#theroundup with Guest Host Matt Bolus

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. Music City and welcome to the Nashville Restaurant Radio Roundup. My name is Brandon Styll and I am joined as always with the editor of Eater Nashville, Ms. Delia Jo Ramsey. Hello. Today, we are honored to be joined by the birthday boy himself, the Stogie Smokin' Chef owner at the 404 Kitchen in Nashville, Tennessee, Chef Matt Bolas. I'm no doctor, but I've been told this takes care of COVID, so our day keeps the COVID away. What are you cooking? This is, I don't know if I can get it up there, a Monte Cristo number two from Havana. Yeah. What is your birthday, man? Do you have any big plans for your birthday tonight? Yeah, I'm working. We're at working service.

01:20No, actually, my big plan tonight, I don't have to necessarily work the line, but I'm going to be cooking through the new staycation menu that Andrew Zimmerman and I are doing, so it's going to be fun. Well, I think this is a good segue. We've started the show. We typically get into those weeks, but Chef, let's start off with you. You just finished a staycation series with Marcus Samuelson. How did that go? Yeah, that was great. To me, it was the best one yet. It was an interesting jump into flavors that I've explored a little bit personally, but never necessarily professionally, and it was remarkable. We got to play with Marcus's food, and I get to work with him directly, and we had a great response from it. When Andrew and I started working on this menu, though, to some people's disappointment, there's no possum or raccoon or goat intestine or anything weird like that on there. It's a pretty eclectic menu, and it's new flavors. It's different techniques, and so I think this one's been as equally as fun to cook through and get ready for.

02:33Do you guys work together on that? How do you work with him to create that menu? It's kind of like any other menu planning. We're bouncing ideas back and forth. How do you want this set up? What's going to be offered here? What's too much? What's too little? Andrew asked me, hey, what have you done before? I don't want to repeat things necessarily. It's just a bunch of questions and answers, and yeses and noses. By that, I mean a lot of yes chefs on my part and very little nose. It just comes together. I'm not sure how it all happens, but it just comes together. Do you have any favorites from the new menu? I agree the last one was my favorite so far. It was really, really good. It's flan, which I haven't made in a number of years, but I'm a big fan of. When making flan, it's probably my favorite dessert so far, for the menu at least, for the staycation series. The sweet dog from Samuelson was inspirational, not necessarily in its deliciousness, but in the ideas that it spurred. It was shockingly delicious.

03:57So the flan has been good. The shrimp, low country south shrimp that we're doing, I actually was reprimanded to quit eating what we had prepped so far. It was just delicious. I just kept eating it. And then there's a tagine dish, which I'm a huge fan of Moroccan style, everything kind of one pot together. It gets us back into saffron. It's not a flavor that we use here much. It's used in such the perfect quantity that you get that richness, that kind of funky pond watery, if you will. That enhances the dish and doesn't just distract from everything else, but it's merguez and chicken. And then it's onions and garlic and cinnamon and topped with parsley and mint and pistachios and oil cured olives and dried apricots. It's so much going on, but it all works together so well for this balanced dish.

05:00Wow. We don't talk a whole lot about like individual food items on the show and that just made me really hungry. Yeah, it's killer. We tried it for the first time yesterday. Oh, and it's cooked with chickpeas and artichoke hearts. So it's like this, truly it's this one pot meal that you can eat all the time. And then, you know, as luck would have it, natural weather is changing on a dime as it does and it's going to start to cool down a little bit next week. This is a little bit heartier of a dish. So I think it's going to be great. I love it. Starts on Tuesday. Yep, Tuesday next week. Awesome. I expect to see you in on Thursday, Friday if you need a weekend. Do my best. I have already told my wife we are coming in to do it. We will definitely be in to experience this meal. It's going to happen. Good. Good, good, good. First your week, man. What have you been up to? Me? Yeah. Birthday today. So I had cake for breakfast. That was good. Solid. Went and sold some projects that we might or might not have going on in Louisville. That was fun. Can you elaborate on what you just now said out loud?

06:23Well, yeah, I mean, we might or might not have some projects going on in Louisville, Kentucky. Did you hear that guy's car? So much money for it. It was a Nissan. No, we've got a couple of concepts going on that we're building in Louisville, Kentucky right now. One is a Gertie's like we have here. But we're going to do it. It's going to be even more speakeasy-ish than the original in a tremendously amazing way. But I've got an Italian sandwich shop that's going in the front of that. It's just going to be fun. I mean, I just get to make Italian deli sandwiches and play around with that. So that and then we've got enemy square pizza going up there. And then the third concept is kind of a pastry, coffee concept out of New York. And that's coming here, right? It is coming here too. I don't know when. I don't know the construction details on that just yet.

07:24But it is coming to Nashville. Absolutely. Delia happens to know more about this stuff sometimes than I do. It's a true story. Sometimes I have to get ahold of her to find out what I'm doing next. All right. All right. It's a good thing. Yeah, it's not a bad thing. Yeah. But that's it for the week, really. It's pretty easy week. I say it's been busy as hell. So that's a positive thing right now. Delia, how about you? How was your week? I just got derailed by tacos. That's why I'm discombobulated right now. So I wrote this article about drive through restaurants earlier this week, and I got some like clap back about including chains, but they're like small chains like Fat Mo's, which has like three locations. And I like engaged with the reader on that, which I don't usually do, but I did it this week. And then I got to craving the Don Juan tacos. And so I was like, look, I usually intermittent fast and eat a smoothie for lunch, but tonight I have a late dinner. So I was like, I'm just going to run and get some tacos in the drive through at Don Juan. But I got trapped in the drive through because there's no way out. If you're in the drive through and someone gets behind you, there's no way out. So I just got stuck in the drive through for 45 minutes to get tacos.

08:41And then I know derailed by tacos is probably the name of my memory. I know you have to answer this honestly. Have you ever waited so long that you just got out of your car in the drive through and gone inside to get stuff? I'll admit to I've done that. There was no way to like like left your car in line. Absolutely. They do have a lot on the other side. But when you realize that you're not moving, you just make, yeah, you just make a call. And, you know, I made an executive decision. Yeah. And I, you know, I didn't order through the drive through and then go in and get right. I was still in line to order still. And yeah, so I don't feel too bad. Yeah. I think the issue here is like you order at the window and then pay and then wait. And if you had an order before, it's a long line. So note to Don might help. But you know, my week has been good. I went to Lake of the Ozarks over the weekend for a boat race and with some friends. I don't know, it got rained out on Saturday and then Sunday. Was that the big Donald Trump race?

09:50I don't think so. No, I don't believe that. I saw a lot of Donald Trump fans, but not that. No, I was not a part of that. Did you wear the American flag thing? No, I did not. Did not. Very nice. So that's nice to get away for a little bit. It's always nice to get away in this environment and then feel like I don't know if I can post about this because I'm going to get judged. But you know what? I mean, I can't sit in my apartment all the time. Yeah, it's, you know, it's what it is. Yeah. How's your week? My week was amazing. We had the biggest week we've ever had on Nashville restaurant radio this week, the most listens we've ever had. Of course, there was a little article that was written by you talking about Khalil Arnold and his announcement that he made last week on the roundup. Chris Chamberlain also wrote an article and that I think that was really helpful. A lot of people tuned in to kind of hear what was going on there and that was awesome.

10:57We had Q Taylor on Monday and that was my first time really meeting him and he's just an awesome guy. We had a really good dude. He was just fantastic. Yeah. Yeah, I just enjoyed that interview. I can't wait to do another interview with him because I feel like there's so much more that we didn't get to get to. And I feel like these interviews, I could talk to people for like two and three hours, but you get to like our mark and you're like, is anybody still listening? And it's like the last 20 minutes of every interview is like fire. Like the last 20 minutes, we've got through all this get to know you stuff and we get so far underneath the surface. And it's like the best part of every interview is like the last 20 minutes and I'm like, are people still listening? I don't know what's happening after an hour. Interviewed Hal Holden Bache today and that interview is going to come out on Monday and it was amazing. That guy is just a true, he's just an amazing guy. And we had just, and another one was like an hour and 10 minutes and I'm like, Hal, I want people to listen to the whole thing. It's just hard. So Steven was on, what's that? It's got to go. Yeah. It's like, I got it. I got to go.

12:08We'll have to do it again, but that's good. So we have more content for the next time we talk. Steven Smithing on Wednesday and that was an awesome interview because obviously we're like really good friends and it's weird to interview somebody that you're like that good friends with because you're like, tell me what you think about this. Like, I don't know the answer to it. So it was, it was fun. I'm learning how to do stuff like that. I'm not quite a pro, but you know, we're getting there. Had Eastside bond me this week for the first time. Legit. Unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. I had the steak smash. I think it was steak, something or another, the bond me and the flavor with pad, with, um, what's the, what's the, uh, salad was that you have the cold noodle salad with it or no, no pate had pate in it. So that's a, like the bread was so perfect. And the level of ration market one. No, not yet. No, I'm getting into it. Yes. Yes. That's where you got, that's the benchmark for me. Inter-Asian market, Nolensville road, $3 and 75 cents. You order it upfront. They make it fresh. Okay. Just killer. I'm writing that down.

13:19Yeah. I feel like my AC is broken and I want to go look at my air conditioner unit. Can I go look at the, no, no, no. This thing is like, it's hot. No, you can't go. Yes. Harsh. It's giving you shit. Go check it out. This is where you find out I'm where I wear like eighth grade cheer shorts when I do this. So it's all good. This is the time where we're like, okay, yes, East Side Banh Mi, legit. The textures, the bread, everything was really, really good. I'm about to try my Banh Mi fan. That's one of my top three. Really good. They have like this coffee drink called the half and half, which is like a Vietnamese coffee. And it was really good too. Oh, that's so good. The one with, with the peanut milk. Yes. Well, it was like a rice milk, maybe with shot, a shot of coffee.

14:23What's the other half? Coffee and coffee and milk. Yeah. Milk rice milk. Okay. It's super good on ice. Very good. Very good. Having dinner tonight at the optimist. So I'm excited about that. It's nice for, uh, chefs that's to come on the show last week, writer and can talk about it. And, um, I, to get us started, we got, um, we have chef Aaron and chef Tony Montuano coming on this show in 15 minutes, 14 minutes. They're going to come on and talk about what their first two weeks at the optimist, not the, at the, uh, Yolan has been like. Whatever. You know what? One in the same. Yeah. I don't know what's happening. I think we're all tired. Uh, so they're going to come on in 14 minutes and then later in the show we've got Bob Tappen, who's the director of operations for Sperry's as well as Sam's sports bar, uh, all the Sam's play Sam's at the, you know, all over.

15:24We'll, we'll talk to him as our local legend. We'll kind of figure out what he's doing and what, uh, makes their concept so sustainable. But I have been doing something this week and Matt, this is the topic I want to talk about to start with before. After we talk to chef, um, the chefs from Yolan, we'll get into new openings. I know there's some cool stuff happening in town, but I want your perspective on this. So I have been working with a company helping consult and I've been out visiting people with my wife, who's part owner of my company with me. We've been visiting different restaurants, just talking about this company. I'm not going to say what it is or anything. But I'm literally walking in going, Hey guys, just want to come in and tell you, say hi and introduce you to this thing. What are some things in your opinion, chef, that salespeople do very poorly and that salespeople do really well? And how do you respond?

16:26Just curiously. Uh, I'm unfortunately probably too nice to them. Uh, and you're going to hate what I'm about to say. They drop in unannounced. Um, it's hard. I should be better at telling people to, you know, go kick rocks. Um, you shouldn't, but whatever. No, why not? Well, I mean, so here's the thing as a salesperson, I did it for a really long time. And I get that if you're coming in to sell you like that, you want to switch to a large broad line company, that's a bigger discussion, right? And if, if I try and call the 404 kitchen at 11 o'clock in the morning to try and set an appointment with you, what are the chances that I'm going to get somebody to go, Oh yeah, chef would love to see you at three o'clock. He'll spend some time to talk about XYZ company. You want to talk about what are the chances that happens? There's a chance anything happens in life. I mean, it's sunny outside. I get hit by lightning right now. Um, there's a solid chance that that person would be fired too.

17:28Um, I mean, yeah, even if you're sitting right next to me, you're supposed to say that he's not here. Um, so at that point, if you're a salesperson, if you just walk in the door and go, Hey man, I know I'm an announcement, here's a pamphlet. I'll talk to you later. It, it's, it's, it's in the delivery. It's like, it's like telling a joke, right? You can have a really funny joke and a shitty delivery and nobody laughs. You can have a shitty joke and a great delivery and everybody laughs. Right. So I think if you don't try to use car sales minute and you know, I've got limited time as do you, right? So come in hot with the information. Here's what we do. Here's the prices and here's what it's going to do for you. Don't fluff it. Don't, um, don't try to sell me your smile. I don't need your smile. Maybe down the road, I need your smile. But today I, um, I'm busy and I just, I just need your information. If you do that in a professional way, um, then to me, I'm actually going to look over it.

18:37I'm actually going to think about it. Maybe even call you back, whatever. Uh, it's, you know, it's the person that comes in and is like, Hey, man, I just, you know, I need the two minutes of your time, which you know, means half an hour or more. I want to talk to you about pre-cut mangoes. I'm like, Hey bro, look, I mean, we don't even have mangoes on the menu. Right now. Yeah. But if you look at these, no, fuck off, you know, I, I don't need it. Right. Um, so there's certainly like a lack of homework vegan. Yeah. Don't walk into a vegan restaurant. Say, Hey, I got the best steaks in the world for sale. Dumb dumb. Right. Um, so yeah, do your homework, know your audience. Be quick. You say two minutes and I clock you. And then you, I look down like dude did in a minute 45 and he's got something legitimate. We're in, you know, and that's the thing. And I, I talk too much. So I'll probably end up talking to you anyway. Um, if you're worthless, I'm gonna throw all your stuff away. When you walk out the door, if, if you're, you're worth your salt, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna talk for sure.

19:42Okay. I had always helped. I mean, that's just, you know, sure. I just think it's interesting because I've come across a lot of people and I'm trying to train and kind of how do you do this stuff? And there's a lot of pre-work that needs to be done. Some of it is cold calling, but I just, I feel like people can be respectful, you know, like in just in life and what you just said was I'm respectful to people. If they're respectful to me, it's a quid pro quo, right? You said I need to be, I should be more F off, but you shouldn't because people are doing their jobs and everybody's out there to do a thing. If you're just dismissive and mean, I don't know. I don't, I don't understand that. We're all people here together. I agree. And, and you know, it's, it's the, it's the, uh, the few bad apples in the bunch that, that gets, uh, salesman bad names, right? You know, we've all had great car experiences. We've all had bad car experiences. And, and it's, like I said, it's, it's the person that comes in and says, Hey, I know you're super busy and I'm unannounced here.

20:44Here's my stuff. Love to talk to you about it real quick. Here it is. And I'm out. Okay. I mean, that's, yeah, that's it. Um, and I agree. If everybody's respectful of each other, then it's a much better start to the whole thing. Um, and I say that I should be quicker to tell you to kick rocks, but the reality is that you are doing your job and, and, and yeah, I need to respect that too. It, like I said, it's the guy that comes into the vegan restaurant that says, or a girl, um, that comes into the vegan restaurant says, man, you know, I got these whole lambs in my truck. You should get a couple. It's like, you know, you realize we're vegan and we don't serve me at all. Yeah. But just, just give me five minutes of your time. Like why I have a quota. I got a hit. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know, um, and it also, I mean, just sets up, uh, it just sets up, uh, um, you know, a feeling of what the future relationship is going to be. Like, I know you came in the first time and you were organized.

21:46You were, you were respectful. Uh, you were quick. Okay, cool. You know, and also, I mean, like, listen, I learned my lesson. Tom Michaels, the guy that sells, uh, truffles in East Tennessee that started growing those. Right. He walked into, uh, one of my best friends restaurants, five o'clock on a Friday, got a basket, you know, with this napkin on it. I just need five minutes of your time. And literally my buddy is one of the most hotheaded chefs you've ever met. Ready to tear this guy. Just a complete new one. And he pulls the napkin off and it's these massive paragord truffles. It was like, Oh, you know, yeah. Don't worry about the lead. Yeah. What, what have you there, my friend? Um, you know, and, and Tommy even admitted down the road, he's like, I didn't know what I was doing. I just knew that restaurants needed these and I didn't know how to do it. Other than people would be there at five o'clock on Friday. So, you know, when, when you've got an all-star service or product and, and you know, that's what you need to get to people and that they need it.

22:52Um, yeah, come in hot, show the goods. I, it's, you know, we ran into this one place. There's been a few places throughout this place. And the woman just goes, what are you selling? No, actually we have a, we have a great, just handing off some stuff. We're just, we're spreading the word. We're kind of like town criers just talking about this thing. It's something that I think would be really helpful to you. She goes, I don't use that. Like, I don't need this. You don't need this. And then she just goes, I don't have time for this. And walked away and I went, well, okay. Like I, you don't know who I am. You don't know anything. You just started yelling, cussed us out and then left. And it's like, you, you're, you're like, I don't know. It's just one of those moments where I was like, what happened to just decency with people talking to people to say, you know, thank you for thinking of us. Things come by right now. I don't have a lot of time. I could schedule some time with you at this time or whatever it might be. I just, I feel like we're in this community in the hospitality industry. And while there are tons of people trying to sell us stuff. And I have been in sales for so long, but I think I wanted to talk to you.

23:54Cause I know that you probably get hit up for a million things, a million people want to sell you a million things. And, um, yeah, just a big deal, man. So, I mean, I, I'm just curious, you know, who sets the bad, the worst example, who really puts the bad taste in our mouths, I think, uh, overall, and it's, it's not what you're going to think. It's, it's the, it's the request for charity donations. Okay. And all of us, we're, like you said, we're in the hospitality business and we all want to help. We all want to do our part and we all want to support something. But when you send me a letter or an email or a phone call, whatever it may be that says, Hey, you know, I got this great high school in Philadelphia. And, you know, for three years, we've produced the best sunflowers in, in all of Pennsylvania. And you know, what we would, we're, we're doing an auction for our program and we just need dinner for 10 comped, um, as a donation, whatever it may be. It's like, what, what, why are you wasting any of our time?

24:57Yeah. You could have saved whatever a post-it stamp costs by not sending me this bullshit because I'm not sending you dinner for 10, you know? And so it's like, but we get those, yeah, we get those constantly. And, and you, we do what I've, I want to do as much for charity as I can. And I want to give more than we probably should, uh, but it's gotta be, it's gotta be a cause that, that we have relation to, or we have, or it's something meaningful. You know, I, I'd much rather have helped St. Jude's, uh, or the national wine auction or, or, you know, that kind of thing, as opposed to some sunflower growing club in, in who knows where. All right. So that's very good points. We are, we're going to put a bow in this for a second because we have got our first guest of the show and we're going to bring him on right now. Um, we've got Aaron to bow and we have chef Tony Montuano. Welcome gentlemen. Hello. Hi. For a long time chefs, since we've talked.

25:59It has been, I missed you. Oh, welcome. We have chef Matt bolus, who is above you there. And if you could see him, uh, and Delia, Joe Ramsey. We are, we are so honored that you guys took a couple of minutes to talk to us. We're just wanting to check in. Yolan has been open now for, is it two weeks? Week of two days. Oh yeah. You know, huh? She was there for the opening night. So she's been talking about it nonstop. It's how's everything going the last two weeks, last week, last two days in a week, how long does it feel like you've been open though? Six months. A better question is when was the last time we got a full night's sleep? Yeah. You're in this. What was the last time you had a full night's sleep? November of 2018. You know, that phrase sleep like a baby.

27:01That means you're not sleeping at all. What they mean is sleep like you have a baby. Yeah. Right. Exactly. So guys, how's everything going? Like what's, we'd love to hear an update is how things are happening over at the Joseph and Yolan. Overall, it's been pretty successful. I'd say we've had good, good crowds coming in. Reservations are going up weekly weekend. This weekend's looking like it's going to be our first big weekend for the entire hotel as well as the outlet. So we're excited to see how everything plays out. Denim upstairs, the poolside bar and restaurant is gaining steam. Very nice evening. Venue, beautiful sunset and nice cocktails up there. And then we're currently sitting in our soon to be announced speak easy called Four Wolves. Right. Exclusive first look. Very cool.

28:01Yeah, we're a few weeks out, but we should have a nice announcement for our opening day soon. More coffee. Yeah, we're all, we're all drinking coffee right now at this time of day. Are you guys seeing downtown? Do you feel like the people are coming back, the bars being able to allow people sitting at the bars, has that been a help? It was cool to see Tuesday night, like people actually sitting at the bar. And, you know, last night, there were people dining at the bar. So that's nice. I mean, there's so many places that are abusing that though. So it's nice to be able to control and, and, and try to play by the rules as much as we can. What are the odds of maybe being able to walk in and have dinner at the bar? I mean, do you reserve seats there? Can you just walk in on a weekend night and have dinner? That could be the move if you can't get a reservation.

29:03Yeah, yes, to all of the above. Nice. Chef, you have any questions for him? Um, so Matt, how's, what's your restaurant? Uh, 404 kitchen. We're down in the gulch. So we're not too far from you. Oh yeah. You know. Well, nice to meet you. Uh, we've met Elia before, but yeah, nice to meet you. Uh, Elia knows everybody. Um, I'm, I'm like you all. I'm stuck back in the back of the house. Got a big, big sign on the door says, don't feed the bears. And today is a chef Matt's birthday. Oh, yeah. Turn 21 today. Finally, finally legal age to drink and smoke a cigar. Yeah, right. Exactly. Exactly. He is going with a Monte Cristo Havana today. Yeah. Number two classic. So how do you, how y'all feel after the first week and a half?

30:05Or are you still just comfortably numb? As one would say, you know, I think, uh, with the new building, there's, there's the challenges that come with, um, building part of things. I think for food and beverage, we're pretty happy where we are, but you know, there's still like the lighting side quite right. Like little things that bother us, but you know, we're doing okay. This guy is unbelievable right here. So I'm really glad to have, to be able to work with him and really the entire team here at, um, the Joseph is very supportive. The partners are supportive. Everything is, is, um, you know, just want to get the other side of this craziness. And then, um, it will really get a taste of Nashville. Yeah. Nashville's been really supportive as well, helping us out around the, around the hotels. Thank you. Chef Aaron, you're from, you're a Chicagoan, right? Right. Previously. Followed a chef down here a few months after, after he made it down, my wife and I, we had a baby girl and then we decided to move and then open a hotel and just kind of hit all the boxes in one, one shot, you know?

31:16Wow. So what's your impression? Uh, I mean, so you're, were you here, you were here before the quarantine, everything started? No, we moved down in May, right in the middle of it all. Oh, wow. All right. Yeah. We barely gotten to see, uh, much of Nashville. Kind of got out of Chicago at the right time though. Yes. I'm not mad about, about getting out of there at all. Yeah. All right. Good. It's usually, it's usually pretty happening, happening down here. Um, when COVID is not hanging around. Yeah, it came down to, uh, definitely bustling. I would imagine a weekend like this would be, um, kind of bonkers outside, um, out and about strangely quiet. Yeah. We're very excited for the weather this weekend. It's going to be really nice. Yeah. Yeah. Big holiday. Absolutely. It is. Matt really good to meet you and looking forward to trying to restaurant. Yeah. Please let me know when you're coming in.

32:17Who will have to have you in? We love to have, we love to get the industry people in and show them, uh, later the time that we're all trying to show everybody else. It's very meaningful to us. We only go where Delia and Brandon tell us to go. So, Oh, then you might not be coming here. I don't know. Well, Matt, so Matt is doing a staycation series at the 404 and he just finished a staycation series with chef Marcus Samuelson and, um, his staycation series that starts next week is with Andrew Zimmern. Oh, nice. Yup. Yeah. Uh, so it's kind of fun. You get to, it's a, it's a way to, to obviously, you know, the whole staycation to travel without leaving home. Um, but I like it too, cause you can, you can have two different experiences in one spot. You can come eat our food. You can come eat some, uh, chef Zimmern's food or chef Samuelson's food last week. Uh, so it's a, it's a great way to, to get multiple experiences at one time.

33:18And I like, you can get it for takeout too. I did that last Thursday with it. Um, and, uh, some people still aren't comfortable dining out. So it's awesome that you're also doing it for takeout. And it's a ton of food for two people. So. Well, that's it. I mean, you know, part of traveling is, is, is not being restricted. And so if you can, if you can take this home, uh, and, and eat it in your backyard or in your living room or at your kitchen table, wherever it is you want it to be, uh, to me, it gives you a little bit more of that sense of, of being outside your norm, being outside, uh, your daily routine. So super important. So, so what, um, what's New Year's Eve like here in Nashville? It's, uh, what I will tell you is, um, in my experience here for nine, last nine years of the year, it's not a late night in Nashville, um, in, in the actual restaurants and bars, it's definitely late night, uh, for restaurants, everybody here has a 40 to go to a place to be or whatever it is.

34:29So they want to come in a bit earlier, get their food, celebrate really, you know, pregame the hell out of it and then, um, and get to where they're going. So, uh, which is nice too, cause there's, there's been a number of years that I've been, uh, at home way before the drop of the ball, way before chaos ensues down here, uh, cause I mean, that's, I'm just not a New Year's Eve. I mean, I'm a chef. So for the last 25 years, I've pretty much dropped the ball in, in, uh, in the kitchen, you know, and it, it's amazing how 1159 and 1201 feels identical, even though it's a new year. I know 2021 may be a hell of a feeling. The fact that 2020 is that way might, that might be a great new feeling. Um, but yeah, it's, uh, on our end, it's, it's, it's nice because it's, it's super busy, people really want to go out. They want to celebrate, they want to eat well, they want to drink well.

35:32Uh, and then they want to get the hell out of your restaurant and go party well, uh, somewhere else, which is fantastic. There's your answer. It helps at all. Yep. Uh, appreciate the advice. Are you guys seeing a lot of people ordering Tickle Food at Yolande? Do you do Tickle? No, I mean, that's the next thing we're going to do. We're just basically trying to get all the different outlets open. Like, like four walls right now that we're sitting in is, you know, probably two weeks away from being ready to open. So we will do it. We're just not ready yet. Okay. I wasn't sure just as a new restaurant, if people were coming, just wanting to try your food, but didn't want to come out, if you were doing takeout or not and, um, if that was, uh, something that you were doing. So I'm sure if people are listening, they'd want to know if you were. And are you doing room service at the hotel now? Yeah, we are doing room service. So that's one way to carry out or actually delivery.

36:35Yeah. Very nice. Well guys, thanks for coming on. We just really wanted to check in with you guys, see how things were happening. Anything you guys want to say to the city? Anything you guys want to say to people that are, uh, listening or watching? Thank you for all the help and support, uh, getting this hotel running. It's been, uh, quite a journey already and we're looking forward to when life gets back to it, uh, host as many people as possible. We'll get there. We will get there. That's why we're going to celebrate our New Year's Eve because it's going to all be behind us at that point. It's all going to disappear. Well, I've, I've heard nothing but incredibly positive things, especially from this one right here, uh, about how just amazing the dinner was and absolutely everything and, um, I have yet to come by, but very soon. Well, if not, we hope to see you soon. You absolutely will. Thank you guys. Thanks everyone.

37:35Thank you. Have a great day. All right. That was nice of them. Do you know, do you know chef Tony Montuano? Matt? Wait, no, never. Do you know who he is? Do you know who he is? No, he, uh, in Montana, but that's probably not, not cool. He probably gets out a lot. Uh, I don't know. He has been the, um, he's a, uh, 12th time James beard nominated chef. He won in 2005 for best chef Midwest. He was the executive chef and partner at speagia in Chicago for 35 years. He was the guy in Chicago speagia five years. And, uh, he and his wife, Kathy retired to Italy. And then the opportunity came about to come to the Joseph and do this. And they moved. That was my question too. They will look at your face. I was like, why'd you do that?

38:36I think he's, uh, I think the opportunity was there to come back. He was on time. He was on top chef masters with Marcus Samuelson when Marcus Samuelson was on top chef masters. Um, all that sounds good. I'm still trying to figure out the moves, the national from Italy, right? I, you just told me, you just told me, uh, you can, you can have. Lush countryside and beautiful food and, and, and easy retirement and, or, or you can come to no mask Ville. I don't, I don't ask for the comments. If there's people where I love Nashville, yeah. Yeah. Uh, well, so I, so it's funny, it's funny you ask that you think that because that was the first thing that I thought. And I had him and his wife on the show, uh, two weeks ago. And I asked him point blank. I said, so you were the chef partner at Spiaggia for 35 years. You had five other restaurants in Chicago, and then you guys retired to Italy.

39:39You've got a farm, you're raising goats, you're doing the whole thing. And then you pick up and move to Nashville. I'm like, what, uh, what's going on there? I said, what, uh, what's the deal? And he kind of went into his relationship with, um, with the owner of Spiaggia. With the owner of the Joseph hotel and how they met. And then his wife started talking about what she was going to be doing. And it kind of dawned on me and I asked the question and I was really afraid after I asked this question in the interview, I said, so am I right that chef you've been in the limelight and your name's been all over everything. And you're the James Beard nominated chef and this opportunity to run the Joseph hotel was a joint venture because it's Cathy Montuano running the beverage program as the kind of the beverage specialist and he's going to be kind of the chef behind it. So it's a partnership that they get to do together, which for a long time, they raised their son. She kind of stepped out and it was all him. And he said, yeah, you're pretty insightful there because this is something that we get to do together.

40:43And it's an opportunity that we've never had before. We wanted to do it. And I said, okay, Nashville's a fun town two years ago. They're talking about it. Yeah. You know, also it's like the, you know, the grass isn't always greener. So if, if you're thinking that Italy's perfect or Montana's perfect or whatever, we all know that there's pluses and minuses to it all. So I imagine they also left for COVID shut everything down. Yeah. And they made this decision a long time ago. So, I mean, I got it. It made complete sense. I told him, I said, I'm just honored you guys are here, man, because the stuff he's going to be able to teach people and mentor and really develop people with real Italian cooking. Like his food is not, is no joke. I mean, it is the real deal Italian. Medelia, what'd you think? We had all the pastas and like, we'd have like 12 shared plates, but we still managed to finish all the pasta course because they're just, there's just not a lot like that here yet. Um, Chef Tony's shaving truffles on the table. Like just a great experience.

41:47You got to go, man. Let's go. We should go together. I'll go back. She's like, I'll go back. All right. So Delia, we've got actual restaurant news this week. Kind of. Right. Kind of. What do we got going? Anybody, uh, anybody opening out there? Any new restaurants we want to inform our listeners to? A little bit. Um, Manit Show Han is opening case of Beria, which is a pop-up in, I think it's inshottable cause I just looked at the address on the maps. It looks like it's inshottable. So I don't know if Trottable is, but, uh, that starts tomorrow. Well, I guess Friday, September 4th. I'm like, we're on live right now. I'm more used to pretend it's Friday. Starts on Friday, September. Starts today. And then someone told me that honest is a new franchise of a vegetarian Indian restaurant that opened on Thompson lane a couple of weeks ago.

42:48Um, Dino's opens again today. Everybody's excited about that. Um, the internet's kind of blowing up with people excited about their patio. There'd be patio. So my cat just knocked out a bunch of stuff. Um, uh, the patio Dino's open and I saw that Zeppelin, which I hadn't really covered this. It's going to be in the town place suites hotel. That's right between Germantown and downtown. Zeppelin is going to be a rooftop bar there from Scott Baird, who worked with one of the world's 50 best bars, trick dog in San Francisco. So that is opening in the next couple of weeks. Ah, Scottie Baird. Great guy. Yeah, you know, buddy. Nice. I know Scott well, great guy. Um, is he consulting on that or is he moving here? Do you know? My understanding was he's just consulting, but, uh, maybe he's moving here. I don't know. He seems to be here more and more. And then, um, they brought on Jeffrey Rhodes. He used to be at a Butchertown hall in Liberty, Liberty common. And it says there's going to be a food menu that incorporates slavers from Morocco, Japan, and Greece.

43:51So they're hiring, um, they've got a job fair on the September 9th and 10th in the coffee place in town place suites. So that's, uh, coming up soon. And I went last night to the cheesesteak happy hour at Josephine and Josephine is that I got to go. It's been one of my favorite. Yeah. Where I have, I've just been seeing it too. I'm with him. Like I want to go so bad. I had three cheese steaks last night. Well done. Well done. So they have this mini five cheese steaks. They've still got the burger, which is one of the best deals. $7 happy hour burger from five to seven. And the best thing about it is now you don't have to sit at the bar. Cause there's only like six seats at the bar right now. You can get it in the dining room and you can get it to go. Nice. So that's exciting. New happy hour in town and we can sit at bars again. So I have been sitting at a bar and dining all week because that is, you know, my much-missed pastime.

44:52I would say thank you to the mayor, but I really don't want to show him any appreciation. So ouch. So that I'm just glad that they figured out a way for COVID did not be transferred across the bar. I mean, that's the big thing, right? Yeah. And thank goodness that the trans payment's back. And if you're sitting, you have to, you can drink your drink, but if you're standing, you have to wear a mask. So that makes complete sense. I was writing about that Monday and I was like, even, I'm like, I was like, is this my life now? So are they saying that if the entire world would just sit at a bar and drink, we could eradicate COVID? I mean, I've been saying that the whole time. I mean, so we let the people that have it heal up and then we sit them in a bar too, and serve them a drink and collectively the six trillion or whatever people that we have on this planet, just eradicate this crazy virus. God, maybe the mayor figured it out.

45:54Maybe that's the good, the mayor that has, he's done. And you doubt it. And you doubted him. I doubted him. That's right. You, you're the doubter over here. Um, Hey, Randy Rayburn didn't tell us about, uh, Ellison plays soda shop. Was he, he's working on that, right? With, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's he's with his company, music city consulting is, but that's his pet project. I saw they did a first look in the Tennessee end of the new space. So that's, I guess happening soon, but I didn't know that until I saw that a few minutes ago. Yeah. He talked about it on the show in March. He was on the show, but I didn't know it was like about to open maybe, but if there's, if there's a first look live on Tennessee, and I guess that it might be about to open. Oh, go check that. I need to go check that out. Yeah. It's gonna be cool. They've got a stage for a singer and songwriter night. So I think it'll be a cool, um, nighttime hang too. Also, what's next?

46:54What's next? Uh, the next, uh, phase, what are we going into next? The 10th iteration of phase two. I don't know. We're back to phase phase 2.3. I don't know. Like today I listened, I listened to the press releases. I mean the, um, press conferences at nine 30 when they come on. And I'm like, he said, we've got the lowest number of transmission rates since COVID started. And I'm like, so it seems like we should be ready to move into the next phase if you were to ask me. I don't know. You know, one plus one equals two. Yeah. So who knows? Hey, I had good news from Khalil. We talked to Khalil Arnold earlier. I meant to tell you this earlier. They had the best day today since they, since COVID started. That's huge. That's awesome news. Yeah. So I feel like people are getting more comfortable, um, dining out with, with the good numbers coming out and things opening up a little more. So hopefully some good news coming before the end of the year, you know?

47:57That's super good news. And I will tell you, uh, real quick Delia that I was looking at your, the zeppelin, the new rooftop bar or the mind of Scott Baird and, um, said they're having a job fair on the eighth and or ninth and 10th. I'd say a job fairs are cool and all, but if you want to hire the people that you need to hire inside of your restaurant, you need to get online and go to faux and bow.com F O H and B O H.com is the new local way to hire inside of national. So if you are somebody looking for it, this is an ad. Matt's looking at me like, you are really into this, dude. I, I feel like I know what you and your wife may or may not be doing. Um, so yeah. So FOMO bow.com is a website that is, uh, right now it's like a dating site, right? So if you're an employer and you need to hire somebody, you no longer have to post and pray on Facebook or go to a deed, create a job and wait for somebody to reply, you can create a job right there on the site and pick from any of the 3,100 people that are professionals right now wanting to work in Nashville, Tennessee, and they were hospitality industry.

49:09So check them out. FOMO bow.com that's F O H and B O H.com. While we were talking about bars, which I, you know, uh, don't get to go to very much anymore. Um, I want to talk that if you go to a bar, you should check out Pennington Distilling Company and their Tennessee sour mash whiskey. Uh, this is Davidson Reserve and it is the first grain to glass Tennessee sour mash whiskey made in Nashville since prohibition. There've been many other Tennessee whiskeys made in Nashville say they're made in Nashville. This is the first grain to glass entire Tennessee whiskey made in Nashville. They're also the makers of Pickers Vodka, Walton's vodka and Whisper Creek sipping cream. We are very excited that they are a sponsor of the show. And if you go out to one of these bars that are now open, we ask you to, uh, order Davidson Reserve, give them a shout, uh, support your local distillery. Matt, you're a fan. It's for a little, I am, I am indeed.

50:11I think they've got a, a great operation going. They've, uh, what they're producing is, is, uh, for even being young juices is coming off spectacular. So I can't wait to see what, as it ages, what it turns into. Yeah, that's, it's, I'm pretty excited about that too. There's, I'm just excited for Jeff and Jenny cause they're, they're awesome people and they put out a really good product. And, um, and I've never met Jenny. I've, I've dealt with Jeff on a number of occasions. It's just tremendous guy, really just genuine and, and, and, uh, and, you know, again, the sales guy that comes in kind of unannounced, here's what I got. Let me know what you think. Talk to you soon. It's like, no, no, come back here. Come here. You know, I like it. So there we go. Um, full circle, full circle. I love it. Thanks for the personal, um, thanks for, for that. So do you buy, do you buy chicken from Springer mountain farms? Do I, uh, I have, we don't currently, but I have, I like Springer mountain.

51:15Good. That's the right answer because Springer mountain farms, chicken is nestled in the hills of the blue ridge. Wow. You went out on a limb on that one. That's it. Didn't I, you know what I know? I know is that their chicken is very high quality and that they feed their chicken, um, local feed and that they're keep their chickens at a humane place. They're not outside, they're inside, but they're not in cages. They're allowed to roam free, which keeps them free from, um, the stress of animals attacking them. It also keeps them free from the spreading of diseases from other animals, uh, intermingling the flock. So they have, um, they're doing the right things. They're proactive and everything that they do. And, um, you can purchase their chicken right now at Publix and select Kroger's. You can go online to springer mountain farms.com, click the button where you can find their product and you can see exactly what stores have them. And it also locates all of the best restaurants in Nashville that sell Springer mountain farms, chicken.

52:17Just not Matt's anymore, but it's okay. Spring up farms, chicken. We were excited to partner with them, uh, in everything that they do. So thank you. All right. We've got five minutes. We're going to join Bob Tappen. He's going to come on right now. Bob was the original chef, the opening chef for brick tops. When it opened in Nashville, he was their corporate chef and he left Brick tops to be the director of operations for Sam's, uh, sports bars. Do you ever go to Sam's sports bar chef? Uh, you know, I haven't, uh, yeah, no good buddy of mine. Pat Martin is there, uh, and always telling me about it. And I, I just, I, I don't know. I'm, I'm hardly ever out West. It's either I'm in the Gulf or I'm in, in, uh, Brentwood. And so I need to go back. What's that? They have, they have one at Edmonds and Pike and old Hickory Boulevard. No kidding. Yeah. I know exactly where it's at. I live like a half a mile from the corner of Edmonds and then old Hickory.

53:23All right. Cool. You got to go check out Sam's, uh, Sam's so Sam's was a, a legend in Nashville. Cause he used to be in Hillsborough village. And he was a, he was a, he was a, he was a, he was a, he was a, he was a, he was a, in Hillsborough village, Sam Sanchez had Sam sports bar in Hillsborough village, which is right next door to Bosco's, which is now a hop daddy. And that bar was open till three o'clock in the morning. And it was just the place to go every night. It was lined with chefs in line cooks, servers and bartenders. And it was the restaurant hangout every single night. And then they had a fire and, uh, they just, he didn't renew the lease. So they left the Hillsborough village scene. They have a store over in Belle Meade, which is called Sam's place. They've got a store on old Hickory lake, which is a kind of a, it's at, uh, the Marina and then they also own Sperry's restaurant. So there's two Sperry's. We've been to Sperry's. I have, I go, uh, almost every year I go on my birthday.

54:25So not tonight. Well, it's never, it's never on the night. I'm always working on the night, but, uh, you know, this weekend, I might actually be there the Sunday or Monday. I was wondering what's going on with the salad bar. Like they can't have that open right now. So what's happening with the salad bar? We have to ask him. That is something we have to ask. I dessert, like what's going on with bananas foster. Can you do that right now? I don't know. Yeah, I think you could do that. You could do table side right now. Can you, you just can't do anything shared. You can't do shared utensils, but you could go to the table and do stuff. Well, I mean, and you know, the reality is they always get mad when you try to lick the spoon when they're holding it. It's, it's awkward. So yeah, it's, it's okay. It's not bad. He's had to stop me from doing that. It is a thing. It's fun for everybody. That's not lie. Okay. So let's give everybody a tease chefs.

55:26Uh, Bob Tappen is going to come on in five minutes, but after that, if you're one of the people who's listening or watching after Bob's interview, we are going to chef, you've got a couple of topics you want to talk about. He does. What do you want to talk about today? You know, let's talk about reviews. Um, and the fact that people have a lot of time on their hands and, and want to leave negative reviews for their own stupid decisions, um, which is great. Cause I mean, I feel like that's caught on to everybody. I hear, I hear radio adverts about it almost nightly when I drive home. Um, what was the other? I had said something else. What a, what else did I want to talk about? Influence. You put me on the spots and I can't. And oh yeah. Influencers. Love it. Have I what I know? I told them, I want to, and I might've mentioned this to Delia before. I would love for everybody collectively and national, maybe we can start a trend that we can start when these influencers email us and say, Hey, you know what?

56:32If you let me have this $500 dinner for free, I might write something nice about you on my Instagram page of, you know, and I have 1700 followers. I, I want us to be able to professionally post that with their name, their email address, everything on there. Like, Hey, you know, Mark one, two, three at gmail.com. This is their message. Um, thanks Mark, but no thanks. You're, you know, your 1700 fans already come in here or whatever it is. We don't have to be mean about it. Just like, this is what's going on. Um, I don't know. I'm, I'm old school. I was brought up. If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. And so if there's a genuine problem in the restaurant, why don't you just present it at the restaurant? Why do you have to wait till you go home and drink another glass of subpar wine and to grow a set of nuts? You know, you could, you could actually have that set while you're at the restaurant and talk to the manager or the server about it. And we can make it far better.

57:33Uh, but instead you want to go home and say, well, okay, hold on. Pause. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I got a comment. I know why people can't do that. Well, no, but it's just like, you know, we had a review the other day where a lady says, uh, you know, I went in my anniversary, never mentioned it, by the way, we talked to the server, we looked at the reservation, she made it online, everything. I went in for my anniversary. I didn't want the fish, chicken, pasta, salads, blah, blah, blah. Um, basically everything on the menu. So I opted for a burger, which isn't what I wanted. It was good. One star, like it's not my fault that you don't look at a menu, which is on your phone or the internet or anything else prior to coming in, right? That's your fault. Um, and it's not my fault that you're the pickiest eater on the planet either. That, that is also your fault. Um, and then you enjoy the burger and it's still one star because we didn't have, I don't know, fruit loops. What'd you want a bowl of fruit loops for your anniversary? No tapioca pudding. I'm sorry.

58:34Run by, you know, the midtown hospital gets some tapioca pudding. Happy anniversary. Cheers. All right. I'm done. I did have a rant similar to that. You had a very, very similar. And I think that, um, you, Matt would enjoy following on Instagram, um, cooks with fire, which is Nick. Yeah. Because he actually will screenshot. He will screenshot the influencers request and he puts it on his Instagram, his Facebook and Instagram. And he's like, here's another one. And it's like, Hey, we're let's collab. Just feed me and my friends and we'll talk. And it's like, no, it's a middle of a pandemic. We're, we're fighting for our lives to stay alive. Like come and spend money here. Like come support me. The dirtiest word in the kitchen used to be the dirtiest word on the planet was either the C word or the F word, which we all know, right?

59:35The dirtiest word in the restaurant business right now is the P word and it's profits. We, there's not a single restaurant group that I've talked to either in Nashville or New York or Chicago or anything else that is trying to, to maximize their profits right now. We are all literally trying to break even. We're trying to make sure that we pay our vendors, that we pay our employees, that we pay our landlords, that we pay for our utilities. And we're doing that to get through to whenever this all clears up or returns normal, whatever it is, right. Yeah. Hey, that, that, you know, come in, let us come in and eat for loads of stuff. Um, and we might write something nice about you. It's like, I don't, I don't need that. I just need you to come in. I don't need you to spend loads of money either. I just, you know, support local. It's like drinking Pennington when you go in, support local. Pennington's trying to make it just like everybody else.

01:00:35And so that's it. And just be nice. Like I said, if you didn't have a, if you didn't have a great experience, it happens. We're humans. We all make mistakes. Um, and so let us correct it. Like, you know, say something about it. Let us correct it. Let us make it right. We had a guy the other day and we, this was our fault, right. He had, he had ordered a burger to go. Whoever boxed it up, whatever kind of went sideways. It got a little messy. He was super irritated when he got home. It was for his eight months pregnant wife. She was super irritated. And he wrote us an email, a private email, not online, you know, blasting us. He wrote us a private email. We called him up and said, Hey, this is completely our fault. Let us take care of this. Let us send you a gift card too, to come back in and experience it. And the guy says on the phone, he's like, man, that I was just really mad. My wife was upset. She's pregnant. It, you know, I shouldn't have written that email. No, you should have, but we appreciate that we can let us deal with it. Let us own up to our mistakes and make it right for you.

01:01:37Let us do what we do best and give you the best experience possible. But when you go home and, and, and talk about, uh, you know, the two ladies that came in the other night, they got the Marcus Samuelson menu that got three starters, two entrees, three sides, two desserts, and then literally ditched because they said, nobody told us it was $59 a person. I'm not sure you can go to like golden corral for that much food for $59. I don't know. Um, but why do we have to tell you when it's on the menu? It's right there. It's on the menu. It's online. It's on the glass. It's on everything. They said they came in for the Samuelson menu. Maybe they, maybe they got an email. I didn't get that said, come eat for free. I, you know, I'm not sure, but they wanted it, they wanted it completely comp because they didn't know it was going to be $59 per person. So it's that kind of stuff that I don't get, especially in, in, in today's times, like you said, it's, it's the middle of a pandemic. We're all, we're all kind of working hard to get by and, and, you know, it's frustrating.

01:02:43It is frustrating, but there's a fine line. And I feel like with the reviews thing, people going online, I'll leave you one star reviews. And I've had a little bit of experience with this, just with I've been, you know, having chefs read one star reviews and, uh, we're putting it on our TikTok page as well as the, uh, the internet, but like, there's a whole side to it that's like, just communicate with people, but I think that with the internet, one of the downfalls of the internet is that people are forgetting how to have communication, like every time that you put something on the internet, it's there's so much vitriol that comes back at you, you know, you can put something innocuous on the internet. I put a picture of deer eating corn yesterday, uh, you know, on my internet, like, look, I got four bucks at one time and I got like five people that just, you shouldn't feed them corn. You shouldn't do this. It's like, uh, it's just, there's just four, they're cool. Like, I don't know. Like I was just, it was just a cool thing, but like, and I don't think that people meant anything by it, but it's just like, uh, people have forgotten how to have conversations with people and they're afraid they feel like if they say something to somebody, they're going to like, like, no, we're in the service world, communicate with me.

01:03:54Let me know what's going on. So they do what everybody else does and they go home and they go, I'll just blast them online. It's like, but that's not, that's not how we do it. We're all like, I think that we're losing the unintended consequence of this, this pandemic right now is that we've all been alone. A lot of people, the majority of people have been in their homes. They have not been going out. You know, us three who are in this business and we're out, we're kind of moving around by the, we kind of have to, a lot of people still aren't doing that and they're not communicating. They're communicating with people over computers or they're communicating with people via text and there's this art of just speaking to people that is, that is being lost as we speak. Yeah, but they couldn't go beforehand. And the proof of it is, you know, I would go back and look at the one star reviews and I would say the majority of them, and I don't know a percentage, maybe 70, 75% or anonymous, which means you have zero guts. None, none whatsoever.

01:04:55You are a keyboard coward is what you are. You can go home. You can drink your, your shitty Pinot Grigio that you buy by the 45 gallon jug. Okay. Because you're too cheap to pay for something nice and you can get this confidence and you're all, I'm going to speak my mind. Okay. Whatever. Well, let's, let's get Bob Tappan's take on this because he is here. Let's bring him in. Bob Tappan. Welcome to the show, my friend. Can you hear us? Ladies and gentlemen, we're clear. Currently, technical difficulties. You can't hear us. We're going to pause you for just a second. Can you hear us, Bob? Give us a head. Yes. Okay. No. Um, we're going to, we're going to brand and unmute him. I just muted him.

01:06:00Oh, I could hear him. He can't hear us. Um, it's now a good time to talk about the one closing that I have. Yes. Uh, yeah. So I don't know, I don't know when this happened, but I was driving through downtown and DEMAS's place. I remember eating as a teenager, uh, has a first sale sign in the window. So, um, locations in Lebanon, Murphy's borough, and somewhere else, Hendersonville, but the downtown location is vacant and for sale. Yeah, we were, I was by there the other day and I was like, cool. I'll run into DEMAS's because it's right there and I was like, Nope, Nope. Nothing happened in there. I'm like, I don't even know when it happened. It just disappeared. I don't know when, but very, very interesting. Yeah. He's still mute. He can't hear us. Uh, here, Bob, can you Yeah. I can hear you now. Yes.

01:07:11Well, it's okay, man. I can't even think of how many, how many zoom meetings or webinars where I check everything before and then when it's go time, it goes haywire. What are you gonna do? Well, we're excited that you're here. I personally asked my seven-year-old daughter because she has more zoom meetings than I do these days. I asked her what I'm doing wrong and she goes through it all and rolls her eyes and then moves on, you know? Yeah. So Bob, up above you there is a chef, Matt Bolus of the 404 kitchen. Matt, how are you doing? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. And this is Delia Joe Ramsey. She's the editor of Eater Nashville. Hi, Delia. How are you? Good. So you are here today as our mobile fixture, local legend. We got lots of stuff to talk about. You know Ben over there? Yep. Ben's a good guy. Ben Whitlock. Yeah, buddy. He's, he's the man. He sponsors this segment and we are, you're, you, you represent both Sperry's as well as Sam's and you guys have been around for a long time.

01:08:21Sperry's has been around since when? What year did Sperry's open? It's been around since 1974. I've been with them for about 11 years now. So I will tell you, if you ever take over an existing concept that's been around since 1974, the most daunting thing in the world is to change anything because the list of unintended consequences every time you change something to make it better, you've actually irritated people. So it was fun times, but we're past that now. So life's good. Delia has a burning question for you. Sure. Bring it. Um, what's going on with the salad bar during COVID? How do you, what's going on with salad? You know, I know, I know outside of David's, I'm not even sure outside of David's County, but I had heard like down in Alabama, they had opened up buffets, but we're still, I don't believe we're allowed to do it. Trust me. I can't wait to open the salad bar back up again. Uh, a couple of reasons why. One is, um, the amount of negative comments that we get.

01:09:24Um, the feedback on Yelp or otherwise, because it's not open. There you go. And then, so you think about it from a labor standpoint, um, if the guests aren't making their own salads, that means we have to make them. So I had to hire an extra salad person to make salads. Yeah. And what about like table side desserts that you can do that right now? Yep. We are, we are allowed to, and, uh, even though they've lifted the, um, the, the mandatory mask thing outside of Davidson County, um, we're, we're still wearing them just, just because we're all in close proximity to each other working next to each other every day. It's really about workplace safety for us. For sure. Well, you, you just missed it, Bob. We have had the last 10 minutes. We've been talking about one star reviews during a pandemic and people's inability to effectively communicate when there's a situation that's happening, that there's these keyboard warriors, they get home and have another, what did you say, Matt have another glass of cheap wine and, uh, they get liquid courage and just decide to go online and blast people and it's, yeah, we do.

01:10:34One of the things that, um, we've found really helpful in that is, uh, seven rooms, because the guests are more apt to leave those comments on seven rooms, which is a direct, uh, link to us. It comes to us, it doesn't go public in that way. We're able to address, uh, it's, it's taken care of a lot of it for us because they, um, we're able to address those issues one-on-one versus it going out publicly. And then, uh, you know, as you say, you know, after, after three or four bourbons, you may light you up like a Christmas tree, um, and this way, uh, and typically the next day, I mean, you can, I know who dined with them. So that's been really helpful. And then we also have someone in our marketing department and that's all they do is respond to that stuff, which is, but it is, it is amazing. How many people out there would, but then you call the next day and get them on the phone or like, no, no, I'm really not that angry. I go, could you tell the world? You're not that angry because right now they think you are.

01:11:36I feel like that job has got to be like the worst job responding to those Karens, like that has to be the worst job. Yeah. Well, yeah, but like Bob just said, you get them on the phone. Like, oh, no, no, no, it's, it's all good. Okay. Okay. I see your balls fell off again. I'll look for them. I'll wait. Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. Luckily I don't have to get involved until it goes to like a Defcon five. And then, then I get involved, uh, when, when it's just, uh, they're unconsolable and that's when I get involved. Uh, usually there's people who take care of that for me. Well, so I think Bob, you touched on something that was really cool. And you and I talked about this when you did make this actual transition. Cause I looked into him too at seven rooms. Seven rooms is another version of like an open table or it's a reservation. And they're actually, I got an email from them yesterday saying that for the rest of the year, due to COVID, they're offering free service to anybody who signs up for the rest of the year, seven rooms. So anybody that signs up for seven rooms, it's free. I don't want to cut into any of your other sponsors.

01:12:39I don't know if you have a competing sponsor to seven rooms, but, uh, no, I don't have one now. It's not, I mean, but they're a cool company. And I found that we did use them. And one of the things I found is that people, they have this, they just want to be heard, right? So they're emotional and then seven rooms by the time you get home, they send you an email that says, tell us about your experience. And then they go on there and they light you up on seven rooms and they think it's going over to the entire world. But it only comes to you. And by that point, they don't want to then turn around and type that again on Yelp. They already got it out. They've already got all that anger out and they don't do it again. So it's kind of a nice deal. I know we've, we've been really happy with it just because of the amount of, if I could figure out a way to fold it into the SAM side and justify the cost of all, we don't do reservations on the SAM side. It's a first come first serve, but just the feedback, uh, how immediate and how direct it comes. I thought was, uh, it's just a really positive side of that, uh, service.

01:13:41Very cool. Very cool. So I got to look into that. What do you got about, uh, so Sam's how Sam's doing, how's business going? What are some, uh, really before you answer that question, what are some of the like things, cause I know you, you're, you're a Houston's guy. You originally opened up the Brick Tops restaurants. They're very detail oriented. You kind of, you, you run a tight ship. What are some of the things that allow you to be sustainable for 40 years? I mean, what are some of the things that are your core values? Well, I was very fortunate, um, early on in my career to hook up with the, the, the Houston's brand or I believe it's called Hillstone now and they were, they were very, uh, I call it, um, you know, coming straight out of the Marines and into Houston's it worked out well for me cause they had a, they had a reputation back in the eighties and nineties for being a little torturous, but effective. You know, I mean, everything, yeah, it is. It really, it really was. Um, uh, and it was a lot easier back then to, to manage in that style.

01:14:44Obviously these days you, everything has to be, um, you have to invest in your employees a little bit more with, with regards to the verge, but I think sticking to the basics of, um, for one, I, I make it a point to know everyone that I do business with, I have been to their place of business. I understand, um, not as well as they do, you know, whether it be produce or, or, or, uh, commodities, any type of commodity, you know, as far as going, going to the, um, going to the processing plants out in Nebraska, uh, going to the tomato fields down in Florida, I mean, going to the farms and seeing what they do. Now I've never claimed to be a farm to table guy, but I know the business. I know that side of the business. I know that I know the cattle side of the business. And so understanding that so that you can get the correct product in the building first, and then really hone in on the details of how you handle that product. Once it's in, um, you know, I think for most restaurants that, um, come off as mediocre, it's typically due to, um, what I call aging food, you know, it comes into the building and, you know, managers or kitchen managers, chefs, they tend to go over order and it just sits there.

01:15:57Well, why do you order two cases? Cause I always order through half a case. So why do you, we just keep replenishing. So what we do is make sure that the food is not only that it's right when it comes in the door, that it only spent the minimal amount of time in, in our cold before it goes into production. Once it's in production, we talk about shelf lives in a matter of hours before it, it's gone. And, you know, I believe in this business when it comes to, when it comes to the food side, if you're not discarding food on a daily basis, then you're, you're not really, you're not really watching what's going on. Uh, and then on the, on the service side, um, I mean, that's just hiring good people, it really is just hiring good people that are, that are genuinely happy. Right. Yeah. Which, you know, you'll hire someone in an interview and I, I, uh, I don't want to give away secrets, but I use Facebook to see how happy people are or how angry they are. Right. Or what they're doing when they called in sick.

01:16:59Yeah. Yeah. Right. That was Bonnaroo, right? You were sick for nine days. Funny, Bonnaroo goes for about nine days. Or, or it's always the best, like, wow. So you're, um, you're not feeling well this morning. Maybe you shouldn't have gone Facebook live at one 15 from Broadway. Right. Um, while you were doing shots at the bar. Right. Well, that's, uh, probably not a bad deal. Doesn't, that stuff doesn't happen in our, our business, right? I think that's why, that's why I got into the business because, um, around normal people, I seemed a little crazy, but around restaurant people, I seem normal, I'm like, this works out well for me. I think that's all of us. Yes. Very true. Very true. You can express your crazy and you still seem like what do you, what do you, what do you burn in there?

01:17:59What do you, what do you got? What kind of, what kind of cigar you got? That's a Monte Cristo number two. Oh, that's a great one. Man. The Cuban version. I just got a box of them. I'm a Pedro name of our studio and then, uh, and our two of one day's Hemingway signature series is always good. Yeah. Nice, nice cloud class of bourbon. That, you know, that 1926 from Padron is, is really beat me up because it's just so perfect every time you burn one. And they're just so bloody expensive. It's insane. Hopefully you haven't had too many bourbon before you light it up, you know, so you can actually enjoy it. That's right. Exactly. Today, today is a chef Matt's birthday. Happy birthday. Thank you. He's celebrating with the cigar and the roundup before he, uh, jumps into service tonight, right? Exactly. Exactly. Awesome. Cause that's what we do on birthdays.

01:19:01Told all the servers, don't, don't come out here and set things up. I don't want to fuck you. Yeah. Do you, you got some questions? You got a question for Bob? I mean, how long did you shut down? Did you shut down at all? We did not know, uh, and you know, don't ask me why. I mean, during the whole thing, because there's so many unknowns when this thing started, um, the gut instinct was just to keep moving forward in whatever capacity we could, you know, um, and so we, we did have to, you know, I did have to, uh, furlough about 550 employees, we were able to keep our management teams together, um, which, uh, and then we kept doing to goes and then, you know, through it, I can't tell you during it, I wasn't like, though, I absolutely know this is the right thing to do. It felt right at the time. And in retrospect, it was, it really was, uh, and maybe, you know, pure dumb luck that it was the right thing to do, um, but we were able to keep our management team together and keep them, uh, paid.

01:20:10Uh, we, we, um, as soon as we were able to get some PPP money, we, we brought all of our employees back and started paying them half the time, they were just wiping down stuff over and over again, just to keep them busy coming in and keeping busy, but, um, I think it's worked really well for us with regards to momentum, uh, you know, outside of Davidson County, you know, I have two restaurants that are up double digit percentages over last year, which is just insane because they're Sam sports. We're all, you know, I mean, even the sports that are going on right now, the ratings on it are about 25 to 30% down from what they would be. Um, but in Davidson County, it's a little tougher sledding given, uh, give us, we've been visited by, um, the special people that will give you citations, uh, so it's, but we're still, you know, as I think as a whole, uh, last week we were down 3.5%.

01:21:11We've been fluctuating between five is we've been as low as two and a half percent down on a week to week basis. Um, so we're feeling really good where we're at right now and where the, where the business is headed. I just can't wait for the things to open back up. And yeah, I'm always so curious to hear what people decided to do. Cause I mean, I think, like you said, there is no way to know what's right or wrong because I'm blind, like, I don't know what to do. I feel bad telling people what, like if they should go eat, I think it's just all personal choice and everybody's doing the best they can for themselves. Uh, and I would, I would wholeheartedly agree with if someone took a more conservative approach and decided to shut down right away, I, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't take exception to that whatsoever. I mean, that's again, that's your personal choice, but you know, part of it being, being, being a former Marine, uh, it's just like we move forward, man, take that hill, right? That's it. Yep. That's it. And what's all we can do right now? Um, I have, I have a very important question for you. Um, or are you going to vote for mayor John Cooper to be reelected?

01:22:14That is highly, highly unlikely. Highly unlikely. I'm, uh, if there was an Oompa Loompa running for mayor, I would probably vote for the Oompa Loompa. I would too. I would, yes. You're a big Oompa Loompa fan, are you? I, I mean, not, not huge, they're a little bit creepy, but they're, they can't do any worse than this guy. That, that, that again, I agree with wholeheartedly. I just misstep after misstep after misstep. Uh, I, I, it goes beyond not knowing what to do. He just, he says, I don't know what to do, but this seems like the exact wrong thing. So let's do that. All right. Unless it benefits himself. And then, you know, and then it's the right thing for him. No, of course. Unless it's a, what was it? The city council with, um, uh, what is it? The lifetime insurance thing for. For the lifetime insurance for the city council members.

01:23:18Yeah, that's up for vote right now. Well, good. I, I pray to God as the rest of us are taking pay cuts left and right, you know, as much as I tell you, uh, that we feel like we're doing well now. I mean, we, I mean, we went through the grinder, uh, financially and otherwise, uh, mentally, financially. Um, so, I mean, it was, it was a heck of a ride and didn't know if we were going to come out the other side and feel pretty confident we will at this point. But, um, but yeah, that was, that was some, that was some very tough sledding, uh, in the beginning. And it doesn't help when, um, you know, I had, you know, I'll give you one example. I had two bar patrons sitting for bar stools from each other dining. And, um, we got cited for them being at the bar. And I understand that the, the, the ideology of not having three deep at a bar and people, um, taking care of two people dining, their social distancing from each other. I really, I really say that even, even the, uh, even though that that's, that's the way the, the, the law of rule is written, you should be intelligent enough to go like, Hey, we're not, we're not really doing anything wrong here.

01:24:30Also, I would argue it's you're further away from a server at, when you're at the bar, then you are when you're at a table, that's bothered me the whole time. It's I'm not sure about it. Yeah. I'm not sure about you, Matt, but when I get off work, uh, the last thing I want to do is sit at my bar. I want to go sit at someone else's bar. Right. And I can't, I can't do that. I believe Davidson County right now to wind down after work. Yeah. Yeah. But we're going to, we're going to pay for all that lack of revenue by increasing property tax by 32%. Um, because that, you know, in it, in an overnight, uh, session when nobody else could, could chime in on that. I mean, like a 34%, excuse me, 34%, right. I mean, it just, it's, it's mind blowing, um, how they're handling this. And I will say that the, the police officers that came down to tell us that we were, um, grossly breaking the rules, uh, were super nice. Um, you know, they, they were super pleasant and they just explained things, you know, but, but as they're, as they're telling us all the infractions that we have, you know, the party buses are going by, uh, you know, with, with 30 crazy woo girls and, and it's like, what, what the hell?

01:25:47I mean, what are we doing about the courthouse? Uh, uh, what is it about? What is it about two or three blocks away from you? How far are you guys? Yeah. As the crow flies. Yeah. Yeah. Real close. How's, uh, I'm going to change the subject a little bit because I know that you guys will, uh, we could talk about this for a long time. Uh, I can see people joining and leaving at the same time as we're doing this. Like, like, oh, they're talking, are they talking about the mayor? I'll talk to you later. Like, um, how's Sam and Al doing right now? They're doing, they're doing, they're doing great. Uh, you know, they, I will say, you know, at the point we have, they have people that kind of take care of things for them. They're not quite as involved in the day-to-day operations, uh, but they're not, not in touch with day-to-day operations, but their decision-making and guidance through this whole thing was just sort of amazing, uh, the way that their, their same mentality was it where, Hey, we're, we're keeping the teams together the minute we can put the, the, you know, hire the employees back and start paying them to do relatively nothing they, they were, they were on board, they, they understood the, the, the goals at hand.

01:27:02And so they've been fantastic to that. And, uh, so they're doing well and they continue to, to, to guide the organization in, in a great direction. Awesome. Well, I would expect nothing less. If you see them, let them know that we were thinking about them. We want to say hello. Um, I've been a big good friend of both them for a really long time and wish I'm nothing but the best and want to say thank you to you for coming on today. And just taking a few minutes to talk to us about kind of what makes Sam's and Sperry's unique. Um, love to have you guys back on. Have you, Sam, Al have everybody, but have you back on. We could do a whole business episode. We'll leave the politics out of it next time. All right. Okay. We'll do a whole, we'll do a full hour. We can talk about it when we get back from our short break, but thanks so much for just taking a few minutes to come on and talk to us today as our mobile fixture, local legend. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Matt. Delia. See you, Bob.

01:28:05I love that guy. I, um, I tell you a story that would brick tops first open. There's a guy named Lee Morris, who was the executive chef and Bob was the corporate chef for brick tops. And they came to town. I worked for creation gardens when that happened. And I said, guys, I got to take you to our warehouse. I got to come do a tour of the warehouse. And he was like, I'm not, he goes, I don't buy from anybody. I haven't seen their warehouse. And I said, okay, I'll come pick you up and walk. He's like, no, no, no, we'll meet you there. It's in Louisville. We'll just go. So we met him in Louisville. We toured the warehouse. Now this is creation garden. This was like when they were just getting one. This is 2006, right? So this is a long time ago. Their warehouse was pretty bad. And it wasn't like a nice warehouse, but it was clean. I mean, like they did all the right stuff. It's just an old building. And I remember we got back from the meeting and I went to Bob and I was like, so Bob, what are you thinking? He goes, yeah, we're never going to buy from you. And I said, what? He goes, we're never going to buy from you. I went, are you serious? We took you to Louisville. Did the whole thing goes, yeah, that place is a shithole.

01:29:07And I went, what? Cause that was just like, so impressed. And when they got the new warehouse, they were like, okay, well, I love your concept, loved everything about you. We're not buying from you in that place. And it was just amazing. Cause that's what Bob, he was just like, Nope, we want to see where it's coming from and we don't like that place. And we're not going to buy from you. Thanks. Matter of fact, I respect the hell out of that. No doubt. He came down, he saw the facility. He made a decision. Like I can't ask for more than that. He took five minutes to talk to me. Yeah. So Steven Henderson, do you want to Andy Henderson? Um, and I, Andy, if you're still on, um, I'm curious to this because I don't quite understand your question. Um, he says, this is what Andy says. Right. And I can answer the, the easy side of this is yo, Brandon Anderson here. I had, and stress had a place in the gulf. So I don't know what that means.

01:30:08Did you guys know what that means? I'm assuming he just forgot a comma. I had, and stress. Comma. No, I had a common place was doing well until, you know, March 13th. But one thing that killed me was a review in May, after we opened back up and got called racist on multiple platforms. How do y'all think to handle that? And my first question is to not be a racist, right? That's the first thing I would say is like, don't do racist shit. And then he says, of course, you know me. So it's not warranted, but it hurt. And I do know him and he's a good dude. Right. So what do you do when you have a disgruntled employee go on a platform and, and call you out or say stuff like that? Um, I don't know the answer to that. I mean, I don't, I, if you know, if you know, you're not, um, unfortunately you probably got, you just have to grin and bear it. I mean, if it is in fact, uh, a former employee, you can prove it.

01:31:11You take legal action against them. Um, you know, the bad thing about reviews at the end of the day is when you reply, when you, uh, give them your thoughts and feelings, you're the one that comes off looking like the asshole, not them. Um, which is why you see a lot of people not publicly reply and it's unfortunate. And it's hard to deal with, like he said, she said situations. I get tips sometimes that are just employees saying, oh, this chef harassed me. Oh, this chef, you know, called me and this chef, like I get accusations and it's hard to know if they're true. And as someone who has had a me too moment, I want to listen and believe and handle it, but also I've had one come back and be like, sorry, I was drunk and mad and that chef broke up with me the night before. And so it's hard, it's hard to know how to react to those. I'm not going to like blast someone backtrack. You can't backtrack. So it's, it's one of those really tough situations. Yeah, it is.

01:32:11It's unfortunate. Uh, I hate that for you for sure. So we're at an hour and a half. Well, let's keep going. We've got seven people watching. Uh, I'm on 3% power. So we'll wrap it up. She likes her hats. Um, which speaking of super source, we'll use them. Yes. So Matt Bolas, super source is a dish machine and chemical company, and they are taking Nashville by storm. Big delivery today at the green Hills grill, post on their Facebook page, brand new dish machine for the bar, as well as the kitchen. I can't wait to hear more about that. Um, the amount of the opportunities he's brought in are just amazing. Uh, he's telling me about Yeah, man, I mean, he comes to tell you, give a personal testimony. What do you think about, uh, super source? I mean, the customer service is amazing that the, they, they, uh, uh, deliver what they promise, um, and they do it in a professional, unintrusive way.

01:33:14Uh, I would, I can't recommend them enough. There you go. That's, uh, that's it. I mean, so he's a, uh, Ricky Pace, super source, super source, super Ricky pig. Love you too, man. Um, loving, loving it from Florida, man. Love you. Ricky, seven people. Yeah. The funny thing is that the like last week's episode has hundreds of listens. We had 900 watches on Facebook throughout the week, and then we've had hundreds of listens. So I love the people that are watching live. I love you all. And then the people that are, um, it's just, uh, the people that are listening on the podcast. So we have what's the Delia segment, which is brought to you by super source. Uh, thank you to Jason Ellis. Go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com, click the sponsors tab and you will get three free months of dishwasher rental from Jason Ellis and, um, he is out there hustling, give the guy a call, just have him come in and do an audit for you. Help, help tell you how much money can save you. Like Matt said, he's, he's going to service. He's going to do the right things.

01:34:15What's the Delia today? Um, we've started, we've kind of started talking about it already, but let's jump in with your pre-planned. What's the Delia? Um, so today I was going to talk about what's the Delia with how to handle a mix up at a restaurant. And I think we've already kind of touched on, like, obviously don't write a bad Yelp review. Um, but I went through two very different experiences at restaurants. One, which I thought was handled really well. And one that I thought was not. And I kind of just wanted to talk through from a diner perspective, from an owner perspective, um, I just about what the proper way to handle things is. Uh, but we have talked about a lot of that as far as talking to a manager, sending an email privately, um, let us, let us, let us do us, you know, uh, my situation. So the first one I had was a little while ago where, um, a bottle of wine was brought with us to a restaurant and the rest, the restaurant staff took the bottle of wine to the back and open, opened it, came back wines in the glass.

01:35:24There's an empty bottle. We try the wine. It's clearly not the wine, like the 20 year old wine that was in the bottle that we brought, right? Oh, the server goes missing and the person I'm with, uh, my date pours like some of the wine on a bread plate and then pours what's left in the bottle, which has a bunch of sediment. It's really dark. It's clearly not the same wine. Server is gone. Like server does not come back. Uh, we finally flagged down someone and we're like, look, would you just try this one and tell us if you think this is the 20 year old wine that we brought in? He's like, no, it's not the same thing. So I just, it was one of those situations that you tried to make it right. He said, well, we can give you a bottle of, you know, the best thing we have, which was like a $40 bottle of wine. And that what we brought in was, was far more than that. Um, and then we were given like a gift card. And I have not been back. Um, I haven't been back since that happened.

01:36:26And then the other situation was where I was overcharged for like by, by several hundred dollars, like I, if something was small, I wouldn't even say anything, but we didn't even notice it. Like we got lost in the moment. We had a bunch of, I think he, I think Matt just dropped off, uh, cause it's bad, um, so then, um, I realized we were overcharged and then we were like, and sent an email. Like I sent it to actually, I sent a text, no, it wasn't email email the next day. And it was handled so much better. It's they went above and beyond. All I was saying was credit me back the amount that I was overcharged or, you know, like give me a gift card for that amount, cause I'll be back. Cause the service was good. The food was good, all of that. And they ended up crediting back the entire amount of my dinner, which was an expensive dinner. Um, and I, I told them to not do that. I was like, look, please, please don't give me the whole amount back. Just give me the amount I was overcharged, but they just went above and beyond. And so like, I want to go back tomorrow and spend that amount because I'm like, this was handled well.

01:37:26And I just think it's such a difference as far as like how things are handled and how you approach them. And obviously I didn't complain about either of these. I've never written a review. I've never named the names of the places where, where the bad experience happened. Um, just, I wanted to talk through it with Matt, but I guess you can talk about it, uh, for your perspective too. Well, yeah. And I, so first of all, I'd like to point out that you do pay for dinner. Yes. Right. So you go places and you do pay for dinner, which is important. I think that, um, you know, so there's a couple of different schools, right? One is you do whatever you can take care of the guest and you know that they're going to come back and you go above and beyond, you know, um, Phil Hickey, who is a, is a very, very good restaurant tour. He had a 110% deal where he said everybody that if everything wasn't right, I'm giving 110% back and that's, it's the right thing to do.

01:38:27That's having confidence in your ability to take care of somebody. And I think the place that, that overcharged you for the wine that completely credited you back did the right thing. Because you know what your expectation is, Hey, look, I just want to not pay for this bottle of wine. I mean, a hundred plus dollar bottle of wine that you didn't have. You know, you're just saying, look, I just don't want to pay for this, which is totally respectable for them to go above and beyond goes to show the character of that restaurant and what they're trying to do. If you go to a restaurant and you give them a 20 year old bottle of Chateau Margot, and I don't know what it was, what the actual wine was disappeared. And like, they kind of try to make an excuse for them. And I was like, no, like, you don't ever take that bottle away from the table. I mean, I just, I think you, I mean, if you, it's a couple of different things you can do, I've done that before. I've taken the bottle of wine away from a table because the cork was fragile or some of the server like broke the cork and I had to go back and, um, you know, you had to siphon it.

01:39:29So I had to put it in a decanter and then I had to put like a filter in and I had to pour it out cause I wanted to get the, that's a cork out, but it was legit. Like it was the wine. I never did anything shady with it. I'd take it out there and like this, this is your Chateau Margot, enjoy. And nobody ever complained. There was like, yeah, this is the wine. Um, I mean, it's just a weird situation and I would, I personally would have no idea what to do. Yeah. I mean, just because that's just such a weird situation, but I mean, at that point you're in the service industry and you have to go on the guests kind of what they're, if they're going, this isn't the wine that we brought in. It's a special occasion. You go at dinners on me. You know, obviously that's something you would do on the front end. And then, you know, you invite them back to try and recreate the experience. You do something similar. I mean, that's just what you need to do. A $50 gift card or a $40 bottle of wine. I mean, I don't, did you feel what it, how did you feel after you left that, that experience, we're not going back. I feel like I had done something wrong. Like I wouldn't, I didn't even say anything. Cause the person I was with was like, look, you're the eater editor.

01:40:30You should say something like that's why I don't want to say something. I was like, that's why I don't want to say anything. Cause I don't want to make people feel uncomfortable. And I don't, I'm such like, I'm averse to confrontation. Like I will avoid confrontation at all costs. So I was like, no, I'm not going to say anything. He ends up saying something. I'm, I'm like mortified. So now I'm like, I feel like the asshole. So I just haven't gone back. I even with the gift card, I'm like, I don't, I don't want to. It's awkward. And whereas the other situation, I didn't even notice what had happened. We had a wonderful evening and now I'm like, I want to go back tomorrow because it was handled so much better, more professional. I will say in the defense of restaurant B that that's a scenario that's so like one-off that's like out of left field that you kind of have to give them a pass because it's a server doesn't know what to do. Just tell me what happened. Don't lie. Yeah. I mean, I think that that's just a, it's a weird one-off situation. If you think they're lying, if the manager's lying, that's a different thing. Then you just don't trust them. Why would you go back and eat there? But if I'm just saying from their perspective, how, I wouldn't know what to do as a manager.

01:41:32I buy the whole meal and I'd offer to bring them back in. I'd give them, you know, whatever the meal costs. I would give them that and a gift certificate and say, come back in and do it again. Let's try it again. But I mean, how do you, that's just a weird thing. I mean, how do you, I wouldn't know what to do there. So I get, I get that, but I mean, yeah, it's all about how you feel. If you're, if you're a restaurant manager, if you own a restaurant and somebody leaves the restaurant and they feel awkward or they don't feel okay, you let the guest leave in that state. You've let the guest leave in that state. So you're, you're weighing the pros and cons. We're not, they're going to come back. And if you let somebody leave when they're that upset, then you're saying, I don't care if you come back. Right. Right. That's my perception. That's, that was my question. Like somebody commented wine siphon, Jordan said wine siphon. And I did wonder, I was like, did someone just like pour that wine there and they take it home or are they going to sell it? Like, you know, you read books about that stuff and I'm like, what happened? Or do it, or did you just like the court disintegrated and fill in the wine? I just would like to have known the truth, really. I think it's all about just telling the truth at that point, you know? Yeah, that's weird.

01:42:33It's totally strange. Well, that's a good one. So now I think that I think as a restaurant, we've the ones that really take care of people when something is wrong, but I think you do need to say something, uh, getting home and putting that experience on Yelp probably is not the right thing to do. No, I'm not blasted on Instagram. Don't blast it on like, I just. I mean, I think that if there's a buyer beware somewhere where the manager comes out and tells you to pound sand and he says, you're lying. That bottle of wine is a fake bottle of wine and then it starts blaming it on you. And it's like confrontational about it. I think that is that's a buyer beware. Hey, look, we went to this restaurant. This is my situation. This was their response when we said something. I think you let other people know that I think that there is a platform for Yelp that makes sense. Right. Like, I mean, there's, there's I, you know, we do these one-star reviews where chefs reading one-star reviews. We put them on TikTok and they're hilarious, but it's from idiot. It's from idiot people. It's from people who are going home and saying stupid things about a restaurant.

01:43:35We read one from Will Newman. That was a, you know, people said, first of all, this he's at least he says, first of all, this restaurant's in a hippie dippy part of town and there's no parking and there's, you know, there's people everywhere and there's people jaywalking. Don't go there. And it's like, how the hell is the hippie dippy part of town and people jaywalking a reflection upon Will's food? Like his restaurant doesn't deserve a one-star review because people are jaywalking and it's a, it's a happening part of town. Like I just, that's the kind of stuff that I feel like is very frustrating and we want to call out. So, yeah, absolutely. All right. That's a good topic. Um, fun having chef on today. I always like these new, these guest chefs that are adding different perspectives. Absolutely. Next week, we are going to, um, we are going to have, um, I don't know yet who we're going to have on as a guest, or maybe it's just you and I again, you know, we could do that.

01:44:42We could do a whole show. I've just enjoyed with bars being back open. I think we have a lot more to offer and to let everybody else out there. No, we are working on our best of lists. We are working on our best new restaurants, our best restaurants that are the standards, as well as our local legends, best restaurants in different areas, all of these things will be coming to the roundup when we have some sense of normalcy happening. Uh, really there's just so much insanity going on that we've pivoted this show to be something that's fun that we bring on guest chefs. And we just kind of talk about what's happening out there. And it's, it's a little less structured, but, uh, we will soon get to a, this is what's going on in town when a little bit more normal, um, life comes back. And I think we're slowly getting there. Yep. That's our show today. Go ahead. I said, hopefully it will be there sooner than later because I'm not ready. Yeah. No kidding. Right. Uh, and that, that is my cue. I've got to go dinner at the optimist. One hour and, uh, I'm excited.

01:45:48Oh, nice. All right. Well, maybe we'll see you later. We'll, uh, I hope everybody likes the hats. We are working on getting some more hats that you will be able to purchase. But, uh, for guests on the show, Delia, you have been a guest on the show. You got a hat. Matt, uh, bolus has been a guest on the show. He got a hat and soon they will be available to the general public. If you want to support Nashville restaurant radio all over town, you can buy stickers right now. If you want a really cool sticker, they go over your, um, laptop or wherever you want, if you're a restaurant and you want one to put in your door or somewhere, send me a message, let me know. Or if you want to buy one, if you want to help support us, we are trying to, uh, to make this thing better every day, buy more equipment and do better stuff. Uh, help us support us buy one, check out the, uh, go online, go to nationalrestaurant.com. You can buy stickers. They're a dollar. So buy a dozen and go give them out. And I get asked about it when I'm out working with it. It's good. I'm going to give you four more to give to people.

01:46:53All right. Well, stay pretty music city. And remember you can still be pretty with a mask on. And we always are hoping that you guys are being safe. We love you guys. Bye. Bye.