A veteran of marketing, Michael Wilde spent his entire career helping other people build up their brands.

• Several years ago, Wilde was worn down by the grind of constant travel for his consulting business. One day, he said to himself, "Why don't you try to build your own brand and do something with that?"

Driving the news: Wilde chose his family's culinary passion, pizza, as his entrepreneurial choice. There was only one problem: He'd never even worked in a restaurant before, not to mention run a pizza shop.

• So Wilde and his son Parker turned their basement into a test kitchen and got to work experimenting with pizza recipes.

Why it matters: The Wilde family's basement became a culinary laboratory that evolved into a standalone Brentwood neighborhood joint called 100 Pizza, which over the last year has become one of the buzzier new pizza spots in the Nashville area.

• 100 Pizza makes 500 balls of dough per week, and it's not uncommon for the Wilde family business to sell out on busy nights.

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Let's rewind to when 100 Pizza was still just an idea, and the family was trying to discover the perfect recipe. In the test kitchen, Wilde's wife Kim was the harshest critic of each attempt. (She would keep it 100, you might say.)

• "One day, we got to the point where she was like, 'Whoa, you got something,'" Wilde said.

Yes, but: Even after opening, Wilde didn't feel like his pizza recipe was quite right. He said it took about four months to hit their stride. He tinkered with everything from the hydration levels in the dough to the baking times.

• "The dough is everything," Wilde's experimentation taught him, and to perfect that, he zeroed in on the motherland of pizza: New York.

Inside the H2O: Advisers, especially from New York and New Jersey, would tell Wilde that "water is important."

• Tap water in Tennessee is famously hard, he says, so instead of shipping in water from New York, he concocted a complicated and creative solution. 100 Pizza filters all the minerals and chemicals out of the water, then uses a reverse-osmosis process to add them back in to match the same levels in New York.
• The result is "New York water" in the dough of 100 Pizza. "When we got down to it, the right water, the right flour and premium olive oil were the key."

State of play: 100 Pizza is a true family business. Wilde, his wife Kim, son Parker and daughter Riley all run the shop together.

• Online influencers have posted social media reels singing 100 Pizza's praises. The tiny shop with just a few dine-in tables recently marked its one-year anniversary, and so far, business is going well, Wilde says.
• Even though it's tucked away in the bowels of Brentwood, it's worth the journey to see what all the fuss is about.

The bottom line: The recipe is right, and the mechanics of running the restaurant are working. The goal now is simply to get the word out. "When somebody comes in and tries the pizza, they come back," he said.

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Edley's founder Will Newman teamed up with local investors this summer to buy SATCO, the beloved Tex-Mex joint in Midtown.

• He told the Nashville Business Journal his interest in the project was rooted in his love for Old Nashville.

What he's saying: "I'm a history major. And it's important to know history because it helps you understand where you came from and who you are. If we lose the Brown's [Diners], if we lose the SATCOs, what Tony Giarratana did with Elliston Place Soda Shop, those kinds of things keep Nashville's past," Newman said.

• "I think we need it right now in Nashville more than ever."

Fun fact: Newman said he built a patio at the original Edley's in 12 South because he wanted to recreate the vibe from SATCO's popular patio.

Tennessee executed death row inmate Anthony Darrell Hines by lethal injection yesterday. The execution moved forward despite concerns from Hines' legal team over a failed execution attempt in May. (WSMV)

⚠️ Lipscomb University recently won a grant to analyze downtown traffic patterns and determine how Nashville might make pedestrian safety improvements. (Nashville Post)

💉 Nashville's health department has expanded its vaccine clinic hours through the end of the month to serve families that still need to meet Tennessee's school immunization requirements. (Tennessean)

What a week. Before it becomes a memory, let's flex our mental muscle and revisit some of the news.

• Where is the out-of-state resort that Ryman Hospitality is buying for $1.38 billion?
• Some Tennessee lawmakers are discussing a possible special legislative session related to a topic that has drawn criticism in Nashville, particularly from downtown honky-tonk owners. Name the topic.
• Which of the following companies was named the fastest growing private business in the country by Inc. Magazine: Main Street Health, Dollar General or HCA?

✍️ If you reply to this email with the correct answers, we'll celebrate you in an edition next week.