From The Rochesteriat to PlantiePops: A Chat with the Schwingles!
Chris Lindstrom hosts a discussion on the Food About Town podcast that dives deep into the evolution of PlantiePops (@plantiepops), a business that focuses on vegan options in Rochester and beyond!
Check out their vegan tasting event event at Balsam Bagels on August 9th from 2pm - 4pm. Get your tickets at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/plantiepops/1796361 or find the link on plantiepops.com!
He talks with guests Jason and Stefanie Schwingle about their journey from their original venture, The Rochesteriat, to their current iteration, highlighting their commitment to sustainability and plant-based living. The Schwingles share how their experiences during the pandemic led them to embrace a vegan lifestyle, which in turn inspired their rebranding.
Mentions
plantiepops.com - @BalsamBagels - @seasonsnoodle.mercantile.roc
Mentioned in this episode:
Joe Bean Roasters
Joe Bean Coffee - Coffee that lifts everyone. https://shop.joebeanroasters.com
Punches & Popcorn
The masters of Couch Potato style Mike Huntone, Jason Bills, and Dr. Dominic D’Amore take a deep dive into the best and worst of martial arts films. https://punches-and-popcorn.captivate.fm/
Mind of Magnus
Check out Mind of Magnus at magnusapollo.com, and leave him factoids at 585-310-2473! https://mind-of-magnus.captivate.fm
Transcript
I'm Chris Lindstrom, and this is the Food About Town podcast.
Speaker B:Rochester.
Speaker B:Well, why Rochester?
Speaker A:Chris Lindstrom was a hoot.
Speaker A:He was just so much fun.
Speaker A:He never stopped talking.
Speaker A:I mean, it was great.
Speaker A:Here's a good idea.
Speaker A:Have a point.
Speaker B:It makes it so much more interesting.
Speaker A:For the listener, and we don't need.
Speaker B:Any characters around to give the joint atmosphere.
Speaker A:Is that clear?
Speaker C:Because I'm a pro.
Speaker C:That's what pros do.
Speaker A:I'm a professional.
Speaker A:Look it up in the book.
Speaker A:But now, yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.
Speaker A:And we are back with another episode of the Food About Town podcast.
Speaker A:And I'm here with a couple guests that I've been trying to get on here for as long as I think I've had a podcast or pretty close.
Speaker A:Because all of us are busy.
Speaker A:We all do our own things.
Speaker A:But guess why don't you introduce yourselves and let them know about the new version of what you're doing?
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:Well, my name is Jason Schwingle.
Speaker C:And I'm Stephanie Schwingle.
Speaker C:And the newest iteration of our business is called Planty Pops.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker A:So let's talk about the journey for a second, but let's get the plugs for.
Speaker A:So where can people go learn about Planty Pops before we dive into, like, the journey to get where we are now?
Speaker A:But where can people go learn about it online?
Speaker B:Go to plantypops.com and that's P L.
Speaker C:A N T I E P O P S dot com.
Speaker A:Yeah, you got.
Speaker A:You got to get the.
Speaker A:You got to get the pattern down.
Speaker A:It's got to sound so rhythmic and musical when you do it.
Speaker A:It's so weird when you do it over and over again.
Speaker A:Like, I know you've both, you know, gone through pitching and everything else to people all the time, but there's something about when you get that pitch just right.
Speaker A:You're getting that.
Speaker A:Those bouncy notes and everything else, and it's just.
Speaker A:It's weird.
Speaker A:It doesn't feel like you've practiced it that much until you've done it so many times.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:It's almost sing songy.
Speaker B:You know, when you get done right.
Speaker C:The first time, we're really talking about it.
Speaker C:So since we've rebranded.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So let.
Speaker A:Let's talk about.
Speaker A:Let's talk about the journey for a second because, like, I've known.
Speaker A:Known you two through.
Speaker A:I think.
Speaker A:What is this?
Speaker A:Fourth iteration?
Speaker C:Third, I think.
Speaker B:Third iteration.
Speaker A:Okay, sure.
Speaker A:Because the original.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:What was the Original one because.
Speaker B:So we had the Rochesteria.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker B:Was a city guide focused on downtown Rochester.
Speaker B:And our LLC coincidentally is still.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:Everything's still under the Rochesteria llc.
Speaker B:We love that name so much that we, we wanted to keep that.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C: So back in: Speaker C:And there was new businesses and new restaurants and festivals and I think a lot of people were unaware of quite how many things were happening in downtown.
Speaker C:And we, it really was just a blog and kind of.
Speaker C:We had this like motto of like shining a positive light on the city of Rochester.
Speaker B:And I was, I was going to interject there and say we were new to downtown.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So we had just moved in.
Speaker C:Just moved to downtown and.
Speaker A:Yeah, because that was.
Speaker A:I think that was right around that hot time of.
Speaker A:There's a lot of people excited to talk.
Speaker A:It has come in different phases because I think we've both seen the phases of positivity about Rochester.
Speaker A:And I think that was like the first modern wave of positivity or the start of.
Speaker A:It was when there was a bunch of us who were doing content about Rochester.
Speaker A:You know, myself, it was you guys.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:I think that was around when Lynn started doing Sriracha says.
Speaker A:And there was a.
Speaker A:There was a few of us doing that around then.
Speaker A:You know, Chris Clemens was doing exploring upstate or exploring the burned over district.
Speaker A:And there was a whole group of us doing these things and it was a very exciting time.
Speaker A:And you guys are doing.
Speaker A:You guys are doing events around downtown as well.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker C:Through our community association, Washington Square.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:Because we, we started up a community association, a nonprofit, our community association.
Speaker B:And it was, it allowed us to.
Speaker B:We did that and we structured it that way.
Speaker B:So in order to.
Speaker B:In order to get more grant money and actually get larger grants, if we went out and, and and wrote.
Speaker B:Wrote the grant paperwork for that.
Speaker B:So to.
Speaker C:To hold events and do community things in our neighborhood.
Speaker A:Yeah, because I remember.
Speaker A:I think it was.
Speaker A:Was it you guys that kicked off the movies downtown?
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker C:We launched Movies with a Downtown View.
Speaker C: And I think it was July of: Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:Oh yeah, because that was.
Speaker A:I remember the first events.
Speaker A:I mean those were, those were hopping.
Speaker A:Like there were so many people that came out to those.
Speaker A:And it really was a scene too because this was.
Speaker A:It was a whole comprehensive event.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:This was movies and food trucks and vendors.
Speaker C: Actually, I think it was: Speaker C:We started the Rochester.
Speaker C: In: Speaker B:There was a thirst for, for those of us from the city or outside the city that were moving in, and there was just a thirst for, you know, a better city.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And we all shared that goal.
Speaker B:We all shared that vision of, of Rochester, you know, making Rochester better, I think, was the shared vision.
Speaker C:I think, I think I remember that first movie because we said the event started at six, I think, or seven.
Speaker C:And people showed up an hour before the event started with picnic blankets and takeout food and games.
Speaker C:I mean, we had people like playing board games and like they just wanted to be a part of, of this community of people.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker C:Hanging out in downtown.
Speaker B:We were like, is this Bryant park, the new Bryant Park?
Speaker B:You know, so.
Speaker A:Yeah, because that, like I said, it was a specific moment for that kind of thing.
Speaker A:And I think, you know, a lot of it went really well, but it's, it's hard because we are, we are a mid size, your midsize city and you know, things come and go quickly.
Speaker A:But like the Rochester ran for how long roughly?
Speaker C:I think it was seven years.
Speaker C:Yeah, seven years until we started to kind of rebrand and grow our focus.
Speaker A:So what, what was that, what was that moment where you, you know, you're talking amongst yourselves and as somebody who's gone through this, like having to either sunset something or decide to evolve or change something.
Speaker A:What was that, what was that moment where you're talking through that and you're like, you know, we, we want to change to something different but keep the messaging going.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker B: e go back to the timeline, so: Speaker B:We lasted about five years with, with the Rochesteria as its name and then we went into a couple of years changing over to metropops.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And going to your, going to your question, it came down to we were spending a lot of time on the nonprofit.
Speaker B:We were spending a lot of time producing movies.
Speaker A:So is that, so that's the, that's the nonprofit angle.
Speaker A:Was the.
Speaker A:Is essentially events, community events or.
Speaker A:How do you describe that side of it?
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker C:Well, the Washington Square Community association is the community association around where we live in downtown.
Speaker C:And we really came together wanting to see an improvement in our neighborhood, you know, promote the businesses, come together as a community.
Speaker C:Were there things that we could improve together, like murals in the neighborhood or neighborhood cleanups?
Speaker C:We did a lot of, a lot of cleanups and kind of bring the businesses.
Speaker C:It's a unique neighborhood because there's a lot of businesses and corporate businesses and restaurants and Coffee shops.
Speaker C:But there's residents as well in our little corner of downtown.
Speaker C:So I think we wanted to bring everyone together and we felt for the betterment of the community.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And we felt like we could, especially with some of the largest organizations in Rochester being in our own neighborhood.
Speaker B:We felt like through our community association we could reach out, establish partnerships and actually gain funding of much of what we did.
Speaker B:Gain funding from these largest organizations.
Speaker B:I mean, ESL was a huge supporter of us.
Speaker B:Our biggest supporter, the one who funded us as our title sponsor for all the years that we ran it was Buckingham Properties.
Speaker B:I mean they were just amazing and still are.
Speaker B:But, but that really was, that was the vision to, you know, taking our little corner of downtown Rochester and then actually, you know, helping out the larger.
Speaker B:Not, not just our, our little corner of the world, but trying to help out the larger.
Speaker B:Let's say, let's say, you know, not just downtown but, but the city of Rochester and bringing in people into the city, you know, from the suburbs.
Speaker B:Because we do have suburban backgrounds as well.
Speaker C:So growing up.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:How do you describe that neighborhood?
Speaker A:Because that is, it's an interesting, you know, describing that as a neighborhood.
Speaker A:I'm not sure everybody thinks of it as a neighborhood.
Speaker A:They think of it as an area.
Speaker A:They don't think of it as a neighborhood.
Speaker A:You know, in the same way.
Speaker A:How do you describe it as a neighborhood?
Speaker B:That's, that's, that's a great question, because.
Speaker C:That'S why we didn't call it a neighborhood association.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker C:We ended up calling it a community association.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:We do have corporate businesses.
Speaker C:We have JIVA Theater.
Speaker C:We have residents, both owner occupied business condos, but apartment renters too.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because it's a, it's an interesting area of the city.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker B:And, and, and we're.
Speaker B:Now that, now that I think about it looking back, we're actually very skilled at name changes.
Speaker B:So we, we started out as the Washington Square Park Neighborhood Association.
Speaker B:So that's so.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:But then when we realized that it just to exactly to your point, it's not really a city neighborhood.
Speaker B:So we changed it into, we actually dbd it into a community association.
Speaker B:And we felt that better reflected not only the small number of residents that we had in that small corner of the world, but also the businesses and the organizations like Jiva Theater, St. Mary's and you know, kind of all collectively coming together for that community instead of a neighborhood, you know.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Or a block party or a block association.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because it's a, it's A little bit of a different situation in of itself.
Speaker A:So it's, it's an interesting way of balancing.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:Those things as a, you know, as a not for profit and doing those things.
Speaker A:So we were getting to the, you know, Rochesteria transition to Metro Pops.
Speaker A:So what was the, what was the tonal shift shifting between the two?
Speaker C:So I think we were having a lot of conversations because the Raja Stereot was a blog format.
Speaker C:So we were writing blog posts about businesses and things to do in the.
Speaker A:City, which was the style at the time for the youngs.
Speaker A:For the youngs out there.
Speaker A:These, these things actually mattered for a long time.
Speaker B:It's amazing that you look back on it and said this blog or like blogs like that actually mattered.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker A:Because I look back at like I look back when I was.
Speaker A:Recently I've been thinking about just like killing the website completely.
Speaker A:So like Food About Town is the website just killing that?
Speaker A:Because it's not really used anymore for anything of note.
Speaker A:So I might just be, you know, discontinuing it as a whole.
Speaker A:But I was looking back at some of the like earlier posts.
Speaker A:I'm like, oh, wow, those had a lot of traction at the time.
Speaker A:I didn't realize how many people were reading it then.
Speaker B: owers immediately back in the: Speaker C:I missed those days of Instagram.
Speaker A:Oh, it was so rapid too.
Speaker A:And it's so, so funny.
Speaker A:I went to, went to The Explore Rochester 10 year retrospective recently and seeing, you know, where that was because I remember when it launched and like, what you, what a shift in tone that was for people being able to express things about Rochester in a different way and how that hit that moment of what was Instagram at the time.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:It was a photo and a little.
Speaker A:Story and it wasn't too much and it wasn't omnipresent.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:The way that Instagram has to be now.
Speaker A:And it was, it was a special thing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because, yeah, the blog was writing.
Speaker C:We had a blog which was great and it, you know, did well.
Speaker C:But we were wondering how can, you know, we want this to be searchable.
Speaker C:We want it to be, you know, somebody can go and type coffee shop and it pulls up listings for all the coffee shops that you can go to or Mexican restaurants or stores and shops.
Speaker C:We're like, how can we support small businesses?
Speaker C:Because that's really the heart of what we want to do is supporting small businesses in Rochester and the surrounding community.
Speaker C:So how could we make a searchable city guide?
Speaker C:And that brought us down a path of trying.
Speaker C:I think we had three or four different iterations of us trying to develop this website until we found one that actually really worked for what we wanted to produce for the community.
Speaker B:We had been through so many iterations.
Speaker B:Now that you think about that too.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker C:And WordPress time templates to.
Speaker B:And just adding on that too.
Speaker B:Chris, is it comes down to monetization?
Speaker B:Yeah, it really came down to monetization for us.
Speaker B:Of, you know, I was saying I was trying to connect the, the, all the work that we were putting in with the, the community association, the nonprofit and producing events was taking up so much time.
Speaker B:And then we're writing this blog, but blogs weren't, they were in a fuzzy area.
Speaker B:Do you.
Speaker C:Some advertising.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:You have this advertising model, but was that going to be sustainable?
Speaker B:And of course now we look back on it and we're like, that definitely is.
Speaker A:Of course not.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Of course not in retrospect.
Speaker A:But it's also like it was at the time and you look at things that exploded out of there that became national level things.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:And there was all, there was always this, you know, in the back of your head like, oh, are we going to, am I going to be the national thing?
Speaker A:Am I going to step out of the local and do that?
Speaker A:Or does this springboard into something else?
Speaker A:Because it.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:There was that moment.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:Yeah, we, we, we were getting away from that, you know, and trying to.
Speaker B:We are struggling with monetization.
Speaker B:We still struggle with monetization.
Speaker B:Still trying to figure it's a never ending process of this business plan.
Speaker B:This.
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, we were, we were talking a little bit about this before the, before the show.
Speaker B:But you know, trying to figure out our businesses is just a never ending process.
Speaker B:You know, it's a, it's the constant struggle.
Speaker B:And I say that in a good way because it's, you know, like food about town, like the Rochesteria or metropops or Planty Pops.
Speaker B:Now it's our passion.
Speaker B:It's our passion project.
Speaker B:So that's what sustains us.
Speaker B:And yes, we hope to monetize it.
Speaker B:We hope to make a living from it.
Speaker B:But you know, it's.
Speaker B:I think the passion is the ultimate underlying, the underlying force that keeps us going.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I'm kind of intrigued.
Speaker A:So we were talking about, you know, when you're trying to decide what is, what is Metro Pops versus Rochester and I love that you know, debate of like, oh, are we using a WordPress time or developing something from scratch where you're hiring a software developer to do background stuff.
Speaker A:Because I was involved in a startup that had a mapping feature that connected, you know, where were things coming and going for.
Speaker A:And we had four people who were like dedicated programmers and I was the outreach person that was frankly, which we were doing at the time and you know, the tech behind it, like the actual work behind it was awesome.
Speaker A: But we then we came to: Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:But we had gone down the route of building all the background tech ourselves versus trying to just do listings and searches and things.
Speaker A:And it was, there's again, not a value judgment.
Speaker A:It was, hey, that was the skill set of the team and I was coming on as the food person.
Speaker A:What direction did you end up going with that for Metro Pops?
Speaker A:And I'm assuming similar platform for where we are now.
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean we, we kind of put a couple hundred bucks into this to try and it wasn't quite adapting or developing or customizable the way we wanted.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker C:So we tried another.
Speaker B:We hired a team from India.
Speaker C:We ended up with a team.
Speaker B:We've done quite a bit of kind of testing the testing process and India was an interesting experiment, let's say, because they're on the opposite side of the world and their hours, their business hours are not yours.
Speaker B:So we would put in, we would.
Speaker C:Put in a request for like customization and we'd have to wait almost 24 hours because they'd be sleeping and then we would be sleeping and.
Speaker B:Yeah, and don't let it be the weekend because then you're waiting three days or.
Speaker C:Yeah, we worked through some different things and ended up finding a product that we really could customize ourselves.
Speaker C:And we have, we've got some background and I've got some background in web development from college and we've learned self taught everything.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Everything.
Speaker B:You just go out and teach yourself.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:But we ended up with a product, a template.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:That we could fully customize to our brand, our needs, how we wanted it to look, work, function.
Speaker C:And it's just, it's taken time.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:And we have, we have help on it too.
Speaker B:We actually have a hired help on it.
Speaker B:And our team has been phenomenal.
Speaker B:The, the hired team has been phenomenal over the years.
Speaker B:I mean we've been with Ryan and his team for five years.
Speaker C:This one web developer who specializes in this specific template that we are working with, who can customize even further than what we can do ourselves.
Speaker A:Oh, sure.
Speaker A:Well, having that.
Speaker A:Right, because it's.
Speaker A:That's where I find myself a lot with doing programming and doing other things, is I'm very capable of fixing problems.
Speaker A:But if I had to develop it from scratch, like, what is the syntax to do this?
Speaker A:No chance I have that in me.
Speaker A:I mean, I can in theory, but that's not what I'm best at now.
Speaker A:It's how do I debug it, how do I find the issues?
Speaker A:And with the assumption that everything is solvable and that I'm not creating something that is actually new, I might be combining parts to make them newer, but in the end, it's not new, it's an evolution.
Speaker A:It's something on top of something else.
Speaker A:And there's.
Speaker A:Everything is solvable.
Speaker A:If you assume there's an answer, you will find might be tedious and it might be painful, but you can find an answer.
Speaker A:Because the Internet's a vast place.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I think I was just gonna interject and just say too, that what we do and the templated work that we have is not new.
Speaker B:It's not anything unique to us or anything like that.
Speaker B:It's just, can we make it work for us, for our community, and can we do it better?
Speaker B:Meaning, can we make it better for our community?
Speaker C:So I think make the user experience really something easy and fun.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And fun.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Well, I think that's the main thing too, with any tool is regardless of intention, if the tool isn't usable, people aren't going to use it.
Speaker A:And usability is in the eye of the beholder.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because somebody's going to say, this is really hard to use.
Speaker A:And somebody else is going to say, this is the most intuitive platform I've ever seen.
Speaker A:And it's the same identical thing.
Speaker A:So it's always a balance.
Speaker A:But making something usable is the endless journey.
Speaker A:Because you want people to want to use this thing.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You want them to use this platform to find local businesses, to find specific things during that journey of you're developing and then you're doing the tweaks.
Speaker A:Do you remember any of those things where you're like, oh, this didn't.
Speaker A:I thought this was gold and didn't quite work the way we thought it would?
Speaker B:Yeah, pretty much 99% of it.
Speaker A:Hey, we've all been there, right?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Usually what happens is I'm working on a specific task and I get stuck and I, for the life of me can't Figure it out.
Speaker C:So I hand it off to Jason, and he'll be like, oh, why didn't you just do this?
Speaker C:And vice versa.
Speaker C:He'll get stuck.
Speaker C:Stuck on a task or.
Speaker C:Or part of the website.
Speaker C:And then I'll be like, oh, I didn't, you know, oh, we'll just do this and this.
Speaker C:And so I think overall, it's.
Speaker C:It's working out the way we want it to.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I'm kind of intrigued.
Speaker A:So I know I work with.
Speaker A:I work with Carrie, my wife.
Speaker A:I help her with some of her.
Speaker A:Her business stuff.
Speaker A:And when I travel with her to shows, because she sells under the name Crazy dude at conventions all over the country, and I travel with her occasionally to shows, bigger ones.
Speaker A:I have a very defined role when I'm there.
Speaker A:I'm there to make her the star.
Speaker A:That is my role.
Speaker A:I am.
Speaker A:I am hauling things.
Speaker A:I'm driving, I am running to get lunch.
Speaker A:I'm making sure that she can do what she needs to do, which is sell and be present and, you know, be with the people.
Speaker A:And that works because I have a very defined role.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I'm not doing her thing.
Speaker A:I'm selling.
Speaker A:But I've sold since I was a kid.
Speaker A:It's easy.
Speaker A:How.
Speaker A:How have you, you know, to defined working together?
Speaker A:Do you have defined.
Speaker A:Separated things that you do or do you just find opportunities and then bounce things across?
Speaker A:How does that work?
Speaker A:Because it's not the easiest thing to work with your significant other without a lot of communication.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I love working with Jason, and I love when he's home all day, but I think we also have a little bit different strengths.
Speaker C:While we're both very detail oriented, he is a lot more of a big picture thinker, and I'm a little bit more, for better or worse, of the logistical.
Speaker C:So he may have, you know, this idea, and then I'm immediately already thinking, okay, we would need to do this and this and this and this and this.
Speaker C:And I went down the rabbit.
Speaker C:Hole.
Speaker C:Jason's like, let's just think about this idea.
Speaker B:Let's want a brainstorm.
Speaker C:That's right, brainstorm.
Speaker C:And I'm 10 steps.
Speaker B:We're literally at a doubt at the.
Speaker C:Whiteboard, at the brainstorm.
Speaker B:That's the only.
Speaker C:The steps we would need to accomplish.
Speaker C:And I'm like, okay, how can we.
Speaker A:But what color is the banner?
Speaker A:God, why haven't you thought about this?
Speaker C:I've been learning to try to temper that a little bit and listen more without saying, okay, well, if we're gonna do this then we need to do this, this and this.
Speaker B:No, she, she has amazing strengths and detail is one of them.
Speaker B:So sometimes I can go way, way too out.
Speaker B:Just crazy.
Speaker C:It helps.
Speaker C:We try to find that balance of, of you know, the big idea we want to work on and then how can we break, break that down?
Speaker B:But, and I think too, it, it depends on if we're talking about, you know, there's, there's the micro.
Speaker B:What happens day to day with our business.
Speaker B:We do have certain things that we've sort of just fallen into because we like them or we do them.
Speaker B:Like I'll do, you know, certain things on the website or she'll do.
Speaker B:Social media has more hands on with that.
Speaker B:But I think there's also the macro vision of a marriage too.
Speaker A:Oh yeah.
Speaker B:Of a marriage and the, and, and working with your spouse.
Speaker B:So I think that's, that's, that's the bigger picture.
Speaker B:And we have conversations all the time about okay, my role is going to be this for, you know, I have to do this, I have to go, go here and then I need you to do this or if she tells me I need you to, you know, follow up on this.
Speaker B:So, so there's that macro look at.
Speaker C:You know, we're married and, and the real quick thing is we'll be celebrating 13 years this year.
Speaker C: But we were back in: Speaker C:Like two weeks before our wedding we met with a designer to come up with like logo.
Speaker C:So you remember that our, our business, our business has really been a part of us all along.
Speaker C:Like so we work well together.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's, it's a different balance when it's both of your thing and I have to say makes things a lot clearer when I'm working with, when I'm working with Carrie is, it's her thing.
Speaker A:I am definitively the assistant.
Speaker A:If I'm doing numbers, I'm doing numbers for her.
Speaker A:I'm building a tool for her.
Speaker A:I'm doing, you know, the logistics for her and it's not my thing.
Speaker A:Like if it's very different when it's your thing together, it's so true.
Speaker B:Because if I make a change, if I want to change like say on the website, this is something.
Speaker C:I want to change the name of the business.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:By the way, let's change the name.
Speaker B:We're going to change the name by the way.
Speaker B:And, but, but if I, if I make a change, I always want to respect her being she, we're partners.
Speaker B:On this.
Speaker B:So we're 50, 50, 50 partners on this business and we all get along.
Speaker C:Like Jason said, there's, there's days where he's very focused on something for the business and I'll be like, I'll go grab the groceries and I'll make dinner.
Speaker C:So yeah, we have to have that literal work life balance in our home.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:In a way that's very, it's visceral.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because this is the work and the life and the balance are so fundamentally intertwined.
Speaker C:We're not going to separate businesses and coming home at 5 o' clock to have dinner together where, you know, we might take a morning off and then work in the afternoon and work in the evening or we might, you know, our schedule changes every day.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:All the time.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:Speaking of schedules changing, we're going to go to break and we're going to talk about the change in names, we're going to talk about events and we'll be right back.
Speaker A:All right, and we're back with the second half of our discussion with the planty pops team.
Speaker A:Planty pops.com p l a n t I e pops.com to check out all of the vegan related things in Rochester and beyond.
Speaker A:So let's talk about first.
Speaker A:You have an event coming up.
Speaker A:We're gonna plug it at the end as well.
Speaker A:So event coming up this weekend at place right in the neighborhood where I'm in.
Speaker C:Yes, we do.
Speaker C:We have a plant based tasting event at Balsam Bagels on Saturday.
Speaker C:I almost said September.
Speaker C:August 9th from 2 to 4pm Nice.
Speaker C:And we're really excited to partner with the team over there.
Speaker C:They've come up with an incredible array of items that people attending will get to sample and they'll be, you know, substantial size samples.
Speaker C:Everything from their vegan bagels and cream cheese to savory options like soup and phylo pastries, their carrot lox that they make.
Speaker C:We're really excited.
Speaker A:It's really good.
Speaker A:It's really good.
Speaker A:It's really tasty.
Speaker A:And it really depends.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because it's such a specific thing.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:And for.
Speaker A:There are so many different ways of tackling something like that.
Speaker A:Because the texture, you know, the texture is a tough thing because it's so specific.
Speaker C:Texture and flavor.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:The original texture is such a specific thing because it has this, you know, there's a smoothness, there's this bite through and you can't replicate everything.
Speaker A:But can you have something that's delicious that works in the context of that sandwich Exactly.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And we.
Speaker C:I mean, we found that with a lot of things, we're like, maybe you're not necessarily comparing apples to apples, but is it have great flavor?
Speaker C:Is it great texture?
Speaker C:Does it kind of, you know, provide that same thing that you may have had in the past?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:So there'll be.
Speaker C:And some.
Speaker C:Some pastries that they're doing.
Speaker B:We probably spend way more time at balsam bagels than we should, so they've become such a huge.
Speaker C:Like, we go in and say hi to everyone and.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:But we're also creatures of habit, too, so we tend to grab the same thing with slight varieties.
Speaker C:We'll go in and grab a bagel and cream cheese and some pastries, because their vegan pastries are incredible too.
Speaker C:But we're excited about this event because we might not go for the carrot lock sandwich if we.
Speaker C:We don't know if we're gonna like it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And might not want to purchase the whole thing.
Speaker C:So now we get to sample it and.
Speaker B:Or the phylo or the.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:We're.
Speaker C:We go in and grab often the same thing.
Speaker C:So we're not always trying all of the options they have.
Speaker C:And they have a lot of things.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker C:They've got a lot of things over there.
Speaker A:Well, yeah, and that's, you know, because, like, filo is one of those specific things, especially with, you know, traditionally, that's a brushed, like, clarified butter, you know, as part of that.
Speaker A:Part of that style.
Speaker A:And, you know, that flakiness and the textures are so integral to what it is because that it defines so many different dishes.
Speaker A:You know, like your spanakopitas and things like that.
Speaker A:It's so specific that it needs to be, like, the texture has to be there, or it's fundamentally not that thing anymore.
Speaker A:And that's a fun challenge to learn about.
Speaker A:How do you make that work and how does that go?
Speaker A:Speaking of how does that go, we were talking about the planty pops thing, and I'm interested.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So metropolitan going on for a while.
Speaker A:What was.
Speaker A:What was the transition?
Speaker A:Because I know both of you have been, you know, living kind of that.
Speaker A:You're living that vegan version of life for a while.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:But what was the impetus to actually switching?
Speaker A:Because this is very fresh.
Speaker A:I saw it recently, and I'm like, oh, let's.
Speaker A:Let's do this now.
Speaker C:The name change was.
Speaker C:Was pretty recent.
Speaker C:The.
Speaker C:The change with.
Speaker C: in Metropops happened back in: Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:The pandemic happened.
Speaker A:So it did.
Speaker C:And we were home More than little.
Speaker B:Thing called the pandemic.
Speaker C:Yeah, we were home more than we usually were and trying new recipes and, you know, looking for things to do and watching food documentaries on Netflix and ended up watching some documentaries and learned some things about being plant based and in veganism and the animal agriculture industry, you know, a number of things.
Speaker C:And we were like, wow, like we don't have to get protein from chicken, beef and pork.
Speaker C:Like there's beans and tempeh and tofu and all of these foods we hadn't really explored.
Speaker C:So we ended up going vegan during the pandemic.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I'm sure all of, I'm sure all the documentaries are very positive, very uplifting.
Speaker A:They certainly, certainly weren't catastrophizing absolutely everything.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker A:But, you know, I think they're there.
Speaker A:It has been sort of the impetus for a lot of people to explore and, you know, maybe reduce their, you know, their weekly consumption of animal products.
Speaker A:Which, you know, for, you know, for somebody who I would say is like, you know, I live a 98% version of it and I probably edged a hair away from that recently, but I'm still In that like 98, you know, 95, 98% vegan version of what I eat every day.
Speaker A:I've started to flex a little bit more on travel just for the sake of enjoying a city and not trying to force every moment.
Speaker A:But do I eat that way 98 plus percent of the time?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Is that the way I do everything?
Speaker A:Basically.
Speaker A:So that was.
Speaker A:You had started phenomenal.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think it's, you know, it's.
Speaker C:That's great.
Speaker A:I think I found that it was tough for me to force myself into the box when I go to visit a place and I've never had the specific thing.
Speaker A:I don't feel like I would be doing a service to myself for not having tried some of the things.
Speaker A:But also, do I try to grab stuff while I'm there and try to do at least a good job of that?
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:But we were in, we were in Philadelphia and I wanted to try the best cheesesteak in the city.
Speaker A:And last time I was in Philadelphia, I had the best vegan cheesesteak in the city.
Speaker A:And that was also great.
Speaker A:And they were both really good.
Speaker A:I'm glad I had it.
Speaker A:Am I going to go back and get that next time?
Speaker A:No, I'll probably just get the vegan version next time.
Speaker A:But it was, I think, a great thing to do while still maintaining my overall balance of I'm trying my best to live this way.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I think we initially came into it like wanting to improve our health too.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And kind of really learning about things like cholesterol and where it came from and just, you know, educating ourselves.
Speaker B:I think it shocks us too, shocked us as to how quickly we went fully vegan.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:It wasn't really a plan cuz we kind of said, you know, maybe if we still eat out or at certain, you know, family, someone invites us over.
Speaker C:We don't want them to have to accommodate us.
Speaker A:But that attitude, by the way, is very much the way I do all of my things when it comes to that is I'm so virulently against imposing on people to assume they have to take care of me.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:I will bring food.
Speaker A:Yeah, I bring my own food.
Speaker A:Like I froze.
Speaker A:I have frozen lunches or I'll bring something else for other people.
Speaker B:That's what we do.
Speaker A:But I just bring, I just bring frozen lunches because I make, I batch all my own lunches, which makes it a lot easier.
Speaker A:I never have to think about it.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:And we had said, you know, if this is a decision we make for our life and our lifestyle, then like if you have us over for dinner and you bake some potatoes and have a salad, like we'll bring, we'll bring, you know, some like, or something, you know, we'll share, we'll bring, we'll bring something too.
Speaker C:And then, you know, we can make a meal out of it because we don't want to impose on anyone because of a choice we've made.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:And I think that's in many ways, that's the way I like, that's the way I like my activism and I understand the purist, the purism is needed for.
Speaker A:Sometimes, you know, it hits some people the right way.
Speaker A:I tend to live in that balanced world of hey, I want to give people the information that I, it's hard to, it's hard to look at all the information say, oh, I don't think that's right.
Speaker A:I think it's not the right decision.
Speaker A:It's hard for me to say that because the, the information seems pretty clear to me, generally speaking, and that there's better ways of doing all the things like mass agriculture, you know, mass meat production is obviously bad.
Speaker A:I think anybody can look at that and say this is not good.
Speaker A:And then there's the balanced version where you see, hey, we have regenerative agriculture farms that are raising their animals in the best possible way until they're not.
Speaker A:There's the better versions of those things, and there is a balance, which I always love talking about because the gray area is interesting.
Speaker A:Black and white is boring to me.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:It's not.
Speaker C:Everything's not black and white.
Speaker A:I find it very boring to say this is fundamentally the only thing.
Speaker A:You are all bad.
Speaker A:I'm like, yeah, right.
Speaker A:It's not.
Speaker A:It's kind of boring to me.
Speaker A:So anyways, now I'm talking about philosophy and these things.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But it's a great thing because I think when we came into it.
Speaker B:And so we'll go on the name change from micropops too.
Speaker B:Planty pops.
Speaker B: Well, so I'll back up in: Speaker B:When we did go vegan, we actually spent quite a while trying to figure out what we wanted to do with this information inside of our heads.
Speaker A:Well, it's a lot.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And even if you're really into learning, it's still a lot of information all at once.
Speaker C:We took in a lot of information.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:And so we came from.
Speaker B:I mean, literally right before the pandemic, we were meat eaters and we grew.
Speaker C:Up meat and potato household.
Speaker B:That's it.
Speaker B:That's it.
Speaker B:And then all of a sudden, you know, we're.
Speaker C:We're making chickpea curry in our kitchen.
Speaker C:We had never done that.
Speaker A:Delightful.
Speaker B:Delicious.
Speaker C:So good.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:And so we were.
Speaker B: five years, now we're talking: Speaker B:So we're trying to figure out what do we do with that information and where do we stand now in this.
Speaker B:Where do we stand versus the purists, versus who we've always kind of sort of everyone's welcome.
Speaker B:Yeah, everyone's welcome.
Speaker B:And we're.
Speaker B:I mean.
Speaker B:I mean, everything in our lives from being downtown central.
Speaker B:So we don't have an east, west, you know, viewpoint on this city.
Speaker B:We have a centrist, you know, kind of a central look on everybody's welcome.
Speaker A:Also.
Speaker A:I think that's, That's.
Speaker A:To be honest, I always found that very odd that people are like, oh, east or west?
Speaker A:I'm like, we're all Rochester.
Speaker A:Like, let, let's, let's.
Speaker A:Let's be serious.
Speaker A:Like, you can be Pittsford all you want, but you're.
Speaker A:You're part of Rochester.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:I always found it kind of disingenuous to say, like, no, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm a suburban.
Speaker A:You said, like, we should all be caring about what's going on.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Because Rochester is the right Rochester.
Speaker A:Is the heart.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:Of our entire area.
Speaker A:And I agree completely.
Speaker A:I think that's the right thing.
Speaker A:Is for the greater good, which I think that seems like the ethos you're talking about, Jason, as well, is for the greater good, which is bringing people in.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:And you don't have to be.
Speaker B:We.
Speaker B:We take the position.
Speaker B:You don't have to be vegan even.
Speaker B:You don't have to be a hundred percent vegan.
Speaker B:You want to just try different dishes.
Speaker B:You want to try, you know, this balsam bagels event, you know, is one is a perfect example of.
Speaker B:Of maybe you're not vegan, but you want to try some of their.
Speaker B:Their different dishes.
Speaker B:They have phenomenal baked goods over there.
Speaker B:The carrot locks, of course.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so.
Speaker B:But it's, It's, It's.
Speaker B:It's just trying to keep it open and accessible for everybody.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And I mean, I.
Speaker C:Long before we went vegan, I became lactose intolerant in, like, 09, and.
Speaker A:What a delightful experience.
Speaker C:What a delightful experience.
Speaker A:I loved that experience my whole life.
Speaker A:It's so much fun.
Speaker C:But then we started learning about vegan food.
Speaker C:I think when the Red Fern opened, which was.
Speaker B:Would have been what, 20?
Speaker B:That would have been 13 or 14.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Somewhere around there.
Speaker C:Yeah, there.
Speaker C:And because I know it's been more than 10 years that they've celebrated.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:13 years.
Speaker C:But.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:So I had this amazing experience of this new restaurant that opened, and I learned I could eat everything on the menu.
Speaker C:And I went in, like, I can eat anything.
Speaker C:Like this huge pastry case.
Speaker C:I'm like, I can eat all of these desserts.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker A:So I mean, if you ate all of those fruit bars, I. I think you would just become a black hole, because it is like they are the density of a neutron star.
Speaker C:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:I love those things.
Speaker A:They're so good.
Speaker A:Oh, my gosh, those fruit bars are so good.
Speaker C:Oh, that jam bars.
Speaker B:Yeah, the jam bars are delicious.
Speaker C:We grab my fuego.
Speaker A:It's just the densest thing in the possible world.
Speaker A:And I love those so much.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So good.
Speaker C:They're filling, you know, so we.
Speaker C:We started dining at the Red Fern years before we were vegan.
Speaker C:And we're like, it kind of opened our eyes to what else was out there.
Speaker C:I mean, lentil burgers and these different products like seitan and tempeh that we'd never had.
Speaker B:And I, I have to say, as being the husband of a lactose intolerant spouse, it wasn't, It.
Speaker B:It wasn't even Like, I was being supportive going to Redfern, but when I got to Redfern, I mean, from day one, food was delicious and there was no like, oh, this is okay for vegan food.
Speaker C:And it's just great food.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was just great food.
Speaker B:And so that was my first experience with veganism.
Speaker C:So where I was going with that was, you know, we started to experience, okay, we're not vegan, but I'm lactose intolerant and these are the different things we can eat.
Speaker C:So, you know, you don't have to be vegan to use the website.
Speaker C:You don't have to be lactose intolerant.
Speaker C:Or maybe you, you know, but.
Speaker C:Or maybe you have a friend who is vegan and you're not sure where to take them out, or a family member.
Speaker C:You're not sure what.
Speaker C:What do I do with this family member?
Speaker C:Like, where can we go to dinner?
Speaker C:Like the website and this city guide we've created, all of.
Speaker C:If there's a restaurant on there, they have vegan options.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Unless they're fully 100% vegan, which we have those listed as well.
Speaker C:So you can go on and be like, I'm looking for Mexican and, oh, you know, these places have vegan options.
Speaker C:And it's not a fully established guide because we're adding listings, you know, as often as possible.
Speaker C:And businesses can.
Speaker C:Can create their own listings too, trying.
Speaker B:To get that business plan going.
Speaker A:Which I love.
Speaker A:Which I love, by the way.
Speaker A:That that was something when we were developing, frankly, it was always important that the businesses, you know, you hope you get to a point where people want to add their stuff.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because it's really, really difficult to get every piece of information that could possibly exist, especially all the details.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because, like, you don't.
Speaker A:You can't look at every menu of every restaurant and say, what's an option that isn't talking down to us.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker A:Because I know every person who has lived this or lived versions of this has had underwhelming restaurant experiences where they're like, well, we've got 25 options for everybody.
Speaker A:And then you can have steamed vegetables over pasta with red sauce.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:And I just.
Speaker C:Side salad and French fries.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I just don't like.
Speaker A:I'd rather you not serve anything and just tell me you don't want me to go there.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker A:I'd much rather you do that because that is like, you're not.
Speaker A:You're just doing something to token.
Speaker A:Add something to the menu.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:I don't remember if I've ever told the story on, on food about town.
Speaker A:I was, I think I might have.
Speaker A:But anyways, I was in, I was in Milwaukee doing installation for a machine for my day job.
Speaker A:And I take this whole group out for dinner.
Speaker A:And this is a 20 person group.
Speaker A:And we went to a steakhouse, right?
Speaker A:Because, hey, that's what everybody wanted.
Speaker A:I'm like, fine, I'm good with that.
Speaker A:I called ahead, I'm like, we're gonna, we're spending a lot of money and I would like you, for you to make me a vegan dish.
Speaker A:And this wasn't day of, this was two to two or three days in advance.
Speaker A:Plenty of time to make something.
Speaker A:I said, hey, we're gonna be spending a lot of money.
Speaker A:And they proceed to give me steamed vegetables over pasta with red sauce.
Speaker A:And then I also proceed to have multiple martini glasses of boulevardiers.
Speaker A:And I had myself a night.
Speaker A:But it was just one of those things where I, I dropped $2,000 that night or more.
Speaker C:And you got it.
Speaker A:And that's what they.
Speaker C:Vegetables.
Speaker A:I'm like, I dropped a lot of money in your restaurant that night.
Speaker A:And that's what happened.
Speaker A:And that's, that's the stuff I always hate to see.
Speaker A:Which is why something like this means a lot.
Speaker A:Because it lets people say, hey, yeah, not everybody in my party wants to eat that way.
Speaker A:But you can find places that still care about serving everybody and have come.
Speaker C:Up with some creative dishes that aren't just right.
Speaker B:And it's, and it's one of our goals, is one of our goals to partner up with these merchants.
Speaker B:Of course, the 100% vegan merchants, they have those dishes.
Speaker B:But we're looking at the non vegan merchants.
Speaker B:You know, it's our goal to that they get something delicious on the menu or, or a small little menu because, because this movement is growing.
Speaker A:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker B:And we see it growing like by leaps and bounds, you know, more and.
Speaker C:More restaurants that have vegan options who are like even creating a little dedicated vegan menu and saying these five or six things are vegan or here's, here's.
Speaker A:The ones you can change because they're not precious about it.
Speaker C:Customizable.
Speaker C:Great.
Speaker A:Which I love.
Speaker A:And speaking of which, like now when you're, now when you're looking at Planty Pops, right?
Speaker A:So we've changed the name obviously, going towards your, your path and seeing that, hey, people have responded because I've seen you at the, what is it, the vegan festival here in town.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:You know, participating in that and being involved and growing this side of it, you know, and changing the name officially to focus on that.
Speaker A:Was that a growth thing or was that our.
Speaker A:Has been bubbling for the last like three years.
Speaker C: So when back in: Speaker C:So trying to kind of get that vegan plant based, sustainable lifestyle.
Speaker C: thin those categories back in: Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker C:And then so we just recently kept the name Metropolitan.
Speaker C:You know, we felt like we had just established that name within the last two years.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:And then with Planty Pops, it was a sort of an awakening of, well, maybe Metro Pops.
Speaker B:The word Metro is not necessarily doing what we want.
Speaker B:Not resonating, not resonating with our community.
Speaker B:Because when you first.
Speaker B:Because we all know that first impressions can be lasting.
Speaker B:Of course they're lasting.
Speaker B:So when somebody sees Metro Pops, I would have no idea that we had anything to do with vegan plant based, anything like that.
Speaker B:So it was really a.
Speaker B:Okay, let's go plant.
Speaker B:Planty planter something veggie.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker C:Yeah, Jason sprung this on me and he's like, so you know, just because I'm a very logistical person once again.
Speaker C:And a name change means a lot of branding changes and logo changes.
Speaker B:I will say, Chris, that she sprung on us that we're having a child.
Speaker B:So I said, it's come out huge surprise.
Speaker C:Having a meat in baby.
Speaker B:We'll have right back at you.
Speaker C:So, so I'm like, okay, we've got this literal baby and then Planty Pops is like our, our new.
Speaker C:Our next baby business baby.
Speaker B:Our business baby.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:Well, I, I also love that opportunity.
Speaker A:So like having the chance to like go through the process of creating the platform and then refocusing on, on something specific does let you sort of take all the lessons you've learned over that time and say yes, yes, this.
Speaker A:But maybe this individual part wasn't working.
Speaker A:Well, let's focus on this.
Speaker A:Let's do this part because we're doing this really well.
Speaker A:And also I love that opportunity to like, oh, I liked the logo before, but there's something that just works better about the new one.
Speaker A:And I know when we switched from curate to nominate one, we had to.
Speaker A:We got cease and desisted.
Speaker A:So we had no choice.
Speaker A:But in the end, was the name better and was the logo better?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Did it better describe about what we were?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Do you feel that way changing?
Speaker B:I absolutely do.
Speaker C:I think so.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I feel like we're on the right path forward.
Speaker B:Going back to, you know, right now we're niching down.
Speaker B:That's basically what we did.
Speaker B:We niche down with the vegan market, the sustainable market, sort of.
Speaker B:We looked at it more like having a marketing background, both of us having a marketing background.
Speaker B:Looking at the psychographic of the vegan market basically.
Speaker B:And what do vegans and vegan based businesses, what do the customers want and what else do they like?
Speaker B:What's the lifestyle like?
Speaker B:So psychographics are all about the lifestyle.
Speaker B:So that's what we're really trying to drill down.
Speaker B:And I think it's a smaller market than trying to encompass everything because you know, it's that, that old business adage when you try to grab everything, when you try to go after everything, you get nothing.
Speaker B:You know.
Speaker B:And with us niching down into the vegan market specifically, really targeting and.
Speaker A:Just.
Speaker B:Making a go at that because we're in that, that's who, you know, we want to talk to people who are our what we're in, you know, being vegans ourselves.
Speaker B:So we're, we have a lot smaller market.
Speaker B:We think it's more manageable.
Speaker A:So yeah, I think it's also about that specific authenticity.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And this was.
Speaker A:That's right when, when we were writing blogs.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:The blogs were fundamentally authentic because the only voice was you and you were writing and you were taking pictures and you were doing everything.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker A:And that was the thing.
Speaker A:Except for all the people that had lots of people.
Speaker A:We're not going to talk about that.
Speaker A:But that was the thing.
Speaker A:It was so ground grounded, authentic for the people at that time because you had to be big, you had to be honest, you had to show that.
Speaker A:And focusing on that here seems like.
Speaker A:Seems like you've got the.
Speaker A:Seems like you have this energy that hey, this is, this feels like the path.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I think with everything we've done, we've tried to make it authentic to who we are.
Speaker C:And even back in like with the Rochester and metropops, like if it was something cool that we would do or we could see people like wanting to participate in, like that was something we wanted to cover.
Speaker C:But now being vegan and wanting to like make sure our values are still there, that's kind of how this has come along and evolved.
Speaker A:That's awesome.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And It's.
Speaker A:I think that's.
Speaker A:That's pretty cool to, you know, hey, this is what I'm excited about.
Speaker A:This is where.
Speaker A:Because you can't fake that.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You have to be.
Speaker A:If you're there and present, people are going to feel that.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:You want them to feel your excitement about it, too.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And we really feel like it's growing in Rochester, the vegan businesses, the vegan restaurants, but even just businesses coming up with great vegan options and it makes it more inclusive for.
Speaker C:For everyone.
Speaker C:And like we said, the business and the.
Speaker C:The online city guide is for anyone and everyone to use because we have a lot of incredible restaurants and businesses that are on there.
Speaker C:They just happen to also serve vegan options.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So let's finish off with.
Speaker A:Let's talk about some of our favorites.
Speaker C:Oh, yes.
Speaker A:Side note.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker A:Side note.
Speaker A:I would love.
Speaker A:I'd love to contribute, you know, maybe some.
Speaker A:Some videos for you guys to talk about.
Speaker A:Some of my favorite places, you know, cultural places, because those are the places I feel super strongly about that.
Speaker A:I mean, you guys know what I focus on.
Speaker A:And I love being able to tell people, like, hey, you can eat great and eat cultural foods.
Speaker A:You don't have to be limited to, you know.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:You don't have to be in it not to say this in a bad way.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You don't have to be limited to the red fern or the classic, like moose wood.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:You know, kind of restaurants to say this is vegan food.
Speaker A:And there's tons of places to do amazing stuff.
Speaker C:Incredible food out there that's not just here's a Beyond Burger or an Impossible Burger.
Speaker C:Like, there's really creative, creative places.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, like, I'll throw out one that does use some of those options right around the corner from here.
Speaker A:I think it's a cachevre or que chevaire over on Culver and Main street.
Speaker A:They're doing, I believe, Puerto Rican.
Speaker A:Puerto Rican.
Speaker A:Dominican.
Speaker A:I think it might be Dominican because they have mofongo and you can have it with impossible meat.
Speaker A:So you get these beautiful mashed plantains and fresh, bright garlic and this food that, like, I thought I would never get again.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:And then I get to have a very traditional version and the add on the lead on impossible meat on top to give you that little pop of things.
Speaker A:And yeah, you get that big excitement of those flavors in a way that still satisfies that.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:That desire.
Speaker C:You get to have that experience and.
Speaker B:That food and not miss out.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:One of one of our favorites is Zamada.
Speaker A:Oh, I, I, I never, I always want to say great things about them because they're also just really genuinely awesome, nice people.
Speaker A:I mean, Nathaniel and Zamata and, you know, they're raising their kids in the city and that is, that is the modern American dream is what they're doing.
Speaker A:And I love that place.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:They're just great people.
Speaker B:Delicious food.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:So that's Ethiopian food.
Speaker A:I know, I've mentioned.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:A million times, but a great spot to go visit.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:What else do you got?
Speaker B:Stuff.
Speaker C:Oh, goodness.
Speaker C:We were just talking about businesses before we came because, you know, you got, oh, there's always on your feet.
Speaker C:What are some of the things that we've been loving recently?
Speaker A:Oh, I'm going to throw up.
Speaker A:My buddy who just opened, I think just open is or is opening in the mercantile on Main.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:Yujir Yan over at the, you know, Seasons Noodle.
Speaker C:Seasons Noodle.
Speaker A:He's one of my genuinely favorite people around.
Speaker A:Just one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.
Speaker A:And he's trying so hard.
Speaker C:He's been doing phenomenal in the new location.
Speaker A:I'm really happy.
Speaker C:We've been a couple times.
Speaker C:He moved from the Columbus building to the mercantile in Maine this year and just opened initially for business weekday lunch and was killing it.
Speaker C:He's killing it.
Speaker C:He and his wife are so sweet.
Speaker C:Their food is authentic.
Speaker C:He makes fresh handmade noodles every morning before he opens because the quality is, you know, that's important to him.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And especially representing, you know, Northern Chinese Beijing style noodles.
Speaker A:It's so specific, but it's so, so comforting.
Speaker C:And this, the sauces are so flavorful without being this typical.
Speaker C:What you might find in typical American Chinese as being like a sweeter, heavier, thicker sauce.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:You know, I just, you get to have to try it for yourself.
Speaker A:I mean, the cumin tofu and the wide noodles or the tomato, tomato, potato, eggplant.
Speaker B:Oh, that's tomato tofu.
Speaker B:Delicious.
Speaker A:Just really, just down home.
Speaker A:Comfort food shouldn't be restricted to anything.
Speaker A:It's, that is comfort food because it tastes like somebody cares about it.
Speaker A:And he does.
Speaker C:He's invited you into his home and he's put all of his, his care into this meal for you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And we appreciate him because he has said, we have, we have asked him to, to sort of, we've been working with him a little bit and say, you know, can you, can you make more of it?
Speaker B:You know, can you?
Speaker B:But he's Very specific that he needs.
Speaker B:He wants to do it right for his customers, and he wants to craft it exactly by hand.
Speaker B:So you got to respect that.
Speaker B:You just got to respect that.
Speaker A:And yeah, if it's.
Speaker A:If you have to wait a little bit extra, it is 100% worth it.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:This is not a debatable thing.
Speaker A:This is 100% worth your time.
Speaker C:And he's even told us, for anybody out there who's vegan, like, everything is vegan until you add meat.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:So the sauces, the noodles, obviously the vegetables, and he's got tofu.
Speaker C:But it just.
Speaker C:You have so many options.
Speaker A:Makes it a lot nicer.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Where you can pick how you feel that day.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:Oh, go ahead.
Speaker B:I was gonna say, Chris, one of the places that we haven't been to yet, I don't know if you have is crisp.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:I've seen such good stuff on them.
Speaker A:It's really good.
Speaker C:Really?
Speaker C:We're really bad about getting out to place places because we do cook a lot at home, so.
Speaker B:And part of that is, is.
Speaker B:Is we know that the prices have.
Speaker B:Have, you know, have just skyrocketed around the board, you know, for.
Speaker B:For things.
Speaker B:So we're.
Speaker C:We're not talking specifically, we're just saying in general.
Speaker B:But it's a fair amount.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And that.
Speaker C:That's money.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That is not like, that is not a fast food place.
Speaker A:But I think the food is strongly at value there.
Speaker A:And they have some really good options, like, and ones where you think, oh, yeah, they really worked on this.
Speaker A:And I interviewed Wendy about a year or so ago, and she's just really cool people.
Speaker A:Her and her wife are just love being in Rochester.
Speaker A:They moved from, I think, Texas.
Speaker A:And, you know, both for both her climate and, you know, the cultural content of Rochester and being comfortable here and knowing that they chose to be here.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:And that they're trying to serve everybody, and they're a really inclusive place.
Speaker A:And when I say serve everybody, they want everybody to feel that, you know, Southern comfort.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That.
Speaker A:That hospitality.
Speaker A:They want everybody to feel like they belong there.
Speaker A:And the food matches that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:That, you know, when you go in and get a vegan dish, you don't feel.
Speaker A:You feel like they chose to serve this to you.
Speaker C:It's not an afterthought on the menu.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I remember having a meatloaf dish there.
Speaker A:It was like a vegan meatloaf.
Speaker A:And it was, wow.
Speaker A:I was like, oh, God, I haven't had meatloaf in forever.
Speaker A:And to have somebody made a choice to make that and they made it really well.
Speaker A:Like, yeah, that's a great choice because it felt.
Speaker A:It felt homey in a really cool way.
Speaker A:And the.
Speaker A:They're just.
Speaker A:And it seems like the staff's treated well and it's just.
Speaker A:Just a cool place to go visit.
Speaker B:Or it's on our list.
Speaker B:We're going.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Mark it down.
Speaker C:One of the places we've gotten to a lot with family.
Speaker C:Because now both sides of our family not too, too far from here is.
Speaker C:I'm gonna.
Speaker C:I apologize.
Speaker C:Totally pronounce us wrong.
Speaker A:It's okay.
Speaker C:Because we're who we are and we call it posca.
Speaker C:But I think it's.
Speaker A:I mean, probably.
Speaker A:I grew up in Buffalo, so.
Speaker A:I grew up in Buffalo.
Speaker A:Everything's pronounced differently.
Speaker A:I remember.
Speaker A:I remember sitting down at Polish villa too, in, you know, one of the areas of Buffalo with my dad and is this old Polish guy.
Speaker A:And I think he had ordered, you know, this is like the kind of place that serves very traditional.
Speaker A:He was sitting down with a bowl of blood soup, right?
Speaker A:This is like.
Speaker A:Like old school Polish.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And my dad was talking about this guy.
Speaker A:He's like, oh, I'll use the name because it doesn't really matter.
Speaker A:He's like, I was again, you know, Tom Krajewski's like, ah, Krajowski.
Speaker A:And I'm like, I'll never forget.
Speaker A:Just like.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Everything's pronounced a different way.
Speaker A:We all do our best to try.
Speaker C:I am not Polish.
Speaker A:No, that's right.
Speaker B:Food is vegan food.
Speaker C:Pierogi and the jack.
Speaker C:The fish fry.
Speaker C:The vegan fish fry.
Speaker A:I've not had it yet.
Speaker C:On Fridays, okay.
Speaker C:It's jackfruit.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:The flavor, the texture.
Speaker C:There's a vegan tartar sauce.
Speaker C:You get, you know, I'm have to.
Speaker A:Get that for my wife this Friday.
Speaker C:Coming up, wedge of lemon to squeeze.
Speaker C:Like the whole experience.
Speaker C:It's delicious.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker A:And I got to say those.
Speaker A:Those frozen pierogies in the.
Speaker A:In the freezer, you get the mushroom and sauerkraut.
Speaker A:Oh, I love those so much.
Speaker C:We've only dined there and had sitting at the table.
Speaker A:So those freezers, before you walk upstairs, I think it's mushroom and sauerkraut.
Speaker A:Might be mushroom, sour cream and potato, but that like, you take those at home, you come with some onions and you do the same thing.
Speaker A:Oh, that is satisfying.
Speaker C:The pierogi is just like.
Speaker C:I always feel like it's this little like pillow of mashed Potato.
Speaker C:I want.
Speaker A:Oh, it's so good.
Speaker C:So good.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And I love the experience too.
Speaker B:The small little city home.
Speaker B:It's such an amazing experience.
Speaker C:Family business.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Husband and wife team.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:Well, and in the end, everybody likes a dough around a filling.
Speaker A:It's like.
Speaker A:That is like.
Speaker A:What is more.
Speaker A:What is.
Speaker A:What is more satisfying than that?
Speaker A:Nothing.
Speaker C:And you can get it fried or boiled.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker A:Steamed, like every.
Speaker A:Every.
Speaker A:Everybody loves a dough and a filling, right?
Speaker A:From.
Speaker A:From dumplings to pierogi to empanadas to, you know, calzones.
Speaker A:Everybody loves it.
Speaker A:And it's like universal.
Speaker A:Across the world, from samosas to sambusas and beyond, it's these just good food.
Speaker A:And I think that's what you're trying to get to at Planty Pops is get good food to people.
Speaker A:And if they need specific things, they're able to find it there.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:Let's do the plugs one more time for Planty Pops.
Speaker A:Where can people find it online?
Speaker A:And the website, Instagram.
Speaker A:And then tell people about the event.
Speaker A:One more time.
Speaker C:One more time.
Speaker C:All of the social medias are now at Planty Pops.
Speaker C:Facebook, Instagram threads, trying to build out a YouTube.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker C:And at some point.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And then it's planty pops.com P L A N T I E P O P S dot com.
Speaker B:And this Saturday.
Speaker C:This Saturday.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Plant based tasting event at Balsam Bagels.
Speaker B:Right here in the neighborhood.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And that's two to four.
Speaker B:There are still some tickets available.
Speaker C:They'll have lots of samples.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:A lot of tasty treats.
Speaker C:And we're gonna have some giveaways which will be a lot of fun and even have some fun.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Even a discount for the event.
Speaker C:So if you go and you try something you like and you wanna buy that specific cookie to go home and get a little discount.
Speaker C:So that's awesome.
Speaker B:And just one more thing, Chris.
Speaker B:I just want to make a little plug, if I may, for the Rochester Veg Fest too.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker B:We're actually on the planning team this year.
Speaker A:Oh, fantastic.
Speaker B:So we went from just sort of small volunteers last year to on the planning team.
Speaker B:We're also sponsors this year too.
Speaker B:And so we have.
Speaker B:It's Sunday.
Speaker C:August.
Speaker B:August, yeah, August 24th.
Speaker C:10 to 4 in parcel 5.
Speaker C:Ton of food vendors, arts and craft vendors and retail vendors, music, yoga.
Speaker A:Great, great event last year.
Speaker C:Incredible speakers.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:Cooking demos.
Speaker C:It's gonna be.
Speaker C:It's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker C:And it's Sunday in Parcel five and the lucky flea happens right across like Kitty corner across the way.
Speaker C:So it's just gonna be this huge bash.
Speaker B:Come out and enjoy.
Speaker B:So there's going to be a lot to do, a lot to take in.
Speaker A:Planty Pops back downtown, showing up for Vegfest, making something cool happen in downtown once again.
Speaker C:Yeah I think, I think with with the business and creating, you know an online resource, we want to bring people together in community too.
Speaker C:You know I think we've all distance ourselves from each other and become more online connected so.
Speaker C:So we're hoping to do more events and bring people together in community to make new friends and just enjoy life together human to human interaction again.
Speaker A:Sounds awesome.
Speaker A:So like I said, I'm excited to contribute whether it be a video or hopefully not writing.
Speaker A:I don't like writing so I'll do something to show some of the places I love.
Speaker C:Yeah we would love to highlight your.
Speaker A:Picks are doing that.
Speaker A:I'd love to do that on a semi regular basis just to get things to get the word out there.
Speaker B:Love it.
Speaker A:That would be so much fun.
Speaker A:Also speaking of which, I hope everybody goes and checks out the Lunchador Podcast network.
Speaker A:Go to lunchador.org to check out all of the shows, including a couple shows I want you to check out.
Speaker A:If you didn't get a chance to check out the first small season of Murphy's Rank the World that is Megan Murphy, Sky Murphy and their brother Tim talking about a topic.
Speaker A:They rank it and every single one of them is absolutely right and they debate it to the to the hilt all across.
Speaker A:It's so much fun.
Speaker A:And I'm also excited for you to check out the most recent season of Punches and Popcorn.
Speaker A:They highlighted female stars of martial arts films.
Speaker A:They went into so much cool history covering some awesome movies.
Speaker A:If you haven't checked out Punches and Popcorn, this is a good great season to check out.
Speaker A:I really hope you do.
Speaker A:And check out the event at Balsam Bagels.
Speaker A:Check out Plenty Pops and we'll see you next time with more on the Food About Town podcast.
Speaker A:Thanks for listening to the Food About Town podcast.
Speaker A:If you aren't already subscribed, what are you waiting for?
Speaker A:Go to your podcast app of choice and make us your favorite podcast by subscribing and leaving a review if you can.
Speaker A:Music for the podcast was created by the fabulous Taurus Savant.
Speaker A:You can hear more of his work@taurusavant.bandcamp.com and make your presence known by seeing him perform live.
Speaker A:Food About Town is a proud member of the Lunchador Podcast Network.
Speaker A:Oh, no.
Speaker A:Here comes McKenneth.
Speaker A:This has been a presentation of the Lunchadore Podcast Network.
Speaker A:In one of the earlier seasons of the Simpsons, there was a quote that always rang in my head when I ate meat all the time.
Speaker A:It was, you don't win friends with salad.
Speaker A:Maybe if you found a good one on Plenty Pops, you would win some friends.
Speaker A:Get some friends.
