#theroundup 10-16-20 Best Of Nashville with Ford Fry, Bryan Lee Weaver, Matt Bolus, Hal Holden-Bache, and Margot McCormack

00:00Hello, Music City! And welcome to the Nashville Restaurant Radio Roundup. My name is Brandon Styll, and I am here with my co-host. Her name is Delia Jo Ramsey, and she is the editor of Eater Nashville. Welcome, Delia. Thank you. It's good to be here with the award-winning podcast host himself, Brandon Styll. Oh my gosh, I am. Thank you so much. You are just amazing. I was so humbled this morning. I got up and I knew the episode, that the issue was coming out. I really was like, hey, I had a bunch of people tell me that they voted for me for best podcast. And I was like, yes, that's awesome. So excited, maybe something will happen. Maybe I'll get some kind of love. And as it turns out, I did. It wasn't from, I think that a lot of people voted, they didn't know they had to vote for 20 people, but the idea of Chris Chamberlain writing in as a writer's pick for the best inside restaurant podcast was an absolute honor.

01:13I was shocked, and I could not have done any of this without you. You've absolutely made this podcast so much better. You make it twice as good. So thank you for all that you do. Thanks for getting me out of my comfort zone and getting me into this. I've appreciated it, for sure. You know, it's so funny, because when I first interviewed you, we did two interviews, but your interview, as I started talking to you, I went, oh my gosh, and my brain just started moving. And it was because of you, it was because of our conversation and what you do, that I had the idea for the roundup. And I was like, what if I brought Delia on? We just talked about food, we talked about the business. And I couldn't imagine there was like a more, you know, more in sync with somebody who's just out there doing her thing every day. Like I just, I think it's fantastic. And I just love that you join me every Thursday live to do this show. It's an adventure.

02:13And I think we're finally getting to like the other side where things are good and happy and they're happening. And then this best stuff, we kind of just helps to just shine lights on things that are good. And people have done well throughout the pandemic. So I'm excited for just all the good news that today has brought. I've loved looking at social media today and seeing everybody excited and talking about the good things, you know? Wasn't it, like, because I feel the same way. Like I've been in such a great mood, not only because we got some massive love today, and I've just been getting messages all day long of people saying, congratulations, and we love what you do. Like the feedback, I mean, I'm like so humble today. I can't even handle it. I wanna be like, you know, act like you've been there and, you know, be like, yeah, that's cool. But like, we haven't been there. And we've been going through this pandemic and you're just hustling every day and you've been working so hard. So it's really, it really does feel good to get a little bit of feedback. It's been really, it's been really nice. And I don't know where I was going with that.

03:15I was just like, wow. But today on the social media was really cool. It was really cool to see a bunch of people being positive, which gave us the idea. Let's continue that train. Let's continue to be positive. Yeah. And so what are we doing today? Tell us about the show today. What are we doing today? It's kind of a love fest for Nashville. It's the roundup best of edition today. So we have several guests coming on, including Chris Chamberlain of the Nashville scene to come in and talk about some of his picks. He's going to talk with some of his picks and we have some readers picks coming on. So yeah, Chris Chamberlain is going to be on soon. We're going to have Ford Frye later on and Brian Lee Weaver, Matt Bullis and Hal Holden-Mage all coming on in the next, what, two hours, hour and a half? Yeah. You forgot the cherry on top. Oh wait, that's not on my schedule yet. Yes, we got one last surprise. Yeah, we are starting with Chris Chamberlain and at four o'clock we'll talk to Ford Frye. Like you said, 415 Brian Weaver, Brian Lee Weaver, 430 Matt Bullis, 445 Hal Holden-Mage and at five o'clock, the queen herself.

04:23Yes. Best chef as voted by you, Margo McCormick will be joining the show. We are so excited to have all these people. Again, beyond humbled to have these people, but this is what we'd normally talk about our week and go into kind of just some tomfoolery, but we're going to go ahead and bring in our first guest because this is kind of a guy that I want to be part of all of this. Yeah. Mr. Chris Chamberlain is here on the show. Happy Bone Day, everybody. Thank you. Happy Bone Day to you, sir. And Rufus. Hi, Rufus. Hi, Rufus. He's here. Hi, babe. He's going to be in a camera shot, so. Aw. So what is this day like for you, Chris? Do you wake up, you know what's coming. Next year, you're ready for it. Do you start the day off? Do people just start messaging you? Like, I got snubbed or thank you or like, how does that work? Get a little both. Yeah, I get a lot of tags from people on Instagram, which I'm rarely ever on.

05:24So it's my excuse to go on and see what's happening there. We turned these things in probably a month ago. It takes us a long time to put this issue together because you can see it's one of the, it's the biggest issue of the year. It's the only one that's perfect bound, you know, so it's got a flat side to it. So you're just hoping that nothing happens between when you made the pitch six weeks ago, when you turn in your story three weeks ago, and when it went to press a week ago. Right. A couple of years ago, I named ACME best rooftop patio writer's pick and it collapsed. So, that was bad. So you hope that doesn't happen. And you hope no restaurants close. You always hope that, but you're just trying to get through that. For me, I'm a little bit shook because I just went to the Green Hills Kroger and there is not a single jar of Dukes in the entire grocery store. Not even Dukes light.

06:26So we're in a bad time, people. I'm living on a leaflet right now. How dare you. It's blasphemy. It's like the Atlanta Dukes. I have to say thank you from us. My day today has been pretty special. I've had a lot of people reaching out, a lot of people telling me, thank you, a lot of social media tags and different things. Just saying thank you, congratulations. You're doing a great job. We love your podcast, a bunch of different things. And I owe that to the writer's pick from you, best Nashville, best inside restaurant podcast. I love that. That meant so much to me. I just wanted to say thank you. Oh, you're quite welcome. I tried not to cut that, slice that tooth in to where you could be the only one in it. I like Erika Cicciaroni that works for us, has been sharing some of her picks and she loves the fact that these writer's picks give us the chance to shine a spotlight on things that people don't know about or people would normally overlook or they just haven't hit it big yet.

07:37And she does it with the art scene and I like to be able to do that on the food and beverage world. And that includes the media and the people that are covering that too. So I was happy to be able to share that word with everybody and kind of draw attention to the hard work you guys are doing. I mean, this is an incredible pace of shows you put on and each one of them goes a lot deeper than even the interviews that print people get to do with these folks, because like I said, you get them to cut through the PR speak. Which I had Caroline Galson got me one time and she goes, do you listen to Howard Stern? And I said, I do, I love Howard Stern. He's kind of my inspiration. And she goes, because I listened to your show and it's kind of got like a Howard Stern kind of a feel with your interviews. And I said, I love Howard Stern because he doesn't have a time limit. He doesn't have commercials and he just keeps talking. And eventually they run out of the PR speak and they have to get real. They have to get below the surface.

08:38And that's kind of what I wanted to do. And everybody said, keep your podcast to 20 to 25 minutes. And I went, if I did that, we'd be talking about people's meatball appetizers. And I go, oh, our time's up. Thanks, have a good day. And I wanted to keep them at the 45 minutes to an hour because the thing that people don't realize is that last 20 minutes of the interview is always the best part of the interview. Yeah, you've broken them down by then. But then they're just like, just whatever dude. Way below the surface. So yes, it's very, very cool. So we've got some people coming on. I'd love for you to talk with them since you did the writer's picks. But let's talk about the rest of the issue. What are some highlights that you, kind of some things you observed you wanted to focus on talk about? I really enjoy the growth of national scene readers through the year. I mean, there was a time when WITS won best barbecue, and we've moved past that. So you can still see a real regional bias as to where our readers are.

09:39And there's nothing wrong with it. It is truly a reader's picks. If they live in East Nashville nations, then God bless them vote for more places from East Nashville and the nations. And for somebody that lives over in Hillsborough village, I'm learning about new places from the neighborhoods from readers that I trust. So I think, for the most part, they seem to hit it pretty well. You know, it's different. I know, Delia, what you've got to do every year on your year-end picks. Yeah. You know, there's a nominating voting component, but there's also a final editorial choice. And that's got to be tough to do because you want to recognize so many people. How do you pick a best restaurant in a year like this? Exactly, and the thing is we're not doing it this year. So it gives me a little reprieve, right? Yeah, but we didn't want the issue to be 100% COVID. Right, no. We also want to recognize people that are getting through the struggle and helping other people or doing a particularly good job getting themselves through it.

10:42Absolutely, no, I love it. I think it's just been the uptick and like the happy moment people needed. And I think a lot of people love waking up today and seeing, you know, something's still normal. You know, there might be new, weird categories about surviving the pandemic and shifts and moves, but I think it's been a good thing today to see on social media for sure. We try and keep a good mix of that. I mean, you're going to have the street ahead, best barbecue, best fried chicken, you know, best hot chicken. You'll notice we didn't do a best hot chicken this year on the writer's picks because at a certain point it's so hard to differentiate between all of them and not leave someone out. I tend to want to give somebody a recognition of somebody that's doing something new and different or somebody that's really risen to the top. And that's just such a personal preference. So it might've been no pun intended, a little chicken shit to leave it out this year, but you know, sometimes we do it that way.

11:44Sometimes we'll literally carve it up, you know, when we've got four people that feel very strongly about who's got the best barbecue, we might carve it up and say, all right, who's got the best wings, who's got the best ribs, got the best pulled pork. And again, that's just a way to shine a light on more people. Right. The job here is not to always point out who is best on top of the heat, but it's to point our readers toward things they need to know about. That might be the brisket at, you know, it might be that they're doing Nashville hot pulled pork at Edley's on Fridays. That may not be the best barbecue in the world, but it's something you probably ought to know about. Right. Exactly. A hundred percent. And you know, we started our own list here, I did, for we have the new Nashville, speaking of Nashville hot, we have the Nashville hot list that I'm doing monthly now. And I've, you know, I thought it was just a cool thing to, hey, I'd love to highlight some people and promote some people and kind of identify for people that are dining out there, some great places to go.

12:49And it's really hard because you have to make some decisions and as an editorial kind of a thing. And I feel yeah, but I think that people out there right now are so confused. People are so confused as to what's open, what's not open, they haven't gone out to eat, they're afraid to go out to eat. And then people that are out there going out to eat and experiencing it, like myself, like Delia, who are in the middle of it, I feel like it's our responsibility to let them know where they should go or what is open and what is safe. Because that's what we do, right? Well, and I think I've said it before that Nashville could definitely use a true critical critic, but I'll let you give you a little inside baseball on how we do it. I get paid to write, I don't get my meals paid for. Yeah. So in order for me to write a bad review, editorially, I should go to a place three times just to make sure they're not having a bad night. Yeah.

13:49But if I don't like a place, I'm not gonna spend another 100 bucks going back twice more just so I can say something nasty about them. Exactly. So that kind of lends itself to having a more positive tone. So our goal in the bite side of it is really to try and point people toward what we think is good, what things are good at a particular place. Everybody can't make everything. Right. I tend to like to go in after a place has been open for a month and literally talk to them and say, what are people loving? I don't wanna know the chef's favorite dish. I don't necessarily wanna know the one he thinks people should be eating. I wanna know what's good and what are people like. Right. And then I can point more people toward that. So this whole issue is basically that. Right. Yeah, and you know what? I think that also just promoting the positive, if you have a bad experience somewhere, I don't think it's necessary to go out and blast that. Cause like you said, it could just be an off night, but promoting the people that you did have the great experiences out and sharing that is very important in this world we live in right now.

14:53Absolutely. And you could still find surprises out there. I know Dewey does. Oh yeah. It's not just the next place that's open. It's a place that's been open for a while you didn't know about. Those are the ones that are, that's the scoop I like to get. That's the best, yeah. Yeah. I wanna give a shout out. I went to the, I'm gonna butcher this. Alabrije, Alabrija. Alabrije. Alabrije. His dinner Sunday, Monday night at the Southern, Eddie Victoria's dinner. And big shout out to Julio Hernandez of Mize de la Vida. And Edgar, that dinner was amazing. Like I was sitting there and I looked at my wife and I said my favorite sentence, this is the flavor I like in my mouth. This makes me happy right here, what I'm eating. And it was gorgeous. I mean, it was so good. And if you do see him do a pop-up somewhere, that's one of those COVID things that like he's doing pop-ups because he doesn't have a restaurant.

15:57You should definitely go. I can't remember. Did you judge at Cochon 555 this year? I did not, no. He was, Julio was there. And for a young chef I'd only met a couple of times, he knocked it out of the park. I mean, it was just in the presentation and the rustic flavors and using the whole pig. And he had Brandon Crony helping him out and they were having a lot of fun. And that shows through on the food. I mean, he really likes to cook good food. Oh, is it? Yeah, incredible. And that's a great start. For sure. So back to the best of Nashville. The actual, so one of the things that I guess you're gonna get with the best of Nashville issue is neighborhoods voting, ballot stacking. I don't know how you wanna call it. So anything on the best of Nashville food and drink side that you saw that you were like, really? Interesting, wow. Yeah, I mean, on the media side, I mean, apparently Buck Rising has got a lot of friends because he won every podcast and every, you know, and he's funny, but I mean, I don't follow him on social media so I didn't see if there was a big campaign, but you still have to vote for at least 20, 30 of them.

17:13So, I mean, we've tried to eliminate the ballot stuffing that way. So at least you've got to think about a few, right? We don't put nominees on the ballot, which is different from some of these other contests that you see. So, I mean, it really, you've got to put some thought into it as to what you think is the best of that category. You know, there's, I won't say there are any that I thought were wrong because they're absolutely the choice of the people. There were surprises, like I was really surprised to see Barcelona do so well. Oh yeah. I mean, they won best wine list. They won best small plates. They got written up as a riders pick for their curbside charcuterie, which I am totally in favor of all that. I didn't think that many people knew that much about Barcelona. So, good for them. Yeah. One thing that I don't think people notice is best restaurant in Williamson County. The people's choice on that were Cork and Cow, 55 South, and Red Pony.

18:16Jason McConnell's all over that one. Three Jason McConnell restaurants. And he's competing, not that they should win, but he's competing against everything in Cool Springs. He's competing against everything around Franklin. So, if it wasn't a discerning voting public, you'd have seen something in Cool Springs show up there. So, I was really impressed with that. Yeah. And always impressed by Jason. Just one of the smartest chefs in town, so. I always see stuff like that. And there's, you just see the type of restaurant, type of chef, the type of operator he is, that you get that kind of consistency amongst all of his restaurants that are doing well like that. It goes straight to the top, in my opinion. He leads a great group of people. He's got a good team and a good culture. And it's pretty easy to manage if they're all on the same block. Right. So, you know. Well. Yeah. Cross the street from each other. That's kind of like, if you've ever been to Hogan Harmony and Annie Michael's Italian Kitchen in Memphis.

19:19Yes. Two of my favorite Memphis restaurants. And I've been begging for them to come to Nashville forever, but you know, I was surprised when they finally got off the same street, and you know, opened their, they opened three on the same street that they could, you know, hit the rock, so. I've been to Hogan Harmony. I don't know, I haven't been to the others. It's been a while since I've been to Memphis, but Hogan Harmony is great. Yeah. No, that's, it's, it was doing wood-fired Southern-inspired pizzas right at the very beginning. You know, right when. Right. Jimmy House was starting to do it. Right when. Right. Powell was starting to do it at Lachlan Table. Right when, way before Carl. So, it's really, really good. I did have to call the readers into question for voting Monells in third place for best meet-in-three. I've never been to a meet-in-three where you sit at the table and the lazy Susan, I mean, there's a different word for a smorgasbord family style like that, but there's also a lot of other meet-in-threes that could have made that third spot behind Arnold and Wendell Smith, so.

20:26Not to criticize Monells, I just think it was miscategorized, so. I agree. Good for Benji and Wendell Smiths, though. I'd like to see them in there. Yeah, I know. Been around forever. It's an educated populace. I wish more people would make it over to Silver Sands, but. Oh, sure. Yeah. To get them over on Lachlan, so. Is that your, is that your favorite meet-in-three? I mean, obviously, Arnold's is there, but. Yeah, no, it's definitely Arnold's. I mean, it's gonna be Arnold's, but. But when I want something, I think I just wrote him up for a thrillist piece that Silver Sands serves all the parts of a pig or a cow that you'd never thought of eating, but you should. So, you know, from oxtail to neck bones to hogma to pig's feet, so. Things you would never, ever cook for yourself. So I don't care how much you like your Instapot, you're not gonna put pig's feet in it. No. But you should. Any other categories?

21:30What's the number one thing you turn to besides food and drink? You know, I'm kind of a media junkie, so I'm gonna wanna see, you know, who everybody likes on the media side, but there's been so much turnover lately. It used to be the, you could count on Demetria to win everything, and now you get so much turnover, it's new people. So that's how I discover new local podcasts, that's how I discover new, you know, new radio shows. I'd never heard of Versify until two years ago, and reading about it in the scene. So I think it's a great, the media part of it is really important. The political part, you know, sometimes, you say we're not trying to recognize the worst of anything, but, you know, that's where we slide it in. Right. When number one vote for best conservative in Nashville was no one. Was it? Yeah. So I guess that was a write-in. We have a very tongue-in-cheek readership, so.

22:34But, you know, that's probably my favorite. The arts, I used to, I used to be on a couple theater boards, so I was always interested in that, but I don't know how you recognize things this year, when people are, you know, does everybody's Zoom count as theater now? Pretty much. Yeah. Are you a radio show, a podcast, or a TV show? I'm a, I don't know what I am. I'm a podcast. You're a hybrid. I'm a hybrid, yeah. I don't think I'm a TV show. I'm not a TV, but we do have, that is a good plug for us. If you do want to watch this on YouTube or Facebook, which you're watching right now, if you're out there right now, we'd love to hear you. We'd love to say hi. Okay, I'm just seeing these here. Nathan Gifford, what's happening, man? Yeah, did you, is there best local bacon? I think Gifford's definitely went for best local bacon, 100%, right? Without a doubt. I mean. I've had some friends try and give me their bacon, and I'm like, nope.

23:37Nice try. Best local East Nashville production facility. Is that a writer's pick? You gotta worry about Nicolettos there. Are they making bacon? No, they're making pasta, so. Oh yeah, I get it. You gotta learn to get it more narrow than that. It's gotta be, you know, best happy hour in a zip code that ends in a prime number, you know, that kind of thing. You gotta nail it down to the one you want to write about. Right, so with that in mind, do you have any favorite picks that you were like, were super proud to write about this year? It was fun to be able to recognize the two Bryans. You know, when we get together and try and elect a pope, you know, it's a democratic process about who we're gonna give best chef to. Is it a lifetime achievement award? Is it somebody that just knocked it out of the park this year? Because it is an objective choice. Right. And Brian Baxter is definitely one of those lifetime achievement awards and has come back and has really, you know, set the city on its ear, but that's only for 20 people a night.

24:48So I don't know. It's not the same experience as running two completely different restaurants, like Redhead Stranger and Butcher and B. So in a case like that, yeah, we'll be King Solomon and we'll split the baby. You know, we'll talk about, you know, best prodigal chef and how exciting it is to have Baxter back in town, but also what a achievement it is to run two restaurants that are arguably the best of their kind, you know, Mediterranean food and Tex-Mex in town. I thought that was pretty stunning by Brian Lee and I wanted to make sure to get that word out. Yeah, and to pivot so well, like tomato and break-ins and, you know, I mean, just between everything, he just adapted really, really well. And it's good, I'm glad you got to recognize him for that. Yeah, so those were two that I was proud of. I was also really happy to be able to tell that story about the Margot parking lot party.

25:50Because if you weren't there, you don't know how important it was to get those hundreds of people together in that one week between the tornado hit and then we could never hug anybody again. Right. So to hear Margot, I wasn't able to get there that night, but to hear Margot tell me that story about how it was almost like, you know, the king making stone soup where, you know, she said, I'm gonna cook everything in the walk-in and then she just started calling Will at Woodland, you know, do you have any wine you can bring? Started calling distributors and calling, you know, other people that had walk-ins that didn't have any power to them. Well, we'll bring it over and just cook it. They had no menu, it was just an endless buffet. They just kept bringing things out, you know, okay, well, we need to cook this, what can we do with all these? And so the people that were there really needed that spiritual and nutritional, you know, reinforcement that evening. And then, you know, like I said, that may be the last hug a lot of people had for a long time.

26:50So to be able to share that story and to be able to get to recognize Margot as reader's pick for best chef, I mean, she could, should win that every single year. So we get the equivalent of three best chefs this year and I think that's not a bad way to be. No, it's a great way to be. Two of those people are going to be on the show today. We're gonna have Ford Fry join us here in just a few minutes and after him, we will have Brian Lee Weaver coming on at 4.15. At 4.30, we're gonna have Chef Matt Bolas of the 404 Kitchen come on. We're gonna have at 4.45, Chef Hal Holdenbaich, the man at the helm of the reader voted best restaurant. And then at five o'clock, the just mentioned Margot McCormick will be on the show to talk about what this means to her, what her past six months have looked like and I'd love to hear her tell the story of that party if she's willing to do so.

28:01So we're gonna jump in. We are gonna have Ford Fry who is in the waiting room come on but Ford Fry is gonna be brought to you today by Super Source. Super Source is your dish machine and chemical brand. They are doing a great job all over town. If you would like to purchase your dish machine, your chemicals, contact Super Source. They are doing a great job out there. Contact Jason Ellis. Go to our website at NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com and they are happy, excited to work with Mr. Ford Fry who is joining us right now. Welcome, Chef. Hey, thanks for having me. Hi. Hey, Chef. Familiar faces. You in Atlanta? Yep. It's nice. I may pop, I may come up this weekend though. I don't know. I'm thinking about it. Have you been to Nashville? Yeah, I guess I think I saw you one night. So have you been to Nashville? I think you've been to Nashville. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I've been back a couple times.

29:02Or once or twice maybe. Okay. Well, Chef, welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. You are the best new restaurant in town has voted today in the Nashville scene's best of Nashville issue. We have the man, the myth, the legend, Chris Chamberlain on the call right now and he is the writer that chose you as the best new restaurant. We wanted him to be able to kind of tell you his thoughts behind your pick. Oh, cool. Thank you, Chris. Oh, glad to. Actually, the one I wrote him for Oh, sorry. was for Best Restaurant Empire. Yeah, that's right. I'm sorry, I didn't get that. Yeah, it was a reader's pick for Best New Restaurant, which is, that's a great honor considering how long it took you to get The Optimist open. Oh gosh. God bless you and all the people that work in permitting in Nashville. They're doing the best they can. Yeah. But the fact that it was in an area that didn't even have an address, I couldn't tell people how to get there.

30:05Right. Right. I told them if you were playing top golf and you just hooked the hell out of a ball, it would probably land in The Optimist. Yeah, over the river, yeah. But now you've made that a destination already with just one of three places open there and then you add Super Rica to that. I think that's a serious investment in a city that is a tough restaurant landscape to get into and you came into it with both feet and I think you've made it better and you're only gonna make it even more precious. So that's why I wanted to recognize you for the empire you're building and thank you for making an investment in our city when it would have been easy to cut and run. Yeah, it was tough, it was interesting because Chris, I remember going around with you, downtown, I think, had to have been five years ago or something like that before we were even starting to talk about it and I don't remember any, obviously don't wanna come to Nashville with a Southern restaurant or a hot chicken restaurant or anything like that, that's just not the right thing to do but at the time there was no seafood options so I thought, I asked, I was doing a dinner with Tandy and we were in New York and I said, is there any seafood there?

31:25And he's like, no, it's a catfish and trout town. And I'm like, okay, and then since we thought about it and started going, I think there were numerous seafood restaurants kind of pop open and some of them kind of, I think, went away already but I think there's still some there but gosh, that thing was, it took us forever to get going but it was a fun one for sure. Yeah, and you put an experience with it too. I mean, the open kitchen and the different sections of that building, you've gotta make yourself destination dining if you're not gonna be in the middle of the corridor. Yeah. I think you've done a good job with that. And again, Adam Superica, once I discovered that you get an hour free parking in the garage across the street, I'm done there all the time so. Yeah, that's good. Coming in. Trying to park in the Gulch can be a deterrent until you realize, oh well, if it takes you two hours to get to the street, it's $2. Buck up little soldier. Yeah, yeah.

32:28Pay your money and get those empanadas. Yeah, yeah. So how's your experience being in Nashville so far? How's everything going at The Optimist? Really good. I mean, it's, we definitely, I mean, I just, maybe I can kind of set this a little straight too but starting at restaurant number two for us, Nashville kind of gets us up to like 20 and the whole empire thing, I like it on one hand and I hate it on another hand that sometimes when people are looked at as an empire, then it's kind of about all about themselves. And I just want to ensure that this is not about me at all really. I mean, it's really about writer and writer is someone that I sought out and found from Napa who is the chef of The Optimist and he'll oversee Le Lu and Star Rover too. And he's just amazing. So, I mean, I think, you know, so we're very, very fortunate to answer your question for, it's been great.

33:34I think, I feel like it kind of struck a chord, you know? I think we are, maybe it's a little bit pushing it as far, you know, more seafood than Nashville's really had so far. Am I wrong? I mean, there's other places to get oysters and things like that, but not like to the full extent. So I think it's been good. So, and luckily we, you know, well, kind of luckily, kind of not luckily, Le Lu has not been open. So what we're doing is we're reserving the patio and if someone, if it rains or whatever, then we can just seat people up in Le Lu. So it's really worked out that we've had too much space. The building is huge and, you know, it's really meant for three different things, but it's really helped out during COVID because it's been, you know, it's kind of given us the ability to spread everybody out and, you know, we're running all over the place with food, but it's been really, really good, really promising for us. But it's been a fantastic experience. Had dinner there a couple of weeks ago and Chef Ryder was on our show a couple, if you think about a month ago, he did a great job coming on, just kind of talking about what you guys are doing over there.

34:43And I had a group of people come to dinner, had the best moment ever, we were celebrating somebody going away and we kind of incentivized, so we'll go eat at the Optimist if you guys achieve these goals. And she did, and then she was moving and said, well, I'm gonna take you to dinner at the Optimist when we get there. And she opens it up and she goes, I'm allergic to seafood. Oh my gosh. You're allergic to seafood? But there were other options, but the dinner was amazing. The actual, just the entire restaurant, the decor, the flounder dish was a second to none. I mean, it was one of the better dishes I think I've ever had. Everybody enjoyed their drinks, the atmosphere, the service, felt very safe. It was just a very, very impressive evening. We're so excited that you are here in Nashville. Great, thank you. I love coming to Nashville. I think that's why we did it just because I love it. It's such an easy trip for me, so I love coming up there and that makes it a lot easier. Awesome.

35:45I'd also like to speak to, I think it's been really consistent. I went opening night by myself with my laptop as my date. I just love the energy of an opening night. I'm never there to judge it or do anything. I just like the energy that a restaurant has when it opens. So I went by myself and just had a great experience and I've been back a few times since. And I think that's probably what the readers see is the consistency that's being delivered. I think that's something that has been missing in Nashville, consistency and a good spot across the board. So I'm excited to have you here also, so congrats. Cool, thank you. And if you're gonna make this trip back and forth from Atlanta and Nashville that much, you should just go ahead and open a couple of places in Chattanooga because you're gonna spend hours on traffic. That's right, that's right. You can always just stop there, so you might have to give yourself a way station. Yeah. What are your favorite things to do when you come to Nashville? Oh my gosh, I go to guitar stores. Last time I was there, I went to, I met up with George Gruen and we went, he took us upstairs and I walked away with something way too expensive.

36:54So it was too hard. What'd you get? Oh, it was a 1934 Gibson Jumbo, if that makes sense. So it's an old acoustic guitar. I was looking for a J45 and this is the thing that kind of started the J45. So I wasn't planning on spending that kind of money, but he showed me that one and all his snakes and all that upstairs. So I was sold, so. Does he still have the prototype of the Flying V? I remember he had like the carving of the Flying V. Oh, I can imagine he does, but no, I didn't see that. But what else do I do when I go there? I eat all the time. I love, I mean, gosh, I mean, it's just constant eating. So that's why I have to leave because it's just like, I'm just too full, you know. I love it.

37:54Well, we are so excited to have you on the show today and I would love to have you back and we can do a full, I would love to do an interview with you on our regular podcast that we do. We're doing our special best of Nashville. Anything you want to say to the people in Nashville? Well, I mean, just thank you so much. I mean, it's a, you know, one thing that I've noticed, especially, you know, we have a lot of different restaurants but then we do have like Super Rica's and those are kind of similar, you know, pretty close to each other. They're pretty much the same thing but not quite cookie cutters. But one thing that I noticed about restaurants is what makes a restaurant, what makes me like, you know, the restaurant or one of our restaurants is the people. And every time I've been in to the Optimist in Nashville or even Super Rica in Nashville, it just has this vibe and I think the vibe is not necessarily building or anything we did.

38:55I think it's the people and the people are just relaxed. They're cool, they're welcoming of out of town chefs which you guys know that's a difficult thing in some cities and I just really, really appreciate that and just, you know, whenever you're there, introduce yourself to Ryder. He's a little on the shyer side but definitely go say hi because he's there. He moved from Napa so he brought his family. He's already started a garden in his backyard. I don't know if y'all talked about that. His wife's making amazing bread. So go introduce yourself to him and get and remember his name for sure. And forget my name, how about that? Ryder Zets is your chef at the Optimist and he is absolutely top-notch. Either of you have any more questions? I know you're a busy man. We've got lots of different people going on. Did anything else you wanna talk about? Guys?

39:57Oh, y'all, yeah. Yeah. All right, well thank you so much for joining us. Quick visit. Congratulations on the best of Nashville. We've got a couple different awards today and thanks for joining us on Nashville Restaurant Radio. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Congratulate Brian too. He's on next, huh? Yep. He is on next. All right, good. I love his tacos. I will. And that burger. That's a compliment coming from you too, yeah. Oh yeah. No, he's an awesome dude. Awesome. All right, good, thank you. Thank you. See you guys. Have a great one. Thanks. All right. He was super nice. I was a little nervous talking to him. Oh, he's a good guy. JCT Kitchen is some of my top five fried chicken in the world. Oh. And it's right there where Takeru Del Sol is the first one, the original Takeru Del Sol in Atlanta.

40:59So that's where he has the Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival every year. So that's definitely worth traveling down to see sometime. Absolutely. Just reading. Just reading. Compliments on the comments. Nathan Gifford throwing out the, Brian Lee Weaver is talented and also very handsome. Gordon Pace says lucky to live in East Nashville to come so many deserving awards. I go to East Nashville to eat. Often. People always ask me where I go and it's usually East Nashville to eat, so. I've been going to East Nashville a lot. I mean, I live near Hillsborough Village and I can be at the front door of Loughlin Table in 12 minutes if I do it at the right time. So, you know, it used to be, I would take friends across the river and they'd start to hyperventilate as soon as they got on the bridge because I get over there in the land of alternate geometry where everything, all the roads split off.

42:03Like, trust me, you'll be fine. Yeah, right. Awesome. All right, well, we are waiting on Brian Lee Weaver. You know what I should do is we should, how we should do a little bit of an advertisement for myself, like that? For yourself. Yes, we have got hats for sale. We've got merchandise, ladies and gentlemen, and I have some right here. This is a one of a kind hat. This is the host hat. But if you want to help support this podcast, support this show, we should have Brian on in like a minute or two. We have new hats. This is our all new camo hat. This is a, if you can see it online, is a Nashville restaurant radio leather patch, branded bill, super high quality. We have that one. We've got the charcoal gray with black and the brown with tan. And then of course, there's the people out there that love the flat bill.

43:04So we do have the flat bill. Also, this is the classic snapback. You don't like the flat bill? This is the fitted one. Here we go. And you got stickers. So everybody who orders a hat today, we get a free sticker. Go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com. All of those hats will be up right now. It's only the flat bill up there. The rest of them will be up later today. If you're listening to us on Friday, they're up there now. Let's welcome in. Oh, there he is. Our next guest, his name is Chef Brian Lee Weaver. How are you, sir? Hey guys, how are you doing? Hey chef. Doing fantastic. Hey Chris. What's up? Hey guys, nice to see you. Good to see you. Are you sad that it's the end of hatch season? Yeah, yeah. They actually dropped off, the Zia guys rolled through town and dropped off a case for us that we went through.

44:05So that was kind of the end of the road for that. But yeah, on to winter, I guess. Well, chef, congratulations on the best chef nomination or the win. We wanted Chris Chamberlain to be on the show today as he's one of the writers for the scene. It is the, is it, you call it Bon, Bone, Bone Day? B-O-N Bone. We usually say bone around the office. On Bone Day, so. Yeah. The man that wrote you in today, we thought it'd be nice for him to tell you about it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we were talking earlier that how do you recognize the best restaurant? How do you recognize the best chef, especially in this year? Anybody that's surviving is a great restaurant. And any chef that's taking care of his people is a great chef. And above and beyond his cooking abilities, I knew that Brian was a leader in both of those, making thoughtful, safe decisions for his customers, for his staff and for his family too.

45:15So I wanted to recognize you for that and for your work in getting the Tennessee Association for Hospitality started, all those things, but especially for the food. People ask me where to eat and I tell them, I'm still obsessed with Butcher and B. These years later, there's always something just new and fascinating on that menu. And having added Red-Headed Stranger, I just thought that makes Brian the chef of what I think are two of the absolute best restaurants of their kind in this city. And it's hard to just do one. So for that, I thought this is the year, we gotta bring that forward. So congratulations and it was an honor to get to write about it. Yeah, well, thanks, Chris. I mean, that means a lot. I put in so much time at Butcher and B and I'm definitely not there the way that I used to be, but to be able to sort of hand that off to the team that I have there now and watch them do what they do is pretty exciting for me.

46:20And then, I mean, obviously, Stranger is like my baby. I've been thinking about that for a long time and it's turned out even better than I expected. And most of that's a credit to the people that I have there too. So I try to take care of them and all that. I'm really happy with both places and where we're at in Nashville. I was a little concerned about the bee for a while in the pandemic, but we've been able to adapt and they're just killing it over there. The patio is beautiful and I think we'll be able to get through the winter and Stranger just makes sense to do to go. So that's been pretty easy over there and we're busier than ever. I mean, I'm grateful for all of that. So, I don't know. I'm coming up on five years in Nashville now. So it seems like I've been here for not that long, but I'm just happy to be a part of the community and keep growing.

47:29One thing I don't think people give you enough credit for is for being such a good teacher to your staff. Cause I know, I remember those first couple of years, every time I saw you say anything online, it was, I need help, I need to hire people, I need good people, I need people. Cause it's just so hard to keep a staff, especially then when we were in such an overheated restaurant climate. And just the nature of your food, so many just beautifully composed small plates, but the ingredients in them are not ingredients that are already on the shelf. Everything is prepped every day and to be able to train people to do that and have it look so effortlessly, effortless to put together an individual plate to go to table 27. And then two others to go over here, the people working their stations. I mean, I just feel they have to be so well-trained to be able to pull that off. And stranger, when you think about it, that's the same thing when making a taco. You've got to have everything prepped and keep it fresh and make it delicious and still make it beautiful when you're in a hurry.

48:34And I think that's something that I don't think everybody notices. I think they just love the taste of it and don't think about how much goes into that. I have seen the recipe for your avocado crispy rice and that dressing you put on it. And I mean, the steps involved in that, it just seems, they're so well thought out, but not something that anybody could just throw together. So you make it look effortless and keep up the good work. Yeah, I mean, I probably have a lot of cooks that curse my name for that recipe. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that went off, no. Yeah, there's so many ingredients in it, but yeah. That's why you were willing to give it to me because you knew I'd never do it. I don't, every time somebody asks for it, I'm like, whatever, have it. Yeah, good luck. I saw you post, I saw you posted on the socials this morning, you know, humbled to do, to be best chef.

49:37And then you rattled off. You said, but I can't do this alone. And you kind of mentioned, you tagged a bunch of people. Who are those people? I mean, can you talk about those people? Like, tell us, say their names. I would love to shout them out. Yeah, me too. You know, Jake Moleson's our GM. He kind of helps us oversee both places. And he's been with us probably a little over a year now and he's just amazing. He's brought a presence to the restaurant that really, especially at Butcher and B, that I don't think we've had. And I feel like we've really moved forward as a restaurant because of him. I also have Krista Jesus, who's my chef de cuisine over at the B, which like, if I didn't have him, I would have to be there a lot. Also like Tess Lister just left me after five years. She was there on my opening team.

50:38She's moving to go do some family stuff. So I'm sad about that, but she's been integral to what we've done over there. And then Brian Carter is at Stranger. That place is as much his as it is mine. Like he's helped us develop the recipes. Like if I wanna just step away, he would be me. That would be his place. So I'm happy that he's there. And Tyler Bracket, the other sous chef over there. And he's a good dude. Like we're, I don't know, we're just all family. And I think we treat each other that way. And I think, I'm at least pretty good at sort of building a culture to where it feels like people wanna stay, you know? So I'm pretty proud of that. As you should be. Yeah. No, I love that.

51:39I just, I love that, you know, it's the team around you and especially in a restaurant where you guys go through so much and you've been through so much. You know, we call it the pirate ship or the land of misfit toys, you know? And it's just this group of people that you kind of go to battle with every day. And while you're the chef owner and you're the guy that's put up in front, I know that for you, it means so much because the people around you or the people that you're with every day going into battle and you can't do it alone. So I like to just shout out those people because they're such an integral part of what you guys do there, what helped you be successful. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I could come up with a hundred concepts, but what does it mean, you know, if I don't have people that want to support it? And like, you know, like Brian Carter at Strangers from Texas. So like it's personal to him too, you know, like there's ways that we can find to connect and, you know, it's cool to see it come through.

52:45Do you, you got something? No, I think it speaks volumes that you can, you know, you left your other baby, but turn B to birth your new baby and it still shines well. So I think it speaks to your teaching, as Chris mentioned in training that team that's faithful and talented like you are, but you can walk away and it can still shine. And so it's just, it says a lot about you and who you are. You can have two so different places that are still doing so well, especially through pandemic tornado break-ins back earlier this year, I was talking about it. I was like, you just keep swinging, you know? I know it's, it's been, I know anybody who could say that, but it's really been a crazy year. Like, you know, just like, I thought that tornado was hard enough and little did I know what was coming after that, you know? So, yeah, but yeah, hopefully I got a couple other things up my sleeve, we'll keep it going, you know? What do you have coming up in the future?

53:45Anything you can tell us about anything that's up your sleeve that you'll let the world in on? Nothing official at the moment. I'm always kind of looking for what's next. I got a little bit of wanderlust in me. So, you know, there's always a new project brewing, but nothing yet. Did you read the best of Nashville issue? Did you go online and see all the different winners? Yeah, I looked through it briefly. I was working today, so I didn't have time to like really dive into it, but I just kind of glanced at it all just to see all my friends that are on there. It was really cool. You know, it's cool to see Vivek on there and Hi-Fi Cookies and Bastion and like just, you know, Margot, like just so many restaurants that I love and people that I've been a part of my life now for like five years, you know, it's the community here is so amazing.

54:45You know, I can't say enough about it. We've all enjoyed all dealing that we're talking earlier, even with Chris that just the positivity that we're seeing today on social media was really cool. Just in our community of restaurant people and just the best of how it's created this influx of congratulations and just kind of happiness. And we wanted to keep that going on this show today. So thank you, thank you, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to just spend a couple minutes with us and bask in your success. Yeah, I appreciate you having me and you know, all you guys are doing for Nashville and just talking about restaurants and like I listen to you guys every week and obviously, you know, Chris and I are friends and I read everything he does. So, you know, it's cool to see it and then be a part of it too, you know. Well, thank you, thank you for listening and thank you for supporting us and we are going to continue to support you, the Independent Restaurant Tour and hopefully tell more stories and get the word out and continue to request support of locally owned and operated restaurants because we need it now more than ever.

56:01Yeah, we sure do. Everyone does, I really appreciate it. Yeah, man, it's our pleasure. Cool, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for the Crunch Wrap. Oh, yeah. And you all haven't had it, it's so good. We're almost doing it every day now, so. I know, I was like every time I look at it pops up, I'm like, oh, it's not just one day a week anymore, it's there. Yeah, one day we might get it on the weekends, I don't know, we'll see. Yeah. Got a little love from Alex Ballou from Dallas and Jane Sand, Redhead Stranger is bomb. Yeah, hey buddy. Love that guy. All right, we're gonna jump in. Thank you so much, Chef. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Okay, thanks guys. Good to see you. Thanks. All right. Is there any chance we can stretch this positivity through both of the town halls tonight? Can we just kind of. I know, I was like, I'm kind of glad I haven't seen much political today. Yeah. I did vote today though, I'm proud of that. How long did it take? I went to Casa Ossifron, mainly because I just want to screw up the demographics of who they think's voting there.

57:06It was probably 40 minutes from when I got in the back of line. So, and it was really easy, really safe. And Ossifron, I just, I love that place. It's just, you know, there's so many good things, culinary and cultural that have come out of that building. So, I recommend that it's on Nolensville Road, go eat after you vote. Go eat. Go eat after you. Near Casa Ossifron, go. Oh, and I wouldn't know. I made, I cooked at home because I had to run out and do it, but I made Alton Brown's gyro recipe a couple of days ago. And I'll be damned if I didn't make gyros that were as good as anything semi-authentic in Nashville. I mean, it's not as good as House of Kebab, but it was really cool. You make it in a meatloaf pan and just slab them off. So. All right, so we're gonna bring in our next guest, but we have a brand new sponsor on the show. We are very, very excited to talk about Cytex.

58:09Cytex is a linen hospitality and uniform provider for your restaurants, hotels, anybody in town that needs a uniform, if you need new mats, if you need linens, these guys are the real deal. They're coming in town, they have a local facility. They are, when I used to run my restaurants, I chose Cytex. When we went through all of the different companies, they were the one that came in that were the easiest to talk to. I think people that run linen companies speak different languages, where they're like, well, we gotta talk about this and that. And they try and go around circles and they were the most plain English. This is what's going on, this is what you're gonna do. And they stuck up to it. Their drivers who are their route managers are amazing. They are friendly, they are kind, they are there for service. You should check them out. If you are in the market for a linen company, check them out, cytex-corp.com or give Ross Chandler a call.

59:09Ross is my guy over there. He's amazing, he will take care of you. Tell him Brandon sent you from Nashville Restaurant Radio. Give him a call, 270-823-2468. That is Ross Chandler, 270-823-2468 at Cytex. So excited to have them on sponsoring Nashville Restaurant Radio and The Roundup. As we bring in, they are sponsoring Mr. Matt Bolis. Welcome, Chef. How are you all? You're fantastic. Hey, you use Cytex, don't you? I do, and I gotta be honest with you, beyond all the great things you said about them, the rep that comes to us is single-handedly the nicest, happiest human I've ever met in my life. That was me. Wow. Literally, I asked him what his secret is and he just kind of blushes and laughs, like, I don't know, I'm just a happy guy, I guess. There's something to it. I don't know what it is, but if he ever gives me the secret, I promise to not share it with any of you all because it's well-guarded and seems to work very well for him, so.

01:00:15There you go. Yeah, we got the driver for Cytex, happiest guy in the world. Chef Matt Bolus, congratulations. You won a couple of awards today, right? Yes, sir. Best collaborative menu for your staycation series and best whiskey. Which is Lawrence Barbecue, that's the first, the barbecue guys we did, so. And right now you're doing one with Vivek. Yep. And, you know, I talked, I was on a podcast the other day and somebody asked me, they said, what's the thing that is unique to Nashville, what are you guys doing in Nashville that's innovative and what are you doing? And I said, I don't know, I think that the thing in Nashville we're doing is trying to stay open. And they're like, I don't know, I don't think there's some magic bullet we know in Nashville. I said, but if there was something that was really cool, it's pop-up dinners and staycation series, like they're doing at the 404 Kitchen.

01:01:21And I went into what you were doing and the different staycation series you're doing at the 404 Kitchen. And it's so impressive, so innovative. The food is so good. So congratulations. We've got Chris Chamberlain here right now and he's with the Nashville Scene. You know, Chris? I do, I only signed on to see Rufus though, so. Where's Rufus? Rufus. He's rubbing his face all over the couch. So that's what he does after he eats, so. So why? Yeah. People get really uncomfortable when I do that, but it's, I mean, it's okay. Whatever makes you feel better. They wouldn't let me do a writer's pick for best beard or best laugh. I need those in there next year, please. But tonight is, tonight is old fashioned night, right? Tonight is old fashioned Thursday. Old fashioned, best bourbon bars or best whiskey bar. Old fashioned Thursday and we're starting one with Elijah Craig this week.

01:02:24He's gonna be our new old fashioned. So yeah, we've got some fun things going on. The staycation menu with Vivek has been a blast. I cooked with Vivek, gosh, you know, years ago. I don't know how many years ago it was. We did a VA supper club together. And just had a, we've been friends since. There he is. Oh, look at that. Yeah, he just ate. True love there. Yeah, and we have Carla Hall coming up next, so. What's that been like doing this? I mean, I know you've been interacting with these chefs and developing the menu, but, you know, you're really bringing a taste of Marcus Samuelson. You're really bringing, you know, Lawrence barbecue into a restaurant that's not theirs. What's it been like to execute somebody else's food and still insert your personality into it, but also make sure that I know I'm eating Lawrence barbecue and not Matt's barbecue?

01:03:27Well, it's, you know, at times it's been like trying to fence and smoke, which is a challenge if you've ever tried. But it's been a great challenge. It forces us to use flavors and ingredients, combinations that we might not have thought of because it's not our cuisine, obviously. But it's opened us up to a whole new world of ideas. And, you know, if you take Vivek, for instance, we went and got a bunch of new spices for different dishes. And at the spice shop, there was some great teas and we got that. So now we're starting like this tea brined pork chop that we're working on. And we made a milk oolong amazake. I swear to God, it tastes like the most perfectly sweetened bowl of great nuts you've ever had. And, you know, so it's broadened our horizons in a lot of way. And it's great because it's like the entire kitchen gets the stage in another chef's restaurant.

01:04:31And I don't have to give them time off, right? I get to keep them working. So it's been fun. It's, you know, we're cooking other people's food that, you know, we always try cooking out of different folks or whatnot, but we're getting to do it and really like dive into it. And if there's a problem, instead of going back and looking at the book, we just call the chef and talk to them. So it's been great. That adds an extra layer of authenticity. I mean, anybody can say, hey, we're having Cajun night. But the fact that these are people who you measure yourself against. These are people who you don't wanna dissuade. So you're really being collaborative with them, but it means you got 28 days of keeping it in line. It better be good on day 22, too, you know? Yeah, well, exactly. I mean, you know, I love to talk to Marcus on the phone, but I don't need to talk to Marcus when he sees a bad review about his food. You know, I make enough of my own mistakes. I don't need to make his mistakes. And so, yeah, it is, it's challenging, but it's such a welcome challenge.

01:05:36That, and you see it, it's not just, you get a guest chef that comes in, and a lot of times it's fun for the entire kitchen in the sense of like, oh, great, you know, Marcus Samuelson's here, I get to meet him, that's cool. But it's kind of an in and out scenario when it's done. With this, it's a constant reminder of how other people are doing stuff. It's a constant new experience, if that makes sense. So I think it's been rewarding for the entire staff. And, you know, we get to, it's like our own staycation. We get to travel to New York or Milwaukee or India with these chefs and eat their food and cook their food. And so it goes into our home lives, too. I've got line cooks that are telling me, oh, man, I made this dish the other night based on this person's menu. And so it's been really, really rewarding to see how it's all played out. With those multi-chef dinners, you know, everybody assumes, oh, it's seven courses, seven chefs.

01:06:41So they assume, you know, Matt makes the third course and then he's gone. They don't realize it is all hands on deck in the kitchen. Every one of those great chefs helping to plate every one of those 200 dishes going out to people that, you know, paid $200 a plate and don't know who half the chefs are. They're just there because it's, you know, that particular organ of the month benefit dinner. But you guys, so much effort into helping each other and executing each other's food. That's the kind of thing I see you doing with this staycation. You're taking it all on yourself to execute somebody else's food. And what's been great is every chef that we've worked with has been, you know, call me if you need anything. Here's steps, you know, I like this recipe, but try this. And so, you know, it's a collaboration, a constant collaboration between this out of town chef and our entire staff. So it's- I love that.

01:07:43I love that you packaged it to go to for some people that still want some people dining out. You know, Zane's making cocktails, you know, to go in for dining. I think it's just, it's been a cool collaboration all around, so. Well, if you're gonna stay in, and I completely understand it, but you still wanna go on vacation. Just because you choose to stay at your place or very close doesn't mean that you don't get to go. So yeah, what, you know, and that's been a fun challenge too. It's not, you know, before we've never looked at as a takeout possible place. And now we have to. So it's not just, how do we make this dish look pretty on a piece of china? It's how do we make this dish look pretty and get to your house in a recyclable cardboard box? It's been fun. And you did it. We knocked on wood, right? Yeah. Well, I know I've seen Delia's pictures. So, I mean, that's definitely a good thing.

01:08:44It's my replay. She makes things look better, you know, so. Not when I play. Hashtag replay challenge. Yeah, exactly. How do you do that, Delia? Cause I like, I take pictures of food and they always look terrible. And every time I see pictures of food with you, I'm like, does she bring like a ring light to dinner with her? How does she do this? You have to practice in the best iPhone and the right angles. I once taught in a class on how to take food photos with your iPhone. So there's maybe a potential opportunity there to side hustle. There you go. There you go. Look at that natural white she's got. I mean, look at that window at the natural light. It's all about the angle. All about the angle. For sure. Yep. So yeah, Carla Hall coming up next. Carla Hall is coming up next. And next to the SideTex delivery guy, Carla really is.

01:09:47Carla's one of the most beautiful humans you've ever met. She is. Her personality is addictive. You can call her when you're having a really bad day and you get off the phone and you realize that the world might be a rough place, but your life is really not. You're doing great because you got friends like her and she's always a blast to work with. I would say yes to anything Carla asked me to do. She could ask me to carry her bags on a world trip that she's gonna be filming. I would just say yes. She's fantastic and her food is delicious. She's got a lot of natural roots. Her mom lives here. So she was one of the first that I contacted and before I could even finish my spiel thinking I've got to really convince Carla to do this, she'd already said yes. And I think she actually stopped me in the middle and said, you keep talking trying to convince me, but I've already said yes. Well, I just thought I had to say it all Carla, you know? So that's exciting.

01:10:49And I'm working on one for December that I'm hoping we can do like a big Italian feast. What I'd like to get is the Franks from Frankie's 457 in Brooklyn and finish that up. So we might have one more coming up and who knows? We might just continue this on. I mean, this has been really fun and who knows when dining returns to what it used to be. Who knows when the consumer confidence gets to a point where the dining rooms are packed again. So we're gonna continue on this trail and see what we can bring to Nashville. I love it. Well, congratulations on the awards. Truly one of the best in Nashville. We've just been over here gushing all day long about all of the positivity that's been spread. And we're just, the show today was about just being happy and talking to people that are doing great. It's so fun to kind of pat each other on the back and there's a lot of hard work.

01:11:51I think a lot of people don't recognize. I told my wife today, I go, I'm a pretty positive guy and I'm hustling. I'm going around, I'm staying super busy, but this has been a very tough past seven months. And while there's leaders out there and we're leading through all of this and we're making it happen, a big part of this has been, it's been tough. So today has been a real nice day to really celebrate a lot of people's hard work and to let them know that they're doing a hell of a job. And you've absolutely been out there crushing it. You're a leader in the industry, you're a friend to everybody and you do have a fantastic beard. And an infectious laugh. I get a lot of this. It's just a lot of stress pulling. That's what shapes it. Well, it's people like you. You know, today is a fun day and I'm glad to hear that about the show because that's what we need. We talked last time about the bad reviews and those will never stop.

01:12:54But if we're having fun and you all come in and have fun and we just get people to relax and have fun, quit taking things so seriously. All right, well, we're gonna let you, we're gonna move to the next, we just wanna say thank you so much for joining us. You have been an absolute friend to this show. This is your third appearance on the show. It's people like you being on the show that have allowed us to tell a lot of amazing stories. So thank you for being a friend and- Did you get a hat? Did you get a hat for three times? No, I already got a hat. I just actually combed my hair today, so I didn't- He has a hat. Okay. And you know, you're about to see a guy with another hat. Yeah. You're gonna see this, see this guy right here, you wanna see the hat? Look at this guy come in here. Coming in hot. Look at that. I'm so. All right, guys, so you all have a good day. Chef, congratulations. See you, man. Well done, buddy. See y'all. Hey. Thanks.

01:13:55There it is. Hey, I want- Chef, how holding, Bache? I want in on the beard contest. Yeah, that's true. You're known for some of the other things. It looks good, man. And I got the flat bill on for you, Chris. Oh, man. How are you guys? O.D.'s. See ya. I like the hat. Thanks, man. I like it too. I like the new camo one that you were showing off too. That's cool. Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty excited. I got the- I was like, you know what? Let's just do this. Let's get a bunch of hats, some different kinds, and let's do it well. So- Well, it's a good hat too. I have trouble with hats. Not every hat works for me. So when I find a good hat, I tend to keep it close. You just don't know the joy of taking a new hat and wrapping it around a Nerf football with a rubber band and letting it shape itself. That's funny. Heath Ballard just asked a question of the day.

01:14:56Can we purchase hats? The answer is yes. We've got them for sale. I will have all of the hats on the website this afternoon. There's one, the flat bill that Hal is wearing is on the website right now, but the rest of the trucker hats will be there after we get off the show. NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com? NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com. Maybe we have a hat selfie contest and a best beard contest. Brandon actually handed me this hat out of his car window while driving down the street. He texted me to let me know he was close and I just went out the back door of the restaurant and we got a little drive-by and I got me a hat. That's awesome. Swag is important. One of my favorite hoodies has got LT on it. It's the Lachlan Table hoodie. Because the love of my life is Lisa Tinsley, I get away with showing both my loves on my heart.

01:15:56So thank you for letting me get away with that. We're sharing love. I wanna share real quick on the notes. Matthew Leff, who will be on the show in two weeks, he was my very first guest. He's gonna come back and we're gonna catch up. He's been doing some really cool things. Chris Chamberlain, thanks for the award. Really cool write-in for Matt Leff of Ride Boom Productions. Those at-home beer festivals. That got me through that period before football season started. Something fun to look forward to on Saturdays. So for two hours, two to four, he filled that time well. Well, Chef Hal Holdenbache, congratulations, man. Best restaurant. That's like best picture, best actor. I mean, best director. You got that. That's the big one, man. The reader's choice, best restaurant. It was, we didn't even know. Last night, the scene came to the restaurant with our friends from Alon, which won best Medi Spa.

01:17:08We knew that they were coming to the restaurant to present us with something. And they presented us with the best happy hour, which for us, it's our community hour, which is awesome. We love our community hour and so many positive things there. So we did that last night. Alon did not know, and we did not know either, that we were about to present them with the number one Medi Spa award. So that was cool. We had a nice little thing at the restaurant last night. Had some friends and family there. And we just kind of thought that was it. So I woke up this morning to a email or a text saying, hey, we also, and I thought we were in the best restaurant category, but because we didn't celebrate that last night, I assumed that we just didn't come in first. And somebody else was celebrating that in the city somewhere.

01:18:10But then this morning, we're all kind of shocked when we got the news and we're like, wow, we had no idea. And then we're also noticed for our service. So we're very happy with all that. And like I said, it was an organic surprise. I feel like years ago, we used to call all of our family and be like, hey, go vote, go vote, go vote. Now we don't do any of that. So it's just neat to win something when we really didn't have anything to do with it ourselves. I love that. It's got everything to do with it. The people have spoken. Right. Yeah. It was a nice surprise this morning, and just waking up and texting with Karen Floyd and the rest of the staff and congratulating everyone. I think we're gonna plan maybe a lunch tomorrow for staff just to kind of say thank you and have a nice meal before service tomorrow.

01:19:12So yeah, we're enjoying it. So how you're a guy that absolutely loves his team and everybody that is there. I asked Brian Lee Weaver a little while ago as Chris's choice for best chef. What is, who are the people that work with you? Let's shout them out. Let's give your team the people that allowed this to be best restaurant. This isn't a word that is, you're here right now talking to us, but this is a team effort. Sure. Name some names. Who are the people that you work with that make this happen and shout them out? Well, and Lock and Table is a small restaurant. We have, I think, 23 employees. So with me and Karen Floyd being the owners, and obviously me and Kara being on the ground every day, my right-hand man is Jason Lockman, our sous chef. And I texted him this morning after we shared the news.

01:20:14I said, hey, you know, food, consistent food is a very important part of a restaurant. And I wanted to thank you for all your help because him and I are in the kitchen every day, writing the menus, helping with the prep, making sure that the line is okay and ready by four o'clock for service. And we have a great staff in the kitchen as well, from the Pizza Prince, Chris, making pizzas five days a week. We got Ahmad on the grill station. We got Steph Money working saute. We got Aaron in the pantry. And we have Shelby who is working stations on everybody's day off. We've got Jamie Miller making the pastries. We've got Martina in the dish pit, always keeping all that proper. Just a great group of people that, I was talking with a friend last weekend on how we just don't dread going to work.

01:21:18I don't wake up in the morning and mind that I'm on my way to work. It's always a pleasure for the most part. I love that. That's exactly what I was looking for right there. Just shout out to all the people that make your best restaurant. I wanna talk about the front of the house too. Yeah. From the door, from Dana and Lucy at the front door to the bartenders, to Katie and Jim Pop managing and Katie doing the events. And one of the unknown employees of Lachlan Table is Emily Beard, who helps us with our social media. And we work very closely with her, very closely with her. She's almost like a manager in that sense because she's involved in so much of the behind the scenes. And obviously during the tornado and COVID, social media was huge and not something that just anybody should probably be in charge of.

01:22:28It was important that we had somebody really dialed in on staying in touch with our people through social media during that time. And she did a great job. I love it. Delia? Oh, congrats. I mean, everything you guys have done so well. You guys have been such a great job. I mean, you're such pillars of the community. And I think, you know, Melissa Melkorbin did a story for us about just how you guys did with the pandemic and the tornado and everything. I think just your continued dedication to the community that you serve shines through. And I think that goes exactly why your best restaurant. So congrats to you. And thanks for sticking through all of these tough times and continuing to be consistent and good. Thank you. Consistency is the name of the game. I always, you know, can't say that enough. It's an easy word to say, but it's a difficult word to achieve. And you know, we're all about it.

01:23:30Chris? Thank you for that greens recipe in your cookbook that I made last weekend. I'll do my version of his greens and they're my favorite turnip greens to cook at home. Jason just did a nice batch of greens with some October beans, cooked them down in the pot liquor and we did some scallops. White Squirrel Farms, the farm that we use for a lot of our produce, we're getting collards now among other things in the green department. And we're probably about out of field peas here in the next couple of days. And next week, we probably will go to greens full time for our pork dish, along with our smoked cheddar mac and cheese and our Tennessee chow chow, which is just, our pork dish is always, you know, pretty solid. But you know, the collard green and the mac and cheese and the chow chow, it's just hard to kind of beat that.

01:24:33And I always double up on the pot liquor when I make your recipe because I could drink that stuff straight. I mean, that- Yeah. We talked about gin martini with it at one point in time, but I don't know that it ever really caught any traction. I have frozen it and made a granita out of it and served it on top of oysters. That is a fantastic- That sounds cool. That sounds cool. You're giving him ideas here. Chef, you're doing a new, it's almost like a CSA type thing with beer. Yeah. Can you let everybody know about this? I read about it and I, since I'm, you know- I wish Kara was here to talk about that. She has kind of more news on it than me. And last night I was actually, we're talking about that and how that's gonna work and how we're using different local breweries to kind of create a six pack. And we're gonna do all the beer at the restaurant. And then we also are gonna serve a snack with it. So for a number of weeks, you're gonna get the six beers, the snack.

01:25:38There's gonna be a time that you come to the restaurant and pick it up. We're gonna get to work with a lot of our favorite breweries. And it's just another creative way to try to sell something. And, you know, we got cold weather coming up and, you know, those of us blessed with outdoor seating are gonna be losing that soon. And those- I love your blankets, by the way. Yeah, man, the loss of seats, it's gonna hurt. So we're trying to be creative in finding ways to maybe make up that money a little bit. And the beer CSA is one of the things we're talking about. You know, we're talking about doing some kits for Thanksgiving and Christmas, maybe a weekend brunch kit that you can order and pick up on Friday or Saturday. You know, maybe like holiday cheese and charcuterie boards that, you know, we could put together and, you know, you pick up finished and ready for your friends and family, your party.

01:26:42So we got a lot of things kicking around right now just to try to, you know, not lose too much over the cold months where I think things are gonna get difficult again. Yeah. I'd like to point out that for years, people have lined up to pay 35 bucks a head to go see ice at Opryland. They're paying money to go somewhere that's 13 degrees. They can put on a sweater and sit outside when it's 50. Well, that's just it too. We hope that people will do that. And, you know, we've recently got some of those large outdoor heaters, which I think we had to drive to Tullahoma to actually purchase because they were selling out everywhere, you know, you couldn't find them at Home Depot or Lowe's. I guess they're so popular right now. People are trying to, you know, stay outside as long as possible. So Kara and Emily got the blankets made. We have those available for you when sitting outside. You know, we got the heaters and we got some other things that were kind of bouncing around right now too that may help us, you know, with some seats over the cold winter months.

01:27:55That's awesome. Thank you so much, Hal. I'm gonna bring in our next person and we're gonna say goodbye because we have a new guest who is coming on at five o'clock, which is right now. This next guest is brought to you by Mobile Fixture. Hi, guys. So I was gonna let her come on and say hi to you, Hal. Okay, all right, yeah. Sure. You know, this person right here. Hello. Margot McCormick. Hello. Hi, Margot, congratulations. Congratulations, yeah, back at you. Cool, we were actually, Kara and I brought your name up today. We were talking about doing something for the staff tomorrow and we thought about- You want me to cook you lunch? Yeah, like reaching out to you and then switching lunches for staff one day sometime soon. Sounds good. Yeah, I thought that'd be neat. So that was a cool idea on her part and we'll get some details nailed down on that. Okay. I'm gonna come by with an application, Hal. Let's start working there immediately. Well, it's good seeing everybody. You guys have a good rest of the day and keep on cooking.

01:28:57Good to see you. Congrats, Hal. Good to see you, brother. Yep, bye-bye. All right, man. Chef Margot McCormick joins us now. I'm so excited to have you here. Congratulations. Thank you. Best chef. Oh my God, my phone rings. Yeah, kind of out of nowhere, you know. We're in our 20th year and I've won best chef, best restaurant, lots of things way before in my younger days. But kind of to be in the twilight of your career and have this happen is really cool and fun because let's face it, not that the national scene's not awesome, but it's like, you know, we needed something to get excited about and this is a perfect time also. As Hal was saying, getting ready to be winter. So there's no time like the present to remind everybody, hey, we're out here.

01:29:58This is what we're doing. Come see us. So yeah, it's been really sweet and I think we want some other things too. We want best service, which I'm thrilled about and best parking lot party, which also, you know, that whole deal was one of the highlights of the year, you know, pre-COVID. So yeah, it's really been fun the last couple of days and I think it'll continue to play out and be fun. Well, Chris was telling us a story earlier. He was telling us a story you told just about that parking, you know, about that parking lot party and kind of what it meant to everybody. Tell us the story of that night, if you don't mind. Well, Chris might know the details better than me now. It's gotten foggy and time is bizarre, but tornado comes or nobody can be open. We somehow though have electricity and we have gas and we're the only ones for like, I wanna say a mile maybe that have any light.

01:31:09Even the gas station across the street doesn't have light. So we have all this food that was at Marche and that, you know, we're like, we're not gonna be able to be open. We have food from Margo. What are we gonna do with this food? And I'm thinking, you know, I'm seeing the people in the daytime running around, giving out sandwiches, drinks, fun things for the people that are working and trying to clean up the neighborhood. And I'm like, hey, you know what? Let's just have a little party. Let's just have a little, you know, cookout. And I'm thinking, you know, maybe stretch, a hundred people might show up, maybe. And all of a sudden, you know, it's like wildfire, bad analogy considering what's going on. But so-and-so finds out, so-and-so and all of a sudden people are calling me left and right going, can I bring you, Trey, can I bring you 40 pounds of chicken? And I'm like, sure, I guess, you know, great.

01:32:12And literally we started, we cleaned the house. People just kept showing up and I was like, get the lamb chops, you know, get the steak found. Let's make some pasta over here. What do we got upstairs? And people were just literally, food was showing up on tables. And I was like, I don't even know where that came from. Like, desserts and Woodland wine pane, Will and Mary came and poured wine. And Nicholas Weiss brought a whole bunch of liquor from Weiss Liquors. So it was definitely a community effort. You know, Three Crow got hit pretty bad. So they gave us a bunch of hamburgers and hot dogs. Lyra came up with some food, national food project donated, pans of salad. I mean, and we were literally, it was like being in service though, because you're just moving fast. You're filling the line. People aren't going away.

01:33:13We're running out of like plates and you don't really realize until the end, you're like, wow, what happened? You know, that was pretty freaking cool. And literally when the sun went down, it was pitch dark. And except for the lights coming from the restaurant. And so it was really pretty, you know, touchy feely tingly, you know, a lot of people cried. There was a lot of hugging going on because it was, you know, COVID was just a whisper at the time. And we were all so fortunate to be alive and seeing people and relieved. And it was really cool. Really, really cool. One of the coolest things probably in 20 years business, for sure. Wow, that's just such a different time we live in now. And Delia and I were talking, we first started with Chris, just that today on social media and everywhere we looked in our community was so positive.

01:34:15Everybody was celebrating and everybody, I didn't see anything online today that was negative. It was all just congratulations, happy. Yes, everybody's doing great. And I wanted to say thank you to you. You were the second guest I'd ever had on my podcast. And Chris gave me an award. I got a writer's pick for best insider restaurant podcast. Cool. And I'm super honored by that, but you were one of the people, the original people that came on the show and talked to me. And it just really was great. Thank you for doing that. You're welcome. You're welcome. Delia, you got anything? You gonna jump in? No, I just, I mean, I'm a big fan of Margot since the first time I lived in Nashville. I went on a, I remember going on the first time I was on a date, circa 2006, I guess. It was the first time I went and it was like, this was the best place to go. And I mean, it's still the best place to go.

01:35:16So you just- I want it again this year. You're so important to me. Best romantic place. Yeah. We're just, we're lucky to have you here and you were an innovator and you kind of made East Nashville the destination that who could have seen this happening? So just thank you. I'm really just as shocked as anybody else. I didn't have this roadmap at all when we started 20 years ago. And I mean, I just couldn't be more pleased. And I think East Nashville's great. I live over here. We love our neighbors. We love our community. Definitely they have supported us. Lord knows. So, yeah, good time. Chris? So how's it been? You know, now you've had time to really integrate Marché into Margo. How's it been for your soul, for your amount of work and for what you're giving back to the community? Gosh, that's a big one. Well, I'll first say that the silver lining of not having Marché and of this whole situation is that you really value, I mean, I've always valued my staff.

01:36:28They've always been like family to me. And I have a lot of staff, Destin Wisher, my GM has been with me for 16 years, Greg White, senior server, 18 years, Hadley Long, my chef cuisine, eight years and plenty of others. Tom Huber, pastry chef for Marché has been there since day one. So long, long time. We, I, we the restaurant couldn't have gotten through all this without them working. And, you know, a lot of people in the beginning, I don't wanna come to work. I'm gonna collect unemployment. I don't wanna come to work. And I understand you have an issue, a health issue, but there've been those of us who have worked day in and day out now for this whole time. No vacation, no break, six, seven days a week, long hours, but we're kind of getting our footing now. And I'm working breakfast and lunch. So my life is completely opposite of what it used to be.

01:37:28And Hadley is running everything at night, which is great because he's so unbelievably talented and we've got a great crew. I mean, it's a skeleton crew, but Tom and myself and Dan Fenton, who was my sort of chef down at Marché, we worked during the day. And then Hadley and Ken and sometimes Simon Motley, who's Will's son, works at night. And our floor staff, just everybody. So it's, you know, this whole thing right now is definitely a team win. But it's been good. We're gaining traction with breakfast and lunch. Dinner's going strong. The cool thing about it is that I've had Marché this whole time, I've employed Tom and Evelyn and Jessica and Dan and Olga, but I never really worked with them before. So now I'm working with them and I'm like, y'all are awesome, you know? And it's a different level of appreciation, 100%.

01:38:30And Tom and Dan are hysterical. I was like, God, are y'all always this funny? So it's been really good. It's been really good. Well, it's great that you got this recognition from the people this year after what you've gone through, what you've given back, the changes you've had to make, but the way you also took care of your people and our people. And so for that, we couldn't be more grateful. Yeah, thank you, thank you. Okay, so when we met, we did our interview. It was a very, I don't know if I've ever had a day like that because it was on St. Patrick's Day. March 17th at like two o'clock in the afternoon. And my eyes were open so much after talking to you because you were just like, I don't know what we're gonna do. I don't know, you were so afraid for what your staff was gonna do.

01:39:32You cared so much about your people, the people you just now spoke about. And you said, I don't know what I'm gonna do. And I said, what about a vacation? You said, maybe I'll go to our place in Cape Cod. Maybe I'll do something along those lines. Now that we're seven months later, did you get to do any of those things? No, I mean, that's the thing is so after the tornado, our roof was damaged, COVID comes along, city closes us down. And I'm like, let's just get the roof fixed, everybody take a break because we were all really shell shocked from the tornado. Just a lot of tension, stress, anxiety, exhaustion. So we closed down for two weeks, got the roof fixed. In that two week time, everybody took a break. We got our online, it gave us a chance to get our online ordering system up and running, which was crucial for us to go game.

01:40:34And we came back and again, there were only, I swear there are only five of us for the longest time. And we worked every day and every night, getting ready and doing what we could do. And no, the answer is no, there really hasn't been time. It has really been, I mean, I'm sure there's like a dichotomy in our society right now. There are those people who aren't working and then there are people who are working like they've never worked before. And yeah. I feel you on that. So, and no offense to either side, it's just like, that's what it is. So my wife, Heather and our son, Jacob, did get up to Cape Cod for a week because we rent our house and they needed to go do some things, but I couldn't go. So to sort of make up for everyone's missed vacations and disappointments. And we had a huge year plan for ourselves. We were gonna go to Provence and stay in Julia Child's house for our 25th anniversary.

01:41:40And that got, we were taking our son to Japan. So, and even little other thing, Hadley was gonna go to Peru. I mean, and it doesn't matter if it's a big thing or you're going to Destin, it's just like you didn't get to go. So we are gonna take some time over Thanksgiving and Christmas a few days here and there to sort of like chill out a little bit. But other thing is we can't afford to be closed. We can't afford not to make money. So in years past, I would have maybe said, okay, we're just gonna shut down for a week and everybody go somewhere and come back, but we can't afford to do that. So the only reason that we'll be able to do it on Thanksgiving and Christmas is the way the calendar falls. And also because we will be doing our holiday catering that we always do. And so that will help mitigate any lost revenue from the time that we could have made money being open.

01:42:48But again, this is just like staff, you have to take care of your people and you have to take care of yourself too. And it'll be a nice, good time to be around family or just to be by yourself if you wanna be. So yeah, that's what we're doing. That's our vacation plan. Well, good. Well, I mean, you deserve it. And I think that the best chef not as voted by everybody is well-deserved as the queen here. I mean, you just, you absolutely, I don't think I've ever met anybody who was like, I don't like Margot. Like everybody's like, oh my God, I love her. They're out there, they're out there. I haven't met them yet, I don't know who they are. Have you ever met anybody that didn't like Margot? Everybody's just like, oh my gosh. So we're honored to have you on the show today and honored to say congratulations. Excited to have Chris here and Delia and all of our guests today.

01:43:48You are the final one of the day. Is there anything you wanna end on? People are voting out there, anything you wanna say? You know, yes. Go vote. I mean, it's one thing and I love it, but let's do that. Go vote. You know, our lives depend on it. Also, just support your local restaurants and chefs and businesses. You know, now more than ever is the time. And hi, cute dog. Is that Rufus? Rufus. Rufus, yeah. Yeah, because we're all struggling. And you know, this new normal business is rough. You know, when you can get excited about doing 50 people or 100 people, it's like, whoa. Our accountant has made it perfectly clear to me. He said, you're not gonna make any money this year. He said, you're gonna break even. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna pay your bills. You're gonna pay your staff, pay your salary, but you're not making any money.

01:44:50So you know, that's another huge disappointment. And the other thing is that we were on track this year to probably break $2 million in sales. And we had started off the year January, February, well, not March, because it was the second, third, whatever it was. But we had started off in the bank. We had a fantastic year last year. So we had all this momentum. And we're not the only ones, I think everyone was in the same vein. And then just to be like, you know, no fault of your own. So this thing is like, it doesn't matter if you're the best chef or the worst chef, or, you know, you serve Italian food or French food. It's across the board if you're famous in New York or you're, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. And it also kind of doesn't matter how much money you have either. So yeah, we're just trying to hang in. So anybody that can support us and, you know, raise us up is, you know, a friend and we love that.

01:45:53All right. Well, I love that. And we are going to continue to try and do that here on Nashville Restaurant Radio. That's one of our flagship things we're trying to do. Thanks for joining us today. I know you're busy. And thank you. All right. Bye. Bye. Thank you. All right. Margo McCormick, what a hell of an episode today. Man, what a great, that was a roundup. I will tell you. We didn't even talk about openings, but I feel like we're all good. We can talk about them next week. Do we have anything that we've got to talk about right now? Any big openings we got? I mean, we can wait. I mean, the Hawkers opened Monday. Otto's opened over the weekend. The Common Club at the Virgin Hotel opened. And I mean, so I think we talked about last week, the Continental, Sean Ross. So I mean, that's the openings this week. And Paula Deen's Family Kitchen, Love It or Hate It is opening on the 26th. Have you talked to her yet?

01:46:54I don't really know. I had my interview with her today. It's the third time I've talked to her, so. How'd it go? I don't think I'm gonna do it. Shake Shack's coming to Franklin. And I have some breaking Nicky's coal-fired news. Oh. Bagels. It's personally relevant because it's in my neighborhood. Bringing, Tony and Caroline are bringing Nicky's coal-fired bagels to the Zollie Coffee Space at Jackalope starting on Halloween Day. And he's also gonna be at the Jackalope Tap Room in Woodwood Houston with bagels. So bagels to go matzo ball soup, coffee. And yeah, so that's exciting news to share from the Galzins and their bagel endeavor. Have we gone from being a bagel dessert to reaching maximum bagel yet? I know, right? Like what happened? I mean, the same thing happened with brunch. We had no good brunches and now we're over-brunched. Right. It's crazy. Well, they're trying to take over the bagel game.

01:47:55Yeah. They're doing a great job, so. They're killing it. And we had the, I message Caroline almost every week after the roundup and I go, we talked about you again. It's not a real roundup unless we mention Caroline or Tony. So we love you guys. You're the best. Congratulations on the best pivot in the best of Nashville awards. I mean, that's one hell of a pivot. That is one hell of a pivot. They're hostile and I love them. They're just the best. They have a new podcast too. I was just on their new podcast. It's called TV People. And we're gonna have to rerecord it because we had some technical issues, but we talked about just like, they're just talking about like reality TV. It's a whole, they're getting on to talk about reality TV and it's amazing. It's so fun. Very cool. Well, yeah. I guess we did it. Chris Chamberlain, I hung out through the whole show. I know, I gotta make dinner.

01:48:56Yeah. I'm 30 minutes from salmon right now. Oh, nice. He's like, Texas wife, just pick up food. Come on, we're having, you had fun today. She's a kindergarten teacher. I don't make her pick up anything on the way home from school. I take care of that, so. There you go. Yeah, I had a great time. Good. Well, thank you for, I don't know if you've ever got to do something like this on the day the best of Nashville get to actually pull in five of the winners and hear their reactions live. That would have been a good thing for the scene to do. I don't know, maybe we can share it. Yeah. No, you guys did a great job of it. No, I think people love coming on your show. They like knowing that their friends are watching. And I look and see who's in the chat stream. It's people that I know and respect that I know who really care about the industry. It is the exact opposite of the Yelp comments. Amen. Yeah. It is. And the Facebook comments on, yeah, my stuff too.

01:49:58Exact opposite. Well, I think that I feel very proud and I feel very honored to be able to speak into this microphone to some of the people that are listening. And I know some of the people that are listening and I respect the hell out of them and want to put something out there that they want to listen to because I know that there's, this is a unique podcast and I'm proud to do it. And thank you, Chris, for being a part of it. It's your second time on and we still need to do a full. One more, you get a hat. You did a full episode. That was Hal Holdenbache's fourth time to be on the show, by the way. Fourth time. He did the full interview. Delia's at 17 times. I was like, I have no idea what number are we on the roundup of? I have no idea. I don't either. We need to look that up. I need to figure that out. But I'm so excited to bring this show. We are together to bring this show today. Again, Chris, thank you so much for honoring us in the best of issue.

01:51:00It means the world to me. Would you like to sign off? Would you like to tell anybody anything out there? What's your final words for the day? Thanks for helping all of us at the scene continue to spread the good word even farther. Today is a day to share what's best about Nashville. And even when things are bad, we're still awful damn good in this town. So I'm just glad to be a part of the culinary side of it. But everything gets in that issue. That issue is not about us at the scene. It's about the people that work here and the people that live here. So thanks for helping to amplify that a little bit more. And thanks for being a part of it. I love it. We are honored to do so with people. This community around here is so strong. The hospitality and the restaurant community, like to be listed in that group of people. We're nothing without this community. And I think that we're able to do what we do because we're all just trying to elevate everybody else. It's like a gigantic team.

01:52:00I think once you get, it's like a big family of people that are in this industry. I know you feel it. I know you feel it, Delia. And I feel it just from all the people that we get to have on this show and elevate it. It's pretty special. And thanks for joining us today. Delia? Hey, thank you, Chris. Again, thank you, Brandon, for getting me into this with you. I really appreciate the opportunity. And just take care of you guys and stay pretty, Music City. And remember, you can still be pretty with your mask on. Damn straight. Delia, you are like amazing. And I just can't say thank you enough for all that you do for this show. I think that you absolutely make this show. And I love seeing your smiling face every single week, catching up on how your week has gone and being a friend. You're just truly amazing. And thank you to all the listeners out there. Thank you, everybody. This has been awesome. We are gonna be back at it on Monday. Monday, we are going to have a man named Justin Biltanen.

01:53:04He is the bass player for Three Doors Down. He doesn't work in a restaurant. I'm pivoting from the Nashville Restaurant Radio. I wanted to bring a similarity between working in a kitchen and being in a band. And I went from working in a kitchen to being in a guy, a guy who's in a band that sold 30 million records. So he's doing his own country thing. He is a Nashvilleian. We talk about his favorite restaurants, some similarities, really, really good conversation. That's coming up Monday. And then on Wednesday, we're gonna be speaking to the one and only Charlie Nelson from Nelson's Greenbrier Distillery. And then who knows? Next week on The Roundup, we may have more best of Nashville winners because there's a million of them out. We'd like a whole nother show next week. And I just appreciate everybody. We hope that you are staying safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.