The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Ben Rous, Aileen Sevier, Tracey Love, Matthias John & Ali Sevindi On "Today y Mañana!"

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

Ben Rous, Conductor at Charlottesville Symphony, Aileen Sevier & Tracey Love for Virginia Wine Benefit, and Matthias John of Matthias John Realty & Ali Sevindi, Owner of Otto Turkish Street Food, joined Alex Urpí & Xavier Urpí On “Today y Mañana!” “Today y Mañana” airs every Thursday at 10:15 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Today y Mañana” is presented by Emergent Financial Services, LLC, Craddock Insurance Services Inc and Matthias John Realty, with Forward Adelante.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Today y Mañana. I'm Alex. This is Xavier. We're very excited to have you joining us on a beautiful morning here in Charlottesville, Virginia. I think it's the prelude to a hot day, I suspect. Hot day because of what we have here? Well, yeah, both definitions. It's exciting in here, but also I think it's going to be warm. I think it's going to be warm outside as well.

So we've got a fantastic show lined up for everyone in here. We're going to be joined shortly in the show by Ben Rouse, the music director for Charlottesville Symphony, as well as later in the show by Eileen Sevier and Tracy Love from Virginia Wine Benefit. And then last but certainly not least,

Matthias John and Ali Savindi. Matthias, of course, from Matthias John Realty. And Ali, the owner of AutoTurkish Sivo right here in the downtown mall. We are really excited for today's show. Of course, love being presented by Emergent Financial Services and powered by our great

partners at Matthias Yon Realty, Credit Series Insurance, Forward, Adelante, and of course, powered by you, our viewers, who we certainly wouldn't be here without you watching. So we always appreciate that. It's like when you go to a stadium, right? I mean, all the fans are yelling and screaming

in whatever venue you have there, or even like a symphony, right? If it's empty, because I remember, I think it was during COVID years, I think they still played baseball or something, right? And it just felt awkward. There was no noise, no sound. I would imagine the players themselves just didn't have that energy.

So it's really your viewers. When you have people in the room, you've got the energy feeling. You're feeling it, feeling it, which we love, which we love. So Troubleshell already got some people tuning in. Nicholas Irby is watching. So he did tune in. Thank goodness I is watching. So he did tune in. Thank goodness I said something good. He did tune in.

We got several other people joining us this morning. We got Dr. Elizabeth Irby tuning in this morning. Thanks for watching, one of our favorite viewers. So little by little, we got everyone joining us, all coming in. Be sure to send us any questions or comments you may have. We will certainly read them. And I don't know about you, but I'm excited to jump right into today's show. Well, absolutely. I'm excited to ask Ben a few questions. See, I timed it perfectly. I saw him taking a sip of water, but I'm going to say now and introduce him.

That's right. He's going to swallow quickly. Exactly. Well, we are excited to welcome to the show this morning Ben Rouse. He's going to swallow quickly. Exactly. We are excited to welcome to the show this morning Ben Rouse. He is the music director of our very own Charlottesville Symphony. Ben, thanks so much for coming on this morning. Glad to be here. You guys sold this way, way too hard. I'm nowhere near as interesting

as you made it sound like I was going to be. We've watched the previous show. So, great to have you on I mean this has been one beautiful season I have to say we've enjoyed all the different things tremendously

the last one I was at was of course the piano concerto by Prokofiev which was magnificent what's it like when you come to the last concert of the season is there a sense of anticipation but also closure? Yeah.

Well, we planned a finale which is, internally, it's a heavy lift because there are a lot of different moving parts, lots of collaborations, lots of guest artists. So it's a bigger project than the rest of them. So it does feel like this major final push. Absolutely. Tiffany Harrell, thanks for joining us this morning and watching the show this morning.

So, I mean, tell us about it. Go ahead, go ahead. No, no, no, I'm good. I mean, I don't want to take over the show like last time. So go ahead, ask your question. The last time that you took over the show, it went so well. Oh, it did. It was great.

Go for it. What were you going to ask? No, no, no. I really want to ask about West Side Story and Bolero, right? Because it's, you know, first of all, especially Bolero is one of those pieces that I really love. There are some people it's funny, I think it's one of those pieces that people just either don't like at all or they really love.

I think. I don't know. I'm one of those that really, really love it. For example, my wife is just like one of those pieces. But she's been tainted because she saw it in some movie that she didn't like. That 10 movie, yeah. But if you just hear Bolero by itself or Revelle, it's a beautiful

also learning, I feel, experience for the audience. You have all the different sections. And if you listen live watching people play it it also changes your mind how good that is oh there we go so you yeah so i think that it's a it's a very strange piece obviously right because there's like revel himself said there is no music in it about his piece of music Solero right it was a weird thing that he said but he also said it was his only

masterpiece and I thought that was kind of interesting and there's a third thing that he said about it which is which is that genius is being able to write a cliche isn't that pithy and it is because it is cliche and it's not just because

it went in that movie 10 but it's just like it's just kind of everywhere and it's it's a weird piece because it's the same thing over and over again actually remember it's two things there's one theme and then the other theme and actually it goes the first theme the first theme the second theme the second theme the first theme the first thing is that's the thing that people forget about it because the two themes are are weirdly similar to each other but not the same. But just like you said, it's a tour of the orchestra, this solo, then that section, then this, and changing it and growing it, right? It grows over. So the thing that people

should know about our bolero, it's very much our bolero on this concert, is that we heavily remixed bolero to include all of the collaborations that we've got on this concert to put them all in one big melting pot so it's it's it's a it's a kind of a summation of a kind of you know addition of the entire concert as as the finale and so it does exactly that thing where you meet where you meet the focus on instrument, focus on that instrument, etc. Except that it includes I'd have to talk about the whole program to describe it. It includes everybody

that's played so far. And we change they play it in their own styles because there's a lot of different styles of music in this program. Well, that's a good segue into it because I think this program is pretty unique in that most people I think, you know pretty unique in that like most people I think you know you go to see a symphony and you you kind of already know a lot of the composers

you're going to get in the symphony but the beautiful thing about here is that a lot of the composers we're going to hear at this concert are UVA composers yeah so yeah playing their own music that's the big thing is that What we wanted to do with this program was to feature the incredible breadth and diversity of music making that happens here in Charlottesville, especially in the UVA Music Department. Because UVA Music Department is this almost wacky place. I can't think of another place that had,

well, until recently we had a klezmer ensemble. We still have a bluegrass ensemble, African drum and dance ensemble, which is led by a practitioner who combines scholarship with performance, with teaching, so she's kind of both on the scholarship and the performance side of things.

Obviously all these different types of scholars and then all these types of composers especially emphasizing electronic music and performers in all these different genres. So we wanted to bring everyone in. So I could just kind of describe everyone who's on the program

a little bit. We recently hired two new professors, Jovia Armstrong and Nicole Mitchell. Now, Nicole Mitchell is an eminence in the jazz world. She's a jazz flutist. Although jazz is a little bit too narrow of a moniker for what she does, she has pieces that are fully notated, pieces that are improvised, pieces that combine both.

And she's played and performed in just so many different kind of ensembles and contexts and genres. And we wanted to play with her. We hired Jovia Armstrong, who's an improvising groove percussionist, whose I think her genre is best described as Afrofuturism. And we wanted to feature her. And we've got a lot of people around town know John Durth and the Freebridge Quintet. They play these regular Thursdays at Miller's, et cetera. And we wanted to feature them and uh one of uva's uh one of uva's composers matthew burtner

who describes himself as an eco-acoustician who makes music out of things like the sounds of melting glaciers and he's from alaska and he goes around with his microphones recording he collects these field recordings and he grew up, you look at the town where he grew up, it's like on the north slope of, I mean he knows ice. It's so close to him and that's his life's work

is turning that into art. So we're doing a piece in this kind of eco-acoustics style an Afrofuturist piece with Jovia Armstrong on her hybrid cajon kind of eco-acoustics style, an Afrofuturist piece, with Jovia Armstrong on her hybrid cajon drum set, which is a drum set like you've never seen before.

The cajon is the box drum that you sit on top of, but she's also, she plays that with one hand and has got a drumstick in the other hand to play the rest of the set. Nobody plays like her, nobody. I think she invented the the concept and and so i were featuring her on three tracks from her latest album that i rearranged for orchestra with her on on her set and uh and a concerto for jazz quintet and orchestra which is also a rarity which is a original So we're doing an original composition of John Durth's, an original composition of Nicole Mitchell's.

That one was fully notated. A piece by Jovia Armstrong that I notated because her band had basically improvised it around her structure. So I orchestrated that. And so we're playing in a lot of different styles. And I think what's interesting about this program is, just like you said, you go to a symphony, you kind of expect Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

And, well, there are these two pieces, Bolero and West Side Story, that are very famous, that people have heard a lot of. But this shows that when you've got an orchestra, you can do a whole lot of different things. The orchestra can take a lot of shapes, and the feeling of moving through a concert can be very different from just sitting down to a classical symphony. Yes, absolutely. I love the idea of the breadth of what you can do with sound, what you can do with instruments in new ways,

in ways that you might not have expected or heard before. And in one case, what you can do with sound is that you aren't even in the orchestra at the time, like they're there, but they've been recorded from that aren't even in the orchestra at the time. They're there, but they've been recorded from nature itself, in a sense. I would assume that these pieces took a lot more time also, right? Because, I mean, first of all, you had to convert them into orchestra.

Yes. And then two, I mean, this is something relatively new. You've got so many people that are you're working with how does that work i mean because i assume you only have a certain amount of time pieces a week that you can work on yeah yeah in in the amount of rehearsal time we had i was careful to try not to overstuff the program because it's a lot of different pieces and it's and it's harder when you have to change styles than if you can then if you're playing a 45 minute symphony that's all by one composer in

one style that rehearses faster than 45 minutes of three completely different modalities of playing so yeah i for for jovia armstrong's piece i was the was the one who wrote out the orchestra parts, and that was a huge project. Nicole Mitchell had fully notated the orchestral parts. John Durth had fully notated the orchestral parts. With some places where some individuals have space to improvise, it's basically written out. Matthew Bertner's piece is written in another notation style, which is non-metric. People have notes that they play when it sounds right to them in given time periods, and the score is written out with minutes and seconds to correspond with the ice and water sounds that go along with it,

which we blend with. So that's another way that the musicians had to get used to playing, which again is different from sitting down and reading the notes down in a classical symphony. So I know it was probably my favorite thing that we've done all season. I hope that it was also as interesting for the players. I was going to ask you that. How do they feel about that? Do they go home and go, oh my lord? The answer to that is I don't know.

And I probably never will. You know, it's really interesting conducting an orchestra because I had a friend who said you would need a different finger for every single person in the orchestra to conduct them the way they want to be conducted, which I think is a little bit of an exaggeration. Nobody's actually thinking about all those different things at once, but it is definitely true that I might hear someone's opinion, but never hear another person's opinion, and that doesn't mean that they don't have one right so i i don't know i i do think that when we got together with the soloists right the free everyone knows how awesome the free bridge quintet is when people started hearing

jovia armstrong play her grooves with the music that we had prepared ahead of time i did see the looks on some faces of oh now i get how awesome this is. Yes. And I personally hang off of every note that Nicole Mitchell plays. She's, oh, filthy. So good. I don't know. So I do think that it's been kind of an adventure that we're all on together.

That's amazing. I'm looking forward to it tremendously, just to see what it comes together as. How did you come to decide on those two bookends? I mean, as we discussed Bolero a little bit, which kind of makes sense, you've seen all these different desk artists and now you're going to see them all, hear them all I should say, in something that you may be a little bit more familiar with,

but you're hearing it in a new way. How about the overture from West Side Story? Yeah, and about Bolero, it is really in their own separate styles. When we kick it to the variation that has the quintet, the theme from Bolero turns into a jazz standard, and they've got changes, and they improvise over that, and then it moves into a different section that's in square rhythm instead of swung rhythm.

Yeah, so we made, I think, more variety than the original Bolero has, but with the same idea of it's driving away at this one theme. So yeah, Bolero was the idea of a big boat for us all to kind of sail out on together. And to open it up, well, I thought West Side Story was right because everybody loves it, and I love it. I love playing it. And also, of course, Bernstein had this... Well, he had a lot of influences actually that all show in

there there's a jazz influence there's a classical influence there's actually a kind of avant-garde contemporary music influence in there but it's kind of under the surface he because because you know keep in mind Bernstein as a conductor was premiering new works by American composers and by European composers. He was very into the new music scene, not just as a composer, but also premiering really avant-garde stuff. And so that's part of his compositional language also. And I don't know, everyone's got maestro on the film.

The film maestro kind of on the tip of their tongue right now. I thought that was an interesting connection. I have to say, I'm embarrassed to admit, I've only seen the six minutes where he's actually conducting the orchestra of Maestro. I have not yet watched the film, which is silly. But I have seen those six minutes, which are interestingly mixed

between good and very not on the mark but but but but interesting in other words classic hollywood yeah yeah i mean i guess the rest of the film is probably is probably similar to that you know he's really he's he's really good with his face. And he learned certain things well with his hands. And also, there are some obvious kind of shortcuts that he took in his learning process that he probably had to go back and repeat. Because there are a couple things

completely foreign to Bernstein's idiom in terms of lack of clarity here and there. But that scene's good. I liked it. It's at least cool to see like a movie about a conductor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And composer, but like, in other words, a movie about that kind of

influence that he had. I was looking through the program like, it's a great touch because he is, in many ways, Bernstein for his era was kind of where that American quintessential brought American

conducting and composing to the forefront of things. In many ways, that's what the department at UVA is all about it's not just teaching people to perform works from Monodot it's about creating new

work and new ways of playing it in the here and now which I think Bernstein kind of did embrace in his lifetime as well he absolutely typified that and so you've got this obviously melting pot of this whole kind of Puerto Rican element in the show that shows in the music.

And yeah, he was writing about the New York that he knew, and he was writing about the America that he knew, and about the music world that he knew. And yeah, he was that kind of early high water mark of being bringing bringing i i'm i'm stopping myself because i was going to say high culture and that but at his time there was high culture and low culture right like you know you keep it people should keep in mind when leopold stokowski shook mickey mouse's hand in fantasia after that there were orchestras he could not conduct he wouldn't be invited because he had debased himself by shaking mickey mouse's hand yeah so and he was one of the leading is he was the music director of the philadelphia

orchestra and then after that he couldn't he wasn't invited to many major orchestras because of that, because he had thrown in his lot with the other guys, right? With Disney, with pop culture. Even though the music didn't change. The music was exactly the same. In Fantasia. Yeah, Fantasia. Fantasia is spectacular.

It's a wonderful piece of art. It's a wonderful piece of art. It's a fantastic piece of art. It's a great way to introduce music to children. But people should realize how counter-cultural it was at the time. And Bernstein was a couple decades later, but not that much later, and he was also questioned.

And he was the great eminence. He was questioned for his embrace of Broadway, basically. Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah, here we are, and I thought that he, as a figure, fit in perfectly with really who we are at UVA, which is this amazing diversity of styles.

And so this concert, yeah, shows that we're kind of... We're kind of... Celebrates that we're in this post-high art and low art era and that the melting pot of genres should be our norm. Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. And the nice thing about this one, so obviously it's this weekend here in Charlottesville

that you're at the typical Times location, so you'd have the 7.30 at Old Cabell Hall, the 3 p.m. I think it is, or 3.30 at Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center at Charlottesville High School on Sunday, so you'd have Saturday and Sunday. But then there's also going to be a performance of this for the first time that people can look forward to, particularly if you're not in the Charlottesville area or if you'd like to go up to D.C. area,

because in Northern Virginia, in Tyson's Corner, there's going to be another concert. Is it going to be the same concert, just in a different venue up there? Yeah, we're really, really thrilled about this. This is the first time Charlottesville Symphony has done this at least any time in its recent history, and possibly ever.

We got invited by the CEO of UVA's Nova campus to come up there and make an event. I said, well, we want to make publicity for the fact that UVA has a Nova location and reach out to our alumni up there, the UVA community up there, et cetera. And so we thought, perfect, to bring our showcase of the department up to, so yeah, Capital One Hall in Tysons on April 28th, Sunday, the afternoon of April 28th. Yeah, matinee show. And yeah, we're thrilled to bring this program up there. Capital One Hall is a quite new venue.

Looks nice and shiny. I have not been inside it yet. I've only seen the pictures, so I'm excited to go up there and light it up the weekend after we do the concert here. We're bringing it up to Northern Virginia. That's fantastic. The nice thing is you can find tickets for

all of these if you go to seville symphony.org. The first thing there, you can always go to the little buy tickets part and there's all the these, if you go to seville symphony.org, the first thing there, I mean, you can always go to the little buy tickets part and there's the, all the concerts, but, uh, you there's the first thing there is the one that you can then go buy tickets for the matinee on April 28th, uh, in Sunday, April 28th in Northern Virginia doors open at 2 PM. Does that one? So that one is a concert probably doesn't start them, but the doors will open at 2 p.m. on that day so that's a real, we're really excited

to just bring the symphony we know and love to the rest of Virginia so we're really excited about that. So I mean, Ben, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thanks so much. Pleasure's mine.

Even the audience outside, the live audience, is like, what's going on out there? I have no idea but maybe they just love the charge of symphony that much. But thanks so much for coming on. Thank you.

I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me on again. Thanks for joining us. I hope having you on and good fortunes this weekend. Thank you. Looking forward to it. So as we go ahead and rotate here, I'll just reiterate. So seabillsymphony.org.

There's a bunch of links. Not hard to find. Don't waste any time if you want to go this weekend. You can still do that because there's always that kind of will call option. You've got two options this weekend and then you can click the link for the 28th from there as well if you're going to be up

and you know people up in North Virginia, let them know this is your You can click the link for the 28th from there as well if you're going to be up. That'll be interesting out there. If you've got family up in Northern Virginia, let them know this is your chance to see Charlottesville Symphony. I was wondering whether he had even been there to kind of look around and say, how's the sound? But it'll be interesting to see how he feels about that. So we're excited for that and looking forward to the concert. They always do such a marvelous job. It's one of our favorite. One of our four highlights of the year is the Charlottesville Symphony.

So five. I think there's five concerts. Five times a year we have something to look forward to. Four out of five times. Not bad. No, no. Five out of five times. They've all been great this year and we look forward to it.

All right. So from one great guest to another pair of great guests that we're excited to bring on, and from one love of ours to another, we're excited to welcome Eileen Sevier, am I pronouncing that right, I hope? Close enough. Close enough? Close enough. And Tracy Love

from Virginia Wine Benefits. So Eileen, Tracy, thanks so much for coming on this morning. Good morning. Yeah, thanks for having us. We were looking forward to it. I know, I believe we had Joy Teen on who had recommended you both. And she was like, oh, yeah, you got to talk to them. So we had her on a few weeks ago. So we've been looking forward to having both of you on as well.

Yeah, appreciate. So tell us a little bit about you. For those who haven't met yet, tell us maybe a little bit about yourselves, how you first maybe became interested in wine and how you first got connected to Virginia Wine Benefit in your case. I forget if you're with Enoverse. Correct. Tell us a little bit about how you got into your spheres as wine has to do with it. Sure. I've been in the wine world for 20 years in all aspects.

I've been on the restaurant side, buying for a restaurant group, worked for an importer, working with wineries all around the world, worked in Virginia wine, ran sales and marketing for Early Mountain Vineyards up in Madison. And I now work for a national wholesaler called Winebow, actually focused on wineries in the Pacific Northwest. But, you know, I'm here with my Virginia wine hat on. And, you know, jumping into Virginia Wine Benefit, I helped start it, I guess, about a year and a half ago, with a group of wine enthusiasts, wine lovers, as well as other folks in the industry. And the goal is really to help build an annual auction event to support causes within the wine world as well as within the general community here in Virginia.

So, you know, Burgundy has its Ospy Stabone auction going back, you know, over 100 years. Napa Valley Vintners raises millions of dollars each year. Willamette Valley, you know, there's this long tradition of great wine regions having these amazing auctions that support really powerful causes. Which made sense because now, you know, Charlottesville, I mean, Virginia being now like going up there. I mean, our guests from last week, um, uh, from Southwest mountains, that area becoming the Napa of, of the Virginia, like one, some, some major like international award for like best. Absolutely. Yeah. No wine enthusiasts.

The Monticello wine region, best wine region, you know, huge. And so, you know, having an annual auction really goes hand in hand with being recognized globally as a top tier wine region. Absolutely. Absolutely. How about yourself, Tracy? How'd you first become interested in wine and tell us a little bit about what Inoverse is? Yeah. Well, thank you for having me. I also come wearing a Virginia Wine hat and have been in the industry for many years, also starting in the restaurant side. I work full-time for Blenheim Vineyards now. I do our sales and marketing and events. universe with Reggie Leonard, who unfortunately couldn't be here today. He is a better public speaker. But we are basically an access and opportunity initiative in and through Virginia Wine. And we run, I mean, we do a couple of different types of programs, but in collaboration

with the Verasion Project, which is a national 501c3 nonprofit organization that creates further access and jobs within wine between Virginia and California. And Enoverse is their partner for Virginia wine programming. So we run EnoCamp, which will happen at the end of this July. It's sort of a riff on Oregon's Pinot Camp, also going back to the Willamette Valley. Eno meaning wine in Latin. People really, no one knows to the Willamette Valley. Eno meaning wine in Latin. People really, no one knows how to say Enoverse. I will confess to check in beforehand, like, is it Enoverse?

And, you know, I mean, verse has so many different meanings and contexts. And so Eno Camp is a three-day immersive Virginia wine program where we select 10 national grantees through the Verasion Project, invite them to Charlottesville, and it's sort of hands-on education and learning. We visit different wineries throughout different regions, including the Monticello AVA. And the wine benefit, the proceeds are going to the Verasion Project to sponsor Eno campers. So it is all coming full circle, and we are super excited to partner with the Verasian Project and also to be part of the wine benefit. Wonderful, wonderful. I know one of the big things you do, of course, is those auctions, those events, and I know there's one upcoming in June, on June 15th. Tell us a little bit about that event. Yeah, and actually this is

our inaugural in-person auction. So our first year we did a virtual auction. We raised $25,000, went to the Winemakers Research Exchange and the Blue Ridge Food Bank. Okay, wonderful. And so the philosophy with Virginia Wine Benefit is each year we're choosing new beneficiaries. So this year a Verasion project. And one will be within the wine space. One will

be within the general community benefit. So this year a Verasion project and through them Enoverse is the wine recipient of the proceeds. But this is our first in-person auction. It will be at the beautiful Southwest Mountain Vineyards.

Oh, that's it. Yep. Jody Mills, I think. Jody is amazing. She's out there. She's fantastic. She was on last week. She's on our board. Oh, wonderful. You know, Southwest Mountain is generously donating the venue, which is unbelievable. And

for those of you who haven't been out there, it is stunning. It is. It's a great addition to the Virginia wine world. So hosted at Southwest Mountain Vineyard, it's June 15th. It's an evening event. We're going to have some live music.

We're going to have great food. But we're also going to have these unbelievable, we say, valueless, priceless options because there's some auction prizes that you simply could not buy. The Virginia wine community is really coming together to support and provide special things. Like Blenheim Vineyards is providing a Dave Matthews signed handbill as well as a mixed case of their top or a mixed six bottle of their top tier wines. Also, so the prizes are a mix that we're going to ask,

that we're going to be a first time. Are all the odd things being auctioned wine, or are there other things as well? There's wine, there's experiences, there's tastings, there's overnights. Oh, wow. So, yeah, lots of options. And what I love about Virginia Wine is it's a community. People come together. They collaborate a lot.

So I think the auction prizes that are going to be bid up the highest are those where different folks are collaborating together. Yes. So like last year, three wineries were participating. We have Veritas and King Family. Their winemakers, Emily Pelton and Matthew Finau, together with Jake Bushing,

the top auction bid last year was for a collaborative dinner where the three of them came together, pulled a wine that they had made together out of their cellar, and hosted a dinner for a group of, I think it was about 10 people, and that went for over $2,000.

Which actually is a pretty good deal. When you divide that by 10 people, that's kind of a bargain. That's true. You'll have to bid it up more this year. Yeah, we can do that. And our goal is definitely to earn $50,000. Why not just say, let's double it? So an example of one of the prizes that I think will be pretty

spectacular, Tassie Pippert, who's been at James Madison running their culinary program. She's a phenomenal chef. She's hosting a four-course dinner for 10 at Six Penny Farm out in Maguey's. I might be saying this wrong. Maguey'sville. I did not look it up in advance. I should have. I wouldn't know either. I'm guilty. I'm guilty as well.

Over in, I believe, in the Shenandoah Valley. And the winemaker from Bricks and Columns and Joy Ting, who you'd had as a guest, are going to be coming together and providing wine and a little bit of wine education. We have Jay Yeomans, who's a master of wine in D.C. He runs the Capital Wine School. He's going to host a tasting for up to 12 private tasting where he's choosing six Virginia Cabernet Francs and six Cabernet Francs from throughout the world. And, you know, offering his amazing expertise, walking through the wines. There's overnights. The Cork Hotel is giving us an

overnight that we're packaging together with some other experiences here in Charlottesville but the other thing that's really amazing at the event itself we have 12 different wineries from throughout the state coming together the winemakers the owners are going to be there pouring

so you know it's a chance to taste through some Charlottesville favorites you know as I said King Family, Ver, Blenheim, Early Mountain, Stinson, so many others. Hark, I want to make sure I'm not forgetting anyone. But also, you know, folks from the Valley are coming, Bluestone Vineyards, Commonwealth Crush, which is a very cool new project out in Waynesboro. As well as folks from up north so Della Plain and the winery at Bull Run

so there's very few times that you can really here just outside of Charlottesville taste through great winers from throughout the state in one place you can just taste a variety of different wines and we were talking about last week how Virginia is in a way, special, right?

To some respect with the fact that you could be in one place in Virginia and another place, and because of the weather, it's just a change in quality and taste of that wine that you can be complete. So it's nice to have that range of wines from Virginia in one place at one time. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. Especially if you like wine. And so now where, we'll all circle back on where people can get tickets and so forth. We can tell them now and later. Oh, that's true. We can tell them twice. We can tell them twice. So where should people go to get tickets for that? Yeah, so we are working with a really cool online,

or not just online, auction kind of support called Better World. So it was actually started by two UVA students, Darden grads. So betterworld.com, and just search for either The Generous Poor, which is the name of our event at Southwest Mountain Vineyards, June 15th,

or for Virginia Wine Benefit, and it'll pop right up. Perfect, perfect. I just wanted to ask you, Tracy, so does one, obviously, the Eurasian project, does it benefit? Tell us a little bit about, like, what happens at the Eno Camp, or what does the project support things like Enoverse and so forth? Tell us a little bit about the project, so people get an idea, like,

who's benefiting in some way. Yeah, I mean, Eno Camp specifically, we focus on inviting underrepresented or folks from marginalized communities to enter this program with the goal that they will further their careers in Virginia wine from basically all aspects, from the cellar to the vineyard to marketing to business, whether they actually want to own their own winery one day.

But it's creating more access and opportunity, I mean, in the Virginia wine industry on all levels. The Verasian Project has a really incredible future leaders program. So all of the EnoCamp grantees, once they, you know, go through camp, they'll be connected with the Verasian Project over the course of the year, and they'll be paired with a mentor in, you know, whatever avenue they want to focus on. So they'll have connections and with a mentor to help guide them, and then following that program, a lot of them enter the Veragian Project's future leaders. The Veragian Project also offers a bridge program. So, for example, if someone from California wants to come to Virginia Wine, and, you know, a bridge program. So, for example, if someone from California wants to come to Virginia Wine,

and the bridge program helps them basically with moving costs and anything associated with relocating. So the goal is really just to, I mean, create a more inclusive wine community here in Virginia. Reggie, if he were here, would tell you that, you know, Virginia has the opportunity to become the most diverse wine region in the world because, you know, we are still such an emerging and young region that, you know, I mean, winemakers, growers, people are still figuring out, you know, what works well here.

And so, you know, same with the people that are in the industry. I've worked for Blenheim for almost 10 years and to see the culture of wine shift now like it has is really exciting because the folks that were drinking wine 20 years ago, their taste may have changed, they may have moved on to other things and so to invite a younger and more diverse clientele to the tasting rooms but also wine makers in all aspects is really exciting. That's so true. When you think about it, one of the things that you, you know, when you're growing up, you never think that you can be anything having to do with the wine industry, right? I was growing up, I never thought, I mean, you know, can I make wines?

Can I sell wine? Never thought of it, right? But to have the ability to join someplace where, you know, now you're exposed to that and say, who knows, maybe there's a talent there that you have, you don't even know about it, or are unsure that you can bring out to the forefront, and it doesn't matter whether you're, you know, what age you are or from what background you are, you know, people just may gravitate to something and say, hey, this is exactly what I was looking for, so that's great. Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, they are just grapes.

And it is agriculture. That is true. You know, it has such a fussy sort of just connotation to it. And it doesn't need to. I mean, what we do with Enoverse, I mean, we have the Enoverse Club is rooted at Blenheim Vineyards. And it's an experiential wine club. So we invite a host every other month to select Blenheim wines and then they lead an in-person event.

So we're taking their perspective on these wines and sharing it with our club members and the events are open to the public. And then we also lead the Two Up Wine Down Festival. It's taking place on the lawn at Jefferson School, African American Heritage Center. It's amazing. November 2nd.

Like the funnest wine event it's a Virginia wine festival um but we put our own spin on it and invite you know universe hosts from previous years they choose their favorite Virginia wine and pour it at the festival so they're leading the show um and yeah it's awesome so the scope of what we do um the Verasian project has been really helpful to connect us on a national level and with their educational tools. But, yeah, we're just trying to make wine more inclusive and accessible. Absolutely. Yeah, and I will say, too, going back to the Wine Enthusiast Award, one of the reasons that the Monticello wine region was recognized, you know, not just based on making world-class wine, but also a lot of the efforts that Tracy and Reggie are leading of being more inclusive, more diverse, open, you know, on every tier from a consumer standpoint,

as well as to helping people come into the wine industry, you know, which has historically been an extremely white industry. Right. So. Exactly. Yeah. That's fantastic. Yeah.

And like you said, I mean, let's be honest. I mean, an egg is an egg, but there's so much you can do with it. I mean, it's incredible what you can do with an egg, right? As opposed to just fry it and say, that's all I can do. Same thing with grapes. I mean, you know, maybe where the tradition is, this is all we do with grapes. But maybe someone comes along, no, there's something else we can do, and here's the flavors, and it changes, you know.

And your palate says, hey, this is something that I truly like. Yeah, I mean, palatesallets are changing and honestly climate change is affecting it as well between hybrids. That's a whole other conversation. Absolutely. We'll have to have you back for that one. It's been a pleasure having you both on. Where can people, remind

people again where they should go to get those tickets? Head over to Better World and search for either the Generous Pour or Virginia Wine Benefit, and that'll pop right up. I think I heard, too, that we're going to throw the link in the Facebook. Yeah, I'll have Nick stick the link in the comment section. So be on the tune when this pops in, recorded version, Nick will go in there and stick some links in. Yeah, and one other thing to share, we are an all-volunteer group,

as is Verasion Project. So, you know, all of the funds really go directly to the beneficiaries and to great work. That's awesome. That's fantastic. You know, if you go, your ticket and your auction, the things that you bid for, are going to great causes. Exactly, yeah.

That's wonderful. Eileen, Tracy, thanks so much. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. It's been a learning process. Eileen, Tracy, thanks so much. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. It's been a learning process. Thank you people for watching, whoever's out there. We do have some people watching as we make the switch.

We've got Bill McChesney. Thanks for tuning in this morning. I think I spotted, who else did I spot? Andre Xavier. Thanks so much for doing it. Another great entrepreneur in our area is tuning in. And I think I'm pretty sure I spotted... Oh, yeah. No, we got a bunch more. Joellen

Fenasso, thanks for watching. Neventurde, thanks for watching. Maggie Simon, Eli Enriquez, muchísimas gracias for watching. Claire McKinley. Oh, we got a bunch. We got a bunch all popping in, popping in this morning. Dave Ludlow, thanks for watching. Dave McNeil, Joe Wislar, Lorena Kushmead, thanks for tuning in this morning. So Ludlow, thanks for watching. Dave McNeil, Joe Wislar, Lorena

Cushmead, thanks for tuning in this morning. We've got a lot of viewers. That's all on your computer here. That's all on my computer here. Let's see. Oh, and I think Nick said we've got a quote on our I Love Seville page here. Andre Xavier says, Eileen and Tracy are forces

to be reckoned with. They are very talented, and we are very lucky to have them. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. And Nick is definitely putting the link in there, so if you want to go ahead and click that. And from two great guests to two more fantastic guests that we've been looking for. I've had this one circled for a while and I knew that, because I always love our monthly meetup with Matthias, but then I heard it's going to be Matthias and friends. And special guests. And I was like, well, who's the special guest? And he said, it's Ali Savindi

from Otto Turkish Siva. And I went, yes, I love Otto Turkish Siva. So we are really excited to welcome this morning Matthias and Ali Savindi from Otto Turkish. Thanks so much for coming on, both of you. Absolutely. Great to have you. So glad to be here and so glad to bring my good friend Ali along.

And I wonder if introductions are necessary. I think everyone knows Otto. I think so. Everyone knows Ali's face from behind the counter, waving friendly. I'm excited to be here. Well, I appreciate you, Matthias, and thank you for having us here. It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure.

So I kind of want to phrase this this way, right? Because normally we just ask people, how did you get started? But I want to do a little bit of a double question, which is, obviously, Ali, how did you first say, okay, I want to start auto Turkish street food? And then Matthias, your question is, how did you first meet Ali and come across it? How did this friendship come about? It's actually a nice story. So I moved here in 2014 from Germany and Ali is my oldest friend here in Charlottesville. The same year I moved here, we met we were both working at the Clifton Inn back then.

A long time ago. It seems like a different life. But yep, that's where we met. So it predates Otto Turkish street food. It's a distance. Exactly, yeah. And, you know, Ali speaks German. And so there was a little touch of homeland.

Yes, yes. Becoming friends with Ali. And that's how we met. Long time ago, yeah. That's amazing. So amazing so Ali how about yourself how did you I guess how did you come to Charlottesville and then how did you sort of make the switch to say hey I want to start a Turkish street food restaurant yeah so I also came here in in late 2013 2014 beginning uh I came on an internship and that's how I met Matthias out there.

It was a really professional place that helped us build friendship. So the Turks and the Germans have actually... We're just so relaxed that the hand of God has to say move the mic. So there are approximately five million Turkish people living in Germany. Yes. So we have deep roots together with Turks and Germans. We continue the tradition here in Charlottesville. Yeah. Exactly.

But as a background, I studied hospitality and business. So with our culinary backgrounds, I also have a business partner. His name is Haldon turguy so who i also met at clifton as well so uh after working a while in charlottesville we decided to create a concept that's called doner kebab which is really famous all over europe as well as in germany at matthias yes so. So we created this concept in 2020 during the pandemic, actually. Yes. Which was a little challenging times. I would think so.

Yeah. But I do appreciate our local community for the sports. That's how we survived. So I'm grateful with that. I mean, you guys have like just such a devoted following. But I can understand having been there, but I said once you go and you taste just the flavor

of everything, it kind of becomes one of your go-to's of like, oh man, we don't want to go eat tonight. I mean, there are times when my wife Elizabeth and I, because she's also, it's funny, her mom is from Germany as well, and she's probably watching today. Probably.

They had a little snow in Montana because that's where they are now. If Monita Miller is able to watch, I know she's watching. Or she'll watch the recording. It's a huge thing there. Especially the dinner kebab. She immediately knew it. There's so many times we're on the downtown mall and it's like, what do we want to eat?

Otto Turkish. We go around the corner and know there's just the flavor. And you can see why it has, why you guys have just such a following of people that even though, you know, the pandemic happened right after, it's like, oh, no, I still have to go. I still have to support it. You ever run a restaurant or anything like this before? Yeah, well, I appreciate you. So working at Clifton did help with the back of fine dining experiences.

As well as I was there like for five years managing food and beverage operation as well as the wedding. Okay. Working on the wine program. And I also work at the Oakhurst team. You know, we help them establish a bar out there as well and also helping the food and beverage operations and with the background of

working in Europe and studying hospitality it helped a lot yes absolutely, Matthias on that vein how about yourself, what do you love most about Otto? What's your favorite thing?

The food. Of the food. As Ali already touched on, there's a giant Turkish minority living in Germany. Actually, it's the biggest minority because after the Second World War

when we rebuilt the country we invited mainly Turkish and Italian families over to help us rebuild and as a result we have those huge Turkish population in Germany and obviously they brought their tradition, culture

and cuisine over which is why as a result you now see Turkish dinner shops at every street corner. So this Turkish street food concept that Ali and Aldun brought to Charlottesville, I know it from Germany and you mentioned your mother-in-law, she would be excited about the Duna Kebab here, because we Germans we know Duna Kebab. And so there was a lot of excitement when Ardun and Ali decided to actually open up one of those shops here in town.

So they did what I never had the courage to, you know, to bring Turkish-German street food to the area. And then the admirable story, in my opinion, is it was the first year of the pandemic. We saw shops and restaurants and businesses closed. They either pivoted to takeout only or food delivery. Or they, as we know, unfortunately, a lot of them had to shut down. Yet those two crazy guys, they opened up their restaurants.

December of 2020, right? Yeah. So half a year into the pandemic, they opened up. And I know for a fact that they never regretted it because it took off. And as I said earlier, everyone knows Otto's nowadays. Oh, yes. It's a staple downtown Charlottesville. And I find it inspiring as a story. And while we do see the local economy recovering, we all

see less and less vacant storefronts here and down. I think it's a story to highlight. Well, I appreciate you, Matthias. Thank you for that. Just like you said said just in Germany alone they sell over 2 million

doner kebabs it's really crazy and it's spread all over Europe and in Middle East or in Greek cuisine they call it gyros or shawarma oh yes interesting yeah with our concept that

we specialize authentic vibrant delicious Turkish cuisine with a modern twist. So that's like there is something for everyone. It's unique and satisfying. Yes. Yeah. As well as offering caterings for the family gatherings. Tell us about that. Is that a newer thing?

Some people, I think our viewers may not realize that you can actually do catering with Otto Turkish. Yeah, that is something. Our concept is really suitable for that. We can offer a concept to our local community that offers vegan, vegetarian or the meat options with signature sauces that can be really great that all with locally sourced fresh ingredients and that can be also affordable all the way from weddings to corporate events

or the hospital at UVA as well we are trying to reach out obviously during this process I'm grateful to all our local community. And actually if you go to UVA grounds during lunchtime you see Otto's food truck

there. You might have seen it it's a bright yellow food truck and I think every day Monday through Friday you offer probably a smaller concept than the restaurant a smaller menu so food truck, restaurant and catering yeah probably a smaller concept than the restaurant but a smaller menu but yeah

so food truck restaurant and catering or like private dinings special events like going to wineries breweries up and requests or even the world weddings that's plays a big role. That's fantastic. It has the classic thing where it's like it's there's a simplicity to it, but yet within the simplicity, it's not overly complicated, overly expensive. Within the simplicity, there's just such a range of flavor. Yes. Because every time you go, you can experience something different.

What I love most about it is you have the flavors of the meats. You have the flavors of the sauces. you have the flavors of the sauces, you have the pickled elements. So you've got the little cucumbers, sometimes you've got the pickled onions. My personal favorite is the fried eggplant. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm that person, that annoying person,

but can you put a little more of the fried eggplant? Yeah. You've probably done that for me. Now, man, here he is again. He wants more fried eggplant. And just the combination just elevates it to a new level that the simplicity

of it would... You wouldn't think, right? It sort of deceives you in its simplicity because it's just the mix of flavors is tremendous. So it works beautifully for gatherings. I mean, I know up in New York, they do this a lot, right? There'll be a lot of Italians, right? If you have a huge gathering of like 30 people, 20, 30 people,

you're not going to go in the backyard and cook like 10 lasagnas yourself, right? You cook all that stuff yourself. You find some Italian place that's really good about the catering and do that because it's easy to do. And to imagine the ease here of being, Oh man, I really want this for my family gathering, but I'm not going to make, you know,

do the kebab and get the whole thing and shave it off. So to have the ease of having you take care of that for them and know that it's going to be delicious. It's going to be fresh. It's going to be local. And everybody has a choice, right? Because like Ali mentioned, if you're a vegetarian, you can go that route.

And if you're a vegan, you can go that route. If you like meat, you can definitely go that route, right? And if you like eggplant, you can even go that route. Exactly. Even extra. Exactly. Precisely. Elizabeth says she loves the dinner kebab.

It's such a tasty mix of flavors. And Andre Xavier says the Clifton Inn had produced a great number of successful entrepreneurs, including himself. He was also at the Clifton Inn at some point. They'll have to call it the Clifton Inn Entrepreneur Tree. So Andre is Brazilian, I think. I'm German. And then the Turkish. And that's where we all met, the Clifton Inn back in the day.

And actually, if you think about it, it's interesting that in Charlottesville, it's relatively a small city compared to other hubs for European cuisine. We have three Turkish restaurants here in town. We always had Sultan Kebab by our friends Dennis and Serhat. They were here for probably 10 years now. As a business, they've been here over 10 years which they celebrate.

They have roots at the Clifton Inn as well. And then now you have Aldun and Ali with their Turkish street food concept. And then you have also a Turkish fine dining experience. Can you say Turkish experience is it can you say Turkish or is it Mediterranean with Tariq Smyrna on West Lane yeah yeah our advantage is that a lot of our ingredients are being shipped from Turkey that gives that

extra flavor and then when we combine them with the local locally sourced ingredients it makes it really unique. It is so good and it's I mean it's I love the authenticity of it too just you go in there when you go to like the fridge if you want to drink they have you have the Turkish sodas and everything the Turkish beer I think is in there as well and so like you can actually get the the drink the first time I did it now i do it all the time i always want the turkish soda yeah because i'm like you you get to have the full experience of it as as though you were having it probably i'll bet you in germany probably they have a lot of the turkish sodas and stuff as well yeah but you get that that real experience that you're

immersed in it and and it's just such a great atmosphere. Yeah, I remember Ali complaining to me how long it took him to be able to import the Turkish beer that they now offer. Yeah. So there was a lot of blood and sweat and tears involved. Lots of research, actually. Just trying to convince the companies, like, bring some Turkish wine, Turkish beer, even Greek beer we are offering. Oh, nice.

So it's a beautiful mix. Lucio Morales is Saludos Amigos. He's the owner of Sombreros right here on the downtown mall as well, saying hello this morning. Hola, buenos dias. Buenos dias, Lucio. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for tuning in. And I think to your point,

it really is a beautiful one. I think the great draws of Charlottesville and the great things is that this place has just the diversity of cuisine that you can get here. It's so much more than you would expect for a city

of this size. I think we have one of the most, you know, diverse in restaurants. Yeah, I remember that statistic. Yeah, yeah. So... So it's just, it's amazing that you're not just limited to your staples of what you think of with American food, right?

You actually have access to just amazing food and people like you that like persevering and and bringing it to us just with such love and authenticity and passion yeah that it really comes out yeah i'm grateful that we combine uh turkish hospitality which is really famous as you know a lot of europeans actually go to turkey for the tourism and then hospitality because that when our guests or customers walk into the store the way we want to treat them is like

well you know I see them just like my friends as soon as they walk into the store I see them as my friends so like they came all the way I want to take care of them I want to take care of them with my hospitality and it's really important like even in Turkey when someone comes in the store sometimes I want to take care of them in my hospitality and it's really important. Like even in Turkey when someone comes in the store sometimes you

want to offer them tea, you want to offer them coffee, that's complimentary. That's just a tradition. I remember first time I ever walked into AutoTradition, the person there like who was putting the things together so friendly said oh hello how are you that I'm thinking to myself wait do they know me do they know me I felt bad I'm like oh man I feel like I should know their name because they know me and then I realized no I think they're just

this is the hospitality they treat you like you've been there 20 times before even though it's your first time and that's the beauty of it the Italians are the same way. It's like you go to a restaurant. Sometimes you feel like, you know, it's like you're just part of the family.

They treat you like part of the family. And when you go to a place like that, you feel so much more comfortable, right? You enjoy it more. You see the food is, and the fact that they have already that friendliness and that, again, that family feeling to it. You know the food has also that kind of flavor and intensity that is what you want from when you go home. It's like you have that same food. So that's the beauty of it is that whole package, that friendliness in the food, is something that's why you, like you said, this is why you

return to places, right? Because of all of that. Absolutely. It's the beauty of it. I love that you're out here also helping. I think one of our favorite things to talk to Matthias about when you come on is just you can tell your love

for all that Charlottesville has and bringing it out and so it's just always a joy to have you both on Ali I wanted to ask so if people are interested in the so obviously a lot of our viewers will know that you're on the downtown mall on the Water Street side

for people who are interested in the catering do they go to your website if they want to know more about, okay, I want to cater, I want to have them come out somewhere to a family gathering? Where's the right way to get in touch with you for that? Yeah. The website is actually really sourceful that it's so easy that they can just click a submit a catering inquiry. And then it does ask all the questions about their needs, if they have any dietary restrictions, anything,

because our menu is offering all those variety options and capable of doing that. Obviously, they are more than welcome to just call. We will be happy to help them as well. Or send us email. Email is very easy, just like the name of our restaurant at gmail.com. Oh, perfect. That's super easy. Nothing easier.

The website is also really easy. It's just restaurant at gmail.com. Oh, perfect. That's super easy. The website is also really easy. It's just auto-civil.com. Super easy. You can't mistake it. Very easy to get there. Absolutely. And it's got a phone number, too. And it has the phone number, too.

I mean, it even has the little, it's a very nice website, I have to say. It even has the little contact us chat button. You press the little speech bubble thing, and poof, you can do any inquiry. I also see them a lot on social media. There are a few restaurants here in town that do a really good job of promoting what they offer on social media.

I see them all the time, like Otto's, Guajiro's, and all those. I always wonder, how can I learn? Learn from what they do. Learn about Instagram from them, because I still struggle with promoting myself that way. Absolutely, absolutely. No, you have a great Instagram. In fact, you're on the Instagram page yourself.

One of them is you with a nice smile enjoying some autodidget email. I was honored. Ali asked me if I wanted to sit as a model on the table when the photographer was there. Is it the picture that you used this morning? Yes. I think they're serving

me a Turkish coffee. They are. They are serving you a Turkish coffee. It's not staged. I was actually there innocently. They assume you're a Turkish coffee. Absolutely. And it's not staged. I was actually there innocently. Well, you find me a lot at Autos actually during lunchtime.

Yes. Working, sending emails. Yeah, I like it. Well, convenient location. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you, Matias.

No, it's... And Bernardo Martinez, owner of Sombras 2 with Lucrecia, he says... I'm going to read it in Spanish first and then translate for the audience Alex Javier, otro muy buen programa muchas felicidades a Ali por su esfuerzo

y dedicación para hacer de Otto Restaurant y Food Truck un éxito completo, which in English is many congratulations to Ali for your effort and dedication in making Otto Restaurant and food truck a complete success. Yeah. I understand all of it.

You're so good. You have a lot of points too. Thank you very much, brother. And you know each other too. Yeah, they're just the sweetest people. They always smile. They have a nice food truck. It's the amphitheater as well.

As well as like a really nice restaurant uh right next to us actually yep right uh always i can always see their amphitheater everyone like their passion with their foods and i always get their quesadillas or burritos it's just so good and they're like hermano Hermano, tienes hambre? Si, siempre. Si, siempre. I appreciate them a lot. You can tell that they appreciate you as well. I love that as well, just the community. Exactly.

It's not a competition. It's an embracement of everybody. It's enjoying all of what's there and just the passion. You can tell just even having you both on is your passion for what you do and your passion for sharing it with the great people in Charlottesville, with our audience and with us.

And I find it so inspiring. The circumstances were not ideal at all for them. No. It being 2020 and the pandemic and all the restrictions. And they just believed in the concept, opened up. And if you look online, look at the Google reviews, for example, you understand why they are successful because it's about the dedication and the service, which we can all learn a lot from.

Places like Sombreros and Otto's and Guajiro's, all they have a following for a reason. It's not only the food, it's the experience. That's how I see it. So true. It's been such a pleasure to have both of you on and just talk to you. I don't think I've ever met Art.

Yeah, this is Art. It's a pleasure for me. You have to come back, Ali. Absolutely. And thank you for thinking of this. I have to come back, Ali. Yes. Absolutely. I'll do it too. Absolutely. Thank you. And thank you for thinking of this. I mean, this was Matthias' idea. We didn't tell him, hey, you know, bring on Ali with you.

I love this idea of just sharing not just what you love about Charlottesville. I really enjoyed it. It wasn't as selfless as it looks. I'm hoping that he buys me lunch at all times. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. I'll bring Holden here, too. He'll talk.

I'll get you some more extra eggplant, too. Don't worry. Perfect. Thank you for having us. Such a joy. Such a pleasure. Thank you, Walt. Be sure to always check out Matthias, where he is. You can find

him on Facebook as well, Matthias, he's on Realty. He'll be on Instagram soon. You can find him on Instagram. Just go to... Yeah, just go to Chuck Estiva and you'll find him there. And soon he'll be an Instagram star as well. So thank you both so much. Thank you for being with me today.

It was a fantastic show. Be sure to look up all our great guests. We really appreciate everyone who tuned in today. I mean, thanks so much for the comments and the beautiful words. And really just it's the viewers that interact that make this show special. They make us really enjoy what we do. It really is, yes. Absolutely.

So it's the beauty of it. It's funny how we come full circle. I mean, Ali speaks in Spanish too. Today, mañana, and of course Bernardo and Lucrecia were our very first guests. And they started in 2020 also, remember? 2020 as well. Again, also a struggle but that's how you know

that they're genuine, they love what they do and they have good food. It's the fact that they survived that. Exactly. The passion comes through. So really continue to really patronize and come to these amazing people doing great work and sharing their culture with all of us. So we

appreciate it. Of course we appreciate our amazing partners, Matias Young Realty Credit, Series Insurance, Forward of the Month, the presenter of Emergent Financial Services. We appreciate Judah behind the camera, working overtime today with five people cycling in and out. Appreciate all he does. Appreciate the Aleph Siebel Network.

We are grateful for all of you. We look forward to seeing you next week. But until that time, as we like to close it out, hasta mañana. Thank you.