Keith Weaver on Building Iconic Hospitality Brands and the Legacy of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey

#85. In this episode of The meez Podcast, Keith Weaver shares his remarkable journey from Los Angeles to Shelbyville, Tennessee, and the role he’s played in shaping the legacy of Uncle Nearest Whiskey and longest bar in the world, Humble Baron.

Keith dives into the creation of this iconic brand and explains what sets Tennessee whiskey apart from others, providing fascinating insights into the world of spirits. He also discusses his personal move to Shelbyville and his passion for giving back to the community through projects like The Humble Baron and Classic Hops Brewery. Finally, Keith reflects on his ultimate goal: building up the Shelbyville community and leaving a lasting impact.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in whiskey, entrepreneurship, and community development.

Where to find Keith Weaver:

• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Where to find Uncle Nearest Whiskey

• Website
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Where to find Humble Baron Bar

• Website
• Instagram

Where to find host Josh Sharkey:

• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• TikTok
• Twitter

In this episode, we cover:

(01:46): Keith's background
(05:56): The creation of Uncle Nearest Whiskey
(11:15): What makes Tennessee whiskey different than other whiskeys?
(23:17): Moving from LA to Shelbyville, Tennessee
(29:12): The Humble Baron
(40:56): Classic Hops Brewery
(44:06): Keith's goal of building up the Shelbyville community

Transcript

[00:00:00] Josh Sharkey: 

I think most people fail because they just stop, you know, 

[00:00:04] Keith Weaver: 

That's exactly, failure is the, is a comma. It is not the period. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:00:09] Josh Sharkey: 

The easiest way to fail is just quit. You're listening to season two of The meez Podcast. I'm your host Josh Sharkey, the founder and CEO of meez, a culinary operating system for food professionals. On the show, we're going to talk to high performers in the food business. Everything from chefs to CEOs, technologists, writers, investors, and more about how they innovate and operate and how they consistently execute at a high level day after day.

[00:00:38] 

And I would really love it if you could drop us a five star review anywhere that you listen to your podcast. That could be Apple, that could be Spotify, could be Google. I'm not picky. Anywhere works, but I really appreciate the support. And as always, I hope you enjoy the show. Anyways, man, welcome to the show.

[00:00:57] Josh Sharkey: 

Really, really stoked to have you here. Thank you. Man, you have such an incredible background. Sony executive turned now, I mean, everything distillery, you know, entertainment company. Pretty amazing. And you were a writer first, right? 

[00:01:10] Keith Weaver: 

No, not at all. I mean, unless you count, I used to ghost author things for politicians and on campaign.

[00:01:18] 

I was way behind the scenes on that. And then ended up doing that for Sony pictures would ghost author things for people at the studio. And so that writing background served me well, but yeah, not, not anything in, in, in sort of on the front. Gotcha. 

[00:01:36] Josh Sharkey: 

Well, yeah, maybe just for, uh, you know, for the audience to share a little bit of your sort of high level, so I don't screw it up like you're, you know, your background and how you got to where you are today.

[00:01:46] Keith Weaver: 

Absolutely. Absolutely. So long tailored entertainment executive. Over 20 years, I started really young and worked mostly for Sony Pictures Entertainment. And then, uh, from there, that's just expanded into a new, I wouldn't say a chapter, chapters of life. One in Spirits, co-founding Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey with my wife, Paul Weaver, who runs the company, which effectively makes my wife my boss, officially.

[00:02:17] Josh Sharkey: 

I mean, and unofficially, you know. 

[00:02:20] Keith Weaver: 

It doesn't matter. It doesn't really matter. She's in charge anyway. And then on top of that, um, through my company, Nash Wood, which is a hospitality and entertainment company combined, there are fun things that we're developing and doing there. One of which is Humble Baron Bar, the longest bar in the world, 518 linear feet long.

[00:02:48] 

It's a 10th of a mile long bar. Um, a barbecue establishment called Chuck's Barrel House Barbeque, and then in the pipeline I've got a brewery burger concert called Classic Hops. So that's on the F&B side of things, but then on the entertainment side, Humble Baron has this amazing stage within it. And as of at least January last year, the state of the most state of the art video wall behind the stage that lifts into the ceiling and there's a stage on the backside of the bar that opens to rounds here at near screen distillery.

[00:03:25] Keith Weaver: 

So we can have 15,000 guests on the outside about 500 on the inside. Sounds engineered by the team that built Paisley Park for Prince. Wow. And then through operating that space, which hasn't been very long, we've enjoyed some really great talent on the stage. And so that has led to really going deeper into entertainment, including artists, entertainment around music artists, which is not my background.

[00:03:50] 

That's my father in law who's now deceased. He was a Motown hit maker, uh, wrote a lot of songs and produced a lot of songs we know and love. Love Child is about my dad. Brother in law, uh, stop in the name of love. He produced, so that's Frank. Well, yeah, yeah. Um, you make me so very happy. Let's wet in tears.

[00:04:10] 

That's a song too, but that's just booming. And as you think about music artists, their journey and capturing what's going on from a creative sense, I thought, well, there's also a television film component to this as well. Cool. Certainly as it relates to, um, music artists, but also just creativity, wherever it lives and how you conceive of a cocktail, how to conceive of a great culinary moment inside the space, what kind of fuels that and how to consumers, you know, sort of stick to that.

[00:04:44] 

So those are like the broad brushstrokes of what I'm doing now. I'm having fun doing it. Um, it's hard not to, I mean, if you're in whiskey and eating great food and drinking great drinks, it's, you know, if you can't have fun doing that, I don't know what to tell you. Yeah. 

[00:05:02] Josh Sharkey: 

That's for damn sure. All right. Well, I mean, there's, I have a million questions because you also have a bunch of other things that you're working on in the future from what, from what I'm seeing as well. 

[00:05:10] Keith Weaver: 

Oh, totally. And this is, this is not coffee. I mean, I wish I knew it was, it was.

[00:05:15] Josh Sharkey: 

I mean, I would have grabbed some of, well, hold on. 

[00:05:20] Keith Weaver: 

It's 12:20 here and I guess five o'clock somewhere else. I don't, which I don't care. 

[00:05:26] Josh Sharkey: 

Uh, that's awesome. Well, actually, let's talk about whiskey for a bit, but maybe specifically, uh, coffee. I think I had this right that you and your wife, maybe more your wife, basically helped to reinvigorate the actual story of Jack Daniels because Nearest Green, who's the guy that basically trained Jack Daniels on how to make Tennessee whiskey through filtering through these sugar maple charcoals, was sort of lost. And they had this wrong, the story was wrong. And that was sort of the impetus for what became, uh, why you guys did it. Yeah. 

[00:05:56] Keith Weaver: 

I mean, we were, we were in business in Singapore and this is like middle of 2016 and my wife and I have a daily ritual. We call it our board meeting, which is basically coffee hour.

[00:06:09]

And there in Singapore, we were reading the front page of the New York Times International edition and our ground rules for the board meeting are, we don't talk about either of our respective work places or what we're doing at the time. So the conversation is really centered around. Other topics. And so this article was entitled Jack Daniels embraces a secret and ingredient help from a slave.

[00:06:38] 

And so when I read that, I was like, Oh crap. I hope those folks are ready because by way of background, I worked on crisis management and public affairs among a number of other things for Sony pictures. And so sometimes most times when you're talking about. Attributing something to a slave, those stories can be dark.

[00:07:03] 

Um, some of those stories are about somebody got beaten and somebody got stolen from, and this as it built out, wasn't that story. So we just ended up, we, well, we really, my wife went 12 layers into it, delving more deeply into the story. And then that took us because she's, she's crazy. Crazy, brilliant, and crazy, like, she's, she's, she's got resolve.

[00:07:31] 

How about I rephrase it that way? But she's like, I want to go to Lynchburg and go on a research trip for my birthday. And thank God it was her birthday, not mine, because you wouldn't know uncle nearest premium whiskey. Because I'd be on an island, I mean, you might know something about rum and something about beaches and the water and suntan oil, but it wouldn't be this.

[00:07:56] 

So we went to Lynchburg and, and then it just happened. It's, it's overused, but serendipitously is what happened with this. One thing led to the next, to the next, and that was, and that took us through the end of 2016, and by 2017, just six months later, we, we had resolved to start the brand, which was not the intention of going there.

[00:08:19] 

The intention was around a story and this black person who was a forerunner for the spirit sector. And as you said, taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey and pioneered and crafted Tennessee whiskey as the category. And so we just thought that was special and probably even made more so by the fact that there was this friendship.

[00:08:45] 

Between Jack and there was this mentorship and us being from Los Angeles. I'll just own my own biases, past biases. I just thought, wow, somewhere in the South it's Lynchburg. Around the civil war, it's going to be too slavey for me, but that wasn't the story. And there was just a history of no segregation, but whoa, uh, Nearest was the highest paid employee for Jack Daniels, not the highest paid black employee, the highest paid employee.

[00:09:15] 

And so that just felt special. And then I guess the cherry on top for us is the only way we, we came to know about Nearest was because he was mentioned so many times in Jack's official biography. As being credited for teaching him. And so we were just blown away. And it's one of those stories that makes you feel really great about country, about humanity.

[00:09:42] 

And then the spirit, you know, after that, we just had to develop something that was aligned with that level of excellence. 

[00:09:51] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah. I mean, I think the best businesses are always built behind some really incredible vision and purpose. And what better one than that? It's amazing. And really near us, he basically created what Tennessee whiskey is, right?

[00:10:05] 

Because that approach of filtering through sugar maple charcoal was not necessarily, it wasn't like everybody did that. He did that. And then that's what became what now is Tennessee whiskey, right? 

[00:10:14] Keith Weaver: 

Yes. Well, he's the person that we know, and we don't know if there were people before him, but what we can say is that he certainly perfected it.

[00:10:23] 

And in truth, that process of charcoal mellowing is what we call it today. Um, it was really just a purification method. So you would see, um, especially around those who migrated through slavery from Africa to here, they would filter water and other things through, it was really through carbonized coconut shells.

[00:10:46] 

And so that subtractive process was to make things smoother, better, safer, actually. And so what nearest brought to Tennessee whisking was perfecting that process. And that's why Tennessee whiskeys have a defined characteristic, we think smoother than a lot of other whiskeys and bourbons, um, but really that's what he brought to the table and perfected it somewhere in the mid 1800s.

[00:11:13] Josh Sharkey: 

Are there any other defining characters about Tennessee whiskey that's different from bourbon or just general whiskey? 

[00:11:20] Keith Weaver: 

So there are a few things one for Tennessee whiskey, but also for bourbons, they need to be put into a new oak container, which we all just short circuit sand barrel. So that makes sense as being new American, like white oak.

[00:11:34] 

So it means once you mature the product, you can't use that barrel again, at least not for that purpose. And so those barrels go off to Scotland and Ireland, and sometimes to Mexico for tequila as a mescal. For secondary aging, and then it's the charcoal mellowing. So that's subtractive process to reduce Mary's turn to congeners.

[00:11:54] 

And so those are the things that can make you feel like you got to hang over the next day. But it really smooth and round out the flavor. So you could end up with a Tennessee whiskey. That's a higher proof level. And then as you're drinking it, it feels like it's a lower proof level based on the smoothness of it.

[00:12:12] 

So it's just really remarkable. So that And then the last part is the time in the barrel. So it needs to be in the barrel four years for it to be categorized as Tennessee whiskey. Um, so really it's the combination of all those things that make it. 

[00:12:27] Josh Sharkey: 

Is there a minimum amount of corn? I know with a lot of these, the amount of, you know, corn or, or, or wheat is, is also part of the.

[00:12:35] Keith Weaver: 

Yeah, it needs to be majority corn. So 50 plus percent corn and then the rest can be other cereal grains, rye, barley, barley. You know what have you, but it's mostly corn, rye, and barley, some combination thereof. Usually for what you see in the marketplace now, it's going to be a much higher percentage. So you'll see anywhere from 70 percent to 90 percent corn, and then some, some cocktail of the balance of rye and barley is typically what you have for me. 

[00:13:03] Josh Sharkey: 

So there's not a lot of Tennessee whiskey brands. I mean, and I think Uncle Nearest is now probably like the number, the number one in terms of quality. There's George Dickel. There's Jack Daniels, but what, what is unique about Uncle Nearest? And I guess also, I'm just curious because I'll be honest, I don't love Jack Daniels.

[00:13:21] 

I actually don't even like Jack Daniels, but I actually like Uncle Nearest a lot. I also like Dickel, at least the bottle of bomb was really good. Like, 

[00:13:28] Keith Weaver: 

Yeah. Why is it so different? Whiskey is so funny. Bourbons generally, but whiskey more specifically, Tennessee whiskey more specifically, is where you produce it.

[00:13:38] 

Well, first of all, let's start with the Nashville recipe. How much corn, rye, barley, how you're distilling it, meaning how hot of a temperature, how high of a temperature, informs flavor. And then where you do it, the flora and fauna in these spaces are different. And those yeast strands. Informed flavor. And then on top of that, where you store it and age it.

[00:14:04] 

So it's the craziest thing you could be in, you know, the same Rick house warehouse, and you could have one barrel on the top and one right next to it, and it has a different flavor, but ultimately it ties to the process and the location, and then that informs the flavor. So you'll notice, um, for example, our friends to the South of us, Jack, there's like a banana characteristic of it.

[00:14:34] 

And it's really tied into that East, um, that they're using and where it is too. It's kind of remarkable in similar note, the way Dick will taste, and that's just probably 30 minutes away and then where we are, it's, um, but one of the things that makes us different is that we took it back to. What would be the closest thing that Nearest would have been making as best as we could imagine?

[00:15:05] 

And so that was our North Star coupled with brands that we like that are out of Kentucky, just to be honest. We drank a lot of whiskey before we started, a lot of whiskeys and bourbons. And we loved a lot of, I mean, we love DH Taylor. We love Platins. 

[00:15:24] Josh Sharkey: 

Hold on, what are some other ones you love? I'd love to hear. Thank you. I mean, Blanton's is awesome. I love stack. Like Georgie stag is probably my favorite. 

[00:15:32] Keith Weaver: 

Oh yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a good one. I mean, we were all a lot of Kentucky in a lot of. Things coming out of Buffalo trace, you know, part and parcel of our normal thing, we always drink for the most part, we would always drink spirits neat.

[00:15:48] 

And so it was just our thing was my friends. And then my wife kind of moved her way into my friend group. And, uh, in terms of the bourbon and whiskey tasting and. For us, we thought, well, if we can pay tribute and homage to Nearest with something that is incredible, closer to what he would have been making, and we say closer, not identical because back in that time, you didn't have a column still sticking up.

[00:16:13] Josh Sharkey: 

What's a column still? What is that? 

[00:16:14] Keith Weaver: 

So today, when you look at a distillery, And you'll, you'll know it when you see it, because when you see distillers, there's always the proud, um, shot where they're standing in front of the still, which is the machinery equipment used to make whiskey, this tall cylinder.

[00:16:33] 

And then sometimes there's like little circular windows kind of go out and, uh, or sometimes we'll have that in a pot still, which is like, looks like something from yesteryear because it is. But that equipment, what we use today, they weren't using something like that back then they had equipment obviously to distill it, but it was very rudimentary kind of equipment.

[00:16:55] 

And so how he would have made it, it's going to be a little different today. How he would have stored it. They're not large barrel warehouses and barrels and people waiting around five, six, seven years. That's, that's something that came a little bit later. And so try to pay tribute to what would have been closer.

[00:17:15] 

I mean, one of the things that we do is I should almost say what we don't do is there's nothing added to Uncle Nearest. So strangely. You can add for some, you can add a whiskey flavor and I know you can add color. 

[00:17:36] Josh Sharkey: 

Is that what is added to Jack Daniels? 

[00:17:39] Keith Weaver: 

I won't say what they're doing or not doing.

[00:17:41] Josh Sharkey: 

Can you just wink twice if you 

[00:17:46] Keith Weaver: 

Don't get me into any trouble here. Uh, I'll just talk about what we do or don't do, but, but there are certain things where You know, you know, consumers, you know, assign value to darker color and bourbons and whiskeys, generally for Tennessee whiskeys and bourbons, people tend to prefer sweeter, you know, and, and maybe a little bit fuller body.

[00:18:16] 

And so there's things you can do to achieve all those things. We simply don't do it because at the end of the day, whether your palate is super refined. Like, you know, my good chef friends are always got these refined palates to get pick up all these notes, or even if not, there's a subtle way, you know, where something's gaming you, you may not be able to put your finger on it.

[00:18:41] 

Exactly. So we're just not going to do that here. And that's why if you see a bottle of Uncle Nearest, sometimes it looks light. And we simply say, well, that's just how that came out of the barrel of that plant. 

[00:18:53] Josh Sharkey: 

I love it. So the charcoal, right? The sugar maple charcoal, how, how do you get that? Or do you produce it yourself? Or like, how can you tell me a little bit about that? 

[00:19:01] Keith Weaver: 

Sure. We grow a lot of it here in Tennessee, certainly in middle South Tennessee. We have a couple of farms here and where these sugar maple trees exist. I mean, one of them, one of the farms is a Dan call farm that we own, which is in Lynchburg. And it's a place where nearest lived and made whiskey there.

[00:19:21] 

It's where Jack worked alongside him. Jack Daniel, the person that there from about seven to late teens, but on this property and it's massive, it's over 318 acres. There's a lot of sugar maple there. You dry it out and basically burn it, make the charcoal out of it. And then that process is, it doesn't impart any flavor.

[00:19:44] 

It's actually subtractive. It removes impurities and things of that nature. 

[00:19:50] Josh Sharkey: 

And then, so is it just put into the still with the, you know, with the liquids and the mash or how does it incorporate? 

[00:19:57] Keith Weaver: 

It basically happens after the distillation process, then it filters through the sugar maple charcoal. And then from there it goes into barreling.

[00:20:07]

So it goes into that numeric barrel and it just sits there. And you tasted certainly upon entering the barrel or just as it's freshly put in the barrel, but you still don't really know, you kind of have a sense of all this distillate when you make whiskey kind of closer to a moonshine, actually, and you're like, Oh, okay.

[00:20:29] 

And it tastes kind of almost a little bit oily to the touch and you can tell what's bad. And you can tell like, okay, this is in the pocket. This is probably going to be pretty good, but you still kind of don't know. You're like a couple of years later, check in four years later, check six years. You're like, okay, hopefully this all works.

[00:20:51] 

And the crazy part about that is over time, the way you get the color and the flavors, these barrels are sitting in these warehouses or Rick houses. And they're expanding in the summer, tracting in the winter. So they're kind of like breathing and then that's imparting flavor and color over a long period of time.

[00:21:12] 

And the other piece of that is you end up with what's called the angel's share, which is basically some of that whiskey. Sometimes much of it won't even be there. So you could, at the end of four or five years, end up with a barrel that has like, you know, It starts with a 53 gallon barrel for the most part, you could end up with two gallons, no gallons, more than likely 38, 39 gallons of whiskey in there. So it's pretty wild. I mean, there's no round. 

[00:21:44] Josh Sharkey: 

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[00:22:57] Keith Weaver: 

Oh yeah. Yeah. Sometimes we have a barrel and there's just like nothing in there. 

[00:23:02] Josh Sharkey: 

That's crazy. I had no idea. Wow. It makes sense really, you know, when we make stock sometimes we'll put like a burnt onion in the stock or like a burnt orange and it's just to help to clarify the stock. You don't really like taste any burnt flavor, so it makes a ton of sense.

[00:23:16] Keith Weaver: 

Yeah. 

[00:23:17] Josh Sharkey: 

All right, cool. So we talked about Tennessee whiskey. You all moved to Shelbyville from LA, right? So you just picked up. So you know what? This is, let's just change everything and move to this small town in Tennessee. 

[00:23:30] Keith Weaver: 

It's crazy. It's crazy. So the picture is. My wife, Fawn and I, born and raised in Los Angeles, I work in Hollywood, I work in the movie industry.

[00:23:40] 

She, uh, an author, I'd say, multi-hyphenate, businesswoman. And then this happens, and there was such clarity for her at first, like, this is my life's work. And for me, I was like, this is crazy. What are we doing? I work at the studio. Um, we have a pretty great life. Our family's all here and there was something so purposeful in it for her.

[00:24:09] 

And then for me, I followed suit just because things were happening so quickly for me, um, it was like divine appointment that some of these things were happening the way they happen. And I know for now, a lot of people said, Oh, all these two, there no slouches on was a successful person. He's successful.

[00:24:28] 

They joined forces. No surprise, but for most things, especially entrepreneurial things, there's a high failure rate for spirits and whiskey. It's, it's crazy. And it's incredibly capital intensive. And there's so many barriers to how you get your product to the market. You've got to go through these distributors and you don't have one stop shopping.

[00:24:51] 

And they're the big companies who are trying to control market share. And so here we are bopping away, you know, the, the wacky movie studio guy and his amazing, um, wife and, and then here we go. But, but through that, we knew Tennessee whiskey needs to be made in Tennessee. Um, we were just falling in love with the people here in the state and in our community and for a while, I, I just flew back and forth.

[00:25:21] 

And then my last contract with Sony, I said, well, I'm married and it's not a Hollywood marriage. I actually love my wife, we live together, so I need to work out my contract. If you want to keep me, I need to work from Tennessee. I thought I was basically giving my resignation because I hadn't previously done stuff like that.

[00:25:45] 

And they said, okay, sure. And then after that, I was like, oh crap, now what, but yeah, it's been great. It's been great. We love it here. It's beautiful in ways I didn't appreciate kind of, you know, as, as people would allow it to fly over state, it's incredible. I'm here in Tennessee and the neighbors are awesome.

[00:26:07] 

What I love is. You know, where do you stand here? So. You know, yes, people are nice and they say, bless your heart. But if you, if they don't like you kind of know, and being from LA, not all the actors are on this camera.

So it's been pretty, but I mean, 

[00:26:30] Josh Sharkey: 

I mean, Tennessee's You know, got, I mean, there's Nashville, there's, there's a lot going on in Tennessee, but you went to this town, Shelbyville. What, what was it like? I mean, now you have the distillery, you get the, you know, the bar, you're opening all these other things, but what was the town like before you moved there relative to now?

[00:26:46] Keith Weaver: 

So there is a sleepier quality to the town because it's a smaller town. And, you know, that was something quite frankly being born and raised in LA. It was quaint and so different that I appreciated it. And, and I'm an introvert. So even though I've worked in spaces and roles where you would think I'd be an extrovert and I can go and give a speech and work a room and, but my true being is an introvert.

[00:27:16] 

So I just thought, wow, this is kind of cool. Let's live here in this house on top of a hill and not deal with people. It's just me and my dog, my wife and my dog. But what's happened since then is. You know, in large part because we've put a pretty big stake in the ground with the distillery. And other investments we've made, we're starting to see like the town, like others are following suit.

[00:27:41] 

So there's a luxury auto concourse that's being developed next to us. Kind of like in the vein of Amelia Island or pebble beach. And we're like, wow. Okay. That's kind of fancy and the Tennessee College of Applied Technology is moving in or developing a site next door, um, the airport across the street.

[00:27:59] 

It's expanding, uh, for private flights to come in. So it's turning into this thing and I used to marvel at how inexpensive things are, especially being from Los Angeles. You live in New York. And I would tell my friends, like, well, you know, this is so amazing. And they come to our house and they'd be like, what's this?

[00:28:19] Keith Weaver: 

And I, and I typically wouldn't talk price. I'd say, yep. They look around like 383,000 is what we paid for this place. And they're like, what? And the house is 6,000 square foot on a hill. And I'm like, you can't even get a studio apartment for that.

[00:28:37] Josh Sharkey: 

You can't get a bathroom in New York for that. 

[00:28:40] Keith Weaver: 

So it's interesting, a lot more happening here. And, and I guess what I would end with is this, is it, you know, in places like LA or New York shore, um, you've seen probably everything in here. It hasn't happened yet in terms of how it's developed or new concepts or things that you think might be cool elsewhere. You could like improve upon them here because it's like a good way to like, Oh, wow, we could test that out here. And it's just, it's really special. I love it here. 

[00:29:12] Josh Sharkey: 

I love it, man. And maybe we'll talk a little bit more about the Humble Baron. Why did you want to build the longest bar in the world? I mean, you could build a bar. It'd be an awesome bar. You could build an awesome bar that's got your distillery. You could build an awesome bar with your distillery and good food and great cocktails. But why the longest bar in the world? What was that all about? 

[00:29:31] Keith Weaver: 

So, where we're located, where the distillery's located, you know, to the point of your other question, we're like in the middle, kind of out of nowhere. Now it's becoming somewhere, but as we think about tourism coming to the distillery, which distilleries are really important for Brown spirits, not so much vodkas, cause you never see people like, Oh, I'm going to go, go tour.

[00:29:53] Josh Sharkey: 

I never thought about that, that's true. 

[00:29:55] Keith Weaver: 

A little vodka trail, huh? Yeah. So it's really important for that purpose. And then where we are, um, because there wasn't really a great food and beverage scene here, and because the Uncle Mary's brand excites people from all over, really all over the world at this point.

[00:30:16] 

And when they come here, we wanted to make sure we created a full experience for them, especially food and beverage outside of tasting the whiskey. Cause every distillery has a whiskey tasting, if I want to get my t-shirt, right. And then you're done, but our thought was, well, when you're here, let's keep them and surprise and excite them and delight them with what we do.

[00:30:40] 

We don't take people that come here for granite. And so we're like, there's some Barnum and Bailey spectacle to this. And then after we got that, then like, let's pull them into a space. You know, we're trying to hit a home run with this. Not just the longest bar in the world, but it's like, okay, now that we're here, Oh, it's not just a hot dog.

[00:31:05] Josh Sharkey: 

You also have some pretty incredible team, both on the food and the beverage side. I think you also hired Death Co. 's company to help with consult, right? 

[00:31:12] Keith Weaver: 

Oh, yeah. So death and co, uh, that bar, of course, New York and LA and Arizona, and then certainly the book. So me as a, you know, novice had the death and co book.

[00:31:31] 

And then when you get to the experts at all, the mixology professionals, they have the death and co. book and then winning that James Beard award for it. And just because the world is so small, being able to connect with. With that team, as they were getting more into their consulting practice to say, Hey, we're building the longest bar in the world, but the idea is not just to be Uncle Nearest in Coke or whatever it's to have this elevated, but approachable program.

[00:32:00] 

And they really responded to the challenge of how do you make something approachable? Cause we're in the middle of this farming community and, and all that. And, and then still for someone who came in from wherever, from London, from New York or wherever they would go, okay, this is a legit program. And so we, They delivered on that and the team that we have now running it, um, since they've, you know, moved past their consultancy is remarkable.

[00:32:33] Josh Sharkey: 

I mean, you have an incredible team as well with Akinde and, and, and Jay and yeah, G Garvin, I think a little bit as well. I mean, what I love about this. Is 99 percent of the time you go to some place that has like the attraction and that's it. It's just like the attract and everything else. It just kind of, you 

know, shit, right?

[00:32:51] 

You know, ball game, you got like the whatever hot dog and popcorn and, and, and it's kind of whatever, because you're there to see the game and go to, you know, the longest bar and it's, you know, usually it would be just crappy booze, but you're there at the longest. That's the novelty is the, is the experience.

[00:33:08] 

Yeah. Yeah. It's so just incredible, man, that that wasn't enough that you're like, yeah, this is going to be the longest bar. And also, by the way, insane, delicious cocktails, insanely good food, because you didn't have to do that really. Right. You already had them there. They're already in Shelbyville visiting the distillery.

[00:33:25] 

Yeah. They're already going to go to this like really cool attraction that has the booze from the distillery to decide everything has to be good. First of all, I was, I'm sure it was not easy and not. Cheap, but also totally worth it, at least long term. 

[00:33:43] Keith Weaver: 

You know, I really feel like people have choices and even if you have a clear sense, okay, we can get them with the distillery, we get them with the longest bar in the world, we can sell them a t shirt.

[00:33:59] 

Why not do more? Why not be better? I'm really struck by like unreasonable hospitality and like that kind of thinking like you, it creates a connection with the people coming there that, okay, I want to come back and I'm going to tell a friend that I'm going to write a review. And so I really push hard for that to happen, even though we get it mostly right.

[00:34:28] 

I still have secret shoppers or eaters or drinkers coming to the space. Um, I want to understand, okay, that was really good, but how can we make it better? I mean, one of our company principles is do it with excellence or don't do it at all. And so that, and then, then coupled with radical transparency. So the chef is probably a good example.

[00:34:52] 

He'll say, Hey, what do you think about this Keith? And I'm like, it's pretty good. But we have a relationship and understanding, which I know it's good, but if I don't feel like we could be better because it's like among the best I've had. No, I won't hear at this. I'm not going for the best in Shelbyville.

[00:35:12] 

I'm going for the best. So that's why our cocktail program, our culinary program, I put it up against for what it is. Anything in the same category, uh, for sure. And which is elevated. So I like that. And what's really cool is our guests love it too. I mean, we do that. Like you said, from the drinks to the food and even the entertainment, we've had some phenomenal entertainment since we've been open, it's kind of crazy.

[00:35:46] Josh Sharkey: 

I mean, it's. It really is. Like, I, you know, I spent most of my life as a chef, mostly in the fine dining world and then, you know, I owned a bunch of restaurants and now I have this tech company. But you know, 20, 25 years ago, you know, when I started, there was basically a very, very small subset of places you can go to get really good food and I think, or, or, or good drinks.

[00:36:07] 

And over the last, you know, a couple of decades, there's been this proliferation of so many talented, so many more talented chefs and mythologists. It's incredible to see how that's starting to make its way into places where there's typically not good food and good drinks. I mean, you know, like there's still, you go to a hospital, you know, and you go to most, you know, a lot of hotels, so pretty, pretty shitty, but, but, but it's getting, it's getting better.

[00:36:35] 

And like, I just. I guess I understand from an economical standpoint why, why you don't see it as much. I remember I was at a, I went to this really incredible circus actually with, we took our kids to the circus. Uh, it was awesome. It was great for the kids. Also just an incredible like show that they put on and the shittiest food you could ever think of.

[00:36:53] 

You know, like, like, like offensively bad. And then like, just like packs of M&Ms and things. It's like. Why, why does it, why does it have to be that way? Why can't, well, you know, why can't you sort of, you know, do both? I think your, your core value, it really hits a chord with me, right? It's like. The way you do one thing you do everything, right?

[00:37:10] 

So eventually that catches up with you, you know, like if you, if you just say, okay, we'll, we'll make sure this is good, but who cares about all this stuff? Eventually that starts to bleed into the, to the core thing as well. 

[00:37:21] Keith Weaver: 

You know, exactly. Because I, I would submit that some of the crappy food that is presented to us. It's not even a cost thing. I mean, so, so yeah, for some, yeah, you can get it's through, you know, whatever mass food gets in some bag, but you know, like a hamburger. Yes. I have a particular grind of meat and is that more expensive? Absolutely. But I don't think it's dramatically more expensive. The whole bear and smash burger versus.

[00:37:53]

Someone else's burger is probably more expensive for sure, but it's, I think people and in particular in some hospitality realms just don't try enough and like, it's just, there's no reason not to. There's no reason not to. 

[00:38:12] Josh Sharkey: 

It is more expensive. Sometimes it's not that much more expensive. It is more effort, right? To, to actually do that and make sure that you execute on it and you execute it on it consistently is certainly like more effort than if you just said, who cares? What I actually want to ask you this, people probably don't expect that when they go there, right? Unless they've done their, their homework, they probably are going there and then they're like, okay, cool.

[00:38:34] 

Longest bar in the world. And maybe they'll get like, you know, some, you know, a drink with your whiskey. But when they go there and they have like. Really good cocktails and really good food. I have to imagine some of them like very surprised. And do you ever get reactions? They're like, wait a second, what's going on here?

[00:38:54] Keith Weaver: 

Oh, we get it all the time. We get it all the time. But especially because, you know, especially when you look at our, our food menu, there's nothing there. When you just read the menu that you go, Oh, okay. This is going to be some fine dining experience because it's south of Nashville, hot shrimp and grits.

[00:39:15]

Lots of places have shrimp and grits, lots of places. There's a hamburger on the menu. That's not innovative. Millions of places have hamburgers on the menu. Uh, there's chicken wings on the menu. Also a million bars have chicken wings on the menu. It's just the level of thought, detail, execution, again, excellence in how it's presented.

[00:39:44] 

It's without compromise. Yeah. And then the way it's presented, I think matters. So it's, yes, it's a bar. It's the longest bars are food. Um, but it shows up like art in front of you and the drinks are no different. It's like, okay, well, this drink seems pretty good. Um, seem like a riff on a margarita. 

[00:40:12] Josh Sharkey: 

The drinks, I think are where it probably becomes more obvious. Like if you look at the cocktail menu, it's pretty clear right away. Like, oh, this is not like a typical, you know, like cocktail menu, you know, you know, uh, 

[00:40:25] Keith Weaver: 

Who nears you toast. 

[00:40:26] Josh Sharkey:

I think that's probably, it's probably more obvious there. Cause yeah, you look, you see chicken wings, burgers, you just assume, you know, whatever it's, it is what it is.

[00:40:34] 

Right. Right. The cocktail menu is definitely a lot more obvious. Anyways, so I think I have this right, right? Cause you have, you have the distillery and you have the actual whiskey that you're, that you sell. Cause some people would have distilleries and don't make their own whiskey. You have the bar, Humble Baron.

[00:40:50] 

Now you have this brewery that you're opening as well, right? Uh, uh, Classic Hops, is that what? 

[00:40:56] Keith Weaver: 

Classic Hops. So it's, it's, uh, basically it's down the road from here, it's Old Box Factory. 

[00:41:02] Josh Sharkey: 

Is it open already? 

[00:41:03] Keith Weaver: 

It's not open. And it's actually the start of it's. renovation. So this box factory, it sat vacant for, oh, 20 years. And so it's a rat hole. 

[00:41:14] Josh Sharkey: 

When you say box factory, like literally like they make cardboard boxes. 

[00:41:16] Keith Weaver: 

Like literally where you would go and have boxes made. So like a container, you know, like U Haul, packing boxes, that sort of different sizes. You know, it's what was there. And then I don't know where that box factory went or even where boxes are made today.

[00:41:37] Josh Sharkey: 

I bet Amazon makes their own boxes. 

[00:41:38] Keith Weaver: 

I would wager. They're smart at most everything. So they figure out a way to do it and try to cut the cost. But the site, it just sat there and it's at the start of the town square. And you can't really get to most places without passing it. And I just looked at it and just felt like, wow, there's so much particular traffic coming by it.

[00:42:02] 

And then in our region, there aren't a lot of tap rooms and group pubs where, you know, other places you go, there's like every, every two feet, there's the same thing. It almost is like passe at this point, but here it's classic hops, hops and beer and hops in car hops because, um, the branding is kind of tied into.

[00:42:25] 

Like these iconic vehicles of the fifties and sixties where they have exaggerated styling and you could park and there are people who are coming, whether they're coming to our distillery or going to Jack or to Dickel, they're going on these road trip pilgrimages and with their motorcycles and all that.

[00:42:44]

I was like, how cool would it be for people to stop and have beer, but really great beer because people will say craft beer. As though it's always good and it just means somebody got a, you know, some brewing equipment and start making beer. But here I wanted to use a little bit of the Uncle Nearest, um, sort of standard, which is, you know, you could do a blind tasting with the most awarded whiskey or bourbon last five years running.

[00:43:11] 

I kind of want to apply that to Classic Ops. I will apply that to Classic Ops. And then when you're there, same thing, let's make the experience really special. Yeah, we're in the middle of nowhere, but there's a public art component to it. There's cars within it. It's like a museum and not fussy, but when you get food, Probably simple food, but it's going to be elevated.

[00:43:33] 

So it'd be a burger, but it's going to be on China and it's going to be a milkshake, but for those who drink, it's going to be a boozy milkshake. So that's coming. That's coming. We're about to kick that off. It'll be about a year and some change of construction. And then once. That, you know, sort of comes close to its sunset.

[00:43:52]

Then I'll figure out when to actually open it. Cause you know, it's not for the faint of heart when you open these things, you got to pick the right time. Uh, but that'll be fun. And, and, uh, I'm, I'm really having fun with the creative elements that I can fold into the space. 

[00:44:06] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah, it sounds like it. Well, You have like these other plans as well from what I understand and correct me if I'm wrong but like I think eventually you said you want to open a hotel and you want to do this music festival kind of like Bonnaroo.

[00:44:17] 

Generally speaking it sounds like you're looking to sort of invest like around 100 million bucks or so into this community. Planning all these things ahead is difficult. You know, takes a lot of guts and confidence. And I'm probably, I'm assuming communicating your vision to investors pretty well to be able to raise enough to sort of play out this whole vision.

[00:44:37] 

It's really incredible to see how do you think about not the zero to one, because that's already happened. But this whole plan that you have, have you been raising capital as you go, or did you plan for all this upfront? And if you did plan for upfront, I'm really curious, you know, just what you did in order to sort of like sell this really huge vision that you're for basically transforming an entire community.

[00:45:05] Keith Weaver: 

I wish I had planned for it all upfront. That is not the case. The way I move and think and act together, which is true of my wife, is We'll see something, think about it. We'll go a deep dive on it with the classic SWOT analysis to see does this stick. And then we poke holes at it and see, you know, I guess in terms of the weaknesses or threats, and then when we come out of this, that process, we're like, it's go time and for entrepreneurs, whether you're starting out or have years behind you, um, with some success as we do.

[00:45:42] 

It's still no less daunting. It just means for me, it's like, well, we got to move. This is exciting. And I put my actions and money where my mouth and, you know, my mouth is. And so I'll just go into it and delivering so much value to investors as we have over time, typically what's happened, which I feel very blessed by this, is People are knocking at the door to say, Hey, you know, that Uncle Nearest investment did this for me.

[00:46:13] 

And even as we were starting Uncle Nearest, we had no experience distilling. But to me, I'm really proud of the folks who came in and said, Hey, I was trying to get through the business plan pitch. And they're like, we're in keeping fond. We're in like, what? I haven't finished my old presentation. And what I found and what we know in business, you, you invest in people and that has worked really well because they know that we've like thought it through.

[00:46:42] 

We're moving on it. So for this next chapter, will there be investments pulled into it? Yes. What's really cool is people just are doing a catch up with me. And I'm like, Oh, I've got this other thing doing this classic option. I went in, I'm like, okay, but I haven't fully fleshed it out yet. It's kind of conceptual, at least back when it was more conceptual and they're just kind of there.

[00:47:03]

So I know that's not everybody's story for sure. For sure. But so far, this has been the story for us to this point. And I think it comes from being just kind of like steadfast, but it also, I think comes from the fact that we're not trying to sell people on things. I'll usually say, Oh, I got this round I'm doing Josh, but Hey, it's not for you.

[00:47:30] 

I'm going to, I'm not going to come back and sell you on it. And, and then it's being transparent with most things as you know, from this interview. I mean, I'll laugh. Okay, great. So for you, okay, cool. I went to my next week and I'm still not sobbing. And I think one of the things just, it's been beneficial.

[00:47:51] 

There's so many scary moments with everything, with lots of things, especially in business, you just have to keep moving in and moving past them really, and doing the things you can control like, Oh, I got to pivot. Oh, I'm pivoting again. I'm still, but I'm still going ahead. And I think that sort of drives it.

[00:48:12] 

Um, it's funny when you said a hundred million dollars, it was like, Oh, wow. I think that's from an older, like, I think I'm going to end up spending a lot more, but it's been a lot more, uh, sadly for me, but it's going to be cool. And I want people from wherever they sit in the world to feel like, Oh, well, these developments are really special.

[00:48:32] 

And we've all been to these places. Right where you see them and I'm like, wow, this was done really, really well. I just went to one place, uh, in Nashville cause I kept hearing about, uh, transparency. I shouldn't say them, but I'm going to say it anyway. So I, I go to Nashville cause I kept hearing, Oh, this place, your bar is kind of like, It's in the vein of 1230 Club, which is Justin Timberlake's bar on Broadway.

[00:48:56] 

And I'm like, ah, yeah, I want to go see. And then I go see Credit Where Credit's Due, where how it's developed, and it's beautiful. It's beautiful. And I'm like, ah, this is great. And I got inspired by that. And they were like, okay, Credit Where Credit's Due, you did a good job. 

[00:49:14] Josh Sharkey: 

Very cool, man. Well, I think you already just said your parting words because that's, that's great advice.

[00:49:19] 

And I think, yeah, the most important thing I believe is you gotta keep moving on. Keep going. I think most people fail because they just stop. You know? 

[00:49:30] Keith Weaver: 

That's exactly, the L here is the, is a comma. It is not the period. 

[00:49:36] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah. The easiest way to fail it is quit.

[00:49:40] Keith Weaver: 

Oh, that, that bad thing happened. Oh, okay. I guess. 

[00:49:44] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you, man. This was great. I really enjoyed, you know, getting to know a little bit more about your backstory and the business. And I'm stoked to come visit there, uh, soon. Please. Uh, and drink more and drink more Tennessee whiskey as well.

[00:49:59] Josh Sharkey: 

Thanks for tuning into The meez Podcast. The music from the show is a remix of the song Art Mirror by an old friend, hip hop artist, Fresh Daily. For show notes and more, visit getmeez.com/podcast. That's G E T M E Z dot com forward slash podcast. If you enjoyed the show, I'd love it if you can share it with fellow entrepreneurs and culinary pros.

[00:50:20]

And give us a five star rating wherever you listen to your podcasts. Keep innovating, don't settle, make today a little bit better than yesterday. And remember, it's impossible for us to learn what we think we already know. See you next time.