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We're chatting about the people, places, events, and flavors that make Johnson City, Tennessee a lovely place to live. An interview show hosted by Colin Johnson.
Proud member of the Maypop Media family of podcasts.
0:00:00 - (Colin Johnson): I'm your host, Colin Johnson, friend of Mitch McGarry's with the Colin and Carly Group and Keller Williams Realty. It's a beautiful, wintry, snowy day here in Johnson City, and I'm excited because we've got a podcast guest who's come back, and I'm excited to hang out with Nathan Brandigan. Good to see you, bro.
0:00:18 - (Nathan Brand): Good to see you, man.
0:00:19 - (Colin Johnson): Thanks for coming on the podcast twice.
0:00:21 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:00:21 - (Colin Johnson): Everybody else just goes on once, and they're like, that was the worst. Why? Why did I do that? And they never come back. But you are a glutton for punishment.
0:00:29 - (Nathan Brand): Well, and I love podcasts. I mean, I listen to a podcast anytime I'm doing chores or cleaning up.
0:00:34 - (Colin Johnson): Or I listen all the time. Driving around. I was just. Yeah, yeah.
0:00:37 - (Nathan Brand): Well, I listen to this pod. I mean, I got to say, I was telling Mitch earlier, but I. It's such a great way to learn about what's happening in town.
0:00:44 - (Colin Johnson): It really is.
0:00:44 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. It's awesome.
0:00:45 - (Colin Johnson): I have learned so many, like, new things from different people. I love just connecting. This is what I like. Eyeball to eyeball, belly to belly. I'm getting to know you.
0:00:54 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:00:55 - (Colin Johnson): And what are you doing here in town? Kind of thing. And it's just so cool.
0:00:58 - (Nathan Brand): It is cool.
0:00:59 - (Colin Johnson): And then our listeners are listening and they're getting to know you, but they're not getting to see this awesome drip you got going on. You look like you just got off a horse off in the middle of Wyoming. Came in with his beard just dripping with, like, snow and looking like a mountain man. I love it.
0:01:12 - (Nathan Brand): That's funny. I just got back from Wyoming. Look at this.
0:01:16 - (Colin Johnson): I didn't even know that.
0:01:17 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, I did.
0:01:17 - (Colin Johnson): Did you have Thanksgiving in Wyoming?
0:01:19 - (Nathan Brand): No, we were hunting, so we got back in October, but we were out there for two weeks.
0:01:23 - (Colin Johnson): Nice.
0:01:24 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. Me and my friends. It was our second year.
0:01:25 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:01:26 - (Nathan Brand): Hunting mule deer and antelope.
0:01:27 - (Colin Johnson): Mule deer and antelope. Okay.
0:01:30 - (Nathan Brand): It was.
0:01:31 - (Colin Johnson): Did you get a mule deer slash antelope?
0:01:33 - (Nathan Brand): I did not. I've been. I come up dry two years in a row.
0:01:35 - (Colin Johnson): Uhoh.
0:01:36 - (Nathan Brand): So I'm really.
0:01:37 - (Colin Johnson): Did you have a shot and you missed or did you.
0:01:38 - (Nathan Brand): I passed on a. A very youthful buck.
0:01:41 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:01:42 - (Nathan Brand): Which I feel good about. Yeah.
0:01:43 - (Colin Johnson): But, you know, still, I think you're stewarding the land. Well, you're going to come back in a couple years and he'll be ready.
0:01:49 - (Nathan Brand): I need to. That's the goal. Right. Somebody else probably shoot him.
0:01:53 - (Colin Johnson): Maybe. Never know.
0:01:54 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:01:55 - (Colin Johnson): So what did you do for Thanksgiving? Then if you weren't out in Wyoming hunting.
0:01:58 - (Nathan Brand): Oh, man. We had an amazing. A lot of families in the tree streets decided to just stay home. And we all have, so many of us have young kids. I have identical twin five year old boys. So they're balls of energy. And the best thing for them to be happy is to play with other kids.
0:02:13 - (Colin Johnson): Sure.
0:02:13 - (Nathan Brand): So several families teamed up and somebody had like a breakfast at their house. Then we went over to somebody else's house for like cocktails and snacks. I made chicken liver pate. Ooh, that was delicious.
0:02:25 - (Colin Johnson): I bet.
0:02:26 - (Nathan Brand): And then we all came to my house for a big afternoon feast.
0:02:29 - (Colin Johnson): Nice.
0:02:30 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, it was a delight.
0:02:31 - (Colin Johnson): So you cook a lot and then.
0:02:33 - (Nathan Brand): I do. I recently renovated my kitchen a couple years ago to be able to be able to film in and cook, you know, large quantities of things.
0:02:42 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha.
0:02:42 - (Nathan Brand): It's kind of a hybrid restaurant home.
0:02:44 - (Colin Johnson): So, like, Thanksgiving is kind of a vacation day. But you weren't like, golly, it's Thanksgiving, I gotta cook. Never more excited. Cause you learned. I'm thrilled. That's awesome.
0:02:53 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, I think it's, you know, I stopped being the chef at Timber a few years ago and let Josh Plush take that role, which he's done. I mean, better than I could ever could have and, But I still have that need to cook and I get excited about new flavors and new ideas and so it was fun. I made. We had about 25 people in the house.
0:03:12 - (Colin Johnson): That's awesome.
0:03:13 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. I made 20 pounds of mashed potatoes. Oh, wow. You always want to have leftovers.
0:03:16 - (Colin Johnson): You gotta have leftovers.
0:03:17 - (Nathan Brand): Free turkeys, all different styles.
0:03:19 - (Colin Johnson): And Carly and I are still eating leftovers. It's Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
0:03:22 - (Nathan Brand): Me too, man.
0:03:23 - (Colin Johnson): And they're so good. I love a cold turkey sandwich on just, you know, a little toasted bread, Miracle Whip, because my dad always put Miracle Whip on their little lettuce.
0:03:32 - (Nathan Brand): And it's just, I, I, I'm a Dukes, man. You're a Dukes, But I make my own cranberry sauce.
0:03:38 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:03:38 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. And then I put that on one side. On the other side. I haven't had one this season because I'm out of bread.
0:03:44 - (Colin Johnson): Well. And I didn't do one just because we heated it all up again. And I was like, oh, it's hot. I'm just going to go ahead and eat it.
0:03:49 - (Nathan Brand): I'm making that for lunch tomorrow, dude.
0:03:50 - (Colin Johnson): And my mom took our turkey bones and there's a lot of meat and stuff left on. Built a stock, made soup, brought it back over. So I Had turkey soup for the last couple nights.
0:04:00 - (Nathan Brand): That's great.
0:04:00 - (Colin Johnson): Carly and I've been eating that with some beans and veget. It was so good.
0:04:03 - (Nathan Brand): It's the best.
0:04:04 - (Colin Johnson): So good.
0:04:05 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, it is.
0:04:05 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. That's Carly's favorite. My wife's favorite holiday. She just loves Thanksgiving. And we love it too. We had about 13 people over, so.
0:04:12 - (Nathan Brand): That's awesome.
0:04:13 - (Colin Johnson): It was just fun. It was really good.
0:04:14 - (Nathan Brand): One of my highlights, too.
0:04:15 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:04:16 - (Nathan Brand): Was good. I got some pies from Lazy Lady. Ah, man.
0:04:20 - (Colin Johnson): I didn't know she made pies every year.
0:04:22 - (Nathan Brand): This is my third year. I think getting them from her and just takes all the pressure off making those.
0:04:27 - (Colin Johnson): Well, we. We gave out 130 pies.
0:04:29 - (Nathan Brand): Oh, that's cool.
0:04:30 - (Colin Johnson): The Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
0:04:32 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:04:32 - (Colin Johnson): Like all past clients and friends and people.
0:04:34 - (Nathan Brand): Oh, that's great.
0:04:35 - (Colin Johnson): So it was just fun, just seeing people come in and you give them a big hug and a pie and it just goes, well, it's just a great day. We had fun doing that.
0:04:41 - (Nathan Brand): That's awesome.
0:04:42 - (Colin Johnson): All right. You said probably six weeks ago. Hey, I need to get on the podcast. I got a surprise happening.
0:04:48 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, well, it's.
0:04:49 - (Colin Johnson): It's. And you're gonna. You're gonna, like, release Surprise now.
0:04:53 - (Nathan Brand): You don't know.
0:04:54 - (Colin Johnson): I don't know.
0:04:55 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. I. I took a step away from Timber. Sold my equity back to my partners.
0:04:58 - (Colin Johnson): What?
0:04:59 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. So I'm no longer a part of Surprise Timber. Yeah.
0:05:02 - (Colin Johnson): You're just a customer.
0:05:03 - (Nathan Brand): I'm just a customer. I went in the other night, I was like, oh, this hurts a little bit. Well, yeah, maybe. Maybe a little bit. But nice to be a customer.
0:05:12 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:05:12 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. Just very grateful to, you know, be able to go in and more relaxed capacity instead of stressing about everything.
0:05:18 - (Colin Johnson): That's fine.
0:05:19 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:05:20 - (Colin Johnson): Okay. What was the impetus behind this? What got you going to.
0:05:24 - (Nathan Brand): Well, I had two amazing partners. You know, we were in business together for five years.
0:05:28 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:05:29 - (Nathan Brand): But I wanted to strike out on my own.
0:05:32 - (Colin Johnson): Good for you.
0:05:33 - (Nathan Brand): To start my own business.
0:05:34 - (Colin Johnson): What are we going to do?
0:05:35 - (Nathan Brand): Retail food store and wine shop next to the restaurant.
0:05:39 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:05:40 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. And the old next door acoustic next door space. The old venue.
0:05:43 - (Colin Johnson): The old acoustic coffee house. What it used to be. Right. And is there still a laundry right there?
0:05:48 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, that's on the other side.
0:05:49 - (Colin Johnson): Okay. Gotcha. Yeah.
0:05:50 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:05:51 - (Colin Johnson): So retail food.
0:05:53 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:05:53 - (Colin Johnson): And wine store.
0:05:54 - (Nathan Brand): So we'll do charcuterie, cheeses, wines, spices, olive oils, vinegars.
0:06:01 - (Colin Johnson): I love it.
0:06:02 - (Nathan Brand): Boutique products, beer.
0:06:03 - (Colin Johnson): That'd be cool.
0:06:04 - (Nathan Brand): It's gonna be cool.
0:06:05 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Where. How did you come up with that idea.
0:06:08 - (Nathan Brand): Well, that's a good question. Well, I'm always looking at, you know, what's available here versus what I am looking for in my life.
0:06:18 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:06:19 - (Nathan Brand): And probably the biggest. The biggest product I was looking for was Benton's ham and bacon.
0:06:27 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, yeah.
0:06:27 - (Nathan Brand): That's really tough. Which is local. It's local, man. And, you know, in the chef community, it's at least nationally famous, if not world famous.
0:06:35 - (Colin Johnson): It's tip top.
0:06:35 - (Nathan Brand): And Alan Benton is an amazing figure in the American food business, and just a real. I don't know. I don't know if I want to say pioneer or carrier on. Of tradition, but purveyor his production. Yeah. Purveyor of finance. I have one in my house right now.
0:06:52 - (Colin Johnson): Hey, nice.
0:06:52 - (Nathan Brand): And you just can't. You can't buy that in Johnson City. And I think that's a real shame.
0:06:57 - (Colin Johnson): That is interesting. Isn't that his farm's like.
0:07:00 - (Nathan Brand): It's in Maribel. Yeah, yeah. Smokehouse.
0:07:02 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:07:03 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. It's just an hour and a half away, but it's not sold at any stores here.
0:07:08 - (Colin Johnson): Interesting.
0:07:09 - (Nathan Brand): Um, so I started thinking about that, and then I started thinking about all these products that I've come to love over the years in various, you know, restaurants or boutique stores. And there's just a huge list of them that we don't have here that I think people would kind of freak out about.
0:07:27 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:07:27 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:07:27 - (Colin Johnson): I like.
0:07:28 - (Nathan Brand): Because there's some really amazing products out there.
0:07:30 - (Colin Johnson): Would somebody call you Bougie?
0:07:31 - (Nathan Brand): Maybe some people do, but I'm not. I don't think today I'm just a Bougie.
0:07:38 - (Colin Johnson): Ingredients and Bougie ham. Wow.
0:07:40 - (Nathan Brand): I'm just a fake nerd. And I love new things. I'm with new experiences.
0:07:43 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. I think it's fun.
0:07:45 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:07:46 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Somebody would probably call me Bougie. Carly calls me Bougie.
0:07:49 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:07:49 - (Colin Johnson): I'm like, okay, I'll own it a little bit. But, yeah, I think Benton's is Bougie and I. But I can go to a gourmet and get it on a burger. Yes.
0:07:57 - (Nathan Brand): Which is awesome.
0:07:58 - (Colin Johnson): It makes it so good.
0:07:59 - (Nathan Brand): It's so good.
0:08:00 - (Colin Johnson): Or if you have, like, a filet wrapped in Benton's bacon, I mean, it just takes it, like, to a whole nother level.
0:08:05 - (Nathan Brand): Absolutely. It's this incredibly unique product, but also so representative of the region. Yeah. And there are so many great products here in the region. And give us a little teaser, like.
0:08:14 - (Colin Johnson): What else is going to be in there besides Benton's bacon?
0:08:17 - (Nathan Brand): Oh, that's a good Question. Let's see. There's several cheeses from North Carolina that I'm really interested.
0:08:22 - (Colin Johnson): They're kind of more regionally specific.
0:08:25 - (Nathan Brand): I would definitely. I try to focus on that.
0:08:27 - (Colin Johnson): Or would you bring some stuff in from. Yeah, some really fancy stuff from all over the country.
0:08:31 - (Nathan Brand): I definitely tend to be more interested in American products, I think in large part because they tend to be a little bit more affordable. It can be really interesting to try something like an Iberico ham or an imported mustard or something like that. And I'll carry a few select of those. But I am more interested in the American products that just don't get the props that, you know, that's cool. Deserve at least around here.
0:08:57 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, I love that.
0:08:58 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, yeah, it's cool.
0:08:59 - (Colin Johnson): That's neat. That's.
0:09:00 - (Nathan Brand): Plus you can go visit those places for a lot. A lot less money.
0:09:03 - (Colin Johnson): That's true.
0:09:04 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. And I love a good field trip.
0:09:06 - (Colin Johnson): That would be fun.
0:09:07 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:09:07 - (Colin Johnson): We have samplings and that kind of thing too. So you can.
0:09:09 - (Nathan Brand): Yes, we will. We're going to do tastings and signing up. Right.
0:09:14 - (Colin Johnson): Let's go. You have a sheet right now. I can put my name on. Carly and I can come try some stuff.
0:09:19 - (Nathan Brand): Not yet. We're working on launching the website and the Instagram.
0:09:22 - (Colin Johnson): But when are we going to be live? When are we having this opening? Great.
0:09:25 - (Nathan Brand): I am always loathe to give any sort of timeline, but we are working very hard to make it happen.
0:09:30 - (Colin Johnson): 2025, definitely. Okay.
0:09:32 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. If it's not 2025, I give up.
0:09:34 - (Colin Johnson): Something's wrong.
0:09:35 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:09:35 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Okay. So summer. Ish. Spring maybe.
0:09:39 - (Nathan Brand): I would love for it to be spring. That'd be amazing.
0:09:41 - (Colin Johnson): Spring would be great. Okay.
0:09:42 - (Nathan Brand): But there's really, you know, retail is having, you know, built a restaurant with some folks. Like, there's a lot that goes into that. There's a hood vent, there's a grease trap. There's re. Plumbing, there's, you know, all kinds of things. Retail is a lot more simple.
0:09:56 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:09:57 - (Nathan Brand): We won't do prepared foods. And that way we will just, you know, we won't be producing food. We'll just be sourcing it and, and sampling and sampling and selling to you.
0:10:08 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:10:09 - (Nathan Brand): I lived in Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a couple years.
0:10:12 - (Colin Johnson): Oh.
0:10:12 - (Nathan Brand): And there's an amazing store there called Zingerman's.
0:10:15 - (Colin Johnson): Zingerman.
0:10:16 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. And they. It's a very similar sort of vibe. They, they. They'll do sliced cheese and sliced meats and. And then they have all kinds of amazing dry pastas and they Have a deli and. But it's a really amazing business, and that's a big inspiration for me. I feel.
0:10:33 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool.
0:10:34 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:10:35 - (Colin Johnson): How old were you when you lived in Michigan?
0:10:37 - (Nathan Brand): Well, it was about. About 10 years ago now.
0:10:40 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:10:41 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. Would have been 2014, so. Hell, I was 27.
0:10:45 - (Colin Johnson): So you're 27 then.
0:10:46 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:10:46 - (Colin Johnson): Okay. I didn't know if it was like, a childhood kind of memory that, you know, you'll smell something or see something and it just kind of sticks with you, and you're kind of like, oh, I want to recreate that. That was great. You know, we used to go to this chocolate place in Memphis. My grandmother would take us called Dentist.
0:11:03 - (Nathan Brand): Oh, cool.
0:11:04 - (Colin Johnson): And they. And she'd send us a chocolate. A solid rabbit. And these things were as big as my hand now.
0:11:09 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:11:10 - (Colin Johnson): And they were dense. And we would, like, shave off a little bit of it every day and eat chocolate rabbit for months. I mean, like, that's great. It was so good. It was just, you know, and you got these just memories in your head.
0:11:20 - (Nathan Brand): Absolutely. Yeah, Absolutely.
0:11:21 - (Colin Johnson): That'll be cool. Zimmerman.
0:11:23 - (Nathan Brand): Zingerman.
0:11:24 - (Colin Johnson): Zingerman.
0:11:24 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. And they're real. I mean, they're legendary. They have all kinds of different restaurants and food businesses all over the state. Really?
0:11:31 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, that's cool.
0:11:32 - (Nathan Brand): But this. This Jewish deli and meat and cheese counter is really. Was where they started.
0:11:39 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:11:39 - (Nathan Brand): It's a beautiful old building, and that's awesome. It's a real legacy business.
0:11:43 - (Colin Johnson): Tell me about the wine part of it.
0:11:45 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. So I'm really, really interested in making wine more accessible.
0:11:49 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:11:50 - (Nathan Brand): You know, wine is always so stodgy. I think the last time I came on the podcast, we talked a little bit about natural wine and how I had become much more interested in that. And our. My knowledge has, you know, definitely grown in that time. It's been fun to, like, read some books and.
0:12:03 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:12:04 - (Nathan Brand): Listen to podcasts, but also do a lot of tasting. So I've been traveling to Knoxville and Asheville for tastings and meeting folks.
0:12:11 - (Colin Johnson): That's fun.
0:12:11 - (Nathan Brand): One of the amazing things that I think Timber really was able to make happen was bringing some distributors in that didn't do business here before. And, you know, Timber has all kinds of amazing wines on the list and.
0:12:27 - (Colin Johnson): Some crazy cool cocktails, too.
0:12:29 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. Brandon is just a wizard back there. But bringing those wines in and tasting with those reps and meeting the importers and the producers and those things over the years has been just so great. And I think they've really. They've come to si John City as a much more viable market for their products.
0:12:48 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, that's good.
0:12:49 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. Which it was not five or six years ago.
0:12:51 - (Colin Johnson): No.
0:12:52 - (Nathan Brand): And other.
0:12:52 - (Colin Johnson): Boone's Farm was big time here.
0:12:55 - (Nathan Brand): Bids farm. That's right.
0:12:56 - (Colin Johnson): You know, and Two Buck Chuck.
0:12:57 - (Nathan Brand): That's right.
0:12:58 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. We can drink a lot of that.
0:12:59 - (Nathan Brand): That's right. So that the wine aspect, I think will. I think we'll have some of those more collectible, higher end bottles. For sure. We'll have those around, I guess. But the main focus for me will be bottles under 20 and 30 bucks. Things that are interesting, things that you've never had before, but just excite your.
0:13:19 - (Colin Johnson): Palate and light your mouth up when you eat.
0:13:21 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. I think I certainly grew up in the 90s thinking that wine was like, I don't know, just inaccessible. The level of knowledge in order to buy something, you know, you would buy it based on the label or the price or.
0:13:36 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. And then you're like, that wasn't so great.
0:13:38 - (Nathan Brand): It wasn't so good.
0:13:38 - (Colin Johnson): And you're like, I'm not going to waste 30 bucks this, you know.
0:13:41 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. So being able to, you know, tell the story of why this wine exists and how it was built and those things would be really big values for us and keeping it affordable. So you want to come in and try something new?
0:13:55 - (Colin Johnson): Well, for our listeners right now, what are some of the wines that you would suggest that they try that maybe aren't. Yeah. Just kind of fresh and new to you? Yeah, just we had maybe hadn't heard of or seen on the shelf around here.
0:14:07 - (Nathan Brand): Okay. Well, one, what you can find around here is Beaujolais Nouveau. Comes out every year. It's from the Gamay grape.
0:14:15 - (Colin Johnson): And do you have to. And that one, you don't want it age, right?
0:14:18 - (Nathan Brand): That's right.
0:14:18 - (Colin Johnson): You want it to drink it right as it comes out.
0:14:20 - (Nathan Brand): That's right. And yeah, you drink the vintage as soon as it comes out. I mean, sometimes six months can be too much. Yeah, that one's always interesting, but it tends to be made with yeast that's added instead of natural yeast. Vineyard interesting. Which would be more of a tenet of natural wine trying to use natural yeast from the fruit itself.
0:14:37 - (Colin Johnson): Sure.
0:14:39 - (Nathan Brand): And so I enjoy that. But taking it one step further, I would go to Beaujolais from one of the 10 villages of one of the crews and there's. Each village has different producers and I find those wines really interesting. I went shopping for one the other day. Really? Any Cru Beaujolais the other day here in Johnson City. And couldn't find any.
0:15:02 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:15:03 - (Nathan Brand): And they, you know, they could be 30 bucks a bottle.
0:15:05 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:15:06 - (Nathan Brand): You know, they're pretty affordable and interesting. Perfect giving wine kind of thing. But I couldn't find any. And so I was like, oh, well, I knew I was probably going to do this, but now I'm definitely going to carry this.
0:15:15 - (Colin Johnson): That was a confirmation we gotta do this.
0:15:18 - (Nathan Brand): And that's a. I mean, that's a classic from one of the world's best regions. Most interesting regions. But there's all kinds of winemakers that are pushing the envelope and doing really interesting stuff there. Another one that we played around with a little bit at the restaurant was Lambrusco.
0:15:37 - (Colin Johnson): Lambrusco. Okay. Where is that from?
0:15:39 - (Nathan Brand): That's from Italy. I believe it's from the Piedmont region, more northern. And that is a sparkling red wine that can often be overly sweet, like too viscous, and just kind of cloying. But some producers out there are just making these really varying in style from lighter to darker and heavier wines that are naturally fermented and just really interesting.
0:16:11 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, that's interesting. Like dark red sparkling. That'd be kind of cool.
0:16:14 - (Nathan Brand): It's amazing. It's perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas or, you know, any sort of party. It's like winter champagne. Yeah. So that's like. That's just, you know, that's neat. Yeah, that's just one.
0:16:25 - (Colin Johnson): That is cool. Yeah. And there are how many vineyards out there? Hundreds of thousands of them.
0:16:31 - (Nathan Brand): Definitely tens of thousands.
0:16:32 - (Colin Johnson): Tens of thousands.
0:16:33 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. For sure.
0:16:34 - (Colin Johnson): Producing millions of bottles a year, it just blows your mind? In my mind, I'm like, how does the Lord make that much wine every year? Like, we don't run out, Right. There's plenty of it.
0:16:44 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:16:44 - (Colin Johnson): It's crazy. And same with food. Like, every day, I'm like, this is amazing that I get to eat, you know, and somebody, you know, harvested this for me to be able to buy it and eat it. And it's every day. It's like a nonstop thing. It's crazy.
0:16:57 - (Nathan Brand): Well, there's so many of those special sort of handmade or, you know, very well crafted products out there.
0:17:03 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:17:03 - (Nathan Brand): That, you know, aren't available here that we plan to carry.
0:17:07 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool.
0:17:07 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:17:08 - (Colin Johnson): I'm excited to come check out your store.
0:17:10 - (Nathan Brand): It's going to be fun.
0:17:10 - (Colin Johnson): It'll be a lot of fun.
0:17:11 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:17:12 - (Colin Johnson): Now, is Diana, your wife, involved in this project? She does. She kind of like all these meats and cheeses as well, or she does, like, sitting back and letting you do your thing?
0:17:21 - (Nathan Brand): She Does. Well, maybe certainly both.
0:17:24 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:17:24 - (Nathan Brand): You know, but she's extremely supportive and she loves getting to try new things with me.
0:17:31 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:17:32 - (Nathan Brand): Um, one thing that I'm going to be carrying is tinned fish.
0:17:35 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, yeah.
0:17:36 - (Nathan Brand): The generalist carries maybe one or two.
0:17:37 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:17:38 - (Nathan Brand): But there's, you know, hundreds of different amazing tin fish products out there. She's not a fan.
0:17:43 - (Colin Johnson): I'm not either. My grandfather was English and he would eat kippers and.
0:17:48 - (Nathan Brand): Oh, yeah.
0:17:49 - (Colin Johnson): And I was just like, no, I'm good.
0:17:51 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:17:51 - (Colin Johnson): You know, he made me eat wine and I was like, sorry. You know.
0:17:54 - (Nathan Brand): Well, my kids love them.
0:17:55 - (Colin Johnson): Do they?
0:17:55 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:17:55 - (Colin Johnson): That's awesome.
0:17:56 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, they are huge fans.
0:17:58 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool.
0:17:59 - (Nathan Brand): My son Everett, the other day was upset because we ate all the tinned octopus.
0:18:05 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, wow.
0:18:06 - (Nathan Brand): And he was. He was. He wanted some. Yeah.
0:18:10 - (Colin Johnson): Speaking of, that brought it back to memory. I opened the refrigerator at my grandparents one time and there's this, like, Tupperware container and it was white. And I was like, what's in there? Maybe Cool Whip or something. I open it up and it was a cow's tongue that had been, like, swirled up in there that they were going to do something with.
0:18:25 - (Nathan Brand): Was it raw or had they poached it yet? Usually they add poached.
0:18:28 - (Colin Johnson): Don't remember. I was just like, what is that? That's a big, like, snake. Like, I mean, it was huge. I was like, that's crazy. And say that, oh, yeah, your grandfather likes cowstone or something.
0:18:36 - (Nathan Brand): I was like, that's really cool.
0:18:38 - (Colin Johnson): Interesting. Yeah.
0:18:39 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. I love that kind of stuff. Yeah. Because new flavors and textures, really, having been in the restaurant business for 23 years now, can be hard to find something that I haven't had.
0:18:49 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:18:49 - (Nathan Brand): And so that kind of stuff gets me excited.
0:18:51 - (Colin Johnson): And then you're kind of like, what's going to be something weird? I'm going to try and mix, you know, you can get a little off.
0:18:56 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, absolutely.
0:18:58 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. That's cool. I'm excited.
0:19:00 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:19:00 - (Colin Johnson): Do you miss being at Timber on the daily.
0:19:04 - (Nathan Brand): I gotta be honest. No, No. I miss working with such amazing people.
0:19:08 - (Colin Johnson): Sure.
0:19:09 - (Nathan Brand): Because they really are such an amazing staff there and so skilled.
0:19:13 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:19:15 - (Nathan Brand): They did not really need my help that much, you know, or my guidance, you know, they know they've been around for so long and we have such high. Had such high retention there that they were just able to, I think, thrive.
0:19:30 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:19:30 - (Nathan Brand): At least, you know, I hope so.
0:19:32 - (Colin Johnson): Maybe let's, if you don't mind, we can push in and talk a little bit about how did you Know, it was time to step away.
0:19:38 - (Nathan Brand): That's a great question, because it sounds.
0:19:41 - (Colin Johnson): Like it was running like a top. And from my brain I'm going, hey, that's a source of income was why, you know, and I'm part of it. I helped create it, helped get it going. Why would I want to step away from that? Or why would I, you know, talk about that?
0:19:54 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, well, probably the biggest reason was I wanted to go into business for myself. That was the direction that I wanted to grow.
0:19:59 - (Colin Johnson): And you felt like if you did another project, you'd be hamstringing them a little bit or it wouldn't be fair, maybe, or equitable.
0:20:06 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, absolutely. Because I would always want to make sure that, you know, kind of comes first.
0:20:11 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:20:14 - (Nathan Brand): So that was definitely part of it. That's probably the biggest part.
0:20:19 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:20:20 - (Nathan Brand): The other part is that the restaurant business is tough business, you know, no matter how successful you are.
0:20:24 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. What are the odds too, like on a restaurant admit, like, oh, it was pretty low. Yeah. Like 90% of them failed.
0:20:31 - (Nathan Brand): I would say that's right.
0:20:31 - (Colin Johnson): Two years or something like that.
0:20:32 - (Nathan Brand): I would say that's about right. And if I had done it by myself, and we certainly would have failed, but having such amazing partners and such amazing people that worked with us, we were able to thrive.
0:20:44 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:20:44 - (Nathan Brand): But that takes, you know, a lot of skill. I had been in the restaurant business for 20 some years. My partner had also been in the restaurant business for 20 some years. So it's a lot of experience. I think at one point we had 100 years experience between the senior leadership team and the owners.
0:20:59 - (Colin Johnson): That's awesome.
0:21:00 - (Nathan Brand): I mean, that and that. But that's the recipe for success. You know, if you haven't done it before, you're going to be blindsided.
0:21:06 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:21:08 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. Other reasons that I wanted to do, to step away, I think, you know, the restaurant business being a hard business is not just about the finances, which I think, you know, the restaurant is thriving, but it's also about just what can go wrong.
0:21:23 - (Colin Johnson): Sure.
0:21:24 - (Nathan Brand): It's a, it's doing a. I guess maybe I don't want to call Timber fine dining, but nice casual dining.
0:21:32 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:21:33 - (Nathan Brand): I think that, you know, if something goes wrong, it. You have to call 150 people and tell them that we're closed. You know, if the air conditioning breaks or there's no heat or the city accidentally cuts your water. These are all very real examples.
0:21:49 - (Colin Johnson): Right. And now they finally got the road looking beautiful in front of timber. You're, it's, you're Stepping out. You know, it's like. Cause you guys dealt with. It was like a war zone for so long.
0:22:00 - (Nathan Brand): It was.
0:22:00 - (Colin Johnson): It looks great now, though. The city's finally done a good job.
0:22:03 - (Nathan Brand): It does.
0:22:03 - (Colin Johnson): I think they thought, hey, we'll just put in a new road and some new water lines. And they're like, oh, wait, all this stuff's from, like, 1900. We're gonna have to start totally over, and we're sorry, but.
0:22:13 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, yeah, yeah, it does. It does look quite nice. It's just waiting on a couple finishing touches in our section.
0:22:19 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, it looks great. They've done a really good job with that.
0:22:21 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, I'm excited for it to be done.
0:22:23 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:22:24 - (Nathan Brand): But I also wanted to spend more time with my kids, man. I mean, my wife's a child psychologist, and so two things. I lose every argument.
0:22:33 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:22:34 - (Nathan Brand): And she's always right about, like, let's spend more time with the kids. And I think that's just really. All the. All the mentors that I've ever had in my life have said, hey, don't miss these moments. My kids are only five, and that's just a huge value for me. And it has already paid off.
0:22:51 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. I would say the same thing. I was listening to a podcast earlier about guys in my industry, like, mega agents. Yeah. These guys are selling hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars. You know, just like, crazy numbers and. But they would never go back and say, I wish I'd sold another house, as opposed to spending more time with your child. Or if you flipped it and said, hey, boys, you know, do you wish daddy worked more?
0:23:18 - (Colin Johnson): You know, did you wish he put in another shift at Timber that night or wherever? No. They're going to be like, I want to hang out with dad all the time. You know?
0:23:25 - (Nathan Brand): Exactly.
0:23:25 - (Colin Johnson): I want to spend time with my parents, and I go to Wyoming with him and.
0:23:29 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. And they definitely will one day.
0:23:31 - (Colin Johnson): Mule deer and that kind of thing. Yeah, Yeah.
0:23:34 - (Nathan Brand): I mean, we've. We've been taking a mountain biking and camping, and they are. They're playing soccer, which was my sport.
0:23:40 - (Colin Johnson): And it goes by like that. I mean, all the old guys tell you it's a blink of an eye, and it is. Nathan. I mean, are 21 and 18 and. Yeah. And I wish. I'm sure they're like, oh, dad was going a lot, selling houses, you know.
0:23:54 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:23:54 - (Colin Johnson): Ours is all over the place all the time. And. Yeah, I think that's probably one of my, you know, regrets. Is working a little too much.
0:24:02 - (Nathan Brand): Totally.
0:24:02 - (Colin Johnson): To try and provide for them, like Oh, I want to give you the best that they can. Of course, that we can and just provide. But yeah, it's. It's a balance and you got to kind of walk it.
0:24:12 - (Nathan Brand): It is, it is. But it's so rewarding. I think it is. Can be a tough choice. It was definitely a tough choice for me.
0:24:18 - (Colin Johnson): Sure.
0:24:19 - (Nathan Brand): But, um, it's only been a couple months and I'm, you know, I already get to spend more time with them and it's amazing.
0:24:26 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. And I was reading another book and this one came back a while back, but it was. You're never in. You can't be in balance. Right. You're either with your wife, talking to her, or you're at work, thinking about work. I like. So now you can. Can kind of get closer a little bit or, you know, but you're. You're always on one side of the line or the other. And so how do you hop back on the line or hop back, you know, and so looking at how often am I spending time on the important relationships as opposed to the work stuff and, you know, could be non important stuff.
0:24:56 - (Nathan Brand): Absolutely, absolutely.
0:24:58 - (Colin Johnson): I forgot to ask you the number one question. I mean, you, you've asked, you've answered it before, I think. But let's hit you again. What do you love most about Johnson City?
0:25:05 - (Nathan Brand): Oh, I think it's the people.
0:25:06 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Over and over.
0:25:08 - (Nathan Brand): Over and over. I think there's a very special magic with just the community of those of us that have invested in the city. Maybe we started a business. Maybe we've been involved in, you know, organizations or whatever it might be. There's some. There's a lot of those people. And you have a lot of them on your pod.
0:25:28 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:25:28 - (Nathan Brand): Which I listen to all the time.
0:25:30 - (Colin Johnson): Which I really appreciate you.
0:25:31 - (Nathan Brand): It's awesome.
0:25:31 - (Colin Johnson): That's awesome.
0:25:32 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. I mean, I learned about new businesses all the time. I learned about feisty pigeon. I'm excited to check them out when they open. So. But that group of people that, you know, are invested here in some way and love it here, especially for me, you know, the tree streets. A lot of young families move to that neighborhood around the same time, and there's a real community there. My kids will go to Southside next year and that is very, very rewarding. I grew up in the suburbs way outside of Atlanta.
0:26:02 - (Nathan Brand): I just didn't have that same vibe.
0:26:04 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:26:05 - (Nathan Brand): It wasn't really geographical community. It was more ideological community, which can be nice, but just having neighbors and people to hang with is. And just watching our kids grow up. Together, my kids just hit the age where the adults can grill and talk and they go play.
0:26:21 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:26:22 - (Nathan Brand): And I remember those times from when I was a kid, right. And you know, the dads have the game on and got some beers and.
0:26:28 - (Colin Johnson): Just grilling and chilling soccer. And you, like, hop over, let's throw some Frisbee and play some football.
0:26:33 - (Nathan Brand): It's awesome.
0:26:33 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, it's perfect.
0:26:34 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, it's really magical. So that's awesome.
0:26:36 - (Colin Johnson): It's cool. Enjoy Southside. We. Our boys went there for a little bit and, yeah, it was. It was a good spot. I still know the song in my head. South side, South, Southside.
0:26:46 - (Nathan Brand): Oh, I haven't heard that.
0:26:46 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, you'll be singing.
0:26:47 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:26:48 - (Colin Johnson): Every Friday they have. What is it? Assembly or something and. Yeah, it's really good. You'll enjoy the song.
0:26:54 - (Nathan Brand): It's awesome.
0:26:55 - (Colin Johnson): It's so good. So we got through the new. The new shop coming up, which I'm excited about. And you're. You said you've been hunting a lot. Has that been a new thing?
0:27:06 - (Nathan Brand): I have. It has been a new thing. Yeah. I. I got really interested in it. I never grew up hunting. I wasn't really my thing.
0:27:13 - (Colin Johnson): We went bird hunting once or twice. Yeah, that was about it. And didn't get anything. You know, I don't think. Yeah, I like fishing. My dad took me fishing some, but.
0:27:20 - (Nathan Brand): Fishing, I mean, that's.
0:27:21 - (Colin Johnson): Come on.
0:27:22 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that, you know, the older you get that you kind of need to have these activities like golf or. Ted has something that you can enjoy well into your later years. Yeah, hunting has definitely become that for me in this season.
0:27:36 - (Colin Johnson): How'd you get into hunting?
0:27:38 - (Nathan Brand): I had a one. One of my best friends just lives down the street from me, has kids similar age, and we both kind of looked at each other and we're like, maybe we should do this. And it's been really fun. We started out, his eyes kind of lit up.
0:27:51 - (Colin Johnson): Maybe we should do this. Well, let's just go kill something.
0:27:54 - (Nathan Brand): Well, it's really like, you know, it's like camping with guns. I mean, what could be more fun?
0:27:59 - (Colin Johnson): Have you grown up with guns? Do you?
0:28:01 - (Nathan Brand): No. No.
0:28:01 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:28:02 - (Nathan Brand): I never did. No, definitely not.
0:28:03 - (Colin Johnson): So there's a barrier to overcome a little bit, because there's a lot of.
0:28:06 - (Nathan Brand): Knowledge, you know, and, you know, a lot of safety to learn. And I mean, I. I'm an Eagle Scout, so we definitely shot shotguns and 22s and things like that.
0:28:14 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha. Okay, so you had a little bit.
0:28:16 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, but long range, high Caliber rifle.
0:28:20 - (Colin Johnson): Is a little different.
0:28:21 - (Nathan Brand): It's a little different. It's a little different, but it's very rewarding because I think, especially as, you know, someone that trained as a chef for so many years, you get to a certain point where I'm a little bit bored with beef.
0:28:33 - (Colin Johnson): Sure.
0:28:33 - (Nathan Brand): You know, it is good.
0:28:35 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:28:35 - (Nathan Brand): I had the A5 Wagyu at Juniper a few weeks ago. It was unbelievable.
0:28:40 - (Colin Johnson): But we did that one.
0:28:42 - (Nathan Brand): I get really more excited about venison. Or last Christmas I smoked a whole antelope leg with the bone in.
0:28:48 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, wow.
0:28:49 - (Nathan Brand): I mean, it's just, it's, it's very exciting. And I think it's also, you know, you're harvesting your own food, you're providing for your family in that way.
0:28:57 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:28:58 - (Nathan Brand): And that has turned out to be something that I was kind of ambivalent about at the beginning and now I'm really passionate about. And I think it's a great tradition, it's a skill and learning whole animal butchery is a really great skill.
0:29:12 - (Colin Johnson): Are there YouTube channels about this kind of stuff?
0:29:16 - (Nathan Brand): Endless. Endless.
0:29:17 - (Colin Johnson): Because I'm going. I don't. You know, you see a lot of hunters go out and they love the hunting part of it, right? Yeah. And then they kill it and they clean the deer and they take it back. But then I haven't watched and so you're saying they're in this one. But I would wonder if there's like a synergy there where a high profile chef such as yourself can show these guys who just killed a deer.
0:29:37 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:29:37 - (Colin Johnson): You know, how do we prepare this in a way that we've never thought about? That's just unbelievably delicious. You know, is that stuff you're doing in your kitchen and videoing, is it?
0:29:45 - (Nathan Brand): I haven't, I haven't filmed anything like that yet, but I definitely see that in my future.
0:29:49 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, I think that'd be awesome.
0:29:50 - (Nathan Brand): I think it would be really cool. I mean, there's all kinds of amazingly qualified people out there doing that.
0:29:54 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:29:55 - (Nathan Brand): But we've had a really interesting time just trying to use one new ingredient every time.
0:30:00 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, that's cool.
0:30:01 - (Nathan Brand): So maybe we fed the liver to the dog the first time and now we're going to cook the liver when we go camping in a couple weeks, trying to learn how to, you know, what are the recipes that the family loves, that the kids love, that we can, you know, make for everybody and are good for parties or good for a weeknight, things like that.
0:30:20 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha.
0:30:21 - (Nathan Brand): We made a venison Necros the other day with the bone on, it was unbelievable. So that was really good.
0:30:27 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool.
0:30:28 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, it's a very rewarding pursuit.
0:30:31 - (Colin Johnson): Now, did you prepare the antelope yourself? I mean, did you clean it and do all that and quarter it?
0:30:35 - (Nathan Brand): And I. It wasn't my antelope that I shot.
0:30:37 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:30:38 - (Nathan Brand): But I was there for the quartering, and we. And we brought it back in a. Brought that quarter back in a cooler.
0:30:43 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:30:44 - (Nathan Brand): And babied it.
0:30:45 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:30:46 - (Nathan Brand): And, yeah, we butchered it up and smoked it. It was. I mean, it was incredible. I made a chimichurri to go with it. It was delicious.
0:30:54 - (Colin Johnson): That's super cool.
0:30:54 - (Nathan Brand): It's so cool to try, you know, different flavors.
0:30:56 - (Colin Johnson): And your friend's like, yeah, this was a good idea. We were drinking beer over a grill and look at where we got. Now we're eating antelope.
0:31:01 - (Nathan Brand): 100%, man.
0:31:02 - (Colin Johnson): How cool was that?
0:31:03 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, it's total fruition.
0:31:04 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. You brought it all together.
0:31:06 - (Nathan Brand): Well, that's. Actually, I've never been in. I've always been interested in whole animal butchery and buying whole animals for maybe for a restaurant, and I've participated in a couple pig butcheries and things like that. But I recently found a local lamb supplier, and they're going to sell me a whole lamb. I'm going to take it home and butcher it myself. So I think, like, that's, you know, it's just a really fun skill for me.
0:31:29 - (Nathan Brand): Like I said, I like new things, so finding something new.
0:31:32 - (Colin Johnson): Will you include the boys in that? That, absolutely. Yeah.
0:31:36 - (Nathan Brand): They. They had a request when I went to Wyoming, they wanted the heart, so we brought them back an antelope part.
0:31:44 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, wow.
0:31:44 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, it's in the freezer right now, but we're going to cook.
0:31:45 - (Colin Johnson): What are you going to do with an antelope part? Like.
0:31:47 - (Nathan Brand): Well, when I was in the. When I was in the field, I made antelope heart tartare with some raw egg yolk and some Dijon mustard, some parsley, some scallion, black pepper, garlic.
0:31:59 - (Colin Johnson): So you just sliced it up raw?
0:32:01 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:32:02 - (Colin Johnson): Put a little raw egg on it.
0:32:04 - (Nathan Brand): And then eat it.
0:32:05 - (Colin Johnson): It was delicious.
0:32:06 - (Nathan Brand): That was unbelievable.
0:32:07 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:32:07 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. And you're just out in the field, you know, it's 30 degrees and long day of hunting, and that's cool. It was. I mean, it's very rewarding.
0:32:15 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:32:16 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:32:16 - (Colin Johnson): That's fun. Yeah, that's super fun.
0:32:18 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:32:21 - (Colin Johnson): What would you. What would be some advice you give to somebody who thinking about starting a restaurant? You've Done that one. Yeah. How would you help somebody along the route there? Or how do you. Let's go that way first and then we'll talk about maybe keeping it interesting. And then like we talked about, you know, the transition out. You know, at some point, I think.
0:32:44 - (Nathan Brand): You know, people have asked me this question and my answer always changes as I grow and I evolve.
0:32:49 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, I think I probably asked it to you a couple years ago when you're on here a year and a half ago.
0:32:53 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, I'm sure you did. And you know, there, there's some really famous advice out there from David Chang, which is don't do it. Just don't.
0:33:00 - (Colin Johnson): Don't just run the other way.
0:33:02 - (Nathan Brand): Do not do this. And that's from one of the most successful American chefs of the last 20 years. I think one thing that I, that I would learn is that if you're looking for, to like, maybe build financial independence, having a restaurant might be the very first step in that, just to give you a platform. But then you're going to find yourself looking at TV deals, book publishing, opening a second location of the same restaurant, opening a new restaurant.
0:33:29 - (Nathan Brand): You're going to need to grow a lot in order to hit the financial goals that my guess is you're trying to hit.
0:33:35 - (Colin Johnson): Sure.
0:33:35 - (Nathan Brand): One restaurant is never, probably, almost certainly never going to do that for you.
0:33:39 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha.
0:33:42 - (Nathan Brand): And restaurants, one, One thing for people that are thinking about restaurants is restaurants are inherently not scalable. So I think we live in a world where scalability is really valued. That's what VCs look for. That's what most startups are looking to do. So many of them utilize the Internet to do that. That's smart. If you can find a niche doing that and you're trying to make some money, I think that's really great.
0:34:05 - (Nathan Brand): I think a lot of people like me, I found myself in the restaurant world when I was 14 and it was just such an amazing, dynamic place. And it was really good for my work style. I love to do. Work intensely, do something almost meditative, like peel a bunch of potatoes or snap.
0:34:24 - (Colin Johnson): A bunch of beans.
0:34:25 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, I just find a lot of joy in that. And I think if you like that kind of work, that can be really good for you. But I think I was in the restaurant business so long, I never saw any other avenue for, for my creative outlet.
0:34:44 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:34:45 - (Nathan Brand): So it was like, oh, well, this is, this is what I'll do.
0:34:47 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:34:49 - (Nathan Brand): But, yeah, I mean, I hope that helps people that are thinking about doing it. Yeah, you definitely don't Want to go into it without any experience, you know, if.
0:34:58 - (Colin Johnson): Go learn somewhere else. Make and make some mistakes on somebody else's dime. See if you're passionate about it. Right. And find your passion part of it. Because if you're not passionate, it's not going to work.
0:35:07 - (Nathan Brand): Absolutely. I think also, though, you know, to be perfectly honest, like Post Covid, the prices of the products that we were buying just kept going up and up and up and up, and the customer's ability to chart. To pay more for them stayed relatively the same. Yeah, so that was a tough balance. Now, I think we navigated it really well. I think we were hitting best in industry numbers, best I've ever seen for, like, you know, percentages of making sure the business is profitable, which has to be, you know, priority number one in a lot of cases.
0:35:43 - (Colin Johnson): You gotta keep the doors open.
0:35:44 - (Nathan Brand): Gotta keep the doors open. Those products are volatile. You know, wine can go up by several dollars a bottle every year.
0:35:51 - (Colin Johnson): Prices can go up dramatically, and they.
0:35:53 - (Nathan Brand): Go up more around this time of the year. Things like that. Those can be hard unless you have someone very skilled at navigating those price increases and changes. You know, you gotta be looking at those numbers almost every day to make sure you're in balance.
0:36:10 - (Colin Johnson): Isn't that wild? Yeah, there's a lot to do.
0:36:12 - (Nathan Brand): It is wild. But, yeah, if you can meet all those requirements, then I encourage you to go for it. Go for it. Especially here.
0:36:19 - (Colin Johnson): What do you feel like? Let's say somebody's listening and they're like, I do want to start a restaurant in Johnson City.
0:36:25 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:36:26 - (Colin Johnson): What do you feel like we're missing?
0:36:28 - (Nathan Brand): Oh, that's a great question. I think we don't have quite enough. I know we have a lot of pizza, but I don't think we have quite enough local pizza.
0:36:35 - (Colin Johnson): I have a buddy who's from Boston, and he's like, our pizza's terrible here.
0:36:40 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:36:42 - (Colin Johnson): I'm used to Newark. Good. You know, just. I think the crust is where, you know, the New England crusts are just better. And he's like, pizza's here too.
0:36:50 - (Nathan Brand): Well, I love going to Italian pizza. Pub Scratch just reopened, which is really exciting. Yeah, that's really cool.
0:36:55 - (Colin Johnson): That is cool.
0:36:56 - (Nathan Brand): Um, but, you know, there. There's. There's Main Street Pizza downtown, but there's. I mean, after that, I think there's real room for a Neapolitan, like, cooked in 90 seconds, stone oven.
0:37:08 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:37:09 - (Nathan Brand): Type thing.
0:37:09 - (Colin Johnson): We don't have one.
0:37:10 - (Nathan Brand): We don't have one. And I think if I was Going to open a restaurant. That's what I would do for sure. Ramen would be amazing. That would be really good. Yeah, I would love something like that. We used to do a ramen broth at Timber during COVID and that was like a very. A very steadying broth, you know, that was good.
0:37:29 - (Colin Johnson): Just kind of hardy. And you can throw all kinds of different stuff in there.
0:37:31 - (Nathan Brand): We put Ben's bacon ham hocks in there. Unbelievable.
0:37:35 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, this is good.
0:37:36 - (Nathan Brand): So that's a good one. It's been. I mean, having Juniper now has been so cool.
0:37:43 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:37:43 - (Nathan Brand): But I. I definitely think more casual places. Yeah, I think that's even a. Even a fast casual. I love what Nikki's doing over at Groovy Grover.
0:37:53 - (Colin Johnson): She's hilarious, man. She. I think she has twice the energy that we've had on the show ever. Like, just. That lady is like, all the time. I loved it.
0:38:03 - (Nathan Brand): It's amazing.
0:38:03 - (Colin Johnson): She's. She's a wild one like this.
0:38:05 - (Nathan Brand): I went to a party that she catered the other day, and just the food was just exceptionally good.
0:38:10 - (Colin Johnson): Carly and I went by there. It was delicious.
0:38:11 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. I love having fast, casual places.
0:38:14 - (Colin Johnson): And it's healthy.
0:38:15 - (Nathan Brand): Like, so healthy. Yeah, you feel amazing.
0:38:17 - (Colin Johnson): You feel good after eating it. Yeah. So good. Although I ate too much of it because it was so good.
0:38:21 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. Yeah.
0:38:22 - (Colin Johnson): You get sick on healthy food.
0:38:23 - (Nathan Brand): That's right.
0:38:24 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Over. Overindulged. Yeah.
0:38:26 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. Trying to think of what else I'm excited about. Feisty pigeon opening the wine bar. Yeah, that's gonna be really cool and interesting.
0:38:33 - (Colin Johnson): I'm excited to see that, too.
0:38:36 - (Nathan Brand): I would. I think, you know, apart from concept, I also think location is really important. I think there's a lot of room on Walnut street to put a pub of some kind. Something like that.
0:38:46 - (Colin Johnson): You know, public food.
0:38:48 - (Nathan Brand): I love mulligans. Fish and chips is really great. Bartender's hilarious.
0:38:53 - (Colin Johnson): That was good. He's hilarious. Yeah. Good spot, but.
0:38:56 - (Nathan Brand): And then more downtown places, you know, and I'm.
0:39:00 - (Colin Johnson): I'm over north Johnson City, kind of. And kind of Carrabba's. Yeah, you got Carrabba's and you've got Aubrey's. You know, there's not a lot over there. We go to Barbaritos all the time. Because I love. We love Barbaritos. It's just down the hill from my office. Anyway, so I eat there a lot for lunch. Yeah, I think we're missing. You know, we got temp. We do have Juniper over.
0:39:20 - (Nathan Brand): Yes, absolutely.
0:39:21 - (Colin Johnson): Which is not. Yeah, they're tip top. But I think there's still, like, a little bit of a desert there. Especially if you go all the way over to, like, where the Cracker Barrel is. It's kind of the Cracker Barrel and Bob Evans.
0:39:32 - (Nathan Brand): That's right.
0:39:33 - (Colin Johnson): I mean.
0:39:34 - (Nathan Brand): That's right. There's nothing.
0:39:35 - (Colin Johnson): And there are a lot of people in Gray and Boone's Creek area that would probably be looking for something. The Miso place is kind of nice. We go there occasionally.
0:39:42 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah.
0:39:43 - (Colin Johnson): Around the corner from Zach's Furniture. But, Yeah, I think location is key. I gotta figure it out.
0:39:49 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. I think there's a lot of room, I think. Yeah. I mean, we've never seen ourselves as competing with anyone. I think the more restaurants there are in an area, I think the better they all do.
0:40:02 - (Colin Johnson): Agreed.
0:40:03 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:40:05 - (Colin Johnson): Because they're just people like, they. Synergy. You guys work off each other.
0:40:10 - (Nathan Brand): Exactly.
0:40:10 - (Colin Johnson): Encourage each other.
0:40:11 - (Nathan Brand): And people like to go downtown and have options.
0:40:13 - (Colin Johnson): Sure.
0:40:14 - (Nathan Brand): So, yeah, I'm excited to see what happens over the next few years. I think we'll see some more.
0:40:20 - (Colin Johnson): I agree.
0:40:20 - (Nathan Brand): Places open and. Yeah.
0:40:24 - (Colin Johnson): What's something I forgot to ask you that you wish I had that you'd like to. Anything that you're like, hey, I had this in my brain. I needed to share with our listeners.
0:40:33 - (Nathan Brand): I think that's a good question. I think I would just, you know, it's. It's the gratitude season. I would just say how grateful I am. You know, my time at Timber was really special.
0:40:42 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:40:43 - (Nathan Brand): I'm glad to be a civilian for a while, be a Muggle. And it's really nice to take a break and be with my family this holiday.
0:40:53 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:40:54 - (Nathan Brand): And I'm just really grateful for, you know, this phase of my career and excited and nervous to open my own business. No partners.
0:41:01 - (Colin Johnson): Sure.
0:41:01 - (Nathan Brand): I said on my QuickBooks the other day, I was an English major, so that's a big achievement.
0:41:05 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:41:05 - (Nathan Brand): So, yeah, that's been really rewarding and really special. And, you know, all those. All the amazing people that I got to work with at Timber, they. They will. I mean, they. They crush, you know?
0:41:18 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:41:19 - (Nathan Brand): It's. It was not a reflection of me. It's a reflection of them.
0:41:21 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. That's awesome. And it's cool that you can leave. Well. And come back, you know?
0:41:25 - (Nathan Brand): Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:41:26 - (Colin Johnson): It didn't go sideways and friends and you get to go eat there and.
0:41:31 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:41:32 - (Colin Johnson): I think it sounds like you did it really well. What's your favorite Christmas tradition from history, from you growing up? Like, what do you. When you think of Christmas.
0:41:40 - (Nathan Brand): Oh, that's funny. I was thinking about this the other day because, you know, we're trying to create our own traditions with our kids. Let's see if I can think of a better one. But I'll give you this one first. It was the chocolate oranges.
0:41:53 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, yeah. You know, those things my dad split. Serious chocolate orange. Yeah. Still get some occasionally.
0:41:58 - (Nathan Brand): My. Well, it sounds like your grandfather was British. Yeah, My parents were mega Anglophiles, and I think it's a British thing.
0:42:03 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. My mother's English, and so. Yeah.
0:42:06 - (Nathan Brand): I've never seen one in a store, but I might order them online for the kids. I think they'd get a kick out of it.
0:42:10 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. I think we brought one. We were in London this summer, and my dad ate one there. I bought him one because I was like, hey, yeah, I remember you eating these. They're fantastic. Yeah.
0:42:19 - (Nathan Brand): That's awesome.
0:42:20 - (Colin Johnson): I'll have to keep an eye out for you.
0:42:21 - (Nathan Brand): My, my, my. I don't know. I don't know. My favorite Christmas tradition growing up, it's.
0:42:30 - (Colin Johnson): Christmas morning, getting up Christmas Eve, opening the.
0:42:33 - (Nathan Brand): I don't know if you did this Christmas Eve, we would open one present.
0:42:36 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:42:36 - (Nathan Brand): And it couldn't be the marquee present. That was clearly the biggest or the shakiest, you know, the loudest.
0:42:41 - (Colin Johnson): Aunt Martha's pajamas or something, you know.
0:42:43 - (Nathan Brand): But at least you got that taste. That's right. Yeah.
0:42:45 - (Colin Johnson): Like, I'm ripping Piper up. I'm getting some.
0:42:47 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. As a kid, you're.
0:42:48 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Yeah. We. We go to Carly's families on Christmas Eve, and the nieces and girls come over, and they're like just wild bandits. And we open that, we do Christmas Eve for them, and we just do the whole thing. And it's so much fun because they're going nuts just going through the presents, and it's just a lot of fun.
0:43:06 - (Nathan Brand): That's awesome.
0:43:07 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. I remember my aunt, my dad's aunt, she was old. She would make boiled custard, and. Oh, it was so good. Whoa.
0:43:18 - (Nathan Brand): Vanilla.
0:43:19 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Like, you just eggs and you're stirring and stirring. She said, oh, I'm stirring this forever. You, basically.
0:43:24 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. In a double boiler.
0:43:25 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:43:26 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah. That's cool. That's. That's.
0:43:28 - (Colin Johnson): My dad would add a little bourbon to it.
0:43:30 - (Nathan Brand): Absolutely.
0:43:30 - (Colin Johnson): Because they would call it flavoring. He told me later it was bourbon. I was like, I gotcha. Yeah. So we drive from here to Jackson. They lived in Jackson, Tennessee, when Jackson. We'd have dinner with them in Jackson and Christmas Eve, and we have boiled Custard, which was delicious. And then we load up in the car and drive the rest of the way to Memphis to where my grandparents were. And you'd always hear on like npr, they'd be listening. They're like, oh, we've seen an unidentified flying object over Wyoming and ran it all back and it's moving at a rate we'll just.
0:43:59 - (Colin Johnson): And you're like, what's going on? Is it. Is it Santa? You know, they're like, oh, you just got chills.
0:44:04 - (Nathan Brand): My dad got on the roof one year. We had a ranch, a little rancher, and so it was easy to get on the roof.
0:44:08 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:44:09 - (Nathan Brand): And. But I thought it was the reindeer for sure.
0:44:12 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Genius.
0:44:15 - (Nathan Brand): Genius move.
0:44:16 - (Colin Johnson): You going to get on the roof?
0:44:17 - (Nathan Brand): I think I might. It's a metal roof, so I'm a little.
0:44:19 - (Colin Johnson): Be careful.
0:44:20 - (Nathan Brand): Maybe I'll just like throw something on it.
0:44:24 - (Colin Johnson): Just buy a bunch of bells and.
0:44:25 - (Nathan Brand): Throw them up there 100%.
0:44:27 - (Colin Johnson): That'll be fun. That'd be so much fun. Well, I hope you guys have an amazing Christmas and I'm sure the boys are going to be fired up for it.
0:44:34 - (Nathan Brand): Thank you. I. They're not going to see this. So I can say that I got them coonskin caps for Christmas. Yeah, they're going to freak out, dude. Yeah.
0:44:42 - (Colin Johnson): I mean, come on, it's like a.
0:44:43 - (Nathan Brand): BB gun for a five year old.
0:44:44 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's going to be super fun.
0:44:46 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, they're going to be excited.
0:44:47 - (Colin Johnson): That'll be awesome. Well, thanks for coming on the podcast again.
0:44:51 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, my pleasure.
0:44:52 - (Colin Johnson): You're welcome anytime you want. We could just make you a regular. You could be a co host. We'll just do it.
0:44:56 - (Nathan Brand): I'm in. Let's do it.
0:44:57 - (Colin Johnson): Let's do it. I think it'd be good. We could bring some other. Some other restaurateurs over and you can really grill them.
0:45:03 - (Nathan Brand): It's so cool. I mean. Yeah. I mean, there's so many people out there with such amazing stories here in this town.
0:45:08 - (Colin Johnson): Ooh, this would be good. Who are some good suggestions? Or we can like send it to them and be like, hey, you want to. Come on. Nathan was on there.
0:45:14 - (Nathan Brand): Well, I haven't. I don't know if you had the Juniper crew on. We haven't that. I would love to hear that.
0:45:18 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:45:19 - (Nathan Brand): I would love to hear the Miso Teriyaki crew.
0:45:21 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, yeah.
0:45:22 - (Nathan Brand): Because they've seen so much success and they're doing drive thru and they really thrived during COVID and I would be really interested. They seem like very smart business people.
0:45:31 - (Colin Johnson): That that place is hopping all the time.
0:45:33 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, it's great. Trying to think. Marin. I don't know if you've had her.
0:45:37 - (Colin Johnson): I have. With lazy life. She's great.
0:45:39 - (Nathan Brand): She's so cool.
0:45:40 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, she is super cool.
0:45:41 - (Nathan Brand): It's my kids favorite place. They asked to go there. So special, you know to have something like that.
0:45:47 - (Colin Johnson): It is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. World class bakery. Writing down. I mean unbelievable. It is unbelievable. Yeah. We live in the best place in the world.
0:45:54 - (Nathan Brand): It's pretty nice.
0:45:55 - (Colin Johnson): That's why we call it God's country. Well, thank you so much. Till next time, I'm Colin Johnson with the Colin and Credit Group. If you want to move here, hang out with Nathan on the regular, come visit his new shop that's going to be opening in sometime 2025. Where I would love to make that happen for you. If you want to invest in real estate, build wealth that way. Passively. You should buy a house now, Nathan.
0:46:17 - (Colin Johnson): We rent it out for you for the next 20. Well, 15 years. Your kids go to college, resell it and it pays for college.
0:46:23 - (Nathan Brand): I'm already in the rental game, baby.
0:46:25 - (Colin Johnson): See, there you go. Yeah, I like it. Let's go.
0:46:27 - (Nathan Brand): Yeah, keep it rolling.
0:46:28 - (Colin Johnson): It's a great way to build wealth. So anyway, thank you all for listening. Hope you have a merry Christmas.