Stay Tranquilo - How Many Croquetas does it take to Make You Happy? Apparently Dos Croquetas - Stay Tranquilo

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

In this episode of the Stay Tranquilo Podcast, powered by Johnny Cuba, we speak to the founders of the nationally famous Dos Croquetas, the first ever croqueta bar with a twist.    Danny and Vicky, two family members with a goal to bring a twist of Cuban flavor and variety of croquetas. In this episode, we speak about the story of how Dos Croquetas began, the struggles of starting a restaurant during a pandemic, and the balance of family life and being a restaurant owner.   Check them out @doscroquetas  Follow us @staytranquilo & @johnnycuba.us Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is up, everybody? You're listening to another episode of the State Tranquilo podcast, powered by Johnny Cuba. We're here with the Dos Quoketas team. We got here, Alec and Vicky, right? So if you guys want to give yourselves a little intro, tell the people about it yourselves, and we'll definitely get into the story of Dos Croquettas. Yep, thanks for having us. So my name is Alec.

I'm the co-founder of Dos Croquettas, and I specialize in marketing and business. Awesome. And I'm Vicki. I'm his partner, and I run production for Croquettas. I'm the chef. You're the magic behind the doors? Awesome. So I met Alec a couple of years ago.

I don't remember exactly when it was, but I know you guys had just opened on the location on Bird. And just to give like a little bit of background about how we met, but I went in the store. I obviously had heard about those croquettas already for a while. And I'm like, I got to try them out. Like a croquetta with macaroni and cheese in it. I got to see what this is all about.

So I went with my buddy Chris, and he introduced me to you. But he told me about kind of like what you guys had done, kind of like where you guys had originated from. But obviously I would love for you guys to kind of like tell that story about how those croquettes kind of originated and, you know, where you guys are today. Yeah, so the story's really funny. So it started off at a ventaita at a bakery, right? So I would go all the time. My dad, every Sunday, like religiously, we'd go all the time. And I was waiting for my order like everyone else does, right?

And then the person right after me was like, Damme dos croquettas. No big deal, whatever. We all say that. And then the second person was like, damme dos croquettas and a, a coffee citad. I'm like, okay,

third person, damme dos croquettes and a tona. And I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, like it's too much. Like people are just saying it too often. It's like Google, right?

Right. So I immediately, I went to my phone. I go to Dos croquettas. It's available. Boom, by it. I go to Instagram, by, excuse me, I reserve the username. And were you already, like, thinking about starting a croquetta shop at all?

No, I just wanted to grab all of it. So I just, like, immediately, like, just tried to get all the IP possible. Got it. And then a long time passed. And then I reached out to Vicki, she's my aunt. And I'm like, look, like, you make fire food. The best is the best. Like, let's do this.

Like, let's make a croquetta company. Nice. Because there's really nothing like they're out there. It's just, like, ham chicken or cheese. Nobody's really innovating in the space. It's true. I mean, you guys took croquetta to, like, a whole other level. My thing is, like, right, a croquetta, like you said, traditional is either ham, chicken.

I mean, some make, like, a seafood croqueta. What was it that said, like, hey, why not put this in a croquetta? Like, what was it in your guys' head that said, like, we have the opportunity to pretty much put anything on a croquetta, or bread it with rice Krispies, if we want to? Right, right. Well, I mean, when he, when he reached out to me, I was like, you know, you want to do croquetas in Miami? There's croquettas in every corner. Right.

So, you know, in talking about it, number one, I was just like, do you know how difficult it is to make croquetas? It is. I hear my grandma always talk about how she wants to just make ham croquetas, and she's like, but it's going to take a while. It's time concern. So it's definitely a labor of love. Yeah. But, you know, when he wanted to make these croquettas, or, you know, it was like, let's start

this company and stuff. I was like, man, these croquettas everywhere. And so, you know, we were both foodies. And so we wanted to, like, stand out and do things that we love to eat. So that's where it started and that's where all the beginning flavors came from. You know, it's like, well, what are things that we like to eat? And what are things that we want to see in a croquetta? And then it was my job to kind of like, you know, make sure that that happened

and make sure it happened well, not just like, you know, some big mush put together. And did you have experience in making croquettas before? I mean, my first experience making croquettas was with my grandmother, you know, but like not a lot. You know, she used to make roquetas, but exactly. It was very time-consuming, so she didn't make that all. all that much. But I have a culinary background,

so, you know, it's kind of like I can figure it out. Okay. Awesome. So now you guys are on store number two, right? Tell us a little bit about that, because I know you were telling me that you guys are doing shipping now out of there. So tell us a little bit about how you guys got into that and how that's working out for you guys. Yeah, so shipping was a huge surprise and a huge success to us, thank God.

Yeah. But we did it to pivot during the pandemic where, you know, we were closed for like what four months the dining room three months and I remember we're just like look we just have to do this like to see if we can drive more revenues to the stores and we have to close the dining room and it was crazy like we have shipped to Michigan Wisconsin nice all the places that you don't really think you're going to be shipping croquetas too even Alaska Hawaii like we have we have we have touched every every state which is and how do how do they travel and I mean because like what's what's the first off how long does it take to get a croquetta to Alaska,

and then they get there and they're in good condition? Everything is shipped. Yeah, everything is shipped overnight. So, you know, it's, we prepare the croqueta, fry it, so that it's also the ease for the customer. They can just put it in air fry or put it in oven, so it's already fully cooked. Okay.

They're just finishing it off over there, and so they're not having to deep fry croquet over there. Of course, yeah, yeah. So, and then it gives them the option, because then they can taste all the different varieties, so they'll get a variety pack, which is, you know, we have 10 different flavors, and so they get two of each flavor.

And then they can mix and match afterwards, but it's fun for them because they, since, like, from the very beginning, people would try to order from us, can do ship, do ship, and we never shipped at the very beginning. And so we always talked about shipping, but the pandemic is really what gave us that push to, like, let's get it out there.

It didn't really give you an option. Right, right. And logistically, how did you guys figure out how, you know, how to do that? Like, who, who, like, you guys can ship it? ship it through USPS? Like, how does that work? We shipped through UPS.

Oh, but it was like, you know, weeks of testing where I was the pretend UPS is the three guy. I would cook it, throw it around, as if I was, you know,

driving the package. Secure the bag. You gotta be, like, it is gonna be safe. Yeah. And then once the testing was done, we're like, all right, let's do it. Let's go live.

And it was like, I mean, the first deal was like, I don't know, 200 orders like right away. And I'm just like, what the hell's happening? Like, how do they even know? Like,

because bringing exposure to a physical rest strong is a lot easier than the internet like the internet is just you know you got to find those girl gents us on com exactly um so it was really surprising it was awesome yeah that's that's what i was going to ask you next um you know if i'm not here in miami how how does one kind of like come across obviously you guys have a pretty large uh social media presence have you seen like kind of like a correlation between like who you guys have on social and kind of like who's the ones ordering from you guys like in outside of florida or outside of miami yes and no because the way it'll work is

obviously like I don't care what you're wearing word of mouth is the best tool of all time no matter what never pulls out of style I agree with that so people will order in Michigan and then like send us an email and being like hey I went over to my cousin's house in Michigan we ordered whatever we tried and there's some dinah like order from you guys so it's just word of mouth is just the best for us

never fails that's awesome and to me the fit my like the coolest concept was the the flight so you get to pick your four croquetas which one are the four that you want to try and then with special sauces that come and all the sauces are homemade yeah yeah yeah we love I mean I love sauce yeah not me too everything everything that you know all of the sauces have a pairing to it you know to me it was important that everything works you know in balance so that was really important and it's just it's fun it's just fun to like you know mix and match sauces as well too

once you know the one that you like then you start you know testing other ones and and then um and it's all about like sharing so when you get the flight you know you're right I've seen some people house 12 croquetas in one of the city but it's nice like the one of the funnest thing is like you know when you see them dipping in the sauce and they take a buy it and then they dip and they're like you know they're handing it to you know their friend or whatever and so they're just it's kind of like a discovery of the croquetas and like oh try this one that's the best yeah that's cool and you guys do

other items besides croquettas what are some of the other food options that you guys have at the restaurant we have amazing shakes our shakes are amazing Our shakes are hand-down amazing. Everything that we do, we try to make sure that we're using the best quality ingredients. We use rice ice cream, which is they're local as well too. They're crafted ice cream as well. So everything we do is like the best quality that we can get. And that, like we make for the ice cream, for the shakes.

We do whipped cream, our own whipped cream as well. So it's not like a canned whipped cream. You know, you can taste, you can really taste the difference. And like you said All of our sauces are handmade as well In-house We do the wraps as well We're rice and beans

You know we make the beans as well too We do the barata melons So yes your menu is large It's a large menu I think it has to be like So you can go there and experience croquettes In different forms also like not just a croquet I'm sure you guys have a croquetta

Preparada as well We got a croquetta prebao We've done a croquette cassadilla We've done like a crock and tots which are really popular The Tater Toads So croquettas and sauce and babitas. So we definitely get hungry.

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, before we move on, everybody, if you guys want to. Let's do it. Cheers and have a little ice cold beer. Thank you guys for being on. Thanks for having us. Definitely really cool to hear about the story of those croquettas. I'm trying not to chugging.

I'm pulling myself back. So yeah, for anyone new listener, I know we've had multiple episodes where we've talked about the beer, but it's a German logger, brewed in Germany. It's really crisp, really light. You know, we built it off of the thought of hot summer day, out on the boat, something that you can have two or three. It's not a craft beer,

which a lot of people have, like, the misconception of it because, you know, you look at the packaging, it looks a little bit more crafty. But, I mean, it's just a regular light logger. I don't know what to compare it to. pretty distinct in my opinion. But it's up there. You know, it's definitely not like a bud light or anything like that.

It's more like, and to me, like in the category of like a Corona, Stella, maybe a Heineken, but easy, easy to drink. And, I mean, essentially you can find it, President de Sanos, soon to be Win Dixie. And then only in the state of Florida right now. For now. Yeah, for now. It's only been since April that we started the beer.

That's great. It is, I taste the crispness and it's light and it's very clean flavor. Yeah, definitely. What croquetta do you recommend with a beer? You know, I love the buffalo crack chicken. Okay, I did have that one. Yeah. It was really good.

Yeah. Awesome. So part of the podcast, you know, we like to bring on entrepreneurs, you know, people that have started businesses or, you know, looking to start businesses. And one of the things that's a common theme amongst entrepreneurs are kind of the struggles that come with starting a business, some of the obstacles that come with it. So I wanted to bring up the question, you know, what are some of the obstacles you guys face, you know, from inception to date and how have you guys kind of like worked through them?

I know we talked about a few before the podcast, but, you know, starting the business, what were some of the obstacles that you guys faced? and you know through the three years that you guys have been in business what are some of the things that you guys have had to work through yeah uh first of all i love this question because uh i can vividly from all like the pain and struggle yeah uh and success i can paint it so easily um i mean the first the first thing is like what the hell are we doing right that's the first the first obstacle is like we have no idea what we're doing yeah uh we've never mass produced any product in our lives at least i haven't um and it's grokett does right so it's uh it's a it's a it's a it's a

very challenging product to make. Just, just like me just trying to picture what that looks like, that just looks chaotic. Well, yeah. And then when you have so many different flavors,

you know, it sounds like you're just making ham, ham, ham, and ham. You know, like you have a lot of different flavors so you have different runs as well too. Yeah, definitely.

It's a lot. I mean, you have to deal with sourcing ingredients. You have to think marketing, right? So how do you make a croquetta sexy? How do you want people to purchase your product? Yeah. At the end of day,

croquettas are all just like brown, fried product. So how do you give it life, right? And it's my favorite. aspect of it is the marketing of it. Yeah, I think you've done an awesome job with it. And the story because I forgot that story about the name,

I think that's awesome, because people do order those croquettes, right? When they go to the... It's very much. English and Spanish, I have it. So that way we can always expand on other places and do two croquets. But yeah, we started off as like super humble and a little papa. We rented

out a warehouse. I want to see it was like $500 a month. We had like a little corner. And we used to sell the croquitas at night there um and i remember we were like well first we have to see if people are going to pay more for for right it's not there's the market yeah is the market receptive to it can we prove the concept basically yeah um and little by little like we'd have repeat customers and like holy shit like people are swinging through like this is great um and then it would be like the customer would come in the morning and have the breakfast and they come at night and then like switch up their order

um and then there's like the aspect of the business where like the beginning is super fun it's a last because you're like a little by little getting orders right yeah and then it's like okay well how do we make this into a real business um and that has to do with scaling and you go from just like two employees to the from the beginning to we have like a little over 30 yeah exactly 30 employees yeah wow yeah that's awesome 30 yeah that's amazing different personalities you're dealing with different work ethics you're dealing with different passions in life right not everyone you're going to hire is going to want to be like a group of course and they don't see the vision the same way that you guys do.

And then, yeah, after your scale, now it's just the business side of it. So you don't know what you're doing first from a food and mass production aspect. Then you have to make sure that the concept works for multiple different people that you're hiring. And then you have to make sure that you're dealing with payroll, logistics, licensing, permitting.

It's kind of like knowing what to do when you don't know what to do. Like when you put yourself in a position of like, well, you know, like I have a loan, right? Like I have debt. Like I have a lot of responsibilities. Like it puts you in a position to figure it on no matter what. Yeah.

You don't give yourself that option to, you know, your back is against the wall and it's like I figure it out or it's pretty much game over. Yeah. It's never been a, the idea has never been like we're not going to figure it out. Like it's always, we'll just figure it out. We'll just do what it takes to figure it out, you know, no matter what. Because we have families that we support as well too. So the responsibility is huge.

It's like no pressure. Yeah, exactly. The responsibility is huge, you know, and, you know, just making sure that everything is, everything is done and, like, you know, trying to be everywhere. Yeah. At the same time and trying to, you know, make sure that quality is good, trying to make sure that people are happy, trying to make sure the customers are happening. And then throwing and shipping into the mix. And then you have, like, random curveballs, you know, like supply chain issues, you know, where you can't get something. So then you're trying to, you know, make something, you have to pivot there as well, too.

Yeah. A whole wide pandemic. Yeah, who would it guess? And that was like, what, like month 13 for you guys, basically when that hit? It was like right after we took this hugely buffet to open a brick and mortar store and, you know, hundreds of thousand dollars and like it was just insane. But like that, that. But like you said, it shifted not your business model completely, but it opened the door to a different model and the shipping, right, where you were able to expand. It was a catalyst for really pushing that, you know.

Yeah. We had always talked about doing it, but it was like, that's it. Like, now and ever. Obviously, the pandemic for what it was, you know, affected a lot of people. But I also think, like, it expedited the inevitable, right? You know, across the board where people are working now more remote than ever, which we probably were going to go that way eventually, right, where people were going to work a hybrid model.

Restaurants were going to incorporate some sort of delivery, but they had to expedite how that process was going to work and how can they, you know, kind of, like you said, scale that out. So I think it kind of just expedited, but like what we were talking about before, at adapting, right, to the current circumstances. And I think you guys did an amazing job of that. And I want you to kind of like talk about some, like you said, supply chain issues, but there's big issues with labor right now, right?

Where it's kind of hard to find people to work and, you know, we don't know where they are or what they're doing. What are we doing? I mean, like we said, I know Amazon is poaching a crap load of people because they're offering these crazy bonuses to. people if they sign up paying you know wages that the small businesses can't can't afford to pay but tell them a little bit about what you guys are doing to kind of work through that labor issue because I think that's that's awesome yeah I think

first it starts with culture right so we we try to have an amazing culture at the company it's more than just a paycheck like a paycheck is super important of course we all need money to survive but what else can you get outside of the job like what leadership skills can you get outside of the job and developmental skills you can get outside of the job. And then like we're, we're experimenting heavily and it launches actually soon

like at a couple weeks a self-ordering kiosk. And it's like a beautiful piece of software that's like, if you look at our branding and stuff, you know, that we're very particular about design and, you know, curved corners and like it has to be an amazing experience for our customers. Of course.

So yeah, it's the wave. Like how do we, how do we, and it's not necessarily how do we survive without people because I think people are super, super important to our business and our growth. but it's how do we make their jobs easier so they can focus on other things. So if I have a self-ordering kiosk, like now when I work out of Dos Kroqueta store, now my job is to like make the best shakes possible,

where I can really focus on amazing customer service or like making the best Groketa is possible. Yeah. And it just takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of research. It takes a lot of testing and just being exhausting. Like you have to just be over and over and over again to make sure that whatever we launched our customers, it's just flawless.

It's a labor level. And the kiosk is going to be. at both locations is going to be. Yeah, we're going to launch it on our main location on 40th Street and then we'll launch it. It's like our little testing hub. Like whatever works there because it's such a high volume store, we know it works everywhere else. Awesome. Cool. Another thing that I wanted to ask, I know you're a mom of two from what I saw.

How does one, you know, with, you know, with children, you know, kind of work through being a business owner while also juggling a family. I mean, I have a great support system with my husband who works from home, but he's basically, you know, takes him to school in the morning because I'm at work super early, and, you know, sometimes I'm not there after when they come home from school. And I have my mother and my father that, you know, also help and my mother-in-law. So it's like, you know, that whole thing, it takes a village. It takes a village. I wouldn't be able to do it without them. And from the very beginning, I mean, my kids, my kids are six and nine now. and we've been around for a while

so I started when they were very young and we used to at our pop-up we used to close on the weekends we used to close between three and seven I think or three and six and people would ask why you guys closed during this time you guys would open in the morning and at night and it was just basically

I have to go home and see my kids for a couple of hours you need to live you got it exactly and so even you know a lot of it also was just me trying to show my daughter and my son that mommy's building something as well too so I never wanted to do the

the uh mommy has to go to work mommy has to go to work you know I want to stay with you but mommy has to go to work I always really try to instill mommy's building something mommy wants to go to work as mommy's instilling you know I always try to put that positive spin on it as well too and that you're doing it for for them right right and like you know like the biggest thing for me is that they're proud of me

you know that they're like it's not like a mommy's never home it's their you know they're like oh look at Look what my mom does. You know, that's cool. Exactly. So that is, like, pretty cool for me. That is, yeah. But it's, but it's very difficult.

You know, I'm the cuddler one, so that's, that's nice when I get home on the, and they're the ones that come to me. Yeah. But I come home to cook dinner as well, too. So it's like, my job is never done. Yeah. But it's, but it's fine. And, like, you know, in the times that I would have a break, it was like I would literally lay down the floor and give them when they were very little. I would give them, like, a pack of stickers, and I'd be like, okay, put stickers all over me.

And so it was like, they were doing. Like they were doing, I still always, you know, had the time to do stuff with them. And then I treasure every little time that I can with them because it's, it's rough. I can imagine. And I think it's like, you know, kind of to go on to the point that you were talking about. But I think it's really important to do something that you're passionate about, right? And something that you really, really care about because, you know, we all have to deal with that at some capacity. You know, whether we work like a regular nine to five job.

we're in school right everyone's timing in life is a little bit different but we all have something that you know we're passionate about and and and we want to do and i think you know you have an opportunity to to help your family but at the same time do something that that you're passionate about and i think that is something that's really valuable and you know part of part of you know the way i've always looked at life is like why not both right because i came i used to work for the company kind snacks right like the kind bars and their model was always like the and mentality right like it didn't have to be this or that it could be this and that right so you had the opportunity to create something that you guys were passionate about but you also had the opportunity to take care

of your family with something like that and i think that's that in itself is like it's magical right like it's something that people dream of and you guys have been able to do that which is awesome yeah I mean, it's a lot of balance, you know. And some days it's not balanced. In some days, you know, I mean, it is what it is. You just, but you just have to, you know, make the best every day and just, you know, figure out what you can do to try to find that balance. Definitely.

And that's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Thanks for asking about that. That's awesome. So another part of it is like, you know, the mental health aspect, right? Obviously, juggling on like the physical level. But, you know, stress is like a big thing about it. What are some of the things that you guys do?

to take care. I'm happy. Yeah. On the bottom of the beer, it says stay tranquil. So I think there's a reason for that. Exactly. But what is it?

You know, I do think that there's multiple components to it, right? Like, you know, some people say they, you know, they'll do yoga or they go to the gym or they meditate. But I think, you know, like that's like kind of like, I do that personally, but I also think that's kind of like a force thing. Not everyone has a time to do that kind of stuff. And I do think like a portion of taking care of your mental health is like being around friends, being around family. Like, you know, socializing the other being, like kind of just disconnecting, travel, you know, those kind of things.

So it doesn't necessarily have to be anything like enlightening. But what is it that you guys do to kind of, I guess, like, you know, disconnect and give yourself a chance? So many different answers. I think the first is the mind is incredibly powerful. How yeah, it is. Super strong. For the good and for the good and for the bad. and you can you can kind of snap yourself out of depression by perspective so you can make a decision right so we can we can hit lows and be depressed like there's no one there's no labor right yeah but no labor is is a simple problem to fix it can be fixed right bigger problem would be our sales are shitty or nobody likes it right right so perspective usually like wakes me up really quickly true reminding myself I have a family I get to work with my my literally my best friend right I have

I have food, I can shower, like telling yourself that you're killing it usually works, and it's not like you're lying to yourself. You're just telling yourself the reality. Just reminding yourself. Your brain is just trying to trick yourself into thinking that it's not that way. It's about being grateful. You know, we're grateful for what we have and stuff, and it's not always, exactly. Like, sometimes we'll take turns, you know, it's like, oh, this is going on, whatever.

And he's like, you know, it's grateful. You know, this is really living a free country, you know, all this stuff. But, yeah, I mean, I mean, I think, I think we. We laugh a lot. Like we're so stupid. We're stupid silly sometimes that it's like we make each other laugh. And I think that's part of it because even through like the worst times, we're just ridiculous. At the end of the day, it's, you know, life is short, right?

And like you said, you can't take it for granted. And I'm a big believer that perspective is everything, right? Like how we choose to look at things is how basically we live our life. Because me and you could be living the same exact situation. but if we look at it in a different lens, I'm going to enjoy life maybe a lot more than you are, right? So I do think the big component is just telling yourself, hey, like everything's okay, and that if it's not okay right now, it will be okay.

And I think that is enough to, like, keep the wheels moving. You also become numb as a business owner. Like, shit is thrown at you all the time. Yeah, exactly, day no matter what. Like, crazy surprises. I'm talking about, like, a $15,000 repair surprise. Like, we get surprises all the time. And it's just like, I mean, like you said, we'll figure it out.

There's stuff to do, you know. But as far as, and also, like, in our culture with our employees and stuff too, I'm a big proponent of telling everybody, you know, it's like, I don't know, I wake up every morning. I'm a morning. So, you know, and I wake up sometimes 3 o'clock in the morning. I'm in, you know, by 4 a.m. Yeah, that's like my mom. Yeah. How the hell.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I like, it's also my quiet time, too. So I'll get into the kitchen stuff and I'm, I will meditate as well, too. while I'm doing stuff. I'm like listening to like, you know, really relaxing music. And, but it's also, I just have a choice every morning. You wake up, you have a choice, you know, are you going to be mediocre?

Are you going to be excellent? You know, you're going to be, and so those are the things that we also try to instill in our employees as well, too. Like, you have a choice. Like, people can go to any restaurant they want to. So are they going to want to go to a place that's excellent, you know, where you want great customer service, you want great food, you want, you know, like you want the whole thing, you know, they're spending their money there.

So you want to be able to be able to be able to be a place. able to give them all of that or you know or do you just want to like do you know half ask your job and just be okay with it like I'm just not okay with it yeah so and that's what separates you you know and the position that you're in because again you're where the way you think right you could settle and just be like okay this is what it is or I can choose to try to make something better out of this because at the end of the day we all have that decision we have that freedom of decision you know one we get to live in in the United States where that even exist where that doesn't even exist outside but even on a different level like as a human we have

that level right we're not we're not like a we're not a chimpanzee or you know something like that where they don't have that cognitive ability we physically have that ability to make decisions that necessarily make our life the way we want it to be which that's powerful right and it's such an easy thing too it's just a tool we oh yeah we make it more complicated than it needs to be 100% awesome so before we kind of wrap it up. We do a quick segment at the end, like rapid questions just to get to know you guys. The first question I want to ask you,

what's your favorite croquetta that you guys have that you guys have made? They're my babies. How do I choose one? It's like, you know. Top three. Mine's for sure the 305. It's Picadillo, platino, patino mauduos, and queso blind.

I mean, what else do you want? It's like the Cuban dish. Yeah. And we serve it with the guava sauce, a dala sauce, it's delicious. That sounds so good. That's easy for me. I mean, Median Oce is my favorite sandwich, my favorite Cuban sandwich.

So Mejanoche, that was like one thing that, you know, when I created that one, I wanted to create like the layers of flavors. But Median Noce croquetta? Medi-oce croquetta. We won an award for it.

So mea-noche croquetta, and then like you, that one is a labor of love as well too is we're, you know, toasting off Meijan-oche bread. And, you know, that's what we coat it with. Wow. And so, you know, there's pickles and mustard.

And so it's a lot of the different nuances on that croquetta that I think really shine through when you have that one. That's one of my favorites. And also, because I have two children, I can't just choose one. The other one is the spinach coconut curry. It's a vegan one. And so there's no animal products in it. And it's a little spicy, but it's coconut curry and spinach.

It's amazing. And which ones are your kids' favorite? Oh, God, they love ham. They love them. Really? Yeah, man. They're like ham, ham. Like they're the ham and always like did you bring me a shake

When I got this, did you bring me a shake? I have to try the shake. Dad, I haven't tried. It shakes are really good. Yeah, I have to try the shake. Awesome. Next question. The beaches or the mountains?

That's such a sad question. I like mountains. I like mountains. The answer is both for me. Yeah, no. They both offer a little bit. You do get best in both worlds. Yeah, exactly.

But to me, the beach is just home. So I always kind of like lean that way. But the mountains do offer. But it's a different, it's a whole different vibe. It's like a different mindset. Everything is just different in the mountains. I agree. It's like a sense of like, I don't know, it's a different type of piece compared to like the water.

I feel like, I don't know, it's just, it's awesome. Just the smells of a, you know, yeah, yeah, it's just like the nature. I agree. All right. A book or a podcast that both of you would recommend for someone to read or listen to. If you're not a reader. I don't read much. I read a bunch of, like, blogs and stuff, but I don't read an actual book, but I did

start because of TikTok, 48 laws of power. Okay. Very interesting. It has kind of taught me a lot of mistakes that I've made. Just kind of like defending yourself and especially in the business world. So I love it. I mean, I think it's great. I'm on like the seventh law of power right now. It just started. I mean, Brendan Burchard is a

podcast, podcaster. He has a couple of books out as well too. And I just quoted one, you know, of his things. Every day you have the choice, you know, to wake up and be excellent, you know. So that's the, that's what I, you know, that's what I, it's my motto. Yeah, it's what I try to live by. I like it. Awesome.

All right. Cool. So before we wrap it up, where can they find you guys on social media? If they want to order some croquettas, where can they order these croquettas? And just anything you guys want to share before we wrap it up. Yeah. Doscorrogottes. com.

You can follow us on Instagram, of course, Facebook. We're not on TikTok yet. If anyone wants to run our TikTok, let me know. I might have someone. Yeah, and this year will be probably the biggest year of our lives when it comes from an expansion standpoint. We're very, very, very exciting. Yeah.

That's awesome. I'm excited for you guys, and thank you guys for being here and, you know, sharing some of your insights and stories. I really appreciate that. Back to work. Yeah. Now we get together to the grind. All right.

Well, thank you guys for tuning in for another episode of the state. Stay Tranquilo podcast. Again, thank you guys for jumping on. If you guys have any questions on where to find them, you can always reach out to us. If you're a new listener, you can listen to the podcast across all platforms. You can find the beer at Sedanos, Presidente Supermarket. And if you're going to follow us on social media, it's at stay tranquil and atjanicuba. com.us.

Thanks, guys.