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Home Town: Inn This Together - Season 1 Episode 3 - Chef's Kiss
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00:01Is this going to be open by the holidays?
00:03Oh, absolutely.
00:03This year?
00:04Yeah.
00:04There's a lot of unknowns when you redo a historic building like this.
00:07Things don't always go like you planned.
00:09Josh, where's the elevator?
00:11If the elevator goes down, no revenue.
00:13Hotels shut down.
00:14It doesn't matter how much progress we see in downtown Laurel,
00:17as long as its most iconic building stands vacant and empty and dilapidated,
00:23we will not feel like we've really done something.
00:27The Crest Building has a secret space that most people don't even know is there.
00:32This looks like something that Indiana Jones would have to work really hard to get out of.
00:36We have to finish the retail portion so we can get it up and going
00:39and get some cash flow in this place.
00:41Come on in!
00:43Welcome!
00:44Y'all come see what you made.
00:46It's big.
00:46It's a milestone moment and a big one.
00:48But there is so much left to do.
00:51I just got a text that changes everything.
00:56There are so many moving parts to stay on top of.
00:59Having a food experience, the 30 hotel rooms, I like, I can't, I'm, I'm maxed out.
01:05Oh, we've got water.
01:06Major water.
01:07And now we have a leak.
01:08We have to turn this basement into a space that generates extra revenue.
01:12Any time one of us is struggling.
01:15We step up.
01:16We've got people cooking in this class in like five days.
01:20If we don't get the lawn, we're not going to stay on track.
01:22We could lose the hotel.
01:23We could lose our houses.
01:25And not only will we let our families down, we could let down the entire town.
01:29I can't think about that.
01:39Hey, guys.
01:41Hey, bud.
01:42I just got a text that changes everything.
01:46Yeah?
01:48Approved.
01:48You got the loan?
01:49We're done.
01:50We got the loan?
01:50We got it.
01:51Jesus!
01:52You got the loan!
01:54You think you're excited?
01:56Don't hit that glass.
01:57You're back.
01:58You can pay off Josh's credit cards.
02:00Congratulations.
02:01You're in debt with me for life.
02:02What a relief.
02:03It is.
02:03Well, yes and no.
02:04It's just a different kind of relief.
02:05It's a different kind of pressure.
02:07Obligation.
02:08What's the note on the loan?
02:10Oh, well, it's roughly $50,000.
02:14A month?
02:15A month for 30 years.
02:17You pay for it a lot easier when you're renting rooms.
02:19All the rooms.
02:20Yeah.
02:20You'll only be 72.
02:23Yeah.
02:23Yeah, that's true.
02:24Only.
02:25Yeah.
02:26This is so good.
02:28Okay.
02:28But they still have to pay that note.
02:31And this hotel is still not open.
02:34So think about all we've had on the list.
02:36The drapes, the doors, the tile.
02:39The lobby has to be finished.
02:41Ah.
02:41Money goes quick on a big project.
02:44We still have to be careful about how we spend, when we spend.
02:47We have to be strategic about it.
02:48Because if we don't, we're going to be in trouble.
02:51Mal, Jim, and Josh, the family, our best friends.
02:54They are carrying the weight of the success or failure of this hotel.
02:59And so we are going to do everything we can to help them through the biggest challenge of their lives.
03:05Mallory, hospitality management is what she was called to do.
03:10She's the hostess with the mostest.
03:11She's got one big bird's eye view on the design of how she wants all this to feel.
03:16Jim has been watching the numbers and he's trying to save money.
03:20But Josh, he's renovated 10 or 12 historic buildings in downtown Laurel.
03:24He's a general contractor.
03:26He's not just Ben's wood shop helper.
03:27I feel like right now we've been climbing a ladder that's not yet leaning against the building.
03:32And now that thing has settled against the wall and I'm ready to do some work.
03:36It's a big victory.
03:37I mean, we were running out of runway with our cash.
03:39We were getting to the end of it.
03:40So this can take us to the end of the project.
03:42But we still have a whole hotel to build.
03:45And we still haven't figured out what the space next to the retail store is going to be.
03:49I have a lot of work to do.
03:57We've seen the website and the rooms are beautiful.
04:00And we're really excited to invite our friends and family to town.
04:03And they'll have a beautiful place to stay here in downtown Laurel.
04:06We've been waiting for a long time for this and we can't wait to see it.
04:10Hotels and retail have something in common.
04:12There are peak busy seasons.
04:14Summer and holidays.
04:16We've missed the summer.
04:17They've got to get this open by the holidays if they're going to make any money this year.
04:21If they're not open by the holidays, then they will have to wait until summer travel.
04:26And that is a long time for an empty hotel to sit there.
04:30And I don't think they can afford to wait.
04:32Mallory and Jim, Aaron and Ben and Josh have really been downtown's biggest cheerleaders.
04:38When they have to, they can always pull out a win no matter what the timeline.
04:42I have bet against them before and I have lost.
04:45So this is my first trip and I hope to come back and maybe stay at the new hotel.
04:51I think that would be so much fun.
04:53Part of the experience that we want to have with this hotel is to have that food element.
04:58Jim has been adamant that he does not want to do a restaurant.
05:01For the retail spot, we don't need all of this.
05:04What about a restaurant?
05:06No.
05:07No.
05:07Let me just explain, okay?
05:09My senior year of college, my uncle Danny and my cousin Jim were opening a restaurant.
05:15It's going to be the finest thing this town ever saw.
05:17The night Jim was washing dishes at 10 p.m. and took a huge trash can out into the alley
05:23and dragged it across the ground and lost his big toenail was a real low point.
05:28He learned it's not what he wanted to do with his life.
05:35So we're not going to do a restaurant, then what other options do we have?
05:39We need someone that knows the food industry.
05:42Our friend Robert St. John is a pretty famous restaurateur.
05:46He is the foodie of Mississippi.
05:49Robert has breakfast here every morning if he's in town.
05:52And breakfast is available all day.
05:54Hey!
05:55Hey!
05:56Good morning.
05:57Table biscuits are...
05:58Yep.
05:58Those are all for you, Ben.
06:00I'm starving.
06:02Robert has successfully opened and ran about eight restaurants here in Hattiesburg,
06:06including this diner that we're in right now.
06:08What he will tell you he's good at, it's setting up a restaurant experience.
06:12Yes.
06:13This is always your spot.
06:14If I'm in town, I'm sitting at the Midtowner at 7 o'clock every morning.
06:18Thank you for meeting with us.
06:19Oh, but look, I'm interested in hearing what's going on.
06:22So they're opening a hotel and Jim is not opening a restaurant.
06:27Not crazy about the restaurant business myself.
06:30Yeah.
06:30And it turns out, though, people that come to a hotel, they want to eat.
06:33Because I think you're wise maybe not to do a restaurant.
06:36You got Pearl's, you got Wilson's, you're covered pretty much downtown.
06:40But I also agree with you, you got to have some type of food.
06:43What have y'all thought about so far?
06:45A lot of progress in the vending business.
06:47You know, you may need to keep rolling and need a little more synergy here.
06:51That's why we're here today.
06:53Yeah, yeah.
06:53I've been thinking of this.
06:54You know the St. Rock Market in New Orleans?
06:57Yeah.
06:57Yeah.
06:57It's not a restaurant.
06:58It's a food hall.
07:00Like a food court.
07:00What if it wasn't a traditional restaurant?
07:04More of an experience.
07:05That could work.
07:06I think you're headed somewhere.
07:07Experience.
07:07We were in Greenwood not too long ago.
07:10Yeah.
07:11And it was a cooking school, but basically it was an entertaining thing where we got to go
07:15and make our own dinner under the tutelage of someone that knew what they were doing.
07:20We had a fantastic time.
07:21Why not do that?
07:22I think that's an original concept that you're hitting on here.
07:27It could be families.
07:28It could be groups of friends who come.
07:30It could be couples who come for a weekend, stay at the hotel.
07:33If you did something like this, which I think is a really smart idea for a hotel, you know,
07:39it needs to be accessible.
07:40It needs to be ingredients that people could buy.
07:42I'd like to know how to make pasta.
07:44There you go.
07:45Feels like a solid plan.
07:46You have to figure out who teaches it.
07:48We're limited by the number of hotel rooms that we have.
07:50We've got to find additional cash flow options to pay for this whole project.
07:55That's how the cooking school is the best of both worlds.
07:57The cooking school can open before the hotel and be open to the public,
08:01but it's also going to be a great addition for hotel guests.
08:04I think we need more biscuits.
08:06Another round for my friends.
08:12We want to have classes that have, like, kids-centric items on the menu.
08:17So, like, on a Saturday morning, y'all could bring your kids
08:19and learn how to cook pancakes and bacon and eggs.
08:23Oh, fun!
08:23It could be so fun.
08:25So then they could go home and actually do it.
08:27Yeah.
08:27We're thinking that this is for kids and adults.
08:30We've got over 2,000 square feet of cooking space.
08:33I've run the numbers.
08:34That's three kitchens.
08:35If we fill that space up on a regular basis,
08:37that's going to give us another $750,000 a year of revenue.
08:41Walk me through.
08:42How many kitchens did you land on?
08:44I think we can do three.
08:46If you imagine the columns.
08:47Are we seeing, like, kitchen one, kitchen two, kitchen three?
08:50What do you think about if each of these kitchens
08:53have a distinctly different style and look?
08:57Well, in my mind, it was very, like, commercial kitchen.
09:02But I, like, I can't, I'm maxed out.
09:05So can you...
09:06I'm here. I can help.
09:07Okay.
09:08Kitchens are where we make a lot of great memories.
09:11The best meals we have, the best conversation around food.
09:15And also there's so much to design in a kitchen.
09:18Just three kitchens.
09:19We're doing five whole houses at the same time.
09:21So just three kitchens is a breeze.
09:24Three budget-friendly, uniquely designed kitchens.
09:28Got it.
09:28I'm telling you, I am on board with this good school.
09:31I like it.
09:45This is somehow worse than it was the last time I came in.
09:49It's gotta get worse to get better.
09:50In order for this building to make money,
09:54they're gonna have to use every single square inch of it,
09:57including this basement.
09:58The plan for the basement is to turn it into a dual-purpose space
10:01where hotel guests can lounge, hang out.
10:05It can be rented out for special events, parties, private functions,
10:09and becomes an additional source of revenue for the hotel.
10:12We've torn out all of the old walls,
10:14and we went ahead and put a waterproofing agent on the wall
10:17and painted them with a primer.
10:18We've done all these steps, but we cannot keep this basement dry.
10:22Water keeps getting in.
10:24Hey, Jack.
10:25We've got a room that's starting to look beautiful,
10:28except for this water feature.
10:29You got a problem here.
10:30Jack is the guy I turn to when there's a leak
10:33or when there's not enough water pressure.
10:34He is my master plumber.
10:36I can tell you, based on the way my garden looks right now,
10:40that we haven't had any rain in a long time.
10:42But if it were to rain, I would expect water to come from this wall,
10:46which is an outside wall.
10:47This wall is an outside wall.
10:49This is an inside wall.
10:50It's got like 80 or 100 feet to the front of the building,
10:53and there's no water on in the building.
10:55So why do we have a water leak when there's no water
10:58and it's not an outside rain wall?
11:00I think what we're going to have to check is maybe bore a hole
11:03where the stain is.
11:05See if anything's coming through.
11:07So when it comes to finished basements in Mississippi,
11:10they're rare because it's so hard to keep the water from getting in.
11:13So what we're doing is we're drilling a hole
11:14so that we can find the source of water and redirect it out of the basement.
11:19If we can't do that, it will prevent us from ever using the basement,
11:22which is a huge hit on this project.
11:25Is there any moisture on that, John?
11:27It actually is a little damp.
11:28Oh, is it damp?
11:29It's a little damp.
11:29I think we should go on the other side and in the crawl space.
11:35Oh, goodness.
11:38So over here, this would be about where we drilled our hole through the wall.
11:43Our best bet is to probably start around here.
11:46I'm starting to see, I mean...
11:48A lot of moisture.
11:49Look at this.
11:50Oh, we've got water.
11:51Major water.
11:55It's a definite leak, and I believe for sure it's coming from the outside.
11:59Uh, this is our exterior wall here, so we have an issue on the outside of the building.
12:04As Jack points out, it looks like it's coming from the outside of the building,
12:07which means it could be a city problem and not our problem.
12:10That's good.
12:11Let's get out of here, man.
12:12We figured out the leak.
12:13It was the city water main that was running under the building,
12:17and it's a city problem.
12:18They are going to fix it.
12:20This is not a problem for Jim and Mallory and Josh to worry about,
12:24which is a good thing because they've got plenty to worry about.
12:27But in the next three weeks, we have to get the water main fixed,
12:30we have to get the basement dry,
12:32and we have to finish all of that so we can focus on other parts of the hotel
12:35because we have to get this thing open by Christmas.
12:38The moment they bought the building, bills started coming immediately.
12:43And that is why we felt too scared to get into a hotel.
12:47It's such a responsibility.
12:49I think it will be a huge success.
12:50I hope it's the biggest success in the world.
12:53But I also know my stress level and what I can tolerate.
12:56I don't think I could tolerate that.
12:58Just getting started with all the bubbles.
13:02Everywhere I step, I'm feeling new.
13:06And I, I'm gone.
13:11I just kind of went around my house and collected all the things that inspired me for the cooking schools.
13:17And I think I kind of recognize where you're headed.
13:19I know you feel like you're a little overwhelmed.
13:21One kitchen's a lot.
13:23Three is.
13:24But it's also kind of fun.
13:25I want these to feel so homey, like a residential kitchen.
13:30The way it makes people feel when they come in this house.
13:32Yes.
13:33Each room is going to have its own flavor.
13:35We've got Mississippi, representing classic Southern cooking.
13:39And then we've got Retro, which reminds us of our grandmothers and it's fun for families.
13:44And we've got the European, so we can cook our favorite foods we love to eat on our travels.
13:48And all are very different.
13:50Each have their own identity, but all of it should feel related.
13:54The Southern kitchen, you're going to learn how to make gumbo.
13:56The Retro kitchen, kids are going to learn how to make breakfast.
13:59The European kitchen, we're going to learn how to make pasta.
14:01Which one is it you want to see from the street?
14:03Well, I think the Southern Mississippi kitchen.
14:06Okay.
14:06This is kind of my pile for Mississippi.
14:08Your Southern pile?
14:09Yeah.
14:10Mississippi pottery.
14:11It's table linens.
14:13Yeah.
14:13To me, this feels European.
14:14Do you have anything that feels...
14:16Hold on, hold on.
14:16Let me see.
14:17I've got the linen cabinet of wonders.
14:20Blue and white?
14:21Yeah.
14:21Okay.
14:22Blue and white gingham feels right.
14:24To first of all have a fabric dinner napkin, but for it to be very casual.
14:28That is deeply Southern.
14:30Yeah, it's not pressed and creased and all that.
14:32It's soft and it's comfortable.
14:34I think we're going to work with a lot of neutrals and oak countertops.
14:39We're going to have blue and white china all around the room as an accent.
14:43What if...
14:47What if you blew up some of her recipes?
14:50Yeah.
14:50You put them on the wall.
14:51I love that.
14:54Jim and I were really close with our grandparents.
14:56Our grandmother and grandfather James and Weta Raspberry.
15:00She was an incredible cook.
15:02When she passed, I found all her recipes.
15:04Those recipes and the traditions and the things that we do, in that way, you never lose the
15:11people that you love.
15:12We didn't have her here with us anymore, but man, what a legacy she left for us.
15:17For our whole family, we want to provide a space where anybody can create memories with
15:22their family and friends in the kitchen.
15:25Okay.
15:25Okay, I feel really good about your biggest kitchen.
15:28We've got two more.
15:29Let's get retro.
15:29My favorite is the retro.
15:31Less time travel.
15:32My biggest inspiration has been this portrait.
15:34Reminds me of my grandmother.
15:35It's my favorite piece of art that we have in our house.
15:38And it had a lot of this.
15:40The jadeite.
15:41And you've got it represented here in that paint.
15:43Her red lipstick.
15:45Maybe red tables with cherry tops.
15:48A punch of red is so good.
15:50You've got your jadeite.
15:52Red gingham.
15:53Yeah.
15:54Napkins.
15:55I like that.
15:56People used to have colorful refrigerators.
15:59You know, people became afraid of color at some point in history, but not in the 1950s
16:03and 60s.
16:03We were colorful then.
16:05Okay.
16:05The little Europe.
16:06You see that terracotta, that washed out.
16:09So I didn't make my piles big enough.
16:10Okay.
16:11Make a bigger pile for Europe.
16:13Uh-huh.
16:13Let the room be light.
16:15This gets us close to the color of a grain sack.
16:17So then, walnut countertops can really shine.
16:21Mm-hmm.
16:22If the room stays light, then the dark moments are what attract your eye.
16:27Having the three different woods for each of the kitchens, having that as another design
16:32element is just as important as paint color.
16:34It's gonna be so fun.
16:36Yeah.
16:36I think Mamaw approves.
16:37She would be proud.
16:38She's down.
16:39I've done waiting.
16:41No more.
16:43Can't sit down.
16:44We got some good news today.
16:46Guys are here.
16:47They're found at Water Main.
16:48This should give us our fix.
16:50It's a little protest.
16:51They gotta dig around the gas pane and some electrical lines.
16:54So it's looking good.
16:56It sounds like a couple days that we'll be ready to go.
17:03We want folks that are coming to the cooking school to get that hometown experience of
17:07the storytelling, the good southern cooking.
17:10Our team is staffed to run the logistics of the cooking school.
17:14But what's even more special is having local chefs in our community leading the classes
17:19to continue supporting our local talents.
17:22Who's cooked before?
17:24How many people?
17:25It is so great to come into Robert St. John's Kitchen.
17:28He's gonna show us how it's possible to do recipes that kids can enjoy.
17:31And what better kids to test these recipes than my kids, Jim and Mallory's girls and Ben
17:37and Erin's girls.
17:38Well today, we're doing an omelet like you've never seen before and you can be as creative
17:44as you want to be.
17:46Robert's going to teach us some kid-friendly recipes for the retro room.
17:50But it's not just about the food.
17:52It's about learning from Robert on how to create a memorable experience for all three kitchens.
17:58That, to me, is gonna be the big takeaway today.
18:00All of these are good southern ingredients.
18:03So Mississippi, I want it to be very southern.
18:06Your mom is cooking.
18:07Biscuits, grits, all the things that we love around here.
18:10Now we're gonna make omelets.
18:12All right, we crack it.
18:13The key is not to get shell in there, okay?
18:15You gonna do it, Helen?
18:16There you go.
18:17All right.
18:18Retro room, I want to take a different spin and do more kid-friendly, more breakfast
18:23stuff, more nostalgic recipes.
18:26Good job on the eggs.
18:27I'm gonna pour what would amount to about three eggs.
18:30Guys, Helen is gonna be adventurous and try bacon in her eggs.
18:34All right.
18:35But European, that's really where we're gonna just let our hair down and go crazy with pastas,
18:40breads, all the things that we love with travel.
18:43We got boiling water.
18:44And all we do is just drop that in the boiling water.
18:46So you're gonna come out.
18:48You got a killer omelet right there.
18:49And you made it.
18:51Yummy!
18:52Your omelets are ready!
18:54We got omelets!
18:55Look at that, man!
18:56You made that!
18:57All right!
18:58Wow!
18:59Being from the South, everything we do revolves around food.
19:03And I want to pass that on to the next generation and really foster the love of cooking and hosting.
19:09With this cooking school, that's something that we really got from our grandparents.
19:14This is great.
19:15I love this.
19:21So inside the hotel, construction has started on the three cooking schools.
19:25The walls are being framed up and we're adding sheetrock.
19:28In the basement, we're finally making progress.
19:31We've got it dry.
19:32I just hope it stays dry.
19:33I really need to get the basement off my list so I can move to other aspects of this project.
19:37I'm getting really excited about this basement because I want it to feel moody and almost like an old athletic
19:43club in a big city.
19:45I want it to be a space where folks can go down and read a book and have a cup
19:50of coffee, do a puzzle.
19:51But I'm also wanting another activity for guests to be able to go down there and do something fun and
19:56physical.
20:03So this thing is like a rotisserie chicken situation, except better.
20:09There's a hotel in North Mississippi that we stay at a lot and they have a shuffleboard in their lobby.
20:14And I don't know how to play shuffleboard, but I know that when I'm checking into the hotel, the girls,
20:18instead of wandering the hotel, they sit there and play with the shuffleboard.
20:22That is a big slab of wood, baby.
20:24So we're using maple because it's a strong wood and it's going to withstand the hits that this table is
20:29going to take.
20:29It's pretty.
20:30Retirement communities have them.
20:32College town bars have them.
20:34Everybody likes them.
20:35Hey.
20:36All we need now is the base for it to sit on.
20:38Yeah, just the legs, man.
20:39Let's go build the legs.
20:40I want to play with the bucks.
20:41Just a quick game.
20:45Woo!
20:49Victory!
20:54It honestly makes me a little uncomfortable.
20:58Yep.
20:58But they're already taking reservations and the hotel still doesn't have a name.
21:02We're like 10 weeks from opening and we're just using the placeholder name, Downtown Laurel Hotel.
21:08They're struggling with what to call the hotel.
21:10Do you have any ideas?
21:11Well, Laurel had a Pinehurst Hotel forever and I feel like that would be really cool to have a Pinehurst.
21:17What it should be called.
21:19I don't know. The Laurelite.
21:21The Laurel Inn. I don't know.
21:23Cornerstone.
21:25Magnolia Corner.
21:26Pineapple Inn.
21:27Ooh, the Pineapple Inn.
21:28Pineapples are always the symbol of welcome and hospitality.
21:32What do you think, Celeste?
21:33Maybe the Celestial Inn?
21:36Ooh.
21:37Do you like that?
21:38No.
21:38No!
21:43The day after Halloween, the City of Laurel puts up the Christmas wreaths.
21:47Usually that's very exciting.
21:48This year it just feels scary.
21:51They're not ready.
21:54And some people might say that I've bitten off more than I can chew.
21:57Where are the ceiling tiles?
21:59Getting real.
22:01A lot of early mornings and a lot of late nights.
22:03I'm tired.
22:04I'm trying to trust the process, but this one's taken a whole lot of faith.
22:22This all feels real good together.
22:25Yes.
22:25Erin is so good at color and paint.
22:28I can look at it as whole and say, that's beautiful.
22:31But having her expertise on saying these two colors work best together.
22:35Let's X out this color and pull in this color.
22:38That's invaluable.
22:39These colors at this moment feel bold to me, but not necessarily retro.
22:44Because we're missing that jadeite green of the 60s that was everywhere.
22:48Yeah.
22:49Because you think about that portrait of the woman, what's so great about it?
22:51Her red lips, her blonde hair, and then that jadeite background.
22:55Yeah.
22:55This is Europe to me.
22:57It's all about this natural earthenware against copper pots.
23:03Yeah.
23:03And I think that would play really nicely with this.
23:05And then this from Mississippi.
23:07Our favorite color combo of all time.
23:10It's beautiful no matter what.
23:11It'll all work with the blue and white china that our grandmothers collected.
23:15And that Mississippi pottery too.
23:18All these colors I think will really blend well with the original wood floors that we're refinishing
23:22in all the kitchens and the terracotta tile that's going to run throughout.
23:25I think these are classic, timeless colors.
23:27They'll look great with everything.
23:29I love that.
23:29All right.
23:30I need to find some jadeite.
23:31Yeah.
23:32Okay.
23:32We can find that.
23:41Now that the cooking school reservation system is online,
23:44I have gotten three bookings in the last hour.
23:47I'm not okay.
23:48We have got to get these kitchens ready for business.
23:51We've got this pressure that we put on ourselves.
23:53It's self-induced pressure by taking reservations for the cooking school that we have to have
24:00this space done, not just done like construction wise, but we have to have it feeling like the
24:07movie set that we want it to feel like.
24:09Like the floors underneath this have been refinished and are absolutely stunning.
24:15So that is a huge win.
24:17These were installed in the 1930s.
24:19So I just want to clear coat them and let the true wood tone shine.
24:23We're also doing a terracotta tile in each of the three kitchens to bring it all together.
24:27And we decided to do a very natural terracotta just because it goes with the three styles
24:33of each kitchen so well.
24:34But more than that, it's going to be really easy to clean and maintain and have the wear
24:38and tear of everyday use.
24:39But we have so much to do.
24:42We've got to paint.
24:42We've got to bring in the rest of the cabinets, the doors, the uppers.
24:46The appliances still are not here.
24:49I'm trying to trust the process, but this one has taken a whole lot of faith.
25:00Josh and his crew are working around the clock.
25:03The kitchens are going in.
25:04The backsplashes are going up.
25:05And the backsplashes are a big design element for each of the rooms.
25:09So in the retro room, we're going with a white subway tile with black grout.
25:13Easy to clean.
25:14Still has that retro nostalgic feel.
25:17But in Mississippi and in the European room, it's going to be a tongue and groove painted,
25:22still cleanable.
25:23It's a softer tone and it's rustic.
25:34Oh, early morning.
25:36I have to get three kitchens done in the next six, seven days, something like that.
25:41So a lot of early mornings and a lot of late nights.
25:43I'm tired.
25:46So down in the basement, the crew's working to install our acoustic ceiling tiles.
25:51It really should bring down the noise level and make the space much more usable for live events or family
25:56gatherings.
26:08Let's go right on top here.
26:10Y'all couldn't take the far one?
26:12Yeah.
26:12Jim said nope.
26:14Oh, that's a good fit.
26:15These look so good.
26:17Hey, we got cherry shelves going up too.
26:19Hello.
26:20How about this?
26:20Cherry countertops in.
26:22Marble in.
26:23Everything from the waist down looks awesome, but where are the ceiling tiles?
26:27What?
26:28There's no ceiling grid.
26:29Right now, we have so many projects going on and I'm the general contractor for all of them.
26:34I have a lot of responsibility.
26:35And some people might say that I've bitten off more than I can chew.
26:38And honestly, I might, I might agree with them right now.
26:41It just feels like that should have been one of the first things we did and just like worked our
26:45way down.
26:46We are out of ceiling grid.
26:48We've got people cooking in this class in like five days.
26:54We have plenty of ceiling tile.
26:56We don't have the grid.
26:57So how many days does this knock off?
26:59Like being able to clean and stage?
27:01Because I can't get the rooms ready like with plates, artwork, cleaning until the grid is in.
27:07I would say one, two days tops.
27:10So I've got five days to get three huge, beautiful commercial kitchens functioning.
27:16And what I'm hearing is going to take at least a day and a half to two days off my
27:19schedule.
27:20So I've got to do that in three days now.
27:23Three long, long days.
27:26I want to cover all of the countertops.
27:28Yeah, we got it.
27:42Well, yesterday afternoon, guess what came in?
27:45The ceiling grid.
27:46So I'm here very early to try to install them.
27:49I'm going to see if I can get us ahead and give Mallory a little peace of mind.
28:03Josh has a lot stealing his bandwidth.
28:06Any time one of us is struggling, be it Aaron and I or Jim and Mallory and Josh, we all
28:12try to rise to the occasion and help them out.
28:15We are so down to the quick on this one.
28:17Today, we're coming together to finish the cooking school islands that Mall has designed.
28:23It's all hands on deck.
28:24Everybody's got to pull their own weight today.
28:26It started in college.
28:27When someone is going through something hard, it's wonderful to know that whichever one of us has more bandwidth,
28:34we step up for the one that's lacking.
28:37So we have three different rooms.
28:38So three different table designs, eight tables per room.
28:42So 24 tables.
28:43Having the three different woods for each of the kitchens are white oak and Mississippi.
28:47I want to do cherry in the retro room, the walnut for the European room.
28:53It's a whole design element and I can't wait to see it come together.
29:05Down in the basement, we're finally picking up speed.
29:08The basement wasn't in the original cards for this building.
29:12And for good reason.
29:13It was pretty scary down there.
29:14But now that we have brought the basement back, I'm really feeling like it's going to be such a valuable
29:20space to our overall guest experience.
29:27One, two, one, two, three, four.
29:39In order to experience the full potential of the basement, not just as a lounge space for guests, but as
29:45a venue, I've got a little surprise for everybody.
29:50Oh.
29:54What are you doing?
29:55This is so rad.
29:58Hey.
29:59Hey.
30:00Hey.
30:01Hey.
30:02What do you think?
30:03This is amazing.
30:04I know.
30:08It looks so good.
30:10Yeah, I mean, I haven't been in here since it was a mosquito pit.
30:14I know.
30:14That was flooded.
30:18Do you remember us walking down here?
30:20I have.
30:20And it was underwater?
30:22Yes.
30:22We had the broken water main that's fixed.
30:23And to help storm proof, we did a moisture barrier all the way around the room.
30:27And then we have a backup sump pump.
30:28So if things get, if things get bad, we can pump it out.
30:33The gym is tickled because they have found a way to make the basement dual purpose.
30:38So by day, it's like an extension of the lobby.
30:41You're welcome to go down there, visit, enjoy.
30:44And if you want at night to rent it out for special events, you can.
30:48And it's bigger than I remember it being.
30:51It's like ready to receive any kind of gathering.
30:55I was really hoping that it would be like an old athletic club in a big city.
30:59Oh, I like that too.
31:00That was the vibe.
31:03Look at this tile.
31:04I love this.
31:05Fantastic.
31:12The shuffleboard turned out great.
31:13This is giving me athletic club vibes.
31:15Yeah.
31:16Isn't that cool?
31:16Man, it looks good.
31:20This is amazing.
31:22Everybody in the world is going to want to make their basement look like this.
31:24Yeah.
31:24I just want folks to be able to come down here and hang and use the space however they see
31:28fit.
31:29Whether it be reading a book, making a puzzle, doing some board games.
31:33This is really beautiful.
31:35I do have to finish the cooking school, so.
31:37Don't let us interfere.
31:39Call us if you need us.
31:40It just looks incredible.
31:42We'll be here.
31:42You guys be thinking on this.
31:43I kind of like it, I do.
31:44Look.
31:45Yeah.
31:45All right, boys, let's hit it.
31:47Have fun, Jim.
31:48Oh, you guys let me know if you need me.
31:50If he can schedule something on a Saturday night, I'll come to his jazz show.
31:54I'm on, say, a Friday night.
31:55I'm out on a weeknight.
32:18The crest was once maybe an heirloom, but it's been a long time since it shined.
32:26And so, Jim and Mallory and Josh, with determination, grit, their bare hands, doing all they can to transform this
32:35into something worthy.
32:48Marble is an ancient countertop surface that people have used since Roman times.
32:54To me, that's a historic nostalgic feature.
32:57I love marble.
33:01This recipe is really neat because it was written by my great-grandmother, Lucy Harvey.
33:06These recipes make our grandmothers immortal.
33:10It's like a time machine.
33:11It is.
33:11Every time we make them.
33:12And as long as we can make those recipes, they're alive.
33:16In reality, we would have loved to have shown this to our grandparents because that's really what this is for.
33:22Batman's Delight.
33:23That's Jim's favorite.
33:25It's so easy and so good.
33:28These are the real heirlooms.
33:30Our grandmothers didn't have any fine jewelry or expensive china, but they gave us this.
33:35All right.
33:35That looks good.
33:37Have you got any bookings yet on the Mississippi Kitchen?
33:39Yeah, I just got another one.
33:41Getting real.
33:42I'm glad we're doing this.
33:43It's gonna be so good.
33:44People are gonna love this.
33:45I think this might be their favorite part, though.
33:47This is a love letter to our grandmothers.
34:00All of our grandmothers are no longer with us anymore.
34:03So we wanted to have the ladies of our community that means so much to us be the first ones
34:08to see it.
34:09Y'all come on in.
34:10All right.
34:11Welcome.
34:13It is so special to have Miss Pearl, who runs a diner right down the street.
34:18Susan Vincent, former mayor.
34:20Miss Tucker, who taught French.
34:22And Miss Posey, who actually cooked in a cooking school.
34:25You know, I probably walked on these floors as a child.
34:28It's a 10-cent store.
34:30So I can't wait to see what you guys have.
34:33Yeah, absolutely.
34:33We're about to show you the three cooking school rooms.
34:37We're gonna start.
34:37Woo!
34:38I'm excited.
34:39We're gonna start with my personal favorite, the Mississippi room.
34:42Come on in.
34:44Mississippi Kitchen.
34:45Wow.
34:46Oh, my gosh.
34:47Come on.
34:48Oh.
34:48It's big.
34:49Oh, my goodness.
34:56Colors are gorgeous.
35:00The design elements in here that really inspired us was this really soft blue-green color just
35:06because it reminded us of Mississippi.
35:08And all of the wood in here is Mississippi white oak that were made in our factory right
35:14here in Laurel.
35:15Oh, my gosh.
35:15Yeah.
35:16And so every single thing in here is made in Mississippi.
35:19Wow.
35:20I really got surprised.
35:22We obviously care so much about things being made in America because that's what keeps
35:26small-town America running.
35:28For the folks that come in here, we want them to have a true southern culinary experience.
35:34Mississippi.
35:35Can you imagine?
35:36That's gonna be so fun.
35:37Sounds awesome to me.
35:39Yeah.
35:44I don't care where they come from.
35:46They still like the southern cooking.
35:48Absolutely.
35:49They love the southern cooking.
35:51You know that.
35:51I know for a fact.
35:52Black-eyed chicken.
35:54Black-eyed peas.
35:55I've always dreamed of a cooking school, but I didn't know, you know, what it was all
36:00about.
36:01So I am very excited.
36:02Okay.
36:04On that wall over here, you'll see those are some of our grandmothers' most prized recipes.
36:10There's a part of our grandmothers in everything that we've done.
36:12When Wida passed away, we lost the matriarch of our family.
36:20She was, um, she was the person that we could all count on.
36:33She was always there.
36:35And it was a genuine love.
36:37She cared for every one of her family members.
36:41And it was the greatest example of love that anybody could ever leave.
36:48Just like my mother's and my grandmother's recipes that were passed to me.
36:52And I still use those.
36:54I think about my relatives every time I make one of their special things.
37:04And look at what it was.
37:05Mallory found this great image.
37:08This was the Jean Theater.
37:09This is where you're standing.
37:10Did you ever go to the Jean?
37:11I did.
37:13You were a woman about town.
37:15Seeing these ladies light up is the best indication of what these spaces are going to
37:20mean to everybody that comes in.
37:22Like, we want every room to have that reaction.
37:26Do y'all want to time travel and go to the retro kitchen?
37:28Yeah.
37:29Yes.
37:29That's coming up.
37:30I can't wait to get in there.
37:32It's totally different from Mississippi.
37:34This room brings the energy.
37:38Oh, my goodness.
37:41This is the retro room.
37:43It's all about fun.
37:45Love it.
37:49What makes this room feel retro, vintage, nostalgia?
37:53It's color.
37:54People were not afraid of color after World War II.
37:57And it was happy days are here again.
37:59Mm-hmm.
37:59So they had all these bright colors.
38:01Appliances were bright colors.
38:02Cabinets were bright colors.
38:04A lot of old furniture, if you strip the paint off of it, it's white oak or some other beautiful
38:09hardwood, but they painted it because it was bright and fun.
38:12That's one of the great things about this kitchen is that it's more of a family-oriented
38:16kitchen.
38:17Family-oriented.
38:17You know, you've got a space for the kids to come in and learn to make chocolate chip
38:21cookies.
38:22So everybody can have fun in this kitchen.
38:25That's awesome.
38:26I'm partial to the cherry woodworking here.
38:28Oh, man.
38:29So here, in order to keep with the retro theme, we didn't want there to be a mantle.
38:33So we designed it to be clean, to have clean lines.
38:36And then, of course, we added the floating shelves, cherry.
38:39And the truth is, my favorite wood has always been white oak.
38:42But now that I see this kitchen finished, it might be cherry.
38:45I love cherry.
38:46Every kitchen has its own wood species.
38:49That's right.
38:49So in Mississippi, it was white oak.
38:50Mm-hmm.
38:51And here, it's cherry.
38:52Mm-hmm.
38:53But in Euro, it's walnut.
38:55The nicest.
38:56Oh, I can't.
38:57Yeah.
38:58Are you ready to go?
38:59Y'all want to come to Europe one minute?
39:00Without having to buy the plane ticket.
39:04I love it.
39:05And it's so warm.
39:05Uh-huh.
39:06So warm.
39:07I love it.
39:08It feels homey.
39:09Yeah.
39:10That's what we wanted.
39:11I wanted to feel like home.
39:13It's a kitchen designed to be lived in.
39:15So we tried to make decisions that are going to last from the Walnut Islands, which I
39:20love.
39:21I love to tie granite to wood, like we've done here on the countertops.
39:26And then the backsplash out of a beadboard, which you would see all over the world.
39:34Maybe Miss Pearl comes in, cooks up a little something in this kitchen, tells a couple
39:38of stories, maybe.
39:40Huh?
39:40Yeah?
39:41Yes.
39:41I would be honored.
39:45I think one interesting thing, this material on the floor, concrete hex tile that looks
39:50like terracotta, it works in any style from the Southern to the retro to the European.
39:56It feels like a great blender.
39:58And I feel like we did that with the flooring, but you also do that with wood, stone.
40:03The natural elements are what make all these kitchens feel timeless.
40:06It's going to age well.
40:08There's a lot of warmth that does age really beautifully.
40:10Y'all did a fantastic job.
40:12Thank you, Miss Pearl.
40:13I'm impressed.
40:14This group is a great cross-section.
40:16They represent Laurel.
40:18Their reaction, it gives me confidence that this is going to work.
40:21And it will let us bring in more revenue before the hotel opens.
40:24People are going to love this.
40:25Can I ask a question?
40:27Yes, ma'am.
40:28Yes, ma'am.
40:28When is the hotel going to be ready?
40:29We are working hard on it as we speak.
40:32By Christmas is the goal.
40:34Oh, really?
40:35That's awesome.
40:35By Christmas?
40:36Wow.
40:37Like this Christmas?
40:37Yeah.
40:38This Christmas?
40:39No.
40:41That's hard work.
40:42You can do it.
40:42Now that we have the cooking school done, we can focus all of our efforts onto the hotel
40:48because we've got a long way to go.
40:50I'm impressed.
40:51I am, too.
40:58Hey, Josh, it's Jack.
40:59We're just over at the hotel here.
41:01I think you need to get over here quickly.
41:03We have a problem.
41:04Just when I thought the water problems were behind us, more water, I'm drowning.
41:11Yeah.
41:12Dang.
41:15I don't know what's going on.
41:17Look at this.
41:18All of this is wet.
41:19Look at this.
41:19Like, underneath this, you can see there's moisture.
41:22I don't understand.
41:23I don't understand how it got in here.
41:24I mean, something like this, it could certainly push back our opening.
41:29Wow.
41:30This is bad.
41:32Bang.
41:33Everything since we started this project has been coming down to the wire.
41:37It flooded the entire back of the building.
41:39Oh, my gosh.
41:40Is it even possible to have this operational in two weeks?
41:44It's going to be cutting you close.
41:45They need to be open by the holidays.
41:47I don't know if they can make their payments.
41:49I am so nervous.
41:50My heart's racing.
41:51You did get a big enough crane, right?
41:53They don't have a bigger one.
41:55Okay.
41:55They don't have a lot of time.
41:56This is the absolute worst time for this to happen.
42:00See you soon.
42:00Now, with this discussion, I'm going over here.
42:00I'll see you later.
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