Luke’s Diner: To Quote The Godfather, “Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli”

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Hey Everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am Alone Podcast, one of our productions I Heart Radio Media. iHeart Podcast. Luke's Diner with Matt Wilson Joe Serprico from bug and Bear Canola. Matt and Joe co founders behind LA's Beloved. Yes that's them waving. Bugging Bear's Canola is self described pop and pop dessert brand named after Matt and was nicknamed for each Other's one of the eight teams competing on season nineteen of the Food Network's A Great Food Truck Race, hosted by Tyler Flawn on the Food Network and streaming.

Next Day at Age Max.

Welcome to the show, Fellas.

Thank you so much, Thank you for having us.

You got it this recipe. He's been in your family for seven generations. Yes, when did you and Matt realize it could become something bigger than a dessert you made for family and friends.

It was It was very random.

We were in a pool league together and it was the last It was the last game, and we're like, well, let's everyone was doing a potluck and I was like, I don't want to just bring something generic.

Let me let's let's make connola. And he's like, what do you like?

I was like, I mean I lived in New York, I had Connola. I loved them, but I don't know how to make conole.

So we uh yeah, so we we We made it for the pot luck and it was instant. We brought it to the bar and uh we had one of the opposing team members came up and he goes, I love Connola?

Can I have one? We're like, yeah, of course, and he.

Came back two minutes later and he's like, this is literally the best can only I've ever had. I run a bar in West Hollywood. Would you be willing to wholesale to us? And I immediately was like yeah, all right, let's do it.

And I'm in the background going, oh, what are we doing?

Yeah, full time job, and I'm like, yeah, we can.

Yeah, and it just kind of it kind of snowballed from there. I mean, we took the deal. It was our very first business deal we did. We're not making any money from it, but doing, you know, thirty hours of work and prep to give them canoli. And so we decided well, why not try and start selling these on our own. And we set up in a local park near our house and we sold like five hundred.

Let me, let, me let.

Why weren't you making anything office on a wholesale basis? You're not protecting your margins somehow, or it's just too expensive to produce one.

We didn't know, and it was such a weird excitement, like like, oh, somebody wants to buy something from them.

We had no idea how to price them out, what our cost was.

We were just like, yeah, let's do it right.

Yeah, it's We've learned a whole heck of years.

I love the wholesale business. I prefer to retail, to be honest with you, I really love it. It's just it's so much easier and tighter the margins set.

It's just great.

Listen, I'm gonna go a little bit off script here and ask you this this question. I'm sure people ask you this question all the time. How many times has somebody quoted The Godfather with the damn Canoli line to you, like, leave the gun, take the canolis after they kill that guy?

Literally every day, so many times, in fact, Scott, that we now have we have We've weaved it into our marketing scheme. Our investor bods. Oh yeah, our investor bought us a sign to hang on our door. It has the quote on it with you know, the hands and the puppet strings and it's now like basically about of our business.

Yeah, that's good.

All right, we have to ask about the name.

All right?

Which one of you bug?

Which one was bear?

How did how did those nicknames become the name of the business.

Sure, let me guess.

Let me guess, Matt, you're the bug.

How'd you guess, Scott? Because Joe can't be the bug now, Joe is the bear.

So he calls me love bug and I call him baby Bear, and yeah, can only you can't go wrong with that.

We actually we came up with the name in the bar, I mean in the pool hall, like that night, like, well we have to come up with a company name. Yeah, it was all all of that same night we came up with it.

And you know, he calls me love bug, you know, I don't know, ten times an hour, and so it was just it came from that.

It was like, well it has to be bugg and Bear's cannoli.

So and how's how's the business going. I mean, are you are you just every day, all day busy, busy, busy. Do you have a dedicated warehouse or a manufacturing plant and where you're You're in La Yes, we're in Los Angeles, So you have a dedicated kitchen obviously you have to write. Yeah.

Yeah, we have a commercial kitchen that we work out of every day.

We we have we we.

Started off doing just markets and then night markets, and then it kind of blew up a little bit faster into set catering and now we do big like private events and weddings or we have eleven weddings this year that we're doing and we're still just the.

Two of us.

Yeah, And I mean, well, you know, now now we've we've hired a little bit more of a staff because we just can't do it all.

Yeah.

And now we are in the process of opening a brick and mortar in West Hollywood.

Yeah.

Oh wow, So.

That is that's gonna that's gonna help tremendously.

Yeah, huge with being able because I mean the kitchen we're in, it's a little tiny commercial kitchen. We're we're producing a thousand canolis a week just to get to markets, to deliveries.

To festivals and events and set caterings and you know, all the things that we do just with the trailer.

But the trailer is our only sales outlet.

So we're you know, already turning down so much business just because we can't we don't have the bandwidth to get to it.

So opening the cafe was just kind of a no brainer.

Where's it going to be located in.

West Oliver, San Monica? Yep, yeah, it's already it's under construction. So it's on it's seventy nine to ninety West Santa Monica Boulevard, in.

Between Laurel Hardware and Mix, right on the corner of Laurel and.

So right, we're kind of right in the heart of West Hollywood, right on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Oh, you're right there in Laurel Okay, so that's near Floores, Yes, yes, okay.

All right, So you described your canolia as traditionally untraditional. What mark of the original family recipe of your are completely untouchable and where do you allow yourselves to get creative?

Yeah?

So we, uh, the the ricatta fill, the ricotta filling is the untouchable part. So that's the very traditional family recipe where where we kind of start to sway as I mean, and the shell and the shell, oh yeah, and the shell, yeah, the shell and the filling. The shell is my great great grandmother's original recipe for for her Sicilian shell. So and we still we stick to that, I mean to to the rest of the the filling.

We traditionally it's it's usually like a chocolate chip and in like New York or like a pistachio, and like a traditional one.

We we have now done.

I mean, we do do oreo, we do peanut butter and jelly, we do some'mores. We make it into more of a fun thing for for like it's an Instagram type thing, so get get a lot of pictures.

Mainly it's mainly it's like toppings, you know.

So like our most of our canal is the filling is the traditional vanilla lemon zest strained ricotta filling, but we have all these millions of different topics and people can put on the cannoli that kind of go with the flavor of the filling, but change it up and deliver it however somebody wants it. But we do sometimes do a different flavor filling, we do a pumpkin pie canoli, which I think would have been amazing, and Luke Steiner, I'm just saying the pumpkin pie canoli, I think Rory and Lorelei would have killed on So.

But the pumpkin pike can only? The apple pie can only? We have a lot of.

Autumn ones and then express We have an espresso canoli that that was on the show we called the rat pac canoli. But we so it's it's the filling and the recipe that really is traditional. But how someone wants to, you know, dress it up is untraditional and up to them.

All right, So how do you develop a new canoli flavored? Is one don't you tend to suggest a more unexpected idea as well? The other keeps things traditional and and how much trial and error goes into developing, Like has there been a flavor that you thought would be a great idea and then just you know, when you taste tested, it was like oh no, oh.

No, yeah, it's funny because a lot of our not not a lot.

But there's a good amount of ideas that will come from the customers.

Customers be like, oh my god, this would this would taste amazing. I'm like, let's try it.

So, yeah, it doesn't always work.

Yeah, like it doesn't, It doesn't always work out, but right, some of them will.

Come from from from the store we do.

We started out and we still do a lot of night markets in the valley, and there is a large we have a large Latin customer based and you know, so there's a couple of customers that are huge fans of ours that will go and have you know, bulav eskite which is like corn and mayo and hot cheetos, and they'll come over and they'll be like, hey, you should put some hot cheetos in this canoli. And we're like, I don't know, but we're like, well, we're here, what the heck. So we get a you know, a bag up on the cheetahs and crumple them up and put it on there, and you know, give ourselves the taste and we're like, Nope, that's not that's not it.

No, we're not doing that.

One Mango to heen, which actually the Mango team was okay, which actually sounds good, and that came from a customer. Yeah, I'm not I wasn't a huge Mango is doesn't fit right with the with the ricata, and it just it just didn't sit right.

So it's never been on our menu.

Yeah, but the customer we made it for them on the spot because they brought mango. They had a yeah, like fruit thing and we made it for them on the spot and they loved it.

But I wasn't there.

And it's and it's funny because how people bring us things to be like, please put this in a canoli. It's kind of goes in with our business model of you come in and you create your own canoli, you know, And that's how our cafe is going to be. People can walk down the line and really create their own canoli.

So you know, we we we.

Bend like a willow, but we don't want to break like an oak, you know what I mean?

Uh?

All right, let's talk about the Great Food Truck Race.

What was it like being a part of that show?

That was incredible?

Incredible?

It was an experience I would have never thought we would be at when we got that phone call, right and they asked us if we were willing to go on this on the show on the Food Network, And we're like, well, what show is it?

And they told us I'm like, I love that show. And never a million years did we think I.

Mean, we thought it was a scam at first, because they reached out to us on Instagram and it was just some random account being like, hey, I'm a casting director or a casting associate for the Food Network and we're like, sure you are right right, sure, Well, I mean, they kept me shouting, they kept being persistent, and it turned out to be a real thing, and all of a sudden and we were doing zoom calls and casting calls and then zoom calls with the network and it was just nuts and it was a whirlwind. And we got to include our business partner who we haven't talked about yet.

And Dinas she we call her Hot Mama Canoli.

She invested in our business early on to get us our food trailer to go from a tent to a trailer, and she's been with us every step of the way. I mean, honestly, honestly, she's changed our lives. Yeah, we wouldn't be where we are without her. But she was the first person we had to ask to go on the show with us. Yeah, of course with that, she owns a restaurant in Detroit, So without hesitation, She's like, absolutely, let's do it, and yeah, all.

Of a sudden, we were all on a plane to Tennessee.

Yeah, it was crazy.

Well, now that the season has begun airing, hundreds of people came out to watch premiere at a party. You help, what's been like watching it back and reliving that experience together?

It chilled. Every single time somebody reposts a different.

Angle of web they were, where they were standing, We tried to We were talking to the other teams, which we love, we love them, and as their parties were going on, We're like, this is this is crazy. We're seeing everybody going doing all their parties and then I'm like looking at ours and it did. The amount of people that showed up and flew in and drove to us, it was it was unreal. Was there the bar itself, Jim Bar in West Hollywood? Yeah, they were great hosts.

They did. They didn't expect this many people.

No show. I mean we told them that like one hundred and twenty people were coming.

And I think that they were probably like, yeah, probably like forty people are come.

That's you know, that's fine.

And then when one hundred and thirty people filled their bar I think they were just shocked.

But you know, it brought business to them, which is amazing thing.

And they were grabal hosts and really the neighborhood of West Hollywood and the city of West Hollywood really came out to show show support. And it was amazing kind of basking in that love knowing that we were going to have a business there.

Yeah, yeah, we had the I mean, the assistant was there, the mayors were there, any council members were there.

It was incredibly it was incredible.

Yeah. Uh here we talked about this, but your own brick and mortar cafe and West HOLLYO, what kind of experience do you want people to have when they walk inside?

So, first of all, on an aesthetic level, because we've always really tried to pay a lot of attention to aesthetics. We want people to feel like they are walking into a world where Bugg and Bear live. And so our our designer, our artists that designed our logo, our trailer, and he's also designing our cafe is Shag who is a world renowned you know, mid century pop uh culture cartoon style artist, and his imprint and his style will be all over the cafe. But it will also feel a little like grounded and organic and earthly, so they I want people to feel warm, and I want people to feel like they're always welcome and they have a family to come to and enjoy cannoli and pastries and fried lasagna, and at night will be a wine bar.

So really we want know everyone to know that there's something for everyone.

Well, I don't know if you know this, but on Gilmore Girls, I play a diner owner.

Did you know that?

Yes?

Yes, and his name was Luke. And I always have Pior Donuts in the counter. If if I were to switch those out with Canoli's, Okay, what flavor would you be serving to the Star's Hollow residents?

I mean, I know, I know that that Lorelei loves her coffee.

I mean it's it's it's in her dna.

And I think that an espresso cannoli would be you know, with the with the chocolate covered espresso bees would be like the thing, and I think it would do really well.

Luke's you do?

And now when you when you watched the first episode of The Great Food Truck Race, that is uh, that's that's what we won the first challenge.

On Okay with that very product with that very Okay, I want to end the segment because I want to talk to you.

I want to talk business with you guys.

Of course, let's just that's just fantastic.

H And you have to come back.

You've got to come back. Yeah, we will, and you know what, we should probably and I'll talk to Jackie about this, but I think it would be fun to come in there and do a live podcast from the what at the opening and makeing a an event or something that would be amazing.

I'm really glad that we're going to be talking after this because you have no idea what you just said. I so I'm like the guy out of the two of us that has all the crazy ideas.

Right.

Well, we're I want to do a podcast like a Bugget podcast every week from the cafe.

So for you to be one of our first guests.

Oh, that'd be great.

That would be great.

I'd love to I'd love to do that.

That's great.

But anyway, let's wrap this up.

Guys.

You're fantastic.

Good luck with the venture, good luck with everything. Sounds like a fantastic product, A couple of fantastic entrepreneurs here with you.

Much success.

And remember everybody, keep those cards and letters coming. The best fans on the planet. We read every single one of them pro or con, and ain't many cons and there's a lot of pros, thank goodness for that.

And remember where you lead.

We will follow. Stay safe, every.

Everybody, and don't forget. Follow us on in Instagram at i Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.

Luke’s Diner: To Quote The Godfather, “Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli”

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