Don't ever wash a cast iron skillet! Learn how to cook a New York strip the right way, Omar’s way. Founder of Fratello Cigars, Omar de Frias defines medium rare, reveals what food NOT to pair with cigars and recommends what cigar to smoke after a steak dinner. Recorded at Boveda HQ in Minnesota with Box Press host, Rob Gagner.

Minneapolis is home to the Juicy Lucy, a burger stuffed with molten melted cheese. Omar is intrigued to feature a Juicy Lucy on an upcoming episode of his YouTube cigar podcast, Imperfect Pairings.

Website: https://www.bovedainc.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bovedausa/

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bovedainc Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bovedainc/

Highlights include:

00:00 Cold open

05:34 Trading the NBA for an MBA

06:54 Managing a $5 billion budget for 10% of the world's science

09:27 Working with two of the oldest cigar factories

10:09 What are you? The United Nations of cigars?

10:32 You don't choose your parents or your nickname

12:40 Top 3 Fratello Cigars to try

14:36 What cigar to offer after a steak dinner?

15:43 What's a good celebratory cigar from Fratello?

17:39 How are cigars and golf clubs similar?

18:55 Omar de Frias's guilty pleasure

23:09 How the COVID pandemic changed the cigar industry

25:04 Ice fishing with Omar de Frias?

30:39 Best steakhouse in Washington D.C.

31:18 Know you stove, know your cast iron skillet, know your cuts of meat

36:07 How to cook a steak the right way, according to Omar de Frias

40:36 Cigar hotbeds of the U.S.

43:12 Why you don't see Pedrón, Fuente or Oliva launching cigars left and right

48:30 Getting a job in the cigar industry

58:30 What cigar pairs with a Juicy Lucy?

You heard about seasoning a cast iron skillet, now find out why you must season a wood humidor before you put cigars inside. Check out the Boveda Humidor Starter Kits. Learn how to set up a humidor for cigars so they age well, stay fresh and taste great.

Innovators in 2-way humidity control for cigars, Boveda makes humidity packs for humidors, travel cigar humidor bags and more. Shop Boveda here: https://store.bovedainc.com/collections/boveda-for-tobacco

So much more to know about your cigar hobby:

Unboxing the Fratello Navetta Inverso Cigar with Omar de Frias

https://youtu.be/009BsNe05jA?t=88

Latest episode of Omar de Frias’s Imperfect Pairings Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

How to Season a Humidor in 1 Easy Step

https://youtu.be/OhYqighERdU?t=85

I Need a Good Cigar for Under $20

https://youtu.be/pSWHA9C-FrA

Best Halloween Cigars

https://youtu.be/moLwbAZGMt8?t=24

- [Narrator] There's a story inside every smoke shop

with every cigar, and with every person.

Come be a part of the cigar lifestyle of Boveda.

This is Box Press.

(upbeat salsa music)

- [Rob] Welcome to another episode of Box Press.

I am your host, Rob Gagner.

I am in the studio and so gracious that I have a gentleman,

one of the biggest people in tobacco.

Flew in for a couple events, see some accounts,

and he graciously let me know he was stopping by.

I have Omar De Frias from Fratello Cigars.

Omar, thank you for joining.

- Thank you. Thank you. Man, I'll tell you the hospitality

since I've been in Minnesota, Minneapolis,

it's been incredible.

- Well, first night you came in,

we went out to Manny's Steakhouse and then back here,

had some cigars until what, 2:30 in the morning?

(laughing)

I mean, it doesn't stop.

I mean, when you have good conversation and good tobacco

and good drinks. - [Omar] Yeah.

- It just, you're like, wow, it just keeps going.

I've only experienced that one other time

when I play like intense board games.

I don't know, are you a gamer at all?

Are you a gamer? - [Omar] Please elaborate

on the intensity of a board game.

Because every single time I think about a board game,

I think about a bored, dumb game.

- [Rob] No. - But that's not true.

- These are like, you know, almost like Settlers of Catan

but more intense than that.

- Oh, okay. - [Rob] So like fighting

and, you know, building, you know, resources

and then trying to conquer different lands.

And I remember looking down at the time on my watch

and I was like, oh my God,

we started this thing at 7:30 and it's 11:30 now.

And I was like, wow, where did those four hours go?

- Intensity. There you go.

- Yeah. Yeah. - Intense board games.

I'm gonna have to check on that, man.

I don't think, last time I played board game

I think it was Monopoly or it was Life.

One of those two.

- Lived in Santo Domingo, DR. - [Omar] That's right.

- Dominican Republic.

And then you ended up moving to Arizona

for a United States student exchange program.

- [Omar] That's right.

- You said there that being without family

really made you grow up quickly.

- Yeah. - You had to embrace

independence quickly.

What does that feel like?

Because we've all kind of had that,

you know, that literally shove off.

Like, you gotta go do this on your own.

- Yeah. Rob, something that to me was very interesting

growing up in the Dominican Republic,

is all I wanted to do was play basketball.

I didn't wanna do anything else, play ball.

I was an average student,

but I was fascinated with basketball.

And so, I had the opportunity

to do an exchange student program

where they had allowed me to play ball here.

We ended up winning for a, you know, national,

you know, state championship that year as well.

But what was different for me

was growing up alone without my family environment.

And that grows you up really fast.

- [Rob] Right Because nobody really

cares about you that much as your family does.

And so when you're living in somebody else's house

and you're having, you know, somebody else's food,

and you are, you know, involved in other people's

and family problems. It's really fast.

You notice really fast that although you are there,

you're part of the family, but, it's not really.

I mean, you're part of the family gatherings

and environments, but your mom and dad, man.

It's like, they're not being there and your family,

your closest friends.

It grows you up really, really, really fast.

- What made you feel like you had to grow up really fast

in order to survive?

Like, what thing did you know, you're like, I gotta do this?

- So my scholastics was something

that was not a priority for me.

I always thought that I was just,

you know, I wasn't the best student

and, you know, never really cared about it too much.

And all of a sudden I come to the US

and I start paying attention.

I look at math, I look at biology, I look at chemistry,

I look at all these different things

and some of these things just start making sense.

Don't ask me why.

It's just like, "Okay, so I guess this goes like this."

I guess I opened up my eyes a little bit more

and showed a little bit more interest. That's it.

- [Rob] You applied yourself. - Yeah. That's it.

It's no, there's nothing more to it.

I just looked at as like, paid attention to the teacher.

Okay, that makes sense too.

- Yeah. Pay attention, right? - That's it.

It wasn't some divine intervention, but it was-

- Because you're no slouch to academia.

I mean, when I'm looking at your spreadsheet,

you have quite the wrap on.

I mean, you went to four colleges?

- [Omar] Yeah, so three colleges

that are, you know, with four years.

And then I went, I did some studies in between.

- [Rob] Right, you got your MBA.

You have a major in business and management.

I mean, you are no slouch to academia.

So, once you kinda caught that wave,

it must have been, hey, the door's open, I can do anything.

- It definitely created a sense of urgency for sure.

- [Rob] Sure. - I graduated from RIT.

I went to graduate from Dominican Republic. first.

I had a major in marketing in the DR,

came to the US and I had a major in business management

and a minor international relations.

And when I graduated from RIT was 2001.

And so, I was ready to kinda go into the work environment.

2002 was my actual formal graduation.

So, what I ended up doing was when I went to look for a job,

9/11 happened and I was like, there's no jobs.

And so, the only position that was offered to me

was a commission-only copier salesman in RIT

in Rochester, New York.

I was like, "Hm, maybe it's going to

be a little too cold for me

for the rest of this time." - Yeah.

- You know, you know. - Oh yeah, I know.

This it cold here, it's even cold today.

- It's cold, it is. - And technically in spring.

- You're gonna be bundled up in a jacket,

you're like chilling in like a normal shirt.

I'm like, there's no way. - [Rob] Yeah, no.

- But the reality is, you know, once I decided to say,

"Well, I'm just gonna get my MBA" you know what I mean?

I replaced my NBA dreams for an MBA.

It was so much easier after that.

I mean, I had a job offer from Kimberly Clark in Wisconsin.

That wasn't going to happen. I'm afraid of the cold.

- Yeah, right, right.

- Neenah, Wisconsin out of all the places.

Procter & Gamble. But that was in Puerto Rico,

and I kinda wanted to leave the island.

And then IBM and NASA were kinda like my top choices.

That time I wanted to kinda get married

and the option for IBM was like territory manager

for the northeast, I'll be traveling 80% of the time.

So I was like, oh, let just stay local and I chose NASA,

so that's why.

- Nice. Oh my gosh.

And when people hear NASA,

of course, they just think of the sheer,

I don't know, clout that it has.

- [Omar] It does.

- Where it's like, just having really,

like you said it in another interview.

Like, when we need to specialize in something,

whether it be, you know, particle acceleration.

- I did. - Gravity, something,

you know, plastics, whatever it is. We try to hire the best.

- [Omar] Oh, absolutely.

- And you just go straight for the person

that knows everything about plastics.

- [Omar] 100%.

- That's just kinda the, like how intense is that

to be surrounded by somebody that knows so much

about one thing?

- It's exciting at the same time.

Because you talk to them

and literally, 80% of the entire conversation,

80% is all...If you're talking to somebody

who is specializing in thermodynamics

or you know, specializing in, you know, helium

or anything like that, and you're just talking to them.

80% of the conversation is going to be around gases.

80% of the conversation is going to be around materials

and the effect of materials.

And so, it's incredible to just sit there

and see everything around this person's life is around this.

- And you learned a lot about managing,

because you were managing a $5 billion budget

for 10% of the world's science.

- [Omar] Yeah.

So, that management of assets, management of resources,

you were connecting a lot of different people

with people across the world, you know.

Get this person this data and then take that data

and move it over here to this person,

so that they can further their science, as well.

- Yeah.

- With that, we've talked a lot

about how you feel that has helped your cigar business.

Because you feel that some of the times,

most cigar makers are worried about

how much inventory they have,

how much tobacco they have access to.

And what you really did

is you sought out to go to some of the biggest producers.

You went to La Aurora, which is the oldest

and probably one of the biggest in the DR,

if not the biggest.

And then you also went to Joya de Nicaragua,

in Nicaragua and they're the oldest in Nicaragua.

- [Omar] Yeah, that's right. - And one of the biggest.

So, you feel confident that you have plenty of resources

to make not only the blends you currently have,

but then go on and make new ones.

- That's exactly right.

I mean, and making those decisions, Rob,

allows you to also create and build up on a relationship.

Right? I mean, and so I really connected

from the very beginning with Dr. Alejandro Martinez Cuenca

and Juan Ignacio.

We had a great conversation. It was fantastic, man.

We would be talking for hours about so many things,

you know, at the moment of kinda like starting,

you know, from the very beginning on certain things.

And so, what ended up translating

was ended up, you know, producing about it.

I produced about 70% of my production at Joya de Nicaragua,

in Estelií.

And then the rest of our production

comes out of Dominican Republic with La Aurora.

So, both oldest cigar factories in both countries.

So, we're in really, really good hands.

- I didn't know 70% of your portfolio was Nicaraguan.

- [Omar] Yeah.

I thought it would be the other way around

being you're from the DR.

- Yeah, I know, and I get that all the time

from the Dominican Republic.

They're like, "Bro, you're like a Dominican,

producing cigars in Nicaragua with an Italian name.

What are you? The United Nations of cigars?"

And I'm like, "Hey man, we just spread the love."

- You're a global guy, man.

Coming from NASA, you know what it's like, right?

- Exactly. - Because that's a good point.

So if people don't know what Fratello means,

it means brother in Italian. - [Omar] That's right.

- And why did you choose that as your name?

- [Omar] It's my nickname from college.

- Really? - Yeah.

- [Rob] So you're nickname and from college is Fratello?

- Yeah. Yeah. I was being as smart ass in college,

I started taking an Italian class

and I learned that Fratello meant brother.

So I would be like, "Yo, what's up brother?

What's up Fratello?"

We started calling me My Fratello.

I was like, "No, no, no, don't call me My Fratello.

"I'm calling you like Fratello."

And so I started battling

and the moment I noticed that I started like replying this,

"Don't call me My Fratello, that's my nickname."

Damn. - Yeah, right.

- I knew right then and there you don't choose your parents,

brother, no, you choose your nickname, right?

- You never choose your nickname.

- Never, never.

The only person that was able to pull that off

was Kobe Bryant. May he rest in peace.

With his Black Mamba thing.

- [Rob] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So you were Fratello. - [Omar] Yeah, yeah,

that's right, that's right. - And now that was

the spawn of your obviously cigar brand. So that's awesome.

I wanted to dive deep into a little bit

of what do you think people value out of cigars?

Like, what is it that gets them excited

about enjoying a cigar?

- I think it's the moment. I think it's the experience.

I think it's the... "I'm glad I'm done with my day,

let me go smoke a cigar."

I think it's the social aspect of it.

I think it's the moment

when you step into your favorite retailer,

and just go and say, "Hey John, what's going on man?

How's life and can I get a cigar?"

You know, if you wanna get them involved,

I think it's the experience of the person

that need in that moment.

What's going to happen over the weekend.

How does he plan his day?

How does he even start the day, you know?

Because a lot of us for sure when we have early commutes

or we have to go certain places,

we light up a cigar earlier in the day.

And man, that's our moment.

That's the moment where we're just with ourselves.

So I think it's, the thing people value the most

is the moment or the expectation

of when they're going to smoke a cigar.

- Right. Yeah, kind of. I mean, I tend to choose my cigar

based on my moment, whether it's, you know, with a meal,

with time of day, whatever.

With that being said,

what is probably one of the first cigars you would recommend

out of your portfolio, to somebody who wants to try a new,

you know, they've never tried Fratello before.

What's the top three that I'm gonna go to?

- So, you know, it's always,

I was having this conversation with my cousin earlier.

I was telling her, she was asking me,

"Hey, what's your favorite cigars?"

It's like, what's your favorite child?

You know, it's like, there's so many cigars

that I would choose depending on the moment.

If I would go out for a very nice, beautiful steak dinner,

what I want something afterwards

is not something too bold.

I want something more medium, I want something more nutty.

I want something that can kinda contrast a lot of that salt,

pepper, heavy potatoes, you know, heavy fat meal.

I want something a little bit more on the medium body side.

Not something too strong.

I want something more on the bitter body side.

And so, but in the morning man,

if I wanna start off with my coffee,

I start off with my Fratello Classico

and my Fratello Arlequin, what we're smoking right now.

This is a beautiful cigar to start off my,

at least I start off my day with it.

A beautiful Prensado.

What do you think so far about this line?

- I love this cigar.

You gave this to me on the night you came in

and I was like, this is great.

It's got a nice sweetness to it.

That's the...what's the?

- We put Olor Dominicana on it,

but we also put Pelo de Oro Peruvian tobacco on this blend.

It's got Nicaraguan, it's got Ecuadorian

and it's got also San Andreas Claro wrapper.

- Yeah, it's unbelievable. It's great.

- [Omar] Thank you. - I love it.

So, I gotta go back to the heavy meal

because most people would say, "Oh, after a big steak meal

you can have that cigar because it has more nicotine

or it's stronger." And that's not your...

- Not for me. - Not for you.

- No. Because if I get a cigar that's too full body,

then it's more explosions of flavor in my mouth

and I want something to kinda of sooth, you know,

smoothen it out a little bit.

I'm very big on pairings and it to me is more of like,

I want my palate to kinda like balance out a little bit more

than continue to have those explosions of flavor, man,

especially after a big heavy meal.

I mean, that meal that we had at Manny's the other day,

man was fantastic.

But you know, I want something to calm me down afterwards.

- Okay. Yeah. That's good.

That goes against the status quo,

which is interesting. - [Omar] That's right baby.

You gotta go against status quo sometimes.

(laughing)

- Well absolutely. And what I've noticed

is majority of the stuff in the cigar industry,

whether it's, I judge the strength of the cigar

by the color of the wrapper,

or I judge the cigar based on, you know,

just its length or shape.

It's like none of that actually really ends up panning out.

You just gotta smoke it.

- That's it. Smoke the cigar.

I mean, but there's a cigar that I like,

you know, if you ask me about a blend that I want to do

in a celebratory moment, that I know ages incredibly well.

Then try the Fratello Navetta.

Navetta stands for shuttle in Italian.

It's the blend that I did

after the men and women of the space shuttle program.

It's a gorgeous, gorgeous cigar.

Habano Oscuro, chocolatey blend.

It has ups and downs, it's got beautiful valleys,

it's got gray mountains.

There's just so much happening with a cigar.

And so that cigar has a specific moment as well.

And so for me it's always about choosing the moment

very much like you.

- You were saying too, the other night,

that getting complexity out of a cigar,

because you're all buying pretty much the same tobacco,

you have access to a lot of the same tobaccos.

That's the hard part.

That's where blending truly gets made.

Because you can make a cigar,

but then at the end of the day,

it's like, okay, how can I make this more complex?

Or how can I get this so that it has this flavor?

So have you learned some of those?

I mean, obviously you're relying on the factory.

- [Omar] 100%. - And those experts,

to tell you and guide you down the right road.

- I tell this all the time.

I don't consider myself a master blender.

I consider myself a master tester.

I will test and test and test and test

until I cannot test anymore.

But I know what I like, I know what I want.

I believe I have an amazing palate.

It just has to do with,

are there things that I am, you know,

vocalizing, transferring to the team. Right?

So, for me it's like I depend on Mario, Juan,

the team at Joya, the rollers,

and we're all there all the time together.

I don't launch a whole bunch of cigars all the time

because I would like to take my time.

But I want to sure

that whatever it is that we're launching,

it kinda makes sense with the market, right?

And with the story of what we're trying to do,

but if you think of it this way,

it's like, for golfers out there,

you guys will understand this.

It's like you have your nine iron versus your eight iron,

versus seven iron.

You know how far, when you go and put that ball in there,

you know how far you have the ability to hit that ball

with your nine.

If it goes 120, 130, whatever that is.

But you know what that is

if you're hitting it straight. Right?

Assuming that it's going straight.

It's the same thing with cigars.

Like I've had enough experience already

with some of these tobaccos

that I already know what I'm getting out of these things.

So if I'm telling you, "Hey, I want to use some Peruvian

and I want to use some of this San Andres,

but I want to use San Andres Negrito,

I want to utilize this tobacco from Ecuador.

But so now instead of me just saying, "Hey,"

like at the very beginning, it's like,

"Give me something medium body.

Let's work on this. Ta-da-da-da." And just testing it.

Now, it's easier to guide because I know by the core

and just the core of my heart,

I know the ingredients of every one of my cigars.

So it's like cooking.

And so it makes it much easier to have that conversation.

Yet I still know very little, Rob, about the industry.

You know, I think we will always be apprentices of it,

but it's going to be, but now you can speak on it

much better than you could before.

- Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome.

All right. A guilty pleasure that you have

that no one else would know about.

- Guilty pleasure, man. You caught me on that one.

So, a guilty pleasure that I have

that no one would know about.

Damn, that's a good question.

(laughing)

- Moment of truth.

- Oh God, man. When I go to bed, okay, before going to bed

if it's on a Friday or Saturday or something like that,

and I already done my workout for the day,

but I'm ready to do a little cheat cheat.

I go home and I get me a very big,

I go to Baskin-Robbins, they gimme a Pralines 'N' Cream.

Gimme a solid pint, let's see what that looks like.

Bring that pint home, hit that with

watching some "Shameless," and it's over.

- So you like ice cream?

- Love ice cream. - Praline ice cream.

- Oh, how you say pralines?

- That's what you said, praline ice cream, right?

- Yes. I mean, I said pralines,

but maybe that's just,

I've just been saying it wrong for like 25 years.

- But that's like that caramel stuff.

Almond, caramel, praline. - Yes exactly right.

A Pralines, yeah, it's pralines to some people.

English is a second language.

- My Spanish is impeccable by the way. No it's not.

Hablas espanol? que bien.

Oh yeah, totally, totally.

Now the hard question and I get sucked into this,

is do you like to read the comments on your cigars?

- I love to read the comments on my cigars.

I found so many interesting ones.

Yes, but it's- - [Rob] Can you share any?

Sometimes when I see some of these comments,

I always wonder, did they just have like orange juice

in the morning or they just like, love me so much?

I mean, because it can be anywhere from like,

"Oh my God, this thing is like a rubber soul.

Or "Oh my God, this is like a cigar made in heaven."

And we're talking about, you know,

two entirely different people, right?

From two different areas.

And it's just, to me that's always fascinating.

But I love to always kinda be, you know, in connection

with what's happening out there.

- Do you ever comment back on like an alias?

- [Omar] Never.

- [Rob] No, you never comment back?

- [Omar] Never comment back.

I didn't even comment back

when that article from the Washington Post came out

and there was like over 180 comments posted about,

you know, there was this article in the Washington Post.

- [Rob] Yeah, I saw it. - It said,

"NASA analyst leaves $200,000 a year job to sell cigars."

And it was posted online, it was in the Washington Post

and it was, it went very fast.

Over a day or two, just a comment period was going crazy.

People were calling me, "Oh my God,

this guy is the reason we have, you know, high interest rate

and then, you know, for mortality in this country."

"This guy is the merchant of death," you know?

Or "Leave it to the Washington Post to allow for tobacco

to take over the world and kill us all"."

I mean, I was like. - [Rob] Oh, my gosh.

- People, it's story about entrepreneurship.

Okay, let's just relax a little bit and so.

- Never smoke a cigar in their lives, have they?.

- Never smoke. It was like this guy and his momma's dungeon.

You know what I mean? Trying to like make some comments.

But I always, so I find those fascinating.

But there was other people also that,

you know, would comment back and say things like,

you know, the stories is about entrepreneurship.

It wasn't necessarily about, you know, anything else.

Or pro-tobacco or anything. I just happened to sell cigars.

But it was always funny to kinda see this.

I didn't even respond to those comments.

I don't respond to comments that are made usually on online.

I just, you know, let people, you know, talk freely.

- I agree. I look at them and laugh and go,

"Okay. That's interesting."

Over your time in the industry,

Because you came out obviously with Fratello in 2016 was it?

- [Omar] 2013. - 2013.

So, you had quite a bit of time in the industry.

What differences do you see in how people enjoy cigars?

- [Omar] From the moment I launched to right now?

- Yeah, like what's the difference

in how people are enjoying them.

- I think people are enjoying it now.

I would even say it changed way more now during the pandemic

than it did prior.

I think I didn't see really any changes between 2013

and, you know, prior pandemic.

After the pandemic, I did see quite a shift.

I saw more of people enjoying cigars

with their significant other.

I saw more people smoking more cigars at home,

becoming more creative of what they were doing at home.

A lot of these Zoom meetings I thought were going to end.

And I would say like probably about 70% did,

but 30% of those like, meetings

that somebody would have with his buddy

in his basement or something like that.

Or just enjoying a cigar, kept on going.

And so I get invited to a lot of these things all the time,

so I know some of these things are ongoing.

I think that moments and the places changed.

- [Rob] Sure. - I don't think

you're seeing as many people going in and smoking cigars

at brick and mortar.

So you can kinda see like the norm,

the normal of what it was before

kinda getting normal again.

But these guys are selling more cigars,

and what they're doing is they're selling it

to people that are going into the store,

leaving and taking that cigar back to their,

you know, specific place.

- It's interesting where people smoke

because even when I worked in retail,

I saw an influx of people just coming in on Fridays

to get their cigars for their cabin,

or for their, you know, weekend,

whether they're golfing or whatever.

But they never smoked in the shop.

That wasn't the area that they wanted to hang out.

And then there's other people that

like, that's where they- - [Omar] 100%.

- They can't smoke at home because either,

you know, they don't have a space

or they don't want to be outside.

- [Omar] That's right.

- And and other people don't like to smoke inside at all.

They like to smoke outside.

So, Minnesota's kind of that weird area

because I mean, majority of the year you're,

you're under snow covers. So it's tough to smoke.

- [Omar] And I heard in Minnesota,

you can build like a little house on the lake,

you know, break some sort of ground in the middle

and it'll be very hot, and like inside that little box.

And then you get a step outside, it's like minus 20 degrees.

You know, why don't you tell me a little bit more

about that? Like, this isn't your-

- [Rob] The ice fishing? - This, yes.

And you just like bring a hole in the middle,

and just like start fishing and you smoke cigars.

- [Rob] Yeah, you have like an auger.

(laughing)

Yeah, you have an auger.

- This is amazing. I need to do this.

- [Rob] Gas powered auger. You drill a hole in the ice,

you put a, like you said an ice shack over it.

You heat that sucker up with a Little Buddy

and then you know you're fishing

with a coat off. - That's insane.

- That's incredible. - Yeah, it's great.

- But you step outside and it's minus 20 degrees?

- Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And some people sleep in them.

Like some of them, they have them like trailers.

- [Omar] Oh, wow. - Where there

it's like a big trailer. The wheels pop up, it goes down

and they sleep out there the whole weekend.

It's like a little mini ice cabin.

Yeah, we gotta get you ice fishing sometime.

Yeah, we'll you know, it's a bucket list.

- [Omar] (murmuring) A bucket list. (laughs)

- You just check it off and it's done.

- Santorini is a bucket list, okay?

As you know, (indistinct) overrated. Too many pictures.

- [Rob] Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Everyone does that. Everyone

can go somewhere warm. - [Omar] Exactly.

No one can go somewhere cold, right?

- [Omar] Exactly, exactly. - You gotta slightly insane

to do that.

No, I like it. - Oh, my God, I love it.

- Do you think social media has changed

the way the cigar industry has experienced cigars?

I mean, you talked a little bit about the Zoom.

But other than that, I mean,

I just think of like social media

as like I can see so many more cigars now

than I could back in like 2010.

- Yeah. Yeah. 100%.

I think the way people are getting the recommendations

for cigars are coming now from not only the tobacconists,

which is usually was the primary source and magazines.

But now they're getting it from you.

They're getting it from us talking about cigars.

They're getting it from their peers.

They're getting it from a beautiful lady

that they see all of a sudden is connecting

and that they respect and they understand that,

you know, what she or he's trying to like convey

in their content and YouTubers.

And so I think there's 100% more influence

upon your decisions,

and there's also a lot of misinformation.

I mean, it happens all the time.

It's like a, you know, allow for people to talk

and express themselves

and you are going to have, you know, 80% of comments.

And a lot of people are doing, "Oh my God,

this is a best cigar in the world."

And there's other 80%, it's like, "I hate it

because I saw this guy's political views,"

or "I hate this..." you know what I mean?

- [Rob] Right. - But I also find it

fascinating because at the end of the day,

what you cannot cheat yourself out is a good cigar.

I mean, when you go in and you buy the Fratello

and you're smoking it,

I want you to have an amazing experience.

If you're not, then I need to go back,

revise, what's going on.

And so we constantly have our foot, like our foot on the gas

to kinda make sure that everything is going the right way.

But, you have to be able to take, you know, either criticism

or recommendations the right way, Rob.

But, you have to make sure that whatever it is

that you came into market with is quality, is consistent

and it's going going.

So, that's why I'm very proud to work with my two partners

in Nicaragua and Dominican Republic,

because they've kept not only our blend and our visions

to perfection, but they've also been able to,

you know, stay the course and stay consistent,

which is not easy to do.

- Yeah, well said.

Do you like to use social media to promote your brand?

Or would you just rather do live events

and interact with people face to face?

- [Omar] I like to do both.

- Yeah.

- [Omar] I like to do both.

Social media allows me to have a larger reach.

Events allow me to keep my pulse on our customer base,

on a one-on-one.

There's things that you cannot tell me on online.

I'm sorry, you can say a comment, you can interact,

we can have a thread of 20 conversations.

I'm sorry, that's gonna account for 10%

of what we're gonna do when we're talking face to face.

You and I have probably talked right now

more than we have in the last 9 years.

And I know I've seen you and met you like a thousand times

and still right now is the time where we have a chance

to sit down and talk.

And it was just, you know,

it's the same thing across social media.

It's the same thing across the webosphere.

So it just depends.

- I agree with that.

What is your favorite meal?

And if I came to your town,

where would you take me out for dinner and why?

- This is a very good question.

So, I'm Dominican, so I'm always gonna be a fanatic

for Dominican food, rice, habichuelas guisadas,

which is, when I say beans,

people it's not the same kinda beans, okay?

We take care of our beans,

we cooking for like, at least 16 hours

from the moment that we put them to kinda like get the,

you know, loosen up that strength of the-

- [Rob] Starch? - Yeah.

Like we call it ablandar las habichuelas,

which is to soften up the beans, right?

So the moment you put them in and the next day you grab them

and they're already soft

and then you can start working on your method.

We have habichuelas guisadas which is basically beans,

but we have a different method of cooking them.

So, we make it in like a stew format and it's very unique.

And so that is kind of my favorite

because I grew up eating this kinda stuff.

But if you are ever in the D.C. area,

I'm gonna take you to the best steak house

in the Washington D.C. metropolitan region,

which is called Omar De Frias' home.

And you will be blown away.

- You like to cook steak? - This is my thing.

- [Rob] What's your preferred method of cooking it? Is it?

- Indoors. I do it on the grill.

I don't do it on the grill,

I do it in my cast iron skillet.

- What about before that though?

Are you doing the sous vide

or are you going - [Omar] Never.

straight onto the skillet?

- I would never do the sous vide.

- [Rob] Never do the sous vide.

- I think you're cheating the process.

- Really? - 100%.

- So those of you who sous vide, according to Omar,

you're cheating. - Cheating the process, man.

- [Rob] How come? - Because you got to be able

to have your stove. You have to know your stove.

You have to know your cast iron

and you got to know your meats.

If you have the ability to know those three

and then regulate temperature,

understand that after two minutes it's time to go,

in my stove, could be in your stove is a 1:30,

where you, you know, searing that steak

or did you spend the solid 15, 20, 25 minutes

to let that steak kinda ambiance itself

to the room temperature? Did you do that? Did you not?

So, you have to know before you try all this sous vide

little things, go in and understand every aspect of it.

Right? And then how does your oven cook,

as it's a 425 before you put that steak inside that oven

to make sure that you get that medium rare to perfection?

Or do you wait, do you wait a minute outside

and then put it back and then put it in?

Or do you wait three minutes or four minutes at 425?

It's just, you gotta... - Break down your process.

So. this is intense. I like this.

- I'll leave it to a NASA analyst, right?

- I love it. Let's go. - To go in full throttle.

I spent eight years, I'm not kidding.

I spent eight years working on my own personal hobo.

Okay, I got my own personal spices, my salt, pepper,

I put little of a garlic, I put onion powder,

I put white pepper.

It is to perfection.

It's not just me putting white pepper and black pepper

and just, you know, it's like measured.

- So you figured out the ratio of your own seasoning?

- 100%.

- Okay, that's a whole new level.

- That is a whole new level.

- Okay, so, let's just side table that because

that's a whole discussion. - Lets put that one apart.

- So, if you're into seasoning, you gotta figure that out.

- Yes, that's the first thing. - Okay. And then what?

- Then you gotta figure out your steak. Okay?

So depending on the steak that you're cooking,

is going to determine the amount of heat that you apply

to that cast iron.

So for me, I like to cook New York strips

in my cast iron skillet.

I like to cook ribeyes on my cast iron skillet.

I like to cook tenderloins.

But do I prefer out of those three,

which one to me is the epitome of perfection

with my cast iron skillet? It's the New York steak

because it doesn't have that high content of fat.

Unless I'm cooking a prime cut of beef,

which, you know, one of those USDA Prime

has a little bit more of that fat content,

and a little bit more of that fat interlace

through the steak.

Or am I cooking a ribeye that is a USDA choice, right?

So you know, never a select but you know USDA choice, right?

And so, you get a chance

to experience different temperatures.

So you have to adjust your skillet to the moment

and depending on the steak

so that it can come out as medium rare.

Don't ever do anything above medium rare.

Medium rare to perfection.

- We learned at Manny's that they have a different scale.

- [Omar] They do.

- So, she said rare was pink on the inside, but cold,

medium rare was pink on the inside but warm.

And then medium was more like medium rare where it was like,

- Yeah, yeah.

- Pink on the inside a little bit, but warmer.

- Manny's we love you, but there is something wrong

about what you guys are saying. Okay?

- She had to break it down to us because we were like,

"What exactly...?"

And then you even said, because you're a rare guy,

- [Omar] Yeah.

- But you went medium rare there because you were like,

I like the inside pink warm, not cold.

- So, so Manny's this message is for you.

Medium rare is warm red center. Okay?

People let's get this right. Okay?

But, the way we were approached at the table I thought it

was very funny, was like, "Alright guys, we, we cook

our steaks in the rare side."

And I was like, "Okay, perfect."

That's always good to know in a steakhouse.

- [Rob] Yeah.

Because now I know what I'm gonna tell her is medium rare,

but I don't want it on the rare side.

I don't want it on the, you know, more warm side. Right?

So you kind of,

but you can tell that within the medium rare,

if you cook it on the rare side,

just bring it up a notch so that it's not, right.

Just wanna move it to the right scale.

But they, she came around and says, "Okay guys,

so rare is cold red center, medium rare is cold center red"

Less, you know...

"And then medium is like warmer at center and then

medium well is like pink in the middle warm."

And I'm like, "So wait,

so your medium is medium rare?" It's like

- Yeah - [Rob] yeah.

- [Rob] It's just shift the scale.

- Why not just call it medium rare? Yeah.

- [Rob] Yeah. Shifting the scale everything.

- I don't know why. I mean maybe it's a Minneapolis thing.

- You know, I dunno.

I think it's a Manny's thing.

- [Omar] Maybe it's a Manny's thing.

- I really think it's... - [Omar] Maybe,

- [Rob] yeah. - No, but I thought

it was fascinating. It's like,

"I don't mean to call this out a little bit,

but maybe you can explain it?"

- So, it sounds like though you,

you do some skillet work and then

you might do some oven work,

as well? - [Omar] Yes.

So I, once you get your, once you know the steak,

once you leave it for 20, 25 minutes before,

let it ambience, you put your steak.

- Wait, we're putting the raw steak

out in the room temperature for 20, 25 minutes?

- [Omar] Exactly. - Okay. So you let...

- We don't wanna go from the fridge to the skillet.

- Never ever, ever.

You wanna do that. Absolutely not.

- I, I do that.

So I gotta stop doing that. Okay.

And then after 25 minutes, are we going into the skillet?

- [Omar] We're going into the skillet.

So skillet's gotta be very,

very, very, very, very, very, very hot.

- [Rob] Sear it, right? As hot as you

possibly can so you can sear it.

- [Rob] Okay.

- I tend not to put two steaks

because it tends to cool down the skillet.

So I tend to do one steak at a time.

- [Rob] That's smart.

- [Omar] And so it allows for the steak to kind of,

have its own like, you know, flow to it.

If you put three steaks, you know you're going to have to,

it will not work the same way. You won't have the same sear.

So never ever, you know,

clean ever, ever clean my my cast iron skill ever.

- [Rob] No, right Ever.

- [Rob] It's seasoned. Yep. 100%

And then what I do is once my steak is seared,

then it goes inside the oven.

And what it goes inside the oven,

that's where the party starts, right?

Because you, that's when you regulate, right?

That's the sous vide moment for you guys right there.

It's the moment where you regulate your beef, man,

and you know exactly what,

how many minutes is going to be for you.

If you want it rare or if you want it medium rare.

And if you want it medium, then you know you're pushing it.

You want a medium well,

then you gotta get the hell outta my house.

So, it is the way goes, there's no in between.

- You don't use a thermometer either. You just time it.

- Thermometer?

- [Rob] Yeah, thermometer.

I would think a NASA guy would be like,

"I gotta have the data and I want to know

and I gotta get this. And I get that."

- People do not pinch your steaks. Okay.

Please do not touch your steak until the moment

you put that fork in. - [Rob] Yeah.

And you're about to eat it. Okay?

If you're gonna puncture your steak,

make sure it's in your plate with your knife and your fork

- Ready to eat. - [Omar] Yes.

- So you gauge the minutes inside the oven

and then do you come back out

and do more skillet work or you're done?

- Yeah, so I take it up a notch.

I put about when it's halfway through,

I put a stick of butter

in the inside the steak and then just close it again.

So it allows to kind of like,

I don't like to do it at the very beginning

because it kind of melts too fast

and doesn't allow for the butter to really

kind of sink in. And so when I take it out,

it's only about a minute or two before I pull it it out,

I take the steak and I put it on a plate.

I don't put her on a warm plate ever because that continues

to, you know, that's like Chris,

you know Ruth Chris is like a place.

I should love guys, but you know, I don't usually go there

because they bring it in,

they keep on cooking the damn thing

in a hot skillet - [Rob] Right.

It's like a hot plate.

I don't want to cook more of my steak, leave it like that.

So, I put it on a plate and I cover it with foil paper.

And then I'll leave it for about three to four minutes

so that the distribution of the juices happen,

Which is something that not a lot of people do.

But if you do, it's going to change your life.

Juices will distribute, if I put a very warm iron

on your skin, first thing it's going to do

is get a lot of that blood rushing

into this particular location to make

it red. That's what happens with muscle.

Right? - [Rob] Right.

So, if you do the same thing with steak,

it's exciting thing that it's happening, right?

So, what you want to do is just allow for

the amount of heat that your steak has been involved with

to just let loose

and so kind of redistribute all those juices.

And so when you puncture that steak, my man,

it's perfection. So that's where I would,

I know it was a long invitation,

but that's where I would invite you.

- No, it's good.

Now, cast iron, do you,

did you source your cast iron as like new

and season it yourself?

Did you seek out one that was already pre-seasoned or...

- I've owned three cast irons.

So, one that I'm on right now,

it's about a year and a half in with...

- Can you not re-season it after you season it once

and it gets clean? - [Omar] I don't think so, man

- I, I don't mean to mess around

- I don't want to start from scratch.

I don't want anything going on with it.

And so what I try to do is just make sure

that my cast iron is, seasoned to Fratello,

Omar Fratello spices and flavors.

- So we talked a little bit about this the other night too,

and, you know,

building a brand and getting momentum is pretty difficult.

I mean, you have a lot going on

with either social media or the internet,

plus you have local markets and you and I talked

a lot about local markets.

- Yeah.

- You know, hotbeds in the country

where there's more cigar smokers than

other places.

- [Omar] Yeah. You know,

Minneapolis, you said, was kind of one that was good.

Texas is definitely a good one.

Chicago, the East Coast is crazy intense about cigars

in a good way. - [Omar] Yeah.

And you know what I noticed about even Miami?

So, Miami was like this place where you went

and the cigar wasn't a thing.

People were like, "What is that?"

The cigar because of the culture down there was like,

"Yeah, I know my, my grandpa or my grandma

or somebody worked in the cigar business

or we just, we bring cigars out

like we bring out a bottle of wine when we gather"

- Yeah.

- [Rob] So people know how to smoke them

and it's not this stigma.

- Yeah.

- So there's these different hotbeds

across the entire nation. - [Omar] 100%.

And as you look at that,

is that how you are kind of targeting to release your brand?

Because, obviously, getting that traction

through those markets is tough.

- We do it in a very different way.

I mean we, we've been fortunate

to have been doing this for nine years now

and establishing and continue to establish a brand.

It's not easy.

You may be hot now and then slow tomorrow

and then hot later.

And I think that happens throughout the period of just life

and process and, you know,

enjoying different blends. But I think that they,

at the end of the day,

it's like what you have to release has to be based

and has to be in a vertical integration

with your core values in your brands.

Right? Fratello is all about, you know,

giving the consumer a very quality,

high quality product at a great price.

That's what we're all about, right?

We're all about blending tobaccos

from many different regions,

from many different locations and giving and teaching

the consumer a little bit about those ingredients.

And so we love that communication aspect of it.

Like they are, like for example, cigar,

we're smoking right now from four different regions

including Ecuador, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua,

Right? And then it's got a Peruvian filler tobacco

that is so unique, right? And so for me,

the way that I see it is being able to launch a cigar

has to do much more with your culture

as a cigar company than what you're looking to do with

that cigar in the different regions. Right?

I mean, if people can value and see your vision,

they're looking at Fratello as a company that's going to

give them an amazing cigar

and they're looking at Fratello as somebody

that's just coming in and launching cigars

up in the air and saying, "Oh, this one connected.

Let's go ahead and put a brand on it.

Let's launch into the market"

It has to have meaning for your company and your culture.

Right? I mean, that's why you don't see

Pedrón or Fuente or Oliva

just launching cigars left and right.

These guys have been able to create brand recognition

through their amazing cigars. Right?

And so being able to send that message across and have that

message be one that people follow the company,

not the blends,

then they will understand it a little bit better.

- [Rob] That's good.

What types of sacrifices did you have to make in order to

deliver the cigars to the market? I mean.

- I, before I started the Fratello, I was 21% body fat.

I was enjoying, you know,

going into the work at seven o'clock in the morning,

leaving around 6, 6:30, being done with my day,

having a nightcap drink, a little bit of, you know,

prosciutto and a little bit of Spanish quesos and cheeses

and, you know, I said that's too good of a life, you know?

Do I want blood pressure, high blood pressure,

Do I want some high cholesterol? You know what I mean?

I want something to like spin it off a little bit bit on me.

You just make it, make it too boring.

- [Rob] Right. - You know?

So I want to up in the morning and think of Fratello.

I want to go to sleep at night and think Fratello.

I mean, I am fascinated by entrepreneurship.

I am fascinated by strategy and I'm fascinated by,

by delivering a product into market that people can see

by vision and that they have the ability to,

and that we have the ability to be at specific moments

in people's lives.

So when a lot of people ask me, it's like,

"What makes your day?"

It's like, what makes my day is that

I wake up in the morning and I see a post

by somebody else smoking a Fratello and

they're enjoying it while they're hanging around.

Or they were hanging around with their wife at night and

they were just enjoying an hour and a half of their life

where they guy came into the cigar shop,

took his wallet out and said,

"This is what I would like to enjoy tonight with my wife."

Enjoys it. And that's why we go a lot

with those #Fratellomoments

and like, I want to see those things because it,

it really does create a culture.

It creates a movement around your brand that people

are spending not only their money,

but they're spending their time.

Okay? Their time of enjoyment

around their loved ones with your other

companion, which is gonna be your cigar.

It's just incredible for me.

- [Rob] Yeah. Underneath your hobbies,

obviously basketball was a big hobby.

You played professionally in the DR.

And then went on obviously to do that also

through the United States exchange program.

But an interesting one on here is salsa dancing.

I've tried salsa dancing. Yeah.

Like formally, I tried to get taught and I come from being

able to dance. Salsa dancing is a different type of dance.

- Yes, it is.

- [Rob] You gotta be in tune with your partner

and as a leader, the male leads,

you have to know how to lead so that she knows

- [Omar] Yeah. Yeah. what's next.

So how much salsa dancing have you done?

You do this on a regular basis?

- I do. I try to get out in salsa dancing every city I can.

Haven't found a place here in Minneapolis, unfortunately,

and I was working too hard already,

so I couldn't get it. - [Rob] Yeah.

- I love merengue, bachata, salsa. I love, I love music.

I love,

I go into my house and the first thing I do is I put

some music on, and you know what it is?

It's also a form of exercise and it just,

it connects so many things in my brain.

It just makes me happy at the same time while I'm doing an

exercise and whatnot.

And so salsa is 100% of a different animal.

There's, you know, dancing salsa on one,

there's dancing salsa on two,

depending on how people do it,

I really care as long as you can, you know,

get along in the dance floor. Right?

So, I don't know,

maybe we need to get you in a different salsa course

and see those hips, how they kind of like, you know,

break and move.

- Yeah, exactly.

- [Omar] I know. you got it. I can see it.

- Yeah. I just, it's not easy.

- Not easy. - [Rob] It is not easy.

- Not easy. - [Rob] Not easy.

- Why did you choose this career?

And you said "I didn't."

How could you have not, I mean,

you made a conscious choice

to not further your career in NASA and go into cigars.

- So, when I answer that question to the way I see it is you

never really choose, I think,

I think kind of like the lifestyle chooses you.

I wanted to create, I wanted to create products.

I wanted to create something incredible,

but I wanted to do something that I enjoyed, I loved, right?

So I love alcohol and wine as much as I love cigars,

I think it's a much harder access to market for those things

than it is for cigars. - [Rob] Right.

The reason I say, you know,

this kind of lifestyle chooses you

is because you can go with this lifestyle

in many different directions. You can do,

if you want to get into the cigar industry,

you can do retail, you can do accessories

you can do, you know, brand management,

you can do distribution, you can do wholesaling,

you can do a thousand different things. Right?

Jesus. I mean, Robert Caldwell did a lot,

was doing a living on, you know,

supplying and some of the most high-end, you know,

places in markets and restaurants in Miami

before he got into, you know, making his own brand.

- [Rob] Robert Caldwell?

- Yeah, Caldwell, he's a good friend

and I admire these kinds of stories,

but you choose this kind of lifestyle kind of chooses you

because if you have the ability to connect in the market

and want to connect with people at a more personal level,

then there is a particular lifestyle you can choose

and a particular line of, you know,

of business that you can choose within the cigar industry

to get to that.

So, once I started creating something, which is,

I definitely wanted some of my creativity to go through what

our brands, you know, reflect in the market.

And I started traveling and connecting with people like,

man, I really enjoyed the aspect of the brand building,

product creation of this industry.

It's the challenge of launching something into the market.

The scare aspect for me, which is, you know,

you have a particular product that you want to launch,

you don't know how the market's gonna receive it.

You have the vision in your head and it's so clear

and, you know, you're going to annihilate it,

but that moment until you launch it and then you start

seeing kind of like the floodgate of orders, you know,

when we launch a new product, it's like,

"Yes, it connected," or

"Man that's gonna take a little bit longer."

That kinda waiting period to me is exciting.

- [Rob] Okay. - [Omar] Yeah.

- That keeps you on the edge of your seat.

- [Omar] It does. 100%. 100%

- Yeah.

Good point.

You said that Steve Jobs,

he had a commencement address at Stanford that

that's what made you decide to go and launch Fratello.

- Yeah, I, at that time at NASA, I was, you know,

I had already achieved what I wanted to achieve.

I got, like I said, I got to a GS 15

managing and executing a $5 billion budget for NASA.

That budget alone accounts for a close to 10% of all the

science done in the world. That's how much data management,

data transfer we do. - [Rob] Right.

Technology transfer we do in the agency.

What, for me, what ends up translating

into this industry and into, you know,

coming from kind of like, you know,

some of the things that I love to bring

from those experiences,

the program management side of the house,

the data information management,

and translate that into a business like Fratello is,

is also very challenging for a number of reasons.

If I choose to bring in data from our customers,

I have data coming in and saying people are enjoying,

just to give you an idea, people are enjoying,

the Arlequin, they are enjoying the Sorella

or they're enjoying the Fratello Classico.

What are the information?

When you asked me the question earlier

about customer reviews,

we definitely are looking into this all the time

and we're seeing the comments.

We want to see what people are thinking, right?

Because it's kind of like that pulse in the market of what

people are saying.

But then there's also the information that you're getting

from your retailers. You know?

Your retailers are saying an entirely different story.

They're telling you, "Omar, we have events every Thursday,"

or "We have a gentleman's club

that comes here every Tuesday."

Getting that information and tackling those groups so that

you can continue to expand upon your brand.

It's incredibly hard, but if you have the right information,

you can tackle it, right? - [Rob] Right.

And so data and data information management is kind of what

we're all about.

And it's kind of one of the things that I transfer from that

experience at NASA that transfer into my cigar industry in,

into my cigar business.

And I love it because I can tailor things around it as well.

And that's powerful. - [Rob] Right.

- What was it about Steve's commencement speech that got you

to say, "Oh, I'm gonna do cigars now?"

- So, that moment when I was literally struggling with

what would happen choose to either leave NASA

or go to my SCSADP.

A friend of mine sent me a commencement address

by Steve Jobs that, you know,

I've heard this a million times before.

The moment where, you know,

somebody says, "The only way to do great work

is to love what you do."

You've heard it a million times, right?

I know I heard it a million times before he said it

in that moment, but when he said it

in that speech in Stanford,

it just resonated with me at that time.

So, I think sometimes it's, you know,

you can hear the message multiple times,

but it's not until your particular moment in your life

that if a message like that comes through,

then that it has in place in a different meaning.

- Right.

- So for me,

I was at that moment at NASA where I was like,

I wanted to do something fun, something different,

something personal, something that I loved.

And literally that's what motivated me to start Fratello.

- So Fratello at that point was not what you were doing,

so then you were doing NASA and Fratello for four years

before you decided to flip the switch and go in all in on

Fratello. - That's right.

- There's, I think, an aspect there as well.

Not just what you love,

but how can you divide your time

between two different careers.

- Yeah.

- And was there a time that you said,

"I gotta stop doing this NASA thing,"

or just say in general,

"I gotta stop doing all these other things

and focus only on Fratello?"

- Yeah. It was called blood pressure.

I was about to die on the market while doing both things.

I was working 90 hours a week, you know?

(laughing) - [Rob] Right.

- I was killing myself.

I was, you know, I'm a workaholic.

I still do, I think one of the things

that I appreciate the most,

and one of the quotes that I appreciate the most,

one from Mark Cuban and he said that, you know,

"You have to constantly outwork

and outsmart everybody else in your entire territory."

And that's what I always strive to do.

I came into this industry as, you know,

nobody knew who the hell I was.

I was 34 years old. - [Rob] Sure.

- People were like, "So wait, you got the PCA trade show?"

There's 120 new brands, we're not even talking about

launched brand by existing companies,

new companies coming into the trade show.

And, you know,

fortunately out of 120 plus and hundreds of more

that have come in and left immediately after that,

we're still here and we're still growing.

We're in over 800 retailers nationwide, Rob,

in 18 countries right now. We just signed in with Abu Dhabi.

We just launch with Israel just recently as well,

getting new distribution partners in Belgium.

So we take this with a lot of pride.

- Was there ever a time that you thought,

this is just not gonna work out. I gotta go.

I gotta do something else.

I gotta close Fratello and this is it.

- Never, - [Rob] Never?

- No, never.

The only time that I ever, I get this question a lot.

Do you ever regret leaving NASA and, you know,

and going full throttle on cigars?

And I said, "The only time that it ever happened

was in 2017 when I was looking at my first quarter.

I already knew I was having a massive year in 2016, Rob.

And I was like, ready.

But majority of the people in the industry in 2016,

they were leaving the industry.

They weren't getting in. - [Rob] Right.

This is the time when the regulations,

the worst regulations in the history

of the cigar industry were hitting.

And that's when probably about 80 brands just dropped

completely out of the blue that you never saw ever again.

That's when, at that moment, that's when those brands left.

And I doubled down and I left NASA to do this full-time.

And the only moment where I regretted was

January and February of 2017.

When I started looking at my sales and I looked at

2016 sales of January and February. I'm like, "What the,

I sold the same amount of cigars,

but I'm not making $200,000 a year now...

What the hell did I just do?" - [Rob] Right.

- And I was like, I wanted to start crying,

but then instead of doing that,

I basically doubled down to instead of being on the road,

you know, two days of the week, I went crazy.

I was on the road on a Monday first thing,

come back home on a Sunday and repeat it again.

On that moment in March all the way through 2017, 2018,

2019 and we haven't stopped.

But listen, you to be able to build a brand where you go

inside and the first thing that you think is,

you know, your favorite brand.

You think about Arturo Fuente,

you think about Padrón, you think about Fratello?

To have that consumer remember your brand

to the point that he's coming in

and he kind of knows already what is in

his top three rotation.

It's one of the hardest things to do.

That's why when people ask him, he's like,

"Hey man, you know, how much does it take to build a brand?"

It takes well, think about it this way.

I mean Macanudo's been around for what, 60, 70 years?

I mean some of these brands, you know,

Fuente has been around for a hundred years.

You know Orlando Padrón 50 plus years, right?

Rocky Patel, 30 years.

I mean, people think it's like, oh my God,

this is an overnight success. This is happening like this.

Go back in a few years and you can see what's going on.

I heard that there's this burger in Minneapolis,

It's where unique is Juicy Juicy something.

- Juicy Lucy. - Juicy Lucy!

Dude I want a Juicy Lucy.

I want to do an episode of Imperfect Pairings

with Juicy Lucy

- I love it. - You like it?

Would you be my cohort for this?

- [Rob] Yeah, I'm in.

- Let's do it.

Beause I think I would flip out trying to figure out how

you guys put in this cheese inside this patty.

Like I don't understand this.

I gotta see it and I gotta do,

we gotta do a pairing with a cigar.

So it's gonna be, we need to do that today.

- I love the fact that you're doing Imperfect Pairings.

- Yes, yes.

- Because you're doing stuff that's off,

like not the social norm.

- Yes. Yes.

So that's our YouTube channel.

It's Imperfect Pairings and it's one that I,

I personally love doing. I travel so much, man.

I, like I told you,

we have a very big presence in Europe as well.

So, I go to like places like the north of Spain

and I do a pair with oysters and cigars.

Don't do that again, I did it for you people,

but it's unique, it's different.

I've done pairings with aguardente ginjinha which is a,

you know, spirits fruit extract

out of cherries that happens in Portugal.

But I've done things with pálinka out of Hungary,

which is a, you know, a spirit also

that is very unique to Hungary.

And so there's,

I try to find and and pick out things that are unique

to a location and present it to the consumer,

so that the guys can see it.

So, check that out on Imperfect Pairings on YouTube

so you can see a little bit of what that content looks like.

But I got to do something here, man.

I think that burger - [Rob] I love it.

- Could be fun. - [Rob] That Juicy Lucy

- Juicy Lucy!

And it sounds so good already, too.

- It is so good.

- There's a couple of places that I think in town

have claimed that they are the...

- Matt's Bar and the 5-8 went head-to-head.

- [Omar] Okay.

- Yeah so, those are the hot spots.

I'm sure other people do it as well,

but we would definitely hit those up.

- Love it.

Let's do it - [Rob] Alright.

- That wraps it up for another episode of Box Press.

Omar, thank you so much for joining me.

I can't thank you enough for just even letting me know

you're gonna come in town and yeah,

come in and shoot this

- [Omar] That's amazing.

Thank you so much for inviting me and I definitely

look forward to seeing what some of those

interesting pairings would look like going forward.

But big fan of you,

and what you guys have done here

and big fan of Bovedas. So congratulations.

- Thanks man. Appreciate it.

You guys know where to get Boveda.

If you need Boveda to head over to bovedainc.com

or check it out at your local retailer.

Protect those cigars because they're worth protecting.

Thank you all for watching.

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there's more episodes coming every other week.