Stay Tranquilo - How Cuban Flavors Are Winning Hearts Everywhere! | Stay Tranquilo x CAO

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

In this episode of the Stay Tranquilo Podcast, we sit down with Tony Cao, founder of CAO Bakery, to talk Cuban roots, family legacy, and building one of the fastest-growing Cuban-American bakery brands in the U.S.Tony shares how growing up inside the iconic Vicky Bakery led to launching his own concept — CAO (Cuban American Original) — blending tradition with that distinct Miami flavor. From pastelitos to partnerships with Marlins Stadium, hear how CAO is expanding beyond South Florida and into cities like Tampa, Orlando, and even North Carolina.🎙 What we cover:— Legacy of Vicky Bakery & Miami roots— Building CAO Bakery from 6 to 22+ locations— Why Cuban flavor is taking over the U.S.— Franchise tips & brand values— Favorite menu items and the secret to their flavor📍Filmed at CAO Bakery in Hollywood, FL☕️ Support local. Support Cuban. Support original.👇 Let us know your go-to bakery order & don’t forget to subscribe!#CubanAmerican #StayTranquilo #CAOBakery #MiamiEats #LatinoEntrepreneurs #SmallBusinessStories Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There's definitely an opportunity, obviously, dense Cuban population, dense Hispanic population in South Florida. But I know plenty of people that, whether they lived in Miami and then they moved out or they're a Cuban somewhere else throughout the country, that they're waiting for something like this. Everything Cuban's hot. Even in California, you go to restaurants in California, there's lines outside of La Floridaita. Porto's Bakery does over 25 million locations.

It's a similar concept, but there's only ones out there, you know? So I think people want a little bit of that Cuban culture, You want a little bit of ethnic influence, you know, as you go into neighborhoods. I did it to honor the family. My grandparents who started Vicki Bakery and my father. But we also came up with acronym, Cuban American Original, which I'm your first Cuban, in my family. I'm the first Cuban American generation that was born here. As I said, my father was born in Cuba.

So it's like that Miami flavor. How can we keep the tradition, but kind of spice it up with a little Miami flavor, you know? What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the State Tranquilo podcast. We're here with Tony Cow, one of the founders of Cow Bakery. We're here at the Hollywood location. See the assortment of Pasaditos. We got the cafe.

We're going to have a great conversation, obviously, around the bakery, the story of cow, story of Tony as well, born and raised in Miami. So we'll get into a little bit of some Miami talk. But thank you for the time and taking the time to do this. Happy to be here. Happy to be here and talk. Oh, yeah. So before we get into story,

Cal, tell us a little bit about growing up in Miami, been kind of, you were telling me before, a little bit everywhere, Edgewater, Miami Lakes, now back in Miami Lakes again. Talk to us a little bit about what life has been in Miami over the course of your lifetime. Okay, so I was born and raised in Hyaliyah, born in Hyaliyah Hospital, grew up, went to a private school, Immaculate Conception, went to HMO for high school, always, always been in a bakery, grew up in the back of our bakery pretty much in Hyaliyah, in Hyalya, on 49th Street in front of Hyalya High. That was my My dad saw the Vicky Bakery there. Running around the back as a kid, playing with the dough.

So we had the plate pit in the back when my sister grew up, so we were always part of the bakery business, always part of the culture. But Miami's, it's unique. It's unique in the United States of America. I feel like it's, I want to say it's a part of Cuba, but there's a very strong influence here. It's a very strong culture of having your coffee in the morning, grabbing your croqueticas, and our kids grow up on it.

I grew up on it. I'm sure you did as well. So yeah, that's what's about. There's a level of nostalgia of just being around a cafe and patalito and croquetta, right? Like it feels like home every time. And it's funny. My uncle, he lives in Tennessee, but born and raised in Miami. And every time he comes back to Miami, every single day he's going to the bakery to go

croquettes, patalitos and cafe with leech and Cuban bread. Like that's because why? He's like, I don't get to do it in Tennessee. So how do I come here? Like, how do I not come here and eat and consume the food? Because it's a part of who you are and part of your identity. We got some partners. I'm part of the family, actually.

They live in Gainesville. Okay. They come down. They grab boxes and boxes. And they take it over and they have their neighbors coming over. So it's awesome. Yeah. So you brought up your father started, yeah, in the bakery world.

But before he got there, I'm guessing he came from Cuba and migrated to the States. Yeah. My grandfather came when he was very young when he was two years old. My grandparents came and I believe 67 or 66. Okay. They started the first Vicky Bakery in 1972. The first one is by the airport, LaJune and Southeast A Street.

I'm by 36th Street in the airport. And then the second location was my dad's location in front of Highly High. Nice. But my dad was working with him from nine years old, probably, building the brand, building Vicky Bakery, what it is, you know? Yeah. When I grew up the same thing, I started working probably in nine, 10 years old,

washing pans, washing floors, then went to the pastries, then went to the desserts, found the real passion in the desserts. I really like doing the cakes and desserts. I kind of like modernizing them and changing that up when I was in Vicki's. So that was a good experience.

That's cool. And did your grandparents come from any sort of culinary experience that your father was kind of influenced by that? Yeah, my grandparents met in a bakery in Paladero. Okay. I don't remember the name. I think it's the Valencia or something similar to that. But I have a picture.

Like when you go to the corner back there, there's a old picture of them like when they were younger. So they worked in a bakery in Cuba. They came over here. opened actually two different bakeries. One of them burned down by Jackson Hospital before they opened Vickies. And they opened another one by the Flanagan's, the original Flanagan's in Hailea, bought a little bakery. And then they sold that one and then eventually opened the Vicki Bakery on Southeast in 1972. So they're always, my grandfather, like when he came here, he worked in

bakeries, worked in construction. It's one of those guys that's the Jack of All Trades. His still is in the same house by Flanagan's in Hyaliyah there. He's remodeled the whole house himself. he's done the tile from the cabinets in the kitchen. The other day I went, he kicked the landscaper's out. He was doing landscaping outside. I was like, Aluelo, what are you doing?

He's like, no, et de hindo don't see him. You know, like they, they don't build them like they used to, you know? So I definitely got my work experience from my grandfather, my father. That's cool. Four in the morning, they're up,

10 o'clock at night they were getting home. It was a lot easier now. Right. With technology and everything we have, but. But I think that's a testament to, you know, Cubanos and Hispanics in general, right? They have a different work ethic and they're, like, to your point, they're a jackaball

trades because they're so used to doing everything on their own, right? Like, they're going to fix the light bulb. They're going to change the oil in their car. They're going to build their business from scratch because, like, they want to do everything themselves. And it's like almost like this. My grandfather was like this stubborn as hell, but the guy could do everything and anything. Yeah, same on my grandfather.

Those machines in the backyard, they can make machines to make pastries in the backyard. He has like a one-shot with metal machines. It's impressive. That's impressive. So let's get into the story of cow, right? You talk a little bit about your family background and, you know, they started Vicki's bakery. But now obviously you're here with Cal. It's kind of your passion project and your initiative to start of your own.

But talk a little bit about, you know, that transition and to learning what you learn with your family at Vicky to then obviously starting Cal now. Definitely. So about in 2015, like my family, we all own two stores. I own two stores of Vicki's. My dad owned two stores. and my two uncles and their wives owned two stores. So then we decided to start doing license agreements and franchising the brand.

We got up to about 21 locations, I believe, while I was still there. In 2015, they made me a partner in Vicki Enterprise. And then, so at that point, I owned six Dickey Bakery locations. We were in a path of growth, so we wanted to keep opening locations, being my partner, Carlos Devarona, who opened Cal Baker, me, my other founded.

And then it got to a point that we were in a part It got to a point that we were changing the concept a little bit. We're too eager to grow. We were the younger guys in the group, I guess, you know. And so we started pushing more of a cafe concept. We have more breakfasts, more sit down, more seating inside. As you can see in these locations, as we're going north, you know. The original Vicky Bakers were more takeout, more bakery, traditional bakery, you know.

Grosquettas, patelitos, cakes, and desserts. Like, we got more into the food part of it. And then, so it got to a point. The brands were kind of separating and look and feel. So we decided to, we got my grandfather's blessing, got my father's blessing. We decided to launch Cal in 2018 and convert the six Biggie Baker locations we had into Cal locations. Oh, okay. And then from there, now we're at 22 locations, and we got about six of them on the way right now.

We're going to Orlando. We got two in Tampa. We're looking at locations in North Carolina with a group that wants to do four or five locations in the Charlotte area. So that's hopefully the next project. But we're moving. We're moving. There's definitely an opportunity, obviously. dense Cuban population, dense Hispanic population in South Florida.

But I know plenty of people that whether they lived in Miami and they moved out or they're a Cuban somewhere else throughout the country, that they're waiting for something like this, right? And a lot of them are even asking themselves, like, do I do it? My uncle, like, he lives in Knoxville. And he's always like, dude, I think I'm just going to open up a Cuban bakery out here. We're already going to be heading that way, tell me me to call. Yeah, yeah. But it's funny because the couple, the wife is from St. Brendan.

You know, we're all familiar with St. Brendan. Of course. She was born and raised here in Miami. She still has family here, comes in visits, and she feels like there's a need there. She's a big part of the community out there in Charlotte. And I guess networks with everybody, and man, she's like, we'll kill it with a Cuban baker here.

It's what they're missing, you know? So as we go north, I was telling you in this location, we're in Hollywood. And there's not a lot of competition on here. So we're doing very well in these locations in Hollanddale and Fort Lauderdale in Tampa. So I feel like as we go, we're the only coke in the desert to say, you know, and we're having very good results.

Yeah, that little Westchester Circle, you might have like 20 bakeries within like a three mile radius, right? Whereas up here like in Hollywood, maybe God knows what the closest bakery is to. I'm not even sure. Yeah. So around here. So imagine if you're,

there's plenty of us out here. So if we're going to need a spot, this is the perfect place to kind of come and feel that nostalgia and have your food that you want. Definitely. And I think people want it. I think people want to try. Everything Cuban's hot.

Even in California, you go to restaurants in California. There's lines outside of La Floridaita. Sure. One of those bakery does over 25-minute locations a similar concept, but there's only ones out there, you know? So I think people want a little bit of that Cuban culture, want a little bit of, I think, influence, you know, as you go into neighborhoods. When you made that transition from Vickie's to starting Cal, what kind of, I guess, did you see that needed change? Like, what was that kind of, I guess, vision that you saw an opportunity that you saw that said, hey, you know what?

You know, we've been doing it this way, but maybe we should try to do it this way. Okay. So Cal is our last name, as I was saying. I'm Tony Kao. I did it to honor the family. My grandparents who started Vicki Bakery and my father. But we also came up with acronym, Cuban American Original, which I'm your first Cuban in my family. I'm the first Cuban American generation that was born here. As I said, my father was born in Cuba. So it's like that Miami flavor. How can we keep the tradition, but kind of spice it up with a little Miami flavor, you know? So we hired Jeremiah Bullfrog. He was a chef on a good friend of mine as well, a chef on a couple of those, food network shows, you know, and all that.

And man, he redid our sandwiches, helped us redo our sauces from scratch. We kind of kept that traditional flavor, but it has that little Cuban-American. So our flita has cheese on it. A lot of flitas don't have cheese. Right. I like my flita with cheese. I'm an American American. Exactly, yeah.

So I love that Cuban flavor. So if you try our flita, I think it's one of the best frittas out there. It's amazing. 100% Angus beef. We use good chorizo, good pork. But with the cheese and our homemade shoestring fries and our homemade aole sauce. So to make our sasona alias. We use the goya pacts, the goya sason packs.

So you make like arducompoa with a quarter. And we make the sauce out of that. So it really keeps the tradition, really keeps the roots of where we're getting our stuff from, you know. Everything's fresh, you know. So you go to Starbucks, you're getting like powder eggs. Like all our eggs are fried fresh. It's fast, fast casual. So you're getting enough fresher experience, I think, when you come here, you know?

Got it. Okay. And what would you say for you guys as like, obviously expansion into other states, other regions, maybe where there's not prevalent bakeries? But what's kind of the future and the best? future and the vision for Cal. Definitely. I think we want to go up the East Coast. So like I said, we're looking at North Carolina now. I think that's a big jump for us as we're in Tampa and we're already signed in Orlando. We're doing a build-out now in Orlando. So it's a big jump, but I feel like it's a jump much needed. I feel like we're the first Cuban bakery out of state, kind of like from

Miami, Miami bakeries, you know? Gotcha. And I feel like it will push us to move faster into Georgia, South Carolina, which we already have interests. We're already talking to some people in those areas. We're really looking for good operators. We're not just like, I have phone calls every day of people that want passive income and they want to, they want to invest this and sit back. And I was like, no, man, this is a neighborhood bakery. And at least the first year, it takes a lot. Yeah, you got to get your hands dirty and be involved. Knowing how Justin walks in, wants his coffee.

And that's how you build the clientele here in these areas. People really feel like a connection of, oh, like, how's your kids today? You know, John, here's your coffee, Claretto, a little bit of sugar, you know. So as we go growing, that's really important to us, we're part of those communities because I feel like that's where we thrive. As we started growing, me and my partner, we own 12 locations. out of the 22. And we got to a point that we had to stop

because we were losing that, you know? And we felt like, man, we can't be everywhere in all these spots. And we started seeing like spots like Fort Lauderdale open and be very successful the first couple months and then kind of like level out, you know? And it's because we couldn't put the time in

to be there. Of course, it can't be everywhere. Then we made the decision of franchising because these people have skin in the game. They want to, they're going to take care of it. Like we took care of it, you know? So at that point, like, and we're having good results.

It's just a matter of finding the right people that want to want to be involved in what we're doing. Yeah. And I guess to piggyback off of that, how do you find the right people when building these franchises, right? Like, obviously, on paper, they might look, you know, like they qualify, they got the funds, you know, they got the experience, whatever it may be. But to your point, do they have that personal aspect? Do they understand what it means to be a Cuban-American?

It's tough, and it's a lot of going with your guttings think a lot of times. They're having those meetings. I think you might have my partner read people very well. And like, we'll take the first meeting if we don't feel right, we're not taking a second meeting. And if it's not about the money, like I said, it's about building the brand. Like, we need to be very strategic and successful with these next few franchises. And we're not going to be that if we just get whoever to open them. Right.

Yeah. And so what's been for you, right? Now how many, so it's been, what, about seven years? Yeah, 2018. Yeah, since you basically started Cal. What's been the biggest challenge for you in the business? Okay, well, we went through, we launched a brand. A year later, we were going through COVID.

True. A year after that, we were going through inflation. A year after that, we were going through labor shortage. So if we could get through the first three years, I'd get through anything, you know. Very fair. So in that sense, it was tough. It was super hard. We were part of the Miami-Made program of the University of Miami, a big U.M.

fan. We invested a lot of money into launching the brand, brand recognition, the first three years. And it was kind of stunk that we couldn't have people at the games. We were on the scoreboard. Every game you see Cal Baker over there, and it was tough for us to put all that money and then have to have COVID kind of mess itself, you know. But, yeah. And now you're on the other side of that?

Yeah, now we're seeing where obviously like the past three years, we've passed pre-COVID numbers. Things are great. Inflation is still kind of finicky, but it's getting a lot more stable. You know, we had the problem with eggs a few months ago. Eggs were like 300 bucks in case. We ate all that. We don't pass it to our customers.

So it's tough. It's a tough industry. The good part of what I would say about our franchise and about the way we function and we're able to to multiply this with consistency and quality is our commissary model.

So we make everything in Miami Springs at a commissary. We make all the pastries. We make all the bread. We make all the cakes and desserts. We send them to the stores fresh every other day, you know? So at the end of the day

when we had dessert makers in the bakery and you're making a batch of cheesecake, it lasts you for about a week and a half because you're making a batch of cheesecake. And people think since it's not made in a baker, it's not fresh. No, it's actually fresher

because we're making only what we sell for the next day or two, you know? And in the warehouse, so we're making stuff fresh every day. So the guy who makes cheesecake is making batches every day. And you get only the two cheesecakes you need to sell. So they're fresh. Everything's fresh and everything's rotated.

You could open up at a bakery tomorrow and you don't know how to have to do anything. We're going to stock your store and deliver it to you. And we're going to be able to open, you know. That's the plus. I consume cow on a regular basis. You know, the one right there on Sunset at 97. And you could tell the freshness from like the bread, the pastries, the meat, everything. The pork sandwich I've had.

I've had the egg sandwich from there, the patalito, the croquettes, the cafe. everything. And they all look the same as if you come here in Hollywood. Right. At the end of the day, it's the same exact person making the one in Hollywood that they're making in sunset, you know. So the Patriots are baked fresh every day. They go get all the fried fresh.

So it's really the desserts that you got to send them every other day. Because these things are, we send them frozen, you egg washing, you bake them off. So it's a fresh baked product every day. Yeah, yeah. And so logistically, right, like if you were to go to North Carolina, obviously you kind have the infrastructure here, how do you achieve that in those other locations? So we're going to eat a lot of that cost right now, sending our refrigerator trucks over there. Eventually in the next few months, we're already planning maybe Gainesville or

Orlando Hub. Okay, got it. So we're going to produce some of the stuff that's not frozen. Some of the fresh stuff over there. Yeah, and we can bounce it off. Hopefully hit Atlanta soon, South Carolina, and then. Atlanta would be sick. Atlanta's a good market. It's a real foodie market. A huge foodie market. It's young. It's vibrant. I mean, they've invested a lot of money into like that battery district as well where the baseball stadium is. Yeah. That would be cool. And do you guys do anything with any of like the sports stadium? I know you talked a little bit about UN, but like any activations inside the stadiums or anything?

So we're doing an activation right now with Marlin Stadium. Okay. And I forgot the dates. I'll get back to you on that. But I know it's coming up soon. I believe it's the 15th of May right now. 15, 16, 17. We're doing like five days in the Martin Stadium.

We're doing pigs in the blanket and the page you go. So we're keeping like the MLB, but like mixing it with the Cuban culture. Nice. We'll have a Cuban sandwiches, go get the paparadas out there. Our hook and boil bites. So that's a little cool activation that we're doing with the Marlins. Oh, yeah. But yeah, we're always involved in sports.

Like I said, I'm a big UM fan. So I love it. What are your thoughts on the UM season this year? Big. Big expectations. Big expectations. Every year it's big expectations. After last year, I think it's even bigger, you know?

Yeah. If you lose a guy like Cam Ward, that's some big shoes. I'm excited about their basketball as well with the new coaches they got in. Yeah, he's doing good things there. New players have been recruiting. So super excited. I just got my football season ticket yesterday actually. Cool.

So very excited. Yeah. We'll see what happens. with the U. I'm not a U.M. but I grew, I grew up. Meadie's done. No, I'm kidding. I'm a, I got, I got the Panthers.

Panthers are kicking bud. They lost yesterday, but yeah, they're kicking butt. Got those in hockey, but FIU. Oh, that's you found. Yeah, FU Pandits graduated from there. So I've been in a, I grew up in FIU fan. My wife's a Panthers as well. Yeah, that's good.

That's good. Yeah, good school. Yeah, good school. But before we wrap it up, I want to get kind of your thoughts on like what are your top three items that if you're going to cow you got to get. I know you guys do the ice coffee too, which we didn't talk about that. For sure. But that's a, you know, that's a big little trend going on out there.

So your traditional items, obviously we're known for the patient. Same recipe since 1972 for my grandfather. The croquetto is the same recipe as well. But then we're doing cool stuff that I would recommend you to try our rocompoyo bites. It's my grandma's recipe of alokompoyo. I had the hynigans in there and everything, you know, when we're cooking it. What is that? Is it like, oh.

A little arrocompoio bites, fill du manso de manserile cheese. You get them with a sauce that I was telling you, a saison a sauce or the cilantro sauce. Those things are amazing, mouthwatering. You got the cheese pool when you put them apart. God damn, that sounds good. We started doing the platters now really good, very reasonable as well. 1099, you get a plate of food. Churaco, we have the petriotuay de poil, we have all that. The beans are the same thing. Our beans are made like homemade beans. It's not the canned beans or any of that stuff. So you really enjoy it. That was helpful. My mouth was salivating while you were describing it. As you go north, you see all the different people, I guess, too, you know, that it's not that it's not cute. as we open the North Miami Beach, we have Russians, we have Europeans coming from Sunny Isles

in Hollywood here. It's a bunch of different cultures, you know, like so. And it's great to see that. It's great to see that, okay, like we're moving forward. Man, like we're being most successful in these areas. Everybody loves it, you know. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's an opportunity. Obviously, you have your locals, but you have so much tourism that comes in here. And there's an opportunity for people to immerse themselves in the Miami experience. Why not make that connection that cow is like, it's almost like a tourist destination. share like Cuban-American love. Yeah, hell yeah.

Well, appreciate the time. Thank you. Congratulations on all your success. And we look forward to seeing it in some more states soon. That way, when we're traveling, we can, we get stopped by a cow. Awesome. Well, stay tranquil. Yes, sir.

Appreciate it. Take care, guys. Appreciate it. Appreciate it.