♪ Jamie Brown> The most basic pairing, and the one we are most attuned to is food and drink.

Michael Klinger> There's a lot to pairing.

This one they're making a little bit more savory style, a little bit more texture.

Jamie> Growlers was really one of our first forays into really intentional pairings.

Colleen Hughes> So much of my job is about pairing.

I worked on this for probably a few weeks to a month.

This is a kind of a hefty one.

Jeff Tonidandel> It is not just having a meal.

Jamie> There's a lot of couples on our team.

Savannah Foltz> I tricked you into going on our first date.

Kerry Brown> Jamie and I are identical twins.

Jamie> You all might want to chop this part out.

♪ (laughing) (music fades) >> Major funding for Fork and Hammer is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina, the proud partner of South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio.

With the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations, the ETV Endowment of South Carolina is committed to sharing entertaining and uplifting stories and series like Fork and Hammer .

>> This series is made possible by Trust20.

Trust20 is a nationally accredited food safety training provider offering online training, certifications, and resources for all areas of the food service industry Learn more at Trust20.co.

>> Charlotte, from the refined to the unexpected, every bite, a memory in the making.

There's much more at Charlottesgotalot.com >> Fork and Hammer is brought to you by Biltmore Estate Winery .

(dramatic music) ♪ Jamie Brown> The most basic pairing and the one we are most attuned to is food and drink.

♪ Growlers was really one of our first forays into really intentional pairings.

How long on that burger and reuben guys?

Jamie> You've got that beer with beer food, your burgers, your fries, your wings.

♪ Jeff> The pairing piece is really a backbone of everything that we do.

A third of our sales are alcohol sales.

Jamie> We've tried to really elevate that and take it to another level.

Jeff> I love oysters.

I love beer, I love them together.

And yeah, it's my craft beer bar.

♪ Jamie> Growlers Pourhouse was really born out of Jeff's passion for craft beer.

Jeff> I am Charlotte's first certified cicerone.

♪ It's basically about being a teacher and a guide to beer.

I visited breweries, learned how to make every step, learned about all the ingredients.

I started growing hops at the house.

Fifteen years ago, craft beer bars were just “get every single craft beer that's out there and put 150 different beers on tap.” And I wanted to redesign how craft beer bars worked.

We had just had 14 beers, so we stuck to a really, really tight tap list.

♪ We had to move people to buying craft, which was a $5 proposition versus getting your dollar $1.50, $2 can.

It is much better to make 20 percent off of a $5 beer than make 35 percent off of a $2 beer.

(music fades) Jamie> We have over 250 people on our team, and there's a lot of couples on our team.

(bright jazz music) Savannah Foltz> How do you want me to start that?

Oh, crap.

Taylor Foltz> I'm the sous chef for Ever Andalo.

Savannah> I am the pastry chef for Supperland.

Taylor> We met when we were about ten.

Not together through high school until our senior year.

Ended up getting together.

It's been almost ten years now.

Savannah> Okay, we didn't just end up getting together.

(laughs) I tricked you into going on our first date, because I was like, “Oh, I have this gift card for the movie theater.” We went to see “Burnt” with Bradley Cooper.

It was like halfway through the opening credits and you put your arm around me.

And up until that point, I don't think either one of us realized it was a date.

And then at the end of it, in the parking lot, actually, you told me that you loved me.

And we've been together ever since.

Taylor> Yeah.

(laughs) Savannah> It's something about Bradley Cooper, man.

(laughing) (indiscernible conversations) Jeff> The business of beer has changed exponentially since we started.

Serving staff has really pushed people towards cocktails, towards wine.

They know that, that's an extra dollar in their pocket and beers really become secondary.

Customer> Thank you sir.

Jeff> It is much more cocktail focused and during dinner, much more wine focused.

I would much rather sell those $14, $15 items all day.

(indiscernible conversations) >> Early on, when I started really getting into craft cocktails, (chuckles) to be perfectly honest, Jeff realized I was starting to make him a decent amount of money doing it.

♪ Jeff> We asked Colleen to come up with a cocktail to pair with ceviche.

♪ Colleen> A lot of times when I'm eating a dish of food, I'll have it and I'll think, this flavor combination would be great in a cocktail, and then I will take it, and then I will go make that flavor combination into a cocktail.

Jeff> The idea would be you order ceviche and the cocktail together, right?

Colleen> Yeah....well.

Jeff> Because you're taking the tiger milk and you're pouring in the glass with some pisco.

Colleen> And it is fun.

It's kind of like an oyster shooter.

Jeff> I mean, I love the upsell.

I think that's great.

Colleen> A lot of cocktails have citrus elements and ceviche is citrus, so that pairs up very well.

The ceviche recipe called for limo chilies.

<Yeah.> And I grew them in my garden because I couldn't, Jeff> So, you're like... Colleen> I couldn't find them, so I just grew them.

Jeff> Of course you did.

And I love how geeked out you are and you got three pH meters.

Colleen> So yeah, we're starting with our lime juice and we have the probe in there and we're on a 2.1.

That's our pH, our current pH Jeff> 2.1.

Colleen> 2.1 Jeff> Got it.

Colleen> Why don't you do this part.

I'm not great at scaling fish.

Jeff> Oh, I don't want to do it either.

Colleen> This is where like leading up to this, You're like I'm a mixologist, citrus, blah, blah, blah.

And then you're like, <you're like, I can do that part>, Colleen> ”now filet some fish!” And I'm like, that's the chef's job.

All right, so we're going to take this fish and we're going to toss this in here.

Jeff> So yes, the idea here is we're salting the fish.

And then that's all getting in the pores and opening everything up so that it can get all that acid in there and cook the fish really fast.

Colleen> I figured out how to speed it up through science.

I realized that the salt really does affect the pH.

It lowers it.

So this is a Mayan sea salt.

It's nice and coarse, but it seemed to have really good results with this process.

Jeff> All right, 2.1 was what you had me memorize.

So it did change.

Colleen> Mmmm hmmm, 1.9.

Yeah 1.9.

Jeff> Wow!

Colleen> When I was working on this, it was basically to get it as low as I possibly could to then, bring it back up.

♪ Oh yeah.

This is happening.

Now, we're back up at 2.2 I'm gonna get this fish out of here.

And then I'm going to hang on to this tiger milk.

I had to go through a whole bunch of piscos and thinking about like, will this be good with onions?

Will this be good with salt?

Just trying to figure out how to get those flavors to all mix and mingle together.

Jeff> This is... Colleen> This is a kind of a hefty one, but well, you'll figure it out.

♪ But it's delicious.

Jeff> Oh.

Colleen> It's like a Bloody Mary of lime.

Jeff> I thought it was going to be too much with the ceviche, but I love it.

Thank you.

<Yeah> It's awesome.

Yeah, this is great.

(music fades) Harry Ewell> Just go?

(jazz music) Harry> I'm the general manager at Ever Andalo.

Moriah Glenn> I am the area director of our NoDa restaurants.

We actually met in a restaurant, <Of course.> in 2012.

You trained me on my very first shift.

Harry> Yep.

Moriah> And hated me.

Harry> That's okay.

Moriah> But I came around.

You came around.

Harry> I came around, slowly but surely.

Moriah> Everybody knew it before us.

Harry> Absolutely.

Moriah> Good question.

Harry> So, yeah.

Moriah> Well, I had gotten promoted to a server.

You were still a food runner.

Harry> We had homemade chips.

Moriah> A lot of my tickets had ranch because I would ask my guests if they wanted ranch.

And a lot of them said, yes, it's the South.

Everyone wanted ranch.

Harry> I was the food runner.

So the tickets came in to me.

You know.

I had to grab the ranch and, it was just strange how many people had ranch on their tables.

Moriah> Because I asked them and they said yes, Harry> Those long hours, you know, you really get to know someone in their highs and their lows, you know.

Moriah> I didn't have many lows.

Harry> That's fair.

(laughing) All of the highs.

(laughing) Moriah> Started to become friends and hung out all the time and were best friends, and then, we ended up dating somehow.

Now I'm his boss, so.

(giggles) (light music) ♪ (music fades) Jamie> Oh, we have our food.

Kerry> Ooh!

Jeff> One of the most important pairings in our lives is Jamie and her twin sister, Kerry.

They're silly, they're goofy.

Kerry> I was like, hah!

Jamie> I will get you, see!

Kerry> Get out of here!

Jamie has always been my best friend, and we have shared everything and know everything about each other.

Kerry> What have you cooked at home these days?

Jamie> I get stuck making the same things all the time.

It's like one day it's brussel sprouts, the next day it's broccoli.

And then I do carrots.

And then sometimes I'll mix the carrots with the brussel sprouts if I'm really getting crazy.

(Kerry cheers and laughs) Jamie> As one of eight children, it was really important for my parents that any one of us get a scholarship if we could.

My twin sister and I played basketball all growing up and then also through high school.

I don't know how we did it all.

You know, just like doing basketball and showing up for morning workouts.

I remember vomiting after some workouts.

(laughing) Kerry> Yes we did!

Jamie> We really wanted to go to the same school together.

So we needed to find a college or university that would take both of us.

But we came across this little tiny school called Davidson College and got ourselves to a place where we could have our college paid for and played basketball.

Kerry> It's funny, like now watching Steph Curry play.

I mean, he totally legitimizes us, right?

Like he makes us look like we were really good.

Jamie> I know.

People are like you played basketball.

Was that the same time as Steph Curry?

I'm like it was not.

He's a lot younger.

Kerry> In fact a decade and a half younger.

Jamie> Yeah, yeah.

♪ Kerry and I looked identical on the court.

We wore these dorky kneepads.

We had red mouth guards.

I often had a lot of foul trouble.

Kerry> Do you remember, remember that one game when, we were playing and you were about to foul out, and I only had, like, one foul.

Jamie> I got called for my fifth foul, which meant I would be taken out of the game.

Kerry> And I was number 32.

You were 23.

And we were all kind of in the same mix.

And so I claimed your foul for you.

(giggles) Jamie> Kerry immediately raised her hand on the court and the referee didn't notice, but he called the foul on her instead of me, so I got to finish out the game.

(music gradually ends) (bright music starts) ♪ Michael Klinger> The Court of Master Sommeliers offers multiple levels of certifications.

(jazz music) There are four levels.

Level three is what they call advanced.

That's where I am.

♪ Jeff> So we wanted a sommelier.

We've been interviewing sommeliers.

Jamie> The first time that we met Michael was in a restaurant and we did not mean to poach him.

Michael> As they were finishing appetizers, they were looking to move into wine, which was my cue to go over and talk to the table and say, “Hi, I'm the sommelier here.” Jeff> I kind of told him what I was looking for in a wine.

Jeff had given me a price point of what a ballpark wanted to look to spend per bottle.

Jamie> We noticed that it wasn't the most expensive he could have brought over.

Michael> It was a Pino Bianco from northern Italy, from Alto Adige.

Jeff> And he took that opportunity to go 30, 40, 50 dollars lower than my price point.

But then he sold me two bottles of wine.

(laughs) Jamie> The conversation with Michael was just so easy.

We just really enjoyed talking with him.

Michael> They give good vibes.

I thought we got along.

And on their way out I said, “here's my card.” Be great to talk to you about.

Curious about what you're doing.

Jeff> We needed his skills and I'm so glad to have him on the team.

Michael> We had that talk.

Things worked out, and here I am.

(jazz music fades) (upbeat music) Jamie> Michael is a showman.

He just has this presence about him.

Michael> Obviously, with the fish, I'd probably recommend a white, but it looks like I'd go with a more medium bodied red.

Jamie> And he loves more than anything to listen to what the guest is looking for.

Michael> Now, for the fish, are you getting halibut or branzino?

Customer #1> Branzino.

Customer #2> Branzino.

Michael> Branzino.

Jamie> He comes to the table and you just want to talk and learn about wine.

Michael> If you're thinking about white I usually look, something like an albarino from Spain with that.

It's going to be light, crisp, mineral, floral.

Jon Rosenberg> You need to be able to peak people's interests in something that's in a glass, and you can't say, “Hey, this wine is good.” Michael> From Western Australia, I do love this pairing with the halibut.

Jon> Michael really has taking his command of the English language and loving literature to be able to eloquently state actually, what it tastes like.

Michael> Some Chenin blanc is just light and easy and drinks like a Pinot Grigio.

This one, especially with the name, they're making a little bit more savory style, a little bit more texture, no additives, some wild yeast.

Jon> I want Michael to go to every table.

♪ (music ends) Chris Rogienski> You know, Michael loves his schnitzel.

Jeff> Who doesn't like fried meat?

Chris> No it's not a joke.

He like, actively loves schnitzel, we've talked about it a bunch.

Michael> It's a meat that you can have a, a great white wine with or less like lighter, brighter red.

Well, there's a lot to pairing.

Jeff> What if you happen to meet an expert in Austrian wine?

What would you pair it with if you just happened to be?

Michael> Besides flavors, more of a conceptual thing.

There's a phrase, "If it grows together, it goes together."

Uh, Wiener Gemischter Satz, which is a field blend of white grapes, grown on the hills outside of Vienna.

You don't think about where these dishes come from and then what sort of wines they drink in those places.

I think it's very often the food and the wine have evolved together.

Jeff> I love it.

Michael> Yeah.

When in Wien, have the Gemischter Satz.

Jeff> Okay.

Michael> Yes.

(light music) ♪ Michael> Flavors, there's a lot of different ways you can go with a richer dish.

You can go with a complementary, richer, creamier wine.

Or you can do a contrasting pairing where you take something with a rich cream or butter sauce, but something with a lot of acidity, like Riesling that'll cut right through it.

We're calling it, potentially could change, a soy beurre blanc black cod with a miso buerre blanc.

Victor Bukowski> So when you were first telling me, “Hey, we're looking for wines that'll pair with seafood.” That'll pair for that more pacific kind of style cuisine.

That's why I brought mostly white wines, mostly lighter style white wines.

Michael> Sounds good.

Between the beurre blanc, that rich butter sauce and then the creaminess and body of the miso.

I wanted a richer, more full bodied white wine.

Which one is this?

Victor> So, it's gonna be the next one on the list, right there.

It's just so much different than any other chardonnay I've ever had.

It is a margarita in a glass.

Michael> Geez.

Chardonnay is one of the rare whites that has more of a round, rich profile in the mouth, and it's so complementary in pairing, but a little bit of acidity to cut through that butter sauce, that surprising French or European sensibility really made that one click.

The fruit is still tropical in California, but then zesty and crisp and clean at the same time.

(music fades) (jazz music) ♪ Jeff> My potential.

I have so much potential.

Jamie> I married you for your potential.

Yes.

Jeff> College is so crazy to me because we have so many times where we crossed paths.

Jamie> While all the other guys would like be glued in to watching sports, football, basketball, whatever, this guy was there watching Alton Brown and Ina Garten and anybody on the Food Network.

And I was like, this is just a little different.

♪ We were just friends for a very long time, and I invited you to a family reunion.

And all my family on my mom's side was gonna be there.

Jeff> As a friend.

Jamie> As a friend!

And I feel like that was the weekend where we started to like, ♪ think about the idea of maybe possibly dating.

(music fades) Jeff> Yes.

(both laugh) Jamie> Now, here we are 17 years later.

Jeff> Yeah.

It's actually 25 years later from our first date.

(Jamie laughs) Jamie> 25 years.

(soft music) Kerry> We can go out- Jamie> -that way.

Kerry> That's what I was thinking.

Jamie> Okay, Yeah.

Kerry> Jamie and I are identical twins.

Jamie> All right.

Should we get you loaded up first?

Kerry> Get me in there.

Which means we have identical genetics.

♪ Jamie> Looking good, Kerr.

Kerry> Interestingly, our genetics have played out in very different ways.

Jamie> I think we're in pretty good shape for lunch.

♪ Yeah, just a minute...or did you finish all those?

♪ Kerry> What's in the dressing?

Do you want to help me?

Daughter> Yeah!

Kerry> Stand in front of me.

Jamie> She had been having a lot of problems with needing to drink a lot of water.

Kerry> Do you guys remember why I have to do all this stuff?

Jamie> The doctor ended up testing her sugar levels.

Kerry> Got to get it to 100 so you can tell... can you tell me when I get it to 100?

Jamie> So he was like, “I'm sorry.

you have diabetes.” “You have type one diabetes.” Kerry> Okay.

I want you to push start.

Jamie> So at the age of 31, here's this woman who's never had any sort of diabetic problems in the past, and she's put on the pump to be able to live every day.

(gadget clicks) Kerry> Did you hear that?

It's stuck in me!

But it's done.

And then I'm all done.

Issac> Okay.

Kerry> Thanks, guys.

Thanks.

(giggles) Jamie> When I was in my 30s, I was diagnosed with what they thought was early onset arthritis in my hip.

It was starting to become very debilitating.

I'm looking for the black pepper.

Jeff would drop me off very close to a building, and then he'd go park because I couldn't make it from the parking lot inside.

Kerry> I knew Jamie had been struggling with just not feeling herself, but that's all I really knew.

Jamie> In the spring of 2018, we're having this gorgeous dinner outside.

Issac> Can I have some?

Jamie> You can have some butter.

What do you think about the sweet potatoes?

You like them?

And I look around the table and I quickly have to get up.

I have to leave.

That was the first time that I had a panic attack.

(somber music) Kerry> And I got a call from Jeff.

And he said that he didn't want Jamie to be alone.

And that was a red flag to me, where I booked my ticket.

And I flew down there right away.

♪ Jamie> A few weeks later, I had another one, and that time, they came to stay.

♪ It was about 6 to 8 months of just torturous suffering, of having panic attacks day after day.

♪ Daughter> I wanna go!

I wanna go with Eli!

Jamie> They prescribed me medicine.

They sent me to therapy.

(somber music continues) ♪ Nobody said anything serious to me about food.

It was never a discussion.

Kerry> Interestingly, at the time, I was diagnosed with type one, never was there a discussion around diet except to watch my carbs.

It wasn't until Jamie's realization with her issues, 6 or 8 years later, that we started to connect the two.

♪ She went down the path of trying an elimination diet.

Jamie> I think we can probably just order.

Server> What can I get for you?

Jamie> The chicken or salmon.

Or what are you thinking?

Maybe grilled chicken?

Server> Grilled chicken, thai?

Kerry> Sure.

Server> That's a good option.

Jamie> Things like gluten, grains, dairy, soy, nuts.

You take all of those out.

So now I eat a diet that is basically meats, chicken, seafood and vegetables.

This is the leafy green salad.

It's got lettuce, and then just fresh bright radishes.

No hazelnuts, no parmesan, and then just oil and vinegar.

Not all of my symptoms were gone right away.

There were a lot of things I was still figuring out.

But the moment I changed my diet, I never had another panic attack.

(light music) Kerry> After that elimination diet of just 90 days, she went and did a triathlon.

When I saw that, I thought, I wonder what that could do for me.

I too, especially physically, felt so much better as far as ability to walk and run and be active with my daughter.

♪ Jamie> That initial change was so radical to me that it flipped my world upside down.

It's not a burden.

It is literally the path to freedom.

♪ (indiscernible conversation) (laughing) Jamie> When people ask me, like, "How in the world, do you eat that strictly?"

How do you do it if you're in the restaurant business?

I don't look at a restaurant as a place just to eat because I can't.

There's so many other touch points.

♪ It's about how the space feels, (indiscernible conversations) how this service is orchestrated.

Can you tell us what is actually in this?

I couldn't remember if it was sorghum or... Server> I believe it is sorghum.

Jamie> I think it is too.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And the people that I'm with.

♪ And it's made me better at my job.

♪ We've also gotten very good as a team of providing options for people who are having food sensitivities.

(tool whirring) Moriah Glenn> It's really important to Jamie and really our entire restaurant group, to make sure that everybody can eat in our restaurants.

♪ I think we realized, like, Reigning Donuts is the one place where you really can't eat at it if you have any allergies or dietary restrictions.

It sucks to go somewhere and kind of be left out.

We figured out that we could make a donut that was free of all of the allergens, free of all these things that typically make food delicious.

So it was really hard to make sure that it was good.

♪ I think I like the vanilla one, personally.

Jamie> I do too.

Moriah> Yeah.

Jamie> It's also the way that we put our dishes together.

So for instance, our brussel sprouts have bacon lardons and they have a toasted nut on top of it as well.

And instead of having those ingredients added early in the process, we add them right before they're going to go out to the table.

And that way we can serve someone who has a nut allergy or someone who is a vegan.

It's pushed our team to get creative and use the ingredients that we have to be able to have better hospitality for every guest who comes in our door.

Customer> Thank you very much.

Ooh.

Server> No problem.

You guys, enjoy.

♪ Jamie> My health journey has definitely brought my sister and I closer together.

She's a type one diabetic and then I had my own health journey, ♪ and now the two of us see the connections between them.

(music fades) Jamie> We were out on this dock and he stands up.

He goes, hold on a minute.

He went running back to the house and grabbed a whole bunch of stuff and comes back.

He's got a tray of chocolate covered strawberries, a bottle of champagne.

He drops to his knee and pulls out a ring and says, “Will you marry me?” And I was like.

♪ Jeff> I didn't know how it was going to come out on the other side.

Jamie> It was a surprise.

She said yes.

Jeff> So, it worked out.

(music fades) Major funding for Fork and Hammer is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina , the proud partner of South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio with the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations.

The ETV Endowment of South Carolina is committed to sharing entertaining and uplifting stories and series like Fork and Hammer .

>> Thank you for watching Fork and Hammer This series was brought to you by Trust20 a nationally accredited food safety training provider offering accessible digital training at anytime and on all devices Learn more at Trust20.co >> Charlotte, a city shaped by storytellers, dreamers, and makers becomes a living canvas.

There's much more at Charlottesgotalot.com >> Fork and Hammer is brought to you by Biltmore Estate Winery .

♪ ♪