Tandy Wilson

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02:08His number is 863-409-9372. Protection you can trust, that's Robins. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon Food Service and we'll be joined shortly with Caroline Galzin. She's our amazing co-host as we talk today with Tandy Wilson. Tandy is a James Beard Award winning chef and he is the owner of City House. I said this wrong at the intro, so it is City House Restaurant in Germantown and this was a pretty cool moment for me because when I started this podcast back in 2020, one of my dreams was to be sitting in a room having conversations like these with a guy like Tandy and I really feel like this conversation was great.

03:30We kind of cover it all. First of all, this is Tandy's very first podcast. Never done a podcast before, he's a very private guy and super humble and this was so much fun because we talk about him winning the James Beard Award. We talked to him about when he got up on stage and he was nervous, what Pat Martin told him to calm him down and we also talk about when he met Pat Martin and how special their relationship is. We discuss vendors, we discuss downtown a lot and what some of the things he misses about old Nashville as a native Nashvillean, some of the restaurants he grew up working in as well as who his mentors are. We really get into all of it and just big thank you to Tandy for taking the time to come in studio and talk with us, so much fun to do this. If you are new to this podcast, you saw Tandy Wilson here and you're listening for the first time, please go back, scroll through and look at, we've got over 325 episodes of some of the most amazing leaders and just amazing restaurant people in the city that we talk to weekly.

04:43New episodes come out every single Monday. If you subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening, sometimes I put out podcasts at different times. Sometimes we do Friday episodes as a bonus. I promote these at our Instagram page at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio. We'd love to have you be a follower there. If you wanna follow me, I'm at Brandon underscore NRR and Caroline is at Galzin Gal. So lots of fun things happening here on the podcast. We've got some great shows coming up and just love that you're here. So please sit back, relax and enjoy this conversation with Mr. Tandy Wilson. So we are super excited today to welcome in Tandy Wilson to Nashville restaurant radio. Tandy is the owner of the City House restaurant.

05:43Is it City House or the City House? Of City House restaurant in Germantown. Welcome Tandy. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Also wanna welcome Caroline. Hi, I'm here too. Caroline's here too. First, I've tried to do some research on you. I couldn't find any podcasts where I could like listen to you on a different podcast to kind of get an idea of you. We're getting the exclusive. But this is your first one. This is the first one, yes. Wow. Yeah, I'm excited to do it. Honestly, I don't even listen to too many podcasts. Do you listen to any podcasts? When I'm in the car with my wife, she puts on Armchair Expert. That's a good one. I like Dax Shepard. Yeah, I like that one more than Smartless. Smartless. Yeah, they really like, they just talk at each other, something crazy. It gets to be a lot for me after a while. Well, they now have like an HBO show where they're doing, Smartless is like on the road and they're, but they do, it's almost like, just stop.

06:45Right. Just stop doing that. They like cover jokes with jokes so you don't even have time to laugh and enjoy at times, I feel like. What do you watch? What do you consume? I listen to a lot of music. And then I'm, you know, I just turned 46. So I'm of the generation of television. You know, as Homer Simpson said, I was raised on TV and I turned out TV. I feel very similarly. That was like our babysitter after school. Right, right. State by the Bell, The Wonder Years, like reruns of the Brady Bunch, you know. Yeah, I watch my son. You watch the original Full House. Yeah, that's me too. Yeah, for sure. And I watch my son watch TV and he watches YouTube. And I'm like, I don't know how you can watch this, man. Like, could you put a show on or something? Those are shows. How old is your son? He's 10. Yeah, I have a nine-year-old son. Yeah. And they watch these YouTube shows where they're watching people playing games. I've heard of that. And watching somebody stream while they play Fortnite and they're talking about them playing Fortnite.

07:47Yes. And they love it. They cannot get enough of it. Right, they can't get enough of it. Is that kind of like our version of like watching live sports maybe? I think that YouTube has, you know, the brain formula cracked and they know how to make these kids like, have to watch this stuff. And it ruins their attention span. Oh yeah. So like to watch a 30-minute show could be like pulling teeth a little bit. Well, they love the shorts and these videos are like seven minutes. And then there's immediately following that. There's another video based upon you liking this video. There's an algorithm that keeps them like stuck in there. I walked out today and my kid's playing Fortnite and he's got his iPad watching. He's got SpongeBob SquarePants playing on his iPad while he's got headphones on playing Fortnite, talking to people on a phone. Do you guys as parents like get to a point where you're like, uh-uh, where this has turned something off or go outside or like, how does that work?

08:50Cause I feel like our parents at some point, especially in the summertime, maybe you know after school is whatever you want to do, but in the summertime it's like, hey, you need to go leave the house for six hours. Yes and no. I mean, at some point you do activities and you get them outside and you play soccer, you play basketball, you do that kind of stuff. But you know, I'm leaving for work and my wife's got all of her stuff she's doing in the morning. And it's like, the kids just, they get up at like 5 a.m. and they just start playing. And it is summer. So it's not like they have to go to school. It's kind of like that time where, school with school season, none of that. You just got to mix it. It's like you're saying, you got to mix it with the time outside, time with the whole family, time with the pets, you know, whatever, going swimming. And my kids don't mind. They're like, yeah, let's go do something. They drop that stuff as soon as I say, let's go play hockey. Nice. So that's cool. But it's also, yeah. You got to do stuff around the house. You got to go to work and. It is kind of a nice little babysitter. It's that, when you said it was the, at night, you get home from school and watch Full House.

09:52Or not, I said Full House, but like you said, Saved by the Bell. Or I like to watch Hey Dude on Nickelodeon. That was one of my favorite shows. Do you guys remember that show? I don't remember that one. Hey Dude. Of course. Oh God, that's a great show. Okay, so you said you're, so what are you, I feel like we usually save these questions for the end, but let's get right into it. What are you watching? What shows are you into right now? Dave. We really like Dave a lot. That's just hilarious. And we watched The Great. We just finished Ted Lasso. Dude, how about that finishing? Wow. I mean, it was really good. You don't watch Ted Lasso do you? I don't. We didn't know it ended. So like, you know, in the last episode, we're like, is this the last episode ever? And then we find that out like while we're watching it. Oh, is it, is the series over now? It's done. It's done. Yeah. And I don't want to give you spoilers if you. I will never watch it. I'm sorry to say. Okay. What was your thoughts on it? Then let's, spoiler alert, anybody out here who hasn't seen the finale for Ted Lasso, what did you think was going to happen?

10:56I didn't think it was ending. So I was waiting for next week. Yeah. I thought. He's like, he's still getting back together with his wife. And I thought maybe they would all come or something was going to happen. That's what I thought too. I thought he was going to meet the airport and then his wife and kid were going to show up there. Cause they were showing the dude she was dating pretty, he was not happy watching soccer. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that was some foreboding that was happening there. It was, it definitely was. It's also the way most, a lot of people look at soccer that I know, you know, the whole nothing, nothing tie thing. I thought that was a hilarious line. I used to say that until I started going to National SC guys and now I'm like, oh, this is great. You don't know. It is a difficult television sport for me. You know. If it's not a team I love. Right. Right. Yeah. It's still hard to watch. I can watch the National SC on it. Cause I've watched several of those games on television. Have you gone to games? Yes. Okay. Yes. It's a great experience. Have you been yet? I loathe soccer. Like with it. I'm going to take you to a game.

11:56You and Tony. I will never go. Tony would love to go with you. I will never go. You will have so much fun. I won't. Do you like baseball? I love baseball. When you, when you're at the soccer game, it feels a little bit like the baseball game because you, you're conversational with your friends and you can get up and go get some food and you may or may not miss something. Well, here's my thing. So I figured out, I like a sport that is a stop and start action sport, which is football and baseball. I love football. I don't love football. I like football. I love baseball. I don't like a continuous action sport. I don't like basketball, hockey, soccer. I like a stop and start reset. Like something that you can kind of, I can focus on. I can get a little more into the strategy. That's just, I also, I dated a guy who was like a crazy, crazy soccer guy. He'd get up at like 3 a.m. Oh, so the truth comes out. And like go to a pub. The truth comes out now, Tanya. And watch soccer and I just, I really. Ruined it for you. Extremely dislike soccer. Sorry guys. I mean, like all support for Nashville SC.

13:00Love to have more cool stuff in town. I'm all for it. I just will never go to a game. But I'll go to a sounds game anytime. Every person, I got season tickets to the SC. Cause they were like really inexpensive. And I was like, I want to get into soccer. I got two kids. Let's go to games, right? Every time I haven't been able to go and I've given the tickets to somebody else, I've immediately got a text message at the end of the game that was like, oh my God, that was amazing. I cannot thank you so much for those tickets. I'm like, yeah, nope. Like I've created more fans out of people that I've just given tickets to. That's fantastic. It's so much fun. Yeah. Okay, so. Oh, sorry. Ted Lasso. I just, I really thought that like the whole. I've been dying to tell somebody this. So thank you for just listening for me for a second. I thought that his leadership style was so incredibly healthy. Yeah. Like at the end of it, even like. Now I'm like forgetting their names, but like the way they spoke to each other in the locker room was so incredibly like healthy and vulnerable and they all trusted each other.

14:05And now as a leader of a team and as you somebody who runs a restaurant and you have all these people that work with you, if everybody could speak to each other that way. Yeah. I just thought it was a really neat, like, I don't know, they're modeling for us. Like, hey, if everybody treated everybody with respect and you had adult conversations when things didn't go your way and everybody respected each other, this is what would happen. Right, right, right. And I thought it was really neat. He did it in that, you know, that unassuming way, that Alan Benton thing, like, oh, I'm just a country guy that I just make a little bacon and that's all, you know? And it's like, oh, sure. Well, you've got a little bit of that going on too though. Maybe. I mean, a hundred percent. I mean, you're the first James Beard award winning Nashvilleian, is that a true statement? That's a true statement, isn't it? Yeah, I believe that's true. First James Beard award winning Nashvilleian, you've got this iconic restaurant in Nashville and you're like, eh, eh, okay, I just, I make food.

15:05Yeah, I make food. That's what I do. I'm here, that's what I do. Yeah. I'm sure it gets to that point though. You guys have been open for how long now? 15 years. And you, yeah, and you just recently celebrated 15 years. Is that right? The date, it was in December. Oh, in December, okay. I prefer a warm weather party. That's, okay, that's what I'm thinking of. We waited a little while, we waited until April. I prefer a warm weather party. Yes sir, thank you, I do too. But I do think once you've been doing something for 15 years, you do get into that kind of, you know, well, this is just what I've been doing, right? It doesn't feel so different. Yeah, I think like what was like a, it felt like a huge tidal wave in the early days is now just a normal ebb and flow of things. You know, and that's experience. You learn to take things in stride, try and handle them a little bit better than you did last time. So I've just had a lot of opportunity over the years. Yeah.

16:05So what year did you win the James Beard Award? 2016. So it's been seven years since you've won that. So leading up to that, was that ever a goal of yours? Did you want to win a James Beard Award? Well, I mean, you know, I'm conscious of the awards and that that goes on. I didn't really think I had a chance until I made the semi-finalist list. And that's when I was like, oh, wow. You know, somebody is watching. Did you make the long list before you actually won it? Or was this the first time being nominated and you won it that time? No, I mean, I made the long list. I was one of those like seven year guys. Okay. But you can't, at that point, and I don't really know like the rules now, but at that point you couldn't be a finalist for five years of operation. You had to be in operation for five years? Yeah, and so I didn't quite make, I went in and qualify for the finalist list for a while.

17:15And that's for best chef? Southeast. Best chef Southeast. Not like best new restaurant or something like that. Yes, but not for best chef Southeast. So when you first, you're on the long list and then do you make changes? Do you make tweaks because you want that? I mean, what does your mindset do to you when you're there? I mean, what changes do you make? Yeah, I mean, I did. And it was also a combination of being asked simultaneously. So it wasn't like some strategy meeting where we decided this is how it's gonna go down. Operation JB. Yeah. At that time, you just hit the road and you did every food and wine festival, every dinner event you could do, because, you know, per the rules, if people haven't eaten your food, they shouldn't vote for you. So you wanted to get out of your region where like traveling to Nashville to eat at City House would be like a big thing for people, you know? That's why like you wanna try and cook in places like LA or whatever.

18:19Okay, so you're intentionally going to these different food and wine festivals so that people can, so that you, for exposure, just people to see you with them to try your food. And then when it comes down to voting time, they go, oh, I've had that guy's food. It was really good. I'm gonna vote for him because they're kind of told if you haven't eaten the food, even if everybody in the world says it's the best, if you haven't eaten it, you can't vote for it. Right, right. And you might have people, you know, that have a vote that, you know, they never eat in the Southeast. So like, because you went to Texas and did this thing in Austin, you know, people ate your food and then they have a vote and then there's five finalists the next year and they're like, I can vote for that dude. Okay, so this is really fascinating. Thank you for the candor because I think that's really interesting. So then you finally win it. The awards were in Chicago, I assume? In Chicago at that time. So you go to Chicago. What was that day like for you? Who went with you? My wife only. Wife only? The year before we took like my whole family and we're like, oh, this is the year.

19:21And it didn't happen. And it was a little disappointing. And I was like, I just can't, I can't handle all of the everybody. I was like, we're going, just me and Steph and we drove. I love Chicago. I hate flying there because the flights are like always canceled or always delayed. And it's because of the weather and the drive isn't bad, you know? So we rented a car and drove up together and it was really nice. And yeah, it was, and then I won. So you're sitting there and they say your name. What's the first, what emotion did you feel in that moment? Just fear and panic because I knew I had to go on that stage and say words into the microphone. Well, that's understandable for sure. They said the number one fear in the entire world is public speaking. Yeah. So most people are afraid of, over anything is public speaking.

20:24Well, I mean, imagine being in the symphony hall in Chicago, like surrounded by. Every peer in the world that. Yeah, yeah. You know, everybody and you're like, and then like everybody at the restaurant is watching it. And I had a dear friend, Alice Randall, talked me through what I might say. And so we had a little thing like planned out and I barely fumbled through it. But you do write a speech going into it, knowing that if the chance that you do win, what's the, is that process just weird? Cause some people get up there and like, I didn't write anything. I didn't think I was gonna win. And then they go off on like a soliloquy. You're like, I guess you did. You kind of have to do that, right? I think to be prepared for it, for me, I mean, you know, some people are so graceful and wonderful and they can just get up on that stage and say what's on their mind and it impact an entire audience.

21:25And I'm one of those ones that struggles with that large number of people and lights and you know, all that. So, but it was cool. You know, a friend of mine gave me the award and she was like, it's all good. Pat Martin had given her something to say to me that helped me relax a little bit. And we were all good. What did she say? I don't, I don't, I don't. Oh, come on, come on. It's just silly. I know the whole point. I think Pat and I were in Charleston at one point and there was a kumquat bush there and we were eating them and talking about it and laughing about how funny the name was. And that's what she said to me. She says, Pat says kumquats. And I was like, okay, I can breathe now. And I felt a little bit better. And you know, I knew that Steph was right there and I had some really good friends in the front row.

22:27And so I did feel a little easier. But if you go back and like, were to watch that, it's just, it's a joke. But that's great. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. That's a cool part of the story. When Pat's been in the studio, he talks about you. Like, you know, like you guys are just best friends forever and it is so endearing. Like I've wanted to talk to you so much, partly because of how Pat Martin talks about you. How's that, how special is that relationship? It's great. I mean, I know he's always there and we bonded early in City House. You know, like Sunday supper went through many evolutions to get to where it is now. And he came in, probably he and Martha came in like the first year and we had this slow roasted pork shoulder with fennel and you know, whatever. It was like Italian, but it was also pulled pork. And he ordered that and they were sitting right in front of us at the pizza bar and he loved the whole meal.

23:31And when he got that, he gave it to Martha and took her plate and he goes, no offense, man, but I just do that all day every day. And I was like, I think I like this guy. You know, I like, I like that. I like that you can just say that to me and look at me, you know, that's nice. And we, it was downhill after that, you know. That's your initial meeting? Yeah, yeah. That's where we met was he and Martha at the pizza bar. And you know, I mean, since then we've been around for kids being born and you know, pretty soon one of his going to college and just all kinds of openings and closings and all kinds of stuff. I want to give Carolina, I'm just jumping about. I want to follow one more little question about this. So you win the James Beard Award. You're there in Chicago, holy cow. Do you feel a sense of like bringing this back home to Nashville for all of us kind of a thing? Cause we, I think everybody out here at Nashville who's in this community was rooting for you, but we were kind of rooting for the entire, I think you were kind of for our entire group of people in this industry, like Tandy did it.

24:44Like a Nashvillean won a James Beard Award. He's bringing it back home. Did you feel that sense? Absolutely. Yeah, I felt like it was a thing for Nashville. And I mean, you know, I never would have won it without Nashville. If Nashville hadn't grown and started getting into restaurants and the restaurant scene, like there's no way. And if Nashville wasn't the special city that it is, again, there's no way. So I don't see myself winning it in another city. So yeah, I feel like that was a huge piece of the thing. So you win the James Beard Award. You come back to Nashville. Now what? Do you sit back and go, all right, we're at James Beard awarding restaurant. Now I hang back? Or now do you feel a massive amount of pressure because, oh shit, people are gonna come here with this. People are now coming worldwide.

25:45When they come to Nashville, we have to go to City House. That's the James Beard. Do you now feel this pressure that you have to create even more? What was your mentality coming back after that? Well, I definitely wanted to take a step back from the road. And I did. I love to travel, but I like to travel on my terms. And I miss the friends from the road and I still see them some, but it's like the other chefs are the piece that I missed from that. But I don't enjoy like flying into a city and having two nights and eating four dinners and doing a thing and turning around and coming back home. Like I was so done with that part of my life. Yeah, yeah. And so I was happy to step back from that. And operations are like, that's my problem in restaurants. Like I just wanna like roll the pizza dough and how's that today?

26:47And I wanna be there to butcher the pork and I wanna be hands-on in the kitchen. You wanna do the fun stuff? So yeah, I wanna do the fun stuff. I wanna do what I, the thing that I feel like I signed up for first. Not what I signed up for only, but first. And so that was pretty cool because yeah, I mean, the doors blew off the place and to be there and be around for that, I really enjoyed that actually. Yeah, I mean, it's gotta feel validating, right? It was pretty fun and yeah, validating. And yeah, I think I started looking at my career differently after that. Let's go back to the start of your career. I mean, you put all this work in, but where did you put the work in? I mean, if you're from, was it all here in Nashville? Did you work in restaurants here locally? Who was your mentor? No, I started, well, my mentor I think is, well, I know who my mentors are.

27:52It's Nate Appleman and Margot McCormick. I was gonna ask you, I go, you're kind of like the male Margot. Well, that's a huge compliment. I meant that as a compliment. I mean, like, cause you have the way that you care about the people in your surroundings and you're very intentional, but it's not just about the business for you. Yeah, no, it's not. It's not, it's a, you know, my dad ran a small business as I grew up and I watched him and- What was your dad's business? He was in food brokerage. So, you know, I did a lot of work like riding along with Cisco salespeople and whatnot with him. And that was a huge like learning piece for me. And they really pushed me into the restaurant field. My grandfather felt like when I went to school in Knoxville, if I would study hotel restaurant administration, it would be a big help for the family business. But he really just like steered me right out of the family business cause I fell in love with restaurants.

28:55And is that, did you study in fact, hotel management? Yeah, and that's where I started working in restaurants as well was I got a job like towards the end of my freshman year. And then I worked the rest of my way through college and in a couple of restaurants. At UT? At UT, yeah. We're gonna hear all about his Knoxville restaurants right after these words from our sponsors. What Chefs Want story is incredibly unique. The owner Ron Trenier met with a bunch of chefs in Louisville back in the early 2000s and asked them one simple question. What do you want? And the chefs, they responded emphatically. We want deliveries on Sunday. We wanna be able to split any item that you sell. We want a frictionless experience where we feel like we're being served. And so you know what he did? Something crazy. He did just that. So what Chefs Want is not only a company that's delivering fresh produce, fresh seafood, fresh custom cut meats, specialty items, dairy, gourmet, all of that seven days a week.

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31:09You should go check them out at sharpies.com. That is Sharpies, C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com or you should give them a call at 615-356-0872. Supporting local is so damn important and Erin Mosso and all of our friends over at Sharpies Bakery do that daily. Give her a call right now. We are so excited to welcome a new sponsor to Nashville Restaurant Radio, Volunteer Welding Gas and Supply. Volunteer Welding Beverage Carbonation began serving bulk CO2 in beverages systems in 1976. They're a service oriented company that is passionate about and dedicated to beverage only gases. How does a gas company provide service? Well, you either know or you don't know until it's too late. And they use telemetry to monitor your system. Let's say that you're in the middle of a busy lunch and then you realize, hey, there's no carbonation in our Coke, this is a problem.

32:12What do you do? You call an 800 number, be put on hold to be told that maybe sometime in the next 24 hours, somebody will get out to you. Well, that's where the telemetry works. Volunteer Welding is monitoring your tank for that. If it gets low or there's a leak, they're gonna let you know beforehand. Imagine that call before lunch so you never have an 86 situation when you definitely don't need that. Wanna learn more? Give David Perry a call at 615-306-7455 or email him at dperryatvolunteerwelding.com. Where'd you work in Knoxville? The Orangerie, which was like super famous white table, not famous, but like the classic Knoxville. We had stuff like foie gras and sweet breads and things that were, yeah, huge wine list. And were you in the kitchen for that? Yeah, I started as a dishwasher and I went home for a few weeks that summer and when I came back there, they're like, so we need you to work nights now.

33:15And I was like, okay, let's go. Let's do it. And I worked at a place that didn't last long called the Jockey Club, but it was very influential for me and super fun. Okay, do you see a common theme when chefs come in, like successful chefs, and they all say they started as dishwashers? Oh, sure, but I do think that, and I feel like we've probably had this conversation on the podcast before, I can't recall when, but I think that there's that kind of, in traditional career paths outside of restaurants where it's like you go to college and you get an internship and then you go get this job, whereas I think in restaurants we, nobody really cares if you have any kind of degree or not. Nobody cares if you dropped out in the 10th grade. It's where have you worked? What experience do you have? Ultimately, how, I think that the most successful restaurateurs are ones who have washed dishes, who have bus tables, who do have that understanding of what those jobs are like, and I think that also helps you to create a culture with your team is, hey, I have had your job.

34:24I can understand your experience. That's right, and empathy. Very important. Such important jobs that often get like, you know, a little pushed aside and it's like, nope, nope, we'd be in a whole lot of hurt without you here right now. Oh yeah, when we had our first restaurant, we had a friend from Kansas City come down who was a chef and he gave us the best piece of advice I feel like we've ever gotten in the restaurant, which is pay your dishwasher the same amount that you pay your highest paid line cook, because if a line cook calls out, you can figure it out, there's other line cooks, somebody can cover it. If your dishwasher calls out, you are fucked. So take care of your dishwasher. It's a true story. Yeah, oh yeah. It is, and we, our dishwasher, Henry, has been with us since the first month of our first restaurant. So even though Nicky's has only been open for seven years, Henry's been with us for almost 10 years now.

35:26That's fantastic. Nine years, 10 years, yeah. All right, all, this is amazing. So Knoxville, when did you move back home to Nashville? How old were you? Right out of college, I came home for the summer. I worked at Merchants downtown, which was awesome. That place was, I mean, wow. What year was that? That was 01. Okay, wow. And you know, it was when downtown, it was still like what I remembered in high school, like dancing in the district and like, you know, they had a festival at the end of the summer, but like it was, you know, it was really fun. Dancing in the district, I mean, if you never went, Caroline, dancing in the district was the best time. It was like every Wednesday or Thursday night. Thursday night. Thursday nights, and the whole riverfront, they have a barge pulled up on riverfront and there'd be bands that were playing and everybody you knew was there. I mean, it wasn't like, oh, I'm not going tonight. Like, oh no, you're going.

36:26Like, and it was, it was, everybody was there. It was incredible. Nashville was a whole different place then. You could park downtown for free. You just had to know how to get around it, but you could park for free all the time. Did you ever used to cruise Second Avenue? Not so much. I mean, we would, we would every once in a while, like, but that was maybe more like when we were feeling really rebellious in high school. But you, Broadway wasn't a thing, by the way, back then. Broadway wasn't a thing at all. It was all Second Avenue. Right. There was the New York Central Station and all that stuff on Second Avenue. There was the Music City Mix Factory. What's the thing? There's a little South. Those on the other way down on Second Avenue, South, like kind of the corner of the Korean veterans is now in Second Avenue. What's the thing you miss the most about Old Nashville, just while we're in this, we'll get back to what we're talking about. But, cause I have one thing that I miss so bad. I miss the accessibility of downtown because now I'll go to Pred's game or I'll go see a show at the Ryman. But other than that, like, I'm not, I'm not brave in downtown much anymore.

37:32And, you know, there was a long time in there where it was like, you know, you could go out downtown on a whatever night of the week and have a good time. Anytime you want. Yeah, and so that, I think that's what, what I miss is like, you know, it's become such a party barge village down there. You know, one day last week, Tony and I had a day off together and we're like, what do you want to do? We're like, you know what, let's go downtown. We'll hear some music, you know, we'll, we'll go to Robert's, you know, daytime, daytime, weekday. It'll be fine. And I feel like Tony and I, we're, we like doing that. A lot of people just hate on downtown and never go to Broadway. Horrible tourists, this, that and the other. And we have always been the people who are like, no, you guys are wrong. There's still a lot of fun to be had. Did you have fun? Reminds us of the reasons we moved here. We did not have fun. And me, for the first time, I hate to say this so much. I don't want to be that naysayer cause I feel like for such a long time, I'm like, no guys, it still can be fun.

38:33And we did not have fun. I'm sorry to say the people were awful. We went to one place and first of all, you know, I sound like a broken record. I'm sure, but you can't hear country music anywhere. We went to one place and the crowd started going apeshit when the band played Smash Mouth. I'm like, what is happening here guys? Smash Mouth? This is why you came to Nashville to hear Smash Mouth? Ugh, it was so disappointing. It was very disheartening. I have mourned my experiences downtown. I'm also, I'm 44 so I'm right there with you. Like I have nothing and I don't drink. So there's nothing for me to do downtown. I love going to Pred's games. Love going to the Ryman. Love going to specific events. If I'm going to Skirmerhorn to see Toy Story with whatever, you know, taking the kids. Titans games, there are things to do downtown but it is very intentional that I go downtown, I find a parking space, I go to that said event and then I leave.

39:39But I'm okay with what's happening downtown cause if you see the people on the party barges, they are having the best time of their life. And it doesn't affect me. I don't need to go downtown. I love where I live and I live, I don't ever get on an interstate. I drive down like Snead Road and Hillsborough Road to get to both of my restaurants. I don't deal with, I don't ever go down there. I just, it's a whole part of the city that doesn't exist to me. But it's great for the people that it does exist for. Yeah, it also corrals them into an area. Now that is true. Yeah, it's like flies to the light kind of thing and they're like stuck in there, which is cool. Do you want that to, do you get a lot of tourists over at City House? We definitely get some. Does it benefit your business? It does, it does. I mean, not hugely, but we definitely do. You're off the beaten path enough to where? We do get a decent amount of tourists in the summertime, I would say. But certainly, I'm sure you certainly get more, Germantown's a much more happening neighborhood.

40:43We see them around shows, you know, not CMA Fest, but like. No, we were so dead. That kills the city. I mean, unless you're downtown, unless you're a downtown business, CMA Fest, it kills the city because everyone from here, they choose that as a great week to get out of town or they're like, I'm going, all right, I'm going to the grocery store on Monday and we are hunkering down. You know, it's like one thing or another, I feel like. And nobody leaves now, they're there to be downtown. The normal tourists may want to venture out and go see Carnton and Franklin, or they may want to go see other things. CMA Fest, they're there to be downtown and they don't leave downtown. That's right. Which is fine, you know, it is what it is, I guess. The foresight for Germantown for you. I mean, 15 years ago, Germantown wasn't what it is today. It was very different, yeah. I mean, did you always, do you live, what part of town do you live in? West Nashville, like right off of Charlotte, Charlotte and Davidson Road area.

41:50Okay, yeah, okay, that is, you're close to her. Very close, yeah. We love it over there. It's beautiful. It is, West Nashville's very nice. I say I live in West Nashville, I live like way west. I live at like the Loveless Cafe. Yeah, that's pretty far west. You live like in the real West Nashville, I live like in Dixon. It's like, that's not West Nashville, but I still claim it, it's a thing. Were you living in Germantown when you guys opened? No. Oh, okay. No, I was living more like Vanderbilt, right around, right down the street. But yeah, it just kind of like looking around at neighborhoods and things. I should say like, I really didn't have a passion to open a restaurant until I worked with Margo and I watched how she did it and I was like, oh man, that's pretty cool. So you worked at Margo? Yeah, I was with her for two and a half years and it was awesome and I loved it. What's unique about working at Margo?

42:53Because I can tell you what I think it is, but like what do you? You know that feel you get when you go to dinner there and you walk in and you're like, it's like all the stresses like fall off and you're like, man, this is like a really neat place and it doesn't matter if you're on a date or a family dinner or whatever it is, it's like you walk in there and you know you're gonna like lock in with the people you're with and like really connect and that's how it was on staff there. Like we all really connected and you really locked in and you went to work for each other every night and I just loved that. How does she create that? I mean, I think her presence helps with that, but you know, she's very giving. Like she really allowed for a lot of creative space on the menu for the people that worked there and so you know, if you're into cooking, like that's better than money.

43:56You know, that's like, people don't give that out too often it feels like. So like that's a really neat thing and just presence. I mean, you know, she would be there and be around and she might not be on the line cooking but she's gonna come say what's up and what are you doing and how's it tasting and all that kind of stuff and just very open. And if you can handle that, it's just fantastic. She was my second interview on this podcast. First, second live interview I ever did because I met with, it was on March 17th, 2020. I met with Kerry Bringle and I sat down with Kerry Bringle at Peg League Porker for an hour and then I drove to East Nashville and I sat down with Margot with like this really bad microphone and I'm like, tell me about this. And one of the things that she was really, business whatever, but she was so concerned about her team and what was gonna happen, not with money and it was this weird thing.

45:02She talked about love language and she says, one of the ways that I and the people that work here give love is we create food. And this is my community and I make food and I put it in front of you and that's how I'm showing you love. And then the way that the guest enjoys the food is them giving love back to me. And that's the way that we all work here. She goes, I don't know what we're gonna do when we can't express love to each other. That was her fear on closing restaurants. And it hit me square between the eyes in a way that I've never thought about this industry. Like just, she put words to, we are here to be hospitable to people and this is how we show love. You take that away from me, I don't know what we're gonna do. And you could see there's real fear in her eyes. You can listen to that episode, quality is horrible but like, that was everything I needed to know about her and working there and just her mentality and the way that she works.

46:03That's it, yeah. You seem to me like with things I've heard about you or just seeing you in action, that's kind of the same mentality that you have at City House. Yeah, I mean, it's like the whole, it's not just one thing I feel like. It's like focusing on the big picture and that's what she's talking about in that. It's not like how the chives were cut or whatever. Like those things, things can be fixed or maybe they're not even as important as we once thought they were. But like, yeah, how do you get to that place where everyone is expressing love, receiving love and putting it into the work that they're doing? I mean, I will say, it really shows and something that you said when Brandon first asked you about working there is you said it's that place where everybody just kind of, you can, everything else around you can evaporate. You can just zero in on the people that you're with and have that kind of just one-on-one experience with whoever you're dining with.

47:07And I really feel like you have created that same environment at City House. Like that is just always since, even since before we moved here, been our go-to place of like, hey, we're gonna catch up with old friends or we just wanna have a great dinner. Like Tony and I maybe haven't had a night off together in a while and like, let's have dinner. Like truly, I don't just say this cause you're here like City House is definitely that place for us, for sure. Do you love Italian food? Is that your favorite kind of food to all time? I do, but what I love about, what I love about what you guys do is that you use that Italian technique of just really kind of simple food that like you let the food speak for itself. You let the quality of ingredients shine through. You don't make it too fussy. It's not overdone, you know? And it's Italian that way, but it's not like spaghetti and meatballs, you know? I get enough of that in my regular life, you know? So yeah, I don't need any more red sauce in my life. I love it, but I've got it in spades.

48:11So what you guys do is very unique. People say it's Italian, but it's not, you know? What's Southern ingredients to make Italian food, right? Is that more, I heard you describe it that way one time? Yeah, I think, you know, Paul Bertolli wrote a great book, Cooking by Hand, and that he really talks about, it's a viewpoint. Italian cooking is a viewpoint. It's not a dish, you know? And so it's like, how do you approach ingredients? Like you're saying, Caroline, how do you work with them? How do you approach them? And also picking the best. Like that's what you want to work with, is the best stuff. Who's got the best stuff? Well. Tell me your secrets. We work with Bell's Bend and Rocky Glade quite a bit, and Bear Creek Farm. You work with any white squirrel farms at all? No, but I know them. They're really nice folks, and they're doing really neat stuff.

49:11But the way our program works is like, we kind of lock in, you know? And it started with Tana at Eaton's Creek Organics. And Tana was like, I think, you know, a trailblazer for granite growing here in the area. And then we met Tallahassee May from Turnbull Creek Farm. And so we really worked with them season after season to keep pushing for more and different and all that kind of stuff. And they've both retired now. So now we work with Bell's Bend and Rocky Glade for the most part. Do you tell them what products you need them to grow, or do they send you what they're growing, and then you adjust your menu based upon that? It's more of like a dance together thing. Yeah. You know, they have things they love to grow, and then they kind of say, are there things you're super interested in, or we were thinking about this?

50:13I mean, over the years I've learned it's important to focus on like what the farmer can make money on, like what can they harvest again and again and again and again, and sell you without having to replant, you know? So like the one bang stuff, like cauliflower, a lot of effort goes into, you know, two, three weeks of harvest, and then everything's over with, and we gotta replant that field. Whereas something like kale, you know, we use a lot of kale at the restaurant. I don't know that it's like my favorite ingredient. I do like it a lot, but you know, they're able to go around and harvest the outer leaves from the plant. The plant's gonna regenerate, so they can do the same thing again next week. So it's like learning about what can make the farm healthy, what can work in the restaurant and be delicious, you know, what is the guest gonna like? But also like what can we do with something that they might not choose first anyway to make them feel that way about it in the end?

51:13So I feel like our approach, or my approach with it is more like a healthy relationship on both ends, with the farm and the restaurant. See, that's so refreshing to hear, because I feel like you need to partner with your vendors. And it's, so many chefs have this mentality of, I'm the, you're selling me, you do what I say, you're supposed to please me kind of a thing. And it's like, and you can't do that with everybody. I want my deliveries at seven o'clock, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and you need to do this because you're, I'm the, it's like, guys, maybe that doesn't work for them. Maybe growing cauliflower isn't the thing that's gonna be helpful and sustainable for that farm. And talking, asking questions, listening, how can I be a better partner to you nets you so much more in the long run. And joy in your life, knowing that I'm helping this farm and they're helping me and we're doing the right thing. And I think that's a great way to do it. But just the head space you personally have to be in to be saying like, I need this, this, and that, like, it's a very negative head space.

52:20And you're gonna carry that through everything else you do. It's gonna affect everyone else in your building, you know? So if a farm needs to deliver a day late, like, cool, we're gonna figure it out. Like, do what you need to do and we're gonna figure it out on our end or whatever it is. But I need it for that service. But if you work with the farm too, and you say, hey, that's fine, but I really needed that okra that you promised. Like, I need that for tonight. Nine times out of 10, all the people we work with are like, we're gonna get you that okra today and we'll get you everything else tomorrow. And it's like, sweet, we're all good. Everybody wins. I love that. I mean, when I used to sell food, I could tell you, I mean, you go into a thousand kitchens, I can walk in the back door of a restaurant. And by the way, the prep cook or whoever's right there greeted me, I could tell you the mentality of the chef. Yeah, it's true. It was incredible. Who are you? What do you want? And you're like, ah, this.

53:20And you meet the chef and he's this arrogant, this and this and, or, hey man, what's going on? How can I help you? You're like, okay, cool, this is a hospitable. It was weird because you could just feel it when you walked in. And I know people, you know, walking back doors, there's a whole thing, like the etiquette when you're a salesperson. But still, it was just weird how you could start to feel it when you walk in somewhere. Right. What's the best way for somebody to sell you something? I don't want to sell you something. I'm just saying like, I've got sales reps that listen to this. Let's give some etiquette pointers. What do you not do as a sales rep? I feel like people that try to. We're gonna take one final break to tell you about the amazing companies that support this podcast. When you hear that sound, it's probably too late. You need a guy. I want to be your guy. I'm Kevin with Course in Fire and Security. And I'm a restaurant territory account manager. Do you know who's doing your inspections at your restaurant? Please reach out to me at 615-974-2932.

54:26And I'll be glad to come out and take a quick look and look at all your fire safety inspection needs. If you're building your restaurant, we can help with that too. As far as kitchen suppression, fire extinguishers, emergency lights, we do it all. One stop, one shop. Call Kevin at 615-974-2932. Let me be your guy, Nashville. Hey, this is Jason Ellis with Nashville SuperSource. We're so proud to be a sponsor for Nashville Restaurant Radio. We would love the opportunity to discuss your chemical and dish machine program with you. If you have any needs or any questions about your current program, opening a new restaurant, or just need a double set of eyes on that, we'd love the opportunity to help you with that. My number is 770-337-1143. We don't do any contracts, no minimums, weekly service to make sure that all your equipment is functioning properly. Make sure you have everything that you need. Again, my name is Jason Ellis, 770-337-1143. Super excited to bring back Cytex as a sponsor.

55:32I'm telling you guys, I first met Cytex four years ago when I was incredibly unhappy with my linen company and I put a poll out there on Facebook and I said, who's the best linen company in town? And overwhelmingly, super respectable people told me, you gotta check out Cytex. And man, am I glad that I did. I met Ross Chandler that day and this guy is salt of the earth. He's out there. He genuinely cares. The quality is second to none. The service is amazing. And guys, the pricing is there too. All of these things have happened. They're at all of my restaurants. They have been there ever since that day. And every linen company that comes in now and tries to steal the business, I have to, I'm like, guys, Cytex is the absolute best. I absolutely love them. If you want to feel that way about your linen company, maybe you should call Ross Chandler. His number is 270-823-2468.

56:33And I'm telling you, you will not be disappointed. Tell them that Brandon from Nashville Restaurant Radio sent you and maybe there's something special in it for you. Wink, wink. All right, guys, again, Cytex, that's your uniforms, your linens, first aid kits, and so much more. Give them a call today. Sell me stuff when they finally get to me. They're like, man, you're a tough guy to get in touch with. So, you know, I have- I'm three and a half years. I finally got you in the studio. I have road blocks along the way. I've got good gatekeepers. I'm a shopper, I feel like. I'm not, you know, I feel like people have probably knocked on our back door and said, hey, this is something we do. Like we've had that with Rabbit, right? Rabbit's kind of hard to find. And we had a Rabbit Farmer knock on the back door and it's like, awesome. But generally, like, I don't really listen to a lot of sales pitches or whatnot.

57:33She usually, I go to farms and kind of see what they do and see how that fits with what we're doing and see if that'll work. And then, you know- When you need something, you'll find out who carries it and then you'll seek them out. Not that- Yeah, we rarely need things, you know? Like we let, our menu is dictated by what the farm has. You know, at this point in the year, we buy citrus and a few onions from the produce company and everything else comes from the farm. So, you know, when like, I keep on harping on cauliflower, but it's gonna be done like next week. So we know that dish has to come off the menu and we'll start the conversation by the end of this week and then by Friday of next week, we'll have a new dish there. Is there a side of you that says, I'll just order the cauliflower from the produce company? Because it's easy, they're gonna have it 12 months out of the year.

58:35It's a good quality cauliflower. Well- Is it a good quality cauliflower? I don't know. In the winter, that is one thing we do bring in is cauliflower. We have a pasta sauce, a cauliflower ragu that we've had pretty much since we opened. In the off season, that is some, you know, so when the farms are shut down, except for say like Swiss shards and collards and kale and whatnot, I do feel that I have to supplement a few things. And usually cauliflower is one of them. We usually end up buying some pineapple, just a few things to shake it up. Who is your produce company of choice? We use McCarthy a lot. McCarthy, not McCartney. Maybe it's McCartney. I think it's McCartney. Maybe it is. Sorry guys. No, no, that's fine. We use them and we use Creation Garden some. Good. Yeah, yeah. Great, great people over there at Creation Garden. Some what chefs want, but they are there.

59:37Yeah, yeah. Sponsor of the show, we love them. Oh yeah, yeah, we definitely, we use those too. And that's it. And they're a great company. Yeah, yeah, they have an app. That's super helpful. They do, 24 seven customer support, seven daily. Oh, I'll stop. No, they do a good job. And I used to work for Creation Garden. So that's a whole, you know, when they first started. So I have a question for you about this and I don't want it to be like uneasy, but. Let's go. Well, when they came to town, like all the mom and pop produce companies went out of business. When they came into town, all the mom and pop produce companies run it. The smaller produce houses, you know, it used to be that they were. Or like Ernest Williams and Mart, like and Murphy and all these other people, like in their own self, they're all gone. Well, they purchased Murphy is still around. They purchased Murphy. Murphy went into what creation gardens was. They failed Murphy. I kind of feel like they did a good, and this was after I left. I left in 2008, 2009. But yeah, I mean, it was a better rivalry when that was happening.

01:00:41Yeah, we got a little crazy in the guy. Well, I mean, if you want the story, I mean, happy to tell you like what the whole situation was. I mean, I don't know if you want to tell it. I mean, when I first started, it was 2005 when I started, when I was creation gardens had like five restaurants in town. And I was the, I was, I was at Amerigo. And I got, I started on there as the first managing partner. And it was, it was really difficult because we're this little company out of Louisville. And when I met with them, they said, we want to do, we want to be what chefs want. And I was like, okay, that's great. And they said, this is what we did. We met with chefs. They want Sunday deliveries. They want to split everything. All these big companies were dictating how chefs did things. They were all saying, you have to order by this time. You have to do this. You have to do this. You have to place your order by now. We'll get your delivery then. And Ron, who owns a play space said, why? Why don't we treat chefs like they're treating their guests? Why does chefs have to be second rate citizens? Why don't we serve the hell out of them and change the entire game?

01:01:45Let's offer deliveries on Sundays. Let's deliver one each avocado. Let's do, let's find local farms and let's bring those local farms to them. Let's start doing all the things that these chefs really want. It's a really easy model. But for me, being a front of the house guy, I went, okay, so I get to come in and treat chefs the way I would treat a guest in the building. And nobody was doing that. So when we had walkie talkies, when we first started, we had these Nextel walkie talkies. And if my guy, my driver came in and he delivered you asparagus and you said, I don't like this size asparagus. I wanted a pencil thin, not a standard or a jumbo. He would get on the walkie talkie and go, hey, Brandon, I'm here with Chef Tandy right now. And he doesn't like his asparagus. Now we go, what size does he need? What's wrong with it? And he would say, he wants a medium. This is a pencil. And I'll go, I'll take care of it. Have it for him in an hour. And that chef right then and there, you would go, okay, wow, thanks. And then I would go smoke in mirrors, find the product. And I would come walking in and bring it to you. And that's what we did.

01:02:46It was, I got to be that service guy. I got to be the guy that walked in and talked to chefs and do the thing that to make them feel special. I need a pound of chant. When Whole Foods opened in Green Hills was my favorite day of my whole life. Because you could call me and say, I need a pound of chanterelles. And I would go, have it for you in an hour. And nobody, I mean, you call anybody else and they're like, well, it's gonna take me three weeks. I'm like, but this guy could have it in an hour. I knew where I could find, I knew every aisle of every K&S. I knew every single thing. So if you needed something, I had you right, just like that. And nobody else was doing that. Nobody, everybody else was following an old model of, well, you gotta place your order by four to get it by then. And we were like up until midnight, until next day. And people were like, how do you do that? And so, yeah, there was some other companies and I worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day, every single day. I met trucks, I drove trucks, I did collections. I did service, I did new business. I mean, I did all of that up until 2009 when I went to Freshpoint.

01:03:48And it was fun, like it was crazy. But the other companies couldn't respond fast enough because, well, that's not how we do things. And I kind of came in and said, well, this is how we do things. We're gonna go above and beyond on service. We're gonna blow you away. We're gonna make your life better. And it did, I think chefs went, oh my gosh, this company actually cares about me. They will do the things I need them to do without, I don't have to fight to get a delivery today. They understand that service starts at 11 and if I don't have spring mix, I got issues. And I love being the hero. And that was a fun thing for me. And I just, every single day, seven days a week, that's just what I did. I spent like $30,000 my last year there at Costco. Oh, wow. Just because I had to go to Costco and I need four cases of strawberries, right? The palm would need curly spinach. We didn't stock that in our, we worked with Ellis Jakes Produce. I had a little cross doc and a little cooler that I would keep random things in. But I would have to, I'd just start driving north and I'd meet the guy from Creation Garden, start driving south and I'd get four cases.

01:04:54I'd meet him at Horse Cave. I would just start driving north. I'd get four cases. I'd turn back around. I mean, I drove 60,000 miles a year in my little Hyundai Sonata that I had. Just going around taking care of chefs, need something, you forgot to order it, no problem, I'll take care of you. And then when I got to a fresh point, I realized, oh, there's technology here and I can identify when you forget to order something before you forget to order it and I can fix the problem before it becomes a problem I have to react to. And that was the game changer for me. Does West Chef Swans still have that model? Do they still do all of that? They don't have me anymore. Well. But I think, no, I think that we, I think that the culture is there. I think the culture is absent. They've gone through a lot. I mean, Nashville's their biggest market they have now. I mean, it was like, the growth was crazy. The growth has been tremendous here. It's funny because as we're sitting here, I was thinking about how much I'm sure you've seen Nashville change and in particular Germantown over the last 10 years. And I was thinking about, before we moved here, I remember reading the Food and Wine article that featured you and Tyler from.

01:05:58Brown. Tyler Brown, yeah, sorry, sorry. It featured you and Tyler. And it seems like a lot of momentum was happening around, you know, growth in Nashville at that time. But it does feel like there was something different about that article. When that article came out in Food and Wine, it was almost kind of like a tipping point for things to really start rolling downhill with restaurants in Nashville. Do you feel, do you feel that as well? Yes. As far as like restaurant growth. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think. It was kind of like, it was not totally overnight, but there was kind of that energy of like, boom, Nashville's on the scene now. And it really happened quick. I felt like there were a lot of years where it was like one restaurant would open and one restaurant would open and what, you know. And then it went crazy. And yeah, especially, I mean, even like through the pandemic, restaurants just kept opening.

01:06:58And are still, I mean. They really are. Do you think that we have too many restaurants in Nashville? Well, I mean. Cause I do. I'll say it. I do think that there's too many restaurants here. I don't think we have the local population to sustain it. I don't know that we have the tourist population to sustain it just because tourists have some very specific habits. And I just think that Nashville diners dine out differently than consumer patterns in almost any other city that has a big dining scene. It's very, very different here. You can't compare it to New Orleans or Charleston or Chicago or anywhere else. And I just, I think that, I think there's too many places. Yeah. I mean, I would say there, there are definitely too many, maybe mediocre restaurants. Yes. And I think that now we choose convenience a lot of times to just be like, well, we need to eat and this is close and easy and whatnot.

01:08:02And it wasn't that way when there were fewer restaurants. It was like, yeah, we'll go do whatever. We'll go find wherever we can to eat or whatever they wrote about in the scene last week is what we're gonna try this week. And so I think that maybe that's a little bit of a thing. Yeah. That people don't want to inconvenience themselves too much. I think when you're the it city dollar signs happen in these big companies that have backing and tons of investors, they're opening restaurants right and left because they want to be able to say they have a restaurant in Nashville. First of all, that's a status symbol to have a restaurant in Nashville. And then two, they have the money to put them up and they're pushing out locally owned and operated restaurants because the prices are just going through the roof. It's hard to, if you were to open, if you were not a restaurant owner right now and you were trying to open the city house today, do you think you could do it? No. That's the problem. I mean, I can say without a doubt, no.

01:09:02Quality, independently owned and operated restaurants. This is why we scream from the mountain top, continuous when the guy from the Tennessean interviewed me and said, what are you most excited about for the new restaurants coming to Nashville? I go, I'm not. I'm excited about us, people that are locally, people who live here, continuing to eat at the places that made Nashville Nashville. Go out and eat at the places you haven't, I haven't eaten there in forever. Go eat there. Because when David's Kid bookstore closed and everybody said, oh man, that's terrible. What's happened to our city? I go, when was the last time you were there? And they go, oh, it's been a long time ago. That's why they closed. Because you stopped going to the places that are the places that made this what it is. You're not going to Amazon. And that's why David's Kid closed. And that was a beautiful place. If you wanna stop seeing places closed, be conscious, vote with your wallet and go to those places. Go eat at the city house. Go to Nicky's, Green Hills Grill, Mayor Bullock. These are legacy restaurants that made these communities what they are. And yet you go to the chain restaurant right down the street. You go to Chewy's, you go to, it's like, guys, go spend money with people who've invested in this community, who are making this community special.

01:10:09Well, to be fair, I have been going to Chewy's for 11 years. I actually like. Definitely not locally owned and operated. I'm just joking. I like Chewy's too, honestly. I really do. Chewy's is like a nice little treat. Chewy's gets the free pass for the chain restaurant. When we moved here from Chicago, there's no happy hour in Chicago at that time. It was against the law. And so when we moved, yeah, it was a thing. It was against the ABC law to have happy hours. Because. Sad hour. Well, I think so many people would work in the city and drive to the suburbs. There was like a lot of drunk driving issues and they didn't want people going to happy hours after work and then driving an hour home and anyway. So when we moved here and there's happy hours, we're like, what is this? I can get a $5 margarita and a free nacho buffet every day at Chewy's? This is a dream. What's happening? So. It's a thing. Anyway. No, it is. No, that's why I like asking who people use, who their vendors are, because I think it's important who you, I think people that are trusted and respected in the community, who they choose to spend money with and who they choose to partner with is important.

01:11:17I like to share. I like to shout out those people on the show when they're, no, I love this guy or I use this company or I use this produce company. It means a lot because you're, that's essentially an endorsement if that's who you're spending your money with. And I think that's important. It's important to share that information. I think like the general philosophy with that is, is like, I want to cut checks to the producer whenever possible. And we try and do that on, you know, throughout the restaurant and keep it in the local economy. That was one of the things with Creation Gardens back in the day was, cause local was huge and Farmer Dave, and you know, I would compete, I guess compete with people, roll up to the back of the restaurants. And it's like, let me distribute that for you. How can I help you do that? Cause you're farmers, you're not delivery guys. You're not salesmen. Sell me a pallet of your stuff and then let me put it on my trucks and I will distribute it throughout the city for you. Let me help you. And that was a model that we tried to do. We could do because we weren't a big public company.

01:12:17Yeah. And it's nice cause it turns people onto that kind of stuff. Yeah. It is definitely more difficult to receive, you know, four produce lists from four different farms every week and figure out what we're going to do. And if you don't buy from one, are they upset because we were kind of counting on you to buy from us and like, We just try and share the love and you know, if they're long on something, they'll tell us, you know, and we, they know we want to know that. Let us know what you have too much of and we'll try and squeeze it in wherever we can. What's your favorite restaurant in the city? Oh. Where do you guys like to go eat? Well, so we have a 10 and a four-year-old, but you know, we go to like more casual spots more often. We go to, well, we go to Martin's cause of our, and it's delicious. It's not just because of our friendship, but it's like, I think the burger at Hugh Babies is one of the best. We go to Hugh Babies. We go to Red Perch. Love those guys. Red Perch is so good. It's really, and it's always good, is the neat thing about it, you know.

01:13:21It is. We should have them on the show, Brandon. They've been on the show. Oh, well, just kidding. Right before you started. Sorry, it's before my time. Right before you started. I would love to have them back on the show because they are the nicest couple and they brought their daughter in here too. It was like, they were sitting here and they had like their kids in the back playing in the little office part of the studio. It's hilarious. That sounds right. Yeah. Yeah. Their story is great too. Yeah. They're great. And I also go to Maize de la Vida. I love the tortilla shop. It's kinda on my way home where I can make it on my way home and... There's a Maize de la Vida on the west side? Well, no, the one on Clarksville Pike, you know, and City House is very close to that. And then I just, you know, it's kinda like just a little pop out of the line and I can swing in there. We're opening a, we're reopening Chago's Cantina. Oh yeah. Right here on Belmont. August 7th. Cool. The new day we're gonna open it, bringing it back. But I saw Julio the other day and I said, hey, can I buy tortillas?

01:14:25And he's like, no, man, I can't do it. I don't have enough time and energy. I'm like, I would love to have your tortillas at our place. And he's like, I just, I ain't got the time energy. I'm sorry. I'm so upset. Maybe one day. We'll do a takeover one day. We'll have a fun little Maize de la Vida day. Yeah, that's great. I was like, yeah, I got a Mexican restaurant. We can start buying this stuff. And he's like, I'm not selling to you. Dang it. I don't, I think he would if he had the time and energy to make, that would be a lot of tortillas. Have you been in the back of the tortilla shop? No. It's like, it's Jenga. It's like they mixed everything in there and I don't know how he could produce more than what he uses. I'm so proud of him. Yeah. He's just one of the, he's one of the good guys that I think is just getting all the do that he deserves. Yeah. He's got just a giant heart. Oh my God. He's amazing. Yeah. Well, this is how this goes. We've been talking for an hour.

01:15:26Oh really? That's an hour. Wow. Yeah. It's the first podcast. I'm usually a pretty quiet guy. So this is as much talking as I am. You're like, and I will be silent the rest of the day. He's like, I'm just going to go home and take a nap after this. What have we missed? We could do this for hours. We really could. I mean, I love chatting with you. My biggest thing that I missed about Nashville is Opryland. Oh yes. I didn't say that earlier to kind of circle back on that. The thing I missed the most about the old Nashville was Opryland. So I got kids now that are at that age, my boys are eight and nine. Yeah. And I used to get, just go get dropped off. Right. Season passes, drop us off at Opryland and you'd go to the Screamin' Delta Demon all day long and you know, do what Diddy City. I really, that was the best thing. And yeah, it was a huge thing. Could you imagine it now, you know, with all that's going on right now, it would be like a, they would have expanded it into- It would be a water park there now too. A huge park. Yeah. Yeah. There would be, and now it's like a mall, which you're going out of business.

01:16:26I don't, I don't ever go to the mall. And last time I was at that mall, there was so much trash in the parking lot that I was just like, what is going on here? Like, why, why do people throw trash? Why do people litter? The whole parking lot was just full of just trash. Hate that. Yeah, I was, I was a little upset by that too. Yeah. But again, I don't, that's not, none of those are locally owned and operated businesses that you kind of want to go find somebody that's a boutique somewhere so that they don't close. You want to support as many people who live in your community who own the businesses. You buy something from the big chain store and the money just disappears out of our community. That's right. So, all right. What do we miss? Anything? What do you want? Is there anything you want to talk about? Anything coming up that you can promote? No, I don't really think, no, I don't know. Can we talk about this Kevin Bacon shirt that you're wearing? Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Are you, for those of you who are listening, which is everybody, because I didn't video this, he is wearing a pink shirt, like a pink shirt, with a- Very pink.

01:17:35Very pink shirt with a picture of Kevin Bacon, just as a headshot of Kevin Bacon. A young Kevin. A young Kevin Bacon. I think it's important to designate the era. It would be, it would be kind of interesting if there was like a present day Kevin Bacon maybe like on the back of the shirt. Yeah, yeah, I mean he's- That might be kind of funny. Or if there was like, it just had seven degrees. But this is like a footloose. This is footloose, yeah. Kevin Bacon. I agree, you know, footloose era. How many tattoos do you have? Five? Five? Five? Are you done? Probably not. Are there more in the works? Probably not? Yeah. What do we have going on here? Looks like a, looks like a lure. Yeah, I have a couple of fishing lures, and this is a stuffed animal that was one of my son's favorites when he was, it's a Soctopus. Aw. A Soctopus, that's awesome. These were some figurine birds that were like my grandmother's. They were always at our house and I always played with them. I have them now.

01:18:35And so, you know, I didn't realize but everything is an animal. Oh, interesting. Or an insect. A living creature. Yeah, well like, yeah. Soctopus, you have a fishing lure, the birds. What's on your leg? You say you have another one? It's another fishing lure. Another fishing lure, okay. And I have a pig. A top water jig. A pig here and here. Okay, one, two, three, that's five. Yeah. How many tattoos do you have, Caroline? One, two, three, four, six. Oh. And you add that to my zero, and you have six. You should think about getting a tattoo. Oh, I've thought about it. It's exhilarating. I want, I just don't know what I would do. It is, every time you get a new one, you're like, ooh, ready for another one now. I think I'll probably be getting another one before the summer's over. I want like a whole sleeve like on my arm. I want like a whole sleeve. I don't know why. I just, I just, it like cuts off like right here, you know? So I can, I think it would just shock people. They're like, oh shit.

01:19:36Well, I did just recently find out for my last tattoo that I have some sort of a red ink issue with my skin that I didn't realize because I got a brand new tattoo that's all red ink and it is not taking. Oh. Yeah, the way it's, and I looked it up. I guess it's a really common thing with red ink specifically. A lot of, it's common for people to have skin. It is a two of hearts from the playing card. I also got this tattoo on the Vegas strip. So there might be some other, some other reasons why it didn't, didn't really take. One time in my life, we were ready to go get the tattoos and I called the tattoo place and he was like, have you been drinking? And I was like, I'm wasted. Like I thought that's how people got tattoos. This was, I mean, this was 10 years ago, but I was, I was like, yeah. He's like, no, we can't do it. You have to be sober. And I'm like, how the hell do you get a sober tattoo? At the time I didn't, I just was like, this is something you get drunk and you get a tattoo and I was ready to go. My wife and I were like, let's go. And they said, no, so we never got one. They probably don't want you to make a bad decision.

01:20:38Well, so you bleed a lot more. I think the bleeding is the thing. Like, cause your blood is real thin. And I think that you bleed a lot more and they're like, I don't want to deal with it. And plus I think you have to sit still and drunk people don't sit still. Yeah. You have to like be cognizant of what you're doing. I mean, if you're, I think I'm imagining logically why. Right. But the guy just said, no, I think it's the blood. And then who wants to deal with a drunken idiot? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't like, oh, let's invite this guy and who's been drinking like, stay over there. Yeah. We're good tonight. Come back tomorrow. All right, Tandy Wilson. The final thing that we do is something called the Gordon Food Service Final Thought. Gordon Food Service, our fine title sponsor. We love Gordon Food Service over here. And they sponsor our final thought, which is anything you want to say. You're talking to whoever's listening. I don't know who that is. But whatever you want to say, as long as you want to say it, you get to take us out of the interview. So that usually shocks people and they're like, shit, what am I going to say?

01:21:40So there you go. That's the whole point. Mike is yours. Yeah, I think I will just go back to kind of what you were touching on, Brandon. And that's like, get out and enjoy the city. There's a lot of neat stuff going on. There's a lot of great restaurants out there. There's a lot of fun things to do. And sometimes when you live here, we get too caught up in, oh, it's CMA Fest, or it's Bonnaroo, which cracks me up because that's an hour and a half away. There is no real good reason to sit on your couch. And I'm not saying come to City House and see us. I'm saying go somewhere and go do something and go get out and enjoy it. Because we live in a really cool place and we're really lucky to be here. Amen. We live to go kayaking. That's our favorite. That's a great one. Yeah. I mean, you can be on the Piney River so fast here, the Harpeth or whatever. Oh yeah. Yeah. So fast. Tandy Wilson, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Thank you, thank you. Huge thank you to Tandy Wilson for joining us today on the show.

01:22:45That was a lot of fun. And thank you for listening to this. Please don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on all the socials. Hey, we even have a TikTok page. It's not really about the podcast, but it's a lot of fun. Also, wanna tell you guys about The Giving Kitchen. If you don't know about The Giving Kitchen, that's all you have to do. You just have to know about it. So if you're a leader in a restaurant, The Giving Kitchen, they help food service workers. If you have somebody who needs to go to rehab and they're, I wanna get better, man, but I have to pay my bills while I'm gone, they can help. Somebody gets into an accident and they cannot work for any extended period of time. These are where The Giving Kitchen really thrives. So go check them out at thegivingkitchen.org. I am on the engagement council for Nashville and I just love sharing what they do. The biggest thing is that they just need help people knowing that they exist. I mean, that's the biggest thing is that people out there every single day are, I don't know what to do.

01:23:48I've had so many conversations with employees where they need help and I wanna help them. And just recently I had an employee come to me and tell me that they had breast cancer and they didn't know what they were gonna do because they had to have it removed and they're gonna be out for a month. I put them in touch with The Giving Kitchen and they helped her out. They helped take care of her bills while she got better. And it was really a lifesaver. So Giving Kitchen, this is not a sponsor. These are just amazing people that I love to shout out because they're doing great, great things. You can hear more about it if you go back and find the episode with Jen Heidinger Kendrick. She is the founder and Kelly Kaplan is running the show here in Nashville. They're based out of Atlanta. They are nationwide though. So if you know anybody nationwide that needs help, they want to help. They're doing amazing things and I hope you guys had a wonderful 4th of July and we are, Monday baby, here we go.

01:24:48If you subscribe to this, you may have figured out we put this out a day or two early and you got the jump on everybody else. So remember to subscribe and be safe out there. Love you guys, bye bye.