And at that time, which still am, was huge into juicing and just really clean food, and I just think that that was always missing in our town. I feel like it's missing in so many towns. Still today is just true quality food. Feel to burn baby. Oh yeah. Is a slam dunk. Absolutely breathtaking. Welcome to the Bike de Bites podcast. I'm your host, Garrett Best. This is a companion podcast to the Bike de Bites television series, and you could check out the links in the show notes to find out more information about where you can tune in to watch the series. Now in today's podcast, we're going to be revisiting my journey through Chattanooga, Tennessee, and in this episode I'm sitting down with my guest, Kelsey Eff, the owner of Southern Squeeze. Now, I'm excited to get into this episode, but before I do that, I want to take a moment to thank our sponsor Plus for Bytes podcast. When your tomorrows are built on technology, you need to partner with superior Insight, with expertise in cutting edge innovation across ai, security cloud and workplace transformation. E plus today's modern enterprise E plus where technology means more. Now let's talk about our Chattanooga episode. Now we went to Chattanooga and we did about a 17.7 mile ride through the city, and I can tell you this city has a ton of bridges that you'll be traversing back and forth on the route and visiting some great restaurants along the way. Our first stop was Southern Squeeze where we had an unbelievable sampling of some of their healthy food and deliciousness. I started with a down country smoothie bowl, had an Elvis waffle and we'll talk more about that as we talk to Kelsey when we get into our interview. And then of course, the lunch special, which was a mushroom style fajita bowl. Fantastic, continued on that journey. We then stopped at our second stop, which was feed table and tavern, where I sat down with Adam Bentley, the general manager, and boy, you go to Chattanooga and you're going to have some great southern hospitality, southern cuisine. We started with a Wagyu ribeye with mashed potatoes and green beans and some grilled salmon with vegetable succotash and green beans, absolutely delicious. Both were fantastic and certainly got me fueled up for the rest of the ride. We also stopped as we were riding along, and you'll see in the episode Chattanooga is famous for the very famous Chattanooga Ccho and that song was, or that station or that train was made famous in the Glen Miller song about the Chattanooga Chuchu. We visit that area, which was very, very cool. And you'll notice that on the ride we cross over some unbelievable, like a spread of train tracks, and that's because it's still a very much working city in terms of railway transportation for cargo. Our next stop was public house. Now public house epitomizes everything that you could possibly imagine when you think about southern cuisine, and it started with the fried okra with a sriracha sauce, and so good was this fried okra that the chef who says, admittedly he doesn't typically eat okra, decided on camera to sit down and have it with me. And after he tried his own fried okra, which he says he doesn't typically eat, he's decided that he now might like okra. And let me tell you this okra you will absolutely love. We moved on to some pimento cheese, served with fried pickles and some sourdough bread, absolutely delicious grilled salmon over a rat oui and a buttermilk lime vinaigrette. It was incredible, super delicious, super tender, felt very healthy. It was the kind of precursor to what was coming next, which was what I would consider the signature of this restaurant, which was a sweet tea, buttermilk fried chicken, served with homemade mac and cheese and that fried chicken. I will tell you, I've had fried chicken all over the south. This fried chicken was some of the best I've ever had. It was incredible. And Chef was amazing. Chef Andrew Hunter was the chef and he was our host and he truly treated us to a whole bunch of deliciousness, that's for sure. We got back on the bike, we went over another bridge, we moved on to our final destination to meet up with George Lewellen, who is the co-owner of Frazier five and Dime and Frazier five and Dime is a really, really cool, I would even go as far as calling it a swanky place. It's got a really incredible horseshoe bar and the restaurant has a balcony that goes like a dining outside if the weather's nice, beautiful balcony where you can go sit outside and eat. And the food was incredible. We started out with a North Carolina rainbow trout dish with green beans and pecan butter. I will tell you in the show, it's probably the last dish that I tried. I think I started with the fried oysters and potato salad and arugula, and then I moved on to a shrimp and brisket and a broth, and then I ended with the North Carolina Rainbow Trout and it's game changing. The rainbow trout was game changing and it was a nice way to kind of end the ride. It was a cool place to just chill out, hang out, have a great local beer, which is what we did, 17.7 miles through Chattanooga over lots of bridges along the water, along some highways in the sky, a boardwalk skyway that we ride our bike over giving us great views. This is a trip that I think everyone should take. This is a route that I think everyone should try. Now I'd like to take a moment to introduce our first guest. This is Kelsey Eff. She is the owner of Southern Squeeze, which is located in Chattanooga and open with a commitment to providing nutritious, high quality, tasty juices, smoothies, and breakfast for her community. She was a passionate vegetarian and she wanted to bring a healthy food concept to Chattanooga and one that has a hundred percent organic plant-based menu that is fresh and made from scratch every day. She has changed the game and is truly making a difference in her community, and I now like to welcome her here on our podcast. Kelsey, thank you for joining us today. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. When I was in Chattanooga, you were traveling and so I didn't get the opportunity to meet you at your place and I was a little disappointed, but that only lasted for a moment because I was able to sit down with one of your managers, Katie Levi, and she was awesome. And so I figured for the purpose of this podcast, wouldn't it be nice because we missed each other in Chattanooga for us to take a deep dive into what you're doing in Chattanooga here in the podcast. So thank you so much for joining us. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm glad to be here. So let's talk about the, if you will, the journey. You started as a very young entrepreneur, this business Southern Squeeze, and I would love for you to kind of share with our listeners, our viewers, what inspired you to ultimately kind of take the dive into being a business owner and specifically in the space of hospitality that you're in. Cool. Well, that one is not for the faint of heart, so I'm not really sure how I landed here, but I did. But it's been a great journey. I've learned so much. So pretty much I started around when I was 25, 37 now how to do that math, but just slowly I was like, I want to do something that I wanted to do something more that helped people. So at that time I taught yoga full time, still teach yoga right now as well, but I wanted to do something that could help more people at a higher volume. And I was like, what do I love? What niche am I missing? And my father always encouraged us, what do you want to do? I'll support you in it. There was not any certain path that as a parent, he wanted us to take how parents could be maybe sometimes. And so he was really supportive of anything we wanted to do. And so I was like, I want to open up a juice bar. And at that time, which still am was huge into juicing and just really clean food. And I just think that that was always missing in our town. I feel like it's missing in so many towns still today is just true quality food rather that's completely plant-based or whatever your choice is, if you will, of diet choices. It's just the quality is what was missing and that's what I wanted to open. And so we just slowly started doing, when I say my mom and my sister helped me and my now husband helped and I'm like, okay, family. Affair going to start. Yeah, family affair. And so we just started juicing out of my apartment and then started doing juice cleanses and I was like, okay, I think I have something here. We literally couldn't keep up. I was like, this is taking a little bit too much of my time all day off this little mini Norwalk juicer. And then it just slowly just kind of cannonball just from being in the yoga community and Chattanooga is one of those places it's really easy to know a lot of people. And so the guy that's my current landlord now came to yoga and it just kind of all fell into place like that and have had so much support. So the niche was missing and it was just one little domino effect kind of landed us where we are. I want to take a step back. You grew up in Chattanooga, correct? That's correct. And I read that you became a vegetarian at the age of 12, and I am just curious, did that have some early influence on what it is that you're doing now? It did a little bit. I think it just kind of like the domino pieces that all fell together. Just like in the timeline, I was raised Catholic and gave up meat for Lent one year. And so from that point never really ate a lot of meat up until maybe a little bit recently, but not that much. And so I think for me, I think when you level up the energetics of your body and then cleanliness is holiness, you clean up your diet, then you learn a little bit more and then you just keep building these levels. And so I think that's what did eventually lead me to where I've landed. I was always searching for more or the next best thing as I got older and then realized that there was a real lacking niche in our town. In our town, it's continuing to grow rapidly, but I was like, man, I think we really need this. And Chattanooga is a very health conscious community, especially when it comes to physical exercise, but also felt like there was a little bit of lack when it came to diet and nutrition. It's funny that you say that because it's funny that you say that because I found in my discovery of Chattanooga that Chattanooga is very, it's got the quintessential southern hospitality, southern cuisine, and with that it could be great quality food, but it doesn't necessarily always mean it's the most healthy food for you. And so for me, having visited you especially, I began my journey stopping at your place first and what a great way to start a ride was to basically come to Southern squeeze and load up on all the goodness and wonderful deliciousness that you guys were serving there. But I think Chattanooga is kind of evolving. That's the sense that I got when I was there. Curious to know if my perception is accurate from where you sit having grown up there. I would say dramatically, honestly, that's kept me here. I met my husband out west in Yellowstone and then he eventually moved here because I'm like, I think I belong by the beach where I can get all my fruits and vegetables all the time where it's warm. But Chattanooga has so much to offer. And so just to see its growth made me want to stay instead of doing something. Elsewhere. It's really, I found it to be a very special city. And I think one of the reasons why I wanted to come to Chattanooga is, let's be honest, Memphis and Nashville get a lot of love and deservingly, deservingly, but I think sometimes Chattanooga is overshadowed by those other two big cities. And I thought, hey, I'm hearing a lot of really cool things about incredible cycling infrastructure and this outdoor mentality of getting out there, being active and a really, really cool food scene. And it very, very, it wasn't surprising for me when I got there to see that there was an incredible food scene and the first impression that I had was your place, which was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Thank you. And we're going to talk about that in a second. We're going to talk about some of the things that I sampled while I was there, but I would love to, you started this business at a very young age. You, you're a young entrepreneurial woman starting a business for the first time. I think you were, what, 25 you said when you started. That is not easy, no matter where you are, who you are, what you're doing, starting a business and starting a business in the hospitality sector is not, it's got its own set of challenges. What did you do to lean into or help you bring your vision to life? Just like you always talk to your friends and your family of like, Hey, I have this idea, or Hey, I have this idea. And I'm not sure what friend it was that had told me about a company called Starters, which is I think it was in their first class or definitely one of their first classes. And that is where I just created my business plan, which was needed where my father was like, if you're serious about this, show us that you're serious if you want help. And they just helped physically, he's in construction, things like that. He's like, we'll get it done. I'll help you do this or find the right people. And so I needed a business plan to show people that I was serious and I needed a little bit of help with that. And so yeah, Elena with starters, and it was really great. There's several other people in there bringing different business ideas. They show you how to build the business plan, but then you're also just constantly getting feedback on, Hey, this is my idea. What do you think? Some people were huge naysayers and some people were like, oh, I think that would be great. Which. Never. Perspective was like, no, this is going to be great. It's going to happen. We're going to go. We're going to make it happen. Never listen to the naysayers, actually listen to them and despite what they have to say. To do with fuel. Keep forging forward, which is clearly what you did. So when you got the business plan pulled together, opening a place is not cheap. So what did you do to raise the money to, did you have the money put aside? Did you save? Yeah. So I love hearing these stories because where this is the birth of a business, this is how it all happens. What did you do? How did you raise the money to open the business? Yeah, so like I said, my dad and my brother both do construction and they've always just known how to build things, if you will. And so that was really the easy part. We literally, in our shop now, we still have a bench that my dad built for us. And so it was really, I guess lack of better words, like grassroots. I just like, where can I pull what I need? And the biggest piece of equipment that we had, my husband's parents bought us and then was just kind of a price of a lower end car. And then we had a family friend. And what was that piece of equipment? It was our juicer. Okay, wow. Because when we originally started, we were just juice and smoothies. That was it with a few little food items here and there. And then over the years people definitely use their voices and they're like, we want more food, more food. And right now we're a plant-based, plant forward restaurant. The majority of our sales are all food. But back to the original question is we had a family friend who had given us, it was around like $40,000 to say, Hey here, which is actually pretty minimal when I really look back at it. And we've had a couple of expansions and then we've had one store open and close and it had two different locations. And so I'm like, wow. It's like I don't know how I did it with such little money. And I know for some that may sound like a lot of money, but in the scheme of things for business, it wasn't really, but we still managed to get it done. And I literally just slung open those doors and boss was like, wait, you're open. We're open. And I'm like, yeah, I decided to open today. That's. Awesome. And then just, I don't know, I just figured it out. Well, clearly you wrote a good business plan to be able to raise the money, even if it is a small, in the grand scheme of things, amount of money. But in some people's, from some people's perspective,$40,000 is still $40,000. Absolutely. Clearly you convinced somebody that you were an investment well worth making. And look what's happened. You've been open now since what year did you open, oh, so you opened the first one and then you closed that, and then you opened the one that I visited when I was visiting for bike to bikes. So across the street from where you visited, we had our first original location, and then after a couple years we moved across the street to the location that you're in, that you were in. That was only half the size. And so probably about four years ago, we doubled the size and in the meantime of that across town, we had a really small location, and then we expanded that into a bigger location, and then we closed that one at the beginning of Covid. So the one location that you've got right now is your flagship, and it's doing very, very well, from what I can tell. Doing well. I mean, I was there, it was bustling all good. And I had some of the most unbelievable, delicious treats, which like I said, we're going to talk about when you opened the restaurant and what were some of your biggest fears. Of not being good enough, of not making it able to truly educate people on why it was so good or why it was so important or why it was so different? I think ultimately just really is like, okay, I am, is this really going to work? Just a little bit of self-doubt that might creep in a little bit was probably my biggest fear, because I really didn't know, I don't know if I could say this on here, but my ars from my elbow, where am I when it comes to truly running a business? I figured it out. So yes, there were those main little fears, but I was really just trying to make it day by day until I figured it all out. And you got a rhythm and. Then, yeah, found a rhythm. You find a groove, and then you kind of continue to see, expand on the things that are working, refine the things that are not, it's so funny. You can come to Chattanooga and you can have the experience of a traditional southern meal of buttermilk fried chicken and okra, but you can also come to Chattanooga and eat really clean and healthy fruits and vegetables in very, very unique preparations that I have to tell you, I was blown away at some of the things that you were doing there. Do you know what I had? No, I don't. I will tell you what I had. So I started with, first of all, they brought me a pressed juice. It was green, it had nectar and apples and celery and ginger and pineapple. And. The newgen nectar. The newgen nectar. Yeah, that's what I had. It was unbelievably delicious. And I found out that there was seven pounds of fruits and vegetables at each juice that you serve. Like four to six. Four to six, okay, four to six. So seven might've been a little bit of an exaggeration, but either way, four to six is still impressive that you're consuming four to six pounds of juiced vegetables in this jar, in this glass, beautiful glass jar that you serve it in or glass that you serve it in. And it was fantastic. And then I had moved right into the lunch special, which was the mushroom style fajita bowl with this cashew cheese that was ridiculous. I mean, absolutely insane. And then had to have the Elvis waffle, a gluten-free waffle topped with banana peanut butter, chocolate chips, smothered with sprinkles and maple syrup. I and I still had to get on a bike, by the way. And there was still one more dish. There's still one more dish to try, which was the down country smoothie bowl. Oh yeah, that. Was so good. And that, I mean, banana blueberry topped with fresh fruit, superfood sprinkles, housed chocolate granola puffed Rice Krispies, coconut flakes, peanut butter. I mean, it was perfect. That in and of itself would've been perfect. And of course, I don't eat all of it of each dish. I try to sample a bunch of each one, a little bit of each one rather. And it was truly a delight. And then going inside the restaurant itself and seeing in the cases all those wonderful baked goods or not baked. Yeah, those aren't actually. They're not baked, but they look like baked goods. And explain that. So talk to me about what's in that case, because you go in there, you think you're in a traditional bakery, but the preparation for those items is very different. I'm consuming. So when we started with just juice and smoothies, we also originally started as an all raw cafe. So meaning everything, nothing is cooked, everything if it's dehydrated, it's cooked under 115 degrees. And that's really just to maintain all of the nutrients within the food. It decided to expand my horizons just to meet people where they are in Chattanooga. And sometimes I think we can become a purist, and that's not necessarily where everybody else wants to be, but it was a great transition and I think a smart business move to add all those, the cook foods in. Back to your original question though, because I can be long-winded, but those treats, yeah, I mean a lot of them are nut-based, super nutrient dense. They're really filling. We don't use any processed sugars or anything in any of our foods, even including those treats. And so a lot of times that's why people love them so much. They feel like they're being naughty. But. There was a cookie that made me feel very naughty. There was, oh my. Goodness, it's like our signature chocolate. It almost feels like you're eating chocolate chip cookie dough. It was insane. Insane. And so clearly you're making an impact. You're leaving lasting impressions with people that come there. You're getting a lot of repeat customers that are coming back and you've really grown the business into something quite successful. What does the future look like for Southern Squeeze? You've really put yourself on the map in Chattanooga. What's next for you? Yeah, we've constantly had just been like, what's next? And so also pre Covid, right before we were almost about to sign a lease in Nashville and we stopped and then we also had a baby. And so now that is where we are looking currently, just kind of toggling some things around. But originally it was my focus to be all within the Southeast, and then of course life happens and I'm like, ah, I should have been there by now. But everything in due time. But yeah, I mean that's really to truly give healthy options to everybody in the southeast and then maybe beyond, depending on where that takes it. I say Southeast, so I can still have my finger on the pulse just because there was so much time and work put in to make sure the quality and the standards were there and to make sure that they maintain. So is that a big plan of yours to try to expand and open up more establishments in other parts of the southeastern part of the us? I mean, is that the big plan? It is the big plan. So we'll see what life holds for me, but yeah, that's definitely the direction that we want to move in. Was that on the original business plan? It was really, and so that's why I say it's been a minute and I feel like I'm like, oh, I should have been there by now. But. No, I think what could you have predicted? I mean, could you have predicted, right? So I think you're doing just fine. I think what you're doing there is, and you know what? Your staff, very knowledgeable, very, very friendly, very willing to educate in terms of questions that you have as a customer that you need answered. They're there to guide you through what might be, in some people's cases, a new experience for them. Right? It is. I mean, we still have people, brand new customers, new experiences all the time, and the staff's important. We've always been very, very fortunate and blessed with our staff over the years. So we've had some very long-term employees, which is great. And I feel like a lot to say when it comes to the food and beverage industry for sure. Absolutely. I read an article also about you that talked about how one of your biggest challenges when you started was managing people at your establishment that were your own age and having to navigate that experience. That's not easy. You probably learned a lot. Yes, continue to learn a lot, just all the different personality types and just trying to be, which I've learned more and more like to be kind, but also just let's get the job done is, it's a hard bridge to bring together. But. I feel like we've used it. Do you think, I have lots of friends who are in the hospitality business, and I think consistently what you'll hear from those chef owners or restaurateurs is that some of their biggest challenges have to do with the human resource side of things, the managing of people, the scheduling of people, making sure that you're running an organization that does right by the people that work for you, but more importantly that the people that work for you do right by the customers that you serve. So I have to ask, what have been some of the biggest takeaway lessons for you in these years of being this young entrepreneur, running that kind of business where you are very people forward in terms of what you do. When it comes to employees? I think I was always very, very blunt at the beginning in the sense of I don't understand. Why can't you do it? Just do it. And so really, again, bridging that gap of just, at the end of the day, they're still human. They still want to feel really, really appreciated, and people want to feel appreciated in completely different ways. And so just really getting to know each individual and just making them feel, again, appreciated and just, I mean, I don't know. I think it's just an innate thing that I've learned over time. I don't really know how to put it into words. No, I wouldn't say to be kind, but I mean, I know I've always been a kind person, but just maybe more gentle. It's a different kind of kindness. I don't take things so serious. I'm like, well, eventually I'll work out. Yeah, I was going to say it's a different kind of kindness that you learn when you're running a business because you could be very much a kind person, and then you have to learn the nuances of what that means when you're managing people. In. A business, because every personality is, you're bringing together personalities that normally don't come together and you're trying to figure out how do we move the ship forward with all these moving parts? I think that you said that perfectly. It's like, I think it's always taking a step back and I look at everything through the business lens, what's the best for the business in this moment, not me as a person or you as a person. And so kind of take emotions out of it at times and then make that so it makes decisions a little bit easier or conversations easier depending on the topic. For sure. Let's talk a little bit about your commitments to community, your commitments to sustainability, local purveyors, local farmers. I mean, I know that this is really, really important to you. If you could maybe just share with the listeners, the viewers about what you are doing in your little part of the world to ensure that these things are front and center. So we compost all of our food. We have so much, some would call it waste from leftover, from the pulp, from our juice. So we have, it's like your typical trash can that you pick up that you would put your trash in at home. I'm not sure what size that is, but we have two of those and we fill those up every week. And so that gets composted and goes back into soil into the community. We also, we just started this, but save all of our water. So if you as a customer, don't finish your water, we dump it in a bucket and then we water all of our plants with it. That's very cool. So we're still trying to get in the habit of that, but I'm like, I've wanted to do this forever. We have so many plants, let's really put this into action. And then, yeah, we try to use as many local farmers as possible. We use local honey, local sprouts. We recently, since you guys actually went there, have added eggs to our menu. And so we get those local as well. And then several other little things we thread in. We have our whole retail section, which you saw, and we have several local items on that as well. Very cool. Do you currently do a breakfast burrito? No, but really the reason why do breakfast burrito is because I can't find a proper wrap that's like that doesn't have binders and things like that. So that's always been. I know you'll make one. I know. You'll figure it out. You will figure it out because. We have thought about it. I am telling, even if you have to do a bike to bites, breakfast burrito, I mean they're delicious. We've talked about it. But I understand the commitment to wanting to do it the way that's within the southern squeeze way of doing things. So yeah, I wonder even, where would you even begin to come up with a wrap that could work for you? There is one, but it breaks really easy. It hits all the check marks as in quality and it's organic and doesn't have binders, things like that, but it just cracks. And so we've thought about just doing a smothered burrito where you wouldn't have to pick it up. So there are some, but it's just nothing perfect that we've found just yet. What makes, I'm just curious, a wrap for a burrito. So it has to be gluten-free, right? Ideally we try to have, I mean we do have a sourdough bread, which is from a local baker, but we try to have everything be gluten-free. So what are your choices when you're looking, not just for, of course I'm obsessing about the burrito right now, but I'm saying not just a burrito wrap, but the other gluten-free items that you are serving at Southern Squeeze. Where do you even begin to source and find what's right for you? I know they exist, right? But what's right for Southern Squeeze? So at this point, I mean I think it's 95% of the items we make in-house from scratch. We don't make our bread, we get that from, or sourdough bread we do not make. We get it from a local baker and then we did just search the planet for a gluten-free bread that didn't have binders, that doesn't have cane sugar in it, all the things. And we did land on that. I mean, they're definitely out there more and more. They're just definitely more expensive. But we do try to make everything or not to have to outsource as much as possible. I love that. But all the items they're there, you just have to search for 'em for. Sure. That must be part of the fun part of your job, which is constantly innovating, constantly looking for new things. Does that get you jazzed up in the morning in terms of thinking about what can we do that's different next and still maintain the things that are already working and doing well? Yeah, it definitely gets me jazzed right now since I just had the baby. Our two managers are doing phenomenal and creating all of our specials and they're just working on some stuff. When I left the shop today, and it definitely has been getting them jazzed like, oh, what can we do? Because it's just exciting. It's just like, what can we create that's different but delicious because we just recently created a corn mill waffle, and it's actually very southern, it's like a corn mill waffle with Southern, with chili and sour cream and honey, and it has chives on it. Oh my. It's so good. I've had it the last two days in a row. It's not very heavy either. I mean, I think that's the difference when you use really quality and ingredients, it's something that would normally feel like it would sit heavy is great. So we just made it from scratch. So it has a real corn bready fill to it. So you have your family, your husband, and your two children. By the time the day comes for you to make a meal at the end of the day, are you exhausted? Do you still find the energy to be able to be creative in your own kitchen? And full transparency? Like I said, I have a really good team. So for most days, just having the baby set aside, I do still like to cook food. And yeah, I think that that's probably what keeps me creative is because almost easier to experiment and stuff at home in smaller batches and doses by yourself. And so yeah, I love to cook Asian style things at home and a lot of times those things have been, I mean that's where the majority of our main menu came from is from me cooking at home. But yeah, I do have energy. I think that's part of what gives me life. Life. I love trying new things that are clean and quality. It's so funny as I would consider myself a creative person and I constantly doing my craft even at home. I like to cook at home, I like to grill. I like to be innovative in the kitchen. I like to, even when I'm not riding on the show, I love to cycle because it's where you get inspired, it's where you think. And I love hearing other people's stories, most importantly, stories of success. And you've been wildly successful and I think it's fantastic. Curiosity question. In all these years that you've been running the business, do you have any kind of a funny moment that stands out of that just made you chuckle to yourself about Oh boy. I mean, I think, yeah, I mean many, but I remember one, it was our first location when we started out and for some reason, none of our produce or nothing had shown up on our order. And these are very large orders. It's such a heavy produce base business. And it was one of those things just like a storm, one thing after other. And it was literally, it's like we had nothing to make and I just had to laugh. But I think it was such a good learning moment where I was like, because normally I'd let it stress me out, just get completely bent out of shape, get crabby and irritable. And so I was like, you know what? It's not worth the stress. And I'm so glad I learned that earlier on. I mean, you really have to laugh one thing after thing, thing gets messed up it, I mean there's so many of those micro moments all the time that you're like, well. Those are the moments that really test your metal. Those are the moments that you do it and you can't take yourself too seriously otherwise you'll just crumble. So other than your family and your career and the business that you own, what gets you up every day? Gosh, I mean I love, I don't know mean in reality it sound cheesy to some, but I also just love living. I think there's so much beauty in this world and I know so many people, it's easy to lean in all the negativity, if you will, around the world. But I think that it's also easy to lean in to the simple things, the pretty trees, the blue sky that I'm looking at right now. I mean, it's such simple things that I think if we can be grateful for, bring you peace and make you want to get up. No, I love that. I love that. And I get the sense that you do have such a great appreciation for living clearly. You live by example, by what you're doing at the store and the people that are coming in and they're appreciating what it is that you're doing. It's not just somebody serving food. They know you go in there and you see the hard work, the creativity, the goodness that goes into making someone smile and happy for a meal that they might be having at your restaurant. And you're also very committed, and I want you to talk about this. You're probably, you strike me as being very humble. You're very committed to your community and I would love for you to talk about some of those community-based programs that I heard about when I was visiting specifically. I know that you guys do this local farmer's market with the stamps for the food stamps. Talk to me about where that idea came from and why that's important to you. So it's for a local farmer's market where we donated X amount of dollars. And so if you were somebody who wanted to shop at the farmer's market and use food stamps, you'd get double the amount. And so the reason I came across that, and we've done dabbled in helping other areas of the town do similar things as well, we actually need to re-up and do that. That was last year that we did that, just the full transparency. So the reason I chose to do that is because so many people come in and they're like, Hey, can you donate to this? Or Hey, can you donate to that? Or yada yada yada. And I mean of course you can donate to whatever you want, but for me I was like, where can I really serve? Instead of just a school auction here or there that gets their name out. That stuff's great, but I really again, wanted to help more volumes of people. And so just got connected with our local farmers market and that was one thing that they said that would be really helpful. So we bought them a new machine so they could accept more money. So you go to the farmer's market and if you have food stamps at the farmer's market, you can use your food stamps at the farmer's market and then you are matching. Correct. Double the amount of whatever food stamps were redeemed basically. Wow. That's. Pretty amazing. And have you seen. It was a set amount of money that we gave them, but that's how it worked. So. However they did it on their backside, but. But that's a huge contribution to a community, you know what I mean? That shows, and I love the idea where you're connecting it to. Again, it goes back to your ethos of healthy eating and eating the best that you can. Going to a local farmer's market, buying directly from a local farmer. That's very, very cool. Good. Yeah, no, it is great. I mean, I love our no farmers, no food. So just the more people that can support them and the more people that can eat locally, I think it's a great thing. So if I'm coming to Chattanooga again and I'm going to come into Southern Squeeze and I already told you what I had when I was there this past time, what should someone absolutely hands down must try when they come there? The down country would definitely be on my list. I mean, I always would say check out our specials because like I said, the cornbread waffle that I had the last couple of days is the bomb. So the specials are always really wonderful. Also, my probably all time favorite is our poke bowl. Our take on a poke bowl is just super fantastic. I'd say it's probably one of our best sellers. And then I also love our nurture bowl, so it's like chia pudding and coconut yogurt are house-made granolas fruit. And so it's more of like a breakfast tea item are probably my all time favorites. And I would also say probably our veggie burger because we make our veggie burger and it's really good. Wow. Oh, I should have had the veggie burger when I was there. So you've given me a bunch of reasons to come back to Chattanooga and to come into Southern Squeeze and Oh, you're breaking up one more second here. It's okay. It's also time of day. Okay, there you're, you're back. Okay, so you've given me a bunch of reasons. I'll do it again. Okay, so you've given me a bunch. I'm going to do it one more time. Here we go. And then I'm going to end it. Okay. So you've given me a bunch of reasons to come back to Chattanooga to come in and sample some of those wonderful goodies that you just described. And lemme tell you anyone who is going to take the Bike to Bites route that I take, the first stop is Southern Squeeze, eat up, eat Well, because the hill that I went up after I left you, do you know what I'm talking about? I crossed the street and then I go up this giant. Not the street, I think. Yeah. I thought I was going to absolutely just fall off my bike, but I. Knew you can be quite hilly. It can be quite hilly, but like the Choo, I kind of punched my way above the weight class and got up over the hill and hit the summit and came back down. And It was a lovely crisscrossing of bridges and wonderful trip. I mean, Chattanooga is a very, very cool place. And I think for those people who are looking to go and experience Tennessee in a slightly different way than Nashville or Memphis, it's got a great food scene, great culture, some pretty cool music going on in Chattanooga, great southern hospitality and Southern Squeeze is very much I would put in that category of great Southern hospitality. It's something healthy and wonderful and worth everybody checking out. If somebody wants to come to Chattanooga and check out Southern Squeeze, how do they find you? Let's plug the socials. Here's your opportunity to talk about. It. Southern Squeeze is our Instagram handle. They can always email us the info@southernsqueeze.com if they have any questions. That still goes to me and a manager, but I do still see what runs by. And then, yeah, I mean our Facebook Southern Squeeze, it's all right there. Kelsey, I can't thank you enough for spending the time with me and getting an opportunity for me to get to know you. And I'm glad that we did it here and that it wasn't a full miss of an opportunity because I got a chance to be at the great place of Southern Squeeze, meet with your great team and then also for our podcast, have the opportunity to sit down with the woman that was behind all of its success. So thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. Alright, we'll talk soon. Sounds great. Thanks so much. Okay, bye for more information on this episode as well as other episodes in this series. Head over to our website at Bike to Bites podcast.com. You can also find us on YouTube at Bike to Bites. Be sure to give us a like and subscribe while you're there. And if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, we would appreciate a five star rating and a glowing review. It really does help spread the word. Check out our Instagram at bike debees tv and be sure to follow my personal Instagram at Garrett a Best where I post shots of my daily rides and interesting places I visit. If you're interested in watching the Bike de Bites TV show, please visit bike de bites.com. We also have some really cool stuff of Bike de Bites apparel and some other things that you can check out while you're there. What an incredible podcast we had here today with our very special guest, Kelsey Seff, owner of Southern Squeeze. She's truly breaking new ground in Chattanooga, offering up great healthy nutritional food and what an entrepreneur started this thing at 25 years old and has grown it into something really, really special. And none of this podcast would be possible to be able to shine light on these types of people's stories without the help of our sponsor. E plus E plus helps organizations harness the power of technology for truly transformative results from AI and security to cloud and workplace transformation. Plus brings you the right solutions at the right time, in the most efficient way. Plus is on the front lines of today's modern enterprise. Check them out@eplus.com. Now remember, this has been a great time together. Get out there pedal, eat and repeat.