Craig Clifft: Grit and Gratitude - One Plate at a Time

Owning or managing a restaurant can be draining on time, resources, and emotional and physical health. For the next episode in the Campus Cuisine segment, one alum confesses he is passionate about food service and has embraced the hospitality industry for his lifelong career. Hosted by Dr. Brad Schultz and Amanda Price, this … is Mustangs Unbridled.

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Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;31;04
Speaker 1
Owning or managing a restaurant can be draining on time. Resource losses and emotional and physical health. For the next episode in the Campus Cuisine segment, one alum confesses he is passionate about food service and has embraced the hospitality industry for his lifelong career. Hosted by Dr. Brad Schultz and Amanda Price, this is Mustang's online.

00;00;31;06 - 00;00;52;22
Speaker 2
The food and beverage sector of the hospitality industry can be demanding, and there is no guarantee that a restaurant will thrive or even survive. Therefore, managing or owning a restaurant can be stressful, especially in times like COVID, high inflation, the inability to attract and retain employees. However, when done right, a restaurant can be a legacy still fondly remembered long after it's gone.

00;00;52;25 - 00;01;13;10
Speaker 1
Both an alum and a former parent, Craig Cliff, to spend his career serving, managing and owning restaurants in Nashville. The 1986 graduate has been a part of some of Nashville's most esteemed restaurants over the last four decades, and now he has the privilege of running the iconic Allison Place, said the Shop. Thank you for inviting us to the diner.

00;01;13;12 - 00;01;22;08
Speaker 2
It's so Craig. Think back here. Let's come days. What led you there and when you when you did come to left school, what grade were you in?

00;01;22;10 - 00;01;46;19
Speaker 3
So I went to I went to a different school. And when I was in second grade, my sister, who was two years older than me, decided she wanted to go to Lipscomb. And so my dad said, Well, I'm not going to till school. So at that point, that made me come to Lipscomb. So it was one of my sister actually kind of led the charge and I got to follow.

00;01;46;21 - 00;01;47;29
Speaker 3
Just being for the Lord.

00;01;47;29 - 00;02;05;16
Speaker 2
But I think it's a great thing. How old were you when that happened? So I came in third grade. Came in third grade. So thinking back on your time there. Are there any teachers, coaches that you remember fondly? I got some good stories of connections that you remember today.

00;02;05;21 - 00;02;15;07
Speaker 3
I would say that Coach Ernie Smith was one of the first people when I met him and they were doing a little carnival that sometime in the old Bert and Jim.

00;02;15;09 - 00;02;20;04
Unknown
By the by river in the open gym. And I was really good on the trampoline.

00;02;20;04 - 00;02;43;20
Speaker 3
And so Ernie Smith got here. My sister got me to do some kind of like a demonstration or a gym on a trampoline, some kinds of things on top of the trampoline so that Ernie, I loved him for that. You know, there's always that Miss Tracy. Miss Smith. You get in there, miss, Right, Dale, I think she never liked me.

00;02;43;20 - 00;02;55;12
Speaker 3
I think I was always in trouble. I didn't do well. And for some reason, I just, you know, I don't know. I was scared to death of her, but I thought she was amazing as a teacher. So that was.

00;02;55;14 - 00;03;12;15
Speaker 1
In addition to being an alum. You're also a former parent and you had two children that went through Lipscomb. Yes. And so was there any nostalgia that that when you watched them, things they experienced that you were like, oh, I did that, Or maybe, oh, I wish I could have done that.

00;03;12;20 - 00;03;34;05
Speaker 3
Well, I think there was. And I didn't expect it, meaning that when my kids were lifers and they started at pre-K and kindergarten. And so as they came through and I was delivered on the first mail room mother in the history of Lipscomb. So they won the title. So they actually had to change after me with my daughter.

00;03;34;06 - 00;03;54;00
Speaker 3
I think it was my daughter in third grade with Miss Smith, I, I was a or bad parent and they had to change everything with the truck to remain. But as they kind of came up through, I didn't expect it. But I think that as things in a tarnished mess still, you know, is still there. You know, it's like all of a sudden you kind of got into it.

00;03;54;02 - 00;04;18;10
Speaker 3
And I think because of my involvement with my kids, I still kind of is still felt the same, you know, to go watch my daughter, you know, cheer. I you know, where I sat once, my sister played basketball with her. Now, you know, 25 years before 30 years, history was pretty interesting and pretty amazing to see.

00;04;18;12 - 00;04;38;24
Speaker 2
So this past spring, we started as a podcast section called, you know, Campus Cuisine. So we've been visiting a lot of our community members who are in the restaurant industry. Definitely heard a lot of good origin stories, like, you know, this is how we began, this is why I'm passionate about this. This is what keeps me getting here at 5:00 in the morning, like you said earlier.

00;04;38;24 - 00;04;43;00
Speaker 2
Right. So tell us a little bit like what drew you to this industry?

00;04;43;02 - 00;05;18;02
Speaker 3
Well, I you know, I kind of fell into it as much as anything. I, I, I needed a job between my freshman college freshman and sophomore year. And so I had a choice of being a lifeguard at the Berkeley Hills pool. Or I could work for a little restaurant called F Scotch on Baby Wood. That was a 20 table restaurant that because my mom knew the my mom is is is a Lipscomb alumnus and the university her and she knew the manager of this little restaurant called F Scott.

00;05;18;04 - 00;05;38;05
Speaker 3
And so you know he actually Kevin Hagan is who hired me he teaching all went to law school all the way through. So there you know alumni was kind of that alumni connection that actually got me the job and I chose it over there having being a lifeguard that year. So that's how I ended up in the industry.

00;05;38;05 - 00;05;41;20
Speaker 3
And then staying in it is a whole different story.

00;05;41;22 - 00;05;59;24
Speaker 2
So I have a friend who is touring around with starting a restaurant industry, and I'll tell you, everybody I hear in talked to said, Don't do it. And so it's obviously riddled with risk. But what's a what have you learned that's allowed you to survive in this in this very difficult environment?

00;05;59;26 - 00;06;21;07
Speaker 3
I think what what what draws me to it is people think that the people, not only the people that you work with, the people and the community that it creates. If Scott's being a very small restaurant, you know, most everybody will come to that restaurant location with somebody that will perform two or three miles out of that restaurant.

00;06;21;10 - 00;06;45;26
Speaker 3
And I saw them every week. They knew they knew what I was studying and they knew what I was doing. They knew about my family. They knew about who I was dating, you know, and vice versa. I knew about them. I knew about their kids, you know. So it's that community and that that relationship that was created across really good food, especially there was a really good food changes.

00;06;45;29 - 00;07;07;10
Speaker 1
So I want to talk a little bit about Scott. Yeah, so I moved to Nashville in the early nineties as a poor college kid, and all I ever knew about Scott's was that it was this unassuming building in the middle of Green Hills, except for the 1920s motif on the side. And that I thought, Well, that's kind of weird.

00;07;07;12 - 00;07;32;18
Speaker 1
And so I had some college friends and I had gone to L Blank. Yeah, and the the hostess at El Blanco had said to us, He's the only one next door in the building that looks really weird with the 1920 sign. And so we venture over there one night and it was incredible food. And I was not a jazz person, but I left there thinking not only was the food good, but the good.

00;07;32;18 - 00;07;38;02
Speaker 1
Jazz music was incredible. So were you a jazz fan before you started working there?

00;07;38;05 - 00;08;10;06
Speaker 3
So that was the second iteration of that. Scott So F Scott used to sit on Baby Wood right next to Carver when Kroger expanded, if Scott's had to be moved. So I actually moved to that location next to that, to the Mexican restaurant. And I, I created a lot of what was there. Then I went on the Sunset Grill and so that's when the Jazz became really big, was quite was really about the time that I was exiting is when they started doing the jazz thing.

00;08;10;12 - 00;08;16;02
Speaker 3
And that was the new owner and taking taking up steps over a couple of things.

00;08;16;05 - 00;08;32;05
Speaker 2
So after leaving Scott's, he became a general manager of the Sunset Grill in Hillsboro Village. And that's a little different set out. I mean, you went from like a dinner restaurant to a longer out lunch later nights, those kinds of things, you know. How difficult was that for you to make that transition?

00;08;32;06 - 00;09;01;22
Speaker 3
Lessons learned so and so when I was hired in F Scott, in for my, you know, between my freshman and sophomore year when I was hired there, I was hired by Kevin Hagan. But he quit that same day, right? Randy Rayburn was hired as the general manager at Scott's. So he looked at me on my on his first day, my second day, and I was a busboy and in a hopefully a dead sober at that point.

00;09;01;24 - 00;09;22;11
Speaker 3
And he looked at me and said, Kid, I never hired you, but I know you need a summer job. So if you want to stick around and learn something, stick around. So that was 37 years ago and I still work with him on Sunset Grill to answer the question is that his and he went on to create Sunset Grill.

00;09;22;14 - 00;09;44;10
Speaker 3
So I already had the relationship with Randy. So that's not something I enjoyed. Do a lot of what he did and how he managed to rest, what I knew from when he was an ex-con. So when I moved over to Sunset Grill to a lot of the same things, but what Sunset Grill was a the hottest restaurant in Nashville, just the volume.

00;09;44;10 - 00;10;14;14
Speaker 3
I'd never seen volume. You know, we served up 150 people a day and have scotch. And all of a sudden now you're serving 800 people in a day at Sunset Grill. So the sheer volume and the fact of, okay, lunch, there's dinner, then there's late night and then the differences in what that meant to you. You know, what what community, what what group of people were coming in.

00;10;14;15 - 00;10;19;16
Speaker 3
And then, you know, we did this late night discount on the food and I.

00;10;19;18 - 00;10;20;17
Speaker 1
Imagine that.

00;10;20;19 - 00;10;21;06
Speaker 3
Was higher.

00;10;21;08 - 00;10;27;16
Speaker 1
Price. I went in. Yeah that's what I seen. Certainly for college kids, it was one of my favorite things to do.

00;10;27;19 - 00;10;44;12
Speaker 3
It was great. We were sitting there and it wasn't just college kids, but it was everybody in Nashville. Huge music industry. The theater music industry was much different. And so it was this thing of of of, oh my goodness, this is this is a madhouse. It was controlled.

00;10;44;12 - 00;10;45;03
Speaker 1
Chaos.

00;10;45;03 - 00;10;54;21
Speaker 3
And certain days and certain points, you know, when 800 people and so that's a lot of human beings you're feeding all day long.

00;10;54;23 - 00;11;18;19
Speaker 1
So so one of my favorite things about say site grill was the chocolate sushi. And I used to go in there late at night and get it together. So when we would go in like 11:00 at night, all these Vandy and Belmont students and we would load up on food because it was half price, it was the best thing ever.

00;11;18;21 - 00;11;19;14
Speaker 3
It was huge for.

00;11;19;16 - 00;11;21;03
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's the best thing ever.

00;11;21;03 - 00;11;27;19
Speaker 3
The food in Austin, you could you can eat, you could make for a college degree for a week or so.

00;11;27;19 - 00;11;37;13
Speaker 1
I mean, I know that today Sunset Grill was not named after Don Henley song, the Restaurant in L.A., but where did the name come from? What's the inspiration?

00;11;37;14 - 00;11;38;03
Speaker 3
Don Henley.

00;11;38;03 - 00;11;40;02
Speaker 1
Oh, are you kidding?

00;11;40;05 - 00;12;02;28
Speaker 3
Yesterday, he actually was was Don Henley came would come in a lot to wherever Randy was. And they actually the story I heard is that they didn't know each other and that and that song was highly popular about the time that Randy was building Sunset Grill. His Sunset Grill was a mountain bike shop about ten years before mountain biking was like, popular.

00;12;03;01 - 00;12;13;05
Speaker 3
And so, you know, Randy took this little space in the middle and nothing, you know, of Hillsboro Village. And all of a sudden it became became the place to be. And I would.

00;12;13;07 - 00;12;32;21
Speaker 2
Smoking. So you mentioned Randy Rayburn while ago thinking of your relationship that went from employee to, you know, that mentor mentee role to partner. Now, like what's some advice or things you witnessed that you think help you be successful or you share with others as well?

00;12;32;24 - 00;12;54;10
Speaker 3
You know it's worse things between Randy in this town. We these are hardships of friendship. And so I think that when Randy Randy always had his kind of rules, the Randy rules and his certain ways of thinking. And so one of his big things that he would say would be, if it's not fun, don't do it. So there'd be a lot of times where an employee would be, you know, very down or very down.

00;12;54;10 - 00;13;14;27
Speaker 3
It was like, look, if you're not having fun, it isn't fun anymore. If you're not coming in and having a good time either with the people you're working with and the customers you're waiting on, just don't do it. But something else. This is right. For years now, sometimes that was weird and a little more strongly than other times, but that would do one big thing.

00;13;14;27 - 00;13;35;07
Speaker 3
And then another one was we kind of went along with it is if you tell me it's not your job to tell it. And so, you know, it's a very big teamwork and things like that. So what he taught me about teams and motivation of teams and I think motivation has changed a lot over, especially in the last 20 years of how to motivate.

00;13;35;07 - 00;14;08;05
Speaker 3
I can put you in a place to be motivated as a as an employee or. Yeah, could be. And how do you how do you get the buy in that creates that great restaurant? You know when we talk about this later, it's it's you know it's really come into play and see know this situation with Alison and how moving at the Sunset Grill this past week they still I mean they still need to see all these people still have this connection of we work at Sunset Boulevard this this business community.

00;14;08;08 - 00;14;16;20
Speaker 3
You know, Randy just read the book about it. So he's had a published a book that is about people of some sort, really.

00;14;16;22 - 00;14;55;08
Speaker 2
So we mention we've done several podcasts and one we did somewhat recently, very much the gentleman we interviewed was talking about his relationship with his mentor that he's stayed with. Now 20, 30 years, has allowed him to be as successful as he has. And and your mission is to I'm just thinking with what I'm hearing now in the workforce, that's got to become that's going to become so rare, somebody saying, you know, I've I stayed in a in an area or continue working with this one person because it seems now people do jump around.

00;14;55;10 - 00;15;21;09
Speaker 3
They feel like, you know, what thing is, is don't ever burn a bridge in Nashville because you may have to go work for him to get that job back. But it is one of those things where and Randy did teach me and I learned from Randy and continued that, and we have continued to kind of hopefully mentor. And then, you know, there's been many in my career now that have kind of come in and hung with me and stayed.

00;15;21;10 - 00;15;53;26
Speaker 3
And I've got one that most recently. She's now the general manager of the soccer stadium who stayed with me and stayed with me. It just doing it. She still wanted to do our private events here in Helston because she just didn't really want to let go to go fly on her own. And then I finally did. I made a flight about a month ago, but I've had people that have worked with me, but I always go back to the way Randy, you know, mentor and way he kind of created that relationship that, you know, still with him.

00;15;53;26 - 00;16;11;15
Speaker 3
And I still and we've had rough patches in there. But, you know, to this day, you know, he is still one of my mentors, but it's one of those things of now, you know, the teacher in the studio, which one, which ones which you know, at this point because we still think differently, we cannot work in the same restaurant.

00;16;11;18 - 00;16;22;18
Speaker 3
So I'll turn the lights down. He'll turn the lights up, I'll turn the music off. He'll turn the music down. So we knew when we did Cabana that he could not work. We could not actually work in the same restaurant.

00;16;22;20 - 00;16;42;04
Speaker 1
All right, well, let's talk about Kamala. Okay? You and Randy opened it right across the street from sunset, and it would have it was so different. It was playful and laid back, and the vibe had a younger vibe to it. So I want to know what an angel, what made you want to try something vastly different from what you knew was successful?

00;16;42;04 - 00;16;59;24
Speaker 3
So if you were interviewing Randy, Randy would tell you that there were three of us and there was. There was myself, the chef of Sunset at the time, and Brian here and then Rafe. And so the three of us went, Gary What Randy would tell you is that he knew that he was going to lose the two of us.

00;16;59;26 - 00;17;24;24
Speaker 3
We were being and we were being poached on a weekly basis offering job offer jobs, literally on a weekly basis. So he said, I've got to do something for these guys. So he said, okay, here's what this thing's coming available across. Sugarcane became available this space and his look, let's do something, okay? And we started out Cabana was going to be the original name was across the street was the original restaurant name.

00;17;25;01 - 00;17;45;21
Speaker 3
I went home, tell my wife. My wife thought this was still experimental. So when I came back to reiterate the commander's warning and the first thing about it, what we found out was there was a big wall of windows, and at that time the trays were sitting less than three feet away, and they just installed a brand new stereo system.

00;17;45;23 - 00;18;01;27
Speaker 3
And I said, Well, how in the world are these people going to sit here and enjoy their meal at our restaurant when they're playing their music? We're trying to have our knowledge up, so we got to block it out. We just got good. So that's what we came up with All the craziness and creative advantage, which then created the name of command.

00;18;02;00 - 00;18;25;09
Speaker 3
So we, you know, we he wanted to do something for us. So a put a little bit of skin in the game and, you know, put some money on the line and create something that we could be proud of and we could go in there together. So that was really the way to battle and came about what can command and came is strictly 100% Nashville Williams created it.

00;18;25;12 - 00;18;42;07
Speaker 3
We were going to do hot dogs, hamburgers and, you know, a bar and that was it. And he was going to be easy. And there was no big man. There was no back room, there was no Mac. There was nothing, none of that was in the car started. And as we kind of started creating this thing, it got bigger.

00;18;42;10 - 00;19;00;22
Speaker 3
And Randy helped a lot with that of making it bigger and bigger and bigger. I mean, it became what you said, which is people walked into this big, beautiful back room, we called it. There was a literally a spot. As we walked in the little station, it opened up, you know, wow. Spot because people just come in there.

00;19;00;27 - 00;19;25;24
Speaker 3
Oh, wow. Because they've never seen anything like it. Nashville, nobody, nobody does idea at that point. Tell them we were also doing it with TV cameras in our face the whole time because it was actually a reality show, a film of a while that was going on. So we're trying to open a restaurant. We got cameras filming the whole thing of all our mistakes and everything else that was.

00;19;25;26 - 00;19;42;04
Speaker 1
So brown in this restaurant. There would be big booths that had curtains that you would just pull like it. Literally. You felt like you were in a cabana. So I want to know, was there any servers that came back to say there was something inappropriate happened in those cars?

00;19;42;04 - 00;20;07;21
Speaker 3
Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, so the curtains were coursing through. I think people didn't realize they they could see the court for some reason, the cell didn't travel through those Cadillac curtains or that we couldn't see through those magic curtains. And they were they were designed on purpose. And those were one of the most expensive things in that restaurant was those curtains, because they had to be fire retardant and fire retardant.

00;20;07;21 - 00;20;37;16
Speaker 3
See, through material is extremely expensive to do. But we had, you know, yes, there were many a times there all of a sudden, you know, somebody, you know, people would be dancing or, you know, whatever, you know. But it also gave kind of a privacy that that allowed people, you know, in Nashville, you know, stars and things like that give them the ability to have their privacy and have a have a time away and to not be bothered because they could actually be at a restaurant.

00;20;37;16 - 00;20;54;00
Speaker 3
And there just weren't that many restaurants in Nashville. But, you know, the Carrie Underwoods of the world could go and hang out or even Taylor Swift, you know, that she could go and not be bothered by the world around them that.

00;20;54;02 - 00;21;16;25
Speaker 2
Was so over the last 15 years, Nashville has seen a lot of new population booms come in, a lot of old houses torn down, new houses built, a lot of iconic restaurants have disappeared. What has allowed Allison's place to stay here and how was it? Was it in danger? And if it was, what what allowed it to succeed.

00;21;16;25 - 00;21;38;05
Speaker 3
And so is absolutely in danger and it was not doing well. So the gentleman that owns Elston Place set a shop here on Elston, had decided that it would be a good idea to open one in Cool Springs, which you may not remember because nobody knew Birmingham, because nobody went well. That ended up sucking the money out of this one, which then put the stress on the whole thing.

00;21;38;08 - 00;22;04;07
Speaker 3
You know, this place now four years ago, a gentleman here in town named Tony Giancana and his wife, Betty, decided to save something because all these restaurants that were starting, you know, road tiers to Arnold's to, you know, all these restaurants were going away. But it's because the lease got so expensive or whether, you know, it just it was time to go or it was, you know, for so many restaurants dealing with it.

00;22;04;09 - 00;22;25;18
Speaker 3
We saw that happen with Tony and his wife, you know, knew that it was struggling. He was doing a lot of business meetings at the place and which is where he does all his meetings is at tables with napkins. But one day he just asked the owner and said, said, you know, I know you kind of struggle. And he said, would you ever, you know, have any interest in selling the rights to the restaurant?

00;22;25;20 - 00;22;51;15
Speaker 3
And the guy said, Yeah, I sure would. And Tony said, okay, well, we don't know anything. We sit down a little bit and said, okay, here you go. And so he goes home to his wife and said, Honey, I'm thinking about buying a restaurant. And she goes, No, you're not. He goes, I think I already did it. So we were in the building, located ten feet away, and that landlord would only give Tony a five year lease.

00;22;51;17 - 00;23;10;27
Speaker 3
Well, Tony's in the development business. He builds the skyscrapers downtown, he builds buildings for living. He looked at the guy, said, you know, but a completely rebuilt your will. Yes. So five year lease, That's all I wanted to do. It's about 3 hours later he bought this building. The building were ten days away. People still can't find us.

00;23;10;27 - 00;23;37;09
Speaker 3
They go. They don't. They go pull up in their car in front of the call center. Tony. He goes. He told me, It's like just your car. Are you in? Are you? You know, I said, Yeah, let's move ten feet forward. Know. But with that, I mean, he wanted, he wanted to feel he, you know, he did a great job with the designers and everybody of this restaurant because the ceilings were really high over in that old building.

00;23;37;11 - 00;23;51;14
Speaker 3
And so you walked into these really high ceilings. Well, that wasn't the case of this building. And so he came in and it was just doesn't feel the same way we're going to do so he said, Well, they said, Well, you can't go up here, so what's below us? And they said, Well, we don't know, so we're fine now.

00;23;51;14 - 00;24;15;26
Speaker 3
So he took the floor down 18 inches to give the ceiling more money. Everything in this new building is an exact replica too. I mean, down to the ridges in the tables to the the way that so back to the to the stitching. Living in the booths are all identical so that you have this field of the old restaurant that now 85 years later is it's all new.

00;24;15;29 - 00;24;29;13
Speaker 3
Well imagine lady got to find would be the other day it said well I've been coming for 40 years notes the original chair. And I said, Well man, they're they're gone. Just know I'm telling you, I've been coming 40 years. Don't you want me to fail?

00;24;29;13 - 00;24;32;21
Speaker 1
I wrote the check. They're not.

00;24;32;23 - 00;25;02;21
Speaker 3
But, you know, there was so much time and so much attention placed on creating A-listers so that the person that came as a child like I did, they to now get that job, that same feeling and and could create that you know in this community and not not lose that that spark that somebody came in and was able to yeah come here and see you know what it what just what it felt like.

00;25;02;23 - 00;25;04;04
Speaker 2
You got here they were coming as a.

00;25;04;04 - 00;25;26;14
Speaker 3
Child. So my grandfather brought me in the early seventies. He moved to town from Kentucky here and my grandmother to be close to their grandkids and, you know, so he'd, he'd pick me up from school and go ahead and take me, and we'd come over here. And all I knew Liston for was hamburgers, fries and shakes, more specifically milkshakes.

00;25;26;14 - 00;25;54;13
Speaker 3
We would almost always sit at the counter and he would come. And I remember just like that would have been, you know, early like that early seventies, you know, and I'm ten, 17. Oh, so, you know, as I look back on that, as now someone who runs this has these grandparents and it's every day I mean, we drink and look around and find grandparents here that are bringing their kids like, you know, what his parents were.

00;25;54;15 - 00;26;12;02
Speaker 3
But they come in here now. It's the first milkshake they've ever had. You know, you get the kids have been in this fine dining where, you know, on a Friday, you know, we're here recording this on Friday, you know, the Friday and a fine dining. So we had a terrible week. We come in and we take it out of you to take it to a server.

00;26;12;04 - 00;26;36;18
Speaker 3
You got your server in the bathroom crying because that's same customer just yelled at him because they didn't get their salad version. Right. Do you walk into Allison's like soda shop and they're just they're happy to give me a milkshake. I actually made a lady cry earlier this week because I gave her a chocolate ice cream, so she hadn't had one since she was in New York when she was nine years old.

00;26;36;19 - 00;27;10;08
Speaker 3
She was in her 50th and had never had one since. She sent her balls, you know, to do that, you know, in this business, you know, you create yeah, you create memories. And I think that in my career I created a lot of memories. But to bring back memories of, you know, a long time ago, just like, you know, me sitting at this counter and having, you know, with my grandmother and it's I think it's really it's really a very different than what I've done a lot of my career.

00;27;10;10 - 00;27;11;20
Speaker 3
Things happen every year.

00;27;11;20 - 00;27;21;27
Speaker 2
How are your do you find that atmosphere that you're creating? Does it help you keep your employees longer? And how is that it? So how does that impact your career environment? Well.

00;27;21;29 - 00;27;47;28
Speaker 3
You know what what you see here is and people ask us all the time, oh, is this is this family okay? Well, yes, it's a lot of family are trying to figure out who's related that way because we all are so different. But they're like, okay, well, who's mom? Who's dad? Who's grandma and grandpa? This was Linda, who's been here for 31 years, making pies every morning and four or five morning, 340.

00;27;48;00 - 00;28;07;25
Speaker 3
But, you know, they look at her and then they look at me the way it is. And people say, well, is that your fault? Because we the way we interact is if you're if you're at a table staring and watching, watching this crew work, they're having a good time. They're laughing and joking and they look like brothers and sisters in arms and dads.

00;28;07;25 - 00;28;39;08
Speaker 3
And it's just you know, it's this thing and it's this feeling in nature that is creative. And I think that's one of the things that really, really taught me how to do this, is to worry about the culture that that if you create that culture, if you create that, that feeling and that that just like any job, if you're if you're happy with it, if you're happy doing it, then also your customers are your customers are pleased.

00;28;39;10 - 00;29;10;21
Speaker 3
Yeah, we do have really good food. The food is always helpful. Yeah, I kind of remind the staff, it's like you don't have customers yelling at you because the food's bad. Yeah, but you have. You have this. You have this community that comes in. And as I look and see one of my old sous chefs from Cabana sitting there with a hat on, it's come to save me, goes back to what we were talking about is, is you know, it's kind of this thing of, you know, one of my mentees over the years and six months and he's going they like.

00;29;10;23 - 00;29;19;17
Speaker 2
So you mentioned as a child, you remember milkshake, hamburger, fries. I say like it may be known for some meat and three things, too, right?

00;29;19;19 - 00;29;45;21
Speaker 3
So when when else in place that a shop was opened in 1939, it was a pharmacy. It had the soda fountain in the pharmacy, which is very typical of that time right there. In 1939, Mr. Chandler came into the pharmacist and said, Let me build a wall down the middle of the pharmacy. We'll make the soda fountain on this side, and then you can keep the pharmacy on this side.

00;29;45;21 - 00;30;09;07
Speaker 3
And they left a little space at the front where you can go in and you go around. And so the pharmacist said, okay, let's do it. And so all of a sudden Mr. Taylor had to set up shop. But he also in 1939, he was the first one at the school. So he claims everybody was a meeting to wow.

00;30;09;09 - 00;30;29;03
Speaker 3
He became the first of Meet the three is the first one to offer three so many drinks. What most people didn't know is and just like I didn't know and in the early seventies with my granddad was I didn't know that they were going to make three because I went to Sylvan Park with my granddad for maybe three.

00;30;29;05 - 00;57;49;27
Speaker 3
Well, what's funny is, is Douglas Taylor owned banks, so even Ellison Place so shop made all the pies for for yeah for Sylvan Park made three.