Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Tremayne Thompson.
A co-owner of Perfect Note, a dinner supper club with locations in Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia. The conversation is a rich blend of entrepreneurship, community service, music, and food culture.
🎶 About Perfect Note
- Concept: A dinner supper club offering live music and Southern cuisine, catering to a mature audience (ages 30+).
- Locations: Birmingham, AL (original) and Marietta, GA (Atlanta metro).
- Atmosphere: Grown folks’ vibe—no hookah, no club chaos, just good music, good food, and good company.
🧑🏾🤝🧑🏾 Founders & Origins
- Co-owned by Tremayne Thompson and his wife Karen (hence “TK Productions”).
- Started as gospel concert promoters in Chicago.
- Moved to Alabama in 2008 after a family loss and launched Perfect Note in Bessemer with a Gerald Albright concert.
- Initially operated out of a banquet hall, setting up and breaking down everything themselves.
📈 Growth & Expansion
- Perfect Note evolved into a full-fledged venue in 2016.
- Expanded to Atlanta due to demand from patrons traveling from Georgia to Alabama.
- Featured in the Huffington Post as one of the top 100 businesses to visit in the U.S.
🍽️ Food & Hospitality
- Offers Wednesday–Saturday dinner service and Sunday brunch with live music.
- Website: perfectnoteliveatl.com
- Tremaine’s culinary journey began at Waffle House, where he learned speed cooking and kitchen management under pressure.
- Emphasizes quality and consistency in food service, even during high-volume events.
💬 Philosophy & Community Impact
- Business is rooted in service, not profit.
- During COVID, they pivoted to drive-up service with $5 meals, feeding the community.
- Believes in mentorship and sharing knowledge freely with aspiring entrepreneurs.
🗣️ Key Takeaways
- Mentorship is vital: Learn from those who’ve walked the path.
- Serve first: Community support follows genuine service.
- Plan wisely: Dreams need operational structure and financial planning.
- Create culture: Music and food unite people across demographics.
#SHMS #STRAW # #AMI
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rashan McDonald, a host of weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own. If you
want to be a guest on my show, please visit
our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click to be a guest.
Button press submit and information will come directly to me. Now,
(00:24):
let's get this show started. My guest, who's upfront right here,
is one of the co owners of The Perfect Note.
It's a dinner shupper club featuring live concerts in Atlanta, Georgia.
That's where it's located, as well as in Birmingham, Alabama,
the Big Ham. Each location specializes in Southern classics on
their menu and music. The caters to grown folks ages
(00:45):
thirty and up. Please welcome the Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Tremaine Thompson. How are you doing, my.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Brother, man? I'm doing wonderful. While we are such a
great introduction, I don't know how to respond.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, you're gonna respond, and I gotta. I got a
lot of things to say to you, my man, because
you know the thing about this show, mister Thompson, owner
of Perfect Note, and the other owners who sir.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
My wife, So that's what we call yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
K Absolutely you know I'm not gonna get on this
show and just call you the owner, okay, because it's
gonna be another conversation with the interview unions. Well why
you couldn't say my name? You're too busy? Well you
think t K Productions stand for Okay?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
He brother, I'm mad. Got married in eighty eight. I
know the rules and I understand it and I get home.
If I'm gonna hear it, I'm gonna hear good because
I won't say the right thing. How you doing? Sisily?
That's her name. She's gonna get mad because I said
her name on raders. She's gonna get mad about something.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Now I'm gonna tell you something, my brother, Perfect Note.
Tell everybody what is the Perfect Note? Before we start
talking about running a successful business? What is the Perfect Note?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Got So, the Perfect Note is a basically you kind
of the sum up with a dinner supper club. We've
been in music all of our lives and our purpose
is to be able to have grown folks for something
for them to be able to continue to still do
you know, it's not a lot out here for us,
the grown folks to be able to do and do
(02:17):
it with clarity and do it with quality. And what
we produce, we produce concerts. You fully see them in
for production concerts and then while you're sitting in the
same room, you actually have great cuisines as though you're
sitting in a restaurant that's being serviced by our what
we call our service attendance that be able to take
(02:39):
care of your needs while you're sitting in your seats
for the show. So dinner and show is our concept
and it's been very successful for us as being one
of the only multi location block owned business. It's for
entertainment venue.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Now from New York from a lifestyle Stan were born
and raised in Houston, Texas now and that this type
of setup I've seen several times and experienced in New York.
You know, So what made you believe? And you started
in Birmingham first, correct, that's correct, and then you moved
your location to Atlanta. Now, tell us about the Birmingham experience.
(03:20):
What motivated you because it's a smaller market, so you
you you're cultivating, and some would say taking business risks
launching in a market with a smaller you know, African
American share, and I apologize, you're probably drawing a diverse
audience because you're talking about jazz. You're talking about a
lot of diverse music as well as a great food menu.
Tell us why you started in Birmingham and then saw
(03:41):
the desire to shift to Atlanta, So.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I guess we kind of have to backfuttle just a
little bit. Is we started it in Chicago, Okay, me
and my wife. That's how TK Production started. We were
just concert promotion, so we did gospel. Gospel was our
main ingredient to where we did a lot of the tours,
a lot of the concerts in Chicago, and that's kind
(04:06):
of how we created our name. And our name was
based off of our company was based off of our character.
So we knew that without a shoutow a doubt, if
the company went down, we went down because that means
we didn't live up to our character's standards and our
kingdom building standards were just serving kingdom business. So our
(04:28):
whole thing is Then when we moved to Alabama in
two thousand and eight, then that's when me and my
wife got married. In two thousand and seven, we decided
to move because her mom had passed away. So we
moved and then we had a high agus for probably
about maybe four years, and we just got tired of
(04:49):
not having anything to do, you know, and so we agreed,
we said, let's go back to our roots. And our
roots was music, and because we knew the healing and
the love in the passion for music that we had,
and we did our first concert in Bessemer, Alabama, called
Intimate Jazz and Conversations. And when we did that, we
(05:11):
brought in Gerald Albright was our kickoff artist, and nobody
knew us and so but we knew we had a
good product. We presented that product. It packed out day
one and the rest was history after that. And that
kind of cultivated to create us to be able to
birth perfect note. And that's when we birth first. Because
we grew so tremendously, we opened the doors. We found
(05:35):
out that people loved to sit in the same atmosphere
to be able to eat some food. And we didn't
have a restaurant at that time. We were just utilizing
a banquet facility. Wow, they used to come in there
and we set up the chairs ourselves, we set up
the tables ourselves. It was just me and my wife.
We went in vall Linen's to be able to decorate
(05:56):
the atmosphere as a kind of like a jazz supper club,
and we created the atmosphere, you know, and then people
didn't see that at the end of the show we
had to break down one hundred and stuff, well three
hundred and some seats about ourselves as well too. So
it's a lot of a lot of dignity and to
be able to super facilitate and see our goal and
(06:19):
now Perfect Note happens, and then we opened up our
venue twenty sixty. That's what Perfect Note was born in Birmingham.
Not about we know.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
That's a wonderful story and it's a story about putting
the work for your dream. I remember that, you know,
the journey to get there is always fun, you know,
you look back on it because staying there is a
lot of work. It really is. My wife and I
was talking about the other night about that, you know,
being successful, really it's hard. Beginning to be successful is fun.
(06:53):
You make mistakes, you laugh about it, but when you
get up there, that's when you really see the competition.
Talk about that journey. You talked about the start, but
talk about that journey perfect note and did come into Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Wow. So it's if I could just sum it up
at a high level, the journey has. If we did
not have God on our side, the journey would have
been a lot more difficult, and we probably wouldn't be
here today. But just to be able to stand the
(07:29):
test of everything that we've been through COVID and you know,
all of the ups and downs of the business, we
definitely probably couldn't do that. But what we did, you know,
he dived in because our home goal and motive was
not about making and I know the show and that's
kind of gonna sound kind of crazy because I'm on
(07:51):
the money making show. But it wasn't motivated by that.
It was motivated by serving. And so when we knew
how to serve, the money came because we served the
people in regards to where we were looking at him
to only that magnitude. So when COVID came, all of
(08:14):
our fellow partners and people fell through the wayside, and
I prayed and my wife prayed. We said, God, what
is it for us to do. We don't want to
close our doors. We got employees, we got people. So
he said, take it out to the streets, and we
took it out to the parking lot. We had no
drive ups or anything like that, no way to really
(08:35):
kind of forecast about the goals or how to even
do it. We just did it. We fed the people
for five items they could students for five dollars. That's
how we started it out. And man, Raseean, they came
and packed out the parking lot and droves and listen,
you know, and God just stared with me. He said, listen,
(08:56):
when this is over, how you've reached out to the
community to reach back out to you, and we've been.
They've been feeding us every since where we spend them.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You know, I truly understand your story and I really
appreciate your story. And money making conversation isn't about the money.
It's about the story. It's about the journey. And I
always tell people all the time when I do deals,
it really isn't about the money, because if you go
in and you make it about the money, then you're
gonna make the missed while you're doing it. A lot
(09:26):
of times, what's the motivation what's the end goal. Because
I'm a community based person, tremain and to hear that
story lets me know why you want and while you
still win it because when you give back, people will
give back to you trifold tenfold. And that's what you're doing.
Please let people know you can never leave the community
(09:47):
when you're talking about serving them a product and asking
for their money.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Wow, yeah, that's correct. So that's how what happened. We
start seeing our sales being a tourist attraction. And so
when actually we had an article that came up in
the Huffington Post and we did not know anything about it,
but this lady we found out later that they put
(10:15):
us on the radar and they put us at one
of the top one top businesses in the US to visit.
And because we was wondering, it's like, wow, why is
you know? We we don't even hardly have our uncle
folks here. You know what I'm saying. Every time I
act because our host too as well as well as cook,
(10:37):
as well as do everything else that's providing for the
business to ensure that it goes. But when I'm hosted,
I ask people where they are. And I've been hearing
this point, I've been here in Atlanta majority of the time,
and so that's what kind of motivated us to spread
our wings and stand out on faith once again to
go to Atlanta, because we had people that will come
(11:00):
all the way to Birmingham to visit us from Atlanta,
and so we said, okay, you know that's that's that's
where we need to reached out from where we need
to go. And that's what we end up doing. We
end up going there and spread our wings opened up
right there Marrietta, Georgia, and you know, we're having fun.
It's grow and of course there's anything, but we're having fun.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Well, you're doing what you're supposed to do. And first
of all, perfect note, wonderful name for a business. I'm
talking to Tremaine Thompson, one of the co owners. He
owns it with his wife, black owned business. But when
it comes back, you know, we won't talk about that
menu because I'm a food guy, Tremaine, I got to
know what about the food, my friend? Okay, But also
(11:43):
I want to talk about the mistakes I made when
I opened my business because that's important to people. You know,
they look at people they think they're successful you're successful.
There's a lot of bumps in the success because I
want you to hear my story and then we can
share it to the listeners so they won't make the
same mistakes. I'm talking to Truemaine Thompson, one of the
owners of Perfect Note.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Tell everybody about the website till every about retell the
hours operation because I want to make sure people understand
about the Perfect Note and it is a must go
to venue.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So we're open right now. It's Wednesday through Saturday. That's
from five to basically five to eleven, and we kind
of do it a little bit different. It's based off
of how the shows go. And then on Sundays we
have a great Sunday brunch from twelve to five with
music happening at one o'clock and three o'clock. And the
(12:55):
website is Perfect Note Live atl dot com. Once again,
that's Perfect Note live dot com to be I'm sorry,
it's Perfect Note Live apl dot com. They can be
able to go right there to our website.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
What is Brudge said that worry brunch? B are U
and h what exactly that Sunday brunch? Excite me right now, Tremaine.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
So if you get a little bit of breakfast and lunch,
that's when we pull out our You know, if I
have more time, I definitely tell you my backstory of
even how I got into the food industry.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Okay, hey, this is your show right now, this is your.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Talk, you know, so I'll talk from a corporate America
and when when my granddaddy always told me, he said,
never get into anything that you don't understand. So I
left corporate America before I was thinking about going into
brick and mortar and went into waffle House. My first
(13:59):
falling experience of what was well waffle House because I
needed to learn how to cook, and I didn't realize
what God was preparing me for. So I give my
hats off to waffle House cooks because they cook everything
every protein you can think of except for pride on
a two and three inch or a three foot grill.
(14:22):
And I've learned how to speed cook and do all that,
and I didn't know God was getting me in for
preparation because we have to do that on that end
when we're trying to serve one hundred and fifty people
within two hours. So that's a hump in the kitchen.
So I had to learn that skill expression to be
(14:45):
able to teach my folks or teach my cooks on
how to be able to speed cook, but make sure
that its own quality. It's done and everything comes out
exactly the way that you would do it in a
fine dining in or anything else in that regard. So
that's how I got into the food part of it,
and I'll run you know, hey, I hang with the
(15:06):
best of them. Now you know that none of it
from my experience at waffle house. Well you know my
cooking credit.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Well you got to because they cook under pressure because
you're staring at them. Okay, you see what's going down
right there. You can't cook any more intense pressure than
at a waffle house. Now we're talking to one of
the owners of the Perfect Nut, No Perfect Note, and
so I want everybody understanding about the Perfect Note is
that this dinner supper club the music for thirty and up.
Explain to us at the Perfect Note. When you said
(15:35):
thirty and up, what does that mean.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
That's grown folks. You know, people who was tired of
the clubs. Not nothing against the club So get me wrong,
if we got any club owners, that's on the line tonight.
But you know people who really kind of wanted to
transition to safe environment to you know, we don't have
hookahs or anything in that regard, even against those things,
(16:00):
but it's just to where you can dress up, then
you come out, have a good time, you can mingle,
you don't have to worry about you know, people just
all in your face, you know, and just and then
I love the part. This is what I really love
is how music brings all of your demographics together. Yes,
(16:20):
all of your demographics there that we got Asians, we
got whites, we got you know, Hispanics, we got everybody
coming under one roof, and they're creating culture, they're creating relationships.
We've had people get married because they've been coming in
single and then they mingled and they left out and
now they got wedding veils going on. So we have
(16:42):
a lot of these things come right there through our
venue because it's just that place of presence. They feel good,
you know, and they service well, and that's what we
call with the thirty and up, we call them grown folks,
to where you really can have a grown folks atmosphere.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Absolutely, I'm one of those grown folks, and I'm going
to be there being a grown folk, sending quiet, eating,
clapping when I was supposed to clap, dressed right, you know, walk,
be it polite, opening the door when people supposed to
get the door open, pulling the chair open when the
chair is supposed to be pulled back, all those good things.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
When I opened my business way back in ninety two trade,
I just opened the doors.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Brother.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I didn't have a budget, I didn't understand taxes. And
I want you to explain to people the importanness of
preparation when you when you have a dream but don't
have a plan of operation attached to the dream. Please explain tomorrow.
The mistakes I made should never be repeated if you're
trying to be successful long term in the business, and
that's what you're doing with perfect note.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And man, I'm glad you stated that it was very
This road was a very difficult road to accomplish based
off of because the resources was just not there. We
took all of our finances for one case, everything you
can think of that we can get loans, and we
(18:03):
extended it all into the business. You know, it was either,
as they say, go all in or go home. So
we didn't have really no other choice because if we
left it or we decided to throw in the towel,
then that means that we're throwing in the towel of
everything that we put in, We're throwing in our whole life,
you know, our whole life savings. So I'll say always, now,
(18:28):
as a look at it in hindsight, it's always good
to get a mentor somebody who has been in it,
went through the rough roads of the business. And if
they're willing to be able to share knowledge or just
be able to you know, a mentorship, you I firmly, firmly,
(18:50):
firmly expressed that you get behind somebody who can be
able to kind of lead you. Because there's no book
for us, you know, we don't have the same Unfortunately,
we don't have the same leisure as our other counterparts.
You just don't, you know, and and and they don't
help give a successful how to be successful book. Yeah,
(19:14):
we can go to Barns and Nobles and buy different
books about how to do certain things, but their templates,
because once you get into it, you have to really
find out what your niche really is, you know, and
and if it's going to be successful for you or not.
It might have been successful for them, but what is
going to be successful for you? So always gets figure
(19:38):
out some kind of foundation. If I do it all
over again, I will always ensure. That's why now I
dig back. When people ask me about business, how to
get in it or how to start it, I say,
let's talk give a number. Information is free. I don't.
I don't own it, you know what I mean, So
why should I be trying to not give it? You know?
(19:58):
That's the blessings. When Jesus walked through the lands, he
didn't say just because I had all power, but I'm
gonna hold it until you, you know, give me something,
whatever it may be. Yeah, you have to give him
of course your you know, your life standards. But at
the same token, the blessings was free, you know, so
if you wanted to receive those, those was given to you.
(20:21):
You know, so you didn't have to you know, scrape
or go through a lot of red tape to be
able to do that. All you have to do is
be willing, be willing and open and and to be
able to listen to whatever is is needed. And uh
so that's just kind of been our road in our journey.
But it wasn't easy. You know, it wasn't easy, and
(20:41):
by no part of entrepreneurship is easy. And so that
that's that's kind of been our journey, right.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Well, you know it's a good journey because it's a
journey that you are sharing with us on this show.
Is a journey that gets me excited before we wrap up.
Tell us exactly. I know it's Wednesday through Saturday. Then
on Sunday's gospel brunch. Restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama, which I
would call it restaurant Perfect Note, which is a live
dinner supper club which we hear music and dying on
fantastic food, is a stable because guess what, he's from Chicago.
(21:12):
You know, I always say, you know black people from
the South that went north. He went north and they
came back to the South. Now they went east, so
they trying to conquer it. Now, would that being said,
are you going to open up more Perfect Notes around
the country, Tremaine.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I'm just gonna lead. However God leads us, that's where
we're gonna go. We I think right now, if we
was able to take what all of the consumers when
they come in, they probably would have had us in
every neighborhood possible, all the way from here to you know,
d C. So everywhere we go, they want a perfect
(21:48):
note because of that experience. And I'm thankful and a
honor to be able that we're just being able to
be vessels to provide that and give of safe haven
for people to be able to fill the presence when
they come in and feel comfortable and want that in
their own cities. So we are looking, yes, to answer
your question, we are looking to spread our our our
(22:11):
dream and our our our product to other cities, especially
in Chicago. We got to go there. You know. Nick
Coleon was one of my good friends before he passed,
and he was me and him was working on the
deal to be able to put it in Schomberg and
(22:32):
one in Shamberg right before he passed. So I owe
it to him to still continue that dream and legacy
to put that in for our jazz. Great that we
lost Nick, I'll tell you what, back to the city, I.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Want to thank you for coming on the show. Perfect
Note again Wednesday through Saturday. Brunch on Sunday, July tenth,
will we opened lunch from eleven to three. The original
local is based in the Big Ham that's Birmingham, Alabama.
Tell your wife I'll see her soon. I will definitely
shake your hands soon, my friend, and join a great
plate of good food at the Perfect Note and sitting
(23:11):
back like a grown person supposed to be sitting back
and joining some good music. See you soon, my friend,
and thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass
hosted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you our listening to
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
(23:33):
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
your gifts. Keep winning
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rashan McDonald, a host of weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own. If you
want to be a guest on my show, please visit
our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click to be a guest.
Button press submit and information will come directly to me. Now,
(00:24):
let's get this show started. My guest, who's upfront right here,
is one of the co owners of The Perfect Note.
It's a dinner shupper club featuring live concerts in Atlanta, Georgia.
That's where it's located, as well as in Birmingham, Alabama,
the Big Ham. Each location specializes in Southern classics on
their menu and music. The caters to grown folks ages
(00:45):
thirty and up. Please welcome the Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Tremaine Thompson. How are you doing, my.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Brother, man? I'm doing wonderful. While we are such a
great introduction, I don't know how to respond.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, you're gonna respond, and I gotta. I got a
lot of things to say to you, my man, because
you know the thing about this show, mister Thompson, owner
of Perfect Note, and the other owners who sir.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
My wife, So that's what we call yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
K Absolutely you know I'm not gonna get on this
show and just call you the owner, okay, because it's
gonna be another conversation with the interview unions. Well why
you couldn't say my name? You're too busy? Well you
think t K Productions stand for Okay?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
He brother, I'm mad. Got married in eighty eight. I
know the rules and I understand it and I get home.
If I'm gonna hear it, I'm gonna hear good because
I won't say the right thing. How you doing? Sisily?
That's her name. She's gonna get mad because I said
her name on raders. She's gonna get mad about something.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Now I'm gonna tell you something, my brother, Perfect Note.
Tell everybody what is the Perfect Note? Before we start
talking about running a successful business? What is the Perfect Note?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Got So, the Perfect Note is a basically you kind
of the sum up with a dinner supper club. We've
been in music all of our lives and our purpose
is to be able to have grown folks for something
for them to be able to continue to still do
you know, it's not a lot out here for us,
the grown folks to be able to do and do
(02:17):
it with clarity and do it with quality. And what
we produce, we produce concerts. You fully see them in
for production concerts and then while you're sitting in the
same room, you actually have great cuisines as though you're
sitting in a restaurant that's being serviced by our what
we call our service attendance that be able to take
(02:39):
care of your needs while you're sitting in your seats
for the show. So dinner and show is our concept
and it's been very successful for us as being one
of the only multi location block owned business. It's for
entertainment venue.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Now from New York from a lifestyle Stan were born
and raised in Houston, Texas now and that this type
of setup I've seen several times and experienced in New York.
You know, So what made you believe? And you started
in Birmingham first, correct, that's correct, and then you moved
your location to Atlanta. Now, tell us about the Birmingham experience.
(03:20):
What motivated you because it's a smaller market, so you
you you're cultivating, and some would say taking business risks
launching in a market with a smaller you know, African
American share, and I apologize, you're probably drawing a diverse
audience because you're talking about jazz. You're talking about a
lot of diverse music as well as a great food menu.
Tell us why you started in Birmingham and then saw
(03:41):
the desire to shift to Atlanta, So.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I guess we kind of have to backfuttle just a
little bit. Is we started it in Chicago, Okay, me
and my wife. That's how TK Production started. We were
just concert promotion, so we did gospel. Gospel was our
main ingredient to where we did a lot of the tours,
a lot of the concerts in Chicago, and that's kind
(04:06):
of how we created our name. And our name was
based off of our company was based off of our character.
So we knew that without a shoutow a doubt, if
the company went down, we went down because that means
we didn't live up to our character's standards and our
kingdom building standards were just serving kingdom business. So our
(04:28):
whole thing is Then when we moved to Alabama in
two thousand and eight, then that's when me and my
wife got married. In two thousand and seven, we decided
to move because her mom had passed away. So we
moved and then we had a high agus for probably
about maybe four years, and we just got tired of
(04:49):
not having anything to do, you know, and so we agreed,
we said, let's go back to our roots. And our
roots was music, and because we knew the healing and
the love in the passion for music that we had,
and we did our first concert in Bessemer, Alabama, called
Intimate Jazz and Conversations. And when we did that, we
(05:11):
brought in Gerald Albright was our kickoff artist, and nobody
knew us and so but we knew we had a
good product. We presented that product. It packed out day
one and the rest was history after that. And that
kind of cultivated to create us to be able to
birth perfect note. And that's when we birth first. Because
we grew so tremendously, we opened the doors. We found
(05:35):
out that people loved to sit in the same atmosphere
to be able to eat some food. And we didn't
have a restaurant at that time. We were just utilizing
a banquet facility. Wow, they used to come in there
and we set up the chairs ourselves, we set up
the tables ourselves. It was just me and my wife.
We went in vall Linen's to be able to decorate
(05:56):
the atmosphere as a kind of like a jazz supper club,
and we created the atmosphere, you know, and then people
didn't see that at the end of the show we
had to break down one hundred and stuff, well three
hundred and some seats about ourselves as well too. So
it's a lot of a lot of dignity and to
be able to super facilitate and see our goal and
(06:19):
now Perfect Note happens, and then we opened up our
venue twenty sixty. That's what Perfect Note was born in Birmingham.
Not about we know.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
That's a wonderful story and it's a story about putting
the work for your dream. I remember that, you know,
the journey to get there is always fun, you know,
you look back on it because staying there is a
lot of work. It really is. My wife and I
was talking about the other night about that, you know,
being successful, really it's hard. Beginning to be successful is fun.
(06:53):
You make mistakes, you laugh about it, but when you
get up there, that's when you really see the competition.
Talk about that journey. You talked about the start, but
talk about that journey perfect note and did come into Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Wow. So it's if I could just sum it up
at a high level, the journey has. If we did
not have God on our side, the journey would have
been a lot more difficult, and we probably wouldn't be
here today. But just to be able to stand the
(07:29):
test of everything that we've been through COVID and you know,
all of the ups and downs of the business, we
definitely probably couldn't do that. But what we did, you know,
he dived in because our home goal and motive was
not about making and I know the show and that's
kind of gonna sound kind of crazy because I'm on
(07:51):
the money making show. But it wasn't motivated by that.
It was motivated by serving. And so when we knew
how to serve, the money came because we served the
people in regards to where we were looking at him
to only that magnitude. So when COVID came, all of
(08:14):
our fellow partners and people fell through the wayside, and
I prayed and my wife prayed. We said, God, what
is it for us to do. We don't want to
close our doors. We got employees, we got people. So
he said, take it out to the streets, and we
took it out to the parking lot. We had no
drive ups or anything like that, no way to really
(08:35):
kind of forecast about the goals or how to even
do it. We just did it. We fed the people
for five items they could students for five dollars. That's
how we started it out. And man, Raseean, they came
and packed out the parking lot and droves and listen,
you know, and God just stared with me. He said, listen,
(08:56):
when this is over, how you've reached out to the
community to reach back out to you, and we've been.
They've been feeding us every since where we spend them.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You know, I truly understand your story and I really
appreciate your story. And money making conversation isn't about the money.
It's about the story. It's about the journey. And I
always tell people all the time when I do deals,
it really isn't about the money, because if you go
in and you make it about the money, then you're
gonna make the missed while you're doing it. A lot
(09:26):
of times, what's the motivation what's the end goal. Because
I'm a community based person, tremain and to hear that
story lets me know why you want and while you
still win it because when you give back, people will
give back to you trifold tenfold. And that's what you're doing.
Please let people know you can never leave the community
(09:47):
when you're talking about serving them a product and asking
for their money.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Wow, yeah, that's correct. So that's how what happened. We
start seeing our sales being a tourist attraction. And so
when actually we had an article that came up in
the Huffington Post and we did not know anything about it,
but this lady we found out later that they put
(10:15):
us on the radar and they put us at one
of the top one top businesses in the US to visit.
And because we was wondering, it's like, wow, why is
you know? We we don't even hardly have our uncle
folks here. You know what I'm saying. Every time I
act because our host too as well as well as cook,
(10:37):
as well as do everything else that's providing for the
business to ensure that it goes. But when I'm hosted,
I ask people where they are. And I've been hearing
this point, I've been here in Atlanta majority of the time,
and so that's what kind of motivated us to spread
our wings and stand out on faith once again to
go to Atlanta, because we had people that will come
(11:00):
all the way to Birmingham to visit us from Atlanta,
and so we said, okay, you know that's that's that's
where we need to reached out from where we need
to go. And that's what we end up doing. We
end up going there and spread our wings opened up
right there Marrietta, Georgia, and you know, we're having fun.
It's grow and of course there's anything, but we're having fun.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Well, you're doing what you're supposed to do. And first
of all, perfect note, wonderful name for a business. I'm
talking to Tremaine Thompson, one of the co owners. He
owns it with his wife, black owned business. But when
it comes back, you know, we won't talk about that
menu because I'm a food guy, Tremaine, I got to
know what about the food, my friend? Okay, But also
(11:43):
I want to talk about the mistakes I made when
I opened my business because that's important to people. You know,
they look at people they think they're successful you're successful.
There's a lot of bumps in the success because I
want you to hear my story and then we can
share it to the listeners so they won't make the
same mistakes. I'm talking to Truemaine Thompson, one of the
owners of Perfect Note.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Tell everybody about the website till every about retell the
hours operation because I want to make sure people understand
about the Perfect Note and it is a must go
to venue.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So we're open right now. It's Wednesday through Saturday. That's
from five to basically five to eleven, and we kind
of do it a little bit different. It's based off
of how the shows go. And then on Sundays we
have a great Sunday brunch from twelve to five with
music happening at one o'clock and three o'clock. And the
(12:55):
website is Perfect Note Live atl dot com. Once again,
that's Perfect Note live dot com to be I'm sorry,
it's Perfect Note Live apl dot com. They can be
able to go right there to our website.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
What is Brudge said that worry brunch? B are U
and h what exactly that Sunday brunch? Excite me right now, Tremaine.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
So if you get a little bit of breakfast and lunch,
that's when we pull out our You know, if I
have more time, I definitely tell you my backstory of
even how I got into the food industry.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Okay, hey, this is your show right now, this is your.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Talk, you know, so I'll talk from a corporate America
and when when my granddaddy always told me, he said,
never get into anything that you don't understand. So I
left corporate America before I was thinking about going into
brick and mortar and went into waffle House. My first
(13:59):
falling experience of what was well waffle House because I
needed to learn how to cook, and I didn't realize
what God was preparing me for. So I give my
hats off to waffle House cooks because they cook everything
every protein you can think of except for pride on
a two and three inch or a three foot grill.
(14:22):
And I've learned how to speed cook and do all that,
and I didn't know God was getting me in for
preparation because we have to do that on that end
when we're trying to serve one hundred and fifty people
within two hours. So that's a hump in the kitchen.
So I had to learn that skill expression to be
(14:45):
able to teach my folks or teach my cooks on
how to be able to speed cook, but make sure
that its own quality. It's done and everything comes out
exactly the way that you would do it in a
fine dining in or anything else in that regard. So
that's how I got into the food part of it,
and I'll run you know, hey, I hang with the
(15:06):
best of them. Now you know that none of it
from my experience at waffle house. Well you know my
cooking credit.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Well you got to because they cook under pressure because
you're staring at them. Okay, you see what's going down
right there. You can't cook any more intense pressure than
at a waffle house. Now we're talking to one of
the owners of the Perfect Nut, No Perfect Note, and
so I want everybody understanding about the Perfect Note is
that this dinner supper club the music for thirty and up.
Explain to us at the Perfect Note. When you said
(15:35):
thirty and up, what does that mean.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
That's grown folks. You know, people who was tired of
the clubs. Not nothing against the club So get me wrong,
if we got any club owners, that's on the line tonight.
But you know people who really kind of wanted to
transition to safe environment to you know, we don't have
hookahs or anything in that regard, even against those things,
(16:00):
but it's just to where you can dress up, then
you come out, have a good time, you can mingle,
you don't have to worry about you know, people just
all in your face, you know, and just and then
I love the part. This is what I really love
is how music brings all of your demographics together. Yes,
(16:20):
all of your demographics there that we got Asians, we
got whites, we got you know, Hispanics, we got everybody
coming under one roof, and they're creating culture, they're creating relationships.
We've had people get married because they've been coming in
single and then they mingled and they left out and
now they got wedding veils going on. So we have
(16:42):
a lot of these things come right there through our
venue because it's just that place of presence. They feel good,
you know, and they service well, and that's what we
call with the thirty and up, we call them grown folks,
to where you really can have a grown folks atmosphere.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Absolutely, I'm one of those grown folks, and I'm going
to be there being a grown folk, sending quiet, eating,
clapping when I was supposed to clap, dressed right, you know, walk,
be it polite, opening the door when people supposed to
get the door open, pulling the chair open when the
chair is supposed to be pulled back, all those good things.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
When I opened my business way back in ninety two trade,
I just opened the doors.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Brother.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I didn't have a budget, I didn't understand taxes. And
I want you to explain to people the importanness of
preparation when you when you have a dream but don't
have a plan of operation attached to the dream. Please explain tomorrow.
The mistakes I made should never be repeated if you're
trying to be successful long term in the business, and
that's what you're doing with perfect note.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And man, I'm glad you stated that it was very
This road was a very difficult road to accomplish based
off of because the resources was just not there. We
took all of our finances for one case, everything you
can think of that we can get loans, and we
(18:03):
extended it all into the business. You know, it was either,
as they say, go all in or go home. So
we didn't have really no other choice because if we
left it or we decided to throw in the towel,
then that means that we're throwing in the towel of
everything that we put in, We're throwing in our whole life,
you know, our whole life savings. So I'll say always, now,
(18:28):
as a look at it in hindsight, it's always good
to get a mentor somebody who has been in it,
went through the rough roads of the business. And if
they're willing to be able to share knowledge or just
be able to you know, a mentorship, you I firmly, firmly,
(18:50):
firmly expressed that you get behind somebody who can be
able to kind of lead you. Because there's no book
for us, you know, we don't have the same Unfortunately,
we don't have the same leisure as our other counterparts.
You just don't, you know, and and and they don't
help give a successful how to be successful book. Yeah,
(19:14):
we can go to Barns and Nobles and buy different
books about how to do certain things, but their templates,
because once you get into it, you have to really
find out what your niche really is, you know, and
and if it's going to be successful for you or not.
It might have been successful for them, but what is
going to be successful for you? So always gets figure
(19:38):
out some kind of foundation. If I do it all
over again, I will always ensure. That's why now I
dig back. When people ask me about business, how to
get in it or how to start it, I say,
let's talk give a number. Information is free. I don't.
I don't own it, you know what I mean, So
why should I be trying to not give it? You know?
(19:58):
That's the blessings. When Jesus walked through the lands, he
didn't say just because I had all power, but I'm
gonna hold it until you, you know, give me something,
whatever it may be. Yeah, you have to give him
of course your you know, your life standards. But at
the same token, the blessings was free, you know, so
if you wanted to receive those, those was given to you.
(20:21):
You know, so you didn't have to you know, scrape
or go through a lot of red tape to be
able to do that. All you have to do is
be willing, be willing and open and and to be
able to listen to whatever is is needed. And uh
so that's just kind of been our road in our journey.
But it wasn't easy. You know, it wasn't easy, and
(20:41):
by no part of entrepreneurship is easy. And so that
that's that's kind of been our journey, right.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Well, you know it's a good journey because it's a
journey that you are sharing with us on this show.
Is a journey that gets me excited before we wrap up.
Tell us exactly. I know it's Wednesday through Saturday. Then
on Sunday's gospel brunch. Restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama, which I
would call it restaurant Perfect Note, which is a live
dinner supper club which we hear music and dying on
fantastic food, is a stable because guess what, he's from Chicago.
(21:12):
You know, I always say, you know black people from
the South that went north. He went north and they
came back to the South. Now they went east, so
they trying to conquer it. Now, would that being said,
are you going to open up more Perfect Notes around
the country, Tremaine.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I'm just gonna lead. However God leads us, that's where
we're gonna go. We I think right now, if we
was able to take what all of the consumers when
they come in, they probably would have had us in
every neighborhood possible, all the way from here to you know,
d C. So everywhere we go, they want a perfect
(21:48):
note because of that experience. And I'm thankful and a
honor to be able that we're just being able to
be vessels to provide that and give of safe haven
for people to be able to fill the presence when
they come in and feel comfortable and want that in
their own cities. So we are looking, yes, to answer
your question, we are looking to spread our our our
(22:11):
dream and our our our product to other cities, especially
in Chicago. We got to go there. You know. Nick
Coleon was one of my good friends before he passed,
and he was me and him was working on the
deal to be able to put it in Schomberg and
(22:32):
one in Shamberg right before he passed. So I owe
it to him to still continue that dream and legacy
to put that in for our jazz. Great that we
lost Nick, I'll tell you what, back to the city, I.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Want to thank you for coming on the show. Perfect
Note again Wednesday through Saturday. Brunch on Sunday, July tenth,
will we opened lunch from eleven to three. The original
local is based in the Big Ham that's Birmingham, Alabama.
Tell your wife I'll see her soon. I will definitely
shake your hands soon, my friend, and join a great
plate of good food at the Perfect Note and sitting
(23:11):
back like a grown person supposed to be sitting back
and joining some good music. See you soon, my friend,
and thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass
hosted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you our listening to
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
(23:33):
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
your gifts. Keep winning
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