SPEAKER_00 0:00

Jason, what's up?

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Richard, how are you doing, man? Long time no see.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

I'm doing well. I I did you have the mustache back in the day? No.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Always? Um I had no facial hair. I think the pink if I recall. Yeah. I might have known. I don't recall you having any facial hair. Yours is looking pretty dapper. Yeah. Like a speck. Well, hence we were 20 years ago. I meant. You know, 20 years 20 years ago, I think I hit puberty. So that's what I'll How have you been?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Well I I'm doing great. Um thanks for for joining me. I'm wicked excited. It's been a while. I think we might have talked once, or I might have even messaged you when I passed through Savannah when I was driving my sister to Tampa. And I think that was the last time I was. I think you're right.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

I think it was I was trying to go back through our text thread, and it looks like we just talked about Lioko wine, I think the last time. Lioko, remember that?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Kind of one?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Lioko, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

No, Matt Licklighter.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Funny, my feed has been like Somaliers and people smelling wine, and I I didn't Google that. They like know what I'm talking about. No, it is interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

I was having a conversation with my girlfriend the other day um about this idea that I want to do in my business. And then like I just happened to go on Instagram and went into my like opened up my feed and the first ad was exactly what we were just talking about. And it's like, man, now we have to like hide from our technology if we want to like you know share an idea or come up with an idea because it's like monkeys on an island.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Yeah, it's probably even worse if you're in an LLM, if you're like on ChatGPT or something, because you're not just people aren't just searching for a local lawn lawn mowing service. Like for me, I I'll enter in all kinds of crazy stuff and try to figure out numbers and retirement and like all kinds of personal stuff. And now I'm kind of apprehensive, especially with a creative idea. Because, you know, what if you're a developer?

SPEAKER_01 2:31

I mean, I I I can't even imagine because half of my brain is is has actually there's really not a lot of space, and I don't understand any of this tech world, but I understand, you know, um, like uh the flow of energy and and you know, and and what it is for like human engagements, and that's what I know, and that's why I picked the restaurant industry. And it's like I couldn't tell you how to, you know, build an app or what an app is supposed to do. And I use I use chat now, or yeah, if I use chat for all these an answers and when I probably should be using Google, but I guess it's almost the same, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

You should probably use chat because so you fill me in, you own a restaurant now?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

So since um, let's say, since we ended our chapter at the Pink House, I went over to Garibaldi GM there. And so in 2015, I found a building in the Starland District in Savannah, Georgia. Uh, for those who don't know where I am, um, and it was an old dentist's office that was actually its original concept was Atlantic Refinery Gas Station. So I I bought a building that was at one time, its first uh was uh a gas station, and then we did the whole historic preservation and all the lines and applied, and so in 2016 Atlantic opened, and that's what really kind of changed Starland. So if you recall where back in the day bakery was, do you remember that bakery? Yeah. See.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

I can I can remember the Starland area.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

It was, and now it's the food mecca savanna.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Awesome. Were you one of the first people to kind of invest in that area?

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Um, but the first dinner location opened up a year before me in 2015, and I think they shut down in 2018, and I opened in 16, and then COVID took us out in 20. So after COVID, um, you know, I decided to go into the wine brokering world because I I did all my exploring of books and regions and you know producers when I was at Atlantic. So for three years the Starland district was was uh was a hot flame and now it's like this burning fire. Well no, it's like it's on fire in the sense that that's where everyone wants to be, which makes it challenging. So cool. Um you know, you have downtown, the historic district, very tourist driven, then you have we have uptown, so Starland has become our uptown. And it's where all the locals go, and that's what you want. But now we have like an influx of, you know, it's we're almost at 20 plus restaurants in the Starland district.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

And so now Am I wrong to say that it was kind of there was nothing there?

SPEAKER_01 5:41

There was back in the day bakery, and then there was Starlang Cafe, and that was it. Yep. So everything south of uh you know, Starland goes as north as 37th.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

But we Which is I think I lived on 37th in Abercorn.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

My restaurant is on 40th in Abercorn, so I'm south of you.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yeah, and I would go the opposite way from downtown, and I would like be like, this is a desert. And I would like never go over there because there was nothing to explore. Now there's no reason.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Three bakeries, uh, three coffee shops, uh, everyone's favorite bar in Savannah is is down there. And everyone's second favorite bar is in Savannah's down there. It's it's it's just grown, and there's more coming. Jap a Japanese restaurant is there, and they're on their trick, they're gonna be looking for, you know, to do Michelin style food, and there's a fish specialty house, there's a chicken, fried chicken and oyster that he was a Michelin chef up in Chicago. So I meant the land the the scope of savannah's changing quickly.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

At what point did you decide to say I'm gonna open Atlantic? Was it because you saw the property and you had a background in wine and GMing restaurants? What lit the fuel to to be like, all right, this is happening?

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Why did I open Atlantic?

SPEAKER_00 7:16

I think it was Were you sick of working for the man and you were like, I'm gonna do it myself.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

That's one thing that uh Or the woman, the woman at the old big house. I was sick of working for the woman. Uh I couldn't deal with the the piano player anymore. No, I'm just kidding. You know, I think it was I think when I saw what was cancel culture.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Sorry. No one ever does.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

I really saw an opportunity based on the style of service that I was accustomed to on the West Coast, then what what with the cur at the current time, the current clientele, the current market, the lack of professionalism, the lack of care when it comes to hospitality uh across the board on all different layers of restaurants in Savannah back in, you know. I started thinking about this in 2014 and 15, uh, while I was gladly working for somebody else and building what they needed us to build and being compensated. And, you know, I I don't mind I really, yeah, I'm probably the only guy that doesn't mind working 70 hours, but I'm tired now. I don't want to work that now. But back then, that was easy. And I saw an opportunity to create a style of service that Savannah had not seen before. So that's I was like, I feel like it's time to unleash this idea that I have.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

And um So to fill people in, uh, we met because I moved to Georgia and I needed a job and I applied to 20 restaurants, and the old pink house was the one that hired me. You and um who's Paula? Who's the older who's the older lady that had a buffet?

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Paula Dean down the street.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Paula Dean. I said, I'm considering working there or the old pink house, and you were like, uh, the old pink house, don't even consider working there. And I was like, super grateful. So thank you for giving me a job. But when you say an elevated service, we're were is it different than what you taught me at the pink house as far as like wine and food uh or customer service? Is it could you elevate it more than that? It was pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

I think we we had very reasonable and um um very exciting and relevant as well as classic standards of of fine dining service at the pink house. Uh, even though a lot of people would probably challenge the word fine dining, but they do everything with the energy of fine dining. So regardless of how people feel, I think it still operates in that fashion. And they have the the proof is in the pudding with their accolades and that they still have staff that have been there for decades. It provides a lot of great income. People are still lining up outside the door, and and they got a great product. And so the thing that I saw an opportunity was not just a style of service that we executed and taught and encouraged and held accountable for the staff at the pink house, but it was the overall culture of like how the business, you know, what was the heartbeat of the business uh from the back of the house to the front of the house, and what are we doing and how are we going to do it? And so, you know, the service styles in the West Coast and the service service styles in the in the southeast are two completely different. I grew up in fine dining and in Carmel and and Monterey. And, you know, we were this like very meticulous, very kind of suave or like quiet, elevated service where you don't really engage with the guest as much. You know, everything is like always perfect. And like, oh, when did they refill my water? Or like where did my I thought I needed a fork, but it's here. Like you just never saw us in there. And so, and then I moved to the southeast, and it's like trying to fit in in a in an area that I was unfamiliar with, but I bought a house here, so I gotta understand who they are first. And it was all about talking and building relationships. Um, and at the same time, I was also at the very beginning of a journey of a Somalier and or becoming a Somalier, or becoming a, you know, a I don't want to say a better or more dynamic, but just growing in that world. And then I realized that it's the power relationships are the reason why great restaurants thrive and drive great cultures. So in Savannah had not seen that, I feel like there was a lot of good, like, oh, southern cuisine or or Italian, or it was more or less kind of filling the niche of what wasn't there, or what people like majority of people here been to Italy. So you have an Italian restaurant, so you have this idea, like, oh, I'm gonna do Italian, and then it's like, oh, do you know? So I wanted to kind of create a place that it was like this community, like collection of just like great energy of of your guests and your staff, and like who you're buying from and why are you buying. So those style wines that we bought that eat those match the style of food that we bought. And so, and it was like, and it's not a farm to table because all food comes from a farm, but it was just like this new breath of styles of atmosphere versus service, and that's what we did in Atlantic, and um it was it was a wild ride.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

I love that. It's like you're telling the story through your ethos of you sit down and there's a story happening, and your waiter comes over and there's a story there, and every step is uh thought about and cared for, and there's a conversation back and forth about what's going on. That's cool. I wish I could have uh dined there.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

I mean, you if you come to Savannah now, or soon, I opened an um, I took over operations of a of a wine bar about two and a half years ago, and I changed the direction from a wine bar to a restaurant because even though I'm a small A, I don't really know the the bones or a wine bar, what it can do, what it can't do, but I know what a restaurant can do, so I converted the concept into a restaurant. So I own this restaurant called Sober Mesa. Um, it's also, like I said, 40th and Abercorn. Um there's a lot of there's a lot of people in it in Savannah who remember Atlantic, so we got that kind of like little crowd going on, but uh it didn't have a kitchen. Uh it wasn't a full bar, it was literally sliced meats, cheese, and desserts. And I bought the operation and I became partners with the owner of the business itself, but I took over full reins and it's like Atlantic uh point two because it's only Atlantic had probably about 40 staff members. So I was used to big staff at the pink house. You know, there was a lot of staff there. So my staff at Silver Mesa, front of the house and back of the house, is uh six or seven. So it's the smallest operation I've ever had my hands on. And I'm having a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

So you should come by there was a French bistro I really enjoyed uh in Savannah, and I can't remember the name of it. But yeah, there was only like ten tables in there, and they were mostly like two or three, four tops, and there was there might have been a little bar. Is it from you? I don't remember. I just remember like they'd have a couple specials, a couple bottles of wine. You get a really delicious meat and cheese board or just a cheese board to start, and the the menu was very small.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

I remember there was Cafe 37th, and I was right down the street from you, and he had a small little operation and um yeah. So that could be it. The restaurant scene in Savannah has just exploded. I mean, there's parts of it that will remind you of Nashville. There's parts of it that will remind you of like we're becoming like a little bit more polished in our shopping and our streets, so it's like hints of Charleston. So I mean Savannah's just growing immensely.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Are people just traveling there or did a lot of people move there and like it just growing north? I think or going. Both.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

I think there's so yeah, heading out to Pooler, you're starting to see like in Pooler, you're starting to see mom and pop restaurants open up in amongst the the concrete jungle of all these corporations. Um so you know, you're an expansion of West uh West Bay Street, so past the Talmadge Bridge. If you remember where the Talmudge Bridge was, uh we call it Little Mexico, and that's building out now. So I mean it's just it is like new suburb, new area. Waters Avenue, Waters Avenue has a restaurant on it now. Paulson Avenue, Paulson and Atlantic or Anderson, that has a restaurant on it now. And these, for people who don't know, these have all been established neighborhoods, or more or less neighborhoods that weren't healthy, healthily established. A lot of a lot of holes, a lot of gaps, a lot of like troubled areas that didn't have uh streetlights on it, you know, just kind of things in the dark, but now everything's lit.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

What year did you navigate from the west to Savannah?

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Well, I haven't navigated to the west of Savannah, but I'm always looking at property because even to this day, oh sorry, I meant from California moved to So I came out here in 2006. So I came out here to visit my parents who are living in um in the Skitaway Island area, like the landings in that area. Uh and I was in Carmel and Monterey, California. I was under contract for a house in Seaside, California, less than a thousand square feet. Uh, I think it was over 725,000, didn't have a driveway. I could see the I could see Monterey Bay. And I was like, oh my God, this is great. Um, and then drove out here or came out here on holiday, and I saw the price of real estate in Savannah, and I was like, oh my gosh, I could buy a Victorian on 37th Street for like 146,000. And you know, I'm I'm very happy and lucky that I did because where I bought all those new buyers, they were part of that housing market bubble that burst. And so a lot of Monterey was affected and a lot of Savannah wasn't. And so I was very fortunate to to make a leap to drive from the west coast to the southeast to an area I didn't know, purchase properties, and then the nation go through some horrific, you know, housing market crash and come out unscathed when it comes real estate wise.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah, I remember your house, like beautiful, like Yeah, I think just I guess I could fill everyone in. We had a great time in Savannah. Uh you, you know, we would like be very classy and have like a nice assembly of wines after our shift, and we could go to the you could drink outside in Savannah, so it was open container. So we would be doing wine tastings in the different squares, you know, people would go back to other people's houses and have a nice little party. A fond memory I have is you had a like a projector and you had a I think it was a Greek couple's full like life in the Rolodex, and we would just scroll through that Rolodex and and project their whole life wildly drinking you said champagne.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

That's exactly right. So those that house was on 37th Street. I do remember that. I think it was uh it was a greenhouse, it was my second one. And I remember that. I remember projecting, and I I bought that projector and those slides in Carmel Valley at a an estate sale, and I still have all that. And every once in a while I was like, oh my god, I should I should blow these up and like have a gallery have it in a gallery because it's it's images from the and they were all over. They were Greek, Rome, Spain, Panama. Um, and those are like fun, engaging like things. I I didn't really know Savannah culture, and I was still, you know, I was still trying to get to know everyone. And I think Savannah at that time, it was trying to figure itself out. And then you have this influx of like big business, like the ports and Gulfstream, then you had like SCAD, and then you had this growth of like, you know, like how could this real estate be this cheap? So you had everything was like moving in this, like this weird, like growing phase that it's such a random, and there was no rules that you do this. So you just always had fun. I just remember at that time, Savannah, every aspect of everything that Emma was doing was fun. And so I do remember those. Those are some good late nights.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

This is just tea. This is an uh a Barolo, or I I was on my way home. I was like, man, I should have stopped and got like a wicked fancy bottle of wine and been like chocolate anise with a little bit of uh rubber. Did you ever did you ever get to see? I only had it for like a couple months, uh Decanted Drive-Thru.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

No.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

It's my It was my uh I had an Instagram called Decanted Drive Thru where I did a fast food, a fine wine, and a celebrity. So I like would go chicken fries from BK with like uh Viv Clicot Rose and then Ellen DeGeneres, and I would just Photoshop Ellen and me drinking the rose with the chicken fries.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

Oh my god, I would love to see some of those. Um that's a great idea. So have you always been in this podcast and and studio format? Well, not always, but how long have you been doing this?

unknown 21:29

Since August.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Since August. So you're my twelfth, thirteenth guest here. I do uh it was more spread out because I was doing in-person stuff. And then I started I started doing weeklies. Once I got a couple like scheduled out, every Monday I drop a new episode. So I try to do one a week. And if I miss one, I have like two scheduled up in advance. It filled the need for me because I wanted to get more comfortable on camera. I've in marketing, so I've been by Behind the camera a lot. And I was like, I I gotta do something on camera and get creative. And I was like, okay. I was looking at an old uh yearbook and I was like, what happened to this person? What happened to this person? Couldn't find them on Facebook, and I was like, I know. I can start a podcast and try to find people that I lost contact with and do that until it runs out.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

I think it's a great idea. I mean, 'cause it's I like thanks I like the idea of well, sometimes we're we're so overwhelmed with a lot of things. We just are just noise in our in our current state of mind. And so sometimes it's nice to go behind a closed door and just like watch an old movie from the 80s, listen to old music from the 70s, and realize like, oh my god, this is like when things are like here or great or fun, but what it is to kind of like make effort to go back. And I think there's a lot to be said about that because I think you can learn a lot more. Um how many kids do you have? I love nostalgia. I love nostalgia. I I love it. In fact, a lot of my when I'm smelling things, um, smelling wines, you know, a lot of times or tasting wines in the past, I log everything in my brain, and I always tie a certain sense to like the feelings that I'm having with certain people, location. And that's how I remember how a lot of wines are are broken down or like flavor profiles, but it's always with with great memories of my past.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

So 2008, Pinot Noir, fires, the fires were hitting the West Coast, and those grapes kinda had an essence of the burnt taste. That's but that's a flavor I remember. I don't remember the name of the wine.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

That was Bohan Dillon. It had the sketchy on it and a little cat on the cover. So and they still make that wine. But I remember we we bought a lot of that wine because it had a great story to it.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Easy to sell wine with a story.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

That's that's the only one. That's the only way to sell it.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

You also I was working in the the Speakeasy in the basement, and you were my manager. I would say partner, because you just like hit every table that came in on my first turn. I literally went to get a bottle of wine, and when I came down, there was like six bottles of wine. There was a bottle of wine on every table, and it was like uh Sansier Savion Blanc, or it was a different wine on every table. When did he even do that?

SPEAKER_01 24:43

It was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

You like could sit s set me up for success that night.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Well, I think um I mean that's why I do what I do. Like I mean, at the end of the day, running a restaurant, dropping restaurants, very challenging. It's also a fun game, but a lot of times the the structure behind it is is more or less kind of just doing for others and not doing for self. And I've always I've always lived by that motto. You know, and I don't have any regrets with personalities, I don't have any kind of like anger and like animosity towards people. I will always just do what I know I can do in a fashion, and I don't do it for myself. I do it because it I do it because up here in this brain, I can see I can create all these like, oh my god, wouldn't this be fun? Like, create experiences for people. And not just at the dinner, but create experiences for staff members, you know.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Um I well too, sometimes people you know, you're a waiter, right? People in the service industry, you know, they if they're a waiter, they understand where they're coming from. Some people might have it's a negative uh connotation to the word like server. Maybe not in the south, maybe up north more, right? What was I go where was I going with it?

SPEAKER_01 26:05

I don't know, but I like where you're going. But I you know so we were talking about serving and what I do. I love the idea of of of dropping bottles and selling multiple courses. I remember And it's just like it's because it's easy, because in my mind I can think if I can think it, I can do it. So if I'm like, oh man, and Richard says and there was Nicole Stutz. Let's say Nicole and Richard were split in the tavern. There's a lot of times I would have like mental goals of like, I want to put down 15 bottles tonight. And it would just be easy because all you have to do is just talk to people.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Okay, I remember what I was I remember where I was going. I liked your I like your approach to how you ran the restaurant and the people because it was more like a mentorship. Like you some might someone might be in there and they get hired as a waiter. Maybe they don't have experience with uh confidence or they're not oh I'm losing you again.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Yep. I can hear you.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Oh, okay. I think you're gonna drop out, but that's all right. Yeah, like how you approach it, like you approach it like a mentor, right? So you almost give like if someone get like myself, you know, I got hired as a waiter. I didn't have too much life experience, but you kind of instilled this like confidence that, oh, you can go sell ten bottles of wine, you could do this, you could wait on the president, you know. You could wait on you could wait on uh Wee S Rhys Witherspoon when she comes in. It's not gonna, you know, you're gonna treat her like everyone else. So it's interesting to me.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

But you know, Richard, I think that's on this one. Um whether it's hosp whether it's restaurant industry or or retail, I mentorship is important. And you know, and I mean there's a lot of people, and I've been very blessed to one love humanity. I've been able to kind of sense when somebody's not confident about what they're doing, and and sometimes they just need like a a push and or encouragement or guidance. And and somebody did that for me, so it's like, why wouldn't I do that for anybody else? And so that's those years at the pink house that we shared together. You know, we start naming names. I mean, it's like this crew, it was like it was momentum, and we were all at different stages of our life. And, you know, and now look all of you. I mean, you you have this podcast, you're you're a father, you've done all these creativities. I think Nicole's like photographing all over the world. Uh Zach Name's got like, you know, two different insurance businesses. I Frank, you know, thank you. Frank, he's on the West Coast jumping out of airplanes and hunting, and you know, so but it all started like at at 23 Abercorn Street. And you guys are all just passing through because of SCAD or college. And it was a lot of fun. And the Pink House was trying to find out what it was gonna become. What it is now, really. I think that when you guys were there, that was that turning on a light switch. Yeah, and the fact that you would flip a wedding and then try to get a few. Yeah, those weddings they would do were pretty wild. That's wild. And I had never seen that before. But you see one, you can be like, all right, we can get better than this. We can get, you know, it could be easy. So now when it comes to restaurant, everything anything's possible in a dining room.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Yeah, when I got back home and I started waiting tables again, everyone's like, What the hell? What did you go to what did you go to uh six?

SPEAKER_01 29:33

It's so different, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:34

College down there for serving because I was just crushing.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

At Atlantic, and I'll fast forward, at Atlantic, I had staff members become debt-free. I had staff members that used that income as a to show payment of a of a of a home for their first home purchase. I had staff members that you know got in line with the with the with the state when it came to um you know um child support. Because we created something that wasn't like, oh, we serve great wine and great food. That's a byproduct. The whole idea is like everything move forward for the right reason. And when you go to work to take care of somebody, whether it's a peanut butter and jelly shop or like a fog wall on like, you know, duck or whatever, it doesn't matter as long as you understand the importance. In front of you is this amazing human who might be unskilled, but they have all the potential, and it's your job to teach them how to be great. And that's why I love the restaurant industry.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

I don't remember anyone really being on I don't remember anyone really being on their phones too much.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Full bars, I'm on good is that he my connection, your connection?

SPEAKER_00 30:52

The universe is telling me to the universe is telling us to get I should get on a plane and just get down there and do it in person.

unknown 30:59

But now I'm split.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Yeah. But now I'm spoiled, and I just go down in my basement and turn the camera on.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

And now I could do one a week instead of you know one a month.

unknown 31:13

Do cell phones ever get in the way of the case.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

But anyways, the what I was what I wanted to ask was do cell phones ever get in the way of service now? Because I feel like in 2010 it they were just starting to become like, oh, let's take a picture of food. Now it must be just wild. People recording and it's really changed.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

A post-COVID. I mean your question was cell phones, but I think it's more or less post-COVID and what restaurants have to do via cell phones. Everything is now on social media. I mean, you can you can give things away sometimes. If you're not on cell phones on Instagram or social media, they they're going to the hottest thing. So I meant the way that cell phones has infiltrated restaurants is is it's just wild. It's wild that that has become the rodent, if that makes sense. It's become that one thing that you're just like cringe.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Yeah. I that's was my thought for asking the question. I was like, can people do like, can you do that? You probably can't.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

No, you'd be an empty dining room. Like and now you need people that you know, you you need all these like blue checks, you need all these influencers, you know. You don't really need them, but I mean they you know some of them are very wise and sharp and they know how to make her, you know, they know how to assist a business, and you know, but it's it's wild. It's it's wild that the and then now as an owner of a small business, I everyone will text me for like a seat, so if they see the owner on a cell phone, then it must be okay. So it's just like, gosh, man, it's you know, it's like full circle.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Yeah, and with the margins are pretty thin in restaurants, right? So whatever moves the needle is what you have to do because you don't want to close and you want to keep keep it running, right?

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Yep, I mean you have to feed the beast, you have to be on the phone all the time.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

Do you just wild? Do you ever like take a picture of like inventory with Chat GPT and like have it organize or maybe run some numbers for you to see if there's like ways to improve?

SPEAKER_01 33:19

No. No, I would have never thought to do that. Oh my gosh. I'm closed tonight, so I'm almost now tempted to go back into the restaurant and do that with chat. It's wild. I am using chat on on post. I you know, I just I was on vacation with somebody and they were like constantly speaking into your their phone. I was like, what are you doing? And they're like, oh, I'm voice texting. And I was like, what is that? Because I mean I'm old school, like if I could, I wish I had a Blackberry. My old Blackberry is great. But the fact that you can do this is almost like it it encourages you not to think anymore.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Yeah, there is a there is that too. I mean you can use it too much.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

And it gives me everything that I think. And the more you ask questions about like, oh I'm talking to you about silver myself or I'm talking about my personal, I'm talking about this. It's it remembers how to feed into it. And it's just like, all right, how do I I want to make sure I continue to curate my chat to know exactly you know, and surely it does. It just fits it right out. So that's that's wild. I never would have thought to do that, but I'm gonna try it this week.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Yeah, I mean, and even with like Claude, you can connect it to your Google Drive or you know, your uh software that runs the numbers for you, and you can just like have it go over everything and see what it thinks.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Wild. Absolutely wild.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

Yeah, it's a pretty crazy time. And then on the other side of it, like I get nervous that there's an alternotive for all the AI, and they're real they probably don't have our best interests. Um they just want to make profit, so uh you know, what are they doing? What is the real plan?

SPEAKER_01 35:06

I think the real plan is they're just understanding who's the free thinkers and who's not, because I'm I would still say I'm a free thinker, but it's also staffy weakness. And if I don't have the payroll that I have an assistant that thinks with me, thinks with me, then I'll ask AI. And essentially AI thinks for you. And I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that just going forward that will just rely on AI to think for them.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Yeah, because shut AI off for three weeks. Like I work in a like a business or like a corporate setting. Imagine shutting it off for three weeks out, you know, you'd be stuck, or people are gonna start integrating it into everything and then they're just gonna skyrocket the price.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

Yeah. Yep, I do see that. It is it is a very interesting time. Remind me what you uh graduated SCAD with.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

I didn't, I uh failed out.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

But you did film. Were you in film?

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Uh no, uh graphic design, I think.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Graphic design.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

No man's land.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Yeah. And so with graphic design, I mean, did you go up north, wait like tables? I still I see that you did some filming and interviewing, but what what kind of avenue did you fall into?

SPEAKER_00 36:18

How it happened exactly is I was back up north and I continued my education because I was like 25, 26 at that point. I kept going to school and waiting tables, you know, the old routine, go to school in the morning, wait tables at night, go out drinking, and then get up and do it again. And then I eventually got my master's degree, and I was so depressed after my last class. It was statistics. I just remember it was the beautiful May sunny day, and I was walking into my car and I was going into my shift, and I was like, oh man, I'm in debt, and this didn't really change my life. Um then, you know, I had a passion for creativity, and I was waiting tables one night, and uh agency owner we started talking about that, and he started to like use me for little odd jobs here a print design, a logo design, a web design, and then we started, yeah, I started hanging out as business more, and then eventually I landed full-time there doing sales, and I wanted to transition to marketing, and it wasn't in the cards, so I started freelancing and just taking odd jobs uh wherever I could, and then COVID hit, and I was unsure of what to do. So my brother-in-law is a master electrician, so I actually started being an apprentice for him, and I was working for him for two years doing electrical, but on top of that, I was doing his marketing, his website, and we were just collaborating on video and growing the business, and that's when uh you know COVID kind of toned down, and I was like, I think I'm gonna go back to marketing because that's what I love, and that's how I and that's where I am now.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Wow, that's wild. That is crazy. And so um, are you the creator of the company that you work for? Are you a part of a larger team, or is it? I'm a large team.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

Yeah, there's about 130 employees. I'm the only marketing person. It's in manufacturing. Um prior to that, I was the same thing. I was in another manufacturing company and I was the first marketing hire ever. So it was an opportunity to build processes and systems and really implement uh growth strategies and lead gen strategies, and that's where I'm at now. Still, and I was the first marketing hire at this company.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Wow. That's you know, my girlfriend does the same thing. So she works for uh a company, a large company like yours, um, and she is in marketing, she has her own marketing company, and so she kind of curtails uh how these people do their job through marketing. So she works for one entity, but she has access to all these different people. And you know, because of the company's quite large, and then some people are like, oh my gosh, this person does my marketing, and they're like, oh, they're within the company. It's just wild that that's you know, and I didn't. I dropped out of I dropped out of engineering school possible suits. So I've only known one life, one way of life, and that's just having a great time in the dining room and you know, and creating experiences that no one will you know to always have. But I never really thought about how dynamic is where I'm from, it's like, you know, like, okay, I'm gonna do marketing. So I'm gonna go out and do this, you know, uh, I'm gonna go and do their advertisement for this haircut place and their advertisement for that bicycle shop. But now companies are like, all right, we have to have a marketer in this, we have to have a salary for this. So let's you know, get this on, and this is how we go forward. And just it's wild how everything is connected.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Yeah, and then they're like that position is part of revenue and growth, you know. They are uh just as important as sales because they're aiding the sales to make you know alignments and strategy and improvements and lead quality and helping the customer through their journey. Kind of yeah, and it's kind of like the service industry, really.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

Yeah, it really is. Now, I think earlier we that's a question that got cut off. But you you have you have a couple little ones?

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Three kids, yeah. I have Miles, he's five, Via is three and a half, and then Macy is gonna be one in August, so she's like gonna be one in August, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

That's great. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

Did did you always want to have uh multiple kids? Uh were you like from a large family yourself?

SPEAKER_00 40:50

I am, but two was good, but the third one, once she came, she's just like a part of the family, no big deal. My whole thing was, and I think all the dads out there can agree with me. I was like, do I really want to be putting three kids in three car seats? That was really my only my only debate, and my wife's like, that's a stupid effing debate over why not to have a third kid. And I was like, Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

Kind of does make sense. It's like that Larry David kind of makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

Yeah, I was like, wait, I'm gonna put three kids when you're not around, I gotta do that three times. I'm good with two.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

I meant those seats, I meant two of them in the back seat. That forces you to always have a vehicle that has like three rows.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

Yep, that's what we had to do. I took her old car and we got the three row, third row.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Third row doesn't get any cheaper. It costs like another 10 grand via Ford and Chevy. That's wild. That's wild.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Um your daughter's all grown up, right?

SPEAKER_01 41:46

She's 17 years old, a junior in high school, and she's graduating. She did dual enrollment at Armstrong, a local college here in Savannah. She was at Savannah Arts, and so she has she's gonna take a gap year, and then she's gonna go try out the uh Atlanta market and then uh do a little traveling and then grind two different jobs, and the goal is to get into Kennesaw State, and so but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

So goal driven, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Yeah, you know, and I've been explaining to her is like, look, I think goals are great. I just really hope you just don't get so upset when you don't hit your mark. Because at the end of the day, setting a goal and moving towards it, you're already winning. There's so many people who don't even know how to set a goal that might be achievable. And so the other thing is set goals that are achievable.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

I feel for that the younger generation because think about it. If they're at a party and they want to like let their freak fly flag and do a dance, they have to also worry about that someone might film them and post it and they might be fear the judgment of the post. Like there that wasn't around when we were growing up, so I feel for the younger generation.

SPEAKER_01 42:54

I do too. And it's interesting. Um, yeah, that definitely was not part of our culture growing up. And it is it's wild. And it's you know, we fear for them, but I don't they don't live in that fear. I would have to say, for the most part, in a funny way, I feel like my kid is fearless.

SPEAKER_00 43:16

You ha you have to be, I guess. You can't have fear now because you if you do, they're gonna like put it up there and smell it.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

It's crazy. But she's a great kid. I mean, she grew up in the restaurant industry, she'll most likely, you know, go through school and you know, through the restaurant industry, as a lot of people do. You know, the restaurant has the restaurant industry has catered to the neighborhoods and society, but at the end of the time a lot of people paid off their school bills or they went through college because they're waiting tables and bartending.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

I wouldn't have been able to go to college if it wasn't for that. It was the right schedule, the right money. I could afford to have an apartment, a car, pay my bills, tuition, everything.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Yeah, I mean, there's not plumbers there's plumbers at night, but they you know you can't be a a student in the daytime and a plumber at night because no one wants like a you know sink all ripped up and a toilet ripped up and you can't you know very few places have really great teachers at night consistently so the restaurant industry is it's like find great colleges you find great food.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

Teach you teach you how to network. You gotta learn to network even on LinkedIn. If you've if you're fearful of networking just go be a waiter for a year you'll get over it.

SPEAKER_01 44:29

Yeah. Have you have you ever uh am I the first one you've reached out for the past in the in the in the Savannah market or in that chapter when you were in Savannah have you talked to others?

SPEAKER_00 44:39

I have I honestly I have about like 45 people on deck. Every week I just reach out to a couple gosh that is great. Yeah it's uh the response has been wild at first it was a little slow and then maybe like four weeks ago it's just crazy the the yeses I'm getting and yeah mo a lot of them are from the restaurant industry because the you know meeting people and now they're uh uh doing different things I did my uh s eighth grade religion teacher two weeks ago are they still teaching uh no they left they left for you know a couple different reasons but I still had a demerit that he wrote me up and he was dying that I still had it that is funny a demerit I haven't heard that word in so long I I saved all of mine somehow for some reason because they're they were comical like they're pretty good I'll send you some yeah please do please do well how often with the kids do you guys go on on vacations or would you guys ever get up and head to the south I know that's it's tough sometimes to Yeah I think we would I think we would if you ever ever you know head this way just just give me a holler even if it's like hey we're we're stopping in so and so if I can't you know because I really enjoyed our time that was a very fun and important time of my life and um because we did things when you were on the floor things were done that I was just beginning to have confidence in doing and I swear like almost everything that we did it was like a home run or 10 for 10 every time and so it was like monumental like momentum to become what I am today.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

And so that that time was a very important time. So I'd I'd love to catch up like face to face. Yeah this has been great.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

Yeah uh I I even remember there was always like a di a battle between uh leadership there and you and like who to hire and I remember I wasn't really on the I wasn't the cream of the crop. They were like there was people saying eh I don't really think we should have them working here and you were like supported the decision and I think it worked out.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

Yeah I think it definitely worked out you know and I think that's you know when you're in a big business like that um a lot of people don't realize that revolving door of employment it one it two things it it slows down synergy and it put a lot it puts a lot of wear and tear on your cost you know because the last thing is like managers get tired of hiring and then they you know in their attitude it affects on how they train people things of that nature but when you keep a lot of people together whether you feel like they're in place or not but you choose to keep them together synergy is the outcome and then you just have to be accountable with your actions and your leadership towards the one that you say all right this one needs a little bit more time you know and instead of one person to it I'm gonna take a village to help this thing you know turn so to me it was always I think there was a particular person who just was very accustomed to like let's just fire let's just fire let's just fire and it's easy to do that it's so easy to do that but it's so harmful in the end and not because you took someone's job away but because you just stopped the momentum of what could be and chasing the great and being able to set the greatest experience with the purest of people's energies and and and emotions and like their purpose of serving and ultimately that's the goal is to create that thing that memory that no one else can that that per for that person that no one else can mimic because you kept everyone involved was a host, a bartender, a food runner the you know everyone's important everyone's important.

SPEAKER_00 48:32

Yeah and I'm not easy to manage either I'm a smart ass I can get defiant at times but I got the number you know I can back it up with some of the big numbers.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

So there's you did you showed up I totally remember I totally remember the numbers that you would put in that Zach Name was as one I mean we had you were mild you were mild compared to some of the ones that tried to rule the roost and so um you know there's ones who were like you know they were like no I've been here the longest so I should do this it's just like oh my gosh you would be the one I want to let go. So no it was a lot of fun. I I enjoyed because you know I I I was also I think that was what 2011 through 2015.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

Ten 10 to 11.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

Yeah yeah 10 to 11 right in there but it wasn't long ago but it wasn't long ago and if you think about where we were and what are how old we were what we were going through life I was even though I'd been in Savannah for five years I still was trying to figure things out and and being around youthful people who were going to school that was all creativity based I was never exposed to that at a younger age or in my college years and so being next to you guys in the hallways of that great venue was was just as important you know for me than it was for you guys to be there.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

You probably don't know this but my roommate um started helped started Nine Line Oh I did not know that that's pretty wild yeah he was just looking to work with local people and I don't know how he linked up with them but he was going to their uh garage a couple times a week and he actually designed the logo too that's wild.

SPEAKER_01 50:13

So he's been with them ever since yeah I mean that's still a r a big relevant company here in town.

SPEAKER_00 50:19

Yeah and just like he was just playing Minecraft all night and then all of a sudden now he's running nine line or helping.

SPEAKER_01 50:28

Gosh I play Solitaire and I play those old man games.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

I like chess lately. Chess I found a a passion for chess that I used to play when I was younger and now I play online all the time.

SPEAKER_02 50:43

Do you?

SPEAKER_00 50:43

Well I mean when I have a free moment I got three kids under five a podcast a full time job you should teach the kids how to play chess and the they know all the pieces and they know how to set the board up. They can't really grasp the moves yet but they know how to play checkers.

SPEAKER_01 51:00

Yeah you know I will say this and you know as you um you've been a father for five years to now three and you know one thing I can share is that the excitement of what it is to include them in the things that you like to do that is culture based as well as like worldly based and there's like art to it and then feed that is I think that's one of the responsibilities of parents that sometimes we forget because there's so many things we got to go to this appointment we got to run them this way. We forget about the real importance and how to be a great parent and it's the it's that time you know I know it's you're you're setting you they're setting up your chessboard and they're they're naming all the names I remember the time that I I taught Vivian how to properly open a bottle of wine and and and make the measurements of a Negroni and it wasn't really just because it was alcohol based but it was like all right so there's an art and then there's a recipe and if you don't get the recipe art right the flavor won't taste right and if you don't get the art right then it won't you know pay off in the end but it's like the things that really matter and the things that you're excited about and if you can pass that on to your kids um you know that's and then now my daughter at the age of 17 she knows how a restaurant culturally should be ran and she can sense it when it's not run the right way from a culture point of view lack of leadership or why is there someone being miserable at the very top of the chain and you know things of that nature because all those years she that we would share the importance of why we do things where we treat people the way so the more that you build into your children and then the small and the small things like chess but there's chess is is is a game of structure it's a game of thought it's a game of it's a game of one on one it's it's a game of confidence. And so when you can have the ability to teach that to your children they essentially it's gets they're separated from the flock in a very positive way. So I would I would encourage that I love my kids about the my kids about she's about to leave the roof so she doesn't need she she is completely independent. And there's some of me that I'm really sad but then again it's like no you gotta be proud of that. I'm so proud I'm so proud at first you know it's like oh I'm not always there we're not always around we're not and it's like the fact that she is like just doing she is doing and moving the best she can at the age of 17 through life instead of life moving her. So and I think that is compounded over so many years of just kind of just being real with her. So it's tough to be real with your kids but I would encourage just always be real with them.

SPEAKER_00 53:47

I'll do my best every day's a new day the worst is when you do lose it and you get that guilt guilty pit when they're in bed sleeping peacefully and you're like man I could have had more patience but then you just improve on the next day and now I finally have learned patience. Yeah it took three kids it took two the first kid the second kid the third kid now I'm like oh I got this is I got patience now I'm thinking like a kid I'm like I think I'm gonna let them play in the dirt today.

SPEAKER_01 54:14

Yeah what's the hard yeah subconsciously that's probably what you need to do as well you know there's times I was like I was so like oh I gotta micromanage and control everything but in this season I'm really learning to just let things go and the more I let things go the easier the flow of my day. I still face those big challenges but they're now they're easy to go head on head on and I don't feel like I have to run away from them. I don't feel like I'm gonna get beat up on it. It's like no let things go. And I wasn't always like that because I was scared of like you know I have to protect this I have to protect that it's like no humans are going to do what humans are going to do. So I stopped being judged I wasn't really judgmental.

SPEAKER_00 55:02

I would always measure but I stopped worrying about all the things I can't control and um and having a 17 year old kid getting ready going to the world and not being able to I was like it's actually doing well it's it it's helping me it's helping be like nope she's got it I'm here I don't have to do things for her she's got it Jason just let it go just let it go well and then when she truly is away for a little I'll see you in a convertible with the guy Fieti spiked blonde hair couple new tattoos and I'm gonna do the same thing so I love it I love it midlife crisis time for you know not for you for me for me I'm still waiting to hit my midlife midlife like 72.

SPEAKER_01 55:57

I think I'm gonna live to 140. I joked around with someone today about living the 900 but I don't know if I want to see this year this world in 900 years from now.

SPEAKER_00 56:06

Ooh I like that I I just want to see because we're going to the moon the J the James Webb is getting all these crazy images it's really scary thinking of like what's beyond and what is even all this so I can get down a rabbit hole like that.

SPEAKER_01 56:23

Yeah I thought by now we'd be able to see the things that we saw on Total Recall on Mars. But it's still 2026 and we haven't seen that yet.

SPEAKER_00 56:33

Yeah and then you think uh the moon is close and we're barely getting there and we're gonna go to the Mars but isn't the Mar Mars has such a harsh climate is it even feasible and it takes so long to get there and back like what's the point? But I guess the point is to adventure and to go. Do I have you for ten more minutes? You sure do I gotta ask okay for for the viral moment here. What's the who are the most famous people that you've got to serve in Georgia Bill Murray I know he came in and Reese Witherspoon came in one year.

SPEAKER_01 57:09

Yeah oh Beyoncé Patri not no I never came across the um her butricia Arquette um was filming a movie on Tybee and she probably came to during the whole filming she was probably Atlantic um maybe about twelve times she really loved and every time she came there one time her first time with a friend and every time she came back she came back with more and more and more and we had kind of like a pseudo like closing of the movie kind of like party at the restaurant so that was pretty I think that's my most like when we say famous like celebrity um but I mean who knows I mean there could have been somebody that owned like four satellites in my restaurant one day if I didn't know it. So I'm gonna say that one.

SPEAKER_00 57:58

Cool. Well in the pick I mean the pig house is a historic building everyone like goes in and out of there even famous people so I'm sure you've that they were in there because I remember Bill Murray was there.

SPEAKER_01 58:11

Yeah that was definitely he was definitely a character. He owns a couple restaurants in Charleston now and a minor league baseball team cool well it was awesome catching up man. Yeah it really was thank you for considering me and thank you for reaching out and I do I hope I hope if you and your family travel this way it would be great to catch up and and have a coffee and the kids run around and we'll find a place for them to just have a ball. Oh for sure definitely you'd be the first person I call I don't know who else I'd call and then now I sort of I'm uh follow you so I'm I'm I'm I'm curious to see uh who others from 20 years ago Savannah shows up on your podcast so I'm excited and it's pretty cool that you're doing this.

SPEAKER_02 58:52

Yeah important going forward.

SPEAKER_00 58:55

I I didn't haven't reached out to Nicole yet so I gotta reach out to her. She's got a lot of interesting things going on. She lived on an island and met her husband on St.

SPEAKER_01 59:05

John I think uh on a boat right yeah I think that's a story yes and she I think she might have a couple kids and yeah so there's there's a lot out there.

SPEAKER_00 59:16

Jesse Jesse Smith I think his last name is he wants to do it oh really yeah he is what he I think he's an engineer now or a software developer.

SPEAKER_01 59:27

So this is this is a great idea. I I ran this I told someone I was doing this today and I kind of gave them the premise of what you're doing and they're like wow that's totally didn't think about that but they're like and they started thinking about who was in my life 20 years ago and what are the it's exactly what happened. Who was in my life 20 years ago and I wonder what they're doing. That's what somebody said when I told them I was doing this tonight. So I think I think the the idea that you're having is is a cool one so no thank you.

SPEAKER_00 59:54

Yeah appreciate it I I'm loving catching up with people and I've even like we've got some like uh back and forth text threads going um so it's been fun did you work with Michael Hewitt at all? Yes yep yeah I think he's down in Tampa like owning some uh crazy company or is he trying to take over the world or I don't know I know that he was working he was like a high up at a BNW place for a long time and so uh and that's the last thing I heard about him and Megan Littlefield do you remember Megan?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:29

Absolutely yep yeah so Megan Megan's husband uh is like the right hand man of Paula Wallace of Scad when it comes to like you know like web design and you know or just like structure of computers he was in and out of Japan a lot when when Scad was over there and and she's a real estate agent and she's done extremely well for herself and she's still just wacky and wonderful and easy to chat with so she would be one that you should reach out to her. Yeah that would be what I'll do is when I when I get off the phone I'll send you her contact.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:00

Yeah please do. And I see her on Facebook I believe and I see that she's a real estate agent.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:05

Yeah and she's you know her parents are you know in and out of Maine all the time she's like just a hardcore southerner now yeah I didn't realize she was from Maine so and I need to get that part of the world as well I've never been up that way so if I ever get that direction I'll let you know as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:23

Please do can come crash here we got uh some good land and we're on the outskirts of the city.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

Oh good yeah land's good I'm looking at land right now get some peace and quiet I mean that's all when I was in kindergarten I I this is my last thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:44

I wrote uh I drew a picture and I called it my first house so even at kindergarten I just because I grew up in a three decker I just look looked at like owning a house as like the the goal for some reason because I wanted like a big backyard. American dream the dream of all the dream of all actually now I like live vicariously through my kids like oh let's build a clubhouse let's do this I'm like outside playing as much as they are good for your soul Richard for sure that's good well thank you for reaching out I appreciate this has been a lot of fun yeah have a great week and let's keep in touch yes let's do that I appreciate it thank you so much and have a great night all right you too bye okay bye