Ep. 108 - Champagne Secrets: Debunking the Elitist Myths with Aaron Walters

Pretentious hospitality is a profit killer. When consumers feel intimidated by an industry, they simply lock their wallets and walk away. The global wine and champagne industry has spent decades building cardboard walls of elite terminology and black-tie dress codes, accidentally alienating the modern diner who just wants an incredible experience. We sit down with Aaron Walters, chef and owner of Muselet Champagne Bar, to see how he is completely dismantling the traditional wine bar format in downtown Bentonville.

We get into the technical mechanics of champagne production and why the standard glass flute is actually destroying your sensory experience. Aaron Walters maps out his journey from working as a high-end private chef across Hawaii and Alaska to navigating the gritty realities of local distribution networks. We dive deep into the technical execution behind their menu staples, examining their three-day buttermilk sous vide fried chicken process and why using a rice flour starch blend prevents oil absorption. We also get a breakdown of the business metrics behind their viral "bong and a bump" menu item, which paired high-quality caviar with high-speed delivery to move over fifteen hundred orders in just a few months.

Aaron Walters opens up about managing inventory overhead when menus pivot weekly due to seasonal ingredient shifts, like transitioning from a winter truffle risotto to a spring carrot puree. You will walk away with a completely fresh perspective on old-world pairings, a breakdown of how professional preservation systems keep sparkling bottles fresh for three weeks, and a warning against the low-grade sparkling wines disguised as high-end luxury.

What is the most unconventional food and beverage pairing you have ever tried that actually worked? Let us know in the comments below.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Tease

SPEAKER_04 0:11

Welcome to the B Team Podcast. I am your host, Josh Saffron, with my co-host, Matt Morris, and our permanent guest, Rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bentonville, Urban, and Business. The B Team Podcast. Be here. Welcome to the B Team Podcast. I'm your host, Josh Saffron, with our co-host Matt Morris. And Jim. And our permanent guest. Jim. It's just Jim. Just Jim. Just Jim. Robbie. This is all part of the script from a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. Gotcha. Well, we were trying to leave it with you last, so then you can introduce our new guest today. Yeah. So let's try that again. And Rob. And Rob. And we are here every Thursday for all things Bettonville business, bourbon. And today bubbles, I guess, right? Bubbles. Bubbles, right? Bubbles, yes. Would you like to introduce our guest? Sorry. Before we do that, it is few and far between that you bring a guest.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

But when you do, I freaking bring a guest.

SPEAKER_04 1:04

This is going to be epic today. I feel very strongly.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Too bad we don't have smell of vision right now, but we'll get into that in a minute. Very good. Yes. Yes. So, Aaron? Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Hello, Aaron Walters, uh chef owner of Musley Champagne Bar. Champagne Bar? I didn't even know we had one. In downtown Benville. In downtown Benville, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

Did you know there was a place like this? I knew nothing.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Oh, now you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

Have you been there before?

SPEAKER_03 1:27

A few times.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

Where is it? Have you ever been invited?

unknown 1:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Well, you been invited? You know? Come and see. You were both invited to SantaCon. Were we there at SantaCon? We were indeed there. Did we party and have a good time at SantaCon? Yes. So you both get beep off.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

This segment's sponsored by Saratoga Walker.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

Josh is in charge of editing for it. Excellent job. So all the nonsense you never get invited, you just never show up.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

Wow. Feels like my locker, Aaron's take and take my locker at the house. It's like we're out.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Oh, this is who I'm replacing. Man, I've been placing the wall. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

So Yellowstone stuff in there, just throw it out. Yeah. So, Aaron, tell before we get into all this fun, tell us a little bit about

What A Muselet Really Is

SPEAKER_03 2:20

your unbelievable establishment.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Okay, so yeah, muselay was a brainchild of about four years ago.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

I'm gonna pause you. For the viewers, what is musulet?

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Oh, musulet is the name for a cage on a bottle of sparkling wine. So I'll show you one real quick. Um, every bottle of sparkling that's done in the traditional method has one. This cage right here is called a muselet. I thought that was called the do-hate. So technical term. Okay. I've never heard of that before. But yeah, so French for muzzle. Um, but it is uh the last thing put on the bottle to keep the cork in place.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

Um we was such a cool why you name the location that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Uh yeah, that was uh the name for the location came from that. Um my wife and I make chairs out of these. Uh and we hide them around the restaurant, we give them away as gifts. When we did Santa Con, we did our version of a Happy Meal. We did a jolly box with house made chicken nuggets, caviarioli, some of our palm frites, uh, and then the toy in the Happy Meal was a Christmas ornament made out of the muzzlee. Super.

SPEAKER_05 3:26

Great. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

And I'll brag on Aaron here for a minute. Not only does he have a amazing establishment, he's an amazing chef, and he knows his wines and champagnes like no one's business. Like the food is he's like the worst of champagne and wine. Yes. All right, I like that. Yeah, maybe even to a higher level. Oh, whoa, whoa. Shout out to Russ. Not shot fired. I mean, it's he knows how to pair. It's it's ridiculous. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

So how did you find this place?

SPEAKER_03 3:59

I was invited. I was invited. I was invited over, and uh, you know, one thing turned to another, it's one of our favorite places, downtown Bentonville. Where where is it in downtown Bentonville?

SPEAKER_01 4:09

So it's uh 406 Southeast 5th, which is right across from uh the meteor and right adjacent to where Visit Bentonville actually just moved out of. Oh, okay, great old ice house building.

SPEAKER_05 4:18

Terrific.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

Well, it did theme today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yeah. You just had my brand new neighbor, which is awesome. Um I was at his announcement yesterday.

SPEAKER_04 4:26

Yeah. I was there too.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Oh, very cool. Yeah. I didn't get an invite.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

But no. So uh yeah. Should we do our regular toasts?

SPEAKER_04 4:36

Um I'm yes, I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Usually we do bourbon, but we were like you're a champagne bar? Uh we are a champagne bar, so we are wine and beard. We don't have any uh no mixerings, no spirits, or anything like that yet. Uh it's there's a potential for it, but I don't want to draw focus away from the bubbles, which are what we're what we're focusing on. I have brought with me Gose, their grand reserve brute. Uh so Gose is actually the oldest wine house in Champagne, uh, circa 1584. You'll hear that Ruinar was the first champagne house. That's fine. They came along, I believe, 1729 for sparkling wine. Gose was producing still wine in 1584, which makes them the old house. 1584. 1584, which makes them the oldest wine house in the house.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

If I walked into a brewery, there'd be 25 different beers. If I walked in here, it's just going to be multiple different types of champagne.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

If you want when you when you walk in, when you walk into Musley uh uh and you're handed our menu, you will see our menu's broken down very easily. There's champagne, which are all of our by the glass uh champagne options that we carry, not champagne, which is sparkling wine produced outside of the area of champagne, can be anywhere in the world. We have a prosecco, we have a cava, which comes from Spain, we have a sparkling from Argentina. Um, but there are 12 uh by the glass sparklings, six champagne, six uh not champagne. And then we go into still red, white, and rose, a handful of beer and cider,

Aaron’s Chef Journey Into Wine

SPEAKER_01 6:00

uh, and then some after dinner air drinks as well.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

What a cool concept. What are you talking about?

unknown 6:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Uh I have so I've been a private chef for 15 years. Uh I have uh clients in Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona, Colorado, Tennessee. Um so I've pretty well traveled. Uh, I really got into wine being a private chef in Hawaii for a family out there. Um Hawaii, Bob? Yeah, we did it up. He wasn't my private chef. I was gonna say I wish Hawaii. My uh the principles would have guests and family come in and they would want wine pairings. I'd had like a couple of days of wine pairings in my culinary school. Um so just started reading books, uh listening to podcasts, uh studying, studying wine. Uh we had one locally owned wine shop on the island, and I went and I annoyed the shit out of this guy. I guarantee you he hated me because I was in there every day asking so many questions, licking rocks that he had. He brought back like rocks from different regions. Um you said licking rocks?

SPEAKER_04 6:53

Licking rocks, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

I thought you said uh yeah, different soil types, like especially in like uh I and the Cote de Blanc, where this is from, it's very chalky soil. Um so he had brought back like a piece of like chalk soil from from champagne and other things like that. But really just like dove in headfirst in all things wine. Uh really found a fondness for champagne uh probably about a decade ago now, and it's been kind of my really my focal point for the past five to seven years uh studying it. I'm in the process of taking my uh Champagne Masters class right now through the Wine Scholar Guild um and finishing up my diploma through the Wine and Spirits Education Trust. Jeez, you're not joking. He is, he's all about Russ. Yeah, so why Badenville from Hawaii and Alaska? I so living in Hawaii, um, I loved it out there. You get island fever pretty quick. You can get a you can get all the way around the big island in about 90 minutes, and you're right back where you started from. Um and so I knew I wanted to get wine certifications. Wine certifications were very expensive out there because you are so isolated. Wine certifications in Arkansas, about 30% cheaper. Cost of living was 49th, uh, not up here, clearly. Um Little Rock. So I moved back to Little Rock and started my wine journey there um through uh an institute called the Wine Institute, which was run by um Ken Lipsmeyer and Lori Hambekin, uh, which are now both doing their own things. I think Ken runs the uh wine program at the casino in Pine Bluff. Um geniuses when it comes to wine. Like when I say I know I I know a lot about wine, I barely scratch the surface for what these two individuals know. Um and it was very gracious to have them as instructors to start me on my wine journey. And then it was just a lot of tasting, we'll call it. Um a lot of practice uh and finding out what you like and what you don't like and why you like the things you like and why you don't like the things you don't like. Um I mean I'm thirsty. Moved into distribution when I came back into Arkansas and uh through wine distribution, I really really found my niche for for just like learning all things wine. I got on with natural state distributing, who have they have the best uh grower champagne portfolio in the state. So in Champagne you have growers and showers, just kidding. So you have you have growth, you have grower producers and you have uh you have like nicociants, people that buy grapes um from farmers or have contracts with farmers. Um some of the larger houses you'll see like Wolfgekuclot, Tattinger, all of those have contracts with farmers, which is fine, it's a great thing because to produce the amount of sparkling wine or champagne that they need to produce, 60 million-ish bottles a year, uh you have to have those contracts because champagne's not that large of a place. The other end of that spectrum are small grower producers or family-owned houses, which may produce 2,000 bottles a year. Uh and so the importer Skernik, which is now with RDC, uh has a fantastic portfolio of these grower producers, and that is what um I try to highlight at Newsletter, these like lesser-known uh producers.

How To Open And Taste Champagne

SPEAKER_01 9:56

So that's let's get to the show and tell. I'm excited. Yeah, let's do it. Let's open up some guys.

SPEAKER_04 10:00

Don't hit Jim in the head with that thing. Careful.

SPEAKER_05 10:02

Yeah, if it's a muzzle, maybe we could use it for Josh.

SPEAKER_04 10:12

So now part of the fun with champagne is popping the cork and smashing it into the ceiling, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:17

So, contrary to that, okay, when you're opening it, it should sound like a nun fart. Just that. That's the way it's taught. Um, there's nothing to be said of you can't pop a cork. I saber bottles in the restaurant every single week. Um I've used, we have four or five sabers to choose from. I've used a wine key, I've used a soup spoon, I've used a metal credit card. I can savor with just about anything for a spectacle. Um, but we're doing this thing here, or what are we doing? That's after. Sorry. I got excited.

SPEAKER_05 10:49

Yeah. No, these glasses look very fancy.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

So these are probably some of the most fancy glassware uh in the world. So this is the line is Zalto. Um, three or four generations old uh old um single piece hand-blown Austrian crystal glassware. Uh very and you use them at the restaurant? Very fun. So we have we have 12 of these for our 12 founders members. So before we launched, um we sent out a very select amount of invitations to those, Bobby? Uh of course. To some friends that have uh had expressed interest in supporting what we were trying to build and grow here. Um so we put on a dinner for them. Um, part of the founder's experience is you get your very own glass to drink out of every time you're there, and it is a Zalto glass. We have very good glassware at the he leaves it there and it says Rob Nelson.

SPEAKER_04 11:44

He shows up and gets his glass. That's it. Except wow.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

It's like the uh the chopsticks when you go to the don't break them when you cheers, Jones. Yeah, I'm not gonna cheers anybody. Cheers!

SPEAKER_04 11:57

Is this Rob's glass that I'm drinking out of? Yes. Yeah, specifically that one. All right, now what are you doing there? Are you doing something with the taste?

SPEAKER_01 12:09

So aerate it a little bit in your mouth just to get the all the vibes going, and so you can really taste everything. Can you teach Josh? Oh no, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

No, I don't know how to drink champagne. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

So you'll have to do that? I swirled a small amount with sparkling wine. Swirrel. They tell you swirl still wine, don't swirl sparkling. You still need to open it up. You're adding a little bit of oxygen to it to open the wine up so that it's not quite so muted. Another reason that this is the perfect glassware is because it gives the area here for the wine to breathe, and then it closes in and focuses. So when you stick your nose in the glass, you can really get all the aromatics. The reason I don't have any flutes, this is the closest thing to a flute, we'll have a musole, um, is because you cannot get your nose in there to get any aromatics out. So any of the subtle nuances that are in this bottle of champagne, you're gonna are gonna be lost on you if you drink out of a flute because you just can't get your nose in there.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

No, and then you like kind of just suck with air when you're you it's like you're a kid again, annoying your parents. You're yeah, you're the output of all. It tastes different. It tastes so much different. You taste a lot more of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:12

So yeah, I want to see you do that again.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

You can make spin it out in the I want to see you do it. I want to see you do it. It's good. That's really good. Champagne. It's not sweet, but it's the perfect amount of like bubbly. No, you're not kissing. I don't know what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

I mean a lot of sucking in a little bit just to aerate it. All that's doing. It makes it taste different. When you aerate it, then your retro olfactory senses what you actually like taste from or what you actually get from that. Does Carrie like champagne?

SPEAKER_04 13:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Corey?

SPEAKER_05 13:48

Corey very much likes you.

SPEAKER_04 13:49

She likes it too much. Yeah. This is great. I mean, the wives would love the.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

I mean, I've invited you all for first time I've even heard this place exists. You're so I may not be on the right text thread. I mean, I may not be on the right text.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Jeez. The what you said. So full of crap.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

I've been trying to get you all to go there, and your calendars are. Maybe you and I can set up some three of us to go.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

After the lamp shop night, we'll just reach over there.

SPEAKER_05 14:19

Now, since we're friends, would we be able to use Bobby's glass?

SPEAKER_00 14:21

As long as he's not there, yeah. He's like, there's actually Zan calendar. This is really good.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

So this is aged about three and a half to four years on Lee's. So your leaves are the dead yeast cells that fall out of wine whenever it's aging. Um that's what imparts the yeastiness or like toastiness, brioche, and like sourdough notes that you get in a really good bottle of notes.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

So now the she is champagne like I don't know how to do that. Like wine, like there's good years and there's bad years, or is it all pretty much insane?

SPEAKER_01 14:53

So you'll see on the the main difference that you'll see when you're looking at a bottle of champagne is that most of them are not going to have a vintage on it. There you go. This is this is grand reserve, there's not a vintage on it anywhere. Because they have so few outstanding years in champagne, they do what's called non-vinter blended vinages. So they'll make wine every year, uh, and then they have their they're they're calling the chef de Kov or their seller, basically their seller master, will go in and taste the blends, and then they'll put their house style blend together for this wine. So they may pull from four, five, six different vinages to make this style that they put into this bottle every year. Because they want this to be as similar as it can be year after year. Because they want that customer to pick it up and it be the same thing that they remember, which is tough to do in an area that has really shitty climate. Um and so you really don't get a lot of vintages. And when you do get a declared vintage in champagne, that's a wine that can hold on 30, 40, 50, 60 years.

SPEAKER_03 15:52

Um is that why you prefer the more boutique ones? Because then you can you're not getting it's not all going into a right mixture to make it. So what what's really cool about this, Matt, uh about the location

Fried Chicken With High-End Bubbles

SPEAKER_03 16:05

is like these super sophisticated champagnes and wines and bubbly wines, right? And you you're thinking, wow, you know, the menu's just gonna be like super complicated. And you look at it and there's fried chicken. Deviled eggs. Oh, to be fair, you have invited me because you told me the fried chicken is amazing. Right? It's his favorite. It's French fries. It's what else, Chef? Orangini. Oranginis. Um, right? So so it's like you could go in there on Monday nights, it's burgers served in tinfoil, right? Yeah. Rotating smash burgers, smash burgers, right? And then you pair it with this amazing stuff. And and talk to us a little bit about like the chicken.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

What's in here? So this is the chicken. Oh boy. So this is our muzzle fried chicken. That looks incredible.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Keep it away from Matthew Sliders. We I mean, we need to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

So we soak our, we soak, yeah, this is for you guys. So we soak our fried chicken, we soak our chicken in buttermilk for three days in a bunch of spices and everything. Uh, it then gets uh vacuum sealed and sous-vide for three to three and a half hours. So we cook it in a vacuum sealed bag in a water bath for three and a half hours, pull it out, chill it down, and then it's ready to go for when we have another for it. These guys are being too nice. I mean, and and all of uh all of our breading is it's gluten-free by design. It's not gluten-free because I didn't want any gluten in the chicken. It's gluten-free because rice flour and cornstarch, which are our main, which are our main starches in this, don't soak up oil like AP flour does. And so it makes a less greasy fried chicken. And that still gets it still gets unbelievably crunchy when you don't travel 15 minutes with it. Um, it gets very crunchy. Um what's the slaw over here? So it all it always comes with a red cabbage and granny Smith apple slaw with a little bit of pickled red onion. This is incredible.

SPEAKER_04 18:06

Much better than Kentucky fried chicken.

SPEAKER_03 18:08

Throw the container back here in the middle.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

Holy wool.

unknown 18:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 18:15

Thank you. Wow. What's the flavoring on it? I'm catching what what's the what is the flavoring on this?

SPEAKER_01 18:21

So there's there's a ton of stuff that goes in this. There's uh garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, sweet paprika, cayenne pepper, uh, a little bit of dried oregano, uh a little bit of Worship, a little bit of gojizong, a little bit of MSG.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 18:44

I can't believe you never invited me before Love.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

No. You know what else is good about it? You don't ever make a chicken like this anymore. Chicken's real.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Yeah. No, we wanted full-on bone ends. Real chicken. Yeah, you gotta have the flavor from the bone.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

And then with the champagne. So the reason champagne and fried chicken goes together so well is because the bubbles and the acidity in the champagne cut through any of the like fattiness of fried foods. Um and so they just really pair really, really well next to each other. James, you left so much chicken out there, okay?

SPEAKER_05 19:28

I'd cook a big piece.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Jesus. There's homeless people that could do it. Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

And what would what would what else would you say on your menu, which I already know the answer to this, but for the viewers and these guys, what what are some other popular items for the outsiders? Those are the non-founders.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

For those that never get invited.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

The other three peasants in here, what would you recommend?

SPEAKER_01 19:52

So for those of you that haven't been invited and haven't found these lights yet, when you do, uh, you have to get the palm frites. You have to get the french fries. Uh so we're double fried. Everything we fry, we fry in wagyu beef tallow, also. So um, no peanut oil. We have peanut oil for any like alpha gal or anything like that, or vegetarian, which we do have come through, which is fine. We have alternative means of transfer or of uh cooking things. I like to say we're infinitely like adjustable. Like we can always adapt to it.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

When Angie and I walk in there, he's like, oh god, here comes your option.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

I brought it, I brought in I brought in vegetarian caviar for this man.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

For me. And it's freaking amazing.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Well, are you open for lunch too? Uh we are not. So Saturday's the only day we're open 11 to 11. Other other days, so month we're close Tuesday, Wednesday. So Monday, I didn't feel like much of anything was open. I wanted to cover it toward uh industry people and toward people that like me that would always like, we're like, what the hell are we gonna eat tonight? Where are we going? Uh so on Monday we're three to ten, Thursday three to ten, Friday three to eleven, Saturday all day 11 to 11. Uh, and then Sunday we're for brunch from 10 to 2. And brunch changes every single Sunday because I have ADD. Um and the reason I said I would never own a restaurant is because I didn't want to do the same thing day in and day out. Our deviled eggs on our normal menu change every single week. Our only for our palm fruits changes weekly. Our mignonette changes pretty often, our orangini changes. Absolutely. Um, I just got done changing the menu from our uh truffle risotto because truffles are out of season. That was amazing. So good. So just shifting that to a carrot risotto. So we're gonna have uh roasted carrot puree in carrot top pea stew, um, a little bit of like a hazelnut gremolata situation and some brown butter uh to kind of shift into like spring summer. Our Arencini just changed to spring pea and telegram cheese. Um yeah, things change all the time. But yeah, Sunday brunch is really cool. We do a rotating omnipotent. Have you been there for brunch? I have not.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

I'm too hungover. Make the brunch.

SPEAKER_04 21:52

Matt, Jim and I were there last Sunday for brunch. It was incredible. It was at a great time. You should have been there. The devil days, oh my god, on point.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

Um that I I can eat eggs, but everyone I've ever been there with.

The Chambong And Caviar Ritual

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Let's go to the uh the the caviar boom.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Everybody but everybody So I brought the Shambongs. I did not afford to get it. Yeah, but this is the Shambong. So the Shambong is the quickest way to get champagne into your mouthhole. Oh so that's with this glass because that camera's ball up.

SPEAKER_04 22:45

There we go.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

This is probably this is not probably, this is without a doubt the most I've never seen anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

The most ordered thing on our menu. It's a lot of fun. So I this is on our menu as a bong and a bump. Bong and a bump. So we have a chambong and a bump of caviar.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

Ooh, I bet Angie loves that. Oh my god, yeah. That's very creative.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

So with every single one that's ordered, uh your chambong gets poured, and then I come out of the kitchen with my tin of Royal Ossetra caviar, and I put it right on the back of your hand.

unknown 23:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 23:20

With everyone that's ordered it, an angel gets its wings.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

That's true. I looked at uh metrics at the end of the year. We've been open since September 20th, and through December we did 1,500 chambong bums.

SPEAKER_03 23:34

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Rob didn't.

SPEAKER_05 23:37

I was gonna say Rob had 1200 at the bumps.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

So Rob can't have the caviar. Yeah. So Rob can Rob can bomb, but he cannot bomb. So these are chambons.

SPEAKER_04 23:48

I don't even know what to do with this.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

I'm gonna I'm gonna I I'll uh there's two others I can fill up with.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

Yeah, all four of us need to do it at the same time. Yeah. Okay. So is it just like a raise? No. It feels like pure pressure. I was gonna say, I think I can win this one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

It's like a shotgun. It's yeah, I was gonna say it's it's like a beer bong, but with way harsher bubbles.

SPEAKER_05 24:10

I feel like Jim's very quiet over there. I'm just racing myself here.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Everyone for everyone, for I always tell them like I chug sparkling water like it's my job. Like I drink so much sparkling water a day, so this is nothing to me, because but it is a lot of bubbles coming at you at one time. But I have faith you gentlemen are consummate professionals. I'm a little nervous. I'm not gonna have insurance for the stuff in here.

SPEAKER_05 24:29

It's gonna shoot out onto the wall. I'm very concerned. Yeah. Bob, you've done this before? Yes. What's the trick?

SPEAKER_03 24:37

Uh don't spit it out.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Don't spit it out and don't treat this like a straw.

SPEAKER_04 24:43

Yeah. So you drink it from the top side?

SPEAKER_01 24:45

You drink it from this side. So you're gonna drink it just like this, and you're literally just gonna tilt up and you're gonna let gravity do the work.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

Alright, I'm gonna let you do mine and demonstrate because you're gonna feel that's why you never get invited.

SPEAKER_05 25:01

So when you pick the if Bobby's done this, maybe we watch him do it.

SPEAKER_04 25:04

Can we watch you do it? Yeah, let's watch you do it.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

We slide it straight backwards out. That way you don't feel a lot of it. Slide it. Keep it like slide. Just keep it so toward the back end just like.

SPEAKER_05 25:21

All in one go, the whole in one go. You guys are heavy? I'm not feeling good about it.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

Is there any like cheer that you do before, Rob? Or is it just you just let it rip? Just let it rip. Where's the bump? Well, we don't have the carry art. Baby steps. Baby steps, yes.

SPEAKER_04 25:38

Next time I'm invited there, we'll do this for a minute.

SPEAKER_03 25:40

Set good. Done.

SPEAKER_05 25:46

All right. Cool. That was cool. That was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

Wow. Good job. Good job.

SPEAKER_05 25:56

Well, if only had some rocks to it.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

I mean, you need some of these in Barn Elson. I'd save them for his place.

SPEAKER_04 26:05

So how many times have you done this? Um, I would say what?

SPEAKER_05 26:10

Seven dozen.

SPEAKER_04 26:11

Probably I was gonna say probably ten to fifteen of the group. So you, Brewer, Ian, like who else in the group? Who's in the group?

SPEAKER_03 26:17

Different group. Different group. Different groups? Different circles.

SPEAKER_04 26:21

You wouldn't know who. I wouldn't know. I know who it wasn't. Yeah. It's the founders group. We're gonna talk about the founders group.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

A separate thread. Separate thread. So it's okay. So you're you're over by the ice house.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Yep. In the ice house building.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

You're Monday, Tuesday, you're closed. Tuesday, Wednesday. Tuesday, Wednesday. Yeah.

Finding Your Style With Flights

SPEAKER_05 26:45

Alright, I have a question for you. Bring it on. Okay. For someone who does not drink a lot of champagne. My wife likes it more than I do.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:54

What are things that I can do to make sure I enjoy it more? What am I what can I do to get the most out of my champagne drinking?

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Ooh, good question. That is a good question. Um, so when we have guests that come in that maybe either don't like it, don't think they like it, or just haven't had like experience, don't know how to experience it. Okay. I just kind of talk to them and fill out what they like to drink wine-wise. So I can draw parallels from pretty much anything that you like to drink wine-wise, and find you a bottle of champagne or sparkling that fits within what you typically drink.

SPEAKER_05 27:24

Okay, so I can tell you, I like this champagne very much. Not sweet. Normally, champagnes are way too sweet for me.

SPEAKER_04 27:30

This was really too bubbly. But this is probably a very premium price. This is a good bottle, I would assume, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:35

So this, so this is their, like I said, this is I call this their Tuesday champagne. This is like their house style. This is what this is what they make the most of. Uh so you can probably find this at retail shops, I would think for probably around $57. That's not bad. Not crazy, not breaking the bank. No. Um a nice, like a grower-producer champagne under 60 bucks is not a shower, but a grower. Yeah. Got it. Yeah. In this economy, it's hard to find one for under 60 bucks.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Um, but which is great. I mean, I would have thought this was a few hundred.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Yeah. No, it's this one should should retail somewhere between 55 and 60, probably. Okay. Um, but yeah, so just finding, you know, finding things, styles of wine that you want.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

So I know what to buy.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

And your red wine collection is and we have so that's what I was gonna say. If you really just don't want sparkling or don't want champagne, we have still white red, we have still rose. Um, and I'm I'm an old world red lover, so we have a healthy amount of Italian and Spanish reds, some French reds as well. But we really um we really have something for just about just about anyone.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

So is there a like a pecking order? Like, say, so say we come to eat dinner at your place. Like, is champagne like an appetizer and then you go to wine, or like is there like a is there a way like what do what do people normally like if you were gonna tell someone this is what I would do as a progressive white year meal while you're with us, what would I do?

SPEAKER_01 29:02

So a lot of people they're first time in have a uh have a flight. So we have three different flight options on our menu. We have a champagne flight, which is three of our three different champagnes that we have that we offer by the glass. We have a world tour flight, which uh encompasses three other regions outside of Champagne. So right now we have a uh Kava from northeast Spain, we have a Prosecco from Northeast Italy, and then we have the Sparkling Torantes from Mendoza, Argentina. So three other sparklings from other parts of the world, and then we have a wildcard flight, which is just like you let your server kind of run wild and pick whatever they want. Um whenever we do have a guest order.

SPEAKER_04 29:35

I imagine it would be a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Yeah, when we have a guest order that that's when we we talk to the guest again and be like, okay, what do you typically like? I like looking in the window.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

Go ahead and stop speaking. He's like, there's no windows in the founder. The founder's room doesn't have any windows.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

So typically a lot of first-time guests get a flight. Yeah, they'll uh they'll love one of those three wines. One of them, two of them, whatever. They'll they'll pick their favorite one, they'll have a glass of that afterwards. Perfect. Um, but it's just kind of a progressing progression like that. We have people that'll come in and just start drinking their way down the list, whether it be champagne, um, white.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

But is it is it something you mix, or like when you go there, do you like either drink wine or champs? Like, is it a few years?

SPEAKER_01 30:21

We let people choose their own adventure.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

Okay, so there's not like a right or a wrong one.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

No, there's no there's there's no right or wrong. The entire food menu is designed to pair with everything I pour by the glass. So whether you're not, if you're not a sparkling drinker and you want the fried chicken, then we have a still rose that's great with it, a still white that's with it, and a light bodied red that would also pair with it. So we can kind of we can kind of tick a lot of boxes. If you don't want sparkling wine, it's not the end of the world. You don't have to love champagne to come to Musa, even though it's called a champagne bar. Um, also, yeah, we have food. I think a lot of people are surprised that we have food whenever they come in. Amazing food. Um, yeah, thank you for that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:57

Aaron, is it more of a like do you make a reservation and sit down for dinner, or is it more like of a bar brewery type scene where you just kind of show up and order? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

So we're reservation focused, um, but definitely there's there's walk-in ability. We have we we get a lot of people that come in for the fries and a couple glasses, and then they might go to dinner somewhere else, and then they come back after for like either a nightcap, one last glass, or they just been to dinner and they want to come to our spot. And then we have those that have realized how good the food is and they come for all of it. You have TVs? No.

SPEAKER_04 31:27

No. Oh, so we've watched the game start and we'd have a table for six with the wives, and we could we can go.

SPEAKER_03 31:32

So the other thing I think that's would be neat to go there. Is you can have you could take champagne that's actually most of us have drank ten dollar champagne. So we it's never had a chance. Yeah, it's like drinking Boone's farm. Right. Like, you know, and that's so so that and then on your flights are there like different levels? Like is there like a top-tier champagne, or is that something that you just do by the bottle?

SPEAKER_01 31:58

That's something well, so that's something we

Real Champagne Vs Sparkling Wine

SPEAKER_01 32:00

offer by the glass or by the bottle. I also tell every guest I'm perfectly fine to open up anything that's on our bottle list by the glass because of our preservation system.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

Ron's listening over there.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

We have uh so we have a system called the it's uh Bearmar is the name of the company. Um, and what they do is they make wine preservation systems. So we have when you come into musulet, have you not invited them? When you come into muslet, you will see there is there are six boxes that are the focal point of the entire building when you walk in. Uh, and those are our those are our wine preservation systems. We can hold uh, I think 36 bottles in these, and it has a uh vacuum seal for still wine. And then they have they have uh proprietary stoppers that you put on sparkling wine that you uh there's a separate nozzle that pushes CO2 back into the bottle. Um and so basically, if I were to open this up by the glass, I would put one of their stoppers on, put it into the CO2, it pushes CO2 back into the bottle and stuff until you're opening it for the first time until it hits six atmospheric pressure, which is what a bottle is under before it's opened, uh, tricking the bottle into thinking it's still full. And so that keeps sparkling wine fresh for 21 days. So it eliminates our overhead. We don't have to ever worry about having to pour out bad wine. This is ice.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

Or you would just drink it at the end of the night.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Or I just drink it at the end.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

Come on.

SPEAKER_04 33:16

But here's what I'm thinking about on champagne, and I'm kind of going backwards here. My champagne experience, and I'm sure I'm speaking for you, is you go to a wedding and you do a toast and it's some dog shit, terrible champagne, and you go, ugh, I'm not drinking this. Or New Year's Eve. Yep. And those are like two times. And it's like it's terrible. Like I would never, but now I'm hearing like a very different experience around the champagne. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

So that's not champagne.

SPEAKER_04 33:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Help you're having sparkling wine.

SPEAKER_04 33:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

So if it's made anywhere outside of this tiny region in France, uh, it's not champagne. Uh there are two instances where it's almost like bourbon. Where a company has to be a certain has to be from like Jalisco. Yeah. Right. Um, so yeah, so there is a very there is a distinct region in northern France called the sh well done, called the Champagne region. Uh, and so anything grown, produced, vented in that area is champagne. Everything outside it is sparkling wine. Some areas have their word for it, like Italy has Prosecco, um, Spain has Kava, uh, South Africa has Method Cap Classique. They all have their term for their sparkling wine. It's not champagne.

SPEAKER_06 34:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Uh, the the guidelines or the rules for aging are different, the growing requirements are different. Um, everything under the sun about it is different, which is what kind of makes champagne champagne. Um, so in that toast for New Year's, at that toast at that wedding, unless you were at my wedding, which none of you were. Um Rob was there. I was the name of there. Rob was there! Rob is founders.

SPEAKER_05 34:47

I would have been there if we would have known you.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

You absolutely would have been there.

SPEAKER_05 34:50

Another thing we were not invited to.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

You're drinking, you're drinking probably something along the lines of like Ycleff, Andre, Toast, Sparkling Wine. No. Um, which it's labeled as champagne, right? So Corb, I was gonna say there's two inches. Corbell can can label it California champagne because they are grandfathered in. Wow. Um, and there there's one other one, I can't remember the other one. It's also in it's also California based, and it's also bottom shelf, um, that that can put California champagne on it. And that is not that's Corbell is the champagne like that.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

So I think what one thing that we need to really emphasize on, Aaron, is people hear the word champagne, they think it's elevated, black tie, blah blah blah. When you go into your establishment, it's laid back, it's fun, it's not a formal dinner. You you go in and order champagne and some French fries, yeah, and then after a few glasses, you might move into a red wine or whatever, or another champagne, or a sparkling wine, and order the fried chicken or the orancinies or you know, whatever else, deviled eggs, right? So it's like small plates, almost like some of the other.

SPEAKER_04 35:59

But taking it one step further, champagne is always thought to be like high, high end, and then you're doing like bongs of it, you know, like that's like that's cool. Well, that's my point. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 36:07

Like it's a fun, chill place where whether you're going for hours or it's a stop on you know the trail as you're bouncing around.

SPEAKER_05 36:16

Yeah, and it's like if you're it's almost like uh let me introduce you to champagne in a way that's not intimidating, and it's and it's easy because you're Josh is right. Like I thought of champagne was all right, it's ten dollars a bottle and stuff that I drink a sip of and then put on the side and ignore.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

Yeah, this is different. Right. Yeah, and we all love red wine, or you go in there and get a bottle of red wine. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

Yeah, it's it's definitely geared toward like take some of the pretentiousness out of champagne. Right. Um, because we do do it like this, because I put caviar on the back of your hand. Um it's it people do have that, they do have that that stigma though. You say, oh, champagne bar. And I've we've actually had some people tell some friends of ours, like, oh, I haven't been there because I just it's gonna be too expensive for me. I was like, this like the bong and a bump is 18 bucks. But that would be the perception. It is, and it is, and that's so that's the reason that's literally that's the reason we use like exists is 18 bucks for the bottom. 18 bucks or a bong and a bum, and it's a caviar. It's royal, etc. sturgeon caviar, it's not hackleback, it's not farmed, uh, it's very good caviar, and it's it's good sparkling line.

SPEAKER_04 37:15

And we put that on Rob's account, like if we come in, but I've got a running tab for it.

Simple Rules For Better Pairings

SPEAKER_04 37:20

Put it on the founder's account?

SPEAKER_05 37:21

Yeah, the founder's account. I have one question for you. Obviously, you're well versed in a lot of this stuff. I know Rob considers himself a good cook. Like I like to consider myself a good cook. Josh, not so much he'd have to host, he doesn't want to do that. But I could do microwave stuff. Well, he's not gonna use this kitchen. Here's my question. If you were explaining to a novice what it means to make a good pairing, what does that mean? Like I know like red wine with steak, but like that's that's basically red wine. Like, what's what would be a good thing to keep in mind if you're trying to pair a food with a specific alcohol?

SPEAKER_00 37:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

So I talked a little bit about pairing champagne with fried chicken. Champagne and French fries, champagne and fried chicken, they they go together because of the acid, because of the bubbles, they cut through the fattiness of things, right? Okay. So say you're having that steak. How do you like your steak cooked?

SPEAKER_05 38:10

Uh medium rare.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Good for you. So with a medium rare steak, uh, one of the common misconceptions is that you with any steak, you need a big bold, tan big ass red wine, right? Yeah. So the less cooked your steak, the lighter red wine will pair with it. So if you like mid-rare steak, like I like mid-rare steak, you can get away with uh like a crew boggelet, a pinot noir, uh, grenache, all of those, which are very light, very much lighter bodied reds, they will actually pair a little bit better with that steak than a cab because the cab, and and like we'll take a big cab, for instance. Okay, the tannins in that and the amount of like extraction and alcohol in that is so overbearing that the delicateness that you're gonna get out of the seasoning and out of the meat that you're eating, it's gonna overpower it.

SPEAKER_05 38:53

But if it's medium to well, it's pounded away your cat.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

If it's medium to well, you need that bigger, you need that bigger, that bigger boulder.

SPEAKER_05 38:59

You're either to change your steak temperature or I'm not gonna change my steak temperature. But I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna try a feeding alarm next time.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Um but what I there's there's no like hard and fast rule when pairing. Like what I like to tell people is drink what you like. You'll you're gonna like it.

SPEAKER_03 39:13

I like to eat and drink, me personally. Um if you pair something for me, it'll be that much better.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

But there, I mean, there they're there are rules like if it grows together, it goes together. So like Italian food, Italian wine. If you're if you're eating, if you're eating a dish that like originates in like Emilia Romagna, so like north kind of north central East Italy, uh, then a wine from that area is gonna just innately pair really well with it. Um and so there are some like guidelines like that, but basically you're trying to match uh intensity or acidity level or sweetness levels and things. That's why like people shy away from like dessert pairings. Dessert pairings are hard because if you have a sweet dessert, if you have a wine that is not as sweet, it's gonna make that wine seem really like almost like austere or very, very out of balance. It's gonna make it seem really, really bitter because that sugar is so overpowering that you can't get the nuance in the wine. And that goes with pretty much any any wine. If you have a if you have a sweet dish with some sweetness to it, and you try to add something that's very dry, you're not it's not gonna pair well with it.

SPEAKER_04 40:12

That's great. You know where I think this would be fantastic in all seriousness? Because you have to have some value with the James Giving planning. Right. The VIP pre-party, this would be the lounge. The lounge could be called the caviar bump.

SPEAKER_05 40:29

This would be, right?

SPEAKER_04 40:29

You think about this would be like to show up the hour before you're drinking bourbon. Yeah. We'll have to talk about it. We'll chat about it. Yeah, it's coming up in November. Really cool. Yeah, I think it'd be a great way to get credit more award for um bringing something to the event.

SPEAKER_03 40:43

Yeah, of course. Anything I could do for you and I'm trying to show up for some of those movies.

SPEAKER_01 40:50

All right, you have a website? We do, uh, MusleyChampaign bar.com.

SPEAKER_04 40:54

Okay. TikTok, Instagram, I don't I don't I don't do any TikTokery.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

Um, he's a TikTok. So everyone we we are on TikTok, but from guests, and we've had people, we've had guests that come in and are like, we saw the bong in a bump on TikTok. We have to do it. We had someone's grandmothers come in, and they were they were a vibe. I want to be like them when I grow up. My mom comes.

SPEAKER_04 41:13

They my mom's here in June. We're doing this. They literally they came in.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

They came in, they were like, We saw you on TikTok doing the bong in a bump. We have to do the bong in a bump. They came in, they each did a bong in a bump, they split a bottle of champagne, and they were they were my heroes.

SPEAKER_04 41:27

Does your mom do this? Does she go? I haven't brought my mom yet. Your mom's like champagne?

SPEAKER_03 41:31

I would I this would be it'll be fun. Yeah, we'll bring them there. My mom will drink, you know, whatever she's like me. Or I'm like her. Yeah. You're like her. I brought my sister there. Oh, how's she doing? She's doing great. She's so pretty. Have you met his sister before?

SPEAKER_04 41:48

I don't think so. Beautiful. Shout out. Shout out to Johanna. Shout out to Johanna. Won't she come back to town?

SPEAKER_03 41:56

She's gonna be on the birthday cruise. I'm there too! Yeah, you're already booked. We're waiting for Jim and Matt. I'm in. Yeah. I'm in. Just have the book. Yeah, I gotta get it going. I gotta get the cruise booked. It's gonna be a double 50th. Yeah. We already talked about it. A shared party. Like Emily had our shared party. Oh, shared party. Great idea.

SPEAKER_04 42:14

The best ideas are copied. Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 42:16

That's right. Now we just need to get your brother in too.

Brunch Plans, Smash Burgers, Closing

SPEAKER_04 42:20

So anything, parting words, anything that we missed on today?

SPEAKER_03 42:23

Yeah. Man. Anything else like anyone watching this?

SPEAKER_01 42:26

Like uh come check out brunch. If you're upset with if you're upset with the the brunch or lack of brunch, or you want different brunch or whatever, we do a rotating omelet, rotating waffle, rotating benedict every single Sunday. It's weird shit. I always do things off the beaten path. The only staple that we have on our brunch menus are breakfast sandwich because it's perfect.

SPEAKER_04 42:48

Tell me.

SPEAKER_01 42:49

It is a blend of uh pork breakfast sausage and longanisa Chinese sausage. It is a steamed egg, uh, American cheese, chipotle aioli, and crispy hash rounds. And it is perfect. Reservations, not right now. No one knows we're there for brunch, so come on. Don't tell Bobby. Is it on a biscuit or uh it's it's on a it's just on a bun.

SPEAKER_03 43:14

Yeah, you can do it without the egg.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Yeah. The egg is the best part, but I can't do it without the egg.

SPEAKER_03 43:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

I mean, I have no idea. We do we do like a silky egg, so we do uh double strained steamed egg that just is like this perfect square of fluffiness. It's like the perfect texture egg. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:32

I mean I like it.

SPEAKER_03 43:35

Yeah. But you only do it on Sundays, right? I would say this Sunday, but yeah, we only do that.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

We only do the breakfast sandwich on Sundays. The smash burgers are every Monday. Smash burgers are they rotate this coming Monday as the Balkan burger. So we have a couple of repeat guests. A what burger? A Balkan, so like Bulgarian. Oh uh, so we have a couple of repeat guests that have brought us some uh traditional Balkan ingredients. Uh there's Lutanica, which is like a pepper pan. With some tomato that we're gonna utilize. There's uh a Bulgarian brine cheese, which is kind of like a cheap milk fetta and brine. Uh and then they have some seasonings that I can't read any of the languages that are on the packet that we're gonna taste and figure out what's going on. And we're gonna have a uh a Balkan Smashburger. We've done a South Korean, we've done a French, we've done Al Pastor for Mexico. I bet that was cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:22

So what time what time Monday do you open?

SPEAKER_01 44:25

Three to uh three to ten on Monday.

unknown 44:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 44:27

Yeah why don't we have a separate thread, the non the non-founders thread, and maybe we can go with the wives, maybe we can bring some other friends.

SPEAKER_03 44:35

I think the founders is gonna book that night out. It'll be a private event.

SPEAKER_05 44:39

Yeah, it's a private event.

SPEAKER_04 44:42

So again, Matt, we're like this outside. Oh, that burger looks flipping amazing!

SPEAKER_05 44:47

Is that Bulgarian? Is that the Bulgarian? Or what's Bulgarian jam? God damn it.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

I love it. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. Thank you for the digital car. Great job today. Oh, don't direct the glasses. I feel like one of the founders of the second.