Mercury Coffee Company, a new mobile coffee brand in Rochester out of The Commissary (@roccommissary), joins hosts Chris Lindstrom, Aaron Pascucci, and Wade Reed from Level Up (@levelup.wny) to delve into the journey of launching their venture, from the inspiration behind their delicious offerings to the challenges of starting a business in the food and beverage industry. Co-founders Kyle and Isabelle O'Gara share insights on crafting balanced coffee drinks that resonate with new and seasoned coffee drinkers, emphasizing the importance of flavor and approachability. Join the discussion as they explore the art of coffee making, the significance of brand identity, and the exciting future of Mercury Coffee Company.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• @mercurycoffeeco
• @UglyDuckCoffee
• @WinterSwanCoffee
• @holykakow
• @scottsphotoroc
• @butterjoybakery
• @clementine_roc

Mentioned in this episode:

Sweet Pea Plant Based Kitchen

Sweet Pea is a plant-powered kitchen helping you achieve wellness. Harnessing the power of food as medicine, we help you realize your happiest, healthiest self. Use promo code Lunchador15 for 15% off your order! https://sweetpeaplantbased.com

Joe Bean Coffee - Coffee that lifts everyone.

Use promo code Lunchador for 15% off your order! https://shop.joebeanroasters.com

Punches & Popcorn

The masters of Couch Potato style Mike Huntone, Jason Bills, and Dr. Dominic D’Amore take a deep dive into the best and worst of martial arts films. https://punches-and-popcorn.captivate.fm/

Mind of Magnus

Artist Magnus Champlin (@magnusapollo) interviews guests sharing the stories and life adventures with the goal of expanding minds.

I'm Chris Lindstrom and this is the Food About Town podcast.

Rochester.

Well, why Rochester?

Chris Lindstrom was a hoot.

He was just so much fun.

He never stopped talking.

I mean, it was great.

Here's a good idea.

Have a point.

It makes it so much more interesting.

For the listener and we don't need.

Any characters around to give the joint atmosphere.

Is that clear?

Because I'm a pro.

That's what pros do.

I'm a professional.

Look it up in the book.

But now, yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.

And we are back with another episode of the Food About Town podcast.

And it's a little bit of a special episode.

We're doing a collaborative episode with the Level Up Coffee podcast on the Lunchadore Podcast Network.

Aaron.

Wade.

How you doing tonight, guys?

It's been a great week.

We got two, two days this week in the studio.

Oh yeah, we were recording earlier this week.

We did some fun coffee tasting and we talked with cult leader Coffee out of Pennsylvan.

So check that out on Level up if you're listening on the Food About Town feed.

That was a blast.

Wade, how you doing over there?

Present and accounted for.

It's a great start.

So we're here talking about one of the newer coffee brands in Rochester.

So guests, why don't you introduce yourselves?

Yeah.

Hi, my name is Kyle O'Gara.

I own Mercury Coffee Company.

We're a mobile espresso bar.

We do pop ups, vendor markets, private events, weddings, all that kind of cool stuff.

But we've been out and about this year.

Then this is my wife, Izzy.

Hi, I'm Isabel Ogara.

I'm one of the co founders of Mercury Coffee.

I do a lot of the creative directing and marketing.

I run the social media page and do a lot of the booking as well.

As you know, I do run the events with Kyle as well.

Yeah, that's the stuff.

I.

It's amazing to have somebody that is good at doing the marketing side of things in the social media because it's so important so people can actually see what you're doing.

Especially when you don't have a consistent space to be in all the time.

Yeah, I would say like 90 of the, like people that come out or reach out to us at all are finding us through social media.

Like we don't really have a major like website forum that people come to.

It's usually through Instagram.

DMS is where, you know, we post about where we're going to be and we have like local People that come just finding us through our social platform.

So.

Wow.

Yeah.

So talk about for a second, when.

When did this.

When was the official launch of Mercury?

Yeah, there's kind of two big dates from last year.

January 18th is when I filed for all my legal paperwork, my LLC and all that.

So since then we did 50 plus events throughout the year.

But yeah, March 2nd, I think it was, was our first event.

And since then we've just been running downhill.

That's awesome.

So what was the driver, you know, what was the driver to start, you know, Mercury Coffee?

What was.

What was the.

What was the itch to actually, you know, go down that road of starting a company around it?

Yeah, we've always wanted to kind of own our own coffee shop.

It's kind of been one of those, like, pipe dreams.

And then we started thinking, okay, well, how do we actually do this?

What's the proven successful business model around town?

I mean, you look at places like Ugly Dock, Winter Swan, like, they started off doing the cartoon, building up their brand, and then they moved into somewhere they could call home.

So once you make a plan for it, then it just clocks ticking.

So then I started making coffees at home, showing myself the basics and making.

I like to have people over and making coffees for everybody.

Give me an opportunity to practice.

But seeing people enjoy it too is also really satisfying for me.

So took a good year or so to hone in the craft and then it came time to make it happen.

Get the equipment, start the page, get people all excited about it and yeah, it's been incredible so far.

Yeah.

Was there something about, like, when you were deciding to do a business, was there something about coffee specifically beyond like, oh, you like, you're enjoying serving at home and doing that.

Was there something specifically about that that grabbed you instead of doing, you know, something else?

Doing a, you know, mobile, you know, Pupusa card or mobile, whatever.

Card.

Yeah, yeah.

I would say, like, for me specifically, because Kyle's kind of the science and, you know, mastermind behind that with.

He does all the crafting of.

I know how to do that now.

But he kind of started it as like his craft.

He would just like make coffee at home as like almost like a love language.

So he.

We had our first child back in October and I mean, he was making coffees well before then, but, you know, the nights were super tough, obviously with a newborn.

And every single day he would make like a craft latte for me, which was just like, a way to show love.

We would have people over, and he.

It became such a, you know, labor of love for him that we just kind of had a connection to that.

We also, like he said, we had a lot of inspiration.

We always just really looked at others in the coffee community and, like, loved how they.

Such a, you know, small group of people make such a big impact.

So we just kind of wanted to share that among the community as well.

Yeah, it's an opportunity to kind of slow down a little bit.

For sure.

Gives you an opportunity to connect with people you may not have 30 minutes to sit down and enjoy a drink with if you invite them over for coffee.

You know, it.

You're building those relationships and building that community, too.

From what we've done on the cart, people come and find us, and, you know, it gives people an opportunity to come together.

What was it you were brewing with at home before you bought the commercial stuff?

It was a Breville Barista Express.

Okay.

Black Friday deal from Amazon, like, four years ago.

What did you steal that for?

Do you remember?

Oh, God.

I think it was, like, 450 at the time.

Yeah, it was a steal.

And we rationalized it.

Like, we don't know how to use this yet.

It's kind of intimidating, but it'll pay for itself in a couple of months based on what we go spend at the cafes right now.

So.

Yeah.

Where.

Where's your regular.

Where was your regular cafe at that time, or were you Ugly Duck?

Oh, I vividly remember when we brought home our espresso machine.

We actually got it at Best Buy.

We brought it home, and I remember we made our first iced latte, and we both look at each other.

We're like, this tastes just like Ugly Duck.

And it was like, not at all, like, we were so exc.

Excited about it.

Total placebo.

Yeah.

I mean, we would go to Ugly Duck, like, maybe five, six days a week.

And so.

Wow.

Yeah.

So what are you working on now?

What's the upgrade?

The.

The machine.

It's a La Marzocco GS3.

Yeah.

Grinder.

The grinder is the Mazer Super Jolly V, they name it.

Some really crazy stuff, but it works great.

Yeah.

Yes, it does.

It's.

It does.

It's worked great for decades.

Yes.

Yeah.

That's a workhorse.

Did you pick that up locally at all, or.

Where'd you get your Lara Mazuko from?

I got it through, if I'm recalling correctly, Chris's coffee.

Okay.

Online.

So brand new or used.

Yeah.

It was brand new.

So I was looking for used GS3s like everywhere I could find on the Internet and there were like, none.

And if there was one, it was overseas with a different power adapter.

Yeah.

For real.

I know people who have them don't use them and won't get rid of them.

Yeah, yeah.

It just is like, you never know.

It's so good.

It's such a great piece of equipment.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

And they're hard to find use.

It spoke to me like, okay, I'm making the right decision on the machine because no one is reselling these things.

Exactly.

They're reliable.

If you keep up with them, you will never have to buy another machine.

So when you, when you're thinking about that machine, Wade, is that the same kind of thing you're thinking about or is it just.

You just.

It just does the job really well.

Yeah, it does the job really well.

It was very forward thinking at the time it came out because you can mod it to paddles.

Does yours have paddles?

No, mine's ev.

Yeah.

So I, I think, you know, when you.

Is a double boiler, yours.

Yeah, yeah.

So like even just that.

Right.

Like having a separate boiler for, for the steam wand is, is like, you know, ahead.

So when you enter a market where like, you know, you've got the Breville and you bring out this single group that is like double boiler and it, you know, it does like a little more.

And Eric and Aaron can probably speak to that a little more because he actually worked with machines like, you know, that was, that was kind of opening that gateway to where now all the home machines.

All the.

Yeah, I was going to say all of them.

You were saying it was revolutionary with a double boiler when.

I have no idea when that machine came out, was it.

Oh, it was more recent.

So it was the single group version of the strata.

So we are talking well over a decade.

Okay.

Before Johnny Chemnitz worked in Rochester.

I can say that.

Okay.

But yeah, I mean, the big machines now are all double boiler at home.

Yep.

And if somebody is buying an espresso machine, they're either buying something cheap like a Gaggia Classic, or they're looking for like a Pro 700.

And you know, those are light years apart in terms of what you can do.

Yeah.

So I mean, you probably experienced that like you can brew your, your shots after shot after shot and then you're steaming like a gallon of milk and it doesn't matter.

No, it's kept up with us in our volume and we were really Worried if it was going to keep up with us because we just finished a week at the Rock Holiday Village.

Nice Week three.

So it was like right before Christmas.

Everyone was coming.

Anyone that was out of town was bringing family.

And we were really worried about that.

I mean, that presented its challenges just on its own.

Weather and everything, keep keeping everything up to temp.

But we were worried if it was just even going to keep up with the volume that we needed to steam milk and pull shots.

And it worked perfectly fine.

Like it keeps up with us.

Were you outside for that?

Yeah, so we were.

Yeah, we were in a 10 by 10.

I was gonna say.

Did you have one of the boxes?

Yeah, well, so we.

We had the fence blocking off our spot, but.

But we were exposed to the.

The cold outdoors.

We got to give you a space.

Heater or anything like that.

So they give you like this tiny little, like, I want to say it's like a foot long heater up in the corner.

It's something, it's something there, but it drops off after like 2ft.

It needs to meet like safety regulations so they can only make it so big.

So they do what they can like in.

In the, you know, well, also providing everybody enough power.

Sure.

Yeah.

It's really easy to trip the power lines there.

But yeah, we had a lot of people warn us about all of the challenges and dangers of going out when it's that cold.

So, you know, instead of kind of running away from that, I wanted to hear kind of what those problems were so I could preemptively prepare for those and try to mitigate whatever challenges that they ran into in the past.

So it was funny.

We kind of made this, you know, that insulation board, the foam board, reflective siding.

I made a little box around my GS3.

Yes.

Oh, cool.

And then I wrapped it in that bubble foam.

And then, you know, we wrapped it like a Christmas present.

So it kind of fit in and looks super ugly.

That's gonna save you a ton of power and recovery time.

Oh my gosh.

So instead of shooting more heat at it, it creates enough heat.

We just need to trap it, keep it in there.

Yeah.

And I had a little flap too.

So, like, if I needed to see it, what was going on, I could lift the flap up and then I could close it and it.

It worked perfectly.

That's cool.

That's fun.

And it.

I'm happy I can say that because I was like, it was a 50, 50.

It was either gonna fall flat on its face or it was gonna work and be awesome.

So we figured out how to do that.

And the only issue we ran into was once it got to like there were a couple consecutive days where it was under 10 degrees.

Yeah.

And we hadn't had an issue with anything weather related on the machine until that one day it was hard to keep the water from freezing.

So I had my water jug, the five gallon.

Yeah.

I had a standing rubber heat mat.

Yeah.

Wrapped around it with the bubble tape.

And I had thermometers in every, like every area that I wanted to keep an eye on.

Yeah.

And I was keeping it at 50 degrees.

But once it got through the line.

Exactly in the line.

Yeah.

The lines aren't insulated.

Running the lines.

Yep.

Yeah.

So this is the only way that Simonelli.

The only thing Simonelli has on Marzocco is that their lines are.

There's actually heating throughout the line.

That's awesome.

Yeah, they're like so.

Yeah.

So that's what the Marzocco or not Marzocco, the Simonelli.

I don't even remember the name of it, but it's three points in the line where you actually get heating elements.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

To keep the, to keep the temperature consistent.

Yeah.

And that's, that's, that's literally the only thing Simonelli's got on.

Marcel.

It was, it was my.

It was the lines for.

Because I bought the hub system.

So I built my cart from plywood.

Yeah.

I found on Instagram.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

That was a whole process.

Everyone should check that out.

Thank you.

So once I got the ball rolling in January, I started building the cart and doing all the behind the scenes work to get ready to go in March.

So I bought the hub system or the hub package or whatever they call it from simple cart comes with the five gallon tank, the wastewater, the rhino spin jet, knock box, like pump actuator.

Like it takes care of all of it.

So yeah, it.

That was the only issue we ran into.

Thankfully no damage to the machine or the boilers as far as I'm aware.

Did you even think that was going to be an issue when you were going there, like water lines?

Yeah, I knew it was.

I knew it was a possibility.

And the first couple days we got lucky, it was like 40 something and then 30 and then it just kept dropping and dropping.

So I had pipe tape.

It's like the sticky tape that you.

Around your PVCs and all that kind of stuff.

I bought it, but I didn't want to damage my stuff long term.

Yeah.

So I thought, okay, I'll deal with it until I can't.

And then when I couldn't was our last day, and I was like, all right, I'm ready to go.

I think just keep.

Keep purging the line and keep it going.

Keep the water from freezing until we can kind of get out of here.

Yeah.

So, I mean, that event one has so many people.

Is that the biggest event you'd ever done?

Is that.

Oh, absolutely.

We've done events where it's two consecutive days before, but that was the first time that we had had five back to.

Back to.

Back to, like, days.

And we had somewhere where I could leave most of my stuff and then just take the valuable stuff or the stuff that could freeze or.

I didn't want any of that to happen overnight.

So it was really nice.

It kind of.

Did you leave the GS3, I'm assuming.

So they have an area that they lock everything up, and it's a.

It's a heated area, stays at, like, 65 or 70 degrees or something.

So that was a huge weight off my shoulders, because sometimes it's a hike to your car to pack up.

So, yeah, there was somewhere safe and secure and warm that we could store some of that stuff overnight.

But it just made me think, like, oh, is this what running a shop is?

Like, I was imagining going home myself and leaving it in a box.

I wouldn't have slept.

Like, it was like, my machine is gonna go.

Somebody's gonna take it.

Yeah, it.

It was one of those things where it's like, oh, God, I hope it's still here.

Right.

But no, we.

They have 24.

7 security.

They have RPD there all the time.

We know Jenna.

She runs it.

It's.

It's buttoned up.

It's real tight.

They don't let people in there that shouldn't be there.

So.

Nice.

I kind of want to take a step back.

So while.

While you're.

While you're developing the idea for doing a coffee brand, right, obviously, you end up going towards the mobile cart to start.

When you're thinking about what is.

What is this coffee company?

How do you define it?

Right.

Because Rochester has seen, you know, a huge growth, even in the last year of, you know, brick and mortar shops that have opened where in the last year we've seen just an explosion of new shops, and there's more and more coming all the time.

So when you're thinking about what.

What is.

What is Mercury?

What is the coffee brand we're trying to describe.

How would you both describe, you know, I mean, from the marketing side and Design side.

I'm assuming you did the design work as well.

One, nice job.

Thank you.

Looks very classy.

Two, how would you define it other than, you know, the hospitality side?

Do you have a message that we're trying to get across with the brand?

I'll let you go first.

Yeah.

So I come from an artistic background.

I'm actually a full time florist.

So I've been a flor full time florist or the floral world for, you know, almost 10 years.

So with that, I kind of have always, you know, obviously had artistic, you know, endeavors, but when Kyle kind of was like, so I want to create a roster company that has like an ode to Roger.

So on the Aqueduct building, there's the.

The Mercury statue.

He's like, I've always had this idea.

Here's my rough idea, you know, and so I was like, okay, we're going to kind of start this brand and we're going to make it, you know, a home place that Rochesterians can come and, you know, enjoy a good cup of coffee.

So we want our vision and our mission to kind of just be like, spreading how coffee makes us feel to everyone else in the community.

So in terms of the marketing and branding, I just like to make it feel, like, comfortable for people, like, approachable as well as.

I just want, you know, people to feel like, wow, this is something different than I.

I've seen.

But also feels, like, comfortable, you know, I feel like you can kind of expand more on the.

Yeah.

The concept.

I wanted the company to be like an ode to Rochester.

I am always the kind of guy that will buy a Rochester shirt or the hoodie.

Flower city kicks.

Yeah.

Like, I got.

Got a Rochester tattoo, man.

I know, I know.

You can say whatever you want about it, but, like, there's got, you know.

Well, it's not the flower.

No, it's not.

I think there's something really special about having pride for where you live.

You know, it's really easy to bash on and harp on all the bad things in a city, but there's so much good here, and I feel like I've always experienced that hand in hand with coffee.

Did you grow up here or.

Yeah, I grew up in Greece.

Okay.

Yeah.

So.

Oh, yeah, I grew up in Greece as well.

Yeah.

Minutes away from each other our whole lives and we didn't know.

We met in high school.

We went to Bishop Carney, so high school sweethearts.

I married an Aquinas girl.

I grew up in Brighton.

Although I'll say this, we.

We both moved From Rochester.

And it wasn't until we moved away that we realized what a special place Rochester is.

Yeah.

And also what a coffee mecca Rochester is.

Totally.

Yeah.

I have friends that are not from here.

Like, I have friends from Buffalo, New York City, and they always will come.

And they're like, I love Rochester coffee.

Like, I've never seen a place that has so much Rochester coffee.

Like, my brother now lives in New York City, and he's like, I still crave, like, some of the local Rochester coffee shops.

But another thing with us is I work in Stacy K.

Floral, which is where Winter Swan is now.

Um, so immaculate vibes in there, by the way.

That whole space, that back area, and the atrium.

What a great place to just spend some time.

Yeah.

So exactly.

And, I mean, I.

I worked at Stacy's way before Winter Swan, you know, was even a business yet.

And when we were thinking of, like, having coffee, I just wanted there to be, like, when we were talking about it, we all wanted there to be, like, a mecca where everybody could kind of come together, and it's just awesome to, like, see people in the space.

So, you know, Quinn was actually of the people that had kind of helped us when we were first starting on answering some questions for us, and we basically just want to create the same similar vibe.

Like, when you go in to, you know, Stacy K.

Floral and Winter Swan, you're just, like, overwhelmed with green and beauty.

And especially in a.

Like, a city that is mostly gray most of the year, there's more gray days in Rochester than there are sunny.

And I feel like coffee is one of those little, like, if you don't have anything else, you have coffee.

You know, even when I don't have a budget for anything else, I'm still gonna go treat myself to a good cup of coffee.

And I think that that's what we want to provide to Rochester is, like, even if it's not a luxurious, you know, purchase you're making, it's still, like, a little bit of happiness that you can.

Hopefully, when we have a cafe one day, we can kind of evoke that same feeling.

Yeah.

And have a brand that people can kind of latch onto.

You know, you'll have the Mercury T shirt at some point or the sweatshirt, and you'll just be wearing it because you really like the branding of it.

And, you know, it's pretty cool seeing people walk around wearing your logo.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah.

And it's got, you know, a little bit of retro vibes.

And I will say from a color, aesthetical, aesthetic, Choice, the sage color, like from somebody who comes from floral.

And I grew up selling greenhouse plants and things.

You definitely made a color choice to allow yourself to have floral decorations that accent the color.

Yeah, like that was a good, selfish choice on your.

Oh, yeah.

And like everything we did with branding related is for the, like the future.

Like, I mean, our.

We love the overwhelming plants and the flowers and the aesthetics.

Like, I love aesthetics.

I mean, everything I do is aesthetics.

My home, you know, what I wear, how I, how I live is aesthetic.

So when I was creating the brand, the branding, I wanted it to be classic, classic, timeless, but also like evoke, you know, a green, warm feeling.

And one of my, like, not that it was a non negotiable, but I had the idea and I was like, izzy, I want it to look like this, but also have this five and kind of feel something like this.

But it's important to like capture that oxidized copper green look with that.

Okay.

Hand in hand with the logo.

So that was more of like a mint green and so we took it a couple shades darker.

But it's still kind of, whenever you look at it, it's meant to kind of invoke that.

Now if you put a brass, a tarnished brass watch next to it, you would totally see it.

Yep.

Yeah.

So that was kind of the thought process behind the brand.

I had the idea, I just couldn't get it onto paper.

And so having somebody that completely understood exactly what I was going for, she showed me the logo.

I'm like, all right.

God, that's perfect.

That's kind of the job of almost every designer is the customer that really doesn't know what they want.

And they know exactly what they want, but they can't describe it.

It's like the classic designer problem.

My wife Carrie is a designer as well and sometimes when she gets custom work, it's just, all right, I'm going to try something and I hope you like it and you get this many changes.

Yeah.

Like, yep, you're going down the right path with this, not this.

Yeah.

Well, I have to say, your logo did it is timeless and classic.

Like it will invoke the same feeling in 12 years that it does now.

Yeah.

And that was one of the things I noticed when I was looking at your branding was if it was an intentional, it was best choice.

If it was unintentional, then you lucked out really well.

Right.

So everything I do is pretty intentional when it comes to design related things.

I mean, that's if I'm good At anything.

It's.

It's probably that, but.

And, and kind of the.

Another initial thing that I, I thought of when I wanted to start the brand was Rochester is the home of Kodak film photography.

There are very few places that you can go currently that even sell film or develop film.

Scott's photo on Estaff, who just got sold to good friend of mine Tatiana.

We're going to be popping up there January 18th for the re.

Grand opening.

Oh, very fun.

Yeah.

But the initial thought was like, Film Cafe, kind of.

It's.

It's Rochester in a space.

You know, I feel like Richard and Quadray should be sitting here and having this conversation, not us.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I.

So I don't know if you guys know Roberto Legaris.

No, Berto quite well.

Great guy.

Was chatting with him at the city event.

Shout out to Berto for, you know, doing more visual work with cities.

A great guy.

We're actually gonna be, you know, setting up tomorrow at behind the Glass second anniversary for their, you know, live show.

And Berta was in that before, you know, we kind of did more stuff locally.

Yeah.

So I met him getting my bachelor's degree at SUNY Brockport.

Oh, awesome.

But he's unbelievably talented.

He showed me how to use my film camera, got me into shooting film because I have a background in video production, media production.

I was a commercial director and producer for a while there, so.

But like, a lot of the stuff you'll see on our social media is like film photos and they're done taken on film because Berto took our like, opening event marketing shoot, which we use like throughout the year.

So a lot of stuff is like on film.

So it kind of.

That also helps with the branding because we.

It's kind of like a little bit of an older aesthetic, but it's mixed with the timeless of like the Mercury and the modern branding.

So it kind of just like we hope when you open your Instagram that the branding comes across as like, oh, this is a Mercury post.

It's consistent.

Yeah.

You can knee jerk tell who's posting it.

No, that's awesome.

I think we're do.

We're gonna take a break and then we're gonna dive into kind of the coffee itself for a little bit.

So we're gonna go to break and we'll be right back.

And we're back with the second half of our conversation with Mercury Coffee and the Level Up Coffee podcast.

So we left off we were talking about the brand, talking about all the design, and I kind of wanted to dive into the coffee side of things because we talked about the machines, we talked about, you know, some of the.

Some of the development, and kind of talk about when it comes to the coffee itself, like, what's.

What is your style of coffee that you like?

Can.

Can I ask a different question?

Oh, please do.

What's the origin story?

Like.

Like, when was it?

Like, oh, it's gonna be coffee for us.

Oh, man.

Like what?

Like.

Like, for.

Is it separate?

Was it together?

What?

No, it.

It was.

I can't even.

I know we've mentioned them a million times, but I think it would just be literally.

We loved Ugly Ducks coffee so much, we wanted to recreate it.

I mean, that was where it kind of came from, and we.

It became kind of like a.

We just one day were like, we love that.

We want to recreate it.

And then we bought an espresso machine and started doing things.

Kyle had a funny kind of, like, Instagram moment where he was just, like, you know, documenting his latte art experience and learning that.

And that was kind of where we were like, okay.

And the people started to, like, love it and latch onto that.

So we really just.

Just decided one day, like, wow, we have a love for this that we.

Guess we didn't even know we did.

And it was also, like, coffee is one of those things where we, as a couple, like, on a Saturday morning, we're gonna go get a cup of coffee together.

So, you know, that was kind of where we started on the coffee.

So.

So, like, what's the timeline from that realization to buying a machine and then to mercury?

So it was, we're spending way too much money going to cafes.

We need to buy a machine, and then it will sit there for a year and a half or so.

I just got a memory on Facebook.

Two years ago, I started my.

I posted my first latte art.

Just a big blob, and then she decided to poke a little smiley face.

Yes, Nice.

God, love the blob.

Every day from there, I would post my latte art, and then I would have baristas that I've met through those different coffee shops that we like going to.

And they would give me pointers, or I would say, hey, like, what is this?

But I want it.

At first, getting the temperature and the texture was really important, and then it was the technique of pouring it.

So there's a lot of different factors that can go wrong when making a coffee or making a latte like that.

So it was.

But it was like, more than just like.

Then we learned, like, maybe our shot of espresso doesn't taste as good as we thought it did.

Like, what can we do to change it?

So we would change, like, the grind size and how many grams we packed into a shot.

And then we started to be like, wow, this is actually improving.

This is something that we, you know, he latched onto the science.

Kyle's the type of guy that when he gets into something, like, he wants to do it to his best ability.

And coffee ended up being one of those things.

So real quick, because this is an interesting point and kind of dovetails with where Chris was going.

So you've talked about things like not being right.

What's not right, and which things that you've tried did you not like?

And then how did you come around to kind of what Chris was saying, like, what do you want to do with coffee?

Where do you want to land?

And, like, what's the goal?

Coffee wise, Flavor wise?

You.

You mentioned something, and it made me think.

There is an exact time when I thought, okay, I can do this.

There's no way I can do worse than this.

I'm not going to name names, but I got a latte.

It was like, in this big, huge cup, undrinkable for 30 minutes because it was so hot.

And it was just this cloud of foam with a little shot in it.

Black shot through the top.

And I was like, that is a latte macchiato.

Yeah.

Just.

Let's just clarify terms.

Actually, it's a dry cappuccino Latte macchiato.

Yeah.

Dry cappuccino macchiato.

Yeah.

It just was not right by all standards of the metrics.

So it was like, all right, there's no way that I can do worse.

Was that right in town here or somewhere?

I was somewhere in.

Yeah.

Fair.

Fair.

Yeah.

But somewhere.

Yeah.

It definitely happened at a place.

Yeah.

A place that remain unnamed.

That's the greatest feeling, though.

I can't do worse than this.

Right.

I was like, well, this place is clearly surviving.

Kicking button surviving.

And if I do it down to the right standards.

But that kind of led us into.

It's kind of with coffee, just like the art field.

You think you can't do it because there's somebody out there that knows and does it better than started intimidating.

Because there's coffee scientists, there's coffee roasters.

You know, there's people that.

Those people suck.

But those people can be the scientists.

Or the coffee roasters.

I hate those people.

If there was one sitting across the table from me.

Yeah.

Right now.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

No, but we.

And then I started to realize it's like, what he may not love as, like, that latte somebody else might love.

And it is very subjective, and coffee super subjective.

So I said, you know, some people have, like, taken a shot of our espresso, and they're like, this is the most balance I've ever had.

Or some people are like, this isn't really, like, what I love.

And I've realized that just like everything else, like, somebody not.

Might not love exactly what you create.

But that's why there's.

There's a market for coffee.

That's why there are different coffee shops, because there is a vast variety of.

How you got flavor blend.

Yeah, sorry.

Because you had that ugly duck coffee, and you were like, this is it.

Yes.

But to go back to what you were saying earlier is like, what's different about ours?

Is it.

I treat it like a cocktail almost, where it's got to be balanced.

If you have a margarita that's, like, too citrusy or heavy on the.

On the liquor, it's like, oh, I'm.

Never gonna be mad about heavy.

No, I'm kidding.

But it.

It's a ratio.

It's a proportion thing.

And what I like about our espresso is that it's very balanced.

You could have it on its own.

And it's enjoyable to somebody who's just starting out, somebody who's very experienced and knows what they're tasting.

It's, like, universally enjoyed.

It's a good intro to coffee if you don't drink it.

And it's enjoyable for people that know what they're.

What they're drinking.

So balance, I think, is my goal, something that isn't overly offensive in its taste.

It's not super sour or bitter, but it's kind of.

It's welcoming.

Is that a business decision, or is that, like, this is what you like, decision?

A little bit of both, yeah.

Because there's so many people that are like, oh, do you have hot chocolate?

I'm like, yeah, I do.

Like, do you not like coffee?

And they're like, I've never had espresso before.

And I'm like, okay, well, let me make you a latte.

Don't.

You don't have to pay for it if you don't like it.

But, you know, let me.

Let me just, like, make you one the way it's supposed to be made.

Like, we have.

We have kids come up and they're like, we had somebody at Rock Holiday Village who ordered an iced latte.

And I'm like, wow, that's commitment in 10 degree weather.

And she's like.

The mom says, yeah, she never orders anything else.

I said, do you like, go to Starbucks all the time?

And she's like, yeah, yeah.

I was like, have you ever gotten a latte, a hot latte from a local cafe?

She said, no.

And I was like, okay, well, that might change your entire outlook 100%.

Right?

Because like when you get a Starbucks latte, they're.

They're undrinkable for 30 minutes.

Like, because they make them extra hot because, you know, people are on the go.

But you know, when you go to a local shop and they make you something beautiful, like, that's what I think.

I remember telling Kyle vividly.

I'm like, you have to try this.

The best latte in Rochester.

When I went to Ugly Duck, because I had never had perfectly steamed milk before.

Like, I was always just a Starbucks or Dunkin, you know, and survival coffee, right?

And there's nothing wrong with that.

Some, some of my friends are like, I won't drink it local.

I only like Starbucks.

And I'm like, okay, you know, it's subjective.

And that's when I realized, like, oh, wow.

Like, it is not something that you necessarily have to, like, you don't have to appease the masses just like every single.

You know, you have to just find your group of people that enjoy your craft.

So real quick, do you find yourself having those conversations a lot?

Because it's.

It can be really off putting to somebody that.

Yeah, like I was.

I enjoy it.

I know Chris would probably be thrilled if that happened to him.

Oh, you know, love it.

But I mean, like, I remember, you know, this, this isn't like a particular incident, but I remember taking my brother's.

My brother's wife or fiance at the time, and they were in town and you know, we went to.

I think we were at the original jobing and she had asked for something that wasn't out all the time.

He said, oh yeah, I can.

We don't have that out, but I can go get it for you.

And just that little interaction where it wasn't the same convenience she was used to.

She was done.

Like that was it.

She was, she was.

It was all over for her, right?

She.

She was done at that moment.

Now, like I said, I go to the depths of nerdery.

I will.

I want to be challenged to the point where I don't Understand something, and then I want to learn more beyond that.

But that's not what most people want.

Most people want comfort, they want balance, they want smooth, they want easy.

But I think the, you know, the, the benefit of what you're talking about is it is the entrance point.

It's not dumb.

Because there's the big difference between easy and dumb.

Yeah.

And there's lots of, you know, there's.

A lot of work that goes into easy, making things look easy.

There's a lot of work that goes into that.

But, like, I think subconsciously, and I'm kind of just coming to this realization now, is that I kind of making my coffee journey accessible for everybody else.

Because I was the guy that was like, hell, no, I'm not drinking a latte.

Like, what is that?

Like, I don't even like espresso.

And Glenn Edith next to the old Glen Edith or petite poutine is right now.

That was my first latte ever, and it was the mocha kick latte.

And she basically said, it's a hot chocolate with a little bit of coffee in it.

Try it out, give it a shot.

And, you know, the moment I opened up my mind to it and it was something that was just a step further than what I was used to, it kind of really got me down that road.

And then the floodgates were open.

This is a perfect example.

We have a family friend, and she would come to our pop ups, and she was never really like a craft latte person.

She came to our pop ups enough, started to really love the craft, wanted to do it at home.

So for Christmas, she got like a, A Breville machine.

And she's FaceTiming Kyle the other day, like, how to dial in her shots.

At home, spent like an hour on the shots.

It's one of those things where it's.

Like I said before, we wanted our brand to feel, like, approachable and comfortable for people, but also tastes really good.

Like, I'm one of those people.

Like, we have definitely, like, specifically, like, certain drinks we have on our menu.

I would be like, nope, this isn't right yet.

This isn't right yet.

Because I, I do want it to taste delicious.

I mean, we drink it every day, but I also want it to feel like, you know, this is something that maybe, you know, is a special thing, but it's.

It feels comfortable and approachable as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, I mean, let's, let's talk about the menu for a second.

So, I mean, your espresso, you're going down the Balanced route, you know, you edging towards a little bit more roasted than super light, or what's your kind of profile you're going for?

Yeah, we use Intelligentsia Black Cat espresso.

It's a nice medium roast.

Colombia, Brazil.

Nice blend.

You know, I don't like things being, like, overly sweet either, so just kind of finding what works with our specific roast that we're.

We're working with.

Gotcha.

So, I mean, starting with, you know, starting with Black Cat, and we've all.

We've all had Black Cat before, been to many intelligentsia shops.

When you're starting to develop the flavors that you want to do in the drinks, I mean, you're bouncing off of something that has a specific flavor profile.

What's the direction you end up going with on flavors, and how'd you make the decisions about where to go with that?

Yeah, so we started using Black Cat when we were doing our Just our Breville at home, and so it just felt like the natural conclude, you know, natural continuation, progression of.

I was comfortable with it at home and using, like, we use holy cacao syrups, and that was a nice mixture for us.

So I kind of wanted to go with what I knew to start off.

I feel like it's.

It's a little bit of a blank canvas Will.

Syrupy little sweet, but it's not like I can drink it straight up if I want to.

I'm not super into straight double shots of espresso myself.

But, yeah, I would say for our menu, we definitely focused on a little bit more craft drinks, so we definitely focus a lot more on our.

Our lattes, cappuccinos, things like that.

So when we do make those, we kind of.

We test it.

I mean, obviously, like anyone, and we've, you know, there's some flavors that we've tried that we don't love, and then we have a lot of classics.

So we do, you know, the typical vanilla caramel.

But then we've.

We've added some to our menu that have, like, apple pie spice or something that kind of adds, like, a different element to make it a little bit more complex.

But it's still, like we said, available to everyone.

We, you know, we'll have the traditional pumpkin spice and things like that, but always like to throw in something that might be a little bit out of it.

I was gonna say tell us what some of those are, though.

Okay.

Yeah.

So there's the.

You go first.

So right now, in season is our peppermint mocha.

So we've got the ghirardelli chocolate sauce and the merry mint from Holy Cacao.

That's.

It's super refreshing.

It's a lot creamier of a drink than your traditional vanilla latte.

May be just because of that chocolate sauce.

But throughout the summer, we have specialty lattes with, like, BlackBerry.

That was a really popular one this year.

BlackBerry surprisingly goes really well with our espresso.

Makes a ton of sense with those complimentary.

A little bit roasty, a little bit darker fruit flavors.

Yeah.

Because black cat, you know, it's.

It's like that marshmallow, raw sugar kind of taste to it.

Yeah.

So it complemented it really well, and people like those.

I'm not one for, like, fruit in my ice cream or fruit in my coffee, but I know some people are, so it was one of those things.

Where it's like, some people are.

Chris.

I was gonna say fruit.

Fruit in your beer.

Chris is.

I.

I'm a purist in almost everything I do, so I like when.

I think it was like a year ago, I tried one of, like, the, you know, specialty seasonal lattes at Ugly Duck for the first time.

I couldn't remember the last time I ordered a milk drink for myself, and I had them like, wow, this is actually pretty good.

I know.

This is why people buy these.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

There's some of our drinks, too, like.

Like our chai's that we have.

There's a raspberry vanilla chai, which.

Our chai is a little sweet already, so we try not to make it, like, over the top.

But it was a drink that my brother suggested, and so we named it after him because people, it.

You get a straw in there, and you are chugging that thing.

Yeah.

Like, it is so refreshing, and it just really works well.

That raspberry, that vanilla with that tea taste as well.

Yeah.

I kind of wonder, like, have you.

Have you messed around with the culinary side of creating your own flavors from scratch?

Yeah, we have.

There's a lot of error.

We.

We did try to make our own pumpkin spice.

It didn't go as well as planned.

We do hope to make our own.

I'd like to.

Another inspiration is I had a latte at Clementine in Fairport, and they used an UBE figure.

You know, he's not a huge fan of fig, but I am, and I was, like, obsessed with it.

Something that we could, you know, make our own, call our own.

And then our customers are kind of on a journey with us at the same time.

I haven't tried everything there is to try yet.

So if we find something that kind of piques our interest, or even if it's something that I may not like, I know that somebody out there, it probably is their taste in.

Like my dad, for instance, he was never an espresso drinker.

He was black coffee all the time.

And now he kind of.

He's broadened his.

He's like, sure, I'll try that.

And then he, you know, can you.

Put a pump of BlackBerry in that for me?

I'm like, you like BlackBerry in your coffee?

It was like, it's shocking what people like, but you don't know unless you try it.

So.

Well, it's kind of exciting.

It's.

It's a big door to open.

And I like.

Personally, I love making.

I love making syrups at home.

I find it very enjoyable as a practice because it's really about emphasizing the flavor of the thing.

Yeah, right.

How much of that thing can you get in there?

Like, I remember making one last year that was at the public market, and they were, you know, was the end of the day.

So you could buy some blueberries for super cheap.

And I bought, like, a case of commercial blueberries for, like, $5.

Yes.

I had to throw away, like, half of them because they weren't usable.

But, you know, you get through them, and I'm like, oh, this didn't quite turn out the way I wanted.

And then, oh, I have some hibiscus.

I added hibiscus to it to get more vibrancy and some acidity.

Yeah.

And then, oh, how much salt do I need to add in to pop the flavors?

It's just a constant process of tasting.

Just made some hot sauce.

Recently made some Vietnamese hot pepper hot sauce.

But every step is tasting how much more salt, how much more vinegar.

Yeah.

How much more of this.

And that's the.

For me, that's the excitement.

Oh, yes.

For us, like, creating new things for our menu.

Like, we taste them first, and we'll sometimes, like, we had one where it was a.

Our take on a Nutella latte.

So it was hazelnut and.

And chocolate.

And some people were like, oh, that's weird.

But I was like, oh, if you think about it, it's like Nutella.

And then we try that, and we're like, oh, the.

You know, too much hazelnut, not enough you know?

Yeah, chocolate in it.

It's all about proportions.

Yeah.

So we try everything beforehand and make sure, like, sometimes he's like, oh, this is perfect.

And.

And other times I'm like, I think we should tweak it.

But that to me is like, creating new menu items is one of the, like the funnest part.

Especially like on seasonal changes or sometimes people give us really cool ideas and we're like, let's try it.

Like, let's go for it.

And usually if there's a suggestion like, hey, you should try this out.

If we try it out and it's bomb, like we're gonna name the drink after you.

It's the fun that you can have kind of owning your own business.

And, you know, once we have somewhere to call home, I think there's gonna be a lot more of those experimental choices for the menu and things.

More things that are done in house.

I think the run and gun style of what we're doing right now, it's like I wish I could buy all this product to test and deal with, but right now it's like it's kind of keep it slim and you know what the people are coming for, you know what they like.

And then once we establish our footing a little bit, that's where we can get to experimentation.

Yeah, don't challenge me with you'll put my name on the menu.

I'm going to dominate that whole menu.

Coming up with new flavors.

I need to be five.

Chris the Lindstrom, the Strami.

These are all after one guy, actually.

Yeah.

So are you guys full on in now?

It's Mercury coffee and.

Yeah.

Gangbusters or.

Well, so we, we both work full time jobs.

That's why I was curious if you're.

We're.

We raise our son.

He's 15 months old now.

God bless full time jobs.

And this is the weekend grind.

So I would really like to make it my full time thing.

When it's demanding enough of it, we're heading in that direction quicker than I imagined we would.

That's good.

Which is.

It's always good.

It's good to be busier than less busy than you anticipate.

But yeah, if we find the right place, I think we have the luxury right now of not rushing into the wrong thing or the wrong place or signing a bad lease.

We are perfectly content like right now doing mobile events, doing these weddings and showers and these vendor markets where we get to meet everybody.

We've made so many cool friends in this nine month stint alone.

So once we find the right thing, we'll be full time at that.

That's awesome.

I did want to bring up because we got introduced through the commissary.

You've been working with them for how long now?

So in order to get all of my permits, I needed to have a like home base commissary kitchen.

And it's such an incredible service that they offer for the community.

I didn't know that that existed when I started this.

And that's kind of where we're Quinn in talking to her and what she did to start up, that's where that was really helpful for me.

So she said, hey, take a look.

Take a look at the commissary.

They're nice people over there.

They'll help you out with whatever you need.

And Kevin and Hannah, now Denise, the new president.

They are fantastic.

I mean, anything that I need, they're there for me.

And especially this week that we had at Rock Holiday Village, I was in there making our hot chocolates ahead of time.

I.

I can rent equipment from them and bring it out a frame sign Cambros.

And I'm over there, I'm on, I'm on a six stove, six burner stove.

And you know, I'm like mixing all of these different things, making hot chocolate from scratch.

And Kevin comes over and he's like, hey, you know you can use a steam vet over here, right?

I was like, wait, that's what that is?

You're like, what is that thing?

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I was like, can you show me how to use it right now?

Like, this would make my life so easy.

Pour everything in there.

And it just having his guidance in, in order to do those things and then using the standing floor mixer to make all my, my whipped cream, like without him showing me all of those things and kind of walking me through what's available to me as a member of the commissary, besides just the permits, because as a mobile cart, I don't have like a certified home kitchen or state inspected.

So having somewhere where they're not just giving me or helping me get my permits, they're supporting you.

It's a true incubator environment.

Yeah.

And it's, you know, those are the kind of things you're also learning lessons for.

You know, if you're going to open your own place eventually, you're one of the things that you don't want to do.

You're learning things you do want to do.

Yeah.

And both are equally valuable, like learning the things you don't want to do the mistakes, you know, making them early in a space than a commercial area lets you learn the things that you don't want to waste money on.

Oh, yeah, Correct.

That's not valuable to us.

Or.

We didn't even think.

We thought that at Rock Holiday Village that, you know, our lattes were going to be our number one seller.

And we sold over 900 cups of homemade hot chocolate.

It was a pretty easy.

Without the commissary, we wouldn't have ever been able to provide that amount.

They just had the equipment needed.

And then also it was just.

The support is awesome too, because they, like, came and they bought hats and merchandise and, you know, all the things.

It feels like, you know, like somebody that really helps, like small businesses have the opportunity to do that and like the confidence to take the lead.

And then they.

They recommend us for stuff like this and.

Yeah.

And shows.

And then when people come and they say, hey, we have this awesome big event going on.

Do you have vendors that you'd suggest?

They've got people that they just recommend.

And so we've gotten some great jobs and gigs through them as well.

So could you briefly go over, like, what the startup was from, you know, when you walked in to the commissary?

We're like, I want to start a business to, you know.

Yeah, they.

They have a checklist.

So there were things from my initial contact.

I emailed them, they gave me a checklist and said, hey, when you have these things, come back and then we can talk.

So it gave me a nice framework of things that I still needed to do on the back end, the business side of the business before I approach them.

So, like getting certain permits or having certain tax filings and sales tax and all that kind of stuff, like having all of that ready and bundled together.

And then it's like, all right, Stamp, you're in.

You're off to the races.

So they make it pretty easy for somebody that's just starting out.

And then once you were in there, was there any sort of a.

I don't know, I get to know the area or what was that like?

Yeah.

So for me personally, I couldn't even see far enough ahead that I would need training on something like the steam vat until the time came.

But, like, depending on what your business is, they'll walk you through on anything that you may need to use, like dishwasher, the sink, the stove.

Here's where this goes.

Here's where this goes.

You can rent out gear here or you can rent the Storage locker over here or just like ice, Ice machine.

That we need to use every weekend.

Yeah.

So every time we have an event, I have to go fill up my ice coolers.

And so they really tailor it to whatever your business is.

Let's give you the orientation on what's most beneficial for your business.

No, that's awesome.

I'm excited to learn a lot about, learn more about the places that are involved with the commissary.

You know, shout out to them for, you know, helping bring some of the members out to, you know, out to food about town so we can, we can chat about that.

Because this is, you know, this is where a lot of places get their start that are now, you know, long term members of the community.

And that's like, what a great thing to say.

Hey, I just have an idea.

How can we make this happen?

And even just that checklist, how many of those things would you have had to run into?

Then you go home and find it.

Then you go there.

Yeah.

Because you're going to make those mistakes along the way.

And like, I remember trying to launch, you know, launch lunch at our podcast network.

I'm like, I've never done that.

What are all the steps?

How do I have to do this?

I do.

How many searches did I do?

I just give you a list.

What, What a great thing.

Yeah.

I remember trying to start a podcast with Wade.

I have no memory of this.

Personally, I feel like there's nothing more valuable than being able to solve a problem like that and really figure it out on your own.

It's really great to have somebody that says like, oh, hey, don't make this mistake, this really big mistake that I made, like, save yourself.

Or even like, Kyle made a mistake when we were getting ready for like Rock Holiday.

And then he was like, really upset about it and whatever.

And then I said to him, which my boss taught me, and she's like, I bet you'll never make that mistake again.

And like, he's like.

And then a little while later, what was the mistake?

We got to know.

I'll tell you.

There's a photo of it.

I'm on my way out of the commissary with 15 gallons of hot chocolate in Cambros and they're on one of these push carts.

Yeah, it.

Oh, God.

So I'm.

I'm just about to go to the outside door.

My car is out there waiting for me and there's the tiniest little lip in the tiles.

And I'm going, because I gotta be there in 15 minutes, I'm gonna pack my car up and drive down the street.

And I hit that bump, and time just froze.

And this thing tipping over, spills everywhere right in front of the security guard.

And I looked at him, and I'm like, dude, I don't have a rag.

I can't clean this up.

He's like, man, don't worry about it.

That's not the worst thing I've seen.

Dude, my heart dropped.

Good thing I made extra.

And they let me store it back there because I just went and topped it off.

But, like, I.

I was like, I can't believe I made a mistake like that.

And then he said to me, iris said, I bet you'll never do that again.

And he was kind of mad at my response.

And then a little while later, he came back, and he goes, you're so right.

I'll never make that mistake again.

And I'm like, yeah, you have to do that.

You just need to slow down in.

In any industry, like, you're gonna make mistakes.

And then sometimes you're just so mortified by it, you're like, yep, I'm never doing that again.

Bigger.

Bigger cartwheels.

Bigger cartwheels.

Yeah.

Rollerblade wheels.

Yes.

Well, and the best thing, too, about those is that story is gonna live on, and you're gonna tell that story, and people are gonna laugh, and you're gonna remember how silly it was.

I'm already laughing about it.

You better have a drink on your menu named after that.

The cartwheel.

The spilled hot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The memorable spill.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Built a spill.

Yeah.

That's pretty good.

That's pretty good.

So I think it's.

I think we should close out.

So before we close out, is there anything else coming up that you want to tell people about?

Anything, you know, new that you're changing that people should know about so people can find out?

Yeah.

So we've kind of taken a little bit of a hiatus over the last couple of weeks with all the holidays and New Year and our.

I feel like rock holiday village really kicked the crap out of us physically.

So we're.

We're getting back into it.

January 18, 10am to 3pm at Scott's photo on East Avenue.

We're gonna be popping up for their re.

Grand opening and have all of our menu items ready, ready to go.

We're gonna have some pastries from Butterjoy Bakery.

I've heard things.

I have to have to try the stuff.

Oh, you have to have her on.

And she's.

She's phenomenal.

She does a lot of.

I buy croissants from her.

I, I'm a big.

I like a little small croissant, something not too sweet that I can have with my coffee.

Are they opening at South Clinton and Good?

Yeah, they're right next to their rock cinema.

That must.

That's where it's open now or it's.

Opening this month I think couple of weeks.

I think the 24th.

Yeah.

I was, I remember when my friend Dave from Lettuce, be Frank, opened there.

Dude, next to this.

Those were solid breakfast Samm Shout out to Dave Potwin.

Nowhere he's living right now.

Might be Singapore, I don't know.

Okay, cool.

He's.

Hey, if Rochester doesn't work out, you go to Singapore.

That's what everyone says.

He's been bouncing all over, all over Asia.

Like what.

He's you know, living quite the life with his wife and kids out there.

But I remember going there for the.

First memorable breakfast sandwiches.

I loved that stuff and it's great to see something going in there because you know, more vibrancy in that area, especially over there is a great thing right down the street from my favorite place in Rochester.

Zamada Ethiopian.

Great people.

So that's exciting.

Yeah.

So shout out Jaina.

That's our next event.

We're going to be at Scott's photo.

Really excited about that.

That's kind of the other half of the brand that I'd like to explore a little bit more and I know that they want to do coffee so it's kind of a nice, a nice mixture at this point in time for both of us.

So that's where we're going to be.

We're going to be doing a lot more of the shows that we did this past summer.

Yeah, like I'm social presence is we stay up to date.

So everything if you follow us on Facebook or Instagram, we're up to date.

Usually make posts and stories about where we're going to be but sometimes there's last minute add ons but just staying up to date with that and you'll kind of know where we are.

What are the.

What are the handles?

The handles?

Yeah, it's at Mercury Coffee company on Instagram and that's also on Facebook as well.

Mercury Coffee Company find us.

Their website is mercury rockroc.com there's all of our, our booking and our information about us.

If you need to inquire about an event, that's where you'll do it.

Awesome.

Yeah.

So shout out my parents too for helping me.

They will always watch my son when we do these events.

That was going to be my other question.

Yes, we literally could not do it without them.

Could not do that without their help.

And you know, the best part about starting a business, I guess, is I have a big family so I can call upon all of my siblings to work with me as well.

So we have a pretty deep roster of people that can help us in a pinch.

Very cool.

So thank you.

That's awesome.

So really appreciate you both coming over.

Thanks to Aaron and Wade from the Level Up Coffee Podcast on the Lunch at our Podcast Network.

If you enjoyed hearing about coffees, tune in for that.

We've doing more tastings, talking more about coffee all around Rochester and beyond and we'll be back next time with more on the Food About Town podcast.

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Music for the podcast was created by the fabulous Torres Savant.

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