Episode 12 - Andres, owner of Goki Cafe in Arcadia

On Episode 12 Karen Mac Nair talks with Andres, owner of Goki Cafe where Mexican culinary traditions meet contemporary creativity in the heart of Arcadia. Goki Cafe will be presenting some of their dishes at the Taste of Arcadia. 

For more information and tickets to the Taste of Arcadia visit TasteOfArcadia.com. 

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Transcript

Karen Mac Nair 0:12

Hello everyone. I am Karen McNair, the CEO of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce. I am so excited we are on the second season of Tasting Arcadia. This is the second episode of the second season. Time is going fast. We are excited to have the owner of Goki Cafe in Arcadia. His name is Andres Welcome.

Andres 0:36

Thank you very much, Carrie.

Introducing Goki Cafe's Origin Story

Karen Mac Nair 0:38

So we're excited to get to know a little bit more about Goki Cafe, one of my favorite places, along with one of the Chamber's favorite places. Why don't you tell me a little bit about your business, of course, we're a family-owned and operated business.

Andres 0:51

I originally work from Mexico, my family is from Oaxaca and my wife is from Sonora, so the North and the South together.

Karen Mac Nair 1:00

Okay.

Andres 1:02

Our kids grew up in Oaxaca and then we moved to Los Angeles. I was working for the Consulate of Mexico and retired and put the business my wife. She's a pastry chef. She studied a professional bakery and then we decided to open the business, but we did it in the wrong time.

Karen Mac Nair 1:21

Oh, no, yeah, what year was it?

Andres 1:23

It was 2020.

Karen Mac Nair 1:25

Wow, right in the middle of the pandemic.

Andres 1:27

Actually we got the seal from the health department the last approval one week before the pandemic was.

Karen Mac Nair 1:35

Wow.

Andres 1:35

So it was a hard time, but now we have already five years in business and we're very happy to give service to the people, to the community. Our focus is like Mexican inspiration, but with a contemporary style.

Karen Mac Nair 1:49

Okay.

Andres 1:50

And then we do mostly sweet pastries and coffee. We have also a small savory menu, but our focus is more the pastries, all my white peppers, the kitchen and the coffee, which is also a Mexican coffee I'd love that.

Karen Mac Nair 2:09

I'd love that. It is unique, a representation of who you are as a family and also a representation of who we are as a community. So it's a beautiful expansion of all of that. So why don't you tell me a little bit about where you're actually located? Where is Goki Cafe?

Andres 2:29

Goki Cafe is exactly crossing the street from the metro station, so no way to get lost. Our address is 214 North 1st Avenue. Okay, it's Northern Huntington Avenue in Arcadia.

Family Business Operations and Hours

Karen Mac Nair 2:46

Okay, Love that and your hours of operation. When can we come to Goki Cafe we?

Andres 2:50

open every day at 7.30 in the morning and depends on the day of the week we close. You have to check our hours at Instagram. Yelp or Google. But I can say that from Monday to Wednesday we close at 3. Thursday, friday and Saturday at 5 o'. From Monday to Wednesday we close at 3,. Thursday, friday and Saturday at 5 o'clock and Sundays we close at 2. But I always ask to check our closing hours because sometimes it changes. But be sure that if you go there at 7.30, it will be already open.

Karen Mac Nair 3:18

Okay, so to be smart, you check the hours, but you also think if you're going to have coffee, it needs to be a little bit earlier in the day, right? Not many people, unless it's an espresso martini, I guess. Not many people have coffee after three anyway.

Andres 3:32

Yeah, we have rush hours and most of our customers come in the morning, but we're open also in the afternoon, especially in the weekends. People want to relax.

Karen Mac Nair 3:43

That makes sense, come with family.

Andres 3:45

Friday, saturdays, yeah, but in the morning, yeah, we were serving coffee all the day.

Karen Mac Nair 3:50

Okay, great, now you shared a little bit about. Your wife and yourself are in the business together. Are there any other family members that are helping with your business?

Andres 3:58

Actually, the whole family works there. My daughter is the manager, she's our boss. She graduated from Cal Poly, pomona. She's public relations and since we opened she's been working with us very hard. My two kids they also help. My son-in-law, he also helps my kids are one of them. He's still studying, so he's there helping us sometimes. And mother, my other kid, he comes and goes from Mexico. Oh, wow, yeah, but we're actually just six people working, three of them three of us full-time and the rest just helping from well, that is a.

Andres 4:40

It's a it's very interesting because, uh, when we nobody knew anything about a business, yes, so we have learned in the process and I think that it's been a very good lessons for them, good educations. I think that when we opened the business when the pandemic was in the peak, they make a very reliant, restless. I mean to affront the situation. The times were very hard. We never closed. We tried to serve the people, and especially them.

Karen Mac Nair 5:22

They understood that life was not easy, so I'm very happy that we have passed through that process uh-huh and that they have learned a lot on that you know it's a tough training ground to be doing it live and in person when things are hard, but you've been a great model for your children to how to keep going, so I feel like that was a great life lesson. So good job, dad.

Andres 5:45

Thank you.

The Meaning Behind Goki's Logo

Karen Mac Nair 5:46

Okay, I want you to tell me a little bit about your logo, because it has beautiful peacock feathers. Most people might attribute that to being in Arcadia, but I feel like there's a story behind it. Do you mind sharing that little history story of your logo?

Andres 6:01

It is. As I mentioned, my family is from Oaxaca, so there we speak Zapoteco, which is an indigenous language. It's a very strong and important indigenous community group culture and in Zapoteco, the peacock, which is the icon of Arcadia, means you translate it into the royal bird or the noble bird. Okay, so it sounds like bere goki. Bere means bird and goki means noble or royal. So we wanted to attach our grounds, our culture, our origins, with some important thing of Arcadia, the icon of Arcadia. Yes, so that's how we met the two bases that we are set up Our origin, our culture, and the city that has hospitals.

Karen Mac Nair 6:55

That has to take care of all the royal birds that are walking on the streets. We know to go to Goki Cafe for that reminder.

Andres 7:01

Yes, so that means a noble royal, but also the symbol is of course the feathers, but it's also mentioned that it also has to be with the coffee, if you see, there it's like a coffee bean shape, oh nice. And also my wife says that it's our three kids, so one feather for each of our kids.

Karen Mac Nair 7:22

I love that. Definitely family-centered and community-centered that is awesome.

Andres 7:27

It's a noble coffee. That's what we want to inspire the novelty of our culture, of our origins.

Popular Pastries and Coffee Offerings

Karen Mac Nair 7:34

That is a great story. Okay, we're going to talk a little bit about Goki itself. What is your favorite dish or pastry that your wife is making for Goki? What do you feel like is your?

Andres 7:46

favorite. I brought some uh, I like a lot of banana nut bread, which is not here, and the cranberry pecan cookie. I like it very much for me. I'm not a very sweet person, I don't like, but sometimes I do and I always try. The conscious are wonderful as well.

Karen Mac Nair 8:09

I mean I try not with them too much, but but at least one at one a week yeah, I agree, your conscious are delicious, but you do have to run around the block to burn off the calories to make sure.

Andres 8:22

So yeah, that's my. And related to coffees, I like a strong coffee, I like the double espresso or a cold brew or an Americano, short Americano. If it's in the morning, I always. We get there at 5 o'clock in the morning.

Karen Mac Nair 8:40

Okay, so you need the strong stuff.

Andres 8:42

And I do a double shot of espresso every morning. That's my first thing in my stomach.

Karen Mac Nair 8:49

I would agree with that. That early you'd need a blast. So what is the most popular thing that's ordered at Goki Cafe?

Andres 8:57

Okay. For pastries, I would say that the churro cheesecake which is here. Okay, the Mexican-style cornbread.

Karen Mac Nair 9:04

Okay, very excited to try all that, very, very good.

Andres 9:08

The conchas, of course.

Karen Mac Nair 9:10

The conchas are very, very popular.

Andres 9:12

The coffee cake is also popular as well, and my wife every other week she makes something. It depends on the season. Now we have the carrot nut cake, which is very good, moisture carrot nut cake, which is very good, moisture, very and I would say that she has a wide variety of uh options and some of them we have them for good all the time and some of them they are moving.

Andres 9:35

Depends on the depending on the season okay but uh, and as I mentioned at the beginning, this is a Mexican inspiration, but it's like her story there, so things that she likes and she tries to make up or improve or something that she learned. So you wouldn't find necessarily the conchas you would find in the market.

Karen Mac Nair 9:57

Okay.

Andres 9:59

This is a different style. It's a concha that she invented.

Karen Mac Nair 10:03

Her inspiration are the family recipes, or does she add her own flavor to them?

Andres 10:08

There are family recipes we just had. Her mother was visiting us like two months ago.

Karen Mac Nair 10:15

Okay.

Andres 10:15

And we made the arroz con leche de la abuela. The grandma's arroz con leche. She has a lot because her story is also very interesting. She was, she grew up in Sonora, in Hermosillo, and her aunt she used to have a bakery a panaderia. So she says that in the afternoon she stayed with her friends to play with dolls. She was going to play with the doll, so that's how she learned and she was always inspired with that.

Karen Mac Nair 10:51

So that's what is behind her. That's a great way to be inspired is by yeah, she was like four years old. Oh, family inspiration Love it. Do you feel like there's something in your business that you're most proud of? We hear a lot about the legacy of your family. Is there anything that really makes you so happy?

Andres 11:09

I think that surviving the pandemic was.

Karen Mac Nair 11:12

I'd agree with that.

Andres 11:15

Even for my own story. I didn't do any business before and I have worked in the government, in the private sector, in Mexico, here in the United States, and then opening a business in the worst time in the world. Yes, no knowledge about the business, not my country, all the challenges that we have. So that's what makes us very proud.

Surviving the Pandemic: A Point of Pride

Karen Mac Nair 11:45

You know you are a chamber member so we're very proud of that for you, also because to watch your new business grow and your legacy in the community continue to grow and being partners together in so many things. It makes us proud that you are still around and flourishing, so good job.

Andres 12:02

Thank you, and we're also proud about being a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

Karen Mac Nair 12:08

Thank you.

Andres 12:09

All the support that we have from you is being wonderful for our business.

Karen Mac Nair 12:13

Thank you. I appreciate that we try so giving back to you. What is a way the community, the people listening, ways we could support you? What would be a great way to support your business?

Andres 12:23

Well, give a chance to visit us and live the experience. I think this is the best time of supporting us and also to have a good experience for the people.

Karen Mac Nair 12:33

Yes.

Andres 12:34

They still don't know us. I'm surprised that we I think that we have grown fast and many people know about us, but still we have some people that we need to reach.

Karen Mac Nair 12:49

It's word of mouth helps you, just sharing about it.

Andres 12:52

Our growth has been very organic, so most of our customers are very loyal. They come back or they spread the word and say Hi, somebody recommend me. That's how we've been growing since we started.

Preparing for Taste of Arcadia

Karen Mac Nair 13:07

Great. So the reason we're here is to talk about Taste of Arcadia. Just to let everybody know, Taste of Arcadia is coming. It is September 13th at Santa Anita Park. We're starting to sell tickets, we're getting food and drink vendors confirmed and Goki Cafe is going to be there. I am proud to announce if I could do a drum roll. It's your first time at this event, so we're really excited. Can you share a little bit about some things you're planning to bring for?

Andres 13:37

Taste. Thank you. We're also very excited to be part of this important event. This time, of course, we'll be with some of our pastries, probably the cornbread, which is very popular. It's going to be hot, so we're planning to bring also iced coffee.

Karen Mac Nair 13:54

Love that.

Andres 13:54

We have a very nice medium roast coffee from Chiapas, from Mexico, so probably another kind of pastry, some cookies. Some of our cookies are very popular as well.

Karen Mac Nair 14:09

I smile because that's going to make so many people happy. Some nice iced coffee and a great pastry and cookie. They're going to love it. Yeah, thank you. So is there anything else about your business you wanted to share before we dive in and taste some of these great goodies?

Tasting a Variety of Unique Pastries

Andres 14:24

well, I think that we. There's something that I really was surprised when we opened Most of our customers are not Mexicans, but many Asian people, of course, live in Arcadia. We have a very good base of Asian people and I was surprised because when we opened, I was telling my family so who's your customer? Do you have Mexicanos going there?

Andres 14:58

No, we do, but most of our customers are people that they want to try different experiences different tastes from, not necessarily their cultures, and that's something that really makes me proud and, at the beginning, surprised. But now that we're serving other cultures, other kind of people, and I learn a lot from them, other kind of people and I learn a lot from them. I try to chat a lot with my customers, give a very direct customer service, so I have learned a lot in these five years about different people, different cultures, and that's something that I will always have here in my heart and in my mind.

Karen Mac Nair 15:36

I love that. I love that it is something. Food crosses all borders, boundaries. It just helps bring people together. So, like culturally, it helps us get to know each other. So that is a great story to share. So everyone who's out there listening in front of us now, we have one, two, three, four, five wonderful pastries that we are going to hear about and taste those of you who are watching on the YouTube channel we're going to get to taste them. So why don't we tell us about a few of them? And then I'm going to try them.

Andres 16:08

Okay, let's start with it. Well, this is the cornbread, the Mexican-style cornbread.

Karen Mac Nair 16:14

Okay, oh, everything's packaged too.

Andres 16:16

So if you, want to do it.

Karen Mac Nair 16:19

You're going to hear that those are things you can pick up and take them to work with you.

Andres 16:23

Yeah, and also everything is labeled.

Karen Mac Nair 16:25

Okay.

Andres 16:25

So you know what exactly you're eating. If you go there, you can check the labels and see what you're eating.

Karen Mac Nair 16:31

Okay, great.

Andres 16:32

Because some people they don't eat peanuts, for example.

Karen Mac Nair 16:38

Any food allergies?

Andres 16:39

yeah, so fresh and packaged and labeled.

Karen Mac Nair 16:43

This is a cornbread, this is cornbread.

Andres 16:45

It's a recipe that my wife developed. It's a Mexican-style cornbread.

Karen Mac Nair 16:51

It looks very moist, so we use real corn.

Andres 16:56

This is actually our number one seller. Okay.

Karen Mac Nair 16:59

So for the cameras, here we go.

Andres 17:01

Everyone at home, I'm taking a bite of the cornbread. Good chocolate from Oaxaca oh we didn't bring the chocolate you guys, everyone said okay, just having the cornbread. Mmm, it's like cake yeah, it's very moisture and very moist, so good.

Karen Mac Nair 17:22

It does definitely have a cake consistency, rather than I grew up with, like a chili and cornbread. This is much more of a pastry. It is a pastry, yes, tasting melts in your mouth, delicious.

Andres 17:34

And it could be a very good start in the morning. I have noticed that in the morning people go get more bread, For example the cornbread, the coffee cake, the banana nut bread example the cornbread, the coffee cake, the banana nut bread, and right in the afternoon some people get sleepy a little bit of coffee and a pastry, so we have also cookies.

Andres 17:54

These are very popular in the cookies in the afternoon. This is called Aleph cookie and the reason it's called Aleph is because my youngest son, his name, is Aleph and these were his favorite. Okay, so my wife named it after his the Aleph cookie. Aleph because my youngest son, his name is Aleph and this is his favorite, okay. So my wife named it after his.

Karen Mac Nair 18:09

The Aleph cookie. Aleph cookie yeah, so it's a chocolate buttery chip cookie.

Andres 18:15

We also have an oat milk chocolate chip cookie, but this is just buttery chocolate.

Karen Mac Nair 18:20

So this cookie. To help describe it, it is a chocolate chip but it's thin.

Andres 18:23

It's thin, yes, it's not. And the package comes with two.

Karen Mac Nair 18:27

With two packaged in there. I'm going to show the camera. Check that out. Love that.

Andres 18:33

Those are very popular as well.

Karen Mac Nair 18:35

It looks like a moon, a full moon, with its beautiful chocolate chips in it. Mmm, I know I'm not supposed to talk with my mouth full, but this is delicious. This would be great, even with tea. We talked about coffee a lot, but I know you have a great array of teas that you serve there.

Andres 18:54

We have a tea, a very local tea from Oaxaca. It's called a poleo tea. It's very refreshing. It's very good for blood pressure, for the stomach. It's from the family of the mint. Oaxaca is very good for blood pressure, for the stomach. Oh, it's from the family of the mint. Okay, and Oaxaca is very popular. I call it the Mexican Gatorade. Okay, that's a joke, because it's very good for hydration.

Karen Mac Nair 19:15

Uh-huh.

Andres 19:16

Even for hangovers.

Karen Mac Nair 19:18

Oh, now you're going to have a line on Sunday morning.

Andres 19:23

Let me tell you this In Oaxaca, when the parties are lost, like for three days, they last for three days you have, for example, a quinceanera or a baptism or a wedding. So the very last day they give you your basket in the villages you have baskets with the mole, chicken, rice, tortillas and they put your some leaves from the tea so you can make your own tea the day after.

Karen Mac Nair 19:51

Oh, and then you can get relief.

Andres 19:53

That is nice, but besides that it's a very healthy tea. You can have it hot, which is a traditional way. We also serve it cold.

Karen Mac Nair 20:03

Okay.

Andres 20:06

It's very good for thirsting. It's very, very good. Okay, it hydrates very well and and it also helps with your stomach with blood pressure very healthy oh, I love that.

Karen Mac Nair 20:16

I'm gonna have to go try that. Yeah, okay, what do we have next?

Andres 20:19

this is a. This is also something that my wife made up. This is a, a churro cheesecake, so that shows her history coming to the US, because it has the Spanish-Mexican inspiration of the churro, but also a base of a cheesecake, so it's not a long churro like you would think.

Karen Mac Nair 20:43

Just help describe it it is a square like a cake but it looks like the consistency is like a churro on the inside.

Andres 20:53

The consistency it has cinnamon, of course.

Karen Mac Nair 20:56

Oh, cinnamon on the top sprinkled.

Andres 20:59

This is also very popular and you eat it cold. Oh, you eat it cold. Yeah, we have it in the ref at the store and that's a pastry that you eat it cold. Oh, you're cold. Yeah, we have it in the ref at the store and that's a pastry that you eat cold. It's like a cream in the middle. Yeah, wow, so good.

Karen Mac Nair 21:16

I do love the cinnamon. I'm a big cinnamon fan.

Andres 21:19

All right, so in the same family, the last two.

Karen Mac Nair 21:22

It's a good thing, the same family.

Andres 21:23

This is a tarta de queso cheese tart.

Karen Mac Nair 21:26

Okay.

Andres 21:27

So imagine that this is a Spanish-style from San Sebastian.

Karen Mac Nair 21:33

Okay.

Andres 21:34

And imagine that this is also gluten-free options. We have gluten-free and vegan options at the store.

Karen Mac Nair 21:40

Oh, vegan too. So gluten-free and vegan. This is a gluten-free option.

Andres 21:44

Yeah, vegan too. So gluten-free and vegan. This is a gluten-free option, yeah, and then it's like it's very similar to a cheesecake, but without the crust?

Karen Mac Nair 21:51

oh no, crust, it's circular yeah, it's also creamy.

Andres 21:55

It's a good dessert as well I'm trying, sometimes we put the red fruits on the top and it also makes it very delicious.

Karen Mac Nair 22:04

You can strawberries, blackberry, all the berries this is a great summertime with your dinners delicious. It really is creamy. Your wife does have a talent boy, thank you okay, and then the last one this for the surprise, for this season and this is a cuatro leches, not tres leches, oh so there's four.

Andres 22:28

She added an extra leche extra milk.

Karen Mac Nair 22:31

I'm smiling for all the people to see.

Andres 22:34

And I love the pecs because it's a cow, you see, oh it is.

Karen Mac Nair 22:37

I love that. So there's the casing it is in. It looks like a small bowl, but it has the white with the black spots like a cow and strawberries sprinkled on top with whipped cream. Is that whipped?

Andres 22:51

cream in there. That's cream, yes.

Karen Mac Nair 22:53

Okay With the cake.

Andres 22:58

And cuatro leches, no tres leches.

Karen Mac Nair 23:01

Mmm, you can hear me chewing. That is delicious. The strawberries on top, that is a nice little tart kick.

Andres 23:11

A little bit of balance with the acidity and the sweetness of the cake.

Karen Mac Nair 23:16

So smart. I forget that, because sometimes if it's too sweet, this is a nice balance.

Andres 23:22

And also something that we try to do is not abuse of the sugar, even that we sell sugar.

Karen Mac Nair 23:29

Yes.

Andres 23:30

She tries to keep more accent on the different ingredients that compose the pastry.

The Show Wrap and Taste of Arcadia Info

Karen Mac Nair 23:39

I so love that because I feel like then you genuinely get to enjoy the whole dessert. Sometimes, if it is too much sugar, too sweet, it gets cut off too soon, although I'm sure all of you chocolate and sugar lovers out there just think I'm nuts for even saying that more and more and more, but it is a good balance.

Karen Mac Nair 23:56

It really is. Well, thank you so much for being here. We just want to encourage everyone that's listening visit Goki Cafe, Try some of these wonderful desserts, some of the teas, some of the coffees, and then let's go to Taste of Arcadia.

Andres 24:14

Yay.

Karen Mac Nair 24:15

September 13th, let's buy our tickets for Taste of Arcadia. You go to tasteofarcadiacom. I also want to encourage you. August 3rd is the last day for the early bird special for tickets. On August 4th it goes up to $79. So it's only $69. So get your tickets today. Continue listening to our Tasting Arcadia podcast on your favorite podcast channel. We'll be on YouTube, spotify, apple Podcasts, iheartradio Just a great way to continue to see who else will be at Taste of Arcadia. My mouth is watering. This is so hard to do a tasting show. I don't know how they do it on television. I'm trying to make it work, so I apologize, but it's just so delicious. So thank you everyone for listening. Stay tuned for our new podcast episode coming soon. And thank you so much. We will see you soon. Bye-bye.