Tune in for an engaging conversation with our host, Allen Woody, and Micah Klasky, executive chef at The Hive in Bentonville. In this episode, Klasky shares his recent experience filming A Southern Night at the Cinema, which premiered this month in New York City.
Klasky took filmmakers from the Local Palate to three of his favorite spots in Bentonville, including PinoyLicious Filipino Kitchen, a food truck located at Osage Park; The Meteor Café, located in Bentonville’s Market District; and the Art trail, which connects Compton Gardens and the Crystal Bridges trails.
The local chef also talks about his passion for the No Kid Hungry organization and shares about Chefs Cycle—an exciting fundraiser he’ll be involved in on May 6-9, 2024. Contribute to Micah’s Chefs Cycle fundraiser here.
Tune in for an engaging conversation with our host, Allen Woody, and Micah Klasky, executive chef at The Hive in Bentonville. In this episode, Klasky shares his recent experience filming A Southern Night at the Cinema, which premiered this month in New York City.
Klasky took filmmakers from the Local Palate to three of his favorite spots in Bentonville, including PinoyLicious Filipino Kitchen, a food truck located at Osage Park; The Meteor Café, located in Bentonville’s Market District; and the Art trail, which connects Compton Gardens and the Crystal Bridges trails.
The local chef also talks about his passion for the No Kid Hungry organization and shares about Chefs Cycle—an exciting fundraiser he’ll be involved in on May 6-9, 2024. Contribute to Micah’s Chefs Cycle fundraiser here.
Welcome to Visit Bentonville's podcast in New American Town. As always, we're coming to you from Hackston Road Studios off the bustling Bentonville Square, and I'm your host, Alan Woody, Joining me in studio. Today we have Micah Klasky, executive chef for the Hive. Micah, thank you so much for joining us today. Tell us a little bit about the Hive.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, so the Hive at 21C here in Bentonville. So if you're unfamiliar with 21C as a whole, it is a series of museum hotels there are, based in the south, based on Louisville. Each one has its own restaurant with its own identity, its own chef-driven restaurant. Currently, I've been at the Hive for about 10 years. I worked under Chef Matt McClure for Chef Guzine for about six years. I'm very fortunate to be there.
Speaker 2:I love the restaurant, love the place. The culture there is insane. What's the menu like? Well, the menu we like to refer to it as, like you know and I kind of am going to do this in air quotes, air quote open, new South, new Southern. You know, it's one of those things like I feel like that phrase is just thrown around. It's just very ubiquitous and just allows for you to dump whatever you want in there, and that's kind of a good thing and a bad thing. You know what's it mean to you then? It means to me it's Southern food with, you know, a bit of an updated approach we like to pull from. You know, bentonville as a whole is quite diverse.
Speaker 2:You know, there's a great little. You know so many different pockets of culture and community to pull from. So, you know, we like to do, you know like classic Southern food a bit more contemporary style with, you know, let's say, incorporation of, you know, some flavors that you might not have from some of the cultures around the area the Indians, the Hispanic, the, you know, pacific Islander, like there's, there's. So there's such a wealth of flavors that you might not have had before that are available to you in this area and people to learn them from.
Speaker 1:And that's kind of a really cool cross-cultural experience and I was hoping you'd get to that because we do have a really strong Indian community here with some amazing food backgrounds. I mean, that is a really cool food culture Hispanic culture obviously very well known here, and the food we all love that. I mean so yeah, who doesn't have a good conversation yesterday if you were talking about the one kind of genre of food that you could always go to, and it's Mexican food every time every time, every time.
Speaker 1:And then the, the Marshallese population is really cool and I frankly don't know much about that food at all. What does that add to?
Speaker 2:the. You know it wasn't necessarily something that was a huge part of my life. I was aware of it, you know, aware of the people in this area and you know especially in, you know Southern Missouri and the surrounding areas. But you know my girlfriend or my fiance now I should say, and her, congratulations, thank you so much. It's pretty fresh, I'm pretty excited.
Speaker 1:That is exciting.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so you know her children, you know she's from, you know Southern Missouri. She grew up in that area. Her children are Micronesian, she's Hawaiian. Okay, cool and their family actually owns a grocery store up there that has been in operation for, you know, decades. It's there. I mean there was a documentary done about it. You know, like, probably you know, 20 years ago.
Speaker 1:So you really have hands-on experience with that kind of food.
Speaker 2:Well, I get second-hand experience.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's fair yeah yeah, yeah, this is.
Speaker 2:This is what it's one of those things where, you know, I very much enjoy the little snippets I get of it. I don't, you know, we don't make it to a lot of the events due to the you know our work schedule and but the kids every time they go to one of these big events, they'll always come home with just a mountain I mean just a mountain of to-go boxes full of assorted whole-roasted fish and rice dishes and puddings and just so many things that I'm like. What is this? What is this? What is this texture? This is chewy. I like it. What is that? This is great. Oh, that's delicious, and there's so many options. It's such a wider way of things that they bring to the table.
Speaker 1:That's really cool. Now I feel like we're just jumping into this. How did you get into cooking? We talked a little bit off the air about it. What was the real launching pad for you that made you excited to be a professional in the culinary world?
Speaker 2:Well, just to, I was telling you earlier, growing up my TV shows were Teddy Rochspin, the Frugal Gourmet and Justin Wilson, which, if anybody gets those references without Googling them, you might want to set your doctor's appointment up, I do, and I'm sitting here trying to remember the name of the Frugal Gourmet.
Speaker 1:It's Graham, something.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't recall. But his show was awesome, his show was awesome and I love his accent, and I really love Justin Wilson. Justin Wilson was the jam. I mean I still watch clips of that. Yeah, exactly, and the little stories at the end, and I tell you what kind of thing it was always such a good time.
Speaker 1:I loved that and.
Speaker 2:I definitely zoned in on that. But yeah, growing up food was always something that we didn't do a lot of cooking in my household. Like we did cook, my mother did what she could and she made some great dishes. I mean, taco Night at my mom's house in Lausanne United are still two of my favorite meals on the planet. But I remember going to my grandmother's house in rural Texas and just watching her cook and not quite knowing what the importance of it was, but recognizing that it meant something, recognizing that this was something important, the communal gathering everybody from around the area, around the country, around the state would come in there and pile in and just wreck house.
Speaker 1:So you've recently been featured in the film A Southern Night at the Cinema A cool.
Speaker 2:I just think that's amazing. That's so cool. Good for you. B how did that happen? Well, crazy event of stories, somebody called me and said hey, no, it really was. I'm so fortunate to work with a team I have, and my understanding is that they just sort of did a little looking around in the area and thought that we were the right fit for what they were looking for.
Speaker 1:What's that phone call? Like? Because I think I'm being pranked. Like oh, you want me to be in a movie. Cool, what kind of movie.
Speaker 2:Well, fortunate enough, it came to me second hand through somebody that I was like, oh, if you think this is legit, let's do it.
Speaker 2:I was familiar with the local palette. If you're not check them out, they are a great magazine slash publishers of Southern culture and heritage. They really lean into basically the breadth of the southern states. I mean, they're based out of North Carolina and yeah, no, they do great work. They work with some really cool chefs, which was got me really excited. I was like, oh, they want to talk to me, what's that about?
Speaker 1:Heck, yeah, why, why, yeah, that's awesome, yeah. And so what was that like? What was that experience?
Speaker 2:like Well, it was very fun, it was interesting, it was a long day, it was like Trump. Just one day though. Well, it was one day of filming. It was about eight hours worth of shoots with a very talented team out of Fayetteville Blackout Media. Those guys killed. It maybe looked so good from the filming perspective.
Speaker 1:That's always uncomfortable. Oh, it's so awkward so I like it Most people don't like to hear their voice, but then you show them the picture and their voice and it's like no, I'll touch on in a minute, the experience is going to the thing.
Speaker 2:So basically, they show up at the. You know, and I didn't really realize, but I was doing an ad for Bentonville.
Speaker 1:Yes, you are.
Speaker 2:But it worked out great. Because I'm full, I mean I'm 100% bought in, like I was up at the Capitol in DC not too long ago and I was talking to a commission. I was up there lobbying for no Get Hungry and the people I was talking to were like you should do some advertisements for Bentonville. You're really selling it and then cut to another six months later and standing in front of a room with people and they go. You know, they tell me to do the little tagline of hey, I'm Michael Klasky and this is my Bentonville.
Speaker 1:And I like it, but I feel like you can give me more, michael, let's go give it to me, right?
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Michael Klasky, the executive chef of the Hive of 21C, and this is my Bentonville. Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1:Nailed it.
Speaker 2:I'm in.
Speaker 1:I'm watching that movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, put the McConaughey pause in there.
Speaker 2:And this my bent, you know nice man I could feel you feel I almost played a bonga, yeah, but yeah, so you know, we filmed and basically the whole premise was you know, let's sit down, we'll talk about what you do here at the hive, we'll talk about you as a person, and then let's go around and pick your three favorite spots in the area Place you like to eat, place you like to drink, place you like to just go to be. So the three places I chose were very actually places you know I was that I really do love to go. They're actually part of my life. Sure, I chose a Pinoy licious, which is a Filipino food. Trek around the side of a side of Osage Park.
Speaker 2:Nice and if you're not familiar with them, get out there. That, I mean, it is amazing. Get the pork sizzling, pork sissig all day when it's hot. Get the mango shake delicious.
Speaker 1:Love the recommendations, keep them coming.
Speaker 2:No, that I mean. That place really is my jam. It's a little, you know, husband and wife team, and if, if you've never had Filipino food, which I wasn't- I have not.
Speaker 1:I'm very interested check it out.
Speaker 2:If you like spice, lean into it. Really they can make some delish. I mean, every I haven't had anything bad on the menu like nice and literally they have. They have catered both of my girlfriend's children's graduation parties from high school and I Mean yeah, we're tight to the point where you know they'll just go in the house where we're not there and put it in the oven to.
Speaker 1:Keep it one for me.
Speaker 2:These are just good people and delicious food and it's a great location. I love to ride and live on 14th, which are just inside of 14th, and I can ride my bike down there to the park, grab something to eat, do my little lap, go, grab a beer over at Elver at the brewery and then, you know, make my way back up to back to my house without Even really having to tinker around on any crazy scary roads. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:That's a great one. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that basically what I did was I took, took local pallet around town on the bike. Oh I, you know, once the weather gets nice enough, you know I mean come on Bentonville, right, I mean Once the weather gets nice enough, I parked my car. I ride my e-bike everywhere I go. I've got what they call the minivan, so it's got like a little loading dock on the back pretty much and you know, set a handlebar. So either the lady and I can go for a cruise, you know we'll go out have a drink, come back all on the little money bike, or we I'll go get groceries on that thing. I've got the saddlebags to do it to saddle bags yeah it is great.
Speaker 2:I'm not joking when I say I parked my car when the weather gets nice and I don't pull it back out.
Speaker 1:I don't blame you.
Speaker 2:It's a lot cheaper and easier to it's great and I live, you know, I live a mile and a half from work and there's bike lanes, a plenty in this area and I'm super excited about the expansion of that which is happening. And we're our neighborhood is right on the side of that, so that's amazing as well. But yeah, so the next place we took him was I took him to the meteor, which always, always that spot I mean pizza there's delicious, jeremy over there, just good people.
Speaker 2:The whole team over there has always taken great care of us, whether it's from, you know, getting my bike maintained or or, you know, I Excuse me, just just hanging out, haven't you know like it became our go-to spot, where, you know, my, my, my fiance. Now I'll just go over there and we both have an afternoon. We'll sit on the patio, pop a bottle of you know, sparkling rose and order a pizza. Which pizza's delicious.
Speaker 1:So whatever that crust is.
Speaker 2:You know, got that nice sour tank to it right on my alley and, yeah, so took them over there and then after that we went there. So there's the if you're familiar with the art trail between 21 C and Crystal Bridges right.
Speaker 2:It is just this beautiful little stretch of walking path. But you know that is feels like you're tucked away in the middle of nowhere, with you know random art, sculpture, and and and and wildlife surrounding you. And then you just sort of pop out and there you are at Crystal Bridges Museum, right right on the back, right by the, the, the Frank Lloyd Wright house.
Speaker 1:I've lost track of whether or not I'm talking to Executive chef or a tour guide, because you've done a great job of taking us through Bentonville on this and I can't wait to see Actually how that looks on screen. I know you were at the screening in New York City. What other screenings do you have coming up, and is there anything we can look forward to locally?
Speaker 2:Well, there is. So basically the way the film is essentially embargoed until After. So they're doing three premieres. They did the one in New York last week, which I was fortunate to make it to very cool. So cool, such a great time. I mean, who gets the opportunity to? You know go to New York and you know speak. You know introduce a film you're in at a you know historic movie theater, right.
Speaker 1:I love the fact that you realize what a rare opportunity that is. Oh, that is so cool.
Speaker 2:I mean just walking the streets, and you know, and you know, of course I've got, you know, just gaggles of pictures of me in front of the signs to big cheese, and you know.
Speaker 1:What are you in town for? I'm in town to introduce my movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the premiere. Well, you know part of a little mini documentary.
Speaker 1:But you got a good downplay voice. Yeah, I try, you know my whole life is.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm just swarmed with imposter syndrome, so I got to downplay every single thing I feel. But yeah, no, it was. It was such an, such an amazing opportunity just to get to you know, I mean, how often you get to make it up to the city anyway, for me, I got in there in probably 15 years. I mean, last time I was there I was still living in Little Rock. We went up there to cook at the James Beard house with a capital hotel.
Speaker 1:My gosh, you're a cool story.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so Just to get to go there and like I mean, literally landed on the plane and just hit the ground running. We were there, for, you know, we flew in Wednesday morning and left Friday, friday morning, and just pretty much hit the ground running. But yeah, that the the film premiere, was so amazing. The people at local palette are fantastic. I got to spend some time with Delaney Thomas for Marcus Autorism and she was, you know, super cool. I don't think she knew what to expect from me and then, you know, cut to I feel like a little bit led, feel like we were, we were good after a few minutes.
Speaker 1:Um, but so that always helps.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, yeah, yeah, a little familiarity exactly, and I'm pretty good at just my, my approaches. I'm gonna talk to you like I've known you for 25 years.
Speaker 1:You do, you absolutely do. I mean, we hung out for 10, 15 minutes, yeah, before, and it was like talking to an old buddy who just caught up for a minute.
Speaker 2:You gotta be an open book, you know, I mean I feel like, well, you know, baby, proud of who you are, you know, embrace, embrace, everything about yourself. But it makes life a lot easier exactly, but yeah, so the next, the next premiere is gonna be in Atlanta at the end of January.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna I'm gonna plan it on being there for that one. Very excited about that, um, because, you know, and Atlanta's got such an amazing food culture and, um, you know, I've actually I'm, you know, I was fortunate to meet some, some chef friends over there not too long ago and, you know, in the world of food and beverage and, um, just really excited to get over there and just kind of spread the word a little bit more. Uh, and then the final one is gonna be in Chicago, which apparently, uh, you know, I get the impression, you know, arkansas is gonna gonna really represent a little bit more in Chicago, but unfortunately I can't make that one. I've got a prior engagement.
Speaker 1:Oh man, yeah, you even sound important when you can't make it.
Speaker 2:I can't make it to the premiere there, I've got an engagement.
Speaker 1:I love it oh well, it's.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know it's, it's it. Would it had to be something special for me to skip this? I would think so, uh, and actually it just happens to be the same day as, uh, what's? It's called chef cycle. Right well, we're about to tell us about chef cycle, but yeah, so you're gonna miss that premiere in Chicago.
Speaker 1:Right and chef cycle must be amazing, it's well, I hope it is amazing.
Speaker 2:So full disclosure. I have not been a cyclist besides my you know, my, my, my e-bike to to work and and around town, um, but so you know, I mentioned being up in DC lobbying with no kid hungry Um, and so, at a dinner, while I was up there, one of the founders of share our strengths with this, the you know, we'll say the the, the umbrella parent company of, uh, no kid hungry Um, basically gave me a tap and said hey, I want you on a chef's cycle next year. I said absolutely.
Speaker 1:What is it? Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she walked away and I was like, what's the what's chef's cycle? Um, so it turns out I agreed to a uh three day, a hundred mile a day bike ride, um, and turns right to uh to uh raise money for, uh, you know, hungry children. Um, you know no kid hungry they're. You know they're a nonprofit that's working to solve problems of hunger and poverty in the United States since around 2010. I mean they work with you know, help, help raise money to provide school meals, grants, advocacy, raise awareness. I mean they, they do so many important things for such a worthy cause. We've been working with them. I mean, like I know, I personally have probably been working with them for, you know, pushing nine, eight, nine years now. I've done dinners with them behind the scenes, mostly from, you know, from uh Bentonville to Little Rock, all the way to Louisville, kentucky, um, and so How'd you find out about them?
Speaker 2:Well, I I that just the chef.
Speaker 2:I was working for Matt McClure, you know like they reached I don't know if they reached out to him, but a friend of mine and Little Rock had been working with them for years. Uh, matthew Bell, who formerly of South Elmaine, um, and uh, he invited us to be one of the guest chefs there. So, cut to us, you know, going to do that in Little Rock. And then after that we just sort of we, you know, we decided that was something we want to be a part of, pulled it on, decided, you know, let's start doing these, these things ourselves. And I mean we have, you know, we're, we're, we'll get to the guest chef dinner here in a second, but I mean, like we've been working with them for so long that, uh, it really is, it's, you know, it's important work and we'll call it a labor of love you know like I mean, you know it's is it?
Speaker 2:is it just an opportunity to raise money for such a worthy cause? No, obviously there's a little self-serving. I mean, we get to you know amazing chefs from around the country, like the lineup we've got coming up for our guest chef dinner this year is insane.
Speaker 1:You call that self-serving. But the bigger the lineup, the more the excitement and the easier it is to sell tickets.
Speaker 2:Well, there's so much to it. You know it's. It's a kitchen full of people who are excited to get the chance to work with these folks Like I mean, I've got, I've got a chef coming from OKC who's you know, new York Times best 50 restaurants. You know the past two years Bon Appetit, best 50 restaurant in the country.
Speaker 1:Past two years I've got and he did it in Oklahoma. That's a miracle, he did it in.
Speaker 2:Oklahoma, but you know, I've got another chef out of California and a chef out of Houston, both of which did their own stints on top chef and you know we're we're, you know not. I don't know they were successful at it, you know I mean like they're.
Speaker 1:they got there Exactly.
Speaker 2:That's success in itself and you know they got the acclaim, the acknowledgement and you know, and people recognize that and, like you know, getting an opportunity to work with, you know, such a diverse group of talent and getting an opportunity, like as a cook, to get to be in a kitchen with you know, these random chefs that are going to be here for one day, but you're going to spend all that time with them, you're going to get to help them prep, you're going to get to, you know, be a part of their day and kind of get an idea of, like you know. So there's this concept of called a stodge, which is, you know, it's basically a working interview. Okay, you can do them if you're trying to get a job. You can do them if you're just going, if you just want to learn something. The majority of my stodging has just been going to other restaurants that were doing something I thought was cool and being like hey, can I, can I hang out with you for a day free labor, just let me see what you're doing.
Speaker 1:I love that. And so this is almost like an internship, but just for a minute.
Speaker 2:Pretty much. Yeah, you get a day, you can do a week, like I mean, like you know, I think I did. I did two days at Coach on down in New Orleans, amazing restaurant right. Whenever they first opened butcher, I was really getting into charcuterie and basically went down there and was like, hey, uh, what can I? You know love to hang out. So you know, I start working on stuff and they're like I was like you know, I really wanted to, I really wanted to work on the charcuterie, if there's anything I could do for there.
Speaker 2:And I'm like okay, and cut to everybody surrounding me being like what did you do to make them mad? They're like why are you having to do the Slim Jims? Everybody hates doing Slim Jims. I'm like because I asked for it, I'm excited about it. This is what I wanted to learn.
Speaker 1:This is exactly why I'm here I want to learn how to make a Slim Jim.
Speaker 2:But to bring it back, it's the opportunity for the cooks to get to spend time learning, hopefully, new techniques and just getting to spend time with these guest chefs, Because whatever you can do to add to your skill set, I didn't finish culinary school. I went a couple of times fresh out of high school.
Speaker 2:Sure, and I left the cooking industry for a while, did all sorts of random jobs I was a janitor, I was a landscaper, just whatever I could do to make some cash and then I wound up back in the kitchen and just realized I was very fortunate to land with people who just really cared, who were super invested and this was what they wanted to do.
Speaker 1:And it's hard to not feel that way when you're surrounded by people that feel that way.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. It's contagious, it's infectious.
Speaker 1:And if you've got the right mindset, you're poo-poo in a punch bowl. If you come and you're not that way, oh yeah, yeah exactly Like yeah, Even hiring people.
Speaker 2:Nowadays it's like I don't want to hire people, I don't want to hire a position. I would much rather have somebody come in with a good head on their shoulders and a positive attitude than somebody who's been cooking for 35 years, who's going to click tongs and be rude to the people around them, yeah, be grumpy with everybody around them. We kind of touched on it in the hallway.
Speaker 1:We've all met that guy Like there's plenty of grumpiness in the restaurant business, but you do want to avoid it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty much what I tell every interview I do. I'm like I love my job.
Speaker 1:And I want you to love yours.
Speaker 2:So you just come in here, show me you're trying, we'll get there. We'll all have a great time.
Speaker 1:Heck yeah. So I feel like we didn't really get into Chef Cycle quite enough.
Speaker 2:No, I was all over the place. That's kind of my ramble, tell me a little bit.
Speaker 1:It was wonderful and I enjoyed it, but now we got to do the job. Hur hurt yeah hit me. So what's up with Chef Cycle? How do you get involved? I know how you get involved, but how do I get involved? How do people listening get involved?
Speaker 2:All right. So yeah, chef Cycle it's going to be. I want to say it's taking place in May, Like it's 6th through 9th. You can get involved a few ways. You can either donate directly to no Kid Hungry I have. You can donate to our team or my personal page. I've actually started a team.
Speaker 1:Now are you going to make it? Oh, I'm going to make it. 100 miles a day is a lot.
Speaker 2:It is a lot. Well, I mean, I'm going to try to make it.
Speaker 1:If I'm not going to make it, you're going to have to drag me out of there. You know what I mean. All right, that's the spirit.
Speaker 2:Hopefully it'll load my bike up.
Speaker 1:Those aren't cheap, so, yeah, you got to keep that with you.
Speaker 2:But yeah, you can either donate just go to no Kid Hungry Google Chef Cycle. You can donate there directly. You can go to any of my Instagram account or the Hive at Bentonville.
Speaker 1:The Hive at Bentonville. I can search that.
Speaker 2:Either at the Hive at Bentonville or at mklasky that's my personal one or just email me. Email somebody at the Hive and I will happily reach out to you. You can reach me at any social media. I'm happy to talk about this 24-7, pretty much. But yeah, so you can donate there. We are currently ranked number one on the fundraising board. We are just under $20,000. Nice, the initial investment is a commitment of $4,000 per rider. So I've started a team 21-C Bentonville with the hopes of finding other. I feel like if there's an area in the country where people are going to be down to sign up for a 300-mile endurance bike ride and it only cost you $4,000, which is basically all expenses included sign it up, come on, come on, come on. So I'm open to bringing people on the team. If you want to put your donation in, we can talk about that. Email me directly, sure, but yeah, basically you can go. Like I said, you can go to the High Bentonville, you can go to Chef Cycle, you can go to MySocials and find links to get there.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of like race for a cure. We're joining teams and once we're on a team, then we do what it takes to get to the goal.
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah, exactly. So, as I've said, I've got the, we've got more than enough for my ride, and if anybody wants to join the team, we can talk about how to get there together.
Speaker 1:It sounds like a great time it's going to be so good.
Speaker 2:I mean, it is a what are the dates on that again, it's 6th through 9th of May and it is literally it's. I mean three day, 100 miles a day, different loops each day, santa Rosa, california, and I mean pit stops with James, weird nominated chef. Yeah, well, the food is gonna be pretty tough yeah pit stops with James were nominated chefs, dinners with not you know James, weird chefs. You know Massage stops along the way like like.
Speaker 1:The amenities are insane, the price sounds a little Steep until you get into the fringe benefits.
Speaker 2:And then you also think about.
Speaker 1:You know what your, what your money's going towards and we can also support you in your journey In that way and that way, you know we get the money going towards the right place and you know I don't have to ride 300 miles. Yeah, absolutely yeah to me.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely, and and and to you know, to be clear, like that's just one arm of our Fundraising opportunities for no kid hungry. You know, like I said, we've been doing the chef dinners for a long time and so chef dinner sales are alive right now if you're looking for an amazing event to be at in Bentonville.
Speaker 1:Yes, late.
Speaker 2:January. Yes you know we're talking. We're doing cocktail hour with a couple of local chefs Arturo solace of Lady Slipper and Luke Wetzel of oven and tap nice Talk to Luke not too long ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great guy Well yeah, he was.
Speaker 2:I worked with him whenever I first moved up here. He was leaving the high whenever I came on. Very cool. And then, yeah, we've got Jeff and I'm apologize for the butchering of his name. I'm assuming Jeff chancellown out of. Okay, see, if you do make it in that area. I'm a dare. Lay ocean kitchen. Oh I, if I could curse, I would really lean into it right now. It is that good, it is so good, if you're in the area, make a trip. He actually did a pop-up At the momentary last summer.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:I sent people with a cooler and just basically say hey, by everything you can, at least two of everything. Let's go fill it up, let's roll. Yeah right, we've got Nelson Garmin out of California Alomar Dominican kitchen. He's just one of the most kind people I've ever met. Like I know, I've only spent probably about a total of an hour with the man, but I just like the warmth that radiated from that guy I'm very excited to have him here and then. Rebecca Mason out of Houston pastry chef. Just super talented, so much fun.
Speaker 1:Really excited to have her on board too very exciting stuff coming to the hive and Bentonville, in fact, over the course of the next couple months. Thank you so much for talking to me today. I've really enjoyed our visit. Micah Klaski, check out the hive in Bentonville awesome restaurant as well. Thanks to everybody listening. Remember you can catch all of the new American Town podcast episodes on streaming channels. Following our social Platforms or going to visit Bentonville comm, don't forget to follow visit Bentonville on Facebook, instagram, twitter, linkedin, youtube and TikTok. We've got lots of cool events coming to Bentonville in 2024. Check out our event calendar and plan your trip today. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time.