# E383: Overcoming the Odds: Tells us he wanted to be more than a Waffle House cook, now owns popular dinner supper clubs.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 25 Jun 2024, 29 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/89ab81f2-a9b5-4336-876c-af620158317d/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Two-time Emmy and three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald, interviewed Tremayne Thompson. A co-owner of Perfect Note, a dinner supper club with locations in Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia. The conversation is a rich blend of entrepreneurship, community service, music, and food culture. 🎶 About Perfect Note • Concept: A dinner supper club offering live music and Southern cuisine, catering to a mature audience (ages 30+). • Locations: Birmingham, AL (original) and Marietta, GA (Atlanta metro). • Atmosphere: Grown folks’ vibe—no hookah, no club chaos, just good music, good food, and good company. 🧑🏾‍🤝‍🧑🏾 Founders & Origins • Co-owned by Tremayne Thompson and his wife Karen (hence “TK Productions”). • Started as gospel concert promoters in Chicago. • Moved to Alabama in 2008 after a family loss and launched Perfect Note in Bessemer with a Gerald Albright concert. • Initially operated out of a banquet hall, setting up and breaking down everything themselves. 📈 Growth & Expansion • Perfect Note evolved into a full-fledged venue in 2016. • Expanded to Atlanta due to demand from patrons traveling from Georgia to Alabama. • Featured in the Huffington Post as one of the top 100 businesses to visit in the U.S. 🍽️ Food & Hospitality • Offers Wednesday–Saturday dinner service and Sunday brunch with live music. • Website: perfectnoteliveatl.com • Tremaine’s culinary journey began at Waffle House, where he learned speed cooking and kitchen management under pressure. • Emphasizes quality and consistency in food service, even during high-volume events. 💬 Philosophy & Community Impact • Business is rooted in service, not profit. • During COVID, they pivoted to drive-up service with $5 meals, feeding the community. • Believes in mentorship and sharing knowledge freely with aspiring entrepreneurs. 🗣️ Key Takeaways • Mentorship is vital: Learn from those who’ve walked the path. • Serve first: Community support follows genuine service. • Plan wisely: Dreams need operational structure and financial planning. • Create culture: Music and food unite people across demographics. #BEST #AMI #SHMS #STRAW See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. I am Rashaan McDonald, the host
[0:08] Speaker 1: of Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to
[0:11] Speaker 1: stop reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
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[0:41] Speaker 1: different times of the year, but right now, on this
[0:44] Speaker 1: day as I record this show and give it to
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[0:56] Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald telling you how hot it is. Our host
[0:59] Speaker 1: is weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and
[1:03] Speaker 1: information that this show provides off for everyone. It's time
[1:06] Speaker 1: to start reading other people's success stories and start living
[1:09] Speaker 1: your own. Now. If you want to be a guest
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[1:19] Speaker 1: a Guest button and then you fill out the information
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[1:26] Speaker 1: an entrepreneur show by nonprofits. We want to tell your story,
[1:29] Speaker 1: share your story and maybe it will motivate other people
[1:32] Speaker 1: or point them in the right direction if they're confused
[1:35] Speaker 1: about how they're running their business or their nonprofit. Now,
[1:38] Speaker 1: before we go into further, I want to talk about
[1:40] Speaker 1: a concert that's happening July sixth, weekend, Caring Briggs Contempo Orchestra.
[1:46] Speaker 1: Reasons I want to promote this cars. I'm not promoting.
[1:48] Speaker 1: I just want to tell you about July six that's today, Okay,
[1:51] Speaker 1: Caring Briggs Contemple Orchestra. Because of the acts that's on
[1:55] Speaker 1: the show. This is just a few of the accents
[1:57] Speaker 1: on the show. Because my boy Tommy Davis, comedian Tommy Davis,
[2:01] Speaker 1: you know, Living Color of Fame. He'll be on the show.
[2:05] Speaker 1: He will be telling jokes and you know he can sing,
[2:08] Speaker 1: and he gonna do his thing. That's gonna be on
[2:10] Speaker 1: the show. Oh, Leita Adams will be on the show,
[2:13] Speaker 1: My Boy Phil Perry. If you have never heard Phil
[2:16] Speaker 1: Perry sing, He's one of the most underrated artists I've
[2:20] Speaker 1: ever met and heard in this country. And then Regina
[2:24] Speaker 1: Bell gonna be in the show. Additionally, ten other performers
[2:27] Speaker 1: will be on this show. But I just want to
[2:29] Speaker 1: highlight people that I know I'm specifically coming out to
[2:33] Speaker 1: see July sixth. It's gonna be July six at the Bridge,
[2:37] Speaker 1: a Stockbridge Amphitheater. If you want interested in visiting this
[2:41] Speaker 1: website to get tickets, which I hope you want to
[2:43] Speaker 1: do Stockbridge Amp that stockbridgeamp dot com. That's right, July six,
[2:49] Speaker 1: My Girl, Karen Bridge, Contemporo Orchestra or Leader Adams, Get there,
[2:55] Speaker 1: Get there, Phil Perry, Regina Bell, Tommy Davis, and many
[2:59] Speaker 1: many more. Spend some time with your family. You know
[3:02] Speaker 1: you can bring your stuff too. He's one of the
[3:04] Speaker 1: events where you can bring your food, bring your barbecue,
[3:06] Speaker 1: bring your drinks and have a good time out there.
[3:08] Speaker 1: Bring your shade, everything out there forgetting listen it on
[3:11] Speaker 1: with my show. I got some wonderful guests because they're
[3:14] Speaker 1: gonna tell me about mistakes I made with my business
[3:17] Speaker 1: because they're successful with their business. My guest, who's up
[3:21] Speaker 1: front right here, is one of the co owners of
[3:23] Speaker 1: the Perfect Note. It's a dinner shupper club featuring live
[3:26] Speaker 1: concerts in Atlanta, Georgia. That's where it's located, as well
[3:30] Speaker 1: as in Birmingham, Alabama, the Big Ham. Each location specializes
[3:34] Speaker 1: in Southern classics on their menu and music. The caters
[3:38] Speaker 1: to grown folks ages thirty and up. Please bucking the
[3:41] Speaker 1: money making Conversations masterclass Tremaine Thompson.
[3:45] Speaker 2: How you doing, my brother, man, I'm doing wonderful. While
[3:49] Speaker 2: we are such a great introduction, I don't know how
[3:54] Speaker 2: to respond.
[3:55] Speaker 1: Well, you're gonna respond, and I got that. I got
[3:56] Speaker 1: a lot of things to say to you, my man,
[3:58] Speaker 1: because you know the thing about this show, mister Thompson,
[4:02] Speaker 1: owner of Perfect Note, and the other owners who.
[4:04] Speaker 2: Sir, my wife Karen. So that's what we call.
[4:10] Speaker 1: Yes, sir. Absolutely, you know I'm not gonna get on
[4:14] Speaker 1: this show and just call you the owner, okay, because
[4:17] Speaker 1: it's gonna be another conversation with the interview nions. Well,
[4:19] Speaker 1: why you couldn't say my name? You're too busy?
[4:22] Speaker 3: Well you think t K Productions stand for Okay, there
[4:27] Speaker 3: you go.
[4:27] Speaker 1: The brother I'm mad got married in eighty eight. I
[4:30] Speaker 1: know the rules and I understand it and I get home.
[4:33] Speaker 1: If I'm on hear it, I'm gonna hear it good
[4:36] Speaker 1: because I won't say the right thing. How you doing, Sisily?
[4:38] Speaker 1: That's her name. She's gonna get mad because I says
[4:39] Speaker 1: her name on Rader. She's gonna get mad about something.
[4:41] Speaker 2: Now.
[4:42] Speaker 1: Now I'm gonna tell you something, my brother, perfect note.
[4:44] Speaker 1: Tell everybody what is the perfect note? Before we start
[4:46] Speaker 1: talking about running a successful business? What is the perfect note?
[4:51] Speaker 2: Got you?
[4:51] Speaker 4: So?
[4:52] Speaker 2: The perfect note is a basically you kind of summed
[4:56] Speaker 2: it up with a dinner supper club. We've been in
[4:59] Speaker 2: music all about lives, and our purpose is to be
[5:03] Speaker 2: able to have grown folks for something for them to
[5:05] Speaker 2: be able to continue to still. Do you know it's
[5:08] Speaker 2: not a lot out here for us to grown folks
[5:10] Speaker 2: to be able to do and do it with clarity
[5:12] Speaker 2: and do it with quality. And what we produced, we
[5:15] Speaker 2: produce concerts. You fully see them in for production concerts,
[5:21] Speaker 2: and then while you're sitting in the same room, you
[5:24] Speaker 2: actually have great cuisines as though you're sitting in a
[5:27] Speaker 2: restaurant that's being serviced by our what we call our
[5:31] Speaker 2: service attendance that be able to take care of your
[5:33] Speaker 2: needs while you're sitting in your seats for the show.
[5:36] Speaker 2: So dinner and show is our concept and it's been
[5:40] Speaker 2: very successful for us as being one of the only
[5:45] Speaker 2: multi location block owned business for entertainment venue.
[5:51] Speaker 1: Now from New York. From a lifestyle standpoint, born and
[5:54] Speaker 1: raised in Houston, Texas now and this type of setup
[5:58] Speaker 1: I've seen several times in experienced in New York, you know,
[6:02] Speaker 1: So what made you believe? And you started in Birmingham first, correct,
[6:07] Speaker 1: that's correct, and then you moved your location to Atlanta. Now,
[6:12] Speaker 1: tell us about the Birmingham experience. What motivated you because
[6:15] Speaker 1: it's smaller market, so you you you're cultivating and somewhere
[6:19] Speaker 1: safe taking business risks launching in a market with a
[6:23] Speaker 1: smaller or you know, African American share, and I apologize,
[6:27] Speaker 1: you're probably drawing a diverse audience because you're talking about jazz.
[6:30] Speaker 1: You're talking about a lot of diverse music as well
[6:32] Speaker 1: as a great food menu. Tell us why you started
[6:34] Speaker 1: in Birmingham and then saw the desire to shift to Atlanta.
[6:39] Speaker 2: So I guess we kind of have to backfuttle just
[6:42] Speaker 2: a little bit. Is we started it in Chicago, Okay,
[6:46] Speaker 2: me and my wife. That's how TK production started. We
[6:49] Speaker 2: were just concert promote so we did gospel. Gospel was
[6:54] Speaker 2: our main ingredient, uh to where we did a lot
[6:57] Speaker 2: of the tours, a lot of the concerts in Chicago,
[6:59] Speaker 2: And that's kind of how we created our name. And
[7:03] Speaker 2: our name was based off of our company was based
[7:06] Speaker 2: off of our character. So we knew that without a
[7:09] Speaker 2: shadow of a doubt, if the company went down, we
[7:12] Speaker 2: went down, because that means we didn't live up to
[7:14] Speaker 2: our character's standards and our kingdom building standards were just
[7:18] Speaker 2: serving kingdom business. So our whole thing is. Then when
[7:23] Speaker 2: we moved to Alabama in two thousand and eight, then
[7:29] Speaker 2: that's when me and my wife got married. In two
[7:31] Speaker 2: thousand and seven, we decided to move because her mom
[7:34] Speaker 2: had passed away. So we moved and then we had
[7:38] Speaker 2: a high agus for probably about maybe four years, and
[7:41] Speaker 2: we just got tired of not having anything to do right, know,
[7:46] Speaker 2: and so we agreed, we said, let's go back to
[7:49] Speaker 2: our roots. And our roots was music and because we
[7:52] Speaker 2: knew the healing and the love and the passion for
[7:55] Speaker 2: music that we had, and we did our first concert
[7:58] Speaker 2: in bessemer Alaba, Bama called Intimate Jazz and Conversations. And
[8:04] Speaker 2: when we did that, we brought in Gerald Off right
[8:07] Speaker 2: was our kickoff artist, and nobody knew us and so
[8:12] Speaker 2: but we knew we had a good product. We presented
[8:14] Speaker 2: that product. It packed out day one and the rest
[8:17] Speaker 2: was history after that. And that kind of cultivated to
[8:20] Speaker 2: create us to be able to birth perfect note and
[8:23] Speaker 2: that's when we birth first because we grew so tremendously.
[8:27] Speaker 2: We opened the doors. We found out that people loved
[8:30] Speaker 2: to sit in the same atmosphere to be able to
[8:33] Speaker 2: eat some food. And we didn't have a restaurant at
[8:36] Speaker 2: that time. We were just utilizing a banquet facility.
[8:39] Speaker 1: Wow.
[8:39] Speaker 2: They used to come in there and we set up
[8:42] Speaker 2: the chairs ourselves, we set up the tables ourselves. It
[8:46] Speaker 2: was just me and my wife. We went involve Linen's
[8:49] Speaker 2: to be able to decorate the atmosphere as a as
[8:52] Speaker 2: a kind of like a jazz supper club, and we
[8:56] Speaker 2: created the atmosphere, you know, and then people didn't see that.
[8:59] Speaker 2: At the end of the show, you know, we had
[9:01] Speaker 2: to break down one hundred and stuff, well three hundred
[9:03] Speaker 2: and some seats about ourselves as well too, So it's
[9:07] Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of dignity and to be
[9:10] Speaker 2: able to super facilitate and see our goal and now
[9:14] Speaker 2: Perfect Note happens, and then we opened up our venue
[9:18] Speaker 2: twenty sixty. That's where Perfect Note was born in Birmingham, Alabama.
[9:23] Speaker 1: We know that's a wonderful story, and it's a story
[9:26] Speaker 1: about putting the work for your dream. I remember that,
[9:30] Speaker 1: you know, the journey to get there is always fun.
[9:33] Speaker 1: You know, you look back on it because staying there
[9:36] Speaker 1: is a lot of work. It really is. My wife
[9:38] Speaker 1: and I was talking about the other night about that,
[9:40] Speaker 1: you know, being successful. Really it's hard beginning to be successful.
[9:46] Speaker 1: It's fun, you make mistakes, you laugh about it, but
[9:49] Speaker 1: when you get up there's when you really see the competition.
[9:52] Speaker 1: Talk about that journey. You talked about the start, but
[9:56] Speaker 1: talk about that journey Perfect Note and then come into Atlanta.
[10:02] Speaker 2: Wow. So it's if I could just sum it up
[10:07] Speaker 2: at a high level, the journey has. If we did
[10:12] Speaker 2: not have God on our side, the journey would have
[10:16] Speaker 2: been a lot more difficult and we probably wouldn't be
[10:20] Speaker 2: here today. But just to be able to stand the
[10:24] Speaker 2: test of everything that we've been through COVID and you know,
[10:29] Speaker 2: all of the ups and downs of the business. We
[10:34] Speaker 2: definitely probably couldn't do that. But what we did, you know,
[10:36] Speaker 2: he dived in because our home goal and motive was
[10:41] Speaker 2: not about making and I know the show and let's
[10:44] Speaker 2: kind of goes sound kind of crazy because I'm on
[10:45] Speaker 2: the money making show. But it wasn't motivated by that.
[10:51] Speaker 2: It was motivated by serving. And so when we knew
[10:55] Speaker 2: how to serve, the money came because we served the
[11:00] Speaker 2: people in regards to where we were looking at him
[11:03] Speaker 2: to only that magnitude. So when COVID came, all of
[11:08] Speaker 2: our fellow partners and people fell through the wayside, and
[11:12] Speaker 2: I prayed and my wife prayed. We said, God, what
[11:15] Speaker 2: is it for us to do? We don't want to
[11:16] Speaker 2: close our doors. We got employees, we got people. So
[11:20] Speaker 2: he said take it out to the streets, and we
[11:24] Speaker 2: took it out to the parking lot. We had no
[11:26] Speaker 2: drive ups or anything like that, no way to really
[11:29] Speaker 2: kind of forecast about the goals or how to even
[11:32] Speaker 2: do it. We just did it. We fed the people
[11:34] Speaker 2: for five items they could students for five dollars that's
[11:38] Speaker 2: how we started it out and Man Rashan, they came
[11:42] Speaker 2: and packed out the parking lots and droves and listen,
[11:48] Speaker 2: you know, and God just stared with me. He said, listen,
[11:50] Speaker 2: when this is over, how you've reached out to the community,
[11:54] Speaker 2: they're going to reach back out to you. And we've been.
[11:56] Speaker 2: They've been feeding us every since when we fed them.
[12:00] Speaker 1: Know, I truly understand your story and I really appreciate
[12:04] Speaker 1: your story. And money making conversation isn't about the money.
[12:07] Speaker 1: It's about the story. It's about the journey. And I
[12:10] Speaker 1: always tell people all the time when I do deals,
[12:13] Speaker 1: it really isn't about the money, because if you go
[12:15] Speaker 1: in and you make it about the money, then you're
[12:18] Speaker 1: gonna make the missed while you're doing it. A lot
[12:20] Speaker 1: of times, what's the motivation? What's the end goal? Because
[12:24] Speaker 1: I'm a community debased person. Tremain and to hear that
[12:28] Speaker 1: story lets me know why you want and while you
[12:30] Speaker 1: still win it because when you give back, people will
[12:33] Speaker 1: give back to you trifold tenfold, and that's what you're doing.
[12:38] Speaker 1: Please let people know you can never leave the community
[12:42] Speaker 1: when you're talking about serving them a product and asking
[12:46] Speaker 1: for their money.
[12:48] Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, that's right. So that's how what happens. We
[12:53] Speaker 2: start seeing ourselves being a tourist attraction. And so when
[12:58] Speaker 2: actually we had an article that came up in the
[13:01] Speaker 2: Huffington Post and we did not know anything about it,
[13:05] Speaker 2: but this lady we found out later that they put
[13:10] Speaker 2: us on the radar and they put us at one
[13:13] Speaker 2: of the top one top businesses in the US to visit.
[13:20] Speaker 2: And because we was wondering, it's like, wow, why you know,
[13:23] Speaker 2: we don't even harready have our uncle folks here. You
[13:26] Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. Every time I act because i'm
[13:29] Speaker 2: host too as well as well as cook, as well
[13:32] Speaker 2: as do everything else that's provided for the business to
[13:35] Speaker 2: ensure that it goes. But when I'm hosted, I ask
[13:38] Speaker 2: people where they are. And I've been hearing this point.
[13:41] Speaker 2: I've been here in Atlanta majority of the time. And
[13:44] Speaker 2: so that's what kind of motivated us to spread our
[13:47] Speaker 2: wings and stand out on faith once again to go
[13:51] Speaker 2: to Atlanta, because we had people that will come all
[13:55] Speaker 2: the way to Birmingham to visit us from Atlanta, and
[13:59] Speaker 2: so we said, I'm okay, you know, that's that's where
[14:02] Speaker 2: we need to reached out from where we need to
[14:04] Speaker 2: go and that's what we end up doing. We end
[14:07] Speaker 2: up going there and spreading our ways. Open up right there, Marietta, Georgia.
[14:11] Speaker 2: And you know it's been there for ten months now
[14:16] Speaker 2: and you know we're having fun. It's growing, and of
[14:19] Speaker 2: course there's anything, but we're having fun.
[14:21] Speaker 1: Well, you're doing what you're supposed to do. And first
[14:23] Speaker 1: of all, Perfect Note wonderful name for a business. I'm
[14:26] Speaker 1: talking to Tremaine Thompson, one of the co owners. He
[14:29] Speaker 1: owns it with his wife, Black owned business. But when
[14:32] Speaker 1: he comes back, you know, we won't talk about that
[14:34] Speaker 1: menu because I'm a food guy, Tremaine, I got to
[14:37] Speaker 1: know what about the food, my friend? Okay, But also
[14:42] Speaker 1: I want to talk about the mistakes I made when
[14:46] Speaker 1: I opened my business because that's important to people. You know,
[14:49] Speaker 1: they look at people they think they're successful. You're successful.
[14:51] Speaker 1: There's a lot of bumps in their success. Because I
[14:54] Speaker 1: want you to hear my story and then we can
[14:56] Speaker 1: share it to the listeners so they won't make the
[14:59] Speaker 1: same mistakes. Talking to Trumaine Thompson, one of the owners
[15:02] Speaker 1: of Perfect Note one is based It originally open in
[15:05] Speaker 1: twenty sixteen in Birmingham, Alabama when it became a tourist attraction.
[15:10] Speaker 1: Now is available going on ten to eleven months in Atlanta, Georgie.
[15:15] Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
[15:18] Speaker 4: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
[15:29] Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan MacDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
[15:35] Speaker 4: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
[15:40] Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
[15:44] Speaker 1: He knows I'm a foodie guy. And when I say
[15:46] Speaker 1: he knows, that's Tremaine Thompson, one of the co owners
[15:49] Speaker 1: of Perfect Note. And you know, I go to the website,
[15:53] Speaker 1: tell everybody about the website, tell her about retell the
[15:56] Speaker 1: hours operation because I want to make sure people understand
[15:59] Speaker 1: about the Perfect Note and it is a must go
[16:01] Speaker 1: to venue.
[16:03] Speaker 2: So we're open right now. It's Wednesday through Saturday. That's
[16:09] Speaker 2: from five to basically five to eleven, and we kind
[16:14] Speaker 2: of do it a little bit different. It's based off
[16:15] Speaker 2: of how the shows go.
[16:17] Speaker 4: Uh.
[16:18] Speaker 2: And then on Sundays we have a great Sunday brunch
[16:21] Speaker 2: from twelve to five with music happening at one o'clock
[16:25] Speaker 2: and three o'clock and the website is perfect. Note live
[16:29] Speaker 2: atl dot com. Once again, that's perfect. Note live dot
[16:34] Speaker 2: com to be I'm sorry, it's perfect. Note live atl
[16:38] Speaker 2: dot com. They can be able to go right there
[16:40] Speaker 2: to our website. And then we're getting ready to start
[16:42] Speaker 2: lunch next month. We're getting ready to lunch lunch. So
[16:46] Speaker 2: you know, anybody who looking for that lunch crowd, that's.
[16:49] Speaker 1: What what day is that gonna be when you start
[16:51] Speaker 1: launching lunch Cause I want to come back. I want
[16:53] Speaker 1: to I want to be one of the one of
[16:54] Speaker 1: the first customers in for that lunch day. I have
[16:56] Speaker 1: been said yet.
[16:58] Speaker 2: Yes, So we're looking at Live. Let's got the calendar
[17:02] Speaker 2: right here. It is that first win and on side
[17:05] Speaker 2: of second it's the July tenth.
[17:09] Speaker 1: Will like okay, cool, yes, sir, you're like that, okay, awesome.
[17:13] Speaker 2: From eleven to three, from Wednesday through Friday, eleven to three,
[17:17] Speaker 2: Wednesday through Friday.
[17:18] Speaker 1: And that's about expanding the you got a venue, you
[17:21] Speaker 1: got employees. Now you're looking to take advantage of the
[17:24] Speaker 1: fact that rent's being paid anyway, and so it's another
[17:27] Speaker 1: hours right there, just to do it right with potential customers.
[17:30] Speaker 2: Correct, Yes, sir, Yes, sir, we have to. Hey, I've
[17:34] Speaker 2: learned a long time ago. They said, if you have
[17:37] Speaker 2: square footage that you're not using, then you know that
[17:40] Speaker 2: that's money you're not making. So we have to you know,
[17:43] Speaker 2: we got square footage that we're not using. We have
[17:46] Speaker 2: a kind of like a private area that seats about
[17:50] Speaker 2: fifty people and it's a perfect size for lunch to
[17:54] Speaker 2: be able to do table turns for lunch. And so
[17:56] Speaker 2: we all decided collectively to be able.
[17:59] Speaker 1: To do that brun What is brudge? Should that worry brunch?
[18:03] Speaker 1: B are U and h what exactly that Sunday brunch?
[18:07] Speaker 1: Excite me right now, Tremaine.
[18:10] Speaker 2: So if you get a little bit of breakfast and lunch,
[18:15] Speaker 2: that's when we pull out our You know, if I
[18:18] Speaker 2: had more time, I definitely tell you my backstory of
[18:21] Speaker 2: even how I got into the food industry.
[18:23] Speaker 1: Okay, this is your show right now, this is your talk.
[18:28] Speaker 2: You know. So I come from a corporate America and
[18:32] Speaker 2: when when my granddaddy always told me, he said, never
[18:35] Speaker 2: get into anything that you don't understand. So I left
[18:38] Speaker 2: corporate America before I was thinking about going into brick
[18:43] Speaker 2: and mortar and went into waffle House my first full
[18:49] Speaker 2: experience of what was well waffle House because I needed
[18:52] Speaker 2: to learn how to cook, and I didn't realize what
[18:56] Speaker 2: God was preparing me for. So I give my hats
[18:59] Speaker 2: off to waffle House cooks because they cook everything, every
[19:04] Speaker 2: protein you can think of except for prye on a
[19:08] Speaker 2: two and three inch or a three foot grill. And
[19:13] Speaker 2: I've learned how to speed cook and do all that,
[19:16] Speaker 2: and I didn't know God was getting me in for
[19:18] Speaker 2: preparation because we have to do that on that end
[19:23] Speaker 2: when we're trying to serve one hundred and fifty people
[19:26] Speaker 2: within two hours, So that's a hump in the kitchen.
[19:31] Speaker 2: So I had to learn that skill expression to be
[19:35] Speaker 2: able to teach my folks or teach my cooks on
[19:38] Speaker 2: how to be able to speed cook, but make sure
[19:42] Speaker 2: that it's all quality, it's done, and everything comes out
[19:46] Speaker 2: exactly the way that you would do it in a
[19:48] Speaker 2: fine dining or anything else in that regard. So that's
[19:51] Speaker 2: how I got into the food part of it. And
[19:53] Speaker 2: I'll run you know, hey, I hang with the best
[19:56] Speaker 2: of them now, you know, not learning from my experience
[19:59] Speaker 2: at waffle House, well, you know my cooking credit.
[20:02] Speaker 1: Well, you got to because they cook under pressure because
[20:04] Speaker 1: you're staring at them. Okay, you see what's going down
[20:07] Speaker 1: right there. You can't cook any more intense pressure than
[20:10] Speaker 1: at a waffle house. Now we're talking more than the
[20:12] Speaker 1: owners of the perfect nut, no perfect note, And so
[20:15] Speaker 1: I want everybody to understanding about the perfect note is
[20:17] Speaker 1: that this dinner supper club the music for thirty and up.
[20:22] Speaker 1: Explain to us at the perfect note. When you said
[20:25] Speaker 1: thirty and up, what does that mean?
[20:28] Speaker 2: That's grown folks. You know, people who were tired of
[20:30] Speaker 2: the clubs. Not nothing against the club So get me wrong,
[20:34] Speaker 2: if we got any club owners, that's on the line tonight.
[20:37] Speaker 2: But you know people who really kind of wanted to
[20:40] Speaker 2: transition to safe environment to you know, we don't have
[20:45] Speaker 2: hookahs or anything in that regards even against those things.
[20:49] Speaker 2: But it's just to where you can dress up, you
[20:52] Speaker 2: can come out, have a good time, you can mingle,
[20:56] Speaker 2: you don't have to worry about you know, people just
[21:00] Speaker 2: all in your face, you know it just and then
[21:02] Speaker 2: I love the part. This is what I really love,
[21:05] Speaker 2: is how music brings all of your demographics together, Yes, sir,
[21:10] Speaker 2: all of your demographics there that we got Asians we
[21:13] Speaker 2: got whites, we got you know, Hispanics. We got everybody
[21:17] Speaker 2: coming under one roof. And they're creating culture, they're creating relationships.
[21:22] Speaker 2: We've had people getting married because they've been coming in
[21:25] Speaker 2: single and then they mingled and they left out and
[21:28] Speaker 2: now they got wedding bells going on. So we've had
[21:31] Speaker 2: a lot of them things come right there through our
[21:34] Speaker 2: venue because it's just that place of presence. They feel good,
[21:40] Speaker 2: you know, and with they service well. And that's what
[21:42] Speaker 2: we call with the thirty and up, we call them
[21:45] Speaker 2: grown folks the way you really can have a grown
[21:47] Speaker 2: folks atmosphere.
[21:48] Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'm one of those grown folks, and I'm gonna
[21:50] Speaker 1: be there being a grown folks in quiet, eating, clapping
[21:53] Speaker 1: when I was supposed to clap, dressed right, you know,
[21:56] Speaker 1: walk being polite, opening the door when people supposed to
[21:58] Speaker 1: get the door open, pushing it chair open when the
[22:00] Speaker 1: chairs will be pulled back, all those good things. You know.
[22:03] Speaker 1: When I opened my business way back in ninety two, trade,
[22:07] Speaker 1: I just opened the doors.
[22:08] Speaker 2: Brother.
[22:08] Speaker 1: I didn't have a budget, I didn't understand taxes. And
[22:12] Speaker 1: I want you to explain to people the importanness of
[22:14] Speaker 1: preparation when you when you have a dream but don't
[22:17] Speaker 1: have a plan of operation attached to dream, please explain tomorrow.
[22:21] Speaker 1: The mistakes I made should never be repeated if you're
[22:25] Speaker 1: trying to be successful long term in the business, and
[22:27] Speaker 1: that's what you're doing with perfect note.
[22:31] Speaker 2: And man, I'm glad you stated that it was very
[22:34] Speaker 2: This road was a very difficult road to accomplish based
[22:40] Speaker 2: off of because the resources was just not there. We
[22:44] Speaker 2: took all of our finances for one case, everything you
[22:48] Speaker 2: can think of that we can get loans, and we
[22:53] Speaker 2: extended it all into the business. You know, it was
[22:56] Speaker 2: either as they say, go all in or go home.
[23:00] Speaker 2: So we didn't have really no other choice because if
[23:03] Speaker 2: we left it or we decided to throw in the towel,
[23:06] Speaker 2: then that means that we're throwing in the towel of
[23:09] Speaker 2: everything that we put in. We're throwing in our whole life,
[23:13] Speaker 2: you know, our whole life savings. So I'll say always, now,
[23:18] Speaker 2: as I look at it in hindsight, it's always good
[23:22] Speaker 2: to get a mentor somebody who has been in it,
[23:25] Speaker 2: that went through the rough roads of the business, and
[23:29] Speaker 2: if they're willing to be able to share knowledge or
[23:32] Speaker 2: just be able to you know a mentorship you. I firmly, firmly,
[23:40] Speaker 2: firmly expressed that you get behind somebody who can be
[23:45] Speaker 2: able to kind of lead you, because there's no book
[23:47] Speaker 2: for us. You know, we don't have the same unfortunately,
[23:50] Speaker 2: we don't have the same leisure as our other counterparts,
[23:55] Speaker 2: just don't you know. And and they don't help give
[23:59] Speaker 2: a successful how to be successful book. Yeah, we can
[24:04] Speaker 2: go to Barns and Nobles and buy different books about
[24:08] Speaker 2: how to do certain things, but their templates because once
[24:12] Speaker 2: you get into it, you have to really find out
[24:15] Speaker 2: what your niche really is, you know, and and if
[24:18] Speaker 2: it's gonna be successful for you or not. It might
[24:21] Speaker 2: have been successful for them, but what is gonna be
[24:24] Speaker 2: successful for you? So always get figure out some kind
[24:28] Speaker 2: of foundation. If I do it all over again, I
[24:31] Speaker 2: will always assure That's why now I dig back. When
[24:34] Speaker 2: people ask me about business, how to get in it
[24:37] Speaker 2: or how to start it, I say, let's talk give
[24:40] Speaker 2: a number. Information is free. I don't own it, you
[24:44] Speaker 2: know what I mean, So why should I be trying
[24:46] Speaker 2: to not give it? You know? That's the blessings. When
[24:50] Speaker 2: Jesus walked through the lands, he didn't say just because
[24:53] Speaker 2: I had all power, but I'm gonna go hold it
[24:55] Speaker 2: until you you know, give me something, whatever it may be. Yeah,
[24:59] Speaker 2: you have to give him of course your you know,
[25:01] Speaker 2: your life standards. But at the same token, the blessings
[25:05] Speaker 2: was free, right, so if you wanted to receive those,
[25:09] Speaker 2: those was given to you, you know, so you didn't
[25:12] Speaker 2: have to you know, scrape or go through a lot
[25:15] Speaker 2: of red tape to be able to do that. All
[25:17] Speaker 2: you have to do is be willing, be willing and
[25:20] Speaker 2: open and to be able to listen to whatever is
[25:24] Speaker 2: is needed. And so that's just kind of been our
[25:27] Speaker 2: road in our journey. But it wasn't easy. You know,
[25:30] Speaker 2: it wasn't easy, and by no part of entrepreneurship is easy.
[25:34] Speaker 2: And so that's that's kind of been our journey, right.
[25:37] Speaker 1: Well, we know it's a good journey because it's a journey
[25:39] Speaker 1: that you are sharing with us on this show. Is
[25:42] Speaker 1: a journey that gets me excited before we wrap up,
[25:44] Speaker 1: tell us exactly, I know, it's Wednesday through Saturday, then
[25:47] Speaker 1: on Sunday it's Gospel Brunch. July tenth, you're going to
[25:50] Speaker 1: be opening up for lunch from eleven to three. That's
[25:53] Speaker 1: an experience that you're not delivering right now, but you realize, hey,
[25:56] Speaker 1: that's something we're available to do. In the Atlanta restaurant,
[26:00] Speaker 1: which is right there in Mariatta, if you were familiar
[26:03] Speaker 1: with the Atlanta community. His restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama, which
[26:06] Speaker 1: I would call it restaurant Perfect Note, which is a
[26:09] Speaker 1: live dinner supper club which we hear music and down
[26:12] Speaker 1: on fantastic food, is a stable because guess what, he's
[26:15] Speaker 1: from Chicago. You know. I always say, you know black
[26:18] Speaker 1: people from the South that went north. He went north
[26:20] Speaker 1: and they came back to the South. Now they went east,
[26:23] Speaker 1: so they trying to conquer it. Now would that being said,
[26:25] Speaker 1: are you going to open up more Perfect Notes around
[26:28] Speaker 1: the country, Tremaine.
[26:31] Speaker 2: I'm just gonna lead however God leads to us, that's
[26:34] Speaker 2: where we're gonna go. We I think right now, if
[26:37] Speaker 2: we was able to take what all of the consumers
[26:42] Speaker 2: when they come in, they probably would have had us
[26:45] Speaker 2: in every neighborhood possible, all the way from here to
[26:50] Speaker 2: you know, d C. So everywhere we go they want
[26:53] Speaker 2: a Perfect Note because of that experience. And I'm thankful
[26:56] Speaker 2: and a honor to be able that we're just being
[26:59] Speaker 2: able to be vessel was to provide that and give
[27:02] Speaker 2: a safe haven for people to be able to fill
[27:06] Speaker 2: the presence when they come in and feel comfortable and
[27:09] Speaker 2: want that in their own cities. So we are looking, yes,
[27:12] Speaker 2: to answer your question. We are looking to spread our
[27:15] Speaker 2: our our dream and our our our product to other cities,
[27:21] Speaker 2: especially in Chicago. We got to go there. You know.
[27:26] Speaker 2: Nick Coleone was one of my good friends before he passed,
[27:29] Speaker 2: and uh he was me and him was working on
[27:32] Speaker 2: the deal to be able to put it in Schomberg
[27:36] Speaker 2: and one in Schomberg right before he passed. So I
[27:39] Speaker 2: owe it to him to still continue that dream and
[27:43] Speaker 2: legacy to put that in for our jazz great that
[27:46] Speaker 2: we lost.
[27:48] Speaker 3: Uh, Nick, I'll tell you what the city I want
[27:54] Speaker 3: to thank you for coming on the show Perfect Note
[27:57] Speaker 3: again Wednesday through Saturday.
[28:00] Speaker 1: On Sunday, July tenth, will be open from lunch from
[28:03] Speaker 1: eleven to three. The original location is based in the
[28:05] Speaker 1: Big Ham that's Birmingham, Alabama. Tell your wife I'll see
[28:08] Speaker 1: her soon. I will definitely shake your hands soon, my friend,
[28:11] Speaker 1: and join a great plate of good food at the
[28:14] Speaker 1: Perfect Note and sitting back like a grown person supposed
[28:17] Speaker 1: to be sitting back and joining some good music. See
[28:19] Speaker 1: you soon, my friend, and thank you for coming on
[28:21] Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
[28:25] Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere, we'll be right back with more
[28:28] Speaker 4: Money Making Conversations Masterclass.

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