The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Keith Phares & Katherine Pracht Phares And Pedro Chacon & Maria Morales On "Today y Mañana!"

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

Keith Phares & Katherine Pracht Phares from Charlottesville Opera and Pedro Chacon & Maria Morales from StreetDog VA 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, Charlottesville Opera and Matthias John Realty, with Forward Adelante.

Good morning everyone and welcome to Today Imanñana. I'm Alex, this is Xavier. We're super excited to have you joining us on a brisk morning here in Charlottesville, Virginia. I'm glad you told me you were Alex because they probably said, who is this guy? Who is this guy? I haven't seen him in a month. What the hell? Yeah, if he has any new viewers in the last month, they're like, man, there's another

one. I thought it was just that handsome Michael and Xavier, but now there's this other brother that's like, yeah. But now we're excited to see everyone this morning. And excited to have you back. Oh, thank you. I'm excited to be back. Very thrilled for it. Already got some people tuning in. Keith Smith, thanks for sharing. This morning you can always catch Keith tomorrow morning, I think, on Real Talk. So be sure to check that out. We've got a great show lined up for anyone we're going to join shortly in the show by Keith Fares and

Katherine Proctor's from Charlottesville Opera talking about the amazing duet concert series We and there's a concert tomorrow night at 7 you'll be able to hear both of them later in the show We'll be joined by Pedro Chacon and Maria Morales from Street Dog, Virginia So we got we got a great show lined up for everyone. Of course, love being here on the I Love Civo Network set. We got some great partners in Emergent Financial Services, Mattias Yon Realty, Charlottesville Opera, Ford, Adelante, so we appreciate all our fantastic partners.

Glad to be back on with you. It's been some time, yeah, it's always fun. I mean, I have fun with Michael, fun with you. Although the last time we did finance. Oh, it's a finance. We did have finance, but last time it was you and I. He kept picking my brain. It's like, wow, that brain is getting shallow here. David's brain needed a little break. So we said, let's talk some music.

I love that. Let's talk some hot dogs. Let's talk some entrepreneurship. We love all those things. We get to give Xavier a little break from the finance topic. Nicklas Erpey tuning in this morning. Carolina D'Aguardo from beauty salon. Always love our fantastic viewers. She's been on before.

Great business, great entrepreneur herself in the community. So always appreciate it. I think she's in Prozay. She's in Prozay, so be sure to check her out as well. Well, I don't know about you, but I am thrilled to jump in. We almost have a time limit, right? Oh, you know, we've got time.

We've got time. We've got time. Yeah, I timed it. I timed it. I timed it. So we're excited to welcome to the show this morning Keith Vares and Catherine Proctor. Keith, Katie, thanks so much for coming on this morning. Thanks for having us.

I appreciate it. I was very excited when Nick sent me the line up. I haven't had a chance to hear you say anything, Katie, but I know Keith I had gone to the Dyes and Dolls a few years ago at Charles Robyn. That was a lot of fun. I always told you it was great to hear an actual singer sing the part because I was very familiar with the movie. So Marlon Brando just tops his way through the song. You can actually sing the song. That was the idea originally, I suspect, right? So hearing a beautiful voice singing is much, much preferable.

So, maybe to start off, for those who don't know you yet, tell us a little bit about yourselves, maybe how you first became interested in opera. Well, I'm Katie Procht-Fairs. I'm from Iowa originally, Davenport, Iowa, and my family, they all are very, very musical, so that's kind of how I got into music in the first place. I think I was watching Johnny Carson when I was about to go away to college, and I saw Kiri Takanawa singing an operatic piece. And I thought, oh my God, that's, I need to do that.

That's amazing. So I think I was interested in music theater first, and then that kind of changed my path toward opera. And I went to school, did my master's degree, and then became an opera singer. And I wasn't a star, so I was doing what I needed to do to make money and also be performing. And I've been doing that for the last 20-some years,

and slowly growing as an opera singer too. And my path went to Chicago, and then I lived in Philadelphia for 15 years just as a place to be based to go and travel to be an opera singer. So that's kind of how I got my path. How about you, Keith? So I grew up in a musical family. No professionals, but everybody played an instrument. Or sang. Music was always playing in the house. All different types of music.

Classical music, jazz, rock and roll. And I started on trumpet. That was sort of the family instrument with my brother and my father. And I think I got bit by the theater bug while I was in high school and playing in the pit orchestra. So what I would do is, I was really excited about this, and I would go out and get the recording of whatever show I knew we were going to do the next year. And I'd listen to it. We had a finished basement when I was growing up, in New Jersey,

by the way. And I'd be doing my homework and listening along and just listening for the trumpet part and then I started to sing along with the recording. And there was nobody around. So I started to let loose and I thought, this sounds reasonable, maybe. And I decided I'm going to try out for the Allshore Chorus. This was sort of a district chorus of high school kids. And I did it to impress these two girls that I went to school with. I don't think they're really going to like me. And I scored really high, but I didn't really take it seriously.

I thought, I had seen all these Suzuki kids playing violin at four years old and I thought, oh no, I would have had to have started much younger. Singing is not like that. One thing led to another. We moved to South Carolina for my senior year of high school. And I came in asking, you know, when are we going to get the Pid Orchard show together? And they said, well, we don't do that. But we need guys for the show.

And so I auditioned for the show. They were doing South Pacific. And I got the role of Emile De Bec, you know, something. They graped my temples. I wore my dad's blazer. It was great. Sang in straight tone. And then, yeah, I went to college, I did community theater here and there, and finally I did a production

of The Secret Garden. This was in Hilton, South Carolina. There were opera singers in the cast and they said, you know, you really should take a look at this and pursue this and take voice lessons. So my junior year of college, started taking voice lessons. Next thing I knew, I was applying to grad schools in voice. And yeah, it happened really, really fast.

That's amazing. So I do have a question, so I'm curious, right? Because, you know, Catherine, you mentioned something also. So with regard to voices, right? I mean, we know as we get older and older, right, the voice begins to decline. Is there a sense as to when your voice peaks when it's best, at what kind of age? And maybe, you know, people may be different, right?

But is there a time where you say, you know, at whatever, 20s, 30s, that's when the voice peaks, and then, you know, eventually it fades? Is that, does that happen? That's a really great question. And I'm actually writing a dissertation on this topic, which is – What's that? I'm sure you didn't know that. No, I didn't know that at all.

Yeah, it depends. Usually for sopranos with lighter voices, the peak is kind of maybe mid-20s, early 30s. And then for the bigger the voices get, it's later in life that they continue to improve and try to figure out how to use their unwieldy instrument. I'm a lighter voiced mezzo-soprano, so lyric mezzo-soprano. I would say peak is, well, I'm kind of hitting it now. But I would say kind of 30s, 40s. And for male voices, for the TBB voices, the lower voices, that can continue to grow. So it kind of just depends on use and actually just keeping up with it, doing some vocal exercises and stretching the instrument, keeping it awake and alive and used. Yeah, a lot of it has to do with navigating the changes that your voice goes through as

you get older. You make adjustments in the rep. If you feel like you lose a step off the top, then maybe don't sing that. Sing things that are a little lower. you lose a step off the top, then maybe don't sing that. Maybe don't sing that. Sing things that are a little lower. Or maybe game-stepping bottoms. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it really does happen that way.

And the nice part is, especially for lower voices, there are plenty of roles for, as you get older, there are plenty of roles available. Fewer for the women. And fewer especially for the light-voiced women. So that gets to be a little bit of a puzzle for people. But the nice part is that with this art song, the kind of recital that we're presenting, that can be sung by any age at any time, and you get to kind of pick and choose and create

your own show. It doesn't have to just exist as an opera where it's one character the entire show. You get to shift around a little bit and tell your story. So that's the nice part. Absolutely. Tell us a little bit about that. Because I know there's been a whole duet concert series, but maybe a little bit about the idea of the duet concert,

and then maybe a little bit about the one that you have prepared for the audience tomorrow night. Oh, the idea about the duet concert. This was something that Caroline and Leanne conceived. I think they just thought it would be something that would be cool to do and to bring in couples. What was the last one? David Portillo and Jenny Hauser? I believe.

And Peter Clarke. Peter Clarke and Molly Mastone. I believe. And Peter Clark. Peter Clark and Molly Mustonan. Yeah. So it's whether they were a pair in life or in work. Molly and Peter were a pair in work and there are other people like ourselves who happen to work together and to be...we're a pair. We're a married couple. Same last name. Yeah. That's what that was. It's just another way to showcase people who have sung shows here and used different colors, sang different types of music. You said shows here too, which is interesting because I know that you saw Keith perform in Guys and Dolls.

I actually sang with the old Charlottesville Opera. Back when it was Ashland? Many years ago, exactly. And when it was Ashland, I sang Guinevere and Camelot with Peter Clarke. Oh my goodness. Yeah, pretty neat. So full circle. So our coming together for this recital was an idea that was proposed by Charlottesville

Opera, but it's also something that we really enjoy doing, getting the chance to perform together. It's not often that we get hired to do a show together, and so just pairing our repertoire that we have learned on our own separate paths, and trying to find things that complement each other is kind of a great time.

Yeah, recitals are a totally different volax. I was gonna ask you, how is it different then? Well, it's terrifying. That's how it's different, it's terrifying. When you're in an opera or you're in a musical theater production, I mean, it's all musical theater, I hate to label like that.

You get to put on a costume and get lost in a character. You've got staging, you can move, you're communicating with the other characters in the play. When it's a recital, it's just you. I suppose you could go and bounce around, but that would create issues with ensemble with the pianist because there's no conductor. One of the things that makes the opera or the show work is that you have a conductor. In this, it's just you're using your ear. So it's tougher.

It's tougher to be bouncing around. So you're there. You can feel stuck. It's tougher to be bouncing around. So you're there, you can feel stuck. It's very vulnerable. It's, if you're doing a solo recital, obviously it's just you for about an hour. Fortunately we get to split the program up. So when you're singing a duet,

because I mean, I would think that a solo recital, to a certain respect, is a little easier than a duet because it's just your ear telling you when to sing, but now you have four ears. And so how much practice do you need to make sure you both kind of start and end at the same time? That's a really good question. What Keith was saying about the presentation of the show, you have weeks of rehearsals together. And even if they're strangers when you first start rehearsals,

by the end you have all these habits built, you know, with other people. But in these duet recitals, it's a little bit, I mean, we got here yesterday. Our first day was yesterday. Oh, wow. Yeah, I mean, we live together. We know each other.

But our first time with the pianist was yesterday. And it's amazing how, you know, because we each have these maps of the music to work with, and we know the words, we come in with everything prepared, as long as everybody's kind of on the same page about the tempo, the time that we're going to stay in, it just is like magic, you know, it just starts to work together. So then it becomes about how to create art and tell your story and do things, you know, fun things with your voice to kind of make something interesting with the characters that we're creating.

But yeah, there's some duets that we have that we, you know, he's singing to me and I have to react to it. And we haven't been rehearsing for weeks and weeks and weeks on that, there's some live theater stuff. And when you do have someone on stage with you, that you kind of just, the movement happens. And I always prefer it when I can move, when I can move around.

And then you have that interaction, that back and forth. Just be more in your body. Absolutely. So what are some of the pieces that people can look forward to? It's a combination of some songs that each of you will sing individually and some that you'll sing together, some full-on duets. That's right. Yeah, I'm going to sing some gypsy songs, or Ticoine Melodien is the German word for

it by Dvorak. There will be a couple piano solos as well featuring Jeremy Thompson. And then you'll sing some American contemporary art songs. Yeah, I've got a couple of American art songs. Just really quick, what would differentiate an art song from a pop song would be the piano part is of equal importance to the vocal line. They kind of work together. So I'm doing a set, I'm doing an excerpt actually of a larger set by a composer named Herschel Garfin based on Donald Hall poetry.

And then I'm doing a larger piece, it's about a 10, 12 minute piece, by Stephen Mark Cohn, based on a newspaper article that he read, an old newspaper article. I'll cut to the sort of theme. We were asked to come up with a theme. And my songs center around, all songs center around love, or loss, or desire in some way or another for hundreds of years.

These songs focus on love, loss, desire for people who are aging, people who are middle-aged and getting older. And so that's what these songs focus on. They're just the very point, the poetry is beautiful and they're really fun to sing. I think people are going to really enjoy them. That's amazing. That does sound exciting.

And then we've got some kind of lighter things on the second half of the show, some Bernstein songs from his musicals, Wonderful Town and On the Town. We've got something from an art song collection called Arias and Barkrolls, also by Bernstein. And then we've got some Gershwin. And Rodgers and Hammerstein too. We're actually doing a medley from South Pacific. Oh nice, we're all perfect to bring it full circle. Yeah, and he just performed the role of Emile De Beque too.

Oh, Dan recently. Yeah. So I got a chance to have him sing some Enchanted Evening to me. Oh, there you go. There you go. Those are always great. I mean, that's the beauty, I think, of... I love the Americana that maybe people haven't heard recently, right?

If you haven't done, because especially, I mean, most of the music you're gonna hear on the radio is pop, rock, right? But to go back, like there was a time when like, the songs you listened to, it was Dershwin. It was pop. It was pop. That was the pop, and to have, and especially with Dershwin,

the piano is so key. Yeah, they had a piano or an orchestral arrangement. Or a jazz. That was music people listened to for fun. Yeah, and the poetry is so good. It's really, really wonderful. The stories, the little individual pieces are really very special.

And sound that you've definitely put together to weave it, to tell a story, in a sense, which I think people will really look forward to and enjoy. Yeah, and it's a great space to sing in, too. We're over just across the street here. First Pres, I think, is where... Oh, First Pres Baterian, yeah, that's a beautiful, beautiful space. I've had the pleasure of having... What was it? It was like a quartet.

Well, it wasn't really a quartet. It was like an old music group that played there. You get a nice feel for the space. It's pretty large. That always helps to get a nice full house in there. That's always beautiful. Any piece in particular that you were looking forward to? Any piece in particular that you're excited for people who haven't heard this before to hear it? Let's see.

How many go first? Yes, you go first. You got an answer. Toughest question. All of it. All of it. I'm really excited about all of it. Of course, I love singing South Pacific.

What I really hope, when you learn these pieces, you become connected to them. I think even the stuff you don't like. It's part of our job to become invested and so be partial. And your wish, whenever you go into one of these things, I hope the audience loves this music as much as I do and loves this text as much as I do. Because a lot of where I come at, I come at this, I love text, I love communicating poetry and some of the best poetry I have ever read has been set by these composers that we're featuring tonight. If you're going to be coming to the recital,

I just hope you can get into the poetry. That's beautiful. Yeah, it is. Yeah, there's nothing like that. To listen to the words sometimes. It can be easy to forget to listen to the words. It'll help that it's in English, some of them, right? Most of them, yeah. Yeah, because I think sometimes maybe people, even people who typically go to a lot of operas, you reach a point that if you're hearing mostly

a German, Italian repertoire, you've trained your ear to listen to music, but not the words, because you can't understand them. But the beauty of doing some in English is you should pay attention to the words. You can actually listen to them. And that was, you know, that was what, that was part of what prompted the creation of opera as a genre.

To showcase the voice, but also it was so that people could understand the words. Because they were used to all of this polyphony, all of these coral pieces, and you wouldn't normally understand the words. But with opera, it's one line and you're a person communicating text. And there's some really fantastic, like lots of the Bernstein is just kind of real people talking about real things that happen and it's not necessarily flowery and perfect. It's more about the quirks of us and how we are different. There's, we did a recital themed on love,

but also there's plenty of love for self, love for family in there as well. In some of the German, which is going to be in the German language when I sing it, it's talking about love for freedom and wanting to be with nature. And remembering the songs that my mother taught me and doing that now and connecting with my mother

in this way that I couldn't before now that I'm teaching my own children. It's, there are different forms of love, which I think is great to be able to celebrate in one. To express, yeah, more than just romantic. That's a very good point, right? Because one of the things I truly remember, because my parents were Spanish, right?

And sometimes it would listen to habaneros and other songs from South America. And the one thing that always caught my ear is that I would listen to the words, right? I mean, the music was always peppy and stuff. But I would listen to the words, and there was always a story. And sometimes, yeah, sometimes it was a story of love, sometimes a story of, you know, sadness, whatever. But there was a story. So when you

listen to a song, right, there was a story behind it. And the same thing, you know, kind of what operas and things of that sort, right? Which is, which is what I really like. I mean, even in the rock and roll areas, every once in a while you had writers and singers that told a story and then every once you had, you know, was just they're yelling and screaming and there's no story, right? But that's what I really like about that is because, obviously when it's in your language, and you can understand it like Alex said, you know, the music is part of the story, but you, in a sense, you're just, you know, to me, at least this is personal, right? To me, the music is just there,

but the, you know, the words is what's at least this is personal, right? To me, the music is just there, but the words is what's really kind of hitting you, right? Now, granted, you go see an opera, I don't understand German, so all I want is to, then I just want the music, I want to hear that print. You just do a pickup on certain things. Something, yeah, yeah.

Italian is easier for me and stuff like that, but obviously, yeah, it's just when you can just, when those words flow with the music, there's nothing like it. Yeah And I think that's gonna be wonderful. Yeah, and it's it's fun to Especially with the Aries and Barcroll's piece. We're doing Mr. and Mrs. Webb's Say Good Night That was written the words were written by Bernstein and he wrote the music for it So they're you know

Usually you have you have a composer who will take a poem written by somebody else and do their impression of whatever that would be. But you really get the one person's thought about what those words are supposed to sound like. Yeah, that is gonna be impressive. That is a special thing. Well, this has been an absolute pleasure before we let you know anything,

like as far as what's next, where people can follow you guys and what's upcoming? Yeah, we'll keep, so Facebook, my Facebook is Katie Proct or Katherine Proct Fares, I guess I'm Katie. It is Katherine Proct Fares. Thank you for helping me know who I am. And on Instagram, I'm Katie Proct as well, just one word.

So you can always follow us there. Follow me there. I'll post what's coming up. I'll be in Colorado this summer. Oh, okay. be in Colorado this summer. It hasn't been announced yet. That's a good time to be in Colorado. Absolutely. That'll be really nice. And then we're at BGSU as well. It's Bowling Green State University is where we teach. We are doing that now so we want to do a shout out to BGSU. You can look for us there. We're teachers also.

Yeah, we're voice teachers. That's amazing. That's fantastic. The next generation there. How about you, Keith? Facebook, Instagram. Oh, God, I forget how Facebook does the handle. It's like Keith underscore fairs. Keith dot fairs dot one. Nice. Keith dot fairs dot one. I found it.

Instagram is KeithFairsOneWord. I have a Keith Fairs Baritone page on Facebook. I'm Super Keith on BlueSky. Got in early with a cool name. Yeah, this summer I have

smaller things planned. I've got a recording project I'll be doing in May. And then in June I'm singing a concert up in Massachusetts. And taking it easy. It's been a year. I'm actually looking forward to having this. For the last year. Absolutely. Absolutely. Not blame looking forward to having you. Absolutely.

Not blaming you. Well, Keith, Katie, this has been an absolutely wonderful pleasure. Thank you so much. As we make the switch here, I'll go ahead and put concert information. So Friday, March 7th. So that's tomorrow night, 7 p.m. You can get tickets by going to

scharitzfeldopera.org slash duets, if you do that. Scharwatsvilleopera.org slash duets. They're the first one. Just scroll down a little bit. Boom, you see Keith and Katie. You scroll down a little more. There's a nice big buy tickets blue box.

You click it, and you can get tickets. Easy. So very easy. Very easy. scharwatsvilleopera.org slash duets. Scroll down, click buy tickets, and you can enjoy a beautiful concert tomorrow night. It's going to be wonderful.

It sounds fantastic. It's going to be a true George. We always appreciate Charlotte for coming on and get to meet some amazing people. It's fantastic. Vanessa Pardil, watching the show this morning. Thanks so much Vanessa for tuning in. I appreciate it. Always love our fantastic Joseph Frank DeVilla from New York.

Wow. Thank you, Joe, for tuning in. I always appreciate our viewers from all over the country. It doesn't matter where you are. We are very glad to have you tuning in this morning. So it's always a joy. And now from one set of great guests to another. So we're super excited.

Talking about a faraway country, I mean Venezuela, right? Venezuela. So we get to, well who knows, maybe we'll get some people from Venezuela tuning in. We'll see, we'll see. We've had Africa before once. That's right, exactly. We can get Africa, maybe one day we can get Venezuela, but we're super excited to welcome the show this morning

Pedro Chacon and Maria Morales from Street Dog Virginia of the audience that maybe you don't know. How did you decide to start Street Dog? What is the story? We started last year, ending in August, with the Food Troll. We sold Hot Dog. Initially, we wanted it to be Venezuelan style. In fact, we only had two types of hot dogs, as we call them. Oh yeah, hot dogs! And little by little, the clients have been giving us clues on how they prefer it, and we have been adapting the menu. Because we started with the house, the house, as we call it. So the client who tries it, they repeat, they eat again. But the one who arrives and checks the menu...

...is not there. So, there we go. Oh, they prefer it without anything. They prefer it without anything, yes, exactly. And the hot dog from home, the hot dog from home, the house hot dog, what is it? Naturally, it has to be the sausage, the hot dog, besides that. It's made up of bread, the sausage, as we usually know it.

We add onion. Also? We add onion. It also has the coleslaw, which is the cabbage, carrot, we add onion, some small potatoes that they sell here, which are called potato sticks, the traditional sauces, and in addition to to that the topping is cheddar cheese that instantly shines, that is, goes and the person who is waiting sees it and that's when it surprises you, then of course when you have it in your hand it is different from what you're used to. Of course. So, as Maria Gabriela says, there are people who go for one and suddenly... ...want the other one.

Yes. Yes, I want the other one. So, we've been adapting the issue a bit, because it wasn't on the menu, to tell you the truth, the person ordered it plain, so they took the small sauces, and they put it on the menu. There were people who only ordered it with onions, with the onions cut, so we started to realize that we had to add it to the menu, because we didn't even know how to do the cover.

The truth is that for this year we have a variety of menus. And that's it. Now you can choose from 8 different types of dog food. Yes, to give space to the customer to choose. But this one that we still have preparing, cooking, that they have asked us, is vegan. We don't have it yet. There is a type of sausage with plant-based. Oh yes, yes. And well, we are seeing how we adapt it. Yes, based on the ingredients we had from the house,

we have been adapting the others. At least the onion is there, because people only order it with onion and mustard. Onion and mustard. They order it. Yes, it is almost traditional. They ask for it, yes. It's almost traditional. It's traditional, exactly. When they looked at the menu and looked at the ingredients, they told me that they didn't

want it in house, that if you can only put onion and mustard. Or give me house only with onion. A dog without a house. Yes. And it was funny because give me the, but only with ketchup and mustard. So it was not... And at least for us, part of our Venezuelan dog is the one who has the three sauces. Ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard.

Instead here, it is usually mustard and sauce or just mustard. Instead, here, it's usually mustard and salsa or just mustard. It's very rare for the person who tells me they want it with ketchup and mustard. Or with the three sauces, there are people who dare to do it. And as soon as they check the menu, they try it. But it's not usually like that here. Well, the idea, when you go to a place that has something different, the idea is to try it, naturally. Now, naturally, it says street dogs. I suppose Americans would say, look, a hot dog is what I want. But anyway, if it's a hot dog that has different things, the important thing is to let me try it,

to see how it is. It can't be that you try it and say, I like hot dogs only with mustard and a little onion, but the idea is to do it or? No, no, well the key thing is so you, the really special thing is the house. The house hot dog. You've got your basic hot dog, you've got the onions, the what? You've got the onions. Coleslaw.

Coleslaw. Carrots. Cheddar cheese. Cheddar cheese. And then three kinds of, well the three. The key thing is the mix of sauces. The, you know, know you've got your purist people that only put mustard right you've got your semi purist hot

blood people that put mustard and ketchup but the beauty here is in Venezuela the mix is ketchup mustard and mayonnaise mayo which is the real and I assume Do you mix it? No, no, no. One, two, three. One, two, three. Mustard mayo, which is the real... That's the different part from the sauce perspective. And a lot of people, it sounds like they know they're... They want the hot dog without the house. Can I just have mustard and onions or whatever?

But then, so from there... You got people who they know they're wanting the regular, but then they see the house and they're like... Yeah, yeah, yeah. And from there, so, I mean, they started with the house, right? But now they got seven others. So they got eight types of hot dogs because people would come and say, No, I want it with this. No, I want it with that. I only want this. So, basically, I mean, listen, if they get eight types of hot dogs... Somebody's gotta be it with this. No, I want with that. I only want this. So so basically I mean listen if they take eight types of hot dogs Somebody's gotta be happy. Yeah. I mean you gotta be pretty happy because I mean after that

I don't know what else you can put in a hot dog, right? Exactly. It's not a single seat. See the nation. Yeah, or show or choose the the perro caliente Ya, casio and you got a point of a no, no, say cake Frenzy police tener para un perro caliente I don't know what kind of difference you can have for a hot dog. I feel that, and we have seen it like this, it is very versatile to work with the hot dog theme. I would say that it admits any other ingredient that the person likes. It caught our attention when people only ordered with onion. I tell Gabi one day, let's try it with onions.

But not us. It's what's special. It's good. Yes, it's good. Anyway, anyway. It's a matter of taste. Anyway, if you like sausage, the hot dog, the rest is just to dress it a little.

The taste of the sausage is what, if you like it, it the most important, naturally. And the rest is to help or change the taste a little bit. As you said, maybe someone says, look, I just want a jalapeno inside inside the menu, that one was made thinking... precisely, there are natives here who are fascinated by spicy food, and the Jalapeño theme. But in Venezuela we don't eat it with Jalapeño. In fact, that is not available. Is Jalapeño not available? No, I don't know, I don't remember seeing...

Well, today or before? No, it's called Ají Dul chili, which is like a small pepper. Yes, yes, yes. And it's spicy. But like the jalapeño here, it doesn't taste the same. No. It's different from a jalapeño... It's a different pepper.

It's different. I think you can't get it. Maybe you understand. Or as you say, you could get it. It's a different pepper. I think it's not available. Maybe you understand. Or as you say, it was available. How long have you been here? Today we are celebrating five years. Five years.

The theme of March has been magical for us for these five years. Because every March something happens to us, right? Something happens. And this is not special. And they started in August, they've been here for five years, they started in August with their own food truck. in the United States in Charleston, yes, for five years. Today. Today, five years. Oh, congratulations! It's your birthday. Yes, one day like today.

You can eat a hot dog today. Okay. We're looking forward to it. I was going to ask the truck, where Where the truck is located depends on the day or is it the same place every day? Ok, tell us what happens. We started exactly, our first, our debut was on August 31st of last year. That is to say that we have a short time with in operation and what we have done is we have been in various places here in charlesville as you can say what in families places here vineyards this and that has been our participation has been that we do not have a

fixed place we have looked for a little but it has been a bit complicated. But we continue with that. And this year is the same. We have dates already set, but for sites where they already have events. Currently we are building a website. we don't have it yet. Precisely so that the person who is interested can locate us through the internet and see where we are and all that. On Fridays we are on Preston Avenue at a beer shop. The person contacted us and on Fridays, if the weather allows it, we will be there every afternoon. Perfect, that's very good. And naturally, you work much more on Saturdays and Sundays. There are more days off. It's the weekend.

The market in Fluvana is about to start. They contacted us and we are waiting for the Sunday they will assign us to be with them. That's good. That's very good because here there is also the market here, which is on Saturdays. There is a farmers market.

Well, in Lujana on Sundays. The farmers market is very good because a lot of people go to eat and drink instead of buying things from the farm. But it would be good too. And every Sunday from 11 to 2.

And for people who live near Lake Montice there, it's not a very long distance. We've been there. Last year we were there for several weekends. It was our first experience. And it was really quite pleasant. For us and for the client, the ones who were there, I remember that one time we went and the electric generator was damaged and two people arrived. They were not going to the market, they were going to eat their hot dog and I couldn't sell it to them because I couldn't turn on the plant, it was damaged.

And then I come back, I remember the lady, she left the market, came back in about 20 minutes, and unfortunately that day was gone. And then a man came with a child, the child wanted the hot dog, he couldn't sell it. So it's also that link that can be generated between that typical dish, culture here in the United States and well... Who had the idea of starting this company? Look, actually we were anxious about doing something different something different so that it doesn't have a culinary space. And even though it can be considered as something very basic, very simple, it's not. When you're there, you realize that it's a work that takes a little more delicate, stronger. Actually, we had the idea of starting with churros

I don't know if you know them We bought everything Everything they wanted to do for churros There were some inconveniences There was no quorum in some aspects And we let them cool down Suddenly, we have to continue And the idea of hot dogs came up in some aspects, and we let them cool down. Suddenly, we have to continue, and the idea of hot dogs emerged,

as I said, something very cultural, very typical of here, but giving it that Venezuelan touch, it was that we made the decision to start, as I say, to make that link, that connection between something that you could get in the corner, like, look, I'm going to eat a little dog. And well, that's where the idea of being able to offer the community what a hot dog is born. And who thought of the name? Stricto. It's a great name because they are selling something that

the Americans like without a doubt, which is the hot dog. And the street dog is a name that immediately tells you what it is. And you are Venezuelans, so... Well, look at the following, when it started started to search or create the name, like everything else, what do we call it? And in Venezuela there is something called the street of hunger, I don't know if you know about that or have heard about it, it's the street of hunger. And generally people there say, I'm going to eat a little disgusting. They say that, a little disgusting. Something new, right? Yes, street food. But it's something from the street, right?

Where you could go out for a drink and where you were going to eat a hot dog. Until a certain time of the night. So this name of street dog, probably come from there, right? It's on the street, you can get it easily, it's fast, for you to order it and order it, right? That's where the name comes from. Ah, that's good, that's good. From the street.

Yes, yes, the street. I get it on the street. Yes, yes, that's right. And that's how it is. And it's almost the same in Europe, there are always people who are selling things on the street, which is delicious. So in Venezuela you have the hot dog, which is common. Yes, it is common, very common, and it is something economical. Nowadays, I've seen that, at least in Caracas, which is the capital, they do sell them totally different. They put too many ingredients.

Well, I never got to try that. I've always preferred the simplest hot dog, similar to the one we sell. I think the only difference there is that they put put in a cheese called year cheese. Year cheese? Yes, it's year cheese, it's different, it's white and it's very... it's like a powder. It's very fine. Like a floury texture? Yes, something like that.

And a very strong flavor. Maybe like a Parmesan cheese maybe. Or Tacho Tavale. Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, I understand. Oh, that one. Everything is like that. If you like hot dogs, everything. That's good.

That's fantastic because in reality it's a food that can be eaten easily at any time. Naturally, at lunchtime you order a hot dog with a Coca Cola or a juice, and you eat it easily. Secondly, preparing a hot dog is not a big deal in a third sense. There are certain things that you need to prepare. There's a lot of work. And then you have to sell it on the street, which is more difficult.

But I suppose this is a little easier. And, anyway, it's like someone saying, No, I don't want that. Very well. It's not something that comes with that. I can't take it off. So, very well. Here's your dog without a mask.

And it's not necessary to prepare another... That's right.... dog with off. So, very good. Here's your dog without a mustache. And it's not necessary to prepare another dog with teeth. No, no, I have it normal. The first time I saw a dog with a plain, I was like this. Ketchup, no plain. And I, Pedro, no plain. I put sauce, no plain.

With nothing. Without anything salsa. No, plain. Without anything. Without tomatoes, mustard, nothing. Absolutely nothing. You don't need anything. In fact, we put it on the menu. That option had to be left. Yes, of course. We had to leave it on the menu

because... First, to avoid confusion. Of course. Not a complaint. The regular one, what does it have? Well, the three sauces. And in Spanish, what do you say? Perro desnudo?

How do you say it? No, well, if we were in Venezuela, suddenly we would say... Only the sausage. Only the sausages. Only the sausages. Yes, but the word plain. There is no room for that. The recipe for the house hot dog, is it a recipe from your family in particular, or are there versions of house potluck in Venezuela? That's what I was saying. Venezuela is similar to what we are doing here.

The difference is that they don't grate the cheese, the traditional one, it doesn't have grated cheese, but it has the annual cheese. That's the only difference. So the house version is particular to your family, to your recipe? No, to the community. That's the classic hot dog. For people here, it could be the onion and mustard, or the cucumber. For us, it's the house. In any street stall, they'll serve it to you that way. Bread, sausages, chips, which is the potato stick,

the three sauces, the cabbage. And the big difference is that it's the cheese. In Venezuela, you won't get it with the cheese we put here. That's the only difference. And there's the house. Do you have that hot dog without cheese? With everything without cheese? Yes. cheese that we put here. It's the only difference. So you have the hot dog without cheese? With everything without cheese? If you want it without cheese, we sell it. If it's traditional, you have to try it.

Or you can look for the chicken breast. Yes, there are people who want the house and you don't put cheese on it. Or they want to stay with the cabbage. Yes, there are people who want the house and you don't put cheese on it. Yes. Or they want to stay with the cabbage. There are people who leave the house and actually, look, give me the house but I don't know, I didn't put onion or I didn't put the coleslaw on it. Usually they remove the mayonnaise. Yes, they eat little.

Here they don't eat mayonnaise. Interesting. Interesting. And another question. In Venezuela, I suppose there are, but what kind of other sausages are there that are also let's say,

things that are eaten in the street? Any other kind of sausage like pork sausage? Pork? Yes, yes, yes. Like, pork? Yes, yes, yes. Chicken pork, right? They sell the one they call the Polish sausage.

There's one that comes... Polish sausage. That's spicy. And there's one that's white. I don't know the name right now. Oh, white. You mean a type of German? Yes, exactly. But they do sell it. Or weisswurst. He says, but black dog. Black dog.

That's a tough one to say. Yes, they do sell it. But it's not, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, No, I drink. But chorizo is difficult. I couldn't eat a hot dog, I can't eat it, but a hot dog that is chorizo. The problem with chorizo is that it would be impossible to put the sauce. The chorizo is so strong. Well, notice that we have one for this year. It was introduced in this menu. It's called the bacon barbecue, it's with a different sausage that is on the market.

If you see it, it's very big, in fact in the menu it was placed as big. big mmmm yes, like a big one and what it has is relish onion bacon and a bbq sauce very good yes, it looks like the salsapiana sauce

yes, it is good because it has very strong flavors the sausage theme that is not the one we commonly use, with bacon and salsa, it's really delicious. I imagine bacon. Bacon is difficult to think of. Bacon is always a good idea. And how do you say bacon in Spanish? We call it tocineta. Pedro is always a good idea. And how do you say bacon in Spanish?

We say tocineta. Tocineta. Very good. What's the word? Tocinera. Tocinera. What do you say? Yes, yes, the same.

Tocineta? The same in Cuba. Oh, ok. So officially it's tocinera. The Cubans also speak Spanish, right? Yes, but it was hot iron. Hot iron. Yes, it was the truth.

Well, well. Pedro, you are a good guy. You are a good guy. You are a good guy. You are a good guy. You are a good guy. You are a good guy. You are a good guy. more or less Spanish. It was hot iron. Hot iron. It was the truth. Well, well. Pedro, María, it has been a great pleasure. Thank you very much.

Before coming, where can you be found in terms of online? To see where is the future. Through Facebook or Instagram, the social networks, Strict Dog, they can contact us. Normally, from now on, when we have more events between the weeks, they will be published in the days and hours we will be there.

For now, as I told you before, on Fridays find them Fridays on Preston Avenue. avenues. Superfly. Superfly. Superfly. Superfly. So you'll always find them near there on Preston every Friday. And then other days you check Instagram, where you can go to Instagram, it's streetdog.va. Streetdog.va, so like Virginia. And that's where you can find publications on, okay, where are we going to be on the weekend, other days etc So but every Friday in the afternoon Preston and if you like hot dogs you gotta go cuz I mean you listen you can go All week and have a different hot dogs because they now have eight different hot dogs

There's a you gotta go the following week at least one day Yeah, you got a whole week plus one day. That's right So I mean there's a new one bacon barbecue hot dog, which sounds really good. Sounds like a super-sized. When we say grande, we mean like big. That's the kind Alex likes. More hot dog is always a good thing. Thank you very much. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you for having us. I love the space. Really. They are working here.

We are in the moment. Very good. I'm glad. See you later. Congratulations with your trick. Thank you. Well, as we rotate, well, here we are at the end of the show. It's been a good one. Always enjoyable. Yeah, this was, you know, we haven't had one of these shows in a long time.

We're actually back to back. It's nice to have a nice full house. Yeah. And it's nice to be able to speak Spanish too, once in a while, right? It was good. It helped me learn new words, like how to say hot dogs in Spanish. Absolutely. Now I know.

I've learned. And we learned some words, so I can't remember either, because they told me to remember a few words in what they do in Venezuela, but I can't remember them. You know what's nice? Think about Charlottesville, right? There are so many different people here and so many different nationalities. Just to think, we just met two people from Venezuela, right? They came to this country five years ago,

they wanted to do something on their own, their own, and they found, right, to be able to do something, which is a food truck, right? Which is something that everybody likes. They put a twist, which is a Venezuelan twist to it, and here we are. Something amazing, yeah. It is amazing.

It really is. It's really enjoyable, but always appreciate it. Yeah. It's just It is amazing. It really is. It's really enjoyable. But always appreciate it. It's great to have people like that out. So be sure to check them out. So then Instagram.com slash street dog dot VA and you can find them there. Be sure to check out tomorrow night's concert. Absolutely.

Then Charlottesville opera dot org slash duets and it's 7 p.m. tomorrow night so you can still get digits. You've got plenty of time. Friday night. Good data. Spend between 7 p.m. tomorrow night so you still get digits. You got plenty of time. Friday night, good day to spend the Friday night. Exactly. You could have had a hot dog beforehand in the afternoon. You have to get a hot dog to go to the counselors. So be sure to check that out. Thanks, everyone, for tuning in. Thank you, Dr. Elizabeth Herby, tuned in. I appreciate that. Always love that particular viewer. So thanks, everyone. I really appreciate that. Always love that particular viewer.

So thanks, everyone. I really appreciate Carolina. Thank you for tuning in this morning. We look forward to seeing you guys in a couple of weeks. Until then, thanks to I Love Civil Network for having us on here. Thanks to Judah behind the camera. Thanks to Mergent financial services. Thanks for being on with me. Thank you all for tuning in. We look forward to seeing you next time. But until that time comes, as always, we like to close it out.

Hasta mañana. Thank you.