Vivek Surti

00:00Y'all, today we are talking 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. They carry a number of products for keeping your dishes, flatware, services, floors, restrooms, laundry, basically your entire facility, clean, bright and smelling and feeling new. This is just one of the many reasons SuperSource is taking over this city for dish machine and chemicals. You need to call Jason Ellis. His number is 770-337-1143. And he would love it if you would give him a call and let him come down and just check out your operation, meet him, say hi, see if there's any way he can help. He is here to help you succeed. That's Jason Ellis with SuperSource. 770-337-1143. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City.

01:10Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City. And welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We have got an epic episode today. It is a long one. Me and Vivek Surti talk for about an hour and a half in this interview and we cover so much. Tip of the iceberg. And I listened to this episode back and let me tell you something. I am an idiot. I listened to this thing and I listened to myself and I am fumbling. And once you listen to like somebody over, listening to myself is one thing, but listening to myself talk about cuisine I'm not familiar with and a concept that I'm not familiar with, at about 30 minutes into the actual conversation with Vivek, I like have this epiphany and I'm like, I think I get it.

02:21Oh my God. And so it's difficult learning about a new cuisine and learning about something you're really not familiar with for the first time with somebody who's incredibly versed in it and who's incredibly intelligent. He was so patient with me. And I'm literally learning with you on a podcast. So please don't hold that against me. Now the second half of the interview was absolutely incredible as well, as we learn about what he does at his amazing restaurant, Taylor. So we learned about why it's called Taylor. We learned about him moving locations from over there in Germantown to another part in Germantown on Taylor next to Rolf and Daughters. He is the most amazing guy. I had so much fun in this interview and I hope that you enjoy it. I hope you get past the first me trying to figure out what the hell I'm talking about to where I get into something a little more confident. And we just got done. It is Thursday night and it is late at night.

03:22It's about 9.45. I'm doing this. Just left the Iron Fork. I wanna send a big shout out to Julio Hernandez as he took home the 2024 Iron Fork Award. And he was competing against Hadley Long. He was competing against Harant over at Lera and Deb Paquette. I mean, it was a pretty impressive group of chefs that he was competing against. Some amazing dishes they sell. So you have to make four dishes for the judges and you get to sell a dish and Hadley's dish sold for a thousand dollars, which all goes to the Nashville Food Project. So a great event held by the Nashville scene at the Musicians Hall of Fame. Lots and lots of fun. Saw so many amazing people. It was a great, a great event. And I just wanted to give a big shout out to Julio for Mize Delavita, such a good dude.

04:23Hey, we are gonna be doing, we have a couple big events coming up. We've got an event on April the 28th and it is the Tennessee Tasting. And this is the big benefit for the Giving Kitchen. Go to givingkitchen.org, where there you can purchase your tickets and every ticket that you purchase, goes to help restaurant workers. There's gonna be some fun auction items up there. I am auctioning off. You can be the host of this here podcast for an episode and the person who you'll be interviewing, none other than Andrew Zimmern, the amazing chef, Andrew Zimmern, James Beard award winning chef, you get to interview him. So that's gonna be an auction item. If you ever listened to the show, you're like, hey, and we're gonna put this out as an actual episode. And all the proceeds go to the Giving Kitchen. Very excited about that. Also, we're gonna step away from this intro to really promote a show called Toast Nashville. This is happening on April 19th, 20th and 21st.

05:26That whole weekend is gonna be a massive chef event. And we're gonna go to a quick conversation that I had about an eight to 10 minute conversation with chef Kevin Deshains, chef Kev D. And he's gonna tell us all about this event. Super excited about Toast Nashville. We're gonna be giving away tickets on this channel next week. Very excited. There we go. Guys, enjoy this with Kev D and we'll be back with Vivek Surti. Okay, so like I said, we are here right now, live with chef Kev D. What's up, chef? How we doing? Good to see you again. Man, it's great to see you too. Year two, Toast Nashville. It's going down the weekend of April, the 20th, 420 weekend in Nashville. Tell me how last year ended up. How did it go? Last year was amazing for a first year event. We had incredible sponsors and vendors and chefs.

06:26Food was amazing. Wine was flowing. All good feedback from our guests. And an analog had a great time as well. So we couldn't be more excited to be back for the second annual Toast Nashville. Wow. So tell me what is going to be different this year? Anything different this year? Similar format. We've added a few extra events. As we're growing, we're adding more chefs and more brands locally and nationally. We have some amazing chefs. Chef Manit, again, as always, she's there in Nashville. She's an amazing chef from the Tournament of Champions, Food Network, Chopped Judge. We also have Robert Irvine from Restaurant Impossible and the Fit Crunch and all the things that you've seen him do. Great chef Rocco DiSpirito as well. He's there. He's got a new book. He's going to be talking all about that, doing some signings. You got myself and Alex Ballou and Kayla Robinson and Ben Dulge and all kinds of local chefs involved as well. Wow. So from that standpoint, we got a lot of powerhouse chefs and a lot of culinary stuff going on.

07:28We've added five extra brunches this year because brunch in Nashville, as everybody knows, is amazing and everybody loves to do it. So we have two at Manit's restaurant right there in the Gulch and then we have four, two on Saturday and two on Sunday at Evelyn's right in the hut in the brand new restaurant that we're super excited that they're open there because we're going to be doing some events. They're going to be supporting the event. So it's going to be amazing to have that restaurant open and running while we're there. Wow. So that is going to be, that sounds incredible. Some serious star power coming to Nashville. Exactly. And these are chefs that, you know, this is a co-production between myself, my company Chef Kevdee Productions and 360 Marketing Events. So between the two of us, I mean, I travel around, I do events as the chef, I produce some, I do all kinds of different things from all angles. So between the two of us, we have all kinds of chef friends and people that we've done different events from with. And so this is a situation where it's like, hey, we're doing this Nashville thing, come on in.

08:29You really want to get in this year because it's just getting better every year. So to have Robert Irvine and Rocco and obviously Manit again and Chef Alex and all those guys, we just expect to get better and better every year. I absolutely love that. So if I'm, let's just say that I'm, I want to go and I'm going to attend these, there's multiple events. It's not like you just show up. There is a grand tasting and at that grand tasting, there's going to be lots of restaurants, lots of distilleries and alcohol suppliers. And then you're also going to have these, your chefs and you guys are going to be doing demos. Are you going to have tables? How can, do people get to interact with you? Tell me about that kind of each into the individual events that you're having and what I will experience as a guest. Yeah, absolutely. So we're kicking off Toast Nashville with the Friday night chefs collaboration dinner, which is Manit and myself and Chef Alex. And then there's two chefs in the hotel, the chef from the Hutton, Chris Neff and the chef from Evelyn's.

09:30And we're going to be doing a five course pairing experience where, you know, we're going to be interacting. I'm going to come out and talk about my dish. The vineyard that I'm pairing the wine with is going to talk about the wine. They're going to eat and drink. And then Manit's going to come out and talk about her dish and the inspiration and why she made it. And then whatever we ended up pairing with her. So it's a very like a one-on-one interactive for about 110 people where we get to talk to everybody. We're taking pictures, we're signing menus, but it's all about the food and the pairing. So that kicks off Friday night at Evelyn's, the chef's collab dinner. And then we go into Sunday morning, we're doing two brunches, one brunch actually with two seating. So 10 a.m. and 12.30, both at Evelyn's. And Saturday is Robert Irvine, Rocco di Spirito, myself, Vin Dulge, and again, the house chefs, we're going to be doing very similar to Friday night where we're doing courses. And there's going to be Bloody Marys and mimosas and interactions with the chefs. And then from there, we head up to Analog, where the Grand Tasting, which is our main event, it goes from four to nine.

10:34And that's just going to be a food festival in this amazing listening room in Nashville, right? It has a beautiful stage. Garth Brooks has played there. Darius Rucker's played there. I did an event with Gavin DeGraw, Andrew Holcomb, and Peter Frampton there. So it's this amazing room in Nashville on the stage. This time, instead of musicians, it's going to be chefs. It's going to be a culinary stage hosted by InvisiCook. And we're going to be doing half hour demos on kind of the half hour where Robert Irvine's up there making a dish and talking and answering questions. So that's going to be going on the whole time. But then just people are walking around the space. They're tasting local barbecue restaurant, and then they're going to be tasting some ammunition whiskey. And then they're going to be, you know, whoever Hendrix Jinn is going to be there and some amazing sponsors. So really just a kind of walk around tasting where you get a little bit of everything with the backdrop of these amazing chefs doing demos up on this beautiful stage. Man, that sounds like an absolute blast. And if you're a general consumer, if somebody who enjoys going out to eat or you love watching the Food Network and you love watching these chefs on TV, you followed Alex Ballou through every episode of Hell's Kitchen and you got to see him win, well, this is a chance you can actually walk up and meet these people.

11:51You've watched Restaurant Impossible. You've watched Robert Irvine walk in and say, you can't do that, you have to do this. And he's fixed this. You get to walk up and meet him. You get to see him in action. You're right there. What an amazing opportunity for just anybody to come in and really be a part of this world. Yeah, and if you're going to go out to dinner on a Saturday night in Nashville and you're going to have food and wine and drinks and all that, you're going to end up paying a lot more than you would here. And at this situation, you can have beer and wine and spirits than all the chefs. And then there's also going to be, we have like a dozen restaurant and chef tables that are going to be cooking up these amazing tasting creations. So it's really, it's a lot of bang for your buck, a lot of star power, just an amazing time to get in. If you love chefs, if you love wine or cocktails or even music, because there's music on Saturday night after the toast tasting, it's going to parlay right into a concert. So if you like any of that, you're not going to get all of this in one spot, this type of experience anywhere else.

12:53It sounds amazing. Well, I'm looking forward to it. And if you stay right here, if you are a listener of this show and this sounds like it's fun for you, we are going to be giving away tickets to all of these events, to all of the events. We're giving them away right here on the podcast. Now, not on the podcast, what you have to do is you're going to have to follow Nashville Restaurant Radio on Instagram and you need to go follow Toast Nashville. Is there an Instagram page for this? Yep, it's just at Toast Nashville, yep. That's what I meant to say. You're also going to need to go follow Toast Nashville on Instagram and I'm going to be doing a post where you can like it and you can invite somebody who you'd like to take with you and you got to follow us. And then you're going to get free tickets potentially. This is going to be a whole fun thing that we are excited to partner with you guys to do. And I also want to tell all of our listeners to hang out because next week we're going to be sitting down and having a full conversation with you to learn a bit more about Chef Kev D and everybody.

14:00Now, if you don't know about Chef Kev D, he's kind of a chef to the stars. He's been a, he has a private chef business. He does a lot of these productions, but he's worked with lots and lots of celebrities. Well, I'm not too many to even name here, but you want to come back and hear this interview because we're going to learn all about who you're going to meet at this year's Toast Nashville. Yeah. And let's not forget about Sunday. We have a whole lineup of brunches on Sunday as well. Two at Evelyn's and two at Manit's. Again, with Rocco and Manit and myself, and Alex is going to be at one and just a crazy lineup of brunches on Sunday as well. It's going to be an amazing weekend. I'm super excited. We're going to learn more about it in the full interview, which we're going to jump into next week. But now we're going to jump in with our conversation with the amazing Vivek Surti. Super excited today to be joined with Vivek Surti. And he is the owner over at Taylor.

15:00Welcome to National Restaurant Radio, Vivek. Thanks for having me. This is really exciting. Yeah. Excited to be here. I don't know why, but like I've been intimidated to have you on the show. Why's that? I don't know. I know cause I don't know you and I don't know Indian food really well. I just never grew up in a, like my parents never made Indian food and we didn't go out to eat Indian food. And then as an adult, there's just not a ton of great Indian food around here or not there wasn't when I was growing up where I didn't know how to search it out because I'd never eaten it. And so there's a bit of it that's just kind of mystifying to me cause I haven't eaten a ton of it. Now I've probably eaten plenty of times now as an adult, but I've just, it's just not, I don't know. I don't know. So there's some side of me that's kind of like, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to ask, but you're so much more than that. And I think there's a little bit of that that's been intimidating to me.

16:03Is that completely crazy? No, I think a lot of people are intimidated by Indian cuisine and there's many reasons for it. One is there's no such thing as Indian food. Okay. You know, India is a very diverse country. It's made up of 29 different states. Each state has an entirely different cuisine. They have an entirely different language and sometimes it's different religions. And it's one of the geographically most diverse places on the planet because you could be up in the Himalayan mountains or you could be down in the tropics and anywhere and everywhere in between. Wow. And so when we say the words Indian food, It's very general. It's very, very general. And on top of that, there are all the Indian restaurants really serve more of what I call British Indian food. And so it's based in the Indian region of Punjab.

17:03Okay. But many of the dishes that people have in Indian restaurants, so for example, there's the butter chicken, chicken tikka masala, right? That's a dish invented in Scotland, right? Naan is a Persian bread, right? And there's a big difference between the food that Indian people eat at home and the food that is made in restaurants. Interesting. Okay. I didn't know like all of that was really interesting to me because I did not know the answers. I didn't know all that. Yeah. And I think like it's hard because it's very hard to access the Indian food that people eat at home unless you know somebody or your neighbor, like let's say your neighbor was Indian or a kid that you grew up with at school and you got invited to their house and you were able to try these very traditional home dishes. But for the most part, they're not available really anywhere in the world in a restaurant setting. And okay. So if I go out to an Indian restaurant here in town, that could be any various forms of Indian, is there a traditional just like standard Indian food or do you need to classify the state that it's from and that style for it to be that particular state's style of Indian food?

18:24Does that make sense? Yes. Yeah, you need to, I think Indian food, if I said, hey, what's Indian food? There is no right answer to that because like my family comes from the state of Gujarat. So it's the middle of India all the way on the West Coast. And for people that have no idea what that is, it's like the state that Gandhi was from, Prime Minister Modi is from Gujarat. If you've ever met anybody with the last name Patel, that's where they're from, they're Gujarati. And so there's certain dishes that we grew up with being Gujarati. Now, if you grew up in another state, right? So for example, my fiance, she's from Tamil Nadu, right? Their cuisine is entirely different. There might be some base flavors that are similar in these cuisines. So the use of ginger, garlic, green chilies, and things like that. But the dishes that she grew up with and the dishes that I grew up with are completely different. Wow. And the food that we have more in the restaurants. So like in India, restaurant culture is only 20 years old. So when we used to travel there in the 90s, there were no restaurants.

19:28You ate dinner at home. And there might be people who make like little food stalls and things like that, or they specialize in a certain bread, or they specialize in sweets. Street food. Or whatever, yeah, street food and things like that. But like the concept of how we have restaurants here is very, very new in India. Because that middle class is still just growing. And so if there was a restaurant, it was mainly in a hotel. And that hotel catered to tourists, or for a lot of time in India, it catered to British people. And so if you're in a place like Gujarat, or you're in a place where it's predominantly vegetarian, where the food that tourists wanted was more meat heavy. And so they went to an area, which is Punjab, and that's where there are a lot of meat dishes. But it's also in the northern part of India where it's much colder and in the mountains. So the food is also much... Hardier? Not as spicy. Okay. So the more south you go, because it's hotter, the spicier it gets.

20:29So if you're in the north, there's a lot more cream and dairy production. There's a lot more wheat production. There's a lot more bread and so. A lot of the dishes that you find, like chole masala, for example, or dal makhani. These are dishes that are based in Punjabi cuisine. But it's only... And it's because that's the food that most Indian people think British people will like. It's the most approachable, and it's the least spicy. It's the least funky. It's an easier thing. Just put butter and cream and everything and Americans or British people will love it. And so that's kind of the whole mentality. And so if you were an Indian chef, right? You go to hospitality school, and the goal is to work in a hotel and cook food for people who aren't Indian. Whereas the real cuisine of India is made in the home. It is not a codified cuisine, right? So when you think of like French food, there's like, there's the five mother sauces. There is a right way to make a hollandaise. There is a right way to make sauce bernays, right?

21:31But in India, everything is made in the home, so it's all based on your preference. So if you like a certain dal to be spicier, you add more chili. If you want it more sour, add more lime juice. If you want it sweeter, add more sugar. And there's no concept of recipes in India. Because what you... If you're Indian, you know what the technique is. Then you get a list of ingredients. And then you customize it based on what your taste is. And that becomes your way of making it. That's really fascinating. I love that though. It's just a cuisine that is built in the homes. And what we really try to do at Taylor's, like we want to share that, right? Like there's plenty of restaurants all over the world that do chicken tikka masala and chole masala and all that kind of stuff. But there is virtually no restaurants, and very, very few all around the world that serve the home cuisine of India.

22:34Wow, I'm learning so much right now. Let's see, this is so cool. So you're... It's interesting because you know all of this. You were born here in Tennessee. Yep. And you're a first generation American. Yes. And so you learned, you grew up... How often did you visit India growing up? We went pretty much every other year. Every other year? Yep, especially in the 90s. Because my mom's parents and her brothers live in India. And my dad's family mostly lived here, but he always had some uncles and aunts and cousins that lived in India as well. And so you were born in Manchester, is that right? Yeah, Manchester, Tennessee. You were born in Manchester. When did you move to Nashville? When I was five. Five years old? So you've lived here your entire life. Yeah, yeah. This is what they call a unicorn. That's right. And so, I don't wanna get into this big long origin story, but you're so fascinating just on what you do and how you do it.

23:40Tell me more about being a first generation American. Yep, so I define it as being children of immigrants. So it's like there is a debate right now going on. It's like, do you consider the immigrants to be first generation? And then people who were born here to be second generation? Or do you consider the immigrant generation and the first generation? And so I call it, I call myself first generation American. Because you were born here. I was born here. Yeah, my parents were born in India. They moved here. I was born here. So that's how I define it. And to me it's like there is, it's an amazing and very unique experience to grow up first generation. Because when we grew up, in our household we spoke Gujarati. Like I didn't know English until I was in kindergarten. Really? Yeah, because it's like I would be with my grandparents, I'd be with my parents, but in the home it was very important to them to carry on the culture of India, even though we didn't live there.

24:44So growing up it was always, hey, we're going to the temple. We're gonna sing Indian songs. We're gonna watch Indian movies. We're gonna celebrate all the Indian festivals. We're gonna be eating Indian food and all those things. And then you start going to school and you start learning a little bit more about America. And it's like, for me it was like, I grew up just loving basketball. So I was always wanting to watch every single Bulls game, watch Michael Jordan play basketball in the backyard, play basketball with my friends. It was just a constant, I even had like a basketball trash can. And so that way I could always like shoot into the trash can. How old are you? So that was, how old am I now? Yeah. 38. 38? Well, you said you used to watch Michael Jordan, which, I mean, he came out in 85, 86, right? Yeah, so I was born in 85. So I mean, you're 10 years old watching him kind of through that, but that was growing up watch basketball. You had, it was the Jordan era.

25:45That was it, yeah. It was it. And I was obsessed with it, yeah. Me too. Dominic Wilkins and- Oh yeah. Clyde the Glide. Clyde the Glide Drexler. I mean, there's so many. That was so my, I'm 45. Yeah, Mitch. So I was a little bit ahead of everybody, but like not very far. Yeah, that's right. So, okay, so I'm sorry I interrupted you. And so I think like, growing up here, and then for me, as I started going to school, that's where you start realizing, hey, like I'm a little bit different, right? Cause growing up, like when, let's say age one to five, we're hanging out with our cousins, we're hanging out with other people in the Indian community. We're going to the temple. So we're seeing other Indian people and all that kind of stuff. Very normal. And there's not as much like socialization with people that weren't Indian. And when I started going to school, that's kind of where it changed. And I don't remember it like as much in elementary school, but I do remember like, fourth, fifth grade. It's like, there was one day that my mom gave me darbat, which is Indian lentils and rice. And I took it to school for lunch. And I remember opening it at lunch and some kid was like, oh God, what's that smell like?

26:47That's disgusting. And I just remember being very embarrassed. And I went home and I asked my mom, I'm like, hey, could you just make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? And she was like, okay, are you sure? Are you sure you want that? And I'm like, yeah, I think so. This kid kind of made fun of me and I'd rather just avoid that whole situation than I think if I just eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it should be fine. And I think kind of growing up, you start having this like identity crisis. Am I Indian? Am I American? Because at school, you're kind of known as, hey, that's the Indian kid. And we go to India and then immediately every other year, people are like, oh God, the Americans are here. And in India, everybody in the summer dressed in full length pants and silk shirts. And I'm like, it's 110 degrees out here. I'm wearing shorts, but shorts is a dead giveaway. So then you try to assimilate a little bit into both. And I think it was only really maybe seven, eight years ago where I was like, you know what? And I think that being first generation American really is a part of who I am.

27:50Like I am both Indian and American at the same time. And I feel like the fabric of American culture grows each decade with this development of society. And where everybody is now is so vastly different than what it was 30 years ago. In a good way, I hopefully. In a good way. In a positive way, okay. And to me, I think like, how cool is it now that on any given Tuesday, you can go and get Vietnamese food. And on a Thursday, you can go get amazing Mexican food. And on another day, you can go get food from Somalia. And then another day, you can have meat and three. And that was not the case growing up, you know? Like the food culture was not the, you know, Shoney's was kind of what we had and some barbecue restaurants and those kind of things. I do have very fond memories of the Shoney breakfast buffet like after church when I was a kid. Like going there and just like, I can eat all this bacon?

28:52Like, I mean, there was moments for- For me it was jello. Yeah, well, it was like bacon for me and like biscuits and sausage. I could eat all the sausage I really wanted. My dad made me every time eat some eggs. But after that, I can just do whatever I wanted. That's right. And so now I feel like a lot of people who are first generation can start adding to the fabric because it's a, I think we can create this almost, it's a very unique culture where these two combine. And once I started seeing these two cultures come together, I realized that we really are so much more similar than we are different. And seeing both cultures growing up, now I see them separately, but I also see the similarities. And so like, just like simply from a food perspective, like one thing that we eat here in the South on New Year's Day is black-eyed peas and greens and rice. And we call it, you know, Hoppin' John and black-eyed peas and greens is what you eat on New Year's Day. Yeah. So in India, we eat black-eyed peas and greens and rice.

29:57And the semblance is the same, right? It's that this is food that you eat for good luck. Yeah. And it's good luck here in Tennessee and it's good luck also in India. And it's a tradition that they both share, right? That the hospitality of someone who is from the American South and the hospitality of someone who's in from India, when you come into their home, they treat you like you are the most important person in the world. And they will bend their backs to make any experience that they can have with you the best thing it can possibly be, right? And they wanna offer you drinks, they wanna offer you food, they wanna make sure you're well-fed, they want you to stay with them. You know, it's like there is that innate hospitality that exists in both cultures. And the more and more I analyze the two cultures, the more and more I learn about them, the more and more I meet people, it's like we really are so much more similar than we are different. Are you talking about just Americans in general or the Southerners?

31:00I think I'm talking about, for me, it's Nashville. Okay. Nashville specifically. I think it exists, of course, in other parts of the country as well, but I think that hospitality of people in Nashville is so unique. And it's like, I love that you can walk down the, like, I remember during COVID, even with mask on, I would walk down the grocery store and I would smile at people. And they couldn't see the smile, you know, cause it's under the mask, but it's like you always smile and say, hey, how's it going? Like, you know, and you might not know that person from anybody, but it's like, you're just like, hello, hi, nice, you know. Hey, what's up? How are you? You know, you just have those exchanges as you're walking down the grocery store aisle, and there's that, just that sense of warmth that exists here. You seem like you're pretty tall. How tall are you? Six, three. So you get it too, probably. It's like, when you're in the grocery store, you always help people get stuff off higher shelves. All the time, yeah. People are like, excuse me. Can you? And like, absolutely. So there's a lot of interactions I get to have, and people are so friendly just to even ask that.

32:01That's right. That's interesting. I didn't know, that's a really cool similarity that the two share. Yeah. All right, so hospitality, black eyed peas. Yep. Any other big similarities that you're... Yeah. Well, I think there's also, there's like the things that are similar, and then there's the things that are adoptions, right? So, you know, growing up in Manchester, my dad was actually fairly involved in democratic politics in the 90s. So the democratic party used to always have this fundraiser, and it was a fish fry. And one time they hosted a fish fry at our house, but my mom wanted to make it a little bit Indian. So she used the spices that her mom and her family always uses whenever they cook fish. And it's this marinade that's made with black pepper and cumin and garlic and cilantro. And she spread that like over the catfish and was cooking it on an electric skillet outside. And even though the flavors were a little bit different, at the end of the day, it was still a Tennessee fish fry.

33:07It's a bunch of people hanging out outside, eating catfish, hanging out, you know, building community, conversing with each other. The community piece is sharing. It's a spirit of service. That's right. Of I want to make this for you and share this. It's breaking bread with people. It's the definition of that. Yeah, and so this way, it's like we're able to take, you know, elements from one culture and elements from another. And then we put it together to create something new. To me, that's where I think that first generation American cuisine is the next big trend in American food. First generation cuisine, the next big trend in American food. Yep. Elaborate, keep going. Yeah, so I think it's children of immigrants who, you know, grew up here and had that same story of where some kid made fun of the food that they brought to school. And literally, I think any person that's first generation American has had that experience.

34:10I've never met a single person that hasn't. We had Dr. Alex Jahangir from, he who's over at Vanderbilt Medical Center was our COVID czar. He said, you know, growing up, he's a first generation Iranian too, Iranian of descent. And he said, you know, growing up, he never felt like one of the other kids until he went to Martin Luther King or to MLK Magnet. And then other kids that were more like him. And it was a whole thing for him growing up. One of the best dudes. Yeah, I've never met him. I've just, but I've watched plenty of his videos and speeches. And when he gets in front and says, you have to wear a mask. It's so funny, first time I met him, he was like, don't hate me. And I'm like, no, man, I'm impressed by you. Like you're amazing. We were just more looking for clarity at that point. What do we need to do? But I always thought like just leadership. Like I love, I am so drawn to when I see people who are like leaders in a movement who can just power through everything. And like that dude had to get up every single day and address a city based around the only soul fact was I'm trying to save your life.

35:20And that was all of the noise of all the politics behind me and everybody, you can't do this, you can't do this, my business is this. He's like, I don't care. I don't want people to die. So this is the decision I have to make. And to stand in there and do that every day. It's so impressive. Death threats and the things. And it's like, man, did it, dude, dude, did it. Like that was the most impressive. I just, I don't know, I'm a big fan of this. Guess another first generation who had, who grew into it and has and loves Nashville. Is totally giving back a ton too. Okay, first generation Americans changing the restaurant. And then basically because they've been able to learn from their own culture and American culture, how those two work together. And I love how your menu reads at Taylor. I've never, I've never in my life read a menu that reads like yours.

36:20Thank you. Because each menu item tells, and I was in my leadership meeting this morning and I told the team, I go, I get to interview Vivek Surti today. And I go, and I'm so excited because I haven't been to the new Taylor. I went to the one Germantown a while back, but I haven't been to the new, your new location, new version. Yeah. Version 2.0. That's right. And I'm dying to go. And I was looking it up and I go, you guys all got to go here. And they started the menu. They go, this is the most un-intimidating, welcoming, the way that you write it down. This is a yogurt that you're supposed to eat it this way and you make a dip. And then this is what my family had and I buy it from this person. And it's like a warm hug. I hope you enjoy it. Yeah. That has to be kind of what you're talking about. And in your menu descriptions is a way for you to say, I'm gonna be hospitable, but I also want you to understand what this dish is. And this is from my family. This isn't a dish that I took off of a menu somewhere that is stereotypical.

37:25This is what we would eat in our family home. And I'm making it and sharing it with you. Did I just describe what you're doing? Yeah. I mean, that's exactly it. It's, you know, there are hundreds of Indian restaurants, you know, all over the world or all over the country. And, but what we wanted to do was something very different. And we named the restaurant Taylor because all of my grandparents were tailors by profession. So my dad's dad was an actual tailor. My mom's dad used to sell sewing machines. And our entire family is called, you know, everybody's last name is Taylor or it's Durji, which is the Gujarati word for tailor. Or it's like more specific things like Kapadia means like fabric person, or Topiwala, somebody who makes hats, right? And so there's this whole community of basically people who work in textiles that are known as tailors. And that's a community into itself. And so when we chose that name, you know, I'm writing the menu and I'm like, okay, cool.

38:28Like what's gonna be, what's gonna be on this opening menu? And I just kept thinking back, I was like, there are these dishes that are so essential to my childhood. And I can't name the restaurant Taylor without making the food that tailors grew up eating. And so that gave me the lens to start writing that menu. And I started writing these things like dhokla, darpat, bale. And these are dishes that I grew up having all the time. And I think a lot of times, Indian people, we don't necessarily consider those dishes to be anything special. Like my dad has three sisters, they all came on opening night, they looked at the menu, they were like, I can't believe you're serving this. Are you sure this is gonna work? Nobody's gonna eat this stuff. They spent the whole dinner not eating their food, but just watching people. Really? And they saw people enjoying it. And they saw people smiling. And they saw people having conversations. And they were like, okay, now we're starting to get it, what you're saying.

39:33And to me, it's like we have to preserve, like being first generation, it's our obligation to preserve those dishes. Like I remember there was this, we had this, my dad had, I think, 14 aunts and uncles. My grandmother was like one of 15. And then out of the 15 kids, there were like nine who actually like lived and had kids and everything. And so we called them the big nine. But there was one- There was six? Yeah. You know, big kids. There was one grandmother who passed away. And at her funeral, somebody was like, hey, does anybody remember how to make this bas bakri? And bakri is like an Indian flatbread. And everyone was like, actually, I don't know how to make that. I don't know how to make that. She always made it. And my parents' generation had learned so much from the generation before it. But we lost that recipe. Oh no. And to me, I was like, you know what? My generation knows so little from my parents' generation.

40:33And we just think our parents are always gonna be around. And so they'll always make these dishes for us. But I was like, right now, we have to start thinking about, like while all of our parents are alive and they have all this ability to share, that we need to take that information. And it's really the last generation, I'm gonna catch off, the last generation where really there's these family, direct links, like family recipes. Because now, anybody who's growing up now, even my wife, I mean, I love you, honey. But like, if she wants a recipe, she just Googles it. Or she has a cookbook, you know, a book that she looks at. There's no, we do have some good heirloom recipes. You pull it out for Thanksgiving and stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, we have those. But really, today's cooks, I mean, they just, if I need to know how to make something, I can just Google it and have it in a minute. Versus back in the day, everything was handed down. Or it was a, you know, this Bible-like cookbook that had these things in it. And then you would kind of play with it in a pinch here and a dash there. And there's my grandma's cinnamon rolls, you know, like, and we all have that recipe.

41:38My wife's been practicing it every year to get it. And when she feeds it to my grandma, she says, how close am I? And she's like getting it down because that's important to have that recipe to pass on. Yes. I just see the value in that and how I can see it going away. Yeah, and so it's like, you know, one of the very rewarding parts about Taylor's been, it's not just that we get to share this food with the public. It's also that I get to enlist the help of my mom and my family, and they come into the restaurants and they work with me and our culinary team to workshop recipes, to learn things that they've done. Like we had a dish called kachori and it's a little fried pastry. It's made with like, in the middle, it's like some green peas and then ginger and cilantro and lemon juice and it's made a little sweet and sour. And then we wrap it in a dough and deep fry it. And my aunt was actually in town. So they live half the year in India and then half the year in St. Louis.

42:38And so they came and stayed with my parents for like a week and a half. And I was like, Kalakaki, you have to come to Taylor and you have to teach me these certain recipes. So it's like, she came in just like a complete pro, you know? And it's just like, okay, I need this, I need this, I need this, I need this. And boom, like starts making the filling, starts making the dough, starts showing us how to do it. Right, and so we're over there, you know, filling it, you know, and doing it and rolling them up. And she's like, okay, you're doing good but you're forgetting this one little step. And she's like, you know, once you roll it, you gotta pinch and you gotta take that little extra dough off and put it here and then you'll have a smooth round ball that you can fry. And so, you know, it's like we're learning these recipes from our family. And then when we make them in the restaurant, it's like we are doing the same thing that our ancestors have done for hundreds of years. And so it's like just the act of making something connects us with our family in a way that, you know, it's like that's how we continue the traditions that we grew up with, right?

43:46And we share the values that were instilled in us by our grandparents by continuing to do the things the way that they did it. Are you a classically trained chef? No. Are you a school? No. Well, I just was thinking about this that that could be a detriment. Sure. Like, because what you're doing, I don't need to know the five mother sauces. I need to know how to cook my family's food. Yes. Really. And then there's a math problem involved there for how do I do it for if you're gonna do large prep. But I mean, you're essentially saying, this is grandma's recipe. Let's learn how to make that. Yes. Let's perfect that. And then let's serve that. I don't need to go to a cookbook and find a recipe for this tikka marsala that I wanna make. That's not what we're doing. We're doing my family's food and then I'm sharing it with people. That's right. That's incredible. You kind of think like that's how it should be. It's not a business venture. I'm gonna go open 10 restaurants and make X amount of dollars. I'm going to share my family's culture and my family's food and recipes with my community and bring people together.

44:56That's really incredibly special. It's really more, we're trying to share our family's culture. The way we're doing that is through food. Wow. Sometimes you're in interviews and I'm just like, that's the coolest thing I've ever heard. That's so unique and fun. And I can see where that could be the next, the responsibility people have being first generation Americans to do something like that. Come in and share that. Share your family's. Wow. Yeah, because I think to me, the things that really get me excited about food are the things that I've never had. And it's like, I want to learn. I know that there's so much more to eat in this world. And there will always be those classic things that I think are going to be delicious no matter what. It's like, give me a ham and cheese sandwich every day.

45:56Great, love it. A beautiful plate of pasta. It's going to be great. But if I'm able to learn something new, that gets me really excited. Me too. And it's like, there was one time I was watching this, I don't know if you ever watched Mark Wiens on YouTube, but he's a American vlogger that lives in Thailand and just goes around and eats street food everywhere. And he was- This sounds delicious. Yeah, and so he was in Thailand, that's where he lives, in Southern part. And he's showing this, it's a street vendor that does grilled chicken. And the name of the dish they make is Gai Go Le. And so how they did it was, it's kind of a butterflied chicken on bamboo sticks. And they're cooking it over live fire charcoal. And then after the chicken's like a third of the way cooked, they dip it in this sauce that's made with coconut milk, dried red chilies, galangal and peanuts and palm sugar. And then they put it back on the grill and then they kind of let it crust a little bit.

46:58Then they dip it back in the sauce and put it back on. You're just developing these layers and layers and layers and layers of flavor. And I'm looking at that dish and I'm like, this looks so good. And how come I've never heard of it? Like there's somewhere out there. Like there's no way this is bad. No. And how come it's not on every Thai menu in the world? Or like, at least how come there's not a few people that do it? And so then I just kind of, you know, I made a version of it at home and I'm eating it. I'm like, man, this is so good. And, you know, I felt that way about gai yang as well, you know, which is a grilled chicken. And now Chris and Emma do it over at SS Guy. You took the words out of my mouth. I was like, I'm so happy that they're doing that. Chris and Emma literally were on their honeymoon in Thailand and they had this fried chicken and they said, we need to serve this in America. That's right. Unique fried chicken. And then now they have SS Guy. Like that's a whole, it's a thing. So Chris make gai go le too.

47:58Chris make me, yeah. And hey, they're gonna, I'm sure they're gonna have a big brick and mortar here before you know it. They're gonna do all kinds of fun things. Hey, we're gonna take a short break to hear a word from our sponsors. We are talking about bravazzi, hard Italian soda. Yes, bravazzi and it rhymes with grazzi, bravazzi. It is made with real fruit juice, cane sugar and nothing artificial. It is gluten-free. It's great out of the can, over ice or mixed in a cocktail. Now, this sounds like it is something that is imported because it is an Italian soda, but it is not. It is made right here in Nashville in the nations. It has an award-winning flavor, perfect amount of sweetness crafted in the Italian tradition. This is distributed by best brands right here in Nashville, Tennessee and contact best brands for distribution. This is also served in a can.

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51:08Campo 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. I think I read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and there was two moments in that book which changed my life for food and I think I read it 20 years ago and I feel like it was 20 years ago where he said, the gazpacho, he said, this soup is cold, send it back. And he said, no, this soup is cold. And he was like, what, like soup isn't cold. He said, this soup is cold. And he goes, and my mind was blown because I didn't believe that soup could be cold. Like who came up with this crazy idea that you're serving cold soup? And I felt that. I felt that like what things in my life do I just believe have to be this way in food that could be completely different?

52:13That's right. What am I missing? Where is there more of these examples? And the other one was when he was on the boat in France when he was a kid and the boat goes out, they pull the oysters out of the, the low tide goes down, the boat sits on the ground. He pulls the oysters out, nobody would eat one. And he was like, I'll give it a shot. And he goes, and it was delicious. And I'd go, how many times do we look at something and say, I wouldn't eat that. When you've never eaten, like eat everything once. No, for yourself. I have small children that are eight and 10 and every time I go, you'll love that. And they go, I don't like that. And I go, how do you know? I don't know, I just look, I know I don't like it. And you're like, how do I change that behavior in you and get you excited? But that for me, I made a declaration that I will never, I will eat anything one time and try it and love it. And that's one of the funnest things about travel to me. Yeah, totally. Is going, I hear people go, well, we went to McDonald's in this city. Like, what? It baffles me.

53:17I remember, yeah. Where do you like to travel to? What's the last place you went that you got to eat something amazing? Yeah, so. Do you travel a lot? I wish I could do it more. So I had a great trip to Mexico City in June of last year. And I think that's like, it's one of the most exciting food cities that I've ever been to. And it was kind of interesting. I was actually in New York, like two days before that. And when I was looking at all the places I should go to in New York, it's like nothing was really grabbing me. And there's always great places. I always go eat pizza every day, every time I'm there. There's a host of great restaurants, but there wasn't anything grabbing me. And when I went to Mexico City, I couldn't decide where to go because there were so many places. I was like, I gotta go to everything. Everything. And there was a great little restaurant, it's called M-E-M.

54:20And the chef there is a guy named Lucho Martinez, who actually has roots from Nashville. Really? Yeah, and so he lived here until he was like 15 and then moved back to Mexico. And it's like, he has this amazing tasting menu. And it was really funny because my fiance, Sheila, we went there at 730, which is, in Nashville, that's a prime time reservation. And we started eating the food and it is delicious. And I'm like, how is this place not packed? 10 o'clock at night. And then as we're getting to dessert, it's completely packed at 930 because no one eats at 730 because that's like the geriatric hour over there. Hey, every time, I love every time I make a reservation, it's like all I have is five o'clock and I'm like, fantastic. That's exactly when I wanna eat. I can get in, I can get home before, I can be in bed. I feel geriatric sometimes. Yeah, but Mexico City's great. And then I usually get to LA at least once or twice a year. My sister lives out there. What part? So she lives in Lamarck Park. Okay, so in LA, LA, not like, some people say LA because I'm from Orange County originally.

55:23Well, I was gonna say it's interesting because I grew up in Laguna Beach area, Laguna Hills, but like, you know, grandparents lived in Newport. My other grandparents lived in Huntington and we were in Laguna, right? So I mean, you're talking Orange County beach cities, grew up going to 52nd Street off of Newport. You know, like that's just where I was. So when I moved to Nashville, I was nine years old. And I was wearing like Stussy clothes. You know what I mean? That was like my, I was a little surfer kid. And I got here and it was like culture shock for me because I was made fun of. Like I was called Stussy for a long time because my clothes weren't the same clothes. Now we wore Duckhead and I'm like, what the fuck is Duckhead? I don't understand Duckhead. But like, I was an outsider. I wasn't a Tennessean. And, but there's still, there's a lot of similarities and I was, it was a whole thing because I wasn't one of them. And I think eventually you grow into it and you learn everybody.

56:23But it was interesting because I felt that similarly in the South from coming from the West coast. Different food too. Yes. You know, I never had grits. People called my mom Linda. They didn't, there was no, yes ma'am. There was no any of that. It was a different deal. It's a lot of fun. Oh man, I could go 42 different directions. Let's talk about Taylor for a second. Okay. Let's talk about fun things. You have a January, February, March menu. That is your winter menu. Yes. It is the end of March. When this comes out, it will be April. When is our spring menu heading? It's April 4th. So like now, when people are listening, it's like, it's out now. Yeah, it's out now. You need to go eat the spring menu. Any highlights on there? Anything cool that you're changing? Anything neat that we need to know about? Yeah. I can't give too much away yet, you know, but it kind of follows our teaser. Yeah, I'll say it follows like our general style. Well, I said this will come out after, the menus will be out when this comes out. Oh, menus will be out, yeah. So you can, So I could taste some stuff.

57:24You can say, you can go tomorrow and eat this. I think the, you know, with Taylor, it's, for me, it's all about the experience as a whole, right? So we really tried to keep it like coming to a friend's house for a dinner party. So when you walk in, you're actually in the living room. You don't see the kitchen or the dining room when you first walk in. Okay. And we wanted to treat it that way. Cause if you go to a friend's house, you're not just, you don't just immediately go to the dining table and sit down. You hang out in the living room. You might have a drink. You're having some little cocktail snacks, charcuterie board, and you're just, you know, catching up, getting to know, you know, catching up, meeting people, all that kind of stuff. Kind of like a Bastion Big Bar thing. Yeah, kind of like Bastion Big Bar, you know, and, you know, but it's just like a place where you can just grab a drink and kind of hang out there for a little bit. And to me, like the living room, we also worked on that design a lot. And so we wanted people to be able to spend time there a little bit before a meal or after a meal. And then we kind of have this other moment. So when the host comes and grabs you and is like, okay, it's time to go to the table, right? We open these doors and you walk into the dining room and you see this, you know, it's a beautiful, you know, chandelier that my dad bought from an antique shop in 1993 off of Nolensville Road.

58:35It's a beautiful chandelier. And you're just able to see that. And you walk in, you get to see the dining room and all the, you know, the kitchen, all the chefs are kind of working on those first couple of dishes. And you sit down and, you know, the reason why we call it a dinner party is, you know, you have your own individual table, right? Sometimes a lot of people are like, oh, am I going to sit with strangers? And it's like, no, we have, everything's a two top so we can make it into whatever. But it's like, you sit at your own table and, you know, when you're seated, we greet it and we get you something to eat almost immediately. Because my grandmother's hospitality was whenever somebody come to our house, she had a snack in front of you before you sat down on the couch, you know? And there's always like something to eat and we kind of get you settled. And then like, I'll come out and I'll start saying, you know, I'll kind of give the spiels is what I call them. And so it's just- You do personally? Yeah, personally, yeah. To every table? To the whole room. To the whole, okay, so you do like seatings. So I get like a champagne glass and, you know, kind of ding, ding, ding kind of situation. And it's a whole like presentation on the restaurant, what it is and the first couple of dishes.

59:37And then we introduce the whole team. So that way, you know, it's like throughout the night, if anybody needs anything from any member of the team, it's like, everybody knows, you know, it's like you get to hear who everybody else, everybody is. And then, you know, and then we'll sit down and then the food starts coming out. And then as courses come in, like I'll start again and I'll talk a little bit about the dishes and tell you the context behind them. And, you know, like we were talking on our call a little bit earlier, I call it a songwriter night, but for food, you know? And it's just this idea of giving context into these dishes. And as we mentioned a little bit earlier too, we sometimes Indian food can be very intimidating. So we're like, can we, from a model standpoint, make it more approachable? And the idea was, hey, just come into the dinner party, come have a drink, sit down, here's some snacks, you know? Like this is a very safe place. And when it comes to making decisions about food, you don't have to, right? So your experience sitting down, like you don't sit down and have to look at a menu and have a server come up and be like, hey, are you ready to order?

01:00:39Or, hey, let me tell you about the specials or, you know, it's like you just, you want to sit down and you want to connect with the person that you're with or the people that you're with, right? And sometimes that might be five, 10 minutes of just, hey, we're just catching up. Like we haven't even looked at a menu yet. And it's like, you don't have to because the food's already there, you know? And you can start kind of having that experience where it's like, you're coming to dinner to be there with your friends. You're not coming to dinner to make a bunch of decisions and feel shame or guilt. I mean, so many people, when they look at a menu and there's a price or something, they make decisions based on this and they're on a date and they don't want to look cheap or they don't want, if you can just sit down and food just starts coming, you don't have, there's none of that. There's no weird emotions around any of that awkward, well, do you want to do the eight ounce steak or the 12 ounce steak? Like, I don't really want a 12 ounce, but if I say eight, I'm going to look cheap? Like what do you, like there's so many dynamics involved with that that you've just eradicated. Yeah, we just took it out. And so that way, like when people eat, they're able to try things that maybe they wouldn't have ordered.

01:01:43You know, we always tell them to like, just trust us. You know, it's like, you're going to get enough food by the end of it, you know? It's like, if somebody needs to eat a cheeseburger after Taylor, that's a whole nother set of issues. Yeah, people have lots of food. But the idea is like, we want to share that story. And to me, Taylor was, is the restaurant that I always wanted to go to, right? And so whenever I went to a tasting menu, you know, many times the dishes were great, but sometimes I might've just, you know, that somebody might've introduced the dish and be like, hey, this is asparagus with lobster and morels. And then they walk away and you're like, cool. How did you, how'd you get there, you know? And sometimes it'd be really nice. Like if you got a chef, that would explain it, right? So one time, you know, like I would say Josh Haberger always did it really well at Catford. And one time he was telling, you know, it was like this little salad. And he was like, it's inspired by gin and tonic. And so, you know, and, or he had one and he was like, he's like, you know, when you think about it, all these elements, it's kind of like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And he's taking these like nostalgic elements and building it in there. Or somebody could say, hey, like I spent a year trying to perfect this recipe and I learned it from this person.

01:02:48And you know, it means so much to me to be able to do this. And so I think like, once you get a little bit of context into the meal, that to me was always very valuable because then it made the dish taste better because I knew where it was coming from. And at the same time, it's like, as you get context into a meal, you're also then trying things that maybe you've never had before. Because looking at a menu, this is a different language. I don't speak this, I don't know what this is. It might not be good, but it's almost like a song. If I see a song that's titled Devil's Hot Pants, I might not listen to it. But when I hear the songwriter explain to me that the day they wrote that song, whatever the situation was, it makes me go, oh, that's really interesting. I kind of want to hear that song now. So it's a similar kind of a vibe of understanding. It's just about understanding. Yeah. Really? Yeah. And I feel like also sometimes it's a little bit insider-y too. Like I felt like, you know, it's like, as I started to become friends with chefs and people would open restaurants, it's like in the industry, you kind of go to the restaurant and then the chef or somebody will come out and be like, all right, how hungry are you?

01:03:56You know, it's like you coming in here for a snack or you coming in here for a couple of dishes you want us to crush you. And they would pick all the dishes that they think are the best ones. Yeah. Right? And so you kind of get that cool experience of like, hey, like, you know, it's like, I'm getting everything that they think is the best thing that I should be having right now. I love those dinner experiences. Those are the best. And I get some of those sometimes. I know you do too. I don't think the general public does, but you're doing it for the general public. You're doing these dishes and you're the same thing like the cat burglary in those places. They just serve, I love you. I love this. I'm so excited. I'm like, I just think it's so original and it's so, it makes so much, I'm a logic guy. Yeah. Like it makes so much sense to me. Like, well, yeah, eat that way. It's plus I also like, I love the idea of getting food on the table immediately. Yes. I say this to my service staff always, like we don't do food like that, but I don't care what you, if somebody sits down, they need to have a drink in front of them like yesterday.

01:05:06Yes. Because you can't get settled until you're settled and you don't feel comfortable until you have like your things around you. Yeah. And when you put a drink in front of somebody, they go, now I have a drink. They calm down. That's right. But you can't have that lag. No. That's a no interaction. Yeah. But it's like, there's that, oh, it's something like, here's your drink. Like, okay, I'm good. Now, hey, now I can wait 10 minutes before I get food. But if you put food there too, now they're snacking on something. Anybody that hangriness? Yes. The hangriness kind of goes away. Gone. And now you don't have, now it's like a, all right, can we all chill out? It's like you're already comfortable at that point. Yeah. And that's so different than 99% of every other restaurant because that's just not the way it works. That's right. I'm just fascinated. I'm sorry. I'm just over here going, that makes so much sense. That's where some of that non-restaurant background, I think, really helped me because it's like I really came to the concept as a consumer. Well, so this is another thing I will jump into.

01:06:08I asked you earlier today. I said, what restaurants did you work at coming up? Like, where did you stage at? Or like, what did you, then you go, I didn't. I did these pop-ups in the middle of the pandemic. And then I, or beginning of the, was it? No, it was 2011. Okay, it was way before the pandemic. Oh yeah, way before the pandemic. We were talking flood time. Flood, yeah, we're talking flood time where my brain was. Yeah. But you're doing these pop-ups and that was your only experience in restaurants. So you did this completely outside of the typical restaurant playbook of opening the doors and negotiating with all the vendors and full hands in, full hands out, hot food, hot, cold. This was a bring family in. We're gonna start doing this. I'm gonna just, if I was a consumer, this is what I would love. And being a first generation American wanting to share this culture with people, this is the way our culture does it. This is how we're gonna do it. And then you execute it. That's right. And it works.

01:07:10Yeah. Most of the time. What do you think of this industry? Yeah. I mean, do you get people that come in and are just like, I hate this. I don't wanna do this. Or I wanna order what I wanna order and I don't want you to pick my food or they just can't handle the concept? Yeah. So I think a lot of times people will say, hey, this is great. When are you gonna open a real restaurant? That's an interesting comment. Yeah. And what is your response to that? So I say that, one, it is a real restaurant. Yeah. And two, I think that, in my just social study of restaurants and chefs, it's like the industry is so hard and so challenging and there's so many moving pieces. And you see people talking about the results of that so much, whether it's addiction, whether it's burnout, whether it's failure, like relationship failure, like business, personal life failures and all that kind of stuff.

01:08:16And I'm like, you can also create a restaurant where you can try to eliminate those things. And not necessarily eliminate, but stop creating more of the situations that lead to those addictions and attributes and things like that. What do you think those situations are? So I think that I feel like having that burden of being open all the time. So it's like, you should be open for breakfast, lunch, dinner, you should be doing catering to go, just the total workload. Christmas Eve, Easter, Thanksgiving. Yeah, everything. I think it is people encouraging chefs with very, I would say now it's like the old ways, but the bad behaviors, throwing pots and cooks and yelling at everybody and all that kind of stuff, which I also just think now is just bad business. It's terrible. It's like having a culture where it's like, the whole team is just like, they closed down the restaurant and they're just drinking there for the rest of the night type of stuff.

01:09:21And I think like also owners who are not there to support their teams, that they're more about the guests. And I think it's okay to be about the guests, but I think in a restaurant it's even more important that you're there to build a good team and that you're there to support your team. And so I feel like there's all these legacies of the restaurant business that just from seeing it, I'm like, that's not a way to build a real business. And I was like, if we can create this culture where people come in and they feel valued and they feel like they're contributing to what the dinner experience is and they feel like they're supported by us. It's like those are, that to me is how you really build a restaurant. A restaurant is just part of the fabric of the community. We're trying to share food that we love to make, food that comes from our culture. And we wanna make sure that as much as it is a place for guests to leave happier than when they came in, we also need them to make it a place where our employees feel happier.

01:10:25And seen and that they're good enough and that. That's right, that they have value, that they have agency, that it's like, I love it when the cooks will come to me and they'll have a suggestion on how to make a dish better. And I tell them, I was like, tell me that all the time. I was like, my only answer is gonna be yes, no, and let's think about it. Sure. And sometimes I might say, hey, I don't love that because it goes away from the culture a little bit. But that's not to say it was a bad idea. I think two things, I'm gonna say two things, two comments just from a typical restaurant guy. Sure. Number one, I think we need to normalize and we need more people who make this their career. I think we need to have more retirements from the industry, celebrating people who have been somewhere for a really long time, which means employers offering all the benefits and retirement plans. Like 401Ks, we're offering you, we'll match. We want you to work here for 20 years and then we wanna throw you a big retirement party where you have all this money and you can go retire.

01:11:32That's a real job. We just launched our 401K plan at the beginning of February. I think we've won also, but my thing is I want people to work here for 20. I want this to be a very real job. The idea that this is a part-time thing I'm just gonna do for a little while is fine for anybody that wants to do that, but I also want people to know that this is a really good career. You can make a lot of money for, a lot of money doing, and people care about you. Now, the other side is you have to actually care about your people. You do, yeah. And I think that this industry working individual shifts is trauma. I think what we do on a daily basis is trauma to a degree. In a standard restaurant setting, maybe not so much in yours because it sounds like it's very chill. Like there's a, we're not, I don't have 100 people staggered over the next 25 minutes, greeting tables, and then all these tickets coming in and all the, it's very frenetic and crazy.

01:12:33Yes. But you have to realize that we all go from a very normal, relative state of we're getting ready, maybe you have earbuds and you're kind of getting, you're listening to John Mayer and you're filling salt and tea. And then before you know it, you're hair on fire. And I've got four tables and I've got this guy's mad at me because the kitchen's doing this and I just had a guy scream at me and this, and oh my God, and then I was just trying to put something in the computer and the server called me a bitch. And like, what the fuck happened there? And it's swearing and it's high intensity. Yes. And at the end of that shift, I don't think, I think that we need to circle back and do a lineup at the end of the day. If you're a leader in these scenarios, I think you need to go and talk to every person before you leave and say, hey, it got a little intense earlier. Are you okay? Can we talk about it? Yeah. Because it's okay to talk through trauma. I don't want you leaving the building feeling this way because the answer, the solution that 90% of people know that's easy and effective and inexpensive is alcohol.

01:13:36Yeah. It's drugs. It's something that will numb this feeling of trauma that I don't want to feel anymore. And it's rinse and repeat before you know that all you know, the only learned behavior I have is, yeah, that's just the way it is. You normalize that trauma and then the way you get rid of it is you go drinking. But if you can stop the trauma or normalize that, hey, it's okay to not be okay. Let's talk about it. Emotions are okay to have. Let's talk about it. So you don't feel the need to go drink to norm. I think it's just so big at the end of the shift, the mental state that you leave the restaurant in to me is so vital. Yes. And we do nothing. We do nothing to address it because everyone wants to get the fuck out of there and nobody wants to do the thing. So we just leave. Yeah. But why don't we circle back? Get the floors mopped. Yeah, like you're just like, get the squeegees out, get the dish closed down. That was crazy, let's go. But like, hey, earlier, I think that we gotta go back and say, I got a little crazy earlier.

01:14:38I was a little intense. If you're a leader, you gotta come up and say, I'm sorry, I was very direct in that moment. Was I, I didn't mean that in any kind of way or whatever it might be. Are you okay? I think we have to be asking those questions. That's what I hear when I think we have to really look into our employees and genuinely care how they feel and what they're doing. And then they can come back the next day and feel refreshed. And I feel security and I feel safe that if something happens again, there's a leader in this building who cares, who's willing to listen and help me work through it. That's right. Because it's not just what can they do for you. It's what can you do for them. How do we do this together? That's really the more important part of it, I think. 100%. Is that we are always looking at like, hey, here's your job description. Make sure you do this, get your line checks done, get your prep list done, make sure the team's ready, get the cleaning. It's also, we need to be like, all right, well, what are your goals? And what do you want out of this? And if you want to learn how to run a restaurant, how can I help teach you that thing? If you just want to learn, hey, I want to learn a small thing, like, hey, I want to learn ordering, or, hey, I want to learn how to butcher a fish.

01:15:44Great, tell me those things because I want to give that value to you as well. 100%. And some people are like, I don't care. I want a paycheck and I want to leave. Yeah, that's right, which is okay. And that's okay too. I love that. As we continue to grow, I have a leadership development team. The first Tuesday of every month, we all meet and we go over numbers and I answer, it's round table. We all ask questions. I'm like, you guys want to be leaders in these buildings, let's talk about it. Everything's transparent, fully transparent, and let's talk about, was there a situation that you came up with that we can talk about together? Because that's how you develop people. You have to have these tough conversations or at least let them in on these things, and it's open to anybody that wants to come. That's great. Anybody wants to come? That's great. It's always good because I think sometimes, when I look at a business, I'm not looking necessarily at the day. If it's a one day metric, cool, but it doesn't mean that much to me. Everything can happen in a day.

01:16:45Because I want to see it over a month, I want to see it over three months, I might want to see it over a year. Sustainability. And so I think showing that to a lot of the, it's like, the reason why you become a manager is because you're really good at the job that you do, and then you get promoted. But your job is not to do the job. It's now to manage the people who are doing the job. And so that requires another set of skills. And within that, it's like, sometimes somebody might look at it, look at a day and be like, oh shit, we were only 20% full. We made this much money. Our labor was skyrocketed. And it's like, okay, that was one day. But now take a look at that over a month, three months, six months, right? And then you can start analyzing the trends a little bit better. That sometimes we're gonna have peaks and valleys in this business. It's like, for us, that week in January where it snowed, and we had to close for four days, it's like, well. What do you, shit. It just happens. It just happens. I can't judge my whole performance off of that. It's a part of it. And it's gonna throw off, for us, it'll throw off a full quarter because it's one full week. 100%.

01:17:45But it's like, if you're able to see beyond that. And that's a skill that also I think has to be learned because sometimes people will look at numbers when they're exposed to them. And they might be like, oh, God, we lost $50,000 this month. And it's like, that's not good. But it's like, okay, but that might've been because you were closed. And if you had made your 50 grand in that week, maybe now you're closer to break even. There's a lot of less. It takes a long time of looking at numbers every single day and then looking at them weekly, then looking at them by period. And we do 13, 28 day periods and then monthly, quarterly to really, it takes some time. It takes some time. And if you're a new manager, it takes a mentor. You need somebody to kind of walk you through those peaks and valleys because you know, you know when you look at a P&L, you can go, the reason why the da-da-da-da-da-da-da, every little thing on every line out of maybe utilities is one of the, did you leave the burners on?

01:18:49There's not one thing that's gonna be doing it, but no, I love that. It's really interesting. What's one thing you look for? Like what's your favorite trait in an employee? If you're looking to hire somebody or if you're cloning an employee, what's the number one thing you would look for? So I think I'm changing on this right now. I would say when we first opened, I was looking for somebody that was a student of food. So it wasn't somebody who was that was like, hey, I know it all. And like, yeah, I know how to do this. Yeah, I know how to do that. It's what do you spend your time? You know, it's like, what do you do professionally? Like, I'm a cookbook. It's like, okay, what do you do outside of that? It's like, oh, I read cookbooks. And then I watch these YouTube channels about it. And then I listen to these podcasts. And we have like our culinary director, her name's Ali Evans. She's been with me since pretty much started on like Valentine's week, our first year of being open. So maybe six weeks after we were open, she came in and has really like not just an amazing chef, but just has also become one of my best friends.

01:19:54And it's like Ali is just constantly looking for all this different information, right? She's like, I'm listening to this podcast about this one little community in China where they make this thing. And, or does like deep dives on like ingredients and stuff like that. And she is one of the most talented chefs I've ever met. And yet she still spends like, and she grew up in restaurants. Her dad actually used to own Rio Bravo over on West End. And so, you know, but like she will just, whole life is all about food. And how can we learn this little thing? And when she goes to travel, like, you know, she went to what's called Curacao over the break. And she came back with this condiment called Pica, which is like onions with a bunch of lime juice and chilies. And then she was like, can we put this on the menu? You know, it's like started working on a dish and like it had the Pica on there. And like that will be, yeah, that'll be on the menu. That's a new thing that she found. And so I always look for that. But I think, you know, now I still look for that.

01:20:56But now it's like, I think five years in, I'm more, I know the type of person I need. And that changes based on the position, right? So what I look for in a GM versus, you know, an executive chef versus a line cook versus a server are different things, you know? But now it's like, okay, like can you align with what our vision is, right? And it's not just that I want, you know, I feel like earlier on, I was looking for people with skill sets, random ones, and like just trying to put everybody together and hopefully it would work. Now we have a much more clear vision of like, this is what the restaurant needs to be. Core values? And these are kind of core values, but more, I think, just mission. Mission, mission vision. Core values and it's like, you know, we're like, this is the type of person that we want to work here. And this is the function that we need them to perform in this position. And, you know, sometimes that might be, okay, like if our, like Chef de Cuisine, for example, is a little bit more of a creative and a cook and an artist, right?

01:21:59Then their support person, the SOO, needs to be the numbers, Excel spreadsheet, like, you know, like you can't have two of those in the same position. Even though I might love them both as people, you know, it's like, you need to balance those different skill sets so that way you're getting the maximum performance from the team, especially when our team is so small. But if they both possess insatiable curiosity, then one will be curious and wonder, oh, wonder around the food, and one will do that around the numbers. Yeah, they're like, how does it, yeah, it's like, this is what we want? Great, how do we do it? Yeah, I mean, I think that, that's the word, I think, insatiable curiosity or I'm just constantly wanting to learn more. I think that's the, and I like awe and wonder too. I like wonder is a word that to me kind of is that insatiable curiosity because finding something that's brand new and having that sense of just like, wow, try this, this is new, this is great, this is something I've never had, that dish you were describing, the layered thing, like there's some wonder in that.

01:23:03Like, I just wanna know what that tastes like. I wanna put that in my mouth and I wanna experience all of those things. Like, those are things I love finding in somebody in an interview, I love having an interview and I don't expect much out of it and then you get that out of it and I'm like, this person's gonna fit so well, they're gonna be great. And then when it does, it's just magic. That is magic. How many people do you have on your team? We have 11. The whole restaurant. Whole restaurant. 11 people. 11 people. Wow. That's incredible. Yeah. I'm so fascinated by it. Yeah, it's a tight group and it's, for me, I felt like just model-wise, it's like, I feel like traditional restaurants, you don't know who's coming in, you don't know what they're gonna order and you don't know who to staff because you don't know who's coming in and what they're gonna order and it's largely a guessing game and I think some people are very, very good at the guessing game. But for me, I was like, that was a tough thing for me to do as a business and so I was like, you know what?

01:24:06What if I can make all those variables into controls? And so, you know, it's like for us, we know exactly who's coming in, we know exactly what their dietary restrictions are, we know exactly what they're gonna order and we know what to staff because we know those first two things. You know what to prep, you know how much to prep. We have virtually zero waste because if we have 50 people on the books, we make enough food for 50 people. Oh, you don't have to go, well, I've got 26 menu items, I might sell three short ribs tonight, two filets, 10 prime ribs, who knows? Yeah, all that guessing game, we don't have to do. Oh man, that's amazing. I mean, there's P mix as you can look at trends and you know, but not really. But not really. But not really, I mean, there's not. Because like in Nashville, it could be one day where it's like, you might have a hundred people on the books and torrential downpour and you end up with 10. Well, yeah, I mean, or yeah, I think that's why one of the reasons why we do so many events, especially at Maribor because it's, I know what I'm doing. Yes. Events are so great because I can say I know I'm serving this many of this tonight and it's easy.

01:25:07And we do basically an event. Every night. Every night. Are you open to lunch? No, just dinner. Only for dinner. And you do two seatings? Yeah, it's Thursday through Sunday. One seating at six, one seating at 8.30. Wow. I'm so like, I wanna, I'm embarrassed that I haven't gone in there and done this because this is so my wheelhouse. I know a guy that can get you a reservation. Well, it's so my wheelhouse. This is what I love the most about this industry is what did you do before this? So what got, what did you, yeah, what did you do before this? So much random stuff. So right after college, I worked in politics. And so I worked. What did you do in politics? Yeah, so funny enough, I was, I worked on Fred Thompson's presidential campaign. The big red truck. The big red truck, you know, and most people might know him because he's a diehard too. He's the airport-like control guy. Yeah. And then I think he was on law and order for a while as well.

01:26:07He was on law and order for a long time. He was also a senator, a Tennessee senator, ran for president in 2008. And so I never thought of myself as a Republican, but one day, you know, it's like my dad was like, hey, it's a presidential election and his office is right down the street. And so their office was at the fall school right off of Edge Hill and 12th. So now the Church of Scientology, but before that, I think it had like Lamar Alexander's office was in there. Fred Thompson's office was there and- Right next to the old Greer Stadium. Yeah, right next to the old Greer Stadium, yep. And, you know, so it's like, I was like, okay, cool. And I was like, you know, I'm into it. And so, you know, basically spent the first six months just getting phone lists and calling people and telling them to come to rallies and started helping out with fundraising events and got to travel to Iowa and do the Iowa caucuses out there. Went to South Carolina. And then after Fred dropped out of the race, then I moved to DC and worked with the RNC for a little bit in their major donor fundraising. And like, you know, like it was cool. Like I got to go to the White House for the signing of the India-U.S.

01:27:09like civil nuclear agreement. Got to go like take my parents there to the White House for Christmas. George W. Bush wished me happy Diwali one time. You know, it's like, it was just a fun, it was a fun little experience, you know. And, you know, of course that was the year Obama won. So then, you know, everybody got fired. And, you know, it's like came back home. And when I came back home, started like started a food blog was interested in cooking at the time, but didn't know much about it. But, you know, it's like, you know, there were a few food bloggers back then. And so started doing that. And then after a couple of years of the blogging, I was like, you know what, like I love writing recipes or I don't love writing recipes, but I love this food community. And how can I showcase it through events rather than a recipe? And so I decided to do this dinner club. I threw the first one at my parents' house in 2011. There were like five or six guests that were there. And, you know, it's like, I just made dinner. And, you know, we got to sit down and we got to talk about it.

01:28:09And after a while, you know, we, after three or four of them moved to the Nashville Farmers Market, I was just having lunch in there one day. And Laura Wilson came and sat down next to me. And she was like, you know, they had just redone the farmers market and created the Grow Local Kitchen. Laura was in charge of it. And she was like, well, why don't you do the dinners here? And I was like, well, I don't really know how to do that, but can you help me? And she said, yeah, if you do it once a month, I can help you. Because at the time, you know, Laura had just had her son Porter and had just gotten out of restaurants. You know, I think it was Oombe and Lippe. Oombe and Lippe. Oombe and Lippe. With her and Kim. Yeah, Kim Totsky. Yeah. And before that, she was at the Wild Iris in Brentwood. Yeah. And Kim was kind of there, but they'd been together for a really long time. Oh yeah, yeah. They were like cooking partners, yeah. Yeah, I remember Oombe, Lippe. I remember they did a 420 party with Normal and they did a whole hog. And she introduced me to truffle popcorn. Oh, well, yeah. Did you go to Oombe, Lippe?

01:29:10That little tiny little spot? I never got to go. It was while I was in college, you know, so I was still more of a Qdoba man than that back then. Well, it was right next to Qdoba. It was real close to Qdoba, yeah. And so, you know, started working with Laura and started doing events like once a month at the Nashville Farmers Market. And that's kind of how we started. And, you know, it's like now it's like we look at it and it was for all intents and purposes, Nashville's first pop-up restaurant. You know, it's like, it was kind of right at the time like me, and then it was Nick Pellegrino was doing manja out in City Cafe. And, you know, and then there was like a vegan supper club that kind of went around different houses in East Nashville. But like, that was like the beginning of pop-ups in this town. And so, you know, just kind of like kept up with it, doing it once a month. And then maybe a couple of years later, 2013 is when there was like a big boom of Nashville restaurants. So, this is like the original 404 kitchen, Lachlan Table, Rolf and Daughters is maybe like a year or two old at that point. You know, it's like there's just all these awesome places.

01:30:12The good old days. That start to open up. And so, a lot of those guys were my friends and they would let me take over the space on a different, you know, on a day that they were closed. So, it's like, you know, we did dinners at 404. We would do it at Biscuit Love. We did a couple with Tony and Caroline at 51st Kitchen. Oh, with the OG? Yeah, did one at City House. Did one with Jeremy Barlow when he was at Taste. You know, and so like, there were like so many like fun and cool events and- Oh my, the memories I'm having- That we used to do and- You just talking about these places. Yeah, and then I started working at the Nashville Wine Auction. And so- Lette de Vin? Yeah, Lette de Vin, yeah. And, you know, they were kind of in a state where the organization's been around for a long time. And, you know, it's like every nonprofit, they need to start getting new donors at some point. You know, and so they're like, all right, cool. Like, can we start, you know, doing some younger events, getting some younger people in there? And, you know, it was such a fun time because that's when all these chefs were opening the restaurants.

01:31:13So, I was like, you know what? Instead of just selling wine, let's sell these experiences. So, it's like, we'll have, you know, Matt Bull has come cook. We're gonna put it at like this awesome house and we're gonna sell this, and we're gonna serve this awesome wine with the winemaker, you know? And those were just like really cool experiences that we were able to create. And being able to kind of do those events while at the same time kind of doing my own was a really great learning experience. And then, you know, 2017 came around and then I started really making more money on my supper club than I was at my job and started doing that a little bit more. So, I started adding onto private events and looking for a space and, you know, it's like I was talking to a lot of people about spaces and, you know, back then, you know, everything was like 20, $21 a square foot and I was like, man, that is so expensive. And I was like, you know, everything was like 5,000 square feet and people are like, you know, you need to be open breakfast, lunch, dinner, all this kind of stuff. And I'm like, man, I really don't, I don't know how to do all that. And, you know, but what I do know how to do is the supper club concept where, you know, I would charge a ticket for people to come in.

01:32:17It was five courses, five cocktails. And, you know, it's like, we also, we tried a few different models, but I was like, you know, that one was a great one and I know how to operate that. But I would love to stop schlepping all my stuff all over town. And so if I could have like a thousand square foot space where I could do something, that would be great. And at the time, like there just weren't thousand square foot spaces available. Like everything was 3,500, 5,000, 6,000 square feet. And then I actually got a call, this is an interesting connection. It's my cousin's husband's cousin. Cousins, husband's cousin, okay. Her name is Misty, she lives here in town. And so, which is a fun little coincidence. So Misty calls me one day and she's like, hey, Vivek, did you know that I think Kuchni and Keller is about to close? And I was like, there's no way. I was like, I was just there. I was like, you know, that place is great. And she's like, no, she's like, I'm trying to do my husband's birthday party. And I tried to book it and they were like, you know, hey, we're not telling a lot of people, but you know, next week we have to announce that it's shutting down.

01:33:20And I was like, oh, it's like, you know, that sucks because I love that place and it was so great. And, but I knew the landlords of that building through high school. And so then I called them and I was like, hey, like what's happening? Any chance, like if there's something to do there, you know, is it a possibility? And so they were like, hey, got your message. Give us 48 hours, we'll call you back. I was like, okay. So then they call me back at 48 hours and they're like, all right, here's what's happening. So they're like, Kuchina is leaving. Tandy Wilson's coming in and he's gonna open up Mop and Broom mess hall in the front. But he wants to lease out the bottom dining room. And they were like, that's about 30 seats. And they're like, it's probably 1200 square feet. You were like. And so I was like, awesome. That's what I need. And so they were like, all right, let's talk to Tandy. Let's see, let's see, you know, if he's okay with it. And so I talked to Tandy, you know, immediately called me back and they were like, yeah, they were like, Tandy would love to have you in there. Let's sit down and let's figure out how we can make this work. And so basically we opened in the back of Mop and Broom.

01:34:22You know, it's like Tandy and I, I think first talked in like August, then October we got the lease signed and then December we opened. And that was December, 2018. And that was it. So then Tandy left, Mop Broom mess left. And then, I don't know why I can't think of his name right now. Yeah, St. Stephen. St. Stephen went in there and you left. Yeah, we left about two years later. So basically, you know, it's like, St. Stephen came in in 2019. And then, you know, we were open for basically a year, then pandemic. And so we shut down for four, four months. And then we reopened in August. And then kind of went until, and then we were there for another year. But in that year is when I started looking for different spaces. Just to see, you know, because we had a short term lease there anyway.

01:35:24And you know, it's like for me, it's like the first go around was really just like, can this work? Yeah. You know, and we didn't have like a ton of money. You know, it was just kind of like a, luckily it was like a very, it was all already built out space. We just shared the kitchen. We had to put some tables and chairs and kind of do the legal paperwork. And we were ready to go. Do you get along with RJ okay? You know, I think ups and downs, you know, just like any roommate relationship. But I think like, you know, it's like, not, you know, it's like, I would, you know, there's no relationship there, there now, but you know, it's like, you know, when you have that situation where it's like one restaurant's moving out and somebody else is moving in and, you know, you just kind of got to deal with it in that, you know, in that environment. And you know, we were always off to our side and we were, you know, it's like, we do our stuff, you do your stuff. And yeah, we're under the same roof, but we're just, you know, two separate concepts at that point. Interesting, cause you and Tandy weren't that way. You guys were friends. Yeah. You guys worked together like in, cause in this industry, in this hospitality of what we do, everybody kind of knows each other.

01:36:28It's interesting, I'm not trying to like start shit. I'm just curious. So you left there, you found the new location and the rest is history. Yeah, that's right. Like we, you know, this was the space that we were in. It's in a development called Taylor Place. And my buddy Kabir, he works for RC Matthews. So I've known him for years. And, you know, I was asking him about that development and I was like, is there going to be restaurant space? And he was like, you know, I think it's just office and apartment. He's like, I don't think they're, they want to put a restaurant in there. And, you know, so for a couple of years, they've been working on that development and it just kind of fell off my radar. Then ended up getting an email and it was a long email. And at the very end of the emails from Collier's, it's like, hey, 2000 square foot restaurant opportunity. And so immediately I called Kabir. I'm like, I need to go see this today. And, you know, I think like that might've been a call at like nine or 10 o'clock. I had an appointment at one, called my mom and my dad. You know, we came over there, saw it and basically signed an LOI the next day.

01:37:31And then we kind of went through a year of construction. And in that year, you know, it's like, once we left 13, 1300, we popped up at the Nashville Food Project from October until, October of 21 until February of 22. And, you know, it's like, that was a way for us to keep a lot of our staff employed. And then we also donated like $20,000 to the food project at the end of it. Oh, wow. So, you know, just like a way to kind of, you know, like just support the community a little bit and keep our team employed as much as we could. And then we took a little bit of break before we opened in August of 22 at 620 Taylor, right next to Rolf and Daughters. 620 Taylor. Yeah, Taylor on Taylor. You gotta love that. Yeah, I know. It's just so perfect. I know. Wow. Even though they're spelled differently. But still. So it's like, yeah. But still, I mean, it's still, that's pretty cool though. You find a spot on Taylor. Yeah, on Taylor Street for Taylor, yeah.

01:38:33You guys been hanging in there for a long time. One last commercial break and then we'll finish it up. Final thought and everything else. Cali Sober, the totally legal THC infused mocktail. Cali Sober was created to provide a better alternative to alcohol. No dependence, no ulcers, no liver damage, and no nights you wanna forget or mornings asking, what happened? They only use non-synthetic all-natural Delta 9 THC derived from the hemp plant. It is the real deal. The same buzz, the same chill you'd expect from THC. Best of all, Cali Sober is federally legal because it is made with hemp-derived THC, which is a legal substance under the 2018 Farm Bill. If you're a restaurant, you can pick this up through Litman Brothers. They offer three different flavors. Paloma spritz, ranch water, and berry ginger fizz, all with less than 3% THC by volume with five milligrams of THC per serving.

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01:40:45They've been operating in Nashville since 1986, providing high quality, fresh bread daily for restaurants, catering companies, hospitals, and universities. Their bread is free from preservatives and artificial additives. Learn more at sharpiers.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com. Or you can give Erin Mosso a call directly. Her number is 615-319-6453. That's Sharpier's Bakery. It's amazing, man. We've been talking, you know how long we've been talking for? Nope. An hour and 20 minutes. Wow. See how fast this goes in here? Like all of a sudden, it's like I could, I swear I could do this for another two hours. This is how fast, like you have to cut things off. You gotta cut, yeah. I didn't wanna do like this origin story kind of a thing cause I, but man, I've just enjoyed talking with you. I've enjoyed learning everything about, what are we missing? What do you, do we need to promote anything? There's so much, we could go into Nashville and where we're at.

01:41:49I mean, as somebody who grew up here, I mean, what do you miss the most about old Nashville? You know, I feel like Nashville, it's a city that I've been able to see so many different parts of over the years. You know, growing up, it was, we never came to downtown. It was Cool Springs was the cool spot. You know, it was the new mall. They had a new arcade, you know, it's like rec world. You know, you do putt-putt, you know, the new cinema, like the new movie theater would be there, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I feel like kind of grew up there. And then, you know, it's like towards high school, I went to MBA. And so then I started learning about, you know, Harding Road and White Bridge and, you know, kind of like all those little neighborhoods over there. And then went to college at Mandy. So then I'm learning about the other side of West End as well as like DeMunbrian, you know, division that was kind of that area and- Hillsborough Village. Yeah, Hillsborough Village. You know, for us, it was like, Broadway was never the thing, but Second Avenue certainly, certainly was.

01:42:52The Music City Mix Factory. Well, no, I'm thinking- For me it was Graham Central Station. Graham Central Station is what I'm thinking. Yeah, Graham Central Station. And then we always used to go to like Buffalo Billiards on Thursdays. Upstairs Havana Lounge. Yep, and it was always the place where everybody's fake ID got taken. Was Buffalo Billiards on Thursday was like definitely, that was the hardest place to get into. And then, you know, and now it's like, I'm discovering these neighborhoods that I've like never, that I never knew existed. You know, it's like East Nashville like wasn't a thing. Like, you know, it's like the nations didn't know that existed. Woodward Houston didn't exist. You know, those are all, they've all come up recently. They've all been there and those are all so recent. And so to be able to see the change in Nashville, I think has been really, really fun. And like learning different parts of the city at different points in my life. I think it's just a fascinating way to grow because I think that's also kind of what keeps me here is like I think there's always something new that's gonna happen. And I feel like we've just taken so many big changes from what it was and from what it is now and from what it will, from what it will be.

01:44:01We did, last week was spring break for my kids and we did a staycation at Opryland. Yeah. And we did the water park for a couple days. It's really cool. Have you done that yet? No. Went to the OG theme park many times. And that's what I was gonna say. We walked over to the mall because it was night one, you know, you're there at the water park all day long and we have a nice room because you have to stay there to go to the water park. Did you know this? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I had heard that. So we had to get a room, which is funny because my boys are eight and 10. They're really, they love this sort of thing. Almost nine and 10. And we went over to the mall to eat. We're gonna go over there and find somewhere to eat. That terrible idea, like the worst idea we've ever had. They wanted to see the aquarium and all this stuff, like the restaurant. And then they wanted to eat at the aquarium. And I was like, no. And we ended up going somewhere way worse. I'm not even gonna say where I went on this show because it's embarrassing.

01:45:01But I was telling them, I go, back in the day, this was probably Dewa Diddy City or I don't know, but the Screamin' Delta Demon. The Grizzly River Rampage. Grizzly River Rampage and Chaos. Remember when Chaos opened, it was like, oh, there's a new ride called Chaos. And then, but like, that was my fave. We used to, every year we'd get season passes. My mom would just drop us off there. I had like a fanny pack and the whole thing. That's right. And you would- The little coin purse. Yeah, and you'd walk through Opryland and that was like, that was my plan. And that's the thing I am most sad about is that we don't have that anymore. Cause we, that was such a special, the memories I have of that place were so special to me. And I feel like, you know, it's like growing up here, it's like a lot of those memories that we had, you know, aren't here anymore. And you know, it's like, I remember walking into Mario's for my parents' anniversary and like Mario would sit in the middle of the room. Mario Ferrari. Like the minute you're in there, he's there.

01:46:02It's like, I remember getting, you know, it's like the first time I ever had a fine dining meal was at Jeremy Barlow's Taste over in Hillsborough Village. Like not being able to get Sunset Nachos. Which is like three doors down from where we are. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really close. It's a new- It's about to be an Indian restaurant. Indian restaurant. I think it's a new Indian restaurant, right? And you know, it's like the nachos, Sunset Grill, or it's like how many times I spent time with my friends at Jackson's when it was, you know, half off and we're getting the chicken feathers and the cookie dough egg rolls and- On the patio. Trying to drink the cheapest, you know, wine or beer that they have. It's like going Saki, you know, Saki bombing at Rusants over in the gulch. Like, you know, those are memories that I have that are so, you know, I'm so fond of that, you know, the part that sucks is that we'll never be able to do it again. No. They are just memories that we have to remember and celebrate because in the time they were, it was so much fun and it was so amazing. And, you know, it's like, of course, those things are gonna change and not everything's gonna last forever.

01:47:03And that's okay, because it allows us to create new experiences, but I do, you know, sometimes wish I could just make a reservation for 20 of my friends at Rusants and start the Saki bombs and- Or I just wish you could have a tough day and you could go to Sam's in the village and sit at the bar and see anybody who's, that was where you went after your shift. You went to Sam's in the village and you sat there and Jesse or Maha was there and you just, and it was just a thing and you would just- Yeah, I used to go there for my, or I went there for my 21st birthday because we went to the, you know, all me and my roommates, we were all like in a row. So I was like the June 15th, one was like June 19th, one was, you know, August 7th. And we had a tradition of like, all right, we're going to the villager first. We're gonna get the dog bowl. The dog bowl, of course. You do the dog bowl, you go to Sam's, it's two for ones. You go to Village Wines, pick up a bottle of tequila, take it home. See Hoyt over at Village Wines. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was a whole thing. And then I did my rehearsal dinner at Sunset Grill. Oh, did you? Wow. 18 years ago. Yeah. I mean, that's how, I mean, just that, the Hillsborough Village is such a special place to me because that's where you, that was like the place you could go and there was no, there was no tourists.

01:48:12And it was just like people you would see and you know, and it was- Yeah, everybody was there. Cabana open, the Trace and all that. And then Cabana open, that was really- That was really cool. It was a really cool place, man. I was like, and that whole back bar, have you seen what they've done with it? No, but I heard they, and now it's sold. It's, no, it's a new, it's a whole new place. It's called Bungalow 10. Rob Higgins. I'm trying, I was looking for his name on here. I was like, Rob Higgins came in. He's right there. Oh, is he the supper club guy? Make a plate, yeah. Yeah. He does the supper club on Belcourt, but he bought both of those places. Yeah. And there, we went over there and checked them out. They're really cool. Like what he's done with that back bar at Cabana is like a bottle service whole thing. Oh yeah, they made it into a club. It's exactly what it is. We were so lucky. We got to do a, there was one day, one day actually where the air conditioning went out in our building and not in the current one, but in the old space. And Sarah and Carl Worley were just so generous that day.

01:49:13And they were like, we could not have guests in that room. It was like 90 some degrees. And they were like, hey, if you want to come do it, a biscuit love real quick, we'll let you do it in Hillsborough Village. And so we actually got to do one night pop-up there. And we kind of transformed that room that has, kind of when you walk into the left, you go up the stairs. Yeah. What used to be the dining room and the sunset right there. Yeah. So we went with that place over. And I remember so many times having late night food at that sunset and it was very, so that night there was this celebrity. I don't know if I can say who it is, but you know, like nobody cares. Okay, cool. Kelsey Ballerini is in there and my mom and dad, they like to come to the restaurant a lot. And they were like, you know, my mom is just like the host. She sits down at everybody's table and starts talking to everybody. And so, you know, she's sitting there with her and talks really, you know, like 10, 15 minutes. And you know, the next day she was like, oh yeah. She's like, that lady was really, really nice. She was so sweet and so pretty and all this stuff. And I was like, yeah, mom, she's, she's just barely, you know, kind of, kind of famous. People know who she is. I'll tell you another famous story of my parents.

01:50:14Cause you know, your parents come in to the restaurant from time to time. My dad's 70th birthday and he's got two friends from California who are his best, his roommates, three friends, actually there's three of them. And they're flying in because they're surprising him. They're coming to Maribor for dinner. And I have this private room in the back and I've got them sat in there so that they can be far away. Cause his friends were going to join them in the middle of dinner. And he's going to be like, my college roommates are flying in to do this, right? Well, I take them back there and I sit them down. And then Reba McEntire walks in and she says, hey, can I sit in the back room? And I go, yes, but my dad's in there. And it's his birthday. And she's like, oh, it's no problem. So she goes, she's got her friends. There's like five of them. I sit in the back and then my dad's the only one in there. And my mom is like, is that Reba McEntire? I'm like, yeah, yeah, that you can't, there's no missing Reba. And so she comes over and she's like, hey y'all nice, seems my dad, happy birthday.

01:51:15Wow. And then sits back down and I'm like, just don't bother. Just like, don't act like idiots. Like, you know. Be cool. My dad was in music business was not a thing. He's like, whatever. But then his friends walked in and his friends walk in and I'm like, hey, my dad's like, hey, is that fucking Reba McEntire? And I'm like, stop, stop, stop. And they just walked straight over to her table. And I'm, guys, this is Tennessee. This is Nashville. You're not allowed to do that. And she was so gracious, but it was one of those moments where I just about fell off as embarrassed. Like don't do, they didn't know. And it was a whole thing. And it was just a, the parents, they get him in the room and it's like, it's a thing. It's a thing. And it's okay to say that. I'm not saying she's going to be there on Tuesday night. That's right, yeah. But it was a thing. It was a thing. It was a thing in the past, yeah. People that live around here have to go eat. I'm sure you see plenty of people in your building, right? All right, we're an hour and a half in. I've got to cut it off. We've lost half our listeners. They're like, can we stop name dropping?

01:52:16Let's just keep going. You know, the final thing that we do on the show was the Gordon Food Service final thought. And I didn't even, I say that Gordon, I wanted to find out who all the vendors, like where do you find all this food? Because you have so many. Next time, next time we're going to do this. The final thought is whatever you want to say. As long as you want to say, you're just talking to whoever's listening. You got to take us out. Final word of this interview is for you. Yeah, thanks. Well, thanks for having me on the show. You know, it's like this is, it's a community that I'm so proud to be a part of. You know, and it's like everything that we try to do at Taylor is, you know, we try to represent like our culture and where we came from. We try to represent, you know, our ancestors. But we also try to represent the city of Nashville as much as we can. And, you know, to me, it's like I take a great deal of pride in that. And it's something that to me is so important that we're able to showcase that Nashville is so much more than what people think it is.

01:53:16And it's a place where people come together. It's a place where people have community. It's a place where we encourage creativity and support each other. And it's something about that is just so unique. And I hope that, you know, it's like people as they come to live and work and play when they visit Nashville, it's like check out the places that are doing the cool stuff. You know, it's like you can always go to, you know, Broadway and the touristy thing. But there's so much more to the city. And once you start peeling back the layers a little bit, you know, it's like you'll see things that maybe you never thought possible. And oftentimes I'll kind of leave it with this is that sometimes I describe Indian food in musical sense. I'm like, let's just assume you spent your whole life learning about music, but let's just say you ignored one genre that was a sixth of the world's population, right? Is India. So it's like just, you know, if there's big six categories, let's just say it's rock music.

01:54:17Me. Yeah. And so let's say the only experience you had with rock music was no offense to this band, Hoobastank. And you were like, you know what? I hate Hoobastank, don't like it. And if I was like, hey, what do you, would you like to listen to the Beatles? Would you respond to that with like, you know what? I had listened to Hoobastank once, didn't really like it, not my thing. Don't need to hear it. And if I was like, hey, can I tell you about the Rolling Stones? Would you like to listen to their music? And you're like, you know what? Have, saw Hoobastank once. Hoobastank just turned me off. And it really just, you know, like I don't want it. I really had a bad experience and it's not what I'm looking for. It's like, well, okay, like, you know, how about all these other bands? And you know, it's like, well, I'm just gonna stick to this. This is my go-to thing. And I judge everything based on Hoobastank. And I feel like that's the thing about Indian food and the dishes that people make at homes. And just because your experience of it has been one thing doesn't mean that it can be a completely different thing.

01:55:20And the more that people are open to learning about new cultures and experiencing them, and you know, trusting us a little bit to know that we're gonna keep it in a safe place and that you're gonna be able to taste something that even if you may not like it, you're gonna learn a little bit more about where we came from and what our culture is. And at the same time, we'll be able to share it with the world. And so, you know, it's like, be curious, you know, the way that we said it, and be willing to explore and be willing to try. And you know, the more you get out there and try stuff, then I think we'll all kind of come to this realization that we really are so much more similar than we are different. Wow. That might be the best final thought we've ever had. Hey, thanks. That just went off, you know. But that was wonderful. That's the old political background, just. How you crushed it, man. Long-winded. It has been an absolute pleasure talking with you.

01:56:21And what a fantastic way for me to finish off a crazy Monday. Yeah, thank you. This has been so enjoyable. Thank you so much for being here. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. It means everything. Let's do it. I say this all the time, like, let's do it again. Like, let's do it again. And I know Caroline really wanted to be here today, and we'll bring her in. I love Caroline. Let's do that next time. I probably have to blame her. She's the one that made me open a restaurant. She is? So when I was doing the supper club, she was like, hey, would you like to meet with my realtor? She's like, I think you should just look at space. And I'm like, I'm not open in a restaurant. I'm not looking at space. And she was like, nah, she's like, what do you got to lose? She's like, you don't have to put anything down. She's like, just go see it. Look at it. And you're like, I guess I could do this. Six years later, and so much more gray hair. Caroline, why'd you make me do that? Gray hair goes fast. She was definitely, she's part of the Taylor story. I love that. Well, have a wonderful rest of your week, and congratulations on your new spring menu, and thanks for being here again.

01:57:23Yeah, thank you. Big thank you to Vivek Surti for joining us on the show, and thank you, Vivek, for being as patient as you were with me, as I learned so much. I think listening back to it the second time I listened to that, really, I came up with like 50 more questions I would ask him. You know, like, and you're in the moment, you're like, why didn't you ask him this in that moment? That's my least favorite part about listening to the show, again, is when you feel like you miss stuff. Oh, it's a thing. Well, it is late. It is a, we're going into a weekend. I hope that you have a wonderful, wonderful weekend. We're gonna be back next week with Chef Kev Deshane, and we've got so many interviews coming up, y'all. I'm gonna post on Instagram all the interviews and the schedule, when they're all gonna come out. Man, I just wanna tease you. I did an interview yesterday, two interviews yesterday, that I think are going to be amazing.

01:58:31Mental Health Awareness Month is May, and we get into it, man, whoo. I tell you, I finished the interview yesterday, and I had like goosebumps. I was like, man, I cannot wait to put this out there, but you're gonna have to wait till May. So we are a month out from hearing that episode, but Chef Kev D next week. I've got, like I said, so many episodes coming up, and we're gonna have a special appearance from Alex Ballou, also, saw him tonight at the Iron Fork Awards. He's gonna come and do, talked about Toast Nashville. So keep a watch on Instagram, and thank you guys so much for listening. Hope that you guys are being safe. Love you guys, bye.