On this episode of The Roundup, Brandon Styll and Eater Nashville editor Delia Jo Ramsey catch up on a strange moment for Nashville's restaurant scene as the city sits in Phase 2, bars are closed for 14 days, and COVID cases are surging.
On this episode of The Roundup, Brandon Styll and Eater Nashville editor Delia Jo Ramsey catch up on a strange moment for Nashville's restaurant scene as the city sits in Phase 2, bars are closed for 14 days, and COVID cases are surging. They discuss the tension between supporting restaurants and protecting workers, share previews of upcoming interviews with Tony and Caroline Galzin, Akinde Olegundye, the FOH and BOH founders, and Josh Habiger, and tease an upcoming video of Nashville chefs reading their worst Yelp reviews. Brandon also opens up briefly about being eight months sober and offers to talk with anyone in the industry struggling with alcohol.
The What's the Delia segment is a deep dive into tipping etiquette, both before and during the pandemic, including why Delia is over-tipping out of guilt, why Brandon thinks the ubiquitous tip screen at counter-service spots has gotten out of hand, and how servers can earn bigger gratuities by genuinely going above and beyond. They wrap with a story about Germantown Pub immediately closing after a positive COVID test among staff, and a shout-out to Sunda's new community meal program for hospitality workers.
"I asked for the best bartender, best mixologist, and the post turned into a love letter. Everybody kept posting their favorite bartender, and then the bartender would respond, that means so much to me."
Brandon Styll, 53:49
"Right now is a great time to be alive if you love feeling unsure about literally everything you do. That is exactly where I am right now."
Delia Jo Ramsey, 25:30
"If that server or bartender has to spend ninety percent of their time with your table because you're being extra, then they should be compensated for all that time. It's just the right thing to do, before or after a pandemic."
Delia Jo Ramsey, 01:08:17
"She goes, we just had somebody test positive for COVID. I said, what do you want to do? And she goes, the right thing. There was never a question in anybody's mind. Their core value of being good to people was absolutely lived."
Brandon Styll, 01:23:28
00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to the Roundup presented by Springer Mountain Farms Chicken on Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host and I am joined as always with the editor of Eater Nashville Delia Jo Ramsey. How we doing Delia? Well Brandon, I'm not gonna lie. I was a sick a few days this week and then I got lonely and then I got bored and that's kind of where we're at right now. Then I've been playing catch-up since then so I was looking to see some friends and so and I got a haircut so there's that but how are you?
01:01Hey and all that sounds like a pretty good week. So what kind of sick person are you? I I kind of am like man flu sick as far as I want someone to come take care of me and in my case I didn't have anyone to do that so I just kind of I kind of wallow and then google all my symptoms and then I get sad because my mom used to would rive up immediately if I were sick and she'd make me chicken and noodles and then I was crying about that and there was grief journey and then there was anxiety about being alone and it just it was a whole rabbit hole for about 48 hours or so but I'm up and I'm now man so there's a lot to unpack there every day a lot to unpack how'd you uh how'd you so how do you get out of that like when you get into that space where you're like not feeling well you're sick you're alone you're bored and you get into this grief stricken you your mom normally takes care of you how do you how do you get out of that I mean I kind of I admit I admittedly wallow in it for a good day or so and then I mean while you're sick it's hard to cheer yourself up but once I kind of started feeling better and I could eat again then I just started treating my damn self to food that I liked and admittedly that helps which I don't know if that's an unhealthy coping mechanism but that's what I do and then just kind of opening up to friends and not just sitting in my head after so long kind of helps just to talk to someone else especially right now I think there are other people that are in similar spaces even when you're not sick just being kind of alone and isolated right now you know that's a lot of people and I know we're going to talk about some of that today in this episode just kind of what this resurgence of the coronavirus um what is your favorite sick food okay so I have a few a few routes that I go so first I mean I will love to drink like a
03:04coca-cola when I'm sick it kind of helps with my nausea and it's a childhood flavor just brings you back this effervescent like spark that kind of helps me to feel better and then I also really like to eat butter noodles so sometimes when I'm sick I'll get on Postmates and just look for like a child's plate of just butter noodles because I don't want to cook them for myself because I don't feel good and then I also crave really spicy food so this is maybe the more productive thing I do especially because I'm like stomach sick but I'm like give me the hottest thing possible and I'll eat that so I ordered in Nashville hot chicken this week what is wrong with you this is my self-sabotage I don't know I mean what do you eat when you're sick do normal things I eat like I eat crazy things I eat candy like if you know me like I am like the candy monster I am always I don't know maybe it goes back to my days of like smoking pot where I just constantly would eat candy when I get the munchies and it's just stuck and now I just eat candy when I get sick I eat like Sour Patch Kids and I like the little nip a nip like the little wax candy with the like the juice in the middle of it I haven't had that in 30 years yeah yeah like I'll make a special trip to Cracker Barrel just to make sure I can find the most disgusting oldest candy in the world and I love stale candy by the way like my wife cracks up because I'm like if I like I like lemon heads and cherry heads and apple heads so I will go like we went to Florida we'll stop in the middle of Nowhereville Alabama and I'm like oh we gotta find the most rundown gas station because I'll bet they have the little 25 cent things of like lemon heads that are just stale and hard and they're the chewiest and I love that I think I grew up on
05:04those in rundown Alabama so I don't know what fresh ones are like she's like you mean they make fresh versions of that I am like the exact same I have I have my wife cracks up too because I get like the biggest man flu like when I get I'm not the kind of person I did this for a long time like when I was in high school and college I would go to work if I had the flu like I would go to work all the time it did not matter yeah I would just I was a beast I would but then I would be sick for like a month and a half and then fine well I just I needed the money I needed to work and I would just go to work so I was like hell I can power through it and then finally somebody said hey man that's incredibly selfish and um really dumb because if you just stayed home for like two days and rested and drank fluids and ate the candy with the wax and the juice in the middle you'll feel so much better and so I started doing that so when I get sick now I just get in my head and I land a couch and I'm like I'm gonna murder a full I'm just gonna binge watch something and I'm gonna not think about how sick I am and I'm just gonna get over it and then I'm better then I like I get back to full strength maybe that's part of my problem is I never turn my tv on maybe I wouldn't swallow for 24 hours if I turned on television it definitely helps take your mind off of how bad you feel for sure noted so now that we know what kind of sick people we are I think we've given a good preamble to what kind of episode this is going to be today on the roundup uh we've kind of done a few episodes so right now we're in a really weird time we're in a really weird time where restaurants are like open but we're in phase two bars are closed people are still doing take out a lot of people still haven't opened yet and I just you know it's tough to do a
07:04show where you're talking about the newest coolest things in Nashville and where to go and what to do and you want to promote people so I kind of thought hey look let's just do a full episode we keep trying different versions of this show we're gonna do we're gonna get it right so if you're listening to this I'd love to know your thoughts let us know in the comments check it out say hey I like this version or I don't like this version but we're the show it's gonna be a long one today we're just gonna talk we're just gonna talk about all the stuff that's uh going on with us and we've got a really great what's the dealia later on what are we talking about today what's dealia we are gonna talk about tipping and tipping before the times of coronavirus and during coronavirus and just kind of looking at it from all sides and having a good discussion about it I love it that you're passionate about I am I've been waiting many years to do this segment and I hope I don't hijack it from you because uh we're gonna do it as a discussion but um I there's I definitely have some some opinions about tipping yes I'm excited about it it so hang in there through the episode it's going to be towards the end and uh we will get into what's the dealia so this week was a pretty cool week for Nashville Restaurant Radio we um we had Tony and Caroline Galzin on the show on Monday and I tell you what if you want to talk about just an authentic couple of people who absolutely get it and absolutely love the people that that work for them and take the responsibility of being a restaurant owner seriously and just I mean they're just so intelligent I just was so impressed by literally everything about them you're just finish an episode where you talk to somebody for over an hour and you're like I really like you guys that's what that's what happened the other day with both of them they are you know them right yeah um I'm good friends with Caroline and I mean they've just been good humans beyond you know great at what they do as far as restaurant and
09:08cooking and taking care of people they're they're just good humans and good friends they sent a large casserole down to my mom when she was sick with me and they she showed up at my house one day when she knew I was having a tough time and just kind of showed up and hijacked and put me away to where I needed to be whisked away for a minute and she's um he's just a good human so I was excited to hear their episode and I love the game that you play with them at the end it was a it was a fun thing you guys did are you more of those yeah we're gonna do a lot more of those so I've been I've got some teasers I guess I've got a couple more couples that will be coming on the show hopefully pretty soon and we're gonna be doing more of the newly reopened game but if before we started that interview we were talking and I said hey guys do you mind if towards the end of the episode we play a game and if you could see her eyes she was like what do you mean a game and I said it's kind of like the newlywed game but it's going to be called the I said I don't know what's going to be called yet literally on the show when I said the newly reopened game like it was organic like that was how I named the show like it was right then and there and I said well it's kind of like the newlywed game we'll call it the newly I don't know what it is game and she goes are you serious and I go yeah she goes I've always wanted to play that game like yes like we're totally in and she just got so excited about the possibility of playing that game and it was great it was a lot of fun doing it I do love a game show I'm a big will of fortune girl I've tried to try out twice and so I'm very into into game shows myself I am I have this dream of doing Family Feud myself okay is that is that your jam I love Family Feud and I think that what Steve Harvey has done with Family Feud is just magnificent for bringing back a game show and just absolutely killing it and it's in Atlanta too so I'm like we could do that that's like feasible and my family like my mom dad sister brother are all like hilarious people and they're we're all so
11:11incredibly different but I just think we would do really well but like it's a flawed game show but I think it would be just a lot of fun yeah I mean what's not it's good to have a distraction especially in these days that's something I especially enjoyed about that episode was took our minds off of this current climate for a minute and just got to know some people yeah and we will continue to do that we have I'll give another teaser we have a really cool segment that you and I have both been working on we are going to release it next week we have got I mean we have 15 chefs and restaurant owners right now I'm gonna have to trim it down so we don't do everybody we'll have to make another video but with your original what's the dealio we talked about one star yelp reviews during a pandemic and we have got some pretty big names of chefs and restaurant owners reading their worst yelp reviews and it is really really funny and I want to stress to everybody I was watching them last night and I'm kind of putting them together and doing some editing like this is for fun okay like this is for fun these chefs and restaurant tours have have a big heart and they obviously care very much about your opinion and what goes on but these yelp reviews are just ridiculous and these are just ridiculous yelp reviews it's an akin to kind of the Jimmy Kimmel's celebrities reading mean tweets and then Tony and Caroline Galzin did an event where they had these chefs come and read their worst yelp reviews so I kind of stole that idea and they have one that they read for me so we have Manit, Shohan, Vivek, we've got Deb Paquette, we have James Garrido from the Henley, Tony and Caroline Galzin, Nick and Audra Guidry, I mean there's there's a bunch that we've got got Matt Bolas. I'm so it's so funny to see how each of them kind of did it
13:16differently some of them would just read it but some of them had to react you can tell they're such big personalities and they're very passionate they just had to react to it so I love seeing how each different chef reacted differently to their reviews so that will be out next week so look for that we'll put that on a video and if you see that like it share it we kind of want to highlight how ridiculous some people can be on yelp and it's ridiculous what these people write on yelp and there's a responsibility to doing that and we really want to highlight just that these are people's businesses these are people's livelihoods and these no nameless people that have zero friends in one review with one star reviews these places they're just asinine and it's just fun it's it's all in the name of fun ladies and gentlemen yeah I think fun during the pandemic okay don't let this stress you out reading this this should be somewhat therapeutic I think for most of them it was but maybe wait I made it oh go ahead maybe it should be a series that we do like every couple months we just pop in and read some more reviews uh yeah everybody that comes on the show we're doing it we're getting that done right now I can read mean reader comments about myself you can do that too that would be fun too I mean my favorite is just well that's uh my favorite week that I was a vegan millennial and I'm like y'all know I'm the queen of queso right vegan is the furthest from the truth on me you're the vegan millennial you're like right on the cusp I don't even know if I'd call you millennial is how I describe myself yeah okay yeah I'm like right there with you yeah so let's move on with our show and we're gonna break away from our our typical
15:19just our conversation here and we're gonna talk about oh you know what I'm not gonna jump ahead because I did not talk about Akinde our other show this week was Akinde Olegundye and he is the president of the Nashville chapter for the United States bartenders guild he's also a bartender at skulls rainbow room and an amazing human being and I got to catch up with him at his house sitting on his porch and he just moved into this new place it's awesome it's in east nashville he's got a great little spot but he is you know when it comes down to just being like a super professional and people absolutely caring about their craft and putting all of their energy to really excelling he's just that guy you know he's the guy that you want to strive to be so inspirational and you know Akinde right yeah he's a great he's a friend and he's great the way he does I actually met him when he was working at skulls through another mutual friend and yeah I always love seeing him behind the bar it's one of those faces that you feel like you know and then actually become friends with outside of bar yeah so we're going to get into more of that we're going to talk about I started a thread on the Nashville hospitality page we're going to talk about that here in just a minute so last week Tony and Caroline Galzin, Akinde Olegundye and we're this coming week we are going to have the girls from foh and boh.com who we're going to talk about here just a second with an advertisement but this is not an advertisement their interview we want to learn more about them because I think this is some technology that you guys really need to know about and I wanted to I feel like it's too good to be true and I wanted to break that down with them and we do it's great we also have Josh Habager he will be coming on Wednesday will be the episode with Josh Habager
17:20and he is the chef owner of Bastion I'm dying to go back there now and since they've moved over to the bar side yeah I'm I'm just so impressed with him and you know catbird seat back in the day the innovation that he just does on a regular basis I'm dying to know his opinion and kind of his thoughts about everything right now just to kind of break open just kind of talk to him because he's just such an innovator and I love to find out how his brain works so that's going to be a really cool week next week I'm really excited about it awesome looking forward to that one so it's a good segue into foh and boh as an advertisement so foh and boh is a website and right now they're offering free access if you're a restaurant and you need to hire somebody all I continue to see out there and we're going to talk about this just second is restaurants posting on Facebook saying hey need a server hey need a line cook hey need this need that and they're just it's like throwing a fishing pole with a worm out in the middle of a lake and wondering what you're going to catch and with foh and boh foh and boh.com is how you pronounce it phonetically and foh and boh literally you go in and you create a profile and people that own restaurants can come in fill out their own profile it's kind of like a dating app and we talk more about it you'll get on the show Monday but like you literally can go in and you can say well you know what I like to I want to work in this particular area and I don't want to wear a uniform and I have tattoos on my face and I don't want to I want to do whatever and you kind of enter in all these different things that you like and it matches you with restaurants that have all of that so if you don't want to wear a uniform and you can wear whatever you want then there'll be restaurants that like say oh hey you don't have a uniform and it'll find the place that fits your
19:21personality which really like how cool is that I think that's a way more productive thing to be swapping on than tinder during the pandemic you know yeah and you know I said well I mean you know you can go on this site and you can you can put on there I'm looking for a job I'm not looking for a job or I'm happy in my current position I just want to have a profile up here or I'm happy but if the amazing job offer comes along so I mean if you're a restaurant owner it is free through the end of August you can log in there's no strings attached you can log in start looking there's 2,500 people on there right now that are looking for jobs I mean you're posting on Facebook you need a server like you could literally log into phonebo.com fill out your profile put the kind of restaurant you are and then people can say hey I want to come work there and you can and you'll get an email that says these nine people want to come work for you you can do nothing with that or you can say oh I want to see who these people are and click you all it does is one button it says click request interview like you just hit click you can do I think you can do a zoom call you can do it in person I mean it's that easy so I just the technology is there everything about it is super cool we get into big time detail on Monday on our show if you want to learn more about it because it feels to me like it's just too good to be true but it's not like it it gets it's legit like everything about it and this this is a local company so Mary Pillow Thompson and Hallie Hayes live here in Nashville they're Nashvillians and they started this here this is a Nashville based company doing Nashville based stuff so I'm just super proud to have them as a sponsor on the show and I can't talk about them enough so who else out there so what do you got on the hiring boards looking at all those different sites who else is hiring what have you seen a few cool things this week I saw that husk is hiring wine cooks and dishwashers right now and wow even to husk right I mean I think so many people moved
21:23to this town to work at husk so I noticed that instantly and wrote that down I think you know it's amazing husk is so important for Nashville in the dining scene it's kind of something that put us on the map nationally when you know Sean brought out here and husk opened and it's such an important part of the Nashville story so it's super cool opportunity there and then on the brand new front the Joseph hotel is hiring and the optimist is hiring servers and cooks and that's a good spot I know I went twice the first week because I was so excited about seafood then um Murphy's bro chop house I saw for those maybe outside the city and pinewood social is the last one I saw looking for all positions pinewood social so these are some pretty big names that this is an interesting market right now where these big name restaurants are looking for people and they're active like saying that usually these restaurants are just completely packed right it's like you can't get a job there and right now they're like look we need people that's such a crazy dynamic tables have certainly turned no fun intended um given the current climate yeah I just um I wish I had like you know advice for people out there and uh we talked about an interview Monday but just the idea of restaurants being open right now I mean it's just a crazy thing I mean if you go back to my first episode of Nashville restaurant radio I talk it's called I did the episode it's called how about a round of corona dot dot virus talk and it really was based and I will have this conversation because I did that episode because we were in the it was March 13th and everything had closed and everybody's on Facebook putting all of these announcements Facebook Instagram
23:27saying we now hey listen we wash our hands here and everyone's making all these grand statements of we're clean come out and eat and I saw the writing on the wall that everything is closing restaurants are going to close real soon and I kind of said I don't think we should be doing this I think everybody's knee-jerk reacting making all of these statements on social media saying come to our restaurant we wash our hands we're clean here you know and it's like should we do we have a social responsibility right to like not spread this virus and I feel like we're entering back into that phase yeah you know you've got you have so many restaurants right now that haven't opened look at tom morales um craga peninsula nick and andre gidry they're they're not opening like pelican and pig they've just got their little you know to go pop up and there's so many restaurants that haven't opened because you know if you if you can't if you have the ability to not open and not send your staff back into a dangerous environment then I'm kind of on board like I'm completely with them like the safety factor of your people is so big and the people that are open I think that if you have a necessity like I'm going to have to close the doors if I don't generate cash I get where those places are completely open um and I talked to craig over at peninsula and he's going to come on the show the week after next yesterday a little bit about it and uh that's going to be a fun interview by the way he's a he's a great person to talk to about all of this we've had some good conversations throughout as well yeah but I don't you know I don't know I think we're back in that stage should where we need to be contemplating like do we need to be promoting everybody needs to come out to eat right or do we need to say wear a mask and be super careful like what are your thoughts I saw this tweet yesterday
25:30and it said right now is a great time to be alive if you love feeling unsure about literally everything you do and that that's it exactly where I am right now I mean my gosh on one hand yeah I'm kind of back in quarantine mode but you know at the beginning of quarantine I had a living boyfriend and now I'm single so I see the side of yeah I should stay at home but then like last night I was like oh my gosh I need to get out of the house and I walked across the street and ate on a patio um but you know I was careful I you know wore the mask onto the patio I didn't get close to anybody but I ate food there so I on one hand I see yes let's protect the server let's be home but then I also have this mental health piece it's like but my god I need to go somewhere but I know that's not essential but um I too am on the side of we are back in that phase where maybe we shouldn't have dining rooms open and we should be back in takeout only mode probably is the truth it's just the selfish part of me that of course well I mean you make a you make a really good point um you know and this is why this whole thing becomes more frustrating because man it's just this this crazy dichotomy you want to be open because people need interaction right and just the ability to leave the house is so therapeutic like you just now described but we're essentially sending people into work in an unsafe environment and there's this whole thing right now about masks and I don't like I don't understand it I don't understand it's like when you look at logic for everything about it it just becomes a just just wear the damn mask just put a mask on and people go well people more people are touching masks and when you touch the mask you transfer and it's like but if you're not wearing it you're you're just blasting your your droplets that the virus is spread by droplets that you speak
27:31and when you breathe like that's how this thing spreads and if you wear a mask and I wear a mask like it if it prevents it 50 percent okay like I mean I don't know the the actual facts I'm not an epidemiologist I'm not a doctor but it seems to me like if I can protect other people why would you not just do it like I don't care what I look like of course I mean I guess I do have one topic I was discussing this last night with with the bartender at the restaurant I went to but my issue is in the restaurant yes I can wear the maps to the table I can wear the mask to the bathroom but I'm still going to be eating and there are saliva droplets they're going to be on my fork and on my plate which then the server has to carry back to the kitchen so if I protected the server and wearing the mask he's still carrying like something I ate off of back to the kitchen so am I not already putting it at risk again you are so I don't I guess I don't see I mean I guess the mask protects a little bit but again you're not wearing the mask at the table so I just well I think that's where that's where social distancing I mean and that's where Caroline and Tony Galzin had a really great point was why they pivoted their entire concept you know you go to the front door they've got all the plexiglass you place your order you get you get to kind of go seat yourself and they have the patio and everything and then when your food's ready they bring it to you they said we don't want a server coming to your table standing over you breathing breathing in your they don't want to put their servers at risk and they don't want to put the people at risk so we're gonna order one time you're gonna sit at your table they only have six tables in their entire restaurant now you know they've if I think as long as you're six feet apart there's ventilation if you're sitting outside I think you're good but I mean this is the kind of stuff you've got to think about if you're a restaurant owner is how can I be the most responsible I can possibly be which is another reason why I just felt like after talking to them this week I was like you guys get it yeah like they're doing the best thing for the people out there and I just felt I felt good it felt like people cared you know oh absolutely I think you
29:34hear about you know these deals like on Broadway and you hear about 30 people testing positive and the restaurant owner's trying to cover it up and all just all these stories you're hearing and you're like damn can you be more polar opposite right and you have people and and you know those people are going to be fine either way they have enough money they're going to be fine either way just so frustrating so again I think the issue with all this there are no experts this is brand new for everyone everyone's trying to do the best they can every day I don't know if I shouldn't be like cooking my cauliflower that's been sitting in the fridge for two weeks again or or if it's okay to take out I truly don't know and I don't feel comfortable recommending people to dine out I just know that I'm not interacting with anyone else so I feel okay and doing that in places that I know are taking the right precautions and being safe so that's all I can really say on that and you know and I believe in the QBQ which is something that I talk about all the time you know the question on the question and it's not a matter of other people you've just got to look in the mirror and you've got to go not how come everybody else doesn't wear a mask how come everybody else doesn't do all these things you got to look in the mirror you got to say what can I do what can I do to be is the safest I can possibly be not only for myself but for other people and when you start thinking like that when you start thinking what can I do well I can wear a mask that will stop spreading my germs to other people I can try to socially distant as best I possibly can and I can stand up for you know I can say something if you see somebody who's being irresponsible say hey man that's not cool I mean if we are constantly doing that I feel like I feel like we'll get ahead but I mean hey you know I don't know I think every time I see something on Facebook and
31:36it becomes every time that it becomes politicized I check out yeah absolutely every time I see the agenda of the left it's like they go up you're done yep because now because now you've brought politics into something that is not a political issue right and that's just frustrating it's a tough time for sure and also I would say on the on the calling out of people I mean I had a friend who was yelled at in Walmart because her mask wasn't on right and I mean I think there's a nice way to approach everything like don't be an asshole about it anyway like people disagree people are doing different things and just be kind yeah I mean and you know wear the mask over your nose right that's a it's kind of a big one you know like a lot of people don't do that can be frustrating for sure yeah all right so let's let's pivot on I think that we've talked about that long enough and we're gonna that's that's obviously not a topic that's gonna go away sure if you listen to my interview with Akinde this week we talk about it kind of in depth where the actions of a few are ruining it for the rest of us and we're gonna talk about that a little bit here in a minute with the fox but right now I want to tell you Delia did you know that Pennington Distilling Company is the first grain to glass distillery in Nashville to produce a Tennessee whiskey since prohibition I did not know that right in yes they uh with their Davidson Reserve Tennessee whiskey it's a sourmash whiskey and it is 100% made here in Nashville right in the nations and Jeff and Jenny have been on the show they're amazing people that grew up here in Nashville went to Franklin High School used to live right down the street from me and they both worked in
33:40the spirits world started a distillery they are the makers of Pickers vodka they also make Walton's vodka and Whisper Creek Tennessee sipping cream and Davidson Reserve if you want to learn more about them we do an episode with them go back and listen to it if you want to watch it you can watch the video on our youtube channel and it is the full interview it's like an hour and 20 minutes but you can listen to it in two segments if you want to listen to it on anchor or apple podcast or get your podcast and it will we kind of talk about everything and uh it's really cool to have people who are local we keep talking about local want to support local uh locally owned business owners so if you go to a bar and you or you order a drink make sure you tell them you want it with Pickers or if you order something with bourbon tell them you want it with Davidson Reserve because it's a uh it's a premium quality product and it's made right here in Nashville so there we go Delia what do we got as far as um beverages this week to go beverages you know all that good stuff so you know the bars are all shut down for 14 days and we're about halfway through that now right so we're seven days into the bar shut down but several of them are still serving to-go drinks so at a boy who you know um completely devastated and lost team members during the tornado they are operating at lakeside lounge on Fridays and Saturdays from two to eight so I'm definitely all about supporting them first because gosh what a freaking tough time they've had and just give them some love and I know you can make cocktails at home but I think this is just about supporting people at this point which we will talk about also later but um yeah they're there from two to eight Fridays and Saturdays for takeout and delivery chopper on the east side is also doing takeout cocktails like I think they have batched ones too and then I gotta mention also on the east side those rose pepper margaritas because those margaritas are really strong and a little goes
35:45a long way on one of those the first time that I went to rose pepper it was on it was on Easter Sunday of last year it was my first like time I was having this Sunday alone I went and sat on the patio at rose pepper when I had one margarita and some queso and I'm telling you I walked around town for a minute after that margarita I was like that was wrong so I was like that one went and I have a pretty good tolerance but that one went a long way so I will say that's a good bang for your buck on the rose pepper marks to go uh also loving some frozen drinks right now party foul over in my neck of the woods has boozy slushies and I've driven over to the nations to midnight oil uh for this frozen they have and I might or might not have walked around my neighborhood with it before don't tell anyone don't tell anyone don't tell anyone and then I also love anzy blue has a lavender lemonade that you can get vodka in and CBD so you can kind of like chill and get a good vibe it's a cute place if you haven't been there before also and then not from a restaurant but I love woodland wine because you can order online and then you just pull up text the number pop your trunk they put it in the trunk they check your id through your window and so it's completely contactless way to just get some wine and they're doing these boxes of six where you just they'll send you six wines and so you get to try some new wines and cool uh not restaurant takeout but wine shop I do love woodland wine so that's all I got for drinks today awesome um I want to talk about anzy blue um in their lavender lemonade with CBD and vodka yeah tell me about anzy blue because I've never been there and I just keep hearing all about this place will you like I want to talk about anzy blue for a second like what is their deal so it is the the kindest couple I think they both have backgrounds in the music business if I'm not mistaken but um
37:47it's a cute little coffee shop I think it was inspired by gosh I can't remember where it looks very much like you're in Greece when you walk in this has been my okay I've not worked from home for a couple of times in the last month and it was there both times they've got take out you can they take out and deliver so they are doing charcuterie and cheese boards their 15 year old works there and she designed this really cool bagel board um and then there's a caprese salad board that their daughter also designed so a caprese salad board that you can do a bunch of different versions of it yeah it's just like it's just all prettied up on a plate and then they have also an amazing thin crust pizza which I wasn't expecting I just went in and got you know coffee and was sitting there working and she said you haven't tried our pizza and I was like I wouldn't have thought to order pizza here but I had an amazing pepperoni and olive pizza which is kind of my go-to and I ate the whole freaking thing in like 18 hours probably total but it's a good so they make their own CBD and it's just there's a lot going on there but it all is working and it's a super cute vibe and they have a patio and they're the kindest people and they're doing pop-ups every weekend so I just think it's a really cool place over and I guess it's belmead so if you haven't checked it out definitely worth going where is it in belmead let me look this up because like okay right over there by st. thomas okay gotcha okay so it's in that great in that little okay I know exactly what you're talking about okay I because I just I haven't been there obviously and I keep hearing about it and I'm like is this like a little is it like a bodega is it like a little shop or is it like a restaurant is it a bar is it like a CBD place like there's all these different things I feel like it is and then I kind of just as you're going over this I'm like man that lemonade sounds really good and I just keep hearing about him so
39:48more information I was like let's let's support these guys Derek and mercy are a couple's names and she couldn't be kinder and I just met Derek last time I was in and they're just good people and they're they're good at what they do and I wondered the first time I was like how are they doing cocktails but they've so adapted and they're thriving through this pandemic because they've adapted and they've made it into a delivery model and they have CBD which is helping people to chill out and they have the takeout if you want take out and they have delivery they've just adapted on every turn and they're just killing it over there that's so cool yeah well I love it I love it thanks for for giving me the update on that because I didn't know and I just I'm like I wanted to uh I wanted to talk about them yeah so um to go drinks I think it's gonna be around I see right now that there are states that are legalizing it for good can we keep them please I think I think we're moving in that direction I don't like I don't think there's been a whole bunch of crazy things that have happened because of it I mean not yet I think this is one of those things that if we don't f it up we could keep it around for a while let's let's keep these nice things you know what I mean like so if you're out there and you enjoy getting to go beverages while you're out don't drink and drive like do it responsibly like the the more times people get pulled over and they've got cocktails in their car this is going to go away real fast if we can't be responsible about it so if you like doing that and I think that it is a fantastic thing you started talking about rose pepper and their margaritas and I am a little more than eight months sober and that is my that is my kryptonite like that's the thing that I miss the most about drinking is margaritas because that was just like there's a whole feeling around margaritas and if you I just dream like I had to quit drinking before they let me take drinks to go
41:49which is probably the best thing in the world honestly for me but I just feel like if variety journey though because what's that I said I'm so proud of you and your sobriety journey though you feel like you're doing really well and I'm super proud of you well that's a whole nother day and I'll talk about it on a show I'm sure I'd be happy to get into it and talk about it because I know there's a lot of people out there that you know there's a lot of people that are drinking a lot right now a lot of people have gone through this pandemic and there's a lot of people that are drinking and like you said just getting out is good therapy and I think there's a lot of people that have been staying at home and a lot of people that have started drinking more and if I can be if any I want to tell my story I want to tell you know kind of why I'm not drinking and I want to be you know hopefully people can hear me say that and I'll talk more about it eventually but I want to be something that let people know hey look you can do it if you feel like you drink too much you can not drink and it is great not drinking my life has changed a million percent for the better I'm sleeping better like everything about life is better so I will talk about it one day when I feel like it's an appropriate time but if you're out there right now and you feel like you drink too much or you just need help or whatever you don't know how to ask for it please I'm here for you like send me a message and be like hey dude I heard you talking about this and I don't I don't even know what to think but I'm happy to call you I'm happy to call you I'm happy to be somebody you can talk to I'd be happy to tell you my story and if I can be of any service to any one person I'm definitely down to do that because it's it's a serious thing right now and if one person just says hey he did it I can do it how did you do it Brandon I'm happy to talk to you because it's been the most amazing thing in my
43:50life love that so much um I think especially in this industry and given the pandemic and given the free time that we have it's it's something that's I think an important topic so awesome that you're there to share it and to be there for people who might be afraid to reach out to anybody else you know yeah and if you want to go if you if you see I'm serious like send a dm and be like hey dude um give me a call I'm you know I heard you talk about not drinking and I want to learn more about it I'm not going to judge you I'm not going to you can be anonymous I don't care just I mean if you need somebody to talk to you if you have questions about it um seriously send a message I'm happy to do that um so that segment's always a fun segment because I think there's a lot of people out there that do enjoy alcohol responsibly and we want to I think alcohol is a fun thing and you should be able to enjoy alcohol um so we like doing that segment and like promoting people that um produce alcohol and um it's a fun thing so just do it responsibly guys and we can continue doing the to go alcohol because it's helping these restaurants stay afloat right now um so we'll talk about that in just a second too so this next segment which is just some general news about the restaurant industry it's brought to you by Kurtz Hospitality Marketing and Kurtz Hospitality Marketing is a full service sales marketing and PR firm and they really it's so cool because they're just a company that is out there trying to help you build your business identify your brand and grow what you're doing and it's just a nice thing to have somebody who's out there doing that for you excuse me it's such a nice thing to have a company who's got your back this is what they do you know you're a restaurant and if you're a restaurant whatever business you're in you're really good at what you do and you wouldn't expect a lawyer to know how to run a restaurant and if you're not a marketing person you need one
45:51I mean it's amazing how much they can help you grow your business so check them out at kurtzhospitality.com that's k-u-r-t-z-hospitality.com Janet Kurtz is the owner and she is just amazing she's very helpful she's willing to talk to you put a plan together for you and um make sure that you're doing all the right stuff she does all social media all that stuff so check them out give her a call and um we love having her as a sponsor for the roundup it was her birthday this week happy birthday yeah yeah she celebrated in florida i know feeling jealous of all these florida trips had to book one myself um but as someone that covers restaurants that having a marketing person to to speak with directly it helps get your restaurant in front of my eyes more because i get 50 000 emails and yeah i scroll social media looking for stuff going on i drive around looking for stuff going on but sometimes i mean getting that text or that message from a marketing person who have a good relationship with it makes the difference in me seeing a story that i might have missed otherwise i will say i mean it really does make a difference on my side yeah i mean that's a pretty big deal too i mean you know where you're covering for eater all the different things happening in town and the restaurants that have pr and marketing firms they know how to contact you and let you know when stuff's happening and um they know how to contact me you know so another thing i'd say hey contact me over here too we're happy to get the word out and it does work really well when you have a marketing firm so kurt's hospitality could be the people for you absolutely i guess in that all right so what's speaking good this week right um what's been going on i think we're in that july part where it's kind of hot out so people aren't really going out plus there's a ton of cases happening right now people aren't really out a lot so i think we're kind of slowing down on the openings and people are still being quiet
47:54on the closings but i did do a cool story this week on white limousine at the graduate hotel on west oh yeah i'm obsessed i mean i would move in tomorrow it's named after a dog hey shout out if you let me move in until you open i can hold it down um it is this i love everything that's a five-year-old girl would love and it is the most fantastic barbie dream house rooftop with a waiting pool with a view of the city and dolly part is named after dolly parton's song and album from 1989 and i love dolly who doesn't love dolly dolly for mayor sorry kalil okay maybe dolly for governor right uh i don't know but that's supposed to be opening this month so again i think they're kind of hesitant to name a date yet given the current climate but i'm excited about that one coming in there's some cool pictures over on the eater for that if you want to see those and then other itself i'm not gonna that hotel itself every time you drive by i used to work at that america right there on west end and every time i drive by that hotel i'm just like gosh man it's so beautiful like just i love that lobby and every your article looking at the pictures upstairs i'm like i will never be cool enough to go there um because i'm like a dad and i'm old and it's like man that's a really cool spot like it's going to be there your wife's cool your wife's cool so you can bring her there well yeah she can go uh she just can't bring me okay well we'll go together there you go you have a girls day you guys go it'll be fun awesome um i think it's maybe just kind of hotel opening time because the virgin hotel's rooftop and pool open last week too other than that i mean i saw the baked bear ice cream cookie sandwich place is coming in midtown and east side bond maze is coming in august on the east side of town and
49:56just a bunch of almost openings to see where they're at during the covid 19 stuff and so i did an article about anticipated openings and checking in on those there's rose pony you know coming to bell meat soon and then the continental is coming soon so just kind of did a check in on timelines on that and then i did see nadine's and hermitage is back open finally and they have an amazing cheesesteak i am pretty picky about a cheesesteak but nadine's and hermitage is is a good one and they're back so good back open and i really wish i really wish we hadn't talked about it's a philly thing so much because like i can't even get in there their lines are so long now seriously i need you to check yeah if you i know i i did like if you go get in line like it's just like crazy you can't just go get a cheesesteak anymore like you got to wait in line for 30 minutes they're killing it in belview this little tiny like single wide uh in the parking lot over there behind the dairy queen used to be murphs but it's a uh they're just a fantastic local business uh black owned business that you should be supporting and you are supporting so that is fantastic you know i you know what i ate this week where um they riddim and spice oh i've been wanting to go there how was it oh my gosh it was amazing they do these little balls so you get to like pick your base right it's like they have these this ethiopian rice and they have like a jamaican like fried rice they have all these different rices and beans and different things then you can pick like a honey jerk chicken then another type of jerk chicken and then you get lamb or whatever there's like you pick a protein and then you pick like your toppings and they have like sauteed peppers or a lotes or they have all these just different things and so you make these little balls so i went we had three different bowls and um kamal who's the owner kamal kaloka he came out and just kind of stopped by the table and checked in on us and i was like are you the
51:59owner he's like yeah man and then uh i was with another guy um who's a restaurateur we were having lunch and you might see his background reading a yelp review this week uh on the show and he said you guys yes if we were in the business we started talking and then he just brought out all this like jerk chicken oh my gosh like it was amid the flavor that came out of that chicken was exactly my level of heat like it was just that perfect level of flavorful spice uh i'm in love that place is amazing awesome i'll have to check it out next week so give them a little shout out and then i saw that uh ralph and daughters and folk are doing to goes again oh good uh i saw on instagram that said we're back so they've got a couple different things they're doing and somebody said are you back for good they said for at least a couple days so i don't know what that means but uh you can get folk and ralph and daughters right now i believe to go so that's another thing that's happening this weekend very cool so um so i had a pretty good week this week with akin day and i had the craziest thing so i wanted to interview a bartender because i've you know i just talked about not drinking and interviewing a bartender to me i've kind of have been waiting on the show to do like an in-depth interview and i felt like it was time closing the bars and all the things that are happening there's a bunch of people in this community who are bartenders and i asked for a mixologist i said who is like the best mixologist who's the most professional i went on the national hospitality page and you would not believe it blew up it was incredible did you see the post i did yeah has over 200 comments it was the craziest thing i asked for the best bartender best mixologist and i got a ton of responses and then the post like turned into a love letter it was amazing
54:03that everybody kept posting like their favorite bartender and then like the bartender would try because they'd tag him in the post and the bartender be like oh man thank you like that means so much to me and then like at the end of it everybody's saying like we should do a bar crawl like people's houses for these bartenders and everybody support them and i was just like that sounds terrifying for socially testing to drive but what did it what did it drive through either his drinking i don't know what's the thing on that one yeah yeah but i just you know is one of those things that really brought home for me a real side of this that's a um that's another people thing that when all the bars had to close and these bartenders haven't been able to serve people at a bar and that's what they do if you listen to the akin day interview one of the things he kept saying was i'm missing the interaction because this is a craft and i'm creating i'm creating these different cocktails when people come to the bar i get to create with them and i get to share this with them and i can't do that right now and there's a ton of talented super talented people out there who are bartenders who are not working essentially not doing what they do best i think a lot of people are making drinks for people sitting at tables but it's not the same no and um it was just so fun to see that community talk together there and they're a tight-knit community you know i mean uh at the beginning of the pandemic i was i was dating a bartender and i think to just see like him and his friends kind of they you almost lose your sense of identity because you're so entwined in caring for these people and making drinks with them and all of a sudden you can't do that so there's a sense of identity loss which i think is isn't a tough thing to talk about in the mental health piece too so i'm so i'm so glad you got to talk to akin day about all that today this week so i'm gonna make a list i've gone through that page and i'm gonna start doing some more interviews with some more aspects i mean obviously nashville restaurant radio is all facets
56:05of the restaurant business and i want to hear a lot more of their takes because i think there's some really good stories and there's a lot of really good people who are creative amazing professionals in this industry that other people can listen to and learn from and i know that a lot of people learned from akin day this week just his professionalism his proactive nature and learning the craft and what he's doing the amount of bs these guys have to put up with from drunk people really is amazing how they it's not just making a drink i mean that's the one thing i think i took away from the interview is that it's not just oh i make drinks or i'm a mixologist like they have to really read a room and they've got to like they've got to entertain you be knowledgeable about so many different topics to be able to carry on intelligent conversations but then also recognize when you're intoxicated and when they have that delicate conversation to say i'm not going to serve you anymore they're like therapists police and bartenders all at the same time you know yeah i mean that's that's a that's a big part of it that i really wanted to share that perspective yeah absolutely so what else we got what else is out there what's going on right now um well talk about some social media buzz you know my friend chris chamberlain from the scene and multiple other publications got a kind of buzzy post about making it a cocktail at home this week did you see that i did or he was talking about um i think it was if you don't know how to make a like don't order negronies to go was that it yeah it was about negronies yeah i thought it was funny he said look if if you don't know how to make a negroni like why are you ordering these things to go like order something that's hard to make at home which is a good point i mean i see that like hey if you can order a bud you can go get a six pack of bud light why are you ordering a bud light from a restaurant like come on man that's just lazy
58:07but i thought nick gidry jumped right in didn't he he said kind of what i was thinking what i was like well i'm not buying it because i can't do it here i'm buying it because i'm trying to support this restaurant that had to close and so i i mean i see both sides of that but yeah nick nick came after it uh you know he's one of those people also that really has stepped up during this to be a voice this is caroline the other day said you know during that interview with with you in nashville restaurant radio she said i've never been that vulnerable i've never said some of the things i've said i've always kind of kept things close to the vest and i don't know why i felt like that interview was my time to do it but i'm gonna do it and i feel like i don't know i haven't known nick for that long but he's so outspoken him and audra are just they've been an amazing voice through all of this and i just i i read that and i was like you go nick i mean nothing against chris i think his point was totally valid but yeah just ordering drinks to support local businesses is a uh is what it's about absolutely i just saw uh nick and audrey yesterday i went and got a to go po boy so i saw them for a second you know they're expecting in october so they've got a lot going on keeping two businesses yeah they do like three businesses afloat with the pop-up but um no so super proud of them you know they were restaurant of the year last year for eater and then they've just been adapting and i think being a good voice and advocate for small businesses through all of this i went and had a coffee at slow hand coffee last week a week before last and um it's very good love you get in there and you get your coffee and everybody's wearing a mask and they're all socially distanced and i felt good about that it's a positive place for me to go and all those pastries just sitting right there that she you know she's pastry chef oh my gosh like those pastries were just like mouth-watering to die for cookies are so good yeah yeah this is much more than a coffee shop if you go to slow hand you get
01:00:11like artisan pastries absolutely you can get now you can get coffee and a po boy and a pastry all in one stop all right there that's what it's about right there all right um what else you see on socials i mean i did like you babies they kind of just stepped up and made a real simple plea which i think goes a long way sometimes they just said yesterday they said good morning please wear a mask inside our facilities it's so easy once you've ordered and you're seated and distance from our employees and other guests then mask off this is for everyone's health just do it and let's get through this i mean it's so simple and they shouldn't have to be pleading for you to care for their employees and i just the common sense and they've got they got a ton of likes and interactions on it so i'm just proud of businesses for just stepping up and advocating for for their own you know well i mean you know it's back to that bartending thing like they have to be policemen and they've got to be bartenders and they've got to be like physical like workers like there's enough things they have to people have to do in restaurants like they're they're there so that you can get out and get food like it's a hospitality thing like don't make them have to police you right like why are you doing that like it's just awkward for everybody there's a mandate right now you've got to wear a mask like i blew in the face with this it's so easy and if you don't want to do that and you know i went to public like everybody's doing it now like i'm gonna stop talking about because like i went to publics and i think every single person i saw was wearing a mask and i was like yay look at this nice i felt better i was like i don't feel like there's germs everywhere right now right exactly so just i like seeing these simple little posts where people stand up for what's right and people support them because of it you know yeah all right so now is the time where we get to talk
01:02:13about what's the delia but first as always we're going to talk about super source super source has brought the what's the delia segment to us since its inception and jason alice over there super source i had a really good conversation with him this week and we were talking about i said so what is it that like how are you able to save people money and essentially i'm gonna break it down because i broke it down for my wife last night this way she goes what's the difference between all these different people or maybe that's actually you i broke it down too i said so there's some big companies out there that supply people with dishwashers and chemicals there's different ways they do it but typically they like to lock you into five-year programs and they lock you into these contracts that sound good on the front end but really you're going to use way much more of the product there's a lot of overages that you have to pay and with them they have no contracts they have no contracts the dish machines that they offer you get a brand new dish machine they're inexpensive right now for every national restaurant radio listener they're giving three months of a dish machine lease for free and then they sell you the chemicals and they come in and they'll teach your staff how to use the products so they will actually so a lot of times you're spending a lot of money because your big chemical company doesn't they set the the the numbers wrong and you're using more product than you should or you're not using enough product and they will come in and help you do all of that they'll teach your staff how to use the right products for the right things the right time which is amazing right now in this time because they have a new hand sanitizer their sanitizer is EPA rated to kill COVID-19 that is brand new to get the environmental protection agency to rate your stuff to kill COVID-19 they also have hand sanitizer readily available so if you want a second look at your operation it's free go to our website click the sponsor link go to supersource go to their website
01:04:14request Jason Ellis to kind of just bring him out to your restaurant have let him do an audit of what you're currently doing and right now he's telling me that he is saving 15 to 20 percent savings over every single that's an average he just had a company that he was able to save 50 percent he was telling me yesterday he goes I'm saving them 50 percent look in his eyes you can tell when you look in his eyes like he was excited he's like I love being able to be the company that's coming in and disrupting everything and saving restaurant tours money especially in a time like this so it's just amazing good dude happy to work with them so excited about all these different sponsors but right now is the time for I still love that this is my favorite so today we're gonna talk about what's the dealio with tipping so this is just a back to basics kind of a primer that we're gonna talk through tipping um before the pandemic so disclaimer is we're now in a pandemic so some of what we're gonna begin with isn't relevant and it is different at the moment so in the form of doing this segment correctly we're going to discuss all aspects of tipping top to bottom we're going to have some differing opinions I'm sure because I know this is a topic you're passionate about so everybody listen at your own risk could be triggered by some tipping comments so first off what is the tip why do we tip and why has it gotten out of control I mean to understand this phenomena let's define what a tip actually is so tips if you don't know is an acronym for to ensure proper service it's a gratuity which is defined by the dictionary of merriam-webster as something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service used in a sentence we had outstanding service at dinner last night so
01:06:17we gave our server large gratuity so with today's technology every computer system at any restaurant if you're you know tapping out for a coffee that anywhere that could accept a tip asks for a tip and you're face to face with a person over kiosk and there's a moment and it just it feels like it's gotten out of control and people even in my family are confused about what's the right amount to tip in this in this position and why would you tip and what are they doing for a tip so that's what we're gonna do today we're gonna clear some things up so we'll start with the basics of why you would leave a tip so when someone provides a service that is satisfactory or enables you to enjoy an experience that is on par with expectations 20 percent start with 20 percent i always recommend leaving the tip after tax um so every ten dollars you leave too easy math even for me who does not like math this applies to servers bartenders and these people are relying on your tips because they're getting 213 an hour which is completely legit keeps them employed if the restaurant owner's paid the servers eight dollars an hour they would all just be kiosked because that would strip away almost all margin so if you go into a restaurant you have a food allergy everyone has a different food allergy your kids are like throwing graham crackers around and you have 87 questions you need your handheld to go into the bathroom you have your party's 45 minutes late showing up um you sit there until they close you have 25 modifications to your order you're just being a karen i mean maybe you need to tip a little more i mean some of those people are the ones that tip 15 at the end of the night and those are the people that should be tipping more and maybe they don't understand why and you think they're just there to take care of you and serve you but this person is now spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with you and that's great because that is what people in service industry are here to do but if that server and bartender has to spend 90 percent of their time with your table
01:08:22because you're being extra then they should be compensated for all that time just the right thing to do before or after a pandemic so also another circumstance would be if someone at the restaurant you know they give you food they throw out some appetizers or you have a gift card it's customary to leave on a comps had 50 percent of what the bill would have been and on a gift card i would say 30 percent is a good rule of thumb um so those are just some tipping points prior to a pandemic and i will say now since things have opened back up i was just so excited to eat in a restaurant i've been throwing out like 25 to 33 percent tips which i'm kind of tapping myself out on admittedly because i've got pay cuts too but i i feel so bad because they're you know gosh they're wearing a mask for five six hours and they're right in front of me at the kiosk and i don't want to look like an asshole and i'm like i feel bad that you're kind of putting yourself at risk to give me a coffee so i've been over tipping right now even when no one's providing me any you know excellent service so that's something i'm struggling with now is the it's like tipping guilt almost because someone's looking at me in the face and you know maybe they have a kid at home and they've been out of work and i'm just that's kind of where i'm at right now so i know you might have an opinion on that well so this is the the thing okay because this is where i really love this topic and thank you delia for jumping in here is that there is an awkward moment when you go places there is an implied there's an implied tipping that happens when you go get a cup of coffee and to ensure proper service means that you're going to give something a little extra and i'll give an example of where i like to tip i go to kroger and i like fillets right i'm bougie and i like really nice stuff so i like fillets but when i go to kroger and i see a bunch of end cut fillets in the little the meat counter and i don't want the tips i want a barrel cut
01:10:26center cut fillet i ask the butcher i say hey man do you think you can cut me a barrel cut like a center cut in the back and there's two things he can do one is he can go hey man i don't want to have to go do that you can buy what's out here or they can go yeah man no problem i want to do that for you so that's a little bit extra that's something that is extra that i'm asking him clearly there's steaks right there that i could just buy or he could go cut me some beautiful center cut steaks and that's a whole thing so when they do that and the guy does that every time for me now if i walk in and say hey he knows like hey man my local kroger that's what he does but i always throw him a five spot or a ten spot because you're going above and beyond and you're you're creating a service for me that is out of the ordinary you i'm ensuring proper service the kind of service that i like and i hook you up with a little something extra when i go out to a subway which is rare but like if i run into a subway i want to get a quick sandwich i'm trying to be healthy or just hungry and there's the tip jar at the end of the line right that confuses me because i go in line and i say i'd like a meatball sub and they go okay i tell them the type of bread and i get a meatball sub goes to the end and there's the thing there with a tip jar and it's like am i supposed to like did you do something extra for me and really if you're subway i would get rid of those because all you're really in doing is enticing people to give me something for free so that i leave a tip because there's no inherent service there you're getting paid by the hour that's your job if you go to i went to a burger place i'm not going to say the name of the burger place but this is a famous burger place here in town and you literally walk up to a counter you place your order you tell the person what you want you have to get your own menu you place your order and there's a sign right behind you that says place your order sit down wait for your name to be called pick up your food clean up after yourself like there's a sign that says that and you place your order and then she flips the screen around and on that screen it
01:12:31says would you like to leave a gratuity yes no 10 15 18 20 percent and she looks at you and you're like do you want to leave a tip and there's a moment where you go why what do you not get paid and not like what why would i leave a tip and it's like i'm really not trying to be a jerk but it's like if i'm literally what i'm getting my own menu i'm placing an order like i don't leave a tip at mcdonald's why would i leave a tip because i'm paying 13 for a hamburger like i'm paying 13 for a hamburger that i have to walk up place an order i have to go sit down clean my own table get up to get my own food clean up my own food like no i'm not gonna leave you a tip but today if you work in a restaurant the technology that they use for credit card systems they all have that button on there that says leave a gratuity if there's not a service involved and this is where we're you know right now in the little pandemic some of this stuff is different i hit no tip because unless you're doing something to provide a service for me i'm not just gonna leave a 20 surcharge on everything that i do because i'm already paying 13 for a hamburger like out of that money there's margin that they're paying you an hourly wage you're not a server you're not making two dollars and 13 cents and i think that's where we've got to get back to earning service like some places you go to chick i would tip at chick-fil-a they go to chick-fil-a they are really good they go above and beyond on a consistent basis but you never tip at chick-fil-a right they don't have an option for you to tip but they will walk around they'll refill your drink in the dining room the service is impeccable they're above and beyond they hand you their thing they'll say we've put this sauce in here we've done this we've done that we're totally helping you out and you're like wow that's so much more than i expected i would like to give you something more for that and i think that's the area that we've got to get back to and if we as a society can continue to do that i think we correct some of this stuff and i think a lot of it is technology technology has that little tip line that is creating a lot of confusion
01:14:38for people and i'm a people pleaser maybe maybe there's other people please i can't be looking at this girl over the over the counter and be like nope i feel like i'm insulting them if i put no so then i'm like well i also can't get let me give you 10 so i always do 20 or at least especially now so that's it's something i start with so thanks for speaking to that but i will say i do want to call out two examples of really good service that i've had because i've had two good really good experiences throughout the pandemic with dining out one time was at cinema and i had a family member who was a vegetarian and we sat down and the server goes and she comes back with because we've got all the throwaway menus and the qr codes but she comes back with a throwaway menu and she has circled everything that she could order on the menu which i thought that that's above and beyond like you came back and you showed her what she can order and then last week at eastern cafe and it was my first time there but i really enjoyed it and our table kind of stayed at the end which i was sitting there looking around i'm like mouthing i'm sorry to everybody because i do not ever want to be that girl but then then they want a picture taken and so then we have to ask for a picture but that is an example where we tipped above and beyond and the girl took 25 pictures for us and she was super awesome and super cool about it because we took care of her and she you know was super cool with us and those are two times where people went above and beyond and they were we wanted to reward them for us so those are things where maybe it is appropriate for me to do the 30 or more that i've been doing and maybe stop just doing that to everyone because i feel like obligated and well i mean i think that you're obligated you feel that way because we're in a pandemic and these people are out working their tails off and some of this is for after a pandemic um right and you know there's also things you can do okay so i've coached some people in the past so to-go's i've always had to-go's has been a thing way before the pandemic people have been to-go's and i used to work in a restaurant and the to-go person would always complain that they never made tips and i said you're not making tips because you're not
01:16:39selling it appropriately right so people don't recognize what you're doing because all you do is you walk out and you go here's your bag thanks have a good day sign this right well if you walk out like if you provide a service you let them know what you've done go a bit above and beyond so for example if you have a eight people that if you have a to-go order that calls and they have eight dishes and they all want separate things and you have put it all together you can walk out and go here's your order sign this thank you or you can walk out and you can say hi karen that's random name but you can linda whatever it is say thank you so much for ordering from us this evening i just want to let you know what i've done i went ahead and i wrote on top of the to-go boxes each individual person's names you don't have to guess what's in the box i put all of the sauces on the side and then i got extra bread because it looks like there's eight people and you get probably like bread so i got some extra bread and i put extra packets of sauce they're dipping with the bread separately in each person's bag so that it makes it really easy for everybody to do that plus i also put extra condiments extra silverware and some to-go this this and this and um i just want to say thank you so much for ordering from us this evening like if i got that to-go order i would go damn like you did an awful lot for me yeah going above and beyond hand somebody in order to go here's your order thanks like let them know all the work that you've done on that to-go order and you know do the work like if you're doing to-goes we should be really good at doing to-goes right now i talked about it in a podcast a month and a half ago where i went to get to-goes and like they didn't answer their phone you had to do it online and when you got there like i parked outside and i was like do i go in like there's there's no indicators no sign that says go inside to go and like open the front door i know that sounds but like back in the middle of a pandemic i was like should i be touching things and then like i opened the door and then the woman's like sitting at the bar and i'm like do i just go through all these bags and find mine like
01:18:41you know and she's like yeah just find yours and i'm like that's i don't want other people doing this to my food like what the hell is going on here like we could be better than this and then she gives me that thing and it has a line for a tip and i'm like so i had to place my order online i had to come in root through my thing you barely have acknowledged i was here like yeah just get your own stuff and it's like you're on the bar on your phone like why am i leaving you a tip and i didn't in that extent like there's actually in that situation you leave the tip beforehand you have to leave the tip when you place would you like to leave the tip and it's like i learned next time i do this i'm not going to leave a tip because there was no service i did leave a tip that time but like i'm not going to leave a tip but like that's the thing i think that people are frustrated about is that they're looking for a level of service that's congruent with how much money they're going to leave as a gratuity and when you ask when you're pandering people the silent tipping that oh what do you want to leave me they flip the screen over and they're asking for a tip like it's okay to leave no tip if they're not going to do anything for you in my opinion and hopefully across the industry the people that really do a great job like akin day talking to him asking people what they want to drink and creating cocktails for them and creating experience that's above and beyond you ordering a bud light is what you tip people big for you know we need to continue doing that and hopefully we'll motivate people to increase their professionalism across the board i had dinner at folk before the pandemic and i sat down with my wife and the whole menu looked amazing but i'd never eaten there before and the server comes up and she says hey have you been here before and i said no um the menu looks great though and she said well let me go over it with you and she went over every single item on the menu and said and we cooked this one this way and we did this this way and they forged these mushrooms yesterday and we this fish was flown in from hawaii yesterday and that and she went over the entire thing and we ordered like half the menu but i was just like wow what an experience this is that this server knows this much about the menu is this passionate
01:20:48about the menu and i felt the menu was completely demystified i knew about every dish and i was able to make a really informed decision it was one of the best dinners i've had in the city over the past year it was because that server went above and beyond yeah and you know it was an expensive dinner but we hooked it like we left like a 30 tip on that because she made that dinner right different than placing an order and somebody just taking an order and delivering you know i don't you know this was close to me starting not drinking and she like made these mocktails for us which were super cool and like that's it that's what that's what we want to promote that's why you leave a gratuity love it all right did we just do it does that is that what's the delia for today yes that was the delia for today i'd love to hear your opinions folks if you want to talk about tipping you're going to see this video right now on your facebook feed you'll see it in instagram we're going to post about it i want to know your opinion i want to hear your comments let me know if i'm crazy let me know if you feel the same way but i think we can enact change and we can hopefully increase the level of service that everybody's providing out there one podcast at a time one podcast at a time all right there we go what's the delia i love it so final segment final segment is brought to you by mobile fixture and typically in this segment we would do a local legend and this week we are going to talk about a couple of instances of restaurants we want to just raise up for doing the right thing so mobile mobile fixture is a kitchen equipment company but there's so much more than that ben whitlock's the president he's been in our show too and he actually cares he's one of those people that cares about your restaurant wants you to be set up for success they have a showroom
01:22:48out in smirna i invite you to make an appointment go out there check it out if you're looking to start a restaurant you want to revamp your kitchen you need new equipment give them a call check them out at mobile fixture.com they are an amazing sponsor for this show they care about locally owned independent restaurants they will help you succeed so what i want to bring up today i had an interesting week and one of the things i did this week was i was at i was on the phone with naima walker fierce of germantown pub and i was literally in germantown i was gonna go by the restaurant to kind of check on them see how things were going and she goes uh-oh and so what's up she goes i just got a text message from tony who's the kitchen man she goes we had somebody test positive for covid and i said really and she goes yeah and i said what do you want to do and she goes the right thing and he said good and i said i'm right here i'm gonna run inside and i'll find out what's going on let's put a plan together so i was right in the middle of it you know you hear about these things happening that restaurants have somebody that test positive for covid so i walked in the door and there's tony right there and i said hey man what's going on and he said you know i'm not gonna out anybody said we had an employee test positive for covid he hasn't worked in five days um if any any tested positive you know yesterday we just found out and i said okay um we got to close the restaurant he goes okay i said like right now it was 2 30 and i said literally i brought the the manager over and i said okay here's what we got to do guys we got to close we've got to get every single person in the building tested we've got to do a deep clean and i'm talking to naima and she's like yep absolutely let's do it like let's go right now let's put a post out there on social media let everybody know obviously it's not what we want to be doing right now but for the safety of everybody that's what we got to do and i read about this stuff on social media you see it you probably saw the post from germantown pub
01:24:54about this but i felt really proud there was a moment with all the stuff going on that there was never a question in anybody's mind like the core values that they have in place there being good to people gtp they're good to people core value was absolutely lived and there was no question of well it's going to cost us this amount of money and she said no this is the right thing to do let's do it now we made a decision in less than a minute i just felt proud in that moment that i got to work with people that do that and i've never been in a situation like that it's a first for me so i want to raise them up today as an amazing restaurant with an amazing culture of doing the right thing on a consistent basis and i love that about them and i'm proud to work with them and if you're a restaurant out there right now i highly recommend that you put a contingency plan in place right now for when it happens to you because it's not an if it's a win somebody's going to get it and you're going to have to close and scrambling and not identifying the right thing to do put a plan in place right now so that when that happens you can pivot on a dime and do the right thing so that's what i got awesome what's yours um so almost fell off my chair i'm excited almost fell off my chair about this i've just throughout the pandemic and even after the tornado i've seen so many places stepping up to feed hospitality workers and so i saw something cool that i wanted to shout out from sunda nashville last night i know they're based in chicago but they have a location here and the you know the owners and chefs are here and they posted last night on the nashville servers group that they're doing this new community service program called sunda service and it's a non-profit that they're working with called people loving nashville and they've got a video and they had an anonymous donor that's been distributing 100 meals a week to kids and families in need need and hospital workers fighting
01:26:55covid and um you can buy meals for hospitality workers and friends and um they're going to be feeding people in the hospital hospitality industry this week they're making 100 meals for anyone this sunday there's pickup between four and five on sunday for anybody that is in need of a meal this week i know there are lots of needs and maybe people don't want to share that they're in need right now but you can contact sunda if you need meals and i'm just i'm always flagging things like that where people are trying to feed their brothers and sisters who might be out of work and might be hungry and so i just wanted to lift up sunda for their charitable efforts this week heck yeah that's you know there's been a lot of restaurants are pivoting to that but i love like everything gets hot and then it cools off yeah and you know it's one of those things that we talked about with akin day again since it's so fresh in my brain that like even with the civil rights movement we're having we've got to keep our pedal to the metal with this we can't let the movement like fall out of the way so we've got to keep talking about it and food um insecure insecurity is a real thing right now and awesome for them for continuing with this to feed people who need it there's a lot of people out there that do so great job sunda yeah the sunda or sunda i never remember i don't think i've heard soon but i'll go sunda i think we all know what we're talking about yeah what we're talking about it's in the gulf and yeah can't laredo yes well okay that is the roundup for july 10th 2020 anything else you want to finish with anything you got to tell the people at nashville just to uh stay pretty music city and remember you can be pretty wearing a mask i love it thanks guys i hope you're being safe love you bye you