there's not a lot of women out there that are, that are, you know, owners of companies that require like of restaurants and things that they're in there. And so I was in the warehouse and I forget who I was talking to as one of the marketing directors or something. And I said, okay, so how many women work in this warehouse? He said, oh, let me find out. I'll get back.
43:01He's like, I know we're working on seven. Yeah. Yeah. He's talking about the ability to lift weights and stuff. I was like, yeah, but you've got all of these tools for people to not put strain on their backs. So why can't we use those for women? Speaking of, how many women do you have in positions of leadership here? So then by the time we got back, and I wasn't doing a gotcha moment, I just was genuinely curious. And by the time we got back to the conference room, there was a woman there, which it was all older white men up in the room up until that point. And then there was a woman in there. But she was actually great because she was not in a leadership role. She was like an HR person. And I was like, did they just bring you in here to bring a woman in right now? Like, just because you're the highest ranking woman? Hello, my name is Token. Yeah. And she's like, well, kind of. She said, but here's what we are doing. She's like, we are actually doing some stuff. This is what we're working on. This is what we've got. This is how many people we've got. So she knew her stuff. Yeah. And I was like, all right, well, fair enough, you know. So but I thought it was kind of funny to see just like a moment's panic on his face.
44:05But they're all great at Gordon's. I mean, they have worked with me on just everything, just everything you can think of. And God knows, I don't ever leave them alone. So they definitely they've definitely earned their their money that they get from me for sure. And I think that that's the way they prefer it. I mean, that they I think when I was back in the business, like people that would just use you as a, hey, I'm just ordering these four things from you. They've split between six different companies that you felt like used. But like when people are running a business like yourself, who really trying to build a partnership, well, you're an attorney, you know, and then you kind of took over a restaurant when your dad passed away and like you hadn't ran a restaurant before. So I mean, like you've kind of been learning from scratch. And I think to have a company that comes in that says, hey, let's partner with you and help you do it. And what questions do you have? How can we be partners with you? And like, oh, you need help doing this or this. And then jumping in, I think they appreciate the back and forth of like, hey, I need this. And like most people don't do that.
45:07There's a vulnerability in that. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, I think that that's true. I have so many questions because I'm on the opposite spectrum. I mean, how what kind of question? I mean, like my mind is blown. We'll speak. What's your first question? How? I mean, how? I mean, how did I do it? Yes. She doesn't fuck around. I'm very smart. I'm very precocious. I respect you with like everything. Strong work ethic. So I have 20 years of independent restaurant service management operation. Right. Randy Rayburn. I mean, he is my mentor. He's my best friend. He's better than my father. I mean, Randy Rayburn is my motherfucker. Okay. Sunset Grill. I designed, built, operated, ran Cabana.
46:11I'm now 12 years as a supplier in the whiskey business. Yeah. But Randy Rayburn is. He's my everything. Yeah. So for your father to to have the entity of roast pepper and for you to be your own person. I mean, yeah, I mean, like, like, like, like, like it's literally passing the torch. Whereas when Randy dies. Yeah. He has his own children. He has, but, but he's got Craig Clift and he's got, which is another mentor, best friend of mine. But Randy's got me and Craig, like, like, yeah, your father has you. He, uh, no, I don't think he ever really had an interest in me. I mean, it was a challenge. I'm so sorry. That's my fault guys. Pulling up that, uh, the, uh, the old one. Um, uh, he, when I was picking a law school, uh, I, I was in Nashville because it was, they kind of, my parents were married, but my mom was in California.
47:14My dad was in Tennessee and they would just go on vacations together for their marriage and it was great. Worked for them. Um, but when I was picking a law school, I, I. Fascinating by the way. Thank you. You're so sweet. My new best friend. You're so sweet. Um, and he, and I said to him when I was in Nashville and I was still figuring out which school I was going to go to, I said, should I be looking at like Vanderbilt and stuff like that? Because, you know, not for nothing, heaven forbid something should happen to you. Heaven forbid. But if it does, it's going to be me. We all know that it's going to be me. It's not going to be anybody else in life. There's not a single other person in my family that was going to be, yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah. And he laughed at me and he laughed at me and said, uh, and said, don't worry about it. I love you too. And said, don't worry about it. And so I didn't worry about it. And then when he got sick, um, and, uh, he was, he got real sick, real fast. I'm so sorry. It was, I appreciate it. It was, it was not tight. It was like three weeks in Vanderbilt. We all came out. I was, I was working at an ad agency in LA and then I had been, I had gotten a call for my dream job at an agency in New Orleans at Peter Mayer, which is like the New Orleans ad agency and they, they gave me an offer, finally offered me the gig, my, my dream job while my father was, while I was standing in the ICU lobby at Vanderbilt.
48:38And so, you know, but when I came on board, I, I've always been precocious. No, I couldn't take it. I had to take this because I said that my father was very sick and I didn't know what was going on. And then he died and it was that restaurant takes care of a lot of people in my family. Um, and somebody had to do it. So, and I knew that I would be able to figure it out sooner or later. Now that was maybe a little bit, uh, a little bit precocious, a little bit overconfident, but no, you assumed the responsibility of a restaurant. It was a lot out of adopting a child. But I mean, again, 20 years in the business were for the best, the best. Yeah. And you inherited an icon. I did. Yeah. I mean, I mean, my dad, it was an icon, baby. I mean, I'm not being respectful or descending, but I mean, you inherited an icon and not only Nashville, but the community and our, our industry.
49:45I mean, my father, my father's father was in, you know, food service his whole life and had as Fernando's and the, you know, the OG East, East Nashville and Madison people all know as Fernando's, um, my father was, it has, was in the food business his whole life, uh, restaurant after restaurant, you know, uh, just, uh, ran a Taco Bell franchise for a while, uh, rallies franchise. What is it? Is it the ride? Yeah, but it's, it's, it's, it's, it's proof down. That was no, she doesn't look good. She's like, I appreciate you. Um, I didn't get where I got by being a pushover. Um, so yeah, so it was, he had just decades and decades and decades of experience and, you know, probably rightly so kind of laughed at my, at, in my face when I was like, Hey, look, should I, should you be teaching me about the restaurant business? Because heaven forbid you should get into a car accident or something. But like, you know, we all, we all know in this room, it's going to be me.
50:47So when he was dying, when he was like in Vanderbilt, he comes to me at one point on, on a relatively lucid moment. He's like, Hey, Hey, I spend a thousand dollars a month on ice in the summer. So he got around to it. He came around to it. And I, you know, it's so funny. And that's what you need to know about running a business. Yeah. And that's all you need to know is that you're going to need extra ice in the summertime. And I, it's so funny because he's been gone, you know, eight years now. And just the other day I was, I appreciate it. It was a very great loss. Um, just the other day I was, I took a photo of one of these like inlaid tables that we have that I've been refinishing forever. And they're starting to disintegrate a little bit. And I wanted to buy more because I really liked them. My dad bought them. Um, I think he found them in Mexico somewhere. And so I took a picture and I'm doing a reverse Google image search on it. I'm not really finding anything. And I had this moment where I just went, Oh, why am I overcomplicating this? I should just call my dad and ask him where he got it.
51:48And I was like, Oh, wait, no, he's dead. Uh, so I just like forgot for a second and was like, this would be so much easier if I could just call him up and be like, what's the best thing to do here? How many times have you thought that? Because I mean, gosh, for eight years, I mean, not that often. Honestly, I've been more just like, man, I wish I had known to ask more of these questions, you know? Um, at the time we just sort of, we sort of glossed over it at the time. And it was like, Oh, don't worry about it. You don't need to tell me this. You're going to get better. It's going to be fine. Uh, was there a person that you did call? Like who, who ended up being that person that you could call? I'll tell you, I, I don't know. Um, I have, I would have to say it's more like I had a really strong team that was already there. So my father really inspired a lot of loyalty and love and people and, and incredibly I inherited just this incredible team of people, um, that really accepted who I was to them, that I was their new boss, but also were willing to sort of talk me through a lot of these things, uh, because they knew that I was interested, you know, I, I told Brandon of employee, uh, what sells the most, what these are the things that seem like they would be important to know.
53:08And just, and I just sat in a room for like the first seven months and just, just recreated document after document of restaurant data to let the data start to tell me. And at that point, after about seven or eight months, I was like, okay, I think I'm kind of getting a sense of what these numbers all mean. So now I need to see what these jobs are. So I started working as a host, as a bar back, as a food runner, um, not so much as a server because I didn't want to take any of these tips. And also it was a little intimidating, you know, I've been back in the kitchen, like just to see what is, what is everybody doing? What are the challenges everybody faces? You know, also I need to be able to fill in, you know, and I do, but it's also hard to lead people when you've never done their job. You gotta, you gotta walk them out. You have to understand what people go through. I think you have to have some empathy and I won't say, I don't think I'm the nicest person in the world. I'm very direct and unfortunately for most women being direct comes across as being bitchy. Um, I don't think that I'm bitchy. I think I just don't have a lot of time, but I certainly have empathy.
54:12And, and completely understand, you know, where people are coming from, when somebody's bullshitting me, when they're not bullshitting me, you know, um, and how can I help? And is this something that's worthy of my time? Uh, or is it something that I'm willing to do for somebody else? Like all of these kinds of things for the employees and building up, you know, good employees. And it was tough because, you know, initially the GM is the only person that I had a problem with. And he tried to get me fired from my mom who officially owns it. It was really interesting. Um, and so, yeah, he, he, he wrote a letter to my mother saying that he wanted us to be equals. And then I couldn't tell him what to do basically, or he was going to walk and we, and I just, and so, yeah, because I think he was counting on me being, you know, very inexperienced on these things. But what I don't think he necessarily knew was that I was my father's daughter. And so I, yeah, I don't know everything, but I'll figure it out.
55:12You know, and I, look, I've fucked up so many times. I've spent so much money on things I didn't need to, but I have learned. I believe you, me, I have learned. Um, so yeah, I think, I think we discussed this when we did your interview on August the 1st, 2021. Is that what it was? August the 1st, 2000. Okay. So it was over a year. Over a year. Okay. It's a little longer than a great interview. Everybody you should, you should watch it. It really was a fan. But I think, I think I said, there's, there's a, there's a special something about doing it the way you did it. That you didn't just hear some old curmudgeon who's done it for years ago. You got to do it this way. Like you went and figured out your own way. And I think that's, I'm not much for being told how things work. I'd rather see it in action. Yeah. I don't know if they call it like a kinetic learner or something like, you know, you got like see, see one, do one kind of thing. I'm very much. I can't read it. Like I'm like, I just want to do it. I just got to see it and just get in the shit.
56:13You can tell me that this is really hot. Like every time they've trapped me to go hot plate. I'm like, how hot is it? Yeah. I'm like, I got to touch it. I got to know how hot it is. And it's just a thing that you can tell me all day long. Like I want it. That's not, okay, that's actually segue. Speaking of hot plates. This reminds me of a really cute thing that I sort of love. Uh, my father did, uh, when Rose pepper was like first opening, there was a Tennessee crossroads video and it's on YouTube. And it's from like, it's gotta be like 2002, 2003. They're doing, you know, they're doing like panning shots of the Rose pepper and there's no condos anywhere. It's just fields surrounding it. And they're like, yeah. And unlike it says, he says an unlikely place for a Mexican restaurant, East Nashville, you know, like it's the whole thing. And there's this clip. There's this clip of my dad serving a table and he's got, he's got the little pot holder and it's, you know, it's enchiladas, which are just the hottest hot plate of all hotness. They're just lava hot. And so, and he's setting it down and they cut and he says, now you sneak up on that plate.
57:15That's hot. And I still, and I just like, that's great. I say that all the time. You're going to sneak up on that plate now because it's real hot. You got to sneak up on that plate. I loved it. I was so glad that there's that video. It's so much fun. That is a great story. Yeah. It's a really fun video. You should watch it. It's on YouTube. I'll send it to you. Yeah. I'll send it to you. It's super great. And he just, he looks like a little baby and the kitchen and my kitchen manager is still that same guy that did the video. He looks like a little baby. It's been with us 21 years. Yeah. I mean, the people that have worked for us have been there forever. You have multiple people that are over 20 years. Multiple people. Yeah. It's wild, right? I mean, we still have turnover. We still obviously have turnover, but we got some like people been there a long time, long time. I need to congratulate you. Me? Yes. And your team over at the Rose Pepper. Oh yeah. You just won a best of Nashville, best margarita. And best to go cocktail. Number three, best Mexican restaurant.
58:17Las Palmas always gets us. What? Hold on. Let me look up this video. Best margarita in Nashville. We have won that every year that they have had that category. They, in fact, my father theorized that they stopped having the category because they just brought it back two years ago. That they stopped having the category because he was the only one who ever won it. And thankfully, since they brought it back two years ago, I have also been winning it. So that's really nice. And then we won best to go cocktail, which I didn't even know was a category two years ago. And then best Mexican restaurant. Man, Las Palmas always gets us. But El Fuego beat us this time, and they're the new guys in town. But it seems like a great spot, though. It seems like a great spot. They've got a really cool yard. I haven't been there yet, but you know. Hey. Want to give a shout out to Suzanne Adams. Hi, Suzanne. Suzanne Adams is hanging out with us all the way from Washington state. Awesome. Yes. She said, hello, boys. Oh, sorry. Hi, y'all. Howdy.
59:18I like smoked salmon. And you can, too. Uh, Suzanne, you can join the show if you want to. You can hop on. And do you want? Do you want to? How long is the video? It's about 20 minutes. So you can watch it at your leisure. But it's great. And it talks. My dad, you know, had had a way with words. He was a very, very confident man. I would like to say that my wife has chimed in. Oh, wonderful. Hello. Yeah, she has said I was listening for a bit. I'm putting the children to bed. Excellent. Your description of how we met was correct. Oh, that's sweet. She's siding with me that that is the actual way in which we met. What? I didn't walk up to you during dinner and be like, hey, what's your name? Hey, you want to go out now? You want to go out? You got a sweet ass. I'm like, what? You sound like I'm just like, no, it was very, you know what I did? You know the move I did that night? What did you do? Is they were sitting there and I was counting inventory.
01:00:19I was counting like all the really expensive like contacts. We're like, yeah, okay. We were having dinner, right? No, and your mom and Daryl and he's literally dead at the table. They were all there. They were all there. Okay. And then what? And then I was, I was poor. I will go. Have you guys ever had 20 or whatever? So I just started pouring them like, I got like a couple of snifters out and I would just like, like a third of an ounce. Just like you can have a little, just a happy, right? That move gets them every time. So then I just started pouring her and her mom. These like 25, $30 drinks. And I was like, oh, have you guys ever had the, you know, whatever it was. I was something in the bedroom or something was me. I think that was, who's that? Shaggy. Is it Shaggy? Oh, it wasn't me. Yes. It wasn't me. Wasn't me in the shower. Yes. Wasn't me. It wasn't me.
01:01:22Come on, girl. Look at you. He's got the, you got the radio voice happening, Ryan. Yes. Yeah. Wasn't me. I'm looking for that clip of my dad. What? So I can tell you what it's at. Oh God. S. Fernando's. They just finished the condos there. Yeah. They tore down the S. Fernando's building and they put, you know, they paved paradise, put up a parking lot. I was installing air conditioning in East Nashville after the tornado. You were. Yes. I was going in and helping people rebuild their lives. S. Fernando's rose pepper was was destroyed in the. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And then Al Gore came to the rebuild. He invented the fucking internet. There's a picture. Yeah. I think he did it at Rose Pepper. Oh, here it is. Here it is. Wait, let's see here. It's at four minutes. Oh, it's only six minutes. It's at four minutes and 36 seconds. If you wanted to watch a clip of my dad setting food down. I want to watch it.
01:02:23We can also hear it. Really? Yeah. Can you do that? Yeah. Yeah. Here. Four minutes. Three. Hold on a second. Thirty six seconds. It's like a guru. Yeah. He's a tech man. God damn. I love this tech man. Excuse me. Figuring this stuff out. I'm a restaurant guy, but I have a lot of fun here. I love gadgets and gizmos. I'm an early adopter. He's my sister. Yeah, I heard that. I heard you all met somewhere. For what? Four minutes. Thirty six seconds. Thirty five is where it kind of starts. And I have two amazing nephews because are you ready? Yeah, let's see it. All right. Let's see what we got here. I got monkey. I can hear it. Monkey and goose boys. All right. Oh, shoot. Can you hear it? He said, he said, shoot. All right. Let's hear it. It is. Right. This is a restaurant out there that's going to open up trying to serve bad food. So they will serve good food, hopefully. Then the execution comes into place. Can you consist of this?
01:03:23Four thirty six. There's four forty one people by saying that everything we cook in Sonora style means that it's cooked in a sauce. I don't know if you already did it. Is that you? But we also tried to. No, it's not me. It's you. Four thirty. Did we drop something down at four thirty six? That's he's that's where he's taking the tray. The state of Sonora and the history is basically. It's more of a French influence and Austrian and Spanish. I tried to describe it. I know he says it in here. Maybe if there's a difference in it, but whatever. It's cute that there's a sauce cook there. But we also say that your dad right there. That's my dad. Yeah. Mexican food, which is basically well-produced on a grill or steamed or something like that, accompanied by whatever. See if they cut a company that they want to put on there. So we've got a variety, but specifically primarily. We're picking in the background. Yeah, yeah, that's fine. I had a flout to a combo plate with just beans. Here we go. Just beans. Is that you? And then you have to buy themselves. Oh, pardon me. Here you are. He's a pro. Now, this plate's very hot. All right. Make up on it. All right.
01:04:23I think we have a great isn't that just the cutest thing ever? It's that plate's very hot. Sneak up on it. I love it. I thought that was just the coolest shit. But I was a cool cat, man. But you replicated the essence of the video. I tried to keep what he had. And then I kind of brought my own twist to it. Because there wasn't all of the social media stuff. There was no social media presence when I came on board. And there was nothing on the sign. It just said happy hour was whatever times it was. And I was like, we need to put some jokes on there. We need to do that. And then Reese Weatherstone retweets it. A few times. Yeah. The first time she reposted, it was like 10,000 followers in a day. It was really intense. Not anymore. She'll post it now. And it's like 50. But she's amazing. And I was just so happy that she did that. And George Takei reposted. And men's humor, college humor, funny.com.
01:05:28The sign has gone everywhere. Just everywhere. It's a daily thing. Yeah. I mean, I have a lot of fun with it. It's so funny. I was telling Brandon about this when we did the interview. There's this question. It's like, what's the most on-brand thing you did as a child? And my most on-brand thing was I used to collect fucking bumper sticker one-liners. And also, when I was a teenager, I had a big piece of... What is the thick cardboard called? The fancy... Oh my god. Masonite? No. Oh, I don't know. Anyway, it was just like a thing, a sheet. And I would write funny one-liners on it that I would hear. And I would have my friends write funny one-liners that they would have that I deemed worthy to go on my board. And that was by far the most on-brand thing for what I do now. Because that's basically what I do professionally now is find a good one-liner or write a good one-liner and throw it up on there. Those are yours. I write some and I just find some. But I pick them. But I pick them. People submit.
01:06:29They do their best. Are you serious? Yeah. And I, you know, so... I mean, like, I don't Instagram. I'm too old. Facebook. I'm a Facebook master. How old are you? Forty-six. Fair. No, that's too old. You're too old. I don't look. I don't look. You can't do it. Look, I got a new hip. No, it makes sense. I'm kind of amazed that you have a smartphone, honestly, at 46. I mean... I have an iPad, too. It's amazing. And I got what? You're amazing. We should get you a flip phone. Well, I'm 43, so I can do Instagram. I'm 43, as well. Are you? Yeah. Damn. It's my sister's husband. I'm kidding. I do. Come on. You don't. No, you don't. You're just taller. You're just taller. He's tall as fuck. I mean, he's a big guy. Yeah. Damn. Man, I wish I could be six feet tall. That'd be amazing. You know, I had this... I dunked a basketball the other day. Did you just walk up to it and just... No. I don't know how tall the nets are.
01:07:31I sprained my foot yesterday. Oh, no. My soccer. And my foot is swollen. It's disgusting. I couldn't walk for the first half of the day. They told me I got hopped up on Advil. Anyhow, I was outside with the kids, and I was like, I wonder if I can still dunk. And I could. And I was like, holy shit. That's awesome. 43 years old. Now, it was a soccer ball. It was a soccer ball. Yeah. But you still... It wasn't a basketball. It was a soccer ball. How high up is the hoop? 10 feet. Oh, good. All right. NBA side. It was a 10-foot goal. I mean, what's your arm? It's got to be like that. Yes. What's the reach on that? Well, I thought about this the other day. I thought, you know, it's crazy. Can I do my iPhone measure? Are you a mathematician? I'm a mathematician. I mean, like, you're asking questions I wouldn't even think about. I mean, like... I've always been precocious. I've always been precocious. You remind me of my ex-wife. That is really nice of you to say.
01:08:34Thank you. You remind me of this person I don't like anymore. What about me reminds you of her? Everything. I mean, your beauty, your intellect, your everything. I mean, like, I mean, you're a twin. What about your new boy? My general disdain for relationships. No, no. Well, I mean, there's that too. No, Annie, my baby. I'm engaged. Boom, folks. Tip your waitress. Try the shrimp cocktail. Why? That's awesome. No, you're amazing. Yeah, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I, you know, I can do things, you know. I mean, for me, 20 years, like, OK, so my sister. I mean, that would have been helpful for sure. My sister's father. My sister's father was in the restaurant business. That's where I grew up. I'd bring him buckets of ice. Like, like, he didn't work.
01:09:35I mean, he dries that. But it was always hospitality in the house. It was always hospitable. Like, yeah, we take care of you. Like, yeah, we fix your plate. We get you water. We get you a drink, you know, whatever. So me going into the restaurant business and then into the whiskey business, it's just been a as you it's been a a a Passover of. Yeah, of your. I've always been just a very curious person, though. Yeah. And so for me, it was like this entire industry now to exercise my curiosity on. Absolutely. And, you know, and obviously I'm still learning a lot of things, but. It's one of my favorite. That's one of my favorite traits in a person. But like curiosity when I hire managers, I'm like insatiable. Curiosity is something I hire for. Yeah, I want you just to be like, I'm a junkie.
01:10:36Yeah, I think one of the only things and I think and I think it was born out in that test that personality test that you sent me that you use in your business. The culture was that I'm very curious. I'm very confident, a strong leader. I don't know that I don't necessarily like to be around a lot of people all the time, but I can do whatever I need to do in order to get the thing done. So that's for me is one of the only like restauranty qualities that I feel like I don't really have, you know, because the rest I'm super curious. I'll work real hard. I can party real hard. You know, all of the important restaurant things that you need to have. The only one is like, man, it's loud in here. Every once in a while, just like it's so many people talking right now. You're just like, I just got to go walk away again. Yeah, but that's what the office that's what hiding in the office is for. But I put together a great playlist too. I got a really good office is like six miles from the restaurant. Yeah, yeah. It's I do a lot of I do a lot of I go in before anybody gets there and I do what I need to do before anybody gets there and then I'm out.
01:11:46And then I only come in if I have to come in, you know, for the few shifts I open and close and then, you know, to just check things out on the weekends. But otherwise people are like, oh, I don't see you. I'm like, yeah, that's on purpose. That's intentional. No, you know, no, no, I'm either in a hotel or at home. Yeah. Yeah. And there's no balance. Yeah. But it also I have a very, very good team that I trust with things. That's key. If you're out there and you want to chime in on the story, feel free to jump in. Call in and tell us about your most and least favorite managers and why. Yes, that could be a great topic. Suzanne is partying with friends around a campfire in Washington state. Oh, listen to us. I mean, that's amazing. Set up a little campfire in my yard. Yeah, what a great thing to do. I hope somebody's got a guitar maybe or a ukulele. Suzanne, is there a guitar? Can you, can you? Some s'mores maybe? I think you need to click the link, Suzanne. Go to the top up there and click the link for StreamYard. I think we need to see your setup.
01:12:48It's very tasty. We're just talking about liquid death water and how amazing it is. Liquid death brought to you by Nashville restaurant radio talk shift. We are talking. Talk and shift. Sorry, guys. It's my first day in Nashville. Hey, you're doing great. Talk about the guy next to you, babe. We're doing great. Look, we're all family here. We've already had on this show a proposal tonight. Yes, that's amazing. We've had a proposal. I think he proposed to you also. Yeah, so that's gonna be terrific. I need an en suite bathroom for my room. So just if you guys could set that up before I move in, that'd be great. Yeah, okay. All right, that's fine. She's not a hut kind of person. Like a yurt, maybe like a luxury yurt. I could do. Okay. Yeah, but it would need to be heated and cool. That sounds great. Sounds great. As long as it comes with 1000 thread count sheets, I'm in.
01:13:49That sounds terrible. Yeah. No, I foster dogs. Yeah, I, you know, I had a dog and I and she died and it was so traumatizing when she died that I was like, I don't want to like have a dog. I just want to like visit dogs. So fostering is kind of the perfect compromise there because then you don't have to worry about any of that kind of the the heartbreak of owning pets. You just get the fun parts of hanging out with them and you know. So you get to psychoanalyze you now about relationships and your fear of losing somebody. Also, it was just a lot, man. You always got to be home, you know, like I, I'm a very sort of spontaneous person with like taking trips and things like that. And so it was always like something to, you know, to handle that. Although I loved my dog. You know, I love Jasmine. She was, she was a wonderful pug who like was distrustful of everybody, including me. And I love that she made me work for it, you know, but it was like a cat kind of kind of kind of shit was not just like unconditional love.
01:14:56It was conditional. And I really respected her for that. So, you know, but then when she died, it was just like, oh, man, it was heartbreaking. But also like, no, I could go anywhere anytime and not have to worry about it. So that was nice. So I kind of, I fostering really appeals to me like rent dogs, kind of. Yeah, kind of. I don't really get attached like to things generally. And so I love the dogs. I think it's so much fun, but people always say to me, you know, oh, I couldn't do that because I would fall in love with the dogs. And like for me, it just kind of feels like pet sitting for people you don't know. And so it's, I love them. I enjoy them and then they can go and it's like no sweat. So I really, and it's nice because it's important. You know, you, we need fosters, like desperately. So yeah, it's an important thing to excuse me to do. And so, and I'm happy to do it. Although some of the dogs you can, who boys, they've been through some shit. And you got to deal with it. Like it's, it's a lot of them are really traumatized when they get to you.
01:15:59And this is their sort of first soft place to land. You know, I've had dogs from hoarding cases. I've had that are like some dogs are probably trained. Some dogs are not. A lot of the dogs aren't familiar with stairs and I have a lot of stairs in my house. And you got it when you've got like, and I tend to foster big dogs. So if you, you know, for me, 160 pound dog that doesn't know how to do the stairs can get a little challenging. My dog is nine pounds. We just adopted this little bitch and she's nine pounds. I got to tell you, my favorite foster though was my most favorite versus my least favorite. So my most favorite was Teddy and he was a, at least 180 pounds St. Bernard. At least 180 pounds, like a horse, like an actual horse. I got him. I always get them groomed because it's, it might have been a while for them. So I took him. It was like $300 to get him groomed and they had to like, you know how they like chain them to the table so that they can do the brushing and all that. They did chain him to the steel door on the back because he was dragging the table, the steel table.
01:17:04He was a sweetheart. Oh my God. He was the king of backing up. He knew exactly how to back up because my room was simply not big enough to contain him to just walk in straight lines. Like, you know, he was great. My least favorite, I hate to say it with the little dogs when they gave me like two little, like 10 pound chihuahua mixes who were very sweet, but they were not fixed. Brandon has, Brandon has a, I got to find a picture of Teddy. It was just amazing. No, Brandon has a, the dog's name's Dolly. It's a, a Bernadoodle. Oh my God. Oh my, she's beautiful. I love, yeah. I love a Bernese Mountain dog. Yeah. Well, I went, I went a bougie dog from a like bred dog. Of course you did. Let me tell you why. Look, you get what you pay for. I would absolutely. My sister loves this dog. Oh, beautiful. Oh my God. Brandon. Oh, that's what I'm talking about. I would love to like adopt a dog and I want to save a dog. I would love to do that. But these are my children are nine and seven and they were six and six and eight at the time.
01:18:10And I'm allergic to dogs and cats. And I was like, I have to get it. I have to get a hypoallergenic dog. I didn't know you were allergic. Yeah. So I had to get a hypoallergenic dog and I wanted to get a puppy that was very docile and loyal with children. Right. And so this dog, we did all the research and this was like the dog that was like perfect for families and the whole thing. I was like, I wanted their first dog experience to be one that was like, you know, you get the dogs like, oh, this one will bite your ass every time you turn around. And it's like, I wanted a dog like they could raise the family dog. We can from the rest of our lives, we can now adopt dogs. They have an idea of how to take care of them. They know the temperament. It is so important. It is just unbelievably important that you spend time with a dog that, you know, that is a rescue specifically to learn if your personalities are compatible. It just drives me nuts when people just like go and say this one. You need to know because dogs have distinct personalities and they might not blend well with yours.
01:19:12So you need to like do a little test drive. I'm sure lots of dogs end up getting returned because of that. I've learned so much being a foster of how different dogs are. You can't turn a dog back in. That's not fair. People do it all the time, though, because they don't pick a dog that's the right dog for their lifestyle. And that's what I, yeah, I picked a dog that way and I feel like an ass for doing it. Yeah, I understand what you would understand. It's socialization and all that kind of stuff. All this stuff is very important. But yeah, it was very intentional with the type of dog and why we got the type of dog. But I hate the fact that there are dogs out there that don't get the amount of love that we are able to give our dogs. It's heartbreaking. I have had foster dogs that have clearly been abused that flinched that, you know, I had one that I did have to take back because she couldn't. Well, I told them that, you know, you have to let them know all the conditions in your house. And I have an assistant and he's a tall man. And he comes, he's at my house every, you know, every day when he's not on tour. He's touring all the time now. Will you grab me another one?
01:20:13Thank you so much. And I told them, you know, there's a man in the house. I said, well, we don't know if this one, if she kind of doesn't like men, but we're sure it'll be fine. I was like, if she doesn't like men, it's going to be a problem because he's here 40 hours a week, you know, and they said, oh, it'll be fine. It'll be fine. And then like on the first day that he came back into work on Monday, she bit his hand, you know, and it was just kind of like, all right, let's see. And it was, I, we were willing to work it out, but she was just terrified of him, just of him being in the room, that it was kind of like, okay, we need to, I need to swap her out with somebody else that's got a dog that doesn't have any men around. Thankfully, the fosters are all, it's like a great network of people. So, but it's a lot. I mean, still even fostering is a lot, but it's great. And it's, yeah, it's sort of like dog renting, but most of the dogs are decompressing from a situation. So I had a few like hoarding case dogs and stuff like that. So it takes a minute. It's great when you find one that's like, you know, uh, something that's had, that's had a happy family life, but for whatever reason is now finding itself in need of a new home.
01:21:24Oh, we had one that was like that Grizz. He was like a German shepherd mix that was like 150 pounds and he was just like a big chicken nugget. And my assistant took him home for a while and he felt, Oh, look at that cutie. We're showing pictures of dogs now. And so my assistant took, took, uh, Grizz home a little bit and Grizz fell in love with his daughter and just was just, and she was like laying all over him and which I would normally never recommend for a foster dog. But this was a, this, he had come from like a happy family that, uh, that wasn't so happy anymore. Um, and so he was well socialized and yeah, it was just adorable. I am pulling up a picture of my dog. Oh, darling. Oh, speaking of family. So this is the only like restaurant thing that came out of there. Thank you. Oh, what a cutie. God, that poodle always comes through. Do you have to brush it? I'll brush them a lot. Her, her a lot. I know poodles.
01:22:24You're supposed to get like Matt. We don't have this muzzle. This is like nose. I mean, she's beautiful. Yeah. No, she, uh, we had get her groomed every month. That's like her haircut. Her hair costs more than hair versus fur. I don't really know the difference. Yeah. It's like real hair. Yeah. It's like actual hair. It's like actual hair. It's big. It's real curly groomed more seriously. Yeah. I mean, my first haircut in like four months, uh, at the end of the month. Do you get massages? Yeah. All the time. Yeah. It's the best. I love going to the spa. I like, uh, Oh God. Yeah. Relax at the Opry hotel is my favorite in Nashville. I've been to probably at least eight different spas in Nashville. And that one's my favorite. Better than Mochara at the Omni because they have a better relaxation lounge. The only one that's a better, I would say maybe, but there's pluses and minuses is escape, but it's on this side of town, which is such a hall for me. They have the best relaxation lounge and cookies, but relax has every, it's got the steam room.
01:23:30It's got the sauna. It's got, if you're there and whatever, you can go use all the pools and everything for the whole day that you're there. I just booked one for Thursday morning. Yeah. I've got something coming to my house. Oh yeah. I like a spa. I've never done that before and I'm kind of freaked out. I got one for my wife and me. She doesn't know it yet. Honey, I got this. I find house massages a little awkward. I was wondering that I was like, cause I can't be like, hey, come over and give me a massage. Yeah. I mean, I've had plenty of those and I've had like in hotel room massage. I've done everything. Um, I've had airport massages. I've had all of the, it's great. I, I like the spa because you've got more, I don't know. It's just like more of a place and the tables are really nice as opposed to the fold down tables. And then I love a steam room. You know, it's so decadent. And then you just sit quietly in the dark lounge and sip your tea and, and just completely disassociate. It's the best. Jennifer, you should call in.
01:24:30Um, and I want to tell the story. This is so not restaurant related. This is just people. We're just hanging out now. At this point, we're just, if nobody's going to call and talk restaurant stuff, right? Yeah. Yeah. Jennifer needs to call, call my cell phone, honey. And, uh, I want to get you on because I got to tell the story when we were in Mexico, we were in Mexico and we booked every time we go, we, we had this thing every year we got for our anniversary of September the 16th, which is Mexican independence day. Yeah. So we would always go to Mexico and it was awesome. It was just a thing. And so we, uh, we, we would go and we would always book a couple's massage, right? It's what you do when you're at these resorts. Yeah, sure. So we get to this place and they're like, okay, oh, here she, here she's calling. The best, the best place to get a couple's massage in Nashville is at escape. You should book, you should book couples massage at escape. Okay. It should be relatively close to wherever you are. It's over on this side of town. They have, they have a double massage room with like a, with like a bathtub. You do like a, like a rose petal bath and a couple's massage in, and they have like a rain room.
01:25:35You guys, I'm just, I'm just advising cause I, I've been to a lot of spots. Escape is so great for your next couple's massage. And escape is also right down the road. Is it? Yeah. Oh, it's wonderful. You should just go, they do great facials there. And the massages are really terrific. And it's, it doesn't, it has a co-ed steam room, which is not my favorite. But other than that, the lounge is amazing. All right. Hey, everybody. Welcome Jennifer Still to the show. Hi, sister. Hi, Jennifer. Hi. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. You're so fun. I'm like, oh my gosh, I want to hang out with her. We should hang out. Let's go to the spa. I'll take you to all my favorite spas. I used to have a membership over at the Opry hotel spa. They sell memberships. Yeah. Relatch. You can do a monthly service and then you get like these crazy discounts on everything at the hotel. And then honestly, once they are, once they know you, they're very generous with the discounts. Yeah. Yeah. Basically. So it ends up being a really good deal.
01:26:40We have a massage killers. Oh, what's that? Children. Yeah. We can't afford to do any of that. Oh, I see. I see. Yeah. I'm like, this sounds lovely, but expensive. Yeah. It's one of my favorite. I got to tell you, one of my favorite things about not having children is that I can spend my money on anything I want. Right. And then, you know, the dog groomer, as she was saying, the dolly. And grooming is not cheap. Grooming is not cheap. Do you do the mobile groomer? Do they come to you or do you go there? You go there. We have the dog for the whole day. How often does dolly go, honey? So in the summer, it's four weeks. And then in the winter, we've been doing like six. Yeah. It makes sense. It's, you know, you got to really take care of that hair or else it gets matted. And then they have to be shaved and it's painful for them. And it's a whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. I'm so lucky. I have one of my best friends from undergrad. She's a vet now. And so whenever I have a new foster, I can just holler at her. And then she's like, you got to brush that dog while you have it. It's going to get bad. That's amazing.
01:27:40We've lost every person who's listening. And I'm like, fuck these people. I don't know what they're talking about. Like, I don't get good massages and I don't groom my fucking dog. Like, this is not my demo. You know, I don't know. Well, you know what? Maybe it's just not our crowd tonight. No, there's still people listening. I'm just saying. We love you, everybody that's listening. That's hanging in there with us. We appreciate you. Sorry. I didn't know you were still here. Both of you. Yeah. We went to, we're in Mexico and we booked a couple's massage. And the woman does not speak English. None. Right? So she's like, running the spa there. I didn't meet one person that spoke Spanish while we were there, but this woman did. She's the only person I knew that only spoke Spanish. Yeah. And she says, you go in here and you go in. I'm not going to use any kind of accent. Yeah, don't do that. That's really bad. I think she was Asian for a second there. I'm going to hell. She says, you go in here and you go in here, but in Spanish.
01:28:40Right. And she says, get changed. She says, get changed. Right. And so we're like, do you get naked? Right? Because you're thinking you're going to go. Well, I get naked, but not everybody does. Sometimes for men, they give you little stretchy panties. Yeah. So we go in and we get a bathrobe. We both come out naked, but with bathrobes on. With your bathrobes. Out of these separate places. We've had massages before too. Yeah. First time. Yeah, sure. Was it, was that not appropriate? So she. Oh, no. Oh, no. Okay. I have. So you tell yours and then I'll. The story is. Wait, stop. Stop. Jennifer. What? I proposed to Amy on the fucking show. I missed that part. I'm so sorry. She said yes. She took a second to think about it and then she said yes. Is there anything else you want to say before you ask me that? Did you want to like be more romantic about it? No. She was like, where are you wearing?
01:29:41Maybe, maybe do that. Maybe be more romantic about it when you get home. So we go back in and put clothes on. Okay. She takes us into a, like a circuit. Oh, so she's like, don't be naked. So we put clothes back on. We put the bathing suits on. Yeah. And then she takes us in this room and she looks at us and she goes. I'm going to have to get in, get in here. And we're like, excuse me. And I don't understand. I don't know what she's saying. But there's like this shower. What emotion. She's like putting you through. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There's like this shower that goes in. It's like a ritual kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've done that. Yeah. And so she tells us, she's like, we want to get in this shower. So we're like, we get in the shower. Then she turns the water on and we're like, I guess we should take a shower? Like, what is this? So then we get out. We're like, she's standing there. Like, we're done. And she's like, okay. And then she takes us to the next room, which is a steam room. Okay. That sounds nice. And we then get into the steam room. There's a dude in there. And so we get in the steam room and we're like, okay.
01:30:44Like, I don't know. We can't, like, there's a dude in here. What are we supposed to do? Then we get out and then she puts us in a sauna. Okay. And then we get out and then there's a sample platter. There's an, there's no, there's a tiny, you're just taking it there. You're just taking it. You're projecting. There's a, there's a tiny little plunge pool. Okay. And it's like 55 degrees. Yeah. And she says, get in the pool, get in the pool. And I'm like, the pool is very cold. She's like, yes. And I'm like, this is like wellness. Yeah. This is very cold. But can you, I don't, so we get in there and then she goes like, and she points at the jacuzzi and I'm like, oh shit. That was like, so I get in the jacuzzi and then Jennifer is like, I have to get in there. And she's like, yes. And she's like motioning towards like, she's got to marinate you, season you properly for the meal. Yeah. Get in here. We don't know what's going on.
01:31:45And so we're just trying to, yeah. And now we're both in the jacuzzi by ourselves and we're sitting there. And I'm like, what the fuck was that? Like, that was the way at this exact time, another person who works there walks by and hears you. No, no, no. He's giving a tour and he's like, so this is our wellness routine. And what you do is you start here and then you work each different zone and it opens your pores and then you're going to dip in a plunge pool. And it finishes in this nice relaxing jacuzzi. And I looked at Jennifer and I was like, well, that would have been fucking helpful. This dude was just like completely explaining the whole thing at the end. In English, perfect. In English, like, and like he was from like Nashville. Hey y'all, this is what y'all need to be doing. And I'm like, why didn't we, can we do it again with that in mind? Cause I would like to partake. Awkward because she assisted us the entire time. Like the other guy that's in the same room was just killing by himself. Like we had this, you know, she was standing there the entire time.
01:32:48Like this, you know, pointing that thing. And yeah, it was very awkward. It's so funny because it reminds me of when I was on a cruise a few years ago with my family and I bunked with one of my favorite managers. She's so sweet, Hannah. And we were in Costa Maya, Mexico. And it was a little later in the cruise. So we, I had been completely sunburn fried in Roatan, Honduras. Cause I was like, oh, I'm Mexican. I don't need sunblock. And I didn't quite realize how close the equator I was. And I got on a catamaran to go snorkeling. And the moment I stepped on it, I was like, oh, I fucked up. Oh, this is bad. This is bad. And I was like too embarrassed to just like ask somebody for some. Anyway, so I'm sunburned and it's the next day and we are in Costa Maya, Mexico. And we had booked this, this spa retreat thing. And we didn't really know what it was, but it was like one of the few things to do.
01:33:51So we go in and they're like, okay, we do things a little differently here. This is about your soul and your spirit. So we're going to start with mud, putting mud on you. And then you're going to shower it off. And then we're going to go into this steamy cave room and pour like water on your forehead. And then you're going to go into the steam room where the guide is going to help you express your feelings. And he had us all do screen therapy in this room. So, and he's like, I want you to talk about something that's upset. That's like you're on your mind. I'll go first. I'm engaged to this woman and where your family doesn't like me. So blah, blah, blah. Now let's scream it all out. So then we get out and we get to the massage portion, but it's not massages like in beds. It's in a hammock. And then there's somebody under you with their leg, with their feet, pressing on your body while you're in the hammock. So just for a moment, if you could picture my sunburned flesh in the nylon rope hammock that's already been steamed and mudded. And I'm just like witting my teeth because I paid for it. So I'm going to do it. And this Mexican man is underneath me just with his feet.
01:34:55Pushing on my breath and I'm just like, this is great. I'm so happy I did this. It's so relaxing. I feel really, I feel so well. I feel so well. It's really so good. So yeah, it definitely, I understand the like, what am I doing right now? Like feeling, you know, I certainly recognize that tone of voice. But now looking back on it, you're glad that you did it. Oh my God. I was glad I did it at the time. I was glad I did it at the time. I was like, I cannot wait. It's going to hurt so bad when I get into this hammock. I can't wait. This is going to be great. Somebody kicked me under the hammock. That was awesome. Honestly, I was like, if only this had happened when I was like 19 and taking ecstasy all the time. Because this would have been so much fun back then. Just somebody giving me a foot massage through a hammock. Like, I mean, that is an elite experience right there. We're all in our 40s.
01:36:00We know. We were all there. I bet you were going to be. We were all there. It was the late 90s. But yeah, listen, I, look, my mind is always going. So this is, I'm thinking about all these things at the, as the moment I'm getting into the hammock, I'm thinking all these things. You guys should really try it. Go to Costa Maya. You're going to love it. Get the hammock with the sunburn. Just really feel the deal. Yeah. With the cream. And the mud. Yeah. Make sure you get the cream therapy. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. Cannot, cannot recommend more highly. And all of you listeners out there. If you're looking for an experience, try it. Yeah, they're all gone. Okay. We don't have anyone left. A couple people still watching. A couple people hanging in. Is it just your wife? Are you still watching, honey? I'm not on it. Well, that's good. That means that somebody is. Suzanne, she's still partying with friends from the campfire. Suzanne sounds like she's a hoot. Suzanne's partying with us. I bet Suzanne.
01:37:00Yeah. We had Eddie, Eddie de Jesus. Oh, okay. Why did you look right at me when you said that? I was looking for a nod of approval as to how I said it. Because if it's me, I think it's Eddie de Jesus. Brandon gave it to me like 30 minutes ago. Oh my God. He's like, fuck Ryan. No, I did not. He's like, you're still awake, right? All right, guys, I'm out. Speaking of family, one of the only restaurant things I never really had any experience with and don't feel like I've gotten a chance to know is family meal. We never did that. We don't do that at Rose Pepper. Really? Yeah. People just order off of the menu and I kind of had to learn about it through movies. Because Rose Pepper is really, it's the second restaurant I've ever worked at. So you don't comp, do you comp their food? They eat for free? Yeah. Yeah, the doubles do anyway. Okay. Well, there you go. They eat for half off. Yeah. Family meal is something, the idea of it is, and we do it, we do it at Mirror Bowl.
01:38:04And does everybody like sit together? Yeah. Theoretically, you'd like to, well, we just, we set up like a buffet in the kitchen at 430. Yeah. Every day. So if you come to it, part of the thing is that if you're asking people to come in and serve food and build this community, like you have to start there. So family meal is a, we make food. I mean, we need to have a lot of shots and margaritas. We do staff margaritas at the end of the night. No, you can, no, build your culture around substance. Not margaritas? Not substances. Yes. That was amazing. No, I mean, yeah, do your shit, but like, if, if you expect your staff to come in and, and, and do stuff, you can go. What? I got, I was just on Janice back in Jennifer. Yes. You better sit your ass in on this conversation. Okay. We're talking about family meals now. So if you're interested, hang on. I am fascinated by family meals.
01:39:06I think it sounds super cool. We just, you know, my father was doing it, so please go ahead. I'm sorry. It builds camaraderie. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Yes. I think that's fair. Yeah. I think that's perfectly fair. You break bread. You talk about, you know what? I fucked up. We got last night. I mean, I think my girlfriend is pregnant. I'm fucked up. Like, oh my God. There's front house and back house. Everybody's together. Coke, like we, you know, ideally, I mean, I mean, I struggle with that too, but it's family meal. You've got to provide that, that, that network. Yeah. I mean, it's so important. 20 years in the business, 12 years as a, you know, as a whiskey dick. But it's all about hospitality. You've got to take care of those to take care of you. Okay. I mean, and you're, you're amazing. Yeah. I think we definitely have our own ways of building culture for sure. Absolutely. My staff are all very good friends. I applaud you. Yeah. I think you're amazing. Yeah. And I love your spot.
01:40:07So yeah. We had a great time. We all went to Soundwave for our sort of late end of summer party. How far is that? Oh my God. That's so I've been trying for the last eight years. I'm sure, uh, Brandon can, and you can, can get with me on this to figure out like where to like do parties for these people because they wild. Top golf. And, Ooh, see, I should try that. I should try that. Cause it was, you know, like elite. It was, it's so great. It's so self-contained and I can do that and I can just dip when I'm done. And they're all surrounded by professionals that can make sure that they don't die. Let me tell you what the worst one was. Was getting two pontoon boats was the worst idea I ever had. I had to go out and swim and rescue various drunk staff members. We do, we do a boat day every year. Never again, better you than me. Uh, yeah. I was like, I'm a lawyer. I'm risk averse.
01:41:07I was just like, I should have made people pick partners and have fun buddies to make sure they stay safe so that I'm not watching everybody to make sure they stay safe. I was so stressed out. It was the worst. And then I was started renting like big houses, like big Airbnb's and I'd have a crew come and clean up after everybody the next day. But even that was like a little bit risky. I had this one that had this beautiful view of the river. And then I did not think, uh, about the fact that some of the drunk hostesses were probably going to try and jump off that cliff. So I had to make sure that didn't happen. So, you know, and, uh, you know, after sounds like something I would do. Yeah. After, you know, pulling my staff out of the bathtub of these Airbnb's, I finally was like, I need something that's more contained. Soundwave is perfect. That does not surprise me at all, but sound waves is such a great time. We did. Oh, honey. How should you do the party room? Like the birthday party room with nine year old birthday.
01:42:07It's the best. That's how I do it is I rent like the party rooms and we just don't use the And then you get the thing. I'll get, cause then you get free pizza. Yeah, you can get everybody in. Yeah. Cause you don't have to stay in the hotel. Yeah, exactly. You don't have to stay in the hotel. Um, and everybody doesn't have to live in Davidson and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I'm not coming to your next party. Yeah, man. I had like 40 people come this time. Yeah. It was pretty good. You know what? I'm pretty good. Turn out next time. Yeah. We had, I had five people from, I had like five people from back at house say they were going to come. Nobody came back at house. They all probably have. Yeah. They would rather just have the day off. They'd just rather have the day off. Or they have another job. Yeah. A lot of them work morning and night, different places. Like you want to do things like, oh, I'm at my other place, man. Yeah. Yeah. So it's okay. But that's the only thing I miss about doing like the house party kind of things. Cause my dad always did a party at his house and then he would just like give the key to somebody and be like, I'm going to bed. Like, don't bother me. And just go hide. And then the people would just be in like the bottom floor of his house until dawn. And I was, and I tried, I tried for like a year and I tried to keep up his Christmas party.
01:43:10He, that was like a big thing for him was like the rose pepper Christmas party that would have this all members from the community and just like hundreds of people in the restaurant and like open barring it. And I did it for like two years and then I was like, I am done. I'm good. That is too many people. My dad was like, was it, I don't know that he was an extrovert, but he loved being around people. Like, I don't know that he was very chatty, but he loved being around people. Not so much. I'm not as much like, I mean, I don't mind it, but to any real extent, I'm good. I'm good. You know, I think that we have to be on so much. Yeah. And when I, when I'm constantly turn on for the day, I'm on and I'm here. I'm focused. Yeah. I'm present. I'm in, I'm doing all the stuff, but when I'm off, like, yeah, I can crave being on when I'm off, like I am off and it's hard to turn. Back on when you're off. And it's like, sometimes it's that it's on earlier in the show, honey. Like I told you, I was like, I just kind of want to just be alone for like, I'm not trying to say I'm like a curmudgeon. He wants to be in a cave all the time.
01:44:12I'm not saying that at all, but it's to me, like the, that sort of like bright lights, big city kind of thing is something I would much rather observe than like be in charge of. And so I finally, and it, in a way it was kind of nice for me because I was, you know, trying to, and I still am trying to continue my father's legacy. And so I was having all of his parties the way that he would do them for several years, but I'm at a point now where I feel sort of confident enough in what I'm doing to do my own thing now, you know, to still feel like I'm honoring his legacy, even if I'm not doing it exactly the way that he did that I've sort of found my voice in that way. And I like it. So my Christmas party now is not inviting all of these Nashville. I love all of these Nashville, but I don't invite all of these Nashville to come party. I get a karaoke machine. I get a tarot card reader. I get a caricature artist. I order Monells for everybody and we hang out at the restaurant and we decorate cookies and we make ornaments and it's fucking great. That sounds great. Yeah, that's like a Friday night. You think that sounds like a great Friday night.
01:45:12Yeah, that's it. Yeah. So if I'm invited, I'll invite you. I'll invite you guys this year. Who'll bring whiskey? It's so much fun. I have, I have like three years of caricatures. It's so fun. I love them. Oh my God. Isn't that- I just want to decorate the cookies. Is that not the- I know, right? And then I got all of those decorations and then my Buster guys that were like, I was like, don't clean up. They cleaned up everything. Then they threw away all of those new decorations I bought, but whatever. The cookies were adorable. There was a lot of very goth looking cookies from my staff. I love it. They're very, they have dark humor personalities. I love it. And the Monells fried chicken was, oh man, I just never get enough. Can't go wrong with fried chicken. Yeah. I was in Home Depot the other day and every single thing they have up right now, it's all Christmas. Yeah, it's time. I heard my first Christmas carol the other day and I was like, I'm ready for it. I love Christmas. I love Halloween. I love all of this time of year. It's just the best. And all the bugs go away. Incredible. The wands die natural. Yeah, the wasps all die. The humidity.
01:46:13The humidity goes away. It's just wonderful. So I'm super excited. I've got even more Christmas decorations. I finally like went all out last year and did all the Christmas decorations and the lights. And then in true Mexican fashion, left all of the Christmas lights up outside all year and just decided it was part of our yearly decor. I don't give a shit. I love Christmas lights. If you've been to Rose Pepper, you know that my family loves Christmas lights. But I still have lots of decorations that I bought and I'm going to buy even more this year. I just love it. It's so festive. Are you colored light or white light? We have white lights on the building and then color lights on the patio and then colored lights all inside. There you go. Love it. Yeah. I want to just I'm like a white Christmas tree. I want everything outside the color. I did. I had for my personal house. I bought a white Christmas tree and then I did a pastel unicorn theme. It was great. I got a big unicorn head to put on the top of the tree. It looks amazing.
01:47:13So I helped Brandon when you're hanging Christmas lights on our house. And I had these like brand new tennis shoes and we're on the roof and like the shingles, whatever. It shredded my teeth and like it was so like, yeah, like steep. Like, I mean, like I'm hanging on for dear life. And Brandon's like, oh, yes, great. And it was beautiful. But like ruin my tennis shoes. I'm terrified of height. Yeah, we have. Do we bring like I don't mind. Do we bring the ladder on the roof that year? I think so. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you do Halloween decorations? Do you have a 12 foot skeleton? We do. That's awesome. I haven't been able to get my hands on one. I'm waiting until the last minute and they're all gone. I really, I really want to put one for my personal house.
01:48:15I want to put one on my balcony that like looks out on the street because I'm in this A-frame and it's the only house on that side of the street. And it's kind of spooky looking. And so I kind of want to do that. And then I was thinking how fun it would be to just have like two of them on the roof at Rose Pepper just hanging out. Oh, yeah, they're amazing. I spotted there's a house near Rose Pepper that has a 12 foot skeleton in their yard that's not chained down. We've had letters in our mailbox like offering us. Oh, have you? Brandon's showing me a picture of it right now. Oh, it's beautiful. Oh, it has glow eyes. I didn't know it had glow eyes. Oh, that's amazing. Is it chained down? Did you guys like? But you're in a nice neighborhood. Yeah, you're not in, you're not on chapel in East Nashville. Yeah, you're not, you're not in Madison. There's a collective. Madison, I live in Madison.
01:49:17We all know. OK, yeah, I mean, I love the east side. No offense to the east side. You know, we love everybody. Yeah, yeah. I love them all. We grew up on Trinity Lane. We talk about girl. Yeah, we are these Nashville. Yeah, you are. Yeah, I love that. You guys got one. I love it. If it ever falls apart, you want to replace it. No, here's here up on Trinity Lane. I'm going to tell you the story on Trinity Lane. So we went to Home Depot one day. It was randomly. It was in September and the kids were at my parents' house. And I was like, and we went to dinner. I was like, yeah, do you just want to go walk around Home Depot together? Yeah, absolutely. Just being alone. Just yeah, just go. Yeah, let's just hang out. I had this 12 foot skeleton and I don't I all I'm all in on Christmas. Yeah, we don't really have any Halloween stuff. And I saw this and I went, holy shit, it's amazing. This would look perfect right in the front of our house.
01:50:19And our house is going up on a hill. And I was like, I want I want that. And so I told her and she's like, it was like $2.99. I was like, more than I ever wanted to spend. But I was like, now you try to get those things on Amazon. It's like $800. So I told the woman there, they're in high demand. I said, I'd like to buy this. And she goes, we're out. And I'm like, it's September 5th. Yeah, what the fuck, right? Yeah. And so I said, OK, I'd like to buy the display. Are you getting more in? She goes, no more coming in. That's it. And I go kind of buy the display. And she goes, no. And I go, why not? Why not? If you're not getting any more in. Yeah. And she's like, no. And I'm like, well, can I put my name on it? Can you call me when you sell it? Or she's like, sure. We leave. I'm like, I'll just order one online. So the next morning, I go on homedepot.com. Yeah. They're sold out across the country. I'm looking at Huntsville. I'm looking at Bowling Green. It is. I'm in Memphis. It is a high ticket. It's like a four-hour drive. I'm down. There's a Facebook page. There's a 12-foot seat. I was like, one of the fourth people. So anyhow, Jennifer, the next day, she's like, I'll just go down there and negotiate with them.
01:51:25Yeah. Make them do it. She goes to the Home Depot. And she calls. She's like, it's fucking gone. They sold. Oh my god. They sold the whole thing. Oh, I would be so pissed. I was pissed, right? So then I start calling Home Depots all over, like the mid-south. I'm sorry. Randomly, I call one in Franklin. And I talked to a random guy. I was like, he goes, all we have is the display. And I go, you have the display? And he's like, because they're actually. Because now you're determined. He goes, they're actually putting it together right now. And I was like, tell them to stop. I will buy it. And he's like. Yeah. I'll give you my credit card information right now. OK. I'll do that. And he's like, I'll tell them to stop. And then, when can you be here? I'm like, no, no, no. You're taking my fucking card number. Yeah. Yeah. God damn right. I'm buying it right now. You're going to staple the fucking receipt to it. That's what it's going to be. And I showed up, like, I get to Franklin. Oh my god, it's amazing. And faster than I've ever been to Franklin. It is a hot item. There's like an arm sticking out of the top of the box. Oh my god. I love it. I love it. Put the thing in my truck. And I got home. And I was like. Well done.
01:52:26And then, like, the next day, we put it up. And then this person who lives in Bellevue started a Facebook group because they're so rare. And they're like. And so she was like, hey, do you want to be part of this group? Oh my god. And I was like, sure. That's amazing. And then I was like. Do you have special friends now? And you've had letters from people that say if you ever want to get rid of this. That's amazing. Literally, people like. Do they put, like, an offer amount? Or are they just like, hey, give me a call if you want to get rid of this? I think it was $600 was the price. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, I mean. I love that. People offer. And then, like, our owner of the restaurant is huge. Steven, you know Steven. Yeah, Steven. Yeah. Huge Halloween fan. He's like, I'll give you $500. Oh my god, that's amazing. I'm already heading off her for $600. I'm like, $500, man. Yeah. That's what we're doing. We're going to need you to add another zero to that, buddy. OK, there you go. Then we might talk. That's the only. But it's a whole thing. It is. You asked the perfect question, by the way. It's amazing. I couldn't have teed you up for that. I could sense it. Very observant.
01:53:26Do you have a 12-foot skeleton? I'm like, yes, I do. Oh, I thought. I thought too. I want to tell you this story so bad. Not so bad what you do that we had the 12-foot skeleton. No, I did not. I did not. I took a shot in the dark. Wow. And I nailed it. Yeah. I nailed it. Lay up. You can ask a better question. I said, this is a couple. This is a couple that will put in the extra effort to get one of these rare items. I'm going to ask about it. Oh. I didn't accept no for an answer. I called like 20 of you both that day. That's incredible. I love it. The one in Franklin, of all places. I'm like. I saw one on Amazon because I don't like to leave my house for things unless I have to. And it was like $800. Damn. Now that's like a private seller who's selling it through Amazon. Amazon's got to get cut. I get all of that kind of stuff. And I was like, absolutely not. I will make my own. I will murder a giant first and take out its bones before I spend $800. I think that somebody posted one that they found like a 10-foot skeleton at Walmart.
01:54:26And it was like the dankest skeleton I've ever seen. Yeah. Yeah. That's so hard. S-K-C-E-L-E-T-O-N-E. We can have what we pay for. It's a 7-foot-10 skeleton. Yeah. Oh my god. You know what I really like is the, I have a couple of these, and I haven't put it on my car. The ones that like hang off of your car antenna. And they're like 12 inches or 18 inches. And it's like a little skeleton. They're super cute. OK. Brandon wants one now. I just saw Brandon's face. If you're watching, he wants one now. And it just hangs on with its little hand. It hangs on. It's great. The wheels are turning. Yeah. It's pretty adorable. And it works on a Jeep, because the Jeep has the straight up and down antenna, doesn't it? I put a tiny antenna. Oh, OK. I put a little custom antenna, because I'm that guy. Well, it came with just the regular antenna. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I bought one that's like this big. Yeah. So I hate having to take the antenna off to get the car wash or something. Yeah, that's a whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. My assistant has a Jeep. Amazon. He never takes it off.
01:55:27I was like, this antenna is straight from 1984. Yeah. Your assistant? Yeah, I have an assistant. But he's only, I mean, he's full time when he's not on tour. An assistant? On tour like half a year now. What the fuck is an assistant? Like, I mean. He helps me with so much stuff. How does he need an assistant? Like, I mean. Jennifer, do you need an assistant? Yes. I would love an assistant. I'm busy. I got a lot of shit going on. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, it's like he's a, he's. You have an assistant. Yeah, I have an assistant. I would kill. I would get so much more done. I just have so much shit to do. And he's handy. So he helps me fix shit. I have children. Yeah. Yeah. He's really good at the doing all the QuickBooks stuff. Like, he's really great at that stuff. And I'm, I'm ideating. I'm coming up with memes. She's a visionary. I'm the meme queen. 2018. And yeah. And so then he, you know, checks my emails and. What? You know. You have somebody read your emails? Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to get in there. It's a nightmare. What? There's so many emails.
01:56:27I feel like, I feel like. He's like a dream. I get like 50 emails a day. And it's, you know, honestly. It's the least I can do. 50 emails a day and you're upset. I mean, but also I have to do my part to smash the patriarchy. He is a white man. He is a six foot one tall white man. And I am a five foot four Mexican woman. It is the least I can do. But you're beautiful. To smash the patriarchy. You're amazing. You know. And you're badass. You're smart. Yeah. It's actually really funny when we would go to meetings sometimes. He's this like punk guy, right? So he wears his band shirts. He wears his band shirts and his jeans and we go on these meetings. And the people will talk to him because they don't because I might not say anything. They made the meeting with me and sometimes they'll just like still talk to him. And I just sit there and I just laugh and he just looks at me and I'm like, well, since I'm the one who's making this decision, every once in a while he gets it. I'll be like, would you grab me some water? Anyway, so he gets it. I respect him. He's well paid. He's great, though.
01:57:29No, no, no. He's really great. And it's really helpful because I was, you know, it was he's been working for me now for like almost the entire time I've been here. I was doing this job for about a year and a half or so or two years. And I was just, you know, I'm like trying to learn this industry. I'm trying to build this social media brand. And there's just so many little nitpicky things that I just really needed help with. And he was just a friend of mine who was really smart. And yes. Um, and he was leaving. He was leaving his job. And I said, well, I need somebody who can use a computer, but who can also like fix something that's broken. And I think that you can do that. Do you want to do this job? And that was seven years ago. Um, I don't know how much longer he's going to be my assistant. Actually, he's, uh, he hooked up with this great band, uh, Amigo the devil. Uh, it's this like murder folk guy who's really popular and he's doing really, really well. And so he's the drummer now along with like, yeah, it's like murder folk, murder rock. Um, he says a lot of songs about like serial killers and, um, they're really fun. They're really catchy. Yeah. He's so talented.
01:58:30Um, and so he's been doing that a lot and it's probably going to go full time and not, not too much longer. So I'm going to have to find myself a new assistant. So if there's any strapping young man out there, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, please, uh, let me know. Um, and help me, help me smash the patriarchy. Um, so yeah, it's been super helpful. I couldn't have done it without him, honestly, because I spent so much time just thinking about like new creative ideas and ways to like do things for the, for the restaurant. And like, he does all of the, the sort of the work that I don't want to do, you know, like, I don't want to read my emails. I don't want to enter expenses into quick books. Like while he's doing that, I'm writing signs, you know? And it's, I feel like it's the best use of, of our time in that way. Well, I mean, listen, you, there, there are things that this is, this is in all seriousness, there are things that only you can do.
01:59:36There are things that only you can do and you need to be focusing on the things that only you can do and when there's something that a lot of people can do that are mundane things that other people can, that you could hire me to do. Like that's the best use of your time. Exactly. Who does your social media? I do. You. Yeah. I posted that earlier today. Are you serious? Yeah. I didn't write it. I mean, but yeah, it's brilliant. I mean, social media is, so I spent a lot of time on it too. Yeah. If I have a, definitely have a demographic that I'm speaking to, you know, it's mostly, it's some men, I think it's, I think I want to say it's like 70, 30 women to men. And then it's people, I think my, my biggest demographic age range is like, it's like mid twenties to like mid thirties, something like that. Which is funny because I'm in my forties, but you know, I'm young at heart. Yeah. And so- Big 40s, the new 20s. Yeah. I spend a lot, a lot, a lot of time thinking about what am I going to post on my different social media channels?
02:00:38Is it relatable content? Is it the right content? Like for as casual as it may seem, it is very thought through. It is very intentional and I spend a lot of time on it. And yeah, it's been nice having somebody to help me all of this time. I'm sort of dreading, you know, when he does go full, I'm super excited for him. I'm very happy. This is his life's ambition, but I'm sort of dreading when I do ultimately have to replace him because there's not a lot of people that I could spend seven hours, eight hours, nine hours a day with and not want to kill. Yeah. Right? I mean, and it's, you know, every once in a while I'll be like, you can go home early, man, I'm good. But for the most part, this has been a very, you know, very useful working relationship in that it's, it's, you know, that kind of thing where you can sort of be alone in the same room with somebody else. But look, look, look at the content. I mean, that's- No, I know. The social media, and I've spent a lot of time on it. And when I finally just decided to do it, which was about like seven years ago, I think it was, we had a social media person, Molly, who used to work at the restaurant as, I think it was a bartender or server, met her husband there.
02:01:44I'm so curious how many marriages and kids and stuff have come from Rose River. I know there's a bunch. If you're a, if you're a marriage or- How many murders have happened? Oh, several, several, I'm sure. But so she had her second child and just didn't really have the time to do it. And I thought, well, I've got, you know, I got chops. Like, let me, let me take this over. And it's done so well, honestly. I mean, you know, it's no El Arroyo in Austin with their 600,000 followers. But like, hey man, I'm scrappy. You know, I'm out here posting, posting the memes, looking for my memes. I spent a lot of time. I have so many memes saved, just an outrageous amount. And I'll, and I'll be writing down thoughts about signs off, you know, all the time. But they're so catchy, so smart. I know, I know, yeah. How often do you change the sign? I change the sign. I've been trying to do it twice a week, but that's a lot. So it's been a little slow lately. Sometimes it's once a week and sometimes it's once every two weeks.
02:02:45But mainly I try to do twice a week. I try to keep it topical. If I can, I always like Harry Styles. Yeah. I always start it with what is happening in Nashville. What is happening in Tennessee? What is happening in the country? What is happening in the world? So I think about all of those things first. Yeah, that's one of my favorites. She's a 10, but Excel thinks she's October. I just saw that on some page and I try, I always try to attribute, you know, who wrote it and all that kind of stuff, but you gotta pick the right thing. Cause there's a lot of funny things, there's a lot of funny things, but you gotta find like what works for your vibe. Cause it's, I sort of would love, I'm sort of trying to tiptoe into this like slightly edgier area, but the brand voice that I have built is very positive, very family friendly and all that kind of stuff. I've been like dipping my toe in to see if anybody has a problem with me saying like, you know, damn or something like that. Something really clocked out right at the end of the shift. Yeah. That was a funny one. This summer kicked me in the dick.
02:03:48Yeah. That was, I was in home. I almost put that on the sign. That was my next choice to put on the summer. This summer really kicked me in the dick. Yeah. And then somebody was like, no, how about this one? I think this one's funnier. So that's it. Next year, next summer. Keep that in your pocket. Yeah. Yeah. I've got a whole, I've got some, if you saw my notes app, you just search for taco or tequila and it's, you get like 500 different things. What in the fuck? I know I keep meaning to, I don't even have like a photo album with all of them. That's one of those long-term projects that I've assigned, you know, to my assistant for like the last three years is like go back through Instagram and pull all of the photos, like pull all the signs. Let's get them all in one big photo album for if I want to repost anything. And it's just so many. It makes like a coffee table book. That's what Ellen Royal did. And I am a little concerned for them because I can guarantee you that they didn't get permission from all of those people whose tweets they took.
02:04:51That concerns me. I have considered it and thought about, well, I could do the ones that I have changed, you know, I could do the ones that I wrote. But that's not so many or I could get permission or I could not get permission. I mean, technically speaking, the law is like kind of on my side on that one. But, you know, I also don't want to be a dick. Well, guys, I have to say it is 1104. Well, this was great. Thanks for the call in. Yeah. Thanks, babe. My pleasure. It's been fun. Yeah, this is great. This is one of my favorite shows. I can't wait till, you know, we're so inconsistent with doing this show. Are you? Once every four or five weeks. I see. Once we start doing it every single Sunday night, I think that we'll get a lot of people that join in. Yeah. Oh, I want to jump in on that conversation. Do you keep it online or is it just this? It's live and it's done. It's online. I'm going to actually turn this into a podcast and release it as a podcast. So this will come out. Don't waste the content. Next Monday, this will be an episode on Nashville Restaurant Radio.
02:05:53Yeah, I love that. This is one of these shows that I would like people to be able to listen to and go, hey, I want to tell a story. Oh, absolutely. I would love to hear people's stories. And the idea came, I was 22 and I was in Murfreesboro, MTSU, and I was driving back and forth from, like, Franklin. I worked at Amerigo at the time. Right. And we would get out of work and we would have drinks and I thought, man, if Lightning 100 did like a live show, when I drive back to Murfreesboro, we'll love to listen in and hear people. They get off of work and they go talk about their night. Like, I would love to have a show where people could just do that. Like, call in, like, I work at the Palm. Let me tell you the celebrity that came in or whatever. It's sort of what the Angry Bartender does, right? Do you follow the Angry Bartender on Facebook? He's got so many followers. I'm not even sure how many, but so many. But he'll, at the end, I don't know where he works. I don't know whatever, but he'll just at the end of the night, he'll just post a thing that says, you know, I had this many, you know, covers tonight and it was a bunch of bullshit tonight.
02:06:55Like, clearly it's a full moon. How was it for everybody else? And like, maybe he'll throw in a little story about this motherfucker did this. And then everybody will comment and there'll be hundreds of comments, thousands of comments sometimes. Well, I'm going to have Drew Talbot on the show. Oh, cool. In a couple of weeks. That's awesome. And so we've been in contact and he was in Nashville last time. Can I pay you some money to sponsor this adventure? And we'll just drink whiskey and I'll give you money. Can we do that? He's not going to be in studio. He'll be joining us via. That's awesome. He lives in L.A., but like he used to live in. His family, I think. Oh, really? Okay. His content is so good. Wonderful. Wonderful. He captures the intricacies of all these little dynamics inside the building. Maybe this would be a fun episode to get him on to do like, you know, because he's in L.A. So two hours earlier, it's going to be easier. Seven to nine there. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And he could do that. I think that would be a fun one to kind of kick things off. I love that.
02:07:55Thank you guys so much for joining tonight on a Sunday. Thank you for driving out here. I know that dark and rain. Hopefully it's not raining anymore. It's kind of like being in a casino here. Yeah, it's, you know, what day it is. It's very cozy. It's very cave like. It's cool. I'm into it. I'm into it. So I'll be in here and I'll be working and I'll walk outside. I'm like, it's dark. Yeah, that's great. How did this happen? I love that. It's good. So yeah, that was really terrific. I hope all five of you enjoyed it tonight. We're listening when you go back and watch this on the podcast. We've probably had, you know, every time I get done with these, we have a couple hundred views. People join in and they listen for a little while and they go out. Yeah. And so there's a lot of people that come in and come out and hear for a little bit. And then you do this, do it later. And it's all. Yeah, no, this was great, man. Thank you guys for joining tonight. Well, thanks for letting me pop on guys. That was fun. Yeah, that was fun. And thanks for letting me be a witness to your getting engaged.
02:08:57That's amazing. Congratulations. That is, that is, I'm honored. I'm honored. Thank you. Love it. It's gonna be great. Yeah, I think that's the point of getting married. Yeah. If I'm not mistaken, he's back in the olden times. Yeah. Yeah, I said it. It's 11. I'm not going to talk about it. The kids are in bed. I'm not going to say a word. The kids are all put away. This is the after hour show. Do you guys have any final thoughts you want to throw out there? I'll just say that I think it's amazing what you're doing. That you're building your media empire like this on top of all the other hats that you're wearing. I am never endingly impressed. Good on you. Well, thank you so much. And good on you, Jennifer, for being there. Put up with what I'm sure is a lot of things. I'm very proud of him. He's been in his business for a long time. Look, Jennifer made me the man I am today.
02:09:59And she's dealt with my shit my entire life, but she's never wavered. And she's never not been there. And my sister is my best friend. I think it's great to get a real sense of family of everybody here. We're literally family. So that's good on you. All right, guys. We are going to sign off. Thank you guys for talking shift with us. And we will see you again, hopefully next Sunday. Yeah, sure you will. Not you. No, probably not me. Probably not me. It's a bit of a hike, but I might call in. You never know and harass everybody. Oh, we love that. Yeah. More calling in the better. Yeah. All right, guys. Thank you, everybody. Have a wonderful evening. Thanks. Okay. That was some definitely some shift talked. I don't know if we talked about shift actually. It was just all about us. And it was just a good time. Again, if you want to join the show, please feel free.
02:11:00Jump in Sunday nights from 9 to 11. Hopefully we'll have some great guests in here. We'll make it a lot of fun. And all we need is you. We're missing you in that scenario. So thank you guys for listening. Have a wonderful rest of your week. We'll see you next Sunday night. Hope you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.