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cream team news
Hello, and welcome to Samples. Welcome to March. It's Monday, March 2. Marathon March. We made it.
Speaker 1:The quarter is two thirds over. The sun is out. The weather is either 32 degrees or 65 degrees. Beware the Ides of March. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.
Speaker 1:I may have overdid it again. I certainly enjoyed my weekend. Went on tour around Chicago, Chicagoland, visiting our wonderful and supportive clients, tried to show some love. Friday, after work, went to Boca Dio Market, chef James, his new place, which is currently BYO on Grand Avenue. It's just down the street from Pizza Michi and next to Grand Cru wine merchants.
Speaker 1:So we stopped in, had a delicious Sando, and got caught up with chef James. He looks really well, really happy, doesn't seem as stressed as he was when he was over in Lakeview trying to do a whole bunch of different things. He's focusing. He's dialed in. The food is delicious.
Speaker 1:They do events. They host BYO and tasting menus and dinners. We're gonna definitely work with him again in the future. He's just such a lovely man. Then went next door to Grand Cru merchants, Grand Cru wine merchants, and really enjoyed taking in all the sights of all the cream items on the shelves.
Speaker 1:Mike Zay crushing it over there. Spent some time with Matt Esser, and it's a cool concept. It's a former hair salon, so there's a lot of mirrors everywhere. And it's not necessarily my design. It's not Copenhagen oat design, but it's just very authentic and real and warm and kitschy.
Speaker 1:And there are people in there drinking wine, playing board games, buying wine retail, sitting down for a tasting. It's just a a great place to go to enjoy some really fairly priced wines by the glass. And Matt's just such a nice guy, such a authentic person, and I've really enjoyed getting to know him over past events. So I highly recommend Grown Crew wine merchants. Then on Saturday, drove up to Glencoe, Illinois to pick up my new frames at Edie's Eyewear.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Jake and Marissa at Edie's beautiful eye studio glass glasses salon, and then went down the street to Guildhall, which used to be a strong cream client. It's been on again, off again with them. So I'm hoping that Chris Kaminski can bring us back to the glory days, but we noticed that they had the Vassaultis Vineyards Essertico, the lesser expensive, appallated Essertico. And so we decided to have that with our brunch. And as expected, the wine was lights out.
Speaker 1:So I do think that there's a lot more opportunity for us in the North Shore, in Guilds Hall, and other places around there, I think that what's going on right now, you're seeing a resurgence of really great fine dining in places where you wouldn't expect it like Lincoln Park and Lakeview. And then I think that there's some great restaurants in the suburbs that are bringing that city feel and city element to the suburbs and places like the Bali Who Group, they do it really well with Pomeroy and Sofia's Steak. I don't know who owns Guildhall, but they spent a ton of money on that space. It's just a beautiful restaurant. That was cool.
Speaker 1:And then later on on Saturday, got home, refreshed a little bit, and then went to Deep Red Wine Merchant in Avondale for an impromptu hang with Spencer. Spencer is a lovely man, and the vibe there was very chill, and it's a beautiful space. So this is definitely like high design, thought out, just a gorgeous room where it's the same thing. It's a retail, but you can also have wine by the glass there. And they have like a prepackaged meat and cheese situation that's in a in the cooler.
Speaker 1:It's pretty thoughtful. And then it's more of a place, I would say less snacking and more drinking. But really cool events too. They have this event board and I was talking to Spencer about it. They have something called the Deep Read, which is a play on words with deep red.
Speaker 1:Apparently, didn't know this. Deep Red is a genre of slasher films or horror movies. But the the Deep Read is their most popular event that they do. It's sold out in advance. It's once a month.
Speaker 1:They get together reservation only and people just go there and drink wine and read and they listen to ambient music and there's no talking. And so I was there talking with Spencer's girlfriend and her friend and she's a mother of young kids and she loves that as an escape. And so it's a really popular event. So I love that Deep Red is doing something. They also do instead of book club, they do movie club.
Speaker 1:They decide on a movie, everybody watches it, they come in and they drink wine. And this is the future. These are wine retail, bar situations, getting younger people to drink wine, talk about things, have conversation, unity around the table, a reunion of sorts. And it just like really warmed my heart. Then after that went on to and this is all sponsored by Uber, by the way, went on to Bottles Up in Lakeview, and it's their annual open that bottle share.
Speaker 1:So a lot of their clients and then the trade, it was really good to see a lot of our wine community out opening up, bringing bottles that range from class classical wines that had some age on them, natural wines, different formats, some sake, a lot of really cool wines and just an overall fun thing. They ordered some pizza, and that was like a speakeasy situation where it was after hours and the windows were covered with paper, with butcher paper, So you couldn't see in and it was just really fun. So I enjoyed that to catch up with a lot of people and it just made me so proud about our industry and our community. Speaking of industry, season finale, I so I thought we can talk about this later. It was a long one and it they had to really stick the landing and had to go over a lot of things, but I just love that show so much.
Speaker 1:But more on that later. Danielle and I maybe Danielle can be a guest on the show at some point. We can talk about industry. But, yeah, amazing show. Love it.
Speaker 1:Okay. So then on that was Saturday. On Sunday, after putzing around a little bit, we went to join our friends Jean Paul and Julia, and we went to dinner at Chicago Calbee, which is the Korean Japanese steakhouse on Lawrence. I think it's like near I guess it would be near Pulaski. It's just East of Pulaski.
Speaker 1:And I had never been longtime listener, first time caller, and I was completely blown away. It's really cool because the there's a lot of, like, baseball memorabilia, and the owners are fans of baseball, and a lot of the visiting Japanese professional baseball players when they're out there playing the Cubs or the White Sox will come in and a lot of now the Cubs members that are are Japanese like Imanaga, they come in and and they throw down there and there's a lot of photos and signed baseballs and everything. And so we were talking to Kenjo and it turns out that there's new ownership and they want to shake up their beverage program. And so I am getting an appointment with them this week to go visit and talk about they would are interested in sourcing some local wines possibly from Michigan. They're interested in wines that are you cannot find in grocery.
Speaker 1:Like, they don't wanna do Josh and Corbel and all that stuff. Obviously, they wanna upgrade their sake program. And then we talked about Macaulay. They had a really cool Macaulay feature. And so I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna keep everyone posted on that. Sure I'm I'll get a lot of text messages from everyone that has been working on Chicago Call Bee for the past twenty five years at Cream and haven't been able to open it, but I'll keep you guys posted on that. So that was my marathon weekend. So marathon March, it's a thing. Q one is two thirds over.
Speaker 1:We're gonna have dollar goals for everyone today or tomorrow. Mike should send those out. Those dollar goals are gonna be based on the business momentum, and everyone got that late reprieve from the Fortaleza drop. So I feel like some of you may have completed your February dollar goals based on Fortaleza that may or may not have been or shouldn't have arrived early and may or may not been part of your calculation. That's gonna just roll over into March.
Speaker 1:So your dollar goals in March will be based on what you did in February. So we don't sandbag. We live in the now. We sell. And we have to grow between 10 to 15% this year.
Speaker 1:So everyone's collective goal is gonna be based on that growth. I see a lot of good things happening, and I'm fairly certain that you all are gonna continue to grow and achieve your dollar goals. The other thing to think about is that March is one of the busiest months of the year for cream and just the wine industry in general. It's the great reopening or thawing of winter thaw and then with the nice weather teas, patios are starting to be open. People are changing their seasonal lists and seasonal seasonal beverage programs.
Speaker 1:So it's gonna be really busy. And all that going on, we have visitors every week coming in. We have Val Despino this week, which I'm excited about. And then also Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri on Tuesday. The following week, we have Christian from Drie Fontenen coming in.
Speaker 1:What a what an honor to rep the one of the most famous breweries in the history of fermentation. You guys know what you need to do on that. And then the week after is the week before Swaff, and so that's gonna be probably one of the busiest of the year. More on that later. So this month, the Monday podcast, we're gonna be talking about all of the events that are going on leading up to third co swap.
Speaker 1:So as far as what you should be thinking about and sampling this week, I'm gonna basically have you guys really look at the calendar. Your samples are gonna be based on work with and the team calendar. I would imagine Valdezpino, based on the education this week, it needs to be part of your polls. If Aaron hasn't already pulled samples for you, you should do the same. And then next week, start thinking about Drie Fontenen and the great beer that we have that's more gastronomic.
Speaker 1:So that's all I got this week. I may have gone over. I haven't checked the time yet, but it is a marathon. So if I go over, remember, it is not a sprint. It's a marathon.
Speaker 1:And it's not when you start, it's when you finish, and you have to finish. And I know that you will. I'm proud of you guys, and I will see you later in the office today for some share.