O'Brien's Southern Diner | Tennessee Crossroads | Episode 3320.1

[Music] have you ever been to a place that made you feel at home the moment you got there well it didn't take Rob Wiles long to feel comfortable at O'Brien's southern diner just outside Ashland City much of that at home feeling is because the owner makes certain every plate that leaves her kitchen passes a personal perfection tests come to O'Brien's southern diner and you're gonna find Candice O'Brien Beasley going all the time everything come out correct over here y'all on the rare occasions something is not correct Walter Candice knows who to blame her son who helped in the kitchen not her daughter who's a waitress not the other young women drew her servers here nope Candice would pretty much have to blame Candice I love touching every plate because I know it's not gonna get messed up if I do it myself I can't help it you know if somebody sends something back I know it's my fault and I can't get mad anybody else but myself you know I've always been that way that I bought I just want to touch every plate that goes out for Candace there's a lot of pressure when every plate has to pass the perfection test but you know what they say if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen Candace may feel the heat sometimes but she's not going anyway we do everything big here you know our pancakes are huge our burgers are huge plate lunch we give a little more than we probably should part of the checking every plate is making sure her customers eyes are not bigger than their stomachs so along with each hamburger each hungry guest gets a friendly warning we always make sure when somebody orders a double that's new that's never been here we're like you do realize that's a pound of meat and nine times out of ten they change their mind and they get the single so I try to get the waitresses just you know tell everybody because I mean they come in to get this massive burger this little lady you know she can't eat that and I want everybody to be pleased I'd rather than be happy than to make that extra five bucks off of a double so it's about letting our customers enjoy lots of good food and still feel good about it later it's sort of like Candace and their customers and crew are all part of a dance choreographed to deliver the favorites that come out of her kitchen the biggest sellers are burgers they're a half pound burger and our fish which we we hand batter fresh each order we do catfish but we do ours a little different it's more of a Louisiana style catfish but everybody seems to really like it we do breakfast lunch and dinner Wednesday through Saturday and then we do breakfast and lunch on Sunday and we're closed every Monday and Tuesday it's coming it's got cheese bottle one here just stay right there I got you right now if Candace sounds a little like everybody's favorite grandma there's a good reason I basically cooked all my wife and or waited tables somewhere I worked in the restaurant industry since I was 14 years old but I grew up cooking with like my nanny and my grandmother my nanny and her husband own wine balls restaurant that was on Broadway in Nashville for years so she taught me some things as I was young you know kind of what they cook there and things like that and then me and my grandmother we cooked every day together you know we were always making food for somebody at church or taking it to someone so with that sort of example to follow every Christmas Candace and her crew feed all comers for free it will hit all the local nursing homes we'll hit all the shut-ins here anybody is just down on their luck we'll feed them as well on Christmas we do about six seven hundred meals so a lot it is a lot running your own business I love it you know I like being my own boss which means bossing members of the family daughter Brooklyn Beasley says yes mom is a perfectionist but that's okay I love working with my parents I think it's the best thing I've ever done yes and I'm so glad that this is like my first job and it's with my parents and my brothers Oh Brian's southern diner is out in the country a bit outside Ashland City but it's a pretty Drive as you're driving down the road looking for O'Brien's you may miss it because there's so many cars parked along the road you can't see the sign you know what I think she's going to need a bigger sign and a bigger parking lot on the weekends people parked on the road like almost to the bridge but we have that field over there we just try to make it work work it does people come from all over and still Candace knows her customers well enough to miss one who hasn't been around in a while thank y'all for coming in before your ole boys I know right how are you I've seen you in forever forever and ever knowing who's coming and going could be part of being a perfectionist a perfectionist with a passion we're trying to give back to our community as much as possible we try really hard we work really hard to please everyone so we love our little shack out here well if you like good food and friendly folks I'd say the chances are pretty good that you're gonna love Candace's little shack I'll do everything good you

Channel: Tennessee Crossroads

Views: 56,521

Rating: 4.9423327 out of 5

Keywords: Ashland City, TN, O'Brien's Southern Diner, Tennessee Crossroads, nashville public television, npt, Candice O'Brien Beasley

Id: 15QHj4pXBqE

Length: 6min 24sec (384 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 30 2019