Cheers to the Champagne of Water, Bottled in Eco-Friendly Aluminum with Justin Mahy

Thank you for having me.

We're super excited, and we can't wait to tell everybody, and have you tell us about Merci. Tell us what is Merci for those watching us and listening to us.

So I like to call it a cafe. I'm not a restaurant. I don't want to own a restaurant.

Okay. What is the difference between the cafe and restaurant, for those that don't know.

That's a good question. For me, a restaurant just seems like so much to take on. We also just serve breakfast and lunch from 9:00 to 4:00. So I feel like that just feels more Cafe like.

Does it cover the full kitchen?

Yes.

I thought maybe that might have a difference in a cafe to a restaurant.

We serve coffee. But yeah, but that's funny. You said that, because I got started here at the Montecito Country Mart, in this little shop over here, it was 168 square feet. I was doing some pop ups around town, and that space was empty. And so I asked if I could do it, have a pop up for a week. So they said, I could. And it went really well. And so they asked if I could do it for a year. And so I rented a kitchen off site, and we packaged everything and put it in a cooler, and I drove it over here. And we just sell it until we sell out.

Wow.

So it was called Merci to go. And so that's how this kind of all got started.

That was 10 years ago?

No sorry, that was, gosh, it was seven years ago, I just had my second daughter. I was pregnant with her during the pop up, and then I had her, and then we opened the year long little, I guess pop up. And so I did that, and then it got to the point where it was just too much, and so the owner of the Country Mart said that he would build out a space with a kitchen.

Wow, that's great.

So now we have big Merci. And then the funny thing is now, and this has happened a couple times during COVID. We've had to go back to that Merci to-go concept, and just package everything up, and people will come and just pick it up. Must have been great that you already had the systems in place. I think people knew that, and so they felt comfortable. And then it was just so easy for us to switch, to keep switching back and forth. But having just to be in one place is so amazing.

The space is so beautiful. I mean, did you have a visual concept yourself for how you wanted the feel and the look of the space? Or did you have someone--

That's a really good question. I think I have a really specific sense of aesthetics. Aesthetic, and design, and what I like, but I'm not really good at translating that into. I'm not good at looking at a swatch of fabric and knowing what that'll look like on our whole banquette. But I have a wonderful friend, her name's Abby Turin, she's an architect and a designer. And so she came in and said that she would take on the project. And so she helped build office space, and then she helped design it. And she really knows me. She knows me really well, and what my style is, and so she was able to take what I was trying to say and translate it into a beautiful, such a good collaboration. Thank you, I love it so much. I'm really happy with it.

So curious, I want to go back to when you started this, and you started this as a little kiosk, for lack of a better word. And you went to do a collaborative kitchen, did you use a cloud kitchen.

It was hard. It was hard here to find something, but I found a kitchen. It was a caterer that just had this really big kitchen and they were looking to downsize. And so they had an area, and I had an area, and then there was actually an empanada company that had an area, and we just all shared it. We could come and go as we please. We had a space in the lock in that was ours, we have to share the stove and everything, but we just we made it work.

So what was your inspiration for all this? Was it your background? Was it something personal? How did you decide one day to wake up and say I'm going to be enough see to-go?

I worked at House & Garden Magazine.

Nobody started before that.

A long time ago.

I mean, we you in the kid cooking with your lawns--

It's funny, I feel like this was a job. I feel like when I was growing up, I didn't realize that this was a job. I went to a career counselor and this never came up. I love desserts. I've always loved desserts. I would make, and if it was my friend's birthday, I would make them a cake. I really didn't know anything. I loved all the desserts. But yeah, I didn't know about baking and that this was a career. I went to the University of Colorado in Boulder and I studied finance. And so then when I graduated, I went and worked in House & Garden. I worked with a managing editor who kind of just like runs all the finances of the magazine. And there was a woman named (inaudible) and she was the food editor there. But since the food department was not really about food, House & Garden, she needed additional help. I didn't have an assistant so I said that I would help her. And I loved what she was doing. I said: "I want to be a food editor. I love it." She said we need to go to culinary school. I didn't realize that to be a food editor you have to also go -- If anyone asks me, I would say you don't have to go to college. But that was her advice. And sorry, I will step back really quickly. Before I got the job in House & Garden, I was freelancing at Martha Stewart. I was like, this is what I want to do. I love Martha Stewart magazine. I think when I was little, I would look through Martha Stewart wedding magazines and just, they were just so beautiful. And so inspirational. I said: "That's what I want to do. I want to work at Martha Stewart." So anyway, I was at House & Garden and she told me to go to culinary school. And so I said: "Well, I'm gonna go to culinary school to go to France." But of course--

Where else would you go.

So I went and spent a year in Paris and went to culinary school there, it was 2001. So then in September, I was finished with school, and I was doing an internship, and my parents wanted me to come home. So I wasn't going to go back to New York where it was freezing and I wasn't gonna find a job during the holidays of 2001, and so I went back to LA and I worked at Svago, I got an internship at Svago. I was gonna stay there for the holidays, and I loved it so much that I ended up staying for two years. And then I went to another restaurant in LA called Sona, it doesn't exist anymore. And then I went to another restaurant called (inaudible), and the chef there was (inaudible). He was really wonderful and helped me so much. And finally from then, I said, I want to be a food editor. And so I went back to New York and went to Martha Stewart and I applied for a job, and they hired me as a freelancer. And as a side note, so I had only pastry experience, they wanted me to have a savory experience. So I thought I'd get an internship in a restaurant in New York, and I ended up getting an internship at the modern. That's where I met my husband.

What was he doing there?

He was the wine director. He's in wine.

I love how they used to do the little cup, do they still do that?

Yes. The bar room and then the dining room. It's so amazing.

So you met your husband there?

I met my husband there. Then I was hired full time, so I stopped working there. I was working and I worked--

Was it everything you thought it would be being a food editor?

It was just a dream. It was my dream job, and it was a dream.

That's so great.

You didn't feel that you needed to go to culinary school for it. But what did you get out (inaudible) that led to Merci.

I mean, I loved being in Paris for a year.

But you wouldn't have Merci if he didn't go to culinary school.

I think I wouldn't have been competent to walk into Svago and say I can work here if I hadn't gone to culinary school. But really, when I walked into Svago, when I said I could work here, the next day, I realized that I cannot, I mean, it was so different from culinary school, and what I really needed was restaurant experience. And the funny thing is that they hired me at Martha Stewart because I had restaurant experience, so it really came full circle that I really wanted to go right from culinary school, right to Martha Stewart. I had to kind of take this, ended up taking this kind of detour and ended up working out. So I always try to tell people that everything happens for a reason. And if you don't go right to where you're supposed to be, that doesn't mean that you're not gonna absolutely not going to get there eventually. So yeah, so I was at Martha Stewart, it was amazing. And then my husband got a job in Santa Barbara, and so we moved out here, and there wasn't really a job for me. And I had a one year old. We had a one year old and I don't want to go back to working at restaurants and working at night. And so I don't know, I just thought Santa Barbara needed something like this. We just didn't have something that was just kind of--

So this wasn't a dream that you'd always had.

No, it really wasn't. You just don't know why. I had my dream.

You had your dream.

I had my dream, and then this was just this new chapter. I kind of didn't know what to do, but I'd love to work, and that was really important to me. And so I feel like you kind of have to create something here in Santa Barbara, and so that's just kind of what happened. So I started doing these little pop ups around town, and then this was kind of the last one that I had done here.

Okay. So now, tell us about now see and sort of what you've built here.

So I have a wonderful partner, his name's (inaudible), and I'd say that he's the chef, more of a pastry chef. And he ran a number of restaurants before and that was so helpful. I couldn't do this by myself. It's so much more than baking. He actually was the chef at a restaurant where my husband was the wine director up in Los Olivos, and we just kept in touch. And then I actually asked him if he'd help and consult, and it just turned into that, it ended up being the team on full time and sometimes, when you have a partner, it's like a marriage, isn't it? It's a work, and he's my work husband.

That's what we're you're looking for it.

I wrote it down, and I'm not that kind of person. But someone had me write it down, and I was just thinking about this because, for Thanksgiving, or the holidays. I was really thankful for everything. I went back to look at it, and it was really everything, I had written down. I just wanted someone who got what I wanted to do, but that had kind of really their own talent, and experience, and world kind of traveling, and hard working. I feel like a restaurant, and I know I'm calling a restaurant, but this industry in the coffee industry, it's a lot. It's a lot. And so just someone that really understood.

Well, I asked because we have people listening and walking, and I know that when, so when you guys are looking for people to partner with in a business, I work alone, except, of course with my co host here on Dine & Design, I'm curious from you guys, what do you look for in a partner?

Well, I sort of, he was my husband. So I definitely like, I think with any partnership, you bring different things to the table. Sometimes, that's hard because you can butt heads a little bit, but I think it's been both people respect each other's where they're coming from. And together make good decisions. Yeah.

How about you? I mean, I asked this really for the guests that are watching, so that if they're looking for a partner, I'd love to share with them some recommendations you might have.

I feel lucky that it worked out that way. I'd actually been talking to someone else before and it just didn't feel right. So that was just a gut. And then with Nick, that was actually was really helpful that he did start out as a consultant. We dated, you kind of got to get married. Yeah, so that was really important for both of us that we didn't sign anything. We didn't do anything until, I don't know, maybe he almost even a year into it. Like this really, this is working. So I think that was that was helpful.

How do you find with a cafe just by working with local partners, and how do you go about that? And is that really important to you?

It's so important. I mean, we have everything here. I think it's really so amazing.

So Elizabeth, with your cafe, do you work with lots of local farmers and brands and how important is that to you and your business?

Yeah, no, that's really important to us. I feel like our food is really simple. We'd like to kind of elevate it a little and make it a little interesting, but really at the core. It's really just about good ingredients. We have the most amazing Farmers Market in Santa Barbara, and so there are a couple of them. The best ones are on Tuesday and on Saturday. But we also have a lot of farmers now that we have relationships with them that deliver to us, which is really nice. So we have that. Mother has this amazing farm up in Galena and she brings us whatever's in season all the time, and so we'll use that which is amazing. Even one of Carlos in Ohio, he roasts our coffee bonito coffee, which is amazing. And we actually, the one thing we don't make is our bread. And so we got our bread from a bakery in town. It's just really important to have really great relationships that seem to support everyone in town, absolutely. How could you not?

How do you think about, I noticed that Christmas, and Thanksgiving, and the holidays, when you come out with those special menus and they're just so amazing. How do you decide what's going to go into that? And is that between you and Nick?

Yes, yes. Yeah, we'd love doing holiday, different holiday venues and fun things. I think we just kind of think about just what we're in the mood for. We always try and put a little French touch to it. And sometimes, we'll try something and it won't work, and we'll move on to something else. And sometimes, we'll try something, and we'll love it, and we'll just try and make it better. And I feel like that's the fun creative part of it. So yeah, let me just try and make it work together, that the savory goes with Merci.

Would you look at opening any more Merci?

It's a good question. Absolutely. But it's really important that we get this one really running correctly. I don't think it's ever going to be perfect. I want to use the word perfect. But I unfortunately don't think that that's ever gonna happen. But I think we can get to a place where we really feel good about it, and really feel like it's meeting its like maximum potential, and that we feel comfortable stepping away a little bit.

Where would you want to expand next?

I don't know. It's so funny. We get a lot of people, it's so nice. A lot of our out of state customers come in, and they're like, oh, I wish you'd open in New York, Aspen, Chicago. And so it's so fun to hear what they're saying. I think Nick is thinking about maybe moving somewhere, and so we would maybe think about wherever he would want to go. We really like the idea of this small town, this small town. I love Boulder. I went to Boulder and I love that. We're talking about Bend, Oregon. I don't know, maybe we'll do like a little tour and kind of go check some places out. But I do love that. I have this here and that we live here. It's really so nice.

Would you design the menu according to the town, change it according to where you are. So Aspen being a cold town calls for really warming foods in my mind.

Right, right. We're definitely seasonal here. So I mean, produce wise, that dictates a lot of what we do. It doesn't get too cold here. I know I think we make, my husband makes a delicious hot chocolate, and we've been doing that in February, like hot chocolate. But it's not always cold in February, so it's not a bestseller. But yeah, so we could do that year round. We could have a great hot chocolate. So sure, yes.

Do your daughter's love to be in the--

You know what, that's one of my favorite parts of this actually is that I was so worried that it was going to be so hard for them that I wasn't home all the time, couldn't take them to school every day, and that was really something that I didn't even know if I wanted to do that. Because I do this because of that. And it's so wonderful that they come here every day to visit me. We put them in, we put them to work in the kitchen, and the friend, my little one is learning how to be a barista. She loves it. She's so good at it. They do the cash register and that makes me so happy. And then they'll come home with a story from school that they wrote a story and they'll say, it'll be about Merci, or it'll be about my mom's a pastry chef, and it makes me so happy that they're seeing what I'm doing.

Seeing what you learn as well. Doing that's so important, your passion. So yeah, a great lesson makes me happy.

So do you have any recommendations or words of wisdom for any new entrepreneurs that want to open up a cafe? Because you seem to have done it successfully. However you want to define success, that would be my next question, for those new entrepreneurs or young entrepreneurs out there. Because you started so well, right? You did it with a small cafe and then you built it out. And so any, any recommendations for those young entrepreneurs out there?

I'd love advice from anyone too.

We need to give advice up and down for everyone, right?

I think, gosh, so many things. But yes, I think that was so helpful. I really had a lot of experience and a lot of differences at magazines, restaurants and then pop ups. I think that was really to do this and see how that went to get a feel. And then like we were saying with Nick, we tried that out, and it was kind of trying it to make sure instead of jumping into this, just something that was really unknown. Like this has really been a big part of my life.

Sort of taking it slow to take and learn as you go before you make the next move.

Then just really to know, I guess I knew this, but it's so much. And I guess it's so much more than being a pastry chef, it's running a business, and it's really--

Finance background probably helps.

I wish I had a human resources, psychology background, a lot with that problem troubleshooting. Just to know that it's not just baking cookies.

It's not just baking cookies, so you can't know everything. So how do you solve that problem?

I mean, look what just happened? The last couple, you just have to learn by doing it.

I'm sure you mean all the pivoting you've had to do through COVID. I mean, for hospitality, I can't imagine just one day, you're open. The next day, you don't open? How was that for you, your team?

It's been so challenging. And so crazy, but rewarding. And yeah, we just have to learn, keep going and try and see what happens.

My best recommendation, I got this from my mom, this is not mine. My mom always taught me as a kid, she was also an entrepreneur, surround yourself with people that have the expertise that you don't have. So that is what I've always tried to do. I'm not an expert in everything. But no one is, right? I can't do human resources. I can't do this. I can't do that. But Bridget will tell you, I do try to surround myself with experts and the things I don't know how to do so I can see things a whole lot better.

I think that's such good advice. Yes. And then you just have to love it.

And then you have to love it. Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining us.

I appreciate it so much. Thank you guys.