You Can Indulge Here But Not Feel Guilty

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[Applause]

00:13

forever

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what's up everybody welcome back to

00:18

another episode of the greetings from

00:20

the garden state podcast i'm mike ham we

00:22

are here in short hills uh today at

00:24

taste buddy with angie segura and alexa

00:26

clark hi welcome

00:28

thank you yeah thank you for having me

00:30

here um this is like a really i i knew

00:33

about this wall beforehand but just like

00:35

seeing it in person is absolutely epic

00:38

so that's why this was like i really

00:39

need to get taste buddy on because i

00:41

want this as part of my show yeah

00:44

exactly thanks yeah everyone seems to

00:46

really love it angie worked very hard

00:49

she put up all the pineapples

00:51

every single pineapple diy project yeah

00:54

yeah no i love it and so let's talk

00:56

about let's just for the listeners if

00:58

they don't know what taste buddy is and

01:00

you guys have been open for two months

01:01

at this point of the time of the

01:02

recording by the time it posts maybe

01:04

three or four months at that point um so

01:07

what is taste buddy

01:10

okay so it's a gluten-free bakery

01:14

that we also have juices smoothies bowls

01:16

coffee tea our coffee is from mod cup in

01:19

jersey city okay which is

01:22

delicious delicious coffee amazing but

01:24

really the idea is kind of

01:27

to have a balance between

01:30

life like because you know people say

01:32

like oh balance and food is really what

01:34

the key is

01:36

so that's kind of like our

01:38

our idea so we have like the sweets

01:41

which are very popular and then we kind

01:43

of you can come in the next day and get

01:45

a bowl or a juice or smoothie and you

01:47

can kind of balance out your

01:50

diet right you know what i mean yeah

01:52

yeah that's really so what um and i

01:54

think we talked about this on the phone

01:55

when we were doing like our intro call

01:57

but like how did you guys meet and then

01:59

eventually get yourself to this moment

02:02

you know now sitting here on the

02:03

greetings from the garden state podcast

02:05

um we both met

02:07

six years ago yeah um at a restaurant

02:09

that we both worked in she was the head

02:11

pastry chef and i was uh

02:13

the head server there um it was in

02:16

millburn which is

02:17

less than two miles away from here

02:20

and

02:21

um we kept

02:23

in touch ever since because we both

02:25

moved in different directions

02:27

and

02:28

uh i always told alexa when i met her i

02:30

always had this feeling that we were

02:32

going to end up working together again i

02:35

just didn't know how and i always told

02:36

her that i had this feeling that we are

02:39

going to be together again and work on a

02:42

bigger project than we were already

02:44

doing right

02:46

um

02:48

so how did it start

02:51

i was i was working at a restaurant and

02:53

i really didn't like it i didn't like

02:55

the place it it felt very draining and

02:58

like i was like i don't know where to go

03:00

with my life and angie was kind of in

03:02

the same boat in like a different idea

03:04

but like we were both like what are we

03:06

going to do

03:08

and then one day we just got together

03:09

and was like let's start something

03:10

ourselves and then

03:13

snowballed from there really yeah

03:15

originally it was just going to be a

03:17

home

03:18

project we're going to start from home

03:21

you know very small goal

03:23

deliveries

03:24

and we're like why not take this risk

03:28

and

03:29

go for it yeah we've both been in the

03:31

industry for over 10 years

03:33

we both are very knowledgeable both

03:35

front and back alexa has a lot of

03:37

knowledge in back of the house she's

03:39

cooked

03:40

all these years i have a lot of

03:42

knowledge front of the house i've served

03:44

i've managed i've also been in the

03:47

kitchen before so

03:48

it's

03:49

it's one of those things where like it's

03:51

now or never yeah and

03:53

we just went for it yeah yeah no i love

03:56

that and so like as you guys because i

03:58

think you you met six years ago but then

04:00

you kind of like went to work at

04:02

different places yeah and then

04:03

eventually got reconnected somehow um

04:05

but like when you were

04:08

i guess maybe rolling around ideas of

04:09

what you could do

04:11

how come this was like the concept you

04:14

know what i mean

04:15

uh

04:16

is that a good question yeah it is a

04:18

great question it's hard it's a hard

04:20

answer because

04:22

it yeah it kind of just

04:24

really it was like one idea after the

04:26

other at first it was just going to be

04:28

completely

04:29

health yes

04:31

it was just going to be meal preps

04:33

and smoothies juices

04:36

yeah yeah and then we're like why not

04:38

use alexa's background yeah because all

04:40

i really knew it know is pastry

04:43

right she is a phenomenal pastry chef

04:46

and she's she always has been

04:48

everything that she's ever put in front

04:49

of my plate uh

04:51

in front of my face it doesn't last long

04:54

and it's very original and you know we

04:56

were like you know what we need to

04:58

incorporate this into our

05:00

plan yeah yeah yeah so that's kind of

05:03

how and then we just came into play and

05:05

then we were looking for spaces we saw

05:07

this space that was a bakery beforehand

05:10

and that's really what made us like go

05:13

to that extreme yeah because we were

05:14

like we really like this location and

05:16

space

05:18

so let's do it and we were like

05:20

went full force

05:22

right and so like what's been you know

05:24

like your experience like i mentioned

05:25

before you've been open for two months

05:28

and what's been the experience like in

05:30

these first two months has it been i'm

05:31

assuming received well you know like

05:33

people enjoy it people are coming in all

05:35

that kind of stuff the community is

05:37

extremely welcoming i mean the both of

05:40

us are not from here

05:41

um and everyone has welcomed us with

05:44

open arms so yeah it has been

05:46

overwhelming in the best way possible

05:49

and a lot of people coming back which is

05:51

the best sign exactly yeah right so

05:54

yeah a lot of instagram moments i'm sure

05:56

with the wall and the food and the

05:57

whatever you know yeah yeah exactly so

06:00

um so talking about that too you know

06:02

like you're in like this stretch

06:04

uh was this this road here uh milburn

06:07

avenue milburn avenue in short hills you

06:09

got all these different businesses all

06:10

these different things and you know like

06:12

what's kind of the

06:14

you know is there like a buzz downtown

06:16

like people is it like a lot of people

06:18

walking around coming down trying

06:20

something all that kind of stuff

06:22

yeah so we're like there's

06:24

the center of melbourne down there which

06:26

is definitely more popping and more

06:28

buzzing yeah and then people who live in

06:31

short hills i think they really are

06:33

learning that we're here and they don't

06:35

have to go all the way all the way to

06:37

melbourne like

06:38

it can be a little annoying yeah so

06:40

you know people are definitely congested

06:42

more yeah yeah yeah it's the center of

06:44

town right so

06:46

yeah i think i think people are

06:48

getting to know that we're here and

06:50

coming back and the high school's not

06:51

too far from here it's less than two

06:54

blocks away if you usually if you come

06:55

around like fridays around three o'clock

06:57

there's like a good amount of teenagers

07:03

and then so when they're coming by like

07:06

what are the things that like if you go

07:07

to taste buddy you have to get fill in

07:09

the blank what is what is the thing

07:12

it could be multiple things it could be

07:13

all of it

07:14

i guess but um but are like there are

07:16

things that you see that people are just

07:18

like yeah like this is this is great you

07:20

know i got to get this all the time or

07:21

they come back for like one specific

07:23

thing or they trying a lot of things

07:26

every week it kind of changes yeah i

07:28

would say this week there was a a lot of

07:30

people talking about the banana bread

07:33

oh yeah

07:34

which is like people just like will come

07:37

in and be like i love this i need this

07:39

and then maybe they'll branch out

07:41

another time but yeah and i would say

07:44

our most popular bowl is either the

07:46

taste buddy og or the born this way

07:48

right which people

07:50

both love

07:52

but smoothies are very popular

07:54

throughout the week a lot of people come

07:56

in and get a smoothie yeah sometimes i

07:58

do a little mix of smoothie and a pastry

08:00

yeah yeah sure right a little balance

08:02

life's all about balance but that's how

08:04

we are we're all about

08:06

i'm like the worst salesman because

08:07

people will come in and be like what's

08:08

your favorite and i'm like

08:10

uh but that's like the worst questions

08:15

don't get the balls because i hate those

08:19

i'm like are you gonna go make tell me

08:21

to make a do a

08:24

like okay juice

08:26

yeah whatever it's your decision but a

08:28

lot of people do like to be like

08:31

like

08:32

guided in a way as to what they

08:34

especially if it's their first time

08:36

right yeah yeah and so you know i think

08:38

that's also kind of interesting too

08:39

because you have a lot of

08:41

creative control over oh there's

08:43

somebody trying to get in but um

08:46

we're closed

08:48

uh but uh all right sidetracked but like

08:51

a lot of creative control over what

08:53

you're doing because you mentioned you

08:53

were working at a restaurant before and

08:55

you were unhappy so like what's what's

08:56

it been like the transition from being

08:58

you know like an employee at a

09:00

restaurant or a bakery or whatever to

09:02

you know now being like we could do

09:04

whatever we want you know that's a

09:05

little weird honestly it's surreal and i

09:08

tell her this all the time i can't

09:09

believe that this store is ours yeah

09:11

yeah sometimes i feel like okay well

09:14

what is so and so going to think and

09:16

it's like

09:17

it's just us we're the decision makers

09:19

here there's not really anyone telling

09:21

us you can't do this and you can't do

09:23

that it's

09:24

where yeah to do as we choose

09:27

right

09:28

i think sometimes

09:29

we can definitely overthink things be

09:31

like will people actually buy this if we

09:33

put this on the menu like would it be

09:35

too weird for you like something so

09:37

small like

09:38

we ordered a bunch of persimmons and we

09:40

were like wow people don't know what

09:42

persimmons are i have no idea what it is

09:46

it's delicious

09:47

reaction by

09:53

so we were like okay you know

09:55

take it a little down a little notches

09:57

and make it more like yeah right easy

10:00

exactly yeah and then you know does the

10:03

i'm assuming just because of like the

10:05

seasons and all that and like trying to

10:08

do stuff for the seasons absolutely yeah

10:10

yeah and like what what's been maybe

10:12

like for thanksgiving just because

10:14

thanksgiving just happened uh what was

10:16

like some of the stuff that was you guys

10:18

had for thanksgiving the normal like you

10:21

know pumpkin pie

10:23

apple pie

10:24

um crumb cake sold

10:27

a lot yeah which we love crumb cakes it

10:29

was delicious

10:31

yeah what else

10:32

cupcakes we had like

10:34

thanksgiving themed cupcakes that's cool

10:36

yeah yeah we haven't really done any

10:38

like

10:39

specials on the bowls or smoothies or

10:41

anything yet right because we're just

10:43

still trying to figure everything out

10:45

yeah i think eventually maybe next year

10:47

we'll have like a fall bowl or something

10:50

yeah yeah i think it's just interesting

10:52

because you mentioned like a persimmon

10:53

which i still don't know what that is

10:54

we'll talk about that all fair but you

10:56

know like being the creativity side is

10:58

like you know you push in the envelope

11:00

so so much and like you don't know if

11:02

people are gonna try it but if you know

11:03

it's good you know this you know taste

11:05

buddy has good stuff then you're gonna

11:07

you know most likely come in and try it

11:08

yeah or you know at least ask what a

11:10

persimmon is

11:11

yeah you know so i think that that's

11:13

very interesting for sure yeah yeah um

11:16

and all the baking stuff is gluten-free

11:19

which we're going to get into in our

11:20

next segment so we're going to take our

11:21

first break this was a great first

11:23

segment uh so we're this first break uh

11:26

this is the greetings from the garden

11:27

state podcast i'm mike ham we're here at

11:28

taste buddy in short hills with angie

11:30

segura and alexa clark we'll be right

11:32

back

11:33

it is time for today in new jersey

11:35

history on january 31 1914 hugh joseph

11:38

adenizio was born in newark new jersey

11:41

he was the 33rd mayor of newark serving

11:43

from 1962 to 1970 and prior to that he

11:46

was a united states congressman for 13

11:48

years after leaving office he was

11:50

prosecuted for taking kick packs and

11:51

convicted of corruption the judge said

11:53

he was literally delivering the city

11:55

into the hands of organized crime

11:57

adenisio would pass away on february 2nd

12:00

1981 in red bank new jersey and that is

12:03

today in new jersey history

12:08

all right we're back this is the

12:09

greetings from the garden state podcast

12:10

i'm mike kim we're here at taste buddy

12:11

in short hills with angie sagura and

12:13

alexa clark so in the first segment we

12:14

kind of talked learned about the

12:16

background of the business learned a

12:17

little bit more about uh your guys

12:19

backgrounds um learned about what's on

12:21

the menu what people get what they like

12:22

what you're trying to do with the

12:23

creativity side of it and i tease it in

12:26

the first segment that the baking stuff

12:28

here it's a gluten-free bakery which you

12:31

know maybe like five ten years ago maybe

12:33

even less than that if you say

12:34

gluten-free bakery people would be like

12:36

why what is that you don't you need that

12:38

to bake gluten i love gluten right who

12:40

doesn't but like so

12:43

when you were putting this concept

12:45

together like why gluten free i think

12:48

that's what we were going to talk about

12:49

in this segment so what was the purpose

12:51

behind the gluten-free side on the on

12:53

the bakery

12:56

yeah it's it's a hard question honestly

12:59

um

13:00

so because of our background

13:02

and

13:04

what we know from working in restaurants

13:07

and people with allergies and things we

13:10

were like

13:11

yeah let's do gluten-free and i think it

13:13

started because originally we were going

13:15

to do bowls which are gluten-free right

13:17

and then we were like oh let's just do

13:19

it where there's no gluten at all in the

13:21

place yeah and that's really how it just

13:23

started and i've worked with

13:25

gluten-free flours in the past so it was

13:28

like kind of easy yeah still a challenge

13:30

definitely but

13:31

which i was excited about right a little

13:33

challenge you wanted

13:35

something a little bit different than

13:36

what we're already used to yeah because

13:40

i mean who doesn't love a challenge i

13:42

think we always like to

13:44

um

13:46

see where we're at in terms of our

13:49

knowledge and what we have learned

13:52

the past 10 years

13:55

it's something it was definitely more of

13:57

a business decision for us because if

14:00

you go to any

14:01

bakery they're always going to ask for a

14:04

gluten-free option a nut-free option a

14:07

dairy-free option

14:10

and

14:11

a lot of places with there's

14:13

cross-contamination which a lot of

14:14

people who suffer from celiac or crohn's

14:17

or anything they really can't have like

14:19

any like

14:21

you know when you cook with

14:22

all-purpose flour or wheat flowers like

14:25

it's literally in the air it's in the

14:27

oven like so people who

14:30

have really bad celiac really can't even

14:33

eat anything from the place so it

14:35

doesn't really matter if it's made with

14:36

like a gluten-free flour or almond flour

14:39

they're like no i can't eat it yeah so

14:41

this is like we are totally very

14:44

conscious of not bringing anything with

14:46

gluten

14:47

in like even like down to like the

14:49

sprinkles we got right we were like oh

14:51

my god we have to find gluten-free

14:52

sprinkles like something so stupid like

14:55

you know the marshmallows we bought

14:56

we're making cocoa bombs for the season

14:58

and we're like wait marshmallows are

15:00

gluten free but

15:02

some facilities make it in uh places

15:05

that have gluten

15:06

yeah so it's blowing my mind it's crazy

15:10

yeah so it's it it's

15:13

i think a couple years ago would have

15:14

definitely been more of a challenge to

15:16

find things but nowadays it's a little

15:18

easier right now yeah yeah because you

15:20

guys aren't gluten-free yourselves you

15:23

just run a gluten-free bakery um so

15:26

also what i think is interesting about

15:27

that is like

15:29

sourcing your products and your

15:31

ingredients like you were just talking

15:32

about the marshmallows like does that

15:34

obviously that has to factor into your

15:36

decision then how like is that something

15:38

that people are just you know offering

15:40

up those

15:41

that information like if you go buy your

15:43

flower from somewhere and they're like

15:44

yeah we only do it this way like how's

15:46

that how does that work

15:48

yeah so you have to

15:50

really like do a little bit of research

15:51

a little bit yeah yeah and figure it out

15:53

a lot of googling a lot of things like

15:55

that

15:56

and our flower is

15:58

this cup for cup flour which is a known

16:00

brand and it's made in 100 like

16:02

gluten-free yeah

16:04

i think nowadays if you're in a place

16:06

that does have gluten and let's say

16:10

the packaging says gluten-free i think

16:12

they have to say if there's gluten in

16:14

the house yeah yeah yeah yeah

16:17

legally they have to say it right yeah

16:19

yeah

16:20

yeah so i think it it's a little more

16:23

it's a little more pricey too like

16:25

everything like

16:27

for let's say our flower is 80 for 25

16:30

pounds if it was all-purpose it would be

16:32

like

16:33

20. yeah so it's like you know people

16:36

are a little like

16:37

why is it so expensive like we get we

16:40

get we get it

16:41

sometimes yeah but sometimes yeah and

16:44

you know we have to explain to them it's

16:46

it's gluten free it does cost us a lot

16:49

more yeah

16:50

you want to know something funny in that

16:52

first segment when you were talking

16:53

about i this just popped into my head

16:55

yeah yeah in the first time when you

16:56

were talking about how you had

16:57

experience working with different

16:59

flowers

17:00

i was like like those flowers

17:04

what the hell is a gluten flower

17:06

but then i was and then the more you

17:08

talked about it i'm like oh flower you

17:09

idiot

17:12

but there's like so this is just

17:14

obviously because i'm so like i don't

17:17

bake my sister's good baker i don't like

17:18

to bake i'm like a more happy accidents

17:20

guy in the kitchen um but uh like does

17:24

that change like the it changes the

17:26

consistency yeah right so like there has

17:29

been trial and error

17:31

yeah

17:32

and like how many different

17:34

non-gluten flowers are there others

17:37

there a lot you said almond flour before

17:39

they're like oh yeah that kind of like

17:40

soy milk almond milk oatmeal kind of

17:42

thing yeah yeah exactly like there's

17:44

there's different options like you could

17:46

go totally nut flowers which would also

17:48

be like grain free which some bakeries

17:51

are grain free

17:52

um but our flour has rice

17:56

it's a rice blend and starches and

17:58

things so yeah there's totally there is

18:01

a lot of different options like we

18:02

didn't we we made a cookie with banana

18:05

flower oh which was interesting and it

18:07

was it tasted pretty good i had to like

18:09

learn more about this like dive into it

18:11

like how do you make banana flower like

18:13

yeah that's what we were like you

18:14

powderize a banana yeah literally

18:16

literally yeah yeah that's crazy which

18:18

is basically almonds it's just almond

18:20

flour it's just ground almonds yeah like

18:22

that's guys yeah blowing my mind again

18:24

but um

18:26

so then like when people are so would

18:28

gluten-free

18:30

be i know even people beyond people with

18:32

celiacs or crohn's and that kind of

18:34

stuff is it just generally like a

18:36

healthier option than regular flour i

18:39

mean you know it's people debate but it

18:43

is technically like if you eat 10

18:44

gluten-free pumpkin pies honestly you're

18:46

so good yeah yeah be honest with you gut

18:48

feeling like

18:50

when you eat something sweet you tend to

18:51

feel like very full yeah versus

18:54

gluten-free you don't have that weird

18:56

stomach

18:57

yeah you know like gluten tends to bloat

18:59

people right that's what they say yeah

19:01

yeah and so like i'm assuming that that

19:04

you know could also be like a selling

19:05

point too you guys know using even your

19:08

sweet stuff yeah it's not as bad maybe

19:10

as like and our goal is to people not

19:13

even to realize that anything is gluten

19:15

free um we do have a lot of um i had a

19:18

lady come in the other day and she said

19:20

her son

19:22

walks by here every day you know to

19:24

school and back and he just is very

19:26

skeptical about coming inside the doors

19:29

because it says gluten-free bakery on

19:31

the front and the thing is i feel like a

19:34

lot of people think that because it's

19:35

gluten-free it's going to be dry it's

19:37

not going to taste the same right um and

19:40

we're trying to change that

19:42

misconception because um like i said

19:44

alexa and i are not gluten free and

19:47

we try these things and we're like wow

19:49

this is amazing yeah yeah we say we love

19:51

we say

19:54

i mean if we didn't love our stuff like

19:56

you know what's the point like we were

19:57

saying before like what's your favorite

19:59

thing or like what do you like whatever

20:01

there's everything's good everything

20:03

yeah which i think is just it's so cool

20:05

and like that's something that we

20:07

obviously haven't done on this show you

20:08

know and like talked about something

20:10

like that and it's like specific but

20:12

also just kind of very like

20:14

it the creativity side of it really

20:16

interests me as like a creative guy at

20:17

least in my own opinion like i think

20:19

that that's really cool like trying to

20:21

figure out like if banana flower or

20:23

almond flour is gonna be good in this

20:25

one thing that i'm gonna do like the

20:27

trial and error behind that and like you

20:29

know so

20:30

kudos to the both i think that's very

20:32

cool um and then so as you're continuing

20:36

to try to like

20:37

you know grow the business and all that

20:39

kind of stuff and like we mentioned

20:40

before open for two months by the time

20:42

this post i think three months um and so

20:45

what are some things that may be like

20:47

over the first couple months have you

20:49

been

20:50

adjusting kind of like maybe the

20:52

business goals or like from the business

20:54

side of it is something where now you're

20:56

trying to be like okay well let's try to

20:57

accomplish this by month three or after

20:59

two months we're gonna be like there or

21:01

whatever like how does that how does

21:03

that work

21:04

someone else at the door

21:07

i'm sorry

21:09

we're closed

21:11

we just made eye contact too oh no

21:14

that's a good sign yeah right

21:16

like the show is literally creating buzz

21:19

we haven't even posted this episode yet

21:21

it's amazing i mean it's only two so not

21:23

that much but you know i'm sure you guys

21:25

are doing it on your own but yeah let's

21:27

talk about like like goals for the

21:28

business like that was a terrible way to

21:29

ask that question but goals for the

21:31

business like what are some things that

21:32

maybe in the first few months of being

21:34

open that you're trying to accomplish

21:35

well number one doordash

21:38

yeah

21:39

yeah we we've been trying to get on

21:40

doordash for like

21:42

two months like since we since we opened

21:45

we've been trying to get on doordash

21:46

just trying to do like that extra step

21:48

of promoting mostly for promotion

21:50

promotion yeah and then we'd probably

21:52

get off it eventually because they take

21:54

way too much money yeah but yeah because

21:56

people like you know we think we've been

21:58

open forever but people are like oh i

22:00

didn't even know you guys were here yeah

22:01

you know and that's the hardest that's

22:04

honestly the hardest part is to get

22:05

people to know we're even here a lot of

22:07

people that live in town don't know

22:09

where yeah yes it's just we like promote

22:12

a lot right we think we're promoting

22:15

a lot

22:16

yeah i love the taste buddy instagram

22:18

page personally oh that's all angie

22:22

thank you

22:23

we work very hard we come up with ideas

22:27

of the the baker that we work with

22:29

olivia she's always like wow our social

22:31

media is through the roof

22:34

we're just talking about social media

22:36

all day yeah

22:37

that's how you get the word out yeah we

22:39

have fun creating it too yeah exactly

22:41

creativity yeah yeah just all goes back

22:44

to creation

22:44

absolutely honestly it's kind of like a

22:46

whirlwind because our biggest goal was

22:48

to open the place which felt like it

22:50

took forever it took forever um you know

22:53

i mean forever for some people maybe a

22:56

lot longer for us

22:57

i mean

22:58

we started the llc in january we opened

23:01

our doors october so it was it was quick

23:04

it is quick but for us it felt like an

23:06

eternity i think it was because we were

23:08

just so eager to get it yeah oh yeah

23:10

right yeah and then i'm just like wow

23:12

people are coming in like

23:14

yeah our goals are very minimal

23:17

honestly somebody just come in the door

23:19

yeah people coming in the door to like

23:21

your own places exactly yeah yeah right

23:24

people are people like our stuff

23:26

it's hard to believe yeah and we love it

23:28

it's a great feeling yeah that's that's

23:30

awesome

23:31

and yeah i think eventually we'll have

23:33

bigger goals but of course yeah right

23:36

it's all in good time yeah yeah um but

23:38

speaking of the people so we're gonna

23:39

take our second break our last break of

23:41

this episode uh because we're gonna get

23:43

into the community side of it here in

23:45

our third segment uh so this is the

23:47

greetings from the garden state podcast

23:48

i'm mike ham we're here at taste buddy

23:50

in short hills with angie segura and

23:51

alexa clark we'll be right back

23:55

it is time for new jersey fun fact of

23:56

the day did you know that new jersey

23:58

state flower is the violet and that is

24:01

your new jersey fun fact of the day and

24:04

we're back this is the greetings from

24:05

the garden state podcast i'm mike hamm

24:07

we're here at taste buddy in short hills

24:08

with angie segura and alexa clark uh so

24:10

the first segment we kind of talked

24:11

about the background of the business we

24:12

talked about your guys backgrounds

24:14

starting this what you guys sell all

24:16

that kind of stuff the second segment we

24:17

asked why gluten-free and we did a whole

24:20

great segment on that and i learned you

24:21

know they were talking about flour and

24:23

not flowers

24:25

but uh and then a little bit of the

24:26

goals but one of the things you were

24:28

talking about are like people coming in

24:29

the door so

24:30

you're obviously a new business you know

24:32

even when this post it's still going to

24:33

be a very new business so when you pick

24:36

this space and all that kind of stuff

24:38

what was the

24:40

reception from the community like right

24:42

from the get-go

24:44

pretty good welcome yeah yeah extremely

24:47

welcoming it was it kind of took us

24:50

a back yeah

24:52

by surprise

24:54

i mean like i said before alexa and i

24:56

aren't from here i mean i live about 20

24:58

minutes from here okay

25:00

alexa lives in piscataway so

25:02

a little further a little further

25:04

and

25:06

we knew no one in this community and

25:09

everyone has been extremely welcoming

25:11

here and so many people do promotions

25:13

for us that we didn't even you know know

25:16

about yeah yeah people will will reach

25:18

out and be like do you know that there's

25:20

this gluten-free facebook local group

25:22

and we're like no and then they give us

25:24

a shout out there

25:26

just like it's it's so amazing that

25:28

strangers care so much right yeah yeah

25:31

was it like i know we mentioned this

25:33

because you found this space it was a

25:34

bakery before but the fact that it's in

25:37

short hills that factor into the

25:38

decision at the beginning was there

25:40

anything behind that it was just like

25:41

this is the best space for what we're

25:42

trying to do um because we we worked in

25:45

melbourne before okay we knew right a

25:48

bit of the area yeah and

25:51

honestly we this part this this part was

25:54

pretty empty but when like we got in

25:57

here okay and slowly businesses have

25:59

been opening back up or yeah

26:01

and that is like to me like we got it at

26:04

a good time where people are like now

26:06

right the ride the way yeah yeah exactly

26:08

so yeah we think we think we made it a

26:10

good decision

26:12

i think it's great yeah um but uh so

26:14

talk to me about maybe like some ways

26:16

that people if like maybe an example of

26:18

people like in the community i know you

26:20

mentioned the facebook groups and that

26:21

kind of stuff but kind of getting

26:23

started and like being a new business

26:25

and like you said like this is kind of

26:27

the wave is there like there must be a

26:29

lot of excitement about new businesses

26:31

opening up in this part you know you

26:33

mentioned you know downtown milburn

26:35

which is you know basically like right

26:36

down the street but here in short hills

26:38

in this part of short hills you know it

26:40

seems like things are on their way up so

26:42

like what's what's that kind of been

26:43

like

26:46

um so

26:47

we mentioned to you before we started

26:49

the podcast that there was

26:51

this uh special improvement district um

26:56

non-profit non-profit organization

26:58

called explore milburn

27:00

and

27:01

um steve grillo which is uh the

27:03

president from the organization he

27:06

reached out to us when we were still in

27:08

construction

27:10

about you know promoting the business

27:12

and

27:14

they have a page where

27:17

local communities you know follow this

27:19

page for updates on all

27:22

local businesses

27:23

and that was a tremendous uh start you

27:27

know

27:28

a lot of people from town you know got

27:30

excited we were getting excited we were

27:32

getting more following um so that

27:35

definitely

27:36

helped

27:38

um in terms of

27:40

you know getting

27:42

the word out the word

27:43

out right

27:44

yeah

27:45

um what

27:46

else i don't i don't know

27:51

like you said it was just kind of like a

27:52

whirlwind of a couple months but um

27:54

because like we were talking about

27:55

before we were like we always do this

27:57

segment of the community side of it and

27:59

you've only been open for two months you

28:01

know and sunk a lot of your all of your

28:02

maybe savings into opening this place so

28:04

like you know i think one of the things

28:06

that's that's always cool is we talk a

28:09

lot with the business owners about how

28:10

they

28:11

um you know support the community that

28:13

they you know um serve and all that kind

28:15

of stuff and obviously you know i know

28:17

you guys do that kind of stuff as well

28:19

um but at the same time i think it's

28:20

even cooler when people like you talk

28:22

about all these businesses opening down

28:24

here in short hills

28:25

you know like people are excited about

28:27

that and like they want to see all those

28:29

businesses succeed right so that they're

28:31

going to go out and support them and

28:32

then do all that kind of stuff so i

28:33

think that's great yeah yeah i i i

28:37

honestly i wasn't expecting so many

28:38

people to really care and to be like

28:41

oh we hope you guys are here forever

28:43

yeah you know and it's like wow like you

28:45

know people actually care

28:47

what's in their town or you know yeah

28:50

it's

28:50

it's good it's it feels it gives us a

28:53

home meeting yeah right yeah exactly we

28:55

don't feel like we need to try to fit in

28:57

like people are open and accepting to

29:00

you know us yeah our business right yeah

29:03

which is great i mean that's what you

29:05

that's what you need so exactly um and

29:07

then like as you kind of progress

29:09

through here too like you know um

29:11

i forgot i lost my train of thought but

29:13

because i was looking over at the menu i

29:15

was like what

29:16

i don't know why i was looking over

29:17

there but um so then also like too with

29:20

the um from the community side of it i

29:22

think of a really good question here um

29:25

you're like what do you think

29:27

like do you think the success maybe at

29:29

the very beginning would have been

29:31

different if you weren't here you know

29:33

what i mean like if you were someplace

29:34

like i don't even know pick another

29:36

place that maybe didn't have like this

29:38

kind of

29:38

vibe we almost picked a location in

29:41

scotch plains

29:42

and looking back at it now we were like

29:45

i don't think we would have felt as

29:48

you know

29:49

with our community as

29:51

you know we are now

29:53

because

29:54

the place there was um it was on route

29:57

22. so it was just like it's so busy

29:59

busy right now no walking people no

30:01

walking

30:03

versus here you know people are walking

30:05

all the time right and angie always said

30:08

she wanted some place where people could

30:09

walk to oh yeah because it's right just

30:12

better yeah

30:13

yeah i live in morristown yeah and i

30:15

walk around town all the time right

30:17

there sometimes like i'll pass by you

30:19

know a brewery and i'll be like i'm

30:20

gonna get a beer and i'll walk in and

30:22

then walk home you know what i mean so

30:24

it's great like having something like

30:25

that and having businesses like that

30:27

just right around there and they have

30:28

good stuff even better you know we have

30:30

a couple regulars that come in and they

30:33

get their you know weekly fix of things

30:35

from here and i think that's really nice

30:39

awesome um all right so uh before we get

30:42

to our you know closing stuff and

30:44

getting the links and the addresses um

30:47

you know so like what are some well

30:48

let's just do that like what are some

30:49

ways that people like

30:51

let me

30:52

ask this if someone comes in here and

30:55

they're like

30:56

they see the menu and they're not really

30:57

sure what to get and whatever like do

31:00

you have like uh i know

31:02

we mentioned before like what people

31:04

like the the go-to thing but what's like

31:06

a good like training wheels like what

31:08

happens when they walk in the door like

31:09

is something just to try it out like

31:12

what's one thing that should try to kind

31:13

of get themselves started

31:15

um

31:16

i personally think a pastry because at

31:19

the end of the day we're making this

31:21

from scratch versus

31:23

a juice you know you're getting

31:25

local fruits and vegetables great right

31:28

you know

31:29

what's

31:30

what's that in comparison to a pastry

31:32

that we're a lot of people

31:35

first a lot of people always choose our

31:37

cinnamon brown sugar pop tart if it's

31:39

their first time for some reason they're

31:41

like i'll text you sounds so good

31:44

it's funny because people have been

31:46

going nuts for those yeah yeah so um

31:49

i do kind of direct them towards

31:51

pastries that people talk about

31:53

during their first visit here

31:56

so that one is definitely a popular one

31:58

very popular yeah and we'll definitely

32:00

be

32:01

having it on the menu for

32:04

right a staple

32:06

yeah

32:07

yeah for sure um all right so where can

32:10

people like what's the let's do the

32:12

address first what's the address of this

32:14

place if they want to come check it out

32:15

so it's 515a milburn ave and that's in

32:20

short hills in new jersey got it right

32:22

new jersey and then um so then if people

32:25

want to go and like we mentioned the

32:26

instagram account before what's the

32:28

instagram handle taste buddy nj test

32:29

taste buddy andre yeah and then are

32:31

there i mean i'm sure there's other

32:32

places website what other places would

32:35

you try to send people to go learn more

32:37

about tastebuds yeah our website

32:38

tastebuddynj.com

32:40

we have some fun on tick tock taste

32:42

buddy nj

32:44

um

32:45

instagram facebook it's the same taste

32:47

buddy

32:50

you can't miss it

32:52

um and then with the website i was on it

32:55

when we first talked and now i forget

32:56

like can they go on there and purchase

32:58

stuff on the website or is that more

33:00

than no you can you can yeah yeah yeah

33:02

right now it's just pickup only but we

33:04

will be getting into doordash very soon

33:07

yeah and hopefully

33:08

hopefully soon we can

33:11

really

33:12

deliver all across the united states

33:14

yeah that would be

33:17

one of our goals for next year is to try

33:19

to start shipping at some point yeah

33:21

yeah

33:22

nice all right so uh so taste buddy nj

33:25

across the board you know we know where

33:28

to go um tastebuddy.com i taste buddy i

33:30

just said it wrong

33:31

nj.com

33:34

is the website um and so angie alexa

33:37

thank you so much for uh doing this with

33:39

us today thank you learning more about

33:41

the business this was fantastic um i'll

33:43

make sure that i put the social handles

33:45

the website the actual address in the

33:48

show notes so that if people do want to

33:49

come check you guys out they can go

33:51

there also greetings from

33:52

thegardenstate.com uh and greetings from

33:55

the garden state gmail.com the website

33:56

and the email address of the show if you

33:58

want to reach out to us that would be

33:59

great um guys thank you again thank you

34:02

absolutely absolutely and everybody else

34:03

thank you for listening and we will

34:05

catch you next time

34:08

[Music]

34:15

[Applause]

34:23

[Music]

34:41

you

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