BJ Callaghan 0:00

Yeah, I mean this team's got an unplayable mentality, right? We're not going to be out of any game until referee blows the final whistle. Um I think you saw immediately the response was to to attack more, set more numbers forward, uh and continue to kind of chip away. And again, using all different phases of play, right? But I think these guys are doing a great job taking information in and executing, whether it's attacking sentences, transitions, trying to break down low blocks, whatever it is you're seeing guys really step up and want the ball and want to make plays.

Ben Wright 0:34

I know you talked about just the vitality to come back and score too old and so much time, but what does it do for you knowing that you have this crowd behind you and you've proven the ability to consistently win games here?

BJ Callaghan 0:46

Tonight are nights where you really see the value of the fans in the crowd, right? Um I think when it goes to one, there's not uh there's not a uh a down moment in our stadium. It's a moment that everybody, 30,000 people and whatever amount are on the field and on the bench are like, we're gonna go get it. And I think that that belief from the crowd, that belief into our guys, and combined with the belief that our guys have, is what makes this place a special place to play.

Ben Wright 1:14

And then how you are getting a goal on an assist. You talked about Sam grabbing the ball and kind of urging everybody forward again. What what does it say about this team that the the highest paid players and the leaders on the team are consistently just keeping that level?

BJ Callaghan 1:29

Yeah, that's a great credit to them. Um obviously they they have that uh torch to carry, uh, but you see that the that they also have a great group with them, uh right alongside them that's ready to make contributions, whether that's uh Reed coming off the bench or Andy in the 90th minute, first 90 in a long time to make a contribution. I mean, look at who's making assists, right? Dan Lovitz has a great assist tonight, Jason Palacios is making assists. Uh so um it's a it's a whole team effort, and you know, I think when everybody kind of plays with this uh selflessness and wants to see each guy and each teammate guy.

Russell Ries 2:26

It's Sunday, August 23rd. My name is Russell Reese, and you're listening to the National Support. All

Weekly Update

Speaker 6 2:46

right, well, we started today's show with a clip from BJ Callahan's post-match press conference last night after Nashville SC's dramatic come from behind victory over Columbus Crew. This win caps nine points in eight days for Nashville SC. A huge run in the congested part of the season. Last Saturday, winning 4-1 over Miami, then heading on the road to New York Red Bull with a late 1-0 winner in stoppage time. And finally, last night's win over Columbus Crew. They didn't just survive this congested schedule, but they actually won all three matches in very different ways, and it shows what kind of caliber this team is, I'd say pretty convincingly, squarely in the championship conversation. They started with Miami going 1-1 into half before three goals in the second half really blew the game wide open. Hani Mukhtar was named the MLS player of the match day for his performance. Additionally, Ali Saad, Andy Nahar, and BJ Callahan were all recognized on the matchday team as well. It was definitely one of the better Nashville SC performances of the season and possibly ever. Then on Wednesday, they went on the road to New York against a feisty and young New York Red Bull team. It was a very close match all the way through until Maxwell Lueggi got on the end of a Christian Espinoza free kick in stoppage time for the 1-0 win. This was also the first time Nashville SC has ever scored on the road against Red Bull. It was also the first win on the road against Red Bull. Additionally, in that game, Brian Schwackey recorded his 14th shutout, which set a new Nashville SC club record. He's got plenty of games left to grow on that. And then finally, again last night, Nashville SC went down 2-1 in the second half to Columbus crew before tying it up in the 93rd minute of stoppage time at Hannimuktar Corner that Reed Baker Whiting got his head on. We'll have a clip of that that was filmed by myself at the stadium last night. There's a link in the description. And then a couple minutes later, Andy Nahar scored the game winner to send Nashville SC to nine points in eight days. It caps what is truly a historic run for the team. They're 15-2-4. They've scored 49 points through 21 matches, which is the best 21 match start in MLS history. Nashville is legit. They are on their way to something serious. This is a special, special year. It might be a historic year. And now, for all their toils, they actually get a break. And they can rest and recover before next Saturday when they welcome FC Cincinnati to Geodis Park. FC Cincinnati scores a lot of goals. They give up a lot of goals. That could end up being a wildly, wildly entertaining game for your league-leading boys in gold. Currently nine points up on their closest competitor in the Shield standings, ten points up on Miami in the Eastern Conference. They are really cruising. Alright, on now to the Tennessee Titans. On Friday, the Titans welcome the Seattle Seahawks to town for a joint practice. Cam Ward had an excellent day. 22 of 28. Strong, very strong overall. Finished with a two-minute drive touchdown to Daniel Bellinger and has continued to improve after last week's somewhat questionable showing. Apparently, the running game also really looked good in the joint practice. That's exciting to hear with the new look offensive line coming together. Fernando Carmono really starting to cement his spot on the right guard roll. And so more exciting news there. The defense also wasn't shredded apart because they weren't playing against a team who'd practiced against them a lot. Elante Taylor recorded a pick six. And on special teams, Joey Sly continues his hot streak after a dip in form about 10 days ago. He was perfect through the practice. All in all, it's a really encouraging sign that the Titans held up so well against the defending Super Bowl champions during practice on Friday. They will be hosting Seattle for a preseason match this evening. While it may be instructive a little bit, I again reiterate that I think at least what you see happening in the practices, what you hear happening in the practices, is much more demonstrative of what we might actually see from the team. So those reports out of practice. Very, very good, very encouraging. Moving on to the Nashville Sounds, who are currently 66 and 57. They are sixth place in the second half of the league season, six and a half games behind Indianapolis now. They are finishing up a six-game series at Norfolk today. And then Tuesday they head down to Jacksonville for a six-game series against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. Vanderbilt Women's Soccer kicked off their season this week and are now 3-0. On Friday, they beat number 21 ranked Memphis 4-1. And coming off of last year's first NCAA quarterfinals appearance, Vandy looks very poised to make some serious noise this year. If you haven't, look into season tickets, get down there. Very affordable, family friendly, get with Vanderbilt Women's Soccer. They're going places. Finally, in sports, Nashville Stampede had a successful home match, I guess you would call it, at Bridgestone Arena last weekend. They have a franchise record eight-game winning streak earlier in the season. They are still first in the league, and they have become one of the best teams year in and year out. This is an excellent start for the bull riding team. I don't know where they go next, but um yeah, we've got a bull riding team to be proud of, so check them out. Okay.

Michael Hanna Intro

Speaker 6 9:10

My guest this week is Michael Hanna. Michael is the chef, founder, and owner of St. Vito Facacheria. He's also my neighbor directly across the street.

Russell Ries 9:21

St. Vito specializes in a Sicilian-style pizza with the facaccia as the base. I sat down earlier with Michael to discuss how he got started in the business, what, if any, role sports play in their business activities, if they see any upticks during sporting events, and where things are going for St. Vito from here. I really enjoyed my conversation with Chef Michael Hanna. I hope you will as

Michael Hanna Interview

Russell Ries 9:46

well. All right, Mike. Well, thank you so much for coming in. Uh people at home can't see this, but you are the first in-person actual guest um here. And before we got on, I asked you if you preferred Mike or Michael, and you said Michael, and I opened with Mike, so my apologies already.

Michael Hanna 10:03

That's all good. Uh it's easy to do this when you live across the street.

Russell Ries 10:07

Yeah, that's that's a good point. I don't know if people pay attention, but they may have noticed that I mine uh all my connections for these sorts of things. But we'll hop right into it. What is your favorite sport to play?

Michael Hanna 10:19

Basketball. Growing up, it's always been basketball.

Russell Ries 10:22

Okay. And you grew up in Memphis. You were watching like Penny Hardaway and those guys.

Michael Hanna 10:28

Man. So grew up in Memphis and across the river in Arkansas. Both of my parents went to the University of Arkansas. When I was a child, we had the Nolan Richardson, 40 Minutes of Hell. Absolutely obsessed with Arkansas Razoract basketball. And still am Day. So that is my that's my number one, number one sport. I had the VHS tapes of the national championship and the runner-up year of 95, and I used to sit at my grandmother's house and watch it every that's awesome.

Russell Ries 11:00

I think you're the first uh Arkansas fan we've had on the show, so thank you for coming on. It's really cool. So that leads me to a question I think I might know the answer to, but what is your favorite sport to watch?

Michael Hanna 11:11

Uh definitely college basketball, specifically Arkansas, but I do love football. Uh my wife went to Notre Dame, big Notre Dame family. My grandfather, Italian American, huge Catholic, huge Notre Dame fan. Grew up kind of rooting for him a little bit, but as I've gotten older and you know, now my significant other is a diehard and her family is a diehard as well. Uh we definitely follow Notre Dame football quite a bit now.

Russell Ries 11:42

Nice. I I wish that I had married into a family I agreed with. I'm a Vols fan and my wife and her family are all Bama fans. So it's you know, it's you know it's true love when you can uh get over something like that.

Michael Hanna 11:54

Yeah. You know, football is is also really high up there on the on the chain for me too. I mean, my my father and I we went to every single Arkansas football game, home game for fifteen years when I was growing up. We would get uh you know, after high school football games, we would uh just pack up the truck, drive all the way to Fayetteville, watch the game. I mean, that's we've had season tickets for years. You know, Arkansas football is not much to root for right now and hasn't been for a while, but uh, you know, they they hold a soft spot in my heart. I'm also my mother is from Dallas. So I think really one of the first the first pro football in when I was a kid growing up. The Cowboys were running Super Bowls, the Hogs were running national championships in basketball. My sports that was the that was the climax of my sports fandom for sure. Uh and I I grew up a huge Cowboys fan.

Russell Ries 12:50

Okay, well we won't hold it against you, but yeah, I mean I remember playing two-hand touch in in recess, and we all yeah, we were we were the Redskins, and then then we were the Cowboys. We you know, we were definitely fair weather fans around who, uh obviously until the Titans came.

Michael Hanna 13:08

I got really mad at Jerry Jones. He's an arc he's an Arkansas lum. Got really mad at Jerry Jones um a few years ago. I'm not gonna say I released my fandom, but I definitely said I I have to slow down. I I don't know about you.

Russell Ries 13:23

Yeah, I I understand that much. Sometimes, you know, especially as you get older, like there's something to be said for keeping the heart rate down and yeah.

Michael Hanna 13:32

Yeah, nothing nothing gets me upset more than I mean my wife Leah, she watches me watch these games, and she's just like, I believe you're so invested in something like this. I get I you know, I'm screaming and yelling at the TV and like walking around pacing, cussing, and spitting and getting pissed off.

Russell Ries 13:52

But yeah, my wife does the same thing, but then it's sort of like, well, I I feel the same way about 90-day fiance and how you you know. So it's a toss-up. But that uh ties nicely into what was gonna be my next question, which is what is your early sports memory?

Michael Hanna 14:08

Let's see. I when I was really let's see, there's a couple. I got to watch the Redskins and the Cowboys at the original Cowboy Stadium. I was probably like sick. I got to watch Peyton Manning at War Memorial and Little Rock absolutely throttle us. Um I was at the Sternover game as a child.

Russell Ries 14:33

Oh man. Yes.

Michael Hanna 14:36

I was also, let's see, I I remember we went to some basketball games in '94, like an old mess game, you know, I can't remember what else. I got to meet um Lou Wilson and Darnell Robinson, those guys. My dad, my dad took me to um the Razorback Foundation alumni meeting, and I got to meet Danny Ford in 1994 when he was hired. So I got I remember all those little things. Those are all very specific to me as uh as a child, sports memory.

Russell Ries 15:07

That's awesome. Do you ever go catch them when they come play Vandy?

Michael Hanna 15:10

Yeah. I love going to games. I try, I try to my hardest if they're anywhere around to get there. Like I I uh I went to a C C tournament last year and watched every game.

Russell Ries 15:19

Nice. That's awesome. Okay, well, um all this sort of leads into how did you end up here in Nashville?

Michael Hanna 15:26

Work. Um started cooking at a young age. My mother's side of the family, big restaurant family, kind of grew up following and watching along with them. Uh always had a talent for cooking, being in a restaurant, wanted to be in a restaurant, wanted to be a chef. Went to the University of Arkansas for a few years, always worked in a restaurant while I was doing that, and then just kind of made the jump at like 19. You know, school's not really for me. Uh looking back on it, I wish you would have finished, but at the same time, you know, done okay. And just, you know, went straight into the restaurant thing. Um, that's kind of it. Uh lived in a couple different places over the years across the country, Portland, Dallas. You know, I was in and out of New Orleans for a while. I've done a lot of sedging up in New York and I got offered a job here at the Cat Bird seat years ago. And I took that job. I had a choice. I could either move to New Orleans permanently or I could uh come to Nashville. And I had spent a lot my family originally is all friends. And I'd spent some time down there working at a couple of different restaurants, and if you know New Orleans, you know that it is a wild place to be. And sometimes when you're in your your mid to late twenties, it's probably a dangerous place to be. Uh I felt like Nashville was like the more professional choice for me. So that's why I chose Nashville to Caprid Sea.

Russell Ries 16:47

Nice. I uh I have yet to go to Catbird Seat, but uh it seems like a really, really fantastic meal.

Michael Hanna 16:53

Yeah, it's a cool spot. They have you know, they rotate chefs. So the chef at Iggy's um now in Wedgwood Houston um was my chef at the Capper, but then I I worked at Rolf and Daughters um for a number of years after that, and then I helped him open um his other restaurant, Folk.

Russell Ries 17:12

Awesome. Yeah, those are two very, very good restaurants. Love those. Uh all right, on the Nashville front, we've established you're more of a Arkansas, Texas, Memphis sort of sports guy. Do you have a favorite Nashville sports team?

Michael Hanna 17:24

I mean the Titans. I do love going to the Preds game. I wish I didn't grow up with hockey, and I wish like I love watching it live and I love going to the games, and I wish that I could was able to follow it a lot more than I than I am. Um the the soccer team, those are amazing to watch live. Um, I just you know, they play it, I never know when they play. I don't keep up with it enough right now. You know, I got two small kids in the restaurant, so it's it's really hard to be like, yeah, let's go to the soccer game on a random Tuesday night or something, you know.

Russell Ries 17:57

Yeah. I mean, unfortunately most of their matches are on Saturday nights anyway.

Michael Hanna 18:01

Yeah, so I I I wish I could keep up with it more. Hockey is the one that I wish I really had the ability to.

Russell Ries 18:10

Yeah. One of my favorite memories for the Preds came to town when I was fifteen or so. Yeah. And uh I just remember sitting up in the 300 sections and and like you'd hear these guys with these thick, you know, Middle Tennessee redneck saying Russian names, like, come on, Vershnikka, get him. Just hilarious stuff.

Michael Hanna 18:30

The games are awesome. I like my uh every once in a while we get sweet tickets from one of the vendors. Oh, cool. And I'll take the kids. My daughter loves it.

Russell Ries 18:41

Yeah. They had to learn early on, I think, the Preds, like how to really entertain because there was a good few years where like nobody here really understood the rules. I was fortunate. I played lacrosse in high school and it's very similar conceptually. Uh so it I kind of picked it up pretty quick, but like you know, the the Preds had to get really good at entertaining and so that that was what they led with, and I think that they've kept that up ever since. Obviously now, Nashville is kind of a hockey town, but yeah, they put on a a heck of a show down there. All right. Well, do you have any favorite Nashville sports memories or moments?

Michael Hanna 19:17

I don't know. You know, I I watched the Music City Miracle live. I remember that specifically. Um we were, you know, in Memphis, we were wedged in between Nashville and St. Louis during that Super Bowl, so nobody knew who were. But you know, there's a lot of animosity towards the Titans. And I remember growing I was growing up during that time. They came to the Liberty Bowl. The whole thing about Memphis, and I remember this. One of my best friends, his father, was really involved in the NFL. And essentially we had always been told like Memphis was gonna get a team, like that was the market that was gonna get it. It was there, the fans and the south, all the stuff. This was right after they had chosen uh Charlotte and Jacksonville as the expansions. And then when the Oilers came, they had this big stadium debate build it on Shelby Farms, build it downtown, whatever they were having on the stuff. They had the Liberty Bowl, they're redoing the Liberty Bowl, all these things. And I don't know how much of this is always true, but like we were always kind of told growing up that the deal was in place to basically FedEx and all these companies were gonna come in, they were gonna make the stadium, you know, a world-class stadium to bring the the to keep the oilers in Memphis. And then at the last second, Nashville came in and said, We got the land, we'll build the stadium, blah blah blah blah. And before it was like at midnight, they just like pulled out and said, Oh, we're done, and they had to finish the season, you know, there's a season and a half or something in Memphis, and I just remember everyone in the city being so petty and that has just brewed since then. Like none of my Memphis friends uh brew for the Titans in Refuge.

Russell Ries 21:05

Yeah, it's interesting. I it's funny from the Nashville perspective, it was like, Yeah, they're gonna be in Memphis for two years, and then they'll come here and then after that first season they were like, Oh, Memphis hates us. We're gonna go play at Vanderbilt for a year while we build our stadium. Yeah, I don't I don't blame anyone in Memphis for that at all because that was quite the rug bull. But I as a Nashville native am happy to have them.

Michael Hanna 21:27

Yeah, but then when the Grizzlies, you know, when the Grizzlies were making the move, they were I mean that was a huge point of contention, right? Everyone was like, Don't make the same mistake you made with the Oilers. Do whatever you can to get them into the city. And they did. And it's been successful for them, but I do love the Grizzlies. I don't, you know, and then like when I was when they came to town, I was so pumped. Um we uh we had little season tickets for that too. We would go watch as many games as we could. I remember I got to watch Michael Jordan with the Wizards. Oh wow. Nice. You know, I was thinking back, uh, you said Penny Hardaway. Yeah. Huge Penny Hardaway fan. Um, you know, he originally committed to Arkansas and then on signing day sent his letter into for Memphis. I did not know that. A lot of the 1994 championship team came from Memphis. So there's like this guy named Keith Easterwood, old school AAU basketball guy, Nolan, and all this guy. They all were at it at odds with each other. They were like, they hated each other. So it was like this whole thing. Penny Hardaway is a really good person. When I was uh when I had moved back to Memphis, because I moved back to Memphis before I moved to Nashville, I had lived in this house um near the University of Memphis campus. And there was a little local coffee shop, chain, breakfast place, kind of like a Waffle House, diner, CK's. And they had them all over town. I think there's like I don't even know if there's but uh on Sunday morning Penny had breakfast there before he went to church. And I uh after a night of partying, we had gone into CK's, and he was sitting by himself eating breakfast, and I kinda was like, Well, you know, here's this hero of mine. So I just I went up to him and I said, I'm not trying to bother you. I said just want to let you know I've I bought every single pair of shoe you ever had. And I said, Also, I'm a diehard razor. And he he started laughing, he was like, Well, I appreciate that, whatnot, but we had a nice little conversation now. Love Penny Hardaway.

Russell Ries 23:29

That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, Penny, man, never met him, but I always loved watching him play. Not to pivot it back to Nashville, but it is a Nashville sports show, so I will do it. Um who would you put on your Mount Rushmore of Nashville sports? And this is specific to you. It doesn't you don't not what you think other people would say, but for you, if you even have four, what would you put on there?

Michael Hanna 23:52

Uh Pekka Rinne, do you put Pavia on there?

Russell Ries 23:57

Can do.

Michael Hanna 23:58

I mean he's I mean, I think you have to go with McNair and Eddie George, you know. Man, I guess I'm not as familiar with like is like do you are you allowed to put like Booky Betts on there? He's from here. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like people who are from here that Brandon Miller, isn't he from here? He's building for the ornament. I guess he's but I mean you gotta go McNair. You gotta go George. I think I I wanna say you gotta go Dyson or uh Wycheck.

Russell Ries 24:29

Hmm. Those are good, those are strong. It's up to you. I feel like everyone that's come on, McNair and Renee have been sort of the through line.

Michael Hanna 24:38

McNair, Rinne for sure. Then I think you gotta go Eddie George. Then I think I mean is Josi somebody that should be on there?

Russell Ries 24:46

I mean I think he's getting there. I mean he's getting there. He certainly feels like he could could end up there. You know. I'll be curious to see uh what it looks like after he retires. Because he he's another one I think, you know, until the Shea Weber got traded for PK Subban, always kind of thought Weber would be here his whole career. Yeah, for sure. And now Yossi, I think, is the one who's gonna um sort of complete and fulfill that. So I think Yossi is definitely gonna be a Nashville legend and maybe the next person to get a statue up outside of Bridgestone. So Yeah. Yeah. Alright, well, um, do you have any Nashville conspiracy theories or hot take that you wanna get off your chest?

Michael Hanna 25:26

Conspiracy theories or hot take. You don't have to. I mean part alright, hot take, mmm hot take is I'm not a hundred percent sure we need a baseball team. Mm, okay. And I have my reasons behind that. Now, do I want a baseball team? Sure, because that would be awesome. We love I love why live baseball is the best. If we take the kids to the sounds game, they're great. Would love to be able to have that downtown. But the other side of me says no one's gonna be a that and that's just my opinion because I think that you are in Braves country and you have been forever. And the other half of the city is like Reds. A lot of old school baseball fans are Reds fans, because I remember hearing like back in the day you can only get either the Reds game or the Braves game, like on the radio. Yeah. A long time ago.

Russell Ries 26:16

Or or the Cubs. We used to get TBS and WGN.

Michael Hanna 26:19

WGN, yeah. So um it's like is the fandom there? Like, are we gonna have home fans? Are we gonna have enough home fans? Or is it gonna be like you move ALE's team over to here and now your stadium is just filled up with red side?

Russell Ries 26:36

Yeah. I mean it's possible. I actually had Nancy Schultz from Music City Baseball on the podcast about a month ago, and one, she said pretty much certainly they're gonna kind it's gonna happen. Like Manfred wants to get the team announced before he retires in 2029. Uh but two, and I don't think Nancy said this, but somebody else I was talking to said one of the things they're thinking about doing is getting rid of the AL and the NL, um, and just going kind of regionally, more regional. So it might end up being like, yeah, they're directly competing with all those teams plus the Cardinals, plus you know, like um, but I do think, you know, it it'd happen eventually. Like when when the Preds first moved to town, there were a bunch of Detroit transplants who were working down in Spring Hill at the Saturn factory. Right. And they all bought tickets and they would root for the Preds, uh, you know, 80 games a year, two games that the Red Wings came to town, they would root for the Red Wings. And that sort of died off now, and you don't really see it. But I think, you know, it it would take a while, but I think the same thing would happen here.

Michael Hanna 27:40

Do you remember during the Western Conference Finals in like 2016, 2015 or 2016, when we were playing Chicago, and they like then weren't they like screening um area codes? Oh yeah, they still do that. They still do that?

Russell Ries 27:56

Oh yeah. Well, that's the thing, that's the other part of it. Like, we're destination for a lot of these fans is like, oh, I'll go to Nashville and I'll see my team play and I'll go honky tonk or whatever. So from an ownership standpoint, at least, it's like, yeah, okay, well, we don't really care where the fans come from.

Michael Hanna 28:12

Like, yeah, as long as they sell tickets, it's fine, right? Is that is that how you feel? I've heard this conspiracy. Maybe this is my conspiracy, and I've heard this thrown out there, that the new branding of the Titans, the new coaching staff, the new stadium is like ownership in corporate, just like start over to try and capture all the growth that's happened here over the past few years and kind of create this new identity as like almost like an expansion program.

Russell Ries 28:45

Hmm. I haven't heard that, but I mean, I think to an extent, yeah. I mean, it's kind of like there there is so much change, not just in the city, but for the organization, moving to a new stadium, hopefully finding this new franchise quarterback that they've been missing for years. So, yeah, I mean it could seem it could could very well be that they just want to do a complete reset. I'd say the flip side of that though is as the city grows and and we're now in this place where like our kids get to grow up purely as Titan fans, you know, and they can have their heroes, or they don't have to be, but like, you know, they can grow up Predators fans and it and they can look back on their childhood sports memories in 20 years, the way that you and I, like I've talked a lot about going to see Vanderbilt basketball in the early you know, I'm a UT fan, but like those were the games that were here, and like those teams I remember, they did the the best they did was a Sweet 16 and 94. But I could still name off like half that roster, you know, like those were the those were those dudes, and so I think oftentimes about for our children, it can be oh yeah, Cam Ward when I was a kid, like that was a magical time, or eventually for them, the baseball team, if and when it arrives, they can grow up with that, and that's how you build the real sort of fandom and base. But the nice thing is for the Titans, for the Nashville Stars, or whatever they end up being called, I think, is that in the meantime, people do want to come here and party and go catch a ballgame or two.

Michael Hanna 30:14

Love the name. Yeah, Nashville Stars is great.

Russell Ries 30:17

Yeah, it's actually the old Negro League team that played here. I think it's a super cool name. Um, Nancy did tell me when she came on that that's what they're suggesting, but they're still looking for a majority owner, and that person could go another way with it, but I hope I hope they keep it. Um, so we'll we'll just have to see. All right, so this one is a little more straightforward for most of my guests. It's my non-sports question. Um, and it is what is your favorite restaurant in Nashville? But I want to add some caveats to you because you're a restaurateur and have worked in town. I want to say, what is your favorite restaurant that you are not or have not been directly involved with? Um and you can name a few if you want.

Michael Hanna 30:59

What is my favorite restaurant, or what is the restaurant that we eat at most that we'll take both, you know, because I think the clear favorite of like best restaurant, best service, best food, most creative, all the way around is going to be Locust on 12 South. I am biased. Trevor's one of my my really close friends, and I have worked off and on with him over the years a little bit. I don't have anything to do with locusts, but you know, the way he thinks about food and service and stuff is like nobody touches him.

Russell Ries 31:31

It's great.

Michael Hanna 31:32

Not in not in natural. Um I I think the restaurant that we love the most, and I am biased here too because this is one of my really close friends, um, is SS Gai. Um, the Thai fried and roasted chicken restaurant that's just like at the wash on Gallatin, you walk up an order and take it home. Like what he does is like that is an incredibly accomplished chef that has put some parameters around his uh his concept and stays in his lane and doesn't move out of the ordinary, really, and is like, this is what I do, this is what we do really well. And um, by doing that, he's become incredibly consistent, and it's good for the family. The roasted chicken, the fried chicken, whatever, like it's all tasty, it can be healthy if you want to get there as it, right? I usually get the fried though. Um, but yeah, I mean I think SS Gai is probably it for us. I mean, we we crave it, we order it multiple times a month. Um, yeah.

Russell Ries 32:34

Yeah, that's an awesome answer. I love a lot of what's going on over at the wash. Um, and I do appreciate like I I kind of associate that with sort of like a Japanese mentality of like I'm gonna pick this one thing and I'm gonna just think it through to a level of that's almost kind of ridiculous and just like perfect it, and it's gonna be my thing. And uh yeah, the bird SS guys.

Michael Hanna 32:57

Yeah, I think I think you're gonna see more of that. You're you're starting to see a lot of that, and I think you're gonna see more of that just from the pure economics of the city, right? I mean, it is so expensive to be a restaurant tour here. It is as expensive as Manhattan. You know, maybe the taxes are lower, but like your price per square feet are not it's as it's every bit as expensive in 12 South or anywhere downtown Nashville as it is in Manhattan. And it is uh it's a little bit out of control for sure, especially with that whole property tax thing they did downtown area. Um, but like with that comes, well, how does a creative, how does someone that wants to do this, but how do you operate? And like, yes, an out-of-town restaurant group that has 45 restaurants across the country can come in and have a 300-seat restaurant and pay $55,000, $70,000 in rent a month, but your local mom and pop an independent restaurateur can't. They can't do that. What can they do? They can take a thousand square foot space or 500 square foot space, and they can, you know, limit themselves to do one thing and one thing really, really well, and that's what they you know hope that they can do volume out of those small space. That's kind of the key. Can you find a small spot? Can you do volume? And does your product speak to the mass?

Russell Ries 34:17

That's really, really astute, and it helps me lead into my next sort of question and kind of getting into your work history. You founded St. Vito's Focaccaria about six years ago now, during the pandemic, right?

Michael Hanna 34:30

Yeah.

Russell Ries 34:31

Uh you want to tell me a little bit about how that got started, what inspired you and and why?

Michael Hanna 34:36

Yeah, I mean, July of COVID, 2020. Um, like I said, I had cooked my whole career, had gotten furloughed, you know, had been really focused on simplifying the way I wanted to cook, and had a bread recipe that I had been making for a number uh for a little a few years maybe, you know, just kind of on my own, and was reading a book called Uh Made in Sicily by Giorgio Locatelli. There was a chapter on spinchoni style pizza. I started reading it, and it gave this history, and I realized like I had seen this in my past in my in my family, all these different, you know, places. I'm like, oh, they used to serve this at Jimmy's food mart. They used to, you know, oh, they have so I was like, well, let's make it. So I started with you know, the base recipe and moving forward, and then I thought, well, what if I use my bread recipe? Because my bread recipe is it's all sourdough, it's highly hydrated, super crispy, it's really light. This might make an awesome pizza crisp. So I started playing around with it, and I started giving them away to all my chef friends around town and getting feedback. People were like, this is awesome, or this needs this or this needs that and whatnot. So I just kind of tooled it and worked on it, and then you know, decided, all right, well, let's just start selling them to see what happens. So we started selling them out of the house. We started an Instagram page and we sold them online. Um, you know, eight pizzas a night, whatever. Pretty soon it was like every Thursday through Sunday, we were selling 10 pizzas, and we were making a little bit of money over the past few months, and then it was like, hey, let's see what where this can go. And really that's it. We crawled, we walked, and then we ran, um, raised all my own money and funding, uh, have business partners that came in, you know, ate with us at multiple different times during pop-ups and just used my connections and network in the city, and really it was a whole grassroots thing. We we grew this thing literally from the house to the brick and mortar like that. I mean, over a time over a three and a half year time span.

Russell Ries 36:46

So I remember very distinctly, and Michael mentioned earlier, he literally lives across the street from me. I remember just seeing cars lined up. Yeah. I was going on over there.

Michael Hanna 36:59

Ernie thought we were dealing drugs.

Russell Ries 37:02

I liked it uh ultimately what you were doing was taking the COVID sourdough craze, like and going on steroids with it. So you guys, you did I remember you had pop-ups sort of over in East Nashville, and you're offering a couple of different kind of slices. I know the potato slice I feel like started hitting, or at least I became aware of it around then. Um, how did you guys settle on where you are now in the gulch? How did you identify that location?

Michael Hanna 37:28

Yeah, um I went through like five or six different potential investors, you know, had to play them all close to vest and have to deal with all of them and figure out which deal is best for me. I had no business experience really. You know, I was figuring out what a what a lender versus investor versus partner, um, and we looked at a million spots. We we were so we were in a handshake agreement, the lease was to be transferred over to us at 10 a.m. on like a Monday morning for the former Marquet Chefs Deli, which is now Emmy Squared Space. Oh wow, okay. And at 9 59, the other side pulled out. So turnkey space, right in the middle of East Nashville, you know, that was like the dream spot that we were supposed to go after. I had a lease in hand for where Iggy's currently is in Wedgewood, Houston, and my business partners at the time uh blocked at it. The space we're in now is not we didn't choose, we weren't like, let's go to the gulch. It was more or less like time's running out, things are getting more expensive. Here's a notable landlord that's offering us a whitewalled, decent deal in a small space that'll be easy to handle if we can do some volume out of it, in an area town that is not the main strip of the gulch, but on the other side of the gulch. And after having a few conversations with the group called Samara Road that is doing a lot of the developing over there, because they also were wanting me to accept some investment money from them for some projects to maybe put veto in some of their spaces, I knew that that side was at one was going to eventually be the heart of the gulch. And that if I could sign a deal at $40 a square foot now, and the chances are is that the first five years are probably going to be tough with construction and a small spot, you know, on a side road and trying to like gain gain, you know, what we do, you know, get some popularity over there. But I knew that there were two more giant towers going in behind us, there's two more hotels going in a block away, the Pendry thing that's like, you know, the condos start at 3 million, there's an equinox, there's all that stuff going. I knew that that was all coming. So I thought, you know, sign this lease now and hope, you know, we have a 15-year lease and we're in year three. So like we're still part of the growth that's happening in that area, but we kind of established ourselves in that neighborhood over three years of like being a really nice restaurant to go eat at. And that's kind of how that whole thing felt. You know, it's not like I understand, like, as a family man and living in the East in Englewood, like we're not venturing to the gulch. Nobody in here is going to the gulch. I get it. Um, but kind of like when you're in that position of like you're raising money and you have people behind you and they're ready to do something, you know, you kind of have to make fast decisions. You have to say, all right, you know, should I is this is there is there growth here, you know, like should we just do it here, you know, or or keep waiting? And if the answer was keep waiting, that just meant that I probably would have to give up on my dream and go work for someone else. And that was like, that was just that wasn't in my cards, you know. It's like I come from the if you build it, they will come, you know, build a dreams, absolutely sports podcast. Yeah. So like if you build it, they will come. And I thought I've worked in places in the past that didn't have good locations, and I've worked in places in the past that were small and whatever, but we had talent and we had drive and we put our head down and we made really, really good food, and people showed up. So that's that's the whole thing for me. I was like, look, I know this is not the most visible space. I know this isn't a weird area of town that most people aren't aware of or come to at all, but I know that if we work really hard, make the food what it we know it can be, it's not gonna matter.

Russell Ries 41:43

I think is a really smart move on your part in the end. I've come to realize, at least this is my perspective on things, that there's like sort of two lives in Nashville. There's suburban, surrounding area, and then now there's this new thing that wasn't possible when I was growing up, which is downtown life.

Michael Hanna 42:01

Oh, it's like metropolitan.

Russell Ries 42:02

Yeah, yeah. And you guys are right in the heart of it. Um it's only gonna be more and more.

Michael Hanna 42:06

Sometimes I think that there's a there is a divide there, you know. And I think that, you know, I have my frustrations with the city as a local as as much as anybody. But I think one thing that needs to be repeated, right, across every channel. So here it is, is that locals also own businesses downtown. As much as we hate downtown sometimes, a lot of local businesses operate downtown. So next time everyone goes on a rant about, oh, I can't believe this parking and blah blah blah. It's like, well, you know, just around me, Peg Leg Porker, Mays de la Vita, Arnold's Country Kitchen, all right there, all Otaku, all local businesses, all live here, all have been here for years, all own homes here, all send our kids to school here. Like, we're locals. There's a lot of locals in that area, too.

Russell Ries 42:52

So yeah, that's such a great point. And you know, I think that the old vision of downtown is still kind of tattooed in people's minds, but it's antiquated.

Michael Hanna 43:04

Thousand percent, you know. I think East Nashville is the same way. I mean, it's like, and I deal with this on a daily basis. People complain about, well, you know, there's no parking down there about St. Pedro. And I'm like, okay, well, where is there parking? Like you're paying for parking at a vintage store on Gallatin. Like it's not, it's not like there's easy places to park everywhere. It's like, well, where do you park when you go to Cafe Rose? Where do you park when you go to Rolf? Where do you park when you go to Folk? Like, there's no parking lots. Yeah, it's street parking. A lot of it is designated for you know, permitting for the people that live in the neighborhood. It's like parking sucks everywhere, dude. And that's part of growth. That's part of being in a big city now, you know.

Russell Ries 43:48

The missing part of being in a big city, of course, is the transit, but I don't think we're gonna solve that problem right now. Yeah. And you guys also have delivery available, right? I mean, what is your delivery range?

Michael Hanna 43:59

I I think it's like ten miles. So five or ten miles. Like we anywhere. I mean I I get I get our pizza delivered to our house probably once or twice a month just to when I'm not there just to check quality.

Russell Ries 44:11

Hmm. Well if you ever need uh some quality assurance people kind of some folks across the street. Yeah, so I think um you know, I think there's a great point about parking, it's a great point about locals working downtown. I my church is downtown and I used to park there all the time to go to bread's games, and then they sold one of the lots and there's now an apartment building being built on it, and then the other one they've farmed out the PMC. And it's sort of like now we're like, ah well, I guess, you know, we're not gonna go as much. But um I love you know, I think downtown Nashville is so much more vibrant. It it offers so much more than, you know, what is still in people's minds. I think really old locals, you know, the Broadway wasn't even a thing. Yeah back in the day. It was like all brothels and and you know, junk. And then Broadway became a thing and and Second Avenue, and oh we got a R Rock Cafe, and like, you know, there was a little And I think honestly the Christmas Day bombing really kind of retarded the growth or the expansion of access for people, you know, something that just a little tangent. It's shocking to me that a bomb was set off on Christmas morning in our downtown area, and like not even in town do you hear talk about it anymore. It's crazy, isn't it? It's insane. It's crazy. Yeah, really crazy.

Michael Hanna 45:31

And what's crazier to me is he bombed like, you know, there's like this hoop law about like data centers. He bombed a data center. Yeah, people are like, oh, we'll go move data centers, blah, blah. I'm like, dude, that that building right there in the middle of downtown Nashville is a data center. They've been around forever. Oh, data centers. I forgot about all that. I mean, you do, you kind of glaze over it a little bit. I think there's so much happening in the city, you're just like, oh yeah, well, a bomb went off. I remember hearing it.

Russell Ries 45:58

Mm-hmm.

Michael Hanna 45:59

Yeah, it woke us up. Yeah. And like, because we're only what five miles from the downtown center from right here. And it's like, if we were up, it was Christmas morning, my daughter was like, Yeah, and we were in it, like the windows were like, we're like, what the hell is that?

Russell Ries 46:13

My wife was half asleep, and she told me later, she's like, At first I thought Santa Claus landed on our roof. Fair enough. But yeah, no, that's I mean, it's crazy that went on. And uh yeah, I think downtown's only gonna continue to change now with the East Bank development, obviously, the the new stadium and everything that's gonna be built around it. I think that's really interesting. Like just as far as a project goes, the fact that like a whole what'll essentially become half of our downtown is a blank slate right now. Yeah, and we're just doing it. And I I don't think that I mean it's gotta be one of the largest real estate projects. Obviously, they're all disparate. But that whole section over there is just gonna ten, fifteen years from now look entirely different.

Michael Hanna 46:57

What's it gonna look like? Chicago skyline? I mean, or you know, Atlanta at least.

Russell Ries 47:01

Like I mean, it's it's like I think it's really interesting that that's happening and I'd love to know more about it. But let's pivot back to the restaurant now. Do you guys see a noticeable uptick in orders and takeout and delivery and whatnot when there are big events like a Super Bowl or like Fred's or Titans games?

Michael Hanna 47:20

Rule of thumb for a restaurant is close on the Super Bowl. Uh okay. Because everybody has a party and everybody's dipping and winging and doing their thing. I've never worked over 20-something years in the restaurant industry, close on the we we don't even entertain it. Titans games are really hit or miss for us sometimes. Sunday lunches for us were always a time where we did see a lot more East Nashville locals coming over to eat. When there's a Titans game, traffic really screws that up. So it's a little bit harder on us. We see upticks and to go's during you know, Monday night football, um, Sunday nights, stuff like that. We're always trying to run like campaigns or specials online, you know, buy a slice, get a free or something like that. I think it's something that we should probably dip into more and more, you know, especially for kind of how our lunch service, we kind of retooled our lunch service where it's quick service now. It's not like a sit-down lunch service. You just come in, got a menu, we're making all of our focaccia sandwiches, and uh, we got like a kind of Philly style roast pork, uh broccoli rob chilies uh on the menu right now. It's absolutely insane. Yeah, I mean, it's difficult, it's hit or miss, to be honest with you. When Vandy played Alabama and they beat him, it was like a Friday night and like or it was a Saturday night and it was and it was a really slow Saturday for people. Well, it's because everybody was glued to the TV and at the game. Big sports moments. We don't have any TVs in our restaurants, what's which like next restaurant, I just want to do like a bar with TVs and make great burgers and stuff. There you go. Um we're located next to neighbors, uh and it just overflows in the street with people. So I think we miss it. I think we miss a lot on when it comes to that. But we get a lot of uh we get a lot of athletes coming in. Do you? Yeah. Jared Allen is a uh Jared Allen and his family are regulars.

Russell Ries 49:21

I didn't realize they were in town.

Michael Hanna 49:23

Yeah, they live here. Randall Cobb. Oh, cool. Yeah, nice. Um uh, you know, uh Skoronski. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, we yeah, so I I have fun with that. Uh I I have fun with the uh 1045 the zone guys. Uh Blaine Bishop comes in, Will Bowling and Ramon Foster. I'm always like texting, you know, because they're like, they want to come, they're like, hey, we're gonna come in. What I'm gonna do is just send them a care package or something, you know. Come on, guys. Yeah, I got that all of a sudden in like a span of like three days, that whole radio station was like covering was like following us on the gram. That's awesome. I was like, all right, well, I'm gonna read, I'm just gonna start DM. I'm like, come on, come on, you guys. And so Blaine Bishop came in and I texted him, I'm like, what's up? How was it? He's like, dude, this is awesome. I'm like, thank you so much, you know. That's awesome. Tell your friends, come back and see us, you know, throw some stuff to the studio. It's right down the road from us. There's a lot of sports, you know, like Josh Pay, college football show, like he's here. There's a lot of people here that I don't know, uh right in my area too. I need to tap into it. I want that sports that sports guys to start coming in.

Russell Ries 50:28

Yeah, it seems like it's the perfect thing for a lot of sports guys too.

Michael Hanna 50:32

It's nice, it's a pizza, but it's hardier, it's you know Well, you know, I I got into a kitchen, I was I was a super competitive and athlete growing up, always played every sport. The discipline of the kitchen, being on a team, it all goes hand in hand. So when I I if I if I didn't cook, I'd do something in sports. I don't know if it'd be media or coaching or something, but I would definitely do something. And I saw a lot of similarities, which is one of the reasons why, you know, I kind of went towards it.

Russell Ries 51:03

Yeah. My wife and I have actually both worked in professional kitchens in the past, and uh I you know talk about that all the time with her. It is it's athletics. Yeah. I mean it's yeah, it's it's face-pace, it's body control, it's endurance, retention. Yeah, oh man. Yeah, being on the line, having somebody yell out orders to you.

Michael Hanna 51:22

Yeah.

Russell Ries 51:23

Yeah. It's it there there are a lot of similarities for sure. Well, I hope that you're able to corner more of the market. So what's next for St. Vito's?

Michael Hanna 51:32

What do you guys uh we're gonna keep pushing? You know, the restaurant landscape, unfortunately, in Nashville's in a weird spot. We're gonna have to let the dust settle a little bit on what's about to happen. You know, there's so much growth and there's tons of out-of-town, massive restaurant groups coming in. The new chain era is what I call it. You know, it's like when we were growing up, your chain restaurants were Applebee's and chilies and whatnot. And you're like, yeah. There's nothing wrong with those places, right? They're corporate and they do it. Well, the new chain era is like restaurants where it's elevated more than a chain, but they're ran like a chain, but you don't I don't I think there's a whole group of people who may not recognize it. You know, so when like these massive groups from LA and and Chicago and New York come into town and they're like, oh, so and so from New York is here now. You know, okay, yeah, but like it's it's it's there's also seven of them. It's just a chain restaurant now. So like what made it really special in New York isn't necessarily what makes it special in Nashville, right? And what makes it, you know, so I think that the industry as a whole has to just we gotta see what the market wants. Does the market want independently owned restaurants, or does the market want, you know, the big name groups? Those big name groups aren't putting the thought and the time and effort into their food the same way that the independent one. For us, we're gonna stay the course, we're Michelin Pipcore Mod restaurant, um, you know, New York Times top 25 three years in a row. We're we're just gonna keep doing what we do, focus on us. If the right opportunity comes along, we'll jump on it to do something else. But right now I really enjoy just being able to be in the kitchen, um, you know, manage the business, be with my team. It's the first time in three years where I've able, I'm like, I have two days off most of the time. I'm able to, you know, spend a little bit more time with my family. Don't have to be there every single, you know, every single waking hour that the restaurant's open. So like, do I want to jump into opening something else to work another 90 hours a week for uh three more years? Like, probably not.

Russell Ries 53:41

Fair enough. So yeah. I would point out too, you know, I think one thing that's special about what you all are doing. You mentioned other people coming in from out of town. Well, they don't have you guys. That's right. You know, like Nashville is lucky to have St. Vito's because you can't find that in most places, maybe not even in New York.

Michael Hanna 54:01

I mean, you would know better than I, but like But our our pizza is so unique. It it really is. I mean, there's other grandma style, Sicilian style pizzas out there, but they're just using their leftover dough from their round pies. We don't do any round pies, ours is just our square slices, and it is 100% hydrated, always sourdough, you know, baked fresh daily. Like there's just something about it that's so different. Um, and you know, we we live on that edge of like pizza people loving us, but then our other food is, you know, because I come from more of like a casual fine dining, fine dining kind of area era. So I it's hard for me not to cook that way sometimes. Put a lot of thought and effort into these other dishes. We have regulars that come into the restaurant that don't even order the pizza. And I think that's huge, that's a weird thing for us as a business because we have to we have to like make sure that we please those people all the time, but also like we have to have the pizza on the menu because most of the people we serve like are out of town first timers.

Russell Ries 55:03

That's how they find you. Yep. Well, that's awesome. Okay, one just sort of personal question for me. I tried to make a starter during COVID, but I failed horribly. What's the secret? What do I need to do? What is I mean, don't give away the game, obviously. Yeah, the the there is no secret.

Michael Hanna 55:19

It's um number one, when you think it's dead, it's probably not. Okay. You put in too much thought into it. It's literally flour, water, and you're active yeast and bacteria, right? That's it. If you feed it consistently, you're gonna have like for me at the restaurant, we feed it twice a day. Now, do you need to do that do that at home? No. Feed it once a week, throw it in the fridge. When you're ready to use it, pull it out, let it start to eat, you know, let it, you know, feed it and let it eat, and then use it, you'll be fine.

Russell Ries 55:53

You leave it out after that.

Michael Hanna 55:54

Yeah. Okay. I mean, you can you you always want to feed it and put it in the fridge. Like, you gotta think about this. Like, it's the flour and the water, and then your starter. And your starter's alive. And the flour and the water, that's its food, right? It's just eating. We can only eat so much, right? So once it stops eating, it's starting to die. Well, it if you're not using it, let's feed it. Let it eat, let it live. If you're using it, you want it to be nice and healthy. So you want it to, you know, by putting it in the fridge, it kind of makes it dormant, it kind of retards it a little bit, but it still eats, it eats slower. You pull it out, it eats faster. So, like, if you mix flour water and some starter I give you or something on a Monday, and you feed it at eight o'clock in the morning, and then you come back the next day and you feed it again at eight o'clock in the morning. And you do that for like four or five straight days. You've got it on a schedule. You can feed it a big feed. You can go like a little bit of starter, a lot of flour, a lot of water, whatever, put it in your fridge. It'll be fine for a week. Pull it out, say, I want to use this. Take some out, feed it at 8 a.m. You can make your bread that night, let it go in the fridge, come back the next day, bake it.

Russell Ries 57:03

All right, well, before you go, what are St. Vito's hours? How can people find you?

Michael Hanna 57:08

Seven days a week, lunch and dinner, 11 to 2 lunch, uh, five to nine weekdays, five to ten weekends for dinner time, uh, no reservations at lunch, just walk in, it's quick service. You order at the counter, you go sit down, we'll yell your name, find you, whatever, serve your um your sandwich. We're doing sandwiches and slices only for lunch. We have an extensive dinner service with lots of shareable smaller plates, some more on the fine dining world, our pizza still in the menu, and then a couple little entree dishes. Um, find us at St. Vito Facacheria uh at uh on Instagram, uh St. Vito Nashville.com is our you know is our website. Yeah.

Russell Ries 57:50

Awesome. I'll make sure to link all that in the description for this episode. Chef Michael Hanna, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming over. Yeah, thanks, dude.

Outro

Russell Ries 57:59

All right. All right, well, that was our interview with Michael Hanna. My thanks again to him for coming on. I will be linking to his website and Instagram in the description below. Please check them out. Give them a follow-up order from them. It's delicious. As always, we would love to hear from you. You can find a link to our email box down below. We're also on Twitter at Blue Sky at NSHSportsReport. And otherwise, hope you have a wonderful weekend and a great week. We'll talk to you next time.