 The most exciting moment to hit our podcast, the opening of Farm Cup Coffee and our new podcast studio. And appropriately so, we brought back Tony and Emerson to talk about this glorious event. Farm Cup Part 2. It's literally the moment of startup to storefront. And so I'll share my story. I was over here failing on a project in Houston, Texas, and meanwhile COVID was brewing and then at some point the intersection of my project and your project became a real thing. But I wanted to hear at least your perspective. So COVID's up and running, not yet, right? January, February, you guys are hitting, everything's amazing. Yep. Yeah. So let's share that story. In December of 2019, we went to Bali for his sister's wedding, right? And we're having a blast and we're like, yeah, let's go and check out the coffee scene over there. Beautiful coffee shops, everything was great. We come back to the United States and it just felt like the party was, it kept on going. We had a lot of things going on. We were super busy like our every weekend. Now at the Melrose Trading Post, people were really excited for the truck there. And then we had a lot of like movie sets after that, like it was just back to back. And we just had all this momentum being built up. And it finally felt like we were turning a page from that, from the starting point of Sunny to now getting used to like, oh, we are actually something to, you know, we're a legit business at this point. We're making money. We have people expecting us. We have a lot of cool things. And yeah, March came around and it just crumbled like Jenga, just one thing. And then everything crumbled, quite disastrous actually. Yeah. It was Friday that we were at LACMA. And I always stopped by the store to get milk and ice. And that morning there was just a huge line and it literally looked like an apocalypse movie. Wow. The shelves were empty. People were talking about, oh, I'm wearing a mask and oh, they say that you don't need to wear a mask. And it just took forever for me to get the milks and the ice. I'm like, oh gosh, I just need to get to the truck so we can open for the day. And then that's the day. I think they made the announcement where things started closing and, you know, they didn't know what was going on. People were still there, but you could tell that it was dead and there was something in the air. Imminent brewing. Yeah. On my side, so I was working on a real estate deal in Houston, Texas. We were going to open up a distillery, so vodka, gin, whiskey. And we were working this deal from probably July to around November. And it's a good friend of mine that was opening up a distillery. We're in escrow. We're planning the close on this building in probably December, like early December. In November he calls me up and he's just a mess and he says to me, my business partner left. And so imagine like you two, like one of you two leaving, but at the 11th hour, like we're about to literally buy this building so that they can literally start building out their distillery. And two parts of me, one part of me super bummed out for my buddy, right? This is like, he's been working on this dream for just like you guys for probably two years. And so imagine having a job knowing you're going to leave a job for two years and you're like two months away from putting in your notice to then having this moment, right? So you're just completely mentally ready to, you're checked out. You know, so I told him, I'm like, one, that's awful. Like I feel really bad for you. I'm like, two, we've spent a tremendous amount of money to get here between architects, lawyers, the bank and a lot of time. I'm like in your business partner can't do this to you legally. Like it's not a simple, like, oh, I changed my mind. That was so fun. Thank you, bye. I'm like paperwork's been signed. Your business partner's name is on the paperwork. So we can't walk away with this and we can make this really ugly. But I don't want to do that. And so I'm okay if you guys between you two, you guys figure out a way to reimburse us for everything. And then we're out. We'll tell everybody everything's off. And they agreed to that within like 20 minutes. They were like, no problem. Because to them, and so just to give you the legal side of it, once you sign, like in their case, they signed a 12 year lease, both personally guaranteeing this lease. And so if I was like a complete schmuck, legally, I could have sued them for the entirety of that lease, which would have been like a million, maybe like $1.2 million, something like that, which I would never do. But that's the issue with the legalities. And so luckily we didn't have to go that route and they reimburse us for everything. And this is early December. And so then I'm thinking like, all right, I'll reach back out to all the investors and I'll just give them everybody their money back. So I'm like, hey guys, sorry, didn't work out. But good news, nobody lost money. Let me give it back. And all of the investors were like, no, go find another project. And so which is really good for me, right? Because you can imagine like this is, this would have been my second project. And so like traction is everything as a developer, like the first three projects are always the hardest. And it was like, oh, it was good. You know, I was like, oh, hell yeah, they're with me. And their position is like, we've already given you the money. So in their head it's gone, right? And so they're just like, go find another building. So I'm like, great. And so I ended up looking in like West Hollywood because I think we could do something cool with like an office space. And we literally open escrow on the building we're in right now, like two days before Christmas. Which is when no one's looking in the market. Everyone's on vacation. And so that's how it all happened. What were your first thoughts when you saw this building? When you walked in? Yeah. What did you think? The uglier the better for me. You know, like I, the uglier the better. Yeah. To give people context, this was a place called Victoria's Closet, which is a store you'd probably just come maybe to buy your grandma stuff. Or just walk by completely. Yeah. It doesn't inspire much of anything. And for it to be so prominent on Santa Monica Boulevard, I was like, this is really a missing opportunity. And this could be something pretty cool. And at the same time, I gave myself six months so we were supposed to close in July on the building. I always like to buy myself time to figure out what we can do. And yeah, we were like, well, I don't know what we're gonna do, but it'll be our office at a minimum in our podcast studio. That was kind of the first idea. And then you got, you called me, I don't know when, maybe March, April, May, something like that. And you're like, Diego, we wanna sell Sonny. Do you know anyone that might wanna buy Sonny? And my immediate thought was like, that's like Nike selling swoosh. Like that would be the craziest decision for a brand to do that, because Sonny's such like an iconic vehicle. It's on everything. It's on everything. And like people remember it and it's just beautiful, right? And so we went down the road of like seeing if we could put it inside of a building. As crazy as that sounded. Well, I think the craziest part for me was you posted this to Instagram, right? And you're like, we have an idea of having something in the front. And I remember going to Tony and I'm like, let's put a coffee shop in there. We really liked Diego. We understand his vision. I think he understands ours. We're not doing anything. This is at the thick of COVID. This is like, you know, when everything was closed down, I'm like, what are we going to do? Like, what are we gonna do with this vehicle? They can't go anywhere. Like legally we're bound by the health department. And the health department is like, you can't go out. What do you do? And I was like, let's just put it. Let's take everything out of Sonny. We already have the equipment. Let's just put it in there. I mean, how hard can... Famous last words. Those are just the best words. How hard could it be? And I remember just saying to you over Instagram, I'm like, let's have it in the front. And I think I was just saying it as a joke, but also hoping that maybe it could have happened. And I'm like, okay, let's see. Never in a million years that I think that we were going to take the route of like, let's put all of Sonny in there. I was thinking of selling her because I'm like, well, if we take out all the equipment and at least we can use it to do something in the front with Diego. And I feel comfortable with that. When you brought up the idea of putting her in there, I was like, crazy, but sure. 100%, let's see. And I remember that we had another person ask us, hey, do you just want to make her permanent? And I was like, sure. And then they were like, okay, but it's gonna be outside. And then going through the legality of that, they told us no. So I had this chip in my shoulder that said, you're probably not gonna be able to do it, but just try. And here we are. It's crazy, but here we are. Yeah. We reached out to the city early on. We reached out to the mayor and some other city council staff here in West Hollywood. We were like, hey, this would be really cool. Because the one thing in development is you gotta get their support. And so I think they were like, that sounds crazy, but we really liked that idea. And as a city, they're all competing with like the Beverly Hills and all the other cities. And so the more they can do to attract people here, I think is in their favor and they like the idea a lot. And the health department approved the idea in like three weeks. Which is crazy. Which is the craziest part. Yeah. I've never in my life had that experience so quickly from them. I thought it was gonna be three months. Here we are in a pandemic. No one's in the office. They're doing everything remotely. And somehow they concocted a three-week turnaround time. Clearly it shows that people can work much more efficiently from home. At least in the health department. At least the health department. And then waited on a city permit for a long time. And so while all this is happening, we're like, okay, in the back, this becomes like a pretty big space. And we've always wanted to have a cool podcast studio. And then we reach out to James Peter Henry, who's an artist here in Los Angeles who has like a bunch of murals everywhere on Santa Monica Boulevard and on Melrose. And he made this like amazing piece for us that sort of tells the story of the podcast, which we can share later. It just feels right. All of it feels so cool. I mean, in a way, this building has become a mullet business in the front, party in the back. Wow. Got it. We're gonna edit that out. It's not a mullet. This is the most expensive mullet in America. It's like the best kind of mullet. Yeah. Like you said, it feels right. And then I think we have to bring up the fact that like this is the first time that we sit down with you. True. From our first time ever being on because. Yeah, that's true. It just feels like we have never been able to do this. And when we were doing the first podcast, which I thought it was extremely cool and everything, we didn't have you. And then we were in yours and your house. And now we're here. And it just feels like all of these things are so amazing. And then they finally lined up and then we're here. And then we're sharing all these things. And it just seems like we have to give ourselves a pat in the back, especially you guys. You guys have done a great job. And one of the things that I always lack and I see it through your eyes now, it's like the possibilities of everything are endless. And so when I walked into this building, when you first showed it to us, when you had barely closed eyes, I was like. I don't know my best way. Yeah, exactly. I was like that. I was like, what? Diego, this would never work. Like I just saw it. And I was like, this is terrible. And I remember using the bathroom to excuse myself for two minutes because I was like, this is just not what I was expecting. It's hard to picture at the beginning. The building was super ugly. It was all pink. It was, we had a drop ceiling. I mean, it did not inspire anything. The carpet itself. Yeah, the carpet, beautiful carpet. Yeah, the back part had this legal shed storage system that was mold, it was bad. But we like that. That's, we love projects like that. But see, then that's the point that I couldn't get myself to, you know? It's really hard. It's just a very daunting thing to see, to see the potential in something that it's obviously so rundown. But here we are again, and it just feels so amazing to finally have this space as you guys and finally be able to share it.