The B Team Podcast
Talking all things Business, Bentonville, and Bourbon. Hosted by Josh Saffran, Matt Marrs, and Rob Nelson. New episodes every Thursday!
The B Team Podcast
Ep. 17 - Whiskey Wisdom and Culinary Journeys with Ben Biesenthal
What happens when you mix the resolution of a contract dispute with a glass of Sazerac rye whiskey? Tune in as hosts Josh Saffran and Matt Marrs, accompanied by Robert Nelson and special guest Ben Biesenthal, bring you a lively discussion brimming with insights and laughter. We kick things off by talking about the importance of team dynamics and the power of a heartfelt apology. Then, we shift gears to savor the flavors of fine spirits, from the complexities of Sazerac rye to the straightforward pleasures of Bush Light and vodka. These spirited conversations set the stage for an exploration of Ben's refined taste in beverages and the camaraderie kindled over good drinks.
Ever wondered what it takes to build a restaurant empire that stands the test of time? Ben Biesenthal, the visionary behind Gusano's and Grubb's, shares his inspiring journey from Chicago's pizza joints to founding a culinary staple in the South. We delve into the trials and triumphs of maintaining high-quality dining experiences, revealing the secrets behind makeshift TV mounts and over two decades of success. Ben's stories and insights offer a masterclass in the delicate balance of innovation and tradition, emphasizing the importance of premium ingredients and exceptional service.
Our episode wouldn't be complete without a flavorful dive into the world of pizza. From homemade ranch dressing to the eternal New York vs. Chicago-style debate, we cover it all with passion and humor. Claire, Gusano's operations manager, gets a special mention for her incredible homemade ranch, while we reminisce about unique offerings like the Dirty Bird and Leif Erickson pizzas. The conversation also explores the vibrant community culture at our establishments and looks ahead to the exciting future of South Walton Spirits. And don't miss the hilariously unfortunate tale of a boat renaming ceremony gone wrong, wrapping up the episode with plans for future events in the creatively envisioned "Nelson Loft." Join us for an episode filled with stories, laughter, and a celebration of good food and drink!
Welcome back to the B-Team Podcast. I'm your host, Josh Saffron, with our permanent guest I'm flipping it around today and my newfound friend we have a contract squabble all behind us. Mr Robert Nelson, Welcome back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the viewers, all the comments came in. They said that they wanted to see a true, sincere apology from you. And I'm sorry, I mean it's kind of weak. Can you guys hug it out or something? I'm sorry, I mean it's kind of weak. Can you guys hug it out, or something you got to apologize first. Rob, oh, that's a nice chain. That's a nice chain.
Speaker 1:Wow, out of my pay league. Okay, let's get back to the show. Our co-host, mr Matt Morris. Matt, good to have you back, I'm back.
Speaker 2:Good to have you back, because you're here all the time.
Speaker 1:Matt never mind, but I was trying to kind of preempt the fact that he may leave us at some point.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you know when you and I decided to do this with Rod, we thought you know we were a team and we would all be here all the time. Host We've had some issues, co-host. And then, yeah, yeah, we don't know yet he's saying he's back. We think he's back, we'll see.
Speaker 1:We'll see, we'll see if Josh you know what his behavior looks like, but anytime we bring you pizza you're going to stay. Oh, I'm in, you're talking to my love language and I want to welcome again the B-Team podcast Bourbon, benville and Business. And we've got a double B in Ben Biesenthal today. That's right. We've had that a couple times with Ben Blakeman. We've lucked out with a couple of business owners that got the B's in their name Right Welcome.
Speaker 2:Thanks for joining us. Hey, thanks for having us. Me, I guess, not None of us.
Speaker 1:And we'll talk grubs, we'll talk casanos, we'll talk pizza, we'll talk liquor stores, yeah Well let's talk here, Matt. What do we got today? We?
Speaker 2:got some Sazerac rye whiskey from Lisa over at Sazerac, at Sazerac.
Speaker 1:Shout out, shout out.
Speaker 2:Shout out we're synced up, we're synced up. I mean, you guys are back, we're back.
Speaker 1:We had a few, some dark days, ben. We had a breakup, we had a contract squabble, oh yeah, and I'm on the reunion. You're on the reunion tour. You have to see the reunion.
Speaker 2:Josh was just having a day. Right, it happens, it happens. Thank you, Rob. He forgot I was Italian, so he got that side of me. We had a whole Rob. He ripped up his contract. It was a whole deal.
Speaker 1:Oh, you got more on the table than you did in your glass with that. I know that was pretty bad. I'm sorry, you're okay. So the Sazerac rye so this is one of the only items that they make that is not allocated, that you could actually get, and I'm not a huge rye fan, but now in your liquor store you get able to get this regularly.
Speaker 2:Not regularly.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:This is tasty. Yeah, I wouldn't say that it's readily available. It's just started to get a little bit easier.
Speaker 1:But out of all the Sazerac stuff this is the easiest to get right.
Speaker 2:Well, cheers, I mean Rob's not—he doesn't even want to argue with us.
Speaker 1:Let's get to tracking.
Speaker 2:I mean I don't talk about it, I don't know, what's in the contract, but he doesn't even argue anymore. Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1:That was one of the clauses you lost. It really paid up.
Speaker 2:That was a clause. It went from one bourbon to two bourbons.
Speaker 1:See, I don't normally like the rise, I do like that quite a bit.
Speaker 2:It's pretty good. That's good. It's good, right, my glass may be leaking a little bit.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's the glasses fault. Ben, you got the face. Yeah, I think it's pretty good, it's edible, yeah, drinkable. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm not a connoisseur of bourbons, starting to like them more and more, you know, and learning more about them as I go.
Speaker 1:What's your drink of choice? Armley.
Speaker 2:It was Bush Light. Now we're talking. You had the wrong hat on today. Bush lattes, I like that, yeah, they're refreshing, yeah, but I've tried to try to steer away from the beer a little bit this year, you know, and switch to vodka or something More healthy yeah.
Speaker 1:I guess I mean, at least that's what we tell ourselves, right, fock and soda we're hydrating and drinking at the same time. Two squeeze of lime in there and I'm good to go.
Speaker 2:Low-cal yeah, but no, I have started to enjoy bourbon more and more. It's not my go-to, but I'm learning.
Speaker 1:Matt's got the coolest bourbon selection at his home and occasionally we'll get him to fess up and bring a bottle in, right, and it's like it's. It's like I'm not sure if I should open this. We'll get like 19 texts like you sure you want me to bring the bourbon in today and it's the best one ever because it's matt's right and, whether I like it or not, like this is just delicious. It always tastes better when it's Matt's Right and, whether I like it or not, I'm like this is just delicious.
Speaker 2:It always tastes better when it's free. Yeah, when it's free it doesn't matter as much. Now I think this like I think for me rye's or I like to use rye in an old-fashioned, because then it's not as sweet, I agree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I don't normally drink, but this is actually really tasty.
Speaker 2:I added a touch of water to mine, which was the old rust trick. Why don't you share some water? You got your own water over here. There's another one A touch of water, a couple drops the old rust we learned on a few episodes Earlier on A touch of water. That was better. So for this big collection, how did? You get it great well said a lot of time during carry my watch this.
Speaker 2:Uh, during covet I I kind of became obsessed with stuff and and uh, that was what filled the hours of the day. I'd find them and buy them, buy them and that's the whole thing.
Speaker 1:But like every secondary market type of stuff. Every day stuff was showing up at the house, right. Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I think we were all guilty of that we were, we were in COVID, I mean. So we would just you know you'd be online and you'd find whatever bottle and bid on it at auction.
Speaker 1:Walk me through the conversation in the house when it shows up and it's addressed to you, and Carrie sees the box and she's like another box of bourbon, Like how bad was that conversation?
Speaker 2:It was bad when I knew two or three were coming the same day. I would try to be home two or three times to try to intercept before they got to the front door. It was hit or miss. It'd be like when you were skipping school and you tried to get the phone call at nighttime exactly exactly and does she go into the private area to see how many bottles that you have?
Speaker 2:well, so so our private area is like our safe room also. So, carrie, her joke is she's like I mean, if we lose the house and the family, at least the bourbon will be okay.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I told her. I was like, if we have to get in there, we'll get in.
Speaker 1:So I can only imagine when, like the tornado warning is coming, you're like, oh crap, because Carrie's going to be reminded of how many bottles of bourbon I have.
Speaker 2:So there'll be a different kind of tornado coming. Matt's probably more worried that they're going to run in there and break a bottle of bourbon than the tornado.
Speaker 1:No that too.
Speaker 2:That's got to be. It's pretty. I mean it's fun to collect them because it's kind of like it's like cars or anything else.
Speaker 1:You know everyone has, I'd say stop making them.
Speaker 2:There's, you know, everyone has. There's always these coveted ones that you know it's so hard to get, and whenever you get one, you know you're calling all your buddies and you might've paid X for it, but you tell them you paid this and then they're all like oh how'd you get that? And you're like I don't know, it was just there and I got it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a few episodes ago he said he'd bring in one of those bottles for us to drink too. Oh yeah, that hasn't happened.
Speaker 2:I've run a few in, but Not those. I mean I brought the special juice in that one time in the Crystal. Rob has donated nothing to the show Zero. He donated. The drain pour is all he donated. I'm building a new bar, so I've got to keep my stock to fill the shelves, all right, let's talk to Ben, because I can see he's ready. Yeah, he's ready to get out of here. I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 1:So Ben, the founder, the CEO, the godfather of Gusano's and Grubb's, Pretty much that's correct. I mean I have a partner and so it's definitely not. Don't give him any credit.
Speaker 2:So it's definitely not. Don't give him any credit, so it's definitely not all me. His name's Grubb, that's what we call him. It's not his real name, but nobody knows his real name except for about three or four of us. So we just keep it that way. And he, more so, founded Grubbs and I, more so, came up with the recipes for Gusano's. But we decided to partner and do restaurants together. And here we are. How many Gususanos are there now? There's eight gusanos and there's two grubs.
Speaker 2:wow, we uh sold the one in fayetteville in front of target during covet, the one we weren't allowed to have customers in excellent pizza longhorn made an offer on the buildings was like well, well, okay, we didn't know our future, so we took the deal and said thank you. So I've been doing it for 20 years now, and that's what I do. It's a long time in the restaurant business it is. It's been fun, though I can't complain about it. It's got me to where I am now, and that means everything I mean my kids are who they are because I did business first and family second later in my life and I wouldn't change any of it.
Speaker 2:He's on the V Team podcast. He's here. He's made it. Look where he's gone. Do you ever think he'd be here? I think maybe we're almost making it. He's here. I think it's the other way around, yeah.
Speaker 1:I know, I know, I remember when I first moved here like this was the place to go Right. And the cool thing is it's still the place to go Right, Right, which is so cool because we we talked to Brenda from River Grill about a similar thing, Like how do you keep your longevity when there's new restaurants popping up all the time Right? And everyone's like do you want to go to Gassata's Last night? Yeah, we go on dinner, we go to Gassata's. Like it's still cool 20 years later. That's awesome. Walk me through that.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that, and you know to have a good product. If the product's not good unless there's some sort of gimmick attached, then what's the draw? For us, I feel like our product is quality. When you start a business, you make the choices of what you want to do. We chose a higher-end cheese, a higher-end ingredients, ingredients the whole nine and charge a higher price for it, knowing though that's that's what we were catering to. You know, I grew up in Chicago, and every time my dad had a softball game, or we got down, we, whatever the event was. That day that was some sort of sporting deal. We all just went to the local pizza place and the black hawks were on, or the bulls which I don't like any either of those teams, you know, but for a different podcast and, uh, we ate pizza and we hung out and the guys drank pitchers of beer that were of legal age and us kids were drinking sodas and maybe playing an arcade game or two to keep busy.
Speaker 2:but it was kind of dark, long, narrow buildings. It just felt comfortable and so I went to the University of Arkansas, and there's good pizza, honestly, for those of you who have been to Chicago ever heard of Portillo's.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I lived in Chicago. And so when I moved here, I'm like well, where's the Portillo's? They're like what's that? I was like, yeah, I lived in Chicago. And so when I moved here, I'm like well, where's the Portillo's? Oh yeah, and they're like what's that? And I was like, well, I got to get an Italian beef. And they're like what do you mean? Like a roast beef sandwich?
Speaker 1:I'm like.
Speaker 2:No, I wouldn't have said roast beef sandwich if that's what I meant, but anyway. So it just kind of started this idea in my head, of like, when I was 23, that we're gonna do something at some point, right, and so created a file called Windy City Pies and and there we go. But that's kind of. That's kind of what I was building towards was trying that feeling I had when I was a kid, right, and then 20 years later, you do have to do things along the way, right. We I can remember the first restaurant in Little Rock where we literally built, took plywood, painted them, put four chains from the ceiling down to hang those, hold those big, bulky TVs right.
Speaker 1:That were like 90 pounds.
Speaker 2:And $5,000.
Speaker 1:And another 200 bucks. 32 inches. I ended up hanging at 12 feet. I don't even know how we saw them but it was amazing right. It was so cool. Look at it. We own a casino so much today. That's right.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, you just bring your bifocal. But obviously that kind of stuff has improved with technology. But during COVID, when the doors were shut, I started ripping stores apart and coming up with new interior, just changing the whole look, just trying to stay fresh, just trying to make it feel like, okay, cool, we're at a new place, but we're at an at our old favorite place type deal, you know. And so you add mobile apps and just rewards. Now you know what I mean. As technology changes, we try to keep up instead of be the grandpa.
Speaker 2:It's funny, you bring that up with COVID, because I remember your store in Bentonville. We went in there and then they were like he's had us We've never remodeled, but he's like you had all the staff helping do a lot of this stuff to keep them working.
Speaker 1:We just decided to remodel while we were, so it was cool, which is brilliant, and they loved it.
Speaker 2:They were like I've never to remodel while we were, so it was cool. Which is brilliant and they loved it. They were like I've never done any of that. It was fun. I'm lucky, I've got the tools and I'm like all right, hey, see this wall right here.
Speaker 1:In order to hang every board.
Speaker 2:to make this wall done, we need a lot of time, and we got a lot of time, so let's do it. Which is brilliant though, because I mean, when you're running and gunning, it's tough to shut down a store for a few weeks. That's right, which we've had to do a few of the other stores. We kind of have had to do that here and there, but can't can't make any money when things are down.
Speaker 1:but now you went last night, not, I mean, you knew we were filming with these, yeah but yeah, I knew, yeah, I knew yesterday that we were going to film.
Speaker 2:But it was funny. So we my daughter called and my wife was with our youngest at that cheer practice, inactus and Springdale, and she was like you want to go to Gasano's? I was like yep. So I was telling you we had the ghost pepper, yeah, and it was so good, yeah you like it.
Speaker 2:Everything's good that you guys have. We've been running this pizza of the month type deal and just half the time is to try a new item just to see how it sticks right, like chorizo or something that's not a staple. And so we're running this ghost pepper and I it's been interesting, we've. It's delicious, yeah, fyi, and it's not spiced, like it's not. So mallory didn't really want to get it, but I'm anytime. The pizza, the mud things on. I'm like we're getting that because I've never tried it right, if we don't like it and next month.
Speaker 2:You can't get it again, yeah so, so mallory, she loved it and she didn't think she would like, like she took one little corner and then I saw her grabbing, you know and right, and it was one of those things where I think it I don't think people realize it was like ghost pepper cheese. It wasn't like ghost peppers yes that's so it was it had a little kick, but nothing, yeah, just a little kick and it's perfect, it's. It's a really sharp cheese you know, I mean it's got.
Speaker 2:If you put it on a pizza, we'll cut it with regular mozzarella as well, because it would a bigger size pizza it's too much. It's just depend on your threshold. But you know, yeah, I think the the name of it scares some people off, but it it's a good item it's selling well too, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So if it does well, we'll stay on the menu permanently or yeah, we'll probably try to figure out something.
Speaker 2:You know? I mean, our menu is pretty big, comparatively speaking to where it was.
Speaker 1:That's my biggest problem in a restaurant and they're like the lady comes back like 15 times. I I'm like this looks good, but this looks good, but this looks good. There's so many choices. What's your number one seller?
Speaker 2:Well, the carnivore Pepperoni is everybody's number one seller, right, that's Rob's favorite Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, he's like you got to get pepperoni. It's the statement, right.
Speaker 2:And he's like that's the baseline. That drops the baseline. I'm right there with you. But after that, our carnivore craze, which is our four-meat pizza traditional four meats is right there. The moose head, which is one of the ones I brought, is right there. Grub's Choice is another one. Grub's Choice is another one. And that's really the problem is, we go through, we bring on a new pizza and it's not a problem, right. But when we're trying to peer the menu down and we actually get the statistical data of the sales, it's like well, we can't really take that one off.
Speaker 2:Well, we can't take that one off you know, and it's a great problem to have, and very proud of that fact. And then you got to hear the customer that only comes there for that pizza, right, yeah, how'd you do away with that? We've taken a few off, but everybody that traditionally ate them, we still make it for them because we're just trying to save the menu space.
Speaker 1:And they feel special and they have the items.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, you know what they made for you Off the menu when I was in yesterday, right, you can create about anything too, if you want to, so as long as it's not like a chorizo or something I mentioned where. Then we decided to discontinue it, Right, but yeah, it's fun. So we had one last night that we had never had. It was a chicago style with it at basil. It had a weird start with the uh the didka.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guarantee you, it was it was okay, that was on my list of options to bring today with. I was going through it with the girls at my office and I'm like, well, we gotta, we gotta bring certain ones you know. And, uh, the didka is. Yeah, it's phenomenal, it's good. Yeah, it's become one of my go-tos for sure, like the basil on it, yeah, it's so.
Speaker 1:Vitamin.
Speaker 2:It's kind of killing me sitting here smelling it. Can we at least open the box? Yeah? Open the box, just don't cover up my face 20 minutes ago he told me that he was full he didn't even think he could eat any pizza.
Speaker 1:You guys are smelling it all right, so let's hold it up in front of the camera, oh right in front of you here.
Speaker 2:Okay, right here. Nope, a little higher. Oh, there we go, do it. That'll do it. Okay, so that one we brought I probably should have done last, but it doesn't matter. Um, it's just a non-traditional baste. It doesn't have a red sauce base, right? This is what we call the Dirty Bird and it is on our honey habanero sauce. That's my favorite piece of beef, right, and fresh jalapenos, pineapple onion chicken. We got this sauce, this honey habanero sauce, that actually one of the cooks at Grubb's made for us. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Don't be shy.
Speaker 2:Rob's like just keep talking, man keep talking.
Speaker 1:I'm going to eat. Sorry, I had to bring y'all some ranch, so that's all in there.
Speaker 2:So that's the other thing. Our girls, your ranch is the best ranch ever. And Claire, who I got to give a shout out to Claire. That's the other thing. Our girls, your ranch is the best ranch I've ever been to. And Claire, who I've got to give a shout-out to Claire.
Speaker 1:Our operations manager. She's amazing. She's like you have to take the ranch and this is a homemade ranch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we make it in the store every day, so I brought this one, just because it's kind of fun.
Speaker 1:It's my favorite feature there.
Speaker 2:Have you tried their ranch?
Speaker 1:rock.
Speaker 2:This is good though, yeah, it's you know, growing up in Chicago, I'm like you can't put ranch on a pizza.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:That's like putting ketchup on steak. You're probably going to have to, but people do it and it's cool. I've gotten used to it.
Speaker 1:Matt, have you had the dirty bird before? I never have. It is my Never have.
Speaker 2:Is that pineapple in there? Yeah, which is crazy, because I don't even remember seeing this on there, right, so you sell it. I used to get this chicken and mushroom a lot that you guys made. Oh, you probably got the leaf Erickson Chicken, mushroom, tomato and black olive. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that one is one of those. We actually took it off, but you can still ask for it.
Speaker 1:It's got a nice spice. Yeah, it's got a little sweetness with the pineapple. Right, this one, it's my all-time favorite. It's very good. I didn't even ask you to bring this today?
Speaker 2:No, I'll be honest. Every time I go somewhere and take food for people this is one of the ones that's coming for sure Just because people take to try it and they're like man, that's pretty good, you know that's also unique, right, you know, to any pizza place and get a pepperoni in a sausage, get a four cheese.
Speaker 1:This is very different. Yeah, it's right.
Speaker 2:It's good. Oh, one of them. Yeah, I'm good. All right, I might go get a few more drinks. I'm going to buy one drink.
Speaker 1:We'll be right back. You're leaving the podcast. I'm out. We're going to get some drinks. I'll be right back, all right.
Speaker 2:I'm good right now. Thank you, just walked off the set. That's first. Yeah, you guys I brought. I did bring a traditional Chicago-style pizza as well, just because it's what we're predicated off of, right and kind of how we got our start. And, interestingly enough, you know, lots of people are like, oh well, it's not like what I ate when I. You know, in Chicago, where I grew up, one of the pizza places was different, right.
Speaker 1:Lou.
Speaker 2:Malnati's to Giordano's to oh wow, what's that? This is a traditional Chicago-style pizza and I brought it because it's how we got our start.
Speaker 1:It's the OG. Yeah, it's the OG, but I have to pause you, as two New Yorkers, northeast guys, this is like the New York pizza in Chicago. It's a big battle, I know right, it's like the Northeast East Coast wrap versus West Coast wrap.
Speaker 2:New East Coast wrap versus West Coast wrap, new York pizza versus Chicago pizza, is a big deal it is, and you know, I think I can see both points, both sides. I personally like every kind of pizza, whether it's from California, Detroit, wherever. As long as it tastes good, I'm going to get it down right. I spent a month in New York working at, actually, the World Trade Towers, and that was what I pretty much had for lunch every day, right, two slices folded over, and that was my deal when I lived in Chicago.
Speaker 1:I'm a New Yorker and I lived out in the suburbs out there in St Charles.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I learned to appreciate the Chicago pizza, right, I was like how can you eat that? I go, it's good. Yeah, the Chicago pizza. Right, I was like, how can you eat that? I go, it's good. Yeah, it's very filling, that's right, very filling.
Speaker 2:but it's quite tasty and it's very different, yeah, and we've had to tweak it a little bit from. You know the luxury of in Chicago. They cook the pizzas at a slower, lower temperature, which I think results in a better product. Being here, we had to kind of hybrid because people are like well, what do you mean? It's going to be 45 minutes for a pizza and you're like but, like I said when I was a kid, if you didn't have 45 minutes and you ordered a thin crust and just moved on, but otherwise you pretty much went with the full expectation of you knew what was going to happen.
Speaker 1:Rob, can you do us all a favor? Can you hold the pizza up to the camera and show the viewers? Look at that, that's a winner. That's a good looking pie.
Speaker 2:Especially with me next to it. We'll crop you out. He has the direct wine with the viewers. We don't, we don't Remember.
Speaker 1:Haley and Mama and my friend from Hawaii. I thought you were going to reach in there and take a bite.
Speaker 2:Just kidding you can I love the Chicago style. Alright, let's get in here.
Speaker 1:Now do you eat the Chicago style with the ranch also?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it gets a little messy. It's a little messy in the ranch. I don't eat ranch.
Speaker 1:Ben said he doesn't do that here.
Speaker 2:Pass that Now my wife and kids. It's heavy. My kids' favorite is the big cheese. That's what they have to get the big cheese.
Speaker 1:Matt, grab a slice of field. This is like five pounds of pizza. I had one last night.
Speaker 2:That's why I had to leave and go get some drinks. I was making sure you were okay. No, I was fine. We thought we lost you. No, I mean, you can't have a pizza without a cold soda. In my opinion, this is a—I asked them to prepare us an Italian sausage and green pepper, which when I grew up in Chicago that was kind of a signature deep dish, right there with pepperoni or right there with spinach. Those were big-time items that I grew up eating.
Speaker 1:That's a killer pizza. So what I?
Speaker 2:love about the Chicago style is leftover. Yeah, you can pull it right out of the refrigerator cold and it's amazing. Just like that it gets better. I'm a big sauce guy and for me, all that sauce on there, I love it some people are like, oh, light sauce, that's sacrilegious it's about the sauce, the dough and the cheese, and I'll sauce it up.
Speaker 2:That's good. That is good. It's a great sauce. I'm with you If I get a pizza that's dry, no matter where it's from, it's dry. Yeah, who wants dry pizza? Chicago, new York, domino's, whatever?
Speaker 1:It's dry, it's dry.
Speaker 2:It's good, I'll talk about the last one while y'all eat, but I brought the moose head, which I don't know. Do you have a camera? You want this to go in front of her Okay. Gotcha Good job, rob. Um, so somehow in college I got the nickname moose from my friends, and so when we first started the restaurant, was it from one of the girlfriends?
Speaker 1:No, that's for another podcast.
Speaker 2:That's a different podcast there. So when we opened the restaurant, the first couple specialty pizzas we had the grub's choice was a pizza grub. We all picked four ingredients and that was that. Growing up, I ate pepperoni and green olive for almost exclusively. That was my deal.
Speaker 1:It's a weird combo.
Speaker 2:My dad got me on it. Who doesn't want to be like their dad?
Speaker 1:My kids don't want to be like their dad.
Speaker 2:Well, when you're young, josh, it says a lot about you, josh, I know Was your first store in Little Rock then. Yeah, it was actually in Little Rock and it was fun. We opened a couple of weeks before the President Clinton Library opened, way back when the one on the main strip there yeah, it used to be down on.
Speaker 2:Riverwalk How'd it open anymore there. That's correct. We Long, long story. But about nine months after it opened and it started doing real well, we realized, okay, I lived up in northwest Arkansas for college when I was a stockbroker and I didn't really want to live in Little Rock full-time. Once we kind of got it going then the idea was to get back and expand it and start growing the brand right here. That was where I was going to run the office out of and all that and ended up selling the Little Rock store to one of our very first employees and he ran it for a long, long time and then couldn't anymore.
Speaker 2:But it wasn't our store. At that point I always thought that you guys started up here so I didn't realize that you were. No, bentonville was the second store which quickly led to Bella Vista, because Bella Vista was actually just a byproduct of Bentonville. Bentonville would get so busy I'd have to work the hostess station up up the front because they it was overwhelming for them, so I'd go help them out and I, the more I'd spend time talking to people, I'm realizing like, ooh, 25, 30% of our customers are from Bella Vista. I'm like I got to figure out smart and so I'm like I can take pressure off this store. Well then, we just open another monster you know, they just yeah, that one's a big, big time store.
Speaker 2:Oh, that store is huge. We go in there sometimes for lunch. Which one? Bella vista? Yeah, the bella vista store, and you can't even get a seat. So we would always like on the at that. We would always call both to see which one, because we're kind of right yeah well, a few times my, we've ordered them.
Speaker 2:And then we went to the wrong store to pick it up and the ladies know, because it must happen all the time they're like are you sure you called us and not Bentonville, and be like oh yeah, I called Bentonville, I'll go over there yeah, well, exactly.
Speaker 1:I'm sure when you call they're properly.
Speaker 2:They're supposed. Hey, my name is so-and-so and you've called the.
Speaker 1:Bella Vista Goose On.
Speaker 2:They do. But you know how. You have it in your head, that's right, and you get up there and you're like oh, yep.
Speaker 1:And then of course you guys are like can you just whip one up for me real?
Speaker 2:quick. They'll tell you that. They'll be like do you want us to make one here? And we'll be like no, it's 10 minutes to drive over there. So, as you can see, I eat a lot of salads. They're delicious. Well, that's one of their specialties too the salads are amazing. That's what I was going to say. When I go to Grubbs, I always order the buffalo chicken salad. That's all I ever get in there, I love that salad. Have you had that salad?
Speaker 1:Is that a big salad? Oh?
Speaker 2:yeah, I love that thing. Yeah, we. I can't tell you, but we modify the buffalo sauce a little bit from what your traditional would be Not a big deal, but it really kind of gives it a little extra. Put a little ranch in it, yeah right, just mix it to it.
Speaker 1:Can you hand?
Speaker 2:me a piece of moose head. Oh, here you go.
Speaker 1:I want to hear about the moose head.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we just got the pig. Like I said, I was a pepperoni and green olive guy. As I got older, sausage became, you know, I started to realize, eh, Italian sausage is pretty good. Ah, Italian sausage yes we're good.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And also as my palate matured, jalapenos became a real big part of my life and I'm like let's just put them all together and see what happens. And it turned out to be one of our biggest sellers. I think people get attracted sometimes to the non-traditional, just the deluxe, the Hawaiian, there's the Kohler, which are all good, don't get me wrong. There's the green olives on there as well. Yeah, you get your sodium intake for the day.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I have not had this one before. Oh, really, no, I always go to the Dirty Bird.
Speaker 2:It's tough to turn down, I don't know, but this was good. I don't know. You got me on this Chicago with all that sauce. Your sauce is a ton of sauce. Well, thank you. I'm a sauce guy. I don't mean to disrespect any, but a more bland sauce is just not for me, right? I like to put flavor in it, like big chunks. Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1:So, and you own all the recipes, so if you went to any of them, everybody be clear none of this is what it actually has to look like across the board.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean now like everything, are you ever going to get possibly a duh? You know I mean, or maybe a guy's newer and he doesn't fully understand, right or she? Whichever um mistakes definitely happen.
Speaker 2:We have humans working, you know. So that's part of it, but actually like a long way. I mean time flies right. So probably at this point 12, 15 years ago, because we make the sauce and the dough in-house for consistency purposes, I started having all of our actual seasonings that go in them. I wholesale them all and have them pre-packed so that when they come to the restaurant now, whoever's prepping it still has to follow the instructions on what to put in. But when it comes to the spices, you made an idiot proof. They just cut the bag and drop it in either one or two. Everyone has different hands.
Speaker 2:That's right you have your hand on the salt or the pepper. Yep, that makes a lot of sense, even as crazy as it is. And as crazy as it is. But if McCormick's basil might taste different than just slightly different than Cisco brand Right, and if so-and-so runs out and they just run to the local store, well then all of a sudden, an eighth a tablespoon of garlic powder is really the equivalent of three quarters. You know, it's got so much taste and so much flavor that people are like this isn't what I'm used to.
Speaker 1:Well, and the hard part is you're always interviewing, right. Anytime somebody comes in for the first time, it's a possible Google review. Right, Google reviews are great or they suck, Right. The bad ones are really bad.
Speaker 2:But like you want people coming back back and so if they have a bad first experience, second experience, they just won't be back. Right, the customers got very finicky. Yeah, just right. I mean, yeah, the way it is. Oh, I'll say that for our business, I mean I'm super proud of a lot of the things that have happened, right, but our regulars is, I mean, to what you've been talking about, like that's where you went last night. We get so many people that just come three, four, sometimes five times a week and that's like the ultimate compliment right is coming back because you feel comfortable.
Speaker 2:We want our product to be good, but we also want to make the you feel comfortable. We want our product to be good, but we also want to make the customer feel comfortable. I want our waitresses or our staff to acknowledge you If you come in a lot and they see you just. Hey, do you want your usual Miller Lite or are you guys doing the Dirty Bird again tonight? Just makes you feel like you're home.
Speaker 1:Oh, hey, remember me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like just the little things, and it doesn't happen to every experience, but from the amount of regulars we have, I believe it happens enough that they're listening to me sometimes at least. Right, we talk about that often in here with.
Speaker 1:I own a barbershop and we've had a lot of folks in like you and that often in here with. I own a barbershop and we've had a lot of folks in like you. We talk about the experience, more so than the transaction of what I'm eating or drinking and the customer service, the way that the customer feels when they walk in. If you walk in and said, mr nelson, would you like your miller light and your dirty bird, I'm thrilled, right, like I. Just it's just such a you need good pizza. There's a lot of good pizza places in town, right. But the experience of feeling value when you walked in, you can't put a price tag on it, no, that's right.
Speaker 2:No, it's. I do feel we have to apologize to the viewers because we really haven't been talking that much, because the three of us have just been eating some isn't eaten.
Speaker 1:It's so good.
Speaker 2:We're like yeah, i're like the quietest podcast we've ever had. I'm going to ranch with those pieces. I got more here. We got more. No, I'm done, I can't eat anymore. I mean that Chicago one's still looking at me. That dirty word I'd never had either.
Speaker 1:It's good yeah. Once you have the Dirty Bird, I don't even open the menu, Because the menu is hard for me, because I can't it's so many pages. I just go right to the Dirty Bird. I don't even open the menu.
Speaker 2:So from that you need to try that. The cheese bread, the ghost pepper, the ghost pepper yeah, you would love it. You could actually this month add that ghost pepper cheese to any pizza if you want to. We kind of have it as an extra. Like I said, it'd be like we're adding pepperoni. We're not going to use that only, but it's going to add to it and supplement it a little bit. I'm stuffed.
Speaker 1:So any last comments on Grubbs Gasol, because I want to talk to you about your liquor store business. Yeah, I mean because you're just like the jack of all trades around here. Well you got to keep busy, but before we go, 20 years in the restaurant, that's like Cheers, I'm just saying Well, thank you.
Speaker 2:I've finished mine, but all right, do you want to do more?
Speaker 1:Do you want to try a little more? Sure, but 20 years, is it the customers, is it the staff? Is it you and your partner?
Speaker 2:What's the secret sauce for, I mean 20 years is? It's amazing. I'm not going to claim that. My partner and I are smart enough to take the credit for that. So we'll go with the customers and the employees, right.
Speaker 1:Because how many employees do you have across all your stores? It's got to be.
Speaker 2:It fluctuates, but on payday, you know, we cut 300 plus checks, usually between all the stores that go out.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of checks.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we're blessed, you know, I mean we've got people that have made. We've got people that have been with us for 15 plus years and we've got people that go to college and they go do their dream job and then a month and a half later they're like I really like it here. Can I come back, you know, and they come back and we're I feel like we've created a pretty safe work environment and pretty fun.
Speaker 2:You know, I have a saying at the end of the day, we're selling pizza and beer. Nobody's dying on the table here today. We're not scrubbing in. So when it does get hectic, which sucks for a few minutes, it's going to be over in a little bit and we're going to go back to having a good time, and when you get done we lock the door you get to go home, rob.
Speaker 1:Matt and I have a saying as well we eat pizza and beer. Right, so we feel quite aligned with you, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we've been fortunate, and same with Grubbs. We have tremendous regulars, especially game days and stuff like that. The atmosphere is just so much fun.
Speaker 1:I think Grubbs is the underrated in the Gasano's Grubbs piece. Right, so much fun. I think grubs is the underrated in the Gassano's grubs piece because everybody knows Gassano's the grubs right here. I don't know if you guys get there often Buffalo chicken salad Buffalo right Buffalo chicken salad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, their wings are really good.
Speaker 1:The wings and the boneless wings. I don't eat the pizza there. That's what I go right for.
Speaker 2:So you guys moved in up here. So Gusano's grew up here first. But in Fayetteville Grubbs is a more recognizable name because Grubbs on Dixon was really one of the original anchor spots down on Dixon Street and of the originals were we're the last of the standing. There's not many of us left. Doze is still down there. Bordino I remember being there for a lot of games. Yeah it was fun we had too much fun.
Speaker 1:Do you still remember?
Speaker 2:That was back in before we had kids days, so we had a lot of good times there.
Speaker 1:Man.
Speaker 2:I'm forgetting the guy's name, but this is a fact. Probably 14 or 15 years ago the main beat writer for ESPN at the time and I can't remember his name, but he did like his preseason college football preview and it actually said at the tail he wrapped it up with and they'll be calling the hogs at Grubbs on Dixon Street when Arkansas wins the national championship. It beats Texas in the national championship, or something like that that's great marketing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what did that just say?
Speaker 2:That's awesome, is there another Grubbs?
Speaker 1:No, that's us.
Speaker 2:So it was cool. It was a national piece and all my boys from Chicago were like did you just read that?
Speaker 1:It was.
Speaker 2:Ivan Maisel or whatever the guy's name was back in the day that was doing all that. So yeah, it was cool, it was a great shout-out, for sure that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So as the serial entrepreneur, so talking about Grubbs Gasanos, which is the homeland for you, yep, in the last 8 to 12 months you bought into a liquor store.
Speaker 2:It's flown by to now 24 months.
Speaker 1:Is it two years? Yeah?
Speaker 2:It's like whoa, what happened here? You know we bought it with the intention of moving it. So what's the name of this? South Walton Spirits.
Speaker 1:It's in Bentonville On Walton.
Speaker 2:On Walton. We've enjoyed it for two years, but the goal always was to move it to the pinnacle area. Wes and I both live right down the road. We drive through here 42 times a day. You know, I I joke with people I don't go, I don't try any of the new restaurants unless they're in pinnacle, because I don't make it past here right to get to the highway to go wherever I'm going. I just stop right here. And he used to not be the case, no, but now it's what's blowing up over here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like, well, I'm just staying right here and there's not a liquor store. We feel like what we want to do. Our clientele is based here. You know we're hoping to be. It's not going to be a massive warehouse type experience. It's going to be a smaller, cleaner store with what we hope is, and I'll probably have to bring you guys in on consulting, but we're going to do like a bookcase type shelf wall.
Speaker 2:you know that we're going to put like one of those old library ladders. You know, just kind of give it that kind of feel That'll be awesome and I just envision it being full of bourbon.
Speaker 1:And hopefully we can get our hands on it right.
Speaker 2:You know, be it'd be more fun when yeah, we know people that could be more fun when we can get our hands on more. Um, we have been collecting what we can for when we do move, so we're we're gonna have a pretty nice allocated sale once. We kind of a grand opening kickoff party, you know.
Speaker 1:Nice yeah, rob perks up. He's been to there too Like after all the pizza. He was just kind of as soon as the allocated sale. He was like it was like Scooby Doo with the Scooby snacks.
Speaker 2:Hey, chance of like a little lounge or anything of that nature poachance. A chance of like a little lounge or anything of that nature pochance. So at the, at the, at the immediate, the answer is no mess. I was just explaining it to the guys outside different license, right?
Speaker 2:no, we could, I mean right now we can't get the square footage we want to inside of pinnacle makes sense. So we going to take a start with what we got, and I'll correlate this back to Gusano's. This is kind of where I'm at. The Gusano's in Bentonville, for instance, originally was 3,500 square feet, it's now 6,000. Bella Vista originally was 3,000. It's now 6,000. That's smart, though. Fayetteville was 2,500. It's now 58. As businesses fall off, you just take them over, yeah, and as we grow we always figure it out. So I figure, let's get in, let's start growing and we'll figure it out from there, I feel like there's an announcement coming today about where you're going and when you're going.
Speaker 2:We are going Hold on hold on Right, here we go. Yep, you guys will be the official, our family knows what we've been up to.
Speaker 1:You know, but for the last we would know right after them?
Speaker 2:yes, and you do. And uh, I actually just met bobby right here in the parking lot and handed him our signed lease and things are done. Uh, and hopefully we'll break ground on the construction. But we'll be right here next to the walker brothers uh spot, right outside this parking lot but in the same strip center as nukes, and Hopefully we'll break ground on the construction. But we'll be right here next to the Walker Brothers spot, right outside this parking lot, but in the same strip center as Nukes and Orange Theory. We'll be on the end cap.
Speaker 1:That's a great problem for me. These guys live a little further away, but for me this is a great problem. Yeah, it's. Oh. I almost drove a golf cart over here, that's right.
Speaker 2:And we're not. We're going to try to keep our selection to a little bit larger. I mean higher end. You can go into the neighborhood market and get some yellowtail if you're having a dinner party that justifies that this would be more for you're looking for a higher end dinner wine you know stag. And you'll be in their bind to a nice stag. Are you closing the?
Speaker 1:shop on Walton.
Speaker 2:Yes, so we only have one license, so we bought that to acquire the license. So now, as long as the ABC approves our move, which we've met the criteria.
Speaker 1:So there should be a hand. Do you own the space on Walton right now? No, okay, so you just turn that lease over and then you'll come over here.
Speaker 2:That building actually just traded hands, so the new owners have a pretty good idea of what they want to do and it just kind of gave us that little extra push we needed and we said, if we're going to do it, we better do it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's funny you say that there isn't anything down here. Right, there's no liquor store, that's right. And we live in a neighborhood right here and a lot of times on the weekends especially especially when it's nicer or whatever we're at a kid's event or this or that, and all of a sudden it's a hey, let's, um, why don't we come to our house tonight? Somebody volunteers our house. Well then, it's immediately uh, okay, I'll order the pizzas, I'll bring the beer, I'll get a bourbon, you know, or whatever. And it's like you can do most of that pretty close, but you can't necessarily. We're just looking for a closer option to go get, go get your alcohol right, instead of whatever else you need. And so that was the goal. The only bad thing is now Ben's going to have to supply everything at every party.
Speaker 2:That's right Can you get the alcohol and the pizza.
Speaker 1:That's kind of your wheelhouse, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, you'd be surprised.
Speaker 1:Not a problem man.
Speaker 2:People are my good friends, are very aware and cognizant of what I'm willing to bring to the table too much.
Speaker 1:So they always try to make it where I don't have to bring anything and I'm like no let me handle that, you know, trying to make it where I don't have to bring anything and I'm like, no, I'm going to handle that, you know. But that's what I appreciate about these guys is because both well, he's very generous and he's not quite as generous.
Speaker 2:I'm just kidding, that's fair.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. These guys are very generous, and so sometimes you worry about people taking advantage of them, right, and so, like last night we were out at the bar, I'm like I'm putting my money down. They're like no, no, no, I got it, but you want people in your circle that are not going to take advantage of your generosity.
Speaker 2:Oh, you were trying to put down a $100 bill for two beers. That was a little too much.
Speaker 1:Well, but I took back $40, so I was going to give $40. I mean, yeah, you took your $40. It was whatever, but no, right. But you want people to be in your circle that are taking advantage of your generosity. You want people that are going to also offer stuff back up to you, right?
Speaker 2:Which, hey, sometimes if you're just a good friend, I don't really care what you bring to the table. Just give me your time and let's talk about some things. I love that.
Speaker 1:Chew the fat is what they call it.
Speaker 2:We've been trying to get Josh to think like that. It's hard. He's kind of straight-laced and we're trying to get him to.
Speaker 1:Until you get me out of the country. When you get me out of the country, I tend to loosen up a little bit.
Speaker 2:That's a whole other matter. I want to come back for that one.
Speaker 1:So we can't say anything about that trip. No, we can't say anything about that trip.
Speaker 2:We saw him have fun for the first time in his life.
Speaker 1:Oh, man no, I'm just kidding, maybe in his life oh yeah, I'm just kidding, maybe it was the second time Right the second time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, your wedding was the first time, sorry, my first divorce was a blast, shout out. No shout outs. Good thing Josh edits all these.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, let's move back to the liquor store next door. What's the name of the store going to?
Speaker 2:be. We're going to name it Tipsy Pig is the plan. That's always been the plan. Now that's subject to change between now and then, but that's when we bought it and incorporated. We incorporated as Tipsy Pig LLC, doing business as South Walton Spirits. So you know there's a lot of Razorback restrictions. We're not trying to be a Razorback, but we're just kind of acknowledging that's where we're from right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're in the land of the pigs. That's a good name. That's a great name. Good name from a boat. Yeah Right, we were working on boat names this past weekend.
Speaker 2:Tipsy Pig's another good name. I'm looking for a boat name too.
Speaker 1:Oh, you and Matt should figure that out.
Speaker 2:It's hard to come up with a boat name, I know right. We've been trying to incorporate pizza into it somehow. It's like a slice of something, but we can't.
Speaker 1:We just can't get that it's a cobalt.
Speaker 2:We just got it, so we haven't even. Those are nice. Yeah, we're excited. Yeah, it's currently titled.
Speaker 1:Under the.
Speaker 2:Radar, you know you have to have an official renaming ceremony, right? No, I'm serious. Rod found that out the hard way yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:We had a boat and we renamed it and didn't do the official ceremony.
Speaker 1:What's the official ceremony until Shatter?
Speaker 2:a champagne bottle on it. He got off the stage and everything. I wasn't there. Like Caddyshack he didn't name, he did his own changeover on another boat. Rob and I took it on a trip and one of the engines blew up. Then a month later it got destroyed in a hurricane. Rob was like I could never change the name.
Speaker 1:So that has nothing to do with the armrests falling off. No, I mean no, no, very different, very different.
Speaker 2:Very different. That fell off because of, like that was jay.
Speaker 1:That was jay.
Speaker 2:Sorry, ted, about that pizza. Like matt said, I'm glad josh is going to be able to edit a lot of this out.
Speaker 1:Well, let's end it on a high note. Thank you for coming in, absolutely excited for everything you got going on. I love the longevity 20 years and continuing to evolve. Can't wait for the liquor store to be here where I can pedal over on my golf cart and pick up some stuff, and I appreciate you coming in and seeing us today. Yeah, absolutely, the food was amazing.
Speaker 2:You'll have to have us out to the Grand Open? I would love to. Yeah, do you guys ever do something remote?
Speaker 1:Oh, we'll do it for sure.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're going to build a little loft, I think up top that's going to be kind of an industrial storage.
Speaker 1:We'll call it the Nelson Loft Right.
Speaker 2:We might have to think of a way to make that our shooting area, or something like that I love it.
Speaker 1:Thanks for coming in, absolutely Thanks for having me guys. Cheers, cheers.
Speaker 2:Thank you.