Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Evan Santiago, Hybrid Kitchen + Butter Bakery

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Evan Santiago, Hybrid Kitchen + Butter Bakery · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everyone, Ryan Wolf from Coffee People podcast here.
• 0:04
  We recently were in New York City for Coffee Fest and now we
• 0:08
  are in Colorado, which is why we are not doing a normal
• 0:11
  introductory recording. Please check out coffee
• 0:13
  peoplepodcast.com and enjoy all of these video clips from the
• 0:20
  Coffee Fest event in New York in March of 2026.
• 0:25
  And while you're doing that, I'm going to get a cup of coffee.
• 0:55
  So we'll get going. I'm going to get that out of the
• 0:57
  way. I'm going to steal that.
• 1:01
  How's it going? Good man, how are?
• 1:03
  You. I'm hanging in there.
• 1:04
  How's your coffee fest so far? So far so good.
• 1:06
  A lot of amazing people have been able to meet a lot of
• 1:10
  different vendors. Reconnecting with some people
• 1:12
  that I haven't seen in a while. It's nice to be here.
• 1:15
  Well, welcome to the Coffee People podcast Espresso round
• 1:18
  here at Coffee Fest New York. Tell everyone who you are and
• 1:23
  who you represent and what you do.
• 1:25
  Yeah, thing. My name is Evan Santiago.
• 1:27
  I own Hybrid Coffee and Kitchen as well as Butter Bakery in
• 1:30
  Jersey City, NJ. Oh, very cool, So pretty local.
• 1:34
  Local, local, right across the river.
• 1:38
  Is this your first coffee fuss? This is my second one.
• 1:40
  All the years I've been trying to go, I've been in business
• 1:43
  almost seven years and last year was my first one and I took my
• 1:47
  team and this year again I'm here with my team.
• 1:49
  Awesome. Yeah.
• 1:50
  Why did you get into coffee? Why did you start a business in
• 1:53
  the 1st place? What motivated?
• 1:54
  You great question. I so coffee for me.
• 1:57
  I love the service industry. I'm a creative director of my
• 2:00
  trade. I worked in the design industry
• 2:01
  for many years and as a marketer, I used to work at a
• 2:04
  coffee shops a lot. Some of the things that I've
• 2:06
  noticed in coffee shops, there was a lot of holes with things
• 2:08
  that feel like I can kind of make better.
• 2:10
  And I had a little notebook I used to write down the things I
• 2:13
  wanted to make better. And one day I just took a step
• 2:16
  of faith and I did it, you know? And I really love the service
• 2:19
  industry. I love to serve people that are
• 2:20
  like me that work in corporate America.
• 2:22
  They are in creative environments.
• 2:23
  I'm a father and my husband and just bringing service to people,
• 2:27
  bringing coffee culture back to the States, you know?
• 2:29
  Very cool. I actually love that you said
• 2:31
  you had a little notebook. Yeah, I always have a little
• 2:35
  notebook because you never know when you're going to need it.
• 2:38
  And then I go back through my notebooks and I'm like, what
• 2:40
  kind of psychotic person wrote this stuff?
• 2:42
  Yeah. Like did I write this?
• 2:43
  Was this me? Yeah.
• 2:45
  Before we get too far, how can people find your company and
• 2:48
  what you do either online or in real life?
• 2:50
  Sure thing. So Jersey City, NJ is the city
• 2:53
  and state that we're in. We a hybrid coffee and kitchen
• 2:56
  in downtown Jersey City is 398 Manila Ave.
• 2:59
  Jersey City. I have a new location that's
• 3:01
  opening this week this Thursday. Oh wow.
• 3:03
  Congratulations. Thank you so much.
• 3:04
  That's amazing. Jersey City Heights.
• 3:06
  So it's hybrid coffee and kitchen The Heights, and that is
• 3:08
  573 Palisade Ave. and Butter Bakery is 156 Brunswick Street
• 3:13
  in Jersey City. I can't even remember my own
• 3:15
  address, so that was really. Impressive, Impressive.
• 3:19
  If you were to give somebody, somebody came up to you and
• 3:22
  said, man, you've, you've done this.
• 3:24
  You've, you've opened a business, you've done this thing
• 3:26
  that you wanted to do. What's a piece of advice you
• 3:29
  might give them if they were saying to you?
• 3:31
  I kind of want to follow my own dream.
• 3:34
  So I'd say when you get to a place in your life where money
• 3:37
  is not your goal, right, I believe that you're ready for
• 3:40
  entrepreneurship. I think a lot of people get into
• 3:41
  this business and their focus is money.
• 3:44
  I think that if money is your driver, then the love for coffee
• 3:47
  and the love for products will not be.
• 3:49
  So my recommendation would be get to a place where you really
• 3:52
  care about servicing people, you really care about a product, and
• 3:55
  that's your goal, and then you're ready for
• 3:57
  entrepreneurship and you can follow your dream.
• 3:58
  What I will say is that I started this business and I
• 4:00
  didn't have anything. I didn't have money.
• 4:02
  I didn't have a big no book that told me everything I needed to
• 4:05
  do. I didn't have a lot of people
• 4:06
  that told me what to do. It was a school of Hard Knocks.
• 4:09
  I just kind of went out there and I did it.
• 4:10
  I believed in myself and I learned this, learned this piece
• 4:14
  of advice many years ago, which is ask good questions, stay
• 4:17
  quiet and listen. And I think that find somebody
• 4:20
  that knows more than you, ask good questions, stay quiet,
• 4:22
  listen to them and follow your dreams very.
• 4:25
  Cool. Well, Evan, thank you so much
• 4:26
  for being on coffee people. It's.
• 4:28
  Been a pleasure, thank you so. Much cheers.