On the Nines Bistro

Transcript:

Narrator
Welcome to The Best of LKN, a podcast featuring the best small businesses and the most influential professionals around Lake Norman, North Carolina. Each week, we spotlight those businesses and individuals that are making a positive impact here in the Lake Norman area. Thanks for joining us, enjoy the show.

Jeff
Welcome back to The Best of LKN. This is Lake Norman’s number one small business podcast where we work each and every day to elevate the Lake Norman small business community and introduce you to the best and brightest small business owners, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and leaders of local nonprofit organizations. I want to first give a shout out to our sponsors who make the work we do here at The Best of LKN possible. I encourage you to get to know these exceptional local small businesses by going to our homepage at thebestoflkn.com. There you’ll find a list of all of our platform sponsors with links to follow to learn more about their businesses. Welcome to our newest sponsor, Lorri Hoffman, the founder and principal at the Hoffman Lending Team, a mortgage boutique based in Cornelius. Lorri was one of the sponsors that helped us put together our Second Anniversary Happy Hour and Small Business Mixer just a few weeks ago at Eleven Lakes Brewing Company. And she now joins The Best of LKN as one of our charter sponsors for 2022. We are so proud to partner with Lorri and the Hoffman Lending Team. You can find a link to the Hoffman Lending Team on our homepage and in the show notes for this episode. And Lorri will also be joining us for a podcast episode in the near future. While you’re on our homepage, go ahead and sign up for our free weekly email newsletter. It’s packed with links to all of our latest podcast episodes, blog articles, and our newest YouTube videos. We’re also including local upcoming events that we think might interest you. So, hop on over to thebestoflkn.com after you listen to this episode and sign up. In this episode, I sit down with Chef Steve Jordan, the Executive Chef and co-founder of On the Nines Bistro in Mooresville. On the Nines is one of Lake Norman’s premier dining destinations. During our conversation, Chef Steve shares the story of his culinary and entrepreneurial journey. We talk about the chef-driven experience diners can look forward to at On the Nines, and Steve also shares some ways the team was able to weather the ups and downs of doing business during the pandemic. We talk about the cocktail program that makes On the Nines, such a great spot for Happy Hour, as well as the legendary brunch the team serves up each Sunday. Chef shares some great advice for aspiring chefs. And we even dive into a little bit about the launch of a fun YouTube channel. We cover a lot of ground in just 30 minutes, so lean in my friends and get to know one of Lake Norman’s best: Chef Steve Jordan, at On the Nines Bistro in Mooresville.

Jeff
Steve, welcome to the podcast.

Steve
Thanks for having us.

Jeff
Yeah, appreciate you being here. Chris Boukedes has been a guest on the podcast before, and we’ve talked a lot about On the Nines. And I don’t have to tell you what a weird couple of years it’s been. So, getting out and getting out and about and trying these, some of these amazing new restaurant concepts in the area has been a challenge. But this is really cool. I’ve been really looking forward to getting you on the podcast. So again, welcome.

Steve
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Jeff
Absolutely. Before we get into details about On the Nines, Steve, share with the listeners a little bit of your background, your career, like education, where you’re from, and what led you to On the Nines.

Steve
My first real education in the cooking was my grandmother on my father’s side. You know, she was a farmer. She made biscuits three times a day to feed people. And that’s where I grew up, my first love was that first time when we had fried chicken, biscuits, green beans, you know, real southern food, but it was comforting to me. And every time I would go there, I knew exactly what I was getting, and it was delicious every time. So, she actually would bring me in and any kind of like scraps of biscuits we’d make cinnamon biscuits or something like that. We would make something together. And that’s when I was like, oh, I think this is what I’m going to do the rest of my life. It was a pretty young age. I was always into art, so I had the crazy idea of becoming an art teacher at first. Then I found out how much money art teachers make and it’s like, no, I’m gonna make less money and go be a chef. Then I was actually going to school to get an art degree and took over a restaurant called Tomatoes and they needed a sous chef, and I was like, I’ll quit school, let’s do it. Did that for a couple years and was like I think I’m gonna go to Johnson & Wales. The owner wrote me a letter and said you need to get this guy into your school. I got in, went through their Advanced Standing program. It took me about a year to get my degree and then stayed in Charleston for about seven or eight years. It was never my plan to actually live in Charleston, it was just to go to school there. And that’s where my real education began. I worked with Donald Barickman who was Magnolia’s, Blossom and Cypress. I remember my first time I ever met him, he was like, how do you make Hollandaise? And I told him, he’s like, well, that’s, that’s one way. And he’s like, it’s not my way. I was like, ah, I get it, however you want it, is how I’m gonna make it, yes sir. And then worked with him for a while. And then there was a new restaurant opening up and was getting all sorts of buzz. And my girlfriend at the time, was gonna go be the pastry chef. And she’s like, you should come. This is going to be THE restaurant in Charleston. So, I went and talked to him. And the first time I met him, I was like, oh, yeah, this is my guy. He’s from New York and just amazing. His name is Brett McKee. He had Union Hall, Brett’s, one of his first starts was Oak and O-Ku. So, he was my mentor. Lots of my education came from him. Some good, some bad. But if anyone ever asked me, he was pretty much who I would say molded me into the chef I am today. And then I had worked for him for probably six years. And I was like, it’s time for me to branch out, do my own thing. And there was a woman named Judy Ballinger, who had Charleston Chops in Charleston, and she had one in Lake Norman. And she was looking for a new chef. I was like, well, let’s go interview. I got the job and moved here and been here since 2000.

Jeff
Wow.

Steve
We had Charleston Chops, that went on for about five years. And that restaurant did not make it. And that’s how I ended up meeting Chris Boukedes, is, I would go to the gym every day, and he’d be there. And one day like, you’re a chef, aren’t you? I was like, yeah, sure am. And I was like, who’s this weirdo coming to talk to me? Because most people just didn’t come talk to me at the gym.

Jeff
Yeah.

Steve
And it’s like, this is great. So, we started talking, and he’s like, I just bought the Hooker. I was like, good luck. Good luck with that. And he was like, I need someone to help me with the menu. I was like, I can help you with the menu, I had no plans or desire to go work at the Galway Hooker. And I brought him a menu, was like, here’s your menu. The guy you have in the back can’t handle any of this. Enjoy.

Jeff
Yeah.

Steve
We ended up talking. We decided that I would come on and I had just bought a catering van. And was like, I’m gonna start a catering company. It was my whole plan. He had an idea of starting a catering company. I was like, well, you got a restaurant, I’ve got a van. We’re pretty much a catering company. And that’s how that all started.

Jeff
When did you guys meet?

Steve
It’s been like 17 years now.

Jeff
Yeah. Wow, you go back.

Steve
Yeah, it’s been a while, might be 16. But it’s somewhere, it’s getting close to 17.

Jeff
Yeah. So, you met Chris when he purchased the Galway Hooker and I met Chris and connected with Chris last year just after he sold it. So, yeah, that was what, I guess close to a 20 year, about a 15-year run.

Steve
Yeah.

Jeff
Yeah. Chris is top of mind because we’re gonna meet again on Thursday and record something for the Venues at Langtree, but I know he’s been involved in so many, he’s founded several concepts in the Charlotte area and partnered with in several others and really a serial entrepreneur, but a super cool guy.

Steve
Yeah, he’s great. He’s more family than he is, you know, business partner.

Jeff
I love that. Yeah. So, Chris has gotten me really excited about On the Nines, like he is really proud of On the Nines. So, tell me about how, you know, what inspired starting that concept and then take it from there.

Steve
On the Nines was, it’s always going to be a Charleston-style restaurant. I’d loved everything. I mean, I don’t know how many times you’ve been to Charleston, but my favorite thing in the world is go from restaurant to restaurant to restaurant. Eat appetizers, have a drink. You know, that’s how, we don’t just sit in a restaurant for hours, we go sit at the bar, have a drink. And that’s what I kind of wanted this to be was a Charleston restaurant. Also, keeping in mind that sometimes, even though I’m a chef, sometimes I just want a hamburger. You know, my wife wants a piece of sea bass and something delicious. And I just, no, I’ve worked all day. I want a hamburger. So, that’s what that whole concept was. The Bistro. You know, it’s delicious food, good service, but you don’t have to feel stuffy. Local ingredients, we try to use the freshest of everything. We pretty much, probably would say 98% of our menu is made in-house. Which a lot of people say, hey, where do you get your biscuits? We get from the back because that’s where we make them. A lot of people still don’t understand every dessert, pasta, we cut our own meat, we grind our own meat. Everything is done in-house, so if we could grind our own flour, we’d probably do that.

Jeff
When did it open?

Steve
It has been four, almost five years now. So, September 2017.

Jeff
Wow, has it been that long?

Steve
It’s been that long. Two years it was COVID, so that was kinda

Jeff
Yeah. Well, it’s funny, so I started this production two years ago. And before that I was up to my eyeballs with my own service business for the last 10 years, and so, I didn’t get out much. But that’s all changing now. I have this wonderful excuse to get out and see all these great places in the area so that we can talk about it on the podcast and write about it on the website. Where, it’s located in Mooresville. Is it on a golf course?

Steve
It’s on the golf course. That’s where the name, On the Nines, comes from. It’s also putting on your nines, and also, we’re in between both nines.

Jeff
Okay, gotcha. Yeah. What is the vibe? What can the guests expect when they walk in to On the Nines?

Steve
We are southern hospitality, is what we are. You can come in at any pretty much dress code you want and you’re gonna get the best service and best food you’ve ever had.

Jeff
So date night or flip flops?

Steve
Yep. Either or.

Jeff
Good either way.

Steve
We, I mean we, you literally see it. I mean, someone might have a shirt and tie on, and someone might just have some shorts and shirt on, either way.

Jeff
It’s all good.

Steve
It’s all good.

Jeff
Excellent.

Steve
Yeah.

Jeff
What would you say are, describe a couple of the signature dishes, signature entrees.

Steve
Well, that’s the one thing, we have Steak Frites, which is, you know, staple French food. We put a chimichurri butter on it so it’s got a little bit of that cilantro and jalapeno, a little roasted, gives you that flavor, then, you know, a black truffle demi-glace frites. Our menu changes so often, especially now it’s still very hard to get product. So, say one day we can’t get grouper, we change it to halibut, and we change the dish. The catch we have right now is grilled halibut. And it goes with sauteed corn, shiitake mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon, and then a little bit of tomato beurre blanc, and then we have a chive and basil butter on top. It’s delicious. It’s one of them, it’s so simple, but the flavors just melt in your mouth. One of the things that we have is the flaming brie, you know, being my partner’s Greek, saganaki, which is a flaming cheese dish, I was like, I’ve been trying for forever to think of something. What can we do that we can catch on fire?

Jeff
Yeah.

Steve
I was like, brie. Brie has a skin on the outside. So, we do a big brie, put it a cast iron skillet, it comes to your table. It has sun-dried, no sorry, strawberry chutney, roasted pecans. And then we flame it with an apple brandy. Pour that in, light it on fire, and then take a little cardamom and maple syrup right when the flame is about to go out. So all that delicious mapley cardamom smell gets right in your face. It’s delicious.

Jeff
This is difficult. I’m in day 16 of Whole30.

Steve
Oh, jeez.

Jeff
And I explained that to Chris, I said, On the Nines is first on the list of places I go, and I think I just have two weeks left to go.

Steve
We’ll see you in two weeks.

Jeff
Yeah. He also mentioned that you have a wonderful way of breaking diets.

Steve
Yeah. And you can be one of them.

Jeff
Well, I look forward to that. That’s gonna, that sounds amazing. Another thing that I’ve noticed, and I’ve heard about On the Nines, is that it’s also, you have a great cocktail bar.

Steve
Yes.

Jeff
Tell me a little bit about the cocktail program.

Steve
It’s Patrick Anderson, who’s our captain. And Blaire Rhea, who’s our general manager, they come together. Also, we try to use the freshest ingredients there as well. Always trying to get the newest product. And one of the fun things about having good cocktails is we get to taste them as we’re going, that’s always nice. But Patrick has been around for a long time. He used to own his own bar. A lot of people know him from Epic. So, I mean, you walk in you’re like, ah, it’s a familiar face. It’s Patrick, I love it.

Jeff
Is there a lot of space at the bar?

Steve
There isn’t actually, no. There are eight seats at the bar, but then we have cocktail tables and you can actually

Jeff
Like high tops?

Steve
Yeah, yeah, eat. I think we seat another 34 in the actual bar area.

Jeff
Okay.

Steve
Yeah. The bar seats themselves get taken pretty quickly.

Jeff
Good place to go for Happy Hour?

Steve
Oh, yeah, definitely.

Jeff
Okay, good. We’re writing an article on the best places to go for Happy Hour in the Lake Norman area and I have On the Nines on the list. So, that’s good to hear. Excellent. I’ll have to stop by and take some photos. Of course, I’ll have to have a cocktail while I’m there.

Steve
Oh yeah.

Jeff
That’s super cool. I’ve also heard that the space can be used for special events.

Steve
Yes.

Jeff
Tell me about that. What’s availability for like special events and that sort of thing?

Steve
We also have a room called 1873, which is when Mooresville was incorporated, which was where we got the name from. It does about 100 seated to about 140 standing. We do everything from business meetings to weddings, anything you pretty much could want. And we’re a different kind of caterer, we show you a menu of what we can do. And then we go, what would you like? We can do this, but what’s the things you’re looking for? And that’s what we normally do. It normally takes a little bit of column A, a little column B, and then we give you your best event you can have.

Jeff
You’ve got some flexibility there.

Steve
Yeah.

Jeff
Yeah. That’s very cool.

Steve
That’s the good thing about being a chef is I love to cook. So, give me something I don’t know, I’ll figure it out and do some research, and it’ll be the best you’ve ever had.

Jeff
The reason I bring that up, the event space, is that Tara Allmendinger was a guest on the podcast a few months ago, and she gave On the Nines a huge shout out. She brought up the fact of how it’s a great event space as well, which I didn’t know, I didn’t realize that. And that was really interesting to me. A little bit a side note backstory there. Tara’s husband, AJ is very close friends with your business partner, Chris Boukedes. And, in fact, the story is that Chris got ordained and married her Tara and AJ. It’s just, it’s really cool. And a small world, like crazy, small world. That’s really neat. How, we brought up the pandemic a little bit earlier, and I know we could spend a lot of time talking about it. But I’m just curious, what are some ways that On the Nines was able to kind of pivot? A word that we hate to use but got to use it. You were able to pivot and kind of make adjustments to weather a really difficult two years, especially for the restaurant industry.

Steve
When we, you know, once we knew we could open back up, we weren’t one of those restaurants that could do to-go food. It just, we’re on top of a building. The stairs are horrible. I mean, you don’t want to go up and down the stairs, delivering food.

Jeff
Not to mention, your menu probably doesn’t travel well. Fine dining generally doesn’t.

Steve
It does not. Fried oysters and things of that nature usually don’t taste so good in 30 minutes after getting them home.

Jeff
Yeah.

Steve
So, we decided, I was like, we’ll do something Friday and Saturday, we’ll do pre-selected. And we’ll know exactly how many people we’re cooking for, we’ll know when they’re coming to get it, and we had certain times. And that’s what we did for a while. Just to keep us sane. Keep us having a regular schedule. And to keep people being able to have some of our food. We would actually cook the food when we knew they were coming. We’d bring it down to the car. Well, it worked out well. And then we were like, well, okay, Easter and Mother’s Day is coming. How are we going to do this? So, we did take and bake. Had everything ready on Saturday, you come pick it up, we ended up doing like 400 to 500 people each time, which I was shocked on how many people were like, oh, we’ll just cook at home. And it’s like, you made it easy for us. Thank you. I was like all right, this is great. Then we found out that we could actually open back up. And I was like, how in the hell are we going to do this? We’re a French Southern restaurant. I can’t get, most of my staff had gone. I mean, they just weren’t around anymore. So, I was like, alright, so we changed the concept for probably about six months to Italian. Because it didn’t take as many people, food was a little easier to get to, and I knew we could do it because most of the restaurants I had worked in were Italian. So, that’s what we did. We opened up, a skeleton crew, I think we had four servers, they worked, all of us worked the same. We were closed Monday and Tuesday, so we all worked every shift. So, we knew exactly what we were doing. It was great. Then once we could open a little bit more, our actually employees were starting to come back and it was like, alright, let’s go back to the old ways. Let’s bring it back to The Nines that everyone knows.

Jeff
Yeah.

Steve
And that’s what we did. Brought back some of the favorites, like the Steak Frites, the flambeed brie, because it was one thing we couldn’t do before, we only have four servers. You can’t do flambee at the table. it takes too much time. So, once we could get more staff back, more utilities, we got some younger kids back who could actually help us with polishing and setting tables, that’s when the business took over again.

Jeff
You mentioned Easter and Mother’s Day. Brunch is a big deal at On the Nines, isn’t it?

Steve
It’s one of our best days.

Jeff
Tell me a little bit about that. What makes brunch On the Nines so special?

Steve
I love brunch. A lot of chefs hate brunch. I love it. It’s one of my favorite things to eat. I will, get me breakfast food at night, for lunch, I don’t care, I love it. And I’ve always strived to have the best. Two of the restaurants I had in Charleston were voted Best Brunch. We just got Best Brunch for Lake Norman, I think it was last year, so we, I just strive for perfection for brunch. We make, once again, we make everything in-house. Waffles, bred our own tomatoes for the fried green tomatoes, which everyone loves our Eggs Benedict. Normal Eggs Benedict, when we just take fried green tomatoes underneath and Hollandaise over the top, it’s delicious.

Jeff
I’ve heard that the brunch at On the Nines is spectacular. And speaking of which, we have yet another article coming out, Best Brunch Spots in the Lake Norman area, of course, On the Nines is high on that list. So yeah, it’s gonna be in that article. Our articles aren’t rankings. Everyone’s a winner, you know, in our articles.

Steve
Well, you’re getting to eat brunch, so you’re a winner.

Jeff
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And brunch is one of my favorite meals. Like, I’m the same. Yeah, just one of my favorite places to go is a great brunch restaurant.

Steve
And I like the fact that you can get sweet and savory, and you don’t look like you’re a crazy person.

Jeff
Yeah, that’s right. All right, we’ve reached a point and my conversations where I love to bring up other local small businesses. And I know that, you know, with full knowledge that we have so many that we’d love to give shout outs to, that we love in the area that have been supportive of our endeavors and have been helpful to us. But are there a couple maybe two or three that sort of stand out for On the Nines that you’d like to give shout outs to?

Steve
Yeah, we have a young lady named Kaliegh who is at Magic Hat, she does most of our Facebook and Instagram, she helps us with our menu planning. We’ll come up with all the words and the pictures and she’ll put them on our menu to make them look pretty and presentable. Inland Seafood is local here, but I think they are a little bit bigger than just a local company. But they helped me out tremendously. They helped me plan my menus by like, I need this this and this. Do you have it? And when is it gonna come in? Especially with wine dinners? About a month out, okay, hey, this is what’s on my menu. Do I need to change it now? Because with COVID, it’s still very hard to get the product you are expecting at a decent price and quality. So, they helped me out tremendously on letting me know, yeah, that’s doable, or no, that’s not gonna happen.

Jeff
Yeah.

Steve
And then I mean, all our purveyors right now we’ve been helping tremendously with, I mean, one day, you can get cream cheese, the next day, you can’t. To-go boxes, we’ve got a company called Albemarle Paper, they helped me out tremendously. To-go boxes, plastic wrap, all the things you don’t really think about in the restaurant business. Gloves, sanitizer, they help me when other companies can’t get it, they got it, which helps out a lot. And then we have a guy named Chad Ulrich, he’s a new farmer, that luckily farmers are starting to come back and, you know, help the restaurant business out.

Jeff
You mentioned that before we hit record, how tough the pandemic was on local farmers, the small, the family-owned operations really were hit hard in the last couple of years. Do you see them starting to come back a little bit?

Steve
I do. I do start to see. Unfortunately, we did lose some that I don’t think are going to come back. But I’m starting to see, microgreen farmers are starting to knock on the door again. You gotta think about it. During COVID, I mean, yeah, microgreens are delicious, and they look good on the plate. But you’re trying to save money. You’re trying to do this. Some of those things went away just because you can’t afford it anymore.

Jeff
Yeah.

Steve
So, they’re starting to come back and help out. I had one farmer, I’m not going to mention his name, because I don’t think he’s in business anymore. But he used to, hey, what would you like? I’ll grow it for you. And that, to me, just makes my creative juices flow. It’s like, hey, I can get you purple okra. What can you do with it? I’m like, oh now we’re playing.

Jeff
Yeah.

Steve
So, it’s just, it was always sad for me, being from a kid whose grandparents were farmers, to see, you know, my grandparents lived day-to-day. They couldn’t sell potatoes they didn’t put bread on the table.

Jeff
Right.

Steve
So, that always hurt me during COVID.

Jeff
Yeah, a single season can be catastrophic.

Steve
Correct.

Jeff
Let alone two years like we’ve had. Yeah. I appreciate you sharing that. I think that’s interesting and definitely worth noting. Another topic I wanted to ask you, and that is, you’re a seasoned career chef, you’re a partner in a restaurant, you helped launch this concept. And in my mind, you’re very successful. What advice would you have to share for a listener who might be considering becoming a chef themselves.

Steve
Don’t do it. And I mean that in a joking manner. It’s one of those careers, it’s your life, it takes over. You’re not going to get filthy rich at first. You’re not gonna have hours of your own. I mean, there was times where, for Union Hall to become the best restaurant it was, we worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day. A lot of people don’t realize that they see people on TV, and read books, that it’s glamorous. It’s not a glamorous life. It’s hard. Sometimes you’re eating dinner in the kitchen on a trash can that’s turned upside down. That’s life. I mean, that’s the restaurant business. You have to absolutely love it or it’s gonna eat you alive. And at one time, I had a restaurant, and it was not doing well. I knew it was not going to succeed. I was like, I’m getting out of the business. I’m just not gonna do this anymore. And I was like, what am I gonna do? I don’t want to do anything else. This is why I was put on Earth, is to be a chef. And that just resonated right there. I was like, I know what I am. I’m a chef for the rest of my life. And I love it. But you have to absolutely love it.

Jeff
That’s the commitment that’s required, for sure.

Steve
Yeah, I mean, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, you’re not at home, not until after your shift’s over. And then you get to go celebrate with your family. You’ll celebrate on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Jeff
Yeah. Well, there’s another chef locally, I won’t mention his name, that I’ve communicated with over the last year, or a couple years, actually. And he has shared the sentiment that, or actually just shared the information that, you know, because of the difficulty and, you know, the labor shortage, which I hate to bring up because it’s almost cliche at this point, but it’s a real thing, especially in the hospitality business. And the restaurant industry seems to be highly affected. And so, he’s gone from, you know, again, Executive Chef, partner in the business, he’s gone from having two days off, to not having two days off, you know, back to seven days a week, like he did when he, you know, 20 years ago.

Steve
Back when his body didn’t hurt.

Jeff
Right. Back, you know, back when he wasn’t in his 50s. So, it takes a, I appreciate you sharing that, because I think there is a lot of glamour around the idea of becoming a chef, a professional chef. But the reality is that there’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes to take, you have to, you got to love it. I mean, it has to be your mission in life.

Steve
I say it all the time. Cooking is the fun part of this business. If you don’t like the cooking part, you’re definitely in the wrong business. Because that’s, like when we open up at four o’clock. We’re open from four to nine. That’s the fun time. We’re getting to cook. We get to taste food and see people. I look at them and go, and then you see that smile on their face, you’re like, yes, that’s why we do this. Yes, I mean, you can go anywhere and get a burger. But to get the best burger, to get, I mean, that sandwich there, you’re gonna go, oh, I’m gonna remember this tomorrow. And then in a year, I was like, where was that I was at? Oh, I was at On the Nines, that’s where I got that from. That’s what we look for.

Jeff
I do also want to address something that listeners probably wouldn’t have noticed, but I did spring a surprise on you. Today I invited Kathleen Martin at LKN Images to come shoot some photos. So, she was joining us here, they’ve left the room, but we’ve got some good images to share on social. So, I’m looking forward to that, you handled it really well like a pro. Well, you’ve actually started a YouTube channel so you’re kind of used to being in front of the camera now a little bit.

Steve
Yeah, me and Patrick, who we call The Captain. We’ve started a little YouTube channel called The Chef and The Captain, and it’ll be, for right now we’re only doing it once a month. We’ll throw some extra little tidbits in there once in a while. I’m gonna take the YouTube, I mean the GoPro and go around and just take some videos of what the restaurant does during the night and throw them on there, but the cooking portion and the making of the beverages we will only do once a month, and fun banter between me and The Captain.

Jeff
Absolutely. Yeah, will there be a little instructional information there, too?

Steve
There will be. We’re actually, we talked about it today, it was like, we need to actually have it to where you can go to our website and get the actual recipes.

Jeff
Yeah, that’s cool. We’re in the middle of editing our first episodes for our YouTube channel, which has been delayed, delayed, delayed, but finally getting real close to the launch date. And it’s actually going to be pretty funny. Like, we had this talk too, and I had this talk with my business partner who helps me with so much with this production. And that is that the first episodes, I mean, we’re just shooting for simple right now. And there, this isn’t going to be industrial light and sound, Star Wars stuff. This is, I’m editing it myself, but in the beginning, you know, I think your stuff is not supposed to be awesome in the beginning. So, I go back to, we’re on, this is episode one hundred and something, and I go back to the early episodes, and I’m like, I cringe when I listen to them, I’m like, how could it have been that, how could I have been that bad? My guests were amazing. But how could I, but that’s just how you started. It’s a little messy in the beginning.

Steve
That’s, I mean, we’re actually, we’re striving for that imperfection. I mean, we want to keep it real where it’s just me and him bullshitting. And making food and drinking, and it’s what we’re doing.

Jeff
Yeah. Not going for that polished, finished product. Right? Just yeah. And I love that. That’s very cool. One last thing before we close. I’ve been instructed to ask you about Squishy. Tell me something, what’s that about?

Steve
That’s my baby and my little best friend. She’s about two and a half now and just the light and joy of me and my wife. It’s funny, Chris will say this 100,000 times, it’s like, I married this beautiful woman who’s, you know, got some Pakistani blood in her, so she’s got some darker skin, and here comes my child that looks like me and just as white as can be. You marry this exotic woman, and she comes out looking like you. It’s like, thanks, I appreciate that.

Jeff
Well, that’s, what are brothers for? That’s, yeah, that’s what friends are for. I love that. Well, congratulations. Two and a half?

Steve
Yeah, two and a half. Yeah. Going on 16.

Jeff
Yeah, I hear ya. Yeah. Just wait.

Steve
And she’s already smarter than me.

Jeff
Yeah, I get that. I understand that. That’s awesome. Very cool, Steve. Let’s, before we close, share with listeners how they can learn more about On the Nines. Obviously, we want them to visit. So, where are you located and how can they find you online?

Steve
We are at 205 Golf Course Drive in Mooresville. Can’t miss us, we’re right behind that new police station getting built. And then we are ontheninesbistro.com. And we also have a Facebook and Instagram.

Jeff
Excellent. Yeah, I follow the Instagram account and a lot of good content there. Everything looks amazing. And what is the name of the golf course, is that Mooresville?

Steve
Mooresville Golf Course.

Jeff
Okay.

Steve
And they were just ranked, I think, Top 50 in the United States for a municipal golf course, which is pretty impressive.

Jeff
It’s, now I’m not a golfer, but I’ve heard really amazing things about Mooresville Golf Course, especially since it went through a major renovation several years ago, and it’s supposed to be just fantastic.

Steve
I’m not much of a golfer anymore. I used to be, it’s a very nice golf course. Every once in a while, driving in there, I say, I should play more golf, seeing how I work on a golf course.

Jeff
You would think, right? Yeah. Well, this has been amazing. I am so happy that we finally got to connect and get you on the podcast and share a little bit of the story of On the Nines Bistro and your story, Steve. Really appreciate it. Steve Jordan, Executive Chef and Partner at On the Nines in Mooresville. Steve, thanks a lot for joining the podcast.

Steve
We’ll see you in two weeks when you’re off your diet.

Jeff
Absolutely.

Steve
Thanks, buddy.

Jeff
Huge thanks to Chef Steve Jordan for joining the podcast and sharing the story of On the Nines Bistro in Mooresville. You can learn more about On the Nines by going to ontheninesbistro.com and follow them on Facebook and Instagram at On the Nines. I’ll have those links as well as the links to the local businesses Steve mentioned during our conversation in the show notes for this episode. As always, you can find the complete show notes for all of our episodes at the home for Lake Norman’s number one small business podcast, www.thebestoflkn.com. While you’re there, be sure to sign up for our free weekly email newsletter. It’s a great way to stay up to date on all of our latest podcast episodes and the articles we write about our favorite local businesses. Signing up for the email newsletter is also a great way to show a little support for this podcast. Big thanks to LKN Images for the great photos of Chef Steve during our interview and also at the restaurant. I’ll have a link to LKN Images in the show notes too. You can get to know the team behind LKN Images, Kathleen and Ed Martin, back in Episode 73 of the podcast. Big thanks again to the Hoffman Lending Team for their sponsorship. Our sponsors are some of the very best small businesses serving the Lake Norman area. Please go to thebestoflkn.com and get to know these amazing local businesses. They are the very best at what they do and so worthy of your support. We have more sponsorship announcements on the way for our platform, very excited to share those updates with you. In the meantime, that’s going to do it for this episode. Thanks very much for joining The Best of LKN podcast and for supporting the small businesses throughout the Lake Norman area. We’ll be back next week with another episode, same time, same place. So, until then, cheers Lake Norman. Bye for now.

Narrator
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of The Best of LKN. For more information about this podcast, show notes, video episodes, and links to our feature businesses, please visit www.thebestoflkn.com. We publish episodes weekly, so be sure to subscribe and stay up to date. Until next time, cheers Lake Norman.