When Life Changes Your Game Plan: Julio Cano’s Journey from Soccer Executive to Restaurant Leader | Restaurants & Franchises Series

Anthony Codispoti: Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispoti and today’s guest is Julio Cano, Chief Business Officer and partner at Bien Trucha Group. Bien Trucha is a hospitality company founded in 2007 and based in Chicago. They strive to create memorable experiences through their work, offering unique restaurant concepts that come from a place of creativity and collaboration. Since joining in 2012, Julio has helped shape the group’s vision by focusing on innovative dining experiences and exceptional customer service. Before leading the company, Julio served as Assistant General Manager at Chivas USA where he honed his leadership skills and as Marketing and Communications Manager at FC Dallas where he gained valuable sports and entertainment industry knowledge. He draws on his administrative, managerial, marketing and business background to help the business expand from a single restaurant to a multi-unit, multi-concept restaurant group. Now before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by implementing one of our innovative programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency.com. Okay, back to our guest today. Mr. Julio Cano from the Bien Trucha Group, thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Julio Cano: Well, thank you. Thanks for the invite.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay, so Julio, you started your career in what the rest of the world calls pro football, but what we call soccer here in the States. Tell us how that all came about.

Julio Cano: Well, I grew up in Mexico. I was born and raised in Mexico City. I came to the States for the football, I shouldn’t say for it first, I came on vacation several times before that, but moved when I was 17. But before that, I grew up playing soccer, football, what we call, so I played that since I was three, four years old. And that became my passion. I guess a lot of little kids, you dream about being a professional soccer player and that was my goal growing up. And I did pretty decent play through different ranks of professional soccer club in Mexico City. And then it gets to a point that it’s very difficult. Only a handful can make it to the pro level.

And it was a time for me to take a decision, should I keep pursuing this or should I try something else? Like most that are in that journey of trying to become a professional athlete. I don’t know. It just became the opportunity at some point in my life where I had the opportunity to come to the Chicago area.

My mom had just remarried and I stepped out. He’s also from Mexico City. So he was living here at the time and he had a restaurant, a Mexican restaurant in one of the Chicago suburbs. So at that time, my mom, she asked me, do you want to stay back in Mexico City?

At that time, my dad was still alive. Or do you want to come with me? And you know, it’s hard decision to make. It was very hard decision. I was 17. I was going through my last year of high school and decided, you know, I remember at that time, I was like, okay, is there really a chance that I’m going to make it to the professional ranks? I had suffered like, you know, some injuries. But at the same time, I was just like, okay, let’s be a realistic. Let’s give it a try.

Let’s go there. My at that point, I remember I was like, I’ll go for one year, try to get my English better. And then I’ll come back for college, you know, come back to Mexico. Long story short, I ended up staying not here. I’ve been quite around the world, or parts in the US and Europe after that decision of coming here.

But came here, that my last year of high school and that I’m staying. But suckered to me was as as a sport was still in my mind. But I knew I was not going to pursue the being on the field.

Anthony Codispoti: You weren’t going to be a professional player, but hey, you thought, can I be involved, you know, kind of behind the scenes manager, you know, in the office, something like that? Right.

Julio Cano: So finished my year of high school. I want to say now that I look back, you know, in my life, things happen for a reason. I came to the high school that had been a state champions, like for a few times in a row. So when I started school here, my last year of high school, I asked it, like, you guys have a soccer team, like, Oh, yeah, we do. And we’re, you know, like pretty good. We’re, you know, been state champions for the last, I want to say a couple of years at least.

That’s really good. So, but I just wanted to play, you know, at the time, being a professional soccer player was not in my mind. So I asked how could I join the team? I didn’t understand at that point how the high school athletes are, you know, structured. They said, like, Oh, yeah, you can join the JV team.

I’m like, I don’t even know what that is. But okay, I was a senior. And then I understood, you know, that there’s like the varsity team and the JV team. I guess they were so good that they’re like, Okay, yeah, go play with the JV.

Speaker 3: So play with the JV. I just wanted to play, you know, got invited to play like on serious senior night, like a few minutes with the varsity team. And a lot of the players at that time, you know, my teammates on the varsity team, like they were all getting scholarships and stuff. I didn’t understand exactly. And that was not in my mind. I still thought that I was going back to Mexico. But long story short, I

Julio Cano: decided to stay, apply for a few grants, get some loans to go to or grants to go to college and that I was staying here. But I didn’t pursue blank soccer again. I did one. I remember I did that for a little.

Anthony Codispoti: And I went to so was it during college that you got the opportunity to join one of these professional clubs?

Julio Cano: No, so so before that, I remember after I graduated from high school, my I guess the varsity coach felt kind of bad that he didn’t give me the opportunity to play. He said, like, you should go to these showcases, because I think you can get a scholarship.

And at that time, I had decided like, okay, I’m going to stay here. I remember going to some showcases and I got like offers from universities that at that point, I didn’t even know existed, like, you know, like some coaches that remember one is like, oh, you, you know, like, you would want to come to Balparaiso University. I’m like, I don’t even know what where that is, you know, then and Northwestern asked me, you know, the coaches, I go, I don’t have a scholarship.

Anthony Codispoti: But, you know, if you send me your your grades and I can promise or you probably can get a scholarship next year and you should come try it. And I said, you know what, I’m just going to go. I already applied for some grants, like I said, to,

Julio Cano: to go to Notre Millenot University and ended up going there. Didn’t play soccer anymore. My mind was like, okay, how can I get back into the sport that I love? After the first year, the, I remember having a meeting with my counselor at that time, I said, like, okay, I want to be in bobbin sports. I think I want to be a coach. So I remember that time, the Bulls obviously in Chicago, you know, Phil Jackson, the coach.

Anthony Codispoti: Professional basketball team. Yeah. Yeah. And he had a background in psychology. So I’m like, okay, I want to follow the same steps. I’m going to go and do like sports psychologists and I want to be a coach and I’m going to get my, you know, coaching degree and everything.

So she was like, Oh, this is great. You know, like, you already have it, you know, like, what do you want to do? Like, we don’t get this usually, you know, like, people don’t want to know after their first semester, you know, their self-train to the side. I’m like, yeah, I want to do this.

She’s like, okay, so you know how that works. You would need to, you know, go underground. You got to do like grad school and blah, blah, blah, before you can actually apply or, you know, be like a sports psychologist, maybe take, you know, a few years. I’m like, okay, how long? It’s like, well, we’ve got to go to grad school.

Julio Cano: Then I’m like starting to like think, I’m like, Oh, no, that sounds like a lot. And I’m like, okay, let’s go back and what else can I do? So decided to go just business, then this administration, and I said, like, I’ll figure that after, you know, let’s just go for something that it’s more general. And then I’ll figure out how I get back into the sport. And that’s why I did that just that business with a minor in marketing and then it started applying to different soccer teams everywhere, like Mexico here. And yeah, I was lucky to get a job in Dallas.

Anthony Codispoti: And what was that first job? And why do you think they gave it to you this kid fresh out of college?

Julio Cano: So actually, I had been applying for a while. So let’s go back my parents at that time. My mom and my step that had sold the restaurant that they had in Chicago area, they had moved to Dallas, where another family member was there and he wanted to open a restaurant. So they were going to team up. I came there to help them because I had just graduated from college. And I came and helped them to set up like the business plan and try to, you know, like figure out like a location and what would be the restaurant.

Anthony Codispoti: Was this the beginning of the intruder?

Julio Cano: No, something else. So this is so where I said that my step that had a restaurant Mexican restaurant here in Chicago, he sold that they were going to open this with an uncle in Dallas, that ended up not happening, but they were already there with the plan of opening a restaurant in Dallas. So I held them with the business plan.

This is like the summer where I had just graduated from college. They were talking to different people from, I think it was plain of Texas where they had like the economic developer was helping them. And he saw the business plan. He was like, Oh, this is great. He’s like, who did this business plan? And my mom, I said that was like our son.

Anthony Codispoti: He’s like, you did this. And I said, like, Yeah, I didn’t think it was whatever, you know, like, you did your best and you didn’t realize you just hit it out of the park.

Julio Cano: I guess he really liked it. And he offered me a job right away, like in front of my house. And he said, I have multiple eye hops. He said, like, Would you want to work for me?

And I remember I said, like, let me think about it. Because I, you know, I had just graduated from college, I wanted to be in sports. My parents were like, What are you thinking? He’s offering you a job.

Speaker 3: Yeah, he was offering me already like 50 grand. And I was like, No, I don’t know. Like, I’m not sure that I want to go and manage, you know, multiple eye hops because I don’t know, he just saw the business plan. He said, I was bellywing. Well, he’s like, come work for me. He’s like, would I would even like interviewing or anything like offer me and I was like, it’s seen enough.

And what did you on the team? Yeah, my parents were like, you should really consider it. They actually also offered me to go to culinary school. I like cooking.

But I also like they said, like, we’ll pay for your culinary, you know, degree, like go whatever you want, we’ll pay for it. This was just before I, I mean, before I went to college. And I said, No, so that was the first time that I said, No, I’ll go to college.

I want to be in sports. I got this offer 50 grand said, Thank you, you know, I’ll pass. And ended up getting the job there. And that was it was less than half of what this guy offered me. Okay, with some bonus and everything I took it, you know, when they said like, we have this position, it’s a new position. We don’t have any, anybody, you know, bilingual, we need help here by the end I said, like, Okay, what do I sign?

Julio Cano: That’s how I started in the professional soccer. You know, my career started there and doing a lot of things because at that time, major league soccer was not what it is right now.

Anthony Codispoti: So what time frame are we talking about? What years were you there?

Julio Cano: This is 2003, when I started there.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, so much earlier days, it wasn’t the it didn’t have quite the following, it wasn’t packing the stadiums, it didn’t have the sponsorship now that it does. Yeah, it’s a different landscape.

Julio Cano: Totally, totally different. At that time, I remember the front office were probably between 30 and 40 people. I think right now it’s, I don’t know, I haven’t checked, but I’m totally sure that it’s over 120. You know, like a front office of a major league soccer team. But I was lucky that I, you know, got exposed to a lot because there was being bilingual and doing, you know, like, I started doing like the communications department, but more for like the Spanish market and, you know, working with the league and doing a lot of stuff, I started doing scouting, which was never done before.

With the amateur leagues, at that time, we got to sign like the first amateur player from the Hispanic teams, you know, and major league soccer at that time too. So I got exposed to a lot, which that was great. So I was, I started as communication, but in marketing, I ended up doing a lot more. And then I apply for a scholarship to go to Spain and get a degree in sports management with Real Madrid. So got the scholarship, so went there, I was there for a couple of years in Spain, got another degree.

Anthony Codispoti: A scholarship with Real Madrid, they have their own like university program. Yeah.

Julio Cano: So they, they’re actually related to a university and they offer like sports management. It’s more general in sports, obviously, in Real Madrid, there’s a lot, it’s very heavy on soccer, which is that’s what I wanted.

Anthony Codispoti: One of the premier leagues in the entire world for, you know, anybody who’s not kind of familiar. Right.

Julio Cano: I mean, the most famous or, you know, most celebrated team, you know, in history. And so got there, also apply at that time, they were starting with the Spanish Soccer Federation had just announced that they were doing this sporting director diploma. And I asked, remember, the guy that was like the director of our program with Real Madrid was a former Real Madrid player.

I said, like, look, please help me get into this. They were just doing it for like former professional players and like coaches and stuff. Or unless you had work in professional teams for like, like in the sports side. So he helped me in it. And I actually was able to get my diploma to move was like a lot of like, again, like just retired players or players are former players, they were playing at the time. So got that. And then after I got an offer to go back to Major League Soccer, but now in LA, which you as you would say.

Anthony Codispoti: And I’m going to guess that was, you know, an incredible resume booster. You’ve been part of the Real Madrid, you know, program there. Now people are looking at you’re like, wow, you know, this guy is elite. And so yeah, open the door at you said at LA Galaxy. And then what was your role there? How long did you stay?

Julio Cano: So it was with Chiba just say which is like the so we play in the same team or back then we share the same with the LA Galaxy just like the Lakers and the Clippers, you know, sure. Okay, some point.

So yeah. So I got hired there in 2006 just after graduated from my grad in Spain. And I started overseeing like their Academy. So they had at that time, they were one of the teams that we’re doing a lot more with like their youth development. So started overseeing that and little by little, I got exposed to more, you know, like change to like doing a lot more of like scouting at the end. My job was assistant GM and director of scouting. So, you know, the fun stuff that I always wanted to, you know, and when I thought about it, I’m like, yeah, I want to be, you know, like scouting players and like negotiating contracts and all that stuff. So to me, that was like my dream job. So was lucky that I was able to do that for a few years.

Anthony Codispoti: So I want to make sure we leave enough time to talk about being true to but tell us about what you did there at FC Dallas and then how the opportunity to come back home and, you know, be part of the restaurant group came about.

Julio Cano: Yeah, so there was USUSA, which Dallas was before grad school. USUSA was after grad school. I was there until 2012. And so I got exposed to a lot again. I was doing a lot of negotiation of the players, the scouting and all that. At that time in 2012, I knew that the team was potentially going to be sold back to the league.

I started looking for other opportunities, but my job got very specific. You know, there were at that time only 20 teams in the league. So there were 20 positions like mine to be like either, you know, scouting the general manager.

So it was tough. I got offers to go back and do marketing in other teams, like even with like that time, like a DDS to go do like marketing and things like that. And I just said, like, no, unless I get something that is to me, like, you know, on the sports side, I think I’ll pass. You knew what you wanted and that was it.

I had done it and yeah. So at that time, my parents were had just opened the Intrucha in Geneva, which is a sovereign Chicago with my brother who had just graduated from audio engineering in New York. So he came back, helped them open this tiny restaurant. It’s just like five tables.

Anthony Codispoti: And the initial restaurant was it called the Intrucha? The Intrucha. It was. Okay.

Julio Cano: The Intrucha. And so had been open for less than two years. No, I’m sorry. I had opened. Had been open for a while. The one that they were opening, they were opening the second one, which was a telemattery. So my parents and my brothers said, like, look, you’re still looking for a job when you consider coming back and help us open the second restaurant. And, you know, said like, look, I’ve been looking for a few months and there’s nothing that really catches my attention. Let’s go back and let’s help them open this second restaurant.

And I thought that I was still going to be looking for, you know, something in sports and at the end, you know, again, things happened for a reason. They’ll put me open, came back and, you know, start opening more restaurants.

Anthony Codispoti: So I want people to check out the website because the branding, the and the interior design of each of these concepts is really cool looking and you need to see the visuals to get a sense of it. And the website is bntruchagroup.com. So b-i-e-n, b-n, Trucha is T-r-u-c-h-a and then group.com, bntruchagroup.com. So when the decision was made to open up a second location, a second restaurant, you didn’t go with the bntrucha brand again. You decided to do Toro Madre, another brand, another concept. What was behind that decision? Why not stay with what had been working?

Julio Cano: So two reasons. The original location of this restaurant was right next to bntrucha. So bntrucha is the building that it’s abided by a patio and then there was this old house that we took over.

So obviously we either what’s going to be an expansion of bntrucha or a different concept. And our reasoning was like, okay, Mexican food is so diverse. It’s so unique and I think people is not exposed to that. Every single state in Mexico has its unique dish, its unique, you know, like flavors and that’s what we wanted to bring and say like, okay, look, Mexican food first. I think there’s, at that time, there’s still a lot of misconception of Mexican food and Tex-Mex food. I think it’s gotten better.

Anthony Codispoti: What were the misconceptions at the time?

Julio Cano: I mean, just confusion on saying like, oh, this is Tex-Mex and people, like when my parents first opened bntrucha, they’re like, oh, you don’t have chimichangas or you don’t have, you know, I don’t remember, like taco salads and things like that. And I’m like, okay, chimichangas doesn’t exist in Mexico. That’s a Tex-Mex.

Anthony Codispoti: And I didn’t know that chimichanga was, it didn’t come from Mexico.

Julio Cano: Yeah, that’s Tex-Mex. And, you know, obviously they’re similarities and things, but the flavor profiles, you know, of like Tex-Mex and Mexican food, it’s different. But anyways, like, when we, I mean, bntrucha original was more like Mexico City, like food, like street food, and it was obviously tacos and, you know, a lot of like seafood and ceviche and things that you get on the markets there, a little bit general, but again, we’re trying to more to like, okay, this is what you would find in Mexico City.

Speaker 3: When we opened a tola madre next door,

Julio Cano: we wanted something not like fine dining, which we got that a lot when we first opened them. So like, oh, this is like fine dining in Mexico, I was, and you know, it was, we’re trying to be very casual, but we are offering you something totally different. Again, this is a misconception of like, oh, Mexican food, it’s just like, you know, comfort food and you eat with your hands and it’s tacos. And no, so we started doing things like crispy pier eeks, you know, the French sauces and we were doing oysters, you know, with salsa matcha and remember, it was like a small menu, but it was, you know, very different.

Everything obviously Mexican. And we got like some of the best reviews from the Chicago Tribune and we had already got the attention with our tacos, like some of the best reviewers, you know, came because again, Geneva is almost 40 miles west of Chicago. This guy said, like I, one of the guys from the Chicago Tribune, I drove 40 miles to have this taco and it’s worth it. So that’s how it started kind of like the focus on it. And then when we opened a tola madre, we got pro the best reviews, you know, like from the Tribune and at that time, what that was like, some of the most important now with social media, you know, it’s an influencer is totally different landscape in the restaurant industry, but we got the reviews. And it was great, but funny thing, like after the first year, people were coming to a tola madre. Again, they thought that it was, I mean, the price when was not even like more high, like higher than what it was next door.

It’s just in people’s mind. It’s like, Oh, this is more like fine Mexican food. And then little by little, they started asking like, can I have the tacos that you’re selling like, you know, like 30 feet feet from here? You know, can you can I order those here? Or can I have that drink here? We’re doing introducing a lot of different stuff, you know, like more like miscalculating, just to kill and doing,

Anthony Codispoti: they would sit down at a tola madre, but they would want things that were on the menu at being through check.

Julio Cano: Like, yeah, we want this, but can we also have some of that? So again, at some point, we got the opportunity to move at all my we move at all mother, but that time we said, like, we’re not going to do what we are doing right now, or you do something very similar to what we have at being through check. So the menu was like our staples were there. And that that really work, you know, even though it was a different branding and different, this this was in Glen Allen closer to Chicago, and people already knew about us. So, you know, that that was that did great. And that was 2016 1516 when we did that transition. So that was ours.

Anthony Codispoti: So you moved or you made an additional location?

Julio Cano: We moved we moved that and then the space that where it’s all matter was just at that point was just an extension of the intro chip.

Anthony Codispoti: So okay, so you made the intro chip bigger. Yeah. You moved a total magic closer to the city of Chicago. Yeah.

Julio Cano: And the menu was at that time, I want to say like 50 60% the same as we had the intro chip. At that time, we were already working on a third restaurant that at least that we had signed several years before in April, which is the largest sovereign Chicago in downtown April. The developers there came, you know, they were coming to be introduced as we open and they said, like, we want you there.

We’re doing like a hotel, we’re doing like several businesses, we want you there. So we were the first one to sign it at least there. And it was to like five, six years, you know, to actually like get the restaurant. I think we signed that at least like 2012, when I first just came back. And then we ended up opening in 2017.

Anthony Codispoti: What took so long? Was it just the building permits and the design of it?

Julio Cano: Yeah, developers doing condos at some point and the city was didn’t approve, they weren’t like, so ended up doing a hotel. And then the restaurant.

Anthony Codispoti: So let me jump in for a second, Julio, what is it that you guys think that you had cracked the code on? Like, why were these concepts so successful? I mean, I’m looking at the website, the interior of the space is a really cool kind of place that you’d want to go hang out. I’m hearing you talk about, you know, you you won these, you got rave reviews, you know, from newspaper, you know, and that was helping people love the food. Like, is this, did you just, is there, you know, do you have a chef on staff that’s really great? Is there somebody on the team that’s like a fabulous interior designer? Like, how are you guys kind of putting the puzzle pieces together?

Julio Cano: I think it’s been a combination, you know, it’s been a team effort. When we first started, it was my parents and my brother, like, coming up with the recipes. Like, it was like they were doing it.

Speaker 3: And they’re not professional chefs, even though like my step that he’s working the return industry forever in Mexico and here in the States. So he has like, you know, he’s a chef by, you know, by getting into Korea, just by experience.

Julio Cano: So that’s how it started. Then we started adding people. And the team, the core team, at that time, when we first opened at Don Madre, we were able, my brother was able to bring a cook that he had worked with another restaurant when we first came to Chicago. And little by little, he started adding, you know, people that he had worked with when he was going to college, I mean, like in New York, like, and so we got the steam from the culinary side. Then we have my brother, who has always worked in the restaurant industry, even though he has a degree in audio engineer. And he’s very artistic.

He’s like the artistic side. I’m more like us again, the business and finance and marketing. So we started getting like all these pieces that just work. It was not just like, you know, like restaurants happen, you have like just a chef that is the celebrity and is whatever he serves. So just to give you an example, when we come up with new ideas, our menus are always changing. We’re very seasonal. So we don’t like to have the same thing all year round or just have like a monthly specials. Like we change our menu.

Like, I wouldn’t say 100%, but more than 60, 70%, like at least once a year. The staples are there. You cannot get them out because people will come, you know, and they’ll be like, oh, I’m going to be a chef. and complain about it, but we try to go with the season. We try to expose our clientele to different flavors. So when we are trying to come up with new dishes, we get together with the culinary team, like my brother, myself, and even though we are not the ones cooking, they’ll take the decision, they’ll come up with all these ideas we taste. We get together kind of like kind of fun environment, just like taste things. We take new…

Anthony Codispoti: I was gonna say, this sounds like a blast. This is like a great brainstorming activity for this kind of business, yeah?

Julio Cano: It is what it is that, it’s just a brainstorming session, they’ll come up with that. There’s two guys in our culinary team that happened with us for several years. So they’re also Mexican, Mexican born and raised. So they get the flavors, like we shared that common flavor profile that we’re trying to get in our most of our food. And they’ll come up with a bunch of things and we try them and we take notes. And I think the good thing about this is that everybody, you know, it’s humble, like there’s no person that’s here like, oh, this is my food, this is what it is. Like we take notes and then that’s how we polish every dish. And the same goes for like the beverage side. You know, we get together, we drink, it’s even more fun to like tequila and Mascallan, you know, cocktails and then. It’s a party.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, you’re like this. You want to experience the same way that your customers are experiencing. So you gotta throw in a little lubrication there.

Julio Cano: So that’s how we come with our dishes, you know? And so it’s been a team effort. That’s how we work. We come, we debate, we brainstorm, we take notes and then we come up with what we think, you know, it’s the best dish or the best beverage.

Anthony Codispoti: And sometimes it’s great, sometimes we fail, you know? It’s sometimes you don’t nail it and people don’t like it and go back and go. You get quick feedback from your customers.

Julio Cano: Yeah, it’s an industry that you get feedback on a daily basis. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: So you guys have a total of six different concepts now. And they’re each cool and, you know, their menu’s a little bit different, their interior’s a little bit different. I have to imagine that opening up so many different concepts.

You get six. It’s probably a lot of fun from the creative side, but on the business side, it’s gotta be more efficient if you were sort of, you know, replicating the same thing over and over again. Am I right?

Julio Cano: You’re totally right. And I think I said this, you know, 2007, 2014, when we first opened the second one. The restaurant industry has changed a lot. And yeah, you gotta be more efficient and it’s become more difficult. The margins have shortened. Obviously we had COVID and we have different factors that have made it a little more difficult. I mean, in general, not just the restaurant.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, there’s labor shortages. You’ve got, you know, a lot of the business now is third party delivery, like, you know, Uber Eats and DoorDash and eats into your margins.

Julio Cano: So your margins are like, you know, less and less. So that’s been the challenge of like, okay, how do you provide something that you feel proud about and that you’re like, okay, this is what I want to put in front of a guest, but also trying to get your marks at the end of your business, right? Like you kind of just like, you know, keep spiking the prices in. So like, oh, my tech was worth $3. Now I’m going to sell them for six, you know, that’s the easy answer.

Like, no, you know, people are like, come on, I don’t want to pay for that. So it’s been a real challenge the last few years. I mean, this is not a secret. Anybody that used to be, you know, in the restaurant industry will tell you that there’s, I mean, the ones that have survived, because we just see so many restaurants like closing.

Anthony Codispoti: It’s just a shame. Yeah, it’s a real shame.

Julio Cano: So it’s always been like, okay, like how do we, you know, bounce from here and pivot to a different, I mean, during COVID, we had to change our, we were already doing two goals, but we had to change our operations, you know, like one of the restaurants, we just totally changed it to over the counter, just because the rules at that time at that city, that’s the thing that rules were different in every city and the regulation at that time, like wouldn’t allow us to have full service. So we changed it. So you had to pivot, you know, but I think after that, now it’s just like, after COVID, now it’s okay, you’re not going through COVID and all of this laws are trying to, but I think we kept that in our DNA of like, let’s keep pivoting, let’s keep trying to understand what the market is and think ahead of what’s coming so that we’re prepared, because it’s so fast, this industry in general, it’s changes are so fast, understanding new generations, what they’ve done.

Anthony Codispoti: So what are some of the changes that you guys have come up with along the way?

Julio Cano: So we’re, so our latest restaurant, which is Sweet Chilango, that’s the one that we opened last August, that’s a kind of like a hybrid fast, casual restaurant. So this is the first one that we don’t have servers. Let me just go back a little, we have little donkeys. This came just before COVID and during COVID, we just like started implementing this in all of our Mexican restaurants, San Cielo is Latin. So that’s why I don’t take it as Mexican, the other ones are Mexican. We started doing burritos, this is like a ghost kitchen. So it’s another concept, that’s the only one that it, that concept doesn’t have a storefront, it’s just pickup and delivery out of three or four restaurants which are at Tom, Madre, Cuba and Bien Trucha. Then we said like, okay, our next concept, we got to rethink our service. We want to provide quality product. How do we do that while maintaining certain margins, you know, so it’ll be profitable.

So we decided to go with kind of like a hybrid. I don’t want to say that it’s just a fast, casual, because you can order through your phone, you can obviously order ahead, you can order through a kiosk, you can ask a team member to help you put your order. You know, it’s a little challenging for you to do it like that or you can see at the bar and a bartender will take your order. So we try to keep our clients all this different ways of like experiencing our food and the way that you order compared to like, okay, now we have a whole, like the other restaurants we have a host at and we have servers and that obviously increases, you know, your labor. And again, we were trying to go, it’s a different price point because we understand that, you know, the past few years not everyone has the same disposable income and we’ve seen.

Anthony Codispoti: You’re trying to make this more accessible to folks and you can do that in part by reducing the labor costs. Right.

Julio Cano: I mean, the weekends I think for a more restaurant, the weekends are the weekends, you know, and people will still try to come, you know, the weekends, but then the weekdays is where you really need to, you know, like try to make some profit or at least come up even.

So that when you go to the BC days, Friday, Saturday, you know, you’re not already in a hole. So it’s been challenging, but it’s just been a few months of this new concept, but I think we are still doing tweaks, you know, how we operate, but we’re trying to operate with less staff, both front and back of the house, while still providing a quality product that people already expect from our group. We’re not gonna compromise our quality ever. We’re not gonna, you know, go with like less or less quality meat or something for.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, I mean, you guys have built your reputation on, you know, these really impressive reviews. People come in, they love your food, they drive 40 miles, you know, to get a taco and it’s well worth it. And so, yeah, you gotta stay on brand, even, you know, when you’re trying to make a new concept more accessible to a larger group of people.

Julio Cano: Yeah, and that’s what people expect. So another thing that people know, when we first opened, what we were known for, like having this atmosphere that people said, like, oh, we only find this in downtown Chicago.

So, you know, and the suburbs is not expected. So, and the reason is because we try to not only focus on our food and drinks, we, you know, it’s a whole thing for us. And it’s trying to get all your senses when you come into a restaurant. So obviously, food and drinks are number one, but we want you to see like the aesthetics that are different. And then different, again, it’s, I wanna say like, we are not the typical Mexican restaurant, even though like, yeah, we’re Mexican. And I wanna stay away from saying authentic, because even, you know, being Mexican born and raised, I don’t feel like I can say that our food is authentic. That’s up to the guest to say what they think is authentic. That’s very subjective. And I’ve heard like, even like some of the top chefs in Mexico trying to stay away from saying, oh, what’s authentic at the end, you know, like Mexican food, is it pre-Hispanic, what the aesthetics were eating, you know, and a lot of insects and like corn and things like that?

Is that what really is authentic? After that, we get a lot of influence from Europe and from Spain. And, you know, our food is like, that’s why it’s so unique and so great about Mexican food. And it’s only one of two cuisines that is recognized, you know, by some world heritage along with the French, because it’s all this combination of pre-Hispanic and European flavors. And it’s so unique and so different that there’s only very little that people know about it.

I cannot tell you that. I know every dish or every food in Mexico, you know, because I’ve been, you know, to most of the States and every time that I go somewhere, I try to try something that I haven’t tried before, but I don’t even feel like saying, I go, yeah, like, you know, this is Mexican food or this is authentic Mexican food. At the end, what we’re putting is what we grew up with.

Our flavors are what, you know, trying to interpret like the Mexican food and dishes, our way, but it’s, again, if people want to call it authentic, it’s authentic, you know, for them, if they want to call it like modern or something because they are used to other, you know, being presented a different way, it is what it is, that’s very subjective.

Anthony Codispoti: Talk to us about the name for a second, Julio. What is Chilango?

Julio Cano: So Chilango is how we call ourselves, people from Mexico City, that’s, you know, at Chilango, it’s somebody that’s from Mexico City.

Anthony Codispoti: And does it have a deeper meaning than that or that’s just sort of the, I don’t know, it’s just the nickname?

Julio Cano: So all of our names are like slangs and they have like some double meaning. So bien trucha would be like bien is good, trucha is trout, like the fish. So it would be good trout, but that has no meaning, right? So, but bien trucha means to be on top of your game. A toda madre, it’s all about your mother, but it’s a toda madre, it’s just like totally awesome, you know, when you say like, oh, it’s a toda madre, it’s totally awesome. Cubo, cubo just means what’s up. It’s like, que hubo, like what happened, what’s up? Santo Cielo, which is the only one that, you know, that’s Latin, because we

Speaker 3: don’t, it’s not just Mexican, we have Mexican there, but it’s like Latin American. Santo Cielo is just like good heavens. Then sweet chilango, what’s just a combination, you know, like of sweet, chill and go, because it was kind of like a hybrid and we were like, okay.

Julio Cano: So yeah, we come up with open names. Again, it’s part of that, you know, trying to get this approach of like, let’s focus on everything, let’s just don’t leave like, oh, we’re just gonna call it, you know, tacos and tequila, blah, blah. It comes with the name, it comes with like your listening.

So you come to a restaurant and it’s not gonna be like your typical Mexican songs. My brother with the audio engineer background, he’s again, he’s the artistic side. He comes up with all this playlist. So that’s unique and people notice that, you know, they expect that when they come to a restaurant, it’s like, oh, your playlist, how can I have it?

And yeah, sure, we have them. Like actually, my brother will have, you know, like the playlist is for sweet chilango, the playlist at Santo Cielo, which is different. Santo Cielo is in a rooftop. So it’s like a different vibe.

Anthony Codispoti: And I love that. Cause like I said, as you know, as I’m looking at your website, I’ve never, you know, next time I come to Chicago, I’m gonna come check a couple of these places out cause this is my kind of cuisine. But as you look at each of the different concepts, I’ve got their own branding, their own styling, and it ties in with the interior photos that I see of each location. And you’re talking about, you know, sort of the full on five senses experience. And I love now that you’re telling me that, you know, each location, each restaurant type has its own playlist too.

I mean, it’s just a great way to sort of, you know, do like a 360 branding experience. So as you look forward, will you continue to create additional locations for each of these six concepts? Do you have new concepts that are in mind that you guys wanna develop? What’s kind of the future plan look like?

Julio Cano: We have so many concepts that are there in the pipeline, but to be honest, right now we’re focusing on this. Switched language, we’re opening a second one sometimes this year and we’re close to, you know, hopefully signing a lease for their location. I think that’s immediate future. It’s just what…

Anthony Codispoti: It seems to be what the market needs right now, right? Again, it’s… Cause there’s labor’s short, so you know, how can we, you know, reduce our reliance on that? It times are, you know, people are tightening their belts a little bit. How can we hit a better price point?

Julio Cano: And that’s the immediate future. And there may be even like some of this restaurant that we have, you know, that we may reconcept at some point, you know, the full service ones. I don’t know, it’s just… Again, you gotta be very proactive to what the market is asking for. And again, you’re a business. We’ve had, you know, we’ve done pop-ups of different concepts in… So that the… Where we first opened the entrance again, where Atomator was this other building and so right now it’s an extension. We’ve done several pop-ups there. Little Dunky started there as a pop-up then we converted into a ghost brand.

Atomator obviously was born there. We had another concept where it was like burgers and had like five solid five-star reviews. For a pop-up. Yeah, with that, for all of us, like maybe it’ll say maybe not. But then we didn’t have enough of the traffic. You know, that concept needed more traffic, I don’t know, like on the weekdays. And again, we decided like, we’ll just put it on the side and maybe we’ll do it in the future.

So there’s so many concepts that we have there. At some point, you know, we may do something different, but I don’t see ourselves going with the full service restaurant for now. I think we’re gonna be key replicating Switchy Lango. There’s, we’re also doing like our Little Dunkies, which are burritos. Little Dunkie, that’s a translation of in Spanish for burrito. So we’re doing frozen burritos now and we’re selling it out of Switchy Lango. We’re starting to do some of these dishes that would transfer to your kitchen in a way that we still think it would taste good, you know, being frozen or being like vacuum sealed. So we’re experimenting with that, but yeah, that’s what we see ourselves doing in the next few years.

Anthony Codispoti: So we’ve talked a couple of times about, you know, labor shortage and how it’s kind of, you know, affecting your guys’ plan moving forward. I’m curious, Julio, what strategies you guys have used and found success with when it comes to finding folks and then, you know, once you’ve got them, how do you retain them and hold on to them? You know, especially in an industry where, you know, a fair bit of turnover is relatively common. It’s true.

Julio Cano: I think we have a core team that happened with us for a while. And so we try to, you know, they try to get their hands on all the different locations and try to see what’s going on, try to have like more of that personal touch with the staff. Again, it’s like you said, it’s a bit of a turnover in the restaurant industry has always existed and it’s also very seasonal. In front of the house, for example, we have a lot of kids that, you know, you know that they’re just getting them because it’s their first job, you know, or they come in the summer or winter and

Speaker 3: we have a lot of kids that come back and they want to work back again with us, you know, the house host staff or, you know, servers, bartenders.

Julio Cano: But back of the house, that’s been a challenge. And again, I think it’s offering as much as you can with benefits, with, you know, trying to cater to their needs. The needs can be different, you know. At some point we were, you know, like paying for their Uber, you know, this was like doing COVID some people, like it’s just trying to, you know, whatever you can offer, like the next door restaurant can offer them more and it’s gonna happen, you know. I remember doing COVID or some of our employees would come back and say like, hey, this restaurant down the street is offering me 50 cents more and they’ll go for those 50 cents.

So, you know, do you get the ones that there’s no loyalty? But at the end, I think trying to have, you know, that constant communication with your staff and cater to their needs has been one of the keys to us. We got a lot of employees that come back. They leave and they end up coming back.

Speaker 3: So I think I want to say that we treat them fair and,

Julio Cano: we try to create this atmosphere where, you know, like, and again, it starts with the top and I think like just focusing on the culinary side, the way that the heads, you know, conduct themselves and how they talk to the people, to our staff, they notice that. And we’ve seen that sometimes with people under that, when we hire a chef or something that works with them and becomes an issue and it’s just how they treat and all the rest of the staff.

Because again, anybody can offer a little more. You’re fighting not other restaurants, you’re fighting with your Amazons and Walmarts and all this other corporations that they can offer more benefits. So it’s like, how is your staff feeling, you know, when they work in your group?

And we’re happy to see, you know, that a lot of this people come back after they leave and then they experience other restaurants and they’re like, oh, yeah, they don’t like how they was created or.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, all those things are so important. You know, obviously everybody wants to make as much as they can, they’re looking for those benefits. But it’s so important that work environment. You know, what’s that culture like, you know, do you enjoy going to work?

Do you enjoy being around the people that you work with? Julio, as you think back over your life, what’s a serious challenge that you’ve overcome? Whether it’s something in business or in your personal life, maybe the two intertwined. How’d you get through that? And what were some lessons that you learned?

Julio Cano: Well, I think the business side, I mean, I think COVID will be, I mean, the one that comes to mind, you know, and more recent, but I think we all, that’s not very personal, we all went through that. I want to say I had cancer and I was still in LA, that was in 2010.

So that to me was, you know, something that changed my life in a way, changed, I don’t want to say it changed me as a person, it’s just changed my perspective. It was kind of like a rare cancer, but I was very lucky that it was contained. This was not to go into a lot of detail, but again, I would work out, run three, four times a week and then I couldn’t, I was filling out like, you know, like air, I’m like, what’s going on? I cannot, you know, run as I was doing, I had some friends at that time that they were doing triathlons and stuff and they would time themselves, I wouldn’t do it, I would just go with them and we would run five to 10 miles. And then I wouldn’t be able to keep up, I’m like, I don’t know what’s going on. Well, long story short, I had a tumor in between my lungs and was pressing against one of them. So I was not getting the air that I wanted. Took a while because I, before that, I would not go to even for like annuals, you know? Like I, again, I growing up, working out, very healthy all my life until there was a point that I’m like, okay, I went with the team to Mexico. We were doing some scouting. This was just after New Year’s.

And while we were there, they would always organize this game, it was just a match of like former players from Chivas and then some of us, you know, from like coaching staff and stuff. And I said, like, I’m in a path I can play this time. And everyone was like, you gotta be kidding me. I’m like, I really, like, I don’t know. I feel like I’m having a heart attack. Like, and I remember the doctor, team doctor came, checked me and it’s like, well, like, I mean, if I was not like walking or anything, he’s like, look at my poles and everything. He’s like, I think your heart is fine, but you should go, you know, when you get back to like, go check out. And I did. And, you know, when I remember just walking to like immediate care or whatever it was that, and I’m like, yeah, I’m having sensations, you know, like, I don’t know. And yeah, almost they wouldn’t let me go out.

I was like, I don’t like what I see here as a restaurant like it really is. Like, yeah, I don’t know. Like, could be pneumonia, it could be different things, but, you know, we need to do some more testing. So we’re gonna have you come back and yeah, ended up being two more and it was cancer. So had to go through chemo, had to go to like surgery. I was very lucky that it didn’t, you know, go anywhere else.

Anthony Codispoti: It was contained. They were able to get it. You were able to treat it. Yeah. Talk more about how it changed your perspective.

Julio Cano: So at that time, I didn’t have like a medefil. I wasn’t up here and I had kids. But again, I think, I don’t think it changed me as a person. Like, I wanna say that I, you know, like I have wonderful parents and I had a really good education, but it just changes how you approach like every day. You know, it makes you think about at that time, like what you wanted in your future, you know, cause yeah, at some point it would just make me think, do I have a few months of life or do you have a few years? I didn’t wanna try to focus on that. I remember trying to block my mind from like even going on the internet.

So like, okay, what’s the life expectancy for this kind of cancer? Like I never did that. I trusted my doctor at that time and received and said when I wanted, cause I didn’t have like the best insurance cause I didn’t pick that from the team at that time. Like I didn’t get like PPL. I said like, no, give me the cheapest one. Cause I’m like, no.

Anthony Codispoti: You’re a young healthy guy who makes insurance. But I went and I was lucky that I was, you know, like the doctor at that time said like, look, I haven’t treated this kind of cancer, but

Julio Cano: if you wanna stay with me, I can refer you to somebody that’s more like an expert. If you wanna stay with me, I’m gonna get in touch with this doctor that treated Lyme’s Amstrum, which is like a similar kind of cancer, or the same. I mean, he had it in his brains and testicles. I didn’t have there.

I was in my, you know, in my chest. But he’s like, it’s the same kind. I’m gonna get in touch with him and I can come up with a plan for you. That’s what you want. I said like, let’s do it. Like I trust you, whatever you think it is, let’s just go with that. So I trust to, you know, put myself in her hands and it was a great decision.

You know, 15 years later, I was like, I only have my annual checkups, but my doctor was like, yeah, the chances of coming back, that kind of cancer is the same as anybody. So it changes, you know, like how you approach every day in a way, you know, makes you, you know, try to take advantage of what you’re doing. Like there’s, I wanna say, like things become a little more important.

Some little things that maybe before you, you’ll be like, I’ll do it later, or I don’t care about this. And now having kids is totally even different. I don’t know how that would have been if I had been married and having kids, you know?

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, I’ve talked to folks who’ve been in similar situation and it’s almost like the experience kind of, in a way, almost rewires their brain a bit. Things feel differently. Things that were important before, not so important, things that you overlooked or took for granted before now are the things that you hold dear to your heart. So, wow, powerful experience.

Obviously so glad that you’ve pulled through that and kicked it. I’ve just got one more question. One more question for you, Julio.

But before I ask it, I wanna do two things. First of all, for everyone listening today, I’m sure that you loved today’s show. Julio’s been a great guest. If you wanna get more great content like this, take a moment and hit the subscribe or follow button on your favorite podcast app. Also folks, if you wanna get in touch with Julio, there’s their website, bntruchagroup.com, or Julio’s giving you permission to email him directly at Julio at bntruchagroup.com. So last question for you, Julio. As you look to the future, what is it that you’re most excited about with the restaurant group?

Julio Cano: I think it’s just like a little bit of the same, like for us, it’s like providing something that’s unique about our cuisine. And at that, keep adapting to the environment, to the landscape. It’s crazy why we’re living, like the AI era, how I just was just having this conversation with some friends this weekend. Everybody’s like, what’s gonna happen? Like what’s our future like? And what’s the future for kids? But going to the business side also, like we’re, I was trying to get into an AI course.

And then I remember I was listening to this podcast and I remember who it was, but he was saying like, oh yeah, I wanted to do this a course, but whatever I learned right now, it’s gonna be obsolete next week with AI. It’s gone so fast. So it’s exciting. It’s a little bit of like uncertainty of what’s ahead for us.

But for us, just keep doing a little bit of the same, understanding the challenges, understanding what the opportunities are with all of this new technologies. But at the end is, I hope that there’s never a day where people is, or people are just not gonna, I’m pretty sure that it’ll accommodate that you can just take a shot and you’ll get all your nutrients, and there’ll be personalized to you. I just don’t see, hopefully people doing that and they still enjoy going out for a drink and enjoying a meal with, as humans. So hopefully this will never, it’ll keep changing, how hospitality restaurants operate, but at the end, hopefully we can still all enjoy a good meal and some drinks.

Anthony Codispoti: Well, unless that shot tastes as good as the food that you guys serve, then I don’t think you’ve got a whole lot to worry about there. But Julio Kano, I wanna be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Julio Cano: Now, thanks for the time. It was great, always great having the opportunity to just chat and talk a little bit about our experiences.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.