Courtesy Picture / Web page Pressley
Dez Rodriguez (left) and Web page Pressley are the house owners of recent downtown espresso store The Newstand.
Names: Web page Pressley and Dez Rodriguez
Title: Proprietor-operators of The Newstand espresso store
Earlier jobs: Presley was actor Tommy Lee Jones’ former personal chef, and likewise did work for Austin’s Emmer & Rye restaurant group and Potluck Hospitality in San Antonio. Rodriguez was a speech pathologist.
The place to seek out their multi-concept espresso store: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. each day in the identical constructing because the swanky new sushi bar Nineteen Hyaku, 1900 Broadway, Suite 106.
Informal eating spot The Newstand made its debut final week on the Jefferson Financial institution constructing on Broadway, serving up quite a lot of sandwiches, pastries, espresso and — naturally — onerous copies of bonafide newspapers. The Newstand’s espresso and espresso-based sippers use roasts from Austin’s Proud Mary Espresso and San Antonio’s Pulp Espresso Roasters.
We sat down with each Pressley and Rodriguez to talk about how the idea took place, their long-term plans and their dedication to Newstand’s rising workers.
How was the idea born and the way did you deliver it to life?
Web page Pressley: We have been on the River Stroll going for a jog one night time after our respective earlier jobs, and we have been working reverse hours and reverse days. [Rodriguez] is a speech pathologist by commerce, and I’m clearly in meals and beverage. And so we have been identical to, “That is tough, dude. All this to work for different individuals’s profit.” And so we simply considered what we may do this we each would love and that might permit us to work collectively. We each love espresso. So, the choice was made, and we have been like, “OK, how will we make it in order that this could hopefully make us a dwelling?” It was apparent that it was in all probability going to be useful to promote greater than espresso, and I’ve had a lifelong obsession with sandwiches. I’m an avid bread baker and pastry maker. So, it simply form of like appeared like kismet that they may all simply exist in a single house. It’s taken loads of shapes between then and the way it’s in the present day, in fact, however yeah, it began simply with going for a run collectively.
So you’ve a lifelong obsession with sandwiches? Are those at The Newstand ones that you’ve made yourselves at residence? Are they consultant of your favourite sandwich setups?
PP: They’re all form of epic iterations on regional American classics. So that they’re our tackle an egg salad sandwich, or a BLT … they’re not conventional by any means. However hopefully, they ship the identical form of like, emotional feeling that these sandwiches ship when you’ve one of the best model of them of their hometown. We’re simply doing them right here in San Antonio.
Dez Rodriguez: I simply suppose they’re our favourite model of these issues, and we’re making an attempt to open our hearts and our passions to the group and create an area the place they’ll benefit from the issues that we like to work on. And in the event you don’t, hey, you understand, thanks for coming and making an attempt it. We’re not for everyone. And that’s okay, too.
Submit-COVID, it appears loads of operators have determined they actually be can’t be weighed down by adverse opinions any extra. Do you agree?
PP: I imply, we maintain ourselves to essentially excessive requirements, do one of the best that we will to make everyone glad. However, in the event you don’t like our focaccia recipe or how we make our muffins or no matter, you understand, that’s okay.
DR: And hopefully we will win these over with our customer support.
PP: Yeah, Dez has simply been doing a exceptional job of customer support, for somebody who hadn’t actually existed within the trade earlier than. I’ve been form of shocked, as a result of we principally stated, “Hey, guess what, your first meals and beverage expertise goes to be enterprise possession.” You already know, that’s onerous. However she’s been superb. I knew we wouldn’t be failing together with her on the helm.
I used to be really going to ask about that, Dez. What have you ever found about your self to this point by this enterprise?
DR: I believe I’ve positively discovered my place and what I wish to do. I like creating constructive experiences for individuals, and with the ability to persistently do that’s actually fulfilling. Once I went to highschool, that’s why I selected to be a pediatric speech therapist, as a result of loads of instances children don’t have the assist that they want. And to have the ability to give them a voice and make them really feel protected and make them really feel heard, now I can deliver that sense of security and heat into this house. And that extends to our workers, too. Web page and I are doing our greatest to verify our crew is taken care of and has all the pieces that they should assist us. I can’t do it with out them.
Web page, is that outlook one thing that you’ve developed primarily based on what you would like you’d seen from working for bigger restaurant teams?
PP: My complete profession, I simply get so fucking bored with the place I’m, and I simply have to go away after like three years. For a very long time, I believed there was one thing mistaken with me. However the fact of it was, for somebody who has excessive aspirations or a really entrepreneurial spirit, they know key contributing crew members are an integral a part of your success. You couldn’t have in any other case been profitable with out them. I really feel it’s incumbent upon [a business owner] to make possession and partnership out there to their crew, as a result of in the event that they present that loyalty to you, you owe them that in return. Not only a paycheck.
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