#theroundup 7-31-23

00:00We are so excited to welcome a new sponsor to Nashville Restaurant Radio, Volunteer Welding Gas and Supply. Volunteer Welding Beverage Carbonation began serving bulk CO2 and beverages systems in 1976. They're a service-oriented company that is passionate about and dedicated to beverage-only gases. How does a gas company provide service? Well, you either know or you don't know until it's too late. And they use telemetry to monitor your system. Let's say that you're in the middle of a busy lunch and then you realize, hey, there's no carbonation in our Coke. This is a problem. What do you do? You call an 800 number, you put on hold to be told that maybe sometime in the next 24 hours, somebody will get out to you. Well, that's where the telemetry works. Volunteer Welding is monitoring your tank for that. If it gets low or there's a leak, they're gonna let you know beforehand. Imagine that call before lunch so you never have an 86 situation when you definitely don't need that.

01:04Wanna learn more? Give David Perry a call at 615-306-7455 or email him at dperryatvolunteerwelding.com. Hey guys, we are supported by Charpier's Bakery and we've been supported by Charpier's Bakery for the last year. And I tell you, I couldn't be more proud of this partnership. Guys, they're a locally owned and operated bakery right here in Nashville for the last 36 years. Yes, they deliver fresh baked bread daily to your restaurant's back door. And man, is it good. You wanna know what kind of bread they make? Go check them out at charpier'sbakery.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S, bakery.com. So they have over 200 types of bread. And if you're wondering, well, hey, look, it's a special recipe that I like to use that we bake it in our house and it's just, it's a kind of a pain, but we like to do it. They can take your recipe and make that bread for you without any of the hassle, the mess, the labor.

02:06They'll just deliver it right to your door every single day. It is freshly baked. They love to give you a tour of their facility. Give Erin Mosso a call. Her number is 615-319-6453. You should do it now. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City. And welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am joined with Caroline Galzin. Hi, Brandon. How you doing? I'm great, we're back. We are back and better than ever. And we are as always powered by Gordon Food Service. Love those guys. And Michael Carter was just in studio. Yes.

03:06He brought us some really cool new schwag and some mugs and some really cool hats. You can see me rocking this new hat. Yeah, it's a cool hat. And I've got my eye on that GFS Blue Yeti might be coming home with me. It might be. It could be yours. Maybe. I'm always looking for a good pool drink vehicle. Hell yeah. How the hell are you? I'm great. I think people think that we talk like every day and that we're like, but like you are doing a ton of summer. You've got a lot of stuff. I've got a lot of stuff. I really haven't talked to you in like weeks. I know it's kind of been our summer break. We like at the beginning of June, kind of fast and furious recorded in like two days, recorded a ton of episodes. And this is the first time that we've seen each other since. June. Second week of June, maybe. And here we are at the third week in July, last week in July. Is it August next month or next week? It's August next week.

04:07Oh my God. Next week is August. Well, this will come out. It'll be, I think August 1st. Yeah. Wow. Hey, happy August to you. Happy August. This summer has really flown by. It has flown by. I have had an amazing summer. How has your summer been? It's been busy, busy, busy, busy. I love summer. I am the person who I love hot weather. I love to bake in the sun. Summer is my favorite season. Hands down, no contest. I know a lot of people hate summer. I don't understand that. I'm the person who hates fall and winter. I love summer hot weather. Anyway, I like to have a fun summer. I like to have a relaxing summer. I like to have a beach vacation summer. And this summer has not been that. It's been fine. But it's just, it's kind of been nonstop. A lot of work and just a lot going on, but all good. Yeah, me too.

05:08I feel like I've just been vacationing a lot. Oh, okay. Well, it sounds like you're having the summer that I want. Yes, I'm doing, we went to Puerto Rico for a week. And then for Father's Day, ended up taking both of my children on an individual like baseball trip. Cute. Went to Cincinnati with my youngest and we went to the aquarium, went to a Reds game and then just like an overnight trip. And then my oldest, we went to Atlanta and did the same thing. And that was like the best trip ever. Cute. Steven, who owns the restaurants, his brother is the chef for the Braves. So every once in a while, like, hey, can I get, do you, can you hook me up with some tickets? You know, here and there, which is a nice thing. And he said, yes, it was the fourth July week. So it was not like apparently on vacation, he could get tickets that week. And we sat one row behind the dugout. Wow, that's awesome. Fourth pitch of the game, foul ball. Guess who got it? Oh, really? Fourth pitch of the game. Wow. And then like the fourth inning, the Bat Boy threw us another ball.

06:09So we got take home a ball. So we got two balls that game. I gotta tell you, I'm a huge, huge baseball fan. I always have been, that's my sport. I have been to literally hundreds of baseball games. I have never gotten a foul ball. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. I take my kid to this game and like, you're always, you always want to sit somewhere like, maybe I'll get a foul ball. This would be really cool. Maybe I'll get a foul ball. Fourth pitch of the game, ball, oh, here we go. And lo and behold, we didn't catch it. The ball bounced. I missed it for one second and Usher right next to me got it and handed me the ball. Oh, that's so cute. But it was like right there. I didn't like actually catch the ball but the guy gave us the foul ball, so. Love that. What a good memory. And then in the first inning, the Braves scored six runs. Back to back home runs to start the game. And I was like, you're getting a show today, dude. Had he ever been to a professional baseball game before? Yes, I think we've been to an angel game. Maybe this was like his second. We've been to a bunch of sounds games, but never, obviously never like the truest park on like right behind the dugout.

07:12The first MLB game I ever went to was a Braves game but it was interleague in Boston. They were playing the Red Sox and they wore Boston Braves or Boston wore Boston Braves uniforms. Nice. I don't think that they even do like, it's not like called interleague games anymore. For those people out there who are listening, there's an American league and then there's a national league. There's a Red Sox in the American league. So they're like, what does interleague mean? Like it's typically American league teams play American league teams and national league teams play national league teams. And in the world series, it's American league versus the national league. They did this interleague, but now they just play all the time like that. Yeah, there used to be just like a couple weekends, a year would be. And it was like interleague games. It was like a whole big thing. That's why I'm like, this was a while ago. Oh yeah, I mean, it was in the early 90s. Now it's a commonality. They got rid of the pitchers batting. It's all designated hitters now. Listen, we need a separate podcast to talk about the new world of MLB.

08:13We just lost 80% of our listeners. I'm not loving, anyway. So you said that you have another trip coming up. I mean, I feel like you're living my best summer life. We went to Colorado also. We took a weekend and went to Colorado. My wife went to Louisville for her sister's 40th birthday. Then my mom was a flight attendant. She was going to Colorado and she goes, you guys want to come with us? And I was like, yeah, let's go. So I took the boys to Colorado and that was really fun. And then we're going to Florida this weekend. Where are you going to Florida? Santa Rosa. Oh, okay, yeah. We're going down to interview some restaurants. Oh, okay. I will, I was going to say, I'm surprised to hear you say you're going to Florida because I feel like you told me not too long ago that you were done with family vacations to Florida. We were, we are. Wait, were, are, okay. So we're killing two birds with one stone here? This is not a family vacation. Okay. This is a trip where I'm going to go down and interview some restaurants because I'm curious about their processes and what they do. But it's also a time for us to go down there. We're just going for a couple nights. Oh, that's great. We used to go seven nights in Florida and that was like too much.

09:15This is going to be three nights. What restaurants are you meeting with down there? Still up in the air. Okay. I've got a plan, the timing around it, but I know we're meeting with Beauchamps, which is one of them. And then I've got three others that I'm kind of trying to figure out. Well, you know, I've said many times in the podcast before, I'm obsessed with Emeril's in Sandestin and Miramar. That is one of my favorite restaurants. Like Emeril Lagasse? Yes. We've talked about this on this show before. I know we have, but at Emeril's restaurant in Miramar Beach, which is in the Sandestin community, like right before you get on 30A, there's an Emeril Lagasse restaurant. Emeril lives in Sandestin. That's his permanent home. I'm sure he travels a ton, but that's his main residence. He's at the restaurant all the time, all the time. I've seen him there many times working, like just expoing brunch one time. I'm gonna reach out to him. See if I can't fit him in too. It's a really great restaurant. Even if you can't, you should go eat. It's fantastic. It's our favorite place down there. Yeah, like I told the family, I said this is, I'm gonna go down there and do these interviews.

10:17You guys are welcome to come, but this isn't like a family trip. Like this isn't like, we're gonna be at the, we're gonna rent a boat and we're gonna go to the water park. And we're like, I'm gonna be working throughout the day. You guys go do your thing. Just come with me kind of a thing. You know what's another great place down there might be fun to talk to is Destin Ice, the fresh seafood market. It's been there forever. The same fishmonger has been running it for like 20 years and it's the best. That's what I'm talking about. I think there's a lot of people like that. I wanna learn more about the area and then maybe share some stories about the people there. So if next time you go to it, cause every time we go we see a million people. I'll be there in October. I'm counting down the days. I can't wait. But October, this is like the longest I've ever gone in my life without going to the beach. I can't take it. You're gonna be in Destin? I will be, yeah, at Sandestin in Miramar. Nice. That's where we like to go. Let Emeril make your reservation now. Oh, don't worry. That's the off season though. You should be good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what we like to go in the off season. It's a family beach trip. So anyway. All right, so lots of good things. I have a new restaurant opening August 21st.

11:20We're gonna be opening Charros. Congrats. That's exciting. I feel like we put that episode out like a year ago. We're supposed to open June 5th and now here we are August 21st. I don't feel like it was that long ago. Oh my God, it's been crazy. Yeah. Do you guys think you are gonna open on the 21st? Yeah, I mean, for all intents and purposes. Yeah, I mean, that's. It's happening. After all these delays, we actually have a date we think we're gonna be. We're ready. We're just waiting on a couple things. What's your opening plan look like? Are you guys doing like a friends and family? Are you just gonna quietly open or you? We're gonna do a friends and family and then we're also doing a VIP night and then we're gonna do a Belmont faculty and staff night. Doing three nights. That's smart. And friends and families, literally staff. Staff, friends and family. It's not like my friends and family. It's like, if you work there. That's the first one. People who don't mind if you screw up. Yeah, the VIP night's a little more invite only and it's full already. That's great. With the other two restaurants, there's just a. Like a media night type of. Not even a media night. It is a people that have helped us put this thing together and friends and family of like myself and the owners and not really myself.

12:26I have like three people on that list. Literally my mom and dad and like my wife and kids. And if you wanna go. Well, I haven't seen my invite. We haven't sent any out yet. None are out yet. No, I'm just teasing you. It's fine. It's fine. So you're listening to this going, am I not a friend? Am I not a VIP? You may be getting one. Watch your inbox. I'll be checking my mailbox. Watch your mailbox. It's gonna happen. I did also see we had a guy on the show. His name is Emron Shake. This was last year on August the 11th. We had Emron Shake on. He owns Milkshake Concepts, which is, God bless, I can't think of the name of the place downtown. It's right on Third Avenue across from FGL House. Oh, it's like a milkshake bar? No, no, no. I can't think of the name of it right now. I can look it up. He is opening Harper's Steakhouse. Oh, where's that gonna be? I think it's downtown. Okay. I don't know. Harper's Steakhouse. I haven't heard of that one yet. It's brand new.

13:28I talked about it on the show on August 11th of last year. Emron Shake, CEO, founder of Milkshake Concepts. What is his place here in Nashville? Layer Cake in Cherryland. He owns a Layer Cake. Okay. Right here downtown. They're also, now they're gonna open Harper's Steakhouse. All right. Do you know what kind of steakhouse that's gonna be? Yeah, I got the press release right here. Oh, let's hear it. Which would be globally inspired steakhouse with unmatched style. Oh, unmatched. That's pretty bold. Cannot match it. This is a stunning steakhouse that upends expectations from floral wallpaper patterns, lush greenery, and intricate stonework and archways. Okay. The classics are here, but so are adventurous options like beef wellington, pot stickers. I wish you guys could see Caroline right now when I said pot stickers. Why? Elk tenderloin in Australian 30 ounce wagyu tomahawk.

14:31Wow. I mean, you know, they've got their work cut out for them. They have a wagyu old fashioned and a goo goo cluster after dinner cocktail. Oh. Much more to come. So it's gonna be at 2 Lee Avenue, downtown in Nashville town. So Lee is not downtown, it's right on Lee Avenue. 2 Lee Avenue, 9,000 square foot Peabody Plaza in the burgeoning South Bank district with an urban core with the urban core of Nashville. So there it is. Harper's Steakhouse. You know, a new opening that I am so excited about is Four Walls that just opened at the Joseph Hotel. So it's a sister concept to Yolan and of course Denim Lounge. And it's a cocktail bar. And I haven't been yet, but it's supposed to be kind of like a secret. I think it's like a little secret hidden entrance. And then they're doing super high end kind of very, you know, thoughtful cocktails.

15:35And their social media branding is really cool. If you go on their Instagram page, which is at Four Walls Nash. They, it's just kind of like very mysterious and moody and I'm really excited to check it out. I'm gonna go check it out right now while we're talking. I'm not gonna get sidetracked. Is it the number four or F-O-U-R? Oh, F-O-U-R. Four Walls Nash, all right. So I'm excited. Maybe I'll try and get over there this week. I'll be going to, on Wednesday, I'm going to an event for our friend Marcia, who Marcia, Marcia for Nashville, Marcia. And actually, if you're listening to this, election day is August 3rd. So if you didn't get a chance to early vote, please make sure you get out and vote. It's really, really important, particularly my restaurant industry people. I wanna encourage you again to go out and vote for Marcia for Metro Council at large. If you don't know all five people that you're gonna vote for and you just wanna vote for one because you know Marcia is such an advocate and such a supporter of our restaurant and hospitality folks, you can go and just vote for Marcia if you want.

16:47So go do it, guys. I think you definitely should. And the voting turnout so far, I think has been, I mean, I don't know if it's too hot. People are waiting for August the 3rd, but I mean, this is really important. It's really important, really important, guys. Like I said, when she was on the show here, we gave a full endorsement of her. Like, go vote for her. She's amazing. Yeah, we had a couple other great candidates on this show. We've had Freddie O'Connell, we had Sharon Hurt. If you're still trying to decide who you're voting for, you can go back and listen to those episodes with all three of them in our podcast feed. I think Freddie's a front runner. As of today, as of this recording, which we're a little bit behind, but as of today, Freddie is the front runner. So. Very nice. I really liked him. Congrats, Freddie, so far. I really liked Freddie a lot too. I think that he's been a great, great person who cares a lot about Nashville and has done a lot of great things for our city and I think he'd make a great mayor. I think he would make her. I'm not giving a full endorsement yet because I still have some more research to do before that election day.

17:51I'm not giving an endorsement just because I think that we fortunately are in a position where we have so many great candidates. You know, Jeff Yarbrough, Heidi Campbell, Sharon Hurt, of course, like I said, who was here on the show. We have a lot of really, really great candidates. So do your research. Don't just, like, go, people out there, do your research, figure out who you like but make sure you get in there and vote. Yeah. Go vote, guys, please. Very, very, very important. Okay, well, we got a lot of stuff going on. We got some topics to talk about. We're 15 minutes in of us just kind of chatting. Blank a blank. Let's talk about, do you want to go Jason Aldean or the Bear? Oh, God. What do you want to go with first? Two topics that I hate. What do you, oh. All right, well, let's go. I hate more than the other. Let's go Jason Aldean first and we'll bury the Bear for the next one. So jumping in real quick to take a commercial break to tell you about Cytex.

18:55Cytex is your premium linen and tablecloth and first aid kits and uniform provider. They're servicing locally owned and operated restaurants right here in Nashville and I'm giving them a healthy endorsement because I've used them for the last four years and they've been amazing. And Ross Chandler is my guy. I mean, if I ever have any issues, I got people to call and answer their phones. They're amazing. If you would like to talk to Ross about potentially changing your linen company and I highly recommend you do, his number is 270-823-2468. Give him a call. Back to our conversation. Oh, brother. Jason Aldean is a country music artist. He has a restaurant downtown called Jason Aldean's and he wrote a song and he's all in the news right now because he wrote a song called Try That in a small town. Well, I don't think he wrote it actually. No, he didn't wrote it. Thank you.

19:56He sings the song. And I don't say that in defense of him. I just, I don't think he's writing it. No, he sings the song and the song is basically, I mean, I'm paraphrasing these not verbatim words but it's try, knock up a liquor store, sucker punch an old lady, try that in our town. We'll get, we take care of our own, we'll come get you kind of a thing. Right. And it's a small town. There's a small town feel and we look after each other kind of a deal but the overtone of the song is very, to me when I hear it is very much of like a, really you city folks, try that in a small town, we'll come fuck you up. That's what I hear. It's racist, essentially. That's what I get out of it. That's what I get out of it too and actually, Brandon, I will say, this was on your radar like six weeks ago. I remember we were in studio and you're like, have you heard that Jason Aldean song? It's horrible, it's horrible. So you were way ahead of the trend on this one. It was a while, I was gonna say I did, I think I pointed out to you, I was like, every time it comes on, cause I listen to the highway, the station.

21:01But yeah, I hear it and I'm like, this is horrible. This is the worst song I've ever heard in my life. It's also, it's just not a very good song. No. I was kind of flipping through TikTok last night and I came across this comedian. His name is Trey, T-R-A-E, Trey Crowder. And I guess he did a standup set in Bowling Green a couple nights ago and it's hilarious. He's talking about the song and he's like a real, got like a really thick country accent. I'm not sure exactly where he's from, but he's like, I'm from a small town and he's like, the first line in the song is, a lady gets carjacked at a red light. He's like, we don't have red lights in small towns and then goes on to say, Jason Aldean's from Macon, Georgia. Has everybody heard of Macon, Georgia? And the audience claps and he's like, well, that's not a small town. Everybody knows it. But it's a hilarious set if, you should go watch it. But how does this relate to restaurants? Well, so here's the deal. What happened was, is the video, he made a video for this and he did this video right in front of the town courthouse, the city town square in the middle of Columbia, apparently.

22:16So try that in a small town. It was filmed in front of the place where Henry Choate was lynched on Armistice Day in 1927. Aldean's team had an American flag above the banister Choate was tied to. Aldean stood in front of the doorway where Choate's body hanged. This is the headline for an article that Betsy Phillips wrote in the Nashville scene about this whole thing. So he did this video in front of this area where a dude was lynched back in 1927 and the guy hung right there and he put an American flag right there. So there's a symbolism that goes on, enough so that CMT decided to pull the video because, well, it's fucking wrong. Right, it's just fucking wrong. Well, there's been a lot of conversation around this and I was scrolling the socials as I do from time being and I saw E3 Chop House had posted a full on. Have you ever been to E3 Chop House?

23:17No, I never have. Yeah, neither have I. But basically it was a restaurant that said, we are fully supporting Jason Aldean, we are behind him and we love small towns and we're this, and I was floored. It just, it almost seemed thirsty. It's quite a hill to die on for a steakhouse in Hillsborough Village. Yeah, I was like, I've never seen like a restaurant just come out and be like. About a music video. Yeah, we're gonna do, this is where we are and I sent it to you and I was like, look at this shit. And I was like, wow, we should talk about this. And so what are your thoughts? We've learned later on, I believe now that Jason Aldean is a co-owner of that restaurant. Jason Aldean is a co-owner of the restaurant and I guess the other co-owner is Luke Bryan who Jason Aldean has always been someone who is unafraid of controversy, it seems and really likes to lean into his, I don't know, ignorance.

24:23Racism, transphobia, homophobia, all of these things. And is really bold and outspoken about that. Luke Bryan, on the other hand, seems to be kind of like on that Blake Shelton track where it's like, you know, kind of like, hey, I'm all American, boy next door kind of energy, everybody loves me. I don't make waves, I'm on American Idol, you know, kind of that. Superstar. Huge superstar. Superstar. Huge superstar and I think that, you know, I don't know, maybe he has been outspoken about his views, you know, politically, socially, whatever, but I'm certainly not aware of it. And I think he kind of, you know, walks the line of not making waves. He used to. Until this. Well, has Luke Bryan come out and said something about it? Oh my God, are you serious? Yes, I am serious. I don't know.

25:23Luke Bryan has come out and said he's pulled all of his. No, that's not true. Okay, so there's fake, I hate to use the term fake news, but it is. There's fake stories going around that originated on like Parler or one of these saying that there's the same story going around. It's about Luke Bryan and about Blake Shelton saying that they in protest have pulled all their videos from CMT, but these are not real news stories. They originated from like, I don't know, like a Newsmax or one of these like, you know, urban legend type of news stories. Look it up on Snopes. I'm just going to look up Luke Bryan's Instagram page and see if he has posted about, because if he, if he's that big about it, maybe he. No, I just read that those are that like conservative circles are trying to circulate those stories, but they're not true. Okay. Yeah. Cause he, what I, what I heard. I would be, honestly, I would be shocked if he did that.

26:24Because like I said, he's not that guy. I, the quote that I heard Luke Bryan say was let's give him the Bud Light treatment. Yeah, no, that's not a real news story. Okay. I was like, Luke Bryan just dove all the way down here. Well, and that doesn't, that, I don't know. That just doesn't align with his personal branding. That didn't make sense to me either. And again, maybe he is extremely conservative. Maybe he is all of these things. And they're friends. But I don't know. I don't know that he's never been publicly outspoken about that. You know, I'm not on here to be the Luke Bryan apologist. I'm just saying let's deal in facts. And these are the facts. So all of that to say, if I was his business partner and I had the image that Luke Bryan has of this, like, I'm on American Idol and everybody likes me. I would be yikes. Yikes. Yikes. But do you think that it's a boost to business? Do you think that like ultra conservative people like Williamson County's like driving in to be like, I got to get the steak?

27:25Or do you think that like, I don't know, E3 Chop House is not a cheap place to eat or like these, you know, like, I don't know, redneck types who get excited about this, going to spend $100 on a steak? As of today, that post has 3,803 likes with 835 comments. Well, that's so stupid. If you want a good read, go read those comments. But here's the thing. People who actually live in Nashville aren't responding to that. People who actually live in Nashville, our hometown customer base here is not a customer base that is going to be in favor of that. It's just not. I have a restaurant that caters to locals. You have a restaurant that caters to locals. You know who our locals are. And they are for the most part, certainly there's exceptions, but the majority of our locals are not that. This is a town that in our last Democratic presidential primary, Bernie Sanders won Nashville.

28:31Really? Not even Joe Biden. Bernie Sanders. That's how progressive the majority of our citizens are. I mean, I think you can look at the election, just what we were talking about earlier. We have a lot of very progressive. Freddie O'Connell, who's leading the pack, is a very progressive candidate. So I think that that speaks to who lives here year-round. Wouldn't you agree? Don't you feel like your friends and the people that you know align them, do not align themselves with this type of racism? I think there's an extreme side of everything. And the most people that I talk to and really associate with can see both sides, are moderates. I think a lot of people I know are moderates, but then my close friends, I mean, I know where people lean. But I think the more topic of this conversation is, should a restaurant be jumping in? What does this have to do with a steak? What does this have to do with a steak? You aligning with Jason Aldean and this. Why does a restaurant need to... You don't care what my...

29:31Nobody out there cares what my opinion is. But if you're a restaurant, why do you care? Sure. I think that a lot of people would argue, for example, we have gotten commentary before, always from like an anonymous Google review or Yelp poster, because, excuse me, we display Pride flags, Pride progress, trans Pride flags, we have Black Lives Matter sticker on our door to express to our community that all are welcome at my restaurant. 100%. I think that some people would say, OK, well, if you can express yourself in that way, that you stand for these causes, why can't they as E3 on the other side of the coin say that we stand for this conservative cause? And I think that the difference is that despite what he may think, nobody is trying to marginalize or oppress Jason Aldean. Well, I was going to say... And unfortunately, we do have marginalized oppressed communities that I think it is important that we, you know, show, hey, this is a place where you are welcome.

30:35I think what you're saying with the Pride flag is this is a safe place. Like, this is a safe... We welcome all, we're not... And then I think that when you make the emphatic statement that we are a small town, we think that this video should be... We think all of this stuff is OK. You're saying, well, we really don't. We kind of... This is not a safe place. This is not a safe place. For Jason Aldean, this is a safe place for you. Safe place if you're in that demographic. Right. Do you think that's what the statement is? Because I don't think that... I don't know. I think that a lot of people have... I mean, I have people who have given me, you know, quote unquote, business advice before, and they were people who I think were well-meaning. However, they would say, oh, you shouldn't display those things because it's important for businesses to stay neutral because you never want to alienate anyone. You know, I don't agree with that necessarily, but I don't know. I don't feel like...

31:35It's a tricky world we're living in right now. I don't feel like showing a community that may not always feel safe everywhere they go, that my business is a safe place for them, is exclusionary to any other group. I think, unfortunately, we live in a society where certain groups believe if this is a safe place for a marginalized group, then I am excluded. You know what I'm saying? I think that's where a lot of this divisiveness comes from, and that's not it at all. What do you guys think out there? What do you guys think? I'm sure there's people driving in their car now shouting at the radio going, this, this, this! It's like, okay, okay. Just a topic conversation, just something that's up in our world that I thought was interesting. It's just something of notes. This is the roundup. This is what we talk about. This is okay, and I want to move along. I think we can talk about this. Do you want to talk more about this? No, no, I don't. Honestly, I don't want to give Jason Aldean anymore, any more attention.

32:36I want to talk about The Bear. Oh, God. I so want to talk about The Bear. Okay. Let's talk about it. I think that we're going to have different takes on The Bear. Oh, yeah. Because you said just now two things I hate. The Bear is a show on Hulu. Season two is over. And if you have not seen it, there may potentially be spoilers in this conversation. Yes, I think there will be spoilers in this conversation. Just to give you a heads up, if you have not watched it through and through, there's going to be spoilers. So fast forward 10 minutes, and we'll, we'll, we'll get there. Go, go ahead, Brandon. I thought we have John Ho with Parks Realty Hospitality on Instagram in studio to tell you why, as a restaurant worker, you can buy a home. John? Thank you, Brandon. There's three things that are fallacies when it comes to buying a home from the hospitality industry.

33:36Number one is that you need perfect credit. Number two is that you need tens of thousands of dollars for down payment. And number three is that you need two years of work history in the same place. John, you're a restaurant veteran, been in the industry a long time. How do you, as a real estate agent, overcome those three myths? The first thing we do is we pick a premier partner for lending, and that's Foundation Mortgage. They're going to be our first stop to get people pre-qualified in the hospitality industry. Number two, we understand that hospitality workers don't work nine to five. So our phones are on 24 hours a day. Amazing. So if I wanted to call you, how do I do it? You can get me at my cell phone, shoot me a text or give me a call. It's 615-483-0315. 615-483-0315. Or Amanda Gardner at Foundation Mortgage, 865-230-1031. 865-230-1031. Follow John on Instagram at Housepotality and follow Amanda on Instagram at MortgageAmanda. I watched the first two episodes and I was like, no.

34:38I did not watch it. Of the second season? First season. Oh, okay. First, I watched two episodes when it first came out. I didn't watch it again. And my wife came home one day six weeks ago and she goes, have you watched The Bear? And I said, I watched two episodes but I didn't really get into it. She said, I'm gonna watch it. So we started it over. And in episode like six in season one, I was hooked. And let me tell you why I was hooked. I'm gonna give you my stance as to why I was hooked. I thought that the change that happens in the restaurant was magical. When he comes in, it was absolute freaking chaos. Nobody gives a shit. They're just clocking in and doing a job. And when he brought Sydney in and she started adding structure to what they were doing. Yeah, chef, all that stuff. It's kind of obnoxious, right? I don't say that stuff in my restaurant. Some things about it, we just don't do. But when he added structure to the building and then you start seeing people.

35:40And here's the thing. I think they encapsulated the people that work in restaurants. It's not all the time. I'm not trying to generalize but a lot of times people that work in restaurants it's an easy way to go make cash. And you just, it's just a physical. You come in, it's not easy by any means but you could mail it in if you want to. You could come in and just kind of just do it which is what was happening there. Didn't have a lot of formal education probably from homes that were probably a little tougher and I'm referencing people in the show from like what I'm watching. And you obviously learn about their history and their show and there's some broken people in this show. But all of a sudden they put structure in and people do a good job and somebody believes in them. And when they do something good, I remember when the sous chef, the Hispanic woman, she makes the dish and she goes, that tastes good. She's like, you said that was good? And she looked up at her like, and she starts, that's when she started calling said chef.

36:41But there was this moment where all of a sudden somebody, it's like you could see her world change that she was good enough. And then all of a sudden the pride she took in everything and I thought in season two when she opened up and she had the brand new pan was like such a special little moment. Your eyes are rolling so hard. Those little moments are really cool and I think that I've seen so many people come in without a ton of knowledge and you spend a lot of time with them and you coach them and then you see them like it clicks. And it's a really special moment. I thought they encapsulated that really, really well. The character development, the people development that happens inside of a restaurant. I thought that was really neat. That's great. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. Your turn, go. Excuse me, I'm so sorry. What Chefs Want story is incredibly unique. The owner Ron Trenier met with a bunch of chefs in Louisville back in the early 2000s and asked them one simple question.

37:46What do you want? And the chefs, they responded emphatically. We want deliveries on Sunday. We want to be able to split any item that you sell. We want a frictionless experience where we feel like we're being served. And so you know what he did? Something crazy. He did just that. So What Chefs Want is not only a company that's delivering fresh produce, fresh seafood, fresh custom cut meats, specialty items, dairy, gourmet, all of that seven days a week. They also offer 24-7 customer support. You want to call, you want to text, you want to email, you can talk to somebody 24-7. Get your delivery seven days a week in an amazing selection of products that is What Chefs Want. So if you ever wonder why do they call it that? That's your reason. Check em out at whatchefswant.com. Let me first start by saying this because I do not want to take away from that this show has been a very, very, very fucking cool and special thing for some people that I really care about.

39:01Namely, a dear friend, Sarah Miss Bagel and her husband Ben Luz Spader have a place in Chicago called Loaf Lounge, which is a cafe, bakery cafe, and they made all of the cakes, the pastries, the doughnut, the chocolate cake, all of this, they made it for the show. And they were doing this in the months leading up to opening their bakery, which is, I mean, what an unbelievable, cool, awesome opportunity, and they've been featured on all sorts of amazing platforms for making these pastries, and it's given so much very well-deserved attention to their bakery, which truly is an incredible place. Sarah is so talented and so great at what she does, and Loaf Lounge, that is like just, they deserve all of that, and that is so, so cool. Another dear friend of ours, Rob Levitt from PQM, was the butcher that was featured in the scene when she goes to the butcher shop to stage or whatever, and that was Rob's real story, the story that he told on the show of our partner left and ditched us.

40:20Me and my wife own this restaurant, and his restaurant motto that him and his wife Allie owned was one of our favorite places in Chicago, and it was a really incredible special place that was really leading the charge of doing simple farm-to-table food that really was kind of a pioneer and did incredible things, and Rob is an incredible person and an amazing butcher who is just anybody who knows him. He's so respected in this community and just a great guy. Anyway, like I said, I've been hesitant to talk so much about how I don't care for this show because I don't want to take away from those things of people that I care about. It's amazing people that you care about have direct correlation to the show. You're not trying to shit on them or anything that they're doing because you know what it's done for them. Absolutely not, and I love that this show is giving them a platform that is very, very deserved, and so many other people.

41:20I don't mention the other amazing chefs and Chicago people that are on the show just because those are the two people that I have a relationship with. So clearly you're watching the show through a lens of knowing some behind-the-scenes stuff. Well, I think that my lens of behind-the-scenes stuff is not through my relationships with these people. It's that I started working in restaurants almost 30 years ago, and I think that I've worked in restaurants long enough to have seen a major cultural shift in how people view restaurant work, how people treat restaurant workers. I think we're going through a major cultural shift right now as a matter of fact, but that's maybe a topic for a different show. I think that there's so much of the show that I'm too close to in terms of how things actually do work in fine dining and professional restaurants.

42:20I also have oddly an Italian beef connection of we've done Italian beef pop-ups. I know how Italian beef shops work. I just... There's too much of it that I just can't separate myself from. Like, why are we not just going to Restaurant Depot? Why do you have to buy a top-round from the mob in a parking lot? That's the dumbest shit I ever saw. The high tension and drama of it, I know it's supposed to capture what it's really like in a restaurant, and that doesn't resonate for me. I think it's very melodramatic. I hate a bunch of young guys calling each other chef. Just... And ultimately, I just don't like the story. I just don't like the story. I don't... It doesn't...

43:22I don't know. There's... It's too... Every single episode, I watch and I nitpick, and I can't help it. I'm just like... For example, at the end, here's a big spoiler alert, so turn it off if you don't want to know. At the end, when they open the fine dining restaurant, the girl who's supposed to be the manager is just sitting at a table having dinner the whole time, and they keep having to interrupt her dinner to get up and be like, hey, we need help. It's the first night of our opening. Can you quit fucking having dinner? That would never happen. What? And then they're like, hey, we're going to send you guys to culinary school, and I don't... Oh, my God, it's so fucking stupid. Also, I went to Kendall College. Never, ever, ever has a classroom. Now it's a great school. It's very nice, but it didn't look like that. Let me tell you, we didn't even have a sink. We had to spend an hour and a half in a three-compartment pot sink at the end of every night washing pots.

44:26Like... I... So, too many... It's too many little things. It's too many little things that I just... I can't take it. It's like very melodramatic and dumb to me. What about the episode, The Feast of the Seven Fishes? Because I know you do a Feast of the Seven Fishes. Yeah. And so they had an episode that was titled, Feast, it was in season two, episode six. It was called Feast. It was an hour and two minutes. Every other episode is like 30 minutes. This was an hour and two minutes. Feast of the Seven Fishes was the most chaotic, like triggering episode. And it was crazy. Okay, let me also say this. People who listen to this show regularly might know this, but I love television. Television is my hobby. That might sound vapid, but it just is. I love, like when Tandy was here and he said, I'm like Homer Simpson. I'm raised by television and I am television. That's me.

45:26I love television. And while my tastes do typically trend towards the garbage end of the spectrum, I actually do really have a passion for television in the sense that I've read a lot of books about like the history of television and I'm very interested in like, you know, kind of like iconic specific episodes of sitcoms from the seventies. And I actually, you know, even though my taste is very low brow, I really do love television and I do watch some good television, some award-winning quality programming. Like the bear. Is it award-winning? Yeah. Oh God. I can, I love this. I love this for people that I love who are featured in the show. It's great for them. Can you suspend disbelief for a minute? Yes. Can you just get into the magic of it? Well, but it's not magic to me. And that's why I said, I don't think the story is very good. I couldn't connect with the characters. I couldn't connect with the story. The Seven Fishes episode, I actually feel like if I was going to really like connect with an episode, it would be that one because I am obsessed with Bob Odenkirk.

46:33Like I have been a fan. I love Mr. Show. I will watch anything that he's in. I have read his biography. I'm a huge, huge, huge fan. The scene with the fork, that whole thing. There's a fucking fork. I didn't get it. I didn't get it. I didn't get it. It was, I didn't get it. Okay. I love, I love John Mulaney. Have you seen baby Jay, by the way, on Netflix? No, I love John Mulaney too. You got to watch it. You got to watch it. Anyway, he was that prayer. I thought was amazing at dinner. I thought was good. I feel like those people are brilliant and they were doing the best with what they were given. And it was so just off the rails bonkers. Yeah. No, but not in a good way. No, I mean, I thought, see where I look at that is I look at the chaos in that and I've seen that and you go, oh, okay. There's just, there's just, I don't like that many people, that many things happening at one time.

47:36So I was just like anxious throughout the entire episode. But the acting. I thought it was just too much. It was too much. It was so much. But I love chaos. Like I thrive on chaos. I feel like it wasn't from a critical standpoint. And I don't know. Who am I? But I just, I felt like it wasn't successful from a critical standpoint. It was, they needed to pull it back. It needed to be pulled back a little bit. I've heard a lot of people say they love the show. They felt triggered. They felt seen. They felt all these things. I've heard a lot of people say that your kind of take. What's your take? You can go right now to Spotify where you're listening to this podcast and on Spotify, there's a poll. There's a, you can go to any episode where you listen. If you go to anchor or wherever you're listening to this on Spotify, Spotify has this, you can leave a comment or you can go at a Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio. When this episode comes out, I will make a post about it. Let me know your thoughts on the bear. There's other people who don't like it.

48:37I want to say this on Andy Little. I'm going to do a poll. Maybe Brian Weaver. I would, you know, if you were to ask me, I would say Andy Little. I would say Andy Little would hate that. If you're out there, join my community, please. Now you're, now you're trying to recruit people. Power in numbers, guys. Shit. It's okay. You can, you can come out as a, not someone who likes the show. We got to get this ball rolling. I know you got to get out of here as we all, it's just a busy freaking time. I want to ask you, do you have any customer service pet peeve? Do you have an example? Oh my God. Yes. Oh. Okay. So I had a customer service experience that this might not seem like a big deal, but I feel like it's happened to me a couple of times and it just, it hit me the wrong way to the point that I'm considering calling a staff meeting with my entire staff, entire staff. And Carolyn is going to tell you the rest of the story right after these words from Robin's Insurance. Now, I love giving testimonials and Matthew Clements over at Robin's Insurance is amazing.

49:40So we had our cooler go out at the restaurant the other day. Um, we had to get a truck and I had the guy called me, uh, with our broadliner and he called and he said, Hey, I need you to get a COI certificate of inspection, certificate of insurance. We need to be added to your insurance for this particular reason. And I said, okay, let me see if I can get that done. So I picked up my phone. I called Matthew Clements and I said, Hey, I need a COI for this. And he goes, okay, done. I'll email it to you. And like an hour later I had it emailed and he was out. Like he wasn't at his office, but an hour later I had the COI with the company on it and done. Here you go. That happens because he's local. He's right here. He knows our business. He knows I need it now. And he gets it done. I didn't have to call any number. I didn't have to push number four. I don't have to explain who I was to somebody. I didn't have to find my account number. I didn't have to do all of those things that everybody would have to do if you use some national brand.

50:42And if you're looking for insurance for your restaurant, if you're looking for insurance for yourself, you need to call Robin's insurance because that was a 30 second phone call that could have been a 30 minute ordeal. And it's just so nice to work with somebody who specializes in restaurants and is right here in town. So Matthew Clements, thank you for your help the other day. And also Robin's insurance for hooking us up. You guys need to give him a call right now. Let me tell you his number. It's 863-409-9372. That's 863-409-9372. His email address is mclements, that's plural, m-c-l-e-m-e-n-t-s at robbinsins.com. Over this one issue to make sure nobody ever does this. Let me tell you, I am doing a staff meeting on August the 6th. I'm bringing in my entire staff to watch The Bear together. No, you're not. Yep. Interesting.

51:42Season two, episode seven, the unreasonable hospitality episode. Richie goes and polishing the forks, the whole thing. We're watching that episode as a whole restaurant and then we're playing bunko as a team. Great. It's going to be fun. That sounds so fun. So your thing about having a staff meeting, The Bear got me to do a staff meeting and I went to a place that I won't name. Listen, I'll go back there again. It's my favorite place to go. I drink a cappuccino every afternoon between two and four. Every day of my life, I drink a cappuccino. This is one of my favorite places to go get a cappuccino. I didn't know that. I did not know that about you. This is a true story about me every day. This is my favorite place to go get a cappuccino. I happened to be in the neighborhood and I went and got one. And they were closing in 15 minutes. And that's fine. If I was going to sit down for a meal and they were closing in 15 minutes, I wouldn't have gone. But I'm going to get a cappuccino. It takes one minute to make.

52:42So I'm like, no problem. I go in. The person making the coffee sees me and I said, Hi, how's it going? And he said, it's going. And I absolutely cannot take that response. I can't take that response to the point. Like it is so rude. I would almost rather walk into a place and say, Hey, how's it going? And have somebody say, it's going really fucking terrible. Then for them to say, it's going, it's going. What do you think about that? It's so passive aggressive. I can't take it. I don't expect anything from anybody anymore. You've given up. I don't fucking care. No, I mean, I do. I feel I'm in mourning for service and friendly service.

53:45I don't think it exists anymore. So I said on the last episode at the end of it, personal accountability. And I talked about this whole thing from Rob Floyd, which I hate that you missed that episode. He was on bar rescue for 10 years. I'm like, you would have like lots of examples. I would have had some questions about Pirate's Tavern. I went to a gas station. I just bought a water. I was on my way to like a meeting and I bought a water. And I walked up and I was like, Hi. And she was just like, didn't say anything. Just looked at me, scanned it and went card. I mean, a gas station for a water. A gas station is a little different than a bougie coffee shop. I put the card in and I said, thank you. Have a great day. And she goes, mm hmm. Listen, a gas station, I don't expect anything. A place where I'm paying six dollars for a cappuccino. And it's not even that I expect anything. I kind of expect a snarky response at a cappuccino. If I go to Fido, I'm expecting. You are? I will say like.

54:45And listen, I'm used to quality. No, I'm not making this a barista thing because like whenever I go to frothy, our neighbors at Nicky's, they are so nice. Truly like the nicest, so friendly. There's one barista in particular. I wish I could remember their name, but just really, really sweet and friendly people every time I go in there. But and this this place is not a place that I mentioned before. I've had bad experiences, but. I just I feel like it's happened a couple of times recently. I've gone in somewhere. I say, hey, how's it going? And they say it's going. It's going. Just don't just say fine. How are you? That's all that it requires. Great. How are you? Yeah, I don't I don't share the same. I would I would not care. I like to see I like reactions out of people, though. I like it when people genuinely respond to something or it. Like how am I supposed to react to that? What is OK?

55:45So I have a friend who's always, you know, who's smart about, you know, kind of social interactions and says, before you interact with somebody, think about what you want the outcome to be. Right. And that's how you act. You know, be thoughtful about the outcome. If I say, hey, how's it going? And you say it's going. What would you like my outcome to be? Would you like me to say, I guess I'm just going to fuck off then. And I walk out the door like what in a perfect world as the person who says it's going, what would you like from me? Oh, you having a bad day? Like what's going on with you today? Are you OK? Do you want to sit down and talk about it? I mean, I don't know. I'm just I'm just saying, like. It's going. I think I think that there's a. General acceptance around negativity that everybody's pissed off. The world is fucked. Look around. Everything is terrible. There's a general acceptance that you can be like yours, a character for a reason.

56:51Like, I mean, there's a there's a reason. But yours not passive aggressive. He's very open and direct about his depression. The passive aggressive. I don't mind. I think it's a generational thing. I think it's generational. I don't think it's like I think that's what people do and say, like, it's going like, right? Like everything sucks, right? Like, yeah, this world is fucked. Like there can't be a positivity because it's a cultural thing. I think it's cultural enough. I don't think it's a I don't give a shit about you. I think that's what they want you to say. I don't. I don't want to give a shit about me. I want them to pretend they genuinely care about you. No, I just even I don't know. I just I I just feel like if you're in a customer service position, even if you're having a bad day, you have to smile and say, I'm great. How are you? The end. I don't think it requires that much effort. I completely do. You think they say it's going at E3 shophouse?

57:52How do you think it's going if you're a team member there? I'm not going to speculate. You're I'd love to know. I would. If somebody wants to send us an anonymous DM, I won't talk about it. I just genuinely want to know for my own curiosity. Yeah. If you notice me that works at E3, like what happened to like all of a sudden did a bunch of people with red hat start eating there? And listen, I feel bad because honestly, like we have a very, very diverse community of hospitality workers. You know, how does it feel to work there? You think people quit over this? I wonder. I'm just curious. I mean, if you're if you're anybody in the LGBTQ community, do you still work there? If you're somebody who's person of color, person of color, do you do you? Wow. Maybe it's a great job because they bet it's a busy place and it's a high check average. That sucks. If you have insider information, what's happening over there? It is up on the tip line, which is the DM of Nashville Restaurant Radio Instagram.

58:53What if a manager from E3 Chop House, the general manager, called us and said, hey, I want to come on the show and talk about it. Come on. Would you do it? Absolutely. Would you? Yeah, but that's not going to happen. I don't want to. Not unless they quit. I mean, I just I'd come like to. Yeah. I mean, I'm just curious. And listen, maybe it's maybe it's like, hey, somebody went rogue on social media. This is a place. This is a place with a corporate structure. It's not like that here. Maybe we have it all wrong. Who knows? I mean, the manager comes on, I was like, I fucking hate it. It's like a prison. And they just came in and they have like the voice box from Scream. Exactly like the whole thing. That would be amazing. OK, so customer service wise, I don't have any customers for his pet peeves myself. I just like people who care. I like passionate people. That's my thing. Yeah. I like guys. Give a hoot. Don't passively aggressively respond to Caroline.

59:54If you see Caroline coming, I would love it next time you go to that place. If they were like, well, good morning, Caroline. How are you doing today? I'm also a two dollar cappuccino Tupper. I get one cappuccino. I'm tipping two dollars. It's a generous tip on a cappuccino, right? Is it? I think so. Don't you? When they like flip the little screen over and you have your options. Oh, that's a whole nother conversation. I know you have a five or six dollar drink. Two dollars is a generous tip. It's great. It's a good tip. Maybe I'm not tipping enough. I'm just being funny at this point. I'm just talking shit. No, I think it's a good tip. The whole flipping the screen over, that's a whole different story. All right. We'll save that one for next time. Caroline is great to see you. Always great to see you. Thank you to all of the people out there listening. I don't know who you are. But I have solicited feedback. I need you to give us some feedback. And if you know people that work at E3 and you have inside information at gals and gals, how are you going to know?

01:00:56No, no, no, no, no. Don't send it to restaurant radio. Well, then I get it. You don't want to say it. OK, send it to at you sent to me at Brandon underscore in our or at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio. And if you would like to send Caroline a message that says, I hope your day is wonderful. No, because that's what she was looking for with her. Hey, how are you? I'm doing great. That's the outcome. Like that somebody greets you. That's what I wanted out of my interaction with. I said, thank you. Thanks. Have a great day. That's what I was looking for. And I got. So you can send me some of this is have a great day or since when the Carolinas have a great day, let's put some positivity. Thanks, Brandon. All right. We're going to do an outro on this one. Hope you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.