#theroundup 9-11-20

00:00Given people that 60 seconds to get going, get a couple viewers on here before we do the full intro. This is on YouTube today too, right? Yes, we are on YouTube as well as Facebook. Hey, while we got a few minutes, let's start off and talk about the Roundup presented by Springer Mountain Farms Chicken. Springer Mountain Farms Chicken is, they're just amazing, as you know, Alex. If you would like to join the flock, go to their website at SpringerMountainFarms.com, put your email address in and you will get weekly emails that have updates to farm updates, podcast updates, all kinds of recipes, just cool stuff. And you should check them out. So yeah, Springer Mountain Farms Chicken, excited to have them sponsor this show. Ready, Alex, are you going to bring it today? I'm not sure what I've packed in to bring, but I'm going to bring it.

01:05We're going to open my suitcase and see what's available. I'm excited to see what's in the suitcase. What's up, animals? That's about it. I actually removed my not unpacked suitcase from the background, so it didn't look like I didn't have my suitcase together. Nice. All right, you ready? Here we go. Hello, Music City, and welcome to the Nashville Restaurant Radio Roundup. My name is Brandon Styll, and we are joined as always with my co-host Delia Jo Ramsey. She is the editor of Eater Nashville. Hello, how are you? We're good. We are lucky and honored today to be joined by our guest host, the chef and owner of Dallas and Jane in Murfreesboro. Looks like you are at Dallas and Jane in Murfreesboro, Mr. Alex Ballou. Hola, I am at Dallas and Jane.

02:07Nice. That's so beautiful. Your restaurant's so gorgeous, man. Oh, thank you. Well, we are excited to have you here. We have kind of an interesting day today as it is 9-11. We're recording this live on 9-10, but this will be out tomorrow, 9-11, so we are doing an episode today that is going to be our Never Forget episode, and we're going to talk about that day, 9-11, 2001, what we were doing during that day. We're going to kind of get into some stories, and later in the show, Chef Garrett Pitler, who is the corporate chef for Old Red Restaurants. You may know him from back in the day at Lowe's Vandal Plaza or City Winery. He is the corporate chef at Old Red. He's going to come on as our local legend, and he's going to tell his story of what he was doing the morning of 9-11, and I think it's going to be pretty interesting. He was working at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City that morning, so I'm excited to kind of hear about that.

03:07And hear from you guys, what you guys were doing that day. I'll tell my story, and then we're going to talk a little bit about what's happening in the restaurant scene, but first I want to catch up with our guest host, Alex Blue. How you doing, man? What's happening with you? You were on the show, like, at the beginning of the pandemic, and here we are. We have no idea where we are in this pandemic, but... Half a year later. Half a year later. We were discussing six months since the first COVID case in Middle Tennessee. It's bananas. It's been the fastest, slowest six months. I just can't remember a time where I feel like I've entered a black hole, right? And I just, like, I've got in the shower, and my wife is like, hey, I'm going to start decorating for Halloween next week. I'm like, it's spring break. What are you talking about? It's just, it's the weirdest thing. But we are, so yeah, it is that time. Delia, do you feel like this has been the shortest, longest six months of your life?

04:10Definitely. Like, it took two months for me to stop typing March when I was writing things, because I was like, I just felt like it was perpetually March. And then I'm like, well, Delia, it's August, an hour in September, and it doesn't feel so long and short in a lifetime. Like, just the way that life has moved on, but in such a different way, I think it's in a similar vein to 9-11 in that this is a time in our lives that will look back nearly 20 years later and remember exactly where we were and who we were with and what we were doing. So I think that's why it's kind of kismet that we're talking about exactly that today. 100%. I mean, I think that it's going to be, this is definitely something that everybody will remember. It's never happened before. And I was doing some research on just kind of 9-11, the most deadly terror attack in the world history was on 9-11, on our soil. And just a crazy day, so vivid, the memory of, I remember when, for the beginning of COVID, when I first learned that they closed March Madness.

05:16They said March Madness is canceled. And I was like, what? They said the NHL season is postponed, like no more games. And LeBron James was like, I'm not going to play in front of nobody. You know, he was making this defiant statement that if there's no crowd, I ain't playing. And now it's like, it's just how comments age, you know? So true. Well, now there's cardboard cutouts of people. So, you know, not really playing in front of nobody. It's a true story. Alex, what have you been up to, man? What have you been filling your time with? Oh, man. Well, I took up golf, which seemed like a great time to do that. Hadn't played since I was 15. And I think I made up for the last 24 years in six months. But we've, you know, me and my partner, we've planned things. Things have changed. We were going to move the restaurant. And things happen as they often do with pandemics. And investors come and go.

06:17Money comes and goes. Options come and go. And we've been, we've pivoted a lot. You know, I've started a healthy meal prep company with two people. Burt Conley and Savannah Menafield and I have started a new hospitality group where we're focusing on catering and meal prep. Healthy, fresh, you know, we've got our macros labeled. So it's really trying to partner with gyms and trainers and people that want that active, healthy lifestyle. So we do that twice a week. And then we're trying to grow the catering business back as well. I'm going to ask you real quick if I was somebody who liked to work out, which I clearly am not. You share your activity with me on your watch. I know you exercise. I was going to say I share activity on our watches. So I know you golf a lot. I don't log all of them because I'm too embarrassed. Yeah, I do a lot of walking. I do a lot of hiking and a lot of walking. That is true.

07:17But if I was somebody who wanted to do meal prep from you, how would I go about, is it a subscription service? Do I sign up for it or do I just go online somewhere? Can you give our presenters a way to do this? Yeah, we're on Facebook, Instagram. We have a website. It's called Made South Meals, M-A-B-E. It's really simple to order. It's just a very simple e-commerce site. You look at the pictures. You pick it. And then as of right now, pickup is on Tuesdays from five to six in Murfreesboro, Dallas and Jane. Or if you're in the Franklin area, there's a few gyms that we partner with where we drop off on Tuesday mornings. But it's six ounces of protein. We're using sushi-grade Verlasso salmon for our salmon. We're using filet for our steaks. I mean, everything is, I mean, it's local, as local as possible. It's cooked fresh. Everything's made in-house. And it's between $10 and $13. Nice. It's a pretty good deal. Awesome. It's a fantastic deal. And you, since you were on the show, you announced your partnership with Made, you creating Made South Hospitality.

08:20Yep. Right? So, I mean, just to give everybody an update on how, I mean, you said that a lot of things are kind of happening when, that happen, that don't happen, that happen. What's next for you guys? So, the original plan was for Dallas and Jane to move to Franklin. And then just throughout the pandemic and fine dining restaurants being hit pretty hard and there was, you know, capacity restrictions. And the idea of comfort food has really risen. To-go sales have really taken off. And so I just think that's something that's going to stick around for a little bit longer. And so we had a Smashburger concept called Hello, Darling. And we are rolling that out first. We actually have a meeting next week with a developer somewhere. I'm not telling anybody where because I've gotten in trouble before by spilling too many beans. And then it's really hard to put beans back in the bag. Here's a bean, not the whole bag of beans. So, it's a Smashburger concept.

09:22We've got boozy milkshakes, frozen old fashions, frozen gin and tonics, cheddar cheese, crinkle cut French fries. It's an ode to classic Americana, family oriented, holds up well to go. Turns out people do not enjoy U-10 sea scallops in a styrofoam box after they travel 30 miles. Well, this is the way we're going. I love it. And then you also are doing cooking classes. I saw a picture. If you follow Alex on social media or Dallas and Jane Made South, all of these things, you should follow them all. So go right to Instagram and Facebook and follow all of Alex's ventures because he posts pictures of hamburgers that would make you just want to stop whatever you're doing and like climb through your phone to eat them, as well as food that he's having people cook that is not even like stuff he's cooking. These are people that are in your cooking class that are cooking food that looks like a five-star chef cooked them. It was amazing.

10:22There was a little help on the plating side for me. But, you know, I've been asked so many times to teach a cooking class. And I mean, I taught culinary arts in high school for three years. So I never really had the time or the capacity to do it when the restaurant was fully open. And my nights are kind of freed up right now. There's people that are seemingly interested. So on a whim, I just offered a cooking class to show, you know, salmon butchery, basic risotto, blanching and shocking of vegetables. And the class sold out. We all had it last night. Everybody had a great time. So we're going to do another one next Thursday and show people how to take apart a whole chicken and what to do with that chicken. And, you know, I mean, people don't understand that you can feed an entire family for $10 if you knew what to do. I mean, a whole chicken costs $6 or $7 because it's not been processed. You get two breasts, two wings, two legs, two thighs, and then a carcass to make stock out of. I think it's a fundamental tool that everybody should know how to use.

11:22I love it. Delia, I'm just talking over here. What do you got? You want to jump in on this conversation? Well, I think he's going to he's going to keep his beans in, as he said. So I was like, I'm going to I want to ask questions about, like, what county is it in? Like, he's not he's not going to tell us today. But I mean, I'm a big fan of Dallas and Jane, like wish we were closer to the city because I could have gotten there more because I'm like weird about driving. But no, you're super talented. And I talked about your plating skills and like your photo skills. I was like, he's his place. People see it. They'll drive for it and talk about it for days. And you're super talented. And thank you. I'm excited to see what comes next for you. I'm also not like a gym workout girl, but I probably should eat some of those like clean, solid meals. If those come to Nashville, let me know, too. You are an intermittent pastor, correct? That's your thing. So I mean, that stuff works. I wake up and I'm eating in 10 minutes. I just can't really go that long.

12:23I am lucky in that I'm not hungry usually until about noon. So I kind of did it accidentally. And I'm like, I should probably do this because I cram enough calories into the eight to nine hours that I do eat. I'm like, I do not need breakfast. You do consume a lot of food. It's pretty impressive. Yeah, she's in every day. You know, we got to talk about something. Speaking of consuming lots of food, you are doing 10 days from today. You are doing a guest chef event. You are collaborating. I hope I'm not. Delia is. You're going to be there, Delia. We have a you're doing a chef collaboration with Christopher Smithing over at Mayor Bowl in Brentwood. Tell me about that. Yeah, I mean, well, luckily I know you. And so you kind of spearheaded that whole movement. But I think we had originally planned on it being August and then things happened as they do.

13:24And so we've got four four courses, I believe. And tickets are seventy five dollars. Seventy. Seventy. Add on a pairing. And it's we've got we've got some Dallas and Jane classics come in. Our roasted carrots will be there. We're doing a really, really cool smoked shorrib with some meals, polenta and ricotta donuts that are stuffed with blackberry jam, rolled in lavender sugar and an elderberry whipped cream with those. So it's a pretty it's a pretty tasty menu. Yeah, that is going to go ahead, Delia. Skylar Bush and I were just talking about those carrots earlier because he said you were doing the show and he said, I miss those carrots. I said, I think actually they're going to be at this dinner. So is it the same carrots? He likes the carrots and he's going to tell you hi. He said on Instagram yesterday, dang, I miss those carrots.

14:26I never knew that was the hardest thing to get people to try at this restaurant. Really? For over a year, we had to name it. I named it Carrot Salad Bowl of Goodness. Just just eat it like I tried so many different titles. People were like carrots. They were they were thinking of the Chick-fil-A shredded carrots and raisins. Well, I'm very, very excited about this and you can get tickets to this event. It is not sold out yet. Tickets just went on sale and it is next Sunday, not this Sunday, next Sunday at Mayor Bowl in Brentwood in the seven thousand square foot mansion right there off of Maryland Way. And you're going to be around talking to people. So while there's going to be food that is going to be your menu, collaborating with Christopher Smithing, there is a wine pairing that goes with every single meal. You're going to be out talking to guests.

15:26You want to meet Alex. You want to try his food. Talk to Alex about his food. Tickets are on sale right now at Eventbrite. And I believe you can go to Mayor Bowl's website or I know you can go to their Facebook page and you can purchase your tickets. They're going fast and there is a limited amount of tickets to buy. I think there's three different seedings like 615, 645 and maybe seven. I think there's three different seedings. Yeah, we're doing 20 guests per seeding. So we have a max of 60 people. Yeah. So I think that they're they're filling up really quickly. So go right now to Mayor Bowl dot com or to Mayor Bowl's Facebook page and get your tickets to go see Alex Ballou live. Maybe we'll talk about some smash burgers and what county they're coming to. Can I come by myself? Yeah, I have a feeling I'm going to lean towards. I'm not I'm not going to say anything. He's looking to be like, I'll kill you.

16:28Where are my beans? I've spilled my beans. Hey, you know what? What you're doing over there with Hello Darling, like the just everything that it's going to be. It looks absolutely amazing. It's going to be gangbusters, which you're going to do. I cannot wait to see it happen. That's Craig Evans, man. He designed he did the branding for it. And he's he's just an awesome, awesome creative guy. He did a fantastic job. You know, we just he picked our brains. It was almost one of those things where we didn't know what we wanted until we saw it. And then he started throwing things at us. And it was every, you know, we said old school soda shop and smash burgers and classic Americana and just the color palette that he picked out for us, the way it was designed. It just it just feels like somewhere you want to be. It's got that brand that I would wear a T-shirt with that on it. And that I think branding goes a long way. Well, I you know, we've got Garrett Piller coming on here a little while. And this is it is 9 11. And so we've we've got this special episode today, our Never Forget episode.

17:32And while we've got us talking, typically at this time of the episode, we would pivot and talk about it's a damn word pivot. I would talk about how our weeks were kind of what's going on. It was a Labor Day week was a shortened week this week. And I'm going to go into some just some different things about 9 11 that you may or may not know about. And then I'm going to ask you, Alex, to kind of go into what you were doing that day, what you were doing that morning and kind of tell your story, because I remember that day so vividly. And I just I know a lot of people out there have. And I just want to get into kind of some storytelling. So just real quick, some things about 9 11. Two thousand seven hundred and fifty three people were killed when American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were intentionally crashed in the north and south towers as a result of the crashes. Three hundred and forty three of those people were New York City firefighters.

18:34Twenty three were New York City police officers and thirty seven were officers of the Port Authority. Victims range in ages of 85 to two years old, approximately seventy five to eighty percent of victims were men. One hundred eighty four people were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon in Washington and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Forty people, forty passengers and crew members of United Flights 93 died when the plane crashed into a field. All in all, 19 terrorists were killed in the in the plane crashes. On September 11, 2001, at eight forty six a.m., the first plane crashed into the towers. And this is kind of a just to talk about time frame. And at nine oh three, exactly 15, 16, 17 minutes later, another plane struck the south tower. And at nine thirty seven, the plane flew into the Pentagon. And at ten o'clock a.m., nine fifty nine, the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in approximately ten seconds.

19:40Ten oh three, the plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. And at ten twenty eight, the north tower collapsed. So just a little time frame. So from eight forty six a.m., when the first plane hit two hours later, less than two hours later, at ten twenty eight, both towers of the World Trade Center had collapsed. Just saying that, saying that out loud, all of those stats is eerie. It's eerie and it brings back just a weird, cold feeling to me, like a scary feeling. We'll get in. I'm going to tell my story here, too. I want to go over this today because I don't want to. I think that this started a lot of political drama, these events and what unfolded afterwards. And I don't want to talk about profiling and the racial aspect of it. I want to talk today about remembering the three hundred and forty three firemen that gave their lives and the police officers that gave their lives and the Port Authority and all of the people that work in those buildings.

20:40I want to remember them today by telling these stories. That's where I want to keep this. So, Alex, what were you doing on September 11th, 2001? How old were you? Twenty, twenty years old. Just turned 20. I was a junior at MTSU, majoring in psychology. It's not going very well. At the time, I was working at, I believe I was working at this great steakhouse called Logan's. I'm not sure. Home of the peanut. And I, my mom had a good friend of hers that she had known for probably 20 or 30 years that had had a stroke. And he lived, he had a house very close to Percy Priest Lake. And so three days a week, I took care of him while I was in school. I was doing some stuff for him, fixing up his yard, doing some landscaping. I'd cook his meals and just make sure he got his medicine. I took care of him. So the night before, pretty standard night, he would sleep.

21:42I was probably up until 11 doing whatever. And I was I remember what I was wearing. I was wearing a white Nashville Music City run like marathon shirt and then red Nike shorts. And my mom calls and she is frantic and she tells me to turn on TV. So I did. And it didn't matter what channel I was watching because it was on every single channel. And when I turned it on, they were showing a replay of the first plane flying through or they were showing the building that was had a hole in it, I guess. Yeah, on fire. Yeah. And and I said, what movie are we watching? What movie is this? And she said, this is not a movie. This is real life. It's just happened in New York. And my brain just couldn't I've never seen anything like that before. I didn't know how that could possibly be real.

22:42I mean, it was it looked like something Hollywood would produce, like a diehard five or something insane. You know, like and then while we were on the phone just sitting in silence, then I saw the second plane fly through. And I told the guy that I was taking care of that I had to go. And the whole day was just kind of spent in fear, not knowing what was going to happen next, if it was going to happen to us. Nashville is a big city or is it coming? Is it coming here? I mean, it was just a it was a strange there was so many emotions going on. There was this anger. There was this sense of like pride in your country. There was sadness from all the people that were dying. And there was fear that was going to happen to you. I mean, it was just it was a bit of an overhaul of emotions. You get really hard to get a grasp on the day. Yeah, I think that's the it was. I don't think you knew what was one of those things for me.

23:43I didn't know what to feel. I didn't know what that emotion was. I was I was anger. I knew I had I was very mad and sad at the same time. Right. Is that? Yeah, I don't. I think when you're experiencing all of those things, it's you're you go in and out of emotions without even understanding it. You go from sadness to anger within a split second. You know, I mean, it's it's hard. I think your your body is you're in your mind is trying to figure out what you're feeling, but you're feeling everything. So it's hard to say I was feeling this one thing. Yeah, that was my three years of psychology majoring in MTSU coming out right there. Very, very nice. Very nice. Delia, what about you? What was what was your kind of story? I really sort of similar story to Alex. I think just in thinking now going through what I've gone through since I think that was maybe one of the first times I experienced grief in my life. And so now thinking back on how it happened, there are a lot of other emotions tied up in it because like so many of my memories, they involve my mom and people who don't know, I lost my mom last year and I was 19 years old and I was at the University of Montevallo in Alabama and it was my first college apartment.

25:01I was a sophomore there and I awakened to my mom calling me. I was my mom's only child. We talked multiple times a day and she called and said the similar to you. Hey, look, something just happened. Turn on the TV and I turned it on and also watched the second and hit the tower. And I think for me, I was so kept in a bubble like I'd never really been allowed to see bad things happen or experience bad things or even see violent movies really. So me seeing this, I didn't even know how to be mad. I think I was just afraid. Like I think that was my first brush with fear and with grief and like understanding loss. And so now thinking back to it and understanding the loss, understanding how many families have to live each day with the memories like I have my mom, it just stirs up a lot for me. And it makes me have so much compassion living through the loss I've lived through since because at the time I couldn't really grasp it because I've been so protected from it. So I just office then I was I was a TV news major. So I spent the day in front of the TV just watching and probably consuming way too much information for my my 19 year old brain, which was probably like 14 emotionally based on where I had been kept in this bubble.

26:11But I spent just days watching. I think our class were canceled and I'm pretty sure my mom had me come home the next day so that she could see me in person. But it's such a strange thing because I can still picture that room. I've lived in so many places and I can still picture the bedspread. My mom had like sewed this blue satin bedspread and she had stenciled quotes on the wall that I wanted stenciled. And I can still picture that room more than any other bedroom I've ever had because I think it's just such a vivid memory. I think these are the sorts of like life impacting things that don't leave you. It's amazing how vivid those little details are like those those parts of the memory. For myself I you know the night before was a this happened on a Tuesday. 9-11 was a Tuesday and that Monday night I was with a buddy of mine Joel and we were at a buddy of ours house named Roscoe and he had got this property out in Franklin. It was out in Franklin and my buddy Roscoe did and he had us out to watch Monday Night Football Packers were playing.

27:14I remember watching Brett Favre and it was a late game and we've been drinking for hours and hours and hours and we left and started driving to Franklin. We were on Royal Oaks Boulevard in 96 and I got there and I was like seeing double right. So I was driving. I was like I don't need to be driving like this is terrible. I don't know why I'm driving. We're out in the woods and I thought I was fine and then I got there and I was like I don't need to drive. So we stopped. There's like a hotel right there quality in or something is $24 to stay the night. I was like dude. We're crashing here. I'm not driving anymore. We're done. So we just stayed at this random hotel in Franklin which is probably like $600 to stay there now. But it was $24.99 to stay there and we got up the next morning and I had to go to I worked at Amerigo and I had to go to work. We both did. We had to go to work and I get we got in the car to drive to his parents house to go dry clean or to iron our clothes and I got in the car and I was like I guess like why 107 or whatever the station was then.

28:14But it was like and with all of the things happening in New York we just found out that a plane has hit the world transfer like what what the hell. And I didn't have a cell phone. I didn't have Facebook. I didn't have it. There's no other way to get information. It was like you hear the radio. And so we sped to his parents house. We turned the TV on and I remember we were like eating and like trying to get all our stuff together. It was like nine o'clock in the morning. They work at like 1030 and just seeing this I was just like oh my gosh my mom is an international flight attendant. She worked for Continental at the time but she was out of Newark New Jersey and one of the planes was out of there. So I'm kind of freaking out. So I get a hold of her. She wasn't flying and I just I remember just watching this on TV and I remember saying if this is a terrorist attack I'm enlisting I'm enlisting and I'm going to go fight these people. I ended up not doing that. But I remember my first instinct was sign me up. Let's go. Like I'm I was so angry that somebody could do this on our soil and and then it was sad.

29:19I don't know. I don't know what that feeling was. I don't know. I can't because that patriotism like just being so angry that somebody could do this to your country. I didn't know one of those people that got hurt but I felt like it was my family. I felt like it was like there was no white. There was no black. There was no anybody. These people were Americans and they were attacked on our soil and I was I was freaking mad. I think that's the way that I I felt. Yeah. I remember getting to work that day and it was just somber. It was solid. We went to Cozy Mel. Cozy Mel was a little Mexican restaurant next to Marigold and Brentwood. And we watched President Bush go and do his national kind of address that night. It was like five or six o'clock. The sun was going down maybe six thirty and he stood there and kind of said you know these people I know it's hard to even talk about it now just that address was so emotional and so powerful to me.

30:21I remember sitting there with those fishball margaritas just just sitting there watching this and a whole restaurant full of people completely silent. Never seen it six thirty completely silent in a full restaurant. Every single person watching TV never seen it before in my life. Can you guys imagine what social media would have been like back then? Oh my gosh. Not even. A mess. I mean the fear and panic that we would have had would have been ten times what it was. I mean it's all feeding off of each other stirring up some lack of knowledge. Right. And I'm afraid that the unification that we felt might not have been there if Facebook were as it is now because of the way everything is politicized and divided now. Like I remember so when I was a child I used to sit at the top of the swing set on the playground and sing I'm proud to be American the late Greenwood version.

31:22Like I was an only child I didn't know and I remember the cymbals and I think like I remember that moment feeling like this is the whole world. We're all singing I'm proud to be an American at the top of the slide together and we all are on the same team and I haven't really felt that many times in my life or really since because I think Facebook came into existence for me like 2003 when you were in college and you had to have college login. For me like I'm kind of glad social media didn't exist because we had this moment of let's unify and like being forced together because stuff now is so different. Yeah it definitely felt like we were one country. I mean all all struggling with the same thing all fighting the same fight. Yeah. And you know it's interesting because I felt that way on March 3rd. March 4th. After the tornado. Yeah after the tornado I felt a similar not I didn't feel the anger that I felt because it wasn't like somebody who did this to us but I felt that unity.

32:28Yeah camaraderie is like we're all in this together. There were people from Murfreesboro packing up fans, playing soft, driving to Nashville and I mean people here were calling it their community. We're 30 minutes away but our community is hurting and that's how it felt. It was like we are Tennesseans. We are middle Tennesseans. We are not black, white, red, indigenous, nothing. It was just we are this. Let's go help our fellow man or woman. How do you feel like 9-11 changed you Alex? Like do you think that like after 9-11 you were the same person? What do you think are some just different effects in your life that were because of 9-11? I mean I'm definitely on guard probably more than I and that's that plays into effect the fact that I'm a dad you know I've got a five and a three year old so I'm always paying attention to my surroundings and being observant and I will say from a flying and traveling perspective I don't remember ever being scared before that to get on a plane and I will say that I have there's not been a time where I've gotten on a plane where I have not thought that would be a possibility and it's a little it's a little unnerving.

33:45I mean I remember when we went to my choir in high school went to London in 1995 and all of us two at a time got to go up to the cockpit as we were flying over the ocean. It was such a cool thing to do that that opportunity is never happening again to anyone. Hey Timmy you ever visit a Turkish prison? That's all I can think about is the airplane where he's like you like gladiator movies? I just I mean I would say I would just say I'm a little bit more aware of my surroundings and I'm also aware of the potential of what could happen. Yeah you know I think also you know people forget what air travel was like in 2000 in the year 2000 19 pre-2009 11 2000 when people forgot what it was like. I mean to take somebody to the airport you'd go to the airport but then like if I flew somewhere my mom would park the car and come in with me yeah and walk down to the gate and then stand at the gate and wave to like the airplane.

34:55I didn't see them but they would just think you would wave at the airplane. Anybody could just go down there. Now you just drop people off like before like you take me to the airport you had to like I guess I'll park and go walk in with you and it was a thing. It was a thing. Not anymore. That's walking me to my plane. Are we are we fighting? Yeah that's one of the that's one of the things the air travel is just completely completely changed. Yeah TSA I mean that's no that's no breeze either. I mean you're taking off your belt your shoes your socks your everything's got to be in separate bins. I mean it's a process. Does it make you feel like we were so vulnerable for so many years? Like you didn't have to do any of that for so long like how what really protection did we have? I mean was it is it so much better now that we have all of that stuff? I mean you should feel twice as safe now on an airplane but I don't feel like we do.

35:58I think you know we thought then that we were protected though right. I mean you never know you never when when did the first spyware for a computer come out after a few computers got hacked probably or got viruses so there's probably always going to be a workaround. This is a really interesting conversation. This isn't going to be the most uplift. I was trying to positive you know like hey you know security is definitely heightened. I mean I feel safe when I'm there but I always it always runs through my mind. It's a possibility. Yeah. Well I'm excited to have Garrett Pitler come on here. He's going to be on about 15 minutes. He's going to come on. He's going to tell kind of his story. But in the meantime we could change the subject. I'm down to change the subject and if you're out there and you're watching this live and you have any questions or any comments or anything you'd like to add please feel free to type them in.

37:06We will be able to see them. We will be able to respond to you. If not just type in a hey what's up. Let us know you're there. And we'd love to holler at you guys just to say hello. Give you a little shout out if you're listening to this on the podcast you're like just stop dude just keep talking. I always feel that way when we do this. Do what? Don't ask me for questions. When I was doing my live cooking with Corona food shows at the beginning of quarantine it always felt like I was talking to no one. Right. And so there are people watching. It says like 300 people are watching this and you're like I would love for you all to interact with me. Ask me a question. Yes please do. Say something. So we've had some pretty good interaction over the past several episodes. This is kind of a tough topic to talk about some crazy stuff on here.

38:06But I tell you we can break up the midnight. You should break up the monotony with restaurant closures. We did get a like Woody Brad. So I will say if you are looking for a job right now you can go to Fo and Bo dot com. If you go to Fo and Bo FOH and BOH dot com and you need a job create a profile. It takes three minutes to create a profile and you'll be fast on your way to some of the best restaurants in the city potentially hiring you for the position that you would like to have. If you are a restaurant and you would like to hire somebody join up today. Sign up today. Go to Fo and Bo dot com. Takes three minutes to start your restaurant. You do not need a credit card. There is a freemium product. You can go in see all the people create creative jobs. Yes. That's genius. That's that's that's there. They're smart people over Fo and Bo and you will think it is a great website.

39:09The cool thing about it is they are locally owned and operated. This is not that you go on there and it looks like a professional website that you're going to see all over the country. It is only for Nashville and it's only for restaurant workers. If you're looking to get a restaurant job here in Nashville you are a restaurant professional and you're tired of all the posting and praying and going on indeed and hoping that somebody replies to your you know hopefully that they show up to an interview. Check out Fo and Bo dot com. Right now if you are out there and you're looking for a job some places that you can apply to the Joseph Hotel downtown. We had Chef Tony and Chef Aaron on last week from Yolan. They are looking for people actively right now. M.L. Rose is looking for a few great people some line cooks. There's a new restaurant East Nashville called Hawkers H.A.W.K. E.R.S. Hawkers. They are on Fo and Bo right now and they are hiring people as we speak as well as the Grand Hyatt the Grand Hyatt set for opening at the end of the month.

40:11Is it the end of this month or mid next? I think it's the end of this month isn't it? Delia? Yeah. Was it August? The Grand Hyatt? Yes. The Grand Hyatt is opening. They are hiring for lots of positions right now. So if you go to Fo and Bo dot com sign up. Chances are you can work at one of those places or just go to those places directly and put your application in. So that's a little jobs update. Much better. What's that? Much better than Craigslist. Much better than Craigslist. Yes. What else? What do you have right now as far as new restaurants opening? Anything fun happening besides the Alex Blue chef collaboration dinner at Maribol on September the 20th? Tickets available now? I think some of the jobs touch on some of the coming soon items that we have. That covers two spots at once. There are a ton of fun pop-ups happening.

41:11And a lot of people are doing cool stuff. So I wrote I think an article today that was a roundup of events that are going on in September. And I put Alex is on there. Alex is on there. And there's eight other ones. There's a lot of Mexican pop-ups. There's a bagel pop-up. Otaku is going to be at, I mean, Nicky's Cold Fired Bagels are going to be at Otaku East this weekend. There's Maze de la Vida at Hawthorne. Is this tonight? I'm losing track. Tomorrow and Saturday. It is tonight. You're good. It is tonight. There are just so many events. It's getting hard to keep track. I love seeing all these things happen. It's just overwhelming in my brain because I can't keep it all straight in my head. Manit's quesadilla pop-up is here on the weekends also as is Jeremy Barlow's dance loco space. He's now calling an insert chef here. And he's doing different pop-ups from him and from other chefs.

42:11Alex, maybe you can get in on that and bring the carrots to 12 South. Yeah, that'd be awesome. So I mean, a lot of fun stuff is happening just like on a ball-up basis. Yeah, 404 Kitchen has started their staycation series with... Andrew Zimmern. AZ Chef AZ. He once retweeted me and I got very excited about it. It's a big deal. He was after the tornado and I had like my lips. Look at that. I was like, can I put that on my resume? Retweeted by Andrew Zimmern after the tornado. You can. That is up to you. Otherwise, I mean, yeah, Hawkers I'm excited about. Looks like it's happening. I'm going to go look at Elliston Place Soda Shop. I guess Jim Meyer listened to us with Chris Chamberlain and heard me complaining that I didn't get anything yet. So I'm going to go see Elliston Place Soda Shop tomorrow. Looks awesome. That place looks awesome.

43:11Yeah, it does. And I walked through, I think I talked about the Town Place Suite rooftop bar that's coming in between Germantown and downtown. It's called Zeppelin. Yes, you did. Is it cool? Yeah, it's going to be awesome. It's like 7,500 square feet rooftop that you can kind of see into the Nashville Sound Stadium from the top. And then you can also see some views of downtown. So for a Town Place Suite, it's like, it's super nice. And I think they're going to do some fun bar food. Jeffery Rose, who was at Liberty Common in Butchertown Hall, was overseeing the food program there. So I'm excited to see that come into play in probably October too. Where's the best place to go get like a really good drink right now? Okay. I'm so excited. Bars are back open. Yeah, we got the Fox. I went to the Fox last weekend. And Old Glory, I always love them. These are like my classics. The Fox and Old Glory are my two kind of like... And Patterson House.

44:11I went to Patterson House. They're doing a happy hour at Patterson House now, which is unheard of. And they've got Baxter doing the food. And Catbird Seat doing the food at Patterson House. Those are probably my three go-to's for cocktails. But I will tell you, if you go to any of those places for cocktails, you should purchase something from Pennington Distilling Company. Pennington Distilling... That was a smooth segue. Oh my gosh. You're really good at this. Until I ruined it. You should drink Pennington Distilling Company's Davidson Sour Mash Whiskey. It is the first grain-to-glass sour mash Tennessee whiskey since Prohibition to be made in Nashville. They are doing amazing things over there. They are the first, like I said, the first distillery. In Nashville, in the nations, they also produce Pickers Vodka, Walton's Vodka, and Whisper Creek Tennessee sipping cream.

45:17Every person that I've had on the show, we've talked about Davidson Reserve, has said they love it. You got it? Oh, look at my boy. Look at this. And it's almost empty, too. So that is the Tennessee... You've got it right there at Dallas and Jane. Well, you know, day drinking's gone up, apparently. Hey, that was full two months ago. Well, I can walk home in six minutes, so it's okay. It's always nice being that close to your place of business. Once again, a curse. Hey, I just had a Pickers Martini at Deacon's the other night. How was it? They make their house Deacon's Martini with Pickers Vodka. All right. So there you go. So go to Deacon's. Deacon's a great place. Great meal there. Like, I think it's one of the, like, underappreciated downtown spots. Like, right now, parking is marked down, so you can park, like, a block away, $10 or where you could lift or...

46:19I was going to walk, but it was too hot. But Deacon's a great place to get a drink and food right now, too. I think you got a bunch of pictures of that right before your Nashville hot grilled cheese. All of that looked delicious. I've been eating a lot. I gained the quarantine 15 from her Instagram. It's not, yes. I just... It's kind of like looking at somebody that's always on vacation. You get a little jealous. You have to, like, unfollow for a little bit. Oh, man. Now I can take it again, because, A, it's too far for me to drive all the time. And, you know, I don't know. I can tell that. For people who are dieting, they're like, I have to unfollow you for a little while. Yeah. Okay. Have you all been to Catburg since Baxter's been there? Mm-hmm. That donut. That donut was just so good. Yeah, I went for my birthday week and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Yeah, he's great.

47:19You know, I know you get that a lot, Delia. It's one of the funniest things about, like, your life. I feel like people don't want to hear what I'm about to say at all. They're like, just shut the... No, don't say it. I feel like it's not easy to constantly go out and eat all that food and take all those, like, all the time. Like, it gets expensive, and you've got to do this for, like, work. Like, this is, like, it's not... Like, I used to go have hockey... I had hockey tickets for eight years, center-ice, club-level hockey tickets. And I would go to all these games and be like, dude, you get to go to all these... Like, you're at hockey games all the time. I'm like, yeah, but I'm like... Like, I have to go to all these games. There's a point where I'd rather be home with my kids, but I'm at a hockey game. And it's like, you don't want to complain that I have to go to hockey games. I love that. I had a blast. But still, like, it's not just easy to do all of that, right? I mean, I feel lucky in that I created, essentially, my blog and then my job out of something that I love doing.

48:19So I feel kind of like I tricked the system in a little way. Like, I have an excuse now. I can call this research, and I can have that as a reason to go out. But also, like, it does... It's funny that I always feel like I'm working. Like, well, I got to take a picture because what if this is the best thing I've eaten this year? And I want to tell people about it. So sometimes I have to intentionally be like, I'm not taking a picture. Like, especially places that I've been before. I'm like, put the phone down. Because I do constantly feel like I'm on, especially if somebody, you know, knows my job. And they bring something. And then you want to take a picture because they brought you the thing. And then it is hard to shut it off. And it kind of... It can kill the enjoyment for a little while. And I think before COVID and before the tornado, I kind of hit this almost like a burnout level where I was like, oh, my God, everything's not good anymore. Like, no one's consistent. And I got super just kind of burned out. And so in a way, like, not saying that either of these horrible things were good, but they made me appreciate it again. Well, I think, yeah. I mean, there's this side of like clocking out and just being present in the moment and enjoying something versus constantly thinking like I need to take a picture or who's watching or who's doing like...

49:27Right. Which is a thing. You know, it is a thing. All right. So we are going to get to our local legend, which this week typically we have our local legend as a restaurant who's been around for 10 plus years. And today our mobile fixture local legend is going to be a person. Our person this week is going to be Garrett Hitler. And Garrett is going to join us now. But I'm going to talk a little bit. I'm going to talk a little bit real quick about mobile fixture. They are a restaurant equipment company. And if you need to outfit your restaurant with brand new equipment, I'm getting a little bit of a feedback. Hold on. All right. There we go. If you need to outfit your restaurant with any equipment, if you're opening a new restaurant, they not only work to sell you the product, they will consult with you to help identify which products are right for you, which will help increase your flow and increase the time which takes to get your food out.

50:30Alex, how important is it to have a kitchen that is organized and ready to go based upon your menu when you open? Oh, man. If your flow, if your setup is bad, you will be working in purgatory all night long. I mean, you've got to... Like, there's actually science behind even designing a home kitchen. You need to have, like, this triangle, right? Like, your oven, your refrigerator, your sink, all needs to be within a certain amount of feet for workflow. It's even more so in a commercial kitchen. I mean, your guys need to be set up, needs to be able to get it to the window to be hot. If you don't have the right equipment to do the job, you're not going to want to do the job. Exactly. Thank you for that testimonial right there. So, check out Mobile Fixture. Go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com, and you can click the Sponsors tab. You'll find Mobile Fixture.

51:30Send an appointment. Go talk to them. They will help you get set up. Ben Whitlock's been on the show a couple of times. He's guest hosted the Roundup. Fantastic, fantastic guy. Very knowledgeable. Will help you walk through all of the questions you potentially might have. So, let's get to Mr. Garrett Pitler. Garrett is the executive, corporate chef. Corporate chef? Corporate executive chef, yeah. Corporate executive chef for Ol' Red. Ol' Red is part of Ryman Hospitality, right? Correct, yes. So, part of Ryman Hospitality. So, you know, I handle all of Ol' Red, which, you know, we have multiple locations. Tishomingo, Oklahoma being our first location, Nashville being our second, located on third and broad. And then after that, we opened one in Gatlinburg. We now have a location open on I Drive, in Icon Park in Orlando, that opened just a couple months ago.

52:37And what Ryman involves with is, we also have the Ryman Auditorium, Cafe Lula, and the Grand Ole Opry as well, so. Sorry about that. No, no worries. So, how's it going? How did the new location open in Orlando? I'm sure you were down there from that. So, opening a location in a pandemic was definitely a little bit more interesting. I actually wasn't on location. It's the first Ol' Red that I haven't been on location to open. And it was a lot of Zoom calls. It was a lot of teams meetings. It was a lot of back and forth. And, you know, we just didn't want to have people traveling. We didn't have an opening. Normally, when we do an opening of that size, we have a team that goes in and will, you know, train the line cooks. We'll have a team that goes in and trains the server, a team that goes in and trains hosts and things like that.

53:38And for this opening, we did everything remotely. So, it was a really interesting and strange way to open a restaurant, if you will. You know, in my career, I've opened, you know, not only just with Ol' Red, but I've opened close to 75-plus restaurants in my career. And, you know, that was one of the weirdest, strangest, most difficult ones I've done yet. So... How do you check their consistency on the menu? Well, right now, it's been a lot of back and forth. You know, there's been, like I said, it's been a lot of calls. It's been a lot of, you know, looking at reviews. You know, we had planned on opening Orlando earlier than when it actually opened. We had actually planned on opening in May. So, we had hired the chef team, like the executive chef down there.

54:38We had hired the executive sous chef and the sous chefs. So, they had actually come to Nashville. We had trained them here. So, they knew exactly what they were doing when they went down there. But to not be on site and opening a restaurant was definitely a strange experience, you know. And especially, you know, like in Dallas or Alex, I'm sure you can relate, you know, with restaurants. You know, it's like, you know, it's like it belongs to you, whether you own it or you don't own it. And to have one of your restaurants open and you're not down there for it, it was an interesting situation, to say the least. That's crazy. It's just hard to not be here for a night, much less to be there. Right, exactly. So, one of my favorite things, Garrett, because we've got people that listen to this from all over and there are people that are coming to Nashville. And one of the questions that I get from people that don't live in Nashville is, what's the best honky tonk to go to?

55:41Where should I go? What should I do? And I loved about you because you're, I remember going to American Culinary Federation meetings with you in 2005. You know, we're sitting there just, I've known you for a really long time and you're a chef that I absolutely respect as knowing your shit and does everything the right way. And when you are opening a honky tonk, it's like, why do they need a chef? Because all those places do is pump out beer and shots. But I want to let people know about Old Red because I used to tell people all the time, if you want great food and you're downtown on Broadway, Old Red's the place to go. And we're the same, too. Yeah. So, one of the things that, you know, yeah, it's an interesting story. And, you know, for those of you that know me, my background is mainly fine dining and, you know, four-diamond to five-diamond hotels.

56:42And that's where my background comes from. So I've spent the majority of my career. I worked for Lowe's Hotels for eight years. I was with Omni Hotels for another two years. I was a regional chef, regional executive chef for City Winery for a number of years. I owned a French restaurant. I did a lot of my training in France. So I've got an extensive background, culinary background that's mainly in, you know, smaller venues, executing high-end events and things like that. So, yeah, why would a guy like me end up on Broadway? And really, honestly, it's just the fact that I wanted to do something different. And I really looked at Broadway as a challenge. And those of you who know me and know how I am, you put a challenge in front of me.

57:44It's, all right, you know, I'll do this. I'll complete it no matter what it takes, whether if I'm going to lose an arm, a finger, you know, I will get through this and I'll do something different. So, you know, I looked at Broadway and I said, you know, what would be really cool is, you know, I want to literally raise the bar on Broadway if you catch the pun there. Oh, well done. So, you know, I actually don't refer to us as a honky-tonk. I refer to us as a swanky-tonk, okay? So we serve swanky-tonk food. And, you know, that's really where I came from is like, how can I give people an opportunity to, you know, you go down to Broadway and you want to have some drinks, you want to have fun, you want to watch some bands play, you want to do some fun stuff. But there's, I want to have something good to eat. And I want, you know, I want to go a place where, you know, there's some cool stuff.

58:46And, you know, so that's why we try to do different things. You know, it's like we make our own tater tots. And, you know, people think we're nuts, you know, like how do you have a restaurant that has multiple levels and you're slinging out burgers and stuff like that, but you're doing a handmade tots? Absolutely. We're doing all of our own barbecue in-house. We fry chicken to order. Because I look at it as a challenge every single time, you know, like, don't tell me you can't do it because I'll find a way to do it. So. I love that. You know, I respected the heck out of that when I first, when we were first opening that restaurant. I was working with you with my current, the job I was in then. And it's like, I was just like, wow, they're changing the game of what could possibly happen down here. And I thought you were the perfect fit for you had just all of the right personality and everything do it. And I think that's just amazing. I can't wait. I would love to have you on to do a full show.

59:46We'll tease that later on in future. We can talk about all of your past experiences. We can go to detail about all of that. But today is nine 11. And. When I talked to you, I said, Hey, I'd love for you to come on and tell your nine 11 story, kind of what you were doing that day. You said you were in New York City that morning and you worked at the hard rock cafe. Yeah. Can you tell us that story? Yeah, absolutely. I. So it was. 2000. 2001. I was. I was 22 years old. You know, I don't look a day over 22 now still. So that's great. You know, you guys better hope you all age as well as I did. I was 22 years old and I worked for hard rock. So during that time I was going to culinary school. I actually went to color school. Color school. In Baltimore. It's called Baltimore international college of culinary arts.

01:00:49I didn't go to color school anymore. And I worked for hard rock cafe. I worked at the inner Harbor. And I would. Occasionally. When there was opportunity at breaks from school. I would go to the other hard rocks. And I would, I would work because they harder off was always busy. Back in the late nineties, the early two thousands. I was like, Oh, I'll go to, I'll go to New York for a couple of days and do some overtime. So there's actually a train that goes from Baltimore to. To New York city. You know, you can catch it downtown. So I had actually taken the train. Two days earlier to go. To New York. And fill in for a line cook up there. And I had. Already gotten my, already got my place where I was staying. I was staying with a couple of guys that actually worked at that, that location. I, I got there. I got in early. So I was doing a day shift. And I usually pulled a double because it was.

01:01:50It was a great opportunity. When you come in, you would come in at like seven o'clock in the morning. You start prepping your station out. And nine times out of 10. It was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, You know, I would do a day shift at like nine times out of 10. You'd, there would be some guy that called out for dinner shift. So I would just stay and I'd work straight through. And. I remember we got in there. This is that morning and I was, I was on. I was on the sandwich station. Sandwiches. Salad station. Yeah. If you can believe that at one point, I was basically a pantry cook. But. Um, but, um, and I was, I was working, I was working salad and sandwich. Um, and I was getting the station set up just like normal, uh, getting lettuce brought up there, getting, getting different stuff.

01:02:51And, um, we, uh, and if anybody knows, you know, anything about the New York area, um, the hard rock in New York is actually on Broadway. So it's about a 45 minute car ride from where, you know, we're talking about where, where, where we are on Broadway was that's, that's North. That's up by Times Square. That's up by, uh, central park, which is quite a ways away. It's a 30, 40 minute car ride to where actually the, um, the world trade center is so that I don't think a lot of people understand that too, because you think of New York city and you think everything's just, oh, it's right here, right there, right there, right there. And it's, and it's not, it's, it's, it's a little bit of ways, but it's close enough that it was, it was, there was so, so what basically happened was our manager at the time, I was back there prepping and they came running in and, um, they said, you're not going to believe this shit, but, um, a plane just flew into the, and flew into one of the, one of the towers, uh, downtown.

01:04:05And so we all thought he was joking, you know, like we thought he was joking, walked out from in the kitchen. We walked up to the bar because we had TVs at the bar and, uh, we were sitting at the bar and no, it wasn't joking. And we were literally watching it, um, literally watching the TV, um, and watching the aftermath of this. And, um, then we literally watched the second, second plane just fly into the, into the tower. And I just remember, you know, turning ghost white and, uh, actually having fear, uh, I can, I can honestly say that I had fear, uh, for one of the, one of the first times and one of the only times in my life that I actually remember. I had fear. I was afraid. Um, so we actually, we, you know, we, somebody had contacted corporate, you know, we were told we needed to close.

01:05:05I needed to send everybody home. And by the time we got stuff to where we could leave, it was like chaos in the streets. Um, the roads were backed up. People were everywhere, you know, like if you took the subways, you couldn't, you, the trains weren't moving, um, the smell, um, and you think from that far away, uh, you wouldn't smell jet fuel, but like you could smell jet fuel, just it permeated the air and, uh, I just, it was a, it was a crazy, crazy, crazy day. I actually was able to, it took me from, I think we left the restaurant. It was probably about 11. It was what we would normally have opened at lunchtime. I think it was 11 and, uh, it took me till about five o'clock to get back to the apartment where I was staying with, with, uh, the two guys that, that I came up there to, to, uh, stay with while I was working and, um, it was about five.

01:06:21And, uh, after that, I, I finally got ahold of my family, uh, which was freaking out, you know, they, they couldn't get ahold of me, didn't know what was going on, uh, and I ended up, uh, I caught the next train, the next available train. I was actually there for another day before there was a train that went back to Baltimore. Um, and, and a little bit after that time was when I, when I, uh, actually moved back to Nashville. So, um, but I'll tell you the one thing that sticks out my head and I, and it's been there for years, it's, it's still that smell, that smell of burning jet fuel and it's, it's never gone away. I think it's burned into my sinuses. Um, so yeah, I mean, that, that was, that was my experience with 9-11. So, um, and I was talking earlier, I said, you know, we don't, 2001, we didn't have, there was no Facebook, there was no social media, there was not even, I don't think there was MySpace, uh, but I mean, like there was, I didn't have a cell phone, maybe I had a cell phone, but it wasn't charged that morning.

01:07:36And I wasn't like, I couldn't just like call people and do all of that stuff. I mean, yeah, it's just so weird about how different times are now, like something like that happens now. This bomb and not the bomb of the explosion in Beirut, like immediately everybody gets notifications. You're like, did you hear about this? It just happened. Uh, how we had to connect human to human. Really people had to call people and say, did you see this? Yeah. Now, yeah, no, it was absolutely like that. It, uh, I didn't, I didn't, did not have a cell phone. I, I distinctly remember I had a pager. Uh, most people probably don't even know what those are anymore, but I had a pager. All getting beat. Yeah. I'm on let me have a pager. Oh, I had one because I was a drug dealer. Well, all right. Sharp. I was going to say that if you, uh, if you ever, have you ever smelled that smell again or something like it, does it take you back to that?

01:08:41Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I've caught smells like that before. Like there's been times, uh, like we were, uh, one of the things that we have in the works is we were actually, we're planning on, uh, eventually opening up an old red in the, in the B and a airport. And I had gone to meetings out there a couple of times, but where we go to the meetings is actually where they fuel the jets. Like there's a, there's a building over there. And I don't know if some fuel leaked out or something. Normally I don't smell anything, but it was recent. It was about a, it was about a year ago. We were going to those meetings and I, and I caught a whiff of it. And I just, I, I, I turned ghost white. I remember like, I, I was as white as my beard. Uh, uh, and, uh, that smell, that smell just, I have a fear of just that smell of, of burning jet fuel. It's, uh, you know, I went, um, my mom is an international flight attendant short for continental at the time and, um, it was October, it was like the beginning of October, uh, 2001 and I was a good, my best friends had a sister and they're all over my house and I said, um, we're just looking at the news and that's hold down this New York and my mom goes, why don't you guys go check it out?

01:10:05Why don't you guys just go there? And I say, I don't want to. She said, I've never been in New York. And I went, really? You want to go to New York? Uh, cause we can fly for free, you know, it was a whole thing. And I was like, Hey, I'll, I'll be this cool guy and take a girl to New York for a day. And, uh, so she's like, you, we're not going to do that. I said, no, five o'clock tomorrow, pick you up. We'll go. And we went to New York for the day from Nashville and we went, we did the Plaza and we walked all over New York. And then we got to downtown and we got to ground zero. And this is like less than a month after nine 11 and, um, all the chain, there's chain link fences that were put up all around ground zero. And there was just pictures, pictures and missing signs every single place. We'd had kind of a fun morning. You know, we flew out, we got on a train. We kind of walking around and we got there. We didn't speak for probably 30 to 40 minutes. And we just kind of walked around the whole thing. It was still smoking and there was a distinct smell. I can't, I don't think I remember the smell, but there was, I remember being so angry because there was people taking pictures, like people like tourists taking pictures, like in front of the chain link fence with all of the people, the missing signs. And I was like, I felt like it was like people stepping on graves.

01:11:22And I was, I got so angry. Like, this isn't, this isn't a photo op. You just stop. Like, and I was just there and it was so, it was like so real, you know, because I'd been to the world trade center, not six months before we've been in the towers and being there with them gone. It was, um, it was just insane. I can't describe the feeling, the emotion, the somber, kind of just that whole experience of being there. Um, I can't really put words to it, just how, how it felt. I'll, I'll be honest with you. It's, it's, uh, it was, it was weird. And I'll tell you what, like, even though the country, if you remember at the time, the country basically shut down, it was very similar to, you know, what happened, you know, in March. Yeah. In March, you know, the country literally shut down. I mean, I remember there was no work.

01:12:23There was no, there was no, nobody was traveling. Nobody was doing anything. Country absolutely shut down and. Everybody was angry. Everybody was really angry at the time. Um, but the rest of the country, other than people that lived or were in New York, they were kind of removed or, or if you knew somebody that was on any of the flights, you were kind of removed from the, and I think it's because of, you know, like the way society is now in comparison to the way it is, it was then. I mean, you were removed from it. Like I have a very interesting story because I was, I was in New York when, when all this went down. Um, so it feels more personal, you know, like it feels personal. And I don't think, I don't think a lot of people really get how personal was. I mean, I was angry afterwards and the country was angry, but I think that.

01:13:29You know, if you were a New Yorker or you were in New York at the time, or you knew people that were on these flights or, uh, I mean, my, my aunt was a flight attendant for American airlines. Like she was scheduled for, for, to be on one of those flights and actually swapped with a friend of hers and a friend of hers, you know, is no longer with us because of the whole situation. So it was angry. I mean, just angry. I just remember being angry. I mean, not much different than how I am now, but you know what I mean? I was angry or. I think the difference between then and now is that we weren't angry with each other. We were angry at something else. Definitely more of a united anger. I agree with you. Yeah. It's a part of the process. I think that level of evil from being in this city, I think people that are there like yourself, I think there has to be some level of PTSD that you experienced being so close to it and being wrapped in it and everyone else who is united in that anger.

01:14:35Um, I think it's just something that like right now we're never going to forget and you never feel far away from it. Just like when Brandon first opened the show and talking about it, I got the same goose bumps and the same like almost like jolts of fear and anxiety. It brings you back to it. It's something so interesting that everyone can sort of understand on some level. Yeah, no, I absolutely. I agree with you. I mean, it's, I mean, it's hard now too, because, um, I think too, it's because I think everybody, everybody's unsure of, you know, either you're outspoken and you're saying what you feel right now, or, or you're just kind of just being quiet because you don't want to offend anybody and everybody's so worried about offending other people that, you know, we can't have a conversation and disagree about something and still remain friends about it. And that's, and that's, that's an issue today that, that, that we have that definitely doesn't need to be a thing.

01:15:35And I think back then there was a very united, we're all angry at the same thing, you know, like, so it's okay that, you know, you're, you're left side of the row and it's okay that I'm right side of the road. We're all, we're all angry at the same thing. So we can, we can be together on this, you know? And I think that's a lot of the difference between right now and back then. Do you think social media has made it that we were talking sort of earlier about it, like, because now we can also sit here on Facebook and argue that that's made it worse or it's just. Absolutely. I think, I think social media, I think the media in general is, is, is it's, you know, make the joke about, you know, like, it's good that I'm a chef because I like to stir the pot. Um, but in this situation. Oh, man, I got you. What's that? I'm going to have to steal that. Yeah. Right. Uh, um, but in this situation, really, I mean, it's, it's the media, it's the social media, it's, it's, it's everything out there that is literally just stirring the pot, like they're just, they're egging it on, they're, they're continuing it, you know, they're making angrier people angrier, you know, and, and.

01:16:54Uh, making, you know, the right side be more right sided and making the left side be more left sided and, and I think that, you know, the majority of people out there are just, you know, it's, I, I've literally gotten to a point where I, I don't even, I don't really get on social media that much anymore. I mean, I get on there every once in a while, but I've really cut myself down. I, I, I've, I've literally stopped turning on the news, um, because I just don't want to hear it. Uh, I listened to death metal all the way to work today where I normally would have just listened to, uh, some form of news radio or something like that. So. Well, I will tell you, you could start listening to Nashville restaurant radio on your way into work because, uh, that's something that is positive and we don't fall on political lines. We tried not to, but you know, it's funny because everybody on social media, everybody has a microphone now. Previously, the news people credentialed media people who have a code of ethics.

01:17:58Um, they're the people who were reporting the news before. What's that? I said, they do. They did. They did. They did. I mean, I mean, now everybody has a microphone. I mean, back then, Jim Myers was going into restaurants. His face was blacked out and he was like on the, you couldn't know who he was. Um, but he was doing restaurant reviews and people were listening to that guy. And now everybody with a telephone is a restaurant critic. There's no point to be a restaurant critic because, and the thing is, is that if you just put something, you put, Hey, Garrett's a really nice guy and I liked all red. Nobody gives a shit. But if you say, I went to all red and it was terrible. And I saw this net, then people respond to you. And every time somebody responds to you, you get a hip, a hit of dopamine in your brain and go, somebody cares. Somebody cares. And we continue to reward people on any sort of social media for doing things that are outlandish, that are going to make people respond to you. And if you're looking at that all the time, you're looking at the worst of society on a regular basis.

01:18:59And if that's your reality, I couldn't agree with you more. Stay off social media, stay off the news, live your own life, make your own opinions. But people are putting stuff out there because they're looking for you to respond. Oh, absolutely. When the problem is reality is going to feel boring compared to that. Yeah. Always looking for dopamine to be fired off of your brain. Sitting at the DMV for two hours is not going to do it, but that's reality. I mean, you're going to have to go through that. Also, social media has removed the fear of getting punched in the face when you say something. That's a good story. Well, Garrett, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on today. You are a true local legend. And we've just, I, you know, coming on, telling that story was amazing. And like I said, I would love to do a full interview with you or we just talked about all this stuff for an hour. Um, when I get back from our short break, we're going to do from live interviews, but, um, thanks for coming on today, man.

01:20:03Absolutely. Thanks for having me. That was nice talking to you guys. Absolutely, man. Well, be careful and have a great rest of the night. Take care, guys. Thank you. All right, wow. So do you know, I didn't get to ask him this is all red open right now. He was at all red. Yeah, that was the, that was the, that was the office. Yeah. He was in the kitchen. What's the, what's the rule for bars? Garrett, are you still there? Yeah. It's all red open right now. Absolutely. Yeah, we are. Are you operating? Yeah, we are open. We are open, uh, only for dinner Monday through Wednesday. Then, uh, we're open lunch and dinner, uh, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And are you at capacity now or what? We are at 50% capacity. Uh, we're allowed to be at 50% capacity and we're a lot, but we're allowed to have full bands now.

01:21:09So we've got bands back, um, which is great. Um, so, you know, we've, we've, we've had some really nice, some awesome bands in here lately, uh, especially on the weekends, um, and, um, you know, we're still doing a limited menu, unfortunately. Um, but it's got most of our local fun stuff on there. Uh, tater tots are on there, obviously. Um, all of our crazy obnoxious burgers, uh, the redneck nachos, which if you've seen the redneck nachos, um, it's, it's insane. It's literally a sheet tray, a sheet pan that has potato chips, um, Belvita beer, cheese, Rotel tomatoes, smoked chicken, um, uh, sour cream, and then avocado smash jalapenos it's, it's, it's, it's not, it's, it's drunk. It's, it's sexy upscale drunk food is what it is.

01:22:11So a full slash sheet tray option, or just a quarter size tray option for you. If you come in, I'll make you a full sheet pan size one. Dude, let's go. Take all three of us to finish it, but yeah. Oh, I'm there. She'll take care of it. Hey, uh, Garrett, before you go, um, Mr. Mark Rubin had commented, uh, he wanted to say, good to see you, Garrett. It's good to be seen. Uh, chef Mark, the man behind the curtain. Yes. Well, um, Mark Rubin, long time chef at, um, that's legend. I'm not a, Mark Rubin is actually a Nashville legend. When you talk about chefs. Yes, he is. He is a, he's a treasure and a legend. One of my favorite people. So, uh, he is a fan of the show and it makes me so happy that he does watch.

01:23:13I want to let you know that he said hi. Yeah, that's awesome. I just wanted to know your status at all red, as far as opening. So we write, brought you back on to ask you about that. So thanks for giving us information. Absolutely. Totally. Yeah. All right, dude. Megan. See if he's still there in a minute. We're coming back to you. He's just going to watch the rest of the show in the, in the green room. Waiting. That was cool, man. I haven't called that guy in a long time. I really like him. I was always my favorite places to go visit, to go see him. When he was, uh, when I would go visit him as a sales rep, cause he's one of those people that, and I always appreciated the hell out of no bullshit people, uh, you'd go in somewhere and you never had to guess where your standing was. He would be the first one to tell you. He'd be the first one to say, you know, Hey, what the hell is going on with this or what's going on with that? Or, you know, he, he, I just love that honesty. Cause they're like, Oh, no, everything's good. And then you'd walk in the next day and like, why is there GFB?

01:24:15Why is there GFS boxes in here? Like, just testing some stuff out. And you're like, but you told me everything was good. And he's like, yeah, I mean, you suck, but I mean, you know, that's, I mean, there's, he would always just tell you straight up. And that was one of my favorite things in the world. And it's a great quality to have in a chef and you tell you when you, he would tell you when you sucked, which is good, you know, cause then you could get better. You get you better for learning. I got it. I got skin like that. I'm, I'm, I would much rather you tell me when I sucked and let me guess. And then, you know, you just make a decision. I don't want to tell him. I don't want to hurt his feelings. So we'll just switch companies and he'll figure it out. You know, when he comes back, I always love the straight forwardness. You didn't like your family to eat. How do you treat, what's, what's your philosophy, Alex on like reps like that? Who do you use? Uh, we use, uh, we did use PFG. We had a, had a bad relationship with them when they told me to pick through some moldy pearl onions and make it work.

01:25:21And I was like, I don't think so. Uh, but I mean, we use a lot of local farmers and producers. Uh, but when we're not using that, we used, uh, creation and inland. Oh, very nice. Very nice. I just missed a call from, uh, Mr. Monte Crawford. Maybe he's listening. I mean, I had a great rep at inland with, uh, with Matt Pelt, but he got furloughed because of the pandemic and then creation. The best thing about creation for me was, uh, no minimums on trucks and they would break a case. I mean, you can get, I mean, I can get three green beans if I wanted to. I mean, they would probably charge me 12 bucks a pound, but I get three, but I can get it. You know who one of my favorite reps in town is Jason Ellis with Super Source, Jason Ellis with Super Source. You're talking about no minimums. That is what they do. No minimums, no contracts. They don't want you to sign your life away. They want to earn the business every single week.

01:26:24I am poor. You go to Nashville restaurant radio.com, click the sponsors tab and find the super source section. Click on the link and you will get a free dishwasher for three months, free lease on a dishwasher for three months. Uh, get ahold of Jason Ellis because what he will do is he will come to your restaurant, he will look at what you have, he will identify whether or not that you're correctly calibrated to look at what you're using, how much you're using, then he will identify if you are way overusing, whatever it might be. And he will let you know how much he can save you money and upgrade your equipment, which are two things that are very, very, very important right now in this age of COVID-19, saving you money and using the right equipment. Uh, he was telling me a story of a restaurant that he went into the other day that was sanitizing their tables with the wrong stuff. So I go, this isn't a sanitizer. Like, no, that's not a sanitizer. Uh, and he was able to come in and say, you need to be using this product and this product, and it's like, you know what, if you're, if you're a large dishwashing company and you're just mailing it in, like you need somebody who's going to come in and help identify that you're doing the right stuff is going to train your staff on real sanitation.

01:27:31So he will do that. He's a good dude and, um, they are working their ass off to make sure that, um, you have got the best quality chemicals as well as this machines. No minimums, no contracts. You should check them out. Um, again, this is our website. Uh, click the sponsors tab and click on super source. All right. Is there a, uh, this is a special episode this week. So we are just, we've, we've been doing nine 11, never forget. And, uh, we, we're trying to come up with new things that are happening in the restaurant world. There's a lot of pop-ups. Like we said, um, thank you, Alex blue for coming on the show today and just kind of hanging out with us. I've had so much fun with our guest host. What do you think? I love it. It gives us some fresh perspectives and fresh faces gets to like hang out with people that we can't hang out with right now. So we're having a nice socially distanced weekly hang with good people. So I love, thanks for joining us.

01:28:33Absolutely. I had a blast. It's been fun. Yeah, this has been a blast. So Alex, what else, what do you got? Give us any plugs you have as we get going, anything you want to, um, talk about, what do you got going on? Let our listeners know. Well, we've got a, we're doing a pop-up, uh, at Dallas and Jane, which the name of this place will probably change is the restaurant is not happening anymore. But, uh, we're doing a pop-up on Saturday that sold out within 24 hours. So if you're interested in doing those things, uh, the first one we did was last month, it was seven courses and, uh, pairings, this one is five courses with pairings optional, the ticket was, I think it was $75 for the food and then another 50 for the pairing. Uh, if you're interested in having meal prep, made South meals, got a QR code. You get 20% off your first order. If you go to that website, uh, if you need catering, we're doing that as well, uh, made South catering. And then I know my old sous chef, uh, Edgar Victoria is, uh, a la brie Nashville and he's got Mexican pop-ups all over the place.

01:29:40So go support him and every other restaurant in Nashville that needs your support right now, what's the best way for people to find out about what you guys are doing on your Instagram, Facebook? Yeah, I would say either one of those Instagram is probably a little bit more frequently updated. Uh, so I would go into the made South meals, made South catering, or just me personally, Alex blue, I try to post as frequently as I can. And what are you doing in 10 days? You doing another type? What are you doing in 10 days? I'll be at, uh, medieval in, uh, Brentwood doing a four course chef series. Uh, it's going to be awesome. You can get tickets on a Pimp Bright. If you go to Mabel's, uh, Facebook page or their Instagram page, you can see it there, click the link and go get tickets. Only 60 seats are available. And I think we've sold more. We, I know we've sold more than 10 or 15, so they've only been on sale for a few days. Yeah. They're going fast from what I understand. It's, um, the CDs, there's three different seedings, but get in there.

01:30:44If you want to do a special dinner, meet chef Alex blue and try his food. Coming out to mirror bowl next Sunday night, the carrots, the carrots. Got to have the carrots. And you know what? I will be there too. So, um, I will be there too. Um, do you want to go? I'll go. Yeah. You want to double date? You want to take, uh, Lou? We can't call him. We've got the kids that weekend. Well, you can come. All right. Delia is going to be there. I'll be there. Come to the event. Alex will be there. Come by, say hi to all of us. We'd love to see you and, um, that'll be happening. So thank you guys for showing Alex. Thanks again for being on the show today. My pleasure. And you got a cool sign off you got. Uh, I've never, I've never been really in the cool department. So if I tried to come up with something right now, it would, if all my beans would be out again, no good.

01:31:45Uh, well. When we don't have to wear masks anymore, I'm gonna have to come up with a new one, but stay pretty music city. And remember you can still be pretty with the mask on. And I always hope that you and yours are being safe. Love you guys. Bye. Bye. See y'all.