About the Episode:
Jess Griego talks Bosque Brewing Company and Restoration pizza. You know Bunny is a beer lover, but she is also a lover of female owned business and business that promote New Mexico culture and pride. Lucky for us, Jess and Bosque do all that (and more)! Check out this episode and the links below for more about this fast growing, inclusive company.
Links
Bosque Brewing website
Bosque Locations
Find Bosque on Instagram
Find Jess Griego on Instagram
Pink Boots Society
I Love New Mexico blog page
Bunny’s website
I Love New Mexico Instagram
I Love New Mexico Facebook
Original Music by: Kene Terry
JESS GRIEGO
CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER & OWNER
Certified Cicerone®
Jess has been with Bosque Brewing Co. since the day we opened our doors in October of 2012. She began her journey with the company as a server, and as Bosque has evolved, she has evolved along with it; including becoming a part owner in 2019. She has led multiple expansions alongside the executive team, and has developed beer training, brewery tours, and other educational programs for our co-workers. She manages a variety of responsibilities while ensuring that Bosque’s core values and reputation for world-class products and experiences are alive and well on the daily. Jess is a Certified Cicerone®, sits on the Brewpubs Committee for the Brewers Association, and is the Chapter Lead of the New Mexico Pink Boots Society. Her mission is to build an inclusive and vibrant community by using her love and appreciation for craft beer as her platform.
Episode Transcript
Bunny: 0:00
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry , and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico stories, Talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where are you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico. I’m here today with a special guest. Her name is Jess Griego, and Jess has one of the, I think, what might be one of the coolest jobs in New Mexico. Of course, I’m a beer drinker and a beer lover, so , it makes sense that I would say that. But Jess is the Chief Operations Officer and one of the owners, Jess, of Bosque Brewing. Are you the owner?
Jess: 1:15
Yes . No, I am a co-owner. So I became , an equity partner in 2019 , um, and have been with the company since the first day we opened in 2010. Actually, our 10 year anniversary is next Wednesday on the 24th. Uh , so I started as a server and , um, over that last 10 years, I’ve , um, become , um, an equity partner and chief operating officer.
Bunny: 1:39
So I wanna hear that story. How did you dis , I mean, that seems sort of like kismet or faith that you became a server, doesn’t it? I mean, what an amazing story you started.
Jess: 1:50
Yeah, definitely unexpected. I feel like , um, I tell people it’s kind of right place, right time, definitely. I went to the University of New Mexico and , uh, thought I was going to law school and, and for graduate school. And in high school I started doing theater and I really liked it, and I just thought it would be something to pursue in my undergrad , uh, knowing that the next step would be law school. Um, I worked for a local attorney throughout college and then also , uh, served at different restaurants and bars to get myself through school. And so serving was kind of just always something I had done as a , um, as a job during, during college. And after working at the attorney’s office for four years, I’m literally glad I had that job because I was able to see firsthand what a career would be in law . And although I still am very passionate about it, I realized that I was not , um, ready to invest that much time and energy and , um, money into something that I wasn’t sure of. So I was kind of started back at Square one since I had a, a theater degree. Didn’t, <laugh> wasn’t necessarily something that could , um, it , it was, it was just a degree that I’m very ha proud of, that but , uh, didn’t, wasn’t necessarily a resume builder. So anyway, I thought maybe I would go to school , um, maybe I’d become a teacher. I wasn’t sure. I was 23 at the time , uh, just graduated and was serving as just an interim , um, job while I was figuring out what I was gonna do. My dad was always kind of asking me, you know, What’s your plan? What are you up to? He had even put in my mind, Maybe you should like run a bar or a brewery one day, or business rather restaurant. Something he had said one time when we were actually flying back from New York, I grad, I , um, auditioned for grad school and got in, actually, that’s kind of when I , um, had a big epiphany. <laugh> . I had no idea what I was doing, wasn’t going to law school , Uh, applied for grad school in New York. Got in , um, it was so expensive. We went to New York with my family to check it out, and I just realized I wasn’t ready and it just really scared me. So on that flight back, my dad was kind of talking to me about different things. You know, you’ve served in the restaurant industry for a long time. Uh , my dad was really entrepreneurial, like , maybe you could open a business one day. And this was all stuff that in my mind, I think sounded cool, but I wasn’t, I was so all over the place. I was 23. Um, so I knew that serving at least was something I could do until I figured out what, what my next step was. I really wanted to work somewhere local. Um, and the brewery scene 10 years ago is really still pretty small. I mean, Marble and Santa Fe were established. La Cumbre was established, but for the most part, there wasn’t like the industry and just the amount of businesses there are now. And so I worked at Burt’s Tiki Lounge at that time and knew , um, had a coworker there who was related to one of the owners that was opening Bosque . And I just reached out and I said, Hey, I would be, you know, if you need help, I’m interested. And that’s as simple as it was. I was just looking for , um, a change. Again, I credit my dad, he knew I was in a rut and he was constantly , um, asking, What are you doing? How are you putting yourself out there? Are you finding a new opportunity, even if it’s just a serving job? Like, what are you doing to get out of this rut ? So , um, he kind of pushed me. I was always just putting feelers out there to see what I could do next. I was still working at the law office as well at that time. Um, but it had been the first time since I’d graduated from school that I had never had multiple jobs. Actually, Bosky is the only job I’ve ever had where I, it hasn’t been that in something else. I always had multiple things happening , um, going on at the same time. So , um, it was a big commitment , um, that was different. But I was one of six original employees. We opened in , 2012, like I said, and 10 years ago. And , um, there was just, I had no idea. I didn’t know anything about beer. I knew I wanted to work somewhere local and I knew breweries were somewhere that were less of a , you know, late night , um, Burt’s Tiki lounge sort , sort of downtown. I had done that for a few years and I made great money, but I was ready to kind of , to find something that was a little, a little less chaotic. Um, and it’s just evolved from there. So , uh, Gabe, Kevin and Jotham are the three , um, original , um, founding partners and I, they were complete strangers to me. I had never met them before. When I started working at Bosque , I was again, kind of just thrown into this situation where , um, everyone was really tight . They had all been working for years to get this business off of the ground. And , we all just meshed. I was happy to step in and help whenever they needed it. Everyone was super exhausted and Gabe was brewing and managing the business and counting drawers at the end of the night. And so wherever there was a need, I felt like I could fill, I just rose my hand. And that’s really kind of the lesson I learned is just putting myself out there , uh, just gave me more opportunities , uh, gave me more responsibility. Gabe Jensen, who’s our ceo, had a vision for Bosky to be even bigger than it is now. And I’ve heard him say a million times, people ask, Oh, did you think that you were gonna be this big? And it’s always kind of a two-sided answer. It’s no <laugh> . Cause it’s crazy when you think back. I mean, we have, we just opened our seventh location about to open our eighth and we have more coming online next year, but they had always really wanted to be , um, the vision was to be the new Belgium of New Mexico, so we’re not there yet, obviously, but the , he was already looking for new locations, new places to open. Las Cruces was our second tap room. And so I kind of just , um, made myself available and, and just dug in and was in the trenches with Gabe for a lot of that growth. And 10 years has gone by. It’s crazy. It’s kind of just a , I don’t even know it , I don’t my , it’s wild that just one message to a coworker led to this career and this really significant part of my life that if I wouldn’t have reached out, who knows? I would , I don’t know. I don’t know what I’d be doing. So.
Bunny: 8:27
Well, I’m really interested in , are there a lot of women in this profession own that own , um, companies like this? I’m really, I’m really interested to know if you’re , especially in New Mexico. I mean, I would think that this was , this was kind of a , not an old guys network because everybody seems to be really young in the profession, but I’m curious to know, I know you’re , and , and we, and I’ll also ask about this later again, but I know you’re part of, of the Pink Boots Society, which is about female brewery owners, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, am I , Yeah .
Jess: 9:01
Do I have that right? Yeah . So when I first started, I would say no. I mean, there was much fewer breweries at to begin with. And then just the women in general I felt certainly, like I was one of very few , um, not only in New Mexico, but even at events like Craft Brewer’s Conference, which happen every year in different major cities or a great American beer festival, You know, I’d feel myself like, Oh, there’s, there’s me, and then there’s maybe two other women, and then the rest of the room is men in flannels, you know? So that was very um, obvious and kind of intimidating in 2012. And, and as the 10 years have gone by, it’s definitely changed. Like absolutely there’s, it’s become much more of a diverse population of , um, owners and just customers. But at CBC last year, I remem I’d remember this cuz I was like, wow. They were going through all the stats of how many breweries are in the country, how many owners, and the stat in 2021 was that only 2% of all brewery owners in the country are, are women. So it’s very, very small minority. That’s not to say that there aren’t women brewers and women running the businesses and managing and marketing and all of those things , Um, but the actual ownership equity piece , um, there’s still a lot of work to do and it’s a really hard , uh, industry to, to crack into and to be taken seriously in. Um, but we have a really amazing network of women in New Mexico who , um, either own or , um, operate at the highest level in New Mexico brewery. So I was telling you before we started recording, we have a , a group message of , um, of women in the beer industry that we’re constantly chatting. It really kind of kicked off during Covid just, How are you guys handling this? What , how’s everyone doing? Um , that sort of stuff. But , um, like Sky Devore from Tractor, one of the first , um, women owners of a brewery, New Mexico, she’s done so much for the industry. Um , on the legislative side, she’s been incredible. Um, Shelby , uh, Chance from Steel Bender is a woman co-owner, obviously Bow and Arrow has two women , owners, and then Anne from Sidetrack. So I would actually say New Mexico is much more , um, women owned and operated than the rest of the country, at least from my experience. I’m sure I’m missing somebody, but I <laugh> there’s a , a handful, which is great.
Bunny: 11:31
Wow. That’s good to hear. In fact, I wanna talk to every single one of them.
Jess: 11:36
I’m In touch with them. Yeah .
Bunny: 11:38
I’m glad we got you first. And I wanna hear more about Bosque , but I wanna know about you. Are you from New Mexico always?
Jess: 11:45
I am, yep . So I am a native new Mexican. I was born in Albuquerque. I lived in, I grew up in Rio Rancho. I went to Rio Rancho High School. And then I moved to Albuquerque to go to UNM and have been in Albuquerque ever since. I mean, Rio Ranch is basically a suburb of Albuquerque, but very different. Um, I don’t ever wanna move. I love New Mexico, I love Albuquerque. My family’s here , my husband’s family’s here and I’m really passionate about making, helping to make this state better and to create pride in this state. And I have a lot of friends , um, who live here or who’ve left who , you know, kind of speak down on New Mexico. And I don’t know, I just think that’s kind of a cop out . I think there’s so much opportunity to grow this amazing community and , um, part of Bos you know, Bosques part in that is creating jobs and just giving a positive recognition to, to the state about all these amazing products that we’re making. And it’s not just beer. There’s craft distillers now and, you know , all these local restaurants and there’s so much history and, and , um, diversity here that I think gets overlooked because of all of the negative things that we, you know, that we hear about, which need work too. But , um, we wanna be a place where people wanna come and they wanna move to , and we need, I want New Mexico to feel accessible to, to everybody. And , um, that’s just really important to me. So, yep . I will always live here unless , um, nope, I’ll always live here. <laugh>. I dunno , maybe I’ll , maybe I’ll get a little one day, if one day when I’m retired I might wanna have like a little cabin and Telluride or something, but I’d always have roots here no matter what.
Bunny: 13:28
I always , say this on the, on the podcast that I went away a a couple of times and , um, you know, like I married somebody and moved outta state and I was always like, Please God, just get me back. I mean, it’s like, if you let me go back, I will never leave again. And so <laugh> that and luckily now I’m married to a native new Mexican, so we’re not going anywhere. But , um, I’m really curious because , um, my favorite location really, just because it has some personal history for me, cuz I used to go there when it was Jackalope, but I love that location in Bernalillo where you’re right on the Rio Grande, but what was the first location?
Jess: 14:09
So our first location was at San Mateo. So anyone who’s been a Bosque , fan or customer from the beginning , um, is very , uh, sad that that space is no longer open. So we just outgrew it. So we used to call that the strip mall struggle. So it was on San Mateo, right near the balloon Fiesta, San Mateo and Alameda. It was a small , um, like, I don’t know, 1200 square foot space. We cooked all of our sandwiches on panini presses on top of the bar. The brewery was in the back of house. Everything was so tiny. And it make , like, that was how we started. We started really small and then as we continued to grow, we took over the space next door and then we took over more space next door and more space next door. And we had all, it was just, it was nuts and it wasn’t scalable. But it was definitely a , um, just a piece of bosky history that sometimes I definitely miss. That’s where I started. Now LA Reform Brewery is there and , um, they’re amazing. I love going there. And it’s weird cause it’s a different business now, obviously, but sitting at the bar and pointing to my husband, Oh, that’s, you know , that’s the register that we’re this whole all started. And, you know I have so much love for that space, but we , we certainly outgrew it. And then that’s when we moved to Bosque North in Bernillo where now we have this, you know , enormous facility that’s able to , um, produce the amount of beer that we are selling at seven locations and hundreds of retailers across the
Bunny: 15:41
State. Well, and I would tell somebody who’s visiting, I mean, I’m sure you’d like to promote all of your locations, but I’d tell somebody who’s visiting, if you’re in Albuquerque or Santa Fe , um, go to that location because the views are incredible. Of course, the beer’s great. I’m my favorite is Elephants on Parade. But , um, <laugh> I also like the Lager, but that is a, a really cool, relaxing space. And , um, sometimes we meet people there who live in Rio Rancho. We’ll meet there and spend a Sunday afternoon. Yeah , I love it.
Jess: 16:19
It’s a great location. Yeah, it’s beautiful. That’s one place where , um, I, every time I walk through there, through the breweries specifically and into the tap room and upstairs and all the things, like, it makes me emotional. I’m just so proud of that space. And to have, again, back at San Mateo, you know, we were this teeny tiny little place and to see what has grown and what we’ve built, John, our master brewer , um, has just done an amazing job creating this beautiful facility and seeing all of different jobs that happen at that place . You know, that’s , that’s the place where we have the most diverse , um, group of positions. We have managers, we have servers, we have logistics managers, we have brewers, we have seller people. There’s just so much happening there. It’s like this hub of , um, just business. It’s, so, it’s, I just love it. Yeah. So, and obviously the, the views are beautiful. It’s overlooking the sand ideas, it’s bosky on the Bosque , it’s perfect. It was exactly, you know, it was the exact perfect place for us. It was people you know of still think of it as Jackalope, and that’s, I think it’s nice to have a historic building that has meaning to people that’s existed for a really long time in the state and that we’re able to , um, grow into something new, but still keep that history.
Bunny: 17:36
It’s awesome. So you have other, okay, so I know you have Santa Fe and you also, you have Revolution Pizza too. What’s that about?
Jess: 17:43
So that’s Restoration Pizza and that
Bunny: 17:45
Restoration. Sorry.
Jess: 17:47
No, no. That’s okay. I love talking about Restoration Pizza because a lot of people don’t , um, know about it or know that it’s our sister brand. And , uh, we opened our first location, Restoration Pizza location in 2019 in Albuquerque , um, Journal Center near Cabella’s in that same shopping center. And the mission for that company specifically is to hire individuals with disabilities who would otherwise not have opportunities for , um, well paying , uh, accessible jobs. So , we work with several different programs and companies, organizations throughout the state to provide , uh, individuals with, with jobs , um, who have disabilities. So we work with , ARCA Best Buddies , um, the New Mexico Institute for Blind, the Blind and Deaf. It’s amazing. And so it is a for-profit business, which is, it’s certainly a different model than the usual, but the point is for everyone to have an opportunity to , um, grow themselves and to create wealth for themselves , uh, during the pandemic, that was very difficult. Obviously, just the industry in general was , um, really affected by the inability to have in person dining and that sort of thing. Um, so we kinda had to just get through. And now that we’re back kind of to somewhat of normal , um, it’s ama the restoration piece feels like a place that is just so inviting and welcoming and , uh, Gabe, our CEO always calls it all the feels in a high five . It just, there’s so much to learn . I love that. Yeah. And so that, that , um, is our sister brand that is just a whole other monster <laugh> , but it has all Bosky beer. And then , uh, the pizza is specific a choice because it’s easy to, it’s easier to have systems when we’re with pizzas. So we have , um, uh, guides and different training materials for people with all of different abilities to be able to make pizza consistently. And then, you know, everyone’s different. So we have just, we , the whole , um, idea is to just provide as much support for people , um, within the , the tap room to , um, be able to do a job effectively and to, and to find joy in their job. It’s , um, I’m just really proud of, of that business. And we are, so in Santa Fe, we’re actually reopening the Bosque Tap room that’s on the rail yards. It’s been closed under construction and we’re reopening that as a restoration pizza hopefully before the end of this month.
Bunny: 20:28
So that location is right across from Violet Crown, right? Am I correct?
Jess: 20:32
Yes. Okay . Yeah. So that’ll be a Restoration Pizza soon. Um, we opened that location as a Bosque , um, during the pandemic and it, you know, it’s very , uh, tourist centric area and there’s a lot of competing , um, businesses that sell food in , in that area. And so it’s been, that’s been a challenge. So we decided let’s, I think Restoration Pizza makes the most sense there. I think there’s an untapped market and there are people in Santa Fe , um, who are looking for jobs who, you know, don’t necessarily have the , the opportunities that they would if , um, if frustration was there. And there’s um, I think just, there’s a lot of buzz and excitement about turning that into restoration and still having Bosky beer. So.
Bunny: 21:17
Wow. I love that because we did go , um, you know, during the pandemic we would just sort of desperately go anywhere where we could sit outside <laugh> and not just support local businesses, but have a drink. Um , Sure . And so , um, we went a lot to that location and I know that , um, people in my family did the same thing . So I’m glad that you’re reopening because that was sort of, it should be anything . It was one of our Sunday afternoon things if we did too.
Jess: 21:41
Yeah. So we’re excited about, about that.
Bunny: 21:45
Jess, where did that idea come from? I mean,
Jess: 21:48
So Gabe, I mentioned him a few times. <laugh> . Yeah. He’s always just looking for opportunity again. I mean, I think really the, the mindset is to how do we help , um, enhance the New Mexico story and what, how do we do that with the things that we already do, which is make beer and open restaurants, You know, that’s a little, it could be limiting, but there are, again, there’s these opportunities if you look outside the box to , um, use what you have to still create , um, pride in what, in New Mexico and what you do. So , Gabe has a friend, Nathan Winham , who is our program coordinator who did a similar concept in Arkansas. And they were having , um, beers one night on Gabe’s backyard patio. And the concept came up, Hey, you know what would Bosque think about doing this? And , someone like Gabe, it doesn’t take much for an idea to spark <laugh>. You know very entrepreneurial and the wheels were on motion pretty quick. I was on maternity leave with my first daughter at that time, and we hadn’t seen each other in a few weeks. And he text me and was like, Hey, can we get lunch? So I knew he had something up his sleeve cuz he was doing pretty good about leaving me alone <laugh> on maternity leave. But I was like, Hmm , what is he up to? And then he presented the concept to me and I was like, Yes, absolutely, yes, no question. Let’s do it. Let’s figure it out. Um, Nathan has been great. He has that experience. So I mean, it definitely has been a team effort and it wasn’t something that we probably would’ve thought of without, again, that someone just putting it out , putting out, putting themselves out there and asking us if it would be something we were interested in possibly pursuing.
Bunny: 23:32
I love that. I can’t wait to have some pizza. And what, you also have locations in Las Cruces. I mean, you said you have seven, but what’s, what’s in Las Cruces? Because we’d love to talk about the rest of the state .
Jess: 23:42
Oh, totally. Yeah. It’s so funny, everyone thinks that, that I am a Aggie alumni because I work at <inaudible> , so I sometimes I’m , yeah . Yeah, go Aggie’s. But, cause we have the 1888 , um, Pistol Pete’s 1888 Blonde Ale, which is a…
Bunny: 23:59
Oh wait, wait, I saw that. So that’s Pistol Pete like from State?
Jess: 24:02
Yeah . Yeah . So that’s an officially licensed beer with New Mexico State University, and we were one of the first breweries in the country to do that. Now there’s quite a few colleges who have , um, partnered with local breweries to have a , um, a li officially licensed beer . But , uh, yeah, so that’s our N M S U beer. Gabe , uh, grew up in Las Cruces. Our , um, other co-owner, Kevin , um, and him went to college at N M S U together. So Las Cruces is a very , uh, close to their hearts. And again, Gabe was just like, We need to be in Cruces . And everyone at the time we opened that tap , the first tap room in 2014, thought we were crazy. You know, how, how are you gonna do that three hours away? Can you trust people to run your business? Um, all the questions we got from fellow owners in the industry, and we just took, again, we just took a shot. And it’s been amazing. We’ve been really welcomed down in Cruces . I love Cruces . I’ve , um, I can do that drive in my sleep now. I’ve been there so , so much. Um, the people are amazing. It’s, the food is amazing. It’s different from Albuquerque. It’s , um, just great. We love having locations near the universities. Obviously Knob Hill is next to unm, so we definitely don’t put ourselves in a box and say, Oh, we’re only unm or we’re only NMSU or only this thing. I mean, the whole , um, purpose and growing the company is to make impacts in different places, parts of New Mexico and have , um, each tap room has its own identity within those communities that serves the purposes of, of those places. And , uh, yeah, so you’ll catch, you know , N M S U games and tailgates and all those things are down there just supporting the college and just happy to be, to be down there. It’s amazing.
Bunny: 25:50
It’s, I went to school there first, you know , before the Crust cooled , like in 1978, but it was one of my favorite places. And in fact, we just had a guest on who , um, grew up there and she talked about how , um, you know, how different, it really is different. I mean, not just because of the weather, but the culture is different. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , it’s closer to Mexico, closer to El Paso. But if I wasn’t gonna live, you know, raise my kids in Albuquerque, I now live in Santa Fe, but if I wasn’t gonna live in either of these two places, I think Las Cruces would be my next choice. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So
Jess: 26:27
Yeah, we love
Bunny: 26:28
A great place to have a business, I think.
Jess: 26:29
Yeah, it’s been great. So we opened the tap room near university , um, and then we have one , um, on Tels Shore , which is kind of more of the suburban area of the city, Right . Farther north. And , that one opened right before Covid . So it’s been, you know , it’s just every, every tap room has its own unique identities and challenges. And then at a global pandemic on top of that, <laugh> . So that one we’re , you know, we’re just kind of getting that one back up on its feet. And that one actually has a cool story because it was the old , um, Unos , uh, Petria Unos, I believe. Oh yeah. And that’s where Gabe and Jo are , two of our , um, co-founders. Those were , that was where they both had their first serving jobs ever in college. So they kind of learned the service industry ropes in that building. And then we now have a yap room in it. So when we’re looking for spaces to open, a lot of times we’re trying to find, you know, what’s, what’s the story here? What makes it special? Jackalope , for example, or the rail yards is just, you know, such a , um, integral part of Santa Fe. So that’s something when we’re , um, scouting out locations, like how, what , what’s the story here? What , what makes it special and unique? And so that is definitely a place for Gabe and Jothan that they, that they have a lot of memories and kind of was the beginning of , of Bosky in a lot of ways.
Bunny: 27:58
So it feels to me, and maybe you have this stated somewhere, but it feels like part of your culture is maintaining this New Mexico story, right?
Jess: 28:10
Yeah , So actually our mission statement is to craft a greater sense of pride and belonging in New Mexico. So it is actually our entire, it is our entire mission through the products that we create and the beers that we make, and the food that we offer, and the tap rooms that we open and all those things. But really New Mexico is at the center of, of what we’re doing and, and just really reminding people why it’s amazing to live here and be here and , um, just passionate about creating a sense, a sense of pride in the state.
Bunny: 28:42
So I want you to say that, not the whole thing, but to craft… Because I talked over you and I’m sorry I did this .
Jess: 28:50
Say that part of it . No , no . So yeah, our , our mission statement is to craft a greater sense of pride and belonging in New Mexico.
Bunny: 28:57
Perfect. I love that. I love that. And I, and I love that it’s happening with , somebody who is from here and , but also you ob how many, how many employees do
Jess: 29:09
You have? Man, we just, were about to… I think if we haven’t yet, and very, very soon we’ll , um, hit over 400 employees. It’s nuts. I can’t even…
Bunny: 29:20
Oh, My goodness .
Jess: 29:20
Oh my God . It’s crazy. Especially since we started, I was one of six. It’s nuts. We’ve grown,
Bunny: 29:27
So that’s nuts. In 10 years you went from six employees to over 400.
Jess: 29:30
400. Yes. Yes. It’s ,
Bunny: 29:32
Um , that’s amazing.
Jess: 29:33
It’s wild as it’s a lot <laugh> . It’s a lot. But we have a really great team. We have, have , um, just, I don’t , we just have this momentum that I wanna keep con continuing to push forward and , um, creating jobs in New Mexico is really important. And when we’re at the legislator, you know , um, fighting to , for our industry, for local businesses to, you know, have a shot against , conglomerates competitors that I won’t necessarily say out loud , um, those are things that the , that people like to hear. How many jobs are you creating? How much revenue are you bringing into this state? It’s just really cool to be a part of it.
Bunny: 30:15
I love that. I love that. Well, Jess, I’m so, I’m so glad that you came on and that you told us part of your personal story, but I’m really glad to hear more about Bosque because I love it already. Is there anything that we’ve missed? I mean, what’s next?
Jess: 30:29
Oh man. So we just opened , um, our seventh location on the west side at, we call it Cottonwood, but it was the old , Toltech Brewing Company , um, if you’re familiar with them. So that just opened a few days ago. We’re about to , um, reopen Santa Fe Market Station as a restoration pizza, and we have a bunch of other crazy ideas that will likely be sharing sometime next year. But with, always with New Mexico at the focus some really exciting, exciting stuff within, within the restaurant , um, industry. Nothing’s, nothing’s signed yet, but we’ve got concepts. So we’re gonna continue to build the brands that we have and then just work on new fun, exciting things that , um, really highlight what we love about New Mexico.
Bunny: 31:24
Well, don’t sto cause you’re doing a really good job.
Jess: 31:26
Thank you.
Bunny: 31:27
Yeah. And maybe at some point we can get all the owners in a room to sit around and talk all at once. That’s always a fun thing.
Jess: 31:33
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Oh, and then, you know, we actually didn’t talk about Pink Boots. I just wanna plug that real quick too. Sure. So Pink Boots Society is , um, a non-profit . There’s a national , um, national chapter, and then we have a New Mexico chapter, which I’m the , um, co-lead of. But the whole purpose of the Pink Boot Society is to , um, educate and inspire women in the fermented beverage industry. So before it was just craft beer, but now it’s , um, spirits, kombucha, wine, all of anything that’s fermented. And it’s really great to be part of that organization. We’ve grown the membership from about like six or seven people to 40 in the last few years we’re continuing to add more women. And so anyone who , um, is interested in any, in being in the industry or is in the industry and is looking to network with other women looking for training and educational opportunities definitely check out Pink Boots. We did a social media bootcamp last night for all of , a lot of the women owners of breweries in town , uh, you know, do all the things. They run the social media pages, they do the scheduling, they , um, process payroll, They have, you know, wear all the hats. So it was really cool to have. And it was , we had another woman entrepreneur from New Mexico come who’s a social media master, and she came and trained everyone yesterday on like, just the small things you can do to make a bigger impact for your business on social media. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . So Pink Boots is awesome. Definitely wanna just plug that and make sure that we’re continuing to add more women into our network as we, as we come outta this pandemic and as people are starting to get together again. Yeah, so just wanted to make sure I didn’t forget about Pink Boots.
Bunny: 33:20
<laugh> . Oh, no, no. And we’ll put a link to that so that, you know, whatever , um, whatever we can do to promote that. And , um, I can’t wait to, I don’t know, I’m gonna hunt you down and have a beer with you. Is that good ?
Jess: 33:31
Absolutely. Oh yeah. I’ll be <laugh> . Let me know. I’ll definitely have a , We’ll we have , um, I’ll be in Santa Fe quite a bit in the coming, in the coming weeks , so, Good. And then if you have , um, let me know. I can, it puts you in touch with all the other women we spoke about earlier. Um, they all just have you , that would be cool . Unique stories talk, doing amazing things. And I’m just so , um, grateful to just work alongside them and , um, to have people outside of Bosque that I can talk to about, you know , it’s nice to have an outside perspective sometimes , um, but still the perspective of being a woman , um, brewery owner, cuz it’s, it’s not always easy, but,
Bunny: 34:11
Well, and the cool thing is it doesn’t, you’re not competing with one another. You’re helping each other grow. What a, what a wonderful way to run an organization. So it’s ,
Jess: 34:22
Yeah , it’s something that I didn’t feel like I had or I saw , um, when I first started and, you know, I just don’t think it’s worth competing. It’s so much better when we’re on each other’s side. We already have so many , um, obstacles to overcome, just being a minority in the industry. And so when we’re all on a text thread together, just talking through problems and helping each other, it’s just so much. It just, it’s so much better. I don’t know why it’s not like this all the time, but it’s right . It’s great to have all of the women in this industry just champion, champion championing each other. That was a mouthful. All the time yesterday, we were all, you know, sitting at the table together talking about our social media pages and, you know, it’s easy to, to not wanna share your secrets, but it doesn’t, it’s just if it’s better if everyone’s doing great. That’s better for everybody. So
Bunny: 35:17
I think there’s a, I’m trying, I was thinking about this saying that I had a coach who went , she , you know, it’s the, a rising tide helps all boats float.
Jess: 35:25
Totally.
Bunny: 35:27
Yes. So , there you are. <laugh> you’re making that happen.
Jess: 35:31
Yeah.
Bunny: 35:31
Jess, thank you so much for being with me. We’re , I’m gonna find you somewhere else, but , um, it’s a, a great story. I loved hearing it. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you for the time. Oh, your kid . No , I mean, we love New Mexico. We’re kindred spirits <laugh> . So we’ll talk again soon.
Jess: 35:47
Absolutely.