 My dad sold up one of his restaurants, had some money from that, and you know, that's just a great family restaurant. My dad said he owned a lottery and he's won a lion. He was like, great lion, what the hell are we supposed to do with this thing? You're going to kill me, or leave me, you know. Oh, so that's pretty much where it was. This is Start Up to Storefront, the podcast where we talk to business owners and entrepreneurs about the untold challenges of scaling a business. Welcome to the podcast. We're here with a Brisia. What a legend. Brisia is co-owner of Galaghetza, a James Beard Award winner here in Los Angeles in Koreatown. She's an author, new author, and just launched Mama Rabbit in Las Vegas. Yes, I did. Which is unbelievable. So how did you get started in the whole food world? Doesn't a scallop count as food? It does to me. Yeah, food and beverage, food and beverage. It's in your belly. I always tell people that my food journey started the moment I was born because of where I was born. In Oaxaca. Yeah, I was born in Oaxaca. I'm born and raised with my parents. You know, I come from, you know, both parents in Oaxaca, both grandparents, grandparents, a long, long tree of, you know, people in Oaxaca. And I think that when you're from Oaxaca, your relationship to food is very different than being born elsewhere in Mexico. Why is that? I truly believe to my core that the South of Mexico has just like a special, not just a relationship to food, but the food down there is so different than the northern part of Mexico. Okay. Catam, Puebla, Oaxaca, they are all very distinctively different than anything else. Okay. When you're in Oaxaca, I think even the poorest of the poorest of the poorest eats better than anyone else in the country. You know, they grow. And everything there in Oaxaca, That's amazing. There's so much diversity, not only in spices and herbs, but it's just, the soil is so rich. So if you throw a couple of seeds out in your backyard, and next week you'll have this herb, no one ever heard of it, it's delicious. Amazing. It's one of those places. So the relationship to food is just so, you're so tight. Food is such a special part of your day. We routine every single day. Obviously everyone has to eat, but there's community around food. It's not just something, had I been born and raised here in LA, or in any big city, your relationship to food, it's very fast, right? You just, you know, be clean, or sometimes you forget to eat. No one enjoys to eat, really. They know why I think we're gay. It's like, let's just finish this so we can go back to work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or drive through, I didn't know drive throughs. And we're a thing. I didn't even realize that. We're an American concept. Yes. Yeah. So I think that's when my relationship started with food. My mom is an incredible cook. My grandma, you know, my mom made a home meal for me every single day growing up. Every single day I had a different alfresca. Every single weekend, my grandma killed the chicken. You know, every other weekend, we had a huge party. Killed, killed with love. To feed the family. She was a very angry woman too. She's maybe not even in her. She really enjoyed that. What brought your family to the United States? What was the... I think the book, it makes everyone move, you know? Yeah. It's not lack of food. It's lack of opportunity. Okay. And lack of being able to provide, you know, for your family. Did you all come over together? No, no, no. So it was 94. When we lived in Oaxaca, my dad for living made rescale and sold rescale. This is the 90s. The originator. This is in the 90s when no one cared about my little rescale. Wow. Yeah. My dad actually opened the first ever store, mezcal store, that he branded. Here in LA? No, no, no. In Oaxaca, in Tule. Before, we could use to sell mezcal everywhere, but there wasn't a store, like a brand, like a brand store. So my dad had a little store in Tumco, in Tule, and in the outside, painted his logo everywhere and only saw his brand. Amazing. Yeah. And so you put in there if you could only find his mezcal with his brand. And no one had ever done that before. It's like going to a winery or a distillery. Right, but if there wasn't a distillery, it was just a storefront. Amazing. So that's where I was my first job with my sister. Working in the mezcal shop. Working in the mezcal shop. My dad always siphoned mezcal from a hose and that's how he filled up the bottle. How much is a bottle of mezcal? How much were you guys selling a bottle for? I don't remember. I would have to ask my dad that question and I wouldn't lie. Yeah, you don't want to date yourself either. Not $300 a bottle for me that much. So that's what we did for a living, but it was just very hard work. It just, a lot of labor, a lot of driving. My dad used to drive his production in this huge truck from Oaxaca to different parts of the state selling and then he would pay him and he'd go back and it was just the life of a merchant. Yeah. And you were all helping, I assume, the whole family. You were always in the family business. And my aunt at the time lived in LA. She'd moved a few years before and we all knew of the aunt that lived in LA. She would come here and there. Bring you gifts. Yes, right. Bring in American treasures. And she had an American son. Two of them was like, oh, white, because. And so my dad moved with her in 1993. Then he's no 94. Where in LA was that? Marvista, University area. He moved and he didn't even know what to do. My aunt used to clean homes and my mom started shipping things to my dad, like basic Oaxacan pantry necessities, like things that you would not think that people would miss from their country. Obviously everyone had tortillas, but to this day we still import platulas or these corn tortillas that are made in Oaxaca so my mom would ship them to him. Is it because the taste is just so much different? It's a texture, taste, everything you want to say. It's just not the same. Got it. So my mom would ship grasshoppers, laudas, mole, chocolate, I think back then even meat, red, just everything that you would find in the store. Yeah. I would go with my mom, I remember, to the market, buy these things, put them in boxes, drink them with Tijuana in the plane, and then my dad would pick them up, drive Tijuana, pick them up, drive them back to LA, and take them to people's homes. Same thing he was doing with the Miscata, now he was doing it with food in a smaller little truck. And he was selling it? Yeah, at a merchant, door to door. Got it, okay. So he was selling dictionaries? Yeah, he's selling items that people can't get. Yeah, I got you. Yeah, encyclopedias, and people use the spell encyclopedias a lot more. This is such a good story, wow. So when I was selling the groceries. Wow. People in Southern Mexico, or even just in Mexico in general, there's a very entrepreneurial spirit, because everyone, it makes more sense for you to go out there outside your house and sell, who would in the ventana, or sell tamales in the street, or sell food, then for you to go get your job, because it's such a low-paying wages in Mexico, I mean, the economy is so different. It's so different that it makes sense for, if you have a skill in food, and people like your food, you will make a lot more money than getting a job. Putting up shop every day and then trying to figure out, working in a home. Was your dad selling the products to, was he like introducing these products to people that have never heard of them, or was it in the market? No, no, he was selling them to people who were from Oaxaca who were living here at the time. And they just missed the goods. They just missed it, missed God too. And he thought, I'm just gonna go up there and just put up shop on the street, which was a lot for my dad, because in Oaxaca Mexico, when you do that, when you're a street vendor, it's not, it's not being like a cool street vendor today. You know, it's not, it's not gonna be a tacos, you know? Yeah, people are like, who's this guy? Very wary, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you just really humble yourself, that you're gonna be in the street and selling to people. And my dad thought it was like a low, it's like my lowest points, I'm selling this, like putting up shop on the street every single day. He had to pay, back then, it was the MS-13 18th Street. He used to pay them rent on the streets for protection, so you know, protection on the streets. I love the navigation of all of this. That's really interesting. Yeah, and then he saw a little restaurant that was going to be up for lease. And he went home and he told his sister, what does this mean? Lasse. Oh, that means lease, it means it's for rent. For rent, yeah. She said, why don't we, why don't we not do it? And they thought about it for so long that by the time they made the decision, the place was already leased. And then he just rewarded it so much. He couldn't think, he couldn't sleep, he would see that place every single day because he would sell right across the street. Yeah, and at this point, is business going well for him? Is it like he's making money? Okay, so he's seeing the logical need expand. It could be cool to open a place. Yeah, and he's sending the money back home, or is he keeping, yeah. He's sending it a lot, maybe. My mom didn't work back in Oaxaca. And I mean, she worked at home. Sure, sure, yeah. Four kids, there's a lot of work. I mean, also packing the goods, sending them over, there's work in that, yeah. So he came to work one day and was setting up and he realized that the place wasn't open anymore. And then a couple days later, the sign went up again. And he called right away, he got the lease, he figured it out, he won in there. And the health department person said, if I was you and asked for money back, like, this place is not gonna work. So many restaurants have come through here that never worked. Wow. So he was opening up a restaurant, he's thinking restaurant, okay. And he was determined to get it passed and go through. Yeah, and he's like, well, I'm just gonna, I mean, you know, and he's gonna try. If there's a work and I'll just go back to selling food in the street, it's a big deal. Right. So he did it and then he just started, you know, little by little, taking off and selling more and selling more and every day, every single day. Is he cooking or who's cooking the food? No, he's not cooking, my aunt is not cooking. They found a lady, a woman who was, you know, a local, my mom, yeah, my mom was learning how to cook and was telling him, this is the way it needs to be done. And then he got to the point where, you know, I think it's time for you guys to move to LA. Like, let's be real. Yeah. I'm not going back to Oaxaca. And are you pumped about this as kids? Oh, me? Or are you like... So this is different, so we are... How old are you when this happened? So my sister's, my sister's 12, I'm nine. My brother is seven, about to be seven. My sister, the youngest is two. There's so many different reactions as children. Sure. The oldest cry did not really leave. She was about to be 13. It was her first year of Second Barrier, so sixth grade. All her friends were made, yeah. You know, it's, she has her life there and she was so close with all her friends. She has already, she said, you know, she did not want to leave. I was excited. I was like, hell yeah, fuck this place, I'm out of here. We're going to California. On my Hollywood stars on TV, all the Baywatch. I'm going to be my most later and I'm going to get myself a locker. I love it. A locker. I grew up watching Full House. Yeah, right. And then the Uncle Jesse. You're coming to Hollywood. Yeah. But what's it really called? I just wanted to meet Uncle Jesse and my horse. Like, I, you know, and just, I just loved, I loved watching those shows. And. Did you guys know English or is it something? No, no, no. Okay, okay. My sister and I used to pretend that we, we used to pretend like we didn't speak English. In her room. Like what, what are the kind of things you'd say? I just said Jewish. Yeah. And just pretend we lived in the land with my sisters. Oh, that's so cute. So basically music and like TV where you're kind of, you're the only time you really heard it. Uncle Jesse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The videos that will come out of MTV that we would get. Yeah. And that's it, you know? I mean, and here's what happens when you are born little while at that time, you don't understand what you have. Right. Something unique that you're like, whoa. This is like, where's my food? Where's my people? Where are my friends? Why can't I go outside? Why can't we go visit grandma? Why can't we walk on the street? Why do I have to look down when those people come by? This is like all these things that what I thought was gonna, I want to go this one every day. I'm gonna see Mickey Mouse. I'm gonna meet, you know, it was more about characters. Sure. As opposed to now I don't have a home when there's one bedroom in the spare room of my aunt's apartment. You went from like land, you had land the whole bit. Well, we had a very tiny house, but you know, with my grandma's house, we would try, we would go outside. Get a community. Yeah, I had a great community. We would play every single day outside. It was like kind of what you imagine, a suburban, suburban. Suburban, yeah. Life would be, you know, all these kids were in the same street. I live in the end of a rotunda. We all play like tag and hide and seek. You know, we had- Sounds like my childhood. Yeah, we had like pizza and dinner for my skipper, all the moms, you know, we made food for everybody that, I think I had a big wedding with my neighbor. I played with him. That's so cute. You know, it's just like really, just really great, amazing town, but two, we cannot play outside. It's stuck in the house every day. All we can do is watch TV. And our diet went from every single day, my mom used to make us food to Doritos and the patio and, you know, whatever we could find. You know? Yeah. Because my parents were in the restaurant all day and they couldn't have all four of us there. Yeah, yeah. Because it just was too hectic. And it wasn't until later we got a little older that, you know, a couple of us would stay behind, two of us would go to the restaurant, you know, taking turns taking care of the youngest one, who was only two. So my whole sugar was 12. We came from babysitter. Now me and my brother were always fighting. So it was kind of like a very, but we were all very close because we lived in one bedroom for a year. And that was our life. So business is going well for your dad? Yes, business is going well. You know, it was, you know, we were able to get out in our own apartment. Then we moved to a different apartment. It was full of gladiators everywhere. And our job was to clean the gladiators, you know, it was always working in the business. And then just kind of just being on, you know, quote unquote around my dad, they opened a second location. Oh, wow. My mom and my parents and my aunt were part of the time they split and my aunt kept the location on the west side and my dad kept the location on the east side. Was it the same name or they? It's the same name. Okay. They just, you know, different operations. Yeah. My aunt decided to just move on from the restaurant. She didn't want to do restaurants anymore. A car crashed into the restaurant actually. Oh my gosh. Oh, that's terrifying. Yeah. And then at that point it just became a separate story of our life. You know, my dad started working really hard. At some point had like four or five locations, had three other businesses and then lost everything. Like everything. Like during the downturn? Yes. Lost his house, lost his cars, lost his wife almost. Just everything just was going to crap. Wow. And that's when, you know, we, we, my sister, my brother and I said, okay, like if you guys get tired today and leave my dad sold off one of those restaurants had some money from that. And you know, you guys can go to Mexico with and then left us with left us with a great family restaurant. Wow. We had to figure out what to do with it. And how old were you at the time? I was 24, 25. So you guys are thrust into running this business now. Yeah, I went home. Yeah, my dad said, he won the lottery and you won a lion. Yeah. He was like, great, a lion. What the hell am I supposed to do with this day? He's gonna kill me or eat me, you know? So that's pretty much what it was. Yeah. And then you guys had to figure it out. So at that point you're with your siblings. Is it like, okay, what are you good at? Or are you, you know, you guys know each other well. And he works in the business for so long. Yeah, but it all worked. My dad always told us this, and I hated this business. Like I was always saying, you guys think you guys are working? You guys don't know what work really is. And I used to hate it because I used to think I was working. Right. You know, I'm like, what else do you want from me? Yeah. I'm here all the time. You don't know what work really is like. It's so right though. Sure. Because once you left, you were like, oh shit, it's what he was talking about. Yeah. Everything. It's all on you. This is it. After this, what happened? So how'd the first year go of you guys running this? You know, it was a lot of work, a lot of things. It's like every day we found something, something that we didn't know what was happening. You know, whether it was someone knocking on our door was like, well, you owe us this. Or realizing that a lot of our staff was stealing from us. How many people did you have on staff at the restaurant? I mean, I think I've done like 60 something. Oh wow. That's a lot of people. Yeah. A lot of hands. And still multiple locations at that time? No, at that time it was down to one. That's the one that you have now, right? Same one. Gale gets in Korea town. And then from there, after a couple years, it just got really excited. Things started happening. I think at the end of the day, everyone, I think our lives just revolves around having relationships and being good people and meeting the great people, meeting great people and fostering relationships with them that you never know where that's gonna lead you in 10, 20, 15 years. Yeah. So I'm so blessed to have a restaurant because so many people walk through the doors and I got to meet incredible people. I met so many people in the industry and LA has a great food industry. Their house is really closed. Everyone is, we're a champion of the city, not of each other, not like ourselves. Right. And championing each other is very important. I think the food community here is so great. That's what I'm saying. Was it difficult being in Korea town? Like did that take? No. No, not for me. I think being in Korea town is amazing because that's the epitome of what Los Angeles is. Having a Hong Kong restaurant in the middle of Korea town in a Korean historic building, that really is, that could only happen in Los Angeles. They wouldn't be able to happen anywhere else. And I think we're such a great presentation of LA. So then how many years would you say you guys are running it to where you feel like it's humming? Like you figured it out, you guys are... I don't know, I'm still trying to figure it out. I think you never stop freaking stuff out. Because now we deal with other issues, right? Like now it's more about how do we stay relevant? How do we continue to get better? How do we better their customer service? How do we... When you're a restaurant that's been around for 25 years and... That's a long time. That's very difficult for any restaurant to get. There's so much turnover in LA. And everyone wants to write about the new restaurants. And it's ever changing, trends come, trends go. New chefs come up, new places open. New writers. Yeah, new writers, new people, new staff. There's so much that in a city like Los Angeles you just can't sleep, you can't sleep on your business and think, oh well, people like it, so it's gonna be great. You can't. You have to always be on top of what does your food taste like? What are you using? Are we still very profitable? Minimum wage rates being raised every single day in LA. I mean, it's not the same. Like when my dad was around, labor loss being so strict, everything is so much of the rents going up. Like there's so many different things that business is ever changing and you cannot change with it. And before you know it, it'll just be gone. And that I learned with my dad, it doesn't happen in a long time, it just happens in like a day, you know? When all of a sudden you turn around and you're like, oh my God, where's my business? Seriously though, that's the way it happens. How did you, I've always wondered this, how does a restaurant get a James Beard Award? What has to happen? Is there like, you're nominated? There's a committee. Okay, they have to come? There's a committee. Or they get invited? So there's different categories within the James Beard Foundation. The word that we received is the American Classics Award. So it's very different than for, that everything is Best Chef, Best Chef North, Best Chef West, Best People Chef Northwest, People Chef Choice, West Park Program, Best Design of the Year. So there's some, and that's, you know, it's so different. It's like the Oscars, Best Picture, Best Act, blah, blah, blah. But then you get, you get these American Classics that they're not nominated. You just walk in as a winner. Like you're the only one that walks in knowing like, you've already won. Everyone else walks in knowing that they're nominated and they may win, they may not win, you don't understand. The American Classics is based, there's a committee, they, and it's huge. I mean, they're members from all over the country. And everyone submits who they think would be a great American Classics recipient. Got it, okay. And it so happens that whatever happened that year, a lot of people agreed that we were one of the restaurants. And got a phone call, it was a voicemail, and I started listening to it, and I was like, and I thought they were trying to sell me advertising for James Beard. I honestly, when I was like, I don't think they're gonna sell me something. And they told you, you want it. The message was something that I wanted. The message was saying about the James Beard, blah, blah, and everything called back. I was like, this is what's gonna sell me advertising, or they want me to buy something, or you know, I mean, listen, when you go in a business, it's very seldom people ask you to give you something. When you go in a business, everyone calls you because they have a problem for you to resolve, or they want something from you, or they're trying to sell you something. Every time I phone rings, it's one of those three things. So then does the committee come? So then I got a phone call, and I called back, and I was like, I'm returning a phone call, and it was like, so you won this? Oh wow. I was like, excuse me, I'm so confused right now. And they just kept going, and I'm like, and they told me, the only thing is that we asked that you don't say anything because this was in December. Okay. And they told me, we cannot announce until March. So you had to keep it a secret at all times. We cannot tell anyone. It's just completely confidential. We cannot allow any of this news to happen until the foundation releases all the nominees, and they release the recipients for the, you know, that one, I just wrote down crying by brothers in the room. I was like, oh my God, this is one of those awards that I thought they were so far out of reach for me. Yeah. Because I'm not any restaurant. When you went as a new chef, it's very different. They're basically giving it to someone who went to school for culinary. Right. You know, they have a new restaurant. They weren't apprenticed to some big name. Right. You know, it's one of these things that as a restaurateur, you know, design or you have to hire a great designer. I mean, these awards are not for restaurants like us. I didn't think. Wow. So I never even, I thought I was so far fetched, but I always had it in, you know, my vision board of like one day, one day. What did your parents think? I mean, they left you with this restaurant. I'm actually trying to know what that was. Who's Hamis? Yeah, no, he didn't know. I was like, yeah, and he was like, okay, good for you guys. Like, I don't know what to say, you know, he had no idea. He didn't know what it was until he actually got to Chicago, check it out. And then they told us what day the award ceremony was in, in May? I think like... Oh wow. April or like... So they announced in March. Like yeah, like first week of May. And then I was pregnant when they gave me the news. When I was pregnant, they gave me the news. Oh my goodness. And then once I do my calculations, I was like, hold on a second. I was like, oh my God, I'm gonna have a 60 gold. At the time we get the award. Wow. My kids are gonna be either four weeks or six weeks. Yeah, cause you didn't know yet. I didn't know what to say. I mean, my due date was April 4th. So the award for my thing for the first week of May. So I thought my son was gonna be three to four weeks. I just afraid of that. I was like, oh my God. That's tough. You know, what am I gonna do? Because you know, in Latino world, you really cannot do anything. Until your kids six weeks. No, my mom would kill me. I take a trip to Target once and she almost like. Oh my God. She was like to me for like a day. Your first 40 days are the most sacred days you could have. You cannot put your body through anything. You cannot do anything for the first 40 days. Wow. I turned 40 days a day a week throughout. Wow. Oh my goodness. That's amazing. I was with my husband and I didn't go to our show and his mom for that weekend. And mom got turned for sure. I haven't had a sip of drink since two years ago. And your whole family's with you, right? Your dad, your mom, siblings. My parents and my three siblings, this is the six of us went in a combo. Oh, that's amazing. It was so much fun. We went to dinner and I think it wasn't until we were in Chicago that my dad realized. This is a big deal. And he was like, why am I gonna have to get a tuxedo? Because this is a big deal. He's like, okay. Is it like an award ceremony where you're all sitting? Okay. So how's the food? It's actually seating. It's actually a seating seating. Afterwards, they open food for everyone. Like a catering style? No, there's a station. It's not like a food fest. But it's the, and there's like, man. All the chefs. Not just all the chefs, but all the champagne, all the wine, all the food, all the caviar, everything that you can eat there. Oh, beautiful. Like you turn left, right? And like you turn left and like Jose Andres was there. You turn left and like Wolf and Cook Puck is there. Wow. And you're like, hey Nancy, hey, what's up, guys? Nancy Silverton. I mean like everyone, everyone is there. That's amazing. And then, you know, we had one. So we were, you know, popular. And it was like the most, and my dad had to get so drunk because he was so nervous. Because he didn't know how big of a deal it was. He was like shaking. And he went up on stage because he's like, he told us, I don't want to go up on stage. Why do I have to go up on stage? Like that's not my rush anymore. Yeah. But it was so far for us that he received it with my mom. Sure. And he gave us his speech in Spanish. Oh, amazing. It was like the first Spanish, you know, speech that was ever given on stage. Wow. And he was like, what a great political statement. And we were like, no, you know, he doesn't know how to speak English. He didn't choose it. He didn't choose it. He didn't choose it. It was a choice. It is amazing though, nonetheless. Yeah. It was amazing to go through that with my parents. And then my brother lost on a medal that day. Oh, really? You don't have it? Or did you? Well, they sent a new one. They sent a new one? Wow. That's funny. Someone out there has a medal with them working like it's out in the back in the gym. So what happens after that? So I guess you get all this press, all this attention I would imagine. And then does the restaurant dynamic change? It's so different. We are very, you know, our restaurant is, again, it's different, right? We're a family restaurant. Yeah. The majority of our clientele is Latina from Oaxaca. No, honestly, the majority of our clientele didn't even know what James Beard was either. I mean, you know, and I think that's what, we love that it gets us so much. Because we're not defined by James Beard or by press. I mean, it's great. We love it. I welcome it. I know how important it is. Sure. Especially in the late to the camera event. I think at the end of the day, the food speaks for itself. 100%. I think an award should really define the restaurant or an article, right? I think we're at the end of the day is how do people, what do people feel when they walk in there? What's the atmosphere like? And what does the food taste like? Yeah. Yeah. I'll say this much. If you haven't been to Gaelga, it's probably the best mole I've ever had in my life. It's so good. The chocolate one, do you have a, is it mole negro? Is that the name of it? Yes. Unbelievable. Like I feel like you're tasting history when you taste it. There's a different level of complexity to it. I don't know how you make it, but it's like really unbelievable. We go out and we have my idea at Jars. Oh really? That's the secret? Love it. So you and your brother have the stress try. You took it over from your parents. Absolutely killing it. And your sister as well. So three of you out of the four are in the business, right? Three out of the four are in the business. Yes, three out of the four. My oldest sister, Paulina, then after that comes me, we're three years apart, and then my younger brother, Fernando, and the youngest, Elizabeth, who looks like my twin. She recently, as she used to work, she worked for us for about a couple of years, but you know, family dynamics and business was not really for her. She wanted to just work and do her own thing. And you and Paulina have a podcast, right? And me and Paulina have a podcast. Let's talk about that. Yeah, what do you talk about on that podcast? It's just a lot of personal mom, women stuff. That's awesome. We just talk about like the realness of what it's like to be a mom, you know? And like, sometimes you want to like not be a mom. A lot of times, I just want to be a mom. I feel like that. No, kidding. So then you just launched Mama Rabbit. Yes, Mama Rabbit. Which at Park MGM in Vegas. Congrats. It looks amazing. If you guys haven't seen it, follow at Park MGM or at Mama Rabbit. Yeah, at Trig Mama Rabbit on Instagram. How did that whole thing happen? So like I told you, Mascot's in the part of our life forever. You know, we were sort of pioneers of Mascot in Los Angeles and met a lot of people throughout the years. There was an article in The New Yorker three years ago that was written about Mascot and they talked a lot about me and the restaurant and our history. And then- Is it the one where you're like the queen of Mascot? Yes, that's the one where they doubt you. The queen of Mascot, they hyped you up. Let's sure, I know. I honestly- You were the face. I had no idea that I was going to be a focus of the story at all. I just went to a Haka because I wanted to show this woman where to go to go to a Mascot and you know, I wasn't even going to go to a Haka. I just lost my decision. I went to pick up the copy and it was a travel, I think it was a travel issue and it had a flap and it said, journey to a Haka with a Mascot queen. And I was like, what the- That's amazing. And I was like, wait a minute, you see it? I don't think it's what I want me. And then I opened it up and the article starts with retail opus is Mascot queen. And then I stopped reading after that. I was like, oh my God, I couldn't even read after that because I was like, oh. And it was in New Yorker, right? So it was like so huge. Big deal, yeah. It's a huge deal. It's a huge- I mean, that, I mean- Do you have that frame somewhere? I don't have a frame, but I have it. It's just a duty place in my house. So if you come, they sit down and they pick it up and you're like, oh, we see it like, you know, I'm not, I'm not even there. Yeah. I haven't even seen that. What? Honey, I told you to put this away. So you start building a name for yourself in the Mascot community. Yeah, I think I've done that, but- I'm all the Mascot. I think that just was one of the things that was written that really caught up with, you know, a lot of people in a different sort of community. Yeah. And I never even thought that New Yorker would be interested in Mascot, to be honest. Right? It does seem like a tangent for them, but that's pretty amazing than the less. Yeah, yeah. And then fast forward a few years later, I just got this email from an anonymous source, you know, just a cold email from my website that said, hey, we'd love to talk to you about a potential project surrounding Mascot, you know, in Vegas. And I get so many emails, so many times, I'm just like not interested in, I just said, okay, whatever. But Vegas has always been on my mind since forever. Because I said Vegas, I just, you know, I called back, emails back and forth, NDAs were signed, and they told me about the project, and I was just so excited about it and- And are you dealing with the MGM executives or like a hospitality team? At this point, I was dealing with the design team and a nightlife team. Okay. But just a couple of nights, I had a call with one of the directors and VP's of nightlife and over the phone and sort of going back and forth and, you know, I was to get involved with what that would look like, what I would want, what they would want, just to have everyone's expectations very clean on the table. Yeah. And do they, at that point, do they have like a set, do they have an idea, like a vision, or are they bringing you in and hoping that you bring it to them? At this point, they knew they wanted to do a tequila bar and they wanted to have an element of Mascot in it. But then, you know, if I'm involved, it would be Mascot first, it'd be the second. Totally. That changed. Nice. And then there's been just such a journey to. How long? How long have you since? I got that email in August. We signed in December and now we're opening in September. Wow. Okay. So it's so quick. Yeah, that's amazing. I was looking at pictures and I just have this video when I went to the space in February. Wow. And the space was gutted. It was nothing. Just a shell. It's just, they moved so fast. Vegas moves so fast. Yeah. Every day counts. They moved so fast. Were you spending a lot of time there with the design team? We went to Oaxaca with the design team. Oh, wow. Okay. Together. That makes me happy because that's so thoughtful of them. Yeah. All the emails, I mean, it was a lot of phone calls. Meetings and days were more for, to me with the executive team or press or, you know, because really, I'm not gonna put a hurry on and nail things to the wall. Yeah, I know. Same here. But a month before, that's really when a lot of the work begun and we have to go all the time. And, you know, two months before we got a lot of artifacts made in Oaxaca and shipped over. Oh, nice. So we're seeing all of those things. Yeah. And just, you know, just make me sure some of the missed out was well represented. And are you in charge of the bar program? Were you working with them on the bar program? I worked with the corporate mixologist and then this Greg Schottler, who is amazing and incredible, comes from the linear. And he's just like, yeah, he's just incredible. He's, he sheds that fruit. Sounds like a legend, sure. Yeah. Is there food there too? There is bites. Like light bites? Light bites. I don't talk about the food, it's such a small menu that I don't think it's... You're not gonna go for the food, you're gonna go for the food. Yeah, you're not going for the food. You're going to drink cocktails. Is there like a, what's your favorite cocktail on the menu? Well, we have a Galaghetza cocktail, obviously. The mayor. And that's like the spicy margarita version. I mean, we have this drink that, it's called Galaghetza, it's the number one seller. It's so funny because today, actually I had training with my staff and my staff was telling me, a lot of people come and ask for a spicy margarita with a scallop. Well, yeah. Which is something on the menu like that. And you're like, we do. And I'm like, okay, let's talk about the ingredients of the margarita, guys. Yeah, yeah. And then what's it gonna be a spicy margarita? Was it using this one? Right, with chile, which makes it a spicy margarita. A little mescal mara, yeah, yeah. And then like, ah. Also my favorite summer cocktail. I'm just like, how do we name this spicy margarita cocktail in the beginning? People would have a different idea of what a Miss Gal spicy margarita would be. But we named it something else. Anyway, I love the cocktail program there. I think, I mean, obviously that is why you should go. But they're so innovative. Do they, do they, when they do, do they do tastings of mescal and then the little clay pots? Wow. They do, they do with the little glass. Oh really? The little candle glass? Oh, that's cute. And we do ceramic gopitas for tequila. Yeah, okay. And the ceramic gopitas actually made in Oaxaca too. Amazing. They're beautiful. Yeah. It's a cool experience to see those too. And we serve the mescal both with citrus and agave with warm salt, the sal de gusano, and chocolate. And chocolate. Chocolate is the best pairing. People don't like that. I haven't done that yet. Yeah, we do these really cool well-hawken chocolate truffles. The chefs from the park did these beautiful truffles with the mama rabbit logo on top. How cute. And they give you your mescal with your truffle. The art inside the space is like unbelievable. I know. How did that come about? Well, Kuda actually was also pinpointed by the team. So I didn't choose the artist. Okay. It kind of already came with the package per se. Sure. They say, you know, we have this artist that we really want to work with. Obviously they say, are you okay with it? You know, I looked at it and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I'm like, yeah, he's great. It's beautiful. He did some of the first draft of his idea. There were a few modifications that we made just because of what this space was and what it meant. So the woman in the image, if that was a different image now, it's like this beautiful indigenous woman that's just that representation of what I think beauty is. And then the three slot machines were different animals before, but then they became the animals that they are now. And yeah. It's amazing. It's really cool. They're working slot machines. That's so great. That's so big. You're a dollar, by the way. A dollar. I'm like, what happened to the five sets of machines? I'm not gonna put a dollar in this. No. No. A dollar means a lot to me. Is there like a lease? Like how does that work in terms of, do they have a vision for the space being there long term or how does that side of it work? It's a park and GM property. I am a partner, but I'm not like the owner of the space. So it's their team, their management team, and I'm a partner in it. I'm not the operator. They operate it, they build, I mean, it's their space. And then they decide when it makes financial sense to say like, it's not working. We need to tweak things. Have you made this better? But it's our job to make sure that they do well. Promotion, being on top like, what else can we do? And keep it authentic, but also understanding that it's big, understanding who goes to Vegas and there's being idealistic and being realistic. And I've learned a lot from that too, from it's only gonna be miscalculable like, that's impossible. Okay, all in this country that that's also impossible. You need to have gin and vodka and rum. So let's have a Mexican gin. Let's have a Mexican rum. Let's have a Jojaken whiskey. Like let's figure out a way to incorporate other spirits that people like. Of course, it's Maker's Mark and of course, it's Burkarty and of course, you know, it's Kafka-Migo, it's just because it has to be. It's a brand, yeah, people love it. And people are gonna call for that. And there's a place for that and maybe downtown Vegas, but I think in Vegas, the strip, you need to understand that this is how you make change. So let's talk about, you have a book also. The book comes out October 22nd. October 22nd. And where can people find it? Recipe book. Everywhere. What's in the book. And you partnered with? Hadiritha Brahles, my co-writer. At the Gluster, right? The Gluster, yes. On Instagram. Yes, the book, the idea of the book came out five years ago. The book agent walked into the restaurant and wanted to speak to me and said we wanted to do a book together. And I'm like, okay, cool, whatever. And then it took me three years to sign that contract with him. Like a publishing contract? Yeah, just like an agent contract. Basically saying you cannot shop a book anywhere else with anyone else but with me. No, wait, no, it took me a year to sign the contract. And then it took me two years to give him a book proposal because I just, I didn't really have, I didn't know what the book would be. It just so happened that at the moment where I started really thinking about it because when I signed it, my son had gelatin born. So I wasn't really thinking about a book proposal. I just wanted to launch the podcast. So you sign it when you launch the podcast, you get the James Beard Award. All of this happens while your son is being born. Yes, wow. I signed this, the book deal. Not a book deal, not a book deal. I signed an agent, a book agent. He got it, yeah. So I'm not really thinking about a book proposal. But you know, here and there, he would check in, he was still patient with me. He would check in here and there, like, oh yeah, that's right. He'd be like, hey, I'm not a co-writer yet. I'm like, oh, I'm looking for it. Yeah, I'm working on it. Or, hey, so here's like a way both, I want you to do this and maybe meet. I'm like, cool. Never met with them. Sure. I met with one girl and I was like, hey, would you like to write a book together? And she said, oh yeah, let me send you some things I've done. Never followed up with her. You know, it's one of these things where I knew what happened. I just, it didn't really feel right. Did you have some material put together and then work with him? Or did you guys collaborate together and then start writing? With Javier? Yeah. So when I had lunch with Javier's girlfriend, she's been a friend of mine for a while. And I was telling her, you know, I should really get into this book. I should really get a fake figure to stay out. Because it's gonna happen at some point. And she said, you should ask Javi, but Javi was working with advice. And by contract, he couldn't work on any other project. But he had just led by, he was like two weeks before very night at lunch. And I reached out to him and I said, hey, I feel like you and I should do this. I didn't know that you weren't working advice anymore. And he said, yeah, let's do it. I mean, he's never written a book. I never wrote a book. Probably the best decision for me and one of us to do a book someone who's never done a book before. Or is it? But we did it anyway. We put the proposal together. He wrote it. We basically have phone calls to where I would tell him what to write. And then he would write it for me. And then I would read it and be like, this needs to be tweaked. This will sound like me. This will be cool. This will be not. The proposal was I think 20 pages and it had 15 recipes. Okay. And we hired these incredible photographers from Los Angeles to shoot pictures for the proposal. Which was really above and beyond. Any proposal now looking back, you don't really have to do all that. Right, it would have been like a quick memo. No, no, no. Here's the concept. Insert photo of Mole here. Correct, correct. But I think it's super serious. I even hired a designer on my own to put the book together and make it look pretty and... Amazing. That's smart though, because then you control the look. Yeah. It's smart to do that. And then... Makes their job easier. Yeah, and then we send that proposal to my agent. The agent then came back with edits. This is to be changed. This, yes, this works. Yes, yes, no. I don't think the proposal is like this. I think they will like this. We're going to have this here. Great, the proposal was done. We got them printed on a very nice paper. And we send them in beautiful boxes to all the book editors in New York. LA, in San Francisco, that's really where the major ones are. With the Mole and the proposal. And they went out. My agent followed up. We got memes with every single one of them. That's amazing. Well, not every single. 90% of the people we send their proposal to every tour meeting. We flew to New York at head meetings back to back for three days. When in San Francisco, then the offer started coming in. And I didn't really know what a book offered looked like. I asked people, fellow chefs, hey, so like more or less, like what am I looking at? Yeah. What should this be? Yeah, they were all over the place. I got one. You got one. I got one from a publishing house. They basically said, we're offering this to you, but you need to sign this to date. That's it. The classic. Right. Yeah, sign now. And I told my agent, what do you think? He's like, if they're coming at you this early with this amount, you probably want to wait out to see what other people say. Totally. This is like LeBron and Reebok. You're basically LeBron and Reebok. And then, I mean, I don't know if, I don't know if I was getting one LeBron guy. Then I called one of my great chefs who have one of my great friends who is a very renowned chef who published a book with them. And I said, hey, I know it's a very personal question, but how much was your book deal for? This is how much they're offering me, but I just want to know. You'd be willing to just share this information. He's like, yeah, I got this. You probably won't get to it because they're starting at this for you, but there's so much more that you can negotiate. Cover, release date. Are there residual sales? Yeah, all that stuff. And I said, oh, wow. And that was a very, it was a significant gap between what they were offering me and what they had given him. Did he have like a much longer book or was it around the same? I mean, he definitely is a chef that has shows on television. He's a bigger presence. A bigger presence, right? So. Today. Well, so then I, so then that kind of happened in my book. I was like, okay, so if he got that, then anywhere near that, I'm cool. I ended up getting a little bit more than what the number that he told me he got. Yes, what up? Yes. Let's get it. At the end. At the end. Who runs the world? So the announcement. So today, what happened was that I had held out, I had more meetings and we actually had a bidding war between the book deal. And the way that works is the agents that once were the middlemen and since that email was like, okay, we have this number. Anyone else has to come in and that whole day editors are going back and forth with him. Like this is our offer. And then at the end of the between two, the original ones low balled me in the beginning and the other eight and the other one. And I had no idea what to do because they were so close, but I ended up going with, there was a couple of reasons. The one was a publishing date because the one that I ended up going with wanted a fall 19 release, which is where we are now. And the other ones I think wanted a spring 2020 or a fall 2021. Oh, wow. Oh, got it. That's so far away. Yes. Well, not only far away, but actually it's normal. Being far away is normal. But you have a lot of momentum right now. Yeah. And I also thought spring is on the table. Like if I'm going to go with someone it has to be fall. Holiday season too, right? Yes. And then the fact that you even would want to release in the spring makes me the thing that you're not really seeing the value of what I'm offering. Mm-hmm. And commitment issues. All the way until 2021, a lot can happen. And that publisher had bigger pockets. So I'm like, if you really wanted me, you really could have come for me. Yeah. And the other one, I know they were stretching themselves for me. And that was going to be their fall headline. So that's perfect. Yeah. So they really wanted you. They committed to you at the same time, Frank. Yeah, and, but aside from that, I think it was better, it was amazing, really vibe with her. And we ended up going with who we are right now. But that was a little bit of the process of how the books that you read didn't happen. And then, and then I told my friends, like, hey, I gotta turn this draft by November. We signed to an April name. And they're like, are you crazy? I had- The draft of the whole book. I had to add two years to my manuscript. I'm like, what? Are you sure you want to do this? Like you don't want to feel rushed either. Yeah. But then the more I spoke to friends and had books, I said, okay, tell me how to put you. You had two years to make this book, right? Did you really work on it for two years? Right. Or was it the last three months or six months? Well, it was the last three to six months that you actually worked on it. And everyone I spoke to is one of the same thing. Well, like, yeah, it was like the last six months or- Last two weeks. Yeah. No sleep. It's like a school project. And really, that's how I was in school too. Yeah, sure. I was the person who did my homework the day it was given. I did my homework that morning, too. I prefer working like in the middle of the night when no one else is too. I can just be in the zone, you know. There's a thing with the human brain that you can do where if you move the gold post in, your brain will actually accelerate to that point. So like- I'm gonna go with that. No, it's true. It's a thing. That's why if you have hour meetings, let's say we have an hour meeting, and then we say, okay, guys, it's not an hour, it's only 30 minutes. Everyone will all of a sudden feel a pressure and that slight stress will turn into you solving the thing. Without having to take the full time. In 30 minutes, yeah. Because if you take the full time, it's like, how are you doing today? Oh, you're youngest is sick. Oh, how was your weekend? But if you skip the pleasantries. But just get that out. And then you do it. Unless of course, sometimes it's good to know. That's how many weeks works. They don't have the time for that. Just like we're opening in six months, you know, like, oh my God. I love that. And everyone works super fast. I love that. That's great. And they have to. I mean, that's the show must go on, as they say. And really, and Javier was my author, he's very nervous about it. He means he's a writer. Right, yeah. At the end of the day, I'm like, who's gonna be you? I'm gonna be you. It's your fail. It's my face. I did a lot of the writing though, too. Obviously, he's a large chunk of it. Yeah. So I told him, you need to come over to the house. It was like nine or 10 a.m. in the morning, he showed up and I was like, listen. He's gonna have it. We're gonna finish this fucking book. You're gonna work your ass off. You're gonna sleep over. Then you need to take shots of Ms. Gab. You're gonna work your ass off. I'm gonna work your ass off and we're gonna do this. We have no time to play. I don't want any bullshit from you. Like, is there gonna happen or not gonna happen? If you're not down, let me help you know. Oh, you're flexing on him. I love it. Tell me now, because if not like, we gotta be here to the show. I can replace you. You don't have to waste your time. I can. Shout out to Ethic Gloucester. He's a legend. Javi's a legend. Come on. Javi's on his way. I was like, well, tell me now, because if you're not, then I can't sign this contract. And then we gotta figure it out. But I didn't know if you were coming. Yes or no. He was like, yeah, you're right. I'm like, I mean, really, like, honestly, like you could do this shit in a month if you really wanted to. Yeah. If you worked every single day, what's the difference between having two years and nine months? It's just the time that you decide to put something in your mind. It's that easy. Yeah. It's gonna be done. Yeah, yeah. And I grabbed this great ball of the sky and it took a shot and we sold the deal and then, yeah, we worked a lot. I moved to Oaxaca for a month with my son and we worked every single day with my mom. He came to Oaxaca for two weeks and then it was just working in my schedule when we had time to spend all day in the house and cook all day and phone calls and editing and going back and forth. Amazing. But it was a priority. That's really cool. Yeah, dedication. Yeah. So it comes out October. October 22nd. October 22nd. Love it. What's next? What other projects are you working on that you can tell us about? What's next? I wish I worked like that. I wish I was the person that was like, well, next year I have all the stuff lined up. And the year after that I have these projects. I don't think many people work like that. Serendipity. I guess unless you're Beyonce or Drake. Drizzy. My new BFF. That knows, like, I have this concert tour in 2021 and I'm Coachella. Album concert, it's a little different, yeah. I think it's like that. But for me, I'm just, you know, I'm open to other priorities. I'm open to seeing what happens in 2020, obviously. What's taking priority in our life is the Micheladas business. Because that's business that's wrong with my brother. What's the, what's that one called? It's called I Love Micheladas. I Love Micheladas, another one. It's on Instagram. We'll have Fernando on here. He can tell us about that. He is the Michelada king. We are offering a Michelada mix in Vegas too. So, oh. In Mama Rabbit? Yes. Oh, that's great. We're doing our mix there. Hopefully we'll get more distribution there. It's just working really hard to get bigger. We've got distribution for that brand. Yeah. That's going to be our focus for 2020. And we're opening a house in Oaxaca that we're going to, you know, put up and people can stay there. Oh, cool. And we're going to curate trips and people want to go to Oaxaca. What's that happening? Yeah. Put me on the list. Sometimes in 2020, we're still working on the date of opening. But we're very excited about the house and just curating trips for people. That's awesome. So we can go to Oaxaca and experience it. I love that. I think connection and experience it like a local. Yeah. Cool. So we can go to and be like the hosts. At some trips, I'm actually hosting I'm taking my friends at the beginning of October. Nice. I was hoping that house would be ready by then. It's not going to. But yeah. Construction. Design. Don't look at me. Lighting. Lighting. Lighting. The lighting put us on for three months. Are you shipping lights in or are you built? Yeah. We're shipping lights in from the Midwest, I believe it or not. So that took a long time. Yeah. It's always the little things. I'm a little bit of a brother. I've got a crew that's based south. So. And Tijuana. Tijuana. If you need them to go. Maybe. But yeah. But that's for me, that's what's exciting for 2020. It's that. And then Jalaz. And you know, again, so many ideas of things that can happen. But I think it's just time, relationships, patience and just working every single day towards that bigger goal. You never know what you're gonna need today. You never know what can fall through today. You never know. Someone can call you. I mean, like Vegas is calling, you know? And I had no idea that was gonna happen for me in 2019. And this is happening now. So I have no idea what's gonna happen. Your business has had so many synergies together. You know, it can just, they can all support each other. We do it guys every year too. You know, those events always happened around May. We have a big event called Taco Madness. And I'll make like the weekend of Singapore in Mayo. And then we have, you know, my social, the weekend of Mother's Day. Yeah, so. It's constant. Yeah. Always. I know for sure that's happening in May. Well, I know you scattered where everyone can find you through this. But do you wanna just tell everyone where they can find you on last time? Do you wanna just, I mean, my personal Instagram is just at Bristia Lopez. And there you can look at my bio links to every single thing we spoke about. You know. How many is it? The enchiladas, the podcast, the restaurant, the book, the pre-order link on the book. And here and there and here and there, when I have time, I always put a recipe onto my cooking blog, which is moleandmore.com. Moleand. That I have really let go of the past few months. Yeah. But whenever. Understandably so. Yeah, I like to write, I have their whole list of places, my favorites in Oaxaca, I don't have the favorites I got that email all the time. What do you recommend? It's smart. So I put it all in a blog. Nice blog post and I'm like, pink, go here. Well, thank you so much for being here. Yeah. A beautiful story. There's an immigrant story in there, a lot of hustle. If you wanna read more about it, pre-order the book today. Pre-order the book. It's called Oaxaca, cooking from the heart of Mexico everywhere and everywhere. Amazon, parts and nobles, Target, amazing house. I love it. Thank you so much for being on Bristia, thank you. Thank you Bristia. We here at Startup the Storefront would love to hear feedback from you. Reach out and let us know what you think about the show. Make sure to give us a rating on iTunes. Anything over five stars is the only way to go. Our music is composed by DoubleTouch. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Startup the Storefront. For more information on the products and businesses featured on the show, check out the links in the show notes. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.