The Music City Roundup 9-25-21

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City. Welcome to the Music City Roundup. My name is Brandon Styll and I am joined with Jen Ichikawa and we are back. Wow, Jen, it is so exciting to see you here today. I am so pumped to bring the Roundup back with a brand new co-host. You are the third co-host to be on the Roundup. How's that feel? Wow. Third time's a charm. That's what I'm talking about. Our last episode of the Music City Roundup was on February the 10th, 2021 and we are back after seven months of hiatus.

01:01We have a little bit of a different format as previously we were live and now we're pre-recording this and putting it out on a Saturday. We are super excited. The way that we used to do it was we did it live. We had people come on the show. We do a bunch of interviews. We've done those interviews and we are just going to previously record it. We're just going to add them into the show and hopefully the sound doesn't suck too bad. One of the things we always do with the Music City Roundup was this was a good opportunity for us to kind of check in with each other. Jen, how have you been? How was your week? It was productive, I'd say. Busy and productive, which is good. But I'm learning to say no to things that I don't feel like I have time for, which I think is good because typically I will just book my schedule and deal with the repercussions and so I'm learning this week to say no to things. What's a schedule?

02:02Yeah, you definitely don't live by one. I have like five different calendars and I've tried to consolidate them, but I always miss stuff. I just end up being at the place I need to be. I'm so ADD, it's so bad. Yeah, you're definitely all over the place and I think it's funny because in our work environment people are always like, oh, is Brandon coming? They ask me. They're like, is he coming in this? Do we know where he is? And I'm like, I do not share location with Brandon. I do not know his calendar. I know about five minutes maybe before you know if he's coming and that's it. So what you're saying is I can communicate better. Yeah, I guess. Or people's expectations of me need to shift because I do not know your location every day. I'm going to start sharing my location with you so that you can just go, oh no, he's at the Shell station on 96. You know, I'm so bad at maps that when I share location with my husband and if he's somewhere that I don't know where he is, I have to Google like, because I'm so bad with maps.

03:10Do you share your location with your husband so like you know where he is at all times and he knows where you are at all times? Yeah, we've shared location for I guess a few years now, but he's sober, right? And this was just another like checkpoint for us of like, okay, well, there are no secrets. Like here's where I am at all times. Here's where you are. So it's just another like thing in place for us. You know what? I think that I have nothing to hide. Yeah. Like I'm not doing anything that like I care if anybody knows where I am, like I totally share my location with you, but there's something about that to me that just feels like takes away any personal space that I could possibly have if I just don't like actively. It's not like we look at it all day, right? Like it's like if I'm headed to so it because he's communication wise similar to you, right? So if I'm headed to soy to meet him or to like surprise him or whatever, I can see if he's there and you know that then I'm like, excuse, yeah, no, it's everyone to surprise you.

04:16I need to know where you are. Yeah. And he's done that to me too. So like there was one time where he was so he the thing about him with surprises, like he did it when he proposed to is he gets so excited for the surprise that then he gets weird like right before he proposed, I thought he was cheating on me because he was being so weird, like wouldn't show me his phone and stuff. So like a few like a month ago, he was trying to surprise me with something and like come over and he'd bought me flowers and like stuff from altered state, which I love anyway. And so he was being weird, though, so I checked his location and I was like, wait, why are you in downtown Franklin? And he was like, oh my gosh, the exactly yeah, no, it backfires sometimes. Yeah. Thank you. So I'm like, I don't know. I just I got nothing to hide, but I just don't feel like I want somebody it's definitely not. It's definitely not for everyone. Yeah. OK. Well, I I've never really known I guess I've known people that do that.

05:18I've just never had the chance to like ask them why I don't think people advertise it. I'm sure it looks creepy, but like, whatever, we lean into who we are. It's what it is. Yes. Anything else been going on with you? I know you are. I know you've been super duper busy. Yeah. Always busy. Always. But it's sweater weather. So I'm enjoying that. I love fall. My kids outfits and fall are better. My outfits and fall are better. I love it. How about you? You've been incredibly busy. Yes. Well, I've I've been traveling like a crazy person. I spent three days. I think we were in Asheville doing a trends tour. We ate at like nine restaurants and we like ordered one of everything on the menu. This was with our broad line company that we use. They took us up there to kind of just see what's happening. We're updating a lot of stuff, Mirabole, and they want to take us to a bunch of restaurants that were similar just to kind of show us what other people were doing. And it was it was great, but so fun because you're in a building so much and it's nice to get out of that building, A, but B, to see just what other people are doing.

06:29And a lot of times it's not that they're doing something that's so incredible. It's just that, oh, wow, they they do this part of the service really well, or they did this presentation really well. I really like it when servers come to the table and they drop off your food, like if it's an appetizer and they explain everything that's in the appetizer in detail because one person typically orders the appetizers, they come to the table like, what is that? It's your appetizer. You're like, oh, no, this is a yellowfin crudo. And it's served with an avocado mousse with lime caviar and sliced Fresno peppers. And you're like, oh, I want to try that. Like, that's great. So it's neat to see some of that stuff. I know a lot of restaurants do that all the time. We went to Dallas, excuse me, for FS Tech Food Service Technology. And I teased it on the show. I said, hey, look, I'm going to Dallas. I can't wait. We're going to get all these interviews from all these amazing tech companies. Yeah, I literally didn't even go to the conference in Dallas.

07:33We I think I was at the restaurant to like 1230 Saturday night. And then I picked up Stephen and Jolene at 7 a.m. We flew to Dallas, got to the Airbnb and kind of crashed a little bit. It was a Sunday, the first week of the football season. We kind of crashed. I went to the store, bought dinner. I just and then I crashed like I completely I had like a fever. I was tired. I went to the doctor the next day because I was like, I'm not going to go into this conference when I have a fever. Like, that's just not OK. I've only been vaccinated and I wore a mask the entire time. So I got a covid test and the doctor goes, I'm going to be shocked if you don't have covid. And I'm like, damn it. Like, I've done so well this whole time. Like, what is going on? And the doctor said it came back. She's like, no, you don't have it. You don't have pneumonia. Like, I don't know what's wrong with you. Could you possibly be like exhausted? And I'm like, quite possibly could be. So I went back to the Airbnb and I slept from like six o'clock through the next morning to seven o'clock.

08:40And I felt so much better. But it just I hated the fact that I flew to Dallas and missed the entire conference we were going for. I went the next day. I went on Monday morning or a Tuesday morning. I went and saw Ken Jennings speak, who is the greatest Jeopardy player of all time, which was really cool. And we came back and I just, you know, I did a lot of time thinking on an airplane just about how much balance and saying no. You know, I think you touched on something there, like the ability to say no to stuff. And I wanted to put this music city round about like two weeks ago. And I just kind of said, you know what? Like, I can't I don't have the time or the energy. And we've recorded some interviews. They're great. But like, I'm not going to push myself to this brink when I have so many, you know, people that depend on me. I can't do that again. So sorry, we're here today. We've got it out finally. I hope that you guys are enjoying this. But I got back to town and then turn right back around.

09:41My 16 year wedding anniversary went to Boston. I've never been to Boston before. Went to a Red Sox game, sat right next to the green monster. If you're following me at Brandon underscore in our are, you've seen the pictures. Wait, what is the green monster? I saw you post about that and Jennifer post about that. And I was like, is that just like the name for the whole field? You are adorable. The green monster is at Fenway Park. Right. And if Fenway Park, there is so you're not a sports person. I'll explain it to anybody else who's wondering the same thing. You have left field, right? So if you're staying at home, I play baseball. OK, there's left field, there's center field and there's right field. Well, at right field at a home run, it's three hundred and seventy feet. OK. And center field, it's four hundred and twenty feet. But in left field and there's a fence, there's a fence, you know, that goes around. That's like seven or eight feet tall. I don't know. And then you get to left field and there is a thirty seven foot fence.

10:44Wow. That is a three hundred and ten feet. So it's a thirty seven foot fence and it goes all the way across left field. And that is called the green monster. OK. So it's the fence in left field at Fenway Park that is the green monster. Gotcha. So I saw three home runs get hit over the green monster, which was awesome. And a bunch of balls hit off the green monster. And it's just a really famous, you know, baseball thing. I know Fenway Park is and I know the Red Sox and all that. I just. I don't I'm not upset at myself for not knowing about a fence. Let me say that. And I'm not upset with you for not knowing about a fence either. I totally get that. There's so many things that there's like a probably a million things out there that I have no idea about. There are so many people's wheelhouses that they're like, you don't know about this. Listen, talk to me about the housewives. I will teach you something. Wedding dresses.

11:45I can teach you something. But when it comes to sports and maps, you're just here. My brain is kind of like a map and I love sports. So I can we that's the yin and yang of this show. See, yeah, because we talk about wedding dresses a lot. Well, we could. I mean, I don't know. We actually could. I could talk about that for days. That's actually how I met Keisha, who we get to talk to a little bit later as she came into my wedding dress shop when I was the with the national sales director for it. Well, that's a great segue. I like that. So I'll let you guys know. Man, early morning, we're going to have a conversation with Keisha. Hey, you are. And we're every single time we do the roundup biweekly, we're going to do a minority owned spotlight. And we want to do a female owned spotlight because women rock. We want to highlight them.

12:46And you did an awesome interview with Keisha Hay. And she is the owner of Sip and Bite Catering. We're going to get to that in a little bit. We're going to be talking with Mary Pillow Thompson from F.O.H. and B.O.H. dot com. They're Fo and Bo dot com. She's going to talk about best practices for hiring right now. They own a huge website for hiring. Just if you're out there and you need some hiring help, we're going to talk about what's new in the in the restaurant world. We're going to talk about a bunch of new restaurants that are coming. We're also going to talk with Tavares Taylor from SITEX, and he's going to tell us what they've been working on and what new restaurants are coming on over there. We have a pop up segment. We're going to talk about all the pop ups right now. We Julio Hernandez from Mais de la Vida joins us. And he talks about what he's doing right now with the giving kitchen. And then we're going to give you an update on a bunch of other pop ups. And then I think our final segment is going to be the bar life. We talk with Ben Powell, who's the owner of the Fable Lounge, and he's going to tell us his favorite places to drink.

13:48And he's going to give us a little more detail about their cocktail menu. And then we're going to go over a list of places that you should be drinking at right now. So we're going to have a fun show today. Yeah, definitely. Did you see that Fable posted about a prom that they're like hosting? Yeah, I shared it. So cool. Yes, you were not in on that interview, but they are doing the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. I love that. What was that movie that came out and won all of those awards? And it was about like an alien that lived in like a this was recent. And this woman fell in love with this like water monster alien. Oh, the something of water. Yeah, yes, yes, the something of water. Anyway, that was like the vibe I was getting when I saw that invitation and I was like, I'm here for that, because I did not know that woman falling in love with water alien would be like, would make me feel things, but it did. I never saw it. I was good.

14:50It's really good. And it does, surprisingly, it makes you feel a lot of things. OK, well, I like feeling things. That's a good thing. I'm learning to do that more. Feel things. Good. Yeah, I feel too many things. I need to feel less things. I am. Yeah, I'm working on the feeling, feeling more. It's good. It's intentional. The Enchantment, damn. The Enchantment Under the Sea dance was the dance and back to the future where Marty McFly and he has to reconnect his parents at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. So they're they're they're doing a prom. If you missed your prom, you can go do prom at I think it's I have to get the exact date on it, but he's going to join us on the show and talk all about it. And let's talk about our first segment. So the first thing we're going to start off talking with Julio Hernandez, Julio Hernandez of Maiz de la Vida, the corn of life.

15:53He posts up his half bus food truck at Chopper Tiki most days. But this Sunday, I have conflicting times. I have 11 o'clock to 1230, and then I have 12 o'clock to 230. Listen to the bit and you can see, listen to the segment. You can hear when he is going to be there. But let's jump in right now with Julio. All right. So we're we're talking about pop up restaurants and we're talking about the giving kitchen. And right now we're bringing in Julio Hernandez, Maiz de la Vida, de la Vida, de la Vida. How do you say that? De la Vida. So as you see now, we have branded out to DLV. Makes it a little easier. So yeah, de la Vida, which means a corn of life. The corn of life. Yeah. How you been, man? I haven't I haven't talked to you in a while. How are you doing?

16:53Well, we've been staying busy. Pretty cool things have happened. The last time I was on your show feels like forever ago. You know, Loki, I guess I was doing my putting my work notice on your show on a podcast on Cinco de Mayo. All good things. There's no broken hearts. Just didn't see it coming. You know. No, it's crazy. I all of a sudden you said, hey, I've got some secret thing that I'm working on. It's called Maiz de la Vida, the corn of life. And I was like, that's awesome, man. That's really cool. And then like the next day, I'm like, oh, he's leaving Nectar. And now he's going to do this full time. And you have just done nothing but take off since then. What has this ride been like for you? It's been good, man. I mean, definitely saw opportunity. We've been we've been in the industry forever ago. I was telling Jan, you and I met back in Bluegrass Country Club when my hair was down to my lower back.

17:54You know, and you were a fresh boy, I believe. I think so. You were a tour of rice and kitchens with Tracy. Yeah. Yeah, true story. Yeah. So, you know, it's been a long, long time. I feel like we've been lucky enough to be on the outskirts of the food industry within the Bluegrass, the Foxland and the Hillwood Country Club experience. And then when we jump into Nectar and then jump to Maiz, it was a change because we've been around. But nobody really knew, you know, it's country club life. You kind of big secret, you know, expensive big secret. And then we've been lucky enough to have friends like yourself, Brandon Frown and everybody in the industry where we feel like we fit in. And with that being said, we jump in into the given kitchen. They reached out because they wanted somebody where they can set up and talk to people. And Brian from the given kitchen have noticed he comes to get tacos and he will see a line of people in this half short bus that is our kitchen.

19:01It's a school bus, right? And he was like, how many people are in there? Well, there's only three working, but there's four more hanging out and they're kind of on the way, to be honest. And like, so that's Troy from Black Dynasty. You got people from Marsh House, you got people from Continental. And they're just on their way to work, right? And grabbing a taco and hanging out in the kitchen. So it kind of looks like one of those cloud cars, you know, it's like a half school bus and four chefs come out. There's so many people. Four chefs come out. There's only three working. But he had the idea. He goes, hey, can we can we pop, can we roll in? We got to talk to the industry. That's who we are after. So we are doing this Sunday. Twelve to two thirty. Brian and the given kitchen are giving away one hundred tacos or as many as we can do in those two hours and a half. And there's a catch. He wants to help you. He wants to provide his tools. He wants to give you a swag bag. Say you're home with a taco and swag bag and information, which to me is really important.

20:05You know, I come from a line cook dishwasher line could hierarchy, right? As you could say to where there's been times that a concept like the given kitchen would have been helpful to know. Back in those back when I moved from the Bronx into Anya and I thought I lived in Beverly Hills now. So I had a patio, you know, so like, holy shit. So back then, you know, what? Ten years ago, ten dollars an hour. Definitely somebody like the given kitchen would have kicked in just right. But we're not, I guess, industry big enough then. And now they're trying to raise awareness and moving to Nashville. So that's why we're here. Jen, are you familiar with the given kitchen? No, I want to hear all the details about it. So they're based in Atlanta, I believe, and they're coming to Nashville. They're doing a huge launch over the next couple of weeks. We're actually going to have them on the show. We're going to do the whole story. What they do is if you've been affected, if you had a fire in your home, if you have been injured, you can't go to work and you work in the hospitality industry, they take care of you.

21:16They will take care of your electricity. They'll take care of your gas bill. They'll buy you groceries. They'll do all the things that you can't really afford to do because you've had an accident. When the tornado came through and took people's houses out, they were willing to come in and help. It's a hospitality-focused people that come in and help you. If you've had an accident, you hurt yourself at work and you can't go to work, they come in and take care of all the things so that you can get back and you don't fall so far behind that you can't get out of the... They're just an amazing, amazing charity. I love that. I love that there's so many hospitality things popping up for our people. I used to work for CORE, which is Children of Restaurant Employees, and they help with that for children that can't... They have a procedure they need and their parents aren't available to pay for it because they're a dishwasher or a busboy. And so I just love that the community comes together in this way and Nashville is so special in that too. Another thing that they do is if you need to go to rehab, if you have substance abuse issues and you need to go spend 28 days at rehab, they will one time, only one time.

22:28But if you work in hospitality industry, they'll pay for your bills while you go to rehab. That's incredible. That's huge. Yeah, it's amazing. For us, one of the things I want to do, and I don't know how successful I'll be, but I want to... So our concept has also a large following of legit Hispanic, Mexican, hardcore people. And I feel like they get left out a lot of times with all of this. So I'm hoping they're having Spanish makers to come this Sunday. So I'm hoping to also connect to some of those people because I think through the maize, it's possible. So I noticed that when we do special dishes at the truck, we'll do like legit, like granny, old school dishes and we'll have super proud Mexicans come check us out and they're like, really, let's see what you got. So we're meeting also that side of the industry that is huge. It's a huge part of the industry that often doesn't get connected and it'll just change because, I don't know, media, language barrier.

23:29So that's one thing we're gonna try to approach moving forward. So I don't think it'll be a once, I think, with maize. We'll probably keep working with them and see how far we can push it. I love it, man. Yeah. So if you are out there this Saturday, you said? Sunday, Sunday. Sunday, are you gonna be at Chopper? Yeah, so that's our residency for now. We do Chopper Saturdays and Sundays, pretty much all day long. But for the free tacos and the given kitchen, we'll be there 12 to 2.30. And you can talk to them, you can catch them. I think it's the perfect time before you go to work. All right, 12 to 2.30 this Sunday. 12 to 2.30 at Chopper in East Nashville. All right, I know you're a busy, busy guy and you've gotta get going, but listen, we gotta do another show. I wanna do another full interview with you.

24:30I wanna know what your last year has been like. I'm sure you've got a million stories. We gotta catch up, man. And congratulations on all your success. You guys are just crushing it. Thank you for the window opportunity to talk and preach out. So I'll see you Sunday. Check out the given kitchen. They're all over town, not just with us today. I think they're doing Beard Artists on Saturday. Awesome Sunday. And I think I saw something with Monique Shahan on Monday. So. Great. We're gonna be talking about it all. All right. See you guys. Bye. Bye, buddy. See you later. Bye. Bye. All right, thank you Julio for joining us. And what was the name of that movie? The Shape of Water. The Shape of Water. Okay, so while that was playing, we figured out the Shape of Water. I'm gonna watch that, the second that both of my children are well and aren't trying to sleep on our bedroom every night. Yes. So Julio is doing pop-ups. Let's talk about some other pop-ups that are going on right now. You can catch Julio at Mays Del Vita at Chopper Tiki.

25:32The cool thing right now, if you have a restaurant and you're not busy on Sunday and Monday night, is to invite young and up and coming chefs who don't have brick and mortars to come into your place, which is exactly what has happened at Bastion and El Abrege. Edgar Victoria is at Bastion every Sunday and Monday night. You can go catch Michael Hanna's St. Vito's focaccia. He is Sunday nights only right now at Hathorn on Charlotte. Have you gone there and done that? No, we haven't and I want to so badly. It is? I know, you told me. Because remember, you went there on a night I went to a bad dinner. Oh, that's right. Yeah, so. That was Jennifer's birthday. My wife's 40th birthday, we went to St. Vito's. Yeah, and I went somewhere we won't name, but it was bad. And so I heard all about your dinner and saw all the photos, it looked so good. So you know, another pop-up that's really gaining a lot of notoriety is the Bad Luck Burger Club.

26:39I've seen them everywhere. Smash Burgers, they're doing pop-ups. Follow them on Instagram, go find them on Instagram and they will post where they are popping up right now. Another one that we heard a lot about the other day in a show was Pizza Lolo. Pizza Lolo and again, follow them on Instagram. These people are doing pop-ups all the time. That's exactly, I would love to tell you all the pop-ups they're doing, they're just not posted yet. So they're literally popping up, Pizza Lolo's a big one and then Beginner's Luck, who I think just finished a residency over at the Van Dyke. They're a sandwich pop-up and again, follow them on, follow them on Instagram, Beginner's Luck Sandwich Shop. One that's very, I'm excited about and I think it's gonna be something that's gonna be way more than just a pop-up. Nathan Gifford from Gifford's Bacon and Prime South Meats had a dream, he had a dream to do a sandwich shop with his very own pate and crew and he's doing a lot of his own meats and it is called the People's Champ.

27:46It is brand new. Yeah, it's exciting. He's very passionate about it, which is what you need. That is, well, you know what, when you have a, he's so like genuine too. You have this dream of, hey, I always wanted to own a sandwich shop that was just authentic and just amazing, which I think is what Bill's Sandwich Palace, Bill's Sandwich Shop is doing. Also, I think they're over at TKO on the weekends. So go check them out, but Nathan Gifford is just, follow him at Gifford's Bacon or Nathan Gifford and or Prime South Meats. They'll post when they do pop-ups. Sometimes he does them over at the bacon shop or as I like to call it, the bacon barn over off Straightway Avenue in East Nashville and there it is, the new way to do pop-ups. If you, you know, you heard in that interview from Julio that he's working with the Giving Kitchen. The Giving Kitchen is, they're just doing amazing things and they're here officially in Nashville.

28:48We had, on January the 14th, if you go back, you go to Anchor or the website and you go back to January 14th, you can go to YouTube. We had Ryan Schroeder on who is kind of the director over at the Giving Kitchen. He gives a really good update to exactly what the Giving Kitchen offers and they are offering right now for you. I think I mentioned it in the interview, but if you've been in an accident, you need help. They will come and help pay your bills for you while you recover. If you need to go to rehab, you need anything like that. They're just, it's a charity that I wanna get behind in a very big way and a bunch of other people have too. Tomorrow, Sunday, they're gonna be at Chopper with Julio Hernandez. They're gonna be on Monday, 927. They're gonna be at the Bearded Iris in Sylvan Supply for Beard Pizza and they're talking about what they're doing. On Sunday the 3rd, they're gonna be at One City, the Avvo parking lot.

29:49So you know where like the Sandbar is over there in Avvo? They're gonna be at the One City parking lot, giving stuff away again. I think they've got different packs, but if you're somebody who wants to go learn about them, you wanna be somebody who donates your time, go find them in the parking lot at Avvo and they're, this is legit. These guys are doing great, great things. One more pop-up note. I think this is Kisser's last weekend at Patterson House. Oh, so go today, good luck getting reservations. They take walk-ins. Yes, and they've opened it up too to where it's bar seating as well, I believe. So they have added more seats and I don't know where they're headed next, but I know that this is their last weekend at Patterson House. God, that was such a great dinner. Yeah, that was fun. Kisser, right, and Leah. Okay, we're gonna talk about this next segment and it's gonna be like the bar life with Ben Powell and I am not a bar guy anymore.

30:49Right. So I don't have a lot of insight to this, which is why we bring in the professionals. Ben Powell, who was our last episode here on Nashville Restaurant Radio, is going to join us now to tell us about his favorite places and tell us a little bit more about the Fable Lounge. What's going on, Ben? That's another day in paradise, my friends. Hanging out here, making dreams come true. We just got a liquor shipment in, so I'm extremely excited about that. Some new products, some new stuff as we gear up for a 100-part cocktail list on menu as we roll into the next couple of months. So it'll be fully released in November. Wow, so this is perfect because we're talking about drinks in the Fable Lounge. You said a 100-part cocktail list. What does that even mean? So I'm fortunate that I'm surrounded by a couple of geniuses that can see the essence of a spirit inside a spirit. Additionally, I'm the guy that takes their genius of what they do, and they are like a Monet, they're like a Picasso, and they just paint.

32:03And then I'm like, that's awesome, but we need to create a paint-by-numbers segment here so that other people can follow along with their books. And so what that essentially means is that we do a couple things. So we have what are called notions and what we call potions. And those are essentially staff-created cocktails from our lead bartender to my business partner to other members of the bar team. And then we have what are called prohibition classics in which we are reincarnating drinks like the Old Fashioned, the Boulevardier, all the way to Vucaray, to Beesniz. Gimlet, Rusty Nail type stuff? Absolutely, so basically enhancing those drinks in the modern formats that exist. And so these individuals are so well trained and knowledgeable in what they're doing from the golden ratio to the riff ratio to all these different high-level things where I'm like, yo, I got an idea.

33:05If you take vodka and soda and put a lime on it, boom. And they're like, yeah, you're cute. So ultimately, it's one of those things where these guys are able to kind of create, make their own syrups, make their own shrubs, make their own kind of thing and can literally mold and enhance the elements of a spirit and move things forward in every way. So it's one of the most impressive feats and we're very fortunate to be surrounded by such high-level talented and passionate individuals about doing them. So you guys are a restaurant and a cocktail bar. You got multiple facets to your restaurant. And this is a quick, I'm gonna do a quick promo right here. You can listen to Ben Powell in a full interview next Friday. You're gonna get to hear all about the Fable Lounge, every single thing that they're doing over there. I think we may even get a tour. So listen in to Nashville Restaurant Radio next Friday if you wanna learn all about the Fable Lounge. But now, Ben, let me ask you this.

34:07Bar etiquette, right? So let's just say I'm a newbie and I don't know what a shrub is and I'm walking into a bar that has a 100-part cocktail menu. I'm intimidated. I'm just, hey, look, I'm just coming out because it's Friday night and it's amateur night. I'm intimidated by what you guys are doing. Do I need to be intimidated? What do I need to do when I walk into a bar? Do I just tell the bartender, hey, I have no fucking clue what's going on here? Help me or do I put a $20 bill on the table and go, please don't make fun of me? Like, what goes on? So ultimately, the easiest way, especially for us here, and I think most other establishments do this as well, but if you walk into an establishment like this and you have a little bit of an open mind but you know what you like, we here at the Fable Lounge are an equal opportunity indulger of all libations. So there's no judgment if you're big on vodka, if you only like Kentucky bourbons, if there's no, we're never trying to force you, you gotta try this, or you don't know what you're talking about.

35:10It's one of those things that if you're interested in, we'll take the time to teach you. And so especially for us, it's really one of those opportunities where you get to sit and be with master craftsmen and you get to indulge and engage in what their passions are. And so for example, for someone that really enjoys rye as a spirit of choice, we have multiple different rye cocktails that play into that. And so essentially part of our responsibility is to kind of get a sense, do you want something sweet? Do you want something more savory? Do you like something light like a butterfly? Do you want it to be more dance of a flame? So we have a drink here, it's called moth to a flame, cucumber cilantro. We've aged essentially spicy peppers inside the tequila. And it's aptly named because it's like a moth coming into the flame, gets stung, comes back out, comes back, and you just want more and it keeps coming back for more.

36:15And so I think we are fortunate that we're able to cross the divide from what would be a easy palatable. If your biggest drink in life was sex on the beach or madras, which was mine growing up, and yet the palette as a country has elevated and now people are drinking drinks like emotional intelligence, they're drinking drinks like moth to a flame, take a beat, all these drinks that are literally five, seven, nine, 12, 17 ingredients, that's so much better. And so our biggest thing that we say here, if you don't like it, I'll drink it. So therefore the burden is off of you. If you literally do not like the drink, we're good, we got you, you don't need to enjoy it. Now, if you go through seven in a row, we're gonna calm you down a little bit, but at the same time, that's how we operate. So I think in terms of bar etiquette, if you come in, and I think in any restaurant, hey, what's your favorite? What do you like to indulge in? What do you like to do? Code vernacular term here is called dealer's choice.

37:15Hey man, I'm interested in whiskey dealer's choice. Therefore, okay, no problem. They'll put something together for you and it'll blow your mind, absolutely. So that is okay. So if I don't know your menu, if I don't know some of the ingredients, because you have different tinctures that you're gonna make. I don't know what those things are. It's okay for me to say, I like this drink. Can you make something that's like it, that looks pretty? You can do something along those lines. Absolutely, absolutely. And the staff takes a lot of pride in that. And it's more because they're excited about it. They want you to learn what hibiscus is. They want you to know what that is. And if you don't care about it, then who cares? We're not gonna bore you with it. We're not gonna say it again. So you got this, it's beet juice, it's, you know. If you enjoy it, great. If you wanna learn about it, we'll tell you about it. Absolutely. So you can go either way. So there's, no, you don't need to be intimidated going into a bar that has a 100-part cocktail menu. You can just go in, relax, and you have multiple places. You could start, have a cocktail here, then go have an ice cold beer here, and a glass of wine and a cigar on your lounge.

38:21Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. There's no rules. However, I would say this, ordering hot tea in any restaurant at eight o'clock on a Saturday is usually the fastest way to kill the boat. Definitely. But if you're big on hot tea, it's definitely good. I think most consumers don't realize the steps that it takes in a restaurant that is designed for dinner. This is true of steak houses, this is true, you know. It's where you have to go to seven different locations because the lemon's over there, the honey's down there, the hot water's over here. I need a teabag and a spoon and all that. The tea box has to come to the table. You don't do it. Yeah, and then somebody wants skim milk instead of 2%. You're just like, oh, okay. No. Are there drinks that you turn your nose up at? So if I walk in and I go, give me a Long Island tea, are you gonna immediately judge me? Because I would. No, actually, this is the way I look at it. I think in this business, for example, in any other business in the world, they're constantly moving forward.

39:23We're progressing on this, we're moving on that. In this industry, every joke has been pretty much played out. I hated it, and they were, you know, plates empty. Worst drink ever, and I drank the whole thing. The way we look at that is how do I elevate that experience to beyond? So someone says they hated that dish, but the plate's clean, like, well, thank you for looking all of it to make sure it completely sucked. I appreciate your sacrifice. When it comes to drinking like that, we're not gonna make you a Long Island iced tea. We're gonna make you the best Long Island iced tea you've ever had, ever. And that's the beyond part of it, is because if you can elevate what everyone else disdains or sneers at or just kind of go, mm, again, I believe there's other choices out there that are a little bit more exciting than a Long Island iced tea. But I tell you what, man, if that's your jam, we got you. Like, we'll make that happen for you. And I think that's definitely, you know, one of the key components to it.

40:24Absolutely, there's just certain things. I'm like, why would you, what? Like, eh, I don't know about that. By the way, hey, if it's your jam, who are we to judge? As long as you enjoy it, that's all that matters. So, but absolutely, there was a point in time where, you know, it was like, oh yeah, you like vodka, you can't handle gin, you know. But when you realize most people who had gin for the first time in their life was at a college party, it was probably Ted Ray, and no one really wanted a love affair with a pine tree. And so they drank. Or it was in a trash can with a bunch of fruit. Right, exactly. So they drank too much, got sick, and then like, I hate jams. Or we can introduce all these other gins and all that kind of thing. So I think that's where we try to be impartial to that moment is that we understand that Bud Light is an amazing beer. We think it's absolutely incredible. We also have some other opportunities here that you could try something else and it would also be just as amazing. And that's kind of where we highlight on that.

41:27Okay, so let's move away from your amazing place. I know it's hard to do that, but let's say that you get off work, you said, hey, if you don't like it, I'll drink it. So you probably don't have to do much drinking at work, but sometimes you do. Where are you going when you get off? Where are your favorite places to get a good cocktail around town? It's quite a few actually. I would definitely say Fox is definitely one of them. Attaboy is always a very impressive experience at all times. Patterson also. From the east side, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, and then I always like to do kind of a local shout out to some of the local individuals. There's a bar restaurant, Answer that just opened another one called Flatiron where they are, it's great food, great energy, great cocktails as well. They definitely aren't trying to do what Fable does in that higher level, but they've got some amazing drinks on there, very friendly style.

42:28And then even next door to us is the local, great group of guys listen to live music and definitely get a beer, do a shot, do your thing, but definitely good stuff for all of that. Personal favorite when you're getting into the higher end world. Optimus is always a fun time as well as E3, STK, Kane Prime. I think what's great about Nashville is that there's almost no wrong choice. It's just a matter of what feels good for you at the moment. Okay. I like it. Thank you so much. There's a lot of stuff we just took out of that, Ben, and hopefully our listeners can come visit you. Where exactly, what is your address? Where are you located for Fable? Yeah, so we're at 28th Avenue North, so 114, 28th Avenue North, which is in between West End and Poston Street, right by Centennial Park, actually literally less than 100 feet from Centennial Park, next to the local, amazing singer-songwriter bar right next to us.

43:36For those that don't wanna go all the way downtown and enjoy the pure excitement of navigating scooters and other people that have been drinking heavily, West End does all that, and we're a stone's throw away from Vandy Campus, where all the games happen. So yeah. Awesome. So Ben Powell, thank you so much for joining us on the Music City Roundup. Absolutely, I appreciate your time, sir. Cheers. Yeah, man. Cool, cheers. All right, so welcome back. Ben Powell, I love the way that that guy's, the guy's voice is like, he's just amazing with the way in which he talks. And I typically don't do impressions on the show. On the show. Today, I've decided, young gentlemen and gentle ladies, but this is what I will be doing. He's awesome. Brandon does impressions all day outside of the show. And it's funny when you know one is coming. Yeah.

44:36Like you hear somebody talk and you're like, oh, I'm gonna hear this again. I love listening to like Howard Stern. And I love it when he does, like he has like Jimmy Fallon on or somebody who does impressions. They're so good. They're so good. Have you heard, do you watch SNL? I, well, yeah, when it's live. Okay, so Chloe Feynman is like this new star breakout on SNL. Anyway, she does like incredible. She does Britney Spears and Drew Barrymore and like everybody, I'll send you some. She's so good. It's ridiculous. No, I know who Chloe Feynman is. Yeah, I haven't watched for her impressions. I'll have to check it out. Oh my God, she's so funny. It's good stuff. So Delia Jo Ramsey, our first, my first co-host on this show, she's the editor over at Eater Nashville. And you know what? She's a much better gauge of where to go drinking. And if you want to go follow her, she is at Dining with Delia Jo.

45:40I think that's her Instagram handle. She's awesome. She goes all around town and eats all over the place and posts pictures and just talks about it. Her page is fantastic. But they just posted an article and go follow Eater Nashville. They're good people over there. She put a, the list of the best bars you should be drinking at right now. And I'm gonna go over this list because, you know, this isn't necessarily my gig, but you know, I know about some of them. She says, number one, the Fox Bar in Cocktail Club in East Nashville. The Pearl Diver, which is right next to our friends, Nick and Audrick Guidry, the Pelican Pig. Chopper Tiki, which is where you'll find Julio and Mayas de la Vida. Atta Boy, which is, from what I understand, like one of the best bars in the whole city. Mother's Ruin in Germantown, directly kind of caddy corner down the street from one of my favorite places, the Germantown Pub. Jane's Hideaway, which is in, what is that place called, the Printer's Alley.

46:41Jane's Hideaway, super cool kind of neat little tucked away place, Jane's Hideaway. The 1230 Club is about to open their top floor, the Supper Club, but the 1230 Club right there in the new fifth and broad is Sam Fox and Justin Timberlake's place. And it is super swank. Yeah, I saw some photos, it looks swanky. Yes. Now, I know a lot of people would previously or still do like to go to Printer's Alley and there is, my brain's drawing a blank right now on the Skoll's Rainbow Room is a great drink, but I just noticed that we had Akende Ulegundiye on our show and he was kind of one of their main bartenders. He's now at the Continental. So the Continental right there in the Grand Hyatt is another place, if you wanna do high end cocktails, he's over there now. So if you're wondering where to find Akende, go check him out at the Continental. Bar Silverain is another one. And then Otto's, we did a live remote from Otto's before they even opened, check it out, James and Louisa Green, they also own Headquarters Coffee Shop.

47:51Otto's, it's in an old auto repair place. So it's like they have, Otto's, like A-U-T-O-S, but O-T-T-O-S. It's super cool, it's a really neat little place. They've got a great patio. The Patterson House, Patterson House always is kind of the first speakeasy that this city has seen. The Fable Lounge, of course, you just heard Ben Powell talk about it. Bastion, you get the best nachos in town at Bastion. And then the final one on our list is Old Glory, Britt and Alexis Salar, they were at 308, and if you like that, you will love Old Glory. That place is absolutely beautiful. These like 30 foot ceilings and- Oh, I used to go a lot. It's such a cool- Back when I lived in like Nashville, I would go a lot. Have you been to any of those places I just described? I've been to nothing new, because the two people I hang out with the most, you and my husband, are both sober, so I don't go to a lot of new bars.

48:54But all of the older ones, yes, I've been to. All right, so now, I really wanna get into this. The biggest issue, everybody that I talk to on the show, what's the number one issue in restaurants right now, Jen? Hiring. Hiring! Everybody out there is dying. We all need quality people, and I think we've got some great people, I'm really excited about the people we have, but we always need some more, and I'm looking for some best practices to what to do, how to hire the best people, and so we went straight to the source. We went to Mary Pillow Thompson, who is the owner of Faux & Beaux, but she could very well easily be our female-owned spotlight, because she is female-owned, and she is, her and her partner, Hallie Hayes, started Faux & Beaux, and they're local, they live right here in Nashville, and they are doing a fantastic job. Let's jump in right now with Mary Pillow Thompson. Excited here to be with Mary Pillow Thompson from F-O-H and B-O-H.com, which is Faux & Beaux, and thank you so much for being here.

50:04Thanks for having me, thanks for having me. It's a busy season that we're in. Well, so it is, and that's one of the reasons why we really wanted to have you on the Music City Roundup, because we've got such a crazy, crazy environment. If you ask 10 restaurateurs what their biggest challenge is right now, I think 11 of them would tell you it's tiring. And so since you guys have the newest, the best website as to how to get those people in the building, I thought today would be a lot of fun to kind of talk about some best practices that you're seeing as somebody who's in the business. What are you seeing right now, help us out, what are some best practices we can start employing right now? Yeah, absolutely. I think for restaurants, they need to do what they can to sell themselves to candidates, potential workers. It is no longer just about the wage compensation that's certainly important, it's always gonna be important, but that in and of itself is not really what a potential candidate is looking for just alone.

51:18So restaurants need to talk about their culture, they need to talk about and communicate and really sell themselves on what it's like to work, not just for maybe the big corporation that they belong to, but for that location specifically. There are many restaurants that belong to a chain, a group, but each location has their unique identity, and they need to really work on that and convey to the candidates what it's like to work at the location in East Nashville, what is it like to work in the location downtown or in Brentwood. So those different personalities matter to the candidate. So much more than just, hey, we're bringing X amount of dollars, you're telling me candidates right now wanna know what kind of quality of life they're gonna have inside the building, at the job. Yeah, that's right. I mean, look, they are in high demand right now. So it is, they can potentially walk into just about any restaurant in town and be hired, or at least there's a need for the role that they could occupy.

52:31And so what they're really looking for is they wanna come to work and they wanna enjoy it and they wanna be happy and they wanna know what would it be like on the inside to work with this team at this location. I can tell you on Faux and Beaux, we make a big effort to let each location talk about themselves uniquely. We allow them to customize their messaging according to that location so that their voice really can come across to the candidates when they're reaching out to them. But yeah, Brandon, I think that the communication, I will say, we take a poll, we ask candidates what they value most. And I think it might surprise people to know that compensation is not number one, but it really boils down to communication. And the more open and the more genuine the communication can be between management and the workforce, the happier the team is and the longer they will stick around at that establishment.

53:44Well, you took the question from me because I was about to say, now how does Faux and Beaux allow the restaurateur to differentiate? You jumped right in there. Yeah. If I'm a candidate and I'm going to Faux and Beaux because I want to find that job, why is that different than other sites? I think just that because they can peruse not only just, is there a server position open at this place? That's pretty standard, right? You can read that on Craigslist. But on Faux and Beaux, they can read unique messages, personalized messages from the hiring manager to them. They can read about the location itself and not about the food they serve and that it's farm to table and that it's fresh and they've got happy hours eight days a week, but they can read about what it's like to work there.

54:45Oh, cool. Now today, I remarked earlier and I'm gonna change my view here so that people can see me. I decided this morning that I was gonna wear a tie because I haven't worn a tie in like 10 years and I don't know what it was. How important is it to dress for an interview? Like when you're walking up to me, how important is it that people dress the part? I think that's a great question because I think there is the misconception that the restaurant industry, which is cool and fun and relaxed and casual, and it does, when you're showing up for an interview, what's the old saying? Dress like you want the job, not like you have the job. Just because once you're six months into the job, it's cool for you to show up on a Friday in jeans and a T-shirt doesn't mean that's what you wear to an interview. It's still big business to the owner. I mean, whether it's a bar on Broadway, it doesn't mean that the role you're applying for is not a serious role that impacts the bottom line and therefore the success of that business.

55:54So it is not a joking matter. If they need a good bartender, they need a good bartender and that's gotta be taken professionally and seriously. So it's very important. It just conveys that you are a professional in the industry. It's amazing, because I would completely agree with that. I go come in for server or host jobs wearing suits and I'm like, well, you're overdressed for the part, but I'm always pleasantly surprised that somebody's overdressed. It's never a, oh wow, you're wearing sandals. You really got this job down, but like coming in in a suit and tie lets me know that you are serious and that you project well, I wanna look good, I feel good and I take this seriously. Yeah, that's just it. It shows that whatever your best dress is, it just shows that you've taken the time. It was important enough not just to roll out of bed and throw on your workout clothes to go to the interview. Yeah, amazing.

56:54So what are some other trends you're seeing in Nashville? If I'm on a restaurant tour in Nashville, is it hard to sign up for a phone book? I mean, I imagine everybody signed up for phone book now. Do you have every restaurant in the whole city using you guys? I know we do. Just about, just about. I'll say that's one thing that we really focused on from the get-go was making it super easy. We all know what it's like to go to a website and you just wanna buy the sweater in your cart and you can't because there's all this stuff getting in the way and so we wanted to make it really easy for people to hit the website, click sign up, put your restaurant in there. We should already have it in there so you don't even have to type the address in there and then just say, hey, I'm looking for a server or Lioncook, whatever it is and boom, you're it. Like there's no... You can hire who you need to hire. That's right, that's right. So you can turn it off and turn it on.

57:57You can peruse behind the curtain without any long drawn out process. So we made it very easy. I love that. And what was my last? I had another question for you and I forgot what it was. Well, if they do want a long drawn out process, they can talk to sales. Yeah. Gosh, I would say the process to sign up an account, if I'm out there and listening and I want to sign up, everything's free if you're looking for a job, right? That's right, that's exactly right. And I'm glad you mentioned that because I think for candidates, it's often overlooked that we could be a huge asset to them. I mean, even though they could walk into about any restaurant and they would have an opening and a need, that is still time consuming for them. Whereas when a candidate creates their profile on Faux & Beaux, they tell us what types of establishments they want to work in.

59:02So if they don't want to work in a country club or they don't want to work in a hunky-tonk, but they do want fine dining or they do want a coffee shop, then our technology acts as a personal recruiter for them. And so we're able to see what coffee shops are hiring that are near where they told us they're commuting from and how long they're willing to commute to work. So we can present to them, hey, you might want to look at ANSI Blue, they're hiring in Hillsborough Village for a barista. And so we've taken the legwork out of that for them and surface those openings for the candidates. Well, I know that you guys have, this is a company that is woman-owned. You guys are locally owned and operated. I think you see Fauxandbeaux.com, you go on there and you go, wow, this is a really nice website. You guys are expanding rapidly, but you live here in Nashville.

01:00:02That's right, that's right, born and raised. It used to not be corn, but it is. She's a unicorn. That's right. So this is so much fun. It's great to catch up with you. And if you're out there looking for a job you need to find, you need to go to Fauxandbeaux and you need to sign up with them. Mary Pillow, thank you so much for taking the time today to just give us an update on the market, some of the best practices, and I can't wait to talk to you again on our next episode. Sounds great. Thank you, Brandon, for having me. It was fun. All right, so Mary Pillow Thompson, thank you so much for joining the show. If you out there need to hire people, and I know that you do, go check out Fauxandbeaux.com. We are active users of it in our restaurants. And we just, we're getting, I have a manager in the building who's using it right now, who we got on Fauxandbeaux, she's an absolute rock star. All right, we're gonna segue right now into our African-American-owned Spotlight, who this one, coincidentally, is a female-owned Spotlight.

01:01:07Jen, your friend, Keisha Hay, owner of Sip and Bite Catering, you got to catch up with her, how did that go? It was good, I hadn't talked to her in a couple of years. So I knew Keisha when I briefly left the restaurant industry, I was the National Sales Director for Bridal Company, and we rented out our spot to a few other industry professionals. And I met Keisha who does her own, she does Sip and Bite Catering, Sip and Bite Cocktail Catering. And she does maybe the most beautiful food I've ever seen. It's incredible. And it's like small portions, right? Cause she does bites and stuff like that, but they're all gorgeous. And she's just a beautiful person with the best energy of anyone. And she's very calming. And yeah, she's a really impressive person and I'm really excited for her. Cause when I had met her is when she first started to take the leap into doing this full time. So I'm really excited for her, that she's had success and that she continues to grow. And she's just a very impressive, cool lady.

01:02:11I love it, let's jump in with the interview right now. All right, y'all. So I am here with Chef Keisha of Sip and Bite Cocktail. How are you? Oh, I'm doing so good, how are you? I'm so good. So tell us a little bit about Sip and Bite and how you came to be because you are not only a female owner, a woman, but you are also a black woman business owner, which is incredible. Yeah, so Sip and Bite pretty much formulated. Since I was 15, I've been in the restaurant industry. And when I went to college, I studied fashion design. And while in college, I was kind of having one of those crisis moments. Like, is this what I wanna do with the rest of my life? And I was working in food and beverage and got introduced into the mixologist, I guess, community. And that's kind of what sparked the creativeness of what I take from fashion design and merging that with food. I was like, oh, if I can do this with cocktails, I can do this with food. And I love small bites, I love tapas, I love sharing.

01:03:13And so those two ideals just kind of came together. And the other part of it is not just so much about what you're eating, but how it looks presentation. Really big for me. And so I officially established Sip and Bite back in 2014. Just private chefing part-time while I was working other part-time jobs and other, you know, I had a full-time job. And finally in 2019, that's when I took the full leap of I'm doing this. I'm not stepping foot in another restaurant to work for anyone else. I wanna work for myself. And I love the intimacy between, you know, the client and the chef to be able to have those conversations, design menus that are custom, so. That's so cool. I didn't know that you went to fashion school, but that makes complete sense considering, like your food is some of the most beautiful. For you to do it and like, because they are small plates, right? So for you to do like that many elements that are that beautiful is so impossible.

01:04:14Like I'm, every time you post something, I'm like, goodness gracious. Well, you know, it's one of those things like just, I've been in art since I was little. And so I approach the plate as if I were approaching my sketch pad or, you know, when I was draping fabrics and just kind of, you know, that whole visualization. And then the, you know, obviously the culinary part comes in where you're just trying to build those elements. So the same thing with fashion. When I was in high school, actually made prom dresses for two years. Oh, wow. Had a hand bead. And so I do remind those like very tedious, you know, steps in order to get to the bigger picture. So yeah. That's very cool. Golly, hand beading, that's a lot. Yeah, they laughed at me at the fabric store. I said, just watch. And I came back with a pretty much fully beaded. Yeah. Oh my God, I want you to send me a picture, but I want to see it. I have to dig it up somewhere, somewhere hiding within these walls.

01:05:17Well, so I, you know, we talk a lot about, Brandon and I talk personally about it, like when we're just, or privately, I guess, about it, about women in the industry and how like now it's finally becoming normal. But for a long time, it really wasn't normal. And- Well, I feel like maybe, yeah, there's the part of it not being normal. And then there's also the part of not getting the exposure. Yes. You know, they could have been there all this time and they don't get, we don't get that as equal of exposure. I mean, now there's obviously more preface on that and having pretty much equality, you know, across the board with, okay, this person is being showcased just as much as this person, but there's still so much work to do. There's so much work to do. And like, when we look at the past culinary, right? Like we can point to Julia Child, I think is the one that everyone's like, oh, Julia Child, I love her. I do. Because who doesn't love her, right?

01:06:17She was like super herself and she was okay to mess up. And she was just lovely. But anyway, we haven't had, we don't have a lot of that, right? We have, now we can point to like, I don't know. I feel, I don't want to like get canceled over this, but you can have, you can point to like Rachel Ray and like the pioneer woman and like, are they culinary experts? I don't know. Are they home cooks? I don't know. I think it depends on who you're talking to. And the level of expectation for what it is that they do. Yeah, and not to diss a home cook. Like I'm, I don't cook anything. Like I'm not, I'm not even a home cook. So like not to diss that. I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that you would be dissing it. I think again, there's just different tiers of something that appeals to different people at different levels and that's fair. So for you then, did you have somebody that you really looked up to in your life, either personally or professionally, that you were like, okay, they did that. I can do this. So, you know, that for me, I mean, I grew up watching Julia and Martha, two fat women, two fat ladies on PBS, you know, and then eventually merged into watching it.

01:07:30Oh my goodness. What's that one competition show? I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep going. But just like things that were food related and then eventually I, you know, I had a love hate relationship for Ina for just at the very, very beginning. And then I watched one of her episodes. She was making this really beautiful chilled shrimp salad and I tried it, I like made it at home. I was like, okay, like she knows what she's talking about. And I just fell in love with her. So, you know, but as far as like even, even in like the black culinary and spectrum, you know, Jessica B. Harris is definitely one of, you know, an influence for me. Maya Angelou, who actually surprisingly enough was also, you know, also has a cookbook or had a cookbook out. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. And, you know, there's definitely other Ida, other black women in culinary, but I wasn't exposed to them like I was exposed to Julia, you know, so I learned about them later. And it wasn't until I stumbled upon and started following this podcast called Cherry Bomb and they, she was interviewing a black private chef, woman private chef.

01:08:41And in my mind, I'm like, I had no idea this was even a thing. Yeah. You know, that that's something that I could actually aspire to do. Cause you know, unfortunately there is that stereotype that, you know, someone like me may only make a certain type of food and not really get, you know, whatever recognition for stepping outside of the box. So, you know, I get overlooked. Well, and unfortunately that stereotype too is not just that it's certain types of food, but it's like a certain level of food, right? Like the level that you execute at is impressive. It is like, and not impressive because you're black or because you're a woman, because it's impressive. Well, and I'm not classically trained. I, you know, a lot of it was learn and watch by observing, asking questions. I worked at a country club for almost five, for about five and a half years. I feel like everyone starts in country clubs. I hear this all the time. It's a very interesting world. You know, that was where I had started bartending. And, you know, my dearest friend, David, he was essentially my mentor for this.

01:09:44And we would make infusions and, you know, he was so inspired by Patterson House that, you know, we were doing bitters and tinctures and our own simple syrups and trying to really kind of jazz up the country club, you know, kind of stay with me where it's like, I just want my Manhattan, my martini or my old fashioned. Nothing wrong with that, but we have younger generations, you know, that are now members. And we want to also appeal to just all of you trying something different. And so with that, also our chef, who I was good friends with, you know, they would do these cocktail receptions and I would just see them making these really beautiful little, you know, style bites. And I'm like, wow, okay. I'm really intrigued. I want to learn more. What am I tasting? What are you doing? And so that's kind of how I absorbed all of that. Were your parents good cooks or did you just? My, so my mom, she great cook.

01:10:46My dad really was like the, yeah, the culinarian and not like at the really super high level. He actually, so my family had a wing restaurant for about 15 years and he actually started that uncle and my cousin. And it was called Buffalo Express at the time. And then they switched it over to Knockout Wings and it was located on Jefferson street. My uncle just retired the business last year right after the tornado. Cause it came down that area. And I think they got a little bit of damage. It wasn't anything crazy, but I think that for him was a sign to say it's time to move on. So that technically was my first restaurant job was. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's sweet. So where do you see, I'd say that both the future of Sip and Bite, right? And then the future of you as well, like as you're evolving and things like that or because representation does matter and we've talked about that a lot.

01:11:47So I want to see you everywhere. So what is your goal for you and for the catering company? So my goal for me is to be able to interact with as many and have intentional interactions, not just be in all the places, but having intentional connections and interactions with clients, with collaborators and really focusing on the passion projects too. And just in artistically motivated projects because that's what I feel like feeds the soul of my company. I'm able to, yes, meet different clients and do different types of menus for them, which keeps me excited. But it's also when I'm able to then come into like have an idea come into fruition of something that like a high tea, like I do these pop up high teas and they just feed me so much that it's not so much that I'm making money off of it at this point, but I get to be as creative as I want to be and expressive as I want to be.

01:12:56So just continuing that and working with people that want to see something beautiful happen out of all these really cool ideas. And the thing too that I also kind of try to, there's a little bit of a difference with catering and private chefing, that catering is definitely needed. We need that, especially for like the larger groups. And I think that's a necessity for sure. With private chefing, it's a little bit more intimate, digging a little bit more deep into menu development. And for me, I'm a researcher. So I feel like sometimes with catering and this is not to knock them at all, but you have to really work off of certain guidelines. Yeah, you're going for the bulk. Exactly. Whereas for me, I have people ask me all the time, could you do like 70, 100 people? And I'm like, I could, but then I start to lose myself in the numbers and I'd rather focus on what's a quality versus trying to knock out something.

01:14:02And so that's also the other thing is just keeping that intimate approach moving forward and really establishing the style of what it is that comes with Sip and Bite. So do you want to eventually, do you ever want like a restaurant proper or are you like, no, I just want a restaurant? I am very much a butterfly. I love to just be able to flutter into different situations, also being able to travel. My mentor, Sophia, she hosts a women in chocolate retreat and she does that out of her and her father's hacienda out in Santa Fe. And so opportunities like that to be able to, she's gonna be flying me out there next year to chef's for the ladies of the retreat. That to me is more appealing than kind of being in the kitchen held. And eventually I would like to get settled in to where I can have an intimate space to host out of that kind of acts like your restaurant, but not really. So trying to figure out mixing the best of both worlds.

01:15:06But pop-ups, I love the pop-up idea. So we're working on that. We just had one, my friend Holly of Golden Roots another private chef. She and I just co-cheffed for a secret pop-up dinner at a client's house. And so that concept to me is more doable. Yeah. Well, that's so fun. Exactly. You can put it up and break it down in about 48 hours. It's very cool. And I love that Nashville is really like taking on to that right now. I think that's so important. Me too. So I have to ask, what is your, what do you eat in the restaurant? Like what are your favorite restaurants to go to? Who are your favorite chefs? Who are you looking at? They don't have to be well known. They can be up and coming or, you know. Well, you know, listen, I will always, always, always shout out my girl Malia with Lou. I, since, since they open and kind of following along that journey and also having friends say, you need to go try this place and you try this place. And this is probably like within like their first few months that they were open.

01:16:07And I noticed their menu right away the utilization of edible flowers. And there's restaurants I feel like that are now like getting more keen, like Butcher and B. I love how they use their edible flowers. But I was just so intrigued and impressed in how they were doing it. They weren't just throwing an orchid onto everything. They were actually putting it in the food which is what I do. Yes. So I've been looking for some, you know for a place to go to that, yes, the food you can eat that pretty much every single day. And it's just so beautiful to look at. So Lou, definitely one of my favorites. Once upon a time in France because I'm a French file at heart through and through. I just, I love that very classic brasserie style like French brasserie style, you know no craziness about it. Cause it takes me back to when I went to France. And so to be able to have that literally in my neighborhood, I don't live in East Nashville but I will go, I will go there for their food.

01:17:08And then I love Yolande. Yeah, I hear a lot about Yolande. Everyone's like, it's so good. You're not in Nashville. No, you don't. They're what really impressed me. Not only just like, I love the atmosphere but the presentation of the food and then it actually tasted good. Yeah. Cause sometimes you didn't get one or the other. Oh, absolutely. You know what I mean? But they had the most heavenly experience. We went for a friend's birthday and I just, it was just incredible. Every single thing we had was incredible. I was so, and then it wasn't like crazy pricing wise you know, we pretty much ate through the entire menu. So, you know, it, I feel like because I also come from a server background I noticed those things as well. And service is a big, big thing for me as well as food quality and presentation, you know and I'm, I know that there's other restaurants around town that probably hit on all those notes.

01:18:08Like I love Cafe Rose and Rose Pona, places like that. But, you know, it, I'm very picky when I do go out. Yeah. So, you know, spending the money and trying to invest in definitely, you know, the smaller business owner style smaller restaurants, those are very important. Those are really dear to my heart. So. Yeah, well, and honestly now in the city, you can be picky. Like we have enough options where it's like, okay, great. If you just want to be vegan like there's a ton of vegan places to go. Absolutely, we have choices. Yeah, which I mean, when I moved here, we did not have. No, no, and I'm born and raised. Yeah. You know, I'm used to seeing like most mostly old Charlie's and Shoney's and now they're like maybe one. I know you don't see those as often. I don't see them anymore. And so, you know, for me, it's like it's not like we grew up with this incredible, you know it definitely developed over time. And the ones that have great longevity, you know, they're still here.

01:19:10Yeah. So. They're putting us on the map. So tell us where we can, if somebody wants to book you how they book you, where they can find you, let us find you. Yeah, so I have a lot of people go through either my Instagram or my website. And typically with that, you know you fill out a contact form. I try to, at least in a sense, let you see visual like wise, what to expect. And then, you know, it's typically through email. You guys will reach out to me for the first initial contact but then I set up consult. So you can reach me through my website or through my Instagram. And from there, we just kind of start that consultation process and feel out each other's energy and make sure it's a right match. And then, yeah. And it's sip in bite, like not I N, just N, right? So for the website, sip in bite. So it's sip in bite private chef. Okay, perfect. Yeah. Very good, awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on Keisha.

01:20:10Thank you so much. I haven't seen you in a couple of years. So this was fun to catch up with you and learn more about you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And I really appreciate you guys for having me on today. All right, Jen, thank you so much for catching up with Keisha. She seems like she's just amazing. I definitely, if you're out there and you need a catering event, check out Keisha Hay over at Sip in Bite Catering. Well, it brings us to our final segment today is gonna be from, we're gonna start off the interview from Tavares Taylor. And he is the sales manager over at Cytex who's been an awesome partner to this show. And they used to sponsor the roundup and we told them, you know, hey, we're bringing this back. And they said, dude, we'd love to talk about what's new. Every time that I talk to these guys, they're telling me all of the new stuff they're doing. I go, well, you're a perfect candidate for what's new. Let's bring them on. So Tavares can talk about what's new. Then we're gonna tell you what restaurants are new in Nashville and coming to Nashville.

01:21:12So check it out here with Tavares Taylor. All right, so welcome to the roundup. Tavares Taylor from Cytex. So excited for you to tell us about what's new. How you doing, man? I'm doing well, brother, how are you? How you helping out? I'm doing fantastic, I'm excited. I've been doing a lot of traveling recently. So I've kind of been out of the loop. So I'm myself excited to learn what's new. And I'll give our listeners a little bit of backstory. Yeah. When we previously did the roundup, we had a segment called what's new. And that segment was we talked about all the new restaurants that are coming into town. And every time I talk to Ross, I get, he tells me about all these restaurants that I hadn't even heard about. And I said, man, we should bring back the what's new, but we should bring you guys on to talk about it. And he said, heck yeah, man, let's do it. So Tavares Taylor, you're the sales manager when the sales manager's over at Cytex and you're out and about spending all this time. So a perfect opportunity for you to tell us exactly what's out there right now. Absolutely.

01:22:14So as you know, Nashville in itself, we are continuously growing and growing and growing. Some of the new restaurants that we have had the opportunity to partner with. Audrey, we're actually about to start servicing them here next week. And that's under Chef Sean Brock. But we've also gotten Chefs Joyland as well as Continental. We have Calasino in Franklin, Tennessee. We just got a partnership with the 1230 Club, the Optimist, Super Rica. Let's see here. I just closed also Loveless Cafe. That was a really, while every one of those accounts, they were very genuine as far as the processes go. I was really excited about the Loveless Cafe because as you know, the Loveless Cafe is a big staple here to our city and to Nashville. So we've partnered with them and we're currently working with the Pancake Pantry as well. So those are two staples that I'm really excited about because they really represent the history here in Nashville.

01:23:18Have you got to go and tour inside of the Audrey? I have. I actually just left there today. I've been by the Audrey a couple of times this week. What are your thoughts? I keep hearing that it's just absolutely phenomenal. It is absolutely phenomenal. It's gonna be a top notch establishment. It's gonna be top notch quality. And I tell you the build that they have, the design that they have put into not only the establishment, but the culture as well. I really think you're gonna get to experience all that in one at Audrey. Wow, I am so excited about that restaurant opening. Anything else that's brand new out there that we need to be aware of? Well, like I said before, there's a lot that's going on here in Nashville. There's a lot popping up. But as you also know, we're still in the middle of a crazy, crazy pandemic. So we've kind of adjusted our processes a little bit just to make so that we can... One thing I really love about our company being family owned and operated is that we take care of the people that we establish relationships with.

01:24:25While we've had to make a lot of hard decisions here lately as far as taking on additional partnerships, we really wanna make sure that we not only set up our staff for success, but we also continuously provide the quality of service that everyone has come accustomed to. I think that's the big part of why we've gotten so many different partnerships here in Nashville. Because as you know, Brandon, we just do business differently. I do, I do, and you guys do. And you know, one of the things that you guys are still continuing to deliver. A lot of restaurants are getting a letter from people saying, hey, sorry, we can't provide the volume we used to. We're trying to get on board. And it's been a challenge, been a challenge for everybody, but you guys seem to pitch in as a team and just kind of make it happen. Well, I'll tell you, one thing I've learned about SciTechs is we're like a family of cousins, you know? In this pandemic, we have had, you know, we've had learning opportunities and learning moments for sure, like everyone else has. But I do commend them on the fact that we wanna make sure we can take care of the business that we currently have without adding on additional business to interrupt our quality of service that we deliver day in and day out.

01:25:36That's good. I mean, I think that you guys have been growing like crazy and that's only, it's a good thing unless you don't have enough workers to make it happen. So a good time to announce you guys are hiring. We are, we are hiring. We are hiring, we're hiring here at our Nashville, at our Nashville location. You can find more information about that process at SciTechs-corp.com, but we are hiring. So if you're looking for a rewarding family-owned and operated linen company to work for, we, I totally recommend SciTechs. Awesome. Well, Tavares, thank you so much for joining us today and letting us know what's new in your world. Absolutely. Any, I thank you for always. I feel like each time we've been having these segments, we have been having, you know, this relationship. So we just get on here and get it done. And I really enjoy that. As always, Brandon, it's always great to chat with you, brother. Thank you, Tavares. Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week.

01:26:38You stay blessed. Nice weather this weekend. Yes, yes. I'm looking forward to all that. I'm gonna go play some kickball in Cincinnati this weekend. Man, that sounds great. Yes, yes. All right, buddy, we'll take care. All right, well, you stay blessed and safe. Bye-bye. Beautiful. All right, so Tavares Taylor, thank you so much for joining. And SciTechs, thank you so much for everything you do. You heard a lot about new restaurants. Have you been eating out at new places right now, Jen? I actually have. My friend, our good friend, opened a restaurant in Murfreesboro. And so I made the trek out there. My husband and I did. It was a good 45-minute drive. And it was so good. It's called West 22 Tacos. And my friend Austin Garcia opened it. And it's incredible. It was so good. East to what? West 22 Tacos. West 22 Tacos. Yeah, so he'll probably hate me for saying this, but they have a taco platter, right? And it's like one of every taco. And it's like $40. And you can share that with three or four people.

01:27:39It also comes with like chips and guac. He'll hate me for saying that because I'm sure that's enough fun to make in the kitchen. But it is so good and such a good deal. And I mean, that pork belly taco is probably one of the best tacos we've had in a long time. If not the best, it's incredible. And their churros are cinnamon bun churros. And they're really good. Ooh, that sounds amazing. Yeah. I'm gonna defer some of these next people to another, back to Delia Jo. Okay. Because Eater, she's just amazing. She's all over the place doing her thing. So again, check out Eater Nashville. I wanna give her total credit for this. Some new restaurants that have just opened up. The Authentique, you familiar with this? I'm not, but I love the name. Melville Art, Once Upon a Time in France. Opened as French Spot Authentique on 925 Gallatin Road. This is going at his lifelong dreams. And I have not been yet, but apparently it is amazing.

01:28:39Samurai Sushi East and then EG and MC Cocktail Bar. That is the brainchild of Clint Gray, Derek Moore and EJ Reed, the crew behind Slim and Huskies. That is opened on 924 Jefferson Street. Of course, Miranda Lambert has her Casa Roja downtown. I hear so much about 60 Vines and Fifth and Broad. But this again, it's not a local place but they're doing really cool stuff. The Continental is officially open. Sean Brock's new place and the Grand Hyatt. And we had the Influencers Guide to the Best of Nashville and Kate Davis, Nashville food fan said that was the best meal she's ever eaten in her entire life. Yeah. What is the next event we have coming up that we can have an excuse to go spend that much money on dinner? What is it? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. No, of course we can just do it. But I think the next, we have to get through the holidays.

01:29:41Me and Stephen both have a birthday in December and Kenji, so. Well, let's do that. Me and Jolene. Birthday dinner at the Continental. Let's make that happen. Yeah, so it'll be all six of us and that'll be, we'll do that. Um, there's a new brunch, dinner, and happy hour opening in Midtown, or option Midtown. Flatiron. Opened back in May and it is in Midtown. What is Flatiron specialize in? Flatiron is brunch, dinner, and happy hour. And it's a Chris Roche and Victoria Rothberg. They own the beloved Sylvan Park Restaurant, Answer. Oh, yeah. They have French toast sticks, pimento cheese stuff, potato skins, breakfast sandwiches. Well, at dinner, you can have steak, salads, cheeseburgers, and coffee rubbed bone-in pork chops. This is directly from Eater. That is Delia's words. I wanna know about the name choice for Flatiron because I'm always, did I leave my Flatiron on? Like that's.

01:30:44Yeah, it's good. Absolutely. Thai Isan is open in Brentwood. It's also open in the assembly food hall. It's been open for a little bit. And the Zorba Cafe, the new quick service Mediterranean cafe, it's in Smyrna. So hummus, falafel, the whole deal at Zorba Cafe. And there's a bunch of new stuff that's on the horizon. They got a bunch of new restaurants that are coming. Do you wanna hear about some of the fall openings coming to Nashville? Of course I do. Fall is the best. All right, Nashville's most anticipated restaurant openings. Again, Delia is giving us the content here today because she's amazing. Thank you, Delia. Again, follow her at diningwithdelia on Instagram. Number one, obviously, is the Audrey, right? Audrey, which is Sean Brock's dream restaurant named after his grandmother. It's gonna be absolutely amazing.

01:31:45The other one, I talked about this restaurant on my first interview that I ever did. So I kind of talked to myself. It was the first live interview I ever did with Kerry Bringle. And this was in March 17th of 2020. I said, Bringle's smoking Oasis is on the way. And he said, yeah, man, it's coming eventually. And then the pandemic hit and we are actually looking at like a late October opening for Bringle's smoking Oasis over in the nations. That is gonna be an amazing, amazing area, amazing place. I love the nations. I think that has had the best glow up. Oh yeah, and it's still glowing. Yeah. Druzy and Dar is coming to the Hermitage Hotel. That is Jean George's new spot, which was previously the capital grill. That is now gonna be Druzy and Dar. Druzy and Dar I believe is two kids from one of the original general managers.

01:32:47His kids names were Druzy and Dar and they were always at the hotel playing and they were just kind of mainstays there. So they're naming the restaurant after the two kids. That's cute. Yeah. The Dutch Nashville and Karne Mar at the W Hotel Nashville. So we had the GM from that hotel on the Roundup, the Music City Roundup. And he talked about how amazing that's gonna be. But the Dutch Nashville and Karne Mar, two restaurants from award-winning chef Andrew Carmelini are set to open this October inside the W Nashville Hotel, which is right there in the Gulch. Right. The International Market, Arnold Mient, his place just opened yesterday. International Market in Belmont, 2013 Belmont Boulevard. Clay Greenberg is opening Punk Walk, which is gonna be in Sylvan Supply. We had his chef on the show. Yeah, Grant. Grant.

01:33:47Yeah, Grant was amazing. The Red Perch is open also. Cameron and Nicole Payne, that restaurant is open right now. And it is in, it's in Sylvan Park, 4101 Charlotte Avenue. I think that's in Sylvan Supply also. All right, Sadie's. Sadie's is another one, Margaret Lovetti. This is Red Pebbles Hospitality. That's gonna be early fall. Red Pebbles is, Red Pebbles is amazing. So I think that should be, it looks like a beautiful space. The 1230 Supper Club, which is gonna be the very top level at the 1230 Club is gonna be opening real soon. And then the Hutton Hotel is reopening with the Urban Farmer. So there's some amazing, like the stuff that we've been waiting on for a really long time is about to happen. I'm like thinking about Sean Brock opening the Continental and then the Audrey right behind it. And I'm like, how is he a functioning person in the world?

01:34:49Like I've opened a few restaurants as a server and it's stressful. I can't imagine doing back to back at that level as the owner and chef and all, like that's, somebody get him a massage. I can tell you that it is the people around him that are able, that allows him to be successful. Yeah. I believe that a hundred percent because I would be nothing. I couldn't do the two restaurants and all the stuff I'm doing without you, without our leadership team. I mean, there's no way. I mean, you talked, you said, I talked to you and Brian the most. It's true because I really need the most from you. You allow me to be able to be in my wheelhouse and do the things I need to do. I can never do that alone. Well, I appreciate that. Well, let's get Sean Brock's team massages then. We need to like, that's just such a big undertaking. And is that like a roundabout way of saying like, hey, Brandon, I need a massage.

01:35:52No, no, I'm pretty direct. I'll just let you know. I didn't think that we need to do a massage. Send me to get a massage. No, because we didn't open two restaurants. We just work in two restaurants. Opening two is like, that is a lot. And especially with the hiring shortage right now and just the pandemic and the way the diners, diners are for the most part great, but like their expectations haven't changed throughout the pandemic. And you know, it's just, that's a huge feat. So props to all of them. Seriously. Well, we did it. We did it. The Music City Roundup. Yay. Episode one, September 25th, 2021 is in the books. Thank you, Jen Ichikawa. You're amazing. We're gonna be back in a couple of weeks with another one. We've got segments for days. Super excited about the best Nashville coming out.

01:36:53It's gonna give us lots to talk about. And anything you wanna say on the way out, Jen? Thanks for having us, you guys. This has been Brandon's like love trial. He loves this thing so much. And so we're so excited to have it back. So thanks for wanting it back too. Yeah, I'm excited too. This is one of my favorite things to do. It's just a fun conversation where we get to kind of just kick it and chill and have a good time and wait till we do it live. It's really fun when you do it live. I loved our last live show. That was so fun. It is a lot of fun. So maybe we'll jump back to doing it live. I will definitely do the best of Nashville show live. Yeah. All right, guys. Thanks for listening. And I hope you are staying safe out there. Please go get vaccinated. Wear your damn mask. Love you guys. Love you, bye. Bye.