December 8, 2025 • 8 mins
Bryn stops by to talk about the fun wild weekend downtown, Huse Culinary, and more! Huse Culinary Restaurant Gift Cards
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to the Hammer and Nigel Show. Hello,
I'm Nigel Jason Hammer right over there with a very
special Lytton Studio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yest busy weekend downtown.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
You had basketball, you had football holiday season.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Let's talk about it with our.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Bow Brynn Jones of Hughes Culinary, one of the big
gurus of the marketing department. Bren, welcome back, and we
were kind of talking off the air. Yes, Indiana and
Ohio State was the headliner this weekend, but that IU
Louisville basketball game brought tons of people downtown as well.
I came downtown to run a few errands here at
(00:38):
the building. I saw a lot of Louisville people standing
outside of Saint Elmo. So I can only imagine the
amount of patrons you guys went through this weekend was
a pretty strong number.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yeah, it was a sea of red and athletics and
all of the things. You couldn't tell when it was
got to the football game. You couldn't tell if somebody
was from Indiana or Ohio State unless they spelled their state.
We don't know. There's there's only one state that has
to do that obnoxiously. But yeah, it was the basketball
game was a little bit of a sleeper event. I mean,
(01:09):
we knew it was coming, but yeah, a lot of
a lot of Louisville fans and yeah, it was it
was it was solid. It was really good.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Really just really quick remind everybody, like, what is under
the huge culinary umbrella?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
We have, Yeah, so huge culinary restaurant brands. So we
have Saint Elmo obviously are the flagship, and then Harry
and Izy's nineteen thirty three lound in HC Tavern. So
of all of those, we're up to eight locations there.
And then we have the Spirit side, so we have
Saint Almial Cocktails, and then we have a whiskey brand,
rare Saint Whisky, which we've brought some stuff to share
you guys, and Barkeep vodka, which you've been fans of
(01:48):
in the past too, So we've yeah, we've got several
different spirit brands, and then the bottle cocktail, sauce and
all those things. So yeah, we've every time we get bored,
we just come up with a new project to to
take to retail and have some fun with. So that's
that's what we've got.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
And I think it speaks volumes about the brand of
Hughes that when somebody comes into Indianapolis, visiting one of
these restaurants is like on the bucket list. Right if
you're a tourist and you're coming to Indy to watch
your team, or you're here for a convention, you're thinking,
where's that place with the spicy shrimp or where do
I get those sliders?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Think of how many I couldn't have mentioned, how many
times I've been watching national televised broadcasts and the sportscasters
and whoever they mentioned sting elbow my name.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Yeah, We've been very fortunate to have a lot of
that over the years. I think it's gotten to the
point now where they do it because they'll reach out
to myself or Krager, you know, somebody and know if
they say something kind about us, that when we've got
four thousand people on a wait list, they'll they'll find
a way to sneak their way into the restaurant. And
that certainly can't hurt. But yeah, on the marketing side,
(02:51):
I think a lot of times people ask me what
I do for a living, and I just say I
take credit for good operations because we have such an
amazing team of people that have been in the restaurants,
you know, fifteen, twenty thirty years, and it's like, right,
they're great at what they do, and we run great
restaurants and have fun doing it.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
How was the restaurant industry in downtown in Dannapolis, Because
I know there's a lot of empty office space right now,
but that's different than people coming down and enjoying basketball
games and football games and going to restaurants. Is there
a difference there?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yeah, I think it certainly since like before COVID to
what it is now, and I think people have gotten
back to office. Everybody going back to the office. That's
pretty much normalized. But yeah, there's still a lot of
empty office spaces, and I think it's from a business standpoint,
I think it's almost kind of feast or famine a
lot of times, because if there's nothing going on, then
things will get really slow. But then a seventy thousand
(03:44):
person convention will come into town and then you've got
to ramp up for that, and you know you're bringing
in all staff available and all hands on deck. So yeah,
it just depends on what's going on. But you know,
the city does such a good job of scheduling things
and keeping everybody you know, well commune unicated too, so
you know what's coming and it's you know, it's just
something you can plan for. A lot of things are
(04:05):
cyclical too, so Big ten Championship last year, you kind
of know what to expect. This year we got Final
four coming up, so yeah, you kind of know what
to expect.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Big one and full disclosure. Hughes Culinary is an advertiser
with Hammer and Nigel. We've been talking about the gift cards,
which again Nige and I we put our names on
stuff that we believe in, and I keep saying on
these commercials that we're reading, it's the perfect gift card
to get someone or to give to me. Like, if
you need somebody to give a gift card, I will
(04:34):
gladly take it off your hands.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
How are the holiday gift cards going.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
It's going, it's going, it's going great. Yeah, I mean
we really a lot of times the bonus gift card
programs that restaurants do, there's like you've got to come
in and use it on a Sunday in April, you know,
and we have really no stipulations on them for the
following year, so they're valid bonus gift cards are valid
for a full year, come in whenever you want. There's
no blackout dates. So if you think you're going to
eat in twenty twenty six, probably a good idea to
(05:01):
do that because you can save yourself a little bit
of money, and for us, it just kind of protects
against future sales and it's a thank you to you know,
a lot of our loyal guests and people that are
they know they're coming in, so this is a way
that they can save a bit of money and it's
kind of a thank you for them.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And I love watching people's reactions when they go to
one of your restaurants for the first time. Like my
old man has lived in India's whole life, finally took
him to Saint Omo a year ago. He's like, oh
my god, that was the best stake I've ever had.
I'm like, I tried to tell you.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
But you know right.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
And again, like gift card sales, which are the retail
department and marketing department, we take a lot of pride
in doing whatever we can to help push those But
again it comes back to what you just said. It's
run great restaurants and people are going to come back.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
So so what is this little bottle of happy that
you brought up to us here?
Speaker 4 (05:45):
So, yeah, this is a fun project that we've done
for Rare Saint. So Rare Saint whiskey as a whiskey
brand kind of under our portfolio, and we launched it
a little bit over a year ago and.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
N I just putting it up on the YouTube camera
right now.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yeah, So Rare Saint what started off as a brand,
like we've been doing single barrel selections in our restaurants
for you know, a couple of decades really, and so
that's where you're you're selecting, you know, out of a
bunch of different barrels and you're picking the one that's
that that's the best one available out of the bunch
that you get. And so we wanted to have a
little bit more control over that as a brand. And
so that's kind of where we're saying when is like,
(06:19):
let's source you know, whiskey and be able to be
very selective in which you know which ones we and
just like we.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Said earlier, we don't put our names on anything. Like
you guys are the exact same when you put something
out like the vodka that you guys had out the
barkeep vodka so unbelievably good and smooth, and I would
imagine this process of finding a whiskey in a bourbon's
the same way.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
It really is, and you can't fake it.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
We don't have one person that's a master distiller that's
doing the selection. We'll put a team together, people that
have been, you know, enjoying whiskey, like Carrie Wafford on
our team at Saint Elma. I mean he's he's just
hit forty years at Saint Elmo and he's been you know,
drinking bourbon for thirty years. So with this project, what
we did is we took four different mash bills blended
that into one. Already it was amazing and everybody was
(07:07):
excited about it at that point.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Let's taste it, but yeah, it give it a go.
What are we drinking to brand? You're making the dum.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Sports in Indie right now. I mean, it's it's going.
It's going really well.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So true nobody on Indiana Hoosiers blowing out an Achilles
because apparently that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yeah, it's it's going around.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah, So that is legit right there.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Yeah, and fifteen proof, but SIPs like it's uh maybe
maybe ninety ninety five proof. So this yeah, so we
we uh, there's a couple of different spirit ratings groups
that will submit to We submitted this to USA Spirits Ratings.
It got ninety six points and was named Blended Whiskey
(07:49):
of the Year out of out of like seven hundred
close to seven hundred spirits. And this is across all
categories vodka, jin whiskey, anything, seven hundred different spirits. This
was tied for fifth out of all of them. So
we're like, it really just kind of validated everything we've
been we've been doing for real Saints available pretty much
(08:11):
any total wine in the state, in the area where
it to select Noble wine and spirits, a few twenty
first amendments. But it's I mean, there's there's such a
limited number of these bottles out there, Like I think
probably about four hundred bottles is all that went to retail.
So it's it's kind of one of those things where
you know, the bourbon and the whiskey hunters are out
(08:31):
there trying to find it. It's that's the hunts.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Holiday gift man.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
People like to exchange bottles for the holidays, grab a
bottle of rare Saint telling you if you can find this,
it's going to make the holiday bride.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I'm enjoying it right now. Brent, you're the man. Brother.
Thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Thank you for supporting us.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
By the way, we absolutely you guys are fantastic.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Stammer and Nigel show
You were listening to the Hammer and Nigel Show. Hello,
I'm Nigel Jason Hammer right over there with a very
special Lytton Studio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yest busy weekend downtown.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
You had basketball, you had football holiday season.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Let's talk about it with our.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Bow Brynn Jones of Hughes Culinary, one of the big
gurus of the marketing department. Bren, welcome back, and we
were kind of talking off the air. Yes, Indiana and
Ohio State was the headliner this weekend, but that IU
Louisville basketball game brought tons of people downtown as well.
I came downtown to run a few errands here at
(00:38):
the building. I saw a lot of Louisville people standing
outside of Saint Elmo. So I can only imagine the
amount of patrons you guys went through this weekend was
a pretty strong number.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yeah, it was a sea of red and athletics and
all of the things. You couldn't tell when it was
got to the football game. You couldn't tell if somebody
was from Indiana or Ohio State unless they spelled their state.
We don't know. There's there's only one state that has
to do that obnoxiously. But yeah, it was the basketball
game was a little bit of a sleeper event. I mean,
(01:09):
we knew it was coming, but yeah, a lot of
a lot of Louisville fans and yeah, it was it
was it was solid. It was really good.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Really just really quick remind everybody, like, what is under
the huge culinary umbrella?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
We have, Yeah, so huge culinary restaurant brands. So we
have Saint Elmo obviously are the flagship, and then Harry
and Izy's nineteen thirty three lound in HC Tavern. So
of all of those, we're up to eight locations there.
And then we have the Spirit side, so we have
Saint Almial Cocktails, and then we have a whiskey brand,
rare Saint Whisky, which we've brought some stuff to share
you guys, and Barkeep vodka, which you've been fans of
(01:48):
in the past too, So we've yeah, we've got several
different spirit brands, and then the bottle cocktail, sauce and
all those things. So yeah, we've every time we get bored,
we just come up with a new project to to
take to retail and have some fun with. So that's
that's what we've got.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
And I think it speaks volumes about the brand of
Hughes that when somebody comes into Indianapolis, visiting one of
these restaurants is like on the bucket list. Right if
you're a tourist and you're coming to Indy to watch
your team, or you're here for a convention, you're thinking,
where's that place with the spicy shrimp or where do
I get those sliders?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Think of how many I couldn't have mentioned, how many
times I've been watching national televised broadcasts and the sportscasters
and whoever they mentioned sting elbow my name.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Yeah, We've been very fortunate to have a lot of
that over the years. I think it's gotten to the
point now where they do it because they'll reach out
to myself or Krager, you know, somebody and know if
they say something kind about us, that when we've got
four thousand people on a wait list, they'll they'll find
a way to sneak their way into the restaurant. And
that certainly can't hurt. But yeah, on the marketing side,
(02:51):
I think a lot of times people ask me what
I do for a living, and I just say I
take credit for good operations because we have such an
amazing team of people that have been in the restaurants,
you know, fifteen, twenty thirty years, and it's like, right,
they're great at what they do, and we run great
restaurants and have fun doing it.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
How was the restaurant industry in downtown in Dannapolis, Because
I know there's a lot of empty office space right now,
but that's different than people coming down and enjoying basketball
games and football games and going to restaurants. Is there
a difference there?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yeah, I think it certainly since like before COVID to
what it is now, and I think people have gotten
back to office. Everybody going back to the office. That's
pretty much normalized. But yeah, there's still a lot of
empty office spaces, and I think it's from a business standpoint,
I think it's almost kind of feast or famine a
lot of times, because if there's nothing going on, then
things will get really slow. But then a seventy thousand
(03:44):
person convention will come into town and then you've got
to ramp up for that, and you know you're bringing
in all staff available and all hands on deck. So yeah,
it just depends on what's going on. But you know,
the city does such a good job of scheduling things
and keeping everybody you know, well commune unicated too, so
you know what's coming and it's you know, it's just
something you can plan for. A lot of things are
(04:05):
cyclical too, so Big ten Championship last year, you kind
of know what to expect. This year we got Final
four coming up, so yeah, you kind of know what
to expect.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Big one and full disclosure. Hughes Culinary is an advertiser
with Hammer and Nigel. We've been talking about the gift cards,
which again Nige and I we put our names on
stuff that we believe in, and I keep saying on
these commercials that we're reading, it's the perfect gift card
to get someone or to give to me. Like, if
you need somebody to give a gift card, I will
(04:34):
gladly take it off your hands.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
How are the holiday gift cards going.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
It's going, it's going, it's going great. Yeah, I mean
we really a lot of times the bonus gift card
programs that restaurants do, there's like you've got to come
in and use it on a Sunday in April, you know,
and we have really no stipulations on them for the
following year, so they're valid bonus gift cards are valid
for a full year, come in whenever you want. There's
no blackout dates. So if you think you're going to
eat in twenty twenty six, probably a good idea to
(05:01):
do that because you can save yourself a little bit
of money, and for us, it just kind of protects
against future sales and it's a thank you to you know,
a lot of our loyal guests and people that are
they know they're coming in, so this is a way
that they can save a bit of money and it's
kind of a thank you for them.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And I love watching people's reactions when they go to
one of your restaurants for the first time. Like my
old man has lived in India's whole life, finally took
him to Saint Omo a year ago. He's like, oh
my god, that was the best stake I've ever had.
I'm like, I tried to tell you.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
But you know right.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
And again, like gift card sales, which are the retail
department and marketing department, we take a lot of pride
in doing whatever we can to help push those But
again it comes back to what you just said. It's
run great restaurants and people are going to come back.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
So so what is this little bottle of happy that
you brought up to us here?
Speaker 4 (05:45):
So, yeah, this is a fun project that we've done
for Rare Saint. So Rare Saint whiskey as a whiskey
brand kind of under our portfolio, and we launched it
a little bit over a year ago and.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
N I just putting it up on the YouTube camera
right now.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yeah, So Rare Saint what started off as a brand,
like we've been doing single barrel selections in our restaurants
for you know, a couple of decades really, and so
that's where you're you're selecting, you know, out of a
bunch of different barrels and you're picking the one that's
that that's the best one available out of the bunch
that you get. And so we wanted to have a
little bit more control over that as a brand. And
so that's kind of where we're saying when is like,
(06:19):
let's source you know, whiskey and be able to be
very selective in which you know which ones we and
just like we.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Said earlier, we don't put our names on anything. Like
you guys are the exact same when you put something
out like the vodka that you guys had out the
barkeep vodka so unbelievably good and smooth, and I would
imagine this process of finding a whiskey in a bourbon's
the same way.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
It really is, and you can't fake it.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
We don't have one person that's a master distiller that's
doing the selection. We'll put a team together, people that
have been, you know, enjoying whiskey, like Carrie Wafford on
our team at Saint Elma. I mean he's he's just
hit forty years at Saint Elmo and he's been you know,
drinking bourbon for thirty years. So with this project, what
we did is we took four different mash bills blended
that into one. Already it was amazing and everybody was
(07:07):
excited about it at that point.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Let's taste it, but yeah, it give it a go.
What are we drinking to brand? You're making the dum.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Sports in Indie right now. I mean, it's it's going.
It's going really well.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So true nobody on Indiana Hoosiers blowing out an Achilles
because apparently that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yeah, it's it's going around.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah, So that is legit right there.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Yeah, and fifteen proof, but SIPs like it's uh maybe
maybe ninety ninety five proof. So this yeah, so we
we uh, there's a couple of different spirit ratings groups
that will submit to We submitted this to USA Spirits Ratings.
It got ninety six points and was named Blended Whiskey
(07:49):
of the Year out of out of like seven hundred
close to seven hundred spirits. And this is across all
categories vodka, jin whiskey, anything, seven hundred different spirits. This
was tied for fifth out of all of them. So
we're like, it really just kind of validated everything we've
been we've been doing for real Saints available pretty much
(08:11):
any total wine in the state, in the area where
it to select Noble wine and spirits, a few twenty
first amendments. But it's I mean, there's there's such a
limited number of these bottles out there, Like I think
probably about four hundred bottles is all that went to retail.
So it's it's kind of one of those things where
you know, the bourbon and the whiskey hunters are out
(08:31):
there trying to find it. It's that's the hunts.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Holiday gift man.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
People like to exchange bottles for the holidays, grab a
bottle of rare Saint telling you if you can find this,
it's going to make the holiday bride.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I'm enjoying it right now. Brent, you're the man. Brother.
Thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Thank you for supporting us.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
By the way, we absolutely you guys are fantastic.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Stammer and Nigel show
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