My great grandmother Bertie Greer was a hell of a woman, but she was most certainly not a baker. That comes from my grandmother, Johnnie Lee, who made biscuits (and everything else) so well that it might be the reason that Charley, my grandfather, stuck around. He was the businessman and the restaurateur who shaped the foundation of what I believe everyone should offer in the hospitality industry: great service. He always made the people who walked through his doors feel like his best friend.
My dad followed in his father’s footsteps in the Nashville restaurant scene, and I grew up working in several of his restaurants throughout high school and college. He taught me the value of a dollar and importance of hard work from a very early age. Watching my dad embark on the risky, unknown journey that is the food industry wasn’t always easy, but it was inspiring to watch him live out his passion.
I always knew I wanted to follow the example set by the two most important men in my life and one day use all the knowledge and experience they instilled in me. For a long time, I did not know when or how it would manifest, but being a Nashville native, I've witnessed the growth of the city. I noticed one thing that remained unchanged was the street food; it was limited mainly to hot dogs. I wondered… Could you serve something other than a hot dog on a hot dog cart? Can you make a hot dog cart look cooler and be better? What if you could serve something on the street that would appeal to the guy leaving the bar at 3 a.m. on a Friday but also the one heading into work at 7 a.m. on Monday? I thought “yes”—and biscuits were the answer.
The next step was to come up with a name. A good name should have a certain ring to it, and, most importantly, have something to do with the history of how the cart came to be. While I was going through the list of women’s names in my family, Bertie just seemed to fit. So even though she never made a biscuit, Johnnie did, and her recipes have inspired the restaurants of my family's past—and now a new tradition of biscuit-making to continue my family’s legacy and passion for making great food to serve great people.
- Greer Watkins, Owner
