Jamie Deen, Part 1: From The Hostess City to The Classic City

Jamie Deen Interview Part I

00:17

Welcome to the blog, the dogs podcast. I'm Herschel Gurley here as always my co host boss, dog boss bark at people. Welcome back, everyone.

00:24

hope you all enjoyed the last couple pods today. We have another interview pod for y'all. today. We have dogs superfan. Jamie Dean, restaurant tour, entrepreneur, great guest hope y'all enjoy the interview. We had a lot of fun talking to him.

00:39

Yeah, Jamie was fantastic. I mean, he was number one super generous with his time could just tell he loves the dogs told some fantastic stories. We are so pumped for y'all to hear it. And without further ado, here is Jamie Dean. We are more than excited to have Jamie Dean with us today. Jamie is really a renaissance man and a lot of ways. He is a entrepreneur. He is a restaurant tour. He is an author. He is a TV personality. There aren't many things that he doesn't do. maybe most importantly, he is a son. He is a brother. He's a husband and father and and most importantly for our purposes. He is an enormous dogs fan. So Jamie, welcome to the program. We're thrilled to have

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you. I cannot thank you guys enough for having me on and get to talk about some of my favorite things for some of my favorite people. Thank you guys.

01:30

So before we dive in and talk about the dogs, we want to extend a congratulations to you. We saw yesterday was your 15th wedding anniversary that that deserves some applause I think and also big year for you this year. third son on the way is that what I saw?

01:44

Yeah, is that it speaks to our marriage. Really, after 15 years of marriage. We exchanged a doctor's appointment for me and a breast pump for my wife yesterday.

01:56

That's fantastic. Well, I can tell ya, after we had we had twins, we went for our third and we got twins. And so I had I had I had a special doctor's appointment this year that that got this year started off on a hot foot my friend. So

02:13

I've been putting it off, you know, so a friend of mine offered me a bag of pays. And I said you need to get go to the Costco get that same size. My brother had triplets october two years ago. And imagine your first child being three of them. No, no, thank you. You're a boy. And I hadn't seen him almost two years now. God bless.

02:33

I'll tell you what him and his wife thought they ought to be put up for sainthood because three at one time, I don't know, man, I thought to at one time it's gonna kill us it was it was something. So

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I told my brother that it'll never be easy. But it'll nothing will ever be greater than being a parent. And that's where my advice with him stop having two or three as opposed to one I can't imagine. It's a hard thing. But you know, there's not one thing in this whole wide world that's worth it. If it's easy, you know, you got to work for everything.

03:00

You got that right. Plus, I do think it's interesting. We'll get to the dog stuff shortly, I promise. But don't you think to when you have your own kids, it changes your relationship with your parents, because you say, Man, they were doing so many things that I just didn't even realize, you know, and you think, man, I'm so thankful that I had these influences and all these type things. It's just it's great from a number of perspectives, but magical man.

03:25

Yeah, it's, it's a blessing. You know, my parents, and a lot of people kind of know our story. You have role models in your life, either positive or negative. And if your parents are doing the right thing, that's a good thing for you to do. And if they're not, you learn some things that you might not get tripped on yourself. And, you know, my mom suffered from agoraphobia, when I was in middle school, my father's battled alcoholism, generationally through his family, up until I guess it's maybe been six years ago or serve. And so you know, some of the things that some of the behaviors in our house, I knew that I didn't want to have that in my house. So gotta find positives, even in the negatives in life, you know, you just got to take your lessons and apply them for tomorrow and try to make the same mistakes. And being a parent is, you know, is what I really feel like, I get my most satisfaction from being a parent is a huge responsibility. And my wife and I work together as a team guys make jokes about or they wouldn't change diapers or whatever, I don't see how you can have a family that's not all working together, my wife and I share all the duties, you know, wash clothes, and I probably cook a little bit more, but she likes to, you know, keep the house clean and get the kids to church and to sports and making sure that their leaders and their peer group and the media and availability and electronics to give us opportunity to sit down together today. Um, none of us are together. It's also a huge challenge for today's parents that my parents didn't have to deal with, you know, a.com will change a kid's life in a second. So, standing on top, all that stuff that's full Time Alone.

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Yeah, you got that, right. That's one of the things. So our oldest is seven. And my wife and I have these conversations a lot about how you navigate that because even for us, it's not something we had to deal with until the end of college with all the social media and all these type things. And really the even the internet was not that prevalent. I mean, we stepped into the computer lab in college, it's not like you ready access to it? It's different world different times. And well, so I think it's a kind of oppression way to start. So why don't you tell the folks in our audience for anybody who's not familiar, a little bit about your story, and then also kind of weave in how Georgia and the dogs fit into that for you?

05:36

Well, I was born in in Albany, Georgia, southwest Georgia, born and raised down there. My mom, holiday, my dad, Jimmy Dean, my brother, Bobby Dean, all all of us born and raised there. And all Benny, three of the four members of my family graduated from Albany High School, which is hard to believe it's no longer there, they closed Albany high school, I went to Westover and not really a good student, I didn't really see the advantages of that time at the time until I was old enough to look back. But you know, and I share this with people I got a GED from high school, you know, I'm not even in high school graduate. So I have a chance to talk to school groups from young kids out through high school. And that's a point that always shares that even though you might not feel like you're in a position to really make a difference in someone's life or in your town or your state or the United States or the world plug away because you can't ever tell, didn't graduate got a JD went about us to stay with my best friend. I was there for three years and learned a tremendous amount. You know, we our family has very humble beginnings. I work full time to try to pay for school. I took two classes in three years, but had a job you know, and ran out of toilet paper and you know, didn't have the toothpaste and you know, we had salt mccanna pork and beans and discovered for a month and learn how to live you know, figure it out. There's not a toilet paper ferry and a buddy of mine and I decided we were going to Yellowstone National Park. We were going to go out there and it was a great opportunity. I worked for Tw services they house this faddis gave us a uniform five days on two days off in the middle of Yellowstone National Park. So I just I cooked in a kitchen that had several 100 people have walked in ovens. You know, it had 100 gallons soup kettles, I've never seen anything like that I'd worked in food service since I was 15. And so that was an amazing experience to be in a kitchen like that. But to be able to just disappear in the back country at Yellowstone for a whole summer. You know, two out of seven days was just fantastic. And at the end of that summer, my mom called and said that she had an idea for a catering business. She had seen a woman in Washington had did a lunch delivery service. So she would go into barber shops and doctors offices, businesses that traditionally didn't get a lunch hour, and would offer affordable fresh food every day, you know, door to door delivery. And my mom said, You know, I don't have any skills, but I can cook. And so my brother and I were of that age, I was 21 My brother was just 18 fresh out of high school. And we went to work. We had $200 we bought a cooler. We bought, you know, supplies for that first day. And it was called the bag lady. And we operated it out of our home on 16th street there in Savannah. And I used to ride by that door that I knocked on many times a day. I was in Savannah for 30 years. And I'll never forget the first door I'm not going and so I'm standing there wearing a T shirt. We don't have a business license, we don't have anything. You know, I've got sandwiches and saran wrap for $2. And you know, desserts and things. And they looked at me like I was crazy, that first day and went home and said, well, Mama, you know, I didn't have any sales today. But for being public educated in South Georgia, my mother is very smart. She's very intuitive about things. And she said, Well, they don't know anything about us now. But they're gonna know that we're consistent. You go to the same doors at the same time, tomorrow. And during that first week we warm down and then once somebody took food made by holidayme and ate it, it was very quickly turned into Oh, we were worried because you were five minutes late today. So our business began to grow after that first week, and really continues to grow to this day. Now. 31 years later, we were discovered operating illegally out of our house after that first year on the door and saying again, you're not operating a business out of this house or and she said well no, that would be illegal.

09:40

Meanwhile, back in the alley, there's a full restaurant quality trash building. We were cooking 75 chicken breast every Friday morning for our grilled chicken salad special on Fridays. And so we went into the Best Western motel on the south side there and that first year, I pray I never go to Another year as hard as that, living at the house with my mom and my brother, it was the last year of my parents marriage. You know, we weren't getting paid. It was just tough man, it was so tough because my mom is one of the hardest working people even now to this day. She's traveling back from Los Angeles today. She just works is unbelievable. And my dad is the same way. And just we couldn't take a break, you know, because mom never did. She's working 18 hours a day that whole first year and but the Best Western was real hard. It was seven days a week. And three meals a day. We only got a couple of days a year off. And it was hard man food service is very hard business. And the Lord's just blessed us every day. It's just continued to grow. And when we moved downtown Savannah, that's when midnight in the garden of good and evil began to take off and downtown. It kind of dried up and Savannah. And right around the time that it started to come back. So we moved downtown in 96. And three years later, we were the number one international meal of the Year by USA Today newspaper. So in 10 years, we went from a legal operation at our house to my mom was on the front page of the USA Today. I mean, you can't write

11:09

that. No, that's incredible. I'm gonna bring up something to that's an interesting nugget. You mentioned midnight in the garden of good and evil. Am I remembering this right? Wasn't the individual one of the characters that was based off of was Mr. Seiler.

11:21

Well, Mr. Seiler, he was an attorney, I think in that case, and now he was in the film. And we've gotten to be friends with him over the years, he and his family and Charles and Swan, they're all great. And Miss Fowler, who passed away Mr. Sawyer passed away, I guess three or four years ago, but there's a lot of UGA history runs through Savannah, Georgia, there's just a lot of people that have just beaten a path down 16 to 15. up here to the classic city.

11:47

Yeah, that's so interesting. Well, I don't want to move off on this just because you mentioned a point that I find great for whether it be Georgia football or life in general, which talks about being consistent. And I think that is what generally happens, whether it's in your own business, or whether it's in football is people want to wake up one day and have everything and not have done all the work to get to that point. And what generally happens is is the folks that are successful, are the ones that have world class consistency each day, do the same things do things right? And then the accumulation of all that work leads to great results. And your family story is certainly indicative of that and just fantastic. So tell us where the dogs fit into that it was it something worth the family was was written for the dogs because you're from Georgia, or how did all that come to be? Where does your fandom originate? Well, my

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dad was born in Alabama. So we grew up under the influence of our father. So we had Crimson Tide stuff in our house. When I was growing up, when I got old enough to look around and said, Daddy, we live in Georgia. Bear Bryant is a great guy, but I'm not gonna pull for for Alabama. And I was all in, you know, come coming to Athens and I love this state. I love Georgia. I've traveled all over this country and the people in the food in the variety of the topography here from the dove fields in South Georgia to the sandy beach of Savannah and you come up here and you get into the foothills and the fall. I just i'd love Georgia to be able to support the State University because I'm going to put my passion somewhere and it's in screwed. And it's in my family and it's in our fate and it's in sports. And I never really plugged into professional sports, I respect them and appreciate it and you know, I like the Falcons and I've been going to Braves games my whole life but you talk about consistency. That's what I find is really gotten a ring University of Georgia the consistency of the message in education in the state school and just everybody that I've known has gone through the school and all the code was and I've gotten to know so many players and I could not be more all I mean, you can't see it on this recording. But you guys are looking at my son's bedroom. I mean he's hurting his his everywhere, you know, so

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we're all in well, so I want to share with our listeners a story that involves myself and boss and Jamie and we haven't told Jamie this but we're gonna tell Jamie his story real quick. So we had my bachelor party.

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Oh my gosh, I'm

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double nervous now. Yeah. So no, it's good. Nothing bad. This is actually really funny. It's a great example of how how gracious and kind Jamie is and I want people to know about this. So we we went down for the kickoff classic when they played Boise State 2011 in the dome. And for the bachelor party is all my brother's boss and a couple other buddies and we got a room at the Embassy Suites. So if you've never stayed in an Embassy Suites, they have like a great big buffet breakfast like real food like eggs omelets, waffles, pancakes, the whole deal. So we had gone out the night before I mean it was bachelor party folks so we might have imbibed a little bit but the next morning we get up to go get our get our buffet breakfast and it's me and boss and my brother and and one of our other buddies and we're in line and Jamie's cook walks in with his family and my family all love to cook and obviously consumed cooking show so we knew who Jamie was from watching on TV and it's it's almost seemingly his his filter had just left him and I'm brother just shouts out. Thanks Jamie. And I wanted to crawl under a table I was so embarrassed but Jamie was so nice I'm is everybody in restaurant hardest? So obviously Jamie hurts to Jamie walked over said hello. And we're all wearing dog stuff. And he told us go dogs and I'm sure you have no memory of that. That just goes to tell you that in a moment when nobody was watching. He was just kind of as gracious as he as he could be when he was there with his family. So we appreciate that. And that's that's our dog story with Jamie that you didn't even know about. But

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the reason why I don't remember meeting you is because the night before we got turned inside out by Boise State.

16:07

Oh man, it was.

16:09

It was a tough game. A friend of mine works an ancillary role around the university and was able to give me field passes. So that's the first time I've been on the field I could not have been more excited and that that went away very quickly.

16:25

Oh man, Kellen Moore dice, dice that defense up all night long. I mean, it was it was miserable. We were

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talking about.

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I've been a season ticket holder for 15 years, and you have people that kind of help you move around that system and if you need anything, so I got a package in the mail one day and it was a helmet from a Georgia helmet from that Boise State game if y'all remember, it was that ugly? It was that and never gonna use them again. So that gave them all away. So parents about 20 feet away from me and my youngest son's bedroom. He doesn't jack was Matthew wasn't born then jack was there. And since Matthew wasn't born, I figured he could keep it in his room because there's no residue on it for him. But that's a tough one. But you know, I promise you I just to be able to go and be there. It's kind of like golf. I enjoy it for what it is and lose, hey, it none of it is life or death for us. I just enjoy being in the nation, man. That's what I love is being in a group of people that you can bark and clap each other on the back and I just love it.

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So one thing we wanted to ask Herschel and I are both dads I myself have six so and I'm not have not gotten the bag of peas yet so long and yet. One thing that was big for us as our kids got older, our fandom kind of changed as we got our kids involved in the dog nation, so to speak. So how did that change for you? Did I mean obviously, you know, we see your son's bedroom back there, it's covered in UGA stuff. Did that change? For you did it did it enhance your experience any as a dog fan,

18:05

it gives us an opportunity to do family type things together, which is what I love. We've and I don't know if you guys know that you probably have but we've relocated here. We live in Athens now. We've been here for six months. So I was in. I was in Savannah for 30 years and was I'm just so blessed that I could live wherever I want to my brother still looking over the restaurant for us down in Savannah and we're opening so far and wide outside of Savannah that you know, I travel a bunch and it's a heck of a commute, but I happily do it. I ride down to Savannah a good bit. But for having boys being up here. Two nights ago, we went to the basketball game, and it's fun. It's just a fun thing. They see their friends from school. And then I ran into a woman that I lived across the street when I was about 12 I caught up with her. She gave us tickets to the baseball game tonight. So we're going to the baseball game tonight. So rather than my kids splitting off doing a million different things now God bless my wife she's I'm not even going to pretend like she's as enthusiastic is what God but she's a good mom. She comes along but not all the time. But just to have a family friendly thing to do. I feel like it's important because it there's no cap You know, when your children are very young, it makes it harder and you might not stay for a whole game but you can still experience it together. But jack is 13 Matthew is a and we can go to a baseball game tonight and my little one will be more concerned with hot dogs and Jacko badian looking for his buddies you know in right field and, and I'll just be able to be there and be with Brooke and be in a safe space and it's more of a family enhancement for us. Really it just so happens that it's red and black but it's the circumstances around it getting to travel. Whether it be to a ballgame or the SEC championship. I don't take them down to Florida. We took jack For one, one game when he was like 18 months old, and after that, I said, Well, that's it. We're not bringing him back.

20:11

Yeah, so this year my son's seventh birthday happened to fall on the Georgia Notre Dame game. And my brother, my brother's birthday is the day after my son's. So my brother generous says he is got tickets for us to go to the game. So we went down, rented an RV parked in the church parking lot stayed overnight, we made signs saying that all they wanted for their seventh and 35th birthday was a dog's win and went to game day. And it was just my wife texted me about mid day. And she said, how's it going? And I told her, I said, You know, I just feel so much joy, watching him take this in, and seeing him with my brother, and just having that. And to your point. It's just gotten to be for me, I mean, obviously, you root form and you wanted to win, and I care about that. But having that day, I'll be honest with you, if they had lost that night, it wouldn't change it one bit for me. I mean, it was just a magical day magical experience. He's ringing the bell. He bought himself a jersey with his own birthday money. I mean, he was just a magical deck, you know. And so that piece of it, it's just added so much to it. And I can't imagine with y'all, I mean, that's, that's awesome that you, you're there and can can go wherever you want. I mean, that's just that's incredible. And what they said, See they set the attendance record for basketball shared and I see that

21:32

Yeah, you know, have an Anthony Edwards they're having the number one basketball player in the country. That helps a lot. Yeah, that helped Aaron, I'm thankful that we had the chance, you know, to see him play I would assume that he's gonna go on to his professional career but and I'm I'm always a little bit concerned, I met coach Rick and and his wife a few times through FCA events and things like that. And I think the hardest part is to be beholden to a bunch of young men for your job. It was for a while it was fire coach Rick, and I thought, gosh, he's such a great man. It's such a great leader for our school. Regardless if we win or not. I'm so proud to know that coach, Rick is leading, you know, our team. And then you know, and then I think about Coach Crean and people are starting to kind of chirp about him a little bit. But this team is so young. And can you imagine I mean, we work hard, we kind of do our own thing. But imagine if your livelihood was dependent on the attitude and efforts of 60 or 7018 year olds, 19 year olds, I mean, that's a tough spot for a coach that it's very demanding. You know, being here in Athens, I've seen coaches that have moved in and moved out of town. And if you look at it from their standpoint, and their families, now like coach, Luke just come in here from Ole Miss, and his kids are in school, and you would assume that he's not done in a head as a head coach position. And he's a young guy. And I would assume that Kirby would be here for a while. So his coach Luke already thinking about having to move his family in two or three years, stuff like that would just be so hard. And that's why you just got to be thankful for everything you have yourself and not. Because until you walk in somebody else's shoes, really consider the hardships that come with that coaching would be tough. So they said the attendance record now we'll see what happens next year, if they don't have the number one player, I would hope that community and the nation would support coach green as he goes forward, as these guys grow

23:24

1. Well, So to your point, too, and I think you have a very unique perspective and could provide just, I think, some wisdom on this, but it's combined time. So Georgia is fortunate enough to have sent a number of kids to the combine to chase their NFL dreams. And I think there's some parallels between your story and between their story in that come from a humble beginning, you have a dream and a vision for what you want your life to look like, you work hard for that, you build that. And then seemingly, even though it doesn't, it doesn't happen this way. But seemingly overnight, there is a big change a windfall, right? Because you've you've caught that dream and your life changes, if you were if you were able to sit down with the room of those young men and give them advice on how to handle finances, the pressures of the media, attention pressures of folks that are expecting you to help them and take care of them. What would you tell them? What is the advice that you would give them based off your own experiences,

24:25

you have to stay true to yourself and be a leader. You cannot follow it for a young man to go into an environment where he's surrounded by adults that have got 510 years experience in NFL you can't keep up with those guys, you got to chart your own course. That's what we've really tried to teach our boys is to be a leader and don't follow people and you got to stay close to your family. But when you're talking about the amounts of money that these kids are, we've been fortunate we've been able to pay our bills for 30 years, but it's come over an extended period. Imagine my mom says if somebody would have backed our restaurant And given us a lump sum money to start, we wouldn't have succeeded. It was that you got to have sales on Monday, or you can't buy groceries for Tuesday. So we really, you know, the kids talk about the grind. I've been in that grind. And you just you got to keep your family clothes, you have to have a smart business person. And, you know, make make tough decisions. I can't imagine if you had an extended family that was dependent only upon you the pressures of not only being an adult environment, but also that added responsibility of you know, wanting to take care of your whole family. It's hard, man. There's pitfalls everywhere. And once you get into it, say for my brother and I, when Samantha was so small, and people knew who we were through our business long before anybody else knew we did, my brother and I were always very cognizant of how we carried ourselves around town. We were young, single men, and we had a successful business. We both live downtown in Savannah. And there's nobody in town that could tell you a story about us at 2am. Because we knew that wherever we went, people said this as holidays, boys over there now, do we want to reflect upon our parents in a positive way, or live in the moment and kind of show our rear end and we've always been very cognizant of that. I'm very, very grateful for that attitude and not having anything when we're growing up. Because I still work very hard. When I go in the restaurant, I pick up a napkin off the floor or wipe the buffet, I do whatever I can, and being from the south certainly helps but just an extreme gratitude for the position that you're in and kind of enjoy it. It's a hard thing but for a young man making that transition. I think the counsel of his parents or somebody trusted you know through the church, somebody that will talk to them what's best for them. You need to know guy you can't just have a bunch of Yes guys, or they're going to Yes, you right off the cliff. I'll tell you a good a good you're talking about these guys in the combine. I think David Andrews is a such a great example of of what you can achieve. You know, David is from Atlanta. He's got the nicest mom and daddy at WTF see down in Savannah gave me media credentials for a year. And so I would go up for the home games and kind of do on the field report. And I pitched them I said, Let me follow one person through the whole season. Let me I want to follow put in for David Andrews. You know, everybody wanted you know, Aaron Murray was there. And I think I don't know if Gurley was there that year if that was the year before he came in. But I said you know, the center is the gap. Like the success of this team. He is is the guy that I want to follow. So I got to know Dave and I interviewed him and spent time with him. And you talk I was as proud for him as I would have been for my own brother to go undrafted to make it to the Patriots and to win the Super Bowl in two years. That's unbelievable. I mean that that's extremely hard work. And now he's battled with this, you know, the lung thing I guess and we try for him that he comes back but you know, I know from his parents and my experience on him that he's grounded enough to he'll make it through this but how about undrafted to Super Bowl champion in you know 100 days? That's amazing.

28:20

Yeah, he's one of our favorites and actually he's the inspiration for for bosses show name so we grew up playing football together and boss was my center growing up and so David Andrews is one of his all time favorites not only respects what he did on the field and later that he was in the in the field general really that he was an offensive line but but everything that he's done after and everything that he stands for so that's so that's so great to hear that

28:43

I love him. I think he's a great guy and I haven't spoken to him and in a good while but just the greatest family and just so nice he his parents invited us to Colombia the first trip that I made to Columbia was David senior year and that's the year that it rained and we got beat you know, we we couldn't I think I think we didn't hand it to Todd down on on the far end wall and couldn't get it in. That's right. People from upstairs were throwing their wet towels down on us after the game and Columbia that's an apply saw.

29:16

Yeah, some kind of play.

29:18

Yeah, until a few weeks after that his parents sent me a bound hardback book of pictures from our day together. And pick is a day that I mean, just unbelievable, you know, that his mom made and I just, that's that's what that's who Southern people are in a lot of people, but I'm from the south. Just so considerate and so happy to share these experiences with other people and, and that's why if I ever see anybody anywhere, and I get a sense that they would like to talk to me and tell me they love my mom or asked how my brother's babies are doing. I would never ever, ever take that for granted. Because just a few short years ago, nobody would talk to us like how could you find yourself in a successful position? And not share that I mean it's responsibilities like Batman or Superman you get that power you got to do good with it. Yeah,

30:07

we want to bring it back into the food wheelhouse for you a little bit so could you describe for the people who may not know they're listening some of the Athens food scene and then we want you to finish up with some of your favorite sec road eats

30:20

I have some such a simple palette you know being here in Athens is we've got one my wife is pregnant, so you probably need to ask her what we like to eat because I like whatever. But I'll never complain about being close to the varsity they're all in a great place it's here and you had a number of huge fan of a few his cookbooks and he's got five and 10 here in town I believe he has the national to kind of traditional more dinner places we don't get out for dinner so much I enjoy cooking enough got Tom now I cook almost every dinner that we have here. But mama's boy is a great place you know that's an institution where you get a biscuit it will stick with you through the whole day. We were days you know automatic for the people that fried chicken and that's time and back to the REM days and you go in there and you think about the history and and sitting there there's a new place in here in town called a burger place groove burger that's really good. That's opened by a local guy they have a really a menu that fried cheese curds and just things that you wouldn't see it a South Georgia burger shop.

31:27

Marty

31:28

midday, you know, Marty's had she's got a lunch spot here that that I love chicken and egg Sal and tuna salad. She does big salads. So there's something for everybody really, if I could ever get out of the varsity parking lot one day I

31:42

hope there's other prizes.

31:47

What about if you've taken road trips like you spoke about Columbia or you know we've we've done Knoxville and a couple others we were in South Bend for Notre Dame and went out to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. Do you have any places in road venues that you've been to places that you've eaten that you say man, if you find yourself in this town, you you got to go eat there.

32:04

My brother and I have done a couple of travel television shows for the Food Network. So actually spent a few summers all we did was travel around and eat at different places. It's such an education to be able to get outside of our region. And then because you know, I talked about the south and being from the south and outside this, but everybody's kind of got a semblance of that there's just no place truly like the South. So if you go out west and you hear people disparage against Oh, you know all they eat? Let us know because you've never had a lettuce or avocado like they grow in California.

32:37

You got that right

32:38

broccoli from the grocery store will knock you down. It's unbelievable how they're fresh vegetables and things from the ocean their fish and chip Pino and so many different things in their wine and grapes. And then up in New England, the lobster rolls a lobster. Oh, you know, that is a lobster salad on a hotdog row who knew that?

32:57

That's it, man.

32:58

That's it, usually. But it's not my thing. When I'm on the road with the dogs we just hunker down and kind of do our own thing. And I don't get out as much as I probably should. But no with the kids. We keep it simple. It's all family friendly for us.

33:11

We love to eat and then we try to hit places that are local. So like we went to Pasadena we went to In and Out Burger and had that whole experience with going and doing Texas or that area we try to do water burger. I just I love regional eats. I feel like to your point, every region is a little bit different. They all have a sweet spot. They all have something that they're really good at. And so long as they as you do what they're good at, then you're going to have a really enjoyable time like you talk about the lobster rolls. My wife and I went to grad school in Boston. And so we lived in Little Italy in the north end and just whatever they had man just eat it. It was fantastic. We visited Austin, Texas and

33:50

Austin is a great place with their barbecue and we went to a place called county line. And he taught us how to make a Texas Margarita. And it's the best Margarita I've ever had. And it's St Louis we had all high apple pie that this woman makes at her bakery there. So every region you know, whatever you think you might know about a region is true. Like if you go to Texas barbecue is going to be dynamite. The clam chowder up north where you were it's just a different type of thing. You go down to Key West. Yeah, the fish you get or if you go to Joe's stone crab. It's also good and for me I'm I'm it's hard for me because food is such a part of for business for me, people we just have fantastic neighbors here and we've been invited to come over and eat people say Oh, I'm so nervous to cook for you. And the bullet lists and billowy and mustard Manny's on white bread. And I'm happy good work for me. I do not care. I just want to fill the hole for me the pressure when I'm cooking for somebody else, like nothing is more serious than when I cook for somebody else. But I would never complain at a restaurant. I just don't care. It's just so hard. Just give me food but when I find good food I really do appreciate it. I wouldn't travel to a region for food only.

35:03

Although I'm in that business. It just kind of is what it is.

35:07

You got to eat. And if you go and eat you might as well eat something good, right?

35:10

Yeah. And you go to you don't

35:13

write while shoot. My granny used to make us vienna sausage sandwiches. It was vienna sausage on white bread may tell you, brother, amen. I

35:20

it was good. My mom would put butter and sugar on white bread and fold it in half. And that was our snacks.

35:26

That's awesome. That sounds cool. My son would love that he'd be all about that. Well, that in part one of our interview with Jamie Dean, we will have Part Two for y'all later in the week. Boss, what were your takeaways from the first part of the interview with Jamie? First off, Jamie

35:41

is just a sweet, sweet man. He was, as you said earlier, just completely generous with his time. I mean, we probably could have talked to him for several hours, if we would have had the time. great storyteller. I love the story that he told I mean, not really story just about his experiences with David Andrews and his family. I mean, boss, you know, that's my moniker for this. Because I love David Andrews. He's one of my favorite all time dogs. So I love that story. I mean, you know, you and I both love food. So the food talk was obviously great, but just his passion. And you know, everything that he talked about, you could tell that he was so passionate about, but really, how humble he is. I mean, he talks about, you know, when you just food, I mean, that's his wheelhouse. And then he talks about food, and he's talking about when he eats, he just wants to fill the hole. But the pressure is on him when he cooks for somebody else. I just felt that that was you don't expect that from someone in his position. You expect them to be like, Oh, I want something immaculate with you. Someone could remember he's talking about like, I can't remember what it was. But it was like peanut butter and sugar sandwiches or something like that. Not just when he went I was listening to that. And you know, he was just like, wow, I was like, you don't expect that from someone like him. He's just great, great stories. And I would love to talk to him again. It was a great, great interview.

36:59

Yeah. Jamie and Jamie's family obviously have an awesome origin story, you know, picture the American Dream working hard, building something from the ground up. And you can just tell that he has stayed very in touch with his roots and where he came from. And just very gracious, very generous. And I just thought very, very authentic. You know, he is he is 100% Jamie Dean and that is just such a refreshing thing. And had a lot of laughs with him. He told a lot of fantastic stories and the stuff he tells him part two will be will be just as good. We just were so blessed to have Jamie with us and one of our favorite, favorite guys we've talked to of all time, really. I mean, he was just he was great. So we're pumped to have Jamie thank you to him again. And we are excited for y'all to hear Part Two coming up soon. And with that go dog sick.

37:51

Go dogs.