Speaker 1: It's kiss FM on this Monday morning. So yeah, spring
Speaker 1: is like in a few hours to twenty five. If
Speaker 1: you're taking a shower this morning or bowed two or
Speaker 1: you have, you should know that you're the most creative
Speaker 1: in the shower. I love I love a shower without
Speaker 1: a rush, which is rare. But I also love a
Speaker 1: shower where irreverently stay in a little bit longer, like
Speaker 1: just a few seconds longer. I know, I gotta usually
Speaker 1: have like seconds to get in a dream. I'm almost
Speaker 1: in a rush. I'm gonna rush too, But sometimes I
Speaker 1: lean my head against the wall and just like turn
Speaker 1: it really hot to take a deep breath and get creative.
Speaker 1: They say that, um, your your dope. Amane kicks kicks
Speaker 1: it up a notch when you're in the shower, almost
Speaker 1: like we should have a notepad in there right down
Speaker 1: our ideas or yeah, I don't know how you do that,
Speaker 1: but your waterproof phone and put in your notes. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very Just so you know, I guess I took
Speaker 1: a bath last night. You start taking baths, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be a bath boy. Are you calling a bath boy? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a bath boy. It's a phase. Maybe
Speaker 1: I got into tub last night, drew the water, put
Speaker 1: some Epps and salt in there. I got in. I'm like,
Speaker 1: why don't I do this more often? And then I
Speaker 1: got hot? And then I got hot and you got
Speaker 1: out in ten minutes, not tatting like eight, took a shower.
Speaker 1: I was very excited for myself, like this is what
Speaker 1: people do. They bathe. Yeah, the first five minutes are great. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was like, you know, I'm gonna dim the lights
Speaker 1: in the bathroom, not gonna tell anybody I'm in here.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get in my bath. And I took a bath.
Speaker 1: I felt good afterwards, really really relaxes you. All Right,
Speaker 1: this let's get from bathing to eating, right, got to
Speaker 1: cover all the bases here right now, I'm gonna walk
Speaker 1: you into some free food from Postmates. But I thought
Speaker 1: it's always fun to highlight something specific. Do you know,
Speaker 1: are you familiar with Nashville Hot Wings, Hot chicken wings?
Speaker 1: I mean in general, yes, big deal. Right, you got
Speaker 1: to Nashville, you want you want a hot chicken? Yeah,
Speaker 1: right to signature Nashville Hot Chicken. So I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: put Johnny ray Zone of Howland Rays on the line.
Speaker 1: Silver Lake native Johnny rays Zones a founder and the
Speaker 1: owner of Howland rays I have free food free. That's
Speaker 1: where I'm going with this. If you want to get
Speaker 1: this for later in your day. It's a restaurant. Nome
Speaker 1: for bringing Nashville Hot Chicken to Los Angeles. Every time
Speaker 1: I go see my sister Meredith and my niece Florida,
Speaker 1: we get hot chicken from now. So Johnny was first
Speaker 1: introduced to this. Johnny, thanks for coming on. When did
Speaker 1: you discover Nashville Hot Chicken and how did you bring
Speaker 1: it to La? So this probably about six seven years ago,
Speaker 1: when my father passed away. I wanted to go out
Speaker 1: and study Antebellum Southern food with chef Sean Brock. I
Speaker 1: just met him. I just met him. He's a gemman.
Speaker 1: His knowledge of seeds and everything. I mean, he's such
Speaker 1: an amazing He's like a book. It's so crazy. I
Speaker 1: met him. I just met him. He has a Jeff
Speaker 1: Table episode from the beginning years ago. And I went
Speaker 1: to his restaurant and he was there and he's got
Speaker 1: his signature glasses on, and he took me on a
Speaker 1: tour of the kitchen and he showed me in the
Speaker 1: massage room. They have like a place where you can
Speaker 1: go meditate. The chefs when they get stressed, they go meditate. Wow. Ye, anyway,
Speaker 1: we'll get so excited, Johnny. Sorry, No, it's it's it's great.
Speaker 1: I mean it's something to be excited about. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe it's too exciting. All right. So you first introduced
Speaker 1: Nationals to hot chicken when you worked at Husk Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, the fine dining place we're talking about. Originally
Speaker 1: I went out there to study antivillims southern food with him,
Speaker 1: but then I got sidetracked. I had it at a
Speaker 1: little shock Um and I was just blown away, you know,
Speaker 1: this la kid having it. I mean, I've never had
Speaker 1: fried chicken fried in quarter pieces, so it's it's like bigger,
Speaker 1: and it's it's cooked slower so that it's like shattered
Speaker 1: glass and then just just moist the chicken, you know,
Speaker 1: goodness inside. And so the nation of all these different things,
Speaker 1: it just really flipped my world. And after I my
Speaker 1: father passed, I was like, you know, life is really short. Uh,
Speaker 1: no one's doing hot chicken in Los Angeles. Let's let's
Speaker 1: give it a shot. And the truck it wasn't super
Speaker 1: busy to start, but it wasn't until we released the
Speaker 1: sandwich that my wife was pushing for that we started
Speaker 1: to really gain some momentum. And now you have two locations,
Speaker 1: Pasadena and Chinatown, Holland Rays. Correct. Yes, we've we've been
Speaker 1: the offer to like franchise and stuff like that, but
Speaker 1: we keep a real family. We don't. We want to
Speaker 1: keep our intentions pure on it. And it's really just
Speaker 1: the culture, the community, the employees, the customers, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's such a special it has such a special
Speaker 1: place in both of our lives that we want to
Speaker 1: keep it, you know, family. Yeah, can I I just
Speaker 1: want to talk about getting married. Ny. Okay, you just
Speaker 1: mentioned that you've got your wife, and I don't know
Speaker 1: you know who here will get married next? Could be Tanya,
Speaker 1: could be Ruby, maybe somebody listenings planning wedding. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: we'll go then. But this is the kind of thing
Speaker 1: you want to serve at the wedding. Well, forget the
Speaker 1: standard bank of food, hot chicken sandwiches, quarter chicken with
Speaker 1: the hot sauce. This is the kind of stuff people want,
Speaker 1: like your late night snack grub food. This food, right
Speaker 1: back pre COVID, we would have a lot of husbands
Speaker 1: and pregnant women come to our restaurants trying to induce
Speaker 1: their labor exactly. Yeah, because they say spicy food can
Speaker 1: induce labor. Yeah, so yeah, just it can be tricky though,
Speaker 1: and have some long term effects if you're eating it
Speaker 1: like myself. So I have to, you know, be on
Speaker 1: top of that in terms of intestines and things, you know, really,
Speaker 1: Johnny a couple of check them out on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Allen raised on Instagram. If you've never had Nashville Hot Chicken,
Speaker 1: you got it. Take the drive and try it all right.
Speaker 1: We got Postmates for you to try it for free
Speaker 1: one eight hundred and five, two on one or two
Speaker 1: seven today. I love a food narrative like this. I
Speaker 1: love your passion keeping the integrity of it. Congratulations and
Speaker 1: uh yeah people check it out. Bro, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 1: Yeah and then this family owned Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you guys. Bye. Yeah, you know these are the
Speaker 1: kind of things that you want to serve right after
Speaker 1: the dancing or maybe even at the weapon. Yeah. We
Speaker 1: did a late night snack and everyone loved it. Would
Speaker 1: you do We did bacon wrapped hot dogs with little
Speaker 1: French fries, just because it was kind of nostalgic for
Speaker 1: Michael and I because that's kind of like what we
Speaker 1: did in our early twenties. We'd always go to clubs
Speaker 1: and then eat bacon wrapped hot dogs after the club.
Speaker 1: So they were a little tiny, miniature ones. They're really cute. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna, like, if I recommend, I'm gonna take all
Speaker 1: of our hometown hustler foods and these foods and just
Speaker 1: to set up a mall like a what you called
Speaker 1: a food court, four food court, a snack Ryan's Court.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, coming up next, A thousand dollars help
Speaker 1: pay your bills