The Music City Roundup Featuring Tony & Cathy Montuano, Chad & Gracie Newton, Dee Patel, Amanda Virgillito, and Stuart and Erin from Nashville Daily.

00:00Hello, Music City. What is going on? Welcome to the Music City Roundup. My name is Brandon Styll. I am joined by the Kelly Sutton. How are you? Oh, you know what? It has been a day. It has been an exciting day and a crazy day. My internet was out right before we went live. So I was just, I mean, I almost got in the car and drove to your house, Brandon. We were almost gonna do this in person. I know, I was ready for that too. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little bit excited. Well, and the thing that I was a little bummed about, I had a new microphone that I haven't shown off yet. So I had this new piece of technology that I was gonna get to use it. So thank goodness whatever happened, the internet came back and now here we are. I'm so glad that that's working out. Because yeah, I was just gonna bum rush your studio, whether you liked it or not, I was coming in. I was ready. I was ready to rock and roll. It was gonna be fun.

01:01I have missed you and I have missed this show. I'm not gonna lie, like not doing this every week. I know. I miss catching up. There were a couple of weeks where it would be the time that we would be on and it hit me like, I'm supposed to be doing something right now. What am I usually doing? Oh, yeah, okay, I know. But you know, it's one of those moments where you're kind of, you're doing something else and then all of a sudden it hits you and you're like, wait, there's something. Where am I supposed to, this is what I was supposed to be doing, so. Well, I have missed you. I've missed us talking and we have so much to catch up on. But I will tell everybody who's listening right now that we're gonna have a hell of a show. We've got Aaron and Stuart from Explore Nashville and they're gonna come on and tell us all the really cool stuff that's happening around our city for Valentine's Day. We're gonna talk about the Hermitage Hotel and Jean George coming to town. We're going to talk with Tony and Cathy Montuano from the Joseph Hotel in Yolande.

02:06They're gonna come on as a couple and they're gonna talk about what they're doing for Valentine's Day and hopefully we get to hear, maybe they'll tell us a story of like a really good Valentine story from their past because they've been married for like 30 years. So we're gonna have something. Oh, wow, that's a good one. That's a good one. We will then be checking in with Amanda Virgilito from Squeaky Wheel PR. She's gonna tell us all about all the cool stuff that her clients are doing and then we're gonna talk with Chad and Gracie Newton who own Eastside Bon Me and Eastside Bon Me is blowing up. Like any and everybody is in love with what they're doing and they're doing a really cool project right now with the Nashville Food Project. So I cannot wait to catch up. We have a lot going on today. This is a big one. That is a super packed show. I don't know if we're gonna have time to get it all in but hopefully we will. And I'm extremely excited to talk to Tony because I have since been to Yolande which was my first visit, January 2nd. I have it written down. I won't forget, like there it was.

03:06So now we get to like dig into all of the wonderful things that are happening behind the scenes. You just get the plated food and it's beautiful and wonderful and tastes fantastic. You don't really know like all the inner workings of what's going on behind the scenes. So I'm gonna pick his brain a little bit about that but I definitely wanna talk to Cathy because I know she has been such a driving force behind all of it. You know, and I'm sure he'd be the first one to say I couldn't do any of this without her. Well, you know, I did a full interview with them a few months back and I asked the question. I said, you guys were living in Italy in a countryside retired, like just live in the life. Why did you move to Nashville to run like multiple restaurants in a hotel? Like it doesn't make sense to me. And I kind of got to the bottom of it that everything that they've done previously was kind of like a Tony Montuano thing and the opportunity to come to Nashville, which was a city that they were just falling in love with. The opportunity to come to Nashville and it to not be a Tony Montuano thing.

04:09The fact that it was Tony and Cathy doing it was something that they could share together. They went in to do it, which was really the deciding factor was she's gonna be as involved as he is. And I just love that. That's awesome. But man, giving up Italy. Like I love Nashville, but I think if I was retired in Italy, I could come visit. Yeah, you could come visit. That's why I was like, you're gonna come out of retirement to run restaurants in a hotel and you know hotels never close, right? Like that's a, it's like, damn. That's a lot. That's a lot. And it is interesting too. I love the fact that we have so many couples that are coming on and people that are talking about all the wonderful things that are happening around Valentine's Day. I was really hoping to get my friend Ben to come on and I know there's a lot of stuff going on, but Bang Candy Company, he sent me some of the things that they've been working on.

05:10They have a chocolate called Love Bites and I'm gonna drop some in your mailbox. Next time I go out, I'm gonna drop some in your mailbox. Bang Candy, I was familiar, but I just really hadn't had much of what they have to offer. But he sent me this amazing sample pack. These candies are like, think of a Rice Krispie treat for grownups with like a smoky chocolate flavor and Pop Rocks all put together. You had me until Pop Rocks and then I was like completely sold. No, I'm even more sold now. Right? I mean, it's just, it's such an interesting, it's a flavor combination, but then to have like a mouth explosion in the middle of it, it's so cool. So I know Ben is super busy, but I had to give him a shout out because that blew my mind to have that type of candy. And they do have all these really crazy flavors. So if you're looking for fun local places to go grab some sweets for your sweetheart, check out Bang, they're awesome. I love it.

06:11So real quick, let's catch up with you. Let's, I know that I have been able to stay connected with you because I watch all of your videos on Connecting with Kelly. Thank you. Which is your amazing YouTube channel. Yeah. How have you been like, tell us what you've been up to. What's going on with you? Oh my gosh. It has been amazing and exciting and crazy and so fun. And we've released, since I've talked to you last, I released an episode with Matthew Ramsey, which is probably one of my favorite interviews I've ever done. He just got really raw and really vulnerable with me and told me like one of the songs that they wrote called Some People Do, it hit him in such a way that he decided he really needed to work on himself. After hearing the lyrics come out and writing the song, he said, I need to do some work on me. And he talked about that. And to me, to be that vulnerable and to say that, knowing that other people are gonna hear it, knowing that he might help somebody else come to that same decision, I thought that was really cool.

07:18So that's an amazing episode. And I love the Old Dominion guys. They are one of my favorite bands ever. And- I will tell you real quick that that song Some People Do, the first time I heard it, I had to like pull my car over and I just cried because it was so personal for me. It was such an amazing song. That's a true story. That song, every time I hear it, I just like, it hits me so hard. It's just an incredible song. And he talked about when he wrote it, it was Thomas Rhett wrote it with him. And there was a moment that they thought Thomas Rhett was gonna actually record that song. And it would have been a smash hit either way, I think. Oh yeah. But it was so much more personal to hear Matt sing it. So that was really cool. And I just loved talking to him. I caught up again. Carly Pierce was an episode that we just put out yesterday with a reconnected episode. I started digging through some of my archives. I found an interview with Carly at her first number one party.

08:22So this was 2018, I believe. And it was so fun to see how excited we both were because I've known her for a long time. So we're both excited and we're just talking about all the things that were about to happen for her. She was about to go on this big tour with Blake Shelton and she had another tour scheduled, Rascal Flatts. So it was just fun to look back and see where she is now, where she started. She has a new EP that's coming out on Friday called 29. So that one's out there. And then I have another episode coming out tomorrow with Devin Dawson. He's an incredible singer songwriter. So that is the next Connected with Kelly that drops tomorrow. Yeah, I know. You were a busy, busy girl. Man, you start that ball rolling and you just gotta get out of the way because there's like, we're on this train and it's leaving. Left the station. So get on or get out of the way. Well, it's really insightful as somebody who's kind of new to country and I've been listening to all of these things, all these different bands.

09:25I understand a lot of it now. And the one thing that I really love about country are the stories and the songwriting, but I don't know which one of these people wrote the songs. I don't like go back and look and see. So to me, I go, I wonder if they wrote that song or if they didn't write that song or what it meant. So when I listened to your episodes, I feel like I get the real, I know they wrote, I know they're the one talking because it's like so real. And I just, I really appreciate what you're doing because it helps me learn so much about these stars. Thank you. Well, Devin Dawson, the one that drops tomorrow, Devin wrote God's Country for Blake Shelton. So if you like that song, Devin wrote that song and Devin has a new EP that's out as well, but he's just a prolific songwriter and he's another one. He has a really great connection to Taylor Swift. So I'm not gonna give that away. You're gonna watch the episode that comes out tomorrow. I will, I definitely will. I wonder if you ever see like me liking your stuff and you're like, what is, this guy's stalking my show.

10:27No, I get excited. Are you kidding? I love it. I love it when I know people are watching. I love to hear comments. I love the feedback because otherwise, if you put things out and you don't know, it's just like this show. You put it out there and if nobody comments or tells you, hey, I liked it or no, that wasn't your best effort, at least you got some kind of feedback. You're not just sitting there waiting. Did anybody hear it? Yeah. Well, I have been super busy myself. We've had a couple of really good episodes here recently. Yes, tell me. RJ Cooper was just one of my favorite conversations I've had. I love all the conversations. RJ Cooper was just, we had such a good talk and talk about vulnerable talk about mentoring people. And we talked about his James Beard Award, what it was like going up to it. And he actually said before he was working for his mentor and he said, I'm gonna leave here when I win a James Beard Award because I'm gonna win one while I work at this restaurant. And you're interviewing somebody, you're like, oh, sure you are.

11:29And then he went and did it. And it was just like his story behind doing that and then sitting there at the awards, the guy, his chef bet him that he would win. And so he had to like pay him money before he was allowed to go give his acceptance speech. Oh, that's so great. We talked a lot about the dynamic between kind of the celebrity chef dynamic versus the chef who's a working chef in the kitchen, which is really interesting if you're out there and you work in the restaurant. So lots of leadership stuff. We've talked with the owner of Tailgate Brewery, Wes Keegan, and he was such a fun guy too. We've had a lot of really fun interviews. And then of course I've been in the restaurants just hustling, we've had two had to close the restaurant twice in the past two weeks just out of an abundance of caution and just being super careful. So I have hair on fire running around having a blast. I haven't been more excited to be walking around talking to people, making a difference, just seeing people having conversations has been so exciting for me.

12:38That's awesome. That is awesome. And I feel like everybody, the closer we get to spring, although as we speak, we're under a winter storm advisory, so. It's like 60 outside. It feels like it is summer. Well. This time it's gonna ice tonight. It's supposed to, yeah, we're supposed to get a big ice storm and I just talked to my parents who live north of us. And I guess maybe this whole system is coming down from the Northwest, but my mom said, oh, we've gotten seven inches of snow and now it's being covered with ice. So it's like sleet on top of the snow. And I was like, okay, we'll stay inside. Don't go anywhere. Just stay where you are and hopefully you guys have some food. Yeah, so when we think about the fact though that spring is so close, I feel like this spring is gonna just feel like a totally different scenario for us because so many people are now getting the vaccination and hopefully the numbers are still on the decline and more places are opening up. I mean, it's almost like you see the light at the end of the tunnel and it isn't an oncoming train.

13:43It actually is like, we're gonna make it. It is and we are. We're gonna get to our first set of guests. But first, I wanna tell you that we have a new sponsor. What? I'm so excited. We have a new sponsor, the NOSI College of Art has a brand new culinary arts program and they are gonna be accepting students for the fall 2021 semester. Chef Anthony Mandriota is gonna be running the curriculum and we've started, beginning of every show, we are doing a new on-brand every show where we're bringing in a sponsor to talk about what's happening in their industry and they're gonna start coming on every four or five weeks and they're gonna be doing different culinary classes like small miniature culinary applications for everybody. So we are so excited to welcome on NOSI College of Art, their culinary program. And I'm also super excited to welcome in Aaron and Stuart.

14:43Aaron Deming and Aaron Pennington and Stuart Deming. And Stuart, you are on mute. He doesn't wanna say anything that's been heard. We're all going through like one system. So Stuart's on my mic. Oh yeah, I can hear him. There he is, there he is. What's up, guys? How's it going? Hi, how are you? Good, I'm just frantically trying to figure out why my background sucks so bad and it's you guys are killing it right now. So I'm trying to figure out how to do that little kitten filter that Robert used yesterday. I really hear I'm not a kitten. I'm not a cat. I'm real live. The funniest thing I've ever seen. That's amazing. Yeah, so once I figure that out, then that's how you'll see me from now on. If you do the cat filter, it's just gonna boost the number of views. So just whatever, whatever you feel like doing, it's good. Yeah, yeah, we'll see what happens with that. Now you guys have a podcast. When did this start? Like I started looking and I saw episode 452. So you've been doing this for a minute.

15:45Yeah, so we started on August 1st, 2019 and we released an episode six days a week. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's it? Yeah, that's it. That's not counting what's going on behind the scenes. So that's just on the podcasting side of things. Okay, time out. I did a television show for years and years and years. I'm gonna turn off my air. He's gonna go turn off his air. I did a TV show like that. Once you birth that beast, you have to feed it every day. And that is what you are now in the cycle of. Are there days where you look at each other and go, why are we doing this six days a week? Well, you know what the interesting thing is? We didn't know if we would be able to fill all of that time because normally our episodes, we used to go for an hour every day and we've brought it back to about half an hour. And then for our interviews, anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. But what we found is we are still, we are running out of places to put the things that we wanna talk about.

16:51We wish we could do more. Now, if we can give more without passing out is another thing. But as far as the content that we want to do, we don't have enough time to do it because there's so much that we wanna talk about for Nashville. So on our podcast, our podcast is called Nashville Daily. We talk about history. We talk about food. We talk about controversial things. We talk about local artists. And so we have thousands of ideas for content and we don't have enough time to publish them all. That's a thing. So it is Valentine's weekend and we are rolling into Valentine's day. And this is for restaurant people, this is a very exciting weekend, right? Because Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we will benefit fruits of this thing. If we don't have like a gigantic ice storm and our city goes down in the meantime. Don't say that. It looks like Monday and Tuesday, we're getting like six inches of snow.

17:51So that might be fun work from home. So it'll be fun for us because we'll create a video, top things to do in the winter in Nashville. We've been waiting two years to record this video and we have not gotten a sufficient winter enough to actually record the video in the environments that we want to. Right. That's a real thing. You're ready. You're waiting. We are, boots on the ground for this one. Okay, well, we'll be waiting with you. And I kind of hope that we don't get enough snow for that to happen. I am not a fan. But it is interesting too, I mean, I've lived here 20 years now and I still, people will ask me frequently, oh, what should we do when we come to town? Well, I know what I love to do, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's what you are going to enjoy about my city. And I like the fact that you guys have so many different episodes and the fact that we're gonna talk about some of the fun things that you can do for Valentine's Day. Because again, my Valentine's Day list and Brandon's might be completely different from what you guys say would be the top pick.

18:56Yeah, so one of the top picks that stands out to me is there's actually a haunted house in Madison. It's called the Nashville Nightmare. It's a world renowned haunted house, like super, super famous. But they do a Valentine's Day thing called Love Bites and it's like a zombie themed haunted house for Valentine's Day. First date material right there. First date material, yes. If you read the Google reviews, that's what they people say. They're like, people took me on this first date here and it was amazing. That's awesome. Love it, I'm writing it down. That's unique, you gotta do that, right? And I think Nashville is, luckily we've become a city where a lot of options are now opened up for whatever kind of type of thing you want to experience. And Valentine's Day I think is just one of those days now that we get the excuse to go out and do something that we like and then pair food on top of it.

20:00And so with Nashville, we have so many options for food and I think also pairing adventure with that or getting to know Nashville a little bit better could be a good option because you're gonna be either waiting on a reservation for somewhere or you're gonna be mixing it up and doing a breakfast or a lunch somewhere for Valentine's Day because Sunday is gonna be super packed for this. I remember looking at reservations two weeks ago for places and they were already totally booked. And so making it a day out of Nashville to experience the city is probably another way that people are gonna really pair Valentine's Day is combining that food and either learning about Nashville or doing something very unique in the city. Can I ask you guys a question? Have you ever done one of the Nashville tours where you got on the big hop-on hop-off buses and driven around the town? And have you ever done one of those tours? Have you, Kelly?

21:01I haven't. By trade, I'm a professional tour guide. So I've given 15,000 people tours of Nashville from luxury to I've done the food tours, I've done the hop-on hop-on bus tours. So I'm very, very familiar with those. How long have you been here? I've been here for seven years and I drove 181,000 miles for Lyft and Uber and that's how I learned the city. And then I became a tour guide, yeah. That's awesome, man. That's amazing. You know the city better than I do, for sure. That's amazing. I've lived here for 30 plus years and I've never, I was like, I'll bet you I would learn so much about things I drive by every single day that I have no idea what they are. Like that's the building this happened. I'm like, I had no idea. Like I would, I'm gonna do that one day. Maybe we can just drive around town one day and we can do like an interview in a car and we'll just do like Nashvilleans riding in cars having coffee or something.

22:04We'll just do it. That sounds great. 100%. Speaking of cars, this is a very unique date idea. So heading over to Marathon Village where a lot of locals don't go, you can day drink all day, which is great. There's three different distilleries inside of Marathon Village. You have Nelson's Greenbrier Distillery, which is super historical. You have Tennessee Legend, which is like a moonshine place and they offer free moonshine shots, which is great. You have Grindr Switch, which is a local winery from Centerville. And then you also have Cosair. So you can shop and drink all day at Marathon Village. It's a perfect date location. And there's also some history there because in Marathon Village, they built 10,000 cars from 1907 to 1914. And I love the fact that they still have some of those pieces. Like if you're walking through there, they still have some of the older pieces of the cars and the actual machines that were in use there. It is one of my favorite spots. I love the history of it. And as you mentioned, the wineries, I did take my mom.

23:05I think, now does Jack Daniels still have a little offshoot there? Cause they did once upon a time or did it close? So they still have an offshoot there. It's just clothing. So they can't serve whiskey there cause they're a third party entity. Most people are probably disappointed walking into there. I was gonna say that there is a statue of Jack. So you can take a picture with him. My mom did after I let her do the moonshine shots. So if you're looking for a place to take your parents to get them, you know, a little buzzed, that's a great one. Mom loved the picture with Jack Daniels. Mom and dad drunk. Right. I will point out Matt says the two main podcasts I've listened to the most this year have combined. I had to do a double take of this. Matt, we'll see you next week. So we do a monthly meetups called Explore Meets and we go around the city of Nashville and we teach like photography type classes and stuff to people and do some history stuff. And so Matt's actually coming to one of our Explore Meets next week. So Matt, looking forward to seeing you.

24:06God, you guys are on fire, man. Yeah. But you see, this is, we're like the hospital. We don't, we're not competitors here. I'm actually gonna be on your show. When am I, I'm gonna come on your show tomorrow, right? Or when you put it out. Yeah, you're gonna be on an episode on Saturday. Nice. So if you want it, if you want it, Matt, we can make that happen again, the same experience but we're gonna like Willy Wonka strike that, reverse it. And I'm gonna be on their show this coming Saturday. That's awesome. I love everything that's happening. And then Kelly, we'll have you on soon. You tell me when I'll come, man. I've got a new microphone now. So I'm feeling really good about myself, my setup. And they kill our background. We were talking about places to go and things to do for Valentine's Day. I love that you guys came up with this list and that you mentioned, you know, marathon. Is there a place that you feel is historic because I do love the historic aspect and learning more of the history of Nashville. Are there some of your favorite places that you like to take friends from out of town and tell them the stories of yesteryear in Nashville?

25:12I honestly, I like all the historical things. So my favorite that I take out of town or two is down in Franklin. So the Carnton house and Carter house. So if you want to learn some deep civil war history, that's incredible. Aaron, why don't you talk about Bellamy Plantation? Yeah, so the two that are really fun depending on the weather. Bellamy Plantation and they have a meet and three on site. They have wine and Bellamy Bourbon on site. And ice cream. And ice cream. And homemade fudge. There's a lot that you can do. Even if you don't take a tour, you can pay to walk around the property a little bit. If you wanna take your time, you can take a tour there. You can, I believe, make a reservation at the restaurant. And Nashville was only owned by a handful of property owners back then. And so they have an incredible story with their land. They also have a great story in connection with all of the Kentucky Derbies. We'll give that away here. But also the Hermitage in Hermitage is an incredible place to also walk around.

26:16And it's a great place. Like if my parents come into town, we'll go there because you get a really good tour and you get to learn a lot of Nashville history. All of these things connect. We've done a series on our podcast called Tour Around Nashville and we highlight neighborhoods in the city. We spend months on these neighborhoods. And so far, every neighborhood that we've gotten to, we've been able to connect all the way back to the Revolutionary War. So Nashville's history connects because, I think because it is a smaller town in the grand scheme of all the big cities here in the US, Nashville's history anywhere you go has a really fascinating connection. So all of these places, when you go to them, you learn how all of those dots connect. I'm blown away. I remember hearing the story from Belmead about the brick wall, like wherever you see that stack stone wall over in this area, because I'm not too far from there, that that was actually a part of the original plantation.

27:17It was like 3,500 acres or something crazy like that. And then when you, it was almost like, where's Waldo, you start driving around town, you're like, oh, stack stone. I wonder if that was part of the Belmead plantation. That's pretty fascinating when you hear all of that. Or most of it came from the Civil Corp movement in the 1930s. So it's really, really interesting. But at some point, Belmead owned all the way to where the Parthenon stands today. Wow. That's how far, that's how much land they had. And because of what they were doing with the horses and stuff, they had their own dedicated railway line going directly into their house. And so that railway line that you find there on Highway 100, or yeah, Highway 70, whatever that is, that's the original railway for their house. I did not know that. Oh, that's crazy. I drive by it almost every day. It's awesome. You guys have so much more information like this. Tell our listeners exactly how they would listen to your podcast.

28:18How do they find you on the socials? Let's give a shout out to all the things that people wanna learn more about. Kind of some of the stuff you're talking about and all the good stuff you're doing at Explore. How do they do that? Yeah, so we'll start with the podcast. The podcast is Nashville Daily. Monday through Friday, we do a Nashville story episode on Saturday, but it's under the same name for that. So you can find that wherever podcasts are released. We also release that out on YouTube. And our YouTube has to host the podcast and it's xplr.nash on YouTube. So we've released somewhere around a hundred videos about how people can explore the city of Nashville. Our top lists, especially for food. We have a lot of top lists on there as well. And then Instagram and Facebook, xplr.nash. That's where we're putting out new stuff every day. And we'd like to even, on Instagram, give a little history lessons of all of the photos that we feature. That is so cool. I just watched your video of the best pizza places in town. I thought it was pretty legit.

29:20I mean, it was an older video, but I mean, it was good stuff. It was one of my favorite videos to film because the pizza, that's, yeah. Yeah. Because, I mean, who doesn't love pizza? Okay, so my question for you two, what are your plans this weekend then? So for me, Valentine's Day was booked up for what my fiance and I wanted to do. So we actually decided to, we're gonna be cooking at, we're gonna be cooking on Valentine's Day. And we are going to go to Pinewood Social on a Tuesday morning in order to make up for not having the reservation that we wanted. We wanted to go to Hampton Social. And that place is booked out for a while for like some really, really crucial times. And so we're doing a Pinewood Social on a weekday to make up for not having the reservation that we wanted to. As long as they have the Brussels sprouts, that's all that matters. I may be able to help you with that one. I may have a pocket reservation if you guys, you want to surprise her.

30:23She's not watching, is she? I don't think so, maybe not. Okay, talk later. Stuart, what are your plans? I'm going down to Franklin, Tennessee, to Marities to celebrate my mentor's 50th birthday. So he's doing like a singer songwriter around down there at Marities on Sunday for Valentine's Day. So we're going to celebrate him. His name's Michael Johnson. He owns a nonprofit called Future Marriage University. It's all about preparing for marriage and like success in marriage. So it's a really, really cool nonprofit that he owns in Franklin. Oh, that is so cool. Marities is one of my favorite, favorite places. Talk about history and just all the things about it. Man, their chicken salad and the little salad sampler with that, oh, the cinnamon bread. Yeah, I'm hungry now. That's one of my favorites. Didn't they do like this orange pastry type thing that was like a Danish? That's absolutely incredible. Yeah, that's what I'm getting on Sunday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely, definitely. That's going to be a good time.

31:23Well guys, thank you for putting the list together. Yeah, of course. Thank you for having us. Anytime you want to talk about Nashville, we'll be right here. We have like a monthly segment. This could be fun. Yes. We're down. We will be ready for it. Well, I look forward to meeting you guys tomorrow and in person and watch for our podcast coming out this Saturday. But thank you guys so much for taking the time today. Brandon, Kelly, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Have a great day, guys. Bye guys. See ya. That's awesome. You? They are cranking out so much content. I truly, I'm in awe. I mean, I'm doing two videos a week and they are crushing it with so much content. Six days a week is unbelievable. Like if you love Nashville and you want to learn about, I mean, I would just, I love learning anything about Nashville. I just think it's so interesting because there's so many things that we drive by every single day that we just don't know the meanings for. So I mean, I love hearing that the Belle Meade plantation, that sprawled all the way to like the Parthenon.

32:29You go, wow. Yeah, it puts it in perspective for sure. Yeah, there's still so many things. And I had some friends that used to do a lot of the tours, the ghost tours downtown, but they were historic. They weren't like scary ghosts. It was more of the historic aspect, the things that have been seen or heard or whatever. And I remember doing that for a television segment and learning more in that one segment than I had living here at the time, like 10 years. I didn't know any of that. So love that. And I think we should do a hop on and hop off tour just to say we did it. I think that would be a lot of fun. We could even film some of it because, you know. Because that's what I do. Because that's what we do. Nary a moment goes unfilmed in this house. So while we're waiting on Tony and Cathy Montuano to jump on, and I don't know where they are quite yet. I imagine they'll be here any minute if we got our timing right.

33:33Maybe I told them 415. Either way, we've got a lot to talk about. No. I do wanna tell you about my main man, Jason Ellis. What's going on, Jason? What's he been doing? Let's talk about SuperSource for just a second because while they're a sponsor, I really feel like there's like a bromance happening here now where we are like constantly talking and we have so much fun. And I'm learning so much about his side of the industry. And now that I've started doing this on brand segment at the beginning of the show, and we started talking as like, what are some things that are like, because I'm not in that world, the dish machine chemical world, like what are some things that are really important? We started talking about using the right chemicals for the right projects. And we went into my restaurants and I was like, oh my gosh, we're using Presoak and Dawn in the same thing. And he goes, yeah, they just cancel each other out. The Presoak attacks this and the Presoak and the Dawn is an oil.

34:33And he goes, you're just, you're wasting. I was like, oh, well, let's not do that anymore. And it was like, all of a sudden we're just saving money right and left. So he's been amazing. He's now gonna start doing a Taco About It Tuesday. On his social medias. So if you follow Super Source or Jason Ellis Super Source on Instagram or Facebook, they're gonna start doing Talk About It Tuesday, where they're gonna be just putting out random tips and tricks and ways in order for you to help save money for anybody out there, just to learn about their business. That's so smart. I really love, because it does seem like it's such a big mystery for most people. And that I guess maybe a long time ago, if it was shrouded in mystery and you didn't know what the numbers were, people thought that they could make more money off of you. I don't know. That's a true story. So I told him, I said, you know what you're like? I go, you're like a dentist.

35:33He goes, what? Now you're like a dentist. Like every time you go to the dentist, you'd think the dentist would give you a Coke and a Butterfinger and be like, see you in a month, right? But no, they're like, hey, you need to floss. They want your teeth to be good. You're gonna come back eventually. They know that. But he's like, you're just giving people all this great advice, teaching them how to use all the products properly and do all this stuff just because you want them to succeed. You're so legit. These are conversations we literally have. I'm not kidding. I'm like, I just think you're so awesome, dude. So Jason Alice, super source, the dentist, I'm gonna start calling him Doc. Because he just wants you to have healthy oral health. He wants you to have healthy dish machine health. It's good, it's a good thing. He told me some today, he goes, you gotta watch with your detergent because if the dishwasher, like they stack dishes and they pull them, he goes, if they're not washing the back of the dishes and then lettuce falls into the main tank, the detergent's gonna attack the lettuce.

36:44They're gonna attack the lettuce and it's not going to, it's just gonna start keep pulling the detergent and you're gonna use twice as much. So the more they clean the plates before they put them in, the longer you're gonna have it to yield. I was like, I had no idea that that's like how that stuff worked. It was just really interesting stuff to me. I don't know, I'm a crazy person. I kinda love it. And now I think I need him to come and check out my dishwasher and make sure that it's working. You know, he would is the thing. He probably would, wouldn't he? He probably would. Well, Cytex is proud to sponsor and we are going to jump in with our, our guests are here. We're so excited. Oh, we're so excited. Here they are. Hi, friends. Hey, we're sorry, we got lost. We took the wrong turn. You made it. That's what's important. The GPS sometimes gives you the wrong direction. So it's fine. It's fine. You look fantastic. Thanks for joining us.

37:44Of course. Yeah, we're thrilled to be here. Nice to see you both. Oh my goodness. I got to jump in because I had the pleasure of coming to y'all on January 2nd. And we were there and it was fantastic. And I just have to brag and say it was one of the best meals I've ever had in Nashville. So thank you. Oh my gosh, that's, we're like blushing over here. You're welcome. That's very nice. Thank you. It's incredible. But you know, there's so much more I know that goes into what makes that restaurant. And it was so much more than just the food that night. It was how we felt when we were there. It was how we were made to feel from the people that were working there. And it was such an amazing feeling of hospitality. And that starts with both of you. So what is it like walking into a new venture like that? And how do you go about teaching that kind of culture? Yeah, you know, that, when you say that, that is like the best compliment we can get.

38:45And as a chef to even say that is like, you know, it's all about my food, but it's not. It's really about how the guest feels. And when a guest says something like you just said, it's like, I know that person will be back because they felt special. And they felt that they were treated special. But I mean, this is like the master trainer over here for hospitality and service. I'm gonna let her answer your question. Well. I'm sorry I'm a little shaky, but I didn't. Yeah, it's the car. It's the vehicle. You know, we have a wonderful dedicated staff who really are passionate about creating an experience for people, for diners, our guests that come in. And I just think that we bring some experience with us and, you know, then they put their trust in us. And so we create together, you know, this experience that you've talked about just now.

39:52And it's an everyday thing. Every day is, it's almost like a show. You know, it's like every night it's a new, it's opening night every night. And, you know, we go out there and do our thing and the kitchen serves food, makes food and we serve it. And we treat people like they're in our home, really. I think you want to arm your servers with as much knowledge as possible. What is so special about this olive oil? Let's talk about this olive oil for five minutes. Let's talk about balsamic. Like the more information you can provide them, the better they're going to be. And it also, it creates like ownership on their part. And they've, and they have confidence, you know? Like we've talked about this before. It's like, you know, people tell us like, well, how did you find these people? Because they're so incredible. It's like, we spend time with them, you know? We gave them a lot of knowledge. We gave them a lot of facts and we continue to do that every day. Education is key.

40:52Stories are really great. Like we have a lot of personal connections with the wines that we have on our list as well as the olive oil, the balsamic. There's great stories about the histories of the pastas we serve and how, you know, there's, this dish is served in many ways in America, but in Italy, this is the way it's served and this is how we serve it. So, you know, teaching people, teaching our staff, and then they turn around and, you know, relay some of that gospel to the guests. So that's cool too. You guys, all I hear about is how amazing you guys are doing and it is being felt, I think, around the city. And I would love to get your comments. I think that you guys coming to town, doing what you're doing at the Joseph with Yolan and Denim, Denim, just beautiful upstairs, but- Thanks. They just announced that Jean George is coming to do the restaurant in the Hermitage Hotel, the soon to be named restaurant in the Hermitage Hotel.

41:59I don't think that happens without you guys here. Ah, that's nice. That's very nice of you to say that, but I think it's just, it's great for Nashville. I mean, come on, like, we're like, all of us together are helping to put Nashville on the international map of where you want to dine. Absolutely. Do you know Jean George? Have you spent time with him? Yeah, I think, yeah, didn't we get, or no, you weren't, that was a boy's trip where we got kicked out of his restaurant. That's a boy's trip. Wait a minute, there's a story- Okay, you can't just throw that out there. There's a story here. Tony, what happened? No, on many occasions we've met and had very nice conversations, but yeah, there's a story. It was a boy's trip, it was years ago, and somebody like, you know, one of the, it was all chefs, it's not just a boy's trip, it was a chef's trip, and we were dining, and I think one of the chefs, and I won't mention his name, or I could if you wanted to, but- No, don't do that.

43:02What does it rhyme with? Well, he's a chef from Chicago, so we'll just leave it at that. Okay. Yeah, he had like a root canal, and he was taking Vicodin, and might've mixed it with some alcohol, and then we went out to dinner, and he got really angry, and- Maybe crabby. He upset a few people around us. Oh, and it had to do with snoring, didn't it? I don't know. Yeah, I think so, because a couple chefs- Not in the restaurant. No, not in the restaurant, but they were sharing, the two chefs that got into it were sharing a room, sort of a hotel room. Oh, okay. Yeah, something about snoring, and yeah. Does that make it even more interesting? They get into it together, not with like staff. No, no, no, no, they were loud, and they were going at it, and I was just trying to quiet them down, and being the referee, and I somehow got sucked into it too, but really, that's not what I want to talk about. You got it out of me. How did we get here?

44:02How did we get here? We were talking. I was gonna say- This is about love. This is about love. This is about science day, right? Brandon was saying, you guys have been married how many years now? We don't wanna say, but it's a long time. It's a long time. 30 something years, 30 plus years. 30 plus. You were a child bride. I guess so. Child bride. Yes, you were. I guess so. In so many years of working together, and also working as partners in life, what is some of the best advice that you could bestow upon us? This family weekend. Yeah. Number one, if you're working together, you're asking like, if you're working in the business together, that kind of advice or just advice in general? And in general, and in general. I think you have to have limits. Especially when you're at home. Okay, we've talked about this now for five minutes, time's up.

45:02Now let's move on to something else because you wanna see a different side of the person you're with. You don't wanna see the person that you spent the last 10 hours with, talking business and talking service. So like you're home now, all right, we're done. Open that bottle of wine, let's relax. So the other big, I think what I've always, or what we've always talked about is like, we see a lot of proposals in the restaurant and it's a special place. And I think, and this is advice to all of those people thinking about proposing on Valentine's Day, do not wait till the end of the meal. Because you will not enjoy your meal. Do it right away, get it out of the way and enjoy your evening. Get a nice bottle of champagne and then do it. And then yeah. Don't wait till dessert. I waited till dessert on mine. And I was one of those people and it was the most nerve wracking meal of my entire life.

46:09That is the best advice I've heard all year. Yeah, you don't even remember the meal, right? Because you were so worried and stressed out. That's a true story. I was just like, when are they gonna come with it? Like she had a ring on her wedding finger, right? On the actual finger. She wore like a ruby or some kind of ring on her hand. So like when the dessert, I was like, hey, let me see that ring. That's a pretty cool ring. Where'd you get that? I wanted to take it off so that I could put the other ring on. So like I'm just sitting there holding it. She's like, can I have my ring back? And I'm like, no, I just really like it. And it's just that whole thing. Like just get over with. You don't have to do it. It was really bad. But she had no idea and was totally shocked and it worked out great. Yeah, so there you go. That's all that matters. Do you guys have a favorite Valentine's? Do you guys celebrate Valentine's Day together as a couple? I mean, we're in restaurant business. That's like not really like a thing. Yeah. Yeah, we don't really. Maybe, you know, give each other a card or I used to write little notes on the mirror in the bathroom with my, you know, eye pencil, just little notes and put little notes around the house.

47:21But yeah, we're working pretty much and we'll have a glass of wine together after it's over. But so. Yeah, cards, little cards, little notes. But there's no like going out to dinner or we're gonna do this or we're gonna, it's you work and you go home and then you have those moments. And then, you know, hopefully when you wake up in the morning, the day of, and there's a card, hint, hint. Oh. Wait, come on, have I let you down the last 30 years? You almost said it. You almost did. No, you have not. No. I have to talk about your love affair with Nashville. How much did you love our city that you were willing to leave Italy and come here? Because to me, we were talking about this before you joined us. And I gotta say, Kathy, if I am living in Italy somewhere, it's gonna be a real hard sell to get me to come to Nashville. I love my city and I love being here, but I think that would be a hard talk. What was it about this city that made you wanna uproot and be here and start these new ventures?

48:28Well, it's a great opportunity. I mean, we weren't ready to not be involved in a restaurant project. Italy for us is time to research and travel, eat, drink, maybe one day have an olive grove and make our own olive oil and do tours with people that wanna let us take them on, trips to see Parmigiano, the way Parmigiano is made. Okay, we got two more. Amen. So for us, it was a cool city. So many great things about this city and this project was so incredible, with the Pizzuti companies and just the hotel and like you say, Denim is such an incredible rooftop and to create Yolan and the wine program here. And I mean, it just was really enticing to us because we still wanna be in the restaurant biz. So Joe Pizzuti made us an offer we couldn't refuse.

49:28Oh, there it is. Cutting through it, there it is. I like it, like there's the national, the great town and we're excited to be here and we had to do it. I love both of those answers. So this is your first Valentine's Day going into Yolan and I don't know, Denim upstairs. And then what is going on at the Joseph Hotel this weekend? Well, Yolan is sold out. Denim is, we have Cathy and John Kearns, our Psalm, they've put together a list of really great Italian or not just Italian, sparkling, pink sparklings, but yeah. Rose sparkling wines to go with some desserts from our great pastry chef, Noel Marchetti and just really fun things. If you just wanna come in for some dessert and some sparkling wine, there's also a great hotel package.

50:29Is it called the Amore Pack? So this is the deal. If you wanna eat Yolan Valentine's Day menu, you can't do it on Yolan, but you can be a superhero and get a room and free complimentary valet parking and you can have that dinner in the privacy of your room and we'll even throw in breakfast in bed the next morning. Yeah, four course dinner, really nice. Who wants to be a hero? If you're a guy out there who does not have plans for Valentine's Day yet, that's what your significant other is looking for by the way. You wanna be the hero? That's what she's looking for. And guess what? It's safe. You don't have to be with other people. It's a true story. I had to say one of my girlfriends and some other friends just did a girls night and they went to denim and had so much fun.

51:29And then they did the spa the next day. So you add the spa in there somewhere and that really, that's like over the top, right? That's a fantastic spa. They're pretty booked, but I think they might have a few openings, so yeah. It's good stuff. Guys, thank you. Happy Valentine's Day to you. I lost him. Yeah. Okay. There they are. There they go. They're back. Sorry. She was just saying, thank you so much for joining us on the show. I know you guys are super busy. This is a very busy week, but it's always an honor getting to speak with both of you. Well, thank you for having us. It's great to talk to you guys too and we're happy to be here anytime you want us to come and talk to you. You want us to come and talk to you. We'll be there. Well, thank you. Awesome. Thank you guys. Nice to see you both. All right. Happy Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day. Thank you. I'm not kidding.

52:32I'm going to look and I might go book a room there. You're doing it right now, aren't you? Stay there. I knew. As soon as I saw your face, I'm like, yeah, I know what you're doing. Well, no. I'm working the whole weekend. I will be in the restaurant all day Friday, all day Saturday and all day Sunday, but Tuesday night or something to just surprise me. Oh no, we're not. Oh, by the way, we're going to do a little staycation. That's awesome. You know, I might. There's also, we've talked about Jean George coming. I did speak to Dee Patel earlier today and she's the managing director over at the Hermitage Hotel and she was just, she was way too busy this afternoon to really jump in. She was going to hop on the show and tell us all about everything, but she just, she was like, dude, I just today, I can't make it. So I told her I would do her justice and kind of talk about Jean George coming to the Hermitage Hotel. Did you know that they're going to completely remodel the women's bathroom?

53:33Oh, really? Finally, we're going to get a little step up. No, just kidding. The bathroom's amazing, but I've always just gone in the men's bathroom to take the selfie, right? Yeah, so they're now going to make the women's bathroom like pink. Oh, what? Just like the men's bathroom. Yeah. So it's going to be a whole thing. And so, yeah, so Jean George coming to town, their restaurant's going to be closed for the foreseeable future until fall when this new restaurant opens, but they are doing food in the lobby. So you can go to the big, arched, beautiful lobby. You can do food, your afternoon tea there. They've got all this stuff going on. And you can come, they have a very similar package there where you can do a staycation, where you can stay in the hotel and do food from the Capitol Grill in your room. Oh, see, that's so fun. That's really fun. And I think a lot of people now feel more comfortable with that type of a situation if they were going to go somewhere to be like, yeah, you know, we're going to go somewhere.

54:39But if you're not fully feeling 100% comfortable being in a restaurant or you're not there yet, that's like a good toe in the water first step. Let's go stay somewhere and then have it delivered to the room. That's pretty cool. Yeah, that is a really, it's, like I said, know what I'm doing when I get off, when I get finished with this podcast. So I have to say- I know she's not listening. We are going to the Biltmore. We are going to North Carolina next weekend. We're not doing it this weekend. We're going next weekend with some friends and some couples, but I have never been to the Biltmore before. Really? Yes, I've been by it. I've been close to it. We've, you know, I've been in Asheville before, but it has been years since I've been to Asheville and I haven't been to the Biltmore proper, actually gone into it. So that's our little Valentine's getaway is going to be Asheville with some Biltmore thrown in. How fun?

55:39Very, very big house. It's a very big house. It's a very big house. It's a very big house. Listen, I've just binge watched Bridgerton on Netflix and so I feel like I'm ready for high tea. I feel like I need to go and have high tea at the Biltmore. You're there. I'm living that life. I'll be the only one that walks in full regalia. I'll have on the entire, you know, big gown and walk in and get ready for tea. I would love that, by the way. If anyone has high tea around here, let me know. I'll be there. I'll be your guest. You're on. You got that. I will tell you also, we want to talk about Cytex, right? Because Cytex is, Ross Chandler from Cytex is also, he's like my other Jason Ellis guy. He's got a lot of bromances and I love it. I do. I have lots of these. Ross is another guy who, you know, they're just your go-to linen company. They're amazing. And did you know that they do so much more than just linens?

56:42Like you think like linens, like table linens, you know, that's where it's rolled in, or like table cloths. They have multiple colors of all of those too. But they also do like first aid kits. If you're a restaurant and you need a first aid kit, they'll supply you with first aid kit and stock it every single week. So you don't have to think about it. So if you have like an old first aid kit that you're like somebody needs to go get band-aids for, like every week when they come to your linens, they will restock your first aid kit for you. They're amazing. They also do uniforms. So if you need like polos or chef coats or any of those things, they do uniforms. They do mats. They do bar mats. They do custom logo mats. When you walk into a restaurant, you see the beautiful logo mat when you walk in. You'll see them at Maribola and Greenhouse Grove. They look gorgeous from Cytex. They also have sanitizing chemicals. They're really the good guys in the linen business. And Ross Chandler is my friend. 270-823-2468 is how you get ahold of Ross. 270-823-2468 or visit cytex-corp.com.

57:49Set up a free consultation. Have him come by and tell you all about the stuff he's doing. Nick Pride has said that you need to eat at the early girl and have the tomato gravy. He mentioned something about the Four Seasons earlier. I didn't talk about it. Before we jump in with Amanda, let's see what Nick's got. Nick, thank you for being a contributor today. All right, there we go. Eat at the early girl and have the tomato gravy. Have the chicken wing after his rooftop at the Cambria Hotel. Have a burger at the Village Wayside Bar and Grills. There's Nick Pride's ideas for Valentine's Day. I love it. That's amazing. So is that the early girl? Is that, I bet that's in Asheville. Is he giving me ideas for Asheville? I think he is. I think he's giving you. Now the Cambria is here in Nashville. Nick, are we talking here or are we talking Asheville? Let us know. And we have Amanda here on the line. Is it time for the squeak of the week?

58:49It is time for the squeak of the week. I also wanna mention that Arnold's Country Kitchen is now open for nights. Arnold's at night is now open. He's ready to rock and roll. So you can go get a beer at Arnold's Country Kitchen at nighttime. I never thought I'd see the day, but it makes me really, really happy. And Nick says, yes, Asheville. Thank you. Thank you for the recommendations. There she is. Hi, friends. Hi, friend. How are you? We're doing great. How are you? Well, I am taking advantage of this unseasonably balmy afternoon and enjoying a beer at my favorite place in town to get beer. Looks like you're at ML Rose. I'm at ML Rose. Oh, what's happening over there? There's a few people knocking off a little early this afternoon, it seems like. So just hanging out on the patio and this is what it feels like to be alive right now, right?

59:57I don't leave my house often. So this is a big deal. I was a little shocked that you're coming to us live from ML Rose. Well, I'm outside by myself and, you know, why not? Heck yeah. I love the smile. We're talking Valentine's today and one of my all-time true loves is here in this building. So I'll be sharing that with you. Tell us, tell us, don't keep us waiting. Well, they'll be making an appearance. So I'll be sharing that with you here shortly. I love it. All right, so we were just going on and on about where we're gonna go for Valentine's Day and what we're going to do. What are your picks? What are some of the things that are happening? Okay, so I can tell you what I'm doing with non-client event, but what I'm doing with my sweet little Valentine's that share house with me. There are two local little pop-ups that I've discovered and this weekend also is the Lunar New Year.

01:00:57So I have ordered a dim sum bakery box from this gal, Meal Prep Berry, who is making some traditional like custard tarts and steamed buns. I'm picking those up and then I'm also picking up some dumplings from a little mother daughter place called Mama Yang's. Found both of them through social media and I'm super excited. We're gonna have a little feast at home and hang out. That's so cool. Yeah, I think there's been a lot of really cool things that have come of the pandemic in that way. People kind of, I think in a way have been pushed to kind of follow some dreams it seems like, right? And like throw it out there and see what sticks and we're seeing success with that. But there are definitely, I think, a few reservations and a few at-home opportunities that still exist out there for people who may have left their plans to the last minute. And I'm gonna say for those of you who have planning valentines on your plate, February 10th is last minute.

01:02:00Next year, be thinking about it a week or two in advance because it is kind of slim pickings. I just talked to John Stevenson down at Hathorn. Their Valentine's night is fully booked but they have a little wiggle room for Friday night. It seems like. And honestly, I think you can celebrate Valentine's day on any day, right? So don't forget to hit the restaurants up, especially when Valentine's happens on a weekend. Go on a weeknight, right? It's quieter, a little slower, a little sexier. Yeah. Or a takeout. I mean, nobody, I can't think of anybody who isn't doing some sort of amazing takeout. I think everybody has really upped their game when it comes to making things special and wonderful. So like your favorite upscale restaurant in town, I guarantee you, is offering takeout that you can, you know, will have instructions, you can warm up, like set your table, put some candles and it'll be like you're dining out if you're not comfortable yet.

01:03:03So I think Cinema is totally booked up for the weekend. They are, hi, you're waving at me? Oh, I was just gonna say, I think this is a great idea. Are you raising your hand? Yes, Brandon. I was like, hey. No, the idea, one of the things I did during the pandemic was I used a hashtag and I used the hashtag Replate Challenge, where I asked people to take their food because chefs are very creative people, right? And what they do is they make these, they're artists, they put their food on these plates and they sell it to people in the restaurant and it's this thing, it's this expression of love. When you put it in a to-go box, it dies. You send it out and it's just food for somebody at home. I think it's amazing. What a gift to the chefs if when we get our to-go food, if we try and replate it at home as if the chef had made it and then you take a picture of it and post it and tag that restaurant and let that chef see what you did with his creation, maybe you give him ideas.

01:04:09Maybe you'd be like, we're calling it the Replate Challenge. We should do it again. We talked about this and I love that idea. I have to say, my true love has arrived if you'd like to meet them, please. Okay, this right here, I don't know if you're gonna get a good shot of it. This right here is the ML Rose Ranch Dip. And I want to go on record in saying that it is the absolute best ranch you will ever have in your life. It is wound worthy. There are Reddit threads about it. I have asked them to tell me how they make it. They will not. And it's coming alongside, this is hard because of the way my computer's situated. I don't know if I can show it to you really well, but this is their burger of the month, which is the Sergeant Pepper Burger. The mirror thing is hard for me. Oh, that looks great. Anyway, it's got two smashed patties. It's got jalapenos. It's got some sort of sauce. I forget what it is now, but I'm super excited about trying it, but I'm mostly excited about waffle fries and ranch dip.

01:05:15Waffle fries and ranch dip. I knew we were best friends. I knew it. That is my favorite thing. Ranch dip with anything is a delight, but man, throw a waffle fry in the mix. Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm so very excited about it. So look, Brandon hates it. Are you guys done talking about delicious food? I am on a diet. I thought you were mad at us because we were talking about waffle fries. No, I want waffle fries and ranch so bad I could just die, but I'm like. You know what? Diets are everything in moderation. Eat when your body wants to eat and don't when it shouldn't and enjoy the waffle fries. We are not promised tomorrow. I love that. And you know, Nick Pellegrino says a real friend would bring you one of those. Nick, you're right. You know what? I will bring you one. Scout's honor. I don't know what the scout sign is. Scout's honor. I will bring you one. Wow. That's awesome. That is so. It's been a long time. Ah, so good.

01:06:15There's my girls. And then he threw me a little love and said, you too, Brandon. Aw. Well, you know. So the burger of the month happening at M.L. Rose, that's what you can go in. You can get, I mean, M.L. Rose is known for all of their amazing burgers, but that one sounds pretty spectacular. Well, the most popular one we've had, I think so far in a long time was actually the collaboration with Arnold's where Austin, the owner here in Kalil, brainstormed a fried chicken sandwich. That was just beyond. And the reception, I have never been an influencer in my life until I started posting that sandwich and was getting like messages of like, I couldn't help. I had to go get it. I had to go get it. Here it is. It was as good as you said. So hopefully it'll make another appearance someday. I think everybody's happy enough with it that that's a possibility. So their burgers of the month are always really fantastic. I can't wait to dive into this one. So good. Yeah, yeah. You were about to say what Sinema was doing when I interrupted you.

01:07:17Oh, yeah, yeah. So Sinema, sorry, there's some four-legged friends here on the green today. A coyote? That sounds like a coyote. It's a doggo. So their Valentine's is completely full. Their take home is completely full. But again, they're open all the time. I think you can get take out with them on a slower night. I'm so thrilled that people are venturing out for Valentine's. I think it's a wonderful thing. But I've been hearing, you know, ongoing that those weeknights are when the restaurants are kind of really struggling. So pick a non-traditional date night, right? Head out on a Tuesday night. Have the place almost to yourself. Take your time. I think, you know, that's the way to do it. If I were going out this year, I think that's what I would prefer to do. For people who want the sweets in their lives, of course my friends at Christy Cookie are not gonna let you down. And I actually just learned that they're partnering with Amelia's Flower Truck. I don't know if you're familiar with Amelia's, but it's like a make your own bouquet scenario.

01:08:23And so they're gonna have Christy Cookie Tins at, I think it's Dose in East Nashville, the Graduate Hotel, and then at their L&L Marketplace on Valentine's Day. So you can pick up your cookies and your flowers in one spot. Which is super thrilled about. Yeah. Doesn't Amelia's, is that, they have the permanent location in L&L, right? Correct. The truck, from what I understand, the temperatures are gonna drop, and so the truck is not gonna be out this weekend. But you can go to Dose and the Graduate instead, and you know, get what you need. And then down at 8th and Rose, they are doing these really adorable cookie decorating boxes, which I've never seen them do before. So you can pick up like fresh baked cookies, frosting, sprinkles, and like have at it at home, which I think is super fun. And of course pick up coffee while you're there. Oh yeah. Our city is really stepping up. I love all the fun things that are out there. And if you don't have something fun planned, it's because you just haven't looked, because it's all around you.

01:09:26I agree. And I think everybody's done a really good job of making it so you can enjoy at your comfort level. So most places, even if curbside isn't advertised, I found if you call when you get there, somebody is happy to run it out to you. Tip them well, of course. But you can kind of find something really wonderful to do and some really amazing food to eat and support local kind of any part of town and any capacity that you're comfortable with. So we're all out in Bellevue. And I know Honeyfire Barbecue has their strawberry cheesecake pudding right now as their Valentine's special. I know. So the peanut butter banana pudding is, I think they're number two best seller on the menu every month, ever since they've been open. And then whatever their special pudding is always does super well. So strawberry cheesecake sounds kind of perfect right now. I have to say, we just did take out from there last, I think it was last weekend.

01:10:27And I got the banana pudding, like two of the banana puddings. And it's so incredible and amazing, but it's very rich. So I ate half of it. And Paul was like, you know, I'll eat the other half. And I said, no, I got you one. That one's yours. Like I was so protective of it. I wanted to ration and I knew how much I'd eat. Yes. Well, it's the perfect thing because it comes in that cup with the lid. So you stick it in the fridge and you just pull it out, sneak a little bite, stick it back in. Yes, it's so good. It's so good. Shane Nazby killing it out there at Honeyfire. I know. Oh, he's the best. He is the best. You know, I will tell you something that we're doing that I, you know, one of the things, I think one of the people out there that I don't think have forgotten, excuse me, that have been forgotten, I think that people who work in restaurants who are gonna be absolutely slammed Friday, Saturday and Sunday, they will not get to go out and do Valentine's Day. So I'm announcing it here only, just cause I got you guys, we're talking about it.

01:11:28Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, if you work in restaurants, if you work in a restaurant, we are doing employee discounts, 50% off food at Maribor for people who work in restaurants to do a Valentine's Day proper for you. Oh, that's so sweet. I love that. That's cool. If you work in a restaurant, you wanna go have a nice dinner at Maribor, 50% off. All bottles of wine are already 50% off. But half price on all the food for, if you work in a restaurant, you just have to make a reservation. You gotta message me and tell me that you're coming and you'll pay half price. So you can have your own Valentine's Day because we appreciate all the people who have sacrificed their Valentine's Day for everybody else. We're hooking you up. Absolutely. That's an awesome idea. I love that. Yeah, just a little something to give some love back. Well, and you do think about so many people that are gonna be working in the industry, trying to make everybody else's night really special. They need a special night too, yeah. Yes, I totally agree with that.

01:12:29And really just people in general, right? Like whatever night it happens to fall on doesn't necessarily align with your childcare goals or work schedule or what have you. So again, I think going on a weeknight, I kind of prefer it. Like it's quieter and cozier and all that. Absolutely. True story. All right, lady, your fries are getting cold. My fries are getting cold. You know what, I did pull it up because I feel like I botched the description of the Sergeant Pepper Burger. They have all sorts of cute Beatles puns, but it's smashed patties, habanero jack, Serrano blue cheese, grilled jalapenos, chipotle ranch. There's that ranch again. Yeah, I'm super excited to dig into this one. So thanks for having me. We love seeing your face. Thank you. You're amazing. You're awesome, Amanda. Happy Valentine's Day weekend to you. Thank you, same to you all. All right. Bye. Bye. Bye. I love her. I want fries. Dude.

01:13:29I want fries right now. Those fries with that ranch. I know. I know. I kind of have gone off the rails and just decided I'm gonna eat whatever I like, but I know I'm gonna reel it back in soon. I'm back at the YMCA. Oh, you're working out? Good for you. Yes, now that I've got the full vaccination thing happening, I am back at the Y. You are fully vaccinated. I'm jealous. Yes, I'm 10 days past my second one, so now I'm like jacked, ready to go. So I still wear a mask and do all of the things everywhere that I go, but I'm a little more bullish on getting out and doing stuff now. So I am back at the gym. You feel like you've got tiger blood. I've lost 11 pounds. What? Yeah, so I'm hustling. I'm like no fries, no like la, la, la, la, la, la, do that thing. Chad and Gracie are on waiting for us right now, but I do wanna tell you real quick. They are gonna be brought on today, sponsored by What Chefs Want, and I was so excited when I first talked to What Chefs Want because I was like, I don't want anybody else.

01:14:31I want you guys to sponsor this show. You're the local people. You're the ones that work with all the local restaurants, and I just thought it was so cool, and I wanna share with you that they are the company that supports locally-owned and independently-operated restaurants, and they have no minimums. They will split any case, 24-7 customer service, seven-day delivery, and an unmatched selection of paper goods, seafood, steaks, gourmet items, and of course, Creation Gardens produce is amazing. They really are What Chefs Want, and if you're a restaurant owner out there, you know about What Chefs Want because 90% chance you work with them already, and they want to know that they sponsor you. We don't take money from restaurants by any means at any time, but they want to sponsor us, talking about all these amazing restaurants, and speaking about amazing restaurants. Should we bring them in?

01:15:31Yeah. There they are. Hi, guys. Oh my goodness, hi, good to see you. What's going on? We are doing a fantastic Happy Valentine's special show early weekend to you guys. Thank you. It's gonna be a busy weekend. We were just mentioning the fact that so many people in the restaurant industry are working all weekend long, so I'm sure that you guys are no exception. You're gearing up for a pretty busy weekend, yes? Yeah, it's a little different for fast casual. A lot of times we don't get all the special occasion holidays because people go to sit-down restaurants and stuff like that, but hey, it's a new era and it's a new environment, so you never know. That's what we're learning, that throw tradition out when you're dealing with all this new stuff because things have definitely changed. The last time I had you guys on, you were two days, it was the day you were doing Friends and Family.

01:16:32You were opening that day. I know because Ben Whitlock had just eaten there and he's like, oh my God, dude. And I certainly have eaten there a few times. I am a huge fan. You guys are blowing up. I don't know about that. How are you doing? We're just having fun. We tried to just cook good food and have fun and keep things interesting. That's all we wanted to do, just put our heads down, be humble, and we're in a new town, and this community has been so great to us and everyone's just been so welcoming and as-built for Nashville because that's what we really heard and we absolutely just love it here. We really do. We're so happy. Tell me about this partnership with the Nashville Food Project and what you guys are doing because I just see another superstar chef collaborating with you every week. I think this week it's Sarah Gavigan. It is Sarah from Otaku Ramen and she's fantastic and yeah, it's quite a chef lineup.

01:17:35So yeah, the way it started is Gracie and I kind of dreamt up this kind of chef series. We really wanted other chefs around town to do a sandwich with us and then we thought it would be really fun if we benefited the Nashville Food Project as well. We always have a somewhat charitable bent to all of our businesses. We always have and we always will. It's just something we believe in and it kind of just came together. We just reached out to some folks that we really looked up to around town and ones that have also been really supportive of us the whole way through and just said, let's do this. Let's have you create a Banh Mi. We'll drop off a Banh Mi kit to your restaurant. You can just test it in the comfort of your own kitchen and then they give us some notes and what they wanna do and then we try to make it and then we'll give them a sandwich after we make it to see how close it is to what they did. Make any adjustments and then get the final blessing from them and then train the staff here and do a little photo shoot and kind of go live.

01:18:37So hey, we're learning on the fly too big time. There's been some days of crying for sure. It's been, the response has just been unbelievable but you know what, it doesn't surprise us all the way because that's just the way Nashville has been since we've been here and I guess has always been. So just so grateful. It's just been an awesome project. So yeah, so my Leah from Luz started off and it was Brian Lee Weaver from Redheaded and Butcher and B and now it's Sarah Gavgen from Otaku and Sean rocks up next. And then I think Julia from Henrietta Red, Phillip from Wolf and Wolf and Daughters and then the tattoo artist, Chad Coppinger is finishing it off. Nice. You know what's amazing? I just, I am not necessarily in the food industry or in the restaurant scene but have been around it and covered it and talked about it for a very long time. I don't know another city where you hear about these kinds of collaborations and partnerships that are just happening organically and that everybody is supporting each other.

01:19:46In coming to Nashville, does this happen in other cities or are we just super blessed? I don't think it happens as much and I can't speak for all cities and markets. Of course we spend the majority of our time in the San Francisco Bay area, restaurant community but I just think it's a lot bigger in some of those other cities and it's harder, it's more hard to kind of have tight-knit groups. There's definitely like chef clicks in each city and people that support each other for sure and families of chefs that kind of grew up together or came up together and whatnot. But here it's just so different and it's just a great environment for that. And I think also just the way times are right now, it makes it even more, makes it easier for everybody to come together and do this because everyone's trying to just do things that are exciting and fun. Not just to lift spirits through food but also just to kind of keep the business flowing and keep things exciting for our guests. And people are making something out of nothing and just scrapping and there's so many folks out there that we look up to on the scene here and they're not all well-known restaurants with restaurants, brick and mortar restaurants, they're across the board.

01:21:01That's what's kind of cool. Well, Gracie? Yes. I gotta get you in here somehow. I'm gonna pull the hair out of you. We're going into Valentine's weekend. We've discussed ad nauseum how much people in the restaurant industry work on Valentine's Day. Do you guys ever get to do anything special? Is Valentine's Day a special holiday for you? Well, we also work on Valentine's but for this year it's gonna be on Sunday so we're gonna take the day off. But on Saturday when we get to close early, we close at seven, we always pick a restaurant and we'll just eat and have a cocktail for like an hour before we had to go back to our dog. So that's what we do to celebrate the week. Is there any place that you've gone recently that you just love? Where did we go last? Optimus was really good. Optimus is probably one of my favorites.

01:22:02Yeah. And folk is always really good. Unfortunately, the one that just closed at sun, we love that place but. Oh, set sun was like the best. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you that I had dinner last night at St. Stephen and that was a wonderful experience. It's a neat little place. Yeah, we've heard great things and you know, one of the kind of sad things is that we got here last March, right? A week after the tornado and right before COVID just shut everything down. So we haven't had the real ability to explore a new city like we should. Our lives is hospitality and eating and drinking and loving folks and if there wasn't COVID right now, we'd probably been to each restaurant 10 times, because that's where we support all the other restaurants that we kind of look up to and appreciate. So there's been a lot of restaurants that still we haven't had a chance to go and check out.

01:23:04So we slowly kind of check them off when we get a moment here and there and there's a lot of car eating, right? Car eating, don't knock, car eating. There's a lot of car eating. I have car eating outside of your restaurant a couple of times. For sure, for me it's easy to eat in the car. Okay, so this is a great, because I know what it is and I know that I am absolutely in love with what you guys are doing, like I crave it. Can you explain to the layman out there who's listening is going, what is a banh mi? Can you explain exactly what a banh mi is? So a banh mi is kind of like a Vietnamese snack. It's a sandwich made from a baguette and it always typically it has, is actually traditionally it's just pretty much like very little meat, like a traditional banh mi probably has like one ounce of meat and then the majority is tons of pickled vegetables, cilantro, the jalapenos and cucumbers. And so it's just like a little snack. And actually when I was in Vietnam, a banh mi out there is like a dollar and but you're not gonna get full off of banh mi.

01:24:08So what we wanted to do is we wanted to make a banh mi like as a sandwich. And I've always loved baking bread or baking in general. So I wanted to create a banh mi bread that is not the traditional banh mi, but like a baguette and a banh mi all in one kind of. And then of course we're adding tons of proteins and vegetables and just like a hearty meal. And you're making all your bread from scratch. Yes, yeah. Make everything from scratch, our pate, pickles, everything. I don't think there's really a banh mi shop out there that goes that length to do that. Oh, and it shows. That's amazing. So tell everybody in the hours that they're gonna come, if they're now are starving like I am and they wanna come by and see you. So what are your hours and when can they come see you? Sure, so we're open Monday through Friday, 11 to eight. And then on Saturdays we go 11 to seven. And we're available on online ordering.

01:25:11The best thing is go directly to our website and click through because Postmates just recently has done a little roundabout of everybody and paid a lot for SEO dollars to take them through their portal to charge us 10%. Even though it looks like it's going through ours, but it's really theirs and they don't charge the customer or anything. So it's the same, there's no difference with the customer but go through our direct website. It's a square online. It's very easy to place an order. We're also on Postmates. We do appreciate Postmates just for being able to deliver because I know a lot of folks don't wanna go out of the house right now and that's totally okay. And that's how you can get us. But yeah, we enjoy our Sundays off and we promise doing restaurants for the future that we would do a little bit more for ourselves and for our staff to have a little breather especially in these tough times. So we have no problems about closing on a Sunday and everyone getting their rest and then hitting it hard the rest of the week. That's awesome. That is amazing. I wanna come and see you guys now. Thank you, thank you so much.

01:26:12You will have to. I've been threatening like we've gotta do a full show. We're gonna do it. And I wanna hear all the stories about San Francisco and just kinda like all the backstories to all this stuff. But you guys, I've just, every single day I see a new thing you guys are doing. The lineup that you have for your collaboration is just off the chart. And it just goes to show that you're coming in, you're doing, first people that just got to town in March, you're making friends really fast. I know Alex Ballou who I brought in there with Brian that day, he like comes in all the time now and he's like drives from Murfreesboro. So if that's a testament, you've got chefs driving from Murfreesboro to eat your food. It's amazing stuff. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm so excited for your success. Thanks for having us. It's really an honor to be on the show and we've always looked up to what y'all are doing and we're just gonna continue to put our heads down, try to cook good food and be nice to people and have fun.

01:27:15Sounds like a successful motto to me. That's like the end of the show. I'm like, true words are never spoken. All of that. Thank you guys so much. Have a happy Valentine's weekend. Hopefully you guys get to spend a little time together. We will, thanks so much. All right guys, take care. Thanks, bye. How have you not told me about Bon Me until now? I feel like you were holding out and Amanda Virgilino already chimed in and said had East Side Bon Me but recently it is fire. I was trying to tell you like East Side Bon Me is like, I think she's on the eater like number one on all the eater hot list. Like it is, if you don't know about East Side Bon Me, you need to go like tomorrow because it is that good. Well, everything she described, I am a huge fan of. So yes, all of those things on a sandwich would make my heart very happy. They have one that's like a roast beef, it's like a steak. I don't know if it's called a beef eater or something along those lines, but it's like this hot baguette and then they put the meat on it and it has a paté and I'm like, I don't know about paté, I'm just never like never my thing.

01:28:25But I was just like, let's roll, let's just do it. But then there's like this thin slice, like along the bottom is like this thin slice like cucumber and carrots and cilantro. So as you're eating this, you're like, is there a crunchy pickled vegetable in the middle of this that has spice and they have like the sauce on it? So you're eating this thing going, oh, the flavors in my mouth. I remember the first time I ate it, I looked at my wife and I said, the flavor that is going on in my mouth right now is the stuff dreams are made of. This is the flavor I want every time I eat a sandwich. I want all of this right now. Oh, wow. That's hard to live up to. At least that's on me, yeah. So, and you know, she makes all of the bread from scratch. They're doing every single thing from scratch and it just goes, show me, they're getting huge press. Yeah, it's an honor to have them on the show. They're just, and they're just so humble, just the nicest people. So sweet, so very sweet. You know, one thing that I was gonna mention before we go, we were just trying to give as many Valentine's Day tips as we possibly could to everybody out there that's kind of scrambling and looking for something.

01:29:32And I had the delicious treats from my friends at Bang Candy Company, but I also had this amazing little chocolate extraordinaire that was dropped off to me from my friends at Sugar Drop. Have you been to Sugar Drop in Brentwood? Nope. Okay, so it's been around forever. They just moved locations. It is this amazing place. If you love to bake, if you need any kind of, you know, baking equipment, like if you're needing pans, they've got all of that stuff and they've got that covered, but then they also do their own chocolate. They do their own cupcakes and ice cream and they are gonna teach classes in the back for kids. I mean, it's precious, but they are doing this heart that's made of chocolate and you break it. And inside of it, when you open it up, there were cookies and truffles and just like such an amazing little display. It was beautifully done. I almost didn't wanna smash the heart, so I let my daughter do it.

01:30:33And when she broke it open, there were all these goodies inside. And I think that they still are taking orders for those. So if you're looking for something sweet and fun, another place to check out is Sugar Drop. They're awesome. I'm all over it. I love it. Dee Patel is messaging me right now. I wonder if she wants to come on right now. What's she doing? Well, she's busy. She's got a lot to be having. She does. Well, she said, hey, she's calling right now saying, you know. Hi. No big deal. We just had this Michelin, two Michelin Star Chef, right? Is he two Michelin stars? I think he's a one star. Okay, maybe. He's a Michelin star chef. Right. I mean, I'm not gonna fight that one, but I will look it up to fact check myself. So for everybody out there, just get ready because our food scene. And you know, you said this, I truly believe you were right on when you said to Tony and Kathy, if they weren't already in Nashville doing what they're doing, I don't know that we would ever have the opportunity to get other chefs like that, of that caliber to be attracted to Nashville.

01:31:44I think it's a true story. I think that they were people that, when they got there and then Joseph opened, I think it opened the door when people of that caliber of Spiaggia to come to town and do it. They're like, okay, this is legit now. Right. I do have Dee. I have her by the telephone. Dee, say hello. Hi, everyone. Hey, what are you doing? Hi. You are live on the show now. Oh my God. Hi. She wasn't prepared. She was not prepared yet. What? Are you on the phone? What is this? So. I mean, I have a couple of other words, but no, this is exciting. I'm just super impromptu. Yeah, super impromptu. So we're about to wrap the show. I did a little tease earlier. I talked about the Hermitage Hotel. This is Dee Patel on the phone. She's the managing director for the Hermitage Hotel who made the gigantic announcement this week that John George is coming to redo the restaurant, the Capitol Grill.

01:32:46We spoke with Tony and Cathy Montuano about it and they are super excited for this to happen. Tell us how this came to be. Well, oh my gosh. We've had conversations for quite some time now, but I think the pandemic and COVID and just having to sort of navigate during a period that you're not quite sure how long this time's gonna last. We very early on last year decided that we were gonna ramp up all of our capex and renovation efforts that we had earmarked. And one of those improvements was also the Capitol Grill and the bar space. The kitchen was already on pace to be completely and fully renovated. We'd been working with some amazing designers. And so yeah, we started conversation very early last year and by mid-year we had decided that that was a direction that we were wanting to explore.

01:33:46And it's just taken a while because we really didn't have a playbook for COVID and we also hadn't planned this years prior. So here we are today. I was just, I think I'm just ecstatic that we were just able to finally release this news and to really be truly humbled to welcome such an incredible, incredibly world renowned, celebrated chef, not just to the Hermitage Hotel, but to Nashville. John George will be doing all aspects of food and beverage including menu planning for wedding events, corporate events, the bar, the cafe, and of course the restaurant that will be serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. But really in a very approachable way. We will have a pizza kitchen, I mean a pizza oven that will really hopefully demonstrate that it's very approachable and really meant for everyone to enjoy.

01:34:50Dee, this is Kelly. I just got a little taste of what you were talking about and looking up all of the information when I saw the press release. What does that mean to the hotel itself? Because it's one thing, it's absolutely leveling up the grill and changing that entire scene. But you just mentioned he's gonna be involved with menu planning for weddings. I mean, now to stay and have a wedding and be a part of that at the hotel, this is just a whole nother level. It really is Kelly. I mean, it's on a different level. I think this really elevates Nashville to think that John George is in some of the most beautiful, most sexiest cities out there from Shanghai to New York, to London, to Tokyo, to Paris, and now to Nashville. That really just captivates and really celebrates Nashville itself and how amazing it is from a culinary standpoint, from a hospitality standpoint.

01:35:52I think it illustrates really the optimism and that's really what I have in terms of travel and tourism and rebound into just a phenomenal city that just has great culture and depth and authenticity. So I just am so proud, so excited, incredibly humbled. I think what it means to the hotel is what it meant when the hotel renovated in 2002. And when we reopened, we made a commitment and a promise to the city that we were gonna be the first luxury five-star hotel and we delivered upon that. And here we are sort of into a new decade. And while the pandemic and this global destructor has really rocked our boat, I think we are back in that same position of bringing something to the market that is really phenomenal and at a completely different level that stands and compliments the Hermitage Hotel. And that's really our partnership and our friendship with John George.

01:36:53And I think it's gonna be beautiful. I think it's just gonna continue elevating all things that we're all doing. Yeah, I mean, I'm just hearing you talk. It's just amazing to think that this, it's just such an elevation and I just love seeing it. I told Tony and Kathy, I said, I think that you guys coming to town paves the way for this type of acquisition, this type of chef coming to Nashville. And I think it's amazing. And I'm so excited for you, Dee, to be in the middle of all of this. And I know that your leadership, that this is gonna go 100% smooth and I just can't wait to see the whole thing unfold. It's gonna be spectacular. I can't wait to have you both come join us and for us to open. And there's still a few things we haven't fully determined, but you'll certainly be hearing from us. And on behalf of the entire team at the Hermitage, we're so excited and we're just tickled.

01:37:58Tell us what you're doing. You've got the restaurant closed. I mentioned earlier that you can dine in the lobby. What are you doing right now in the meantime? Well, we decided to have our own pop-up. So we took our Oak Bar, we took our Capital Grill and we have reprogrammed all of our public spaces. So the iconic lobby, you can enjoy a cocktail in the evening. You can enjoy lunch in the afternoon. You can have dinner if you prefer and really have the grand Beaux-Arts architectural lobby as your backdrop to your engagement. The Miranda Room has been converted for breakfast and lunch. A lot of guests enjoy having dinner there. It's really creating a very recreational and flexible space for guests to enjoy really wherever they want. They can play chess on the mezzanine level and have a croissant in the morning with their cup of coffee or you can have dinner up there. So we're really sort of embracing that while we don't have a lot of group as well, we don't have really much group business that we're activating these really amazing iconic spaces that we wouldn't want prior to COVID be able to do.

01:39:15It's amazing. That's so exciting. We're really excited. Afternoon tea has kicked back up again. We just got so many requests and the wait list was just incredibly long. The month of February afternoon tea is just delightful and it's called for the love of tea and we'll just continue. We'll continue the tea program because it has been just very special and delightful and we're serving, there's a bar in the lobby. It's a full service bar. So I can't wait to see more of our community being able to enjoy that space. Well, we were just talking about high tea. I said, I just binge watched Bridgerton and so now I'm definitely up for high tea. I know that you guys are doing the tea program. I will have to come out. Kelly, I mean, can you just imagine like Bridgerton inside the Hermitage Hotel? Perfect. It's so perfect.

01:40:16Look out for what might come in March and April that might have a little connection to that. Oh, please do tell us about that when the time is right because I will be there with Mel Swan. That's amazing. You're too good at holding in secrets too, Dee because we had like a full hour of conversation. You hinted nothing towards this. I know. Well, you know, I never used to have a poker face and I can't say that I haven't today but I've gotten a little bit better. Yeah. You've got a lot better. I'm like, really, she spent an hour with me, she didn't mention the nothing, nothing? Gosh, you know, it does my heart good and makes me so happy and I know you have to be overjoyed just to know all of the good things coming and I think you nailed it earlier when you said this is a sign of optimism. It is, it is something that we are all gonna be looking forward to. So bravo to all of you. Absolutely. Thank you. Dee, thank you for joining us impromptu towards the end of our show today.

01:41:18I will do a little tease. Dee is the president of La Dame Escoffier here in Nashville and we talked about doing something here on the show to celebrate the Doms and we're gonna start doing that hopefully in the next month or so, right? That's right. It's going to be, I think, just a delightful conversation between women in our industry that have just worked through such adversity during these last 10 to 12 months and I think the conversations are gonna be dynamic, they're gonna be enjoyable, they're gonna be fun, they're conversational and I can't wait for us to collab on that. Yes, we are super excited to bring their voices to our airwaves and it's gonna be great. And I just thank you for all that you do, Dee and we will catch up soon. Sounds great. Thank you, Brandon. Thanks, Kelly. Bye, Dee. Bye. Well, there you go. That was a little random towards the very end there but that was fun.

01:42:21Holy cow. That, I mean, the hotel to me is so beautiful and has such a history and anytime that I'm in there, it's almost like a sacred place like the Ryman. When you're there, you know that history, you feel that history, you know it's just, it's gorgeous but to have this next level coming in, wow. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. That's pretty cool. I remember this time. Remember we heard he was coming? Yes. Hopefully it works out really well. And that's, you know, I think she mentioned it but it's really a sign for what's coming in Nashville that it's not just this pandemic is killing us. Like the city is ready for this explosion and I'm excited about it. It's gonna be fun. I agree. And we'll be right in the middle of it. You better believe it. Yeah. Kelly, it's so fun to see you. It's so fun to talk with you. It's so fun to interview people with you. I know. I know. That's what they say.

01:43:21Absence makes the heart grow fonder. We don't do it every week but we do it once a month and then we've got so much stuff to talk about that it just spills over and that makes it even better. Well, I wanna thank you for your time today and I wanna thank the internet gods for letting you have internet for this show. Bless you. And I also wanna thank our guests. I wanna thank Aaron and Stuart from Nashville Today in Explore Nashville. I wanna thank Dee Patel who was just on the show, Amanda Virgilito from Squeaky Wheel Public Relations, Tony and Cathy Montuano and Gracie and Chad Newton from Eastside Bond. Me, that was a lot of fun. Lot of fun. Now I'm starving. Yes, I am too. And I'm gonna go eat so I can hear my offspring running around downstairs. They're home. I'm gonna go eat some food with them. My wife is cooking salmon. Yay. Ooh, that sounds delightful.

01:44:22I'll come over. Yeah, come on. Let's go. You know where I live. Yeah, I do. We have, thank you everybody for listening. Thank you for the people who commented. This really was a lot of fun. Really enjoyed doing the show and thank you to our sponsors. You guys make this possible. Awesome. Happy Valentine's Day everybody. Thank you. Happy Valentine's Day to you too. Everybody be safe out there. Love you guys. Bye. Bye.