La Finca Coffee & Bakery 's Podcast

Beyond Tex-Mex: Lee Gonzales' Culinary Journey with La Finca Mexican Delicacies

• Lee Gonzales • Episode 3

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What Does A Mexican-Inspired Menu Mean?

Discover the true essence of Mexican cuisine with Lee Gonzales, the passionate owner and founder of La Finca Coffee & Bakery. Through his decade-long experience in Mexico, Lee unveils the vibrant diversity of traditional Mexican dishes that go beyond the usual Tex-Mex fare. Prepare to be tantalized by stories of chile en nogada, mole negro, and the savory breakfast delights of chilaquiles and huevos rancheros. Lee emphasizes the importance of using fresh ingredients and traditional cooking methods to bring these authentic flavors to their coffee shops in Frisco and Prosper, ensuring every dish is a genuine experience.

Join us as we delve into the cultural significance of seasonal Mexican foods like pan de muerto and rosca de reyes, and how La Finca aims to connect customers with Mexican heritage through meaningful culinary experiences. We also explore the unexpected yet delightful combinations that make La Finca a unique destination, celebrating the joyful synergy of relationships and coffee. Tune in to this episode for an engaging and heartfelt conversation that highlights the unique menu and mission behind La Finca Coffee & Bakery.

To learn more about La Finca Coffee & Bakery go to:
https://lafincacoffeebakery.com/

La Finca Coffee & Bakery
7511 Main Street, #150
Frisco, Texas 75034
972.486.9600

2281 E. University Dr #10
Prosper, Texas 75078
972.503.9400

Speaker 1:

welcome to the la finca coffee and bakery podcast, where coffee beans and connections are brewed to perfection. Leading the way is our owner, founder and ceo of the baristas, lee gonzalez are you curious about what a Mexican-inspired menu really means?

Speaker 2:

Join us as we chat with the owner of Texas' top coffee shop serving up delicious surprise in Frisco and Prosper that go way beyond your regular cup of joe. Welcome back everyone. I'm Sofia Yvette, co-host, slash producer. Back in the studio with Lee Gonzalez Lee, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

It's going well. It's great to be here recording another episode of our podcast.

Speaker 2:

Yes, most definitely so, Lee. What does a Mexican-inspired menu mean?

Speaker 3:

What does a Mexican inspired menu mean? So for us, we spent 10 years in Mexico and while we were in Mexico we were able to travel a lot of the country and travel in the country. I thought I knew what the Mexican culture was. I thought I knew what the Mexican cuisine looked like, but I started tasting some foods that just were mind blowing. They were amazing to me and opened up on another perspective. I will tell you, before I moved to Mexico, I really enjoyed Tex-Mex food. I thought it was really good and after being 10 years in Mexico, I came back and I realized it was nothing like what the cuisine in Mexico looked like and it just really showed me something new. Like and it just really showed me something new.

Speaker 3:

And so as if you think about you know, we think certain things might be Mexican, but as I was going through different parts of the country of Mexico and tasting something like around Mexican Independence Day, which is recently passed, chile Nogadas, we think about Chile Poblanos. But when you have a filling that has fruit mixed into it, you also have pomegranate on it, you have a cream sauce on it. It's way different than what you've ever seen, but it's a very long tradition in the Mexican food cuisine when you go to certain parts of the country. You go to Oaxaca and you have mole negro and you start tasting the chocolate and in mole and you realize that all the ingredients they put into it and all the work that's put into it and the just the variety of flavors that you get in that food to somewhere like Guadalajara where you might get tortas ahogadas or you might get something like carne en su jugo, and you start all these different cuisines, you start tasting them from different parts of the country and you realize there's such a variety and then one of the big staples and that we've really been able to share here is Mexican breakfast. Anywhere across the country you will have anything. You know. Chilaquiles are just a staple. You would have molletes, huevos rancheros, and you could almost go anywhere in the country and you could find that for breakfast Anything from a very humbled on the sidewalk little restaurant to a very elegant high-end restaurant.

Speaker 3:

And so when we started tasting these things and we moved back here to Frisco, we started wanting to say we wanted to share that experience with our customers. We wanted to be able to. Not everybody necessarily can travel around the country, maybe to the extent as we were able to. But what if we could share those experiences Like? What is that culture is like? What is the significance Like, if you think pan de muerto coming up at the, you know, november 1st and 2nd for the Dia de los Muertos, and the bread that's made that time of year, arrozca de Reyes that's done for King's Day in early January. And if we could bring those traditions and we could bring those flavors back and share them with the local community and give them a peek into what is the Mexican cuisine tastes like, what is that authentic Mexican menu would look like and bring it into the comfort of you know, their local place. And so that was the inspiration for us place and so that was the inspiration for us. And anything from a, if you think, a cafe de olla, to chilaquiles, to pan de muerto, to a concha, to molletes, to whatever we can bring to. But we can bring those experiences to you.

Speaker 3:

And our biggest compliment and I heard this this other day from one of our customers is he got through eating breakfast. It was a gentleman that came with his son they were from about an hour away, were visiting, came to have breakfast and the first thing he told me. I asked him how everything was and his response to me is that I really enjoyed the food. It reminds me of my Mexico. He had been from Aguascalientes, that's where he was from and that's where he grew up. He's been in the States now, but it took him back to home for him. When I say when people tell me, this reminds me of my, when I grew up in Mexico City and my mom would make these for us, that's what we want to bring to our customers, that's what we want to bring to the table, and so when we talk about a Mexican-inspired menu, it's not only what we serve, but those experiences that we want to serve along with it.

Speaker 2:

And how do you incorporate traditional Mexican flavors into your Frisco and Prosper coffee shops? Additional Mexican flavors into your Frisco and Prosper coffee chops.

Speaker 3:

So one of the things is we intentionally, because in order to do it well, we pretty much make everything from scratch. So an example would be like a chilaquiles, we don't go and buy some tortilla chips that are already pre-made. We buy corn tortillas, we cut them up. We buy corn tortillas, we cut them up, we make our own chips. We don't go buy a pre-made green sauce or red sauce in a jar and just heat it up and put it on there. We make everything from scratch. So we'll buy epazote, we'll buy tomatillos, we'll buy Roma tomatoes, we buy onions, we cook them and we make the sauce from scratch so that it brings that authenticity, those flavors that you find in those examples that I just mentioned to you earlier.

Speaker 3:

And so we make our own breads. We make our own bolillo breads. We make our teleras for our torta. So a telera is the softer, traditional bread that a Mexican sandwich would be made with. We make the bolillo bread, which is a breakfast bread that, if you think about, in the American breakfast it would be equivalent to the Mexican version of toast for breakfast. And we do all those things, like I said, to bring that same flavor, that same quality in our menu and incorporate them into what we serve.

Speaker 2:

And what is the most popular Mexican inspired item on your menu that keeps customers coming back for more?

Speaker 3:

I think I mentioned it earlier it has to be those chilaquiles. I remember when we first opened up here months before we opened it up that I had people that were that. I had people who would ask are you really going to serve it the way you served it in Mexico? Because we ran a place in Mexico for six years. And I told them yes, we're going to bring it exactly the way it is, we're not going to change anything on our recipe. And they were just curious as to if it would really work well.

Speaker 3:

And I remember the first few months as we opened up, we would get that question that they'd see that plate being taken out to a customer and the question would be what is that? What are those? And I remember, out of curiosity, people would start ordering it, try to taste it and so forth. And I will tell you now we're almost four years into it, it's our number one selling dish. It's what a lot of people come for, a lot of people recommend us for it's because it reminds them, as I mentioned to you, of what they had at home, reminds them of that growing up in Mexico, and so that's probably the number one dish, when we think about that sales on the menu. That is Mexican, authentic Mexican.

Speaker 2:

Wow. So when you first came here, many people didn't know what you lucky list work well, I think it wasn't necessarily available in a lot of places.

Speaker 3:

there were other parts of the Dallas area where you could travel 30, 45 minutes an hour away and you could find it maybe more regularly on the menu places, but very few places would serve it regularly, had it it on the menu, and definitely not very many coffee shops had it.

Speaker 3:

I would say we operate a lot more like a Latin American European cafe that has a nice mix of food and coffee. And so when you come in and think and I'm getting a latte one of the previous episodes we recorded how coffee, you know where it comes from and how it's served, and so you have that person who's coming for coffee and finds this menu of food, they're just like, wow, this is interesting. And so we would get a lot of people who were one item brought them in and it made them get familiar with the other items and it was very interesting how it's become normal now. But think, at the beginning it wasn't quite probably the combination most people expected well, love it, lee.

Speaker 2:

We'll catch you in the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Have a great day thank you thanks for tuning in to the La Finca Coffee and Bakery podcast, where coffee beans and relationships are always on the brew. Visit us online at lafincacoffeebakerycom. That's lafincacoffeebakerycom. Or drop by our Frisco or Prosper locations for a nurturing cup of goodness.