Victor Albisu

00:00Cali Sober was created to provide a better alternative to alcohol. No dependence, no ulcers, no liver damage, no nights you want to forget and mornings asking, what happened? We only use non-synthetic, all-natural Delta-9 THC derived from the hemp plant. It's the real deal. With the same chill buzz you'd expect from THC, best of all, Cali Sober is federally legal because it is made with the hemp-derived THC, which is a legal substance under the 2018 farm bill. Call your Lippman Brothers rep now for a sample or pick it up at your favorite package store. Cali Sober, the totally legal THC-infused mocktail. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now, here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City!

01:08And welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon Food Service and man, am I excited to welcome back our amazing co-host, Caroline Galzin. She just announced that she's doing a new event space over there at Nicky's Coalfired, and that is very exciting. So we're just so excited to have her back in this episode. Today we are talking to Victor Albisu, and he is the owner of Taco Bamba. This is his 13th location, and they're gonna be opening in the Green Hills area in the old payway spot. And so that's gonna be coming soon. This conversation's a lot of fun with him. Interesting, interesting conversation with Chef Victor Albisu. And this is Valentine's Day week. Oh yeah, Valentine's Day week.

02:11I don't know, do you love or hate Valentine's Day? This is one of those weird holidays. We've talked about it every single year. And this year I'm gonna lean into Valentine's Day. I'm gonna lean in because it's gonna be fun. We're actually gonna be going the day after Valentine's Day, taking the kids to Memphis. We're gonna see the Grizzlies play, because they're playing the Bucks, and my kid is a big Yanis Antetokumta. I can't say the guy's last name, I'm terrible at it. I can never say it the right way. Yanis Antetokumta, I think that's how you say it. He is the player for the Bucks. Anyway, we're gonna go do that. That's gonna be kind of our Valentine's Day trip. But I thought this would be fun this year, that we could give some Valentine's Day tips. So if you are gonna be going out to eat, or if you are with somebody and you're gonna be going out to eat, there's some tips and tricks to make sure that you pay attention to while you are out dining.

03:14So avoid raw onions, garlic, and radish, duh, right? Like everybody knows that. Also, curry, cumin, and fish can cause bad breath. This article I read also said, stay away from cauliflower and beans because you do not want flatulence. Now, this is an interesting one too, when it comes to flatulence on dates. I know that's, ha, chewing too fast can also cause gas. And that is a big issue for restaurant people. Cause you know, one things that I do is I eat really quickly. I don't ever have like just, oh, I'm gonna sit in and eat a relaxing meal. It's just gonna be delicious. And I just don't. So I tend to eat fast. And every time I'm out to eat with people, I'm like already done. And they're like, dude, what are you doing? I'm like, this is how I eat. This is what I do. So if you're on a date or you're going out on a date for Valentine's Day and you are a restaurant person, slow down.

04:17Slow down what you're eating to reduce gas. Yeah. Also avoid messy foods. No soupy dumplings or like humongous leafy burgers that might have condiments that spill or just that are very difficult to eat that are, you look silly eating them. They're hard to eat. Super messy foods. Stay away from those. Also, another fun tip if you're somewhere, order foods that you can share, right? So if you have foods that you can share, it's fun to share food. You can talk about it. How do you like that? I don't like that. Do you think this is good? Do you think that is good? You can learn so much about somebody from the foods they have. And I tell you what, I'm gonna tell you a story on my first date with my wife. And this is a funny story. And she's probably killing me for telling the story, but I'm gonna tell it anyway. We went to Sapphire. Sapphire was a restaurant in the factory in Franklin.

05:17I believe they're bringing Sapphire back, but this is in 2003. We had our 20 year anniversary of our first date last year. And we went to Sapphire and I wanted Bad Byron's Butt Rub Prime Rib. And she said, I think I'm gonna have the same thing. And I said, oh, well then I'll get something different. And she goes, why? And I go, because we can't order the same thing. And she looked at me like I had a horn growing out of my head. And she was like, why can't we order the same thing? I'm like, because I may wanna try yours. And she looked at me like, you're not gonna try my food. This is a first date. And then I said, I was getting a dish with sauces. And she said, I don't like sauces. I don't eat sauces. So this is how young we were 20 plus years ago on our first date. And she doesn't like sauces and we can't order the same thing.

06:18To this day, it is a joke when we go out to eat, that if she orders something, I'm like, oh, I think I'm gonna have that too. And she looks like, you can't eat the same thing to this day. And now we just share everything that we eat. We're just like an old couple and we order food and we just share everything. And it's funny. But if you're on a date, that's a fun thing to do is to share food, long story to do that. And if you're in Nashville, there's a lot of stuff to be done this Valentine's Day. Head over to nashvillelifestyles.com. They have an article just put out a couple of days ago called 45 plus things to do this Valentine's Day in Nashville for romantic staycation packages to festive food and drink specials. They've rounded up some of the best things to do in Valentine's Day in Music City. I will do a shameless self promotion right now. And I will tell you that if you wanna go low key, you like fajitas at Chago's Cantina. This is our first Valentine's Day. We have no idea what to expect, but we are doing a two person prefix meal.

07:21It's fajitas for two. I think you get like a margarita, you get some queso and it's 39.99. So 20 bucks a person to go have Valentine's dinner. And we are taking reservations on Rezzy. So I don't know how many we have so far. I don't think we're full, but you should go check it out. And that will be fun. And love to see you over at Chago's Cantina in Belmont. There's a lot of really fun things going on. Coming up soon, there is a Mardi Gras. There's great article in the scene that the great place is to do Mardi Gras. And I'm gonna do another shameless promotion for Nicky's Coalfire. They are doing a full Mardi Gras special in Nicky's Loves NOLA, is what I believe it is called. And if you are from New Orleans or you're hankering for Mardi Gras celebrations, go look at them. Go to nickyscoalfire.com and check it out because they're doing some really cool stuff over there. All right, Valentine's Day. Guys, I know it's busy as hell out there.

08:23I am rooting for you. Go make a ton of money. Hopefully everybody is cool. Valentine's Day is on a Wednesday. So hopefully this past weekend you guys were busy and hopefully this coming weekend you're gonna be busy. Make a ton of money because I know it's been slow out there. So hopefully it all works out. And I want you to enjoy this episode right now with Victor Albesu. Super excited today to welcome in Victor Albesu and he is the owner of Taco Bamba coming to the Green Hills area. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, Chef. Thank you so much. Thank you. And hello, Caroline Galzin. Hi, I'm back. She is back. It's been like a four episode hiatus that I've been just doing episodes. And I cannot tell you how excited I am to have you sitting next to me. Oh wow, thank you. I'm glad to be here. Glad to be here with you guys today. Thank you so much. Thank you. Oh, thank you. I'm glad to be here. Glad to be here with you guys today. There seems to be a lot of excitement in the room. Lots of it. It's the frenetic energy.

09:23It's palpable. We have a lot of people in the room here today. We don't have this many people. We have next to you over here is Jen. What is Jen's title and role in the company? Jen has been with me since the beginning of any sort of entrepreneurial endeavors. She has seen me through as a publicist and then grown past everybody in my company to be pretty much, I guess I would say she's definitely like our chief strategy officer at this point, if we have that kind of thing in our company. She acts basically as the president of the company. So it's all of those things. She does everything. Well, we're glad to have you here today too, Jen. Yeah, please. I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having us. And we're gonna take her off mic because she's gonna be hanging out in the background. And I'm sure we'll jump in. You'll know when she wants to be on.

10:25And then we also have some representatives from your PR firm, Brand House. Hi ladies. Hi. They don't have microphones, but they're here to kind of hang out. So is it Vic or Victor? It's definitely not Vic. So Victor's fine. Victor Albesu. Okay, so we did this great pop-up last night at Bastion. And tell me about Taco Bomba. Tell me about, give me your 90 second elevator pitch. I don't have those, but I'll tell you that Bomba is something that grew kind of in the shadows of my career, kind of like on the side. I opened Taco Bomba at the same time I opened Del Campo in DC. So in classic, you know, Victor fashion, I guess you would say, I overwhelmed myself out of the gate and I wanted to go after some, you know, big thing with a big downtown, 6,000 square foot DC restaurant, 200 seats. And at the same time, Taco Bomba delivered and in a little strip mall in Falls Church, Virginia.

11:33And taught me a lot. This journey taught me a lot because I didn't put a lot of focus on Bomba. It was kind of like, it just fell out of my head and it turned into a thing. And it was just allowed to grow. Like, you know, I tell everybody now that this experience has shown me that ideas are super like alive and they can kind of teach you if you let them. Cause I went to Del Campo and I, you know, I was on the search for all the things, right? All the things a chef, a young chef wants. And I got most of them. What are the things a young chef wants? A young chef wants to get best new restaurant in Esquire Magazine or Chef of the Year. James Beard Award? I have multiple nominations, but again, not to downplay anything. It's just not my path anymore. Like it's a, you know, all those things are kind of a side effect of how you live and how you do. And I was so kind of egoic and kind of controlling of that restaurant.

12:38And everything about it was me. Del Campo. Del Campo, yeah. And what's funny is that I basically strangled it to the ground. I was so like overly into it. And then Bomba was kind of on the side and it just, before you knew it, it was a sonic boom of people that were lining up at a 1,200 square foot store. And I'm like, you know, I didn't know how to get my hands around it. So it definitely taught me a lot. And I didn't even believe the hype for the first three years. I mean, I'm talking about, not to get into numbers or anything, but the first year at Taco Bomba, it's literally, you can't see it from the street. It's in kind of an old Latin center. My mom has a bodega in the same center with a butcher shop. And it's very humble. And man, the first year, we didn't do even like a million bucks or whatever in sales.

13:40But we were still like high-fiving each other. I mean, it was a thousand feet and you can't see it from anywhere, right? And it's caught in between nowhere. And then like the second year, we tripled in volume. And the people were eating on the street. People were eating on the cars. People were eating, they would bring their tables because there were no tables. People would bring tables? Bring the tables out of their cars. Yeah, it was madness. And they would just set up because there's no rules in that little center. No one's paying attention. And so I was like, what is happening here? And so I really didn't believe the hype for a couple of years. I'm like, this is just, I'm gonna wait. Everybody's opening restaurants. And this was at a time really where chefs weren't super into having little offshoots like this. What year was this? This was 2013. So you didn't really hear about chefs with fast casual restaurants back then. And you, I was trying not for anyone to hear about me with a fast casual restaurant. So that was kind of another interesting twist.

14:42It was kind of like, well, this might derail. Why did you do it? I mean, if you have Del Conpo, you have all of this, this big fine dining, the massive thing that's your, like you said, an egoic kind of a, this is me. Why even do Dr. Bomba? That's a question I have no answer to. Yeah, that does it. So all of it with regards to Taco Bomba has been like that. It's been this other thing. I don't have an answer for why. I don't have an answer for how the name came about. I don't have an answer for any of it. Just all fell out. It all started happening. And- Are you spiritual? Do you believe this is like just something that was meant for you? That you can't explain? I don't, maybe I don't think on those terms. I mean, yes, the first question, kind of. And yeah, I mean, these things just have, like I told you, I believe that creativity's alive. And I believe that it's an important lesson to learn.

15:43When you allow your creativity to show you, it's very difficult, because you wanna say that it's you leading, it doesn't work that way. Not in my life. In my life, it's the other way around. In my life, things that kind of fall out of my head, I have to like stare at them and see what happens. And then they have grown. Right now, it's about to be 13 times different. I mean, Taco Bomba is a different restaurant in every restaurant. Also, every Taco Bomba has a different menu. Every Taco Bomba has a different, it has different artwork, has different layout, has a different footprint. So the idea that we're scaling like a fast casual concept, isn't really what we're doing, right? We're scaling creativity. We're scaling, you know, we're a group of people scaling these creative thoughts. And everything's on the table, from artwork to flooring, to there's no, you know, there's just no boundaries for us, really.

16:48I'm gonna, I could take this 14 different directions, but I'm gonna go the easy route, because I was talking to Jen last night, and I had such a wonderful time at the pop-up, but I got this really cool shirt. That's a good one, right? And this is the Lucky 13 location, right? Yeah, Nashville's Lucky 13. So she's wearing it, and this, I'll show you the shirt right here. It says, Taco Bomba Records, Chef Victor Albesu, prepare your mouth. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. Prepare your mouth. Yeah. She told me that you used to be a musician. And each- Used to be would be the- Used to be a musician, but each different version of Taco Bomba has its own menu, and it's almost like a different album. Like each one, like this is your 13th album, and there's all new songs on this album. And she kind of mentioned the word set list, but I feel like these are each individual albums that you have that are all their own individual creativity, but their own individual songs, which is your menu. Is that just an organic thing that happened?

17:51Like tell me about that. Yeah, so it's absolutely, you know, I'm a big music fan, and so another reason that I connect so well here, or I feel very warm and fuzzy in Nashville. I like it here very much. And yes, to me, each individual store is its own set list or its own album. I see it in that way. I don't force it, it's just how it's happening. You know, if I didn't have it more to give, I wouldn't give it. You know, I would just be doing, I would just be done at five stores, two stores. So literally, we're going from Nashville, we're continuing growing, like one after the other after the other, and it just keeps going, right? We keep creating, we keep needing to put out different artwork, different food, all that kind of stuff is all linked to it. So it's more about, these are all just kind of side effects of how we do it.

18:52But it definitely feels like that. You know, I'm a big Pearl Jam fan, I've been for a long time, right? So- That's my guy, I knew I liked you. So I was, you know, always very, very inspired by them because whether you like their music or not, one of the coolest things about them is that there's never a similar show. Every show has its own set list, right? You never know what to expect. I've gone there where people, I've gone to shows, I've gone to like 30 Pearl Jam shows, right? So, and I still feel like it's not enough. I meant like 15, but you got me on that. Yeah, I've been everywhere. I've been to Amsterdam to see them, I've been all over the place. And I'm just inspired by that. I'm inspired by, you know, keeping it that fresh all the time with the same material and putting it in different ways and presenting it in different ways. You know, and it, you know, when I first opened Bamba, when I first opened my second location of Taco Bamba in Vienna, Virginia, people walked in and literally like, a few people really were pissed that we didn't have- The same thing.

20:04The same things on the menu. I mean, really like, read me the Riot Act, all right? And so it was, you know, one of those things. And then everybody around me was like, you better put all those things on, right? As restaurant people do. And I'm like, no, I'm not doing that. You know, I mean, you run this then. You know, I mean, that's how it feels to me. If I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it this way. And you know, if it fails, it fails. You know, I mean, I'm not, that's not interesting to me, you know? So I think the success of the brand comes kind of in that space where, you know, I kinda don't care about what people want. Now, is that ego or is that courage? Because there's, this gotta come from somewhere. Somebody is a trailblazer around you who's like, I don't care. It might be, I don't know. I don't see it as ego. I see it as just allowing the growth to be the growth, right? So I, you know, if I have all these, I mean, the amount of food that, I mean, the menu's already big.

21:09And you know, when we first started, that was during the times where, excuse me, Gordon Ramsay was doing, you know, fixing people's lives by just making one nice burger or like a nice roast chicken with fries, right? This is all you need. You don't need this big menu. And I was like, that doesn't make any sense. Like, you know, how many people want just one piece of roast chicken? You know, so I was like, let me get after it and let me create something that's, you know, vastly not that, you know? It's just, I didn't do it on purpose, but that's, it just linked up that way for me. So for me, it was, it's always about that. It's always about how much we have to give on this level. Hey, I've got to fix a quick technical issue. We're going to go ahead and take a quick commercial break and we'll be right back in just a second. In this episode shortly, you're going to hear Chef talk about a broker who helped him find the location that his restaurant is going in. If you need a broker and you're looking for that location, you need to look no further because Chandler James Retail Team at Lee & Associates is the best out there.

22:16Miller Chandler and Lee Anne James are local Nashville natives who know every aspect of this city and they are here to help you. They can help you find and negotiate terms on your next restaurant location and they represent both retail tenants and landlords in the market. They can also help you with the lease versus buy decisions and act as your leasing agent should you ever decide to go all in and purchase commercial real estate. Now here's how you get a hold of them. You're going to send an email to M. Chandler, that's M-C-H-A-N-D-L-E-R at lee-associates.com or if you want to talk with Lee Anne James, she's Ljames at lee-associates.com or you can check the show notes for phone numbers but that is the Chandler James team over at Lee & Associates for all of your broker needs to find your next restaurant or retail space. Unleash the Wolf with Campo Bravo Tequila.

23:18Campo Bravo is a 100% agave tequila with a bold, smooth flavor, perfect for sipping neat as a shot or in cocktails. Campo Bravo is also certified additive free which means there are no artificial flavors or sweeteners in Campo Bravo like there are in many other brands. Campo Bravo gives you all the bold, smooth flavor you want in a tequila with nothing you don't. Campo Bravo is actually truly farm to bottle tequila meaning our fifth generation agave farmers meticulously control entire production process from the farm to the bottle to give you the highest quality handcrafted tequila. Order through best brands and please remember to drink responsibly. So I'm curious to hear a little bit more about kind of how it happened for you to have your first restaurant and then transition fully into the taco concept. What was kind of that journey for you? Yeah, so Del Campo is kind of the restaurant I've always wanted to open.

24:24Del Campo was a restaurant that I trained in Paris and I trained in Paris and really at the Court en Bleu and I worked in restaurants in France and then came back, started doing my tour of DC and as a cook, sous chef, chef de cuisine and my final job was at BLT Steak which in DC was a very impactful restaurant when it got there. It was the first one outside of New York for them and it was a real honor to head that kitchen up. It quickly became one of the best restaurants in the city and we came together real nice in that package and I always wanted to build on all that success and so after I left BLT, we started Del Campo. A year later I think we had it open, right? It was like 13 months later so lucky 13 again. And yeah, it was quite the journey.

25:27It was on so many levels. What kind of restaurant was it? It was a South American, like an upscale South American grill and it came exactly at the time that the food truck craze came to DC right at the same time so all of a sudden we opened this big restaurant with all these plans and then nobody was coming for lunch to any restaurant in DC anymore. Everything just, everybody started eating low main out of trucks for some reason because that's so fun. But at the same time I opened Taco Bamba way out in kind of the suburbs because my mom, my mom was actually having this little like spat with somebody in her center. My mom's had this Plaza Latina which is a butcher shop in Bodega in Falls Street, Virginia and she's had it since I was a kid and this guy had a dollar store and was selling all her products and it's just like a little, she was not happy about it so she talked to the landlords and was like look, as soon as that space comes available I just want it so you don't put anybody else in there and then when she did that, I'm like what are you gonna do in there?

26:37She's like I'm gonna do a sandwich shop and I was like, I was like let's do tacos and she's like what? I mean I'm half Cuban, half Peruvian, my mother's Peruvian and she's like what are we doing tacos for? She goes, I don't know how to do that and that's like we'll figure it out. I'm like I don't know, but that's how it started, just like that with no other sort of like, we didn't do demographic studies and we didn't do density evaluations and we just opened it and we're like we'll see what happens and that's, I never wanna let go of that on some level. As you get bigger and bigger and your revenue becomes this and you're visible in multiple markets and all that kind of stuff, all the planners descend upon you and all the people tell you, this is how you're supposed to do this and this is how you're supposed to do that and I spend much of my time saying no thank you to all of that stuff and going by how it feels and how it looks and that's, and now I'm here talking to you with this headphone on.

27:51Are most of your locations right now in the DC area? Yeah, the majority are in Virginia. We have 11, two in Maryland, one in DC and the rest are streaming throughout Northern Virginia, one in Raleigh now which is doing great. We love that market, we love the people there too and so yeah, it's growing and I think it's fair to say we're doing it our way for sure. And how did you get to Nashville? Oh man. We've been, we're looking, right? We're looking for markets but we got- Density reports and- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was giving- It's changed now. I mean, I could guess the factors that went into getting you to Nashville but I'd love to hear kind of that experience for you. Well, I mean, the experience went through, you know, when you're talking to different real estate people in the country and looking for different markets, we just got connected with somebody in market here that, you know, brought a ton of energy to the conversation and got us down here.

29:09Elliot, Elliot Kyle is, you know, he's awesome. I know Elliot very well. He's actually one of my partners in my restaurant as well. We have like so many connections. Yeah, we work with Brand House. We work with Elliot. I love him. Yeah, Elliot's great. He's awesome. And so I heard him talk and we got on a plane and looked at, you know, all over, you know, he showed us all of Nashville, spent time with him, talked a lot about, you know, how viable our concept would be here and I just started feeling it. You know, I started thinking, you know, one of the things I like to say is that I like to go places where I feel Bomba could have been born and it definitely feels like that here. Probably even more than some of the spaces we already operate. Like this really lines up with us. And, you know, as I got to know the area in the Green Hills area where we're going in the Hill Center and, you know, it's, you know, everybody loves East Nashville.

30:09I love East Nashville, I love hanging out there. I love a little bit of the chaos too that you may not vibe within East Nashville as much. That's more of a chill. So I really like the amount of traffic in Green Hills and the amount of like, I do too. Like stuff that's like happening and, you know, it just has a little, you know, chaotic vibe. I mean, we are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We serve breakfast all day long. We, you know, we're gonna have a bar or a patio. We, you know, we try to be, you know, something that is, you know, no limitations. But I remember when I first started, you couldn't go to a taqueria, you couldn't go to a taqueria and get three different tacos. Everywhere I went, you have to get three of the same taco. And I would always sit at the register and be like, how come I can't get three different tacos? I mean, it's just literally like the meat's there and the tortilla's there. I have to order three platters with rice and beans and everything.

31:09I mean, what's going on here? That's how we do it everywhere. I mean, I didn't see, I'm like, well, that's the first thing I'm gonna change, you know? And so we did this huge a la carte menu where everything can be, you know, it's chaos, but it's controlled chaos and it's been fun. It's been fun to watch. Where in Green Hills are you guys gonna be located? At the Hill Center in the old payway space across from Whole Foods. Awesome. Yeah, we're in that little- Yeah, that's a great area. Yeah, it's a little different for us. But again, I just vibed with the energy of that area and I loved, and also, to be honest with you, a couple of years ago, all right, here's the real reason I'm in Nashville, is I'm close with Mr. Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, who's, you know, just a hero of mine, right? Of anybody that grew up in my generation, probably. I mean, I had the keys when I was a little kid and the whole thing. The ZZ Top keys. And if I could have grown a beard at that time, I would have, but, you know, he stumbled into the original Taco Bamba in Virginia when he was on tour and called us out on stage.

32:21There's a video of it on YouTube. It's pretty nuts. And ever since then, we got in touch and we've just always been talking. He's like, you gotta come to Nashville. You gotta come to Nashville. You gotta go to Green Hills. There's nothing in Green Hills. You gotta come to Nashville. You gotta come. And so here I am in Nashville and we'll be serving Mr. Billy Gibbons hot sauce in our, he has his own hot sauce. Whisker bomb, which is tasty stuff. So we're definitely gonna be rocking that with pride. So that's a, he planted the flag. He planted the seed and we, you know, and then kind of Elliot, you know, lasted it the rest of the rest of the way. Well, he's, last time I, I guess you see him around town every once in a while. Last time I saw him was in Whole Foods in Green Hills. He was getting a juice there. And like, it's Billy Gibbons, look at that. That's the man right there, he's easy top. So I operate a restaurant right down the street from there called the Green Hills Grill. Oh cool. And it's a fantastic community and the people are amazing.

33:25And it's just, it's a, that's a great spot over there. Good traffic amount. And I mean, that pay way was, I'd been there several times. I mean, I think that that's gonna be incredibly successful for you. Thanks, I mean, we'll see. I mean, to me, the risk is part of the whole thing. Like I, you know, I don't think anything special comes when there's a ton of planning around it. I think creativity goes to die in the planning stages of anything. And so for me, it's all about, it's all about how it feels. What's interesting is I quit drinking a little more than four years ago. And part of the 12 step process around this is you kind of let go of shit you can't control. You know, there's the, if I can't, the serenity prayer, right? Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. And there's a side of it, even with the podcast, that it wasn't a planned thing. It was something that just came up in my, I just kept thinking about it in my brain.

34:25And I asked you about the spirituality thing. Well, I just, I started praying about it. And all of a sudden it was just this, it just overwhelmed my brain with these ideas. And I went, I gotta do this. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's gonna work. I'm not gonna follow any guideline. I love Howard Stern. And I love listening to different long form interviews. It would just be fun and it would help build the community. And all of a sudden it just happened. It wasn't a long planned out thing. There was no business plan. It just kind of started. And I, same, same, just do the next thing and just try and be creative as you go. What you just said there is very important. It's doing something for your community. For me, it's the only reason that we are as incredibly and wildly sought after. And we used to call it a cult following. Now that's just, doesn't make any sense. And that's not, it's just a following now. It's a big thing. And the only way we get there is by being in service to like one another, right?

35:28To my team, to Tom and Amin and Jen and all the people that are, that support this. This is either all just ideas in my head which I have all day long, right? And most of them don't turn in anything unless there's a coalition of people that are in service of it because you're in service of them. That's the only way it works. And when you see a restaurant that has long lines out the door, it's generally because there's multiple people working and rowing in the same direction. It's, you know, and believing in the same thing. And not just belief, because belief's a weird word for me. It's, you know, now I think it's knowledge. Now it's like, we know this works. We know that, you know, if we do this right, if we execute our product right and we fly our colors the right way, it works. It's not a question anymore. It's on us. So when it's not working, we all know it's on us. What happened? Where's it going? You know, who doesn't know, right?

36:31Who doesn't believe, right? So it's all, you know, the more I've, more people I'm in service to in my surroundings, the more people the company serves. It's all connected. It's all simple. It's very, it's much more simple than all that's the demographic. Do you work on an operating system? When I say that, like, we work on EOS, Don, Gina Wickman, Traction, going from being a chef who's working inside of a building, you talk about Del Campo, this huge monster, to moving into being a CEO, right? Because that's essentially now, I mean, you're not in a kitchen cooking every day, are you? No, sir. I mean, I've been called a CEO for a long time now and people call me the founder and all these weird things that, you know, I, you know. But there's been a transition. Yeah. What was that transition like? I mean, going from that, was there, how much intentionality was behind that and are you really the visionary and Jen is your integrator who's, catches all your ideas and then decides which ones you can actually implement?

37:35I think Jen does a lot of batting down of my, you know, either way. Choosing the good ones is what she does because, you know, I need that for sure. Every once in a while, I'll say something that, you know, or I have this great idea and then, you know, I regret it like an hour later because it just wasn't. But you have to have those. Bad ideas are the best. Bad ideas means that, the more bad ideas you have, it means that the good one's on the way. It really, you can't have good ideas without having a bunch of bad ones. It's really, it's essential. There's always a kernel in the bad idea of something that could turn into something that is a great idea. Yeah, or the embarrassment of saying it out loud if it was that bad, right? You need that. You need that moment where you're like, oh, yeah, it didn't make any sense. And, you know, like, I'm open book about that. There's no reason not to be. If you're in the creative space and if you're in a creative game, all of that is viable, you know?

38:39I mean, you know, I'm not gonna sit and compare myself to people that I adore and respect, like, musically, but trust me, there are musicians I love that had really bad albums and really bad ideas and came back from them and whatever. So in the creative space, all of that is, we extend no judgment to any of those failures. We celebrate those, I think. I do my best to. It's very conventional. It's hard to get, you know, we have almost, oh, man, we almost have 600 employees, 500 and something employees. So that's the part where, you know, where you have to really, if we're good at anything, it's really inspiring that many people to understand these things that I'm telling you. Because the conventional mindset, especially the conventional restaurant mindset is not this. It's that guy's fault. It's this person, you know, it's all. There's no personal accountability.

39:39It's all the. They, them and they is the problem everywhere. Oh, it's the parking. Oh, no, it's the, you know, there's no, there's no shelf for this. Oh, there's no, you know, it's all the things that, you know, and I tell everybody, okay, you know, we're not complainers here. You know, we're not explainers. We're not complainers. Just doesn't work. There's nothing you can build on a complaint. Not, you know, even for customers, you know, I'll listen to things that I think are important for the brand and important for elevating the experience. But complaints are uninteresting to me on any level. It's like swamp. I don't like walking through swamp. You know, you can't build anything on that. You know, give me something to work with and I will absolutely start building and I'll, you know, and I'll bring my cement and figure it out. And, you know, we can, we could walk a nice, make a nice path for ourselves, but I do not, you know, and that's, that's the thing. People don't, it's almost like people don't believe me. All right, you know, I'll have, you know, especially when you have this many restaurants and you visit them and you, you know, everyone is generally like, oh, he's going to come in and judge us.

40:47And I'm not here to judge. I'm literally like here to tell you, hey, good, hey, bad, hey, do that better, you know, and thank you. Building on my vision that I have for this thing. And yeah, I'm grateful that you're in service to us. I mean, that's, that's really the vibe. And, you know, we're, we're experiencing a high level of growth. We're experiencing a, you know, we're doubling in size. I don't, I'm bad at time. Jen knows all those dates and stuff, but you know, we've, we've grown quite a bit in the last few years. And, you know, the challenge is the perspectives. That's really what it is, is, is making sure that you inspire the right perspectives in your people. Because the more they grow, there's a lot of self preservation in restaurants. You know, I have to keep my job. You sometimes you see people keeping other people down so that they stay in their position. But see, at Bomba, that doesn't work. At Bomba, you know, just holistically speaking, you can grow immediately if you elevate people that you're in charge of.

41:49You can grow immediately, you know? So I tell everybody, you know, I'm full of these kind of like, you know, metaphors and stuff. And I, you know, I'm like, you know, you guys, you guys are swimming, you guys are fishing at the edge of the creek. And you're pulling up these little fish and you want big fish, but they're not there. The big fish are all the way the fuck out there in the water. And, you know, and, you know, the real big fish to where I am is like, I'm like harpooning whales, right? So everybody's gotta come out and give and be in service to what we're doing. Because it's, you know, that's what makes it important. Right? I'm not the one that makes it important. I'm not the one, you know, that has nothing to do with me. It has to do with us. So really, it's all about our team and our people and growing this brand together in tandem. Are there specific things about your day-to-day operations that you think helps keep your team motivated, that helps keep that culture of, you know, striving for the best and staying on top of things and going after the big fish that you could point to that's been a real key to success for you?

42:58So that's a great question. The truth of it is, is that it's a combination of, you know, the product is very sought after, okay? So the product brings everybody to the door and it's what we do with it at that point in time and how we, you know, if we treat it conventionally, people will see it conventionally. If we put it in conventional spaces, people will feel like it's just anything else. If I was looking, if you go to all of our stores, I would say maybe we have, well, with Green Hills, it'll be 13, we probably have four stores that are like, you know, that any other big name brand would be like, yeah, we'll go there. Everybody else, all the other stores are like, don't go there, why would you open there? I've been laughed at, I've been told, you know, no one's gonna go to that place, no one's gonna, you know, over and over and over and over to the point where it's like, maybe it'll work here, you know, maybe I go to these places and I'm like, this one, and everyone's like, no, not that one, and I'm like, yeah, we're coming to this, you know, because the intention for me is to have a brand and to build a brand that is viable anywhere that I can put anywhere.

44:26If you can check that box, which nobody, I think, I don't think that that's a conventional thought, let's say, especially in the restaurant and the past casual community, which I guess we're a part of. I wanna be able to say I can go in a very, you know, a C or D or, you know, really like, they're coming for me. Yeah, they know you're here. You know, in a, you know, not super sought after A plus location, Green Hills is that. Green Hills is an A plus location. So it's actually one of the few that we're saying, okay, let's see if it works in an A plus location. So it's, we're very much on the other side of everything. You know, our, you know, we're very mindful of being a brand that's accessible to everybody, and that's interesting to everybody, just from the people we're offering it to. Not like we're curating it for them, but it's the people we're presenting ourselves to.

45:31To me, that's, man, that risk in that space, in that space of thought is my favorite thing. Let me ask you, 2024, the end of 2019, 2020, we started, we all experienced a pandemic. Where was I for that? Did you remember that? That was the something, COVID something or another happened? Yeah, I got it a few times, it nicked me. It nicked you. But you started this in 2013, so by the time 2020 came around, how many locations did you have in 2020 when this happened? Jen, how many did we have at that time? Oh. Go ahead. I think we had five. What did you do? That doesn't make any sense to me, really? What was the most, like, yeah, you've opened eight since then, or you're about to open number eight since then. What did you learn? Because I have this theory that during the pandemic, we found the true leaders. People who, Patrick Lencioni hasn't written the book, How to Lead Through a Pandemic Yet.

46:35And people that really made it and thrived were the people who truly had that leadership characteristic, who pivoted, who did the things. I would put Caroline in that world. I mean, she completely changed her entire concept around. And thrived. I mean, I would say you've thrived. You're still growing. Thank you, thank you. But it seems like you did the same thing. What is, what did you learn from that experience? And what was it like for you? Well, yeah, I don't, yeah, that's a great question. I, the only problem is that the answer is more of the same. You know, I'm very stuck in the present. I don't, you know, when anything's going awry for me in my life, it's because I realize that I've stepped out of it. So I, you know, I don't, I don't have tons of regret of the past.

47:38I don't have tons of fear of the future. Don't really give a shit about any of those things. And the same thing past the moment where it all hit and where, you know, we might lose everything. As soon as we got past that moment, I just went back to being in the present and making the best decisions I could that weighed, you know, hundreds of people's lives through that time. So I don't know, yes. I think that the pandemic was one of the greatest challenges that we overcame as a company to make necessary changes that really catapulted the brand forward. We were planning to have online ordering. If you can believe this, it was 2020 and we didn't have online ordering and delivery set up. And we were in the stages. We have that? The final. Jesus, that's amazing. We don't let you look at the back end of the website.

48:39You just keep cooking. So from the pandemic, you were able to establish a really robust system around delivery and takeout? We were. I mean, again, if you can believe that just four years ago, a brand like ours, a fast casual brand that does, you know, average unit volumes over $3 million, had no way to do online ordering. So how did you order at Taco Bomba, right? You either had to walk your pretty little self into our store and stand in line, or you had- And bring a table. That's right, in some of our locations. Or you had to try your luck on the phone. And I can tell you that if we were really busy, that phone just kept ringing. That was my favorite. So yeah, we were always nicked for how rude we were to people on the phone because it was just so busy. You know, you have 1,000 square feet and you have 120 people lined up from within the store and outside the store. And you know, there's only so much a cashier can do. And our cashier was, you know, she was world renowned for, you know, hanging up on people.

49:40And, sorry, I can't talk right now, okay, bye. And she was hanging up the phone. And we're like, you can't do that. You know, she's like, what do you want from me? So yeah, no, Jen's absolutely right. And you know, it's the same thing I've been, I'm telling you, is that they're all opportunities, right? They're all, everything's an opportunity. The worst shit's an opportunity. So that's a mindset though. I mean, so many people, this are victims. This happens to me. This is happening to me. This is my luck. The world pandemic, I just get to five restaurants and here we go, this is slowing down. Makes me wanna run out of this room right now. Right? Yeah. But then there's also opportunists who look at things and go, I don't know, this is happening right now. Let's pivot, let's accept it. Let's move forward. It's back to that serenity prayer, right? The things I can't, I can't control the pandemic. What I can do is I can control my response. I can't be perfect all the time, but I can be perfect in my response. And that's a mindset. Where did that come from?

50:41My mother. My mother. My mother is, she's a stoic, naturally a just, a never ending, you know, person of positive energy. I mean, no matter how down we've been, we would never, it was never, the game was never called. It was never, it was never, and it was everything we could do to fix everything. It was always that. It's all I ever knew. You have siblings? I have one brother, younger brother. A younger brother, so it's two boys? Yes, but he's quite younger than I am. He's 22 years younger than me. Oh wow. Yeah. 22 years younger than you. So he's like seven? You still got a young guy. You know, yeah, I wish. No, he's 26. Okay. So you can do the math on that. Does he work with you? No, he doesn't. He works in LA. He does work for TV studios and movies and all that kind of stuff out there.

51:44So I don't really, you know, he's crushing what he's doing. That's awesome. He's doing great. Well, what's your future look like? What does the next year to five years look like? Maybe you should ask Jen, but. Yeah, Jen will, I know. Tell me what your. She'll have a plan for it. I don't. Next is Nashville, then what are you doing? We're going back to Virginia for another store in Fair Oaks, Fair Lakes area, which is working our way around an area that I know so well and looking for underserved places that I feel really we can click with. We're going to Richmond, which is another out of market for us. But we love Richmond. Again, a cool, cool spot. A city that's like quietly, quietly cool, you know? And Sterling, Virginia. Where else are we going? Is that it? Right now, yeah. I mean, we're looking everywhere.

52:45We want to do more in Nashville. If the city asks for it, you know? So we have to see how it goes. You know, I know there's a certain guy asking for many more in Nashville, but you know, I think. The beard. No, Elliot. There you go, that's the guy who's asking for it. He's great. But we'd love to if it makes sense and people enjoy what we do, you know? For all of us, we look down the list of our restaurants and as of yet, you know, knock whatever wood. It's, we don't have a, you know, we haven't yet put up a dud, you know? Which is normal, like you actually do. Knock on wood for you. You know, if it happens again, all we can do is all we can do. So, you know, so for us, we just move forward in this kind of state where it's not about, you know, what we're planning on, you know?

53:51No matter how many people still try to tell me that. It's what we have in front of us. And, you know, letting our ideas, you know, show their wisdom and, you know, our creativity kind of lead our path. You know, not to overstate it, but to do a restaurant that is doing the highest volumes that you can in a fast casual space and to do them all with different menus. You know, it's interesting. It's a very, I don't know if anyone, I don't, yeah, it's an interesting. I've never heard of it. Yeah, it's, well, it's really cool. Yeah, it doesn't exist. It's just an interesting endeavor to manage to know, you know, when people see our sales or our P-Mix, right? Everybody likes to look at their product mix. I never do. I've never looked at our product mix, ever. I know that our number one seller, on top of all of the stuff that I'm telling you, our number one seller is like a 50% food cost for us.

54:58So imagine running a restaurant where your first two sellers are complete loss leaders you don't make any money on. What are they? The Taco Bamba and the Carne Asada. Both of those, so you'll see a lot of taquerias with $7, $8, $9 single asadas because it makes sense. The food cost sucks right now, right? The beef is through the roof and all that kind of stuff. And I'm like, no, we're not going over a certain threshold. And if we do, we have to, you know, we just eat it because, you know, who should be expected to pay those prices for three bites of food? It doesn't make any sense to me. You know, especially not for a taqueria. A taqueria is a humble place. So yeah, a lot of it just doesn't make sense. And it makes sense at the end of it. You know, it's one of those things. Are there, I know you said the menu is of course different at every location, but is there like a couple of favorite items that you will find at every location?

55:59Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. There's crossovers, of course. The breakfast empanada that I had last night was everybody loved that. Beyond. I was like, what do you like, what's a taqueria like? We like the one with, you know, that was closed. It's because Southerners love a fried pie. I'm like, oh, you like that? Yeah, it was fun, yeah. The one that was closed. It was like a calzone, but like a taco calzone? What is that? I was like, all right, lady. See you in Green Hills. You're gonna get that. Yeah, yeah, there's plenty of those. You're gonna get that. Yeah, I mean. Hey, we're gonna take one more break to hear a word from our sponsors. And stay tuned because we're gonna play a fun game with everybody in the studio when we get back. Y'all, today we are talking, as always, about SuperSource. And you know, one cool thing about SuperSource is did you know that they develop most of their cleaning products and chemicals in their in-house facility? They're environmentally conscious and only use dyes that are safe for the employees and the environment.

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59:06Visit Robins' website at robinsins.com to request a consultation or call Matthew Clements directly. His number is 863-409-9372. Protection you can trust. That's Robins. One of the more interesting things about the product mix in Bomba is that we do have some that don't sell and those are our favorites, right? So you'll have some that'll sell like, I don't know, 1,200 of this and then there's like 200 of the one. And then over a year, when you just leave, it's funny because I've paid so little attention to this that if you leave it alone, if you leave the dogs alone, they literally will have their day. Like I've seen stuff that never sold that everyone's like, take that off the menu. It doesn't sell. I'm like, why? It doesn't sell, perfect. Leave it there. It's somebody's favorite. What's it doing to you? And then over a year, I've seen it. I've seen it multiple times in multiple stores where they're like, oh man, that one's crushing right now.

01:00:10Like that's, I'm like, what? It was always like the dog. They're like, no, look at this. So- It's like if you wear bell bottoms all the time, eventually it'll come back in style. Exactly, eventually you're like, dude, you're the one who always wears those. Yeah, so it'll tell you that people like, people, the gateway drug at Bomba is the first couple of tacos, the easy ones, the asada, the bomba that's with our name and a couple of the more, the al pastor, the things that people know. Yeah. And then once we got them, they trust us and they start trying all the weird stuff and all the stuff that just shouldn't make any sense but does and the menu's gone in so many different directions now. So all of our traditional tacos, you can get them two different ways. Well, actually, I guess three different ways. You get them regularly in a corn tortilla with cilantro and onions. Or you can get them dirty style, which dirty style means whatever you get, we griddle it with onions and cheese and then put them on a flour tortilla with a sweet chili sauce, any of them. And those are ridiculous.

01:01:10Yes, please. Yeah, I mean, really, the al pastor dirty is like the thing at Bomba to me. It's like the, anyway, and then you get them clean style. I'm pointing to Jen, Jen likes the clean style tacos because you can, they're served in a cabbage cup. And we would never do anything. The general. That, well, it's general with a J. General with a J. So there you go. You know where that came from. It's her special taco. It is her taco, yes. Which has its own interesting story. But the cabbage cup tacos are actually as, you know, as whatever it sounds like, I can eat like nine to 10 of them because they're so good and they're fresh and like you get all the meat and eat. So all of those things work. Her taco, yeah, her taco, you know, I had just calling her and her and her family were having dinner feasting on some competitors lettuce wrapped tacos, tuna tacos.

01:02:14And I was like, so it's just tuna and a piece of bib lettuce and that's a taco? And she's like, yeah, I eat this all the time. And I'm like, what? You're eating at that place all the time? She's like, yes, I like this dish. I'm like, you're just eating tuna and you're, you know, from a place with taco in the name. And yeah, I got, you know, I lost my zen in that moment and I, you know, I went to the grocery store and created the general immediately and I used cabbage and I. You will stop eating at other restaurants. Yeah, you know, I may create your own dish here. Yeah, I bought a whole tray of supermarket tuna out of the fish case, which had a strange color on it. I'm like, I'm just, give me all of those. And, you know, I mixed Takis, you ever eat Takis? Yeah. Yeah. So I made a Furikake out of Takis and I crushed the tuna in that with like, you know, a sesame salsa matcha and it turned into a real taco.

01:03:14And now it's like all over the place. Now I can't, I can't get rid of it. Even though one of our favorite things to do is to remove our best sellers from multiple menus all the time. And. And then forces people to order the other stuff. Well, no, it's just, we get bored of it, right? We get bored. It's like, it's kind of like, smells like teen spirit. You know, it's a great song, but man, if you grew up in the era I grew up in, it was everywhere. It was everywhere. It was on MTV all day. It was in the, you know, it's nonstop. Sentimental Apprentice is much better. Yeah, of course. You know? So every once in a while we're like, why don't, people will ask us, you know, can you bring that one back? You know? No. It's in the vault. Or we'll do it, I'll probably put it in Nashville where they can't get at it, you know? Something like that. All right. Well, man, thank you so much for the time, Dave. We've already been talking for almost an hour.

01:04:15What? That's how fast this goes. I talk too much. It's crazy, isn't it? Yeah. You guys are amazing. What's your favorite Pearl Jam album? Now from Pearl Jam, God, I gotta get this out because I'm very intrigued here. Man, that's hard. That's a hard one, man. You know, I love the weird ones. You know, I love Riot Act and, yeah. Binaural. Binaural's great. I mean, I love the most recent one, too. I thought it was heavy and good. I mean, obviously, you know, I was 15 years old, I think, when 10 came out, or 14 years old when 10 came out, and that was probably one of the most formative albums in my life. I was lucky enough to see them, you know, they were going through that tour a few years back, pre-pandemic, where they were playing full albums, and I was in Philly, and everybody was feeling it because they had played all the verses, and all of them, and leading up to it, they hadn't played 10 all the way through yet. And you got to see them play 10? I got to see them play 10 all the way through, from start to finish, and then just go on to play another, you know, two hours, whatever they do.

01:05:20It was, and it was a 10th sellout in the Philly Spectrum before it was, it was, I think it was, no. No, that was in the new Philly Stadium. I saw them at the Spectrum before they tore it down a couple times, too. Philly's a great place to see shows, FYI, if anybody wants to ever go there, it's a lot of fun. Well, Pearl Jam's a great band to see. I've seen them at Wrigley. Yeah, I saw them there, too. I saw them at Wrigley, the Let's Play 2. Yeah, I saw them there, too. I was at the night one of that. I was there. And. I was there for both. That's pretty sweet. Yeah, I'm just, I was, yeah. I used to have, I moved into this house, and my next door neighbor, I met him, and he was wearing a Pearl Jam beanie, and I was like, dude, Pearl Jam, that's my band. He's like, I work for the band. And I said, what? He was like, I work for an accounting firm. We do all the accounting for the band. And I go, no kidding. He's like, yeah, if you ever want tickets, I can hook you up. And I'm like, what? So there was a special website you could go to for friends and family. He gave me the link, and you could buy tickets, face value, but then you get there, and you're on the friends and family guest list.

01:06:23And it was always like, first four rows, kind of a thing, and it was amazing. Yeah, so it's funny about that. It's another thing that taught me a lot. You know, I've been a part of a lot of kind of charitable organizations, right? I was one of the founding board members of World Central Kitchen with Jose Andres, and we did a lot of work together early on. It turned into disaster relief slowly. Jose took it in a different direction, and what we were doing was going to communities and training people for clean cooking and more healthful cooking and safer cooking, because if you go to some Latin American or African countries, they cook in places with no ventilation, and so I'm like, why are you doing that to yourself? You know, you can probably change that. And so we spent a ton of time. That's just one of my favorite things in the world to do.

01:07:23And so we started our own organization called Smile on the World, where I take chefs and dentists and doctors to underprivileged communities. And it's been a broad first, but we'll be turning our sights on domestically. But you know, as soon as you start in service of that, then all kinds of stuff opens up to you even more. I mean, you know, success has to include those kinds of gifts. And you know, Pearl Jam appreciates those things. And so when you're a part of those things, they're also very welcoming. I don't have my, you know, so it's another beautiful. You've been blessed in that regard. Well, it's another beautiful part of the exchange of life, right? And they're amazing people, and I've had the pleasure of hanging out with a couple of them before, and they're just always on the right side of, well, whether you agree with them or not, I think, you know, their hearts are clean and in the right place as a band.

01:08:36And that's why I've been so, you know, I've connected with them, you know, holistically. Well, they've spoke to me since I was like 13. It's been like, I'm a couple years before you, I'm 45. So I'm right a couple years before you, but I saw them at MTSU in 1994, and they brought out Steve Cropper, Booker TVMT. He's also the guy who wrote Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay, and they played Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay with Steve Cropper at that show, and the only time they've ever played that song. So I feel like I have this one thing. I got to go see a show where they played one song the only time they've ever played Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay. I got to be there, and I have it on digital, so it's fun, I can have the actual song. That's a whole, it's a whole universe of experiences as Pearl Jam shows, and music in general. Music is, you know, I love being here. That's, you know, all of our t-shirts and all of our merch here is kind of related to music. You know, we have an album cover. We have an album cover with all the, a bunch of old t-shirt taglines and stuff for every store as our songs.

01:09:41We have a gold record. We have all this stuff that we've just, you know, we've been so excited to share with Nashville because I just feel like it's, you know, all this idea always of, you know, of how I see food and creativity. It's so aligned with music, and so to bring it together here, just, you know, I almost don't care if it doesn't work. You know, I don't care. I love just the opportunity of it. I love the opportunity to kind of coalesce around all these kinds of ideas and thoughts. We have, we've had several musicians on the show here just because we're in Nashville, it's Music City, but I think there's a strong correlation behind what creative musicians do, songwriting, performing, and then if you're a chef, you're essentially writing a menu, which is kind of like writing songs. This is a personal expression of yourself that you're giving to the community. It's a love language kind of a thing. I'm writing this out there. I'm putting it out there for my community, and then I'm performing it in front of them, and I'm giving it to them, and then they can love it back, and it's a, I think there's a synergy between musicians and chef in the restaurant world that I love.

01:10:51It's a creative process. Yeah, the upside and the downside. You see it, it's very clear. You know, it's very, it's almost, you know, hand in hand, the type of mentality it takes to put yourself out there as a chef. It's the same as, you know, putting yourself out there. Your ego's on display, especially early on in your career. You are totally exposed, and you know, anything anyone says harms you or elevates you. And if you stay in that space, you see chefs over time who do stay in that space, and you see where they were and you see where they are, it's not always the prettiest thing, right? It's because they knew where their success came from, so they keep throwing the same thing. But if you're not growing, you're kind of not growing. Right, so, you know, if that makes any sense. And so for us, growth is everything. For us, it's evolution of perspective and evolution of his antenna with our evolution of our product. Constant evolution is what we're in this for.

01:11:53And we hope to keep it going, you know? Like, humbly, it's a, to us, to me especially, you know, I don't expect anything. I don't come to this city with any expectations other than to serve our food and product. I don't come here with any preconceived anything. I, you know, I wanna learn more. That's the only reason I'm here. I wanna give and learn. Caroline, anything else you wanna add? I've got a game I wanna play. Yeah, let's talk. You guys wanna play a game? Of course I wanna play a game. It's not like The Tonight Show or anything, but we're gonna play. I wanna play a game. What is it? This game? Well, I've got two games. Blackjack? I've gotta play. I'm into that. Yes. We'll shuffle these cards. I've got two games. One is called Worst Case Scenario, and one is called Hot Seat. We're gonna start with Hot Seat, and then we're gonna play Worst Case Scenario. We're gonna get everybody in the studio involved here. Please. This'll be a little more fun. We're gonna even bring in Hannah and Lorena? Lorena? Make sure I get the name.

01:12:54Let's say your name wrong on the show. So this first game. They never stop smiling. I bet, you know, since I've known them, it's just a constant. All right, this first game, this first one is called Hot Seat, and it's gonna be just a random question. I'm gonna let everybody pick a card, and you have to answer the question on the show here. I'll reach out to you, Jen. Oh, man. All right, and I will take one as well. We're gonna start with Caroline. What does your question say, Caroline? Can I get a new one? Sorry. Mine is. I have to. What product am I an unpaid spokesperson for? That's a great one. That is a good one, but why am I drawing a blank? You can choose one that we're a paid spokesperson for. I feel like this is a terrible answer because I'm really not this much of a lush, but the first thing that comes to mind is Kettle One vodka because I'm just, I drink one thing when I go out for a drink, and it's always a Kettle One martini, so.

01:14:00There you go. Maybe that's it. You nailed it. I like that. Jen, what about you? So my question is, I have a million dollars to donate to a cause. What would I choose? And I would say women's healthcare specifically around menopause. Okay. I love it. Yeah. Good stuff. Great answer. Me too. I'll definitely do that. I really want a new one. Which celebrity would I most want to be friends with? Eddie Vedder. Yeah, let's just do that. Let's just, that's an easy one. All right, I'll just do that. Are you here? I have some other thoughts, but it's fine. One more? I get one more? We'll give you a different one. All right. That was an easy one. What is something I wish I did more often? Yeah, it's definitely playing my guitar. Okay. Play your guitar. You wish you played your guitar. Hannah, you go to move the mic a little bit towards Hannah.

01:15:04Get in there. It says, what do I wish I could change about the city I live in? Oh, there we go. I'm not a national native, but I have lived here for the past 15 years. And so I've seen it grow a lot. I would probably say the infrastructure just because it's such a rapidly growing city. I feel like they're trying to keep up with how many people are moving here. And Lauren and I were talking about this earlier, the potholes on the roads are a huge problem. That happens after a snow every time. Yes. Yeah. All right, good stuff. The infrastructure for our city. We're gonna go for it. I feel like you led into mine perfectly because it says, what do I have zero tolerance for? And it's potholes. Where are the tax dollars going? Mine is, what would I do if I had 24 hours to live? Ooh, that's a good one. That's how I see every day. Yeah, I mean, I would just go be with my kids. I would spend every minute of that 24 hours with my family.

01:16:05I mean, I don't think I'd do anything other than that. Whatever the most meaningful thing I could do with my children would be, I mean. Yeah, I mean, any answer other than that is. Yeah, I mean, that would just. It would be a weird one. If you had kids, right? I think I would go skydiving, like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to Vegas. Yeah, I'm going to, everything I got on black, man. I don't have kids, so that's my answer. Yeah, yeah, there you go. All right, so this next game is called worst case scenario. What I'm going to do is I'm going to put five worst case scenarios right here on the desk. And then we get to go around and we're going to read what the five worst case scenarios are, then you get to tell us what the worst case scenario is to you and why. It might be different for everybody, it might be the same. All right, you ready? Sure. Number one, fall off a cruise ship, is that it? Yes. All right, here's number two. You read them out, Jeff.

01:17:06Oh, geez, I didn't bring my glasses. Find out your parents are racists. Oh, okay. Jesus, what's going on here? Live with a really slow internet connection. And trapped in a rat-infested sewer. All right. Is there another one? Last one, there's five. Always have an offensive smell. Okay, so here's our five worst case scenarios. You fall off a cruise ship, you find out your parents are racists, you live with a really slow internet connection, trapped in a rat-infested sewer, or you always have an offensive smell. What is your worst case scenario? Out of these, the worst one? Yeah, what's the worst one for you? What would you say was the worst one? It's a real tight race between two of them. The offensive smell one really speaks to me.

01:18:11I have a hard time with those. To always have an offensive smell. If you walk in a room, is that you? Yes, that's me. I wear an extraordinary amount of cologne. Jen tells me, and my purpose is really to, when I sell my car, I want people to be like, who the hell was in here? I want that level of cologne usage in my life. The trapped in a rat-infested sewer, that's pretty bad. That's probably the one. That's gonna create the offensive smell. Those two, what kind of questions are these, man? My parents, racist? No. I guess if I have to be totally honest, I could never live with an offensive smell. Okay. Who wants to go next? Especially if I was the cause of it, I'd rather be in a rat-infested sewer. So yes, that's me. Jen? I have to say that the rat-infested sewer is probably, that's probably my number one, but that close to number two.

01:19:13More than the slow internet connection? I've seen you unable to send an email. You have to live with it, I think forever. Just a really slow internet connection. Although I can't stop thinking about falling off a cruise ship now that you've said it. I don't cruise. All these are funny for me in Jen's situation for some reason, I don't know. So yours is? It's probably the rats. Yeah, but I'm now gonna be afraid of falling off a ship. Hannah, let's go with you next. What do you guys got? All of them. Yeah, these are all bad. It's worst case scenario. Well, I have an irrational fear of rodents, so I'm gonna go with trapped in a rat-infested sewer. Personally, yes. Don't go to New York any time soon. I was just there and I saw a rat fall from the ceiling. Ugh. And roll and proceed to keep coming right in front of me.

01:20:14And the rats there are like three times the size. Oh my gosh. Well, I do have a question. So with the trapped in a rat-infested sewer, are we assuming we're forever trapped? We live in the rat-infested sewer? I think you just take it however you want. I don't think there's rules to this. I think if maybe for an hour, I don't know. You're right, five minutes is too much for me. Yeah. I hate to be a sheep, but I also would not be able to do trapped in a rat-infested sewer. All right, Caroline? I'm gonna go with cruise ship. I also, some friends and family are actually just recently trying to convince me to go on a cruise, which I've never been on one before. Me neither. Over the years, I'm a nervous traveler in general, and they've kind of worn me down to the point that I'm really considering it, especially because the Virgin cruise is like, no kids are allowed, and I'm just like, maybe.

01:21:17But then I started, I think as a result of having these conversations, the TikTok algorithm started giving me cruise ship disaster terrifying videos. Oh no, no, no. And North Sea TikTok, and I'm just like, the moment I was considering going on a cruise, I never ever will now, so. Well, you do make a lot of sense, because if you fall off a cruise ship, you would love to smell bad and be in a sewer. Well, so that's gonna be mine as well. The cruise ship. It does make a lot of sense. Well, because if, worst case scenario, I'll just break it down. Always have a sense of smell. I'm still gonna be alive, right? Trapped in a rat-infested sewer, you're gonna be alive, theoretically. Live with a really slow internet, you're alive. Find out your parents are racist. Yeah, I mean, that's, at this point, I mean. We live in the South. We live in the South, like, we have old enough parents, you know what's going on. I'm not saying my parents are racist, I'm just saying. I'm not saying. I'll just read between the lines. Fall off a cruise ship?

01:22:19You're probably gonna die. I mean, you're probably not gonna make it out of that. And not only are you gonna die, but it's gonna be awful. An animal's gonna eat you at some point. But what if you survive? How awesome would that be? So, that's, I'm not taking that risk. In the worst case scenario, I don't wanna fall off a cruise ship and die in the middle of the ocean. But also for you, because you have kids of a certain age, it means you would probably be on a Disney cruise, so you would have first had to live through going on a Disney cruise. Maybe you would have thrown yourself off the boat at that point. And you may have some like, you know, Minnie Mouse floaties that would keep you up. That might be, so the sharks could eat me while I'm still alive. I mean, I would immediately just begin swallowing water. Yes. It's time to go. I think it's time to go. Okay, guys, we'll see, that was fun. I really appreciate you guys doing that with us. Thank you guys, by the way, for taking interest in us and talking to me about all this stuff. Well, I've got one last thing for you. This is the final thing that we do. It is the Gordon Food Service Final Thought.

01:23:22Gordon Food Service is our fine, amazing title sponsor. We love them. If you don't have a Broadline vendor here in Nashville, Gordon Food Service is the way to go. It's a great name. They're amazing. The only family-owned Broadliner. Everybody else is public and huge, and they're still family-owned and they're amazing. So they support our final thought, and what that is is you get to take us out. Whatever you wanna say, as long as you wanna say it, doesn't have, you could talk about your charity or surmise the conversation. Say whatever you want to the city of Nashville. The mic is yours. You get to take us out. Oh, man, and thank you all very much for the assistance so much. I'm always interested or maybe more surprised that people, I love how people are interested in the food scene of any city. Last night was a great example of that. I was really overwhelmed by the reaction by how many people came out on a Monday night.

01:24:25I know Nashville's kinda, I'm learning the kind of ebbs and flows of who goes out when and what's going on, and so to see a packed house at Bastion last night was amazing. And we're just so grateful to be here and so grateful to be able to talk about how we see and how I see restaurants and life in general. And it's also relative to me. I hope to be able to not just spread our food and our product and let that grow, but I really hope that in general we're able to grow in the city and the state and elevate people's lives as people who work for us, challenge people, because I tell everybody everything's in the challenge. Everything that we do is on the other side of something that sucks. Everything that's special is on the other side of something that you would not wanna deal with.

01:25:30And so sometimes I create those moments for our cooks and sometimes I create those moments for people who work with me. And I think we see a lot of people growing and stepping up and contributing more and feeling freer to contribute to our brand. And we hope it speaks to the community here. So far it's been nothing but incredible. You would think that when you do this enough times, it just becomes like whatever, and it's not. For me, this is an extraordinarily beautiful and special moment to be able to bring things that I think about into life, and only because I have such an amazing team of people that elevate it.

01:26:35It's really only because of that. Other than that, it would just be me sitting on the couch thinking of stuff. And that doesn't go anywhere without the support, the love, the respect, and the service of other people. So for us, we're happy to be in such a warm place, such a hospitable place. And this moment right here is an example of it. So thank you, thank you so much for your time. I feel like we could talk forever, so I'll stop there and just say thanks very much. We're very grateful for you all. Well, thank you very much for your time today to come share with us. And we're excited to have you in town. Welcome to Nashville. Thank you, man. I'm right down the street. Welcome to Green Hills. If there's ever anything I can do for you, we're neighbors, so just let me know. A cup of milk or something, I got you. That's so nice of you, same here. A dozen eggs. I got some tacos. I got empanadas for you, the closed ones.

01:27:36The closed ones. And all kinds of stuff, good stuff for you. So thanks again. Thanks everybody. All right, thank you all for being here. Thank you. This was fun. Thank you. Big thanks again to Chef Victor Albisu and Jen and Hannah and Lorena. And man, isn't it great hearing Caroline's voice back on this show? Something about it just makes me so happy. Nice having her in studio. I miss my friend and I'm glad that she's back. So yeah, there we go. Hope that you have a wonderful Valentine's week. We'll be back next week with more interviews with restaurant people here in Nashville. Hope you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.