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You can find original article here Nrn<\/a>. Subscribe to our free daily Nrn newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n If Michael Bacon were to open a restaurant, it would be called Pan-American. It would resemble the interior of an airplane. The food would be served in plastic trays, and all of the servers would be women dressed as stewardesses.<\/p>\n The musical artist acknowledged that his vision of only female flight attendants was out of touch with the times.<\/p>\n \u201cI know it\u2019s wrong, but it\u2019s my dream,\u201d he told attendees of the CREATE conference in Nashville.<\/p>\n His brother, actor Kevin Bacon, put Michael Bacon\u2019s vision in context: \u201cMy brother adores airline food.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bacon Brothers are a musical act, in town for the CREATE conference and also to perform at the Grand Ole Opry the following day.\u00a0<\/p>\n The brothers grew up in a family of six children \u2014 Kevin was the youngest \u2014 with parents that fostered creativity.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCreativity was put on a pedestal, way above anything else,\u201d Kevin Bacon said. \u201cIf you could put on a play, if you could write a song … that was so much more important to them \u2026 than making money. I\u2019m really grateful to them for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Their parents didn\u2019t really buy toys for them, and instead encouraged them to make their own.<\/p>\n Possibly because he was the youngest kid, Kevin said he always wanted to be noticed.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was really, really innate to me,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The aspiring actor moved to New York City at age 17, and as so many people in similar situations do, he started working as a busboy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cObviously it taught me to be there, and be on time, and to have skill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He worked at one restaurant for around four years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the closest thing I had to college,\u201d he said, particularly since he was the youngest employee and could learn from everyone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey were my friends, my lovers, my father figures, my confidants. The feeling not only of the staff but also of the regulars in that place, was very, very important and influential on me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He learned to show up for his team members and customers regardless of his mood, tuning into the needs of others rather than his own.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you can work as a waiter and then be unkind to people who have had that gig,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Nation\u2019s Restaurant News editor-in-chief Sam Oches, himself a percussionist, interviewed the brothers and asked them about their creative process.<\/p>\n Michael, who has worked as a film composer, said that in that line of work, \u201cYou can\u2019t have writer\u2019s block.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy main motor is having a family and having to provide for them. I\u2019m really, really lucky that I fell into something I love\u2026 other than music, I can\u2019t do anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n Not having a backup skill is what made him stick to music even during tough times.<\/p>\n The elder Bacon is also a college professor, teaching music technology and film scoring, and he tells his students that the key to success in life is to find out what makes you different from anybody else, and once you figure that out, \u201cthen you can become really, really good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n He wondered aloud if that\u2019s also true for restaurants, saying they don\u2019t necessarily need to be avant-garde \u201cor go off the handle, as long as you find out what your differences are.\u201d<\/p>\n Before breaking into song for the crowd, the brothers shared what their favorite restaurant chains are \u2014 Bahama Breeze for Michael and Cava for Kevin \u2014 and Kevin\u2019s favorite restaurant overall is Gennaro, an Italian restaurant near his home on New York City\u2019s Upper West Side.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Contact Bret Thorn at bret.thorn@informa.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Follow him on TikTok<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>: @foodwriterdiary\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\nRelated Articles<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n