Brian: 0:11

Well, everybody, welcome back to the Vero Beach podcast. This is part two here with our interview of Steve from Blue Agave. Now, in this episode, Steve, I'm excited to learn more about the behind the scenes, uh, like actually running the restaurant. Now, I do want to say at first, before we get started, you pointed out in the last episode that, you know, you're you're more uh kind of like simple here. Like you don't have like at the ocean grill, you don't have the ocean. But I just started thinking about it. I see this nice bar here. Have you ever seen at like the Hawaii things, like where they have people running across hot coals? You were talking about the agave plant being very dangerous, like it's got some spikes to it. Maybe you could have like an agave like course that people have to run barefoot while they're waiting for their food.

Shawna: 0:54

That's a terrible idea.

Steve: 0:56

Insurance is not gonna allow that.

Shawna: 0:58

Oh, and well, they shouldn't.

Brian: 1:00

Yeah, I could just see like you're like, yes, here, get your tequila. Now, good luck. Exactly. That's true. So, Steve, uh, tell us a little bit, what is it like? What does the typical day look like running the blue agave?

Steve: 1:13

Well, you know, it's a lot of work, obviously. Uh, everything's made from scratch. So uh, you know, a prep we have a prep gentleman that comes in in the morning, gets everything ready for us, so it makes it much easier for us to execute at night. You know, as long as everything's going good, everybody shows up, they're ready to go, good attitude, we're ready to go. It's it usually runs pretty good because these these guys have been doing it long enough now. Uh we've got employees that have been here for 10 years. Um I've only been here for eight. So they kind of know what's expected every day. So that makes it a lot easier. Um, but you know, it's again when it rains, it pours. Uh it's things happen. Uh you know, it's usually when we're short staffed, and that's when you get busy. I I still don't understand it. Uh I'll have a full staff, not that busy, and we're ready for it. Uh it's whenever we're not ready, it just seems to happen, or someone, you know, something happens at home where the person can't come in, or or whatever should happen. Car doesn't start, this or that. And we're shorthanded, and sure enough, that's uh when everybody wants to come in that one day. Yeah. And you know, it'd be nice if they planned it out a little bit more and spread it out. But you know, for the most part, uh as far as the behind the scenes, it's it's when things run good, it's nice. Everything runs pretty smooth. It's a small restaurant, and uh the menu's not that big. So and the reason the menu isn't big like a lot of like I one thing I learned from the Cheesecake Factory, you could never duplicate that because it's just so many items, yeah. And it's just it's it's a that is a process. Uh with us, it's just real simple. You know, other other menu items combine into other items. So, you know, you can have six main items that can come on all of a sudden now you get 18. Yes. So you kind of cross with everything. So that way it makes it easy to come out. And when you do a smaller menu, uh, you get better at what you're doing. And it's just you become like an expert if if you want to say to put out that certain dish. And it's just, you know, instead of having so many different dishes and complicate things, you just make it, you know, there's an old saying, kiss, keep it simple, stupid. Yeah. And that's really a lot with almost any business. Just keep it where it's manageable and everybody can do their job proficiently, and that's how you have a great experience and people are able to take care of you.

Shawna: 3:20

Yeah. And you can definitely tell at restaurants when they have too much menu for their, you know, what they can handle, then like freshness falls and quality falls. Yeah. So I always think a small menu is a sign of a good restaurant. So I look for that when I go to places. I want to see a small menu. So I appreciate that.

Steve: 3:39

Yeah, it's just easy, easy to execute. And that's what you want. You want them to be able to execute it. You want the product to move. So obviously it's fresh. Uh, yeah, when you have a huge menu like that, some things get overlooked and maybe they don't get used. But yeah, uh, we're lucky enough where everything goes through, we go through everything here.

Brian: 3:55

Let me ask you, you know, talking about how you know sometimes things go great, some things just sometimes it's just like any business, things happen, things get rough. Let's say it's one of those nights, uh, you had two workers not show up, you're all of a sudden you get packed, you guys are trying to keep up. In moments like that, what is the thing that keeps you going?

Steve: 4:15

Well, the big thing is you want to communicate to the guests that are in the restaurant. They can tell. When they're sitting down, they know something's off when it's when they come here all the time. Or if you ever go to a restaurant, you're saying, well, it's just things are moving a little different, not the same like they're usually. It's the best if you can just go out and let the people know. Let's say I'm a server, and I'll tell the servers, hey guys, just to let you know, the kitchen, you know, we short a few people today, you know, it's gonna take a little bit longer for our food to come out today. I just wanted to let you know. And as long as you let people know what's kind of happening, you know, it's like a traffic stop. They, you know, they want to know what's going on. So as long as you keep them in the loop, nine times out of ten, they're they're usually pretty receptive.

Brian: 4:49

I don't think that I think that's a really good thing to point out, Steve, because I mean that's not I don't feel like that's done. It's not as normal today for owners and or the business management to be so open with that. And I think that is that is a game changer because I think I can't remember we were just somewhere recently that someone came and told us that, oh, we were actually eating at a place, I think it was over at Fort Pierce.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Yeah.

Brian: 5:12

Sorry, Vero, but yes, we were over at Fort Pierce and we were having uh lunch somewhere with your mom, and the servers told us, look, we have a small kitchen, it takes a little bit longer, but it'll be worth the wait. We're like, no problem.

Steve: 5:22

But yeah, to be that open when things, you know, when you have You want to be honest with them in transparency because you know, they know like all of a sudden you're saying, This is taking a long time. What's going on? Usually when they don't say anything and they're trying to hide, or you know, um, that's that's when something's wrong in the kitchen. I mean, just you're short staffed and you know what. Like what I feel about another perfect example is let's say you have a couple servers not come in, especially in this place like this, you're in trouble. But even even some of the bigger places, all of a sudden they're down. So instead of having, let's say, I'm a server, I have three to four tables. Typically, you don't want anybody to have any more than that because they just can't handle it and give you the service. But all of a sudden you get seven or eight tables. You're forgetting things, you forgot what this one ordered, you forgot to write it down. It just it it it happens. Yeah, it's unfortunate, but it happens. And it's like when you're in a restaurant and you see it really going bad, and it hasn't been like that before, there's a chance that something's going on behind the scenes. And and again, it stinks, but it happens. And then there's other times where you know what they might be down one person and everybody pulls up together and you don't notice it. And that's that's fantastic, too.

Brian: 6:24

But yeah, well, you know, I have to say that you know, as we're talking about like being honest with your with your customers and and with your team, took me back to the time we saw a post from Kachi put a post out, and he wasn't saying it about blue agave, but he was just put out and he said, Hey, just a reminder for everybody local, because we started learning that there's a time in Vero where business is down, especially for restaurants and stuff, because uh, you know, a lot of people are people, I guess snowbirds and stuff, they're not in area, tourism isn't happening right now because you know, people are out, they were back at home. Uh, and we've started learning about this time, and we saw this post this post come out, and he said, just remember your guys' local restaurants and stuff, like you know, stop in if you can, because it means a lot during this season because a lot of places are, you know, it's a tough season to get through during that time. And when we saw that post, we were like, you know what, we but we should go out there. Let's go ahead and go out to Blue Augave, like let's go and see. And we got here and it was packed. Like, I'm like, wow, like the community. Again, it wasn't I didn't, I didn't feel like it was a post out about you guys specifically. I just felt like it was a post about hey, community, be aware of any of your favorite restaurants, wherever that might be. That's what I took it as. Like, go and support them because this is the time that they need you, uh, and you're here for the community. So when we came, I could not believe the the amount of people. Like, I think we found one table that was open and we're like, this is awesome.

Shawna: 7:50

And uh made me happy because first of all, like it's kind of like what you're saying, being open. If if somebody doesn't tell you they're having trouble, you don't even know, right? So we didn't even realize it was kind of a downtime for restaurants that was more in the summer, you know. And uh so it made us happy to be able to come out and support a local business and it makes you feel part of it, which is what I think you guys do really well, is you're like building community.

Steve: 8:18

Thank you. Yeah, back to the support part. I mean, that that goes uh that's huge, you know. With the support when they come out and they help out, and you know, just have people coming out to help everybody and and support the local small businesses, it makes a big difference. It makes a difference to the server, uh, especially me being the owner. It's it's it's it's huge for me because that's how I pay my bills, you know. With without the support that comes in, uh it's it's tough. And and Vero, you know, it's funny because you know, years ago, you know, when I I lived down at Fort Lauderdale, they had a you know, we had season and unseasoned. Well, I'm from Massachusetts. We never really had to me, seasonal, that was like Cape Cod was seasonal. Sure, the mountain area was seasonal. But for the most part, where we lived, every day was the same. I mean, you don't know, it's just the same people come in, this and that. So you get down up and down a little bit depending because of holidays, but not like it is here when when you're in a um a seasonal town like Vero Beach, you know, all of a sudden when all the snowbirds go away, it takes a hit. And that's why you'll see a lot of the restaurants in the summer that will close for two weeks, a month. I mean, Ocean Grow closes for two weeks, uh every one of them closed down just because the business really isn't there for the locals to support. And then, you know, again, like support local, whether it's you know, a restaurant, uh buying somewhere local, that keeps everything, the economy floating by with us. And when you don't, and you're buying things online or you're doing this and that, i it's it's tough though for the little guy to survive, you know.

Brian: 9:47

And I think it's perfect time too for like for those of you that might be listening, like, oh, we love to go out to eat, but we don't like to wait in the big lines. Well, guess when the perfect time is to come to your local restaurants is during those times that you don't have a big line because it's not in those peak seasons.

Steve: 10:03

Uh yeah, if you come down to Vero in the summer, you I I don't think you're really gonna wait anywhere. But hey, during the season, yeah, because there's an influx of X amount of people. So if you come at the right times, you'll be all right as well because restaurants don't usually get busy till a certain time. So it's always the peak time that everybody wants to do at the same time. I get it.

Shawna: 10:19

So you said you've been here eight years, right?

Steve: 10:22

Yeah, uh, I've been involved since 2017.

Shawna: 10:25

So in those eight years, have you noticed less of a difference? Because it seems like more people are moving here full time. So do you feel like the seasonal time is it starting to even out at all?

Steve: 10:36

I I definitely see the traffic out there. So people are definitely moving here. We know that. Um, the other thing though, there might be, uh, for example, which is in the last two years, we've had five other Mexican restaurants open within two miles. Okay, gotcha. That hurts you. I mean, that's just I mean, when you think, you know, okay, let's go get Mexican. Well, there's five or six different places, it's it's a lot harder. But when there's two or three, you know, you tend to do a few more, a little bit more business. But there's uh within two miles here, there's five Mexican restaurants. Six, six Mexican restaurants.

Brian: 11:06

So, Steve, as we talked about, we the food here is incredible. I mean, really, it is the service is incredible, amazing. What are some of the dishes and drinks that tend to surprise your guests the most?

Steve: 11:18

Um, I think the freshness of the food, I think they're like, wow, you know, because uh every food is different, whether you go for an Italian, you go for a big steakhouse, you go for a fish dinner. Mexican is usually um I mean they make it fresh, but it's it's all, you know, it's beans, it's rice, it's just so it's not as complicated as some of the other restaurants that you might go to. Sometimes when they get they're used to getting a certain dish and it's uh, well, it's only beans and rice, so it's just a little steak on there. But when you make it with all fresh ingredients and just you know, people eat with their eyes first.

Shawna: 11:48

Yes.

Steve: 11:49

It goes like this it goes eyes, they see it, then they smell it, then they taste it. So if you can get those three things down, you're usually doing pretty well. Wow. That explains a lot. Yeah, yeah, let's talk about that.

Shawna: 11:59

Yeah, I I love pretty food. I love pretty food. And so the first thing we ever had when we came here is you brought us out some shrimp ceviche.

Brian: 12:09

But wait, before we we didn't even order that.

Shawna: 12:11

We literally said, Yeah, we But I think they brought it out before we ordered, didn't they?

Brian: 12:15

No, the first thing we ordered was like uh was it the jalapeno poppers? Jalapeno poppers. Oh, great, yeah. And uh you said you guys need to try this. I'm like, and we're like the jalapeno poppers came out, we're like, this looks good, but then you brought out what Shauna's about ready to talk about, and I'm like, what is that? So go ahead.

Shawna: 12:33

So so we have a bunch of pictures of this too. So we will post our pictures on Instagram, but um the shrimp ceviche, number one, it's so colorful and pretty, and it's in a beautiful glass with what do you call that? Um like this that that's in it.

Steve: 12:50

Oh, what that is a it's a flower tortilla. We cut it into strips and then we we fry it for maybe like 15 seconds to make it crisp so it stands into the dish.

Shawna: 12:59

Yeah.

Steve: 12:59

A lot of people eat it. It's like having a chip, yeah, but it's a flower.

Shawna: 13:03

It it just looks so fancy, you know. It's like it's like tall and interesting. It just was delicious.

Brian: 13:09

It was so fresh, so fresh. I mean, everything in it, and I think it had shrimp in it too, right?

Shawna: 13:14

It was shrimp.

Brian: 13:15

So fresh. I mean, I I was amazed with that. I'm like, why why didn't we just all get these? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Steve: 13:21

That was the beginning. The ceviche is made to order. Uh now the shrimp is already we we pre-cooked the shrimp just to make it so it's faster and quicker. Um but a traditional ceviche, the shrimp is raw or the fish is raw, and you put lime juice in there, and that's what cooks the fish up. Right. Oh, wow. And it kills any anything it would have in there. But the health department likes when you pre-cook the fish. I mean, pre-cook the, we don't cook the fish, we pre-cook the shrimp. Sure. And we just splash it so it's fresh, it's vibrant, has all those pretty colors in it, like you said. So you know, it reminds me almost like autumn up in New England, just all these different colors. You're like, oh, that's a good description. That's kind of what it looks like.

Shawna: 13:57

Yeah, and it's uh it's a beautiful presentation.

Steve: 14:00

Thank you.

Shawna: 14:00

Yeah, really like that. Yeah, goes great with your margarita.

Steve: 14:03

Oh, yeah, can't go wrong. And we have, you know, the infused margaritas as well, which is a big hit here. Uh, we have five infusions that people love. You have the uh mango habanero, which is the number most popular. Is it really? That's the number one. Is it really hot or just like a nice? No, you know, the mango kind of balances the habanero out. So it it's actually just a little sweetness to it, and it still has a little hot kick in there as well. And then the other one we have uh the the we call it the blue agave, which is just uh jalapeno, so that has a little bit of a kick. Okay. And then the uh cucumber watermelon is a nice one, especially in summertime.

Shawna: 14:37

Yes, I've had that one.

Steve: 14:38

Grand raspberry is another nice one. So it has peaches and raspberries infused in the tequila. And then we have a pineapple uh jalapeno. Okay, so that's that's a good one too. Funny, I was down in Mexico uh over the summer for a vacation with the wife and the kids and everybody. And I was sitting at the bar and uh I says, Hey, can you make me a mango? The guy had a habanero, right? He was making that. I says, Hey, could you put mango in it? He's like, uh. So he had the mango stuff squirted in there. He's like, I see, yeah, put a little red chili rim on there. Guy's looking at me and makes it, and someone else is near the bar like, hey, what is that? I saw the guy's like, oh, jeez. But anyways, he ends up making says this is really good. And within like five minutes, everybody's sitting at the bar was drinking a mango habanero. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the guy's like, uh, hey, what do you do for Lewis? Uh, I own a bar and Vero Beach. It's like, ah, no wonders. But it was easy to make, not as elaborate as ours because it's not marinated, but so not marinated, infused is the right word.

Shawna: 15:34

That's funny. You're just spreading your recipes all around the world.

Steve: 15:37

Giving everybody making people what they like.

Shawna: 15:40

Okay, so when it comes to your menu, and do you ever like add new dishes or try new things?

Speaker 1: 15:45

Oh, absolutely.

Shawna: 15:46

Yeah. How do you balance um, you know, staying true to like what people expect from Mexican food, but still like putting your own twist on it?

Steve: 15:55

Well, what I try and do, you know, just again with my background uh places, I'm again not a chef by any means. Uh, but just uh I I know what other people I know what I like, and I think a lot of people like it as well, as far as trying something a little different. So you put a spin on it, uh, Mexican lasagna, Mexican meatloaf. So you just take the ingredients I have and you make your grandmother's meatloaf with it. For example, my uh people love the Mexican lasagna. Uh, we call it drunken lasagna. So what I do with that is I make it the same way my grandmother would make it with the short rib and ground beef and everything, just like that. And then what we do is we so you make the lasagna, then on top we do a little differently. We put the three sauces so it looks like the uh Mexican flag. Oh so we do a uh salsa verde, which is green, the queso, which is like a it's kind of a white cheese, so that goes in the middle, and then we have the roja, which is a red sauce, so that goes on top of it.

Shawna: 16:50

Yeah, oh, I love that.

Steve: 16:51

Yeah, and a lot of times if you go on on our website, you'll see some pictures, and you'll probably I don't know if you'll see that one, but a lot of times people take pictures of different items that they've had there. I know the ceviche is definitely on there, and then like the Mexican meatloaf. So what do you do? I well, I took my grandmother's recipe, same thing, right? But I just don't overcook it like she used to.

Speaker 1: 17:08

But it had to be well cooked though for my grandfather.

Brian: 17:14

Well, no, this is this has been really this has been really good. Uh I want to ask you one more question as we get ready to wrap up this part. But when you look around and it's a busy night and you see people hanging out, enjoying their food, laughing, if there's music, whatever might be going, they're enjoying the environment. What goes through your mind when uh when you see that about what blue agave has become?

Steve: 17:34

Happiness. I mean, I tell you, when you see something like that, you feel good about yourself. You're like, hey, listen, this is this is cool, this is nice. Everybody's enjoying themselves, and that's what you want. You want them to come in, have a wonderful experience, tell their friends, uh maybe it's a place for a celebration, maybe it's a place for a first date, whatever it might be. And and that's that I love to see. When it's busy like that and everything everybody's clicking on all cylinders, oh yeah. Yeah, it feels good.

Brian: 18:00

I I'm I love that you answered it that way because it really shows the community about what you look for. Like this is this is success to you. Well, thank you so much, Steve. This has been a great episode. I'm excited to get into part three where we're gonna talk about Bureau Beat. So with that, play your neighbor.