SHOW DESCRIPTION

Chef Gray Welch of Poppy Pies sits down with Trey Malone, host of the Taste of Place podcast and CEO of Northshore Specialty Coffee, just days after Poppy Pies was named a recommended restaurant in the Michelin Guide. Gray traces his path from a nine-dollar-an-hour cooking job to Sal & Mookie's, a tax-refund tent at Fondren pop-ups, a food truck outside Fertile Ground, and a brick-and-mortar shop at Belhaven Town Center. The two next-door neighbors talk about saying yes before you know the cost, why Gray would only open in Jackson, and why time is the one ingredient nobody can buy. The conversation closes with the families who now make Poppy Pies part of their Sunday.

TRANSCRIPT

Note: Soul Sessions is produced as a podcast first and designed to be listened to. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes the emotion and inflection meant to be conveyed by human voice. Our transcripts are created using AI and human transcribers, but may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting.

INTRO

Paul

The emails kept coming, and a Jackson pizza maker kept hitting delete, sure it was spam. Turns out it was the dream he'd been chasing since he first fell for food. Hey, it's Paul Wolf with the front row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places, and events that make the City With Soul shine. On today's show, Trey Malone, host of Taste of Place and CEO of Northshore Specialty Coffee, sits down with his next-door neighbor at Belhaven Town Center, Chef Gray Welch of Poppy Pies. Those emails came from the Michelin Guide, and Poppy Pies is now one of four Jackson restaurants it recommends. Not bad for a guy who started out cutting vegetables for nine bucks an hour.

How Did Poppy Pies Land in the Michelin Guide?

Trey

Chef Gray, how are you doing today?

Gray

Yeah, those two things don't uh go together, but I'll take it. I'm doing great. How about you?

Trey

Doing really well, man. I think that is your title now. You were just Gray before last week, but now you're chef.

Gray

Yeah, now I'm much fancier than I was before.

Trey

That's right. That's right. You're a little French now too. For my listeners, will you tell them what happened last week?

Gray

Yeah, so we're thrilled, major imposter syndrome, that we've been included in the Michelin Guide as a recommended restaurant here in Jackson. That makes four total. Um and yeah, uh never in a million years, but we're thrilled to, you know, have that distinction.

Trey

There are so many people in the greater Jackson area that are very proud of that statement. And Gray, I'm sure, is one of them, but lots of fans in the Gray fan club that are excited that he is a part of the Michelin group. So congratulations, man.

Gray

Thank you very much to you and all of our other loyal fans.

Trey

Yeah. Well, tell me about that process. What was that like?

Gray

I literally thought that it was, um, I thought it was totally fake. Michelin is something that back when I got interested in food in the first place, um, I always thought, like, Michelin star, my god, that's what I'm gonna be. Uh and so I thought it was spam. I got a bunch of emails from Michelin saying, "Hey, click this link, submit all this info, pictures and stuff," and I was like, "Yeah, right, buddy, you're not stealing my identity today." Delete button on all that. And then they just kept sending. And I looked at it, the actual event was happening in Nashville, and I was like, maybe I'll just ask some people if this is real, and it turned out it was. Um, I was actually in the gym when it hit me and I got a little teary-eyed. Um, I had a little moment there to myself. I'm sure people thought it was just 'cause I was lifting weights that were so heavy, but um it was the emotional weight of it to me. That's kind of um something I never dreamed could have been possible. And if you look at that list of pizzerias, there are eighty-six currently in the world that are on that, and like the people who write the cookbooks, the people who have been on Chef's Table, um, on Netflix and stuff, it's uh, it's ridiculous to see yourself next to that. So.

Trey

What an amazing experience, Gray. That is incredible. Holy smokes. Some people that I'm sure you've looked up to, and now your name is right there next to theirs on the website. That's amazing.

Gray

We can appreciate for a second, hey, recognize that the guide is expanding and the list will get larger over time. But I did take screenshots so that I can remember when I'm ninety years old. I'd be like, "Yeah, once upon a time I was right there next to Nancy Silverton, Chris Bianco," you know, and all these other people that are, you know, they're the real chefs. I'm just a dude out here making pizza in Mississippi, so.

Trey

Well, you can no longer say that, man. I mean, this guide is the real deal. And I love the history of that. As a big foodie myself, you know, my whole career I've been in food and beverage, specifically coffee, but I just really love food experiences. When I travel, that's what I want to do. I wanna go to restaurants and bars and try the local food. And so I've obviously always been a fan of that list and that guide and just sought out, you know, experiences like this. And so it is, it's not something that, they don't hand these out lightly. And I know that, I understand imposter syndrome more than most with my career, but man, you can no longer say that you're just some pizza dude in Jackson, Mississippi. You are the real deal, man. That's an amazing thing.

Why Doing the Basics Well Matters at Poppy Pies

Gray

Yeah. Well, thank you. Um and for those who aren't familiar, just a real quick blurb on that. It's um, I think it's really just a recognition that, you know, we're not pushing the industry forward, we're not doing anything overly fancy. I just think we really stick to the fundamentals and try to do the basics really well. And I really think that that's the only thing that I can think that they were trying to acknowledge. Just doing the basics well.

Trey

We can't overstate how important that is. You know, I call it the glazed donut approach, right? You go to a fancy donut shop and they might have a bourbon basil bacon cream-filled donut. But if their glazed donut isn't good, then I'm never coming back. And you gotta do the basics perfectly and really focus on those. We do that in our coffee shops. We tell people our cappuccino is our glazed donut. And so I love that. I mean, simple ingredients, simple recipes, but executed flawlessly is one of the most important things that you can offer to the public in a restaurant.

Gray

Totally. I think ironically, when I started this, I thought we were gonna be like this swanky spot. We were gonna have a really built-out dining room. It was gonna be fancy servers, it was gonna be a wine bar combo sort of thing. Um, and then slowly but surely, uh, I realized, like, leaning further into the basic family-friendly stuff, that um, that felt the most right for us. And so that's why I turned my mind off from "this is a possibility," and then, I don't know. The irony of um not trying to overdo it.

How Did Gray Welch Fall in Love With Making Pizza?

Trey

That's so cool, man. I love that. Well, tell us a little bit about that journey of how you got into food and how you landed on pizza specifically.

Gray

Yeah, pizza was one of those things at the very beginning that I would have never thought um that I would do. I started in restaurants as a cook. Um, I got paid nine dollars an hour, and I literally may as well have pretended that I was doing open heart surgery every single day. I took it that seriously, where everybody else, I guarantee you, thought I was the most annoying person that they had met. Like, this guy is so full of himself, and all he does is cut vegetables and grab a handful of salad and put it on a plate. Like, this guy, relax. And the summary of that is that no, I never did. It's one of those, if you can't handle doing a bad job, you just like keep doing that. Um, and I started in those restaurants, and then when COVID happened, it turned out that, hey, you know, a lot of places were closing. You know, I found out that I was going to be having our first child, that's Poppy, um, who's now five, and, you know, daddy needed a paycheck.

The first pizzeria that I worked at would have been Sal & Mookie's in Jackson. They were opening a store in Madison. I thought that I was just gonna do this temporarily. Um, and then the moment I started, I realized how fun pizza was. Um, and there was one particular day where, um, I don't know if this was like a stress test for me or something, but like everybody left me alone in the kitchen, and I mean alone. Like, it was the dead time in the afternoon. Everybody had gone. Max, who used to work at Sal & Mookie's, was like, "All right, I'll be back in a bit. You know, I'm gonna run some errands." A big, two full families came in and sat down. I think it was like twenty-four people or something like that. I made the entire family their meal. If you never went into that kitchen, the kitchen that is no longer there, it saw into the dining room. So it was two twelve-tops right next to each other, and something about seeing, like, a kid in a high chair take that slice of cheese pizza off their plate and, like, sloppily slam it against their face. Um, it was another one of those moments that I don't know how to describe other than, you know, kind of tears welled up in my eyes a little bit, and I said, like, this is amazing. Um, just the fact that, you know, one person can produce all this that enables a large family to just have a moment to kind of connect, and it's, yeah. So once that happened, I knew, I think I'm gonna stay here for a bit. And I did.

Trey

That is amazing. I think that's what a lot of people in the food and beverage space, they have a similar story where they're drawn to it through happenstance or a basic interest or hobby, but then it's the human connection part of food and beverage that really clinches people, that keeps them wanting to come back and makes it a passion for people as well. And so I remember the first time that I had someone in coffee, a lot of times it's the head back kind of thing. They take a sip of coffee, and then they kind of go head back, like, "Oh man." You know, first coffee in the morning, you're like, "I needed that," or, "That was so good." And I just remember those moments in my life that just stand out, like, oh, providing that to someone is so fulfilling and so satisfying. And so that's just so cool.

Gray

Yeah, absolutely.

From Pop-Up Tent to Food Truck in Belhaven

Trey

So I remember when, um, Belhaven Town Center, which is the development where Gray and I both have businesses. We are next-door neighbors, and his guys get a lot of free coffee out of the deal, and I will almost every day find a pizza behind the bar at my coffee shop, which is, it is very—

Gray

Yeah. Mutually beneficial, yeah.

Trey

Beneficial to both parties. And so, uh, I remember though when this development started, the side that we're on, there's a couple other businesses, um, two other Michelin recognitions in the area, but the side that we're on is like one big building, and the brewery was first. And so we've had the Fertile Ground guys on the show, and so they opened first, and um, it was just like a meeting spot for the neighborhood, because we were so excited in Belhaven to have somewhere to go and to connect. And so, um, but I remember then, um, this guy with this really cool food truck. They would come out and sling pies and really made a name for himself on that. So my first experience with Poppy Pies was the food truck thing out in front of Fertile Ground. So I guess, um, tell us how you went from working at Sal & Mookie's and having that experience to actually buying a food truck.

Gray

Yeah. Again, it was one of those things that, it's like, everything good comes from, like, you couldn't have possibly planned it. You just like keep saying yes to an opportunity that's in front of you, basically. Um, and I thought that Sal & Mookie's went really well. I learned a lot there. I'm very thankful for them for giving me the opportunity to, you know, learn how to lead, um, poorly, mind you. They did a good job. I, um, I learned a lot that I should have done personally better.

And it was the pressure of family and my daughter that pushed me into the corporate world. And I was like, you know, I gotta figure this out. I need to be an adult now and, like, try to, um, you know, provide appropriately. And so I tried the corporate thing. Um, you know, and I tried it. And that's how we'll leave that. And I knew pretty quickly that that was not gonna be my thing. And I was like, I still really love making pizza, so my days became, I used, um, not a joke, I used a very small tax refund. Um, and I purchased a tent and some tables and some Gozney Roccboxes, which is just like a one-pie sort of oven. And it was like, you know, four a.m., wake up, do prep work, clock in at seven, work until noon, use my lunch break to, like, pack the car and get everything ready, and then, you know, by five o'clock, shut my laptop. Okay, see ya, like, close Zoom and close it as fast as possible. Um, and immediately rush to events. We used to do a lot of stuff in Fondren. Um, and then I did that for as long as my bosses would let me do poorly at my job at corporate, until they finally said, "Um, hey, we're gonna need you to, like, come back and work in the office." And I said, "Nah, I quit." And they were like, "Yeah, I figured."

Um, and so then it was like the next day I woke up, and it was just like the path was completely empty in front of me, and it's like, well, um, here's what we can't do. Uh, we can survive for a little bit, but we can't be looking at an empty calendar. And then we filled it up nicely, serving people. Then within seven months, we had the food truck that you mentioned. At the same time, there just happened to be this brand-new beer company here in the Belhaven area, and Elvie's was already there as a footprint. They all invited us very kindly to share their space and serve. And then I think ultimately we just were, uh, the people that would never leave. And thankfully, they never asked us to. So.

Trey

Wow. Well, from my perspective as a patron, I mean, rain or shine, this guy was out there slinging pies, and a lot of days, I remember many days, you probably only made one or two pies the whole night, but you were still out there. And it's just the hustle, right? There's so much respect for the hustle and hard work that then leads you to where you are today. So how long did you do that before you started talking about a brick and mortar?

How Poppy Pies Found a Home at Belhaven Town Center

Gray

Talking about a brick and mortar, I mean, that ego trap is big, dude. Um, that happens pretty quick. You sell a guy one meal that's good, and all of a sudden you've got people from Dubai being like, "I've got the perfect spot for you. Come out here, dude. It's amazing. It'll be a slam dunk." And you're like, "Whoa, hold up, hold up, hold up. Let's pump the brakes a little bit." Um, I mean, we looked at a ton of different places. I mean, probably within six months. Like, we were doing a lot of, um, we were doing a lot of pop-ups in Fondren, and so, um, this is now where The Station is, and so they make great pizza helmed by Joseph Cravens, I think now—

Trey

Yeah, I think so.

Gray

At The Block in Fondren. Um, a shout-out to us, because we gave them the idea to do pizza there. Um, and so we did it there, um, and we had looked at that spot, we looked at a different spot in Fondren, we had looked all over, and then Belhaven just kind of, like, felt right.

And then there was a day that we were looking at just this empty space in the back that just had a bunch of trash in it. And I was like, "Hey, so, like," Ruffin, who's the landlord of the area, "What's going on here?" And he said, "Nothing. Do you want to pay for it?" And I said, "Maybe." And, um, and then, you know, over time, that's just how it goes. Yeah. It felt like it fit very organically, I should say. Like, nothing so far has been forced. It's just small steps forward of, like, nonstop organic movement. So.

Trey

Wow. That's amazing. You said something earlier that was impactful that I wanna remember: the best things that happen in life are opportunities that you say yes to. And so often we try to make plans, to plan out our life, or a five-year plan or whatever, but totally, for me, the exact same thing. It's just one opportunity that comes up that you say yes to. And, you know, it's riddled with many opportunities that don't work out or that you say no to, but every once in a while you have that one thing come up, and you say yes, and then you look back and you're just so glad that you did, because it provided so much to you and your family and so many other people. And so I for one, and my family, are very glad that you said yes to that opportunity.

Gray

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we're thrilled to be neighbors with you. And frankly, like, I think the best part, um, is that, like, for better or worse, you really have to be delusional, borderline stupid, to, like, make any decisions like this. Because if you understood the cost of the yes, you would never do it. But you have to be like, I'm gonna get myself into some really, really hot water, and then I'm gonna figure out how to swim later, and just trust that you'll figure it out. And, you know, it is, so.

Trey

That is my experience a hundred percent. You look back at any of the things I've done. If I would have known all of the facts ahead of time, there's no chance I would have done it. But when you're in it and you have no way out, then you gotta figure it out. So you have to be stupid, delusional, or just a little bit reckless, and then you have to be able to figure it out. And that's something that, it's been the best part of my job, is just figuring out the issues and then just being grateful that I did it at the end of the day. But I totally agree.

Gray

Yeah, totally. It's very rewarding, but the challenge is very real too.

Why Gray Welch Chose Jackson for His First Restaurant

Trey

Very high highs and very low lows. That is the life. Well, I've heard you say something in the past. You said that you didn't want a brick-and-mortar shop unless it was in Jackson. Is that true?

Gray

Yeah. And, you know, it's one of those things that it's hard to describe. Like, I don't really know why I felt that way, other than just being born and raised here. It's like nowhere else, like, feels right, you know, to at least begin. I feel like Jackson is very welcoming, um, of new concepts. Like, people are excited to try new things. And it doesn't mean that you can't do that elsewhere, but I think, like, Jackson has a very good mix of people, right? Where it's families and students and all the above. When you start to go into the suburbs a little bit, you're leaning very heavily into families, maybe with a little bit more limited time budget. And so, without being, like, super nah-meh-meh about that, it's like, I feel like if you start there, if you mess up one time with a dad who's, like, already kind of pissed off, and his kids are annoying him, and he's, like, in the... pizza was okay at best and whatever. They're just like, I feel like it's a bunch of sharks in the water that are not gonna be very patient with mistakes. And I don't mean that in a bad way, because everybody's very busy. It's just, I feel like Jackson has a little bit more of a helping hand at the very beginning. At least that's my feeling.

Trey

I'd love someone to fact-check me on this, but I'd love to know the amount of locally owned first-time restaurants that are in the suburbs. Because I know we have a couple second- or third-time restaurants, but looking at it, I mean, there's not a lot of chains in the city limits of Jackson, and there are a ton of amazing local spots. And then you go out and it flips. There's a ton of chains, and then there's a couple sprinkled second-time, you know, like Keifer's, Aplos, you know. But those all started in Jackson.

Gray

Yeah.

Trey

Yeah. Specifically, like, our area of Jackson too, for some of them. And so I love that about Jackson. Whatever magic is happening where it encourages the entrepreneurialism, and it encourages new concepts and new ideas, and people welcome that. I think it's great. I'm with you. I'm in the same boat. You know, and it's not to say that we'll never expand, because, you know, once you have a concept in Jackson that works, and then people from the suburbs come and visit and they love it, then they're a little more understanding, maybe, not the sharks in the water that you're talking about. But it is something magical about our city, for sure.

Gray

Yeah, absolutely.

Trey

I love that my kids love to talk about Poppy's dad being the guy that makes pizza, and how Poppy is also famous before she even knows it, 'cause of all of the people that love your pizza. Um, but what is it, year two now, year three?

Gray

Yeah, it's year two of the brick and mortar. Yeah. Rough, but I mean, math is hard, probably four and a half. Going on five years total at this point. Yeah, but two years in the brick and mortar.

Trey

Year two brick and mortar, five years total. And I just wanna commend you. That whole story and that journey, I just felt like you executed it so well. Like, you were never too reckless. And obviously we all have a bit of recklessness in us if we do this kind of life at all, but it felt very calculated. It felt like you knew what you were getting into. And I mean, from the outside, it looks like you've just been crushing it as well. So.

Gray

Great. Yeah. From the outside, I'm a genius. From the inside, I'm just, like, hiding behind the, you know, couch, barely looking over, saying, "Okay, is everybody seeing what's happening here?" Um, I literally, it's so funny how it all works. I think, like, purely just saying yes to opportunities and then trusting that you will figure it out when you get there. Yeah.

Trey

Yeah. Having a little bit of the fearlessness in you to just say, "We will figure it out," and you just take the step and you jump in. And when those challenges come, not if, but when, then you just keep moving forward, and you just don't let it take you down.

Gray

Yeah. And then everybody gets stuck on this whole, like, um, like somebody will come to our pizza shop, I'm sure, after seeing our lovely recognition that we've just received, and they're gonna be like, "I mean, I can do better." Like, maybe. But where's it at?

Trey

Maybe. Try it.

Gray

That's all you gotta do. Like, yes, you can do everything that we did. You know, I didn't write the book on pizza. As a matter of fact, I read a lot of other people's books to learn how to do it, and you can too. Um, and I would invite that. Um, yeah. So.

Trey

My first coffee shop, I had the same experience. You know, I don't walk around with a sign that says "owner," right? I like to sit off in the corner, and there was this group of ladies, I think it was like three of them, sitting at a table in a corner, and they ordered a bunch of stuff, and they sat there and they were looking around, and they were like, "We could do it so much better." And instead of me being mad, I was like, "Perfect, go for it. I'm sure you could. Do you want to do it?" Yeah.

Gray

Yeah. Do it. Please. As a matter of fact, I'm so tired. Please. Yeah, you jump in here and take over for me. Thank you.

Trey

I could show you all of the mistakes I made, all of the things I wish I could have done better. I hope that you do better. Well, they haven't done it so far. Update. They're still talking about it and haven't actually done it.

Gray

Yeah. Yeah, right. They still come back every week saying, "Man, this place could be so much better," still, but you're still here, so, okay. Yeah.

What's Next for Poppy Pies?

Trey

You're still here, and I'm still serving you coffee every week, so I'll take it. That's awesome. Well, man, what's, uh, what's something new on the horizon? Are you guys working on anything fun? I'm sure you're still reeling from this new recognition, but anything new in the works?

Gray

Yeah, you know, anything new in the works, I think mostly no. And while that may not seem very exciting, um, there's—

Trey

No, I love it.

Gray

So many things that, as you know, people don't see, like, on the back end. Like, you know, how did we get to the point where people appreciate us, as you've been so kind, um, to mention here? And it's like, well, we feel like further solidifying ourselves in doing the basics correctly. And so while we may have pizza on the front that you see, it's all the stuff that happens in the back, from the mistakes that you don't see, really trying to dial in those things so that we have a very good cohesive team that, um, doesn't require me to be there to oversee. And, um, business jargon this, business jargon that. There's so much that isn't pizza that I do not understand that I'm trying to. Um, you know, I definitely, this is not an announcement, so please don't use it for that. But—

Trey

Okay.

Gray

I feel very strongly that the area that we operate in is untapped potential. There's so much good that currently happens, but, I mean, it is still, like, probably at 10% capacity. Um, and I'm very much looking forward to stressing myself out a lot, putting myself back in some very boiling water, and trying to figure out some very cool community event that we can do, such as the Oktoberfest Bring the Change concert. I just think something like that needs to happen at least one more time per year. And so while, you know, I can't say exactly when that'll be, um, the conversations about that are happening currently. So.

Trey

I love that. Yeah, you know, obviously you know that's important to me, to just do cool stuff. And it sounds super simple, but when you bring people together, especially around your businesses, I mean, it's good for business, but it's also good for just the overarching goal of creating more things in our city and more things in Jackson to keep people here, to keep people from moving to the suburbs or moving to Nashville or New Orleans. It's like, if we can band together and create something that's special through, you know, our businesses, but also events like that, then it can really benefit everyone, kind of as a tribe. And so I'm with you on that, man. So let me know how I can help with anything that you come up with. I'm here.

Gray

Yeah, please. Yeah.

What Makes a Good Slice of Pizza?

Trey

All right, I have just a couple more questions. Okay. So pizza's one of the things that, you know, I'm a self-described foodie. I love good food experiences. Um, pizza's the one that I will eat Little Caesars. Like, if you go and you have, you know, a party with people and it's like, "I need food," pizza's the first thought, right? Like, it's that. But then I also really, really enjoy great pizza, but I don't know what makes the difference. I know good ingredients, you know. I know that, like, okay, if I go pay five dollars for something, then it's probably not gonna be good. It's just filling a need at that point, right? And then if I am gonna go, on my way home, and get a really good experience for my family, then I'm gonna go by Gray's pizza shop. So what makes a good slice of pizza? Like, what are some of the concepts that I need to learn to delineate good pizza from bad, with pizza specifically? But you can also just talk about food.

Gray

Yeah. Um, I think pretty much, just like with anything that's good, time is the only thing that cannot be replaced. So we can all buy the same cheese. We can all buy the same flour, the same yeast, yada yada. You see where I'm going with this.

Trey

Yeah.

Gray

But your willingness to spend the time required for things to be good is really the only differentiator. Because you're right. I could give somebody the entire recipe book. You can adjust the recipe whichever way you want. Do you want to do it one day, two day, three day, whatever? It doesn't matter. People are not gonna replicate the Poppy Pies model. Um, not that it's, like, valuable and that they would want to, but just, like, it's the willingness to never, ever, ever, "ever" in caps with asterisks around it, veer from what works. So that when you get tired, when you get whatever, and you just really want to cut that corner, not doing that is the only difference.

And now, don't get me wrong, when it comes to Little Caesars or Cicis, Papa John's, Domino's, all of it, we enjoy the entire spectrum of pizza. You know, the whole thing. And, um, you know, I recognize that we are firmly situated on, like, one part of that spectrum as far as people's taste, and we're very happy to occupy that spot very well when you just really want, like, a fully, you know, thought-through, nutritional pizza thing. And sometimes you don't want to think at all. Sometimes you need a late-night slice that's just pure cheese with barely any bread, and I totally get it. Um, both are excellent. Um, and, you know, time and place for everything. So.

Trey

Yeah, I get that. I talk to people a lot, you know, about coffee. It's my thing, and you can't replace the years. You know, I think Malcolm Gladwell talked about the ten thousand hours that it takes to become a master, right? And that's why, you know, I laugh at the ladies in my coffee shop that said they could do it better. And it's like, hey, y'all go. If you haven't been doing this for ten years, you got ten years until you'll get here, 'cause you just can't speed it up. You can't speed up the time that it takes to learn that.

Gray

And that's so funny, because, um, like, I saw, um, a while ago, probably a couple of years ago, shout-out to Kessler Prime. Um, they're amazing. I saw somebody comment on one of their posts on social media being like, "Um, you know, I can cook a steak better than this." And I remember somebody responded being like, "Yeah, you can cook, like, one steak, but can you do, like, a thousand in an evening and all of them are also perfect?" It's like, it's just a different game. Um, when you're doing them at volume consistently well, that's, you know, it gets taxing mentally and physically. Yeah.

How Pizza Brings Jackson Families Together

Trey

That takes time. Yeah, it totally does. All right. I have one more question. I usually ask this, and we've kind of danced around it, which has just been fantastic. But, you know, the reason that you really fell in love with food, and the reason I fell in love with coffee, was the human connection part. It was how it brings people together and how it creates a common table, metaphorically and physically, where people can share their lives and share their stories. And so you shared a perfect example of kind of what got you into food, but I'd love one from the past five years, from when you actually left the corporate job and you're now doing your own thing. Um, could you think of an experience where you either saw or were a part of some deep human connection around a slice of pizza?

Gray

I think in the last five years, one of the most special things that I've seen, and this is maybe too personal, call it too selfish, but it was very early on when we were doing our pop-ups. This is before the food truck, before everything else. And there's a picture of Poppy and myself, like, sitting there. I've just gotten beaten down and I'm tired. We sold out of our pizzas, and she's just sitting there, um, in a cute little dress, a cute little blue dress, sitting right next to me with a piece of pizza in her hand. Um, and I just think back to, like, how special it is to be able to have the freedom to choose what you're gonna do every day, and you choose to serve, work hard, and then you sit next to people that you care about at the end. Maybe that's a little too heady. That's one particular moment—

Trey

Not at all.

Gray

I think whenever I see that picture, I have to stop and, you know, just appreciate that. Just because over the years, it starts with one person who comes and enjoys what you have, and then it turns into telling somebody else, and then the next thing you know, now here we are in our store, and people plan their Sundays around coming and sitting after church with their whole family at the tables. And I see the same people every week, and how special it is that out of any of the places that they could possibly choose, you know, they've created a ritual of connection around our food. And I don't think that it's just the food. It needs to have a baseline quality. It needs to be good. But I think ultimately, it being good enables it to get out of the way, so that they can have a good meal and not be worried about that one bit. And I think that's the service part. So that they can just be there, totally at ease.

Trey

You just summed up hospitality so beautifully. We have to have a baseline of quality, for sure. And it's really just about caring, right? It's like, you shouldn't have any business offering people food or beverages if you don't care. But really what we're providing is a space, and trying to get out of the way to allow that connection. But that picture that I can almost see, of you and Poppy at the end of the day, you enjoying a hard day of work and then enjoying your daughter, is just such a lovely, perfect example of what I'm talking about, of how food brings people together and connects us. That's great.

Gray

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that question.

Trey

Yeah, great. Thank you so much for your time, man. I'm just so excited. I now wanna go and get a Captain and have that for dinner. So thanks for chatting with me, man.

Gray

Well, absolutely. I'm so grateful for y'all's invitation.

Paul

That is Chef Gray Welch of Poppy Pies at Belhaven Town Center, in conversation with Taste of Place podcast host and Northshore Coffee CEO Trey Malone. Gray will tell you anyone can buy the same flour and cheese he does. He just won't cut the corner. So go taste the difference for yourself. Stop by for a pie, and grab a coffee next door at Cultivate Coffee Project by Northshore. Our thanks to Trey for this conversation. If you want more episodes of Taste of Place, you'll find it wherever you get your podcasts. We'll have links in our show notes to Poppy Pies and Taste of Place at visitjackson.com/soulsessions.

Soul Sessions comes to you from Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Jackson, Mississippi — the City With Soul. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Rickey Thigpen, and I'm Paul Wolf, managing editor and your host for these conversations. Stay current on all things Jackson at visitjackson.com. Know someone we should be talking to? Drop us a line at pwolf@visitjackson.com.

Thank you for listening, and I'll talk to you next week.

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