The Roundup Featuring Chef Andy Little Chef/Partner

00:00We are joined with Jason Ellis from Super Source Nashville. They have been a sponsor for this podcast for almost three years. We are so Honored to work with them. This is a great company and a great man Jason, what can people expect if they give you a call first off? They just got to give us a call Um, we'll come out do a complete audit of their facility see in which ways we could help them approve if any Um and see what we can do as far as helping them save some money So the first thing they got to do is just give us a call 770-337-1143 Or they can email me directly at jellis at supersourceinc.com We'll come out take a look at your operations see in which ways we can help That's amazing. So if you're out there right now listening to this call Jason Ellis or email him today When you hear that sound, it's probably too late. You need a guy. I want to be your guy I'm kevin with course and fire and security and i'm a restaurant territory account manager Do you know who's doing your inspections at your? restaurant Please reach out to me at six one five nine seven four 2932 and i'll be glad to come out and take a quick look And look at all your fire safety inspection needs if you're building your restaurant We can help with that too as far as kitchen suppression fire extinguishers emergency lights We do it all one stop one shop call kevin at six one five nine seven four two nine three two Let me be your guy nashville Welcome to nashville restaurant radio the tastiest hour of talk in music city. Now. Here's your host brandon still Hello Music city

02:08And welcome to nashville restaurant radio. My name is brandon still and we are powered by gordon food service Today is a fun episode of the roundup Carolina to be joining me very shortly with chef and partner andrew little From josephine. Uh, this is a lively conversation where we get into lots of stuff uh Lots of stuff. I love it. I love uh, andy at the end Started a new segment called what's pissing me off and I think that's a really fun segment that we're getting and maybe we start doing that We used to do that on episode With delia joe rams he called what's the delia and it was so much fun like what is the delia with this So we had these little rants and uh, we we kind of get some of that out today I want to tell you that monday. We'll be talking to joe Bono volento the third he is the owner of or not the owner. He's the vp at bono beef Which is coming to nashville. It's a chicago italian beef concept and i've got to learn a lot about him tony galson joins us on that interview. It's he is a Specialist in italian beef. So it is me tony and caroline Talking to joe bono volento. I'm learning how to say that correctly but uh special friday episode random episode Loving thank you so much andrew little for coming out so much fun and uh, we hope that you guys enjoy this episode We're officially live Yeah, we uh, i've from my entire career have been an eco lab guy and just uh middle of december We switched over and I couldn't be happier switched over to super source So that our number one source for dish chemicals and dish machines in nashville and atlanta That is correct. That was that was excellent. Well, we'll get you a check later. Thank you I'll just take some degreaser or something. Well, i've got bags You can take any of the stuff from all these people home with you. Um all the sponsors behind me We are live on youtube right now. Cool. And then this episode is going to come out on friday. Awesome

04:12We are live with chef andy little, uh, who is the chef partner at josephine. You betcha Welcome to nashville restaurant radio again. Welcome back. Thank you You know the first time that andy came on the show I was in my bonus room and I had a little microphone that I like a little amazon microphone and I had my cell phone on speaker phone And I think I like streamed it into the speaker phone while I talked to you Love it You're you've you've evolved so much come a long way. There's significantly more tech happening now Yes, although I did miss the makeup room. So for youtube it's over there. Yeah missed it. It's over there. It's all good well, this is this is a show called the roundup, which is Really not an interview show cool It's a show where we're just gonna go over some random topics that are happening in the world and we're just gonna talk about them Let's let the healing begin. How does that sound great? well, and I actually reached out to you last week because last week we we as a restaurant community got the news that noma is closing and There was a lot of hubbub around this announcement They announced that they would be closing at the end of this year and uh in 20 or And in next year at the end of next year and then reopening as a laboratory And assuming they're making some sort of like wholesale type of food products or retail food products that sort of thing hot sauces And I don't know whatever else Um, so there was a lot of a lot of hot sauces, you know, it's the first thing that came to mind They're fermented, right?

05:50Uh, so, uh a lot of people are posting different things about noma closing both both good and bad And I feel like I saw a lot of people really from the restaurant community posting Not you know so much. Well much less of an arnold style tribute and more of a well you know I it's funny because did you see the movie the menu you bet it's okay We should give a spoiler alert right now. If you haven't seen it, we're probably gonna spoil it Yes, if you haven't seen the menu, there's gonna be spoilers here definitely for sure But a lot of people are comparing the way that the menu ended the whole story in the menu and the parallel At noma closing like that that they came out roughly the same time and there's a whole thing there You made a post there's somebody on twitter. Do you have it right there? I do Do you do you want to read it to us andy? Uh, I don't really i'm not great with reading Oh, i'm sorry. Why don't you read it? I can't even see it. I'm great with reading, but my eyes are terrible So what did the twitter post say?

06:52so it was a repost of a tweet from uh, the sussmans which if anybody has followed that on on instagram, it's kind of like a restaurant Worker meme account. I guess is the best way to describe it Uh, so it says noma instead of figuring out the economics raising prices paying stages and employees a living wage And leading the discussion of what it costs to actually run a fine dining restaurant in an equitable way We're just going to close in one year And then the response is food media I'm not it's very vulgar. I'm not gonna read it word for word, but basically saying that this is food media Oh, that's amazing. Basically. Yes. Yes put it that way. So, um, so andy you reposted this and I Liked it instantly um And and i'd love to hear kind of your thoughts about why any put comments there to that. Oh, sorry Sorry, it was kind of his take on it, which I thought was Possibly a hot take in between washing dishes or something. Yeah, I take between washing dishes um So you said Sorry, let me pull it back up here Uh, I think that this nails it here If you really want to roll up your sleeves and figure out the big issues that actually matter work on this Quote building a lab and exploring new flavors or whatever is just mental masturbation Take an actual pressing issue for our industry and be an actual hero And personally drops the mic. I could not agree more Or don't What do you and what do you mean by that? It's it's perfectly his prerogative to retire Absolutely, if he wants to retire and have a lab and do whatever whatever they're doing I think that's his thing But for a certain generation of chefs and i'm caught in between because i'm older He was the person that everybody looked to so if we have these bigger issues issues that are beyond Being a trailblazer for what you're putting on the plate

08:55Shouldn't people be looking to People like renee redzepi for the answer And I don't know the answer to that But I sure feel like he has the resources To be able to do it because this whole fine dining game Is a problem that we've created on our own You want to do a restaurant that has 12 courses You want the writers to talk about you? So you're going to do 15 and i'm going to do 21 because fuck all of you But that 21 requires People to not be paid or be there as stages or interns or educational release or whatever you want to call it Because the economics of doing 21 versus doing 12 Just don't make sense. Yeah, that makes sense But who's making it so that if you have two white plates Which white plate is worth more than the other? the one that the food media says is so part of my issue with all of it is Who's driving actually driving the car?

09:58and Should how much responsibility for a lot of what we're going through and I don't know how much but I know that they should be taking some The food media generally drives what Fine dining means they don't necessarily drive what casual dining is they don't drive what fast casual is they might say check out this new shiny thing but from a Fine dining standpoint there are a lot of writers Here's a good example if ruth reichel never goes to the french laundry in the 90s and says this is the best restaurant in america Do we ever really have the french laundry? I don't know. We don't have the french laundry. Do we ever really have a linea? I don't know But the reality of it is when people are writing about food and then people are consuming what those people are writing that determines for Some part what we do what we call fine dining. So What if that tweet that you're you know, his whatever press release came out and said This isn't sustainable I want to spend more time with my family I want to partially retire We want to redefine what fine dining looks like to the globe. So we're going to go to a five course menu We're going to make sure that we pay everyone equitably and we're going to give them profit share. Whatever 401k is the whole nine but fine dining to me is not This it's not x it's y and I encourage every person who's ever written about noma To come in or and let's just remove the noma part of it. It could be anyone anyone who has a voice anyone Who has a bully pulpit?

11:30I encourage you all to come in and look at this five course menu because we're redefining what we feel like fine dining is Doors are open We'll comp your meal Actually, we won't comp your meal because we have all these people to pay. Yeah. Yeah so, I mean and there's you know, there's a ton to unpack there the other thing too is like i'm looking across and You've got an iphone. You've got a Apple something or other there that looks like an ipad. You've got an iphone. I've got an iphone. I'm wearing an apple watch You're you're being filmed on an apple on an iphone. I've got an iphone right not an ad for apple But also made for pennies an hour by kids in china Why is it the restaurant businesses burden? But why was the restaurant business the one that we've chosen with with our you know our outrage of the day You want to choose your outrage for they don't buy an iphone because it's newsworthy Is it because people want to consume it? Well, I don't know. I just I feel like it's low-hanging fruit. It's easy. Yeah, it's easy to go after Can you go after a company with a two trillion dollar valuation?

12:36I mean you can but people aren't going to so in the the micro part of Trying to take a swing at things and making sure that things are equitable and all the things that we want I mean, let's start with that as a baseline. We all want those things but Where can we affect real change and how can we do that? I think it's probably more intuitive instead of like You know, let's take swings at all in all kind of the little guy As opposed to some of these bigger areas where we could really be trying to I mean I bought an iphone, but i'm also not out saying that xyrz should Change the way they're doing business because the reality of it too is If he didn't want to make like famously l bully didn't make a dime ever Everything that they did they didn't make a dime and he has been Very open about saying that So so what's that if his that's his prerogative. That's his prerogative. I think what you're saying is it's really a matter of comparison it's really a matter of People looking at other people versus looking at yourself and asking yourself the person's personal accountability to this Where we're all going to judge what somebody else does we have no idea his circumstances We have no idea behind what he wants to do. It's all what we're reading in all the media Well, what you if you want to exact change you need to look in a mirror And look at exactly what you're doing every day and go what can I do to be better Today and tomorrow and continue to work on yourself and not compare with what everybody else is doing You have to do your own thing and do it to the best of your ability And then I hope in doing that Someone looks at that and says oh and they look in inward again and it just becomes a domino effect Yeah You know I think you brought up a really interesting point to you andy and because this is a conversation that i've had with quite a few other restaurant owner friends about I do feel like a lot of times these conversations for whatever reason Do you start with?

14:32Smaller restaurants and or restaurants in general, but I do think that a lot of time Unfairly, you know smaller restaurants. Do you bear the brunt of some of this, you know, uh Fairly or unfairly because listen if you're in an environment that is toxic and people aren't being paid correctly, you know And people aren't being treated the right way You know that should always be acknowledged, but I do feel that it is disproportionate right now that a lot of times Restaurants are the ones being called out in particular independent restaurants who are struggling the most where it's like hey go unionize starbucks but you know I don't know. Maybe i'm maybe i'm sticking my toe into Waters that we're not wanting to discuss right now One is a massive corporation and you have some that are much more there's there's resources Yeah, you know we had lial richardson in here as a co of a marshall hospitality and I said having a direct He's having a coo having a director of operations is a luxury for an independently owned restaurant A lot of people don't have this person needs to go to these tech conferences and learn who spends 20 hours a week Learning how to do the best tech and how to streamline like people are busy as fuck They don't have time to do shit like that. I think the large corporations have that opportunity and then they intentionally choose We're going to pay people less because we want to make our shareholders money It changes the whole Dynamic when the greed and business gets into play and you're just not seeing a lot of that with locally owned and operated restaurants because we're Trying to do for the most part. I mean trying to do the right thing. We're trying to put the best quality product out We're trying to make our guests a repeat guest. We're trying to create family around the people that work with us and the and and Corporate greed I think comes in and then it casts a shadow over the entire industry Yeah, I think too that I just think that there's been a lot of spotlights that I've seen on people wanting to call out or put you know Certain restaurants on blasts that are independent restaurants And maybe it's because it's more gossipy and more exciting and more. I don't know Easier more clickbait. I suppose than to say hey, why are we all buying Apple products?

16:39I think the other thing too to think about maybe from a devil's advocate slash Hopefully more positive side for us is part of the reason that people expect more from us is because the Product that we're putting in front of them isn't a product. It's actually it's personal. So people are going to Small independent restaurants. They have a rapport with the staff. They know the chef they may see Some of the staff at a farmers market that it's a personal thing as opposed to a calculated exchange of money for Coffee, for example community. It's a it's a community thing. So then when those same people Want to affect change they want to go to the area where it's personal to them as opposed to you know I don't know anybody that works for Apple or I mean Starbucks in a corporate sense, you know, so if they And I guess where it becomes a little bit unfair is that they just pull the guns out and start firing and They're not Even though it is personal on both ends. They're not taking the steps to think alright well, what are the constraints of this, you know 3% profit margin or you know and Could we actually move the needle more if we went to a bigger corporation if I buy lettuce from greener roots That makes a difference on a small small small small small scale if McDonald's changes the iceberg lettuce That's on the Big Mac that moves the needle. Oh, yeah, so one makes you feel good, but what's actually affecting real change and Then the other thing too is is it really I'm buying greener roots because that shit tastes good, you know I mean, that's that's it. He's a great dude. They're they're close. But the reality of it is it's it's a great product I want to put food on the plate that people enjoy and as a wicked great benefit. They're right down the road Bonus so it's a bonus but

18:41You know, I remember a couple years ago. Maybe this was more than a couple years ago They started people were complaining about the carbon footprint of the FedEx box of lobster for the French Laundry that came from Maine to California. It's like well Okay, you know, but also I guess with all this complaining that's going on It's like vote with your pocketbook. We live in a capitalistic society. If you don't like it, don't fucking eat there, you know That's a Absolutely What do you guys both look to me like he's a little unhinged. I'm 30 in the morning. I love it. I I It's hard to find people to match your energy this time of the day. I'm like, hell yeah, man I've been going for eight hours now Well, so what do you right now your restaurant Josephine? What are you? What's your biggest pain point you're dealing with right now? Pain point way to frame in such a negative man. I don't know. What's a pain point? Oh, what are your challenges Renae?

19:43And revel and and Noma saying this is too difficult this not sustainable How are you what you're doing? Is there anything you're doing that's not sustainable that you feel like is what's a challenge to you right now that keeps you up at night? I think the challenge after in our you know after nine years is Probably And I went to my parents were both brilliant Public school teachers. So I went to them a couple years ago It was during kovat when we saw a fair amount of staff turnover and it it seemed to me and and Karen as well That we kept on saying the same things over and over and over and over again because we would get people in They would work for a while They would just go off to the wind and then we were constantly trying to not only retrain but also More than training the culture of our restaurant is very important to what we do and to try and bring people along You can hand someone a handbook and say that this is this is the culture and this is what we you know propose to be doing outside of just you know selling food for money But they really have to be in it for a while to that culture is a feel thing You can read about it all you want But until you're in it and also you can write about it all you want but until you do it That's what matters and so Constantly getting to the point where we we felt like we were building cohesion Was tough and then after nine years there's a little bit of trying to figure out What's the carrot that we're chasing and That changes as you get older Late 20s 30s. It was X Now it's Y and what really less than a pain point what really turns me on and maybe the pain point is the the switch from X to Y

21:45What really turns me on now is mentoring what I feel like is the next generation of Chefs and cooks and hospitality professionals I mean for me and and that is that was totally sitting around the dinner table with my parents who were involved in a Huge way in getting kids to you know go through school and and be the best kids that they could be Now what's turning me on is to get? Cooks to be the best sous chefs to be the best chefs that they could be or in the front of the house the exact same I think that's an important thing for Karen too is that we are providing an opportunity for people to learn and grow and then go off and do what they're gonna do I mean our biggest thing is gonna be how many branches can we put on the family tree? And so not really a pain point just more a switch in Perspective I think and none of that changes the fact that we really we want to put delicious food on the plate I mean duh, that's the job, right? But why are you doing the job when you get up in the morning? What what's driving you? Is it what your why?

22:51Yeah, that I want to find the very best asparagus in the world or you know Or is it I want to show person X how you know really to work with this in a great way and maybe a new technique they haven't seen before or a technique that they saw years ago that they're now reminded of and And More of it has to do with the human interaction and the management part of it than the actual cooking technique Where do you find the people because I? Wanting I mean I feel like thing to do that and then want and then having people that work there that Want to work in that environment, right? Some people just want to come in they want to look I want to cut carrots all day Then I want to get the fuck out and it's like well No, I want to I want to help educate you and I want to teach you make you better It's like I don't really care dude. I see my check on Friday. Yeah, I mean, that's a real thing, too 100% but there's also some education there. I mean The where do you want to be in a year? Where do you want to be in five-year question that always comes up? I Think that that's a really important question because for me that informs me how I'm going to Teach and manage you if I know that you're there just to pick up check Great I want to make sure that you can say you're there to pick up check because you have kids and you've got a busy Life outside of work and this is the eight hours that you you're gonna come in you're gonna work You're gonna put your head down here to go Well, there's a lot that I can work with there You don't have to want to be the next Michelin three-star chef for on the world's thousand best whatever ice cream shop restaurants You can you can just want to come in you want to put your time in well, okay But you can't there's no way to manage every Single person in a restaurant the same way you just can't and you shouldn't because everybody has different goals Everybody has different things that they want to do and so within the spectrum of we want this to be a great restaurant We want our guests to be happy

24:52There's all these little micro things and that's frankly exhausting on one end but super inspiring and fun on the other So You know, I feel like a lot of conversation, you know Kind of how we started this talking about no I feel like a lot of the conversation around Noma clothes has been about the sustainability of fine dining and while your restaurant is not One that you know is necessarily on the Noma End of the spectrum you're definitely I consider a fine dining restaurant You know Josephine for me is is a special date night place and I think for a lot of people as well You know you you guys don't forget this half-price Wine Wednesdays. Well, well, I think that you actually do such a nice job of keeping people engaged because it you tell people Hey, it doesn't just have to be a special occasion place. We're gonna do cheesesteak tonight. We have half-price wine nights You know that kind of thing Is it's just you know smart marketing on your part you you guys are smart. You're very intentional with your food. Yeah, absolutely But you know talking about sustainability and kind of where we've been and where we are How have you seen do you feel like you've seen things kind of change more over the last 10 years or over the last?

26:04three years in terms of How how we have to you know kind of run our businesses and think about? That kind of thing. We're gonna take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors Y'all sharpies bakery has been delivering fresh baked bread to locally owned and operated restaurants for over 35 years Erin mosso and her team do an amazing job and they are local. They're about as I think they're like the definition of Local locally owned locally operated working with so many restaurants here in town. They're delivering six days a week Take this as your sign if you've been thinking right now like man I feel like I should stop ordering frozen bread And I really want to have a bread program or my kitchens always full of flour and it's just a process And we overcooked our bread if we just had fresh bread delivered daily and make our lives much easier This is your sign. You're hearing about it. Now. You need to call Erin mosso her number is six one five three one nine sixty four Fifty-three visit them at sharpies bakery calm. That's chrp I er s Bakery calm and see all the wonderful products that they have even if you have a proprietary bread that only you make they will make Your recipe for you and deliver it to you. So give her a call today. I bet you didn't write that number down Here it is. It is six one five three one nine sixty four fifty three. Hey y'all We are talking about southern health insurance. It is the new year If you don't have health insurance or if you're not offering health insurance to your restaurants What's wrong with you? This is something that is vital and it is affordable no matter what you think guys It costs $2,000 every time you turn over an hourly employee $2,000 is what that costs you the employer improved employee retention that you get from offering benefits to your team is Amazing you get happier team members, which means a longer ten years less training time and cost plus when employees take care of their health

28:07They're less light it likely to take six days This means a reduction in lost productivity and revenue from your business improved morale a healthy workplace with opportunities For growth is a happy workplace Encouraging your team's well-being will result in higher morale and a better workplace performance. If you're not offering your restaurants Insurance you need to call Dan Mar. He's with Southern Health eight three two eight one six eighty six Oh two and he will get you set up guys This is not a commitment if you don't offer insurance to your employees You need to call him and just find out it is that easy and if you're an employee out there if you're somebody who? Does not have health insurance, but you know what that's playing with fire You need to have health insurance. He can also offer individuals Plans, so this is really important. I work with Dan. He's an amazing guy eight three two eight one six eighty six Oh, two if you want to send Dan an email his email is Dan at southern health INS Comm how have you seen do you feel like you've seen things kind of change more over the last ten years or over the last?

29:12three years in terms of How how we have to you know kind of run our businesses and think about That kind of thing so every Wednesday at two o'clock We do a full kitchen meeting It's your normal boring stuff of you know. This is what last week was like these are the covers This is who's coming in from a VIP standpoint and that's all run by the sous chef and then I step in with some type of lesson and Or you know something that I feel like I want to talk about and the thing that we talked about last week was When When there was the switch and when when L bully was kind of doing its thing we were in this in the throes of Molecular gastronomy, and that was a huge inflection point for our business It was you know everybody wanted an immersion circulator everybody wanted all these things and then when we slowly started to make The switch to Farmed it and I wrap up farm to table and Noma and the foraging thing all kind of together Maybe unfairly, but they happen around the same time. I Didn't see that inflection point coming. I just didn't we lived through it and it just sort of happened and all of a sudden there were these huge volumes of books for things that I couldn't afford as a line cook and now We're in it. We're 100% in an inflection point for the fine dining and Of our business, and I don't know which way it's gonna go But it's gonna go away, and I think the the beauty of it is to be able to sit back and say alright Well now is the time Somebody define it. There's a huge opportunity there for someone to define it, and I don't know I have some ideas I think what's happening across the street for me at Locust is big part of it absolutely and I would say that Not for any reason other than it was forced upon us

31:17the industry and Every industry has changed more in the last three years then then it did in the prior ten because we were forced to look at things not from a General efficiency standpoint. It was from a you got a you got to do it I mean we used to have five cooks on dinner now. We have three It's entirely a function of what did we have to do? to manage getting through kovat, but then we Karen and I used to sit in meetings for an hour and obsessed over the type of towel in the bathroom Was it gonna be a linen like guest? How was it gonna be a seafood? Tell was good? Who gives a shit? Right. I mean at the end of the day you wipe your hand you throw it away so the real things of How can we make our staff and our staffing more efficient and then what are things that we can do to the menu? That change the efficiency is the menu that the guest has no idea in the background How can we do that and come out of it?

32:18Great and what's an example of that? What's something you can do in the peripheral in the background that can change the menu to be more efficient that the guest has no Clue the I would say one of the big ones for us is our desserts have way less touches So it doesn't require someone who is like right now the desserts which happen to be in the back of the kitchen They're all set up and ready to go and they can be Basically picked up by someone who's on the front of the line Or we've trained our Dishwashers to be able to do it to the point where it's not the order comes in and then it's pull out the garnish tray And it's it's all these different things. It's Here it is very quick. Do you still have a pastry chef? We we do But we've cut our pastry department down a lot too and part of it has been one What are people gonna buy as opposed to and you know, there's a it actually comes out today Rick Rubin has written a book about creativity and he's on I was listening to a podcast That he was talking about creativity today and the difference between commercial Art and just you know plain art and one is you're just looking at what's gonna sell Well from a pastry standpoint Once you've already Built in your check average and you're gonna get a first course and you're gonna get an entree and you're gonna get a glass Of wine if we can sell the dessert That's money. I mean, that's that's good stuff. So putting things on That we know people aren't gonna be able to leave without Is really important but then making those things and what it ends up It's actually working out great because those things actually have less touches if you have some obscure main ingredient And then it's has like 17 different flowers and all this other shit on it I might look at that day on the meal and be like, I'm kind of full Also, let's talk about a restaurant. That's literally five feet from Jenny's ice cream Literally, yeah, you know, so the how many times we have heard I'm just gonna go get some ice cream at Jenny's and

34:26great, you know Good stuff. But what if we did have something that was a little it was appealing to the end of the meal So that was one thing. The other thing is Leveraging some of that technology There are a lot of things that we do that are maybe held in a water bath that can be picked up quicker There are things that are done during the daytime as opposed to being cooked al minute All of those things we had to think about in order to make it Reasonable for us to be able to do close to the same amount of covers with less people so That's gonna be a big part in whatever is next as well I think that the ability to be able to do what People define as fine dining and there's you know, there are multiple scales of fine dining if I appreciate the fact that Josephine Has thought of as a fine dining restaurant We're never and have no Aspirations for it Anyway, it would never be thought of the same breadth as any of the world's 50 best restaurants for whatever that's worth or any of those things but it is very much a It's a fine dining restaurant that I want to go to Is that a good would you like that?

35:31I think that that that matters to me more than would I like what to be one of the top 50 restaurants? No, not even close. That's not a goal. I mean if you notice if you notice I Was gonna ask you the masters is coming in the world's 50 best probably wouldn't allow me to go play 18 holes this afternoon so it would allow me to be sweating a detail of Something that I'm that's just not my game anymore I gotta tell you the other day I was at the rose at the Green Hills Grill the other day and I was sitting there With the owner and we were talking and a man walked up. He goes gentlemen Absolutely fantastic just fantastic. I looked up and I stepped he goes Jim Nance and he shook my hand and I looked over at Steve and he's a Mr. Nance and I was he was like Just just a fantastic experience. I have to tell you I'm gonna just moved here. I got a house at Bellmead and I'm Excited to be here. I'm gonna tell my friends about this place. Did a great job and he walked out No, I just was I was floored. Yeah, I mean I Know to me. I was just one of those I don't want to name drop or that stuff but it's just one of those like moments with the Masters coming up and the whole thing just He is a he is an announcer So he caught he's the announcer for the Masters Every time tiger way anytime we wins the Masters. He's the one who he calls the Masters calls NFL games he's soothing voice I assume Jim Nance and Tony Romo, I think do the yeah calls on what I think Jim Nance was actually the tradition unlike any other. Yes, that is him And I'm not sure who owns that but that's I always hear that in his voice and I think the story there was that he Actually said that for his dad The first time he said it really I don't know anything more about it. So let's just shouldn't have brought it up Well, see how see how fast we turn Can we just talk about golf now?

37:26Question before we transition into golf restaurant radio Is there something that is happening right now either that you recognize in your own restaurant or that you kind of see in the industry as a whole that you think is is On kind of a the countdown has begun if this is not going to be sustainable in a year or two We've got to figure out a way to address this right now, you know, what do you kind of think that that next thing is? If there's something like for example, I you know I feel like during the pandemic for us it was trying to figure out how to Operate the kind of restaurant we wanted to run but also pay people What we needed to pay to stay competitive and hire staff? But you know also be this kind of more casual restaurant that can't support, you know, all these salaries that sort of thing So can I can I interject there with with a side question? I can't take too many questions at once. Would you? I Technology Right. So technology I think is that thing that these big these big huge change you go to McDonald's you can order from a kiosk Now it makes it pretty easy large companies typically adopt that stuff and then it Goes down to where they can put it down into You mentioned efficiencies and how can you do things like the desserts?

38:46Technology, I think could be that big boom that hits locally owned operated restaurants when all of a sudden there's technology that QR codes and now we don't necessarily need as many service staff we can hire three Psalms and a couple people that come in and they might have ten tables they go talk to but then if you Order themselves and that's a major thing that could hit the industry because I'll be bad at the jobs and there's a lot of jobs that Potentially go away and there have they have said they have a technical myth of flippy And literally there's burger place that have a thing that flips the burgers. There's it's called flippy. Yeah If you go if you go to 615 chutney in Bellevue a robot cat delivers your food That's a little odd you order your food you order your food and then literally this robot that looks like a cat and says meow Goes through the restaurant comes up to your table and it says here's your food and you pull your food off the thing and It says thank you And then it walked and it goes back to the kitchen that parks they load it back up They hit the table it goes to and then it goes straight to the table Fine But that's a seat all over social media. So that in Bellevue people love the cat waiter. That's there but like so I Think well the first part of it. I think that tech is going to It's gonna be there. I mean it almost has to be the thing that I would hope we don't lose is and It's the thing that I love about going to your place this thing about I love about There's something about the dining experience like I don't care I would prefer to order from a kiosk at McDonald's You know, I'd prefer the lack of human interaction there But when I go to a place that's you know, a great fast casual place or independent restaurant or a fine dining restaurant I expect a little bit of human interaction. It's kind of why I'm there and So I would see the tech probably happening more I would hope that it happens a little more away from the view of the the end user away from the view of the guest

40:53And there's a lot of room for it to happen in the kitchen frankly And that will help because the the reality of it is yeah, you know, we're paying people more Paying them more equitably now But I will tell you and I don't know I would guess that you know and Tony have experienced this What we're seeing coming in from an interview standpoint though are cooks with way less ability level and You know, some people might think that that's a scary thing to say it. It's an objective reality It we used to have a trail sheet that would just list within a certain amount of time the things that you're supposed to do The reality of that now is that people one not only can New cooks trails Interviews not make it through the whole thing in time. There are areas of that that I consider basic disciplines that they can't even do So can I ask what one of them is like for example turning a potato I Mean we're not even in fluting a mushroom area But I think that turning a potato is just a general good knife skill that people should know The omelet definitely trips people up they do it but don't execute it Maybe in a way that and it's it's it's not like it's here's the sheet bang it out and give it to me in an hour It's you know technique the sous chef is going through it with them and showing them This is what our expectation is for an omelet. This is where our expectation is for a turn potato This is what you know showing them here it is produce it and they're also not you know We're not asking them to jump across the Grand Canyon. It's You know chop a pint of parsley and you know, can you mince garlic? I mean easy things and it's just not The ability level isn't there and then to your point sometimes the desire isn't even really there either. It's just like yo

42:56Can I get a job and all right, you know, I mean So when I when I was growing up I assume that you know, we're all kind of around the same age It seemed like I appreciate that you said that I feel like we're all kind of the same generation. We've all had the same similar experiences I think coming up in restaurants when I was first working and coming up in restaurants It was the Food Network existed, but it was like emerald, you know, it was actual food You know It was pre, you know top chef and this is everything's trendy and whatever I remember when mojitos came around as a hot new cocktail, you know, we were still making drinks with rasma tests Are you saying that's not a hot new cocktail? Cuz okay, never mind Craft cocktails weren't a thing when I started working at restaurants I think I was still shooting Goldschlager then. Oh But I feel like The people that I was around and and the people that I worked with that were my peers were people who were for the most part as dedicated and passionate and excited about Working in restaurants as I was it was you know, kind of our career path we wanted to learn more about food and wine and technique and service and all of these things and I feel like Young people who are kind of you know Have those aspirations seem much fewer and far farther between and I don't know if it's a generational thing I don't know if it's maybe there's a lot more restaurants than there used to be and you know What's your experience with that?

44:35Because I I've actually said to Tony many times if I was going to get a job waiting table somewhere right now Josephine is the number one place because it reminds me so much of you know Fine dining restaurants that I worked out in Chicago and you guys are kind of old-school and I say that with the you know Reverence I absolutely I Love that. I love what you guys do So so why do you think that is do you guys find that as well that it seems like there's less? Kind of people who are excited to make a career in this industry as there used to be or yeah, I think so I mean this is We're gonna wade definitely into get off my lawn territory When I was coming up and I just had a Conversation with Brian Weaver about this We were in it because I can't tell you the amount of hours that I worked that I didn't get paid for I mean I just I did I was talking about that before you came in and not that it's what I didn't think was this a good thing This is a bad thing I worked three jobs once because there were three different chefs that I wanted to learn from and so I would work Breakfast at an inn and then I would go and work lunch and dinner for another chef and on my one day off I would go and work for the third chef for dinner because there was shit that I could steal there or learn either way You were trading. Yeah 100% there. There were things that That I knew I was gonna pick up and at 20 whatever I didn't think about the hours I didn't think about any of it. It was just an education and For what I had already paid to go to CIA. This was a pretty cheap education because I was getting paid something for it And so but I wasn't thinking about work-life balance I wasn't thinking about anything I was chasing a carrot and at that point in time the carrot was I need to learn as much as I possibly can because this I'm getting into a business. That is one So I mean so many different cuisines in the world so much technique so many and it seemed to me at that point like a

46:40New thing was coming boom boom boom all the time and the internet wasn't this is definitely Date myself then the internet wasn't social media wasn't there The internet was still dial-up and wait and it was you couldn't get nearly the amount of information that you could so It was trips into New York City to go to Kitchen Arts and Letters and buy whatever books They told me to buy I would just walk in and say what's everybody buying and it was you know Soon as you walked in the door at the left side It was all the European books and I would just buy them and have them sent home and So I was in it in that way and now if you do fun and that seemed to be the majority of the people that I was around and I always put myself in places where I knew that the rest of the team was pushing in a direction that I was pushing because the best way to get better is To be around those people Now it seems That's tougher to find and we're having all these conversations about work-life balance and again They're all good conversations You can't tell me in the early 2000s that Michael Phelps ever Thought about work-life balance that dude was in the pool all the time You won't be great at something put in the work if you want to be great at something you've got to give away almost everything else and That's not to say that there shouldn't be a work-life balance There shouldn't be there should be the opportunity for that should be there The opportunity for pushing yourself to the absolute limit to be the best that you can Should also be there and I would argue That we're losing a little bit of that that needs to be more of the conversation There need to be more people and it needs to be okay It shouldn't have to be you have to do this if you come into the restaurant You've got to be at a thousand miles an hour all the time But if you want to be There's an opportunity for it And I wish that that was a little bit more part of the conversation we can have both things

48:43But if you want to be truly great at anything, you've got to be willing to do What other people aren't willing to do and you can't do that 40 hours a week. I Love every single thing you just now said when I was coming up same sort of a way. I didn't have social media I didn't have we didn't really have food was so much more fun than we didn't have any of that stuff We had books and you could read about these people who were heroes to me in this service and then you worked with people in restaurants that you fell in love with like your team like you like the old adage of a pirate ship like you were in the Building and it was a school of hard knocks I left school to go manage a restaurant in Mississippi because I thought I get to go work in the city where the owners live And they're gonna they're gonna be mentors to me and I can sit in a classroom have somebody tell me how to do it But I want to go I want to go physically be in the action and go do it and you look at now If I'm growing up today I look on social media what all these people are doing and I walk in the door to a restaurant and I go I Want to do that? I think I can do that. You know, like what did you do to prepare yourself? Well, nothing You're supposed to do that for me. I suppose just walk in and there's this I Know there's this expectation that well, I don't have to put the work in I see it people do it I see people post about on social media all the time. It's not that hard and you go no, no, no You don't know what I did to get here to this point and it was a lot of fucking work And it was a lot of passion. There was a lot of reading it was a lot of working for free and I busted my ass I worked 15 hour days plus and That's how I learned what I have now and it's hard for me to have somebody come in and go Yeah, I really don't give a shit, but I want to be I want to be a celebrity chef or I want to be on This TV show or I think I can do it You're like but you haven't put the work in well, I don't want to do the work and you're like well That's why they make Shakeweights and these little belts you wear that shot that shock you into having an abs like you don't want to do the work You don't want to get in the pool and swim for eight hours a day. You just want to be Michael Phelps And that's I think that's a that's a it's an epidemic as much as I lament like oh man

50:46I wish that I felt like there was you know This kind of current generation of people who seem to dedicate in his passion as excited as we did I think a lot of it, you know Has been kind of created by the industry itself a lot of the you know kind of people being You know not wanting to get into the industry We have people that were you know lauded as heroes the Batales and the best shes of the world who you know? Kind of a few bad apples have have spoiled the whole bunch and you know I don't I don't think it's quite that bad But I don't know I think there's plenty of times that I could have you know I had a horrible chef who was you know, just awful and it would have been very easy for me to be like fuck this You know So I think that a lot of young people have maybe only seen those headlines and are thinking oh god I don't I don't want anything to do with that, you know, that's a whole nother side of it. Yeah, and for those people I would say Great Stay away probably not your bag and not not stay away because anything that you mentioned is good, right? I Would say this isn't the type of business where you can just think I Saw that on TV, and I really think the tall white hat is super cool. I want to get in there You've got to get in and do it and then it this business selects you it just does and if you have the tenacity to do it if you have the work ethic to do it if you're willing to get in and roll up your sleeves and Scrub pots and do all the things that aren't on TV You want to be a great chef do everything that's not on TV and that includes Top Chef and even Chef's table any of the stuff that we would anoint as a good TV show Get in and do the stuff that you don't see there if you enjoy that if you enjoy the actual work of it Get in the business Also for those of you who are listening and think that I said that there's no one out there who is

52:48Aggressive in progressing their career and is really after it Josephine's located at 2316 12th Avenue South the doors open if you'd like to apply we'd love to have you That's nothing. There's a lot of people out there who are there's a lot of I meet somebody who comes in who has that Twinkle in their eye and they you can tell they've got they're not as polished as you want Like I can teach you if you're coachable. We have some great young people at Nicky's right now who just Three guys who just moved here from Vermont and kind of the one guy started and then said hey my buddy Needs a job too. And then they said hey our other buddy needs a job too. And these kids just graduated from college They are the most dedicated hardest-working nicest kids and I'm just like So great to see people so young who are so excited about learning and working hard and You know not to say my other employees aren't we have a wonderful team? But it sure these are my this is my youngest kind of Employees, but if you get somebody who walks in the door like that and says alright chef I don't have a lot of experience and I'm gonna make probably make a lot of mistakes But one of my best qualities is that I learned from mistakes. I never make the same mistake twice I'm willing to do whatever it takes. Will you help make me a Very well-rounded kitchen employee at my goal when you're in ten years is to be a chef somewhere But I got to start from the bottom. Will you help me get there? I'm coachable I'm ready to do whatever you need me to do. I'll wash dishes. I'll do whatever I'll work all day long. I want to work here This is gonna sound absolutely awful, but yeah if you tell me that in two weeks Because I can come in guns blaring, you know You got an initial interview and I can tell you whatever Yeah, I want to do all these things but when you're scrubbing a mountain of pans at one in the morning You still want it that bad?

54:45You know when something didn't go right out of your pan and the sous chef sent it back to you and you were embarrassed in Front of the entire line. You still want it that bad In two weeks if you still want it that bad. I'll do whatever you want a Hundred percent I think that this job you said at the job picks you and I I Told people that we're doing a wine class today and I said guys This isn't something that we're we're doing this because I want you guys to learn the wine so that you can pair it with Food and create a better guest experience for your guest, right? Ultimately, it also helps sales, but really the goal is to help pair Appropriate wine with appropriate food to make the experience better But guys listen to what we're doing right now because this information will help you when you're 50 The wine information you're learning right now is the number one thing that people are intimidated about when they go eat at a nice restaurant Wine picking out one that right now you have the opportunity to learn you have somebody who wants to teach you one when you're 50 You're gonna pay $150 to do this because you're gonna go Oh, I want to go to a wine, but you're doing it for free, right?

55:49We're giving you this education that education that as a small piece of what you're teaching our life skills This is how you overcome Anxiety, this is how you overcome obstacles every single day How many days that you've worked in a restaurant has the night and everything gone exactly to script we wrote this we wrote this up This is how it's gonna work And then that's the way life is how many jobs out there working in these restaurants and understanding putting that work in Not only makes you a better employee for that job But you're talking about life skills when you leave the restaurant whatever time whatever you want to go do Hopefully it's you want to do this forever if you go up in your own place But these are skills that go way beyond restaurants when you're in the grocery store line and something happens Immediately react and I'd move to it because I'm not afraid of any of that stuff because I see it every day all the time And it's a it's it's more than just you're in working like these This is a really difficult job that prepares you for a lot of other things in life Well, and you're building value too If you know as a function of working at restaurant X and you were there as a you worked the fish station So, you know how to break down fish everything that goes with Working the fish station. You're great at it But then if I can go and apply to your restaurant and I worked fish at restaurant X, but oh by the way, I also I made friends with the pastry chef and so I have some baking skill now all of a sudden I'm worth two dollars an hour more maybe more than that So everything you can learn makes you more valuable To the next step and then when you get to a point where you need to inquire an investor Or you need to get some type of capital again. It's just you're worth more because there are more things that you can do What are you gonna do when?

57:37The pastry chef has to call out because he's sick Well, you just get in there and you roll up your sleeves and you get it done because you know how to do it The glaring weakness that I had when we moved here was I didn't know anything about how to fix anything Now I would say that I could probably come to your places and fix some of your plumbing. Yeah I definitely know my way around refrigeration and I definitely know my way around taking apart a gas stove. I mean those things Now if you can go in I mean, you know what it's cost just to get someone out if you can get them out It's a big deal. Hey, my refrigerator is down. It'll be two weeks at least give me a call You know because those are the things that make you then more valuable and in my head more dangerous I want people that are dangerous like you've got a lot of different things you can do. That's dangerous I got a guy came out to my house who does my HVAC was down and I called him and he get things Anything else I do HVAC plumbing and electricity and I go, excuse me. Yeah, you're my guy you do Oh, I go. Will you be my guy and he goes I said you're a local guy. You live in Fairview I want you to come around I want you to walk around my entire house with me right now and look at these are all the little things I have And then I want you to learn everything and I kid you not he was like, yes, sir and we met we he said I'm not gonna say his name cuz right, let's do that off the air cuz He's a mate this guy is amazing So my water heater went out the other day and it was Sunday night at 8 o'clock and I'm like, what do you do?

59:02I called the guy cell phone. He goes. Hey, this is so I said hey, man No problem, buddy. What's going on hand? Come out tomorrow morning. I'll take care of for you Hey, did you know if you call the guy your water here? Is it still under warranty and I go on I bought the house And I don't know and he's like go look at it Is it this model is at this this and it was took it home people brand new free water heater Because and the dude did those came in the next day you want to fit it with these things and like What like if you have that guy, huh? You learn those things I knew that from being in the restaurant was like, wait a minute you do all you're a triple threat and you have availability Yeah, well you just come here. Come here. Come here. You're mine. It was a good thing Hey since I'm here and I now have the microphone in front of my face Let's talk about things that piss us off We're gonna jump right into that segment right after these words from our sponsors Starting off as a fresh produce and specialty foods company. What chefs want has been serving Nashville since 2005 This is how they do it. They literally started off Ron Trenier Who's owner of the company start off and said I'm gonna interview chefs I'm gonna figure out what's gonna make their life easier. You know what chefs told him?

01:00:13We don't want to have minimums we want to order whatever we want whenever we need it So he said, okay, I'll deliver you one avocado if that's what you want. They said they want deliveries on Sundays Okay, we'll deliver seven days a week. They want customer support. Even if it's 2 o'clock in the morning I need to chat with somebody so he said 24 7 customer support. They wanted a diverse line of products So ever since that day, they've just been adding product lines like crazy that goes to a fresh beef line We have seafood Specialty food dairy produce. They kind of do it all They're amazing and they are here to be what chefs want give them a call 800-600-8510 or visit them at what chefs want.com. We're talking about net checks NETCHEX.com and I want to read you a review that I saw this is from Regal Hospitality and Regal Hospitality is a hotel management company with 12 hotels across six states Focusing primarily on Hilton, IHG and Marriott brands They came to NETCHEX after several years with Paycom one of the struggles we had with our previous company is that they didn't have a good understanding of our industry and our Industry specific needs said Erica Payne human resources manager Regal Hospitality with a large number of clients from the hospitality sector NETCHEX is uniquely positioned as one of the go-to choices for the industry through their partnership with hotel effectiveness Because that is the thing that is the thing that you've got to be looking into is that NETCHEX Partners with restaurants. They know our industry they partner with hotels They know that industry and Lauren Domaine is the person that is specializing in your restaurants Her number is 615-319-9200. She is passionate She is engaged. She loves this industry and when you think about who does your payroll that they love the restaurant industry Do they live here in town? Are they gonna fight for you? Are they gonna know your business in and out?

01:02:18Really partner with you. I Mean ask yourself that question. That is what NETCHEX does and Lauren. I've had so much fun getting to know her She's so passionate and I just love everything that they're doing again You want to call her her number 615-319-9200 give her a call today We are supported by Robbins insurance an independent insurance agency known for providing customized insurance policies Sound guidance and attentive service Robbins is also known for delivering exceptional coverage to Nashville's restaurants and bars Whether it's a fryer fire that sets off the sprinkler system and leaves your restaurant sopping wet on a busy Saturday night Or it's a once-in-a-decade tornado that cuts off your electricity and subsequently spoils all the food in your walk-in Robbins has seen it all and they know how to create policies that will get your business back on its feet as quickly as possible In the event a disaster strikes look when it comes to ensuring your restaurant bar brewery bakery grocery store hotel or whatever you need someone who knows the industry who understands your business and Who will create a policy that protects your space your staff and your concept?

01:03:30That's Robbins visit Robbins website at Robbins ins calm. That's our OB Ins calm to request your insurance consultation. Once again, that's Robbins ins calm Things that piss us off I'll start that sounds positive I want people to stop talking glowingly about Obviously bad places Are we naming names no, oh no, absolutely not but I just think You know, we're in bad. Like the food isn't good or bad. Like they're run by bad people. Here's the thing if If you go to a restaurant and the redeeming quality of the restaurant is the neon Instagram worthy bathroom Maybe you shouldn't be talking about it or it should be on a bathroom podcast Oh, I I Wow Love this. I mean Interesting. Here's the thing take I know I best new restaurant is the dumbest Award that could ever be given out who won best new restaurant in the scene writers choice this year Oh, I'm not even talking about Nashville. I just mean in general and from from my perspective Josephine was a was not a good restaurant We opened it just wasn't your shits not together. You're over staffed. You're not sure what direction you're going It says everything is kind of Everything's just kind of wah. And so this this thing that we're into where every shiny new thing is great is Not true. It's objectively not true There might be a couple but I would tell you 90% of new restaurants that open aren't great for the first six months I will tell you I'll find this real quick. Oh, I know something that pisses Brandon off because we texted about it yesterday What is it?

01:05:21Shambongs What is that? There's a lot of Shambong in you know, please so a Shambong is a champagne flute Oh now I know shaped like yeah curve. Yeah, and at Marsh House, which this is not a new thing They've been doing your bond. She're like, okay. They've been doing this for like six years. All right, and They have Shambongs. Okay, and it's you know a brunch thing I personally think that it's kind of genius marketing because you know think about LA Jackson does their brunch with a DJ and bachelorette parties And all of that, like I'm a girl. I want Shambongs like, you know So but Brandon you're not you're not a Shambong fan it made his head I don't drink that's yeah I mean, okay, I don't drink but the concept but there's a culture around sobriety and there's a culture on this I think about nice restaurants. I think wow We need a way to mainline champagne because our culture isn't centered around getting wasted enough now We have to figure out ways to drink champagne without even tasting it now We just want to just mainline champagne like yeah, we're bringing Panama City Beach To nice restaurants in Nashville now to be fair as someone who has done many Shambongs And actually owns my own set of Shambongs at home. I feel like we need to hang out more It's it's a fun party thing like it was my girlfriend's birthday party I brought it and it's not like we're drinking a whole bottle of a Shambong It's like it's like doing a shot, you know you and it's honestly it's probably like three to four ounces of champagne It's not like it's not like a beer funnel where you're doing the whole beer and it's just like a fun little toast Okay, so I'll give you I'll give you some reference here. I've just did a show with we just did a show with Becca Gardner who owns a Really good spirits company that she extracts the alcohol. It's a non-alcoholic spirit and for dry January been talking about I just went to a dry January pop-up where I was around a whole group of people were talking about sober culture and This whole thing and then the next morning I see this Shambong and it just it struck me in that moment

01:07:26Kind of like said it was something in between a I saw it and I went without any context without knowing what and I'm not a I've been drinking over three years and it's a it's a cultural thing and I think about Nashville and what Nashville is known for and There's a lot of really amazing things about Nashville and we just keep diluting it and I feel like that's another thing So that's actually kind of circles back to my excessive rant about all the you know, the new restaurants and all the shiny new things Nashville some great restaurants and we should be talking about them over and over and over and over again Best new restaurant should be a category if there's a new restaurant that supplants a current restaurant But is that always often the case? No, but if it is the case, that would be a big fucking deal instead It's new new new new new when I would rather talk about and talk about them over and over and over again The places that are doing it well and have been doing it for a while. My favorite place to go for my birthday is Sperry's It's been around for 48 years and I only know that because it was the year I was born but that place is super cool Do I want people taking buses from lower Broadway to Sperry's? No, because I want to be able to go there But the reality of it is there is a ton to Nashville that the narrative should be shifting to And if we all or people who are influencing it or writing about it or whatever would shift to the things like What do we want Nashville to be to non-Nashvillians? And if you poll people who aren't from here What's Nashville? They're probably going to tell you something about the lower five blocks of Broadway Okay, fine. To me that's a that's a good amenity for us to have But you would also be talking about some of the other things that are here and if we're not talking about them ourselves

01:09:31Within our community people who are doing great work, then we're doing all of everyone a disservice You know, this is something that really bugs me a lot too And you know, we've talked about doing a topic show kind of around around this idea And I think that Nashville I think that the pandemic was a tipping point for us And I think that when cities had a decision to make of saying, are we going to do the close down in the interest of health? Or are we going to say it's a free for all Nashville chose to say it's a free for all And we started to attract a certain kind of tourist who was a tourist that maybe wasn't so into science Wasn't so into medicine safety this sort of thing And I think that the messaging that went out from Nashville was hey, we're wide open come to Broadway and party Super spreader event every night of the week And that's when we really took the focus off of hey, here's all these great neighborhood restaurants Here's all these interesting things to do besides lower Broadway and all of the eggs got put into the basket of lower Broadway Now, I think that started to backfire a little bit in recent years And I think to not just I mean, Nashville actually has world class restaurants Absolutely In addition to neighborhood restaurants in addition to great fast casual restaurants That I hope are Nashville based and we're promoting them for the right reason And that was my whole thing about the bathroom is like we've got people who have crazy great technique and who are doing really interesting things And I get it. You know, I understand that there's a whole culture again. You're you know, there are cultures to certain things Because I am admittedly somewhat protective of our restaurant culture

01:11:34I would like to see the people who are putting the time in and who have proven themselves to be talked about more and more and more and more and more So new kid on the block. Great. I mean, we were the just who was the new kid on the block I remember I hadn't even been here for four weeks and I met Pat Martin at an event and he jokingly called me a carpet bagger And I feel like after 10 years of living here, I'm not anymore. But I mean, I feel like I'm as Nashville as as I could be in 10 years I've always been very excited about people who have talent who come to town who want to build community Let's do it. Join the community when you come. I don't care where you're from. Look at Chad and Gracie when over or perfect Gracie when Chad Newton at Eastside bond me they come in from out of town, but they're immediately contributing Like I don't give a fuck where you come from. It just join this this city. I actually met Chad for the first time They had just gotten to town when I had a action for hospitality volunteer event during the pandemic I mean, so Frank Gluck wrote an article in the Tennessee in December 27th, 2022 says looking for a new place to eat Nashville's restaurant scene will have see these new additions in 2023 He interviewed me for this about this and here's what I said Brain is still a Nashville restaurant veteran host Nashville restaurant radio said he worries more local restaurants are closed in 2023 None of the pandemic related financial assistance has ended and continue to climb I'm not saying I don't want growth in our city. I'm all for it. But I think there's gotta be balance still said I've always felt like there's way too much emphasis on the new restaurants versus the people who've been doing it here for a really long time That was my quote. I'm not gonna I don't I concur. I don't know who's coming But let's focus on the people who've made this community what this community is the people that continue to contribute in this community When you said that when you said initially I'm like, oh shit, he's talking about me Are we glorifying people we shouldn't on the show? Like what is that what it is? But I don't feel like we do I feel like we focus really I want to tell the stories of people who've been here for a long time

01:13:35And to be fair, I'm not talking about any I'm talking about our culture in general of chasing shiny shiny things Yeah, and also our culture of you know, we've people have to listen to this podcast People have to read the Tennessee and people have in order for these businesses to be viable in order for the content to continue to be out there so You've got to put new content in front of people how many times do you want to hear about Rolf and daughters and City House and folk and For four and Josephine I Well, I want to hear about him a lot. Yeah, frankly, you know, and I don't want and you know I want to hear about the cool cool ass Christmas thing that's happening at Nicky's I want to hear about that kind of stuff. And then I think that the brilliant thing about Nashville's Restaurant community is exactly what you stated if you come into town and you have a unique perspective and you have a Great deal of talent and you want to be part of Nashville's Restaurant community and what makes Nashville great open arms 100% And there's a way to do that You know you go out and you eat in the restaurants and you say hey, my name is so-and-so and I'm from Cincinnati and I'm gonna open this new waffle shop or what? I don't know but you go out and you make friends with people you you Buy their product and you somehow, you know put yourself in the community and offer to do things and and You know be seen in that way, but also be seen in a way that The end goal is to make Nashville a better Restaurant City I think that that's super important the more things that I see coming in that I'm just like Damn that looks like a money grab to me, you know I'm not like I'm probably not gonna go there because there are so many places That are great that are doing a lot for our community

01:15:37Yeah, I feel that way. I mean, yeah when we moved here from Chicago We a big part of the reason of us moving here is we wanted to open our own restaurant And at that time in Chicago all the neighborhood restaurants were closing and all the big restaurant groups were taking everything over And now When I go home and visit Chicago, I feel this shift where it seems like all of the reasons That we wanted to leave Chicago or now For better for worse during the pandemic kind of a correction happened and a lot of big restaurant group Places in Chicago closed and now the neighborhood restaurants are thriving and I'm starting to see that happen in Nashville where it feels like The neighborhood restaurants thankfully, I wouldn't say are closing necessarily, but like I don't know Arnold's just closed And we've got all these big restaurant groups and all these corporations and now it's coming to Nashville coming into town and Where does that where does that leave us literally?

01:16:38So did you hear the internet was coming to Nashville? Yeah, was it not on every single person in the world shared that? Yeah, and I'm not trying to I'm not an In-N-Out guy like I'll go what if we go to the West Coast? I'll go and grab one. I am a cheeseburger guy if you could probably tell So I'll go and get one, but I'm not gonna plan a trip around going to In-N-Out. I mean, you know, so, okay That's fine. Nothing's better than Hugh Babies to me. I was gonna say Hugh Babies is better I mean also if you're in the 12th South area between the hours of five and seven Josephine has a pretty good burger I'm more excited about Wawa coming because that's kind of a Philly thing as far as things that are coming like that, but you know again, it's like I Think that we we haven't talked about real estate yet And I think that's a driver for for the things that that you're talking about and and you know How much of this is a natural evolution in every city? Sure, you know Union Square Cafe has to move after How many decades because it just you know wasn't sustainable there anymore?

01:17:52so, you know part of it is is that but I Just am more concerned with The the vitality and how robust the and from top to bottom from fast food the whole way up to What I would consider Nashville's world-class restaurants That we're doing good work and the restaurants that are Objectively doing great work are seeing a little bit more press for it Sometimes it's pretty easy to forget A place, you know, when was the last time you've been to X Jimmy Kelly's, you know something like that I've never been to Jimmy Kelly's What's it's I think Steve Smith just bought it and it's closed but like it's not It was the steakhouse been there in a for forever local and local legend kind of a thing cafe No, no was one of those like, you know, like they might meet over there Like you gotta you gotta go to cafe the food. They're fucking amazing and it's the feel It's like you're in a little European cafe and it's so it doesn't have the barnwood and the neon but like man It is the community it is Sylvan Park is their park cafe is another great one I mean, it's the the soul of a restaurant is four walls and stuff yeah, and the people in it breathe the life into it and breathe the soul into it and When you're in an independent restaurant when you're a smaller restaurant when you're in a restaurant that is built around a neighborhood they have that but you can also go into restaurants that you feel like the life has been sucked out of it and And and You know, that's okay. Yeah, that's the other thing too Is it it's different strokes for different folks if people love going to restaurant X I'm a proponent of the more of the things that we're doing because I want to go into a restaurant and I want to feel That feeling whatever it is and you know as far as that feeling goes I want to go to locusts and hear lamb of God on the I want to hear them blast in heavy metal

01:19:54Because that's what that restaurant is on top of the world-class technique on top of the great sourcing That's just who they are and I love that I run the Green Hills Grille of Marable my two restaurants, right? So Green Hills Grille is the most special place We don't market to any tourists. It's it is a Community like 90% of our guests live within three miles of the place, right? but it's amazing when you go there at lunchtime because there's All these people there and you take somebody back to a table and you're on a wait and you're going follow me, sir And you get back and you get half with you and you're like how? oh, they're stopping to talk to somebody and they see their buddy and then you go like Come on. Come on. Come on. I gotta see more people than you keep walking and they stop by and see somebody else. You're like That's it. That's the thing when you can't see tables fast enough because everybody stops because they keep seeing their neighbors at the tables. You're like That's it. That's the thing That we want that's that feeling that's that vibe it's a pretty special thing. We have 10 more minutes Cool, then we got it. We got it We got carrie bringle coming in. Oh jeez So can I be part of that one too because I feel like that That would be a lot of fun. All right, what are we gonna do? We're gonna accomplish in 10 minutes. Let's do it Well, what do you want to talk about? I would like to have some work-life balance. So I would like to leave right now. Okay Please Let's talk about arnold's closing. It's your show real estate thing I think that's it. That's a real estate play right? I mean he's got that that land there and uh They've worked a really long time. I thought chris chamberlain's article in the scene did a really good job of Telling their story in their words To what they did What are your thoughts on this? I don't know that I have enough information to be able to Intelligently talk about whether or not it's a real estate play whether or not it's uh, you know uh Lifestyle decision any of those things. Here's what i'll tell you There are people coming to nashville starting last week who are never going to have had a chance to eat lunch there

01:22:00And I think that's sad agreed but also Maybe they just wanted to retire. I mean at the end of the day You know you you've done this thing and you've cared for so many people from such a broad spectrum of nashville and beyond That after 40 years, it's like i'm just gonna i'm gonna do this on my terms and and again I don't know any of them well enough to know the exact answer to that what I will tell you is that that was a special place and To circle back around to what's going to end up feeling like the you know the dead horse that i'm beating is We need more special places. So i'm yes. I'm sad that it's gone I'm sad that i'm not going to be able to eat there with my with my parents or take people there anymore Yes But i'm also I want to know what's going to be the next you know We need to be defining places like that. You know what I think is going to be a Well, I don't think I know is going to be a very very special place that I am so excited for which is a new place Opening is st. Vito in the gulch. Oh man And michael hannah is like the nice you guys have both had this pizza, right? Oh, yeah Spencer is what it's called as the proprietor of a pizzeria. I will see it's the best pizza I've ever had in my life. It is phenomenal. It is it is so special. Tony will say the same thing It is so special. It is so phenomenal. Michael is such a great guy. He's been a local He's from memphis, but he's been a local guy for a number of years And uh has been working really hard to get this off the ground in a brick and mortar And is going to go in the gulch in the old colts colt colt And that's really cool because there is kind of like a little clumping of of really great local concepts there So they'll have st. Vito we have barista parlor and you have otaku all kind of just right there next to each other

01:24:01So carrie's not far away. Oh and carry. Yeah, and carrie's right there. Of course. So even though Sadly arnold's is leaving We still have some great local independent brands right there and I love to see that because I do feel like the gulch is such the You know kind of prime real estate for any sort of chain or corporation or newcomer to town That that those companies have really staked their claim Are there any other new restaurants that are locally owned and operated that could potentially be that special place that are coming soon that I'll tell you bill sandwich palace for me is something that I am really excited about Yeah, I mean, I think kisser is going to be is going to be great too. It's going to be absolutely legit But to be that special As far as you know Talking about arnold's. I think the thing that made arnold's special one was the food it was I mean, it was great. It was everything that you want it to be it's comfort What made it special was there was no barrier to entry?

01:25:03Guy who's jack hammer in the street Sitting right next to the mayor congressperson, whatever musician and everything in between chef, you know, um The fact that the the chef community the restaurant community wildly embraced it Uh great every community embraced it because it was food for the every person and and unapologetically And deliciously and so for a place to be able to come in that actually Really gets all of that, you know that spectrum of people That's going to be tough. I mean, I think that was the beauty of it but also then You know you look at the economics of it I mean, that's the opposite of the story that we started with with noma is you know, what? can someone or can you make it work and So and that's the you know, the equation part of it is actually probably the easiest part because then you've got to make it delicious Yes, we can get it at this price point. We can do these hours We need to do these amount of people but it's got to be consistently delicious that roast beef for nine years Always tasted the same to me And rose and kaleel every day greeting you what's going on brother?

01:26:14And every time you sit down and cully always walks up and throws another little plate sits on the table Like what is that? He's like just a little something. Just just just try this like that's the soul of the restaurant That's hospitality that that's that's if you want to know what that is that's welcoming everybody into here We're going to give you food. That's going to it's nourishment It's not just i'm driving to drive through to eat something real quick It's standing in line. It's standing in line next to those people That are the jackhammers and the politicians saying hey, man, what's your name? Hey, what do you like to get here? That's where community is created in that line. It's there's i'm not in my car flipping you off I'm not online yelling at you. I'm standing next to you looking you in the eye saying Hey, it's nice to meet you. That's the point you made Well, did you make that point last time because I want to feel like I can't i'm trying but that that's how you create that that's creating commute. That's what makes those places special All right. We're at the end We do a a gordon food service final thought To wrap everything up and We should do this like a bi-weekly thing if you want if you can come in here and just like get out We can just do this. It'd be fun. I mean i'm right down the road You're I mean, that's what I was saying You're like I want you to come back every week and just be like, let's talk about what pisses us off Yeah, we can do a new take we'll get a sponsor. We'll have like what's pissing us off today with chef Andy little and you just come in and we go here's a sponsor by depends. Yes Or I was gonna say like um, whoever does super source. Yeah, super source. There you go Super source could sponsor this segment give a discount on your degreaser. I love that I Jason would love that. So we do a final thought Yeah, last thing you want to say kind of the mic is yours. Whatever you want to say to the city of nashville Uh, we're not gonna interrupt. We're not gonna respond to it. We're at the end of it. We're gonna say thank you for being here We're gonna hit end to broadcast I think the thing that I would say is for the people who live in nashville and the people who are coming to nashville every day You have the opportunity as an individual to define

01:28:18What nashville is and where it's going and that is a wicked Amount of power and I think a little bit of stress because we have to think about it And you think about it with where you're going to eat you think about it with where you're going to buy things spend your money Or things you're going to do and talk to people about and so That power is in each one of us and what we decide to tell our friends about where we decide to go We'll drive where nashville goes So it's important and we need to Really think about it, but we also really need to go out and like kick it at the cool places, you know, that's that's it and um You know nashville is a wild city and it is it has so much to offer And there are so many great people here who are working to make it an even better city that it is Let's get behind those people Heard Said it all. Thank you chef. Thank you. Appreciate your time today. Have fun golfing. I got a tea time Let's yeah, man. You gotta go A big thank you to chef andy little for joining us on the roundup What do you guys think of this new format?

01:29:29Do you guys like just bringing a chef in and bringing up topics and having conversations or do you like the traditional more? Interview side of things also. What do you think about a new segment called what's pissing off andy? That could be a new thing that he comes in and just talks about that and we we move on but it'd be a good way for him to Get that out there Uh, we think it'd be a lot of fun. Let us know follow us at nashville restaurant radio on instagram I am at brandon nrr brandon underscore nrr. She is at gals and gal and um Follow us on YouTube if you want to see more live videos We're going to be recording a lot of these interviews live on youtube as they happen so you can join in if you see that Hey, we're talking to so and so live on you can join and you can make comments on the actual show We're happy to have you jump into the show But you gotta subscribe to our youtube channel if you're not subscribed to our youtube channel You're not going to get the notifications and you can watch these videos. You can watch the interviews on nashville I think I have 152 videos posted on our youtube page. So if you want to see what these look like live Please feel free to jump in and go back and listen to some old episodes I was telling somebody the other day. This is really a fun thing because starting in march 14th 2020 We just interviewed leaders for like two and a half years We're almost at the three year mark in two months. We have three years and um Hearing people as they're going through the pandemic you can go back and listen to that. It's a pretty interesting. There's some pretty interesting takes Uh, plus the old advertising the quality of the audio all of it is just a lot of fun to go back anytime you want to listen Please feel free to do so, but we thank you for listening today. Stay tuned on monday for joe bono volento This is going to be another fun one. It's a quick one. It's like a 40 minute interview So it's not it's not like another hour and a half like this one But uh, hopefully you enjoyed it and hope that you are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye