Casero - Built From an Empty Apartment, One Sold-Out Tortilla at a Time

On this episode of the STL Bucket List Show, we sit down with Gesler and Chloe Joya, the husband-and-wife team behind Casero — the Salvadoran food truck that's become one of St. Charles County's most talked-about bites, one carne asada plate at a time.

Their story starts with nothing. After Gesler lost his dream job during an immigration process and was sent back to St. Louis, the couple moved into an empty apartment with no furniture, no jobs, and only a couple of borrowed forks. With Gesler unable to legally work but able to cook, and Chloe able to legally own a business, they bet everything on the one recipe he knew by heart — his mom's carne asada from El Salvador — and started selling it out of the Ballpark Village dog park with a borrowed grill and tent. From there it was a failed homemade trailer, a hand-painted Penske truck shipped in from out of state, run-ins with the health department, and years of prepping in borrowed kitchens at 4:30 in the morning before Casero became the truck people now line up for.

The conversation covers what it actually took to get there: the human side of food truck hospitality, sourcing from Orlando's and local farmers instead of distributors, the community of St. Louis restaurant owners — Elliot, Lauren, Balkan Treat Box's Loryn and Edo — who mentored them along the way, and the couple's refusal to raise prices or cut corners even as demand exploded. They dig into the chaos of selling out of handmade tortillas in 30 minutes flat, their faith as the driving force behind every turning point, and the brick-and-mortar restaurant they're now building toward — one with its own prep kitchen, its own tortillas, and its own walk-in cooler.

It's a conversation about betting everything on a single recipe, staying ethical when it would be easier not to, and what happens when a community decides to root for you.


They discuss: 
• Losing a dream job to immigration issues and starting over with an empty apartment 
• Betting everything on one carne asada recipe from Gesler's mom in El Salvador 
• Selling out of the Ballpark Village dog park with a borrowed grill and tent 
• The night the line wrapped around Ballpark Village and GM Marcus jumped in to help 
• A failed homemade food trailer and the hand-painted Penske truck that followed 
• Constant run-ins with the health department before doing it "the right way" 
• The relentless persistence it took to get a spot at Frankie Martin's 
• Sourcing meat, produce, and now local chicken from Orlando's, El Morelia's, and Maninos 
• Faith, getting the truck blessed, and God's timing through years of failed attempts 
• Selling out of handmade tortillas in 30 minutes and the scramble to keep up with demand 
• Mentorship from Balkan Treat Box's Loryn and Edo and St. Louis's uniquely supportive food scene 
• Their "we don't want buts" philosophy and refusing to raise prices to chase profit 
• Building content and storytelling around the truck instead of traditional advertising 
• The brick-and-mortar restaurant dream — their own prep kitchen, walk-in cooler, and tortillas

Transcript

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Intro & Royal Banks Sponsor Read

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We would get home at uh 8 a.m., covered in side sci and chicken marinade and just fall asleep in the floor because we would be so tired.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

The STL Bucketless Show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor and the official banking partner of STL Bucketless, Royal Banks of Missouri. Royal Banks is a full-service, independent community bank, locally owned, locally run, and proudly investing in St. Louis since 1964. That's more than 60 years of taking care of the people and businesses who make this city special. From checking and savings to mortgages, business banking, and wealth management, you get real personalized service from neighbors who actually know your name. With 16 locations across St. Louis, St. Charles, Illinois, and Northeast Missouri, there's a branch right around the corner. Royal Banks of Missouri, proudly investing in our communities.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

If you wanna hear about St. Louis, tune into the Bucketless Show Weekly. Hear what Marissa and Luke say. It drops every Wednesday. Got a dope new guest every single week. Buckle up for the ride. Who's it gonna be? Who's on the show today? They rap St. Louis. What to do in the loo on a late night? I maybe what to do on a date night. Yeah. Bucket list as you covered, they know what's going on. What's going on? They'll give you 18 different things to do on 19. If you need one more to choose, yeah. This city, city, city is a place we call home. A place we call home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

St. Louis,

Meet Gesler & Chloe of Casero

SPEAKER_02 1:28

welcome back to another episode of the STL bucket list show, highlighting the people, places, and events that make St. Louis special. We have two of those people in the studio today. I have just experienced your guys' food truck, so I can tell the story before we get started. But I was at the Lake St. Louis farmers market with my kids and my friends, and um I saw your orange truck. It was just orange at the time. It was just bright as hell, and it was orange, and then I just saw like two items on the menus like steak burrito and you know, chicken, chicken burrito. It said beef tallow, fresh tortillas. I went up to the guys, you weren't there that day, I don't think. Or you might have been in the bathroom.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Like the the moment I take a break, the person I wanted to meet shows up.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

So I got there and I'm like, hey, I wanted tortillas. You were already sold out of tortillas. And then I gave one of your boys my card and I was like, Oh, you guys should come to Food Truck Friday. And then I ended up following you guys on Instagram, and then you started you text me that same day because I guess you got my card and he was texting me. Well, I'm just gonna be eager. Yeah, I was like, but what I loved about it though, and I wrote that in the sauce article, is what I loved about it is like you were asking for feedback. You were like, hey, tell me like what I could have done better with this or what I could have done better with that. And like that's the true sign of like real entrepreneurship is like taking advice from people that that not even just pe anybody, but just also people that you're like, oh, I used to follow STL Bucky. Let's like let me ask them advice. And then I know you're friends with Elliot, and Elliot's one of my best friends too, and like asking guys that have built businesses that you want to build, he has restaurants and stuff like that. So I first wanted to learn. Well, I didn't even introduce you guys. I have Hessler and Chloe Hoya in the studio today of Cacero. I wanted to first talk about you guys and your story. So I wanted to figure out was food always a part of your life, or or kind of walk me through, you know, some of that stuff.

Growing Up in El Salvador & Mom's Cooking

SPEAKER_01 3:07

We never really got that much into cooking at first. Not at all. Growing up in El Salvador, it's super flavorful. My mom's always whipping some crazy food that tastes delicious, except her pasta. Oh dear, we all hate her pasta.

unknown 3:27

Honorable.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Don't ask me why. Like mom's stuff always tastes way better. Yeah, she's had this pasta that till this day we all talk about how everybody dislikes it. She doesn't speak and she knows about it. She doesn't speak English, so she won't understand this. So we're all good.

SPEAKER_07 3:42

She'll translate it.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah. Yeah, the little automated transcribers.

SPEAKER_07 3:46

And I'll say, like, my mom's pasta was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

And she'll screenshot it. But how it happened, it's because uh nonetheless, she's really she she's always had this badass carne sala. And then she taught me how to do it, and I would always do it at pool parties here in the US. Like we would my friends would have me over at uh one cardinal way, and immediately the friend group would be like, Hey, Hester, uh, if if we pitch in some money, could you go buy carne sala, marinate it, and then come cook it? I'm like, Yeah, that's fine. I'll just send you guys however much it was from Schnuggs, Walmart, or whatever. And then I lost my dream job because of some immigration processes we were going through. I I am sent back to St. Louis. I was traveling for work, I was sent back to St. Louis, and we come to an empty apartment because we were gonna use my first paycheck to furn to put furniture in it. So we come to an empty apartment, no job, no work permit, just nothing. So what do we do, right?

Losing a Dream Job & an Empty Apartment

SPEAKER_07 4:47

I think I was at ballpark at the time. Yes bartending at that time before I got into marketing. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

She was bartending at ballpark, and I come, I come back, like no money. We had just signed this lease in uh it was it was close to here in Maplewood, right behind the Ferrari and Porche dealership and empty apartment. Uh her mom got us a couple of forks and spoons so we could eat. We had like two plates there, and now no jobs. So we just bet everything on the carne sala that I knew how to make. Yeah. Because my lawyer said, Hey, look, man, if you have a if you have a skill, you're not legally allowed to work, but your wife can own a business, she's American, and then the money goes into the household.

unknown 5:34

I'm like, damn, what?

SPEAKER_01 5:35

I know how to make carne sala, but you know, you can't have well you can, I could have, but probably would have not gone that well of have one item in your menu. Right. So I called my best friend's family, I called uh my abuelita, and we that's how we made uh the first menu. With the first menu, Chloe spoke with uh ballpark's management. Shout out to Marcus and and Kelvy, and they they let us be there Friday, Saturday night. And so it was my brother Effenberg, me, and a chef Danny that we met at 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Like we would get home at 8 a.m. covered in salsa and chicken marinade, and just fall asleep in the floor because we would be so tired. And that's how it started.

First Night Selling at Ballpark Village

SPEAKER_02 6:22

So, what was that first night? Because I saw a picture of you working too as well. So, what was like the so first of all, shout out to Marcus at Ballpark Village. Ballpark Village actually took a chance on us too. They were the first people. Uh Mike La Martina were Mike La Martina, um, shout out Mike was the first person to give us an office at Spark Co-Working. Wow. And he gave us an office complimentary. Um, so that allowed us to grow back. I think that was 2021.

SPEAKER_07 6:44

And Spark's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Yeah, Spark's been amazing to us, and that was where we got our start was at Ballpark Village. And then our first event we did at Shark Bar, um, which I don't think is around anymore. I don't know if Shark Bar is there either. I think they turned it into Latin. The Latin bars are taking over. The Latin bars are taking over ballpark village. They are, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Yeah. People working turn off the arrows and it's the Hispanics just taking over everyone.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

So you worked these nights. So, first of all, like street food, when you think of like going to other cities, I was just in Nashville and like love the hot dog vendors and the street vendors, and like every city that you go to across the country has these amazing street vendors. You go to Cherokee Street, you see some street vendors out there, but like at Ballpark Village, you just you don't think of it. So you guys were out in the parking lot, like you were working so too many.

SPEAKER_07 7:28

We were in really like what was it, the little dog park? So where all the dogs would like go potty.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

So we would show up earlier and just clean up clean up the dog park.

SPEAKER_07 7:38

We were next to it. So we were before um the Mexican restaurant that's at ballpark. I can't think of the name at the moment.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Oh, the taco spot.

SPEAKER_07 7:45

Yeah, none of those restaurants, I'm sure you remember, like, none of those were there. And we were like right in that like little gated area, right outside PBR. And at first, so the first night when I was working, his mom was working also, and like he's like, My mom came in town and she speaks no English, and it was his brother and me. And it was the craziest thing. So I remember I was like, I was taking the orders, and then I would communicate to her in Spanish like the orders we had.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

And I think at the time we were only doing tacos, which is only and quesadillas, we had quesadillas too. Chicken and steak.

SPEAKER_07 8:12

It was a completely different menu. At this point, we did not care about really any of the quality, unfortunately, or any of that.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Our only goal was, like you mentioned, in regards to food, food street vendors. Our only our only goal was uh you you probably watched Tom and Jerry or those cartoons. Our only goal is whenever there's like that smoke of food and someone's smelled gravitating and just kind of like flying towards it. That was our first goal. Like we didn't, it doesn't it it didn't really matter to us what ingredients we put on as long as it tasted the best. Like we wanted we wanted to turn on the grill and people to poke their faces through the windows of PBR, and that's how it happened.

SPEAKER_07 8:55

We didn't have any equipment. Like I remember Marcus. We gave us a grill, yeah. He gave us a grill, and then he we set up like a tent and we had some tickets. He gave us a tent.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

I saw the pictures.

SPEAKER_07 9:05

Yeah, it was crazy. I don't think I ever worked again after that.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

And he said you retired after that.

SPEAKER_07 9:10

I don't think we got the food truck um the first like four months, Hester and I opened it before this year. We had it open last year for like two, three months. And me and him were the only people that worked it together last year. But at ballpark, that was my first and only time. I was like, this is a little too much for me. Like just this we left at like the sun was rising and we were leaving. And I was like, this is a lot.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

It's

The Line That Wrapped Around Ballpark

SPEAKER_01 9:32

just so crazy. And I remember Marcus, he's just so phenomenal. It was uh my brother who's helped us in every step in every step of the way. My mom, super supportive, Chloe, my partner, and then me, and then Marcus came down and he looked all hectic. He's like, Man, what's going on? I'm like, dude, I'm so sorry. Like we're messing up. We didn't think we would get this busy. Like, we just it the line literally wrapped around ballpark all the way to the entrance. And I thought Marcus was gonna was gonna get mad. So he kind of like just told me to move, and I'm like, I know, I know, I'm sorry, man. So I moved, he put some gloves on, grabs a tongue, and starts like just flipping steak and cutting it and just leading everybody. And then because he's worked at Kitches before, right? He he was the GM of ballpark, and he's just leading the whole basically he took cover. He's like, uh, Mamahoya, like you do this, Effenberg here, Chloe, and just led the whole show. And it ended up being we fell in love with it. Yeah. By the time I got my by the time I got my green card and I could go back to what I was doing, it it wasn't even an option anymore.

SSM Health Sponsor Read

SPEAKER_02 10:40

We we were just You were all in, yes, captivated by passion. And and there's something about what the businesses that you work in is like being able to look somebody in the eye, take their order, and then see them enjoy the food. And it's a it's it's within 20 minutes they have this experience with you, and then they're happy and they walk away. There's something beautiful about that, and it's like you get to see it. We were talking for at Frankie Martin's for like 30 minutes the other day, and it's like you were just getting set up, but it's like you got to go see like my daughter grab the food and like eat the taco and then walk away. That's in. And then it's a complete journey. For over 150 years, SSM Health has been providing hope, healing, and opportunities to the St. Louis community. With over 40,000 employees across four states, they're not only delivering exceptional care, they're one of the region's largest employers, shaping the future of healthcare. We're proud to present SSM Health as the official healthcare partner of the STL bucket list show. If you've dreamed of a career where you're truly making a difference every day, SSM Health can help you take that to the next step. Learn more at their website in the link in the show notes.

Empty Plates & the Human Side of Service

SPEAKER_01 11:38

There's nothing better than empty plates. Yeah. I love empty plates. Like every day that I sometimes whenever we get kind of slow at Frankie's, I poke my head out to see the people that have bought from us. Yeah. It's just about to say, just empty plates, and I'm like, let's go.

SPEAKER_07 11:51

There's so many times where Hesler, even at Frankie's or nine mile, regardless of where we are. Like, that's not a place where you go and like serve people. But if we're slow, like he'll get out of the truck and go up to people who are eating the food or already ate it. He'll even like throw their plates away, ask them how the food was, ask if there was anything we could do better. And I think that's things that like it's hospitality. He really makes a difference because in the food truck industry, you don't expect people to do that.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

So and to talk to you, talk to you. Like it's you, it's normally just like ticket. Now they have like these screens, they don't even talk to you. I know. Yeah, it's super fun. There's like you're right there, and I can't, and then they give you a buzzer, and it's like it's just like it's a transaction.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

You it loses the human aspect, and and I think that that's super important. And at least to us, it also is because the human aspect for us, it's not only customer service and really caring about the people who buy from us, but really caring about the people that we buy from. Like I was telling you before. Like, I I I love going to Orlando's and Dom literally going to bring the tomatillas and they still got dirt in them and like handing them to me.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Yeah, we shopped.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah, I was I was I was buying some onions uh last week, and they were like brown, like I had to wash them before I use them. Like that's that's what we want. Know where our product comes from, who's giving it to us, and keep it that human aspect, that community, if if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Yeah, and

Sourcing From Orlando's & Local Farmers

SPEAKER_02 13:16

you said that when we talked, is like, you know, you're supporting or Orlando's, which is an incredible local business, and Dom actually, me and Dom went to high school together. Oh yeah, so I've known them for a long time I've known that family for a long time. So cool. And we get our flowers and stuff up there and a bunch of stuff every time, and our Christmas, like every like we we like going up there. Um, but like being able to know exactly that you're support you're actually helping his business too, because you guys are buying so much. Because like I he traditionally wasn't a wholesale business. Now it's like, oh, if I can sell you know 20 pounds of tomatoes every two weeks or however many pounds you're buying, it's like that's just helping him now have more buying power. That's what we want.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

It even if it sounds cheesy, we believe in community and we want we want to have that impact. Like, I want like it if if uh the baby it's it's uh it's a girl, I want the farmers that supplied to us to be at the quinceañera party. You know what I mean? Like I I want that community of everybody growing together. Even if you have even if you've seen my content in every video that I make, I try to wear one of my friends' businesses. Like I'm either wearing a concrete company business or roofing company because it in my head I'm like, okay, if this video blows up, uh, you know, the food shirt does awesome. Yeah. But so does the business of my friend, that shirt I'm wearing. And I really care about that. I care about community, I care about family, about friendships, and and growing together. I don't believe that someone has to lose for me to win. We can both win.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

Yeah. So what have been some of the challenges? Because as as I know, I work with a ton of restaurants, and what are some of those those challenges that you guys have faced? Because you started at ballpark village, but then you had to invest in a truck, you had to invest in the permitting, the all these different things were all investments in your guys' business. I'm sure there were days you started up that truck, you bought a bunch of stuff and you showed up and nobody showed up. So it's like, tell me about some of those failures that you guys have experienced.

SPEAKER_07 15:06

There was quite

The Failed Trailer & Getting the Food Truck

SPEAKER_07 15:07

a few. Like, where do we start?

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Like that's basically the whole thing.

SPEAKER_07 15:11

Like it's being I mean, before the truck, there were like so many different side quests. Like there was, it sounds so silly, but there was one point, like right after we got practically kicked out of ballpark, that Hustler had this crazy idea to build like a trailer. So we went and bought this trailer, and I kept saying, like, are you sure that the health department is gonna like allow this? And he's like, Well, they didn't say we couldn't do it. I'm like, Okay. Um that was so smart. Yeah, like it was like winter. I was sitting on like giant pieces of wood that we were buying from Home Depot, and he's like sawing it. It didn't work out, obviously, and we spent a lot of money on it.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Looking back at him, looking back, those attempts were embarrassing. Like, I look at pictures of them now. I can't believe I thought that was gonna pass code. There's I I can't believe it.

SPEAKER_07 15:57

I mean, it took us years to get the food truck.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Our friend, uh, our friend Omar could contributed to that. You remember you know Vive Season?

SPEAKER_05 16:06

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

So we used to have a lot of events, we used to have a lot of events at crime room for Vive Season. And Omar, the the owner's brother, really saw us like hustling, uh working at crime room, opening the food stand, just going after it. When we got shut down and we attempted to build our own trailer, like Chloe said, he gave us the the money to do so, just completely believing in us. I know it was and you bought the truck. So, what was that moment when you got the keys to the truck? Well, we tried to make the trailer then. Oh, so then then the trailer full like fully failed. Fully failed. It would never pass the inspection. We went through another avenue, that one worked. We were back in business. We thought we had made it this time, and then we get thrown out of ballpark for good. And now we're like once again back to the starting line.

SPEAKER_07 16:58

The food truck is actually was a big white Penske truck that we bought.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 17:03

Um, and I think Hustler, where did you go to get it? Did you go to another state? Or am I making that up?

SPEAKER_01 17:07

They dropped her off from it, it was in Dakota. Dakota went to um Illinois, Chicago and from Chicago, they shipped it here. It was a whole thing.

SPEAKER_07 17:16

So it was just a giant Penske truck that we got like on sale or something, I think. Not really, but um, and then Hessler hand painted it with a few guys. So one of the guys that still works with us, one of our chefs, helped Hessler. They rolled it, like they painted the entire thing and some other.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

If you look closely, you can tell it's not a professional paint job.

SPEAKER_07 17:34

Yeah, I mean, we just got a sticker. We like you said, we were just known as the logo looks slippery.

Biggest Challenge: Just Getting Started

SPEAKER_01 17:39

The logo looks slick. Yeah. And the biggest, the biggest challenges have always just been really getting started. Yeah. That's been the biggest challenge because once we start, we just put so much love into our food that we're grateful we haven't had the issue you just mentioned. Uh, we even did an event for Supplement Superstore, and they were hesitant about having us there because they couldn't pay a minimum uh like like a minimum spend. Yeah. And I told them, I said, hey, look, man, we're just getting started. I don't need a minimum spend, I need an opportunity, and I'll make the most out of it. And we just show up, yeah, first 30 minutes, like you said, no sales. So I think we gave an order for free to someone, the the only customer we had, we gave it for free. Then he went back in to watch the whatever meet they were having, it was a powerlifting meet. He went back in to continue watching the meet 10 minutes later. Now we can't make enough quesadillas, and we have a massive line. Just because that that guy told people inside how good the food was. So the biggest issue has always been getting started. But once we get our once we get our foot in the door, then we just put so much scare into how we treat people, how we make the food that once we get through the door, it's making it they've all stayed open for us.

SPEAKER_07 19:03

Like

Battling the Health Department at Ballpark

SPEAKER_07 19:04

the health department was not our fan by any means. They did not like that we were at ballpark. I mean, as you can see, there's no one in ballpark unless there are restaurants. They didn't like us for that. We also did not have any permits. So every time we opened, they had to come out, whether that was at 8, 9, 10 p.m. Sometimes they wouldn't even show up and we couldn't open. You know, so it was about like they even told us at one point if you guys get a food truck, we are not approving it. You know, so we had like all the odds were against the city.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Red flags, I mean like all the red flags and race.

SPEAKER_07 19:35

We're idiots, to be quite honest.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

No, we just didn't know what we were doing.

SPEAKER_07 19:38

No, and so like we had to Hessler mainly like made those relationships and like just from actually going through the right avenues and the health department seeing like, okay, they're actually trying to do the right thing, then we got to like build those relationships, and now we can just call or text them, and yeah, it's like a friendship.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

Yeah,

Suede Dispensary Sponsor Read

SPEAKER_02 19:56

the STL bucket list show is proudly sponsored by Suede Dispensary with 11 Missouri area locations. Suede does so much for the St. Louis community. We've been working with this team for a couple of years back since Medical was here, and we're excited to support their new product launches, events, and community initiatives. We couldn't be happier to work with this premier cannabis brand, and we're excited for them to sponsor the show. Enjoy the rest of the podcast. So these last like few months, you guys have been having a lot of momentum and you've been building, you know, from the moment that I think I met you guys a month ago, you know, and now you know we're doing this podcast, and then this podcast is gonna get posted. And we only post it on Sauce Magazine. When we post this on STL Bucket list in a couple weeks, you guys are gonna blow up, hopefully. And and you know, you've been at all these events, it seems like you're working a lot more at all these events, but like what is what has been it seems like just such a blessing for you guys that like these things are all happening, and then but it all comes down to because you guys just keep showing up every day. So can you talk to me around you know how those blessings have been coming into your life and like what that means to be experiencing? And am I just overstepping it? Are you being have you been having momentum? Yes, yes, it's very wild.

Persistence at Frankie Martin's

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Like it it starts, like I said, the hardest part has always been getting started. Even at Frankie Martin's, we reached out to them, no answer, called, no answer. I showed up in person a few times. They kept telling me that they were not looking for more trucks. One time I went to them, I went to the manager and I said, Hey, look, it's kind of like me again, right? I I just want the opportunity. Uh, when is your next management meeting? And she she said that she wouldn't tell me. And I told her, I said, please come on, look. I just we want to bring you guys food. If you if you guys try our food, you'll want us here, I promise you that. She goes, Okay, that's fine. You can come, but um I don't promise you anything. I don't promise you anything. Like just come bring food. But if you want. So we showed up, we brought the food and then they they asked they tell us that we could be there. So that's how that's how this has been since the beginning, just like a a relentless pursuit of getting to where we we want to be. And once we get there then then it grows. But the the main contributor of these blessings it's God. Like he's been so good to us and just keeps allowing us to to do what what we love to do. Like in my prayer I always thank him for allowing me to pursue my dreams because this is what we love to do. And just him giving us the opportunity to do it then we just take care of the rest. Then like you said we we show up. If it's raining we go if if if we think no one's gonna go we go people always ask people still ask us what's your minimum and I tell them she gets mad sometimes because she's like we need a business structure and all this. Start the truck costs money to drive the truck but a lot but a lot of times I'm just like I just need the opportunity. Like it I if I go the food will sell opportunity and and we just like you said we just continue to show up people people like her stuff I think they like what we do.

Homemade Tortillas & Life With Twins

SPEAKER_07 23:20

She would make us papusas like everything. So then I started getting into like right after I had the twins I started getting into baking and like homemaking all these things and then the tortillas kind of came from that and then we were like why you know people like have asked us like do you guys serve your own tortillas or would you make them and then it became like this whole thing and then you know our processes like it used to be sometimes we would get done at nine mile last year and we wouldn't have any more food and we had a double the next day. So then we would have to go to Walmart right before they close and we're like buying all their chicken and cilantro and tomatillos and stuff last minute to go serve the next day. And it's like things this year that we've approved on is like our processes and making you know changes in the truck so that things are like more organized and we can have more people and God is the forefront. I mean whenever we found out we were gonna be on the podcast and everything we even went to Saint Joseph and went to Adoration and we gotta say thanks yeah. Yeah like that's you know that's the forefront of everything and then us just showing up I mean we got our priest blessed the food truck when we first painted it and like

Faith and Blessing the Food Truck

SPEAKER_07 24:23

got it.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

So that is for our first event we we got a pretty we can bless it. But also your hard work that's amazing it's it's it's the love it's the love that we put into into what we do like before we even afford the logo which was for the longest time uh we noticed that we wouldn't get much traction at first because you got this you got this crazy cool trucks with lights and and designs and just like A C inside so people in the window look fresh and not dripping sweat. Yeah. And but we started noticing that it it would take one person from a table to taste our food and then the other people from that table would come.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

So and then just chain reaction in exact and and that's that's basically the the taking off that you mentioned we've experiencing now it it takes it takes people to really come to the truck see what we do taste what we do and it just keeps it just keeps and then it goes every year like every event you do more people start coming back from repeat customers but then those repeat customers like when I left the other day I I saw that Jeremy Wolf who's another guy that I went to high school with and he was up there I was like dude I just missed you because I saw on Instagram that he came up right when I left the other day. He's so he's awesome keep coming up that you guys have built this community and now you know expanding into Food Truck Friday and all these other bigger events that you know because St. Charles County you guys are building this big reputation now but then there's a whole other million more people in St. Louis that you build this even bigger thing. But what's the future look like for Casero? Because I mean the food truck is one aspect of it but I feel like what you guys are building towards is a restaurant like is a brick and mortar something that you guys want to do.

The Brick-and-Mortar Dream

SPEAKER_01 26:12

We've tried to do yeah we are working on it.

SPEAKER_07 26:15

Yeah well we had we had we had an opportunity we had an opportunity that fell through um and we've gone I mean we have friends that are in real estate and they offer us to like go look at places and stuff. It doesn't always work out you know because of locations and things with the architecture and whatnot but like it's something that we're ready to do like right now. Like if we found the right building and we found you know someone that was willing to like invest in us. I mean a lot of what we do because we're young and broke and we have kids is we've had like family and friends and a lot of people invest in us to be able to do this which hopefully someday we can pay all those people back. But that's definitely like that's definitely what we want to get into.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Because the reason that we we've spent a lot of effort it exhaustive effort in building really good processes on the food truck is because our our biggest flex if I can say it like that our biggest flex it's also our not inconvenience but our biggest challenge. Our biggest flex is also our biggest challenge because since we make everything from scratch the prep is is really tough. The prep the storage it's really tough. So we we worked really hard into building processes so that now we're at a point that we're just looking for that opportunity so we can go into a break and mortar exclusively just for the prep kitchen. If we can have a walking a walking cooler of our own if if we can have things that we know they're there and we don't have to be moving around bringing taking uh we're always prepping at different kitchens a biscuit joint lets us prep there. There's families that I go to the gym with or people from church even the the permissioners bouncing around everywhere everywhere just nights just anywhere that's convenient. I washed I washed the dishes today at 4 30 in the morning because if I don't wash them at 4 30 in the morning then I I can't yeah I can't so I woke up at 3 50 and went and washed the dishes so we're working our ass off and and really putting in the work so that then that next step feels natural instead of a force.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Yeah because then you have the physical brick and mortar where you can prep and it's similar with Elliot is like Elliot's able to prep for his other restaurant inside the biscuit. And then they use same products in the restaurant that they at the other restaurant and then when they went to Lake St. Louis farmers market they would have leftover products and jellies and stuff that they would use. But then you would have the truck running you'd have the physical brick and mortar even if it wasn't a huge success as long as it's a break even plus a little bit of profit you're able to then sell some of the tortillas there some of the salsas there you could sell the products we've even thought about just making it it like if we don't have the reputation to be a brick and mortar yet we've thought about just having a kitchen that we can use as a as a as our own commissary.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Yeah even rent it to other trucks yeah until we can build that that brand right and then put a cool logo in the mat like yours up front on the right and have people like really know what's going on and and come to see us. It could just be a a kitchen before but that's that's what killing us right now.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

I might be surprised like if you you know especially in the St. Charles County area where you guys have built this brand is like I feel like if you open the doors up people would show up and and and I think that there's something out there that is home cooked like something unique that people like if you go in St. Louis you have all these mom and pop shops and you go to Cherokee Street and Cherokee Street has some of the best restaurants there in a little like you'll see a guy cutting pork on a sp a rotisserie just in the window. But like out in St. Charles is like I mean they're um on 94 there's a couple of the you know Mexican grocery stores that sell tacos but like as far as like sit down experiences that you can have and you can create obviously that's what we want.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Somebody can sit down and we daydream. I always come to Chloe with um issues about a restaurant and she would just look at me and be like Hester we don't have a restaurant yet I know I know but when when we do we're talking about the problems they can have yeah like something that feels like you're she's always telling you you're just getting so ahead of yourself and I'm like I know I know we want something cozy like even if it's small like something like the biscuit joint like something that feels like home like there's one restaurant in St.

SPEAKER_07 30:31

Louis

El Guanaco & Salvadoran Food in STL

SPEAKER_07 30:32

off pay job that makes Salvadorian food. Only one yeah that we we haven't been there in a long time but we go there for his food and I think they serve Guatemalan food as well.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

That too yeah Guatemalan and yeah like that's what he always says like it just feels like home like you just go in there and there's some like construction workers and stuff like no white people and the construction workers are there that that shit's like if you got a bunch of green shirts and orange shirts in there you know that didn't be staring I think he stayed over time one time and you got to be a part of like one of their birthday parties or something didn't you stay like past clothes one time and they had like a birthday party uh el guanaco maybe you yeah there was like a pinata I was curious what's the restaurant called El Guanaco I did I did el guanaco it's it's awesome great Salvadorian food and uh I do and I do love that there's there's been a lot of times it it's such it's such reassurance whenever like you said people would be driving through Frankie's and they they literally just pulled over get inside buy food from us with like yellow or orange landscaping or or concrete just get the food and hop back in the truck and leave I'm like awesome yeah this is so cool the drink and can can I like show you something is that a thing yeah yeah you can show it chunky monkey's always telling me that I get ahead of myself one day I just send her that and I'm like look that's a design of a restaurant and she's like what it's a really cool pile and yeah and the platform would be like 10 tables he's ready he's he's very ready that's what he does in all his free time is like he I mean this guy live he has a new dream every day he's a dreamer he's a dreamer the STL Bucket list show is fueled by Upshot Coffee.

Upshot Coffee Sponsor Read

SPEAKER_02 32:17

My friends at Upshot Coffee have some of the best beans in town I got some of their new packaging here look at this bag how big this is um they have four St. Louis locations their flagship in Coddleville the break shop over by Lindenwood in St. Charles their Clayton location called Hi-Fi um and then Flyby over in Tower Grove their newest location um and they also sell their coffee online everywhere if you guys haven't added Upshot Coffee to your STL bucket list it's time to try it some of the my favorite people in the industry and some of the best coffee in the game so let's talk about a little bit of St.

SPEAKER_07 32:50

Louis

Shoutout to El Morelia's & Local Suppliers

SPEAKER_07 32:51

spots so you kind of mentioned a few but like where are some other local businesses um that you guys like to support you mentioned oh I got you on this one yeah El Morelia's we go there all the time in Bridgeton that is like one of our favorite spots it's actually this is hilarious but I've made best friends with like all the guys at the butcher shop there. Yeah so Luis that works there he's like my best friend like that man see I don't know much Spanish but when that man sees me he's smiling he's waving he's like hey she's better the coolest grocery store like that place is insane it's impressive we have that in the Midwest is is just incredible.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Yeah we buy our tortilla presses from there all of our meat comes from there all of our meat comes from there then we are we are changing so friendly too we are changing on poultry which we're very excited about if we're we start next week Maninos on Carteville.

SPEAKER_07 33:39

Oh yeah we're gonna start buying local chicken too yeah I love maninos that's a good family too yeah they're awesome and you gotta find like better chicken I think that yeah the chicken thighs are great but we want something maybe well local like I said too I saw your video about the thighs compared to the breasts and stuff way juicier.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

Yeah way juicier way juicier like I don't know the difference and I'm all I'm all about the protein but like I said the protein difference it's not enough for dry chicken yeah nobody likes dried chicken and we're gonna be buying our chicken from Maninos now so our chicken too it's gonna be locally grown raised so you don't grow chicken our I know our chicken's gonna be locally raised too which we're very excited to make that switch we eventually want everything like I said that's what we also want a restaurant to prep there because if we had the space we would we would serve our food in our own tortillas because right now that's the only thing that we buy uh packaged are our tortillas we just buy them at Morelia just can't make them fast enough we just don't have the space to store it even like they only last like five to seven days we can't really even keep up with the demand to be honest like when I think the first day which I think did he show up on the first day we were selling them it was like in Blue Twitter

The Tortilla Sellout That Humbled Them

SPEAKER_02 34:56

there was just like a little sign there that said tortillas and I was just gonna buy tortillas and then when they said they were sold out I was like well let me just try some food then because I just wanted to grab tortillas because I was shopping I was shopping at the market and I just wanted to grab like tortillas because I think customers hurt my ego so bad because they approached not ready for the demand of it like at all I was not ready.

SPEAKER_07 35:13

Yeah I think I made I made every batch that time and I think I had 10 bags of each I think I did a hundred corn and a hundred flour and yeah when I texted Heslo I think you text me like 30 minutes after the market opened and he said like the tortillas are sold out. And I thought he meant maybe just like the flour or something but then he said no all the tortillas are sold down like 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Yeah so now we just keep trying to let it deep up with the thing that goes into it to like for it because they're sold for $10 right or like $10 a piece but it's like so much work goes into that $10 sale the whole yeah because it takes like hand watching the latest video it is a lot for the whole day we were pressing and I even thought I even told Chloe I was like oh dude this thing is so easy I've seen my grandma making them you make it I got it we'll make two thousand yeah I got it we were at the end of the night we were with on the truck with flashlights because we we run out of light the generators are callousing to just like pressing and we barely made like 300.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Yeah it's a lot yeah it's a lot of work to be to be able to make your own because like that's the one thing is like you're selling those tortillas to the public but like being able to use those tortillas would be the last like phase of like completing your menu yes no we probably have to get like an industrial I mean at Morellias they make their own and they have a giant industrial entry I went to Bucky. Bucky's was like slapping tortillas like Bucky's gas station where they make all Bucky's gas station does it yeah that's what we want yeah that that would like you said that throwing them in hot oil and they were like making tostadas and like all types of stuff you would never believe how easy it is gas station yeah it's crazy.

SPEAKER_07 36:43

You would never believe how easy it is like three four ingredients I mean and then you go to the store and you look at the ingredient list and it's like the problem it's the works 25 things.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Yeah yeah start cracking and that's if you prep them all Saturday for an event and then try to you can't use a single next Saturday I would love to do it like which huge shout out to this guys too they've been our mentors since this was just an idea Balkan trip box Loring and and Adol. Yeah they're amazing he so we're talking right we're talking about James Beard uh award winner and busy multiple locations all successful and just like Elia they take the time to sit

Mentors: Balkan Treat Box's Loryn & Edo

SPEAKER_01 37:31

down with us answer questions guide us through things we we challenges we might face later on and one of the things that I love the most it's that till this day Avo still goes every morning and makes the fresh bread that they'll sell that day. You know that he's that would be a dream come true for me.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

He wakes up makes the bread and drops them off at the restaurants but like they were getting so many orders after the James Beard and then when Bosnia came to town Bosnia was ordering bread they flew them out to Seattle for the World Cup. The Bosnian team flew Lauren out to cook for them to cook for them in Seattle that is so cool. He was making so much bread that they were popping up at other restaurants around town because they ran out of oven space like they couldn't there's not enough oven and fire to make as much bread as they needed to make we were there recently I think when was that Lauren came we did like a small pop-up market over there and Lauren actually came to see us yeah like she's so sweet she got to come in the truck and eat some food and then we went ate there after and yeah so fire dude and she's amazing like they're so inspiring.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

Like I've we've found out as a food truck like yeah yeah we we share a lot the immigrant gobble too yeah yeah it's really cool to see like the culture like yeah even like I said about Salvadorian food like there's only one restaurant in St.

SPEAKER_07 38:44

Louis like if we could figure out how to make really good papoosas we could be like the second restaurant that sells it you know like just bringing different and that would be what what they're incredible what Ado does would be an absolute dream come true for me.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

Would like you said it would be the last piece of the puzzle if we could put our food made from scratch in our own tortillas made from scratch I would love that. And then wake up at three in the morning and then you're done by eight because you've prepped everything for the guy's never done I would go to the gym I would go to the gym head to the restaurant and just marinate make all the marinades from scratch make all the salsa from scratch make all the tortillas from scratch and then like you said yeah just go home maybe see the family for a little bit go back to the restaurant after that's that's like the dream day for me. Like I I I can't think of anything cooler than that.

Why St. Louis Roots for the Hustle

SPEAKER_02 39:35

So you've had all these mentors why do you think the St. Louis community is just unique in that because all these people are helping you and at the end of the day they're also a lot of these people are competitors too. Not in a way but like everybody's definitely competing for what people eat at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

I always tell everyone I'm sorry to cut you off but I love talking about this I always tell everyone that's my favorite thing about America I don't know if I can generalize because I haven't been in that many states but for what I for what I've seen my favorite thing about America it's that everybody not only respects but loves the hustle. Everybody we haven't met a I haven't met a single person that looks at us working our ass off chasing our dreams and straight up just goes oh fuck you not at all everyone's always helping us one way or another when because maybe they've gone through the same things. Like we didn't even know you started a ballpark. So you know what's that thing of getting started trying to make it happen. And everybody helps us I mean there was a day that we we didn't have anywhere to park the truck and there's this car wash in construction across from Orlando's yeah and I just went to them I asked to speak with the manager and I told him I said hey look man I I'm not trying to throw myself a pity party but I I just don't have anywhere to park the truck it is and now they let me park there. No cost no charge they even come to Frankie's and and and tip a lot so everybody's just been like that. Yeah Lori and Auto Elliot Elliot two incredibly successful restaurants uh his his daughter who she's phenomenal and then when we go prep there he takes the time to go let us in shows us around asks us how we're doing what we could improve maybe something we haven't thought about and those are people that we look up to you know like that's that's the life that that we want to start living and they take the time to still support us even though like you said at the end of the day if we're close by even if someone has to make a uh a decision of oh where do I want to eat I've just we've just made it uh a personal conviction of never sell anything that the people who has really helped us sell yeah like like I would say saturated market like there's no shortage of Mexican food trucks or Mexican everywhere food like in general so like I feel like just talking to Elliot and Lauren all these people who kind of like homemake stuff as well that kind of led us into a different mindset of like how could we make this different from like you know no offense to anyone else but like how can we make our Mexican food different from everyone else around us so that people like want to eat with us and we're not just seen as like okay Mexican food truck number four, five, six, seven, you know there's so many so like just finding ways to stick out and those people I mean Elliot like his food's phenomenal he makes sourdough and biscuits and like it's stuff that we're like we couldn't do something like that. And a lot of personal conviction too like like I I sent to you on one of our responses our biggest thing is we can't be hypocrites. Right? So we don't serve anything that we don't eat. Everything that's at the truck it's because it's also at the house like my meal preps for the gym it's literally for my diet truck it's the food truck food. Like I eat the steak for day I eat the steak for breakfast I eat the chicken for lunch and the same ingredients that we use at our own home and what we feed our babies it's the same ingredients that we feed people at at the food truck.

"We Don't Want Buts" — Staying Ethical on Price

SPEAKER_02 43:17

Yeah so that's not a big part because it all come down to profits and that's where it's like you have to grow the business but you also have to put out a good product and it's like sometimes those hit edge and it's like I would rather lose money today than put out a product that I'm not happy about. That's been like and that's how we do a personal struggle.

SPEAKER_07 43:31

I mean not a struggle because it's just part of it. It's like you have to do it. Yeah he's very much like we're not cutting corners like even some like festivals we've done on like you could I could just do it just for the queso buy salsa for this dude yes like should we go buy a queso and serve it with chips and Hessler's like no we can make the queso like he definitely keeps like all of us on our toes because he will not not that we want to but like we could make six extra dollars per order if we just add this but it's like you just slowly add those products and like the street corn

SPEAKER_02 44:00

You give away for free. You could sell that. But it's a nice little touch. It's like a nice little thing. Or you're like, hey, the food's gonna take a minute, take the street corner real quick. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Our biggest thing about that is that we don't want butts. That that that's like a very big uh missionslash slogan uh within us that we coordinate what goes on. We don't want butts. So we don't want people who have our food saying, oh, I love it tastes so good, but it's too expensive. Or I love this food, but they don't give you enough. Or just we don't want butts on the food. It's gotta be the right price, the right amount, I love it, but it's the best flavor for me, or it doesn't make me feel like that. Because so many people are raising the price. We don't want we don't want butts, and the hardest item, hardest item to remove was like you said, it would no, it was greed. It was greed because sometimes I do want to make a lot more money.

SPEAKER_05 44:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

And especially like you said, would people really find out? I think they would, because if if they can taste the difference of how much better it is based on the ingredients that we use, because that's what it comes down to. I think they would also taste the difference if if we would stop using them. And that goes also back to what what Chloe said, our our front of everything being our faith. Because after 4th of July that we run out of everything, uh I even went and scratched near next to the part that says beef tallow. I typed not today olive oil. Big Oreo Savocado. I typed something, I said not today, because we had run out of beef tallow on 4th of July. So the 5th, we we just cooked with with oil. But I made sure to go outside and put it, yeah. Sadly and then sad face, sad emoji, not today. Yeah, uh, we run out of beef tallow.

SPEAKER_07 45:57

Yeah, we've had like so many people too, like especially family members and friends being like, why wouldn't you just raise your prices? Like, even my mom, she works at the post office downtown, and they had like a Mexican food truck there that was serving biria for I think like $21.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

$22.

SPEAKER_07 46:11

And she's like, Well, these people are serving it for this much, like, why wouldn't you guys? And it's like, well, it's about staying ethical. I mean, we're not millionaires, like, we're not rich. So, like, when we go out, and especially when you have like multiple kids, and then you're going to a food truck and it's costing a ton of money, and it's like maybe not that good for you. You know, it's kind of like, okay, we want to give people like really good portions. The street corn, sure, we might be losing like a little bit of money, but it's not hard to make, and it's like, you know, we like to give back to the community, so it's not something that we ever planned.

SPEAKER_02 46:42

Like street corn was a nice touch to charge for. It's you know, the days of a la carte sides, and a la carte sides are obviously important, but like I want a meal. I want the side, yeah, yeah. Like it has to be the whole thing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. And then I can't wait till you guys start to do some drink. Had a Mexican fusion, Mexican Asian fusion truck called El Dragon. He's down on the city. Yeah, we met there. We met the Tony is great. And his food is unbelievable. He has like these wontons with like, you know, salsa verde. It looks so good. And I'm like, dude, he has this watermelon agua fresca that he gave me with chamois on the rim and like tahine. And I'm like, dude, this is the best drink I've ever had. We had our inspection. We had Tony's connections the same day. Yeah, Tony's killing it. We were like just a little bit. And his truck's cool. It's like an old little truck that you used to drive. Like used to drive uh like if you were on a shuttle, like a church trip. So you would drive that truck.

SPEAKER_07 47:31

We need to try it for sure. We yeah, we met him and just getting started.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

We're always texting each other, kind of like, hey, how you doing? How are you guys doing? Supporting each other from afar because they stay in St. Louis City. Yeah, he's not in St. Charles yet. He hasn't got the cards.

SPEAKER_07 47:45

Their meetings are great though. They change it up. I see like quite often.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

Oh, he always does a Food Truck Friday special where he does like a special item for Food Chuck Friday. I had the churro crab rangoons the other day, and it was like dusted with cinnamon sugar. Yeah. Well, it was a crab rangoon, it was so it was an Asian Mexican fusion. Yeah, we're gonna have to go into that. Yeah, and it's an Asian guy and a and a Mexican, it's just like they're both on the truck together. Yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

So they're so creative. That's one of the challenges that that we didn't have, but we thought we were going to. When we first started the food truck, even though we only did it for like a month or two last year, every person that we would meet, they were all chess. Oh, I got this uh blue whatever award, or I went to this competition. But they're saying, Well, what's your background? And I'm like, I made carne asada for my friends when we were drunk at barbecues. Like that was about it.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

But like these people, like even Allie Elliott was a fine dining chef, and now he's taking fine dining into a little biscuit, and it's like this delicious ten-dollar biscuit is like the best biscuit you've ever had. It's right, but like you're right, it's like coming from chefs, like Lauren was a chef, but now she's doing street food. In theory, it's a counter-service street food restaurant, but like you're taking chef tendencies.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

To us, it happened the other way. We didn't know what we were doing, but like I explained to you, as we grew and our health became more important for us, that's when we made that connection that changed everything. When we realized that the best ingredients, you know, God-made ingredients that nourish our bodies the most are also the ones that that that taste the best. Yeah. Yeah.

Cooking Food That Nourishes and Tastes Best

SPEAKER_07 49:20

And that's that's like you don't you don't feel like gross after. You don't feel like, oh, I'm so full, like I need to take a nap. Like you feel like refreshed almost. Like I when I worked on the food truck, the only meal that I would have besides biria, because I just I'm a big biria fan. Yeah, but I would always make like a protein plate. Like I would do street corn steak, and then what else would we put on it? Just like some salsa, katiha cheese. Like I'd make myself like a little protein plate. You guys can do rolls. That's an idea. We have anything.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

We have protein salsa. It tastes so good. We bring out every now and then. So what we do is we grab our own homemade salsa that you tried. Yeah. And then we blend it with cottage cheese and on flavor Greek yogurt. And now each servant's like 26 grams of protein, additional to the 65 that you get. The protein rates are great.

SPEAKER_07 50:04

And yeah, you just feel like refreshed after. You don't feel like, okay, I'm so full and I it's hot outside. And not a good mix.

SPEAKER_02 50:11

Yeah, we gotta lock, we gotta lock in on the protein. But no, I appreciate you two for making the time for coming on. And if I can do anything to continue to help you guys, like you know, I I saw that you're gonna be at some more events. Hopefully, Food Truck Friday. You're gonna have to prep a lot. Some of those trucks are doing three, four hundred tickets. That's what we have.

SPEAKER_01 50:26

Your your help, your help has been a pivotal point in in our journey. And we were telling the girls before you showed up that even the organizer of Lake St. Louis Farmers Market told us Saturday. I even texted you, he gave us a heads up. He said, Hey, just letting you know, a lot of people saw the article. So we've heard a lot of people are coming to see you. Please be ready. Be ready. Yeah. And we literally doubled our customers on Saturday. And over half of our customers were just telling us how they had seen us. Like, oh, we saw the article. Even other food trucks have reached out. It's like, hey, congratulations on the article. Like I knew people were gonna see it, but I didn't know that. I know, dude.

SPEAKER_02 51:06

You were tearing up on Kramer. You could you cut the camera before you started tearing up a little bit, bro. I was so high.

SPEAKER_07 51:11

Everything on the food truck is the only time this guy gets away. He said, I'm gonna get off the camera. I'm gonna get off the camera real quick. Food truck doing well makes this guy emotional. Just because there's been so many times we could have failed, but God has like just blessed us. I mean, like I said, we got the food truck blessed, and we have we have crucifixes and we have pictures, and we have rosaries in the truck. Like every time that we're about to fail, something just like works out.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

And it's always God, like it's always you know, like and it is the craziest part is we were just talking about this yesterday night, how a lot of times we would look at God and be like, why is this taking so long? And then recently I heard uh I was listening to a podcast of Father Mike Mike Smith, and he said that God, it's never late, but he's also never early. He's always on time. So all those failures that we endured for four years, it was just God preparing us for It wasn't the right time. Exactly. Because now that we've opened, everything just has fallen into place and I just kept it. If it would have happened before, I would have not known this. Or if it would have been before I would have not done I would have not done it this way. But it just felt like just how Father Schmidt said that got it perfectly on time, and it happened at the moment that it had to happen for us to know what we know now and unfolded the way it has been. Like it just feels like now it feels like we're doing all the right things. And I'm like, since when did we go from just completely fucking up? It happens like really quick. We're now doing all the right things. It does.

SPEAKER_07 52:47

It feels like things are like happening really quickly. Like last year was like, okay, cool, we're making some money, but we weren't doing it wasn't sustainable. We weren't doing any like marketing whatsoever. Since Hesler's taking over the marketing, I've just let him do his thing because I'm like, I'm at home pregnant and twins, and there's a lot going on. It's like I'm tired, but since he's taking it over, it's like it goes so quickly and more than it's like.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

Because

Content, Storytelling & Growing Fast

SPEAKER_02 53:07

it's authentic and it's not over. You're not trying too hard. And well, it seems like you're trying hard to edit those videos. I call the Love Island one, bro. Do it.

SPEAKER_01 53:14

I am trying so hard. Honestly, shouldn't have been sold out before Love Island. I was so pissed. That's not that I wanted to cry. I you're like, I didn't have enough food for the Love Island. Shout out, shout out to all like even you, people that are professional experts at content. Because sometimes it's Tuesday morning. I grab the tripod, I grab the iPad, all their cameras, head to the food truck, sit down, and I'm like, what the and you just am I gonna talk about?

SPEAKER_02 53:44

And then you get all the content, and you're like, well, how the fuck am I gonna put all this together? They're like, Can you help me put this into a video? That's why you gotta hire people like Bailey.

SPEAKER_01 53:52

It is so tough.

SPEAKER_02 53:53

It is so tough.

SPEAKER_07 53:55

And then you've gotten really good at it though. And then I put a lot of work into it.

SPEAKER_01 53:58

I follow so much count that daily, and I'm like, dude, how have you not run out of things to say? But that's that's what's really the making make that's what that's what's really making the the change right now.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

The content, the organic storytelling, the meeting people, and like just showing up and being out in the community. You can't make a difference if you're sitting at home planning. You gotta actually get out together.

SPEAKER_07 54:22

Yeah, this guy's like, I mean, he does stuff sometimes that I'm like normal people just don't do that crap. Like he goes and just like even the other day, he's like, whip up some tortillas. I'm gonna go take them to Dom at Orlando so he can taste them. So I'm like trying to create the packaging, I'm making the stickers.

SPEAKER_01 54:39

You already told us, you already told us.

SPEAKER_02 54:41

He's buying a new fridge, and we're putting the tortillas. He's buying over the sourdough. I met her, she does some sourdough.

SPEAKER_07 54:46

Yeah, we've gotten that sourdough actually. She's doing her own break and border. She's doing her own bakery.

SPEAKER_02 54:51

Oh, yeah. And she started. We'll definitely have to try that.

SPEAKER_07 54:53

Yeah, anything that's healthier than anything at the store we'll be buying. But yeah, they're like Hustler just he, I mean, he goes out and talks to people and like goes and meets people and just makes friends with like every he's very charismatic. So he's like a big reason as to you know the success and like really caring about the customers, like reaching out to everyone for feedback and just seeing like what can we constantly like if one person's like, same thing he did to me.

SPEAKER_02 55:19

If you never would have texted me that day, you never would be here right now because I would have just got food and left and we would have never had it. I forgot about it. No, but I but I texted me.

SPEAKER_07 55:26

If one person says the corn is a little too cold, he's like, All right, we're gonna make it hot. Like it's oh yeah, we did that.

SPEAKER_01 55:32

We were we were serving it cold because that's how I liked it. But then one person complained that they would like it warm, and then we sat down and we thought, okay, would anybody realistically say, I wish my corn was cold? No, but some people might actually want it warm, so easy change, and then now now it's warm or room temperature. But it's just one example. We care, we we really care because like I said, we removed the grade out of the equation. We're not in it for the money. We want to make money because we need we need it, but it it's it's not our drive. Our drive is definitely putting out something that that that that we're proud of, something that just how we're talking right now. You haven't been able to get me to shut up about our food just because I like I'll have that for lunch. I I had it for breakfast. Like I I lot what we cook, I love the way we cook it, and that's that's that's been really, really helping us. And that's that's what we want to do. The something that we feel proud and we we we were excited to share. Like I always tell everyone, like, come try this or come try that. Or sometimes we play around with salsas and we're just giving them away. I saw Emily Savage once at uh at Frankie's playing pickleball, and immediately I'm like, Oh, you gotta come try my food. Like, come here, have have one of this. Yeah, well, we're so proud about what we're doing that we just want to share it.

SPEAKER_02 56:55

Yeah, Emily

Local Shoutouts, Weddings & Outro

SPEAKER_02 56:56

and Steven are killing it too. With Cottle Village is unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

Another couple who's being helped in the world.

SPEAKER_07 57:00

They went there after our wedding, actually. Like in between our after the ceremony, in between the reception, we went there and we were all like getting burgers and hanging out outside.

SPEAKER_02 57:08

It's they have a great bourbon distillery. But no, I appreciate you two for coming on today, and uh, I'm glad we're able to tell this story and and continue to support you guys. So thank you so much for being here, and we'll see you guys on the show next Wednesday.

unknown 57:18

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 57:20

St. Louis, thanks for listening. Everything we do here is about telling the story of this city, and that doesn't stop with this show. On the Bucketlist Podcast Network, we're diving even deeper into the people, places, and moments that make this city what it is. Meet Me in Music with Neil Salcett captures the sound of the city, past and present, ending each episode with a live performance. For my Foodie Lovers, the sauce with Lauren Healy brings you inside the restaurants that define our culture every Tuesday. Gateway to Growth with Jamal Cornelius highlights the stories behind the people that make St. Louis work. And every Thursday, Bryce breaks down your weekend with This Week in St. Louis. More stories, more voices. Explore the full bucket list podcast network wherever you listen.