Brian: 0:11

All right, well, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast. I'm Brian.

Shawna: 0:14

And I'm Shauna.

Brian: 0:15

And today we are sitting with here with Courtney from the Salvador Deli. Courtney, we're so excited to have you here.

Shawna: 0:21

Thank you. I'm happy to be here. My first podcast. First podcast. Woohoo!

Brian: 0:25

All right, so Courtney, so would you mind taking about 30 seconds and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Courtney: 0:29

Sure. Yeah. So I'm Courtney Cotherman, one of the owners of Salvador Deli. I was born and raised in Vero. So left, moved around a little bit, New York City, Australia for a little bit. Oh my gosh. But I always come back to Vero because it's home. My family's here. So love it and very happy to have a business here as well. It feels like an honor.

Brian: 0:46

So you went to New York and you went to Australia, you said?

Courtney: 0:49

So I spent, yeah, a little bit of time in Australia, a year. I can hear the accent. Yeah, right. I traveled back after eight years. And then yeah, some time in New York too, which kind of inspired some of this as well, you know, like through the travels. But yeah. Yeah, yeah. But here we are back in Bureau.

Brian: 1:04

So what called you to traveling to those areas?

Courtney: 1:07

So New York, I did a AmeriCorps program called City Year. So I worked in a middle school in the South Bronx, which was an experience. Yeah. Which I absolutely loved. So I did it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brian: 1:18

Uh well, okay. How did you get started in the restaurant business?

Courtney: 1:22

So after my traveling and, you know, kind of going back and forth, ended up at Kilted Mermaid. Linda took me in like one of her many strays. And uh she was always so supportive of travel too. So I would kind of come and go. And that lasted for about a decade. So working together there, I started to study wine. This became sort of a passion. I was thinking about turning a career into that. So we started doing these wine dinners together where we would have people come in, we would pair wine and food, and we sold out all of them, you know, and it was a big success. So we teamed up together, and then this opportunity came to be, and here we are. That's awesome.

Brian: 1:55

So, what did you do at Kilted? I mean, where is that what you do? Is just specify just specifically on wine?

Courtney: 2:00

No, no, I was server, bartender, the end, social media, marketing, events. So everything. Yeah, your hands are yeah, which is really great training for this. Yeah, you know, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

Brian: 2:12

Yeah, because when you become an owner of a restaurant or owner of any business and you are just doing just the owner part, right?

Courtney: 2:16

You're in charge of everything, exactly. Yes.

Brian: 2:18

How many people do you have that work here?

Courtney: 2:20

We have eight currently. Okay. Yeah. So and some are like super part-time. Like we have one of our guys, Luke Fuller, is a treasure diver. And so he just, you know, actually was in the paper for collecting quite a few, you know, Spanish silver. And then I saw it. Yeah. Yeah. Did you see it? Yeah. So he works here one day a week, sort of while he does that. And yeah, and then we've got a couple, you know, full-time, and those are my right-hand guys. And yeah. So tell us about the moment that you decided you were gonna start your own restaurant. Yeah. So walking tree, we've been great friends with for over 10 years, I would say. Mike and Brooke, and they definitely took a leap of faith on us, which has turned out to be a great partnership. But yeah, so this came about and it took a lot longer than we expected it to to come to fruition just with permitting and whatnot. So had time to work on those skills we were talking about. Yeah. So probably learned some new ones along the way. Exactly. Yeah. But yeah, finally, you know, last year it all happened and then it happened so fast. You know, of course, you wait, wait, wait, and then, you know, you blink, and then I blinked again, and it's been a year.

Brian: 3:20

So tell us a little bit about your partnership with walking tree. Like how did it come about? Like, how did they approach you or did they even know you're interested in something like this?

Courtney: 3:28

Yeah, I think, you know, there were conversations through the friendship about the need of a restaurant here. They had food trucks for years and were absolutely fabulous, you know, nothing against food trucks, but with that, sometimes they can be a little inconsistent. So they wanted permanent food. And this kind of model was something I always wanted, like a quick service, you know, something that was conducive to the brewery where you could really be creative too. So had those conversations. I had a big scary meeting with, you know, everybody and sat down and won them over, you know, luckily. And no, no, I'm kidding. But yeah, but but yeah, so we're here and that's very happy.

Brian: 4:40

Okay, so you big okay, I know you're joking in some ways, but what was the scariest part for you about that meeting?

Courtney: 4:46

No, it's terrifying. You know, you're presenting something that's your baby, you know, and if it's rejected, there's obviously things you have to deal with with that too. And so yeah, no, I think it was more or less just the presentation of this is something that I'm really passionate about, and I I hope you like it too. And yeah, yeah, it seems to have been well received.

Brian: 5:03

So Okay, so I mean, I know me and Shauna have talked about this. I'm definitely excited that you're here because if anyone hasn't been here yet, they're really missing out. It's nice to know there's there's a consistent type of food here. Like we know if we come here and we want to get something to eat, we're gonna get something of good quality. That again, I'm not just saying that we've love the food and we'll talk about that more later.

Shawna: 5:22

I have a less, yes. Thank you guys. Yes. So the name obviously is a play on Salvador Dolly, right? Yeah, yeah. But what made you decide to turn that into a concept?

Brian: 5:33

Okay, but wait a minute. Okay, what's you explained to me, I don't know what this you said it's a concept of what? Because I don't even know that.

Shawna: 5:39

Okay, so Salvador Dolly is an artist. So as soon as I saw and even like the fonts, uh-huh. The artwork, yeah, yeah. So as soon as I saw it, I was like, oh, that is such an interesting idea. And I will say for people who haven't been here yet, you know, there's artwork on the walls and it's a very like eclectic and cool feeling space. I love all of your plants. That was one of the first things I noticed when I came in, is I was like, who takes care of all these plants? Cozy. I love houseplants, just make a space for these.

Brian: 6:08

But you probably should do something about the cobwebs.

Courtney: 6:11

I know that's a problem right now. Don't you love the lights though? They're they're activated by a wand. Yes, there's a light. I had to have them.

Brian: 6:17

There's lights, there's cobwebs and spiders. Listening, we are recording this at October, so it's decorations, it's not real cobwebs and spiders. Don't worry, yeah. Yes, tell us about the name.

Courtney: 6:32

Yeah, so it's funny. We either get a Brian or Shauna where it's like, what? Salvadorian food, you know, or yeah, yeah. Or people are like, oh my god, it's amazing. We love it. Yeah, yeah. So it's we were at the Dolly Museum, Linda and myself, and you know, probably having a glass of wine after whatever. And we were kind of coming up with a concept, and neither of us remember. I don't know if this is because of the wine, but who said it? And I'm pretty sure it was Linda. But yeah, so from that day it just stuck, and then I think like five years later. I mean, this happened way before the restaurant, but yeah. So that's so funny. And then you you get to lean in, which is fun too. But so fun.

Shawna: 7:07

And then how what inspired your menu? Because you have a very interesting and kind of revolving menu, right? And I love all the different flavors and interesting things that you've brought into that. What what inspired that?

Brian: 7:19

Yeah, and actually, like I was reading on your site as we were talking about this. Your site was talking about you called it artfully elevated pub food.

Courtney: 7:27

Uh-huh. So we, you know, we're not necessarily a pub. So that was sort of first concept, obviously. But yeah, so kind of the model that we've always loved was taking these classics and things that people like and then punching them up and making them our own. So you have like the deli llama, which is a fan favorite, you know, kind of being conducive to the brewery. So things that people love, tater tots for their kids, or you know, and then making house made sauces or aioles and really getting to play with, you know, things that you would see in a brewery, but maybe are a little out of your comfort zone. But yeah, yeah.

Shawna: 7:58

And do you think about like the flavors and things that the brewery are playing with or new things that they're making? Do you think about that when you're making your menu too? Absolutely. Yeah.

Courtney: 8:07

Our beer cheese is made with baby cakes, of course. Has to be. They're uh award-winning beer out there. So and then, you know, thinking about pairings all the time. We're in October, so we're doing brats right now with their you know, Oktoberfest beers. And so yeah, it's just fun to put the brat on the menu. I was like, it's really good. Yeah.

Shawna: 8:24

Yeah. I was like, oh, well, we can eat after we do the podcast. I was like, oh, we're going on her day off.

Courtney: 8:30

Well, no, I I actually thought, should I fire up the oven for them?

Shawna: 8:32

But yeah, which I would have been happy to do. But yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry, we ate before we came. So you do not have to work on your day off. Yeah, I got you. Yeah.

Brian: 8:39

Well, this is this has been great so far, Courtney. Like, I'm really excited. I mean, I noticed as Shauna usually likes to explain the vibe inside where we where we're sitting, which you've already kind of done done that a little bit. And I see there's some artwork on the walls too, which I think I don't know if I saw the artwork last time. So uh that's really caught my eye. So I'm excited to learn more about that in the episodes to come. So as we get ready to wrap up this episode, I've got one question that I would like to wrap up with. You know, this is your first year, right, running the deli. What has been your biggest lesson that you've learned within this first year?

Courtney: 9:10

Yeah, I the first thing that comes to mind is people. No, I'm I'm slightly joking, but you know, managing a team, and of course, we love our customers, and so that's another element of people. But yeah, it's really just been kind of a fun way to get to know people too. And yeah, no, I've enjoyed all of it.

Brian: 9:27

That's awesome. Yeah, and there's that's two different types of people you have to learn. Like your team is a lot different than the customers.

Courtney: 9:32

Yeah, yeah.

Brian: 9:33

But they both are so important. So tell us the worst story about no, I'm just doing Jason.

Courtney: 9:40

No, we love Jason very much.

Brian: 9:42

Stay tuned to episode two, Jason, or we're gonna be talking about you. I'm excited to get into part two. We're gonna learn more about the behind the scenes here with that.

Shawna: 9:49

Catch you next time, neighbor.