Where does a fine dining chef actually eat on their day off?

Hey, Aaron.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you so much for having me.

Well, you're a James Beard finalist.

We're just a few days away from the awards ceremony.

How are you feeling about it?

I've been saying since when we were nominated as a semifinalist, there's that kind of anxious excitement that you get, like that pit underneath your sternum.

And then when we were nominated as a finalist, that just intensified.

And in the last week, we've all kind of looked at each other like...

this is insane.

Like just the, it's so surreal and it's not to be cheesy or whatever, but it's just, you know, this stuff is serious.

And I think that a lot of people don't really understand the magnitude of what it does for a restaurant and for small businesses to have this kind of attention.

Has the attention been kind of wild in the last couple of months? It's been

really like wild, like since day one, just, I mean, even just like literally the same day.

I mean, you already get on lists as business owners so that people could just cold call you to sell you stuff.

Yeah.

And then recently we've had all these really wonderful people come in the door with like trays of beautiful microgreens or things because, you know, and more power to them.

I'm all about the hustle and guerrilla marketing and the whole nine.

They're

like, here are our crown jewel Walla Walla onions.

Yeah.

I

mean, seriously, you're like beautiful cultivated mushrooms or anything like that.

And yeah, the attention has been wild to me.

It's been really lovely and it's such an amazing affirmation, not just of the concept that we have at Sorrel, but everything.