Chef Joey Dawkins And The Tale Of The Toasted Walnut

Speaker 1: (00:02)
Because they want you to be below 30 and you have to have a certain healthiness to you or something. And I said, I'm healthy, but I mean, I'm 44. So I'm not sure if I would qualify for this, but I was just astonished that there are people paying for poop. That's yeah. Please know what to say about that's awesome. Welcome to Celina radio recorded right here in Celina, Texas, a quiet little dusty sleepy town that has absolutely nothing going on,

Speaker 1: (00:41)
Guys. Welcome to another episode of CelinaRadio.com and check out this little chill, 1980s music vibe thing. I've got going in the background. I don't know why, but I'm feeling really nostalgic for the eighties a lot lately. And this song just kind of takes me back a little bit and it's not the hair band stuff. This isn't van ha or something like that, but it's some chill rock from the eighties and it's good stuff now. Why am I feeling so nostalgic about the eighties? Probably because today's world is so different. I don't even recognize it sometimes, but you know what? One thing I do recognize is awesomeness. This music is awesome. The city of Celina is awesome. And the little restaurant that sits on the square called the toasted Walnut is also awesome. And it just so happens that today's guest is none other than Joey Dawkins. And if you don't know Joey, you're in for a treat, this guy is hilarious. I always thought that he's like kind of quiet and reserved and all that stuff. No, no, no, no. Joey is living life and he's live and large. He is having the best time ever. He's literally living his dream. I mean, he's literally got one arm of nothing but food tattoos. And who does that? I'll tell you. Who does that? Joey Dawkins does that. So guys sit back and let's talk to Chef Joey

Speaker 1: (02:30)
Guys. I am here right now with none other than Chef Joey and you know him because you know, his restaurant, everybody knows the toasted Walnut. And if you've been in a few times, then most likely, you know, Chef Joey, how are we doing today, buddy? I'm doing good. Doing really good. Good. And we're in here on a day off. So we're in here on a Monday right now. And obviously we're, we're ways out until this will actually be, uh, made live for everybody to hear. But is is Monday. Is that, is that like your day off? Is that your one day you guys are not open on Sunday either? Are you right? No, we're not open on Sunday. Okay. So you kind of have a weekend, it's just kind of skewed a little bit. So Saturdays are just something you don't really have right now.

Speaker 1: (03:11)
Is that the way it is? No. Yeah. Saturdays are nonexistent for me. and, and I've, and I've known you for a while since back when you were doing sandwiches basically out of the back of Annie Jack's store. Yeah. So Rachel batty actually had, had come to me and was asking me, uh, if I could make cold sandwiches for her, uh, to sell in the back of, of Annie Jack. And, um, we, we were having a trouble getting a, uh, a kitchen to, to create, to, to make 'em out of, you have to have a commercial kitchen and all that good stuff. And, um, I actually just was like, Hey, why don't we, why don't you let me make hot sandwiches outta here? Let me get a little area in the back. And we can just make it like a little sandwich thing and I can, I can start toasted Walnut here.

Speaker 1: (03:57)
Um, and, and she thought about it for a little bit. And she was like, yeah, you know what, let's do this. And so we built it out and I'm very thankful to her for that because she was a big part of helping me get started. Um, and I literally started that with a soup kettle, one piny press, a front counter, and two little refrigeration units and toasted Walnut was born. Um, and it was really cool cause it was a very unique situation, uh, because the, it just wasn't here. Like nobody ever heard of it. It had like a little hidden door aspect. Have you heard of toasted Walnut? Where is it? It's inside a, a woman's boutique. Well, where's that at? You gotta find it, you know, and it was cool. I love that aspect of it. Cuz you have to like walk through the clothes and walked through the, uh, the furniture and stuff and then there's some tattooed dude back making sandwiches , you know, um, and I that's awesome.

Speaker 1: (04:47)
I loved it. I thought it was the coolest thing, man. I, I always tell people it, uh, it was like quitting the corporate job and going to Mexico and, and selling tacos in the beach. It just so happens. I was selling sandwiches in Celina and I was working like 11 to two Monday through, uh, Saturday. It was, it was the best thing ever, you know, it was really cool. It was, it was great for this community at the point in time as well. Absolutely. And I think that that is such, uh, a true statement. It's all about timing. It's all about getting to know the, the right people at the right place at the right time and all that stuff, but I'm, I'm curious, toasted Walnut. What's the significance of the name? Uh, originally when I first got started, um, out here in Celina, I had moved from Frisco, um, and I had bought a house down the road on Walnut and, um, I was actually going to, uh, local farms when I first moved out here and, and just trying to meet farmers and get to know them and, and see what kind of food they could provide and all that.

Speaker 1: (05:47)
Uh, and I ended up actually, um, doing in-house cooking classes and I would bring in the food from the local farms and stuff. And I would demonstrate to people like they do on food network, how to make certain things and all that stuff. And, um, then I would feed them before a course meal of what they just watched me make, um, and showed them. Wow. Yeah, it was really, really cool. Very cool. Uh, and so the house was on Walnut street and I said, toasted Walnut, you know, let's, let's roll with that. And that's actually how toasted Walnut was born originally. So, oh, I like to know that story because in my mind I'm thinking, well maybe he used to toast walnuts or something. I don't when I was, when I was doing, I always do my due diligence before I do one of these podcasts and I was doing my research and, and I type in toasted Walnut.

Speaker 1: (06:36)
And you dominate obviously. Yeah. You know, the, the, the first page is all yours, but the very, very next thing is literally how to toast walnuts. And I thought, well, maybe he did that. I don't know. I'm not real sure. So, so how long ago was that, that you started at, uh, the Annie Jacksons in the back of the store there? That was five years ago. About five years ago. So here we are five years later, you've got this place right here on the square and how's it going? No, no, it was, it was way more than I expected. It was, it was such a fun situation. I loved looking up and seeing the line out the door of, of people coming in just to get sandwiches. Um, and I was like, because in all honesty, when I first started, I had no idea if I was gonna be good or not.

Speaker 1: (07:19)
I didn't, I was a, I'm still a young Chef, but I was really young then I wasn't, I wasn't proven. Um, and that's one of those things that actually gave me confidence is that people did like it and they kept coming back over and over again. And I was like, wow, okay. Maybe I am good at this. You know, you never know. So, um, that was a big thing for me. It was a big confidence go look for me. And it helped me to, to really cement, uh, I made the right choice when I went to culinary school and, and to make this career, you know, and, and so let's go back and talk about that just a little bit. So you did obviously go to culinary school. Yes. Hence the term Chef, what do, at what point in your life did you decide, you know what I want to do that?

Speaker 1: (07:59)
Yeah, no, uh, actually I, I, before the tattoos and the beards and the, all that stuff, I was a, a salesman and a marketing director, all that stuff. Um, and I just was never in love with it. It was something I was having to do to just pay bills. Um, and I was doing it 70%. I wasn't giving it my all. Um, and so I basically literally had a, a coming to Jesus talk with myself. I, I pulled into the parking lot of LA cordon blue, and I, uh, I said, when were you ever like the happiest in your life? And I remembered it was when I was 16 flipping burgers, cooking fries. I remember like it was, I loved the fact I could go in do the work. It was hard work. Um, but I could walk away. Then at the end of the day, knowing that I had done my best.

Speaker 1: (08:49)
And that was like, that was big for me. And I said, you know what? I need to change the way I'm doing things. And I went to culinary school, um, at 30 and it changed everything for me. Like it, it gave me, uh, a reason, you know, to, to, to try harder to give my a hundred percent. It was something that I found that if you give me a chance to be lazy or to just half something, I will do it. But in the food world, you can't do that. It's all or nothing. You, you go hardcore all the time. And it helps me keep my hands busy cuz that's, if I'm creating something I'm happy. Absolutely. And right now, I mean, I come in here, gosh, I feel like I'm in here at least once a week. You are sometimes sometimes maybe more and sometimes it's hard to find a table.

Speaker 1: (09:40)
That's a good thing. Mm-hmm , that means there's a lot of people who enjoy this and want this. And, and for people who've not been here yet, but you're, you're basically out as you've, you've got booths down one side, you've got these little curtains. It kind of gives you a little bit of privacy. Like if you were, you know, having a little discussion with somebody, maybe a business meeting, mm-hmm, maybe you're on a date. I mean, that could totally happen here. Yes. This is a great place to come for like a little lunch date or do something like that. It gives you a little bit of that, but in the, in the middle, you've got open tables. Mm-hmm and then you've got a counter over here as well. So you kind of have all three set up in here. Right? You've got these, uh, uh, painted kind of rustic looking concrete floors that probably throws back to the, the time when you know, this, this was, gosh knows how many different things this particular space has been over the last 100 years.

Speaker 1: (10:29)
Mm-hmm and then upfront, tell me about this. You've got, it's like a, a little gift area or something. Tell me about this. Yes. So whenever we actually, I, I, I sat down with Dante, from Tinder. Um, he had come over and said, Hey, I heard you, uh, were thinking about, you know, going a little bit bigger. He said, I have an idea. He said, um, Audra wants to do a gift shop or a boutique, but we know that it needs food. Um, and we think it'd be great to have you in there and, and to kind of kind of boost you out and push, put you out there for everybody to see you, you know? Um, so that's when I teamed up with Dante and, and Audra and, um, we, we started this version of toasted Walnut. So, and right here on the square you're you're right in the center of Celina, Texas mm-hmm .

Speaker 1: (11:17)
And by the way, Celina, Texas, right? I mean, this is the place to be, right. It is. Isn't not the most amazing city in the world. And you've certainly, uh, had the, the Celina Kool-Aid like I have, yes. You love this city. Tell me what you think about all this crazy growth that's going on in Celina, Texas. Uh, well, first of all, from a business standpoint, it's a beautiful thing. Um, I, my main goal here is to provide for the city. Um, I get, I get to give them my food that we make and, and it's something for the, for the citizens of Celina. You know, it's something that I'm proud of. I hope they're proud of, uh, you know, and as, as the growth comes and it's coming, no matter what we want, it's coming. Um, I want to continue to grow with the city with toasted long up with other restaurants, with everything we can, uh, and I want to grow the right way and I wanna grow in a way that we provide what we can for these, for the salon people.

Speaker 1: (12:13)
And, uh, and you know, that, that's, that's my main goal. That that's really, it it's as simple as that. I just, I try to keep my head down, make good burgers and crispy fries. that's about all, I, I control what I can control, but isn't it true that in, in the restaurant world and I, and I know very little about that, but just from, you know, I'm a, I'm a big, I read reviews a lot. I do that sort of thing. And it seems like something as little as, like you just said, crispy fries. Yeah. Something as little as some error in that mistake can get, you just really killed out there right now on social media or on a review or something like that. So what's happy you handle it when you have a customer who comes in and they're unhappy with something what's, what's the, the Chef Joey way of handling somebody that may not be perfectly happy with whatever you know happened.

Speaker 1: (13:03)
Right. So in naturality it rarely happens. And I'm very thankful for that. Um, I have, I feel like I have a very good connection with all of my customers. I mean, I'm, I'm here pretty much all the time. I know every face that comes and goes from this restaurant. Um, and I think the best thing to do is to, if we do have a situation like that, we take ownership of it and say, yes, by all means, I do not approve of that myself. First of all, your meal is gonna be free and I'll remake it myself if necessary. Absolutely. So good. Very, very strong customer service. Yes. And that personal connection with your customers is, is critical. Oh, very much so. Yes. Yes. So, so would you say that that's one of the things that's helped make your restaurant here? So, um, so popular and in, in, so in just so well accepted, is it, is that part of that is the fact that, you know, everybody.

Speaker 1: (13:57)
Yes. Yeah. I think it, I think it really is. I think it's a, a key part. Um, you know, everybody, everybody wants to, to see the Chef bring the food to the table and that's what I do. You know, it's not very many restaurants that, that do that. You know, it's usually a way to whatever, uh, it it's me, I'm coming to that table and we're gonna talk about food and we're gonna have an discussion and really get into what kind of foods you like, you know, whatever it may be. I will talk to you about food 24 7. And that's awesome. And, and I know that you're here all the time because I literally hardly ever come in and not see you here. So, so I'm assuming you eat a lot of your own meals in your own restaurant, is that right? Yes. Yes I do.

Speaker 1: (14:39)
Okay. So one of the things that, and I say this every single podcast and I, I keep trying to get away from it, but I just can't help myself. I always ask people like, when you eat at a certain restaurant, yours comes up every single time. What do you like to get there? So I'm gonna ask Chef Joey himself in his own restaurant. What do you like to have from your own menu in your own restaurant? Okay. So I will ha I have to say it is the Wagar burger. The reason why though, and here's the, here's the tough part of this job that people don't understand. um, as I'm in the past on expo, pulling the food out to take to the tables, I see everything, I smell everything. There is something about that burger that when it comes to that pass, I'm like, dang it.

Speaker 1: (15:25)
I'm gonna eat it again today. I know it, but I did have to modify it though. I did have to, to go to a side salad and no bun, um, just so I could keep myself from, from blowing up, man, that gets it's tough that, but that meat alone just by itself is so good. It really is. It gets me every time. I'm like, maybe I'm gonna try the tacos. Maybe I'm gonna try the chicken avocado, not even close. It's the burger every time. . So do you, when you eat in your restaurant, I'm just curious, there's one of those kind of behind the scenes things. Do you typically sit at one of these tables or do you have some hidden little office somewhere that you go back to and eat? We typically have family meal in the back, um, with the kitchen crew, um, with all my crew in the morning time, we'll, we'll have it in the morning or in the afternoon where we'll make something for ourselves, for us all to sit and eat before we, you know, go into the, uh, the day or at the, in middle of the day going into the nighttime.

Speaker 1: (16:21)
Um, but that's important for us. Like that family meal is something you'll never see in the menu probably, um, every once in while I'll do it. But for the most part it's food that we make, that's just down home, good food. Typically it's gonna be Mexican, very traditional. That's what we all love. Uh, there's some stuff back there that if I put in the menu, people would be like, oh my God, , it's so good. So I feel like I just accidentally like stumbled into the middle of something here. So you actually, so you make food here for you and the crew sometimes. Yeah. You call it a family meal. Yeah. How awesome is that? Yeah, just by itself. I mean, that's just amazing. And then it's not just stuff from the menu. So there may be some secret things yes. That we don't know about.

Speaker 1: (17:06)
Yep. Is there any chance that we may ever see any of those things that, that right now only staff gets to enjoy, make it out to the, to the main menu and on these tables? Or is that not gonna happen? Believe it or not this week, uh, I'm doing wings and my head cook angel. He makes 'em in the back and we go crazy for him. Like, we're all like, just snatching at 'em like trying to get them. sounds awesome. And I just put him on today as the secret menu item of the week and it's garlic butter, lemon pepper. Valenti's uh, chicken wings. Wow. Try saying that five times fast. Yeah, no, I can even say one time. So I was like, it sounds so overwhelming and it sounds like it shouldn't work. Uh, but it works and I'm like, I'm so proud of him, uh, for that cuz like he takes pride in it and that's something I want him to do is understand taking pride in what you do.

Speaker 1: (17:57)
And, and that's why I'm saying this is your secret menu, dude. This is you. So are you, do you feel like in the position that you're in right now, are you basically mentoring other people as well? Yes, very, very much so that it's kind of just developed that way. It's gone into that, that section as we've grown, you know, I'm going on five years of toasted Walnut being open in two different forms. One was me running everything and doing everything to getting a crew and me having to learn how to take care of a crew and grow a crew. Um, and now that's where we've gotten to. And we have some really solid people that put a lot of effort and, and care about what we do. And that's such a necessity for, for our success, you know, to, to be able to cook is great, you know, and make things taste well.

Speaker 1: (18:44)
But can I teach somebody else how to do it? Absolutely. And because you can't literally do everything by yourself, right? I mean, you're only as good as all of the people around you and, and, and you would be exhausted and done if you were the only one making the food. The only one bringing it out. The only one doing the cleaning and the, the, all the accounting and bookkeeping and meeting with the vendors and all that stuff. So you've got to surround yourself with really good people. And clearly that's what's going on here because I don't, I, I never meet anyone here. That's not friendly. Helpful. Nice. It's just, it's amazing. It's been a really good deal. As a matter of fact, let me tell you about this from the other day, you may remember this, but uh, my wife loves your chicken salad. I can't say that I've ever had it really.

Speaker 1: (19:32)
She loves it. No, I'm the Wago burger guy, man. Are you, what are you talking about? I'm not doing, do I look like I do too many salads? No, I do not. So if, if I come over here and have a business meeting or do something like that, she always says, Hey, grab me a chicken salad. Okay. I'll grab you a chicken salad. So I ordered it and went on and sat down and did my deal. And, and, and, and soon, soon enough, you came over there and you set a box down. I thought it was a to go box for the gentleman that I was with. I remember that. I thought that he had asked for that. And so a little bit later, I was like, Hey, I need to go find out about this salad because I've gotta get outta here. So I went and asked and she's like, oh, I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1: (20:15)
Apparently somebody else got it or whatever you were right away. No questions asked no pushback, no nothing. Boom. You had me a second salad. Mm-hmm and then, then we figured out what happened and you know what you did, what you gave me, both of them. I did. You did. That is what I'm talking about. So all the way around, I just left here with an amazingly good experience because you know how it is these days. Yes. Customer service is something that's not, you know, is not as common as it used to be. So that was a great experience. And, and I just wanna say, thank you publicly for that. That was very, very kind of you, you had great staff. Love them. Uh, love everything you have going on here. I'm I'm curious though, if you, if you were in Celina, Texas doing this right now, if you hadn't taken this path to bring you to, to being Chef Joey, what else in your life could you see yourself doing?

Speaker 1: (21:09)
I don't know if I could see myself doing anything like this. This is a path that I chose because I didn't like what I was doing before. Um, I, I chose this and so for me, it's a hundred percent go, no matter what this has to work, there's no plan B. There's no windows open. There's no back door open to get out. This, this is pure success. It has to be that way. So it's make it or break it, make it or break it. There is no other choice. I don't give myself options. I like it. And I always say your chances of making it look to be about a hundred percent right now. So I think you're doing good. And, and, and you've alluded to your tattoos now. Yes. And the way we're sitting right now, I, I can see quite a bit. So give me a little bit there people, there's a lot of stories behind people's, you know, artwork and stuff.

Speaker 1: (21:50)
Right? So gimme an idea of some of the, the reasoning between, because I see you've got, you've got an avocado right here. You've got, that looks like that's, uh, the KFC, the Colonel from KFC. You've got some very interesting artwork. Tell me about this. So the whole right arm is all food. Um, it's actually from my tattoo artist, my main tattoo artist, she traded me food for these tattoos. I'm not kidding. I love it. That's awesome. Every, every single one of 'em. Um, and you know, she was, she's a tattoo artist and she was always eating terrible food and bad food and wanting to be healthy. So I was making food and bringing it to her and in trade she'd give me artwork. Wow. Um, and yeah, she's, she's great. She's a, a good, good friend of mine right now as she always will be.

Speaker 1: (22:38)
But, um, yeah, that was my whole thing was just the whole food of arm. And so let's talk about some of these things. So you've, so you've got the, the kernel from yeah. Uh, KFC there. Uh, what's this guy right here, this guy looks like he's meaning some serious business here. This is a French butcher. Just a, a French butcher. Yeah. Okay. He's got his, he's got his Cleaver in his hand there or whatever that is and yep. He's got an avocado down here. Mm-hmm with a skull face holding a pistol. Tell me about it. That's G guacamole. it's true. I like it. I like it. And then let's see, what's on the back of your arm here. So you've got, uh, okay. You've got the, what is this deal? I've see, I see this sometimes. So it's, it's a, it's like a, a cow for a bull.

Speaker 1: (23:24)
And then it's like, all the different parts are typically marked like the flank and the, the brisket and everything. So is, is that what that is? Yes, but it's, it's a, more of a play on just a joke. If you look really closely at all of them, it says cake, cake, cake, cake in the middle. it stands for, uh, it stands for beef cake. I like it. I like it. I like it. And then let's see what else you gotta, I, I saw you had a burger down here on your hand somewhere. Yeah. Right here. Uh, yep. You've got a burger right there. And then what is this big one right next to it right here. That is a shrimp PO boy I got that in, uh, new Orleans. Every time I would go to new Orleans, I'd get one that, that is from new Orleans.

Speaker 1: (24:02)
And then the crawfish right here is from new Orleans. Right. Um, so yeah, those, those, the ones in the hand were painful. Oh yeah. I, I can only imagine getting the back of your hand done like that, but yeah. That's there's, I mean, this is the, kernel's actually deaf to fast food. Cause it's a zombie look at that. Um, but yeah. Nice. Yeah. So there is, okay. Now let's, let's switch over to the left arm. Now tell me about this. This is a play on, uh, some of banks. He's art. Um, do you know who banks he is by chance? I do. I do. Yeah. Um, it's just, uh, a girl following her heart monkey dropped in banana bombs. Um, love it. I've gotten to the point now where I have enough tattoos that, um, I'm like, if, if I'm doing tattoos, there's gonna be bananas on my arm.

Speaker 1: (24:49)
You know? Like what's the, this doesn't matter anymore. I've had people ask me, well, what do all of them mean? I'm like, it doesn't mean anything anymore. And I said, if next week I'm into paperclips. I may put one right there. There you go. You know, that's it. So, so, so that is, I mean, that kind of like epitomizes your life, right? Yeah. Like, so like you said, it's, it's all or nothing. You're a hundred percent in, you're all about customer service and personal relationships and above all, you're having fun. Yeah. You really are. You're having fun. Like, you love this, you love your life. Mm-hmm you've got a great life. Is this, is this a God thing for Joey? Like did, did, did God like help put you right where you're at right now? Is this a blessing to you? Oh, I would definitely say yes.

Speaker 1: (25:32)
Um, like, like I said, in, when I pulled into the parking lot of the cord on blue, it wasn't coming to Jesus talk myself. Like I knew I wasn't happy and I did some prayer and, and I was like, where do I need to go? Like what I need to do. Um, and wholeheartedly that, that the reason I am where I am now is because of God, like, totally, like he, he said, this is, this is what you're meant for. Go do it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. And that's part of why, in my opinion, this is so successful because you know, what is, what is the failure rate in the restaurant industry? It's gotta be pretty high. Yeah. It's pretty high. Within the first two or three years, I would say 90% of restaurants don't make it.

Speaker 1: (26:12)
Absolutely. And you're going strong. You're going so strong. Sometimes I come in, I'm like, okay. Yeah. There's snow tables. Yeah. There's literally it's to go or no. So, and that's a great problem. That's not a bad thing because we could walk in and the whole, whole place could look like it looks today empty. Right. Besides you and I. Yes. And, and that's not a problem that you ever have, and that's a fantastic thing. So, um, now I asked you earlier when we weren't recording, if you have any hobbies and you gave me a very interesting answer. So I'm gonna ask you again, do you have any hobbies? I would say yes and no. I mean, my, my new ho my new favorite hobby is, you know, after being here for 12 to 13 hours, I, I like to go home. I like to feel the door closed behind me and to find some peace and quiet and just to relax, um, and have some me time.

Speaker 1: (27:00)
You know, I spend a lot of time in here talking and, and discussing and, and meeting people and meeting old people, new people. Uh, and then just to have some me time is very important, but, but like I said, I chose this life and it's what I do now. Right. You on right on. And there's nothing wrong with having that kind of escape. It gives you balance. Right. And we want you to have balance because we want you to keep doing what you're doing. Yes. We don't want you getting out of balance and saying, you know what, uh, like Dave Chappelle, I just walked away. Don't, don't do that. don't do that. I don't want to come up to the door of toasted Walnut it be locked. And I'm like, oh, it must be Monday. No, it's Tuesday wise, it locked we don't need that.

Speaker 1: (27:41)
Okay. We don't need to keep having fun and keep doing what you're doing. So I'm gonna ask you a few questions. People love to get to know the person behind the name or whatever. So in this case, you know, like you said, you already know people really well. You have a, a great relationship with so many people, but I'm gonna ask you some stuff that, you know, probably the people that you talk to every day have no idea about. So I'm gonna ask you some of those questions. So, uh, take me back to, let's say high school. Okay. Sure. You're in high school. What kind, what kind of kid were you in high school? Would you say? Were you a jock? Were you one of like country guys? Were you a real quiet, like, like describe yourself in high school? Uh, in high school, I, I started off playing sports.

Speaker 1: (28:24)
I mean, all through all through my youth, I was big, big into baseball. My dad and I spent a lot of time, you know, a lot of time playing baseball, practicing baseball, but the, uh, as I got into high school, I had, you know, I had a car, so I needed to, um, pay for that car. Cuz my parents weren't gonna allow me just to have a car and they'll pay for it and I can still do whatever I want. So at a, at a early age I was paying insurance and car payments. So I actually had two jobs. Um, by the time I hit, uh, my junior and senior year, I was only working. I was only go to school for three hours and I would leave and go work at Mrs. Barrett's bakeries and make bun and bread for a full-time job. wow.

Speaker 1: (29:06)
That's different. Yeah. I know it was it's uh, that the work ethic is, was instilled by my dad a long time ago. Right on that's. That's awesome. So, so, so gimme an idea. Uh, first of all, I'm I'm gonna ask you a straight up personal question and, uh, you didn't, you don't know any of these actually, so, but, but this is probably not one. What, what do you drive? I drive a 2018 Toyota. C R. Okay. What, what is that? I don't even know what that is. It's a basic little car for cylinder. It's gets me from point a to point B. It's transportation. Exactly. What's the radio stations day on, uh, the ticket. Okay. All right. I like that. That's awesome. That's good. So, so if you, if you're not working, cuz when you're working, you've got something that you've gotta wear when you're working and all of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: (29:58)
If I see you out town, are you gonna be more of a cargo shorts and flip flops kind of guy. Are you blue jeans and boots? What's your what's what's your preference when it comes to just, Hey see Joey out on the town. What's he gonna be wearing? I mean, I like to be comfortable, but I also like to look good. You gotta look, you gotta, you gotta look good out there. So I mean, I I'll put on some Jordans for you. I'll uh, there you go. Have some shorts, there's some jeans and some work boots sometimes. Uh, you know, it, it varies for me. If I'm wanting to be comfortable, I'll be really laid back. Or if I wanna look good then I'll, I'll, I'll dress it up a little bit. Celina radio is doing so well right now. And I just wanna take a moment to say thank you for that.

Speaker 1: (30:45)
If you happen to have a local business and you'd like to sponsor an episode or a few episodes, do something like that. Reach out to me@ronatronlyons.com. It's probably one of the least expensive ways that you can actually market your local business to people who really love Celina. So reach out to me, Ron, Ron lyons.com. And let's talk about the possibilities of getting your business in a sponsorship position with Celina radio.com. There's all these events that take place on the square. We've got the Friday night market. We've got the, all of the different things associated with holidays. We've got beware the square, we've got the Christmas event. Do you attend those things? Typically I'm working when they're going on. It's that's a, uh, all hands on deck. Everybody's here because it's gonna be wild and crazy the route. Right? Right. I can only imagine. But what we will do is when we have the slow down time, me and the kitchen crew will walk out and kind of do a quick walk around real fast just to kind of see what's going on and see what's out there.

Speaker 1: (31:58)
Maybe grab some food for us if we want to try something that's new out there. Um, and just to get the vibe and see what it's like, they're, they're always so, so much fun that those things are awesome. They are. And I think that, um, one of the best things going on for Celina right now, as far as the, the, the city government knows that the growth is coming, but they wanna hold onto that small town feeling. And time and time again, as I do these interviews, they all keep saying, if we can maintain this downtown mm-hmm with that hometown, feel that small town thing and keep having these little events and, and bring the kind of businesses here that, that, you know, kind of lend themselves to that feel that vibe, then we're succeeding this. So the downtown is gonna be our anchor to the old Celina that you know, is, is gonna be harder and harder to hang onto.

Speaker 1: (32:49)
Right. So how do you feel about that? I, I think that's the goal. I mean, the goal, we do need to keep it that small town feel, uh, but still have the growth and, and growth done right. Is, is the best way to do it. But it's also the hardest way. Absolutely. Um, but I, I think, but that's really focusing on having small local businesses downtown, like we do now, the core is there. We just have to keep on building on it and, and stay focused. I like it. So I I've got this little book right here and every time this book comes out, people tend to go, oh no. So, so what I have, I have rapid fire questions. It's the exact same ones. If you've heard any of the other times that I've done this with anyone else, then you already know, you may have already thought through this.

Speaker 1: (33:31)
I, I did a, I did a podcast recently with someone and won't name any names, but I could tell the answers were so prepared. I was, oh really? I was impressed. I was like, wow. That's, that's amazing. So, uh, chances are good. That as much as you were, you don't know these. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you these real quick. So, uh, just as fast, the first answer that comes to your head and we'll just blaze through these, then we're gonna do something else. So iPhone or Android, iPhone mustard, or mayonnaise, mayonnaise, Coke, or Pepsi, Coke, chocolate or vanilla chocolate chili with or without beans. Oh, without come on. Or Texas man. Right on pineapple. Okay. On pizza or no? Nope. Very good. More cream or more sugar, more cream like it. Classic rock or classic country. Classic rock Forer Chevy, uh, Chevy, fruity pebbles or fruit loops.

Speaker 1: (34:26)
Fruity pebbles. chewy or crunchy chocolate chip cookies, chewy, acoustic or electric guitar. Ooh, electric first BA or third base. Third base beach or mountains mountains. 1986 or 19 99, 19 86. Orange juice with or without the pu without Disney world or Disneyland Disney world. What was the last thing that you Googled? Oh my gosh. Um, what was it? Oh man. I don't know if you wanna know about that. That's , it's a weird one. I'm not kidding. It's a weird one. Tell me, and I can edit it if I, if we , if we can't, but it might be something we can leave in. What was it? Okay. So there was this thing I saw on a TikTok and it said, Hey, you wanna make some extra money. This is how you do it. You go to this website and it was something microbe. Uh, and basically they will pay you to send them stool samples and you can make money.

Speaker 1: (35:37)
Um, and it was $500 a stool stuff. And they said, if, if you're good, you can make 180,000 a year. How, how are you good at that? Like, I don't know. That's what I was wondering. I was like, how does this work? And so it says only like 1% can actually do it. And you have to, I was completely out. As soon as I read the that they want you to be below 30 and you have to have a certain healthiness to you or something. And I said, I'm healthy, but I mean, I'm 44. So I'm not sure if I would qualify for this, but I was just astonished that there are people paying for poop. Yeah. Really even know what to say. I'm so sorry. It's true. It's awesome.

Speaker 1: (36:16)
And that is 100% staying in the face. that's awesome. All right. So back to these question. Oh my goodness. Whole milk or skim milk. Uh, whole milk, silver or gold? Silver Harley Davidson or Corvette, Parley. Fred or Barney? Barney man road, runner, coyote, coyote. How many episodes of the Kardashians have you ever watched? I think I've maybe been through one or two . I would never want that to be known, but here we are. the whole world knows. I don't think it's gonna influence anyone not to come in. Right. It's just gonna have them look at you and go, Hey man. Cool. Only one or two episode. We meet you. I like that. Okay. So how many episodes of the bachelor have you watched? None. Really? None. Okay, good. You then you just set the record. That's awesome. Nobody has, well, no, maybe one other person.

Speaker 1: (37:18)
It's a very few people who have not watched that. Usually if you've seen the Kardashians, somehow you've seen the bachelor. I, I don't know, man. I'm I'm just happy not to have television, so I don't see any of this stuff, but uh, give me an idea. Darth or Luke, he's taken pause on that, Luke, but I understand Darth. Does that make sense? Ah, like it, so, so if Darth was gonna have a tattoo, what would it be? Oh, that's a tough one, man. I don't know. You think you'd go crazy and just go like, would he have like a, a lightning bolt or something like that? Or you think he'd have something like sinister and evil? He'd have like the old Americana, uh, classic. And it'd say Luke and it like, instead of mom, it'd say Luke on your father or something, you know, , that'd be kind of funny it would be awesome. That'd be very cool. Go back to talking about those old shows and movies and stuff. Miyagi dough or Cobra? High Miyagi dough. Yeah. Going on the good side here. You went with Luke going with Yagi do all right. Brown gravy or white gravy. I'm from Texas. So white gravy brownies with or without nuts with nuts am or FM. Believe it or not am sausage or bacon, bacon. You have to eliminate one letter from the alphabet. What letter do you eliminate?

Speaker 1: (38:43)
Oh, I don't know. That's a tough one. You gotta take one out Q . Why? Q? I don't know. Just annoys me. It looks like an O, but it's got that little SQUI. Yeah, no. Yeah. That's the, that's the part of your alphabet that I get to that I can't really remember. Well, so that's probably the best reason. What kind of animal would you be if you were not a human? Definitely a dog. A dog. Yeah. I'm a dog person. And uh, it just, it seems right for me. So tell me about that. Do you have, you've got a dog right now. Yes, I do. Yeah. Tell me about it. His name is Chico. Okay. Um, right now he's rocking the Bob Ross cut. He's got aro. Wow. Um, what kind of dog is it? You know, he's, I think he's a mix, but he's looks like a miniature ser.

Speaker 1: (39:26)
Oh, nice. So he is, got the beard for the Bob Ross. Um, I actually, he came running down the side of Annie, Jack when I was over there and he was all mangled and I was like, Hey, where, where are you from dude? And he, uh, we ended up taking him to the Colin county, no kill and getting him cleaned up and seeing if anybody claimed him and nobody did. So I adopted him and, uh, I, I called him a Chico once and he was like, looked at me. Okay. Your name's Chico, bro. Let's go. Yes. So awesome. So yeah, that's very, very cool. So, so, you know, it's, it's Celina radio.com, right? We're we're not boring. We're not, you know, we, we don't do that stuff. We kind of do the, we, we, we do this. We, we, we put cow tattoos on and instead of saying flank and brisket and stuff, we, we put cake in every square.

Speaker 1: (40:15)
That's, that's what we do. So I wanna do something fun. You've got the kitchen right here and I don't wanna make a big mess. And I don't want turn on all the ovens and whatever you have back there. I don't wanna do all that, but I do wanna do something kind of fun. So what I was kind of thinking is if there was something really basic that you would be able to make, is there any, even if it's not something now know that you do things that are not even on your menu so is there anything that you could think of that we could fairly easily slip over there behind the counter and you could make within, you know, within five to 10 minutes? Yeah. I mean the most basic thing we can do is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Speaker 1: (40:59)
Now that's not something on your menu, is it? I think it's on the kids' menu. Okay. That's maybe why I haven't gotten that because, because I probably ordered that, but okay. So we can do a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Mm-hmm and what I'm gonna do is we're, we're actually gonna hit pause on recording right here. We're gonna move over there and we're gonna flip over to video. Okay. And then we're gonna come back over here. So if you're listening to the podcast right now, what you're gonna want to do is definitely not miss that part of this podcast, because I have a little trick on my sleeve. This is gonna be kind of fun. So let's hop over to the kitchen, see what we can do. All right. Sounds good. So it was at this point that we got up from the little table we were at, we went over behind the counter and Chef Joey set out everything to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Speaker 1: (41:50)
So he had a big jar, peanut butter. He's got a big thing of jelly. He's got a knife and two pieces of bread sounds simple. Right. You know, it's CelinaRadio.com, nothing simple. So there's a video and you need to watch that video. And I'm gonna go back now to the follow up with Chef Joey. And this is after he's already gone through making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the Celina radio way. And let's see what he has to say about that. All right, guys, we are back and we just went and Joey tell everybody what just happened. Okay. So I, I thought I was gonna be making a basic peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the easiest sandwich in the world to make, but I had no idea I was gonna have to make it with one arm or one hand one and my, my right hand when I'm left handed.

Speaker 1: (42:48)
So it was definitely a challenge. I can say that for sure. Well, it was the hardest part of that. The peanut butter, the peanut butter was too big. I, I couldn't get a hold of it. I couldn't hold it on my chin and that just got lucky and it kind just popped. I was like, sweet move fast, because, because it was brand new jar and a brand new thing of jelly. So you had to like, literally open 'em and take the little seal things out that, that, that probably made it a hundred times harder. Wouldn't you say? Yes. I, I would say yes, that was, and, and then whenever you started making it though, did you feel like, okay, I've got this now. Oh yeah, no, yeah. This, this is the easy part and, and you really loaded on the peanut butter and the jelly.

Speaker 1: (43:27)
It made me actually want to eat this. good. Yeah, exactly. Right. So, so, you know, we're gonna call that the, the, the one handed peanut butter and jelly sandwich at toasted Walnut. It's not on the menu. and chances are pretty good that if you come in and ask for it, you might just get punched in the face. So don't ask for it. exactly. See what happens. No, but, but Joey might end up down the road with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on his right arm. And it, it may just like throw back to this time. You never know. Joey's that kind of guy, he's a, he's a lot of fun, Joey. Thank you so very much for doing this. God bless you. And I, and I want to ask you, would you be willing to come back on again, down the road and, and, and let's do this all again? Yes. Most definitely. Absolutely. All right, guys, that is Joey Dawkins.

Speaker 1: (44:24)
So what did you think about that interview? I mean, is Joey Dawkins, not just the coolest cat you ever met. He's got tattoos of food on his right arm and artwork from his favorite street artist on his left arm. He's got talent to take something like the toasted Walnut and turn it into a staple of Celina, Texas. And he's just, he's funny. He's a dog lover. He's, he's just got it kind of all going on. So if you get a chance, stop by the toasted Walnut, say hello to Joey, check out some of his artwork on his arms and definitely try some of the food up there. It's amazing. It's really, really good. One of the best things ever. And I'll tell you what else is really good. This music right here. Yeah. I kind of came into this, dig in the eighties thing and I'm rolling out on something completely different. This is fusion between country and pop music. I know, I know, hate me for it. I'm a, I'm a huge George straight fan. And I go all the way back to the, the Willy and Waylan and, and, and all that stuff.

Speaker 1: (45:41)
But you know what? I like stuff like this too. And I like the opportunity to hang out with you and talk to people like Joey Dawkin. So I'm a blessed man. This is Celina, Texas. It's the very best city in the United States. That doesn't mean that it's perfect. No, one's saying that, but you know what? It's perfect for us. So count your blessings, guys, come back and check out the next episode of Celina radio.com. We've got some fantastic guests coming up. We've got all kinds of great events going on in the city of Celina. Go to Celina radio.com. If you want to check out the real estate stuff, go to Ron lyons.com and check that out. It's pretty amazing website, too. Most of all guys stay safe and just like, I always say, God, bless it will see you on the next episode.