Tragedy and Forging a Way Forward | Jack Lester, Jack's Bottle Shop #032

Hi everyone. I'm Karissa Dunham. I'm the host of Shining Light on Minnesota. We have a special guest with us here today all the way from Rochester or I could say Zumbrota. Jack Lester. Welcome Jack. Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Karissa. You bet. So, let's start off by telling all our listeners a little bit about Jack's Bottle Shop, what it is, and how you got started in it. Yeah. Uh, so Jack's Bottle Shop, uh, we are a curated, um, I think the best way to put it is we're a curated like boutique liquor store. Yeah. At the end of the day, a lot of people I get a lot of questions, uh, what does bottle shop mean? What does, uh, people know what Jack means because that's me. So, yeah. Uh, original name. There you go. Exactly. It's like, what's the difference? You know, what is a bottle shop? What's the difference between a bottle shop and a liquor store? And, uh, we kind of did Jack's Bottle Shop versus Jack's liquor store u for a lot of different reasons, but one thing that we feel is like when you come into our store, we know who you are. We get to learn who you are. We might not know how you are on the first time on the first occasion, but um we learn you. We learn your family, uh your pallet, what you like, what you don't like, um and can kind of take you on a nice little shopping experience if that's what you want. If you've got um some AirPods in someday and uh don't want to have any conversation, just want to come in and get a fourack of hazy IPAs or a good bottle of bourbon, like we can do that, too. make the transaction quick, but uh we thrive off questions, uh give back to the community and and uh base our store off uh relationships first and foremost. Outstanding. Where is your location at and how can people find you out there? Yeah, thank you. We're uh uh 90 909 uh 6th Street Northwest Rochester, Minnesota. Uh the best way to say that is next to Forager Brewery or across the road from Hy Barllo. Perfect. uh to kind of uh you know Rochester uh places that have been there for a long time that people can relate to. So So how did you get into the business and kind of where did you get started? You're from Minnesota, obviously southern southeastern Minnesota originally. Yep. Yeah. Um so originally from MPa, Minnesota. Uh actually born in Minneapolis. Uh spent some time in my uh when I was uh just a a wee young boy in Arkansas. Helped my grandfather pass away. Um, and then we relocated back to Rochester when I was in third, excuse me, back to Mazeppa when I was in third grade. And, uh, that's where my parents still reside. Nice. And, uh, been there was there all the way through high school. Um, and then when I was 17, yeah, I think 17, 18, uh, moved out of town and kind of have hit the ground running ever since. And u you know for people out of town I guess you know say that I'm from Rochester uh pretty much but anybody that knows the area I make sure to say I'm either from Zro or Mazepa. So yeah. Yep. Cuz I mean obviously there's a lot of ties to Rochester. And people don't realize that when they're like hey do you have a shop in Rochester? Are you from Rochester? You say yes, but then you're like well kind of I'm from you know whatever other town it may be just to have that local hometown pride too. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, if somebody's from Chicago, they're not going to know where Mazepa is. So, I might as well just tell them I'm from Rochester, right? Like, hey, I'm from a town of 15 people. No, not not literally, but close. Yes. Yep. So, let's dig in a little bit. I mean, I know we've done some graphics and I know there's some things out there. We did a graphic that said, "Do it for MD dog." Why don't you tell everybody a little bit about Marcus and what his story was? Yeah, thank you for asking. Um, and after your message last night, you know, actually last night was uh we're a week until Marcus's birthday, so it was kind of um right on time. I always uh it's a birthday month for Marcus. Always has. Absolutely. Always has been. Even when he was still here and everybody does it. Yeah. Yeah. He definitely um had some diva in him, you know what I mean? So he's like, "It's my birthday month. This is what we're doing. Let's roll with it." Yeah. Yeah. So we're seven days to his birthday now. His birthday is on March 27th and um yeah, he's the inspiration to everything that I do in life. Yeah. Um our lives uh maybe not as normal normally played out as u a lot of other folks that you know are born and your folks pass away and um you take care of everything that you need to take care of there and and continue to carry on. um carry their torch. Uh we lost Marcus in uh 2019 to a fight for um for a dual lung transplant and uh he fought uh he fought his tail off. Um but we just fell a little bit short and uh weren't able to get um a call with good lungs in time. Yeah. U so that's kind of a little bit of the gist of it. Um cuz your question was you know how do we get to do it for MD dog? Um of course I could sit here and and take an hour to talk about u you know how amazing it is to be a father and and all the things that we had done in life up until that point which is where I really try to keep my mind at. It's a driving force. Yeah. It's like I I've got eight years. Let me just like really stay focused on especially on those like seven and a half years. Uh but the last six months of his life were very special too. Yeah. uh and watching his determination, his fight, um the dog in him, you know what I mean? I mean, the dog in him was is what what what's motivating me to today, right? Um and that kind of folds into um you know, Marcus passing away in in November 3rd of 2019 and uh in Texas in Houston, Texas uh Texas Children's Hospital is where he was where we were listed um at the top of the list for a dual lung transplant. uh we came home and uh yeah, life wasn't the same. No. So, of course, u you know, some some big changes uh that I was going through. Um and that started on the 13 14 hour drive home. Yep. Uh very very interesting ride uh with both my wife's boys and and my wife and got back home and um kind of got back into work a little bit. Y work was not the same. Uh it was very different. I was kind of going through a roller coaster of emotions. I I I keep it pretty positive like even through uh a lot of like in a in a heavy situation like this. I feel like for some reason I've been able to stay really positive. I think that's because beliefs that I have and and where the way I've been able to keep Marcus close to me. Uh but just like waiting on tables and and tendon bar was not really I'd do it well and then in the back room I just was having a lot of moments. You know what I mean? So, um, that's kind of actually on the road to Jack's on the on the road to opening Jack's Bottle Shop. Once we got Jack's Bottle Shop open in 2020, uh, one year about about one year and a month, uh, after Marcus had passed away, uh, we wanted to open up a store that could keep my mind busy. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, busier than I've ever been. I think like when I was waiting tables, when I was a um employee and and and worked for my my friends at Forager, uh when I was off, I was still off. You know, I shut off and and your wheels are turning. Now, as a business owner, as you know, you and the flow is you can't shut that off. You got to keep going, but like not really mentally ever off, which is really good for me. I've got a little bit of a racy life into it. Yep. Yeah. my brain my brain is racy and rather than race being raced about uh the negative, might as well race about the positive and how we're going to do it, how we're going to influence other people and how how we can kind of get our story out there. So, um kind of a long answer here, but you know that folds into do it form dog. Yes. And do it for Mdog was our initiative uh that we did in 2020. uh excuse me in 200 I think it was 2021 was the first one that we did and the second one was in 2022 uh because I've taken a break from it for two years but um do it for Mdog is our slogan at Jack's Bottle Shop. Uh it's got a lot of meaning behind it. Uh but at the forefront of that is my son Marcus and u it's really just you know about driving through pushing through no matter what. Um, I don't ever want like to say like I like to say pushing pushing, you know, forward. Yeah. Um, but never forgetting what's behind you too. You know what I mean? And staying strong in the back of the mind and you're you carry that person with you. I think when people have lost somebody, I mean, I just lost my dad a year ago. You never know the es and flows. But just the little things that you're like, "Okay, I want to make him proud. I want to do this." You know, I've got to continuously push forward and keep doing things. Absolutely. for the good of of their spirit and who they were because you saw them fight. Yeah. Exactly. And that's just, you know, our lives are a little bit swapped. You're doing that with your father. That's, you know, that that's what you're supposed to do. Um most time mo most of the time, not there's obviously everybody's, you know, got their own right case scenario, but um you know, now as a father, I'm I was put here uh to carry my son's torch and and that's what we're doing with do it for MD Dog. So everything we do at Jack's Bottle Shop from our logo, our branding always has a halo um kind of in it. Uh whether that's Yeah, there we go. Yeah. Whether it's on the hat, the shirt, uh you'll see different kinds of beer collabs with us. Um the halo's always signifying Marcus. And um yeah, do it for MDOG kind of was a an initiative that we had come up with to fund raise money for uh children in need and transplant um and just really like the world of transplant and a couple things that had touched my life uh when I was in Texas. Y uh because you know it's sad. It's there's no other way to put it. It really sucks. It's it's sad. Grief's a grief's a really really really crazy heavy thing. And you guys made a donation to the children's hospital based on on the do it for M dog and everything like that. Tell everybody a little bit about that and where where that money went to. Yeah, so that was the second year. The first year we did gift of life transplant home um for my friend Mary in Rochester. Uh we never spent time at the transplant home in Rochester. Uh but she's such a wonderful lady and I had had spent time at a transplant home in Texas. So that was like one of my first things I was like we need to help a transplant find something local. Yeah. Yeah. cuz I was like I that's just how I was raised, you know? It's like these people like you to live in a transplant home for 6 months. It's it's it's heavy, but it again like I'll say like it's heavy, but there's a lot of there's an aura of like a lot of beauty there too. That it does and that it can Yeah. the bond that everybody's together like and at I think I was well that was six years ago when I was so I was like 26 years old, you know, when I was living in a transplant home. not average, not an average 26-y old uh experience there, but we were doing it. So, it was like that's the first year we had to make sure that we uh were able to give back to a transplant home and just cuz that touch touched me big time. Uh the second year, Children's Hospital, uh thank you for bringing that up because they are our family. Yeah. Um still to this day, u I think about them all the time. Um on certain days, I'll scroll past my phone. I still have doctor's phone numbers in my phone. Yep. I have messaged them here and there. I've kind of let let it be over the last couple of years, but uh Children's Hospital was one of the reasons that we were able to keep Marcus around uh for eight years. And not only keep Marcus around for eight years, but keep Marcus having what he knew as a really good quality of life. Yep. Attached to an oxygen tank. People might best it can be. Yeah. Right. Forward. You don't know. Oh, we're going to do swimming lessons. We're going to do everything. Yeah, exactly. And and we did it all. You know, it's like we've got floaties in the pool and he's in swimming lessons. His mom or his uh uh stepdad at the time or myself are in the pool, you know, carrying his oxygen tank, basketball practice, golf course. Like, you know, talk about playing nine holes, having to be attached to an oxygen tank, and the kid wants to hit every single shot. Of course, by the end of nine holes, I'm just wiped from bringing this like tank back and forth. Yep. And now every time you play, you're like, "Okay, I can't complain. I've only played 18 holes. I'm tired, but I got this. Let's do another 18." Well, he's on the green. He's like, you know, and he'd run out of breath, so he's like, "I can't walk to the golf cart." I'm like, "All right, let me go put the stuff back in the golf cart. I'll come back up. You grab the oxygen train, grab yourself, put you on." Absolutely. You know, I'm like, "Hey, I'm going to hit the ball on this one. You'll hit the next shot." No, I want to hit the ball. Like, all right, we're doing Let's go. Yep. Yep. You want to make that? You want to put that in the hole? Yes. Yeah. So, Children's Hospital, um, uh, yeah, I mean, family to us for sure that they, they kind of got down to the business. We were seeing at Mayo Clinic for, uh, half a year or so. Um, and could have had better experiences there, I'll say that. But, um, we found Children's Hospital through some recommendations and Dr. Paul Cubic, Dr. Keith Kavanagh, Dr. Christina Mel, like these names are still very much at the tip of my tongue. um wonderful human beings that put us in a position to win. Yeah. And um yeah, Marcus ended up um you know, he was there um pretty much for the entirety of his not living in the hospital, but like if he got a cold, that's where we went. Yeah, for sure. If he had the flu, that's where we went. Just cuz like they knew him. They knew him. They know his history. They know exactly what it is. Okay. He's really not normal. Like you take him somewhere else, he could be like, "Oh, we don't know." Well, everywhere we have to take him is like that we have to explain a 45minut story. Tell her what it is. Nobody knows anything. They're taking all these precautions as they should where it's like we could go to Children's and they just Marcus like we're good. Yep. How fun. So you at Jack's Bottle Shop have done a lot of different events and collab or collaborations and things with other places. Tell some of our viewers some of the fun things that you guys have done like the pin seekers and things like that that's out there for people to get in touch. Uh beer collabs are awesome. uh an awesome way of collaborating. I've been in the beer industry for quite a while now, so I've got some really great relationships and really blessed to have those in in our back pocket. So, we try to work with them a lot on u brewing different beers. Uh my main guy currently, Jason's uh brewed on like a large scale system and stuff like that before, so he's wonderful at kind of like helping with recipes and just really like to get our hands on collaborative efforts like that. U we collaborate with a lot of uh local businesses to host uh some of our tastings uh that we do on a larger scale uh so like the blue chip wine experience or we have uh a new one called Pete or No Pete. Uh this will be the second year of that where we kind of fly on some of these VIPs. U last year we had Joshua Hatton. Uh this year I believe Josh will be joining us again and still waiting on a queue back from a gentleman out in New York City. Nice. Uh, so they'll kind of come to these tastings and we'll throw down with, you know, whether it's Blue Duck Kitchen or Castle Events or something like that to kind of create a cool atmosphere. I mean, Jack's Bottle Shop's cool, but I think like Jack's Bottle Shop's like the retail experience. Like where can we have these? Let's make it a different experience, make it something you're going to remember. Yeah. So, it's like Jack's Bottle Shop hosts this at Castle events, you know, with these people. Um, yeah, those are a couple different collabs. We just did our first uh we just did bought our first or last year we bought our first two barrels of whiskey. Very cool. Uh from out in a a company out in Brooklyn called Kings County Distilling. Uh so we've just started to kind of dip our toes into the world of like store picks, if you will. Y um but kind of taking a little bit different approach to that, wanting to do kind of like lesser known really uh I guess I joke around as like at the stores like uh icons only. Yes. Right. So, but um yeah, we're just always collaborating. Love to collaborate. People reach out for collaboration. You know, Mother's Day, we're working with a Mother's Day coming up here. We're working with a wine educator, my friend Autumn. Uh she's going to put together a little kit of wine. People can pre-ord pre-order them. Uh and then also working with a local uh flower gal out of Mazepa. Her name's Ally Bleedart Florals. and we'll do like flowers and wine and you can pre-order and then come pick up your package at Jacks. You know, again, that's bottle shop that you're not going to find that at at a regular liquor store. No. How important is it like when you have gone through the highs and lows obviously at Jackson in life to have that crew that stands behind you. You're you're they're going to be there no matter what and you know that so they can understand how the business is going to go, what's coming next, but also if you need time or you have something coming up or you want to venture out and try new things, they're going to be there and take over. Uh that's the biggest that's the biggest thing of business. I mean, we run a very small crew of three employees and myself. Uh Jason's my one full-timer. Uh and then I've got my uh our guys, two guys, uh Ryan and Brett. U they do a wonderful job. And you know, Jason's they're all my they're all a fallback for me and they just kind of I think understand Jacks in a in a really good way. The soul part of it. as long as I'm still putting in the work there, right? Like, right, I don't know. There's bosses out there that I think you never see, you know, and that job might might have a lot of turnover. Sometimes not. Um, sometimes those people get really strike gold and, you know, can keep keep somebody there. But I think, you know, being there is important for me. Um, and just having the crew that I have is I'm really really fortunate and lucky to have that. Yeah. Well, and how many other places do you get to go into? Let's say you go into Andy's Liquor and be like, I want to meet Andy. They're going to go into Jackson and be like, "Where's Jack?" Yeah, putting the face with the name too is is something that stands behind especially in small businesses across America. Like you want to be there for your staff, but you also want them want the regulars and the people that come in to see you and know who you are and your story behind it, too. Yep. Yep. And that's and that's, you know, that's another thing I was just thinking of, too. It's like I know that they share, you know, bits and pieces of our story, how we got here, things that are significant to us, and just the way that they represent our brands at the store is is next level. Mhm. Um that's the biggest compliment that anybody can ever give me is, "Hey, I was at your store the other day. You weren't there. Uh but the gentleman who took care of me was wonderful." Amazing. Yeah. That's a way better compliment than anything you could tell me about myself. For sure. Like you're getting the service that the top-notch service when I'm not there that can carry on and it's going to be a memory for you. That's that's what you want to do, right? Yeah. And it's just like I Yeah. It just kind of leaves me a little bit, you know, speechless. I'm just like, "Oh, that's amazing to hear. Thank you so much, you know?" Yep. So, what do you see like when the industry changes as far as um what they like to drink, what they don't like to drink, how do you find what's next or what's brewing or what the people in Rochester like? Do they come in and tell you or do you go to other places where you can sample and try new things? Yeah. Uh always looking ahead. Um I think we get a lot of inspiration for what we do at JS through travel. Um I'll come back off like fresh off of a trip. Uh, for instance, like Jen and I went to Spain, fell in love with vermouth, already loved Spanish wine, but I'd already been like getting into some vermouths before then. Uh, really fell in in love with vermouth though in Spain. Came back, was like, "All right, we need to do like vermouth things. We'll bring in all these different vermouths and now we have too many vermouths, you know." But u I think that's the that's the way to do it is through travel, you know, research. Social media obviously is huge for that. Um you know, I've got the folks that some of the folks that I follow on social media and I think just to see like where the trends are going, what they're enjoying and um trends are interesting right now. It's they're just like kind of like the world of uh liquor is in an interesting kind of an interesting space right now. Um, so we're trying to like kind of figure out how we go about that. Like how do we bring something more to Jack than just being a liquor store, right? Yep. Well, and Rochester has its own niche. I mean, you have obviously you've got the mail clinic there, so that drives people in, but those are people from all over the world. Yep. So, it also helps with a selection that you can have with different varieties, different things that are out there because people are coming in from all over saying, "Hey, I want something different. I want I want culture. I want to try something different instead of just here's the common liquor store. I'm going to go in and get my IPAs or whatever else. Yeah, I think that's exactly I mean that's a big part of why why we've been successful too. Uh we have our local we locals we have our our regular customers. Um which we're most grateful for for sure. Uh, and we have a lot of visitors and a lot of people just moving to town. Um, from all I mean internationally like from all over the world, they're into really unique things. You know, this person might be into a person might be into Amaro. uh these people might be into we know. So it's like listening to our customers is very important and that that's another really cool kind of like branch of Jack's Bottle Shop is the power of like what our customers have helped us right you know have a bigger variety because you hear it from the customers. Yeah, for sure. I'm like oh well I love your I love y'all style. You know what I mean? I was like I can tell like oh yeah we we'll mesh like you're into cool stuff and so you know you just kind of listen to them. They'll bring in some stuff from trips and we get a lot of gifts and stuff like that too. How difficult is it when people say they want something that you don't have? You know, they're going to be in town for a while and you you're like, "All right, let's try it. Let's see how it goes. Maybe other people here will like that." Do you have a tendency to do that where you can bring in specialty items or try new products? Yeah, for the most part, uh, you know, everybody's got their favorite thing that they had in Italy or Germany or Soma. Can you get this? I want this. It's like, we can get that perhaps. Sometimes I'll recognize the brands. Yeah. Sometimes I'll recognize the brands. It's like, "Yeah, I think we could bring that in." Uh but other times I'll like, you know, do a quick search on the computer, something like that, and it what's like, okay, I know exactly what this is. Here's something that's very similar to like it. Um or there's other case scenarios, too, where it's like, oh yeah, I know what that is. Like, it's kind of mids. Let's Well, yeah, it's a great product, but right at this time. Yeah. And you don't ever tell the customer that, of course. You know what I mean? You're like, it's like, yeah, that's great idea. That's awesome. Uh, you should try this cuz if you really love that, this is like that but top shelf. Yep. You know, do you guys do taste tests or if people like let's say that it's kind of getting to be more like the Thursdays and first where there's food trucks around and like tacos and drinks or like burgers and drinks, things like that out in the community, especially in Rochester with everything coming and going. Do you do events like that or anything? Yeah, we do a ton of events like that. Yeah. Yeah. Um that is kind of like something that we've started to Well, we've really been doing since the beginning. Uh maybe not as much as I could be. Uh but this year we're actually going to start to experiment with having like um some residency with um like a friend of mine for um for instance out of Lansdale uh Andrew Rasperson and his wife own a wonderful barbecue joint out in Lansdale, Minnesota called Smoke uh Smoke Barbecue. And um so they'll be coming down on the first Wednesday of every month, April through September. Uh they're going to come down do a smash patty popup in front of our store. Uh their smash patty burgers are way good. So it's like we'll do Last year we had them one time. I think we they sold like 79 or 80 some burgers, you know, on a Wednesday evening. Absolutely. Like where are they going to get that anywhere else? Yeah. Well, you know, 7980 burgers. It's like that's 79 80 people coming in coming into the store as well. And whether they're purchasing a can of Arizona tea or they're purchasing a fourack of beer, um they still purchase something. And um also like name recognition too. Name recognition and then like it's also like that like feeds into like kind of larger than a liquor store you know it's like come down with your family like we're very family orientated place like bring your family pull up have some killer burgers you know grab a fourack of beer to go home try a little sample of somebody that we have there like doing a sampling with that as well. Now you've got this like kind of cool experience. You left with a full belly. You got to sample some really cool things. you bought a couple things from us and supported two small local small businesses if not three, four, five small businesses uh with what they purchased or who they sampled from, you know? So, um yeah. Yeah, that's that's kind of going to be we're going to see kind of where that can take us and I think we'll do a lot more of those over this year, too. Do you see like with the whole process of Jack's Bottle Shop being opened and what you've gone through with Marcus, other parents that have done done the same thing like Matthew Brown opening up their second restaurant, kind of doing things like that and trying to help support them and drive their business as well. Yeah, absolutely. I mean that's especially like when we have been live with the do it for MD dog stuff. Yeah. Um and still on the on the random we'll get somebody that comes in like hey I read your story online. Yep. And I know what that means. You know what I I know that I know what's on our website and I know that they kind of dove dove a little bit deeper maybe than just the hey you should go check out Jack's Bottle Shop. They've got some wonderful things, right? It's just another liquor store, but it's not like Yeah. Yep. Exactly. So, um yeah, I think that uh somebody like Matt Brown and what they've done uh with Estelle's and um their their new spot as well um is very influential u especially to folks like myself. Yeah. um you know it's it hurts. It's it's tough but um you know I think that if you take like what's the best way to put this? Like if you take um you know the tears are the motivation at the end of the day and so like if you let your tears motivate you um I cry a lot so it's like I got a lot of motivation. Yeah. Right. But sometimes it's happy tears. It's like oh my gosh I'm actually doing it. Like imagine me like 10 years ago to where I am today. Like I'm doing it. I'm kicking butt. Like Oh yeah. Tears of all kinds. Tears are very diverse. Yes. So, when we had just Jennifer on a little while ago, we were kind of talking about full fruition and getting back to Zumbrota. Any thoughts with opening up a Jackson or around that area or Good question. Uh, we've got the fullcourt press on us. Um, we'll see. Do you do any events out in that area still like where you're from and like Mazepa and things? Uh, haven't gotten our I haven't gotten our my feet as wet as I'd like to. Yeah. Uh just because like I do take a lot of pride in like where I'm from from you know what I mean like Rochester is still kind of like I guess from there but to somebody who's from Azepa might think that Rochester is a big city or something like that. It's kind of a town. Um yeah we would it's an absolute dream of mine to to bring something special to the town uh that I was raised in some or another. Yeah. Yeah. I you know you sit back and like you reflect and and that's not that long you know I'm 33 now so it's like that's not that long ago for me and but in those 15 years I've lived a lot of life I feel like um have had a lot of crazy lives that I've gone through to get to where I am now u and I don't forget anybody who ever has tried to help me in that area um especially when I was a little bit little bit uh troublesome if you will. Yeah. Yep. Well, you go through those ups and downs, and it's it's the people along the way, the tribe that you have that get you through it, pull you through it, and bring you to that next level and continuing on no matter what it is. Whether it's staying where you're at and just building it out and carrying on the tradition that's there or trying something new. You never know what's going to come in the future. As far as Rochester's growth goes, do you do any deliveries or anything like that or when people are, you know, let's say they're staying at the Ronald McDonald House or they're at Mayo or something and they they need something, want something specific. Do you get a lot of those calls? So, we haven't been called a ton for deliveries. Uh we actually are going to experiment a little bit with uh Door Dash and just kind of see they're like she's like, I'll give you 60-day free trial. Okay. Like, we'll try it out. See what happens. you know, oh, you're the number one requested person on Door Dash. Well, you told the last person, that's what you said. Same story. Yep. You're doing your job well. Yep. Exactly. So, we're going to try it out, see what happens. Um, definitely I've had calls at the store that, you know, it's like, yeah, I can I'm going to be leaving the shop at 5:00. If you're at a hotel here, I'll drop it past your hotel where I can take the card over the phone, you know, and um and we can kind of go that way. But um yeah, it it's definitely it's definitely been something I've thought of, but I think really one thing that I would love to do more with is like hotels. Yeah. Um and trying to get like a flyer or some sort of QR code, you know, into those hotel rooms. So, I think like Door Dash just like that's what I ups and downs to it, but like they've got it figured out. You know what I mean? Like sometimes I just would I like to work with somebody smaller? Yes. Would I like to do something maybe of our own delivery? Yes. But let's just try this first with the company that's got it all figured out and see what happens. For sure. And there's a lot of big companies out there. I mean, you've got the Rison, you've got the Kalers, everything like that. You have the rental car companies, you have Mayo Clinic. I mean, just different ways to get out there that, hey, we're here. We're not going anywhere. And we're we're we're an experience. We're not just a store where you're just going to quick hop in. We can be that. But Yep. And that's one thing is like I got a little bit like shied away from the del from like the Door Dash for many years uh just because I'm like well come to it kind of goes against the grain of who we are you know you want you to come into the store um and I want to keep that identity right but I still think we can kind of like customize grow this new little twig if you will you know it's not a full branch yet but like and just kind of like experiment and see and just kind of see what happens you know that kind of goes back to like being in the transplant home and stuff too uh Um, I spent a lot of money on Door Dash and Uber Eatat and Takeout. You don't know how important it is until you actually need it. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what Rochester is where, you know, we're a we're a we're a medical city and uh and a hub for that. So, I know there's a lot of people living in hotel rooms and town homes and medical medical houses that can't leave that can't leave. And when they do leave, they just kind of want to like I don't know. Well, there would be a couple occasions that I'd find myself at a bar or something like that in in Houston. Um, it would usually be pretty short-lived. Um, I kind of just wanted to get my get my takeout bag and go back home. And you don't want to sit there and small talk with people like, "Oh, what do you brings you here?" I'm like, "Oh boy, the weather." And sometimes I needed that though. You do? Yeah. Yeah. Because there was there's occasions certainly that I would shut like I'm like, "Oh, I've just got some friends down here. My son, you know, I just kind of keep it short. Oh, we're down here with some medical stuff." And just kind of like shorten it up. And then others would be like 45 minutes later and I'm still like just like I needed to vent. Sorry. Sorry, man. I needed this. Yeah. Yep. So, what other venues or what other outs do you have other than work? Obviously, you do some traveling. Do you have any traveling coming up in the future that you guys know of? Uh, traveling for the future. I've got that on pause a little bit. Uh, working on a new project in Rochester. Um, so have that a little bit paused. We just got back from a a fun little tropical vacation. So that was nice. Uh, am eyeing up to get to Kentucky perhaps just to start to make some more relationships on that behalf for the world of uh, whiskey. Um, but pretty kind of just hunkered down actually through the summer where you play a lot of golf. That's that's honestly one of the best outs that there is. Whether it's a good day or bad day, still have to hit the ball. Whether it's good or bad, it's it could bring your good day down or it could bring your bad day up. You just don't know. Or Yeah, it's definitely an escape for me for sure. But, you know, there's most of the time I'm playing golf with my phone away. There is certain times that if I'm just like out there by myself and I'm like, "Oh, I'm just going to take kind of like a half a day. I'm going to go out by myself, fool around on my phone a little bit, listen to some good jams." uh have that mental release. Yeah. Toss a bag down, hit 10 shots, pick the best one, hit 10 more shots. And it's just like and you know, sit up on the tea box, watch a couple groups go past, take care of a couple emails. Um you know, that that's a nice place for me to be. Uh I'm a house guy. I love my yard. Um absolutely. People don't realize the value of home. Like at the end of the day, everybody's like, "What are you doing?" I'm like, "I'm going home." Yeah, exactly. I'm chill. I've got this. I'm not going to go out. I'm just I'm going to go home. I get it all the time. You know, it's uh I just want to be at home sometimes. Not sometimes, a lot of times. Right. That's my happy place. And it's a therapeutic place for me to be. I love doing laundry. I love mowing my yard. I love Yep. cleaning my house. So, well, it keeps you busy. Something to do. And it's just like I'm here. Like, this is this is me and this is who I am and I can do what I want and say what I want. And yeah, I mean, you talk to a lot of people every day. You know what I mean? and and yeah, at the end of the day, I'm just trying to go home and work. The networking business side of it on days when it's tough, like the faking it till you make it is more exhausting than most people think. Yeah. I mean, when you're waking up and you're like, okay, I'm I'm not feeling great today or I'm tired or whatever. Like, I just don't want to do this. And then it's like, okay, I've got to go in front of however many people. Yeah. And be happy and have so much energy and keep it pumping through. At the end of the day, I'm like, I'm a zombie. My kids are like, mom, I'm like, I don't want to talk. I'm good. Exactly. Just like numb skull just like Yep. Absolutely. So yeah, having having those good good releases are, you know, good escapes I think are are good things. I definitely play some like v video games and stuff like that and that's another kind of like space that I can kind of just kind of like lose myself in. Sports, you know, March Madness. So like I text you last like I'm be up a little late tonight. Yep. That's that's what it is. That's what you do and that's that's what pushes through. Yep. So, as far as your community goes in Rochester, Zambroda, do you have a lot of people that come from Zambroa to go to Jacks obviously and help help that business thrive there and out even further because it's getting further out? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we have a lot of Twin Cities customers. Uh I think a lot of those were made and a lot of loyal customers from the Twin Cities were those relationships were kind of made through my time at Forager Brewery. Yeah. Uh you know, very highly collect collectible barrel age stouts. So they would get people traveling from I mean we've got regulars from California. Uh we've got regulars from the east coast, from Florida, from Texas um that come through maybe on like a quarterly basis, right? They're in town scooping the new barrel age stout from Forager Top and Goliath or Pulpit Rock uh you know some of the best barrel age stouts in the in the entire world. And on their way through, they know they're flying into MSP and then on their way through they're coming through Rochester, they stop at Forger, they stop at Jax, they go to Decor, they turn around, they stop at Forager, they stop at they stop back again, they go to MSP. Yeah. And then they fly back home, you know? It's like they got those trading cards, if you will, and now it's time to now it's time to bounce back home. So that's been like super special. Um, Zumbroa regulars for sure. I think a lot of those relationships have either been from me growing up there or a lot from the golf course community. Yep. have had a ton of support from uh Zimroa Golf Club members and um that's been super cool and that's like anytime we get a chance to like sponsor anything in Zimrod, we try to do it. Yeah. U just again like I don't ever I'm not there as much. You know what I mean? But when I ride through, I got to ride through windows down just like I rode through when I was 17. I'm here. I'm making my name. You know who I am. Many men 50 Cent like taking every little witch. Absolutely. all the back roads and little little alleys that you can go through and drive this year. Oh, I did that there, you know, and it's like a broken record. So, yeah, love Zumbroto. Um, love Mazappa even more also that absolutely all due respect to Zamroto. But do you do you do anything at the golf course there or anything where you bring some of your stock in there on certain events or things like that when you when you have or you sponsor? So, uh, we've done some sponsor some sponsorships with them. Like they brought Pinseeker on for the last couple of years. So, that's been kind of cool. A lot of folks just to like, hey, I had I had the beer that you helped, um, you know, create. Um, at the end of the day, it's our, you know, the head brewer of Humble Forager that's like creating the beer, but we, him and I came up with this idea on a golf trip to Florida and, uh, we're like, "Yeah, we'll name it Pinseeker. It's to like help ease the pain, you know." Absolutely. It's like double bogey. You should probably smash a pinseeker. I need another one. Yep. Birdie, you should have Exactly. Yep. Perfect. Well, we really appreciate having you on again. How can people find you? Where are you at? And how can they get into Jacks? Yeah. Uh we're our Jacks Bottle Shop is open uh 5 days a week, Wednesday through Sunday. Uh 11 or excuse me, 12 to 9 uh Wednesday through Saturday, 11 to 6 on Sundays. Uh you can usually find me there. Uh, I'm on all platforms of social media. Um, some pretty exciting news. We actually are working on a new project on North Broadway. Uh, yeah. Some friends and I had bought the old uh shoe repair home. Oh, yeah. It's 908 North Broadway is the address. Kind of a Rochester landmark. It is. Tell people why it's a landmark and how how it's known to Rochester. Like uh anybody who was like native to Rochester remembers the big elm tree in front of the shoe repair that has 200 pairs of shoes hanging from it. Um it's a staple in Rochester. It's what people know. Yep. Yeah. It's kind of an old uh excuse me. It's a kind of an old spooky looking house u in in collaboration with three really good friends of mine, Matt, Frankie, and Eric. And we're stoked to bring Rochester something just like it's a 25 seat house bar. It'll have some like dive vibes to it. Uh but the drink menu of course will be top of the line. Top of the line. Very strong u music, everything like that. Like really what we're but you know aside that really what we're trying to create is a is a place for conversation and community surrounded by like good beverages. We called oursel the shoe beverage bar. Very cool. So kind of paying homage to um the 60year-old business that was there before us. Keep the shoes in the trees. Uh they may be part of our logo which we have not released yet but there's a good chance that that will be incorporated on our logo and um yeah we called it the shoe beverage bar. We we were going to call it the shoe wine and beer bar and we kind of like last second uh switch to the beverage bar and I love the switch. Yes. uh it doesn't put us into being certain category probably alcohol only like to people's mind like it like really helps us I think like we just have some great beverages if you want to have like a really good cup of hot tea or a coffee or a really stellar like non-alcoholic spritz or if you want to add some you know reposado to it or some tequila gin we got you half glass of wine you know yeah so um it's going to be cool uh it's definitely going to be a vibe and I feel like Rochester's missing some of that old time sit down tavern like like let's let's sit down but have some really good conversations over some good drinks. Exactly. Like we want groups to be able to meet here like you come in, you bring it or you know you bring your crew in uh we'll have a we'll have a screen in there if you know on closed days or something like that you can do a seminar we can get set you up with some if you want a low ABV cocktail we'll make that for you. If you want to do no alcohol we got you. Like um we just want to have some some really cool things and and it'll grow. I think we'll find our identity and we'll see what our customers want and can kind of like shift and move. But well, the adaptability to have just a small space too where if people want to for for events or for work or for not work or hey family's in town for Mayo Clinic, let's just rent the place out and get together. Yeah. Yep. Exactly. Yeah. I'm super excited. So, this is like my first my first time I've ever been a part of a project uh from gutting a place completely out by ourselves uh to now kind of like starting to go through all the world of uh rebuilding it and with, you know, um architects and structural engineers and like a lot of that stuff. Jack's bottle shop, you know, my friend Annie brought me down. She's like, "What do you think?" I was like, "Way too small." She's like, "I think you can fit a lot in here." And we did. popped it up and we continued to add to it over the last 5 years. Like the shoe is um kind of a a mess, but uh you know what? You want to be super excited. Like we all see it and like all of our all of the ways that we see it I think are really cool and I've kind of like come into this like thing that's way better than any if any one of us just saw it. Yep. You know, so it's it's really cool. the vision is there and it's it's the coming of the future. So, that's exciting. Yes. Yeah. And it'll play like really well with Jack's Bottle Shop um and some other u two of the other owners, um Eric and Matt's uh businesses as well. It'll really play well, I think, with our other businesses also. Uh whether we're hosting wine makers or kombucha on tap, um you know, hi-fi music, things like that. And with the music, everything like that and they're getting food in. Are you going to have specific places that can cater, let people bring it in if they want to, or will that beverage like Blue Duck or Yeah, beverage, great question. Beverage uh beverage spot only uh is going to be kind of like our thing. We've got some really great ideas for some cool little bar snacks that maybe aren't just your um trail mix or something like that. U kind of uh bougge that up a little bit, if you will. Um and yeah, it's going to be it's going to be cool. We'll be working with a lot of different uh food vendors, food trucks, things like that for the alleyway and very cool. Um we've got our own spot to kind of do what sky's the limit, right? Do what we want to do. I don't know. It's it's it's cool and I think that we've got a real real great opportunity to bring something special. Well, and I think the fact that it's something new and something different where you can always change it up if need be with the adaptability like, hey, this isn't quite right. This isn't driving. This isn't working. Yeah. Let's let's throw on some different mix. Let's try it out this way because it's growing. It's ever changing. in that industry or just Rochester in general. So, let's keep changing it up. Exactly. I mean, that small business, it's a it's it's kind of a a picture of you. Yeah. You know what I mean? And there's and like we've even like Jax, I think, shows that, you know, we started off as a beer store only and now we're into like beer, wine, and spirits. I'm more into wine and Amaros and like things like that than I've ever been. But beer's still like at my heartulture. Yeah. The THC stuff like you know that's been me since I've been like 15 years old. So I was like of course we're going heavy at that you know and try different things and get it to work and yeah it's really cool. I think that's the most special part of small business is like sometimes u the fortunes might not always be there like people think they are. Right. Um, but it's a way that we've been able to kind of share, I guess, you know, who we are. I say we as like it's Yeah, it's Jack's Bottle Shop, but like it's it's Jack's Bottle Shop and us the are and the employees at Jack's Bottle Shop and kind of signifies who we are and um that's that's what's I think the coolest part about the small business stuff. So, yeah. Well, we appreciate having you on today. Can't wait to get to the shoe and obviously go back to Jackson. If you're in Rochester again, where is the locations? Where are the locations again? Yeah, right next to Forager Brewery. Uh, let's see here. I'm getting 909 and 908 mixed up. Yeah, Sixth Street, right next to Forager Brewery. Hi Barlo. If you're there, just throw a GPS in. You'll see that you're about a block away from our store. We're in the old Joe's Auto uh shed. And um yeah, we've kind of flipped this little uh garage into being this like kind of cool cutesy boutique um liquor store. and we'd love to take care of you. Uh, whatever you need, you know, whether it's parties, pre-orders, weddings, um, a gift, um, or something for your seller. Is there anything customizable they can do, like if they want a certain kind of wine and changing up the labels, things like that, or making it your own, or So, we we haven't gotten quite into that yet. There is some some talk about potentially doing some cool stuff with some whiskey groups around town. Yeah. um that we could like buy some barrels and then kind of can do some some different things uh kind of like within that world, right? Um but yeah, we'll customize, you know, we'll customize your order, I guess, and like get you set up with with all the goods and and make you look like the rock star when you bring your flat into the party is like, "This is what we're doing." You know, this is us. Here's my music. We're rolling in. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. It's not It's not your average, I stopped at Total Wine. Uh here's my case of what I need and my palette. We're good. No. Yeah. like mids, you know, it's like, "Oh, I stopped at Jacks. Like, they got me hooked up with some like good affordable stuff, some like top tier stuff." Like, we have so many different price ranges. And I think that's the best part of our store. Like, we can compete at price ranges with that big box stores do. We have a couple of those things, you know, and those go and those things that we carry are good. Um, but we're kind of, you know, a wide variety of things, which is great for the variation for people when they don't know who their audience is going to be, whether it's a wedding or whatever. I don't know what I want. Like, can you help me out? Instead of let's just do some beer and some wine and, you know, maybe some vodka or tequila. Yeah. Like, let's get some variation. Try it out. Yeah. Yep. For sure. Yeah. That that's that's that's super cool. I love the uh art of handelling and curating our customers packages for them. Um, and sometimes they're not even like our regular customers. Sometimes they'll just come in and it's like I'm like, "All right, tell me just a little bit more." And give me something like Tell me what this person looks like. Like I got I got a feeling that if I even know what they look like, I can and you just tell me like a couple things that they're into, like we can probably dial you up for sure, you know? So, yeah. Outstanding. Well, thank you again so much for being here and we'll for sure make sure when we're in town in Rochester to stop by and help out any way we can. For sure. Thank you so much, Grace. I appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you.