The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Nerycel Martinez Joined Alex Urpí & Michael Urpí On "Today y Mañana" On The I Love CVille Network!

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

Nerycel Martinez, Manager of CubaMex LLC, joined Alex Urpí & Michael 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 Michael. We're very excited to have you joining us on a beautiful morning. Beautiful morning, but too much pollen out there. It is. I mean, I woke up today with allergies. I got seasonal allergies, but I know, like, my allergies were bad this morning. So I said, man, if mine are bad, I can't imagine what Alex's are this morning. Let's just say I am heavily medicated right now. I am heavily medicated.

Not too much, though. You didn't take too much Benadryl. No, no. I don't take Benadryl. You don't get that Benadryl. People don't want me going crazy on it or being, you know,

hobbled. You go crazy for the first 30 minutes and then the last 30 minutes you sleep. Exactly, exactly. You know, just Benadryl. You never know

what happens if you don't take too much. No, no. But a lot of Zyrtec, a lot of Flonase. Mm-hmm. Washing the eyes out. We just got prepared.

Our viewers, in case there's a couple of times where Alex and I suddenly dart off camera and then come back. It's probably because we had to sneeze or blow on us. If you see me dart like this, it's not because I'm crying or because I'm upset with Michael. It's the allergies. Exactly. It is out there. But it is warm. It looks like it's going to be a fantastic spring day.

Not too humid. Exactly. So everything that we love about Charlottesville in the spring, minus the pollen. Minus the pollen. Man, I was telling Jerry before, I said, it's like you go to the car and I was like opening the car door and it was almost like so thick. It was like dust. I'm like, man, this is bad. I got to wash those cars.

It really is. I hate to ruin people's weather, but we need a good rain dump. We need a nice big rain dump, maybe for half a day and then call it quits for a while. We'll see what happens. We experienced it a couple days ago at

UVA baseball game. We were lucky to go see UVA play Liberty, and it was a one-sided affair, thankfully for the winning. The good side. If it's going it was a one-sided affair. Thankfully for the winning. The good side. Yes, exactly. If it didn't be a one-sided affair, you wanted it to be your team. So it was a good win. We got to see, was it four or five

homers? Well, they hit one. So I guess if you count them. They hit two. But we saw four homers. Four on our side? We saw one kid, I think he was first for the year. And then we saw Henry Ford go deep and Sake, what's his name? T.C. Sake.

Sake, yeah. I think they went back-to-back from Corrette. Yeah, so it was a pretty cool game. Beautiful to just be outside, enjoy this, see all the families. I mean, you've talked about it many times. The UVA offense is very impressive. I mean, it seems like routinely they're scoring 10 to 12 runs a game. We saw them win 14-4.

It was a mercy rule. It's always an exciting game. Let's put it this way with them. Because they're either going to win like 14-4 or they're going to lose like, you know, 17-14. Well, it'll be a high-scoring game pretty much. Exactly. One way or the other.

You're really not going to see UVA lose 3-0. Let's put it that way. That's probably not going to happen. And they're probably not going to win 4-2 either. No, probably not that either. We saw 6-2, I think, earlier this season. That's probably as close as you're going to get to a normal

score. Yeah, but it's really fun. Anyone should really go kind of watch the team. They hit them like crazy. The weather's nice. It's family-friendly. It's a great atmosphere. It's a lot of fun. It's not crazy expensive. There's people who have used to the a lot of fun. It's not crazy expensive. There's people who have used to the price of Yankee Stadium tickets. I mean, you're not even close. I mean, we get like $6 to go to the bleachers.

I just can't stand those people who sneak and get better seats later into the game. Because they're empty. I can't stand those kind of people. So awful. They should be banned from games. We won't name names games we won't name names we won't name names that was a lot of fun, the concert

the symphony we had on Ben Rouse from Charlottesville Symphony last week to talk about this weekend's concerts fantastic concert I mean you cannot talk about it without mentioning the bolero at the end it was really creative and inventive and exciting just to kind of see.

He had a bunch of solo performers for the flute. The jazz quartet. The jazz quartet. Quintet? Was there five of them? How many were there? No, you're right. There's five.

No, no. Piano, bass. Drum. No, trumpet and saxophone was a quartet. Oh, drum. Drum. And saxophone. Yeah, yeah.

So it was five. It was five. The jazz quintet playing their part of bolero. Yes. And then the fantastic solo performers. You had one on the flute. Another one on the cymbal drum set. On the cajon.

Is that what it's called? Yeah. Interesting. On the cajon with the cymbals. Well, she was doing the cajon with one hand and the cymbals with the other. And then the cymbals on another. It's very impressive. And it was a great job, too, because it introduces kind of first into normal bolero, if you've ever heard that song, in a symphonic way.

And then he gives a couple of the solo performers the chance to go the saxophone, the flutist, and then suddenly the jazz content takes over. And for a nice five minutes, they're doing their variations on the bolero theme. And then he goes right back into the symphony, so you get that bombastic ending. Everyone was in on the ending. All the pieces were just there. I did the little playful job between

the drummer from the quintet and then the... Oh, the main timpanist? Yeah. The little back and forth. That was really fun. Beautifully well done. or he arranged that so he did a fantastic job uh ben especially because i i don't think anyone's probably ever done that before so he didn't have any bases to go off of he had to kind of make it up himself so it was beautifully done and i think there's still if you missed it in shardsville and you happen to have family or you know people up

in northern virginia i think the one on tyson Corner on the 28th at Capital One Hall, that will be this concert. Will be also playing. Is that the one that you pass by if you take on the 95 like we go to New York? I think so. I think so. Yeah, it's up by Northern Virginia. That's a big area. Capital One Hall is up there for the Northern Virginia campus for UVA, I think.

So it will be up there this coming weekend. So you have one more chance to see it if you missed it this weekend at UVA. We could go see it again. You could go see it again. You absolutely could. So be sure to check that out if you're interested. It was worth it. Even just for Bel Air, but not only that.

I mean, they had a great – Quintet had a wonderful jazz performance. The Flutist had a beautiful performance as well as the other, I keep forgetting their, the other symbolist that. Yeah, the Cajon and the other. Exactly, yeah. Absolutely. And again, I mean, this is the kind of thing, though, also like you can't hear these things on recordings. So this is not, the beauty of this type of performance is like this is stuff, this is like once in a lifetime kind of stuff because you can't just go to a music store and buy a recording of the jazz

quintet that plays at Miller's downtown at 11, at 10 p.m. at night and is playing in this concert. You can't just go to it. You're not going to go see this Bolero anywhere. This version of Bolero, this is probably your one chance to actually see it. Because you can't just routinely go see this version of Bolero. So it's worth doing. It's worth taking the time to do. Yeah, April 28th, 3 p.m. at Tyson's Corner. Got it.

Virginia. So be sure to check that out. Definitely encourage people to do it. Of course, everyone should send us any questions, comments, like, and share today's... Was that my job? You pointed at me. Oh, no, I was just... Okay, that was usually Xavier's job, yeah. Well, I'm not going to make you do the Xavier's job. Well, you pointed at me. I wasn't sure what I missed.

I'm just used to it. It's just old habits die hard. Old habits die hard. All right, we've got a couple people joining us this morning. Sherry Jarvis Zimmerman. Thanks for tuning in this morning. Appreciate it. I love all our fantastic desks. Tune in a couple more. Rodney Rush. Maurice Williams. Thanks for tuning in this morning. Appreciate

your support for the show and for our desk today. Of course, love being here on the I Love Seville Network. A couple thanks before we get going here. Thank you, of course, to Emergent Financial Services for being our presenter and for our fantastic partners at Mattias Sion Realty, Craddock Serious Insurance, Forward Adelante.

Thanks for you for always hosting me this morning. I don't know about you, but I'm good to jump into today's guest. Let's go. All right, so we are excited to welcome to the show this morning Nerissa Martinez. She is from CubaMet. She is the safety manager at CubaMet, but also her parents are the owner with her parents there.

So we're really excited. Thanks for coming on this morning, Nerissa. Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it. No, we're really excited to bring you on. I mean, it shares two things which we both love which is Cuban food and Mexican food. So maybe tell us a little bit about your parents story and how does your mom is from Cuba yes and your dad is from Mexico yeah so tell us about maybe how they met and came together to start this. Well my mom she came here in 1980 she came from Placeta, Cuba, on the Mariel.

My dad, he came here when he was 18 years old. He's from San Luis Potosi. And they met here at the mall, actually, in Fashion Square. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, my dad was a pizza maker at Sbarro's, and my mom walked in, and that's that. Wow. What a story. That's a great story. So how did that work?

Did your dad, like, make a special pizza for your mom? Is that what happened? He was just in the middle of doing his thing, and she walked in, and I guess he just fell in love. He attached his number to the pizza box, right? That's beautiful. Do you ever go in for a slice of pizza and come out with true love? Exactly.

So they met, and then they got together. How did the idea to start cubamix come from um well i guess they both always have had a passion for cooking um and they're really good cooks i'm not gonna lie um um i guess my mom just she's always wanted to have like some sort of food truck some sort of like business where she she can just show everybody how well she bakes. She used to sell baked goods like cakes. She does flan. She does tres leches.

All of that, yeah. And that started off like a little small business through Facebook. And then we just decided, you know, we saw a food truck for sale. We were like, oh, you know. So they went ahead and bought it, and then we just set everything up. Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome.

Tape tape in the plunge. Tape tape in the wrist and going for it. Yeah. Absolutely. So what are some specialties? What are some of these people to look forward to? Definitely the empanadas. We have chicken empanadas, beef empanadas.

They're definitely our best sellers as well. I will say my mom, she has like a weekly dessert that she sells. For this week, we're going to have a pineapple upside down cake. Oh, that must be good. Yeah, and it just, the menu changes weekly, but I would say just to, she has her Facebook and all of her information, everything, like the menu, where we're going to be, everything's there. Is there? Fantastic.

Yeah. So it's really easy. Yeah, really easy to find, too. Because I did it on Facebook. It's just literally, it's Cubamex LLC. So it is what it sounds like. So out of curiosity, does she fry the empanadas or bake them? She fries them, yeah. That's how it's got to be done, the perfect way.

Yeah, the dough and everything is just made out of like it's fresh yeah homemade everything wow yeah and what about the inside does she make it almost kind of like a picadillo or kind of like a different chopped meat um she uses picadillo for the beef um the chicken it's like shredded chicken with like um tomato sauce pure tomato puree. Yeah. And that's basically, we just use that meat for other dishes as well. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah.

I mean, that's the beauty of pita de leo. For those who haven't had it, it's like, well, at least, I know everybody makes it differently, but at least where we learn from our abuelita, you've got, it's like a chopped meat with, at least we have raisins, olives, little tomatoes. You've got your cumin, your spices, your Cuban spices. So like a Cuban version. I always call it Cuban chili. That's kind of like the way I put it.

Essentially. Yeah, that's, yeah. So the beauty is so versatile because you can have it by itself. You can have it with your black beans and white rice. You can have it inside an empanada. Exactly. Which is super good. One time, my mom and dad made it for me

in a way my abuelita would do every once in a while with leftovers. She actually made it with pasta. It was an interesting combination. It wasn't my favorite. I still prefer it with black beans and rice. To me, that's the perfect. But it was kind of interesting to have it on top of pasta. I'm like, what is this?

But it was an interesting mix. But I guess that's one way if anyone ever wants to try. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, what is this? But it was kind of, it was an interesting mix, but that's, I guess that's one way if anyone ever wants to try. Your next dish, you can tell me. Make an Italian one too. Yeah, absolutely. Well, our abuelita, she was Cuban. She was born in Cuba, but raised in Spain, in northern Spain, so they would do a lot of pasta there, so she just

kind of like mixed stuff. She was like, oh, well, I have leftover pizza. What do I do with it? I'll just put it in pasta and see what happens. Dr. Elizabeth Irby, watching the show this morning, thanks for tuning in. She loves B2B as well. Who doesn't? Oh my gosh, my mom's flan is the best.

Oh my goodness. I honestly don't like flan. If it doesn't come from her, I will not eat it. You will not eat it. Is it the texture? Yeah, it's the texture yeah it's the texture thing for me yeah i have that problem i love flan but i have that problem with the roscon leche you ever had that that was for some reason i love the taste but the the texture of

the rice just the rice yeah it's like crunchy kind of yeah it's like gooey kind of in a way and i'm kind of like it feels awkward like to rice but it's sweet. I'm like rice isn't a dessert why is it in here? The flan does she make? Because I know Mexican flan I've had both. Mexican flan tends to be a little thicker than Cuban flan. Does she make it like the Cuban style? Yeah the Cuban and then you can see the caramel literally dripping off

the piece. You don't know how we fight over that caramel at the end. My dad loves the spoon. He'll just like at the end. Because our dad loves the spoon. He eats it with a spoon. He'll just drip the caramel. Yeah, exactly. It's the best.

My mom makes a delicious one, too, but that's the only ever complaint. Everyone's like, you didn't make enough caramel. That's not enough. And that's a true talent to do that because that is hard. It is. It's very difficult. To be honest, sometimes that's the hardest part. Yeah, it's really nice, though, to come into the food truck. You just smell fresh sugar. You know it's very difficult that's to be honest sometimes that's the hardest part yeah it's really nice though to come into the food truck you just smell fresh like sugar you know it's caramel it's caramel it's so good is that a mainstay or do you have the death the right

weekend for the flan no we have to get the right weekend yeah yeah yeah because she changes um like the dessert part yeah the dessert No, the menu as well sometimes. Oh, the menu as well. Yeah, sometimes she'll add like camarón, which is like shrimp, shrimp cocktail. Ooh. She also wants to do, start putting like la media noche, which is another type of Cuban sandwich. Oh, that's interesting. And we're in the process of doing that.

Oh, media noche, yes. Mm-hmm. Oh, that's, because it's, for those who've had like a Cuban sandwich, it's, it's like a Cuban sandwich, but the bread is different. And, and like, I think it was called that, I think, because they would literally have it like you get hungry, like, in other words, you've partied so long that you're now hungry again. And Medianoche is midnight that you were like, I'm hungry again. And I had it once in Miami and it's, it's like a sweeter, slightly sweeter bread. Exactly. Oh, that would be awesome if she could get the menu.

Yeah, that's what we're in the process of doing. Oh, very, very much so. Oh, man. Do we have to come at midnight or like early morning together? I mean, we start at 11 o'clock every Saturday and Sunday. And usually we are open until supplies last, which is very quickly. We say 6, but like by 435, we have no food left. Wow.

Yes, if you want to basically plan for lunch. If you plan for dinner, you might be too late. So be sure to plan for lunch. So what's it been like? You help out there. I mean, you're in charge of making sure everybody is nice and safe, which is fantastic. What's it like being in an entrepreneur family, being an entrepreneur, owning a small business? It's actually really fun. I feel like it's a great way for us to spend some time together.

Since I'm a college student, I'm never home. So it's nice to have at least a weekend with them that I can help them get to their goals, know expand the business it's really nice and everybody's so friendly it's nice to meet new faces and see reoccurring customers because people come like once or twice like the whole week yeah I would I would imagine I would imagine that doesn't surprise me and what do you do as a safety manager um well what I do I'm just in charge of basically making sure that all the food is served at the correct temperature, that nobody gets sick, that the truck is sanitized and cleaned properly. I also make sure that we have all of our supplies on hand. I make sure that we keep stocks.

Yeah, so all the supplies that we have, I'm just going to make sure that we have them with us and that everything's kept at a good temperature sounds like almost like you're your parents boss that wasn't clean enough dad clean that again that's what it feels like sometimes and they're like okay you're the manager that's fantastic

I think that's one of the beauties of entrepreneurship that a lot of people that we talk to that come on kind of especially with a family business it that we talk to that come on, especially with a family business, it's an opportunity to do something, build something together as a family.

That's what we do, our day job as a family business with our dad. And so, and the other brother. Except we don't boss our dad around. Yeah, we don't boss our dad around. The other brother that we don't mention, we don't talk about too much. It might be adopted, it's still up in the air exactly we'll get proof but um it's just there's that enjoyable nature of do building something and growing something together as a

family even though like like you said sometimes you know someone may have to go to college during the week or may have to do something else during a weekday you're maybe obviously you know at some point you get old enough you no longer all live in the same house right but it's a way to like do build something together it has that fantastic freedom to do that yeah that's for sure and most of our funds um they actually go towards my little brother's autism therapies yeah um he was diagnosed at three with pdd nos which is like a high functioning type autism. Okay. And it goes towards like his motor function therapies, his speech therapies. Everything just goes towards him.

That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It's the beauty of helping out. Yeah. You know, taking care of each other as a family. Exactly. Through something that you love, which is food.

Yeah. You know, cooking and sharing that with other people. Yeah. You know. A couple other shout-outs. Lucrecia Morales from Sombreros watching the show this morning. Rosalia De Rosalia Cordaro from New York

tuning in this morning. Thank you both so much for watching. Nick Erpey has a question. He says, all right, what are some of the common places, like locations where you guys will be? Okay, so I know for sure that this upcoming weekend

we're going to be in Rutgersville on Seminole Trail where the Shell is right before the Walmart. Usually we're either in Fork Union, like right before the Academy. We're also in Gordon'sville at the Patch Brewery. And we're sometimes in Troy right before the Walmart. i think it's like one i think it's 1301 okay like science crossroads area yeah okay science crossroads area yep also

yeah very easy any markets or right now just just certain like pop-up no just certain pop-up places yeah got it that's that's awesome we're if you're asking where your dad is trying to see, what might be next for TuvaMatch? Where do you kind of, what would you love to see? I think my dad is in the process of wanting another food truck. Yeah, so I think what we're going to do is my mom might get certified as a manager, so I don't have to be with them, and I run the other food truck. Oh, wow. You can do the cooking too?

Yeah. Wow. Have you too? Yeah. Wow. Have you learned? Yeah. What would you say that you, what's your favorite thing to make? Apparently the arroz con gris, which is the white rice with the black beans cooked together to the point where it takes the white, the rice. Oh, interesting how you, yeah, okay, yes.

Yeah, funny, our family, growing up, we justita, we just called it congri. Congri? Oh, yeah. They didn't even put arroz. They just said congri. I know some people call it moros y cristianos. Moros y cristianos, yeah. So you mix it all together. That's very good.

Yeah, it's amazing. It has a great taste. Have you learned how to do ropa vieja yet? Oh my gosh, it's very good. Yeah, it's amazing. When it's mixed together, yeah, it has a great, just a great taste. Have you learned how to do ropa vieja yet? Oh, my gosh. It's so difficult. Yeah. Because you have to, like, shred the meat so thinly. And it's just, like, a timely process.

It is, yeah. But I'm learning. I'm learning. Yeah. I don't want to rush it. This is, like, every once in a while, your favorite Cuban dishes come up in your head. No, yeah. But when my mom makes it, it does not even last a week in the house.

No, I can imagine. I can it goes it goes twin yeah and then the thresleches must be out of this oh my goodness because already the mexicans already made good thresleches and then hubrids make good thresleches so if you put it together it's just yeah it's a bethabos world i'm saying um hers is really good like you can literally see like when you cut into the piece just all the milk and stuff coming out oh does she use a whipped cream on top or like a merengue she used uh she uses both sometimes it just depends on how well she's feeling yeah i've seen it both ways yeah oh man yeah knowing your mom and that she's fat that she's human she probably puts a little extra can of condensed milk in there. Oh yeah, because she knows. She knows it's sweet. Exactly. I feel like condensed

milk is like one of these staples. The leche de la ensalada is one of these staples of Cuban desserts. In general, yeah. You could just eat it out of the can. Man, it's like my mom would be like, who wants the leftover in the can? And we're all running. And then some people boil it too, just like the can and they eat it like that as well.

That's what my mom really did. In fact, when she would make, I don eat it like that as well. That's what my wife really did. She was famous for that. In fact, when she would make, I don't know how sanitary this is, so you probably wouldn't do it in a restaurant, but when she would make, when she would soak her, no, cook her black beans in the pot, she would stick the can of leche trondensada in with the beans to boil it. At the same time, she would like two times,

this way, and then you would take it out, and you'd have dulce de leche. Oh, my gosh. And I'm like, I sit there, and I'm like, I don't know that I would cook my black beans with a can of condensed milk. Like, closed, like a sealed can of condensed milk. But I guess in the 1930s, she was, where was she born, like 1930-something? No, she was born in the 1920s. Maybe 1920- I guess in the 1930s, where was she born?

Like 1930-something? No, she was born in the 1920s. 1920 is what I'm saying. 1920, just growing up in that era in Cuba, she must have been like, oh, they tasted good, so it must have been fine. But yeah, some people,

they still, she would boil it and turn it into dulce de leche. Dulce de leche, yeah. Once they were done with that. Bill McChesney, tuning in this morning. Thanks for watching the show this morning, Bill. Appreciate everyone who's tuning in. Just checking, Danny.

We got a lot of people bringing in the viewers, which is awesome, which we really appreciate. So tell us, so if people, so the location shifts, we talked about, so Patch Brewery, Rutgersville sometimes. Walmart at Zion's.

The Zion's Crossroads area. Where should people go to find out where you're going to be and like what the menu for that weekend might be and so forth? So on Cubamex LLC, it's our Facebook page. My mom will post weekly reminders of what we're going to have for that weekend might be and so forth? So on Cubamex LLC, it's our Facebook page. My mom will post weekly reminders of what we're going to have for that week as long as I mean, she puts the menu and she puts all the items down. We do have gluten-free

options and vegetarian options as well. She'll emphasize which is which. And yeah, just on her Facebook she'll tell you what we're going to be. She tells people to call her all the time. I guess she just likes talking to people. She's like, you guys can call Facebook, she'll tell you where we're going to be. Fantastic. She tells people to call her all the time. I guess she just likes talking to people. She's like, you guys can call me,

I'll tell you where I'm going to be for that week. Old fashioned, that's how it is. That's classic, that's classic. Yeah, so Cubamets LLC, yeah, very easy. If you go to Facebook.com, and I'm pretty sure if you type in Cubamets LLC, you will find it.

Yeah, you could even do like I did and accidentally type cubemex LCC and you will still find it. It will still be there. But yeah, first thing that pops up when you type in cubemex LLC on Facebook. It's super easy. It's even got pictures of the pineapple. Don't look too much. You're going to get hungry. It's too late. I love the upside-down pineapple cake, and it looks good. And then that is like a little picture of the menu that you can see for where they're going to be. So be sure to check it out, Facebook.com. Just type in Cubamex LLC.

Nettie, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you guys so much. Thank you so much for coming on, And we look forward to having you back. Maybe next time you'll be managing a food show. Oh, yes. That's the plan. And we'll see you then. Thank you guys so much. So thanks so much.

And we're glad you're in the neighborhood bringing some great Cuban and Mexican food to us. Thank you. Have a great one. You too. Thank you. All righty. So we'll go ahead and rotate out here. Oh, man.

I know. It makes me kind of get hungry. Absolutely. Absolutely. I know. I'm, man. I know. It makes me kind of get hungry. Absolutely. Absolutely. I know. I'm already hungry. I'm going to have to go check. Nick is going to share the page, too.

So if you're watching the show, Nick is going to put the page in the comments, and he's going to share it on Today Manana, so you can be sure to check out Cuba Match. I've got to find out when they're going to have the flan. Yes. Yes. Whatever the flan date is. I circle that. Just so awesome.

Really appreciate it. It's so wonderful to see all the entrepreneurs that pop up in this area. Again, it's like credit to Nick for finding these wonderful people. I don't even know how. I think this one might be, he'll correct me if I'm wrong,

this one might be also a little credit to our friend Virgil Velasco from Storyhouse Realty. I think he had heard of it and may have passed it on to Nick. Got it. We love Virgil. Nick will correct me if I'm wrong, but we love Virgil anyway. Even if he didn't send us this. Exactly. He is a great fellow human here in Charlottesville doing great work

helping people with finding their new home. So we always appreciate Virgil. He's a great friend of ours. So we always appreciate that. And I know you wanted to talk a little finance before we kind of head out. Yes, absolutely. We got a little finance topic for today. Not quite as happy.

Nick says correct. That is correct. Credit Virgil. So our good friend Virgil Velasto, thanks for giving us that info. That's that tip. Great tip. Yeah, just wanted to talk a little finance. I think just to kind of reiterate, we did a lot of people come into the office and they're always like that kind of dichotomy between Main Street and Wall Street, in the sense that people are like, man, I keep hearing that things are okay, but I'm not seeing this reflected in my life. My finances are tough. And just to kind of reassure people, like, you're not imagining this, right?

You're not imagining tough times. You're saying the media might not be telling the truth? I mean, let's face it. What? Anyone who's been in finance knows that do not get your stock market tips from the TV channels. You mean that guy, Jim Cramer? Yeah, the Jim Cramer is a classic one. We know some people who do the opposite

of whatever Jim Cramer says. But in general, without naming names of what channels they are, do not get your stock market tips from those channels, right? The key thing, I think, for people to kind of keep in mind, because what happens is economists, and also this goes to show you that when it comes to the markets or even the economy as a whole, right, you can't really just base your decisions

on where economists think is going to happen. But as economists, it can be all over the place. And a good example is the recent GDP numbers that came out today, first quarter GDP. Economist predictions, 2.4%. Actual number, 1.6. Much lower than estimated, right? Same thing happened with PCE pce index personal consumption expenditure

that's the federal reserve's inflation number you probably people have probably often heard of cpi consumer price and that's that's one measure of inflation the federal reserve uses another measure of inflation called pce and this one, was higher than it's expected, 3.4%. It's a year over year? That's an annualized pace, so it's another If you took the quarter and multiplied it by four, it's 3.4%. It's biggest day in the year.

So inflation is higher than expected. GDP lower than expected. And the reason I say this is because it goes to show you that economists really do not have crystal balls, let alone stock market pickers. In other words, if you imagine how hard it is,

in other words, if economists can be wrong about how the economy, the entire economy even grew, imagine how hard it is for someone to be right about what direction a particular stock is going to go in the next three weeks. So the key thing is that it's really not, you're never going to be able to time the market or the economy. It's so hard to predict, even for people who basically their livelihood, their job as an economist is to predict things. And even that is difficult for them to do. Despite MBAs, PhDs, training, experience, it is very difficult to predict the direction that things are going to go.

But this has always been my personal opinion. I mean, if these people were so good at picking stocks, they wouldn't be on TV telling you what stocks to be picking. They would be living in a giant villa in Italy or something like that because they'd already be rich because they already picked all the winners. They wouldn't be telling you what winners to pick. Exactly, yeah. It's true. They'd be billionaires already. Exactly. They'd already be billionaires.

That's an excellent point. And so the thing to keep in mind is what you really need to do when you are saving money for retirement is just be steady and keep saving, keep investing, knowing that the one thing that we can feel pretty good about is that over a very, very long period of time, the economy tends to grow. In other words, could the economy stink for 10 years? Yes. Is the United States economy going to shrink for 40 years? No.

Because as long as people grow, as long as you have people like Nettie Sell and her family starting businesses, there is growth. The human being produces natural growth. It may not happen over one year. It may not happen over five. In really bad scenarios, it might not happen for 10. But over 20, 30, 40 years, there will be growth, net growth. So you just have to be slow and steady. And you can't be worrying yourself, right, about, oh, what direction is it going to go? Should I do this? Should I do that?

Should I sell everything? Should I buy now? You can't worry about that. What you need to just know is what's the level of risk that I can afford to take? And that's the level of risk you take. Talk with someone. Get good advice on what is the level of risk. And the level of risk isn't should I be in or out of the market. The level of risk is should I be, what kind of risk isn't should I be in or out of the market. The level of risk is

should I be, what kind of stocks in general should I be in? What kind of bonds? How risky should my portfolio be? Not should I save or not. That's not a risk question. Saving or not, because inflation is eating away at your money.

So to save or not to save is not a risk question. You should be saving. The risk question is, what do I do with my savings? And that's really the key. And, yeah, but also there was the GDP number that had come out. And I was curious your thoughts because I just thought of this right now. You know, the market had a really good start.

I'd say January, February, maybe even into March. I mean, it might have been up 7% to 8%. There seems to have been a slight correction since then, and I'm curious what are your thoughts about... I mean, the market is reacting badly to this number. I know, I saw that because I could see that when Jerry's

got his TV on here. A lot of red. Dow Jones down around 1.7. S&P 500 down around 1.3. Over 1% in a day is a big move for people to get an idea of that. red. Dow Jones down around 1.7. S&P 500 down around 1.3. Over 1% in a day is a big move for people to get an idea of that. You may not be used to the number values, but over 1%

movement in a day is big. So they're sliding on the basis of this news. The question is, it's always tough to know what the stock market will do versus the economy because as we've seen, we had very slow growth in the 2010s and yet

the stock market did very well because the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and that was good for the stock market. They were able to borrow and buy back their own stock. With this inflation number, I was about to say, are they going to cut interest rates? And they afford to cut rates. That's why we're entering that tricky picture where I think you do need to be cautious in this sense,

that you should not be taking more risks than your situation allows. In other words, if you are sitting there saying, I am five years away from retirement, my risk profile is be conservative, right? You shouldn't be betting bigger because you think things are going to be haunt-y dory, right? You need to actually follow your picture. Now, if you're 20 years old, should you be pulling out of the market because of my time? No, you have 40 years.

Well, can I ask you a question? Let's say you were coming in, let's say your 30s or 40s, you come in the market and you had some money to invest. How would you... Now, you can't do it theoretical. for that, but would you caution someone to be a little more aggressive?

They say they want to be very aggressive in the S&P 500. Would you caution them because you're like, well, it's already been up this much? Not necessarily on doing the S&P 500. One thing you can do is what's called dollar cost averaging. So in other words, rather than putting... Let's say you're like, okay, I finally have $30,000 to invest. Rather than investing the entire chunk in the stock market at one time,

you can average it out. You can say, okay, I have $30,000 over the next nine months this year. I'm going to invest one ninth of that at a time. The theory being, sometimes it might be high, sometimes it might be low. sometimes it might be low, as it fluctuates. But you're avoiding the peaks and valleys. Yeah, you're avoiding the possibility

that you put it all in and then the next day is when it goes down. Now, over a long period of time, they have not necessarily found that dollar-cross averaging is that much better than just putting everything in on the first day of the year, right? But it's a method to

be a little more comfortable right now if you're just starting out and you don't have a chunk you're saying okay i want to save five hundred dollars a month right just do that as you put in the 500 invest it because you're by nature you're automatically averaging out but i wouldn't necessarily say in other words if your risk tolerance is aggressive i wouldn't say no be be uh you know medium because of where the market is because the reason you're aggressive is because you probably have a 40-year period to get it back right if you're in your mid to 30s to 40s by nature you're already going to be less aggressive like in other words you shouldn't be in the most aggressive portfolio if you're 37 by already you should be in a growth portfolio but not the most aggressive so your age is already making you be less aggressive so you don't need where i would

counsel someone if someone has a personality that's aggressive that they're like i don't care that i'm 40 i want to be really aggressive we We would probably caution them, this is not the time for you to be more aggressive than your profile would suggest. This is the time to follow what your age might suggest, which is be aggressive, be growth oriented, but not super aggressive.

And then dollar cost averaging is always a possibility for people. So that would be my two cents based on this. You know what I mean? We're definitely in some tricky times. And if you were going to the grocery store and saying, I'm having trouble making ends meet,

and then you turn on the TV and some talking head is saying that everything is fine. Listen, I mean, you just go grocery shopping. A, it feels like prices haven't, they certainly haven't come down. And sometimes it doesn't feel like they're even staying stable. They're continuing to go up, even just a little bit. And number two, I mean, we noticed the other day, too, we were getting bread somewhere. I'm not going to say where and what the bread, but it was very clear, like, these rolls are smaller now.

And you are definitely starting to see shrinkflation kind of affect. And that's a natural response what happens is let's face it companies there there is a known thing where people will buy less of something if they see that the price has gone up i mean the price is like in certain cases the prices of some foods and goods have gone up like 25 percent so in other words if you're a company right and you're buying let's say you're buying the materials that go into bread and the materials that go into bread, flour milk, eggs all this stuff is up

20%. You're not going to raise the price of your bread 20%. Your sales will suffer. So what you do is say I can't raise the price 20%. I have to make the bread smaller and charge the same price. And it's not because you're greedy it's

because and we know this because the producer price index so the consumer price index tells you what inflation is for the consumer when i go to the store how much more expensive is the stuff that i bought the producer price index ppi tells you when the store goes and buys flour, eggs, and stuff to make the bread, what inflation are they seeing? The producer price index is up a lot. In other words, it's not as though you just have a bunch of companies that are imagining it and they're like, oh, good, let me just jack up prices 20% for no reason. If they're increasing prices because their prices are also increasing.

In other words words the things that they are buying and you just see this in the store right if think about it if you go to the store and eggs are more expensive well the guy who makes the bread is buying the same eggs as you yeah right so if eggs are nine percent more expensive his bread is gonna have to be nine percent more expensive and if it's not nine percent more expensive he's gonna have to shrink the price of the bread so you we've been seeing that shrinkflation isn't a greed thing it's a 9% more expensive, he's going to have to shrink the price of the bread. So we've been seeing that. Shrinkflation isn't a greed thing. It's a way for a company to say, my prices went up 10%, but I cannot charge that much more.

Well, the problem is they've already gone up. I think that's the issue that these companies are facing. We've already had to raise it 10%, 20%. I can't keep raising the price because people will not buy it. People are already getting to the point where it's like, this is getting too expensive. I'm not sure I can't keep raising the price because people will not buy it people are already getting to the point where it's like this is getting too expensive I'm not sure I can afford this

it's a psychological thing at a certain point a company says I have to try shrinking it because if I keep raising the price people will not buy my product

and that's what happens you see restaurants have to do that sometimes if you've been to a restaurant lately and maybe instead of

three pieces of something, they only gave you two, right? That's because they're sitting there saying, if I raise the price, people will not come, but I cannot leave the price the same or I will lose money. And so therefore I have to shrink the amount. It's the same as raising prices. It's just they try to do both things

to have less of a psychological impact on the consumer. So that's what we're seeing. So you're not imagining it. It's a tricky time. You know, it's been a while since we've seen slowing GDP growth along with inflation at the levels that we're seeing now. And it may persist. I mean, it's impossible to to know I can't tell you that it will magically fix itself next quarter it might but it might not so that's kind of where we are on a positive thing

if you're looking for some food that is less expensive this is a good wheat because it's burger wheat it is burger wheat and the $8 burger is back in Charlottesville. Last year, we were lucky. We had gone for burger.

We went to Guajiros. Guajiros. And they had an absolutely delicious burger. Had a delicious burger. I think they have that one this year as well. Yeah, with the guava barbecue sauce. The guava barbecue sauce, the caramelized onions, and the queso frito. Yes, queso frito.

The fried cheese was really good. This year, I mean, a lot of them look good. Yes. The bevedero one with the... Chihuahua cheese. Yeah, the chihuahua cheese looked good. This year, I mean, a lot of them looked good. I mean, the Bevedero one with the... Chihuahua cheese. Yeah, the Chihuahua cheese looked good. The Poblanos. There was the South and Central

with the braised wristed on top with Argentine provolone. I know Jack Brown's had the Wagyu beef one. Yeah, theirs was like super loaded. A super loaded Jet Brown one. There's a lot of options. When does it end? It's this week, so it ends this weekend.

By Sunday. Let's see, I'm looking it up now. Seville Burger Week, it's April 22nd to the 28th, so your last day is going to be Sunday the 28th. It's going to be the last day to participate. And a bunch of people participating. You've got Ralph Sands,

American Taproom, Beer Run, Guajiros, of course, South and Central, Jeff Brown's The Nook, Moe's Barbecue, that's where we first learned about it. Moe's looks good too. Had a great burger. Revolutionary Soup, you've got Matchbox, Moreland Heights, you've got a bunch of places.

Yeah, a lot of options to go for burgers. A lot of options to go for Burglary. A lot of options. You can see Seville. It's actually a really easy. See Dashville. So Seville with a dash between the C and the Ville. Burglary.com. If you type Seville Burglary on Google, you get there. So be sure to check that out.

Especially because, let's face it, a five-dice burger is up to $20 with the fries and stuff. That was like in the news. I mean, in other words, burgers in general are probably ranging now between $12 and $20. I don't want to pitch on Five Guys. Everybody's between $12 and $20. I mean, how long were we growing up that

McDonald's and Burger King had basically like whatever, $1, $1.50, like Big Mac. I mean, it's gone now. And it lasted like that for 15, 20 years. I mean, most gourmet burgers in Charl's like, and it lasted like that for 15, 20 years. I mean, most gourmet burgers in Charlottesville, you're running $12 to $20. Right? So an $8 burger week

is a very good deal for the for the hot and it's a different burger than you get. And a special burger. Yeah, special. They're making it really, really good and as interesting as they can. Exactly. Exactly. So be sure to check that out. It's clever. So be sure to check that out. It's clever.

The hashtag is meetmeinseville, but meet is spelled M-E-A-T. So a nice pun. A little corny, but we'll let it slide. Yeah, yeah. Corny, but good. Corny, but good. Let me double check here. Let's see if we got any comments.

Nick Irby has put in our comments section some good stuff, some comments about where you can find information. Got it. Oh, Xavier. Xavier has a couple of finance things. Sorry I missed this, Xavier. It didn't pop up. I didn't even know he was watching the show.

Neither did I. He's saying people are struggling more to save. And according to the Treasury Department, we spent $429 billion on interest payments alone in the last year. 240%. So the...

Like mortgages and credit cards? GDP really isn't the big issue. It's the inflation number. And the borrowing by the government about a trillion dollars every 100 days. That's what's contributing a huge deal to inflation. It's like Milton Friedman said, inflation is too much money chasing too few goods,

no matter how you slice it. It's a big number. Unfortunately, of this GDP number, I think government spending was the biggest piece once again. Travis Hatworth watching the of this GDP number, I think government spending was the biggest piece once again. Travis Hatworth watching the show this morning says, way to make everyone hungry. Sorry about that, Travis.

Between Cuba Mets and the Burger Week. I know. Unfortunately, I've done it to myself, too. I've made myself hungry. Anytime I hear about Flan, I already begin to get hungry. So our apologies to all our great viewers. Yeah, Travis saying a gourmet burger down in Danville will cost you $14 to $20. So $8 is a great deal.

Absolutely. Yeah. So it's a. I still sometimes can't wrap my head around the burger. Like I go to the place and it's just kind of like a burger. It's like, yeah, $14. And I'm like, yeah. Burger used to be that thing that like when you were on a menu. That's the cheap food. Yeah, when you were going out to dinner and you're like, oh, $14. Yeah. Burger used to be that thing that, like, when you were on a menu.

That's the cheap food, yeah. Yeah, when you were going out to dinner, and you're like, oh, man, I don't feel like paying $15. So you would find the burger that was like $9 or something, and now it's like $9. I mean, not even feels like a lot. It's like $6 or $7. I know. Now it's like, now you're lucky. Now if you find the $14 burger, you're like, oh, man, that's a steal.

It feels that way. Yeah, exactly. So the $14 burger, you're like, oh, man, that's a steal. It feels that way. Yeah, exactly. So the $8 is a – so Travis, you'll just have to drive on up here to Charlottesville for the weekend and enjoy a good burger and save yourself – Six bucks. Yeah, I mean, you might lose it. The gas toss might catch you there. Yeah, another thing that's been going on.

It'll be worth it to have the burger. So exactly. Absolutely. But thanks for tuning in. He's a great, I'd say Travis is a great advocate for all the wonderful growth happening down in Danville. He's always sharing

some great news about what it looks like to do economic development in a place. So he's a great advocate for that area. So we really appreciate everything that he does for his area. So that's a great advocate for that area. So we really appreciate everything that he does for his area. So that is really awesome. So always appreciate that.

And really appreciate all our guests today. We had a lot of people tuning in. Elizabeth Irby. Which one? With a Z. Okay. Elizabeth Irby is tuning in this morning. So appreciate all our fantastic viewers that do it.

And definitely appreciate Nick for always finding some great guests for us. Absolutely. Speaking of which, next week he's got another great guest, F. Rivas, contractor, a local contractor, going to come on in and join us. They must be busy because, I mean, I see construction everywhere in Charlottesville. For homes, for buildings, everything. Yeah, that hasn't, everything. That hasn't

slowed down. Travis was up in Seville last Thursday. So yeah, it's been a beautiful time. So definitely appreciate all our fantastic viewers. Bill McChesney, thanks for watching the show this morning. Always appreciate that. And this was

a great show. Yeah. We got a lot of stuff done. We got a nice, wonderful guest. We made all our guests hungry. Exactly. But we informed our guests where to go to satiate your hunger. So if you're hungry now, you know exactly where to go. And it's nice to highlight some Cuban food, too, because

obviously, you know, Guajiros is here, and it's wonderful that they're here. But every once in a while, you're kind of like, oh, it won't be nice in another one. And now it's like a Cuban mix. So that's pretty cool. Now we're lucky. We're lucky in Charlottesville with so much great Latino food in general.

Because I mean, the Rojiros bring you some Cuban, some Nicaraguan. You got sombreros and mariachi. Bring in here the Mexican, the great Mexican food. There's a lot of great Honduran places. They have the areos on Wheels from Salvador so really appreciate

we are spoiled that's for sure I'm spoiled to have you on

with me I'm spoiled to have you leading the show we're

spoiled to have Xavier commenting we're spoiled to have Virgil there you're spoiled to have Virgil

there you are we're spoiled to have Judah Wittkower behind the camera we're spoiled to have Liza in studio the I Love Siebel Network set which we appreciate tremendously all our great partners

are you just going with the spoiled? we might run that too far I'll pause on that. We are grateful for Emergent Financial Services, our presenter, and for our amazing partners at Mattias Yon Realty, Tradit, Sirius Insurance, Forward Adelante. We are extremely grateful for our amazing audience. We appreciate all of you.

Be sure to send us anyone that you would love to feature on the show. You know we love sharing the amazing entrepreneurs, small business people, and non-profits in our community with all of you. We look forward to seeing you next week. Until that time, enjoy the beautiful weather. Enjoy Burger Week.

Enjoy Burger Week. Enjoy the weekend. And hasta mañana. Thank you.