Brian: 0:10

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

Shawna: 0:13

And I'm Shawna.

Brian: 0:13

And today we are sitting at the 21st Amendment distillery, which I've been excited about coming here. I've heard a lot about this place. We have stopped in. Yes, we've been here. I'm sure we'll get to talk a little bit about that, but we are sitting across the table right now from Jeff. Jeff, I'm not going to try to attempt your last name.

Jeff: 0:29

Jeff Faleshi. There we go.

Brian: 0:30

Jeff Faleshi.

Jeff: 0:31

Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Yes. Well, thanks for joining us today on the podcast. Thank you guys for uh coming in. Yes. So glad to be here. Now, this is the tasting room, correct? So we're in the private tasting room right now.

Shawna: 0:42

Yes. In episode two, I'm going to describe it, which I'm really excited about because it's super cool.

Jeff: 0:47

It's a hidden gem back here.

Shawna: 0:48

Yeah, you got to like go back through the kitchen to get in here. It's cool.

Jeff: 0:52

We're going to have a little taste of this. Uh, this is our uh kind of our uh most popular whiskey, bourbon, bourbon whiskey. Uh it's called 21AD. So this was literally our first label, our first label release. What's unique about this? So it's 90 proof. The neat thing about this label is um this is probably one of the few labels in the United States that has the American flag on it and the Florida flag. Typically, the government doesn't allow um symbols. Like they'll they'll let you sneak a like an American flag on there every now and then. I don't know, the auditors were sleeping that day because to have two flags on there is pretty special. So you you if you go in the liquor store and check that out, it's very rare that you'd that you'd see that. So it explains why it stands out so much.

Shawna: 1:35

Because I I said something about the label right away, because it's a it's a stunning label.

Jeff: 1:39

It kind of brings back, uh, you know, I'm a uh former Marine and it sort of brings it kind of has a little like military patch look to it. Oh yeah, it does. So cheers.

Brian: 1:49

Cheers, cheers, cheers, cheers. Oh, that's a good, that's a good flavor. Nice and smooth.

Shawna: 1:56

Oh, that is nice. That is so good. Like, let's have a moment of silence. Yeah, okay, yeah.

Jeff: 2:02

So they open at 4 p.m. every day. Is it every day? Yeah, uh during the week and then through three o'clock on Saturdays and Sundays.

Brian: 2:10

Tell us a little bit about yourself. You already started hinting a little bit, you have a marine background stuff.

Jeff: 2:13

So please. Um, I am from um a small, a small town in uh Massachusetts called Swamped Gut. It's uh it's like three towns north of Boston. Uh born and raised there, you know, come from a big uh Italian-Irish family in in Boston. A brother, two sisters, you know, um mom and dad grew up there uh as well. Went to college in Vermont. So went to a small uh military college up in Vermont. I needed the discipline back then. So my parents were like, if you're going to college, you're not going to UMass, you're going to uh the uh, you know, basically an all-boys college back then. Uh but it was uh, you know, uh graduated, so I'm I'm 55, graduated college back in 1992, and then went right into uh right in the Marine Corps, served from 93 to 97 in the Marine Corps. It was pretty um Marine Corps was great, but it was pretty quiet time. So it was before, you know, Afghanistan and all of that. Kind of we kind of between the two wars, did my four years, got out, got into business, started working for a uh a company that did turnaround. Uh this guy did would would take companies that were in trouble and either turn them around to make them profitable or sell sell the company and whatnot. So interesting. Worked for him and then kind of went into corporate America for a little bit and did a lot of uh export work, a lot of international stuff. So I had um uh Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and Mexico. Loved it, loved to travel, but uh it became harder once I got married. And uh I started looking at businesses. So in the Marine Corps, I started messing around with with making uh making spirits. It's it's pretty, you know, it doesn't taste that great, you know, when you're when you're when you when you have less uh less equipment and stuff like that, but it's it's very possible. So learn from a guy, uh another guy, um, how to how to make hooch and and um you know it was uh pretty interesting that way. I I always tell the story. It's it's um, I don't want to get into it too much, but um my I grew up, uh my dad, my mom and dad were like mainly like beer and wine drinkers, you know. We didn't have a lot of brown around the house. So, but after we were in California doing some training, after training, there was a beer line and took forever. You know, you're just one of those where you get the two beers and you go back and you wait. And so all my buddies were in the beer line and we're waiting and we're drinking at we're all, you know, muddy mess from from being in the field and whatnot. And I looked over, I'm like, you know, something going on over there on the other side of the tent. So I walked over, I wanted to see what was up. And it and they were serving Jim Beam and Jack Daniels. Uh, and the line was only like eight marines deep. So I jumped in line, I got my whiskey. That was the first that was like the first whiskey I ever had in my life.

Shawna: 4:53

Really?

Jeff: 4:54

Yeah. Maybe a sip as a kid or something, but the first whiskey on my own. And uh, you know, I enjoyed it. I mean, it was better than what, and then I got to sit on a milk crate and, you know, kick on my feet. So I called all my buddies over. And from that point on, I mean, we were, you know, I I converted a lot of whiskey drinkers. So got out of the Marine Corps and always, always kind of had a love. I I just read a lot about um, you know, bourbon whiskey. It's America's drink. And I just kind of fell in love with the spirit. And then, and then it kind of grew into other spirits, and then it grew into me looking at the alcohol industry as something to do when I got out of corporate America. And what what business did I want to start? And I I kept going back to alcohol because it's a very good, it's a very good business in in in either a bull market or bear market. I mean, it's people drink when they're happy or sad. And it's that's a pretty good thing. It's gone down a little bit. Um, you know, people are getting into other other vices and whatnot. But Vero is uh the demographic here is a little older. Sure. So uh people still enjoy their their cocktails. The alcohol business is a good business, and uh it's it was a good it was a good decision, uh, kind of getting into this.

Brian: 6:02

So so how long have you been open here then in Vero?

Jeff: 6:05

We it's two we opened in September 2023, so it's been a little over a little over two years. Okay. All right.

Shawna: 6:12

And were you already living in Vero when you chose to open here?

Jeff: 6:14

I was, yeah. So I I've been in Vero, good question. I've been in Vero about 16 years.

Shawna: 6:19

Okay. Yeah.

Brian: 6:20

How did you come over to Vero? How did you discover it?

Jeff: 6:22

I when I got out of the Marine Corps and, you know, traveling around, um, I was living in Pennsylvania at the time, and uh my mom w got ill, moved to Naples, Florida, and the company allowed me, I could basically just live near a major airport, and that was fine. So I actually moved to Tampa. I'm not a big fan of the Naples area. Moved to Tampa and I'd see my mom every, you know, every couple of weeks or every week, you know, and and that was nice seeing her. The last last few years I had her. And I met my wife, Jen. She was on a girls' weekend over there in Tampa, and we met, you know, met at a uh we always say we met at church, but we met we met at a bar over there in Tampa.

Shawna: 7:00

So, so uh Was there a bar called the church?

Jeff: 7:04

Well, we met that's a good one. But so we always tell people, well, how'd you uh we met at church? But we met at a we met at a place uh in it's Ibor City. It's kind of an eclectic kind of place outside of Tampa, but uh it was it was it was nice.

Shawna: 7:18

That's great. She came for a girls' weekend, she found herself a husband.

Jeff: 7:21

Yeah, pretty good, right?

Shawna: 7:22

Yeah, pretty good. Pretty good deal.

Jeff: 7:25

Do you have kids too? We don't have kids, so what both of us are on uh uh we're both previously married. So I was married in the Marine Corps and we had a we we both had a a long kind of a long spread between marriages, and we got married in our 40s, and it just you know the cards wasn't in the cards. So we were we were too old, I guess. Yeah, but we have a lot of nieces and nephews.

Brian: 7:46

Yeah, and how long have you guys been married now?

Jeff: 7:49

So we four we just hit 14 years in September. Oh, congratulations. That's huge, just a big deal.

Shawna: 7:55

The nieces and nephews are a blast.

Jeff: 7:57

Yeah, they and you know what? They're they're great. We she's I think 20, I think we have 27 between the two of us. Oh my goodness. Because she comes, we both come from big Catholic families, and um, so it's nice. It's nice.

Shawna: 8:07

Oh, that's fun. So, what kinds of things were you passionate about before you opened the distillery?

Jeff: 8:12

So I I you know, I I saw as I'm a I'm like a sales guy. I mean, I I the turnaround company was more of a this guy was a marine. And you know, when I got out of the Marine Corps, it it it it just you know, the job was there and I loved it and learned a lot. But after that, actually 9-11, once once the tie once the planes hit the towers, uh, that company uh closed down uh for a while. And then I went, I went with another company, and that's kind of what what got me into sales. Um, I've always been into like sports and stuff like that. So I'm you know, um like to work out and stuff and and keep keep busy with that. Um, you know, family's big, going up to Boston, seeing my family.

Brian: 8:52

Yeah, talking about family. We just interviewed your uh friend uh Steve from uh Steven from Blue Agave. Okay, yeah, we just recently decided that with him. Great guy. Yeah, really good. Great guy.

Jeff: 9:02

Yeah, and he's from up my neck of the woods. Oh, okay. Oh, that's right.

Shawna: 9:05

Yeah, he tells us about that. Yep, that's right.

Jeff: 9:07

Yeah, give us a couple drinks, and you know, it's it's hard to hard to you know tell what we're saying.

Brian: 9:13

Was this the first business that's gonna be? This is okay, all right. Wow, this is number one. Nice. What was the moment like for you when you realized, okay, I want to open my own distillery. Like I want to do this. What was it like? Because I'm sure that there is, I mean, for me as an entrepreneur, I've learned that there's things that are it's exciting, but there's also things that's scary. And so tell us a little bit about that. Yeah.

Jeff: 9:33

I love it that this was a lay, it's been a labor of love. I love, I love this place. Uh, I love what we've done here. Um, it's much bigger than the distillery, though. That this is I I would love for you guys to come back and meet the staff. And we can I can get into that even more, but it's it's much more than making this and and and serving food. It's just this we're we're we're all about serving each other and serving the community here. So I could go on and on about that. That that that to me is is really the the most exciting, important part. And you know, we have we have about 21 people here. Because you're 21st. You don't go no higher, no no, no lower. I mean, we could be we could be a lot busier, but we look we keep we stick to the 21. At least you don't cap it at the door. Only 21 people are allowed in, right? But but it's really it's really um it's really about serving, like I said, serving each other, service, but service above self. I mean, we are we are a uh a pretty tight-knit family here.

Brian: 10:29

What led you to open up distillery and bureau?

Jeff: 10:32

So, you know, after after um after I got out of the Marine Corps, I was like a sponge. And I'm I'm kind of one of those types of people. I'm I'm sort of all or nothing. You know, I just I I really submerged myself into um whiskey, the history behind um, you know, Kentucky and and looking into all that, taxes, how how whiskey, the whiskey rebellion out in out in Pennsylvania, and and uh just really read about any everything I could. So to me, that was really fun. It was it was like a fun reading and something that I really look forward to and started thinking about what I can do to translate this into a business. And um, I just kept kind of going back to a distillery. Distilleries are tough to open because there's a lot of upfront cost. And, you know, there's a I'm I consult a little bit. Uh I went to a uh school called Moonshine University up in Kentucky. It's it's an actual school. Very, very cool uh program they have. And I go back once a year to talk to the the they they do like a panel of folks that um own distilleries. And uh that's fun for me because they're all you know kind of open-eyed, wide-eyed, and you know, they want to hear and that's awesome. But there's kind of a realistic side to this that um that that should be looked at and and uh carefully thought, thought through.

Brian: 11:48

That is cool. What would you say is like one of the biggest things that come to your mind right now when you're thinking about some things that might be like a little bit different for like this type of business?

Jeff: 11:57

This wasn't easy. Um a distillery, there's not a lot of distilleries around here, right? Right is who who knows how to install a boiler in in in Florida? The Groves kind of dealt with boilers a little bit back in the day, but who can do a boiler? Who can install a chiller? Um, what about piping? What about copper piping that's cooling? And maybe a maybe certain plumber can do that, but they don't really do the hot water stuff.

Shawna: 12:22

Oh man.

Jeff: 12:22

So um we were we're in a we're in a hard, kind of a hard area for that. You have to so it gets very expensive because you have to you have to bring fly people, you have to bring them in. Yeah, then you have to put them in a hotel, and then there's there's a bunch of other stuff. So this part was was very extremely challenging.

Brian: 12:39

Yeah. So learning a lot about if you're gonna open it a story, really learn a lot about the environment that you're opening in. It's a lot different in Kentucky and Tennessee, probably.

Jeff: 12:48

And you're looking at a significantly more of an investment, you know, if you're already around it, then you're looking at competition too. So there's a there's another side that's a good thing.

Shawna: 12:56

That makes sense, yeah.

Jeff: 13:37

Um, so there's there's two ways to look at it.

Shawna: 13:40

Okay. So thinking back to the beginning, what were you hoping people would experience when they came into 21st?

Jeff: 13:47

Good question. Good question. So um unreasonable service. It's all about them. You ever been out now and it's like, you know, service isn't really what it was. Yes. Um, so we we wanted to, we wanted people to come and like be like, what the what is going on here? Like they're all over, you know, they're they're knowledgeable. So we wanted to give them like an unreasonable level of service and really knock that out of the park. Probably that that conversation we probably had before quality, you know, before our quality, because service is we saw that go down. So then it was uh obviously a quality product. And um, you know, that's that's big for us. And then it was really important to me to maintain like this really patriotic theme when you came in here. You've become very divided. So for me, it was it was we wanted to build a place where green, yellow, black, white, whatever you what you can you can you can come here, you're welcome here, enjoy a cocktail and have a conversation with somebody that may not agree with uh you you what with what you agree, but you're gonna have a good cocktail and you're gonna have great service. Yeah. And you might make a friend. So that was like a big wrap it up with a bow.

Shawna: 15:02

Well, I want to say really good job because when we're out and about and people are talking about their experiences here and you know, because everywhere we go, people say, You got to go to 21st. You gotta go. Thank you. Number one, the service is amazing, the cocktails are amazing, and they always bring up about the history, and of course, that you're a Marine.

Jeff: 15:23

You know, um, as a as a little quick tangent, um my dad wasn't military and I have an older brother that wasn't military. You know, there's not a lot of military stuff out there. I mean, you won't see go in my office right here, and there's stuff all over the walls, but I purposely didn't have like a lot of military stuff because you don't have to be a veteran to be patriotic. And two of the biggest patriots in my whole entire life were my dad and my brother. So I wanted to almost go out of my way, show that example, their example of patriotism. And and I think we've done a good job with that here.

Shawna: 15:57

That's beautiful.

Jeff: 15:58

But you know, you got you got Lincoln, you got a Washington, you know, we're we're where there's some there's some cool uh uh Americana pieces out there. And I the you know the I I think I have the Marine Corps logo up above somewhere, but but it's yeah, I had to put that in there. But most of it is very patriotic, yeah, as it as it stands.

Shawna: 16:18

Yeah, it does explain a lot too, because the time that we came here with friends, we sat at the bar and uh I noticed how our bartender, and I wish I knew his name, I don't know which one he is, but I noticed it was a very busy night. And I felt like we were the only ones at the bar because in the middle of a conversation, and and you must have trained them to be, you know how sometimes you go out and when people are really good at service, sometimes they get annoying because then they're like too much there.

Jeff: 16:45

Yeah, it's like a delicate, it's like a delicate dance.

Shawna: 16:48

Yeah, exactly. But he just perfectly and wouldn't interrupt the conversation, but like I would just see him there.

Jeff: 16:54

Kind of looking for cues and looking looking for cues.

Shawna: 16:57

Yeah, yeah.

Jeff: 16:57

I you know, I'll I'll I'm gonna probably say this a thousand times in this uh this interview, but um, you could build a Taj Mahal, but without the people, I think it's I think I have the best team in Vero, but um, you know, people probably say that, but I really do believe that. And it's it's family and we take care of each other, and that that's what it's all about. It's take we take we take care of each other first and then the guests.

Shawna: 17:21

Yeah, oh that's that's really beautiful.

Brian: 17:23

Uh all right, so so Jeff, uh getting to know you more, this has been this has been great so far. So I would love to know is there something about you that we don't know that we can't, you know, just find on your website, stuff like that. Like I'm curious.

Jeff: 17:37

Yes, so I'm dyslexic.

Brian: 17:38

Tell us a little bit about that.

Jeff: 17:39

So I uh when I was a kid, um I was I became ill with uh meningitis. So it's it it there's two types. Mine was viral, it does a number on your your brain if it's if it's untreated. So got rushed to the hospital, spent, spent about six months in the hospital and had some challenges, you know, learning different things all over again, developed uh some some dyslexia out of that as and some learning challenges. Uh so not a lot of people know this. The crazy part is uh my mom, you know, growing up, I had a really hard time in school. They didn't know where to put me, you know, back then. Do I go with the kids that had, you know, Downsend or some really some really um difficult cases back then? Or, you know, do I go in the normal classroom and I so I'd I'd fall behind and then I go, I'd go to a room and and I wasn't really getting anywhere with that. Dyslexia was it's fairly new back then, you know, 30 years ago. They they didn't know. They didn't know what was wrong with me. They thought I was lazy, you know. My dad, you know, kind of had a hard time with it. You know, what's wrong with my son type thing. So my siblings were very supportive, you know, everybody was was really awesome. Other than that, at school, I was a pretty normal kid. Played hockey and this and that, but everything kind of came crashing down my freshman year of um high school. Teachers weren't as kind as they were in junior high. Had a all F's on my report card, so I flunked every subject. Um, hockey was really big where I grew up. Um I was ineligible to play hockey, which crushed me. I mean, that was that was as a kid, you know, that's all I wanted to do, you know, go to hockey rank and slap a puck around. So my mom was on a mission after that to figure out what the hell was going on with me. So we kept taking trips into Boston and my mother would not give up. She was my a total advocate, unbelievable. Uh late night sleep studies, going in, keeping me up, going to Denny's for trying to keep me up at night, and then rolling into Boston Children's Hospital the next day. So finally um we got the diagnosis, and I mean, we you know, got in the car and cried and hugged, and you know, finally it was like it was like something. I went through so many tests and he, I mean, hooking up to metal thing, probes and color tests and this and that. And my mom found a school, Beverly, Beverly Mass, uh called Landmark. Um, it's I can't say enough about the school. As a matter of fact, I sent uh one of my teachers retired like last month. I sent her a text this morning early when I woke up saying, I heard you retired. You you know, I said you what you did for me. Uh I can't thank you enough. And, you know, she was a remarkable woman. Her name's Suzanne Crossman. I enrolled my sophomore year. I didn't want to go. I kicked, I kind of kicked and screamed a little bit. But um, I enrolled in this school, what they do, one-on-ones, tutorials every day. I couldn't tell the time. I didn't know the months in a row. I couldn't do basic math. I hadn't read a book, uh, 15 years old. You know, there were other things that I had to relearn. We we started over. So they they caught me up. I I couldn't stand to learn. I couldn't stand school. They turned me into like this crazy, you know, now I love to read books.

Shawna: 20:50

And that is so cool.

Jeff: 20:53

Wow, what an inspiring story. It was it was uh it was a lot. It was a lot growing up as a kid. You you never overcome dyslexia, it's part of you. You learn how to you learn how to cope and you learn how to deal with it. You know, getting through those challenges, it was it was difficult, but but um I'm glad I I'm glad I got through it. You should write a book about this. Yeah, there's there might be something coming. There might be something.

Shawna: 21:16

So I inspired you to write a book about this.

Jeff: 21:19

That was good.

Shawna: 21:20

I'll just take credit for that.

Brian: 21:21

So you go so you go from not really loving reading, now you're actually gonna be writing a book. So that's really exciting. And you mentioned earlier, and thank you so much for sharing that story. There's other people that's probably struggling with the same thing, and they might step right in through your doors thinking, oh, I couldn't imagine owning a business like this, but they're relatable to you now because now we know a different side of you that we didn't know. Yeah. Here you are running the 21st amendment.

Jeff: 21:47

And if you're just like, come on in, come see me, I'd love to have a chat. We are, we are, you know, looking at looking at a book, a book deal right now. And a lot of it is directed towards the parent. If you're a if you're an older adult, I think the book will be very interesting. And it's there's a lot of struggle in there and stuff like that. But I think um as a young parent with a dyslexic child or somebody that's you know has a some learning challenges, yeah, I think this book will give you hope, um, walk you through some things. I mean, I have a system for almost everything. You know, I I I'm organized, my wardrobe, I have, I have literally, I show up on, you know, early. There's things you can do to make the the playing field uh level.

Brian: 22:24

You're gonna have to keep us posted when the book when you have it right. Okay, it's coming out in the state. Like keep us posted.

Shawna: 22:29

Yeah, I'm a big reader, so I will be first in line to buy it.

Brian: 22:32

Yeah, we'll make sure we put it on the podcast so people can find out about it as well. Oh, yeah, definitely. Wow. This has been a great first episode. I'm excited to get into part two. We're gonna talk a little bit more about the behind the scenes. I definitely want to lean into the story behind the name even more. I want to lean into that as well. But before we get ready to wrap up, one more question. For you. What would you say has been the most important lesson you've learned along the way?

Jeff: 22:55

Oh my God. Um I I for me, it's it's it's it's just you know that right there, the belief, to, to believe and to kind of keep your faith. I think if you have those two things, you can there are a lot of there are a lot of curveballs. Uh this was my first business. And, you know, uh having a family that depends on you, meaning, you know, the the folks, the folks on the team, that's a huge responsibility for me. And I take that pretty seriously. So um they have families or they're they want to go to school or they're you know, they're worried about stuff like that. So um things get things get tense, you know. So there's a there's a season here and season's tough, you know, and and you know, you you have to learn that. And you have to learn what you can spend money on and what you can't. And you kind of have to because you have this family that kind of depend that depends on you, and and that's that's the most important thing for me is is making sure they're taken care of. There are some bad days, but with faith and and belief, um that that's really what gets me through.

Shawna: 23:59

Oh, that's good. That's awesome. That's good.

Jeff: 24:01

And a little bit of whiskey. And a little bit of whiskey.

Brian: 24:04

That's good. Well, everybody, if you guys have enjoyed this episode, make sure you click that subscribe and share it with your friends for other people to find your local podcast. But with that, and after Shauna gets done taking a sip of her whiskey, later, neighbor.