Craving something familiar yet bold enough to surprise you? Meet Geoffrey Bernstein, the owner-operator of Penne For Your Thoughts, where Italian comfort meets Southern smoke and fast-casual service meets fine-dining technique. We dig into the craft behind dishes like smoked chicken Alfredo and Italian sausage mac and cheese pasta, the kind of plates that taste like a neighborhood favorite but show the polish of a serious kitchen.
Geoffrey opens up about the path from survival cooking to professional passion, the leap from a proof-of-concept food truck to a thriving brick-and-mortar in Knoxville, and the systems he borrowed from both fine dining and fast casual to deliver consistency at speed. If you’ve ever wondered how a small team can make their own sauces, slice their own meats, and smoke their own chicken without slowing the line, this conversation lays out the playbook: tight prep routines, smart sourcing, zero pretense, and a relentless focus on value.
We also address the elephant in the room: pricing. Geoffrey breaks down supplier-driven costs, the pressure independents face, and why holding prices steady can be a promise worth keeping when you design for efficiency. The COVID chapter reveals how mobility turned into a lifeline, with the truck rolling straight into neighborhoods and reshaping the business for resilience. Between candid talk about margins and joyful notes on family and home-theater obsessions, the story points to a bigger takeaway: quality doesn’t require a white tablecloth, just intention and care.
If you’re in East Tennessee, grab delivery from the website or book the truck for your next event. And if you love local food stories, share this episode with a friend, subscribe for more conversations like this, and leave a quick review to help others discover the show.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Skip Martin.
SPEAKER_01 (00:12):
Well, hello everyone, and welcome to the
Good Neighbor Podcast of EastTennessee and Western North
Carolina.
And today I am super excited tohave uh someone in our studio
for the first time and uh reallyexcited to learn all about them
and what they do, and I'm sureyou will be as well, because
today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,
Mr.
Jeffrey Bernstein, who is theowner-operator of Pinnae for
(00:35):
Your Thoughts.
Jeffrey, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
Well, like I said, we're excitedto learn all about you and
Pinnae for your thoughts.
So why don't you kick us off bytelling us about your business?
SPEAKER_00 (00:47):
Okay, well, Panay for your thoughts.
We are located in Knoxville,Tennessee, and we have been open
since about April of 2018.
We started as a food truckselling Italian American Fusion.
Um, and then we opened up ourbrick and mortar about three and
a half years ago.
So we've got both running rightnow, and we love serving our
(01:07):
local community.
Uh I guess kind of the ideabehind I say Italian-American
Fusion, and people are like,huh?
What is that?
And it's really kind of a wayfor me to do whatever I want to
do because between the Italianfair and American quotations,
you that that covers a lot.
I get to do a lot of playing inthere.
(01:28):
So we don't want to be yourtraditional mom and pop
spaghetti place that you see inin every town.
We we like being a littledifferent.
The way that we are different isfirst the Italian-American
fusion.
So, like a smoked chickenalfredo instead of a traditional
Alfredo.
So we have like that southernsmoked chicken flair to the uh
traditional chicken alfredo.
(01:48):
We have Italian sausage, mac andcheese pasta.
So we've got like Americanthings, Italian things, and we
smash them together, and it'sit's pretty great and fun and
different.
You know, you don't see thosekind of things everywhere.
Uh, people have really respondedto it very well.
SPEAKER_01 (02:03):
Oh, I'm sure.
And and it not only does itsound uh fun, it also sounds
delicious.
SPEAKER_00 (02:07):
So it's we we try.
SPEAKER_01 (02:09):
So very good.
SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
Uh we also kind of fuse some different techniques
of my background in there.
I come from before this, I was aregional director for Five Guys
Burgers and Fries.
So I had the corporate kind offast food environment there.
Before that, I was running finedining restaurants.
So I've incorporated kind ofboth of those worlds into this.
(02:32):
We use a lot of techniques thatbig boy restaurants use in our
little counter servicerestaurant.
So you get a much higher qualitythan you would expect walking in
and ordering out the counterwith what we provide.
SPEAKER_01 (02:46):
Very good to know.
Well, what uh thanks for tellingus about your journey with with
this particular business.
By the way, congratulations onapproaching eight years.
That's that's a quite a few.
Absolutely.
Uh, especially in the restaurantbusiness.
I mean, that means you're you'rehere to stay, you've been around
that long.
SPEAKER_00 (03:01):
Yeah, it's time.
SPEAKER_01 (03:02):
Um yeah, yeah, it is.
Um, but what uh brought you intothe world of food?
What uh you know, what was yourjourney to get there?
SPEAKER_00 (03:12):
Well, to be completely frank, why I started
cooking was because my mother isa sweetheart, but she is not the
best cook.
So survival mode got me into itin the very beginning, and then
um I just took a passion for it.
I've I've had one foot in it nomatter what I've done in my
(03:33):
life, and I really excelled atit.
So I've managed a bunch ofgroups, and we I kind of decided
when I was approaching 40, uh,you better start thinking about
doing it for yourself or younever will.
Um, so we just decided to startwith the proof of concept with
the food truck.
People responded very well toit, and we've just kind of tried
to grow up from there.
Kind of a couple hang-ups withCOVID and whatnot, but still
(03:55):
trying to trying to figurethings out.
SPEAKER_01 (03:57):
There you go.
Well, it's interesting.
I can relate my mom, uh, Godrest her soul.
She she uh she cooked a lot, shejust didn't cook very well.
Yeah, she she power boiled.
It was a very southern thing.
She liked to put any kind ofmeat had to be power boiled or
overcooked to the point where itwas shoe leather in order to
kill everything, I guess.
Anyway, anyway, so um what aresome myths or misconceptions in
(04:22):
the in the food industry?
SPEAKER_00 (04:24):
Well, um, I'd say right now, uh, you know, lately,
the past couple years, I thinkpricing is is probably
everyone's Achilles heel.
Um, and there's a lot ofmisconceptions around it.
Uh for the most part, I'm surethere are operators out there
that are probably takingadvantage, but I I think they're
few and far between.
Uh, I think most of us are kindof working with what we have.
(04:49):
You know, we don't really setprices, our suppliers do.
Um so uh, you know, we've had alot of kickback, or not just us,
but every operator I talk to intown has had a lot of, you know,
people are just in and we getit.
You know, we feed our familiestoo.
It's expensive.
Um, but it's just there's justnothing we can do about it,
really.
So we, you know, at Panay, wetry to keep, I haven't raised
(05:12):
prices in two years, even thoughI probably should.
Uh we try to keep everything asas reasonable and affordable.
That's part of our mantra, is toget the the big boy restaurant
and the and the convenience andthe the quality and the price
that you know we offer foraffordability, affordability.
Um so I think that's probablythe biggest misconception right
(05:35):
now is is pricing and and peoplethinking that uh restaurant
owners are just being greedy,and it's really just not it's
not that we you know when we getour supplies in, we have to set
our prices according to what wepay.
SPEAKER_01 (05:46):
So like everything else, absolutely.
Yeah, well, it you know, I knowin the restaurant business you
work a lot of hours, um, buthopefully you've got some off
time, and if you do, what do youlike to do for fun in such a
case?
SPEAKER_00 (05:58):
I am a movie enthusiast.
I took many years to build alittle home theater in my house,
and that's what I do.
I I love collecting movies, Iget all nerdy about it, you
know, atmos soundtracks, stufflike that.
Oh wow, I also love cooking formy family.
Uh my girls, I have three girls,and two of them are in dance, so
(06:20):
I I love going to watch that andparticipate and watch them grow
into little people.
It's amazing.
How old are they?
I have nine, thirteen, andtwenty.
SPEAKER_01 (06:32):
Nine, thirteen, and you said twenty?
SPEAKER_00 (06:34):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (06:35):
Oh wow.
Uh wow.
Covered the spread.
There you go.
I hear you, brother.
So uh well, let's switch gearsfor just a second.
Can you describe a hardship or alife challenge, whether
professional or personal, thatyou've overcome and came out the
other side stronger for it?
Do you think come to mind?
SPEAKER_00 (06:52):
Sure.
I I think I think most recentlyI I would I would say having to
pivot this business around umthe COVID was scary.
Um us being a food truck at thattime was very beneficial.
Um, and I feel sorry for a lotof people that were didn't have
my mobility at the time.
(07:14):
Uh, I was able to travel toneighborhoods directly where
people were and just feed themwhen they were locked down.
And that really helped us a lotto navigate through that.
And I think just being snappedout of my uh how would I put it
traditional use of runningrestaurants in that time and
(07:38):
forced to take a look around inunder different circumstances, I
think that definitely made me astronger operator because you
know, for 20 years it was justroutine.
This is how you do things, thisis the set price we do, this is
the percentages, this is how yourun your labor, this is blah
blah blah.
And then all that just went outthe window for everyone, you
(07:58):
know.
So um really getting you out ofthe routine of the day-to-day
kind of thing of just operating,I think that made us all who
survived much strongeroperators.
SPEAKER_01 (08:12):
Absolutely, because there was a lot that didn't, you
know, that didn't survive.
SPEAKER_00 (08:16):
Um it's still going on, there's still fallout from
all that, you know.
Um, not every everybody, a lotof people had more bankroll than
that year, you know, tried tofigure it out, and they're still
it's it's still affectingpeople.
So um absolutely still stilleverything to be learned every
day.
That's right.
SPEAKER_01 (08:33):
That's right.
Always learning.
So um Jeffrey, if you couldthink of one thing that you
would like our listeners andviewers to remember about you
and about uh Penne for yourthoughts, what would that be?
SPEAKER_00 (08:44):
Well, always go for your dreams, first of all.
Um, second of all, I you know,Penny is a young company still,
small, but we have aspirationsfor greatness.
And I really do believe that ourmission statement of bringing
quality restaurant quality foodto a counterservice place, you
(09:05):
know, we're not just back therewarming up bags and cutting them
open.
We're we make all of our ownthings, we make our own sauces,
we slice our own meat, we smokeour own chicken, we do all of
these things in our littlecounterservice restaurant.
So that's really the the qualitythat you get combined with the
convenience of the counterservice and the affordability
that we offer by not having ahuge staff, um, you know, is
(09:27):
really what we want to takehome.
SPEAKER_01 (09:29):
Very good.
Great thing to remember.
And for those of us who wouldlove to come check out some
Italian fusion uh are intriguedby what they've heard today, how
can we learn more?
SPEAKER_00 (09:40):
Well, you can go to PanayTruck.com.
That is our website, and if youwere in the Knoxville area, you
can get delivery from ourwebsite.
We also can book our food truckthrough the website, and we are
on social platforms Instagram,TikTok, Facebook.
Uh they're all Penay Truck, allthe handles.
SPEAKER_01 (10:00):
P-E-N-N-E.
Truck.
Truck.
Very good.
All right.
Well, Jeffrey, I'm hungry now,even though it's morning.
But uh uh appreciate you takingyou, please, man.
Um, thank you so much for takingtime out of your busy schedule
because I know you're busy.
Um, and uh we appreciate it andappreciate what you're doing for
the community and and for goodbringing good food to uh to
(10:24):
Knoxville.
So thank you for that.
And uh moving forward, we wishyou and your family and and your
customers all the best.
All right, I appreciate you.
Yes, sir.
Maybe we can have you backsometime.
I would love it.
Thank you, Scott.
All right, thanks so much.
SPEAKER_02 (10:37):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on the
show, go to GMP Tribe DashCities.com.
That's GMP Tribe DashCities.com.
Or call four two three seven onenine five oh seven three.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Skip Martin.
SPEAKER_01 (00:12):
Well, hello everyone, and welcome to the
Good Neighbor Podcast of EastTennessee and Western North
Carolina.
And today I am super excited tohave uh someone in our studio
for the first time and uh reallyexcited to learn all about them
and what they do, and I'm sureyou will be as well, because
today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,
Mr.
Jeffrey Bernstein, who is theowner-operator of Pinnae for
(00:35):
Your Thoughts.
Jeffrey, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
Well, like I said, we're excitedto learn all about you and
Pinnae for your thoughts.
So why don't you kick us off bytelling us about your business?
SPEAKER_00 (00:47):
Okay, well, Panay for your thoughts.
We are located in Knoxville,Tennessee, and we have been open
since about April of 2018.
We started as a food truckselling Italian American Fusion.
Um, and then we opened up ourbrick and mortar about three and
a half years ago.
So we've got both running rightnow, and we love serving our
(01:07):
local community.
Uh I guess kind of the ideabehind I say Italian-American
Fusion, and people are like,huh?
What is that?
And it's really kind of a wayfor me to do whatever I want to
do because between the Italianfair and American quotations,
you that that covers a lot.
I get to do a lot of playing inthere.
(01:28):
So we don't want to be yourtraditional mom and pop
spaghetti place that you see inin every town.
We we like being a littledifferent.
The way that we are different isfirst the Italian-American
fusion.
So, like a smoked chickenalfredo instead of a traditional
Alfredo.
So we have like that southernsmoked chicken flair to the uh
traditional chicken alfredo.
(01:48):
We have Italian sausage, mac andcheese pasta.
So we've got like Americanthings, Italian things, and we
smash them together, and it'sit's pretty great and fun and
different.
You know, you don't see thosekind of things everywhere.
Uh, people have really respondedto it very well.
SPEAKER_01 (02:03):
Oh, I'm sure.
And and it not only does itsound uh fun, it also sounds
delicious.
SPEAKER_00 (02:07):
So it's we we try.
SPEAKER_01 (02:09):
So very good.
SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
Uh we also kind of fuse some different techniques
of my background in there.
I come from before this, I was aregional director for Five Guys
Burgers and Fries.
So I had the corporate kind offast food environment there.
Before that, I was running finedining restaurants.
So I've incorporated kind ofboth of those worlds into this.
(02:32):
We use a lot of techniques thatbig boy restaurants use in our
little counter servicerestaurant.
So you get a much higher qualitythan you would expect walking in
and ordering out the counterwith what we provide.
SPEAKER_01 (02:46):
Very good to know.
Well, what uh thanks for tellingus about your journey with with
this particular business.
By the way, congratulations onapproaching eight years.
That's that's a quite a few.
Absolutely.
Uh, especially in the restaurantbusiness.
I mean, that means you're you'rehere to stay, you've been around
that long.
SPEAKER_00 (03:01):
Yeah, it's time.
SPEAKER_01 (03:02):
Um yeah, yeah, it is.
Um, but what uh brought you intothe world of food?
What uh you know, what was yourjourney to get there?
SPEAKER_00 (03:12):
Well, to be completely frank, why I started
cooking was because my mother isa sweetheart, but she is not the
best cook.
So survival mode got me into itin the very beginning, and then
um I just took a passion for it.
I've I've had one foot in it nomatter what I've done in my
(03:33):
life, and I really excelled atit.
So I've managed a bunch ofgroups, and we I kind of decided
when I was approaching 40, uh,you better start thinking about
doing it for yourself or younever will.
Um, so we just decided to startwith the proof of concept with
the food truck.
People responded very well toit, and we've just kind of tried
to grow up from there.
Kind of a couple hang-ups withCOVID and whatnot, but still
(03:55):
trying to trying to figurethings out.
SPEAKER_01 (03:57):
There you go.
Well, it's interesting.
I can relate my mom, uh, Godrest her soul.
She she uh she cooked a lot, shejust didn't cook very well.
Yeah, she she power boiled.
It was a very southern thing.
She liked to put any kind ofmeat had to be power boiled or
overcooked to the point where itwas shoe leather in order to
kill everything, I guess.
Anyway, anyway, so um what aresome myths or misconceptions in
(04:22):
the in the food industry?
SPEAKER_00 (04:24):
Well, um, I'd say right now, uh, you know, lately,
the past couple years, I thinkpricing is is probably
everyone's Achilles heel.
Um, and there's a lot ofmisconceptions around it.
Uh for the most part, I'm surethere are operators out there
that are probably takingadvantage, but I I think they're
few and far between.
Uh, I think most of us are kindof working with what we have.
(04:49):
You know, we don't really setprices, our suppliers do.
Um so uh, you know, we've had alot of kickback, or not just us,
but every operator I talk to intown has had a lot of, you know,
people are just in and we getit.
You know, we feed our familiestoo.
It's expensive.
Um, but it's just there's justnothing we can do about it,
really.
So we, you know, at Panay, wetry to keep, I haven't raised
(05:12):
prices in two years, even thoughI probably should.
Uh we try to keep everything asas reasonable and affordable.
That's part of our mantra, is toget the the big boy restaurant
and the and the convenience andthe the quality and the price
that you know we offer foraffordability, affordability.
Um so I think that's probablythe biggest misconception right
(05:35):
now is is pricing and and peoplethinking that uh restaurant
owners are just being greedy,and it's really just not it's
not that we you know when we getour supplies in, we have to set
our prices according to what wepay.
SPEAKER_01 (05:46):
So like everything else, absolutely.
Yeah, well, it you know, I knowin the restaurant business you
work a lot of hours, um, buthopefully you've got some off
time, and if you do, what do youlike to do for fun in such a
case?
SPEAKER_00 (05:58):
I am a movie enthusiast.
I took many years to build alittle home theater in my house,
and that's what I do.
I I love collecting movies, Iget all nerdy about it, you
know, atmos soundtracks, stufflike that.
Oh wow, I also love cooking formy family.
Uh my girls, I have three girls,and two of them are in dance, so
(06:20):
I I love going to watch that andparticipate and watch them grow
into little people.
It's amazing.
How old are they?
I have nine, thirteen, andtwenty.
SPEAKER_01 (06:32):
Nine, thirteen, and you said twenty?
SPEAKER_00 (06:34):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (06:35):
Oh wow.
Uh wow.
Covered the spread.
There you go.
I hear you, brother.
So uh well, let's switch gearsfor just a second.
Can you describe a hardship or alife challenge, whether
professional or personal, thatyou've overcome and came out the
other side stronger for it?
Do you think come to mind?
SPEAKER_00 (06:52):
Sure.
I I think I think most recentlyI I would I would say having to
pivot this business around umthe COVID was scary.
Um us being a food truck at thattime was very beneficial.
Um, and I feel sorry for a lotof people that were didn't have
my mobility at the time.
(07:14):
Uh, I was able to travel toneighborhoods directly where
people were and just feed themwhen they were locked down.
And that really helped us a lotto navigate through that.
And I think just being snappedout of my uh how would I put it
traditional use of runningrestaurants in that time and
(07:38):
forced to take a look around inunder different circumstances, I
think that definitely made me astronger operator because you
know, for 20 years it was justroutine.
This is how you do things, thisis the set price we do, this is
the percentages, this is how yourun your labor, this is blah
blah blah.
And then all that just went outthe window for everyone, you
(07:58):
know.
So um really getting you out ofthe routine of the day-to-day
kind of thing of just operating,I think that made us all who
survived much strongeroperators.
SPEAKER_01 (08:12):
Absolutely, because there was a lot that didn't, you
know, that didn't survive.
SPEAKER_00 (08:16):
Um it's still going on, there's still fallout from
all that, you know.
Um, not every everybody, a lotof people had more bankroll than
that year, you know, tried tofigure it out, and they're still
it's it's still affectingpeople.
So um absolutely still stilleverything to be learned every
day.
That's right.
SPEAKER_01 (08:33):
That's right.
Always learning.
So um Jeffrey, if you couldthink of one thing that you
would like our listeners andviewers to remember about you
and about uh Penne for yourthoughts, what would that be?
SPEAKER_00 (08:44):
Well, always go for your dreams, first of all.
Um, second of all, I you know,Penny is a young company still,
small, but we have aspirationsfor greatness.
And I really do believe that ourmission statement of bringing
quality restaurant quality foodto a counterservice place, you
(09:05):
know, we're not just back therewarming up bags and cutting them
open.
We're we make all of our ownthings, we make our own sauces,
we slice our own meat, we smokeour own chicken, we do all of
these things in our littlecounterservice restaurant.
So that's really the the qualitythat you get combined with the
convenience of the counterservice and the affordability
that we offer by not having ahuge staff, um, you know, is
(09:27):
really what we want to takehome.
SPEAKER_01 (09:29):
Very good.
Great thing to remember.
And for those of us who wouldlove to come check out some
Italian fusion uh are intriguedby what they've heard today, how
can we learn more?
SPEAKER_00 (09:40):
Well, you can go to PanayTruck.com.
That is our website, and if youwere in the Knoxville area, you
can get delivery from ourwebsite.
We also can book our food truckthrough the website, and we are
on social platforms Instagram,TikTok, Facebook.
Uh they're all Penay Truck, allthe handles.
SPEAKER_01 (10:00):
P-E-N-N-E.
Truck.
Truck.
Very good.
All right.
Well, Jeffrey, I'm hungry now,even though it's morning.
But uh uh appreciate you takingyou, please, man.
Um, thank you so much for takingtime out of your busy schedule
because I know you're busy.
Um, and uh we appreciate it andappreciate what you're doing for
the community and and for goodbringing good food to uh to
(10:24):
Knoxville.
So thank you for that.
And uh moving forward, we wishyou and your family and and your
customers all the best.
All right, I appreciate you.
Yes, sir.
Maybe we can have you backsometime.
I would love it.
Thank you, Scott.
All right, thanks so much.
SPEAKER_02 (10:37):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on the
show, go to GMP Tribe DashCities.com.
That's GMP Tribe DashCities.com.
Or call four two three seven onenine five oh seven three.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.