Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / When Life Changes Your Game Plan: Julio Cano's Journey from Soccer Executive to Restaurant Leader | Restaurants & Franchises Series

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When Life Changes Your Game Plan: Julio Cano's Journey from Soccer Executive to Restaurant Leader | Restaurants & Franchises Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
• 0:08
  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:11
  their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
• 0:14
  adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
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  today's guest is Julio Cano, chief business officer and
• 0:21
  partner at BN Trucha Group. Bien Trucha is a hospitality
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  company founded in 2007 and based in Chicago.
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  They strive to create memorable experiences through their work,
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  offering unique restaurant concepts that come from a place
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  of creativity and collaboration. Since joining in 2012, Julio has
• 0:42
  helped shape the group's vision by focusing on innovative dining
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  experiences and exceptional customer service.
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  Before leading the company, Julio served as Assistant
• 0:52
  General Manager at Shiva's USA, where he honed his leadership
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  skills, and as Marketing and Communications Manager at FC
• 1:00
  Dallas, where he gained valuable sports and entertainment
• 1:03
  industry knowledge. He draws on his administrative,
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  managerial, marketing and business background to help the
• 1:10
  business expand from a single restaurant to a multi unit,
• 1:14
  multi concept restaurant group. Now before we get into all that
• 1:18
  good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
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  To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at
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  AD back benefitsagency.com. OK, back to our guest today, Mr.
• 1:53
  Julio Cano from the Bien Trucha Group.
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  Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
• 1:58
  Oh, thank you. Thanks for the invite.
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  OK, so Julio, you started your career in what the rest of the
• 2:06
  world calls Pro Football, but what we call soccer here in the
• 2:09
  States. Tell us how that all came about.
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  Well, I grew up in Mexico. I was born and raised in Mexico
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  City. I came to the states for the
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  well, I shouldn't say for the first time, came on vacation
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  several times before that, but move when I was 17.
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  But before that I grew up playing soccer, football, but we
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  we go. So I played that since I was 3-4
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  years old and you know, that, that became my passion.
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  I, I guess like a lot of little kids, you know, you, you dream
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  about being a professional soccer player.
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  And I, that was my goal, you know, growing up and, and I did,
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  you know, pretty decent play through different ranks of
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  professional soccer club in, in Mexico City.
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  And then, you know, it gets to a point that, you know, it's very
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  difficult. Only a handful can make it, you
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  know, to the pro level. And it was a time for me to take
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  a decision. Should I keep pursuing this or
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  should I try, you know, something else?
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  Like most that are in that journey of trying to become a
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  professional athlete, I don't know.
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  It just became the opportunity at some point in my life where I
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  had the opportunity to come, you know, to to the Chicago area.
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  My mom had just remarried and my stepdad, he's also from Mexico
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  City, so he was living here at the time.
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  And he had a restaurant, a Mexican restaurant in one of the
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  Chicago suburbs. So at that time, my mom, she
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  asked me, do you want to stay back in Mexico City?
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  At that time, my dad was still alive.
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  Or do you want to come with me? And you know, it's, it's hard.
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  Decision to make. It, it was very hard decision.
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  I was 17. I was going through my last year
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  of high school and decided, you know, I, I, I, I remember at
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  that time I was like, OK, is there really a chance that I'm
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  going to make it to the professional ranks?
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  I had suffered like, you know, some injuries, but at the same
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  time I was just like, OK, let's be a realistic let's give it a
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  try. Let's go there.
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  My at that point I remember I said like, I'll go for one year,
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  try to get my English better and then I'll come back for college
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  and I'll come back to to Mexico. Long story short, I ended up
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  staying not here. I've been quite around the world
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  or parts in the US and and Europe after that decision of
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  coming here, but came here that my last year of high school and
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  ended up staying. But soccer to me was as as a
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  spore was still in my mind, but I knew I was not going to pursue
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  the being on the field. You weren't going to be a
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  professional player, but hey, you thought, can I be involved,
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  you know, kind of behind the scenes manager, you know, in the
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  office, something like that. Right, so finish my year of high
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  school. Yeah.
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  I, I, I want to know that I look back, you know, in, in my life,
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  things happen for a reason. I came to the high school that
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  had been a state champions like for a few times in a row.
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  So when I started school here, my last year of high school, I
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  asked like, you guys have a soccer team like, Oh yeah, we
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  do. And we're, you know, like pretty
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  good. We're, you know, been state
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  champions for the last, I, I want to say a couple of years at
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  least. That's really good, so.
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  But I just wanted to play, you know, at that time, being a
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  professional soccer player was not in my mind.
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  So I asked how could I join the team?
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  I didn't understand at that point how the high school
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  athletes are, you know, structured.
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  They said like, oh, yeah, you can join the JB team.
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  I'm like, I don't even know what that is, but OK.
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  I was a senior and then I understood, you know, that
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  there's like the varsity team and the JV team.
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  I guess they were so good that they're like, OK, yeah, go play
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  with the JV. So play with the JPII.
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  Just wanted to play, you know, got invited to play like on
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  senior night, like a few minutes with the varsity team and a lot
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  of the players at that time, you know, my teammates on the
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  varsity team, like they were all getting scholarships and stuff.
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  I didn't understand exactly yet. And I that was not in my mind.
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  I I still thought that I was going back to Mexico, but Long
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  story short I decided to stay. Applied for a few grants, got
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  some loans to go to or or grants to go to college.
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  Ended up staying here but I didn't pursue playing soccer
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  again. I did one I remember I I did for
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  a little. So was it during college that
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  you got the opportunity to join one of these professional clubs?
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  No, so, so before that, I remember after I graduated from
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  high school, my, I guess the the varsity coach felt kind of bad
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  that he didn't give me the opportunity to play.
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  He said, like, you should go to these showcases because I think
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  you can get a scholarship. And, and at that time I had
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  decided like, OK, I'm going to stay here.
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  I remember going to some showcases and I got like offers
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  from universities. And at that point I didn't even
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  know existed. Like, you know, like some
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  coaches, I remember once like, oh, you, you know, like you
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  would you want to come to Bob Parisi University?
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  I'm like, I don't even know what, where that is, you know,
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  then and Northwestern asked me, you know, the coaches like, Oh,
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  I don't have a scholarship, but you know, if you send me your,
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  your grades and I can promise or probably can get a scholarship
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  next year and you should come try it.
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  And I said, you know what, I'm just going to go.
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  I already had applied for some grants, like I said to, to go to
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  Northern Illinois University and ended up going there.
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  Didn't play soccer anymore. My mind was like, OK, how can I
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  get back into a sport that I love After the first year?
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  The I remember having a a meeting with my counsellor at
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  that time. I said like, OK, I want to be
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  involved in sports. I think I want to be a coach.
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  So I remember at that time the Bulls obviously in Chicago, you
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  know, Phil Jackson being the coach.
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  So like he professional? Basketball team.
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  Yeah, yeah. And he had.
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  A, A background, A background in psychology.
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  So I'm like, OK, I want to follow the same steps.
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  I'm going to go and do like sports psychologists and I want
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  to be a coach and I'm going to get my, you know, coaching
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  degree and everything. So she was like, oh, this is
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  great. You know, like, you already have
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  it, You know, like, what do you want to do?
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  Like, we don't get this usually, you know, like, people don't
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  want to know after their first semester.
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  You know, they're still trying to decide.
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  I'm like, yeah, I want to do this.
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  Just like, OK, so you know how that works.
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  You would need to, you know, go underground.
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  Then you guys got to do, like, grad school and blah, blah
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  before you can actually apply or, you know, be like a sports
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  city. College may take, you know, a
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  few years. I'm like, OK, how long?
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  It's like, well, we've got to go to grad school.
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  So then I'm like starting to like think I'm like, Oh no, that
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  sounds like a lot. And I'm like, OK, let's go back
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  and what else can I do? So decided to go just business,
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  business administration. And I said, like, I'll figure
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  that after, you know, let's just go for something that it's more
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  general and then I'll figure out how I get back into the sport.
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  And that's what I did. I just did business with a minor
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  in marketing and then it started applying to different soccer
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  teams everywhere like Mexico here.
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  And yeah, I was lucky to get a a job in in Dallas.
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  And what was that first job and and why do you think they gave
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  it to you, this kid fresh out of college?
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  So actually I had been applying for a while.
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  So let's go back my my parents at that time, my mom and my step
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  dad had sold the restaurant that they had in Chicago area.
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  They had moved to Dallas where another family member was there
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  and he wanted to open a restaurant.
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  So they were going to team up. I came there to help them
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  because I had just graduated from college and I came and
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  helped them to set up like the business plan and try to, you
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  know, like figure out like a location and what would be the
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  the restaurant. Was this the beginning of Bien
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  Truta? No, something else.
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  So this is so. Remember I said that my stepdad
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  had a restaurant, Mexican restaurant here in Chicago.
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  She sold that they were going to open this with an uncle in
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  Dallas. That ended up not happening, but
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  they were already there with the plan of opening a restaurant in
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  Dallas. So I help them with the business
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  plan. This is like the summer where I
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  had just graduated from college. They were talking to different
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  people from if I don't think it was Plano, TX, where they had
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  like the economic developer was helping them and he saw the
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  business plan and he was like, oh, this is great.
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  He's like who, who did this business plan?
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  And my mom, my stepdad was just like our son.
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  He's like, you did this. And I'd say like, yeah, I didn't
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  think it was. I mean whatever you know, like.
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  You did your best and you didn't realize you just hit it out of
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  the park. I.
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  Guess he really liked it and he offered me a job right away like
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  in front of my house and he said I have multiple Ihops.
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  He said like would you want to work for me?
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  And I, I remember I said like, let me think about it, because I
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  I, you know, I had just graduated from college.
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  I wanted to be in sports. My parents were like, what are
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  you thinking? He's suffering a job.
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  Yeah, I remember he, he, he was suffering me already like 50
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  grand. And I was like, no, I don't
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  know. Like I, I'm not sure that I want
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  to go and manage, you know, multiple.
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  I helps because I don't know, he just saw the business plan.
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  He said that I was valuing. Well, he's like, come work for
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  me. He's just like, what I would
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  even like interview me or anything like offer me.
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  And I was. Like it's seen enough and what I
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  do on the team. Yeah, my parents were like, you
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  should really consider it. They actually also offered me to
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  go to culinary school. I like cooking, but I also like
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  they said like, we'll pay for your culinary, you know, degree,
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  like go whatever you want, we'll pay for it.
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  This was just before I, I mean, before I went to college and I
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  said no. So that was the first time that
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  I said no, I'll go to college. I want to be in sports.
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  I got this offer, 50 grand said thank you, you know, I'll pass
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  and ended up getting the job there in Dallas.
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  It was less than half of what this guy offered me, OK, with
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  some bonus and everything. I I took it, you know, but they
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  said like, we have this position, it's a new position.
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  We don't have any anybody, you know, bilingual, we need help
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  here, blah, blah, blah. And I said like, OK, what do I
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  sign? And that's how I started in the
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  professional soccer, you know, my career started there and
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  doing a lot of things because at that time, Major League Soccer
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  was not what it is right now. So what time frame are we
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  talking about? What years were you there?
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  This is professional soccer. This is 2003 when I started
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  there. Yeah, so much earlier days it it
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  wasn't the, it didn't have quite the following, it wasn't packing
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  the stadiums, it didn't have the sponsorship.
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  Now that it does, yeah, it's a different landscape.
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  Totally, totally different. At that time, I remember the
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  front office were probably between 30 and 40 people.
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  I think right now it's, I don't know, I haven't checked, but I'm
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  totally sure that it's over 120, you know, like a front office of
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  a Major League Soccer team. But I was lucky that I, you
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  know, got exposed to a lot because there was being
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  bilingual and doing, you know, like I started doing like the
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  communications department, but more for like the Spanish market
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  and, you know, working with the league and doing a lot of stuff.
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  I started doing scouting, which was never done before with the
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  amateur leagues at that time. We got to sign like the first
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  amateur player from the Hispanic teams, you know, in Major League
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  Soccer at that time too. So I got exposed to a lot which
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  that was great. So I was, I started as
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  communication, but in marketing I ended up doing a lot more.
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  And then I apply for a scholarship to go to Spain and
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  get a degree in sports management with Real Madrid.
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  So got the scholarship. So went there.
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  I was there for a couple of years in Spain, got another.
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  Deal a scholarship with Real Madrid.
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  They have their own like university program.
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  Yeah, so they they're actually to a university and they offer
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  like sports management. It's more general in sports.
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  Obviously, being Real Madrid, there's a lot.
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  It's very heavy on soccer, which is that's what I wanted.
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  One of the premier leagues in the entire world for, you know,
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  anybody who's not kind of familiar, right?
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  I mean the the most famous or you know, most celebrated team,
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  you know, in history and so got there also applied at that time
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  they were starting with the the the Spanish soccer federation
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  had just announced that they were doing this as sporting
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  director diploma. And I asked, remember that the
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  guy that was like the director of our program with Real Madrid
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  was former Real Madrid player. And I said, like, look, please
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  help me get into this. They were just doing it for like
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  former professional players and like coaches and stuff, or
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  unless you had work in professional teams for like,
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  like in the sports side. So he helped me and, and I
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  actually was able to get my diploma too.
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  Was like a lot of like again, like just retired players or
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  players are former players when they were playing at the time.
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  So got that and then after I got an offer to go back to Major
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  League Soccer, but now in LA, which she was USA.
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  And and I'm going to guess that was, you know, an incredible
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  resume booster. You've been part of the Real
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  Madrid, you know, program there. Now people are looking at, you
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  know, like, wow, you know, this this guy's elite.
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  And so, yeah, open the door at you said at La Galaxy.
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  And then what was your role there?
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  How long did you stay so? It was with she was just say
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  which is like the so we play in the same team or we back then we
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  shared the same with the LA Galaxy, just like the Lakers and
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  the Clippers, you know, share the same at some point.
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  So yeah. So I got hired there in 2006
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  just after graduated for my crap and, and Spain and I started
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  overseeing like their Academy. So they had, at that time they
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  were one of the teams that we're doing a lot more with like their
• 17:53
  youth development. So started overseeing that and
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  little by little I got exposed to more, you know, like a chance
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  to like doing a lot more like scouting.
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  At the end, my job was assistant GM and director of, of scouting.
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  So, you know, the fun stuff that I always wanted to, you know,
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  when when I thought about it and I'm like, yeah, I want to be,
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  you know, like scouting players and like negotiating contracts
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  and all that stuff. So to me, that was like my dream
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  job. So was lucky that I was able to
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  do that for a few years. So I want to make sure we leave
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  enough time to talk about BN Trucha, but tell us about what
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  you did there at FC Dallas and then how the opportunity to come
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  back home and, you know, be part of the restaurant group came
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  about. Yeah, so so there was she was
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  USA was before grad school. She was USA was after grad
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  school. I was there until 2012.
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  And so I got exposed to, again, I was doing a lot of negotiation
• 18:57
  of the players, the scouting and all that.
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  At that time in 2012, I knew that the team was potentially
• 19:05
  going to be sold back to the league.
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  I started looking for other opportunities, but my job got
• 19:14
  very specific. You know, there were at that
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  time only 20 teams in the leagues or there were 20
• 19:19
  positions like mine to be like either, you know, scouting the
• 19:23
  general manager. So it was tough.
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  I got offers to go back and do marketing in other teams, be
• 19:28
  like, even with like that time like Adidas to go do like
• 19:33
  marketing and things like that. And I just said like, no, unless
• 19:38
  I get something that is to me, like, you know, on the sports
• 19:41
  site, I, I think I'll pass. You knew what you wanted and
• 19:45
  that was it. And I had done it and yeah, so
• 19:49
  at that time, my parents were had just opened the intruccia in
• 19:54
  in Geneva, which is a sober in Chicago with my brother who had
• 19:59
  just graduated from audio engineering in New York.
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  So he came back, help them open this tiny restaurant.
• 20:05
  It's just like 5 tables and. And was the the initial
• 20:10
  restaurant, was it called Biancha or Biancha Biancha?
• 20:13
  It was OK. Biancha and so had been open for
• 20:19
  less than two years. No, I'm sorry.
• 20:23
  I had. It had open.
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  It had been open for a while. The one that they were opening,
• 20:27
  they were opening the second one, which was Atolla Madre.
• 20:29
  So my parents and my brother said, like, look, you're still
• 20:34
  looking for a job. Why don't you consider coming
• 20:36
  back and help U.S. Open the second restaurant?
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  And, you know, said, like, look, I've been looking for a few
• 20:44
  months and there's nothing that really catches my attention.
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  Let's go back and let's help them open this second
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  restaurant. And I thought that I was still
• 20:53
  going to be looking for, you know, something in sports.
• 20:55
  And at the end, you know, again, things happened for a reason.
• 21:00
  The opportunity opened, came back and, you know, started
• 21:04
  opening more restaurants. So I want people to check out
• 21:08
  the website because the branding, the and the interior
• 21:12
  design of each of these concepts is really cool looking and and
• 21:15
  you need to see the visuals to get a, a sense of it.
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  And the website is Bien truchagroup.com.
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  So B i.e. NBN Trucha is TRUCHA and then
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  group.com bien truchagroup.com. So when the the decision was
• 21:30
  made to open up a a second location, the second restaurant,
• 21:34
  you didn't go with the Bientuccia brand again.
• 21:38
  You decided to do Toda Madre, another brand, another concept.
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  What was behind that decision? Why not stay with what had been
• 21:48
  working? So 2 reasons the the original
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  location of this restaurant was right next to Bientuccia.
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  So Bientuccia is a building that it's abided by a patio and that
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  there was this old house that we took over.
• 22:04
  So obviously we either what's going to be an expansion of
• 22:08
  Biancha or a different concept. And our reasoning was like, OK,
• 22:13
  Mexican food is so diapers, it's so unique.
• 22:16
  And I think people is not exposed to that.
• 22:21
  Every single state in Mexico has its unique dish.
• 22:26
  It's unique, you know, like flavors and and that's what we
• 22:32
  wanted to, you know, bring and say like, OK, look, Mexican Food
• 22:37
  First. I think there's at that time,
• 22:39
  there's still a lot of misconception of Mexican food
• 22:42
  and Tex Mex food. I think it's gotten better, you
• 22:45
  know, like. What were the misconceptions at
• 22:48
  the time? I mean, just confusion, not
• 22:51
  saying like, oh, this is Tex Mex.
• 22:53
  And people like when when my parents first opened the
• 22:56
  intrusive like, Oh, you don't have chimichangas or you don't
• 22:59
  have, you know, I don't remember like Taco salads and and things
• 23:04
  like that, that I'm like, OK, chimichanga doesn't exist in
• 23:06
  Mexico. You know that's a Tex Mex and
• 23:10
  or. I didn't know that chimichanga
• 23:11
  was. It didn't come from Mexico.
• 23:14
  Yeah, that's Tex Mex and you know, obviously they are
• 23:19
  similarities into things, but the flavor profiles, you know,
• 23:22
  of like Tex Mex and Mexican food, it's different, you know.
• 23:26
  But anyways, like when we, I mean the entrepreneur, you know,
• 23:31
  was more like Mexico City, like food, like street food and it
• 23:35
  was obviously tacos and you know, a lot of like seafood and
• 23:39
  ceviche and things that you get on the markets there a little
• 23:42
  bit general. But again, we're trying to more
• 23:44
  to like, OK, this is what you would find in Mexico City when
• 23:48
  we open a Tele Madre next door. We wanted something not like
• 23:56
  fine dining, which we got that a lot when we first opened them.
• 23:59
  So like, oh, this is like fine dining Mexican.
• 24:02
  I was and you know, it was, we were trying to be very cultural,
• 24:04
  but we are offering you something totally different.
• 24:06
  Again, this is a misconception of like all Mexican food.
• 24:09
  It's just like, you know, comfort food and you eat with
• 24:11
  your hands and it's tacos and no.
• 24:14
  So we started doing things like crispy pier eggs, you know, with
• 24:19
  different sauces. And we were doing oysters, you
• 24:25
  know, with salsa matcha. And I don't remember, it was
• 24:28
  like a small menu, but it was, you know, very different.
• 24:33
  Everything obviously Mexican. And we got like some of the best
• 24:37
  reviews from the Chicago Tribune.
• 24:40
  And we had already got the attention with our tackles, like
• 24:44
  some of the best reviewers, you know, came because again, Geneva
• 24:49
  is almost 40 miles West of Chicago.
• 24:51
  This guy said like I, one of the guys from the Chicago Tribune, I
• 24:55
  drove 40 miles to have this Taco and it's worth it.
• 24:59
  So that's how it started. Kind of like to focus on it's.
• 25:02
  Quite a compliment. And then when we opened Hatoa
• 25:06
  Madre, we got pro the best reviews, you know, like from the
• 25:09
  Tribune and at that time what that was like some of the most
• 25:13
  important. Now with social media, you know,
• 25:15
  it's an influencer. It's totally different landscape
• 25:19
  in the restaurant industry, but we got the reviews and it was
• 25:24
  great. But funny thing, like after the
• 25:27
  first year, people were coming to a Tele Madre again.
• 25:32
  They, they thought that it was, I mean, the, the price point was
• 25:35
  not even like more high, like higher than what it was next
• 25:39
  door. It's just in people's mind and
• 25:42
  it's like, oh, this is more like fine Mexican food.
• 25:46
  And then little by little, they started asking like, can I have
• 25:50
  the tacos that you're selling like, you know, like 30 feet
• 25:53
  feet from here, you know, can you can I order those here or
• 25:56
  can I have that drink here? We are doing introducing a lot
• 26:01
  of different stuff, you know, like more like mezcal drinks,
• 26:03
  not just to kill and and doing. They would sit down at a total
• 26:07
  madre, but they would want things that were on the menu.
• 26:09
  I'd be in true chair. Like, yeah, we want this, but
• 26:11
  can we also have some of that? So again, at some point we got
• 26:16
  the opportunity to move out to a we move out to a mother, but
• 26:18
  that time we said like, we're not going to do what we are
• 26:23
  doing right now. We're going to do something very
• 26:25
  similar to what we have at the at Tricha.
• 26:28
  So the menu was like our staples were there and that that really
• 26:34
  work. You know, even though it was a
• 26:37
  different branding, a different this, this was in Glen Island
• 26:40
  closer to Chicago and people already knew about us.
• 26:44
  So you know that that was that did great and that was 2016,
• 26:53
  1516 when we did that transition.
• 26:56
  So that was ours. So you moved or you made an
• 26:59
  additional location? We moved, we moved Autonomader
• 27:02
  and then the space that where autonomader was just at that
• 27:07
  point it was just an extension of Bientricha, so.
• 27:10
  OK, so you made Bientricha bigger and you moved Autonomader
• 27:13
  closer to the city of Chicago. Yeah, and the, the menu was at
• 27:18
  that time, I want to say like 5060% the same as we had the in
• 27:23
  church at that time. We were already working on 1/3
• 27:27
  restaurant that at least that we had signed several years before
• 27:31
  in Naperville, which is the largest suburb in Chicago in
• 27:36
  downtown April the developers there came, you know, they, they
• 27:39
  were coming to the in church since we opened and they said
• 27:41
  like we, we want you there. We're doing like a hotel, we're
• 27:46
  doing like several businesses. We want you there.
• 27:48
  So we were the first one to sign a, a lease there and it was took
• 27:53
  like 5-6 years, you know, to actually like get the
• 27:55
  restaurant. I think we signed that lease
• 27:57
  like 2012 when I first just came back and then we ended up
• 28:01
  opening in 2017. What took so long?
• 28:05
  Was it just the building permits and the design of?
• 28:07
  It they were doing condos at some point and the city was
• 28:10
  didn't approve they weren't like and so ended up doing a hotel
• 28:14
  and then the. Restaurant Sir, let me jump in
• 28:18
  for a second. Julio, what is it that you guys
• 28:19
  think that you had cracked the code on?
• 28:22
  Like why were these concepts so successful?
• 28:26
  I mean, I'm looking at the website.
• 28:27
  The interior of the space is like really cool, the kind of
• 28:30
  place that you'd want to go hang out.
• 28:31
  I'm hearing you talk about, you know, you you won these, you got
• 28:35
  rave reviews, you know, from the newspaper, you know, and that
• 28:39
  was helping people love the food.
• 28:40
  Like is this did you just is there, you know, do you have a
• 28:44
  chef on staff that's really great?
• 28:46
  Is there somebody on the team that's like a fabulous interior
• 28:49
  designer? Like, how are you guys kind of
• 28:51
  putting the puzzle pieces? Together, I think it's been a
• 28:53
  combination, you know, it's it's been a team effort at when we
• 28:58
  first started, it was my parents and my brother like coming up
• 29:02
  with the recipes like it was like they they were doing it and
• 29:06
  they're not professional chefs, even though like my step that
• 29:09
  he's worked in the return industry forever in Mexico and
• 29:12
  here in the States. So he has like, you know, he's a
• 29:15
  chef by, you know, not, not like getting a degree just by
• 29:19
  experience. So that's how it started.
• 29:22
  Then we started adding people and the team, the core team at
• 29:28
  that time when we first opened at the Madre, we were able, my
• 29:32
  brother was able to bring cook that he had worked with at
• 29:40
  another restaurant when we first came to Chicago.
• 29:44
  And little by little he started adding, you know, people that he
• 29:47
  had worked with when he was going to college, even like in
• 29:50
  New York like. And so we got the stem from the
• 29:55
  culinary side. Then we had my brother who has
• 29:59
  always worked in the restaurant industry, even though he he has
• 30:02
  a degree in audio engineer and he's very artistic.
• 30:06
  He's like the artistic side. I'm more like us again, the
• 30:09
  business and finance and marketing.
• 30:12
  So we started getting like oldest pieces that just work.
• 30:17
  It was not just like, you know, like restaurants have and you
• 30:21
  have like just a chef that is the celebrity and it's whatever
• 30:24
  he serves. So just to give you an example,
• 30:27
  when we come up with new IBS, our menus are always changing.
• 30:32
  We're very seasonal. So we don't like to have the
• 30:34
  same thing all year round or just have like a monthly
• 30:36
  specials. Like we change our menu like I
• 30:40
  wouldn't say 100%, but more than 6070% like at least once a year.
• 30:47
  If the staples are there, you cannot get them out because
• 30:50
  people will come, you know, and, and complain about it.
• 30:54
  But we try to go with the seasons, we try to expose our
• 30:59
  clientele to different flavors. So when we are trying to come up
• 31:06
  with new dishes, we get together with the culinary team like my
• 31:10
  brother, myself. And even though like we are not
• 31:13
  the ones cooking, like they'll take the decision, they'll come
• 31:16
  up with all these ideas. We taste, we get together, you
• 31:19
  know, kind of like in a fun environment, just like taste
• 31:22
  things we take. I was.
• 31:22
  Going to say, this sounds like a blast.
• 31:24
  This is like a a great brainstorming activity for this
• 31:27
  kind of business. Yeah.
• 31:28
  It is what it is that you know, it's just a brainstorming
• 31:30
  session and they'll come up with that.
• 31:33
  There's two guys, you know, in their culinary team that
• 31:36
  happened with us for several years.
• 31:38
  So they'll and they're also Mexican, Mexican born and
• 31:40
  raised. So they get the flavors, you
• 31:43
  know, like we, we shirt that common flavor profile that we're
• 31:47
  trying to get in our most of our food and they'll come up with a
• 31:52
  bunch of things and we try them and we take notes and they're
• 31:55
  and I think the good, the good thing about this is that
• 31:59
  everybody, you know, it's humble.
• 32:01
  Like there's no precise here. Like, oh, this is my food.
• 32:04
  This is why, like we take notes and then that's how we Polish
• 32:09
  every dish. And the same goes for like the
• 32:12
  beverage side, you know, we get together, we drink, it's even
• 32:17
  more fun things like tequila and, you know, cocktails and
• 32:21
  then. It's a party.
• 32:23
  Yeah. You want to experience the same
• 32:26
  way that your customers are experiencing, so you gotta throw
• 32:28
  in a little lubrication there. So that's, that's how we come
• 32:32
  with, with our dishes, you know, and, and so it's, it's been a
• 32:35
  team effort. We, that's how we work.
• 32:37
  We, we come, we debate, we brainstorm, we take notes and
• 32:43
  then we come up with what we think.
• 32:45
  You know, it's, it's the best dish or the best bad version.
• 32:48
  And sometimes it, it's great. Sometimes we fail.
• 32:51
  You know, it's sometimes you don't, you don't nail it and
• 32:54
  people don't like it and go back and.
• 32:56
  You get quick feedback from your customers, yeah.
• 32:59
  It's a it's an industry that you get feedback on a daily basis,
• 33:02
  yeah. So you guys have a total of 6
• 33:05
  different concepts now, and they're each cool and, you know,
• 33:10
  their menu's a little bit different, their interior's a
• 33:11
  little bit different. I have to imagine that opening
• 33:15
  up so many different concepts, you get 6.
• 33:19
  It's probably a lot of fun from the creative side, but on the
• 33:22
  business side, it's got to be more efficient if you were sort
• 33:26
  of, you know, replicating the same thing over and over again,
• 33:30
  am I right? You're totally right.
• 33:32
  And I, I, I think I said this, you know, 2007, 2000, 14 when we
• 33:39
  first opened. The second one, the restaurant
• 33:42
  industry has changed a lot. And yeah, you got to be more
• 33:48
  efficient and you, it's become more difficult.
• 33:51
  The margins have shortened. Obviously we we, we had COVID
• 33:56
  and we have different factors that have made it a little more
• 34:01
  difficult. I mean in general, not just the.
• 34:04
  Rest yeah there's labor shortages you've got you know a
• 34:07
  lot of the business now is third party delivery like you know
• 34:09
  Uber Eats and DoorDash and eats into your margins so your.
• 34:14
  Margins are like, you know, less and less.
• 34:16
  So that's been the challenge of like, OK, how do you provide
• 34:20
  something that you feel proud about it and that you're like,
• 34:24
  OK, this is what I want to put in front of a guest, but also
• 34:29
  trying to get your marks at the end, your business, right?
• 34:31
  Like you, you kind of just like, you know, keep spiking the
• 34:35
  prices. And so like, oh, my tacos were,
• 34:37
  you know, $3. Now I'm going to sell them for
• 34:39
  six. You know, that's the easy
• 34:40
  answer. Like, no, you know, people are
• 34:42
  like, oh, I don't want to pay for that.
• 34:45
  So it's it's been the real challenge the last few years.
• 34:48
  I mean, this is not a secret. Anybody that used to be, you
• 34:51
  know, in the restaurant industry will tell you that there's I
• 34:55
  mean the ones that have survived because we see, we just see so
• 34:58
  many restaurants like closing you.
• 35:01
  Know it's such a shame, yeah, it's a real shame.
• 35:04
  So it's always been like, OK, like how do we, you know, bounce
• 35:11
  from here and pivot to a different.
• 35:15
  I mean, during COVID, we had to change our, we were already
• 35:17
  doing two goals, but we had to change our operations.
• 35:24
  You know, like one of the restaurants, we just totally
• 35:27
  changed it to over the counter just because the rules at that
• 35:33
  time at that city, that's the thing that the rules were
• 35:36
  different in every city and the regulation that time like
• 35:40
  wouldn't allow us to have full service.
• 35:41
  So we changed. So you have to pivot, you know,
• 35:44
  but I think after that, now it's just like after COVID, now it's
• 35:49
  OK, you're not going through COVID and all of this.
• 35:51
  The laws are trying to, but I think we we we kept that in our
• 35:58
  DNA of like, let's keep pivoting.
• 36:01
  Let's keep trying to understand what the market is and and think
• 36:07
  ahead of what's coming so that we're prepared because it's it's
• 36:13
  so fast. This industry in general, it's
• 36:15
  it's it's changes are so fast. Understanding new generations,
• 36:19
  what they. So what are the some of the
• 36:21
  changes that you guys have come up with along the way?
• 36:24
  Yeah. So we're so our latest
• 36:27
  restaurant which is Swichilango. That's the one that we opened
• 36:33
  last August. That's a kind of like a hybrid
• 36:37
  fast casual restaurant. So this is the first one that we
• 36:39
  don't have servers. Let me just go back a little.
• 36:45
  We have little donkeys. This came just before COVID.
• 36:52
  During COVID, we just like start implementing this in all of our
• 36:57
  Mexican restaurants, San Cielos Latin.
• 37:00
  So that's why don't take it as Mexican.
• 37:03
  The other ones are Mexican. We started doing burritos.
• 37:07
  This is like a ghost kitchen. So it's another concept.
• 37:11
  That's the only one that it, that concept doesn't have a
• 37:14
  storefront. It's just pick up and delivery
• 37:18
  out of three or four restaurants which are Atoma de Cubo and be
• 37:23
  intrusion. Then we said like OK, our next
• 37:31
  concept we got we thank our service.
• 37:35
  We want to provide quality product.
• 37:39
  How do we do that while maintaining certain margins, you
• 37:43
  know to be profitable. So we decided to go with it's
• 37:48
  kind of like a hybrid. I don't want to say that it's
• 37:50
  just a fast casual because you can order through your phone,
• 37:53
  you can obviously order a head, you can order through a kiosk,
• 37:56
  You can ask a team member to help you put your order.
• 38:01
  You know, it's a little challenging for you to do it
• 38:03
  like that or you can see at the bar and a bartender will take
• 38:07
  your order. So we try to keep our clients
• 38:11
  all this different ways of like experiencing our food and the
• 38:15
  way that you order compared to like, OK, now we have a whole
• 38:19
  like all the other restaurants, we have a host staff and we have
• 38:22
  servers and that obviously increases, you know, your labor.
• 38:27
  And again, we were trying to go, it's a different price point
• 38:32
  because we understand that, you know, the past few years not
• 38:38
  everyone has the same disposable income and we've seen.
• 38:43
  You're trying to make this more accessible to folks, and you can
• 38:45
  do that in part by, you know, reducing the the labor costs.
• 38:49
  Right. I mean, the weekends, I think
• 38:52
  for more restaurant, the weekends are the weekends, you
• 38:54
  know, and people will still try to come, you know, and the
• 38:56
  weekends within the weekdays is where you really need to, you
• 39:01
  know, like try to make some profit or at least come up Even.
• 39:08
  So that when you go to the busy days, Friday, Saturday, you
• 39:12
  know, you're not already in a hole.
• 39:14
  So it's been challenging, but it's just been a few months of,
• 39:20
  of this new concept. But I think we, we, we're still
• 39:23
  doing tweaks, you know how we operate, but we're trying to
• 39:26
  operate with less staff both front and back of the house
• 39:31
  while still providing a quality product that people already
• 39:36
  expect from our group. We're not going to compromise
• 39:40
  our quality ever. We're not going to, you know, go
• 39:43
  with like less or less quality meat or something for.
• 39:53
  Yeah. I mean, you guys have built your
• 39:54
  reputation on, you know, these really impressive reviews.
• 39:57
  People come in, they love your food.
• 39:59
  They drive 40 miles, you know, to get a Taco, and it's well
• 40:03
  worth it. And so, yeah.
• 40:05
  You got to stay on brand, even, you know, when you're trying to
• 40:08
  make a new concept more accessible to a larger group of
• 40:11
  people. Yeah, and that's what people
• 40:13
  expect. So another thing that people
• 40:15
  know when we first opened what we were known for, like having
• 40:20
  this atmosphere that people said like, oh, we only find this in
• 40:23
  downtown Chicago. So you know, and the suburbs is
• 40:26
  not not expected. So.
• 40:30
  And the reason is because we try to not only focus on our food
• 40:35
  and drinks, we, you know, it's, it's a whole thing for us and
• 40:39
  it's trying to get all your senses when you come into a
• 40:43
  restaurant. So obviously food and drinks are
• 40:47
  #1 but you want you to see like the statics that are different
• 40:52
  and then different again. It's, I want to say like we, we,
• 40:56
  we are not the typical Mexican restaurant, even though, like,
• 41:00
  yeah, we're Mexican and I, I want to stay away from saying
• 41:04
  authentic because even, you know, being Mexican born and
• 41:09
  raised, I don't feel like I can say that my, our food is
• 41:15
  authentic. That's up to the guests to say
• 41:19
  what they think is authentic. That's very subjective.
• 41:21
  And I've heard like even like some of the top chefs in Mexico
• 41:28
  trying to stay away from saying what's authentic at the end, you
• 41:30
  know, like Mexican food, is it pre Hispanic, what the Aztecs
• 41:34
  were eating, you know, and a lot of insects and like corn and
• 41:37
  things like that. It's that what really is
• 41:39
  authentic? After that we get a lot of
• 41:41
  influence from Europe and from Spain.
• 41:44
  And, you know, our food is like, that's why it's so unique and so
• 41:48
  great about Mexican food. And it's only one of two
• 41:50
  cuisines that is recognized, you know, by some World Heritage
• 41:54
  along with the French because it's all this combination of pre
• 41:57
  Hispanic and European flavors. And it's so unique and so
• 42:02
  different that there's only very little that people know about
• 42:06
  it. I cannot tell you that I know
• 42:09
  every dish or every food in Mexico, you know, because I I've
• 42:13
  been, you know, to most of the states.
• 42:15
  And every time that I go somewhere, I try to try
• 42:18
  something that I haven't tried before.
• 42:19
  But I don't even feel like saying like, Oh yeah, like, you
• 42:23
  know, this is Mexican food or this is authentic Mexican food.
• 42:27
  At the end, what we're putting is what we grew up with, our
• 42:31
  flavors are what, you know, trying to interpret like the
• 42:37
  food, Mexican food and dishes are way.
• 42:41
  But it's again, it's if people want to call it authentic, it's
• 42:45
  authentic. You know, for them if they want
• 42:47
  to call it like modern or something because they are used
• 42:51
  to other, you know, being presented in a different way.
• 42:54
  It is what it is. That's very subjective.
• 42:57
  Talk to us about the name for a second.
• 42:59
  Julio what? What is Chilango?
• 43:01
  So Chilango is what how we call ourselves like people from
• 43:04
  Mexico City that's that's, you know, like Chilango is somebody
• 43:07
  that's from Mexico City. And does it have a deeper
• 43:11
  meaning than that or that's just sort of the, I don't know, it's
• 43:14
  just the nickname. So all of our names are like
• 43:16
  slangs and they have like some double meaning.
• 43:18
  So B and Trucha would be like the end is good.
• 43:22
  Trucha is a trout like the fish. So it would be good trout, but
• 43:25
  that has no meaning, right? So but B and Trucha means to be
• 43:27
  on top of your game. It's all about your mother.
• 43:31
  But it's just like totally awesome.
• 43:34
  You know, when you say like, oh, it's a totally awesome Cuba,
• 43:40
  Cuba just means what's up? It's like, OK, we'll go like
• 43:42
  what happened? What's up?
• 43:46
  Santosiello, which is the only one that you know, that's Latin
• 43:50
  because we don't it's not just Mexican.
• 43:51
  We have Mexican there, but it's like Latin American Santosiello
• 43:56
  is just like good heavens. Then Switzerland Go was just a
• 44:01
  combination, you know, like of sweet shell and go because it
• 44:05
  was kind of like a hybrid. And so we're like, OK, like, so
• 44:10
  yeah, we come up with all the names again.
• 44:13
  It's part of that, you know, trying to get this approach of
• 44:16
  like, let's focus on everything. Let's just don't leave.
• 44:19
  Like, oh, we're just going to call it, you know, tacos and
• 44:22
  tequila, blah, blah. It's comes with the name.
• 44:25
  It comes with like you're listening.
• 44:26
  So you come to a restaurant and it's not going to be like your
• 44:29
  typical Mexican songs. My brother with the audio
• 44:33
  engineer background, he's like, he's the artistic side.
• 44:36
  He comes up with all this playlist.
• 44:38
  So that's unique. And people notice that, you
• 44:40
  know, they expect that when they come to a restaurant, like, oh,
• 44:43
  your playlist's how can I have it?
• 44:44
  And yeah, sure, we have them. Like actually my brother will
• 44:47
  have, you know, like the playlist for switching language,
• 44:49
  the playlist at Santosiello, which is different.
• 44:51
  Santosiello is in a rooftop, so it's like a different vibe.
• 44:58
  And, and I love that because, like I said, as you know, as I'm
• 45:01
  looking at your website, I, I've never, you know, next time I
• 45:03
  come to Chicago, I'm going to come check a couple of these
• 45:05
  places out because this is my kind of cuisine.
• 45:08
  But as you look at each of the different concepts, they've got
• 45:10
  their own branding, their own styling, and it ties in with the
• 45:13
  interior photos that I see of each location.
• 45:16
  And you're talking about, you know, sort of the full on five
• 45:18
  senses experience. And, and I love now that you're
• 45:21
  telling me that, you know, each location, each, each restaurant
• 45:24
  type has its its own playlist too, that that I mean, it's just
• 45:27
  a great way to sort of, you know, do like a, a 360 branding
• 45:32
  experience. So as, as you look forward, will
• 45:35
  you continue to create additional locations for each of
• 45:39
  these six concepts? Do you have new concepts that
• 45:42
  are in mind that you guys want to develop?
• 45:44
  What's what's kind of the future plan look like?
• 45:47
  We, we have so many concepts that are there in the pipeline.
• 45:50
  But to be honest, right now we're focusing on this switch
• 45:55
  land. We're opening a second one
• 45:57
  sometimes this year and we're close to you know, hopefully
• 46:02
  signing a lease for their location.
• 46:04
  I think that's that's immediate future.
• 46:09
  It's just what? It seems to be what the the
• 46:12
  market needs right now, right again, because there's labor's
• 46:16
  short. So you know, how, how can we,
• 46:18
  you know, you know, reduce our reliance on that it it times
• 46:21
  are, you know, people are tightening their belts a little
• 46:22
  bit. How?
• 46:23
  How can we hit a a better price point?
• 46:25
  Exactly. And that, that that's the
• 46:27
  immediate future. And there may be even like some
• 46:33
  of these restaurants that we have, you know, that we may
• 46:36
  reconcept at some point, you know, the full service ones.
• 46:40
  I don't know. I just again, you got to be very
• 46:46
  proactive to what the market is asking for.
• 46:49
  And and and again, you're, you're a business.
• 46:52
  We've had like, you know, we've done pop ups of of different
• 46:55
  concepts in so that the the where we first opened the in
• 47:00
  church again, where a telematter was this other building.
• 47:03
  That's right now it's an extension.
• 47:05
  We've done several pop ups there.
• 47:07
  Little donkey started there as a pop up.
• 47:09
  Then we converted into a ghost brand.
• 47:12
  A telematter obviously was born there.
• 47:14
  We had another concept where it was like burgers and had like
• 47:19
  five solid 5 star, you know, like reviews.
• 47:22
  For a pop up. Yeah, we did it for also like
• 47:25
  maybe I'll say maybe not, but then we didn't have enough the
• 47:28
  traffic, you know, that that concept needed more of a
• 47:31
  traffic, I don't know, like on the on the weekdays.
• 47:34
  And again, we decided like we'll, we'll just put it, you
• 47:38
  know, on the side, maybe we'll do it in the future.
• 47:41
  So there's so many concepts that we have there.
• 47:44
  At some point, you know, we, we may do something different, but
• 47:46
  I, I don't see ourselves going with the full service restaurant
• 47:51
  for now. I think we're going to be keep
• 47:52
  replicating Switzerland go. There's we're also doing like
• 47:56
  our little donkeys, which are burritos, little donkey.
• 47:59
  That's the translation of in Spanish for burrito.
• 48:03
  So we're doing frozen burritos now and we're selling it out of
• 48:07
  Switzerland. Go We're, we're starting to do
• 48:11
  some of these dishes that, you know, would transfer to your
• 48:17
  kitchen in a way that we still think it would taste good, you
• 48:21
  know, being frozen or being like vacuum sealed.
• 48:25
  So we're experimenting with that.
• 48:28
  But the yeah, that's that's what we see ourselves doing in the
• 48:32
  next few years. So we've talked a couple of
• 48:35
  times about, you know, labor shortage and how that's kind of,
• 48:37
  you know, affecting your guys plan moving forward.
• 48:40
  I'm curious, Julia, what, which strategies you guys have used
• 48:44
  and found success with when it comes to, to finding folks and
• 48:48
  then you know, once you've got them, how, how do you retain
• 48:50
  them and hold on to them, you know, especially in a, an
• 48:53
  industry where you know a fair bit of turnover is relatively
• 48:56
  common. It's true.
• 49:00
  I think we have a core team that happened with us for a while.
• 49:03
  And so we, we, we try to, you know, they try to get their
• 49:07
  hands on all the different locations and try to see what's
• 49:11
  going on, try to have like more of that personal touch with,
• 49:15
  with the staff. Again, it's like you said, it's,
• 49:19
  it's big. The turnover in the restaurant
• 49:22
  industry has always existed. And it's also very seasonal in
• 49:24
  front of the house, for example, We have a lot of kids that, you
• 49:27
  know, you, you know, that they're like, you're just
• 49:29
  getting them because it's their first job and they, you know, or
• 49:32
  they come in the summer, winter. And we have a lot of kids that
• 49:36
  come back and they want to work back again with us, you know,
• 49:39
  the hospital staff or, or, you know, us servers, bartenders,
• 49:46
  but back of the house, that's been a challenge.
• 49:49
  And again, I, I, I think it's offering as much as you can with
• 49:55
  benefits with, you know, trying to, trying to cater to their
• 50:00
  needs. The needs can be different.
• 50:04
  You know, at some point we were, you know, like paying for their
• 50:08
  Uber, you know, this was like calling some people like it's
• 50:12
  just trying to, you know, whatever you, you can offer,
• 50:16
  like the next door restaurant can offer them more and that
• 50:18
  it's going to happen. You know, I remember doing COVID
• 50:22
  or some of our employees would come back and say, like, Hey,
• 50:26
  this restaurant down the street is offering me $0.50 more and
• 50:29
  they'll go for those $0.50. So you know, you get the ones
• 50:32
  that there's no loyalty. But at the end, I think trying
• 50:37
  to have, you know, that constant communication with your staff
• 50:40
  and, and cater to their needs has been one of the keys to us.
• 50:47
  We got a lot of employees that come back, they leave and they
• 50:50
  end up coming back. So I think we, I want to say
• 50:54
  that we treat them fair and we, we, we try to create this
• 51:01
  atmosphere where, you know, like, and I got this, this
• 51:04
  starts with the top. And I think like just focusing
• 51:09
  on the culinary side, the way that the heads, you know,
• 51:14
  conduct themselves and how they talk to the people to, to to our
• 51:18
  staff. They noticed that.
• 51:21
  And we've seen that sometimes with people on their that when
• 51:26
  we hire a chef or something that works in them and becomes an
• 51:31
  issue. And it's just how they treat and
• 51:34
  all the rest of the staff. Because again, anybody can offer
• 51:37
  a lot a little more. You're fighting not other
• 51:40
  restaurants, you're fighting with your Amisons and Walmarts
• 51:43
  and all this other big corporations that they can offer
• 51:46
  more benefits. So it's like, how is your staff
• 51:50
  feeling, You know, when they work in your group?
• 51:54
  And we're happy to see, you know, that that a lot of of this
• 52:01
  people come back after they leave and then they're they
• 52:04
  experience other restaurants and they're like, Oh yeah, they
• 52:08
  don't like how life was treated or.
• 52:11
  Yeah, all those things are so important.
• 52:12
  You know, obviously everybody wants to make as much as they
• 52:14
  can. They're looking for those
• 52:15
  benefits, but it's so important that work environment, you know,
• 52:19
  what's that culture like? You know, do you enjoy going to
• 52:22
  work? Do you enjoy being around the
• 52:24
  people that you work with? Julio, as you think back over
• 52:29
  your life, what's a a serious challenge that you've overcome,
• 52:32
  whether it's something in business or in your personal
• 52:35
  life, Maybe the the two intertwined.
• 52:38
  How'd you get through that and what were some lessons that you
• 52:40
  learned? Well, I think the business side,
• 52:47
  I mean, I think, I think COVID would be, I mean, the, the one
• 52:50
  that comes to mind, you know, more recent, but I, I think we
• 52:53
  all that, that's not very personal.
• 52:56
  We all went through that. I want to say I had cancer and I
• 53:07
  was still in LA. That was in 2010.
• 53:12
  So that to me was, you know, something that changed my life
• 53:18
  in a way. Changed, I don't want to say
• 53:20
  changed me as a person. It just changed my perspective.
• 53:25
  It was kind of like a rare cancer, but I was very lucky
• 53:29
  that it was contained. It was not to go into a lot of
• 53:36
  detail, but again, I would work out, run 3-4 times a a week and
• 53:43
  then I couldn't, I was falling out like, you know, like air.
• 53:48
  I'm like, what's going on? I cannot, you know, run as I was
• 53:52
  doing. I had a friend, some friends at
• 53:54
  that time that they were doing triathlons and stuff and they,
• 53:57
  they would time themselves. I wouldn't do it.
• 53:58
  I would just go with them and we would run 5 to 10 miles and then
• 54:04
  I wouldn't be able to keep on like I don't know what's going
• 54:06
  on. Well, Long story short, I had a
• 54:10
  tumor in between my lungs and was pressing against one of
• 54:13
  them. So I was not getting the, the
• 54:16
  air that I wanted took a while because I before that I would
• 54:19
  not go to even to for like annuals, you know, like I,
• 54:23
  again, I growing up working out very healthy all my, my life
• 54:29
  until there was a point that I'm like, OK, I, I went with the
• 54:33
  team to Mexico. We were doing some scouting.
• 54:37
  This was just after our New Year's.
• 54:39
  And while we were there, they would always organize this, this
• 54:45
  game. It was just a match of like
• 54:48
  former players from Chivas and then some of us, you know, from
• 54:52
  like coaching staff and stuff. And I said, like, you know, I,
• 54:56
  I, I'm going to pass. I can play this time.
• 54:59
  And everyone's like, you got to be kidding.
• 55:00
  I give you. I'm like really like, I don't
• 55:02
  know, I feel like I'm having a heart attack.
• 55:04
  Like, and I remember that the doctor, team doctor came and
• 55:08
  checked me and was like, well, like, I mean, if I was not like
• 55:12
  walking or anything, he's like, look at my poles and everything.
• 55:15
  He's like, I think your heart is fine, but you should go, you
• 55:17
  know, when you get back to LA, go, go get checked out.
• 55:21
  And I did. And you know, when I remember
• 55:25
  just walking to like the immediate care, whatever was
• 55:29
  that? And I'm like, yeah, I'm having
• 55:30
  fest issues, you know, like, I don't know.
• 55:32
  And yeah, almost, they wouldn't let me go out.
• 55:36
  I was like, I don't like what I see here at the restaurant.
• 55:39
  Like it really just like, yeah, I don't know.
• 55:40
  It could be pneumonia. It could be different things.
• 55:43
  But you know, we need to do some more testing.
• 55:45
  So we're going to have you come back.
• 55:47
  And yeah, ended up being two more.
• 55:51
  And it was cancer. So had to go through chemo, had
• 55:54
  to go to like surgery. I was very lucky that it didn't,
• 56:00
  you know, go anywhere else. It was contained.
• 56:03
  They were able to get it. They were able to treat it.
• 56:05
  Yeah. Talk.
• 56:06
  Talk more about how it changed your perspective.
• 56:11
  So at that time I didn't have like media, I wasn't up here, I
• 56:14
  didn't have kids. But again, I, I think, I don't
• 56:20
  think it changed me as a person. Like I, I want to say that I,
• 56:27
  you know, like I have wonderful parents and I had a really good
• 56:30
  education, but it just changes how you approach like every day,
• 56:35
  you know, it makes you think about at that time, like what,
• 56:42
  what you wanted in, in your future, you know, 'cause yeah,
• 56:46
  at some point it would just make me think, do I have a few months
• 56:52
  of life or do you have a few years?
• 56:55
  I didn't want to try to focus on that.
• 56:57
  I, I remember trying to block my man from like even going on the
• 57:00
  Internet and said like, OK, what's the life expectancy for
• 57:04
  this kind of cancer? Like I never did that.
• 57:07
  I trusted my doctor at that time.
• 57:10
  I remember she even said when I wanted because I I didn't have
• 57:15
  like the best insurance because I didn't pick that from the team
• 57:18
  at that time. Like I didn't get like PPOI
• 57:20
  said, like no, give me the cheapest one because I'm like
• 57:22
  no. You're a young, healthy guy who
• 57:24
  needs insurance. But I went and I was lucky that
• 57:27
  I was, you know, like the doctor at that time said, like, look, I
• 57:31
  haven't treated this kind of cancer.
• 57:32
  But if you want to stay with me, I can.
• 57:35
  I can refer you to somebody that's more like an expert.
• 57:39
  If you want to stay with me, I'm going to get in touch with this
• 57:44
  doctor that treated Lance Hamstrom, which is like a
• 57:47
  similar kind of cancer or the same.
• 57:50
  I mean, he had it in his brains and testicles I had there.
• 57:53
  It was in my, you know, in my chest.
• 57:56
  But it's like it's the same kind.
• 57:58
  I'm going to get in touch with him and I can come up with a
• 58:01
  plan for you if that's what you want.
• 58:02
  I said like, let's do it Like I trust you.
• 58:05
  Whatever you think it is, let's just go with that.
• 58:08
  So I trusted, you know, put myself in her hands and it was a
• 58:13
  great decision, you know, 15 years later.
• 58:17
  So like, I only have my annual checkups.
• 58:20
  But my doctor was like, yeah, you have the chances of coming
• 58:22
  back. That kind of cancer is the same
• 58:24
  as anybody. So it it changes, you know, like
• 58:30
  how how you approach every day in a way, you know, makes you,
• 58:34
  you know, try to take advantage of what you're doing.
• 58:38
  Like there's, I want to say like things become a little more
• 58:43
  important, some little things that maybe before you, you'll be
• 58:47
  like, I'll do it later or I don't care about this.
• 58:50
  And now having kids, it's totally even different.
• 58:53
  I I don't know how that would have been if I had been married
• 58:56
  and having kids, you know? Yeah, I, you know, talked to
• 59:01
  folks who've been in similar situation and it's almost like
• 59:04
  the experience kind of in a way, almost rewires their brain a
• 59:08
  bit. Things feel differently.
• 59:12
  Things that were important before, not so important, things
• 59:16
  that you overlooked or took for granted before now are the
• 59:18
  things that you hold dear to your heart.
• 59:21
  So wow, powerful experience, obviously.
• 59:23
  So glad that you've pulled through that and kicked it.
• 59:27
  I've just got one more question for you, Julio.
• 59:29
  But before I ask it, I want to do 2 things.
• 59:31
  First of all, for everyone listening today, I'm sure that
• 59:33
  you loved today's show. Julio's been a great guest.
• 59:36
  If you want to get more great content like this, take a moment
• 59:38
  and hit the subscribe or follow button on your favorite podcast
• 59:41
  app. Also, folks, if you want to get
• 59:44
  in touch with Julio, you know there's their website,
• 59:47
  bientruchagroup.com or Julio's giving you permission to e-mail
• 59:51
  him directly at Julio at bientruchagroup.com.
• 59:55
  So last question for you, Julio, as you look to the future, what
• 59:59
  is it that you're most excited about with the restaurant group?
• 1:00:08
  I think it's just like a little bit of the same, you know, like
• 1:00:10
  for us, it's like providing something that's unique about
• 1:00:13
  our cuisine and at that keep adapting, you know, to the
• 1:00:19
  environment, to the landscape. It's, it's, it's crazy what
• 1:00:23
  we're living, you know, like the AI era, how I just was just
• 1:00:30
  having this conversation with some friends this weekend.
• 1:00:34
  Everybody's like, what's going to happen?
• 1:00:35
  You know, like what, what's our future like and what's the
• 1:00:38
  future for kids? But going to the business side
• 1:00:41
  also like, you know, like we're I, I was trying to get into an
• 1:00:46
  AI course and then I remember I was listening to this podcast
• 1:00:50
  and I don't remember who it was, but he, he was saying like, Oh
• 1:00:53
  yeah, I wanted to do this a course, but whatever I learned
• 1:00:57
  right now, it's going to be obsolete next week with AI.
• 1:01:00
  It's going so fast. So it's exciting.
• 1:01:04
  It's it's a little bit of like uncertainty of what's, you know,
• 1:01:12
  what's ahead for us, but for us just keeping, you know, keep
• 1:01:16
  doing a little bit of the same, understanding the chance and
• 1:01:20
  understanding what the opportunities are with all these
• 1:01:23
  new technologies. But at the end is I hope that
• 1:01:29
  there's never a day where people as or people are just not going
• 1:01:35
  to. I'm as I'm pretty sure that
• 1:01:38
  it'll accommodate that. You can just take a shot and
• 1:01:41
  you'll get all your nutrients, you know, and they'll be
• 1:01:43
  personalized to you. I just don't see hopefully
• 1:01:49
  people doing that and they still enjoy going out for a drink and
• 1:01:53
  enjoying a meal with, you know, as humans.
• 1:01:57
  So hopefully this, this will never, it'll change, it'll keep
• 1:02:01
  changing, you know, the how hospitality restaurants, you
• 1:02:04
  know, operate. But at the end, hopefully we can
• 1:02:09
  still all enjoy a good good meal and some drinks.
• 1:02:14
  Well, unless that shot tastes as good as the food that you guys
• 1:02:18
  serve, then I don't think you've got a whole lot to worry about
• 1:02:21
  there. But Julio O'Connell, I want to
• 1:02:24
  be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and
• 1:02:26
  your story with us today. I really appreciate it.
• 1:02:29
  Now, thanks for the time. It was great.
• 1:02:31
  It was always great having the opportunity now to to just chat
• 1:02:36
  and talk a little bit about our experiences.
• 1:02:40
  Yeah, folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired
• 1:02:44
  Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us
• 1:02:46
  today.