#16 | Anne McIntosh & Nicole Casell: Women in the Wine Biz + Seasonal Sangria
In this week’s episode, I talk with Anne McIntosh & Nicole Casell - owners of Alchemy Wine & Beer. Hear how a bachelorette party in New Orleans led these two women to leave their high-level corporate jobs to start a wine & beer bar in Western NY and how sticking to a vision and finding the right supporters helped them turn an idea into a hub of community and togetherness. Along the way we talk about their latest project— the Bubble Bar— what it takes to become a Certified Sommelier, spiritual mediumship in Western NY, finding the feminine in wine culture, how to choose good wines and make fantastic wine pairings. Anne & Nicole geek out with me about Sangria and share their favorite Autumn Sangria recipe as well as how to adjust for any season!
The Recipe starts at: 55:14
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Alchemy Wine & Beer – the Wine Bar Website
Alchemy’s Social Media Links: Facebook and Instagram
Bacchanal Wine Bar in New Orleans
Lilydale Center for Spiritualism
Master Sommeliers of Americas
Get Business Coaching from Missy at: WomenInFood.net/WorkwithMissy
Become a member of the Women In Food Community at: WomenInFood.Net/Community
Missy’s Farm Website: CrownHillFarm.com
Missy’s Business Coaching Website: SpiritBizPeople.com
Apple Cider Sangria
INGREDIENTS:
Dry White Wine of Choice
Apple Cider (ideally local, fresh pressed if you can)
Slices of apple, orange and pear
Cinnamon Sticks
Star Anise
METHOD: (per glass)
Fill glass 1/4 with White Wine
Add 1/4 glass of cider
Add sliced fruit to fill glass and top with a cinnamon stick and anise star
In our commitment accessibility, we’d love to offer polished show notes to help make this podcast more accessible to those who are hearing impaired or those who like to read rather than listen to podcasts. However, Women in Food is still a startup with limited resources. So we’re not there yet.
What we can offer are these very imperfect show notes via the Scribie service. The transcription is far from perfect. But hopefully it’s close enough - even with the errors - to give those who aren’t able or inclined to learn from audio interviews a way to participate.
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0:00:03.9 S1: Welcome to another episode of women in food. I'm your hostess, Missy Singer Dumars. This podcast is all about the intersection of three things, food, business, and the feminist. Each episode, I invite you to sit down with me in my interview, guest, as we dive into this intersection to spark your food curiosity, share a favorite recipe and give you some fun food explorations along the way. I'm inspired by these women farmers, shaft bakers, cooks, writers, food makers, business owners, who all bring their passion for beauty, nourishment, community, pleasure connection and deep care to others through food. These are women who advocate and take action towards increased food awareness for themselves, their families and their neighborhoods. Before I introduce today's guest, I have one request, if you could go over to iTunes or whatever app you're using to listen and give us a rating and review. It's a simple act. That helps us a ton. Thank you. So today, I'm really excited to introduce to you two incredible women, Nicole Castle and Anne Macintosh, these women are the creators and co-owners of alchemy wine and beer, one of, if not the only woman owned wine bar in Western New York.
0:01:16.9 S1: Between the two of them, they have over 20 years of top notch corporate business experience in sales, marketing and management, and then one faithful day after a trip to New Orleans, they turned all that experience towards creating alchemy, the story of which will tell you later. Along the way, they both became certified some allies, mothers multiple times over, and most recently launched their bubble bar, which travels to a wide range of private public events, somehow these two women juggle it all with grace and have not only created a wine bar, but a community gathering place where I had the great pleasure of hosting a farm-to table dinner, Nicole and welcome to women and food, I am so honored to have you join us.
0:01:58.6 S2: I see, thank you. What an introduction on my catch
0:02:00.8 S1: Lay here. And it's like, Wait, did I do all that?
0:02:05.7 S2: That means... No, no order.
0:02:08.1 S1: You do it all. So of course, as I promised our listeners, we have to start with your story about alchemy and how this came to be, I know you shared it with me a little bit, but... It started in New Orleans, is that right? Yes.
0:02:24.4 S2: Yeah, and... And I love to travel, and we were in New Orleans together on a Bashar actually, to see in New Orleans, and we were at this phenomenal Weimar, all vocal, you've never checked it out. I highly comment.
0:02:42.5 S1: We'll put a link to Bacall in our show notes so people can go to get spot. Looks like a little hole in the wall. Re the train tracks is of the beano.
0:02:50.4 S2: The impact looks like nothing. When you walk into my little wine shop, if you pick your pick your bottles and you walk out into the secret courtyard that's filled with oak trees and life, and grab your own classes, Gibran ice and there's just awesome jazz music, it's super relaxed and Elaine. Amazing lines or nose and just things you would never think would be... If you looked at it on the surface, the experience was so fun, and he's probably stayed there for four or... We had other bands, but yeah, I didn't do that. I was this a great, great experience, very atmosphere and all the girls we were with the greed, maybe a group of 10, and it's probably our favorite part of the whole trip and on the plane home, and turned to me, turned behind on the airplane, and it's like I looked at being said, we're gonna open a spot just like that in Buffalo when we get home. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, okay. Like, Okay, I... You go on vacation, you're drinking with your friends, you're always like that start a business, or that's got sky diving, or
0:03:58.6 S1: That's a great... Starting a business and skydiving are kind of the same thing. Sometimes our...
0:04:04.5 S2: Yeah, you always make these grandiose plans on either when you're on vacation or when you're drinking with your friends, and then none of it actually happens the next day, but in our case, it did. She looked at me and said, We're gonna do this. We got home and maybe a month later and invited me and my husband out to lunch and we all got the husband's blessing, 'cause I need to not only one that's open to business knows it's not just you, it's your families. We have to take all of our savings and use it towards something and had it... Everyone's losing that we could... And then here, the rest of the history...
0:04:47.2 S1: Yeah, and so tell me about the name AAMI, I'm so curious how that came about or what that means to you.
0:04:55.0 S2: It doesn't mean anything personally to us, I think the word just sort of stood out, like the concept of turning something into an element... In turning it into another element, like old word for turning a... Right, so I love the book, The Alchemist and his journey in the book is cool, and I don't know, the word has sort of stuck out to me and then we were like... We would say it to each other before, or was it an actual thing, we'd be like, Hey, do you wanna go to Alchemy this weekend? You wanna go grab a dream and I'll come on this day, and then we're like, actually sounds pretty good.
0:05:34.4 S1: And I just... Yeah, I wanna point out that little thing that you just shared about saying at first is really to me, a secret, I guess, to manifesting something that you're creating is to start talking about it as if it exists, first to yourself and then to a very closely guarded group of friends until you're ready to incubate it bigger and bigger. Most ideas I've started, I do the same thing and I start talking about it, and I noticed as soon as I start telling people about it, it becomes real really fast or... Yes, right, right.
0:06:14.7 S2: So you have another one story about the logo for...
0:06:18.6 S1: And describe the logo for our listeners, so they know...
0:06:21.3 S2: Yeah, so it's a triangle with a circle around it, pretty basic. So Nicole and I like to visit the same medium medium called... Like clinic medium, that's the official name. And she doesn't know that we know each other or anything, but I was there for a visit one day, and I always write everything down during my session and the woman she drew on purpose of paper, that exact logo, the triangle with the star on it, I put it in my notebook, this was maybe, I don't know, six or eight months before alchemy was born. So I ended up in the polling that piece of paper out and showing the call, and it was exactly what we had both thought of as well, we drew that in different variations on our own, and so that just solidified it, she threw that on my paper... That's my reading to almost a year apart...
0:07:21.9 S1: Oh my gosh, I have total truth pump shivers over my home I myelitis woman.
0:07:28.8 S2: I would jump off a cliff if she told me to, honestly, I recording once a year, a long put these papers, she has these visions before you're reading, and so she scribbles all over this paper and none of it makes any sense to the destination it out today yeah, Seattle, her paper, and I was like, No way, loathe. It was trying to... All circles are Defra to help. Actually, right now, a creation, a dear friend Molly helped us to digitize that finds out that logo with the circles and
0:08:09.8 S1: Nice. And I just have to say for our listeners who don't know West New York that well, since we are worldwide podcast, that this region has a really rich and deep and old history of mediumship and spiritualism, my house has... My farm-in-house has a history of it, and we're near a place called lilydale here that is like a camp and village of mediums and spiritualists, and there's just a very long history of that in this area, so I like to share that because it's part of... Representing who we are here. Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, that...
0:08:48.3 S2: So it was manifested. It was... And apparently it was written it in the stars started
0:08:53.9 S1: And something about it ever with can turn me all about it.
0:08:59.1 S2: Now, she also gave us some advice, visited or a year later, so LPs celebrating its four-year anniversary this August... Right, so last month. But after the first year, she said, which now that I just thought of this, she said, Do not do anything, no expansion, no nothing to do with expanding another location, nothing like that. She was super adamant about it and was like, You have to promise you won't do anything, and then lo and behold, covid hit about six months later, and then everything was shut down for two years. We wouldn't be here today if we would have invested in an expanse stress again. Well, that's just...
0:09:47.8 S1: We all have different types of guidance and supporters and mentors, and she's part of your support network.
0:09:56.3 S2: I actually get Gilkey that I get to go see her again in two weeks.
0:10:01.0 S1: I have my tea... My people like that too. So yeah, so now the two of you, both of you, neither of you started with a food or wine business in mind in your earlier life, take us back to your corporate experience a little bit, 'cause this was like starting alchemy, it was like a big... In some ways, a big 180, but... 'cause owning your own business and being an entrepreneur, especially in a food, food-based business, is wildly different from working in Corporate America, verbose business, the skills cross-platform, but it's definitely different.
0:10:41.9 S2: Absolutely, yeah, no, I spent eight plus years in a 14-100 it. Recruiting, organization, and account management, and sales. Very great. Lucrative, successful job. And he got a little burnt out from corporate America, got pregnant with my first child, knew it, had him will still there, but while we were sort of planning, again, preparing to leave, knowing that that wasn't gonna be the long-term option for me. Yeah, that look pretty much within a few months of us opening and an ESPN 10 years in advertising, so I've been a sales rep or I was for 10 years. I just actually left New Year's Day of this year, so this is sort of... I was wearing, like you said, struggling a lot of hats, I guess, so I just actually left eight months ago, but did advertising in sales for 10 years, so I brought that skill set to Alchemy.
0:12:05.1 S1: Yeah, for sure. And it's evident when you look at your Instagram and your marketing, and that both of you have some skills in that department, which I think really helps and something I'm aware of, and a lot of food businesses and land businesses really flounder with the sales and marketing side of things, and I think the two of you and I resonate because we both come from business first and food second, I'm the same way I could sell to market the hell in knowing how to farm as a Le new learning curve, epigrams. Now, in the farm world, most farmers, the other way around, they're really great farmers, they have no idea how to sell a market, so...
0:12:47.6 S2: And from the wine, we had experienced the only personal experience, the travels and through, I've always loved line, always loved beer and knew a lot about it just from indulging personally, but I didn't know much from a business perspective, how to buy, how to price. So we opened the bar first, and the call said to me... She's like, Do you think we should have some sort of certification or something? Some sort of medicalization, we actually ended up working with, who is now as one of our wine sales reps, hired her to consult us to help us prepare us for our level one male certifications. We just take you through what that looks like. So
0:13:30.5 S1: That I was gonna say, explain to our listeners what a simile is for someone who doesn't know that word, and then be what the experience is to become certified as one...
0:13:40.0 S2: So we're certified through the Court of master, small IAS, there's four levels for being a master time and when there's only two in the whole world of level or master Sams, which I also have no desire to do. If you go move some on Netflix or the documentary, that's why... So check it, Aldine a million exporting inertial things, wine, whether in terms of the region, the rias, The Vintage, the price in the selling everything that I presented experience, right. In surrounding wine white making tiny that would be running Wine Program, top restaurants in the world or wine makers. A lot of them will be exposed. Yep, correct. Okay. Yeah, so the level, the exam is more about just your breadth of knowledge, not specifically regional, you have to know everything for level one, so that makes it the hardest, so you narrow down the higher you go with your certification, so I love on one is super hard because you have to just know every region everywhere, and I'm looking at a half right now, all countries, the major areas, what grapes at bridal they grow and be able to drink it blindly and be able to figure out what it is and where it's from region...
0:15:11.5 S2: Goshen, then the higher you go, you have to be able to name region great bridal vineyard and vintage what year it's online now, which... It's so crazy.
0:15:27.9 S1: So the two of you have some pretty refined taste buds at this point... Yeah.
0:15:33.1 S2: I... I certainly never not to obtain a level in tastings... And just described, but there is a level tasting for sure. On the first level and testing, you have to go, we probably prepared for six months plus to walk into this three-day exam... Exam questions, you can get 10 wrong. At the end of it, they staircase, and then the very last day, it's all led by master Psalms, so it was you all stand on one side of the room, all the master's Sam stand with the glass of champagne on the other side of the room, and they call your name one by one, again, you can only miss 10 questions, they call your name one one and you get to... It's like The Bachelor like that has the threshold and receive your glass of champagne hairpin and your PIN and the pin you...
0:16:26.0 S1: That's like the bathroom
0:16:27.5 S2: And there were no... We both passed, but there were four people left standing on the other side of the room, we were just staring at them and I felt terrible, but that was... Then we went and celebrated at the Tuckahoe data Super Bowl, and I didn't wanna drink wine for a very long time, so we just drank tequila.
0:16:52.9 S1: Outerwear... What was trichomes and women in the exam or the class when you did it is
0:17:01.9 S2: Primarily done. The industry is dominated, mentored, certainly other women in the room, but Estrellas male, I think there are collab 12-15 max masters, Mellor female.
0:17:19.6 S1: Out of 200 or so
0:17:21.5 S2: Is very, very... Medea, a phenomenal master. He lives right in the Finger Lakes historicism at... He runs wineries out clathrina, but yeah, it's a very limited female district... Let me tell you that, the six-month lead up to that test, so every Wednesday after our corporate job that ended at 50, we would go... We hired a consultant, and she is a level one, maybe even two smaller, and she had access, so you need to have access to win. That's the whole problem. How would you know what a line from South Africa taste like if you don't have a taste had to pay her and happy to do so we went to her house every Wednesday from 5 to 8. We drank on average, 30... I think 37 was our max. The one I can't do 40, 37 was my cut off, but we did 37 wines, we taste it, 37 wins every week, so we would have a huge book Windows on the World, I think it was, and we would read by country, so we start with America and we'll start from New York and go across all the way to California, and you would drink all the different burials from each region by continent, and that took like six months.
0:18:57.9 S2: Wow, that's how you have to really emerge yourself in every great pride. There's more than just cabin solace, there's a lot, a lot of the Anthro more.
0:19:10.7 S1: There's a Toomer them all because I've gone to wine tasting, we looked in California. I go around Sonoma recently here, I went to a Niagara winery and tasting, and in the moment I was like, Oh, this one really tastes like this, Oh, I really like that one, but I don't... Arif, I sat in a restaurant and saw those same lines, I wouldn't remember which one I liked or didn't like, or why, or the TAs, I don't know how you hold all that information in you... Yeah.
0:19:39.6 S2: We learn to talk about what they refer to as Camp, if you think of just similar to food, you have Taser, five main flavors, unami salty, savory, all the things with food, wine is very similar, but they refer to it in camp, so you have red fruit black fruit parasites, which is things that are green, green peppers and paying more, and then there's Abacus qualities, thermoregulation, so there's the foliation, you... All the different stones. You think Slate or limestone? Yeah.
0:20:19.2 S1: Well, that's all the... As I say, the chair wire of the line, right?
0:20:22.4 S2: Right, so we Watanabe camps, and really, ultimately our goal was to be able to buy well, and describe our products, we redid this to run the business, so we were able to really be able to describe what we were buying much stronger than before certification.
0:20:46.5 S1: So I'm curious in creating all... Come... Were there any... How do I wanna say, are there particular values or pieces of the mission that you always stick to in decision making or alchemy and choosing lines and choosing where you take the business and all the things
0:21:06.0 S2: Into that one. So we decided not to sell all of the wine that you could get, any of the wine that you could get at your local liquor store, and those are primarily just so by two large corporations, they're all mass produced. You've heard of bare foot or relaxing or atrophic, not that there's anything wrong with them, it's just their mass produced and it's just... It's a commodity at that point, so we decided to just only sell small batch production, craft, not necessarily organic, but we try to find things that are biodynamic, organic, green practices and small craft production.
0:21:49.4 S1: Why did you make that Choate behind that choice?
0:21:53.7 S2: Well, the cost of in is so... It's crazy to me. People complain about a 30 bottle of wine, but do you know how many hands have touched... What went into that 30 bottle of wine? A generation and Jeffries of growth, it takes a decade sometimes for fines to start actually producing a wine is such a different beverage than anything else out there, because of that, I think because of the time commitment and the heat, it's a living... Same wine is a live, living, breathing thing, even from going from in the vineyard all the way to the making process into the bottle, it's living and breathing, and throughout all of that, so many hands talk to nets and we just felt like there wasn't enough representation of craft or it just gets lost on the shelves in a retail very... It's hard for people to get exposed, not because it's overwhelming when you walk into a wine store on pick the thing with the biggest smile and a poster. But there's so much more to the world of wine. So we wanted to bring that to people. And make it accessible.
0:23:10.2 S1: Yeah. Yeah, well, as a farmer, I appreciate that. And you do that with your food choices as well, at alchemy, right? Yeah, I'd say that my experience of walking into alchemy is that that is really infused throughout the whole experience, is this chair to craft and holy and making it accessible and fun and enjoyable at the same time, so it's not a time access to that kind of stuff. Is very snooty, I guess I'm gonna serenade privileged, but alchemy feels like a community gathering place, which I believe is part of your values there as well...
0:23:52.8 S2: Yeah, that was one. The second part, I think the second value is that we really wanted to flip the concept of a Weimar on his head, and our experience at vacante always tried to go back to that. It's in the auto. Re-wearing foot cops, you're... You don't to pick notable an oak tree, it doesn't need, but you're drinking brotherton have to have a white table cloth, very good wine in a... So we just loved that, that accessibility to great line, but not a white table cloth feel, and everything we've done in Almaden to try to create that. Everyone is welcome, like casual, casual community, you can come with your baby in a stroller and a white bar on, it's okay. It doesn't... In fact.
0:24:41.6 S1: I don't know if the two of you remember, but at the farm to table dinner we did there, there was a mother and daughter who came...
0:24:48.8 S2: Yeah, that was cut.
0:24:50.1 S1: Yeah, it was super fun to have her and she was so excited to taste all these things and that were different from whatever she's used to at home as a... Whatever she was, 10 year old or so. So it was super fun, and she seemed totally at home there along with all these grown-ups and other people... Yeah, and so in the community feel, you also have a lot of other things that happen there...
0:25:14.9 S2: Yeah, so we wanted to make it more like a community space, which hammer didn't have any of those at the time when we opened four years ago, so this was a new concept to, I guess is only in general store, I might have had some stuff going on but certainly worth, Park and hammer didn't we were located, so we have local businesses come in every Wednesday or Thursday and run their own DIY classes. DIY, R-D-I-Y, whatever it may be. We had incensed-ing classes last week and making a eloping, breaking the glass, Bolinas, intense. So I can... Ornamentation, or how many... I think we had 500 women make fresh pine rates last November in December. Woot was intense. So yeah, so we like to make it a community space because doesn't... Who likes to do crafts? I really don't, but if you had given me a glass of wine and make the real... Okay, I'll do that. So oral ranging classes.
0:26:30.7 S1: And then you also have... Gosh, it seems like you host a lot of family celebrations and change of life celebrations, baby wedding, showers, bachelor
0:26:42.7 S2: For Saturday and Sunday from April through her, it feels like so yeah. Yeah, we do.
0:26:49.3 S1: Yeah. And then the wine tribe.
0:26:51.5 S2: Yeah, so actually, we're leaving on Saturday with eight other of our wine tribe members, we're going... On a three-country wine trip with them, we're going to Austria, Germany and France.
0:27:03.8 S1: Oh my God, my favorite line, Austrian wars are my favorite line or eHealth Saturday.
0:27:10.3 S2: Actually, yeah, we started a wine... Wine tribe, wine club, basal club, without the book on... We amand, I picked a bottle, we have done a choice of white red and we picked the bottle who surprised that we surprise them with something that they probably wouldn't pick themselves or pick off of the shelf, and we... Everyone just gets together. The thing I love about this group and most is beyond people tried lines that they would normally not try, is that it's brought together so many women that would probably not across house in any other sense. It's people that have joined in a singles, not with another friend, and have made such great friendships from it, to the point where we work, some of them are going to Europe now together in a couple of days, and it's all different ages too. That's what's even more grateful to Hare. Yeah, everyone comes from totally different backgrounds, but everyone shares did they love line and just kinda want that one time a long time with their girlfriend.
0:28:12.0 S1: New girlfriends, all the girlfriends
0:28:13.3 S2: All in together. That's super GoHealth, first Wednesday of every month. And we just give a little bit of education. So another thing is we never wanted to come off as pretentious, because the word Somalia sounds pretentious as it is, but just a little bit of information is all you need, if you really wanna get one-on-one with it, let's do it, but otherwise we'll just give you top level, what you need to know a little bit about the winery, what it is, what you could or should be smelling or tasting, and then let you on your own journey, and I think people appreciate that more about what makes it... That's an interesting... And I feel like it always comes down to the people... Comes under the winery. Is this an interesting estate who makes the line why they'd be picky because of the person and obviously it's delicious, but the story behind it, I think is we like to choose a lot of the female wine makers, which there aren't a lot of female wine makers... There's a lot of female estate owners that has been passed down from their fathers now they're... Especially over in Europe, but there's not a lot of female.
0:29:26.2 S2: Accuse them as often as we can.
0:29:31.7 S1: Yeah, so one of the things I hear, and to me, what is bringing a perspective to wine and to your business is this... It's like you've created a hearth side, and I often, in this podcast and in general, talk about women, the feminine being about what harkat is, which is so much more than cooking food over a fire, it's all the arts related to that, making baskets and pottery and storage and all that, but it's also, to me, it's the central hub of community when people come to your house to gather in the kitchen, the heart, and it's where everybody passes through is where people come together, and I sometimes like women are the keepers of the story telling and the wisdom of the community, and it sounds like you feel created the community, and then you're bringing in the greater wine community to your heart to share those stories and keep them alive and keep them passing down, which I think is really... Maybe you've never thought of what you do that way, but that's how I said, I have it. It is. Yeah, and I feel the same one, I choose seeds, I grow Arlon varieties here, and one of the things I choose are the stories, you know the history is the interesting stories of where the seed came from, I was just telling someone about to Madoc that came from the, I think it was father-in-law of someone I follow on Instagram who passed away, but his seeds have passed on to all kinds of people all over the country who now grow his seeds and Think of him, and that's a story and there's richness to that and I get to carry that story another layer forward, and that's kind of what you're doing both with your wine Tribe and with the lines that you choose, and creating this gathering place around all that.
0:31:21.1 S1: Absolutely.
0:31:21.7 S2: Yeah, I think bringing people together has always been a common theme, so many... A lot of people that have come back to us say, no, I had my first date here and now we're gonna be married, and I... Oshawa shower here because I had my first... That has happened all it all the time. And that baby shower to, I wanna have my kids first birthday because the... I doesn't remember their first birthday, so really it's about the parents and
0:31:52.2 S1: The... Right, right, right. Now, I wanna go back a little bit because to the starting of alchemy, 'cause you said you definitely talk to your husbands and family and talked about the investment, but I know it wasn't just your personal savings, and that there's one woman who was very key to us there's a few women who were key to helping you get started, but you had a story about getting some bank loans, as I recall...
0:32:20.3 S2: Yes, yeah. We worked extensively to come up with our business plan, not knowing this industry, we were shooting in the dark with projections and everything, but we came up with a very long pay binder, 57 pages
0:32:35.5 S1: A page that we say that's a note iron with 57-page business plan which by the way, listeners, if you're a business owner, your business plan does not always have to be 517 pages at
0:32:44.8 S2: Were some over-achievers here, Norcross rap, this, but we certainly needed initial financing. We got a lot of nose in the beginning restaurants and bars have a very high rate of failure, and then the first five years, and you didn't have experience on paper... Nicole was a server, I was a server in college, whatever, a bartender, all through college, but it wasn't enough, we really to over-compensate with our corporate experiences, but it wasn't enough for some of the bankers, but we came upon a great local bank, and the manager was a mid-aged female, she loved lines, gave our Plan A look, she loved it. She got it. A lot of the other male bank bankers just didn't get it, they're like, Wait, I pick on a what some... I don't get it. Are you a winery? We get it. That's what they just... Just gotta get people in. This female banker, she was... She was bought in to the point where she took it to the top, they initially said no at, she took it off a couple more layers and really went to bat for us, and we got a yes, and we were able to secure a small business loan and we were able to pay it off actually just last month.
0:34:21.9 S1: Or earlier hours in... I think it's good to just give that realistic view of starting a business and being a woman starting a business with extra challenges sometimes, and I'm curious, with all the nos and rejections you got, what... How did you stay motivated? Why didn't you give up? Is
0:34:43.5 S2: I do, I just knew it was gonna happen. I don't know, I would like to go back to your first point. The manifestation of it, it was already had... It had already handwriting that so many people that know both in, and I would probably describe us as persistent, both of us at all, and you run through a wall to make it happen. Yeah, it was never... Honestly, never even crossed my mind. That it wouldn't happen. Yeah, I already pre-bought, which you're not supposed to do, I pre-bought too many bottles of champagne for the first day... No, no, for the day we went for the bank spend, I had the champagne in my car, so that's a huge... Just so you know, that's a huge runs like never pre by champagne
0:35:37.0 S1: So early, but sitting in your car too long.
0:35:39.8 S2: We... I'm a big believer in when there's a... Well, there is always a way. It was raised, and I feel like it only takes one... Yes, you can get a 100 notes. And I try to say that to my kids too. There is always a way to achieve something if you want it bad enough...
0:35:57.9 S1: Yeah, I was about to ask you both, where does that mindset come from for each of you that persistence... I have that way, I'm that way also. So I totally get it. But where does that...
0:36:09.7 S2: I don't know, I feel a lot of female successful female, whether you're a business owner or an executive or whatever, I feel like most have a chip on their shoulder, like They're trying prove... They're trying to prove something to someone, whether it to someone that you admire you wanna become then, or your parents or... I just feel like most... This is just my experience. I always feel like I'm going to fail the next day, so I always in trying... I don't know if that's living in far... Maybe that's not healthy, but I don't know, I feel like I have to be a reset. Okay, if you eat to prove to everybody, even though I really don't, but that's just how I've always lived my life. And I think a lot of females feel that way, they just have put a lot of fresh on themselves, whether it's in a healthy way or not... And just don't take no for an answer. Well, I came from sales, my job was sales, I had to hit goals numbers, I had budgets. If you don't hit 20 million, you don't have a job. So how are we gonna get there? And there's no other Ontario in my sales job, it was grind or die, so poised be or new bastions.
0:37:31.3 S1: Pretty balanced terrier die, but there's some balance in there as well, I know
0:37:35.4 S2: You're a course of four times in a peer home to my father on the painting company and he... Very humble beginnings. He came home from the Army and just started knocking on doors. Saying, Hey, I met your house, I paint, you're living your own, and that's how I built it sober 25 years. So I saw knocking on doors to get clients, all build people's trust, I get referrals, that's how we... Writing thank you, or hundreds and hundreds of thank you parts every Christmas, I'll never forgot that he being thankful and... Yeah, that was a big part of my upbringing was watching my dad build his business.
0:38:19.2 S1: Yeah, and it's interesting 'cause there's so much... The more and more I hear about both your stories, the more I understand why we can walk cause similar background of a family business, I think I would be the fourth or fifth generation in my family's business if I went into it, but knowing the business survived through depression and recessions and kept going to me, somehow I grew up with the idea that every problem could be figured out, there's always a solution, so I don't believe that a problem is a block, everything is figure out able, which to me is where the persistence comes from, like, Alright, we can't go that way. Let's go into the way
0:38:59.2 S2: I ask to feel like it's the only quality needed for entrepreneurship, is that...
0:39:03.9 S1: Yeah, that's true.
0:39:05.4 S2: And that's just my opinion, is like resilience, and is about to say that's what creates...
0:39:10.7 S1: Exactly is to know how to pivot and change direction, so in a moment, we're gonna talk more about the bubble bar and get a little deeper into choosing wines and your recipe for how to make a seasonal San Korea. But before we do that, I wanna take a quick break and share a bit more about how women and food is supported, as you know, I care a lot about food and land, and this includes the success of food and land-based businesses. I believe that sustainability goes beyond the land to how we grow ourselves and our business at the same time, I've noticed that many folks in the food and land space have fantastic concepts, strong passion and deep care, but still struggle to market and run their business in ways that can make the impact they envision while also providing for themselves at the same time, I always say that most farmers I know are great farmers, but dread or avoid sales and marketing. I'm the other way around, farming is my learning curve, but I love and I know business really well, besides hosting this podcast and running my farm, I'm a business coach, having coached hundreds of entrepreneurs from across the world in a of industries to mindfully grow their business.
0:40:28.4 S1: So if you're listening to this podcast as a food or land-based entrepreneur who is looking to what's the next phase of growth for your business, this kind of coaching could be for you, if you'd like support in this way, go to my website to have a 90 minute session with me. The website is Women in Food Network with Missy, and I'll put the link in the show notes as well. I want every listener to thrive, and particularly land and food businesses to thrive because honestly, I believe your business success is our future. Once again, that link is Women in Food Network with Missy. We've also had support of two organizations first, our locally galba has been a wonderful supporter of women in food programming almost since the beginning. Video Series in 2020. Did you know that you can search specifically for women-owned businesses on Yelp, Support your local Women-Owned Business by visiting them and then writing a Yelp review, download the Yelp app now and use the filter for women owned business. This episode is also brought to you by podcast as a collaboration between racket and stir, giving away $1000 to up and coming podcasters.
0:41:46.2 S1: I know how difficult it can be to get a podcast off the ground and keep it going, and this is why I'm excited to have been a podcast winner, if podcasting is on your to-do list or you already a podcast or wanting a little boost, go to Podcast dot com and stay up to date on future opportunities, so ladies, let's talk about the bubble bar because that's such a fun concept that you've launched relatively recently. Tell us what the bubble bar is.
0:42:14.4 S2: BaBar is a mobile Wine Bar. We got a 1997, I think it is 1997 horse trailer. We put it on a flat bed from Omaha, Nebraska in the middle of February, we had it driven to us in Buffalo on a dangerous track across the country to... That was last year. So it has three tabs on it, and everything now days comes in kegs, so you can put anything... We like to just normally do wine, but we... Our stable is persevere, SECO undrafted out of out the mobile champagne bar. We usually do Rose and then either a red or a white wine... Red wine to make a red Sangre or white wine to make a white Sangre or... We'll talk about the Apple site or Sangre. Now, the season, Alania guess. It really was born out of covid. So like we said, the community space, we hosted bridal showers and baby showers, almost 60 of them prior to covid, and it was a big chunk of our business. I'm not totally sure, but maybe 40% of our business was these parties, and then with covid, we were so many restrictions, you couldn't even gather with more than 25 people, you couldn't have more than six people to a table, you needed space, all this stuff.
0:43:43.1 S2: So it totally died. Our events and caring, I guess you would call it business totally died, everyone went to their backyards to their two local parks and held events there. So we had to go where they were going. So we made that decision and probably December or January to go where they are go. The trailer had to have an outfitted, had our husbands who are very handy, drill holes, put in a Eggert, put in tap lines, and we all got hitches on our vehicles on our cars, and we were the ones that were driving it around last year to all parts of Western New York for events.
0:44:36.8 S1: And besides the family events, there's a particular niche that you're feeling with public events... Right.
0:44:44.2 S2: Yeah, so we go to the farmers market every Saturday. I think there were what, 34, 34 farmers markets. We attended this summer. So we were responsible for bringing booze to the farmers market, so that's kind of cool. We jump through a lot of hoops when the state like her authority to make that happen. So just babes are really popular for walking and Farmers Market shopping.
0:45:10.5 S1: And one of the things to share with me is that what you noticed at events and festivals as there were often bear tens and bargains, and so a
0:45:25.2 S2: Limited wine options. It's really just domestics, and if you're the great festival, sometimes some good craft areas will be there, but almost no wine ever, and not just say that only women drink wine, but I seaman in Vienna and there was not a lot of options for women in a lot of these festivals, you know a buffalo for those listeners that aren't familiar with the flow, we are here fast food and drink festival, Legacy, we have the largest two-day food festival in America. It's the taste of Buffalo and we host so many ethnic foods, there's something... Literally every single weekend.
0:46:08.0 S1: I'm paying for it, Mancos festival or the two, I can't think of the what he married festival festival every now, every week, and there's at least two year, especially during the bluff is a big beer community, I think I read recently or over 40 breweries and Buffalo. Lot of food festivals, but sometimes not every woman wants up on light, not to say there's not in...
0:46:32.8 S2: They're wrong with that, but sometimes, you know at a food festival, you want some wine or you want some... Welty want some Starling, and if you're at the Buffalo of Tallinn festival, you're eating Italian food, I would like some Hamlin for SEO or some talented line, not on two years, sometimes we bring the trailer, whether it's next to the bar, time to complement it, or sometimes we're Panera sometimes run around in the middle with all the other funders.
0:46:58.3 S1: And I just wanna point out the... The babble bar is super adorable, and you set it up so sweetly and it's definitely... I think people are tasting with their eyes as well as their taste buds, it on its green collar, we blast bubbles out of the top of it, and you set up like a stable and it's super durable. Each of you feel like as women, you bring to wine culture...
0:47:31.4 S2: Well, I guess the feminine, kind of like what you were talking about before, we bring the feminine to the wine culture here in Buffalo, at least 85% of our clientele is women, and it's obviously ran by two women, so I think we just bring the feminine together that matter, space, and we do women options and opportunity, I guess, to be represented at festivals and in public types of spaces, in your type of situation, people are like, Oh my gosh, I'm so happy you're here, so there's something for me to drink, that's... Something that didn't exist before the bubble bar hit the road.
0:48:17.7 S1: Right. And like we were talking about before, I think the feminine touches is the story-telling and the whole journey of that grape from the field all the way to the class that they're sipping, and the awareness of that whole journey. And I think that's part of what many women are interested in purchasing, so out of your corporate sales experience of the hard sell, you get to sell a story and experience more than a push or a hard sell, right? So all this talk of line, I feel like what tips can you give our listeners on choosing a line or a neo dinner brunch or whatever they're choosing a line for it, because like you said, you go into the store, it's quite overwhelming, so that... First of all, don't
0:49:14.6 S2: Choose the one that's on the end cap.
0:49:16.7 S1: There you go, don't choose on the demand cap, that's like I say in the grocery store. Shop the parameter, not the center. Same idea.
0:49:23.0 S2: I think probably my biggest advice is to never drink the same line twice, I think that the world of wine is so deep and there are so many producers, there's really no reason to ever drink the same bottle twins, but I think on that note, really understanding what it is you like about a wine, so if you do a lot of a particular brand or you love something about a particular testing, why? Why did you love it? Did you love it? 'cause it was for all... Is you love it? 'cause it was really right on juicy. Did you love it? 'cause it casters, what did you love about it? And then you realize, okay, you like those types of bridal, so you like that region, and then you can start to branch out and never try the same bottle, but try things in that kind of room. Biggest advice is to learn what you love, why you like a particular line, but actually quantify it through descriptors, and you don't have to spend an arm and a leg either. I mean, yes, there's a lot of great wines out there that cost a lot of money, but for your every day, like I'm going for the weekend to grab a bottle to have with my dinner, you don't need to spend more than 25 max at the liver store on a bottle of wine.
0:50:36.5 S1: And a friend recently who was pouring wine for an event, she was talking about how... Also, a woman was talking about how we're conditioned to think that because it's expensive, it's the best thing, but if you don't like it, it doesn't matter, it doesn't have to be an expensive wine to be what you enjoy, we're like...
0:50:59.2 S2: And so on that same note of don't bring the same attest ice, how long you know what you like if you don't experiment and you can't be experimenting at 50 a hub, you can experiment. It's 15. Yeah, that's doable. But yeah, so I would just experiment and see what you like...
0:51:18.8 S1: I'm curious about your philosophy on pairings, you hear so much stuff like, Oh, this kind of... I always goes with fish and this kind of one always goes with me, Is that really true, or does it matter, or is it what you like, or is that an old philosophy that's dying with modern wine or... What are your thoughts on that?
0:51:40.0 S2: Yeah, all foods have certain going to camps, like all foods have qualities that stand out when you're tasting them, so of course something, something that's super salty, it's gonna go well with a line that maybe it has solidity or something really spicy is gonna be good with the line at Sweet, those things are real. Like when you pair them together and you have that experience... Sure, it definitely elevates the experience and makes the food taste different because you're introducing a totally different flavor profile, but I agree with that, but if you like dignity with your pasta with your pasta, then that's what you feel I drinking today. Yeah, there's no rules, and the rule is campaign goes with everything he... Boatman
0:52:31.8 S1: Goes with everything bubble to with everything I do.
0:52:34.8 S2: Or your debt of a car, just sparking in a partisan person... What are boring lines? Avis, a fantastic value-wise, that's another word, we don't say cheap or anything... We use the word value. Kava is a great value in... For Farley underestimated, it's Spanish sparkling. Yeah, that's it. Those are the really the only ones.
0:53:03.5 S1: So your recipe, I love it, this gives me some inspiration to look through my wine rack and see what I've got in open chili, have a thing of like, I'll taste something and I'll love it and I'll buy the bottle, but then I'll kind of heard it for a special occasion, and then maybe like, there is no special occasion, I eat just drink, I just drink it every Atari, I'm gonna taste different wines, I wanna say for the ones that I really love and not have the end of it go away. It's the end of a bottle, that's the one reason I think I go to the same lines 'cause I love it so much, it's like, Oh, I wanna... Have that one again 'cause it was so good. So you have a recipe for us, as everyone who listens now, as we always share a recipe for the seasonal Sandra, now tell us what is a sand Korea for those who don't know?
0:53:52.5 S2: Traditionally, it's a Spanish, it's a Spanish defend, where you would... So fruit in wine for... And a couple of days... We don't personally do that for a couple of days, and then you would serve it with table line, it's really a table table white a table. It's nothing expensive, and it's over ice and it's cool, it's cold, meant to be drank in a lot of Spanish countries where it's hot, so... Did I hear the word brand? You took the fruit and Brandy first, and then outer destiny Spanish area is used with a medium body, red and Brandy. The fruit. Okay.
0:54:41.4 S1: But now I've seen so many different kinds of Ingres, white red, so many between...
0:54:45.8 S2: It's really any combination of line and through like one... And unfortunately, we only have a wine and beer license with New York State, so we are not arouse Sowers with just one... You can make them with sellers, not with Seltzer, the possibilities are absolutely endless. When it comes to sinister, it's always a little bit sweeter.
0:55:11.4 S1: Teetering sweeter. So I know you're gonna give us an Apple site or Syria, but before that, whatever season or region, someone listening lives in how... What are some guidelines on coming up with a Sangre, what's in season or for where they are?
0:55:28.3 S2: Yeah, I think it comes on to the seasonal fruit, whatever in season for that particular time or that region, and then picking a lot of times that you wanna go a lighter or medium-bodied white or light or media about red, letting it... So with the fruit for at least a few hours, I would say, and if you like busy, you can top things off with solar site if you want to rate is the European choice generally for a Vino team do or something where you combine the red line are
0:55:59.7 S1: What is it? Was spray in Europe because I'm not a big beer drinker, but when I was traveling in Europe, particularly in Germany and Austria, was introduced to Radley, which is spray and beer, which I really like beer that way, I do not bear straight up. But it's definitely a thing about...
0:56:17.5 S2: Yeah, I mean, it's a perfect combination of lemon and lime, I think it's the perfect ratio, half and half, so a compliment is really... It's great for the group for Sangre, so if you like busy a little bit of carbonation, a capping it with that is always a good idea, and I
0:56:35.9 S1: Swingers there guidelines on what kind of fruit you more likely would lean towards a red versus a white...
0:56:46.8 S2: No, I don't think so. I think you can really come up with any combination you want, sometimes adding... Herbs are good sometimes. Yeah, we usually admit to our summer ones, we admit, and then I went to... Once we add, I've done time and I've done both.
0:57:04.2 S1: Mary Rose, Mary, I was thinking about... Okay, so if I threw a fruit out, would you say the line you choose... Let's play a game. Yeah, we did this, I had a guest, Hannah Howard, who is a cheese expert, and so I would throw her different foods and she would see what he... She would hear and I was like, Oh, let's play with Sandra. Okay, so I'm gonna give you a weird one to start, watermelon. Probably a regressing. Okay, sweet cherries is...
0:57:32.2 S2: I go with CAPI, told Capps, definitely a white, so probably a nice piano ratio.
0:57:43.9 S1: Okay, would you make a Andrea with a great... Considering the line as a grape wouldn't... Okay, So grapes are not a good Sangre of fruit.
0:57:56.8 S2: I think it's a tenant you like because really the best part of any singers on the fort... The bottom... Yeah, we don't all ours 'cause we like to... You can eat the apple slices, you can eat the strawberry, you can eat the... Especially the... So Tunstall, the brand or sales one, who you can do it with
0:58:15.8 S1: Facades, just thinking of this in this region and even next door the property and extreme grow Concord grapes, which conquered grape wine. I grew up with Mani-Avis is super sweet usually, but maybe concert grapes in a Sangre with a different line might be interesting.
0:58:33.9 S2: I wonder how much they would soak up...
0:58:36.4 S1: I don't know, I don't know. I never do it. That'll be your next one. Experiment at your house. How about Kiwi? To
0:58:46.4 S2: Become that rising again. And so I... Right.
0:58:55.7 S1: Well, okay, that was fun. So any other interesting fruits I didn't name that you've experimented with?
0:59:02.8 S2: I mean, I think Orange is a quintessential sign Korea, it's pretty... I feel like it's needed in almost any Sangre lemons and limes to insulin.
0:59:11.9 S1: So some kind of citrus. Yeah.
0:59:14.2 S2: You wanna set your space and I think from there you as easily... We'll do lots of berries in the summer, we'll keep it more Apple-based in the fall and parsecs
0:59:27.0 S1: Because we're heading into Fall, you have an Apple Cider Sangria.. Great recipe for us. Why don't you tell us about it?
0:59:34.1 S2: Yeah, so we just... We make them buy the glass, we fill up the glass with ice to the top, we do a quarter of it with a white wine blend, right now we're using a white band from Italy, an Italian white blood Dorrance, then we add apple cider, which is super sweet. Well, New York State apple cider.
1:00:00.3 S1: Fermented alcoholic cider or other... Senecio, her juice cider?
1:00:08.0 S2: No. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So it's sweet, it's inherently sweet, that's the rectory in line.
1:00:14.4 S1: Some apple cider.
1:00:16.1 S2: And then if you wanted to tap it with something busy, I always take a little bit of for sale, but you could always use Sprite or South or water or club soda. Fruit, apple, pear, orange, and then splice it up with a cinnamon stick and star anise Okay.
1:00:37.1 S1: Cool. Well, we will have that recipe in the link in the show notes. It's pretty simple. It sounds delicious. I feel like it's a material by the glass where you drink it pretty immediately, but you could totally make a lot it soap
1:00:52.6 S2: Too.
1:00:53.3 S1: And it would be a picture of it and then... Yeah.
1:00:55.7 S2: And it would just only deepen in flavor, but in terms of sangria is when they're not sitting for a long time, I normally referred to as sprites, this is one you could definitely enjoy immediately or so... And the cinnamon in The Star and East is just gonna get deeper. Right.
1:01:15.6 S1: Right, right. Nice, I love it. So I have two last questions for each of you, the first question is, in the moment, 'cause I know it could change what is your line of choice right now, favorite line or line of choice?
1:01:34.0 S2: I'm gearing up for our trip to your up, so right now, I'm on reselling George Demeter and was another great friable blow for blow Frankish has in my three right now, but it switches all the time, so that's a trainees right now for me sending for big fans of Shania, I'm a huge visual person. Especially when the fall heads, I think it's just a, it's great all year round. Red wine, usually bottom of a laborers.
1:02:11.4 S1: A nice... I actually ease, I have three last questions for you. So that was one. The second one is for each of you, is there a woman, either that you personally know or not, who's really an inspiration to you... To each of you.
1:02:29.7 S2: Yeah, lowlands say my mother. My parents separated when I was one years old, and my mom was a single parent for 18 years. Until she got remarried. It was just the two of us. It was not easy. She was a teacher and as you don't... Teachers do not get paid a lot. Or back then they didn't. So we lived with my grandma till I was seven, and then we lived in apartments, we never went on vacation to fancy places, we went to visit my aunts in Colorado and Cleveland, never went to Disney, just really modest. We bought our house together when I was it, a small house in a development that they all look the same, and she worked really hard to support me, so my mom... Nice. Lincoln, You And You inspire me every day. And it keeps me on my toes, were both constantly juggling so many things, so to see another person working so hard and being a mother and balancing so many jobs is always inspirational to see, and I don't know, I just... Holistic each other.
1:04:06.6 S1: Hey. I feel like the two of you are sitting there hugging each other right now is... I love it, I love it, I love it. And my last question is, if there's any last thought or thing you would love our listeners to take away from listening to this podcast, what would you like... Anything else that you'd like them to take away from hearing this podcast about your story about wind on anything...
1:04:36.0 S2: Grind or die. You have to put the work in, nothing just comes to you, you have to put the work in, and the work is exhausting and it's endless, and it's hard, and if it's easy, something's not right, so you really... You gotta work for what you want. Things don't just fall out of the sky and I do our lap, so put the work in a more...
1:05:07.1 S1: I have to ask them. Sorry, a follow-up question. We're just gonna keep going. The questions... How do you balance that then? 'cause it is hard work.
1:05:14.9 S2: I don't have an answer to, or I think you just get it done. No matter what hour of the day it is. Right, yeah, that we could probably use them help with if there's anybody
1:05:26.1 S1: Or we'll have a conversation after in this podcast about that...
1:05:30.0 S2: Yeah, no, I think treating asking for help is a huge way we've gotten through the past four years, I don't think that we would be where we are without being able to ask for help and pay for help and Patterson...
1:05:47.3 S1: You have each other as well. Yeah.
1:05:49.4 S2: We have each other, which... Yeah, and being able to say, Hey, I have too much on my plate. This month, can you handle the on you to take this on or... We've gone through four newborns over the past four years, so there was definitely dope moments where we had to lean on each other 'cause the other had to pick up the slack or vice versa, and then I think recognizing when you need to pay for help because it's not in your capability to do something... Even if just because you can doesn't mean you should.
1:06:22.4 S1: That right there. Just because you can do it. Yeah.
1:06:26.8 S2: And I think we've had to learn that maybe a little bit the hard way, I think when you are a new entrepreneur, especially, and a woman that feels like they have something to prove. You feel like you need to do everything yourself. So I think learning that that's not necessary, there's help and pay for others to help is okay, and it doesn't make you any less of a entrepreneur and loss of a mother or a woman
1:06:57.4 S1: Years, I think that's a beautiful... Beautiful, not too. And on, and thank you so much, and a call for sharing your stories, your wisdom, and your recipes and wine experience with us today to all our listeners, I hope you enjoyed this episode of women in food and got a bit of inspiration for your next meal or drink, I should say, last request, if you could go over to iTunes or whatever app you're using to listen and give us a reading in review, it's a simple act. That helps us a ton. Once again, thank you for accompanying me on this delicious adventure, join me around the table for our next episode and get ready to eat