Team Hidi 2025

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. And I have finally gotten around to editing and putting together the Team Heidi episode. Super excited today to have all of these guests on the show. This is going to be a simulcast. So if you're listening to this on Atlanta Restaurant Radio, you will hear me do the Hello Music City intro. This is what the majority of people will be hearing when this comes out. If you are in Nashville listening to Nashville Restaurant Radio and didn't know that there was an Atlanta Restaurant Radio, hey there's an Atlanta Restaurant Radio. You can find it on Spotify and we've got a few episodes out there with Ford Fry and some other folks. It's a lot of fun. We have an episode for the Atlanta people. There's an episode of Little Bear that is available out on Nashville Restaurant Radio and we have more episodes coming up shortly. In this episode, let me paint the picture for you. Every single year, The Giving Kitchen hosts Team Heidi. It happens around St. Patrick's Day and the past two years it has been at Truist Park, which is where the Braves play. They set up, I think there's a hundred different vendors. They have a huge auction.

01:47It's the big event every year. We raise money to help restaurant workers. If you don't know what The Giving Kitchen is, go back. I've had several episodes with Jen Heidinger Kendrick, Leah Melnick where we've talked about what The Giving Kitchen is and if you're just learning, I will tell you along, I think, I don't know how many years, 12 years ago, 15 years ago, Ryan Heidinger was Jen Heidinger's husband and he passed away from cancer and they threw a big fundraising event to help him raise money for all of the medical bills. He was a restaurateur in Atlanta and they raised so much money that they decided that they would take the excess and really give it back to the community. The community was so involved in helping them that they thought, let's make it our life's mission. Jen did, said, let's make it my life's mission, her and Ryan, to help restaurant workers. So that's what they do. If you are in need, all you have to do is ask for help. If you work in a restaurant, and that's anybody, if you own a restaurant, if you're a manager of a restaurant, if you're a server, a bartender, if you are a dishwasher, if you're a line cook, no matter who it is, now let me tell you how this works. If you need help, let's say that you are out skateboarding one day and you break your ankle and you can't go to work because you can't walk. Well, that's where The Giving Kitchen can come in and help. They will help pay your bills while you are down.

03:19Let's say you are diagnosed with breast cancer and you don't know what to do and you need help. You're going to have a surgery, everything's going to be okay or not okay, but you can't work while this is going down. They will come in and help you pay your bills. All you have to do is ask for help and they have thousands upon thousands of people that ask for help. They give away millions of dollars to help restaurant workers. It's the most amazing thing in the world and that is why everybody gets together. Let me tell you, Team Heidi is not just a food event. It is a food event, but all the restaurant workers are there. Restaurant owners, chefs, they're all attending the event as well and there's such a positive vibe about everybody being there to help each other. It's really amazing and I love being a part of it. I'm part of the Tennessee Engagement Council and so I like to tell people, as many people as I can, about The Giving Kitchen. If you listen to Nashville Restaurant Radio, you'll hear different ads where I talk about The Giving Kitchen. If you own a restaurant and you have somebody who needs help, tell them to go to givingkitchen.org and literally ask for help. In October, they do something called Dining with Gratitude. Dining with Gratitude is where you create a menu item or pledge to donate some portion of your sales to The Giving Kitchen. NFA Burger in Atlanta does a burger that's like, I don't want to say Waffle House Burger, but it's kind of like a Waffle House Burger and they donate a portion of that.

04:59The proceeds of that burger goes to The Giving Kitchen. They do it all the time, but if you would create a drink, a menu item, something in the month of October and you can sign up at givingkitchen.org all of this money goes to help restaurant workers. I mean, it is a fantastic, fantastic organization. So if you're learning about them for the first time, definitely go check out the website. If you've been helping The Giving Kitchen, if you use The Giving Kitchen for your staff or for yourself, thank you. Continue to do so. Spread the word. We need people to know about The Giving Kitchen so that we can help people. I mean, it's really that easy. So at this episode, what I did was I said, Hey, look, second year of being at Truist Park, I'd like to bring a studio down there and I would like to set up. And as all these people who work in restaurants, restaurant adjacent people are there, I'd love to learn what The Giving Kitchen means to them. I'd love to learn about them. And we had some really amazing guests. Come on, the owners of ASW Brewery, we had the director of marketing for Tzatziki's, we had sales manager for Empire Distributing, so, and so many more chefs and influencers and all kinds of people just stopping by talking about what The Giving Kitchen means to them. That is a recurring theme that you're going to hear. And hopefully you can see these people are passionate about helping restaurant workers. I really love every conversation I love. I love the conversation with the marketing director from Tzatziki. She's brilliant. And I want to do more episodes with her because she has had, I don't do a lot of marketing people on the show. And that's a major part of what we do around here in restaurants.

06:41We need to market. And she was really just amazing. This show is brought to you. I have several sponsors and I'm very proud of the people that I work with. And I'm very proud that I get to find people who are making a difference. I love finding people in businesses that actually care about restaurants succeeding. The work that Jason Ellis does over SuperSource and what we've been able to do to bring him into the spotlight and everybody learn who SuperSource is here in Nashville, they're also in Atlanta, is just amazing to me. It makes me so proud every time that I have a guest in here that says, man, I use SuperSource and I absolutely love them. Jason is the best. I heard about him on your podcast and man, it's the best thing ever. When I talked to Krista today at CNB Lennon, she said, man, we're getting people calling right and left about our Lennon services. Thank you so much because they're another company who's doing things the right way, no contracts, no fees, you just pay for the Lennons that you use and their service is beyond.

07:54Now this is for Nashville. I can't be more excited to talk about those people when it comes to insurance. So many people just go online, you have an 800 number that you dial and you get a cheap insurance. That's not what you need. Nashville Waste had some major storms come through here and if you had to call your insurance company and you got put on hold and they didn't know anything about you and the claim is taking forever, you're going to know that Matthew Clements over at Robin's Insurance is not that way. That guy you're going to call his cell phone, he's going to go, I got you, no problem, done. He knows your business, he knows what you're doing and I love, he's the restaurant master in Nashville and so many people know him. I didn't get to introduce you to Matthew Clements because everybody knows Matthew Clements, but partnering with Robin's Insurance means so much to me that I get to continue to share what they do and I do have people tell me, man, I called Robin's Insurance and the guy's amazing and thank you. Those sort of things mean the world to me. You guys are using Sharpies Bakery, you're buying Black Sheep Tequila because they're a Nashville based tequila brand. They're awesome. Calexo are THC, Beverage of Choice.

09:06They are in Atlanta and in Nashville. Calexo is the best tasting THC brand you'll ever have and we have a new one. We have a new one. Adams Keegan. Adams Keegan is a payroll company. Now, everybody out there has employees you need payroll and I'm telling you, my big thing is you got to have a guy. For everything that you do, you got to have a guy or a gal. It's not just a, but a guy can be both sexes or either and this is what happens when you have issues, you need to be able to call somebody that will take care of you and that's what Ty Reedy does over at Adams Keegan and I'll tell you, Ty and the team at Adams Keegan remove the administrative burdens of HR administration, payroll, benefits management, garnishments, unemployment claims, compliance, 401k and so much more. And when you use the big national company, all you are is a number. When you use a company that actually cares about your business, you have a partner in your solution. So I couldn't be more excited. I cannot wait to have people calling Adams Keegan, talking to Ty, having a guy that helps them walk through payroll. When you get that garnishment letter that he handles that they do all of these things. They also have an HR component, which if you're a small local restaurant, which is most of my listeners, you don't have an HR component and they will handle so many things for you. And I'm telling you, if you give Ty a call, his number 615-707-9615, you can do this in Atlanta. You can do this in Nashville either way, or you can visit Adams Keegan, that's A-D-A-M-S-K-E-E-G-A-N.com for a free HR consultation to see how they create customized solutions to help your restaurants thrive. This is, this is it. I'm excited to hear people go, dude, I called them. They're amazing. I now I'm set up. Hopefully we're going to have enough vendors throughout this thing that you have people that I trust that care about

11:10your business that we can take some of these national brands and only care about their bottom line and we can push them to the side and you can support local businesses who want to help you thrive. If there's one thing I've seen in both cities, it is chains coming in and big companies taking over and pushing out the small guys. And dammit, I'm a supporter of the small guys because they're the ones who make their neighborhoods. These are community restaurants. People go there, they get engaged. You get straight A's, you go eat at these restaurants and they're going away because big companies are taking advantage of you and these guys will not take advantage of you. And I love that. I want to, I want to jump into this episode. I've been talking for like 10, 11 minutes now, but this episode is a lot of fun and I hope that you enjoy it. The sound is a little, it's a little wonky because we're in a, like literally in an elevator room, the elevator, you'll hear like these little bongs and these bings and these little sounds.

12:12That's because people are walking by to go to the Delta sky deck and we're in the elevator room. So people, I'd catch them and I'd go, Hey, come sit down, have a seat, let's talk. And it was just, it was a lot of fun. So I'm just, I'm not going to do ads in between all of the, the, the conversations. I'm just going to play them all the way through. They're just going to go. I hope that you love it. I hope that you visit giving kitchen.org. They're amazing people. And I hope that you sign up to be part of their giving opportunities in October. Yeah. So let's jump in. This is going to be a fun one and thank you for listening. We're going to have another episode out with Lisa LeClair. She's the president of the greater Nashville hospitality association, uh, this weekend. So let's, uh, let's do it. Super excited to be back at team Heidi 2025. I am here with Megan McCarthy. Megan is the edible garden chef at the Atlanta botanical gardens. She is a Dom and she's the founder and chef of healthy eating 101. That is a lot. Megan, thank you for being here. Well, thank you for having me. This is great. This is the best event of the year. I'm not kidding. It's so much fun. Oh, way fun.

13:37I've been, uh, involved with this since the get-go. So what, uh, what, what draws you to the giving kitchen? Well, the giving kitchen, it says it all in its name, first of all. Um, and being a lifetime person of restaurant industry, food and beverage, hospitality, hospitality person, restaurant person. I like to call them. Yeah. Just worker. Work. I'm tired. I'm exhausted. My feet hurt all the time. Yes. My back hurts too. Yeah, that happens. But boy, is it glamorous. So you were the edible garden chef at the Atlanta botanical gardens. Yes. And I've never even heard of that title for somebody. What do you do? I create recipes out of what's growing in the garden. So when you go to the Atlanta botanical garden and several botanical gardens around the country, they have a little edible garden of things that grow that you could eat, you know, and, uh, anything from blueberries to apples to, you know, seasonal like tomatoes and all herbs. And are you planting things? I am not the horticulturist. So like, are you telling the horticulturist, Hey, I want you to plant kale and, you know, squash and zucchini, like different things, or they just grow it and then you have to come in and be like surprised. No, I'm not going to be surprised. I want to come prepared just in case, you know, I don't want to pick everything so then you come to the botanical garden, have nothing to look at. So it's kind of a gentler process. Okay. There's no demanding my vendors. No, uh, the, uh, um, the edible garden you walk through on the backside of the botanical garden. When you, you know, there's all sorts of different things. We have one of the largest botanical gardens in the country. I didn't know that. Oh, it is the best botanical garden. I'm going to have to come visit next time I'm here.

15:42I'm going to have to. Now that I know you, I'll be like, uh, Hey, get me in. Let's go. Let's go. I'd like to see the edible garden. Yes, because everything floats around there. So yeah. So whatever's growing in the garden that the horticulturist planted and I am surprised at the beginning of the season. So that's coming up. And now do you do greenhouse there? There are some greenhouses, but our food is not part of that program. We're in the, um, ours is all outdoor. And then we have a covered space and we do some chef dinners out there. So a lot of the chefs here today have been to the botanical garden for special events and, uh, you know, well seasoned chef series. And those are, you know, you come in the evening. I can imagine it's beautiful. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And those are paired with wine. I do the demos during the day and you bring your own wine. I think they do those at cheekwood in Nashville. Have you ever been to cheekwood before? No, I haven't. It's a botanical garden. It's called cheekwood. I like that healthy eating one-on-one. You are the founder and chef. I am the worst at what I eat and knowing what I eat.

16:48I just eat like bad stuff and I know it's bad. Well, if you look this good, it can't be all that bad. Oh, stop. Come on. You look great. Like she's got jokes for us today. I don't like it. You know, but seriously, you're, you're in great shape. Thank you. So tell me the things you do consciously. I work in restaurants. I'm on my feet all the time. I'm doing constant cardio. So kind of like when you get up in the morning, you know, you got to have that, what cup of coffee? I have a cup of coffee and I put local honey and cinnamon and milk with, um, collagen and fiber. That you, you just put all of those with cinnamon and yet all of that is my coffee. You just sprinted past 90% of everybody right there. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Starting your day that way, every day things, local honey. So we got to get back to that natural way of living. What's growing in the earth, you know, whether we planted it or not, but go to the grocery store and go to the produce section.

17:54What is fresh? What's in season? It's just, it's a very natural way to live. If it's December, asparagus is not in season. Well, you know, just to let you guys know that there is a lot of indoor growing now. So, yeah, so there's, uh, you know, we, we get tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers and all that all year round now. So we're, I'm really excited for the season coming up because there's so much local food is about to be available and all the, everything just ramps up in Georgia peaches. Oh yeah. Well, we're not that far away. I'm looking forward to watermelon. And then in, in like late August, I love the figs. Oh yeah. We have some fig trees in the botanical garden. It's like, well, it's like, that's like God's snacks just all the time. I grab one and snack on it. I can eat aphrodisiac too. Is it? Oh yeah. It's a sexy fruit. Oh yeah. You got to make it right. I've never thought of the fig that way, but I, yeah. And you know how to prep them. You can make really lovely fresh desserts. I have some that I make with, you know, grill those little figs and walnuts and balsams. So what is healthy eating 101? I create recipes out of, um, you know, things that come naturally to us in the grocery store, the produce section and, you know, um, create recipes for feeling good. I like it. So, you know, it's a website. I do healthy eating 101.com healthy eating the number one, zero one, not like typed out 101. Yeah. And you're going to ask me how I got that? No, no. Yeah. I mean, I've had it for a while.

19:34Dot com. Yeah. Very nice. How'd you get that URL? I'm like, I've been doing it for a while. So, well, I'm excited about tonight. Anything you're especially looking forward to this evening? Yeah. Um, I, I smelled a lot of good things coming down the hallway. So, and I tried not to look because then I'm like, gonna want to, cause they have, they're ready to go. You know, we're going to be working together tonight. Yes. I feel like it's going to be a loose thing though. Lucy goosey. Like you go have fun for an hour. And just as long as when you walk by me, you check on me to say you good. And I'm going to go, that guy's gone down in flames. I'm like sweating and I'm like, where have you been? You're like, uh, just as long as you have a beverage and a, you know, a little sample plate of some food, a hundred percent. There you go. Yes. Then my job is done. See any good sparkling waters out there? Oh yeah. There are actually, I just had one. It was a Sam Pellegrino. He's a peach. Is that what you have? No, but I want one. Yeah, I can get, I, that'll be my first delivery. That'll be my, that'll be my first job.

20:48Well, Megan, I am excited about tonight and I like the auction. Yeah. That's my favorite at the very end, just seeing people really put their money where the mouth is and you know, seeing people really give big time and knowing how many restaurant workers get to be helped through these big auction, the people that donate the auction items, the people bidding on them. It's a spectacle. It is exciting. Like that's my favorite time of the night. It is. It is really cool. I just, I just love seeing this community come together. It's incredible. And to think everybody's here. I mean, sure. There's a lot of great food. There's a lot of booze and stuff, but really everybody's here to support giving kitchen and help restaurant workers. And that is, it's just, it's a cool thing. It, why didn't it happen even earlier? I don't like, how is this not like, I'm, I'm just grateful. I've gotten to be a part of it. 100%. We're going to have some fun tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Megan McCarthy for joining me today. Lovely to have you in our little town of the ATF. Hey, we're going to have a blast. Yeah. Yeah. I know I said I wouldn't do any ads in between the interviews, but Megan McCarthy was so much fun. And I'll tell you, when I got to team Heidi, I got the whole thing set up and then she walked in and said, hi, I'm your assistant. I'm your volunteer today. And I go, what? I don't, never had one of those before. How does this thing work? And she said, this is what, what we do. I'm going to come in and if you need guests, I'll go find them. I'll just be here to help you with anything. And so I said, well, the first thing you can do is sit down because I want to learn more about you. You're going to be our first interview. So that's our Megan McCarthy conversation. But I do, I did fail to mention somebody who I really am impressed with and is an amazing sponsor. We've talked about the local small businesses, another business that if you're a restaurant, if you own a business you need, if you're a person you need is an accountant and Grunberg accounting is the company that I'm going to recommend to you. They are my accountant and I love working with Marta and her team. You can go back and hear way more about Grunberg

22:50accounting on the podcast. We did a full interview with her, but if you need an accountant and you don't need to me to come to your building every single day, you can do this online, give her access to all of your stuff and she will put your P and L together. She'll do everything. She'll take care of your books. Um, let me give you her number, her number 704-298-6144, or you can email her at info at Grunberg accounting. That's G R U M B E R G accounting. You can also find them at Grunberg accounting.com and I highly recommend them. If you need an accountant, this is somebody who you should call because they are amazing and I love working with her and her team and that is it. We're going to move on with the interviews right now. Do I don't know? I don't want him to do a mic check. You're good. I already checked yours. I like mic checks though. Why don't you give me a good check? Ha ha stick them up stick them. Ha ha stick them. It works. That was on fire, man. Yeah. If I could like freestyle to that.

23:53I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm going to say this is Brandon's fault. He knew who to get into. I love that. This is that you can't get better than this. We are at team Heidi 2025. I am joined with Jim and Kelly Chasteen and they are the owners of ASW distillery. We're two of the six. We got guys working the booth that would be very upset if we took full credit so we got partners out but we're the one third of the partnership. We did the early shift so now we get to go have fun. Very nice. So the early shift happens at I did an Instagram video. I was walking back. I was at ASW distillery earlier. You guys host like the pre-party for all of the council engagement members, the founders, everybody. Yes. So they come by early and rally the troops and park at our place and then everybody walks in. I was the most popular guy because I had the roadie cups. So everybody's able to walk over after we're done. Yeah. I did. I obviously I'm not a drinker.

24:56So I didn't I know right. I had five years. I'm not that I've never had a drink. I certainly had my share of bourbon. Totally understand. Which makes it more difficult because I'm like so you don't know this because you're from Tennessee but the Georgia motto is wisdom, justice, and moderation. That is why I don't drink it because I didn't know that. How did I not know that already? They take it just that one earlier. They missed that in Tennessee. They don't teach it in college that's for sure. I think it's the opposite of that in college isn't it? It may be. It may be. Tell me you guys are here for team Heidi. Yes. What does the giving kitchen mean to you? So Kelly and I've been involved with team Heidi since Heidi won and for us like it's very similar probably what you would say about Nashville. There's something about the food culture here. We have a professional group of waiters and waitresses and chefs and bar staff that make it possible to do what we do and if we didn't have that if you had turnover and if you had people that just couldn't make a living doing those things some markets you can't you can't make a living but in Atlanta Georgia and in Nashville Tennessee you can you can and because of that it allows us to do what we do so we our brand can become popular and expand and be on bars and restaurants because we have professionals who are there serving people and telling our story you can't you can't do that without that group and that group you know sometimes things happen and so as a community I think Atlanta was the perfect place to start this experiment when Jen and Ryan came up with a vision to do it and it was the perfect place to fill in for a need in a system that just needs I mean these are folks we make good livings but when things go wrong there's not as much of a safety net so this team of people really came in and filled that hole that the market needed. Wow I don't think you could have said it any better I mean without the hospitality community and it's it's such a close-knit community and there's just

26:58not a lot of support for it and the idea that they're going to band together and we're going to help each other is just something special about that it's it's kind of the pirates on all the pirate ships joining others and they're all on the same team and and it's pretty special this this event is very special Kelly same same for you like yeah so I actually got to meet Jen before team Heidi before giving kitchen was was even thought of because she was the babysitter of one of my great friends and so when we started doing team Heidi with team Heidi one I was like Jen wait uh we know each other this is a really small world and so you know it's just team Heidi it does what what we set out to do in Atlanta and that's make it feel smaller right it's all about community it's all about finding your people and taking this big city and making it feel smaller and so by getting together with other restaurant and service industry folks we're able to remember that this is a community and that we can make our big city feel a lot smaller when we all work together and there would be no craft spirit movement in this town if it wasn't for the folks that are here yeah in the service industry and in the restaurant business I just it would what we do would be impossible without it so you distribute at asw2 restaurants also yeah 90 percent of our sales so our tasting rooms um you know or wherever somebody bought you typically buys the first cocktail of ours or does the first tasting of our fiddler brand or our resurgence brand but how many different brands do you have we usually have nine out at any given time we have about three in Tennessee actually so we have a we're on the campus right now at the battery where the Braves play and Tennessee is firmly Braves country so we have a collaboration with

28:58our fiddler it is that we do with them called fiddler chin music which is appropriate because where you play a fiddle but also a high and tight pitch in baseball and that is a is a label that we actually sell in Tennessee as well really who's your distributor Athens distributing out of Athens Tennessee okay so if you're listening to this you need to call Athens and you need to pick up a bottle of the fiddler or a case yeah we're in a lot of package stores in and around Nashville and a lot more Chattanooga we really started in Chattanooga now we're kind of well let's get let's get this to be a thing on premise yeah i mean i think you know for a distributor or for a distillery who's giving this much who understands the dynamic of kind of the hospitality culture and how it all intermingles together i mean this is as local as it comes i mean it right here in Atlanta and these are the people we need to be supporting you know i mean that's exactly what you'd be doing so call your Athens rep and and get their bourbon and ASW distillery guys i know there's a lot of things happening out here today and you guys are i just snagged you as you were walking by we don't mind at all that was awesome you're you're making you're making things happen over here and we're we appreciate you being here and being part of this jim i also host atlanta restaurant radio it's a new podcast that i've started going on i want to put on a british accent or something we'll just roll into that one in five minutes it's all you don't know but i do want to do like a full episode about the whiskey and we can do it by zoom or something but i would like to do a full episode with you where we can learn all the details and we don't we have more time i typically do hour long uncensored talks so we can i've got five minutes of material then i just start repeating myself so this is we're right we're right at the end then i get to do my job and pull the other 50 minutes out of you see that's the that's why we do an hour because everybody has five minutes of material

31:01i want the 37th minute i'll just come on to make fun of him the whole time so perfect this is our shtick this is our road this is how we take it if you can't see us but she's over here just like kind of shaking her head and smiling the whole time and it's the best it's like she's just loving us she loves it you guys have so 25 years of marriage i've learned she's the luckiest girl in the whole wide world roll my eyes and poke fun i my wife does the exact same thing this is it's how relationships work i love it well thank you guys for stopping by and have so much fun tonight thanks for having us thanks all right we are back at team heidi 2025 and we are joined with julie wade julie is the head of marketing for tzatziki's mediterranean cafe did that right yes that's correct i'm so excited to have you here thank you for stopping by oh you're welcome i'm so glad to be here tell me what this is this whole team heidi experience is for you this is our first time to be here really it is yes welcome thank you you must have grand expectations i did from stories that you've probably heard about team heidi yes we started our partnership with the giving kitchen last year right before team heidi the event so we really didn't have time to kind of get everything together and enough time to to participate sure so this was the first year that we were able to come so this is a new experience for us it's kind of a learning day yeah for all of us tell me what your um when you say your your partnership giving kitchen what does that look like well we're one of the corporate partners for the giving kitchen so we have made a um donation yeah for lack of a better word yes um a corporate sponsorship with them making that commitment annually that we will support them in multiple events during the year with team heidi being one of those and that we will support them in a multitude of different ways

33:07with the cash donation being part of that and um it's it's a great which is the best way to do it that's what we need to help restaurant workers certainly and it's it's a great partnership for us and we've we've been the recipient um some of our our team members have been the the direct beneficiary of some of the the services that the giving kitchen provides so it has been a a wonderful partnership already just in this first year was head of marketing i imagine you get pitched a lot of different things along these lines why choose the giving kitchen it is something that we see our our team members every day that put in such long hours and are so dedicated to our community the the food service industry and one of the things that has really made tzigi's the the place that it is and the the communities that we live in are so important to us and and they're really built up because of the people that we have working for us and our founder keith richards 27 years ago built the community built the tzigi's brand that it is today in large part because of the people that he hired and that stayed with him and that feeling of community in a large part is because of those people that have stuck with him there are people that have worked for our brand for over two decades and being able to help them through any kind of little uh crisis emergencies hiccups that happen in their lives is is so important to us that we know that those things do happen in people's lives so we want to be able to to support them the best that we can and so having this partnership with um the giving kitchen is something that is it just it it feels just so natural to us it sounds like you understand the dynamic and you

35:11have some really great people who have supported you for a long time and i think that the the commitment to the giving kitchen not only ensures that you're going to be supporting the people that work for you but it sounds like a love for the industry in itself seeing that in your people knowing that that's happening in other restaurants across the nation and supporting an organization like this really gives back to the entire community as well as your own but i mean that's very generous and that's really awesome i love this yeah it is it's yeah we're just we're just a small part of it because it does help everybody whether it's somebody that's working for a um you know a distributor in a in a warehouse somewhere or in a cafeteria at a school you know there's all kind of food service workers out there it's not just people that are working in a tzatziki so this goes way beyond us and it goes out to everybody in our community and you know we we understand that the the benefits are not always the best in some of those well for a lot of mom and pop businesses can't afford you know a lot of different opportunities to help people and you know i think there's there's i'm a big eat local guy but even large companies who are helping out are you're helping local restaurants you're helping all hospitality workers and i love that that's such an amazing thing that you guys are doing yeah well thank you i mean it's definitely important to us to to partner with the giving kitchen and what jen has started and done and just a pretty short amount of time is really amazing and and we're very very proud to be helping her along the way okay so fascinating love what you guys are doing can i move the topic of conversation a little bit right now sure head of marketing help us out this is a crazy world we're living in right now i hear all kinds of things social media this or what do you what do you feel like right now is the most effective way to market

37:13to customers that you want to come in and patronize your restaurant oh is it a trade secret how many hours do you have to on this podcast four more minutes but we could do a full episode i mean i i don't have a lot of you know i work i talk to a lot of local restaurateurs and i don't have a lot of head of marketing so i mean this is really i have a lot of social media managers and people that along those lines but your purview is a lot different than a lot of other people's and i really really want to pick your brain about it okay social media is we we see it as one small piece of our pie whereas you know it used to be a pretty big chunk it used to be really easy to get to people that way it's become much more difficult it's much more difficult and it's much more expensive it used to be organic and now everything you're not getting anything organically anymore maybe one to two percent it's pay to play yeah it's really pay to play so we're using a lot of influencers now okay so that that's a good way if you that's probably the best organic way it's still kind of pay to play because you you've got to get those influencers and and if you're really trying to get ones that are decent reputable yeah you're probably gonna end up paying them a little bit sure and you know for us in the restaurant business we're paying them at least in food to go in and and try our food and sometimes we'll do a catering message so we're paying them you know whatever it would cost to do a catering for 10 or 15 so you know if we're still paying sure even even if they agree to do it just for the cost of the food and that's probably the least expensive we can get away with

39:15and with the most roi yes yeah um but that that's been fairly successful for us okay well in nashville you know there's so many people bachelorette parties that come to nashville and it's hard to decide we know who the influencers in nashville are and this is a good call out but so many people come to town and they say we have this many instagram followers we buy us free dinner and we'll take pictures of bambi's wedding and and at the bridal shower or whatever and it's like i kind of need the revenue too you know it's it's it's a challenge you get a lot of that but i can see a focused attention to influencers yeah well you got to be careful too about the geography of okay where is that person's audience just because they're coming to nashville taking you know in your restaurant there but where is the majority of their audience are they in nashville they're in idaho yeah how many people in idaho are going to come to your restaurant in nashville and not as many as you none yeah so you have to take that into account as well what social media are you seeing right now is doing this how it's tick tock performing do you guys do tick tock we do we do um we don't see a huge return on that just because that's that's not our main demo right now we see that as an investment that's our demo of tomorrow so we look at that as we're putting money into that today and kind of growing that knowing that hopefully one day our that's our customer of the future no you're planting seeds yeah 100 yeah we're planting seeds today i have no idea where to go with this interview because my brain wants to go 500 places with you i want to do i just want to do a full episode where we kind of

41:17go help me out because you're focused and this is all this is what you do and it's uh it's pretty awesome uh i'm gonna get your number will you do that with me sure yeah not right now but like another time yeah yeah awesome um anything you want to say tell the listeners um parting words parting words um personalization is key if you can get there it's hard to do especially on a small local budget personalization and marketing as best you can give me an example um email marketing if you can segment your guest as best as possible based on their purchase habits something like that see this is a little teaser for next time well this brings up a whole nother thing like a lot of small restaurants don't have the ability to estimate to estimate that much data and where do you get it through bicky or what is the platform that you're using and it's like there's so much out there that even there's some tips and tricks is that how like what reports to even run to even know how to own your to segment your guest yeah purchasing habits i mean all that stuff is probably have access to more than they think they do oh they do depending on what p.o.s they have and most of them have toast yeah you can probably get some good stuff out of that get some great stuff from my three restaurants i've got toast and i i but i i look at a lot of different information that i'm the director of operations for our restaurant group and i i have the i'm a luxury position i have the time to look at that stuff a lot of places don't have a position like that and so it just makes more difficult so yeah julie thank you so much for your time today you're welcome i could talk to you for hours being given like things i'm like i'm gonna lose this shit but you look so official with your

43:18notebook do it i said you look so official with your notebook though so you got to keep it all organized very important very important this notebook and all of the words that i have written intensively holding that pen emma beckham with tito's vodka you are the event manager for the state of georgia i sure am welcome to the podcast thank you so much and happy heidi ah the best day of the year that is the that is the official greeting here right is happy heidi i love it it's like one of very few events where people say that i feel like and it's so fun and everybody just says it with a giant smile on their face so you uh you do events for the state of georgia like food and wine events like where you activate tito's and you show up and you give samples and you have a good time that among many other things um we do a ton of events a year in the state of georgia everything from tiny little networking events to golf tournaments everything um even to like national giant music festivals and everything in between wow um 90 percent of about those events are non-profit events where we do ensure um you know that we're giving back to our community and things like that um but we do make sure like to you know do a lot of charity events it's kind of in ingrained in our company this event do you circle this one on your calendar oh yeah tell me why what does a giving kitchen mean to you yeah i um was in the service industry for a long time on the other side you know not working for a supplier alcohol brand i bartended i ran bars um kind of everything that one does in in you know one building as we come up this is what we do yes let's shift from bartender and manager to um liquor sales rep but you know being in the service industry and seeing you know that not everybody you know is able to support themselves if something happens and you know you're losing your lifeline you know it's such an amazing non-profit to help

45:22those people um you know i am someone that just loves food i love meal i make i love the process of it i love yeah you know going to a restaurant and i think it's a very undervalued thing the experience of the service industry so i mean it's it's just such an important cause to make sure those people are taken care of great response thank you that was wonderful it's that's kind of the commonality here at this place is that all of these people are here because we all love this industry appreciate food and we want to just take care of each other um i have a question for you so you were bartending you were working um in the in the hospitality industry then you made the shift to liquor rep how hard so many people i hear say i want to be a rep i want to do this i want to do that and they think it's like just shaking hands and kissing babies and it's super easy i just i just said that when you walked in oh so you get to throw parties all the time and go out have a good time what's your like how hard is it moving from bartender server to full-time rep um i mean it definitely wasn't easy um my job is a little bit different so i am not always out and talking to you know accounts and you know but did you start off that way i did um i did a little bit with my job just because there were less of us in georgia at the time i started almost eight years ago okay so at that time you know i wore a lot more hats um but now i really focus on you know i'm on the computer most of the day organizing events i mean last year we did 657 events in georgia good god yeah wild do you you don't go to all i mean like that's impossible how the hell i mean this is my fourth event in three days so i'm a little running on fumes right now but you know got to spread the cheetos cheer wow that's impressive but people do see you know the fun side you know they say oh my gosh you work for a liquor company and don't get me wrong it's a blast but it is also a lot of work it is yeah that that thank you that that's what i was

47:22getting at because i think there's a lot of reps out there that really bust their ass and it is hard and you take a lot of shit and it is just a bunch of things and it's like yeah this is not as easy as they make it look or that you might make it look yeah and a lot of brands you know don't i would say most events brands don't do events like cheetos does we have designated events people we make sure we're out and about um and obviously with that kind of number of events we do a year is crazy we need designated events people and a lot of brands don't have that so a lot of reps do kind of have to wear that hat at some points you know when with things like this you know if they're pouring behind a table or blah blah food and wine events but with the volume of events we do we do need designated events people we have them pretty much in all 50 states at this point um but it's it's definitely um a lot of hats but in a very i like your actual hat you're wearing is this you're saying you wear a lot of hats and i'm like you have a really cool teatoes like a camo hat it's pretty sweet honestly i get so many compliments on this hat and i made it we threw a party last year and we did a hat bar so you can pick like the logo and you made it and it was actually an industry party so it's a holiday party to say thank you for all the people that serve us throughout the year and we invite like a bunch of accounts we actually did it across the street at um pbr we had like 300 people come it was a place is huge it's huge it's huge we rented the whole top floor it was great wow well thank you for stopping by this was so much fun getting to learn all about you and thank you for teatoes vodka for supporting restaurant workers and being here and uh it's just a it's awesome it's such an amazing cause thank you so much we're very very happy to be here pleasure to meet you emma or we are back at team heidi 2025 and we have like a line of people this is fantastic we're having so much see the big line of people waiting oh my gosh everyone wants to talk to brandon he's the the host hostess with the mostest the person you are hearing speak right now is anita sue and she is

49:27the owner and partner at sweet auburn barbecue lazy betty's gezos west coast burritos and teal luchos which is here tonight are all these concepts here tonight no just teal luchos just teal luchos and lazy betty yep so lazy betty um they're doing a luge like so so it's really fun yeah interactive um get you know get a little toasty it's team heidi have a good time it's the greeting is happy heidi there you go happy heidi happy heidi i i love it every year like all of a sudden somebody says happy heidi and i'm like yeah that's a normal thing we say today is happy heidi because that's the thing uh and it is a thing how many of these have you been to oh my gosh it's hard to count do you know what year this is uh uh 20 something is it 25 no how many years how many years no how many years this event has been going on oh that's a good question i don't have the exact number megan would know megan oh she's how many years how what year is this this oh my gosh uh because you said you've done it from the first one i thought it was like 15 probably no i'm 2000 at least at least yeah all right so yeah so like 15 16 i think maybe last year was 15 and this year 16 yeah team heidi is old enough to drive i know this is insane whoa we should all be scared tell me what um what does this event mean to you oh my gosh i just love this event because it's the biggest event that giving kitchen does every year um i mean on so many levels it's great food great camaraderie being in the industry um i love coming here and just connecting with other restaurateurs chefs you

51:30know industry professionals um that's the that's the difference in this yeah i'm sorry we just said that is that you go to the land of food and wine you go to music city food and wine any of these big events that you go to there's a lot of people working there's a lot of rest like restaurant leadership and chefs and people that are attending this right right not a lot of those people go to the other food events that are like for profit or this is right where the restaurant people are attending as well as working exactly really cool it's really really cool you know it's it's the well the reason why is it's the people who run these restaurants and the people who are leading the restaurants really care about what giving kitchen is doing you know and has done for so many years um personally i've had a handful of my employees who've benefited from the you know asking for help yeah absolutely um i think the one that kind of like touches my heart um the most is one of my bakers literally just had a heart attack and fell on the ground in the middle of a shift and you know we had no idea he had like a heart condition and um you know of course we all chipped in and tried to help him with as much funding as we could and then we tried to rate you know did we did like a go fund me but then it only went so far and i was like let's reach out to giving kitchen and you know it was easy and he i mean rent he all of a sudden he had rent paid you know so it was amazing um but yeah like giving kitchen team heidi just means like there's hope for people in the restaurant industry when they've exhausted every resource that they have um and so it's just really really um yeah it's really hopeful to see everybody rally around something amazing like this it is really cool it's a it's there's a definite vibe here of like love and unity and like this is

53:35all for this community it's my i circle this every year i came two years ago for my first one and i was like this is insane like this is really like you leave here feeling warm and good and you're like i want to do that again yeah and i want to do that again and like the way giving kitchen does this um it's it's meant for the people working the event to have a good time you know you go to like you mentioned some of these other events and it's like okay turn and burn you're here you're out like no they're like hey have a good time they try to take care of you you know you're one of us you know it's a real thing yeah it's awesome tell me about your restaurant so if i'm this is going to come out on two different channels my atlanta restaurant radio channel okay you probably don't even know about that one nobody does i've only done five episodes i'm building it right now we're in the middle of it love it and then nashville restaurant radio so everybody in nashville is going to hear oh yeah about your restaurant so if you're making the trip down for a braves game or you're coming to nashville or to atlantis is a hell of a weekend road trip yeah tell me about your your four restaurants yeah so we've got uh i'll start from the newest and work backwards so teal luchos is our newest concept it's a peruvian coastal concept and so think peru right like all the seafood the ceviches there's nike um you know dishes which is like a japanese and peruvian um uh i don't want to say fusion but it's a subset of peruvian cuisine um and then i didn't know how much japanese influence there was in peruvian cuisine i just had a guy on the show um marcio flores was his name and he owns limo peruvian cafe at nashville he was telling me about how much japanese influences in yeah i didn't know that yeah because it's you know like if you're an immigrant from asia it's right there right there yeah there's a big chinese population as well so there's like um you know that cuisine um so it's it's amazing and then going backwards there's lazy betty which is our finer fine dining concept um we just uh

55:41second year got a michelin michelin star wow congratulations that's huge yeah we're still kind of pinching ourselves so my brother ron is the executive chef there and our partner um chef erin phillips helps run it but it's really great uh tasting menu in midtown um and then we've got sweet arbor barbecue which is uh it's been there for almost 10 years now and it's southern barbecue with an asian influence my family's malaysian chinese and so you're gonna see like smoked ribs right but with a char siu uh glaze you're gonna see smoked brisket but tossed in fried rice so it's a little mishmash of yeah of us growing up in the south but having asian influences and then gazzos is our little burrito taco shop in the south side of alana those all sound absolute i didn't eat any of the food yet oh no i'll have to bring you something i want one of all of those the brisket and fried rice sounds delicious and the ribs i mean come on well now you have my card so anytime you want to come let me know i'll get you a special seat well thank you for taking five minutes and hanging out and i would love to do a long form interview with you one day for atlanta restaurant radio absolutely i have your contact information all right brandon thank you so much nice to meet you this is like the best time ever here at team heidi 2025 we're here with phil handley who's one of the owners at dash hospitality how you doing today chef oh fantastic we love this event it's for such an awesome cause we've been associated with the giving kitchen from our foundation four years ago when we opened up barn booze and bites our first restaurant tell me at dash hospitality what are your restaurants we have four in dunwoody in the village we started with barn booze and bites we opened up morty's meat and supply shortly after about a year after that's a comfort food and barbecue joint a year after that we opened up a message in a bottle which is coastal seafood and last week we opened

57:46up good vibes which is a dessert shop specializing in ice cream fizzy sodas and brownie sundaes so the first three are full service restaurants correct and then you opened up an ice cream shop yeah what tell me tell me the why well you know we'd like to be well rounded and we want to be able to capture everybody we want all your money basically okay well you can start at one place and start with a before dinner drink at barn booze and bites and and then you pick your poison so you can either go and have brisket some of the best brisket in the area or you can go and have some elevated seafood and some oyster bar or some sushi rolls or things like that and then you end your day over at the ice cream shop and you have some great dessert we have great desserts in all the places but that's that's the latest greatest so you really do want everybody's money this is fantastic so you can do like the trifecta yeah we have a huge courtyard with a giant screen for watching all the sports and we have live music fridays and saturdays so it's really an entertainment district did you say you just opened the ice cream shop like two weeks ago correct what have you learned in the first two weeks that you had no idea before you open an ice cream shop that you have to deal with right now um you know i was prepared for the number of kids but i wasn't prepared for the number of kids there's been a line out the door and it's uh it's almost like looking at the monkey cage at at the at the zoo so i mean there's just tons of kids and they're all over the place and every age touching everything and just the whole thing lots of fingerprints lots of let's just say fingerprints on just everything but it's a joy it's a joy because you see these kids they come up and they're ooh and on over the bright colored superman ice cream or the play-doh ice cream and then you see the adults and they they get involved in some of the uh treats and everything so it's it's really a crowd pleaser i love it so what are you guys serving here tonight tonight we are serving our seared ahi tuna with a pacific rim salad that has cabbage peppers onions a little bit of cellophane noodles and some sesame and some peanuts as a light peanut dressing uh really nice light snack as you heard in the last interview i have

59:47not eaten yet and chef has brought me this so i'm going to try this as we're talking drum roll please i don't have a drum roll but i have the yeah there we go all right here we go oh that's beautiful that is very delicious thank you thank you man how what does the giving kitchen mean to you guys so like what does this event mean to you guys that you'd be here to bring such a great dish you know there's a couple of charities that we love to be involved with the giving kitchen is one of the first and foremost that comes to mind every time we think about our community activation and that is because we've been in the restaurant industry in atlanta georgia for decades decades my partner david avis has been here all his professional career i've been here for over 24 years and our our lifeblood is our staff so the giving kitchen gives back to the staff when they're in need it gives back to everybody in fact my management crew too so it's not just the hourly anybody who's working in a restaurant anybody that's in need so uh it's just a great situation there's there's nothing like it anywhere in the u.s has any have you had any employees utilize the giving kitchen not recently about six years ago seven years ago i had somebody that had to apply for a grant and i've been blessed by not having anybody that needed that level of assistance but i love the fact that it's available yeah and i you know we've talked a lot about why that this is important and the actual activation of this thing i mean if you're a restaurant worker and you're working in your yard and you step in a pothole in your yard and you break your ankle and i can't walk well if you can't if you're paycheck to paycheck means you can't go to work if you're a server because you can't walk and if you're out for three to four weeks this is this is i can't generate an income this is where the giving kitchen will come in and they'll help you pay your rent they'll help you get groceries they'll help you pay your electric bill it's really a way to keep you afloat when you're out you get sickness you want to go to rehab there's i mean there's so many things once there's so many things that they will help with and people underestimate

01:01:53to the mental health aspect of the giving kitchen and providing assistance and resources for that is fantastic and and the fact that we're even addressing those things in the industry substance abuse and mental health 100 all of those things are just critical to the overall health of the industry and and the longevity of it so we are long-term players i've been doing this since i was 13 i'm 56 now and i won't be i won't do anything else this is my life so i love the fact that we have a community surrounding us a support system with the giving kitchen that provides back to the industry from our patrons and that they are willing to help support i love that you guys are here i love that you have supported them for so long and even if you're not sending people there you're still we were just talking to a woman from tzatziki's we were talking about just her entire staff and why they are a corporate sponsor because they just know how important it is i go not only do you know how important is in your restaurant but recognizing it that every restaurant needs that help and this is really a community event where everybody's here to help everybody and it's really a special thing well especially since the hospitality industry is probably the third largest employer in the united states and if you don't have resources for the people that work in it and as profit gets harder and harder to make for owners as costs go up and everything else the life we live so as those things go up and we have less resources to give to people then we can pick up the slack with something like the giving kitchen when people are in need 100 100 um thank you so much it's my pleasure it was an absolute pleasure to meet you yeah no man this is i am honored to be here i'm humbled to be here when you're back in town please come by the village and come see us at fun woody and come try us out at barn boos and bites message in a bottle morty's meat and supply or good vibes absolutely i love dunwoody it's like my favorite part of the city cheers thank you so much absolutely thank you so much chef have a great afternoon you too we are back team heidi 2025 and i am joined with wendy

01:04:00gatter good jatter sing yes that's right good jatter sing got it she is the bubbly talk on instagram you are a food influencer i am what does that mean to you so i used to work in the restaurant business and so i really started this to help just support local restaurants but my page i feature where to eat drink and have fun in atlanta i love that so where do people it's i'm in nashville predominantly where is like the hottest area in atlanta if you're coming in for the weekend and you really wanted to go eat at some great local restaurants where do i need to go i would say the west side is a really popular area right now there's just a lot going on over there a lot of new restaurants a lot of new bars there's some fun spots like flight club putt shack yeah we just opened a putt shack in nashville it's so fun i have yet to go but i've known a lot of people that have gone in there like it's so cool yeah you gotta go you gotta take the kids yes is it a place you can take the kids or is it like an adult thing uh oh actually i'm not sure i feel like i may have seen kids there so no it's like it's like a bar that does putt putt i love it i'm not sure yeah so how long have you been doing this is this your full-time job yes wow i know well i started doing this full time two years ago but i've been doing this for about four and a half years now um but yeah i used to work in the restaurant business um hostess waitress events manager and my husband used to own some restaurants in town oh wow yeah so that's kind of how we met is that how you guys met yes that's how we met i didn't work at one of his restaurants but we were both in the same business and once we got out of it after we got married everyone was still asking me like what do you do for fun like where do we go for girls night for brunch and so i was like all right i'm going to start a page and yeah after

01:06:00like a year it just kind of took off so that's incredible it's got to be so much fun to do and knowing that you're helping restaurants also yeah gain people coming in there and and it's fantastic yeah what does this event specifically mean to you like team heidi i love team heidi and giving kitchen like i love what they're doing because um actually i referred a friend to giving kitchen last year she works for a restaurant here in town and she does not have very good insurance and so she wasn't able to go to the dentist regularly and she's like i'm looking for a new dentist you know one that would like would take cash for free i just really need to see a dentist and i referred her to giving kitchen and they helped her and so i just i think what they're doing is incredible and i just really support them the restaurant restaurant workers need them and it's so important what they're doing well this is a this has been a fun event they just did the auction oh i know my god did you get to bet on anything i mean it's a little it's a little too rich for me but uh no i i mean i wish i could but the last one i saw just went for 37 grand which is incredible it was like evening an epicurean evening with uh with you know it's funny because we just had this woman on we had anita sue oh it was her husband ron sue and andrew zimmern oh i know you would it was a dinner with them and uh casa azul tequila and then there was a master class in your home like all these things and it was like 37k i mean it's worth every penny you intend friends to do dinner with all those people yeah if one if someone falls sick whoever bought that i mean i'm free yeah i will find the time we'll put it right there on the front page of the ig no problem whatsoever absolutely well thank you for stopping by we just do these quick little conversations and i was chatting with you guys and i thought this is something people want to hear about so thank you so much for stopping in and have a great

01:08:02rest of the uh team heidi thank you you too all right bye team heidi 2025 it's coming to a close it is it's been a great event it has been an amazing event but this is my favorite time because i get to meet people like cortney may and cortney is the senior marketing manager at empire distributors that's right i know empire distributors yes here in georgia and in tennessee and in tennessee same company same company we're in north carolina and colorado too wow yeah statewide and all four statewide and all four thank you for stopping by i just this was this was such a fun event and i love seeing people from liquor distributors who are here supporting this very important evening absolutely what does the giving kitchen mean to you i've been in the industry and with empire for over 20 years and i think i've seen them from the very beginning all the way to where they are now and it's really exciting to see the impact that they've made not just on our local um on-premise area um but just nationwide now and being able to kind of inspire others and draw others in and help everyone um whether it is you know local things that are happening to us in atlanta or it's something else that's happening outside of atlanta it's just been incredible to watch the impact that they've had and how they're helping our community because i think there's so many things when you go to a restaurant or you stay at a hotel and you don't you don't think about oh what happens if they go home at night and their kid breaks their arm or yeah you know they get sick they get sick like you know things that that we're able to take for granted because i work for a great company that has great insurance but not everybody has that and so to be able to give back and help um help give some something to somebody else that that doesn't have what we have i think is is really exciting and to just

01:10:07see us come together too a hundred percent i've said this to multiple people today that this event is different because there's so many people there are attendees that are in the industry and you know you go to a lot of these food and wine festival type things and it's just a bunch of people and influencers and just different people want to take pictures of stuff you don't see like the chefs and restaurant owners they're walking around enjoying themselves because i don't know what it's like to do that i do that but here it's different it's it's like everybody here it's like the who's who of the community are walking around andrew zimmern's walking around and all these it's like wow like it's just crazy it it touches everyone and i think we all know somebody who has benefited um either directly or indirectly um from something that they've offered and um i think we all you know we all saw it during covid i mean it it was just such a such an incredible time where we were just watching the industry change in front of our eyes because right there were so many things that you know you just couldn't do no and so um it really brought home why this is so necessary unfortunate that it is necessary but it is necessary well and i think it's really cool that a company like empire you know who is adjacent they're right there you're selling you always see on-premise and off-premise but you're selling to all these restaurants they're part of the community too and i love you guys representing here to just kind of be a part of this thing and to give in and and it means a lot to see these companies yeah we all come together i mean obviously we're you know we're competitors every day we sell different brands um no matter if we're in georgia or tennessee but um all that's out the window today yeah this is where we all come together and we're one for one cause and um you know it's it's something that i think it's not necessarily unique but it's something that is nice that we're able to do this year after year um and that they can get such a great turnout um you know i've watched it

01:12:11grow over the years and it's nice too to be able to see the community get involved too not just people who are in it in the industry but friends and and neighbors who you know maybe they don't work in the industry but they're able to come out and support and um and get behind this great cause all right enough team heidi talk we got like another minute okay what's the big trend in booze right now what's the big trend out there in your world what are you seeing what's what's next you know it's it's kind of funny this is super random um i'm on the event side of things because i'm in marketing um and comically donkeys carrying booze donkeys carrying booze you know that was not on my thought of i was thinking na brands thc brands all these things were really hot right now and you went donkeys carrying booze on the event side i didn't know that i didn't know that's where we were going i i know i i like to to surprise people um no for sure thc and not alex obviously very very big i think you know on the georgia side how is the thc thing going out here you know it's it's good yeah it's it's good but it's uh it's slow i would say on our end just we have um really worked to get with some companies that are making sure that they know exactly what's in their products and they're just they're following all the things yeah um just from a legality regulations all of those to know what we're giving to people um because there's not a lot of regulations around it no and i think you know in georgia the laws are kind of not in flux but they're changing or trying to be changed all the time so we're really um we've been making sure that that we've got everything um kind of eyes dotted and t's crossed to know that what we're giving to our customers is the right thing um but i think from just a perspective i mean it's out there i think

01:14:14that you know it's definitely a growing category that we are going to see some massive innovation in um and the same in the non-outside i think you know this next um all the new generations that are coming in you know very health conscious very you know wanting to be smart about how they're treating their bodies but also how they're spending their time and their money so um it's it's been a massive movement it's been an interesting interesting uh past few years yeah yeah i would say that absolutely i mean it has been i mean there's been a lot of i think that time in the pandemic we were to go home i think a lot of people realized they drink a lot more than they thought that they did and i think we did a lot of drinking there's a lot of defining there was a lot of time yeah absolutely i mean my friends we would all gather together in a backyard spaced you know very separately um and enjoy a cocktail and things like that but i think you know it's definitely as um it seems so crazy as generations are coming in yeah friends hanging on the backyard spacing apart because you didn't want to be like like can you i i was watching top chef weird reality yeah i was watching top chef the other night and um it was funny because it was like they separated their judging spaces and then they came back together and it's been interesting just watching spatial things but um yeah no i think i think those are obviously i think we're just going to continue to see that that side of the industry grow and i think it's going to be interesting to see you know in georgia it's department of agriculture and department of revenue that handle the two different markets um and so that's also been really interesting to watch and to see you know what they do um and you know we've seen a lot of success i think it's also going to be interesting to see the restaurants who decide to carry a license in georgia to be able to serve those products um do you have to purchase a license to sell txc products

01:16:14you do oh so you don't have that in nashville no you don't so anybody can do it in nashville so here it's it's been um they that was a change that happened i don't want to say like super recently but within you know the last little bit and so they kind of gave a deadline and then once they hit that deadline then it was like you have to have that in order to be able to to do more yeah i'm gonna edit that part out that's totally fine all the lawmakers who are listening right now are like shit that's a revenue center we need to get involved in i know well that's but outside of all of this that is the interesting thing because it um there's a whole thing going on in georgia legislation so i'm i think that the uh we could talk about all this stuff for hours i think it's interesting you said the innovations that are coming in thc like yeah because we've barely scratched the surface and the destigmatization of it i mean i'm serving these products to 60-year-old women who you know it's incredible to see who consume these on a regular basis who are like no i don't like drinking alcohol anymore these are nice they help me sleep or whatever and it's like these are the moms that would get really angry at kids and it's like it's just a five milligram thing like it's pretty innocuous people having a good time here and these are the bartenders from the uh special bar in there they're having fun they've had a lot of fun yes no but um yeah i think we're going to continue to see innovation i think it's interesting to see the things that are going on in that area um and just kind of the levels are taking it to whether it's beer or it's just specifically made to help you focus better i mean there's just such a gamut of an array of of um opportunity yeah and uses for that product i mean it's absolutely there's a lot of medicinal things that i it's incredible and i feel like the more my algorithm continue because i'm i'm watching and um and i learn more

01:18:15and more each day so i love it well i cortney it's been an absolute pleasure talking with you thank you for stopping by i think i think i'm gonna wrap it up for the night no it's almost nine o'clock at night i know it's been a fun night i'm exhausted it was a long day it's so nice to meet you and the for the final interview anything you want to say to the listeners before i let you go um i would just say support team heidi you know um and and if you're not in an area if you're listening from somewhere where there's not a team heidi local to you um one donate online and then also i would say look for something that's in your area that can help benefit your local community well giving kitchen is nationwide well that is true they're nationwide now the only only team heidi is here in atlanta but they do in i think charlotte and nashville we do an event every oh awesome we do the tennessee tasting in nashville and uh it's it's a great fun event but not only that you mentioned that you've seen so many people benefit from the giving kitchen yeah so many restaurants in nashville still don't even know what it is and that's the thing why i want to do this here today i think this is great and it took a long time like we were going in i say we but they were coming into distributors we were trying to share and then our sales force was going out and sharing in their community that's what we need and it's just a continuous um you know almost like a grassroots movement where we're just continuing to share the story and why it's so important and um you know we're happy to help however we can so i love it well it's been a pleasure speaking with you today and have a wonderful rest of your night tonight thanks cortney thanks brandon all right ma you ready teresa you teresa back there all right you gotta come closer i lied we're not done with our last interview we have one more group we have some volunteers here for team heidi and i thought this was really cool we've got three generations a whole family who is here donating their time

01:20:18to help uh with team heidi and to help support restaurant workers we have nicole nicole jr alexis and grandma teresa you're supposed to you look you don't look a day over 60 i don't know you thought it works you gotta get close teresa get right on top of the microphone i want anybody to hear you teresa tallia farrell i'm 75 years old this is my daughter nicole diaz and she's i don't think she wants her age but you don't do it no no uh alexis and her younger daughter no see i thought you were all sisters second and her son paul paul paul's here we have uh tile oh he's a friend the family that sponsored us really and what is what was your experience like tonight oh it was amazing like um for one we were a part of checking in everyone and just meeting everyone who had smiling faces and was just ready and pumped to like you know enjoy the event it was beautiful to see and then you know after we even got some time to eat some food and food enjoy our time yeah and going around seeing all the different restaurants everyone was so hospitable and and just uh really good attitude we just loved it was this your first time to come to like a food tasting event like this this is my first time it's my first time oh it's mama nicole mama nicole jump in there i can't hear you unless you're right there on top of it first time what was your what did you like do you have a favorite food that you tried today yes um it was from marlowe's yeah that's a good thing had a great little um little treat for us um i'm sorry and what did you uh what did you have from marlowe's which it was a pimento pimento cheese yeah pimento cheese on a little biscuit

01:22:20cracker oh i love a good pimento cheese pimento cheese is one of those just absolute classics yeah there are so many different like food that just had different concoctions i don't i don't know it was like i tried a roll for the first time i've never had a roll or caviar so really it was really good they really brought it here tonight they brought some great food out here i saw one of the companies my company my um company had did an interview for for our newspaper and i got to speak to the ceo wow it was it was great to see if you guys could see her she's smiling ear to ear she's had so much fun tonight well i want to say thank you to you you five there's five of you here three generations what you did tonight was you helped restaurant workers succeed and when it comes down to that it's you give a piece of sense of um peace and security because the giving kitchen helps restaurant workers if they can't work for any reason they get sick they break a bone they help pay their mortgage they'll help pay their light bill they take care of people in this industry so tonight is a really special night where everybody comes together for one industry to really help out and the restaurant industry touches everybody it does you have a favorite restaurant i'm sure you have a favorite server you have a favorite place you'd like to go these are all things that the the restaurant industry provides and whether you're you're in it or you're adjacent to it there's it affects every single person out here and so you're by you by you guys volunteering your time tonight you really you did an amazing thing and three generations this is so cool yeah can't wait to do it next year yeah thank you it is my absolute pleasure thank you again y'all have a wonderful evening all right well there you have it team heidi 2025 back to back to back to back to back i love the talia farrow family there and the diaz is a little bonus at the end four generations at or three generations i have three or four generations i forget there that was a they were the very end

01:24:23and they said we love to tell you about what we're doing tonight and they were really excited to volunteer their time want to say thank you to cortney may over at empire distributing i want to say thank you to phil handley i want to say thank you to wendy gatter's gajadar sing anita sue who donated a really nice package with lazy betty and teal lucho emma backham julie wade jim and kelly chasteen and megan mccarthy for joining us on the show again if you heard this and you're like yes i want to be a part of what the giving kitchen is doing go to givingkitchen.org and help out in october we would love for you to be a part of the giving kitchen in any way that you possibly can thank you for listening today and go check out atlanta restaurant radio if you're in nashville and if you're in atlanta check out nashville restaurant radio we love to learn about you if you'd like to be on the show find us at atlanta or nashville restaurant radio on instagram send me a message i'd love to learn more about you still learn atlanta and i'm loving everything about it but my home is nashville so we we love you guys and we will talk to you soon hope that you guys are being safe out there love you guys bye