Tony and Caroline Galzin

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host for your Wednesday Rewind. Today we're going to be going back, back, back to talk with Tony and Caroline Galzin. And this was so fun because this was the first time that I really even met them. I mean, I kind of had communicated, hey, we'd like to be on the show, but like I didn't know them. And I think that from this interview, I actually had to hang out with them a little bit and get to know them. And they were some of my favorite people that I did get to know throughout the pandemic. So this episode was really cool because at the end of it, we play the newly reopened game, which is our version of like the newlywed game.

01:14And it was so fun. It was hilarious. It was one of those things that you just got to listen to. So at the very end of it, hang out and you will get to hear us play the newly reopened game. Because we opened in May and this episode originally came out on July the 5th of 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. And this was probably the episode that I got the most feedback from. The most people messaging me saying, dude, this one really hit home because I think that there's a lot of people who are couples that work in restaurants. And every single day you're in there and you're just hustling and you're entrepreneurs. And every single day it's a grind. And one of the things I think that they discovered once they had a break was that they like, they weren't happy and they were really burnt out. And I think that the pandemic was an I think that the pandemic was an opportunity for them to reset. And it was just, I don't know, it was a special interview. I loved getting to know them. I'm honored to call them friends. And you hear a lot about people and you get to have a conversation with them and they're like even better than you imagined. And that's kind of the way that it happened with Tony and Caroline. So this episode is brought to you commercial free.

02:35There will not be any commercials during the episode. It's brought to you by Sharpies Bakery. Sharpies Bakery is celebrating 35 years of delivering fresh baked bread and desserts to your restaurant six days a week. So check them out at sharpies.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com. They're Sharpies Bakery on Instagram, but you can go look at all the different breads that they bake. And if you're still making bread or you're buying frozen par baked bread from your broadliner, it's time to level up. It's time to get better, support a local business who's been doing it again for 35 years. Erin Mosso and her family will totally take care of you. So go check them out, sharpies.com. This episode is also brought to you by Super Source. Super Source is your solution for any of your dish machine and chemical needs. I've been talking about them for over a year.

03:36They have partnered with us this entire time. And he, I think it's working because he is busier than he's ever been. And he needs help. Like he's at the point now where he needs people to come and work. He's ready to start hiring. So if you want to go work for a company that's growing and you want to learn everything about this business, he is an amazing teacher and just a great dude. And everybody that comes in contact with him, I've met, it's like, dude, that guy's amazing. He's just so helpful. And you have these mindless, kind of these faceless people with these other big companies. This guy's not a gigantic company. He's in here hustling, earning your business every day, no contracts. You only pay for what you use. And he, I call him a doctor because he's constantly coming in, come in the dentist. He's trying to fix it. He doesn't have to come back. He wants you to be healthy. And I just love him to death. Jason Ellis over at SuperSource, go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com. Click the Sponsors tab and check out SuperSource. A special link there gets you three months of free dish machine rental. And if you tell him that you heard it on Nashville Restaurant Radio, he has another special for you, but it is right now.

04:45You've got to do it now. Just have him come out and do an audit on your machines. He's amazing. Also brought to you by Cytex today. Cytex is your linen leader. If you are working in a restaurant, you own a restaurant, you probably, if you don't work with Cytex, it's not, it's a good chance you don't have a great relationship with your linen company because they're trying to find any way they can to charge you extra money. Cytex is a different kind of company. They are family owned and operated. They're local. They're just north of us, right in the southern part of Kentucky, which is a lot. That's very regional. They're very local. They have a facility here in Nashville. They are delivering. They're hustling out there. They're actually, they're actually taking care of the customers that they have. And that's, that's better than some right now. So I'm really honored to work with them. Ross Chandler, I consider to be a great friend and you guys should check me out. If you're looking for a great linen company, cytex-corp.com is how you get a hold of them.

05:49Or you can go to our website, nashrestaurantradio.com. Click the sponsors tab and go down to Cytex or special offers for you right now. Enough of all of this conversation. I hope that you guys enjoy this Wednesday rewind. I hope that you are enjoying this lovely fall and this fall break for a lot of you and enjoy Caroline and Tony Galzin. All right. So with super, super excitement, I want to bring in Tony and Caroline Galzin, the owners of Nicky's Coal Fired in the Nations. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Thank you. Good to be here. Thanks for having us. Yeah. This is so exciting because when I first initially started to do this podcast, one of the first people, but you got to Tony and Caroline, you got to talk to Tony and Caroline. It was like a, it was a thing that I heard from a lot of people. And thank you. And now here we are. We are. So I want to get one thing straight. Caroline, when I kind of started doing a little research and I saw a post that you did on Facebook that said, if another person introduces me as Tony and not the owner or co-owner, I'm going to lose it. Tell me about that.

07:10Um, you know, I'm somebody who, I'm not a very egotistical person in the way that I need that kind of, you know, attention of, oh, I'm the owner of the restaurant, but it is very frustrating to be as involved in running the restaurant. I mean, it's just like, I know all the behind the scenes stuff, all the, all the work, all the stress you bring home and worry about, and, you know, all the things that you do at the restaurant and stuff. And then someone's like, oh, this is the owner's wife. She's like, no, dude, she like is the owner. Yeah. It's just frustrating. And I think that it's hard, especially as a woman to not take that personally. I think if it was the other way around and I was the chef and Tony ran the business, I don't think that the same thing would happen to him necessarily. Well, you have, there's another company right there in the nations who I've had on the show and it's Pennington Distilling Company and those guys and Jeff Pennington, like they're a couple, but it's every interview that I saw was always Jeff Pennington owner. And I'm like, I think she kind of runs the show over. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Johnny's definitely a boss.

08:26A boss. And then, um, Nick and Audra Gidry have these couples that run these businesses and they're co-owners and they've both put so much into it. And then to have somebody say, oh, this is Tony's wife. You're like, um, yeah, but I, I'm like the GM and I do all this stuff here too. So I wanted to get that out there because I'm so excited that both of you are on the show today. Oh yeah. Thank you. Chicago. I'm going to go back because I like to tell the story. You guys are both Chicagoans, right? I am. I just sound like one. So I was born and raised in Chicago. It's the only place I lived before we moved here to Nashville about eight years ago. But Caroline, you could tell where you are. I'm originally from Alabama. I know I don't sound like it, but I grew up on the Gulf coast near Mobile, which is part of how we wound up here. I wanted to move back to the South. But you've been in Chicago for 10 years. Yes.

09:26Yeah. You worked, um, famous, you started as a line cook, kind of worked up Tony to you're working at a place called MK, right? And that's where you guys met. It is. Yeah. I had taken the job at MK as they had, uh, they were hiring a pastry chef and I had bounced back and forth between pastry and savory, which is, you know, the other non-pastry side of the kitchen, kind of started in savory and then moved to pastry and then back and forth a couple moves. And, uh, just this really great opportunity came up to, to basically try out, you know, create some dishes and do a tasting for, uh, the chef, um, Michael Kornick and Eric Williams at MK and ended up hiring me. So I was a pastry chef there for four and a half years. And then Caroline, when did you start? I, I don't know. After a year? After I've been there? Yeah. You've been there for about a year. Okay. You've been there for about a year. Um, I had actually worked there briefly prior to Tony being a pastry chef. I left to go to another job and then came back.

10:32And I was a bartender there and it's a, you know, very old restaurant cliche of a chef and a bartender hooking up and getting into a relationship as happens many times in restaurant. Bar, bar or host. How did that happen? When did you, how did you, as a pastry chef in the building, you being the bartender, I mean, I don't know how cliche that is. I mean, how does the pastry chef get to hook up with a bartender? Because everybody's a drunk and everybody is at the bars until 4 a.m. every night in their twenties after work. There's just, you know, especially, uh, I mean, I mean, you know, that's kind of like hospitality industry. And then Chicago has an extra layer of like, just, you know, like tavern culture that is, you know, it's one of the cities with the highest amount of like bars per capita. So it's really like you take an industry where everyone goes out, you know, after work to get drinks and, you know, kind of stays out late and you close down at 2 a.m. or whatever. And then compound that with like in Chicago, that's really what you do. So it's just like, you just end up going out a lot. So just like, you know, there, there wasn't like literally the entire restaurant would go out. Yes, basically the entire staff with the restaurant. And you would see other entire restaurant staffs. Yeah. You'd just be like, oh, that's everyone from Grand Elegant. I remember seeing that quite a bit because we were near them.

11:56So I was envisioning that you were going to say, so I made these tartlets and I wrote on there, will you go out with me? I said yes. And when there was lemon that said no, because it was bitter and she gave me the cherry one and I was like, hey. Well, that sounds like a great idea. You should try that. No, but I definitely did use my low ranking status as the pastry shop's girlfriend to get him to sneak me free food in the liquor closet during service. Sorry, Michael. So when did, how long did you guys date before you actually proposed before you got married? Was it one year? It was about a year. Almost exactly. Just a little over a year. Yeah. Me, I dated my wife for 15 years and it was at like the one year mark, a little less than one year, like 11 months I proposed to her. How did you propose to her? How? Yeah. It was on, it was actually on Christmas Eve. And we both worked. We were both working. We both worked Christmas Eve. It was always a very busy night at the restaurant. And I had decided, you know, I was going to propose. I got the ring and everything. And I had, not stolen, but borrowed.

13:09Like Caroline had, you know, just like rings that, you know, girls wear. So I had grabbed one that I've seen her wear before to get a general gist of the size. And then I brought that to the jeweler and, you know, had the ring made inside. I think you still had to get it at least size, but either way. So then I put that, where did I hide the ring? Did I, I think you got it up to the bathroom? You like put it under my mattress? I like tucked it. I lived in a very small studio apartment in the Gold Coast near the restaurant. That's where we were. It was like, yeah, like a 600 square foot studio apartment. So like, you know, your bed was there. And I think we went in, we were hanging out. And then I think I kind of tucked it just in the corner of the mattress, the little box there. And then I had, we were going to exchange Christmas gifts. Yes. And so I had wrapped up the ring that I had like taken from her. And so that was like wrapped up in a little, you know, in a box in a, in a, it looked like a jewelry case. So she opened it and it's like a jewelry case. She's like, oh, and she opens it and she was like, oh, it's my ring.

14:10I forgot about that. It's so funny. Yeah. You're just like my ring. And I'm just like, oh, that's the ring that I took to get the size. So then I could give you this ring. And then I like reached and pulled out the real ring. Yes, memories. So Christmas Eve is always special for us. Yeah, Christmas Eve is a special night for us. That's awesome. That's kind of like one of those, you could see if you could, I don't know if you could see the look in your eye when he was telling that story. You were like, that's, I remember this was. I know, it's so dreamy. What a cute story. Get down. Yes. And then you got married and it's time to get closer. Winters in Chicago are both fun and exciting. I understand. So not for me. I mean, I, you know, as a Chicago and you embrace winter, I had a Jeep Wrangle. I mean, my whole, the whole reason I chose the car that I drove was because it was good for winter in Chicago. And, and I embraced things like ice fishing and, you know, doing stuff like that. I'm just like, you're like, yeah, you want to do some winter stuff. I literally spent six hours baking in the sun yesterday.

15:28Just like, give it all to me. Yeah. So that was more of a factor for you, but it was, I think the, the winter is after 10 years in Chicago. I think she was done. We were planning on moving. I was planning on moving back to the South before I met Tommy. So, so you chose Nashville. It was a burgeoning scene, 2012. And you went to work, you guys both, you moved here and then to work at, was it taste? Was that your first one here? Flight. Flight. Okay. I was thinking taste. Flight on a day. We both had a Y. Yeah. F-L-Y-T-A-Y. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. And from there, you guys rest and you, did you guys buy 51st or did you just kind of take it over and run it? What was the story of 51st kitchen? So we, we knew one of the partners just kind of through knowing different people in the restaurant scene in Nashville and had been asked to consult on the opening of a different concept than, than what it ultimately became. I wanted to open as like a wine bar. Yeah, it was going to be a wine bar. And we went in and we saw the space and we had, very long story short, gotten to a point where we'd been here for a few years. We'd been trying to get our own thing going and we'd been doing pop-ups. They were successful. I think we were kind of out there a little bit and people knew we were looking for spaces. So we were kind of in a space where we said, Hey, we're either going to get something going like now, or we're going to think about maybe moving back to Chicago, moving somewhere else. Like we've kind of gotten to the end of our rope here. So we went in and we saw this space and we said, Hey, instead of having hiring us to consult, why don't you bring us in as partners and we will make it our concept and run a new restaurant.

17:18And we get a full service restaurant. Yeah. And that's really just how that came to be. The partners went for it. And then another long story short, ultimately it just wound up not being a great fit for us. We loved the restaurant. We really, really, to this day have such wonderful fond memories of the things we were able to do there. We're still wonderful friends with most of the people that we worked with there. Some of the people we worked with there still work with us at Nicky's to this day. It just ultimately, it wound up not being a great fit with all the partners. They kind of wanted to go and do one thing. More casual. We kind of wanted to do a different thing. And we got the opportunity to work with new partners who are just truly, truly the best, most incredible partners. Again, long story short. Yeah. We kind of saw the writing on the wall and we're just like, ah, we're probably going to have to figure out something else. And then that's when we kind of, or I should say Caroline started circling back to people that we had met, you know, previously looking at deals and sort of just like, all right, let's like reconnect with like a new group and sort of roundabout or roundabout way.

18:30Our current partner, who's our kind of our main business partner who's, Tony and I run the restaurant. Obviously all of our other partners are silent, but our main partner within 10 minutes of meeting him for the first time we were in his car looking at real estate. And it was just, I mean, we clicked from moment one. Yeah. So we're very lucky. That's amazing. And then what's that like? What's it like when you find this spot and you kind of sign those papers and it's yours? Like this is going to be yours. Like, is there, that's true. That's the truest American dream you can have. Entrepreneurship. We're going to own our own business. We're going to be the operators of the business. It's going to be amazing. What inside you makes you want to do that? It sounds like something you both have wanted to do from very early. Are you both entrepreneurs? Did you, is that something that you guys knew going in and how does that make you feel?

19:31I feel like Caroline always has had a little more of an entrepreneurial spirit where you were always kind of like you, like I've heard her say before that she knew it from a very young age that she always wanted to like work for herself or start her own company or whatever. You know, I would have been happy to be involved with a great restaurant group or just as well open my own restaurant. You know what I mean? Like for me, I'm just like, well, I'm not going to go one way or nothing. I'm going to keep my options open and see what happens. But Caroline was really the one always pushing to be like, you know, for better or worse. I'm super happy that we have our own place and especially now we can kind of control everything during this and we're doing okay. So yeah, I don't know. I, there was a, it's hard to put my finger on what exactly that Tony's right. I've always had a very, very entrepreneurial spirit. I've always known I wanted to work for myself and do my own thing. I'm somebody who I think that I'm better at coming up with ideas and seeing a big picture and delegating. I'm not somebody who my strong suit is not in the, the tiny details and the kind of follow through of everything. I'm good at saying, here's a great idea. Here's how we can make it happen. Here's the right people to help make it happen. I will say though, I was super on board with that. I mean, that's why we came to natural where basically we saw it as a better opportunity than we had in Chicago, perhaps to just, just for a myriad of reasons. There was a lot of the people that we knew that would probably be able to fund our restaurant. We're like funding another restaurant that was similar and just, there's a bunch of things. We're just like, maybe we just, let's just head to like a small market city or media market city and, you know, make friends. We already had a few connections and see what we could do. So when we moved here, I was, I was pretty much all on board with that, you know, which had never really occurred to me in Chicago. My next step from, you know, pastry chef, fine dining would probably be like, Oh, let me, let me like, you know, find a hotel job or something

21:32that's going to pay a lot more and, you know, be more flexible hours or something. That's kind of Sorry. I just had to yell at her. Sorry. Totally fine. So that's interesting because like it takes both, you know? And so how does that dynamic? So for somebody like you, Tony, who's a chef, who's happy in the kitchen, doing your job, you kind of know what you need to do. And then Caroline kind of the yin to that yang of somebody who is a little more willing to take the risk and seize the big picture, wants to identify people to help execute. You're really the operator of the two of you. In essence, when gathering, which you prefer to do, how well do those things work together? Do you guys ever fight? We have, we have, but I think it took us, 51st was a good learning curve about just like establishing like who's got what and how to bring up, you know, whatever, like, Hey, like I feel I know you got the bar, but I had a thought about the bar. Maybe we could do this. Or she's like, you know, you've got the kitchen, but it's just like, Hey, like, I got some feedback about this or, you know, I was thinking about this. I feel like from day one, Tony and I have always very, have clicked very well as a work relationship. The fights that we have are not, I don't know, I feel like when we bicker about something at work, it's less about a work thing. And it's more about like, Hey, I know you were really stressed, but you snapped at me. And like, I don't like that, you know, it's just, it's, it's that kind of thing. It's less about like fundamental things with the business. And I think really how well we work together is a testament to the time that we both spent working at MK, which the way that we do things is because we both kind of go working at MK is kind of like going to college, going to grad school a little bit for restaurants.

23:28So we both have that same style for MK. Yeah, nice. And I think that totally helps. And I don't, I go down this line of questioning because there's the dynamic of husband and wife owners where one's the chef and one's kind of the GM. They're not all over the place. I mean, these are like the questions that I am curious about, but you've been able to do it wildly successfully. I mean, what you've done at Nicky's was huge fanfare. You guys have opened, have just had nothing but great accolades. I've eaten there a couple of times. It's very good. And you've had to, did you guys have any damage from the tornado? No. And I, we are, I, I don't know how we got so lucky because there was terrible devastation immediately to our West, terrible devastation immediately to our East and North. And we were not touched. I mean, the whole nations, it just bounced. It, it went kind of through Bells Bend because it started at the airport at John C. Toon airport, which is just west of us.

24:34It's really flat, everything west of us. And it kind of was coming down centennial and then just bounced over across the river. So like part of the TSU agricultural campus kind of went, you know, through Bells Bend and then, and then popped back over the river and went, yeah, through like TSU kind of through that part of North Nashville. And then, you know, on to East Nashville from there. And it just totally missed us. Well, I love what you guys have done with the restaurant. I started this podcast on March 13th. And if you go back and listen to my gosh, well, I did it in response. I was going to do a podcast and I did it in a response to this whole thing, because I'm working with restaurants and I'm talking to general managers and we're putting together game plans. And I just, I'm meeting with all these different restaurants and I'm kind of identifying what we need to be doing today. They've closed the, oh, they just, they stopped March madness. Everything kind of closed one day and I went, I'm just going to start talking into a microphone. And the one thing I told people was, as I said, this is a time that you have the ability to reset. This is a reset button for a lot of people. If you choose to use this moment as a reset button, there's a lot of things you can do. You can be upset and cry and be woe is me, this is happening to me. Or you can say, we're going to really adapt and move forward.

25:54And from everything I hear, that's all that you guys have done. You've taken this and while there's been a lot of shitty things that have gone down, there are 34% property tax and closing restaurants and now closing bars, all the stuff the mayor's doing can be somewhat of a challenge to small business owners. But you guys have really made lemonade with this and change how you're operating. Talk about how that came to be. What are those, when did those conversations begin? Who started them and how did everything evolve? That's a good question. Well, I mean, so I guess going back to a lot of restaurants pivoted kind of right away to take out, you know, some people kind of waited for, you know, a few days and then sort of reopen. So actually going back to the tornado scenario. So because we were totally unaffected, we never lost power, not even for five minutes, just pretty amazing. And because of our proximity to the National Food Project, we have a really good relationship with Jennifer Justice and some of the people over there.

27:03That, you know, we reached out right away and we're just like, hey, we have power, we have extra space. The way Nikki's kitchen is laid out is we have a big prep kitchen in the back. But when service starts, pretty much everyone's in the front. It's an open kitchen and we have a big empty area at night and there's not really that much prep that goes on. So, you know, we kind of reached out to starting with the National Food Project and being like, hey, we've got a ton of space back here. We can prep meals. And just long story short, that sort of snowballed. Caroline started reaching out to community groups and organizations in North Nashville, which, you know, just to the east of us got hit. And we ended up, you know, for the part of, you know, a better part of 10 days there, just Nikki's became like a little mini hub where we got volunteers to bring food. We got volunteers to cook. We got volunteers just to help like bag stuff and or bring stuff. And we, you know, personally were in and out of community centers and trailers full of food and food kitchens and all this stuff and, you know, had other people bringing in stuff. I'm going to call time out for one sec because this is what you just described is exactly what I want to talk about. And I want to get back to exactly what you did. But every single person on this show that I talked to, when I talk about hospitality and what we do in this industry, locally owned and operated businesses, there was no question in your mind, this tornado went through, you had the ability, you contacted the Nashville food. You said, let us help, let us help.

28:34Restaurants are the first people to jump in and help. And this is where I've been standing on top of the mountain top saying, if you're going to go out to eat, do not go to Red Lobster tonight. Do not go to the locally operated restaurants because they need your help right now. Like they, second tornadoes happened, you just shifted to help people. That's what we do in this business. And I just love that. And I wanted to highlight that real quick because that story you just told is everything that there's a hundred restaurants that are locally owned and operated, just like you and Nashville, maybe they did the exact same thing you did, but everybody pivoted at the same time to say, how can we help? And now this general public's time to come back and help you guys from this time. So I'm sorry. You were saying that you pivoted, you did, you had the open space, you started producing, you helped prep meals. Yeah. We were just like in and out of, you know, just interaction with tons of people. Plus it was just like a busy week at the restaurant. It was really busy. I don't, I can't tell you why, but it was one of the busiest regular weeks we've had for no apparent reason. And then, you know, kind of it was right that, I guess it was that weekend. Yeah. The 14th, 15th was a Monday, right? When everything kind of shut down. So like, you know, that by the time that Sunday night came, we could see that people were starting to like, okay. It went from Friday night being like, we'll wait and see what happens to Sunday night. We're like, we're closing tomorrow and we don't know when we're reopening. Yeah. And then we also made the decision just because we looked at, we were just like, we have to hard close too. And like, based on, I mean, this is the very infancy of kind of the coronavirus quarantine. And we're like, we don't know a lot of time, or we don't have a lot of information or like the incubation time of the virus or all this. But we, we found out that Tony and I had directly interacted with someone who did test positive pretty early on.

30:25So we brought some bunch of food and we gave them a hug. Yeah. And so we just like, we made Nickies. We just, basically we weren't going to send people to work if we weren't going to be there. And we were like, we've been around thousands of people in this last, but just between customers coming to the restaurant and going to all these community centers and blah, blah, blah, and just like in big groups of people and all the things you're not supposed to do. And like, we had just been doing this aggressively for two weeks. So we just shut Nickies down right away for two weeks. You know, and like, we didn't even think about pivoting or doing, we were just like, we need to just quarantine and make sure we're not sick. And then we can start to come up with a plan. So that's how we, that was just why at the beginning we shut down. Yeah. I think that that's kind of leads into, to answer your question of like how those conversations started about why, you know, why we pivoted to the service model that we're using now, how that came to be is because, you know, it was a great time for Tony and I to hit reset and take a look. We, Tony and I, since we, since before we opened this restaurant, we've never had the time like we had in the quarantine to say, what are we really doing here with the business, with our lives, you know, just a really this, this time that we had together to have these conversations.

31:47And ultimately what we, the conclusion we came to is, you know, what is really important to us? What do we want the future of this business to look like? What do we want our futures personally to look like? How can we implement these changes? Because, you know, in those early days, there were still questions of, are we going to reopen the restaurant? Is our business going to be one of the businesses that closes? Are we going to be able to get relief from the government? You know, all of these things we had in the week that we closed the restaurant, we had to pay out around $35,000 between, we had to run a full payroll for the whole restaurant or we had to pay out checks for a previous payroll. We had to run another payroll. We had some vendor payments that were automatically coming out, utilities, all of these things. And we had one week of payroll that we just simply didn't have the cash to cover because we had paid out so much money right off the bat, you know? And so just really being uncertain about what the restaurant was going to look like. And we're people who are always going to dig in and do everything we have to do to make it work. And we said, if we are going to do this, if we are really going to do everything we can to keep this restaurant open and make this work, what are the compromises that we're not willing to make? What are the hard boundaries for us? And for us, the kind of two things that we weren't willing to compromise was first and foremost, health. We were not willing to say, we're going to send employees to work while we stay home because we don't want to get sick, but we're going to risk them getting sick. We're not going to create an environment where we're making money, but it's at the risk of someone getting sick, whether it's an employee, a customer, whatever it is. And then the other- The opposite of owning a honky tonk.

33:38Yep, pretty much. I would ring it for the comment of the day right there. I mean, it really is. We would not be owners who are going to say, hey, we're going to stay home and we'll be healthy and safe and okay. You guys can go to work and risk, literally risk your lives possibly to make us money. I would never do that. The other boundary that we drew, another hard line in the sand for us was that we said we have to change the way that we live our lives outside of work because this restaurant is running our lives too much. We have to make sure that if we're going to make these things work, that we are setting aside the personal time that we need away from work to spend time with one another, to have alone time to hit reset. Yeah, when Nicky's is busy and it was getting busier, our year over year growth was, we started good and then settled into we're in the nations and then the nations started building up and then we started, we've been open for a year so then people are coming back and then it just kept going.

34:56By the time, yeah, right before pandemic, I mean, it was just like, hope I can get a day off this week even though we have 40 employees and just only open for dinner. I think we didn't realize how really burned out we were until we were forced to stay home for two weeks and we were just like, wow, having this moment to press pause that we're forced to press pause, honestly, we kind of realized how miserable we were. Yeah, and it was, I mean, not miserable, but I mean, work-life balance was not good. Yes. Was not sustainable. Not sustainable, that's a great way to put it. I'll say, you know, not without, you know, just having, you know, like a miserable time on your day off. Like not having a day off and being able to enjoy it or recharge or, you know, whatever. Yeah, something that we talked about. So the week after Valentine's Day, Tony and I went to Charleston for a few days and we'd never been to Charleston together and we're so excited for this trip and we're gonna eat, we're gonna drink and we're staying in a nice hotel and we're gonna be there for three nights and just have a really nice time away, the two of us, and we went and we had the worst time. We just had the least fun vacation. How do you not have fun in Charleston, you know, staying in the French Quarter? What was that? Why wasn't it the best time? Because we were so stressed about different things happening. Just dumb stuff, the very, so we drove there and we checked into the hotel, it was like a Monday and, you know, check in at like, did we drive? We drove straight there, right? So we woke up early and like, probably got in Charleston like three in the afternoon or something and like the very first, I get a phone call from the guy that's supposed to be working pizza and he's like, hey, I'm leaving.

36:42He's like, the guy that worked last night like didn't take out the garbage, you know, like correctly and I gotta do some extra stuff and like, I'm pissed, so I'm leaving work. I'm leaving. I'm like, fuck man, I just got to Charleston. Like what, you knew I was going to Charleston, like just like, so then I have to like, you know, the first two hours of vacation, I'm like scrambling to like try to get someone in there and then I'm walking someone through how to start the fire, which is very complicated, you know, and, you know, it was just like, it just set the tone for like, I can't really get away for, you know, three days. So I feel like that's a very long-winded way to get to where we are now, but the current model that we're working with, you know, again, kind of starting with first and foremost, we feel like is the absolute safest way for our employees and guests to interact. The only time employees and guests are interacting are when a guest doesn't have a mask on is if somebody's dropping food at a table and that's a very brief interaction. So that kind of resolves our first problem of, you know, wanting to make sure that everybody can be healthy. To go back and say we've moved to Yeah. Oh, sorry. Yes. We're doing counter service now. And it also has helped us adjust our labor model so that Tony and I can focus our attention on the things that make us passionate about being in this industry and owning and operating a restaurant and not just so mired in the kind of day-to-day hubbub. Yeah. Yeah. And just doing that, yeah, kind of the counter service model, like Caroline said, it all started with the idea was how do we limit interaction the most? We're not going to send someone with a face mask and a plastic shield and gloves and long sleeves to go like wait on tables. It just felt too, it's just, just crappy, you know? So the counter service thing made sense. And with that, you know, we sort of limited the menu because also there's a fair

38:45amount of uncertainty about how much business there will be. So I'm like, let's limit the menu. We're not bringing in that much produce. We eliminated, we used to kind of do a decent amount of like kind of seafood-y stuff. We'd always have a catch of the day. Some other things sort of like limited that. Just a lot of things to make sure we didn't have any waste, that our cost was low. We didn't have to like spend a lot of money to keep, you know, stuff in house. And it's been pretty good so far. It's been good. We're hitting the numbers that we need to hit. You know, we I was just having this conversation this morning with my friend Ben Sticks who owns the Beehive in East Nashville. He was asking how it was going. And I said, you know, for us, this feels like a time not necessarily to make money, but to just make what we need to make to stay open for right now. And as long as we can do that, it takes a big weight off kind of feeling the pressure of like, oh, I need to add additional seating or I need to try to pack it out more or whatever. You know, if we can operate a very limited service, which is what we're doing, we're honestly, we're probably still operating under phase one guidelines as far as our seating capacity.

39:57That we definitely are. We definitely are. We have six tables in the dining room, but we have two patios as well, which is great. You know, I don't feel like this is a time for us to focus on making money. I think it's a time for us to focus on getting to the other side. And it sounds like if there's a North Star for you, it's doing the right thing. You know, I mean, it sounds like you guys are going towards a, what is the right thing to do? I'm not, if I'm not going to be there, I'm not going to have my staff there. We're in this together, which is, which really shows leadership. I mean, it really shows strong leadership from people who are running a business and then doing the right thing on a consistent basis. I imagine your staff is pretty, pretty loyal. We have a really good staff. We're very, very lucky. You know, part of it too is we have changed our, our labor model from what we were doing before to now all of our staff works together much more as a team. Everybody is paid a high hourly as their base pay. And then instead of taking the tip credit, we're doing a tip pool for the whole house. So everybody's making the same money. And for my servers in front of house people, we don't really have servers anymore, but people who previously were servers, it's allowed them to, honestly, they're making the same money or better than what they were making before waiting tables. And for our back of house crew, it is way more money than they were making before.

41:37And it's also allowed people to explore different things. You know, we have people who are servers that have now learned some new cooking skills and are working some back of house shifts, which is something they may have been interested in before, but wouldn't have been able to do because they couldn't afford to pay high, you know, it's, it's, Yeah, we just basically started with our most the people with the most seniority and kind of went through and we're just like, hey, you know, I know you were a server or bartender, but I do have the position that some prep stuffs and I, you know, I think I can show you how to make pizza dough. And you know, people are just like, yeah, cool, like want to work and you know, just the people, you know, now we just everyone that's there is super, you know, on board with what we're doing. So I love hearing that. And it's, you know, right now there's a real problem. It's so funny because you hear your story and me, I'm an operations guy, right? So I love all of this stuff. I can talk about this kind of stuff all day long, but when you constantly are doing the right thing and you're caring about people and you're just, that's everything that you do, you get people that come back, they want to come back, they want to work for you.

42:40And there's a real issue right now. A lot of people can't find people to come back to work because of they're getting paid more unemployment or whatever the case is. They're afraid to come back to work. And I think that if you're operating a building where you're putting people in unsafe environments, I honky tonk in town where people are getting sick and they're trying to cover it up and not close. Ridiculous. It's obscene, honestly. Yeah. I mean, like that's not the right thing to do. I mean, I can't imagine wanting to go back to work there. So I mean, what you do is having people that want to come back to work for you is fantastic. So you know, honestly for us, I mean, I will say maybe we haven't always done the right thing. There's certainly been a learning curve over the years. One thing I know for sure is our heart has always been in the right place. Yeah. But whether I can say we've done the right thing or not in the past, you know, hindsight is always 20-20. You can say maybe I should have done that differently or maybe we should have handled this differently. I do feel right now though, that we are definitely doing the right thing. I feel more confident in that as an operator today than any other time in the history of our restaurant, which might sound crazy to say in the time of a global pandemic, but I just, I somehow feel more optimistic today than I almost ever have in the history of our restaurant. It's wild. Hey everyone. We're going to take a short break to talk to you about Springer Mountain Farms Chicken. They're a family-owned business nestled in the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains with over 50 years of experience in raising chickens. They exercise great care in all that they do and their dedication to providing their chickens with a quality life and healthy diet results in a healthier, more delicious chicken for you and your family to enjoy.

44:30But don't take it from me. Take it from Khalil Arnold from Arnold's Country Kitchen, who last week on our show told us that Springer Mountain Farms is one of the better vendors that they use and there was one week during the pandemic that they were unable to get the product and the guests were in an uproar. They wanted to know why they didn't have the best chicken on the planet. You yourself can get this chicken to find a store or a restaurant near you. Go to springermountainfarms.com and click the locate a store or restaurant near you online and don't forget to join the flock in your email address to get weekly updates and emailed recipes. Now let's get back to Caroline and Tony Galzin. You know it's interesting because I think you hit on something earlier and maybe it's a bad trip to to Charleston you know but it's a weird light bulb that happens and it happened to me um you know kind of end of October but I realized that I wasn't like happy you know the things I was doing and I wasn't the work-life balance thing. I was I was just working all the time and I wasn't spending the time with my wife and the people that were really important to me and I think that this whole thing I've been able to spend time with my kids and I've been able to spend time with my wife. I've been able to be so much more present. I also quit drinking which is a big deal eight months ago. Thank you so much um which has been amazing but I've kind of tried to turn this whole thing and kind of reckon I've been I think it's like a growth opportunity that you guys have done something so a blessing in disguise I mean there's a thing and a lot of tough times that came from this a lot of people that haven't been able to be that fortunate to do these things but I'm really excited that that's what's going on for you guys and yeah like you said the opportunity to reset I mean that's just kind of what we you have to look at it like that you know

46:31because there's who knows there you know obviously there's another side to this we're going to get to the other side of this but nobody knows what that looks like or when that is so you just have to kind of be like let's make the best of it let's reset let's gotta you know you kind of got to do that so and just fortunately for us the reset was was good it worked out you know yeah yeah so Caroline you said to you said that you're not as active on social media it's not something that you're not like didn't use today I've got a lot more to say lately I had a little bit more to say lately and I don't want to finish this interview and I I didn't tease everybody earlier but we're going to play a game of it's a style of newlywed game I'm going to call it the the co-owner game the restaurant newlywed game pandemic edition we're going to do that here but I would be remiss if I didn't talk about kind of the times we're in today yeah and I believe we're all going to come out of this thing better I've referenced this that we're all kind of like caterpillars that have gone into a cocoon and when you come out you're going to be a beautiful butterfly or a moth right yeah that is the best analogy I've heard I think we all want to be butterflies and I think that through all of this I've had to look in the mirror in a big way and kind of go hey what do I believe in and where am I and how can I improve with race relations you know as a white male American I had to look in the mirror and go what can I what can I do to change other people no what can I do to change myself and really do that do that work I've read some books and kind of went into it but you've made some posts and you've done some you've been more active on social media I have recently what's going on there well um I think that um I don't know maybe hopefully maybe

48:39um as somebody who hasn't been very active in social media people seeing me posting my opinions very loudly and strongly will be like oh there's someone that I didn't used to ever see a post from yeah I mean Caroline you know handles the social for the business so she does a lot of social media posting as far as you know Nicky's is concerned and stuff is concerned I think basically there was for a long time you know a sentiment of you can have you know whatever political beliefs and and stuff you keep that separate a bit from from your business right like we didn't we wanted to be inclusive to everybody and didn't want to necessarily alienate any dollar um you know so there was little things we would always do I mean Nicky's always had um like on our front in the host stand we always have a gay pride and a trans pride flag there regardless of if it's pride month or not and there's you know stickers on our door that uh actually we got it from Karl Worley right oh yeah it's like these little stickers that say you know hate is not welcome here and I remember the day we posted it to instagram on our Nicky's account and it's this it's just a little round sticker and it has like an illustration of like a dove holding a key or something on that and they're like something you know and then it's like hate is not welcome here and around it it's like you know like no racism no sexism no something like this and you know a nice little post to go with it that's just like hey this really you know turbulent times but you know we welcome everybody and really believe you know like some nice quote like this and I remember that somebody commented is our president welcome there I don't remember that I don't remember well I will take today as an opportunity to answer that no our president is not welcome but I remember like we didn't address it I remember like another customer

50:40like addressed it was just like said no the sticker says or it's like yes the sticker says everyone is welcome it's just just how to be like you know to take a stand and that's that's just like you know if people are going to say stuff like that then we're then then we're going to say stuff like that if to put up a sticker that says we don't condone hate is to be like well that's controversial is that controversial can our president go there because he does condone hate or whatever I don't know what the what the what that person was equating that sticker with but now you know since you know because of the the Black Lives Matter protests and all these protests and we just feel that Caroline made the opinion I think you summed it up best that you're just like we came to the realization that we have a responsibility to to to speak up and that the restaurant is not necessarily just a restaurant it's not just a business because it's a small mom-and-pop owned business that it's really you know it's part of the community but it's it's a it's an extension of us and so that you know if we can use it's not going to use the the restaurant to push radical things you know I don't know maybe we would maybe why not I mean but you know what but but what I what I'm saying is that you know we're going to support organizations and use the voice of the restaurant and the potential for the restaurant to raise money for donations or whatever to register people to vote you know whatever we can do we're not we're not scared to alienate people that aren't as tolerant of other people anymore that's just kind of where we're at yeah um I also I just I've never thought that it was productive to argue with people on social media I'm responding to family members and other people that I know

52:42and making my own post I made a joke with Tony last week I said I'm the common sense troll so I'm trolling people's Facebook posts but with common sense arguments so I don't know there's just something in me I never used to respond to a Yelp review or a Google review now I am just letting people know how I feel I here's what I think it is I think that for such a long time small business owners have felt like you had to kind of walk on eggshells and like Tony said you can't alienate any dollar but I think that people need to acknowledge and have a little more respect for what a small business is in the community and the personal sacrifice that small business owners make you know it's if you didn't like your pizza instead of you know being rude and unkind and disrespectful um just talk to me about it we're all human beings tell me you didn't like your pizza I'll buy you a new one or I'll refund your money or I don't know we'll work something out but don't try to close my business because you didn't like your pizza and that honestly that's what people do people this is horrible this place needs to shut down it's I don't like pepperoni like I don't know what is wrong with people you know it not everything has to be that devices yeah it doesn't and you know one of the things for me is I've never really had a platform before you know and now that I'm actually speaking into a microphone and I'm putting it out there for the I feel like I have a little bit more of a voice and there's while we want to be political especially for yourselves where people are coming in dining you just want to create a fantastic experience for whoever they are you want to nourish your community and there's a point that I flipped that switch and I thought I now have a platform and me being silent is me choosing the wrong side I think that um I agree how to be an anti-racist you know

54:46when you see something that's racist not saying anything is racist yes I think that to continue and there's no place in this world for for that type of hate and the fact that people just go oh well that's just Johnny it's like well I'm not going to associate with Johnny I'm going to let Johnny know that that's not acceptable around me like I've started doing that in my life and I've decided that on this platform I'm going to be I'm going to let that be known and if you don't like that if you feel like black people are inferior or that the police need to be killing people for no reason if you if that's something you believe don't listen to my show like don't eat at my restaurant yeah I'm done I don't need that I don't care like I'm done that's it and that's where I need to stand that's kind of the look I've had to take the thoughts have gone my brain I'm not afraid to say I don't care if you know you call me whatever you want that's the way that I feel and it sounds like a lot of the thing that's encouraging to me is there's a lot of businesses that have taken that stance a lot of business have now said hey if that guy doesn't want to eat here like I'm not gonna let President Trump eat in my building because he does not I don't care it's fine and I love that I love that that you've taken that stance and I encourage businesses to do the same thank you I think that for whatever reason a lot of guests now certainly this is not everybody it's a very small percentage but there's always that guest that has that sense of entitlement like they are owed something from a small business and they will burn it to the ground if they don't get what they are owed and I just I don't have a tolerance for that anymore there's a time that I would have apologized and accommodated and this that and the other and now I'm just like you know what it sounds like we're not good for each other you don't like my business and I don't like you so go go find somewhere else to eat yeah

56:49yeah I mean that's not to say if we make a mistake we're not going to make it right but some people just can't yeah but some people just can't you're right they're just like yeah like people literally write in the reviews like this place needs a close just like because you didn't like your caesar salad like you can get off yeah well I will give you guys public praise right now because we have a segment that we're going to be putting out on YouTube and on Facebook where we have a bunch of chefs in town that are going to be reading their worst yelp reviews the worst the meanest like the reviews are absolutely asinine I'm excited to get you guys on this but I got the idea from somebody who told me that you had a party at your restaurant where you had a bunch of chefs read their worst yelp reviews so I want to give you credit because thank you and Caroline that had whether you guys got the idea from somebody else it was from your party that I got the idea thank you being in town it was really fun it was really funny I was called people hate us on yelp and it was like an after hours uh with a bunch of like chefs and bartenders and restaurant owners and gms and stuff and yeah they read bad yelp reviews it was really fun it was just meant it wasn't meant to bash yelp but it was just meant to kind of be like a camaraderie you know bonding experience and it really was and it was it was really fun it did piss off the yelp community manager oh yeah who had some we saw I feel like we got blacklisted on yelp for a little while until we had to really like we were conspired against by the yelp community manager we were it was it was a real thing our yelp stars went way down which which is which is I don't care about yelp but also I don't want to have three stars so it took it took it took it took a lot of like hey dude like stop yeah stop it and so then you know we got back to where it's supposed to be but uh it's not malicious towards yelp or any sort of platform like that it's just meant to bring the most obnoxious things in a comical way yeah so

58:54that's what we will be we'll be doing that soon you'll see that uh out on our uh our socials so before we get into the game I want to thank you guys for coming on the show oh thank you thing you'd like to say I like to end the shows where I ask people if there's anything they like to say to the general national population anything you want to just get out there if I gave you the floor for as long as you want just um I will just say this if you are not wearing a mask when you go out in public you are contributing to the destruction of your local sorry our dogs are going wild seems like a zoo in here um but that's just very very as as plain as I can put it if you care about local businesses and you care about more than yourself um you need to wear a mask when you go out the end that's it yeah wear a mask it's not political in any way not any we just got back from Florida um we had booked a trip to Florida and you would not know that there was a pandemic in Florida yeah we wear masks everywhere we like had like we have masked kids everybody and every time we go into a restaurant we were the only people I mean there was very very very like you'd see somebody like with a mask on it's like seeing a deer driving down the street like oh there's a deer like like there's there's nobody with masks on we got looked at we got stared at that's insane once weren't wearing masks like the servers nobody like there's a Mexican restaurant you're called capasa in Destin and all the people that work they're wearing masks I was like okay I feel so much better now we're wearing in a crowded lobby we're like we're just we waited outside it was icky it was just weird and um well you know and I think that that just really shows your responsibility on on behalf of the ownership as well because you can enforce mask wearing I am here to tell you as a business owner you can

01:00:59enforce mask wearing in your space in your dining room not just with your staff but with your customers that's it yeah we have a sign that you have to basically we block the pathway to the restaurant with a sign that says you must wear a mask to enter our building and people come in with a mask on we have let me knock on wood not had an argument with a customer about wearing a mask I'm really happy that the city mandated it uh now because before you know what it was people's discretion basically no one did so we were able to buy masks at about 80 cents each and we went through in the first two weeks we reopened we were like we'll have masks for people that don't have them presumably everyone has a mask and the amount of people that would show up without masks we spent 300 in two weeks on free masks yeah more than that to give on we're just like well that's not sustainable so now with the mask mandate you know actually I was talking to Caroline I'm like I still don't you know I don't want to alienate anyone like we should still maybe have some masks in case someone shows up and Caroline's like no screw that if in the middle of a pandemic and a city ordinance you still show up like you can't eat here and I'm like okay that's fair that's fair all right so if you're going to be going to Nikki's coal fired and I highly recommend that you do make sure that you have a mask if you'd like to actually enter the establishment that's that's it that is wear a mask don't be a racist uh don't be rude come out for a good time come out for good food leave all your hate at home yes and come out with the mask on and it's not something that they're trying to do because they're communists is that it's this is for everybody else y'all correct ask come out eat at Nikki's you're going to order the food up front and then you're going to sit down server's going to bring it to you but they're not going to stand over your table and breathe on you and take an order no done so you guys have

01:03:02done this thing the right way and I encourage everybody to go and dine with you at the nations thank you 51st avenue if you get off of uh 40 and drive down 51st avenue it's just kind of right towards the end but the end of it like as you you almost run into it right there past the 51st deli all right 51st deli so if you don't know where Nikki's coal fired is that's so you didn't change the name at all it's still Nikki's coal fired right he's coal fired yeah cool well thank you guys so much I'm so excited to do this game I'm excited yeah I hope I did the right questions and we'll see how this works it's going to be restaurant based questions okay okay it's going to be like what's your favorite place to make whoopee you know like the game like the newlywed game um all right so Tony you gotta leave the room all right I wish I had some really cool like game show music here but I don't so this is the newly reopened game there you go the newly reopened game today our players are Tony and Caroline Galzin Caroline are you ready to play the game I'm so ready all right we're gonna do here's the rules there's no winners there's no losers and I'm not keeping track of points it's just for fun there's no prize fine love it what I'm gonna ask you a question and I'm gonna write down the answer to the question on my piece of paper it's probably gonna show up backwards but it's okay okay you're going to answer the question and I'm gonna ask Tony the question when he comes back in the room does that make okay okay so I'm gonna tell you my answer not what I think his is we're gonna do both got it okay so the first question is what is the thing that is Tony's pet peeve when he walks in

01:05:04the door to the restaurant so if he walks in and something isn't right was the first thing he's gonna notice that's gonna what's what's his trigger I would say if um the like the line had not been cleaned and shut down properly and I'm gonna ask him the same question about you okay you going with the same answer oh I would probably the same for me like if things had not been cleaned properly is there a specific part of the restaurant that's not clean so the things is pretty big like for me like if I walk in and the host stand is dirty or if the front those are dirty the tv's on tnt instead of sports or sure I feel like I drive him crazy about oh okay so if we walk in the restaurant and it's like running like it's first thing in the morning if we're not open I would say cleaning but if we walk in the restaurant and it's and it's like during dinner service okay for me it's the lights I go nuts about the lights yeah they have to be at the right level if you question number two if you won the lottery if Tony won the lottery and I'm talking 300 million what's the first thing that he buys Jordan's Jordan's Jordan's the shoes like more pairs than what he has now like that'll be that'll be his first purchase like even though it's not like a huge purchase of like you know a Bentley or a house or whatever that will be the first thing he buys is Jordan's what would he say the first thing you would buy would be maybe um maybe a mercedes g-wagon all right now we know what to get you for Christmas yeah right please all right this might be an easy one what dish

01:07:05is he most proud of um I would say one of the pastas probably the I would say probably the tortelli I may not spell it right but I wrote down tortelli what is the dish that he would say you are most proud of in the building or is there a drinker saying what is there some what is the equivalent for maybe what you do I would say what's your favorite dish my favorite dish also the tortelli all right so if you're listening to this get the tortelli get the tortelli I got all right we're gonna go back to question number two if you had won that 300 million dollars in question number two what would Tony do for work if you had to get a job you're risked beyond all you could do what would he do for work good question I would say maybe um something something with sports like uh if he could be like an announcer or a scout of some sort and I would say for the white socks he's a white socks and a bear spam but I'm gonna go with socks for this one sports announcer for the white socks I yeah something something along those two that's pretty specific I like it yeah for me I don't know I for me it would probably be like starting some sort of a political organization so for me I would probably start um uh some kind of a political organization that's that's geared towards helping women not that I'm like some such a major philanthropist but I just I don't know if I'm a bajillionaire and I have a bunch of free time on my hands I love it why not yeah why not for sure

01:09:08all right um what has been the most frustrating what would he say is the most frustrating part about the coronavirus court quarantine no sports what would he say is your most frustrating thing about the coronavirus quarantine no beach or pool beach or no beacher pool I did try to put like a uh 10 foot by 10 foot children's pool on our patio and I was not he he shut that down um okay so that's my last question was what is the anniversary day of your first date but if you're all hanging out all the time if you didn't have like a first date day I couldn't tell you uh well actually we do say our anniversary like our dating anniversary is labor day okay uh well I'll ask that question see if labor day is the answer this is you I'll just see if he knows excellent so we can bring it back okay so we are back to the newly opened game we have brought in uh Caroline's husband Tony gals into the game Tony what we're going to do is we're going to ask two questions we're going to ask the first question and you're going to try and guess what she would say your answer would be and then we're going to ask you a question about her so we had two questions to ask you for every answer okay question what is the thing that is Tony's biggest pet peeve when he walks into the door of the restaurant so what what do I think she says no what would you say is yours oh what is my biggest pet peeve first thing when I walk into the restaurant yeah uh uh dish pit that's not been cleaned my gosh it's a dish pit not an incomplete breakdown on the dish pit all right um this

01:11:16point backwards but she said the line cleaned and shut down properly ah yes that too I was in the right neighborhood you're in the right neighborhood it's it's improperly cleaning something in the kitchen improperly finishing your closing work at night so we switched this question around for you what do you think her pet peeve is if she walks in while you're open while we're open you're open she walks in what's the thing that frustrates her the most hmm I think just seeing seeing people hanging out not not not doing stuff is that it's lean you got time to clean right yeah yeah I don't like that that's what I would that's what I would say my biggest pet peeve the light oh the lights yes oh I knew the lights yeah yeah you can't too bright yeah every like does nobody I would love walking into a restaurant and just like the lights like does nobody recognize that it's nighttime what is going on here why is it that's my big pet peeve not just at my own restaurant but at every restaurant I call it the cleaning lights when I walk in and the cleaning lights are on dang it I hate it dang it I should have gotten that you should have gotten that very obvious again we asked Caroline if you won the lottery Tony not I won 500 dollars in a scratch off like you won 300 million dollars what's the first thing that you would buy boats that's see I should have said that what did she think she said more Jordan's yeah I mean maybe immediately that's what I thought immediately the very first thing that you're gonna buy Jordan yeah Jordan's more shoes yeah I think the boat the boat I don't think the boat is better than the Jordan's yeah jet skis

01:13:18jet skis the thing you use if I'm asking you now Tony what's the thing that she would buy first what is the first thing you would buy I mean very I mean I would say boat too but I don't think you would buy that you might leave the boat buying to me I would say something clothing related purse shoes something like that oh she said a g-wagon oh a g-wagon oh nice yes gold I knew what color it's supposed to be yeah wow we're not as good at this as I thought yeah she said by saying how confident I was all right we're gonna go back to oh I'm sorry um what dish on the menu are you the most proud of that's different than your favorite dish what are you the most proud of hmm most proud it's on right now yeah it's on right now yeah uh what am I most proud of right now I mean I like all their stuff um I maybe the crawfish mafalde because this kind of came like you liked it and then it wasn't something that I necessarily would have made into a dish but then I'm really happy with the way it turned out she said tortelli I was gonna say that but that seemed like the easy answer I'm overthinking it we're really really wrapping the bed here what would you say is her favorite dish like the most proud of dish the crawfish

01:15:23we're overthinking this but it's the tortelli that's your your most proud of the tortelli that's my favorite oh it is I thought you liked the crawfish I do but I I made that dish because of you for you I'm sorry yeah okay all right they don't get easier from here too what is um let's go back to the question number two we'll go back to the you got 300 million dollars from the lottery okay of your boat and a bunch of jordans yeah what would you do for work to work but you got to find a job you're rich beyond means what's the job that you're going to do but there's no longer a restaurant I don't have I don't have a restaurant anymore no restaurant uh what would I do for work uh would it be something with sports you can't ask that question you just have to say you would uh I mean I mean hmm maybe it would just be like a professional gambler I love this game you were on the right track there but a professional gambler what what what would you what would you do play cards uh a mixture of cards and betting on sports okay said that it would be sports give me a sports announcer for the white socks ah oh it's like dream job or I could actually do that you can buy your way in I could probably buy my way in okay that's good sports related it was something to do with sports I'm gonna give you a point yeah okay guys we need a point what is the dream job for Caroline the safety police no that is actually my dream if I won the lottery what's my job uh uh you would start the hair rep business

01:17:25oh god no no that's like my uh okay what is your your job uh I feel like you would fall like volunteering okay it's pretty close but I'm gonna give her that because she said she would work for a political organization for women's rights oh okay there you go yes yes so that's a win that's a legitimate win right there oh good job we got it all right yeah and who knows you know if you get 300 million what you could actually I mean think of what I could do with all that money yeah I could refund Glen Parenthood for real um what Tony is the most frustrating part about the coronavirus quarantine for you what would she say your most frustrating thing during the coronaviruses uh no sports ladies and gentlemen no sports yeah what are we supposed to be doing nailed it yeah yes yes verbatim what would you say is Caroline's most frustrating part about the coronavirus so is it because I think it could either be what you're I feel like your frustration comes from other people not taking it seriously and thus prolonging the quarantine and so I would say people acting like there's not a pandemic no I'd say that is very that is very frustrating however it does frustrate me yeah but I said something much more shallow no beach or oh no pool yeah no pool okay that's the easy answer yeah sorry coming into this yeah

01:19:32yeah all right I had a um I had a tiebreaker question because you know why not and it was what's the anniversary of your first date it is memorial day weekend is it memorial day or labor day oh actually dates though or is that do we count that which one is it I don't which is the one that comes at the end of the summer labor day yes labor day okay there you go there it is I'm like once at the beginning once at the end I can never remember yeah I do the exact I'm with you all right so you guys got a couple of them right yeah couple a couple of I knew but all the other answers was like oh of course so it's not a game yeah nothing was but nothing was out of left field so that's good no yeah I was I was I think that if anything everybody now knows that if you go to Nicky's tonight order the damn crawfish dish get it so good that's what you need to do of both of your or the tortelli yeah one or the other that that's the you're gonna have a surge on both of those dishes this week good all right guys you you're off the hot seat there you go that was fun that was really fun thank you all right there you have it Caroline and Tony Galzin playing the newly reopened game stay tuned friday as we talk to Sarah the bread lady Gonzales and then we are going to be talking with a brand new non-profit here in town called the big table if you've heard of them you haven't heard of them maybe you've heard of the giving kitchen they're a similar type company but we just want to get the word out for what they're doing because I think they can immediately help a lot of you out there in Davidson County so listen up friday and monday all new episodes coming at you and we hope that you guys are being safe out there please wear a mask and go get vaccinated love you guys bye