Podcast appearances and mentions of sarah dvorak

Maker's Common founders Sarah Dvorak and Eric Miller discuss their Berkeley eatery/market's focus on American cheese producers and charcuterie, their challenges, mission and unique model of investment called a direct public offering.TRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Method to the madness is next. You're listening to method to the madness public affairs show on k a l ex Berkeley featuring innovators of the bay area. I'm your host Lisa Kiefer. And today I'm speaking with Sarah Deb rack and Eric Miller, two of three cofounders of makers common and eatery and market that opened this summer at 1954 university avenue right here in Berkeley, focusing on local producers. [00:00:30] Makers, common is connecting food with community. Welcome to the program, Sarah Devora Speaker 2:and Eric Miller, two of the three founders of a newly opened makers, common on university avenue here in Berkeley. So you found a mission cheese in 2011 and it's wildly popular. What made you want to start something over here in Berkeley? You know, after six years of operating in San Francisco in a, in a pretty small [00:01:00] 650 square foot space, I think, you know, we all were a little bit itching to do something new for several reasons. One was really to have more impact in the industry. There's only so much cheese a small shop can buy and wine and beer. And also it was, we were really limited on what we could provide in terms of a culinary experience just because we have an oven and a sandwich press, you know, so it's not a full kitchen. I'm not a lot of space. So it was kind of your customer demand it sounds like. Yeah, I mean sort of. And also our sort of creative energy. [00:01:30] And then also mission cheese is technically a single member LLC. That is my sole responsibility for better or worse. And we wanted to like bring more people into the fold. Eric had been at our manager for three years there and so we really wanted to work on a project together like officially the white Berkeley. I'm just curious about the different environments. I know San Francisco is a completely different environment than Berkeley. Yeah, Speaker 3:definitely a lot of different reasons for that. Um, you know, we, we did initially scour San Francisco to find a place and it was just really difficult and just getting so [00:02:00] expensive and getting expensive here too. Uh, yeah. But I think, you know, I think we'll probably see that ramping up over the next couple of years. But I think so. Good timing. Yeah. You know, timing is definitely. Exactly. Um, but you know, we, we dealt with some lors and we were in lease negotiations on a couple of places in San Francisco and it all kind of fell apart at some point and whether it was difficult owners or you know, leasing agents and things like that, it was just overly complicated. So we decided to look, do [00:02:30] a little, you know, dabble with some searches in the East Bay. And so, you know, Oakland and how did you find that great space? And it's in a great location by the UC theater. Speaker 3:That area is really popping and it's just going to get better and better. And your space is beautiful. Thank you. We appreciate that. Did you have to build that out? It was, it was a total shell that we found of all places on craigslist. No Way. Not Energetic. Um, just started doing searches and various locations and um, we saw that and one of the, when we together a list of [00:03:00] what's our ideal space and what does it look like. It was something that wasn't part of a new construction sort of formula retail ground floor where everything looks the same and kind of cookie cutter something to a little bit of its own personality. And this kind of had it a for sure in, in loads. Um, you know, there's not a square corner in the entire space. The floors aren't level, you know, it's, it's a wonky space that we're able to turn into something really beautiful. Speaker 2:Yes, there's so much light and I love the garden area out back. It [00:03:30] just really felt like, you know, all the spaces that we were looking at in San Francisco, we're like, oh, we could make this work, we could tweak it here and like sort of figure it out. But when we walked into this space, it just felt right for our concept. You know, there was a small loan look for the market to the left and felt organized correctly. And then the outdoor space just felt amazing. The owners and landlord just felt really welcoming and like wanted us there. So you know, whenever you're opening a business that feels good, people has a different personality. Yeah, for sure. So in San Francisco [00:04:00] right now is just like, I feel like just trying to get every last bit they can from people that are leasing things before things turn or I don't know what it is, but you know, we got your up against like urgent care facilities and people willing to spend 10 plus dollars a square foot. Speaker 2:And like as a small food business that's dedicated to really amazing ingredients, like you're not, that's not where you want to put your money. Yeah. You're not going to make it, you know the numbers don't cry. You've mentioned your concept and just for our listeners who don't know about mission cheese in San Francisco and your new place makers common, tell [00:04:30] us about your concept. What is it? Well, I mean makers comment is like as simply put as I can possibly do is a market and eatery. The market is, you know, highly curated all domestic products. Um, cut to order cheese and charcuterie counter and really focusing on people making really soulful products and sort of doing what mission cheese did for the cheese part of our business in that we're, you know, sharing stories and getting like lesser known, smaller production American cheeses into people's mouths. Speaker 2:[00:05:00] We want to still focusing just on American cheeses. Correct. We have one Italian guest Parmigiana Reggiano, but everything else is fully American. So will you have a really pretty deep background in cheese? I understand. Well how did you get into cheese after moving to the bay area and working in corporate retail for a few years I was really drawn to the food world and I almost went to culinary school. I worked in a kitchen on my pursuit to going to culinary school. And you know, in learning that I did not want to be [00:05:30] a chef, I learned that I really loved and was fascinated with fermentation and cheese. And you know how you start with one simple ingredient and it morphs into this, these, you know, amazing characters that have varying flavors. Every state wide states make cheese probably. Speaker 3:I, I know that I'd had some cheese from Hawaii and goat cheese from Hawaii that was quite delicious. Yeah. I don't know that I've had anything from Alaska. Wouldn't personally. Interesting. I didn't mention that [inaudible] up there. I mean Speaker 2:there's, there's definitely cheese being [00:06:00] made most places now. I mean it's whether it's, you know, produced at a level that can make it outside of the community. Like there are a lot of hobby cheesemakers who, you know, just make it yeah. You know, one wheel at a day or even one wheel every two days and then they sell it locally at a market or just give it to their friends. But um, yeah. So how do you find out about the great cheeses, let's say locally or not locally? Well did they contact you or Speaker 3:sometimes you get some of the hour each. But yeah, I mean I follow a lot of other cheese shops [00:06:30] around the country on Instagram and then they're taking photos of awesome cheese that they're finding a man. I'm like, Ooh, who's that producer? I don't know them like, and then we can see if we can get our hands on some of that if there'd be distributed over here. So that really does help quite. Yeah. Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a game changer for that. It was like culture magazine and every year there is an American cheese conference that happens and it bounces around in different locations. But there are, I think now somewhere around 1500 cheeses that are entered in that competition every year. So if you'd go to that conference, you have the capability [00:07:00] of trying 1500 different American cheeses and in a short three days span. So you find a lot of things there as well and make a lot of them relationships and can, and do you make cheese? Do you have your own signature cheeses? Speaker 3:We don't make cheese. Okay. Um, we don't do any onsite there. There's occasional, you know, maybe like a ricotta, like a cheese that will occasionally show up based on, that's kind of from some other projects that may be happening. But you know, the flip side of that is we are making sure catering, so we are fermenting, you know, Salami and things like that [00:07:30] in house as opposed to the cheese side of things. Yes. Speaker 2:But you teach classes, right, Sarah? Or did you use to on a cheese or someone that we all have taught classes at certain number of points in time. Usually Speaker 3:pairing unrelated. Yeah. I'm like, you know, wine and cheese or beer and cheese or sometimes wine versus beer just to like really have some fun with it. You know, there are a lot of cheeses that are delicious to just nibble on. And then there are ones that are really, really amazing with the right beverage or the right food to pair it with. And that's kind of, I think where we kind of bring the [inaudible]. Speaker 2:Right. You have the [00:08:00] local beers on tap and wines. Uh, right now Speaker 3:the eight perhaps. And they're all California producers, you know, all the wine and beer is California for the beer though we did, you know, since we're coming in the Berkeley, one of the things I thought was gonna be really important was to build those local relationships and to have people like Gilman brewing. Um, and Tim a scowl and field work for example. There some really local breweries that are doing some really great stuff. So that was kind of a key component and having a good, you know, what I felt [00:08:30] to be really legit and you know, paying attention to what's happening in Berkeley style. Speaker 2:You walk inside and there's a lot of local art. There's a beautiful ash family produced a beautiful quilt on the wall or mural over his moms. Oh, okay. Masterpiece and Oliver's a third partner or your husband. Yes. And so was that your focus to, to get everything local that, you know, the chairs, the table, I mean, everything we, I mean, we really try, I mean, when you're designing a space, you notice it like trends and sort of interior design [00:09:00] pass through. And so at a certain point you're like, okay, we need to like inject our own little flair and soul, you know, into a space. And we did that with mission cheese. I think we did. We tried really hard to do that and makers comment, it's a bigger space. But yeah, adding the mural, which tells the story of fermentation of beer, wine, cheese, and also did geography of the bay area and how it relates to Berkeley. And that was actually painted by Oliver's cousin Lori Damiano. It's really beautiful. Yeah, that was really fun. It was a great project. And then the quilt and by Oliver's [00:09:30] mom and the chairs are produced by the same gentleman that produced the stool or the stools are produced by the same gentleman that produced the tools that mission cheese and the lights come from Jerrod's pottery in Richmond. And so I think it, it makes the difference, like those little touches of like community and yeah, definitely bringing a spirit to a space Speaker 3:even, you know, like the Bar, uh, and whatnot. Our contractor who's here in Berkeley. They had done a tear down years ago and he had all this dug for that they'd been sitting on for a long time and kind of came up in conversation and that became [00:10:00] our good old Doug fir. Yeah. Yeah. Quite old. It's really beautiful. Would we have found out that it's quite soft though? It takes some dings in in those, those first couple of days like Oh God, but now it's like, oh, that's character. Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. For all of that. Yeah. If you're just tuning in, you're listening to method to the madness, a k a l x public affairs show featuring bay area innovators. Today I'm speaking with two of the three founders of a new [00:10:30] restaurant in the market in Berkeley called makers common, Sarah [inaudible] and Eric Miller. So your name makers common. I'm curious about that cause you know the makers movement, was there some connection to that or why did you call it Speaker 3:that was kind of unintentional and we did talk a little bit about that but it was really, you know, kind of deprioritizing it in a way ourselves and like trying to really focus on the actual makers, the cheese makers, the brewers, the wine makers, people that are making amazing [00:11:00] [inaudible] across the country. And then you know a little bit ourselves as well like what we're making and utilizing our kitchen and our skills to, to feed people. So and not being a really chef-driven restaurant where that's, you know, like you know the name of the chef and that's what sort of drives the business in a way and gets people through the door. This is kind of flipping that script a little bit and it's knowing our producers really well and being able to tell those stories. So it's about more about those makers. Speaker 2:Yeah. Mission cheese was really hyper focused on the cheese [00:11:30] and I think the name makers come and opened it up a bit. And instead of being about the product being about the people making the product and also the Commons part comes in is that just like a space for the community to come together and ideally we really want the makers to feel welcome there and happy there. No spaces. Speaker 1:Well, speaking of community, the most interesting thing to me about your whole thing is that you have created Speaker 2:a space that was invested in by the community you call your 165 or so investors, [00:12:00] co founders. Founders. Yes. The idea of bringing community in together with your restaurant. Yeah. You didn't do that with your first restaurant and cheese was all, all scrappy friends and family. Did you just not want to do that again? I mean I think to a certain point you feel like you wanna like stop leaning on, um, you're super tight community and open it up to the broader, broader space. And I think, you know, while having your family invested in your business, it's all pretty intense. And not to say that our family isn't invested [00:12:30] in this current business, but yeah, we wanted to do something else. And I think wanting to do something that felt more aligned with the good food movement and the direct public offering really felt like it was good friendly way to get money and interact with the community, which sort of marries a good food movement where getting money from a bank and like signing your life away and just that process didn't feel like it really matched. So I don't know. We were all really excited about the idea of raising money from the community and not just accredited investors, but unaccredited investors so anyone could invest. [00:13:00] The minimum was $1,000. Our average, I think at the end was somewhere around 3,500 Speaker 3:I believe it was 101 65 or one 66 investors. Speaker 2:Okay, and you met your goal? Not exactly [inaudible] Speaker 3:gold in a sense from a feeling perspective, just to throw that in there. Yes, because it was, people got more excited about it than we had anticipated. I think overall in the beginning though, what I think slowed us down was there's a lot of education around what a direct public offering is. Before you can even really talk about the offering [00:13:30] itself versus yesterday. Like explain what a DPO is and then we can get to here's what we're trying to do. And so I think that kind of cost us a little bit a time. Speaker 2:Can we say people are knowing about this now though? [inaudible] here recently and he talked about their direct public offering and people are thinking about the importance of community. Speaker 3:Yeah. It's just a different way to sort of deal with your finances and you know, you have, you know, we know we have a 165 166 customers out of the gate essentially. Speaker 2:Are there downsides where our challenges of doing it, this way of bringing in local investors, [00:14:00] it took a lot of time. Yeah. Speaker 3:It's, it's definitely, it's a lot of individual touches as opposed to, you know, just getting a big check from a bank or something like that. So you figure if we have 166 investors, that's 160 at minimum of 166 conversations because there's a lot of time and yeah. And again, like that educational aspect of it out of the gate, you know there were a few people that knew what it was beforehand, but mostly it was going through the whole process of, of that education. And did you have conferences with a groups or did you do [00:14:30] one on one? [inaudible] one on one but we tried to do is we at mission cheese we are hosting happy hours their weekly, biweekly where we would invite people in and tell your friends, bring your friends, anyone who might be interested and would do, you know, we would go through like a little slide deck but have some wine and some cheese. Nice sort of casual sort of situation where you know there's no hard sell in it, you know, is just for proof of concept, mission, cheese and how successful that's been trying to go for this, you know, other business from there. They must feel pretty good to know that local people want this business here. Oh yeah, [00:15:00] absolutely. You know, I think if they're invested in it then they want you to stay alive. Yes, yes. Speaker 2:And I think that's really the beauty of crowd investment, um, is that you have cheerleaders out of the gate and you have also people to bounce off ideas and come like we've had a lot of founders send us suggestions or just like, you know, useful information and critiques that, you know, we're using to like guide the business and make sure that we are the best we can be for our community. Cause that's really what we're trying to do is be a gathering spot for Speaker 3:Berkeley. Yeah. I think having that [00:15:30] group out of the gate though that are more comfortable coming directly to us with ideas and suggestions or even like some critiques here and there is great cause it's, it's sort of, it's a great little firewall and communication path before you have people that you don't know at all that are just going straight to Yelp or something like that. [inaudible] going to Yelp to write a one star review at least, or probably you're probably going to talk to us first. Yeah. But you have to manage that. I mean that, that is a time consumer for sure. Yeah. It hasn't been terrible. Oliver is really the person spearheading that for sure. [00:16:00] He's the person that's sending out the interest checks and all that to our founders and just kind of the key point person for when there are communications and you know, we kind of then take that information and divide and conquer however we need to respond. Speaker 3:You think about the old days, you know, before social media, that's what people had to do anyway, right? I mean go out to their community and friends and make that kind of contact. So it's kind of a swing bed. It is. Cause I mean the history of the drugs public offering is that it came right after the uh, you know, great depression when [00:16:30] banks weren't lending anymore. So this is a way for businesses to kind of get a little restart when there was no money being loaned out. Where do you see yourself going in the next few years? What other new things do you want to do at that location? We're so in it right now. Yeah. It's one of the things I do a light to a fantasize about for sure is that on the [inaudible] production side of things, you know, where we're small and scrappy in there and doing a, I think we're doing a really nice job, but to [00:17:00] get to a place where, wow, we're so busy on their front that we need our own production facility for stuff like that. Speaker 3:And where would that be? I don't know. Maybe Berkeley as well. You already have some great people here, you know with a, from honey and you know Paul Bertolli, so the west coast charcuterie hub, give those guys a run for their money. I don't know. There's always room for small production craft goods like that. There's really beyond for money. There's not, yeah, there's not, there's not too many super local. You know, there's, there's some other people doing some really great stuff, but you don't [00:17:30] have too many production facilities. No. Overall local butcher makes sausages, but those guys are amazing. I love them. Fantastic. Yeah, I think, you know, it's looking at stuff like that right now. It is just, you know, we're kind of a function of just making everything work right now. So five years out is a little hard. But that's definitely one of the things that I would like to see happen Speaker 2:for sure. Pushing the products that we do create inside of makers, common outside of the space to be available to others and also grow that [00:18:00] sort of interest in fermentation and old, old foods and preservation. That's for sure at the nickel for all of us. But first and foremost we need to fill that space up and get nice and busy and Oh, you're very close to the campus. Yeah, we're close to the campus. We have an amazing assortment of wine and beer and I think we're all really proud of it and just want to share those things as well as like all the other food items on the menu and in the market and just really try to support these local small guy. I mean a lot of the wine makers that we're supporting [00:18:30] are making one in the bay area and yeah, Speaker 3:yeah. I guess, you know, kind of grow those relationships. Expanding with Sarah saying there, but for like more, you know, short term kind of goals is like yeah. You know, getting at those, filling out the space, getting some, getting more, more impacted, turning it, you know, into, you know what you're talking about that that spot where it is that gathering place, you know, for downtown Berkeley. How do you do that? You know, we've been talking to Berkeley Rep and we've been talking to the downtown Development Association and Speaker 2:yeah, there's going to be a downtown [00:19:00] Berkeley walking food tour for like nice nighttime ever and they're really excited to feel like downtown Berkeley's in a spot to like offer that there are a lot of alleyways now going north, south from near where your location is and you can cut across and go multiple streets and venues and that's kind of happening. Then we're going to have a parkland and some bike parking out front of our space. That's all in the works. And so we're just really focused on the, [00:19:30] you know, short term becoming like a community gathering place and adding really to the vibe that is downtown Berkeley and not, you know, like making it a place where people jump on Bart and come here to eat or just walk in addition to being the place that you know, there's an amazing neighborhood, you know, right to the west of us and I hope we're a place that they're happy to walk to. I wanted to ask you what your biggest challenges have been? Uh, not just at makers comment but mission cheese as well. Speaker 3:I think, I think out of the gate for makers common, at least it was staffing. Um, for sure. [00:20:00] You know, everyone's been talking about a shortage of land cooks and things like that in the bay area in general. And I think that would, that was probably the biggest hurdle for me out of the gate was that every time I was able to get a little bit further away from the kitchen to do other things that were more front of house oriented or more cheese oriented, it's getting pulled back in because of some issues there, but starting to come back together, which is great. I think overall we have a good core front of House team at makers come in, you know that they're [00:20:30] all learning the lines and the peers and being able to better speak about cheese, which is really great to see seeing like that excitement in people. But staffing out of the gate was definitely hard. You know, and I don't want to speak for Sarah, but you know w there's been just because mission cheese is a little smaller, you have like a really great tight team. So there when when someone leaves, it does have a bigger impact on that side because it's sort of like, you know, everyone's kind of the big fish there in a way. Yeah. In a, in a little pond. Speaker 2:You know, what we're doing and offering is really, [00:21:00] there's a lot of knowledge involved in it and I think we'd sort of took for granted the baseline of knowledge that we were so familiar with and comfortable with that mission cheese where after six years of being an operation, that passion and that baseline of information is like sort of infused almost in the space because no one's leaving all at once. So like starting from a clean slate and sort of building that knowledge of the, of the products that we're carrying because they are really strange. Like if you come in and look at our cheese case, even as a cheese lover, you are probably gonna not see many familiar [00:21:30] faces in our cheese case because it is all domestic, pretty small production like unique things. So even someone with a robust cheese knowledge has to learn those products specifically. So I think getting that baseline knowledge was a challenge in the beginning. And I think, I mean team is doing an amazing job in getting up to speed. And then also like Eric said, the staffing, I mean everyone you talked to in the bay area, food, retail, I mean there's a lot of turnover. It's hard. Well it's hard to hire people because people can't afford to live here. Speaker 3:It's a, it's not even so much the turnover. It's that [00:22:00] you know what you, what you can afford to pay people. Cause you know, we want to do the best that we can for our employees at, at all costs. In a sense. I'm still doesn't necessarily amount to enough for you to have your, you know, studio or one bedroom apartment by yourself, especially in San Francisco for sure. But you know that that same trends moving out this way too. Speaker 2:Yeah. When I helped permission cheese, pretty much the entire staff, I, I always reference this because we had like a progressive cocktail party for our first holiday party because everyone lived within a stone's [00:22:30] throw in the center of the city and the mission are very close by. So that was just 2011 2011 and now we don't have a single employee that lives in the mission. Yeah. Wow. They live either in the East Bay or at the beach or, yeah, I mean further out. Yeah, outer sunset, you know, Concord and, yeah, exactly. And Jose crazy. Really want to know what you think should be done about this. Yeah, that is a complicated question. I mean, just because you're in the retail business and we're also a part of it. I mean [00:23:00] we part of also why we needed to wanted to open another businesses that we couldn't really afford to live in the bay area. Speaker 2:I mean all of her and I lost her rent control apartment last year in San Francisco and we had to move out. I mean, you're in the East Bay now. No, we're in the North Bay. Funny enough. And it's not, it wasn't all that intentional. It was just an opportunity for a reasonably priced house came up. And so that's where we are. Yeah, it's a challenge I think for everybody, including ourselves. And so I don't, I don't know that there is a solution that I can think of. I mean there are, [00:23:30] there are some onerous like taxes and things at the city and makes you pain or just like really small food business. Should I still be paying on the tenant improvements of the space and the mission? Six and a half years in my tenant improvements, which I like, which is like includes my refrigeration is still worth like $87,000 I'm like, no, that refrigeration is almost dead back time replacing many of them so well I guess just the, the closures are going to be the message if they can't make it. Speaker 2:Yeah. I think part of the struggle [00:24:00] in the bay area, and I mean I could be totally wrong, this is just my hypothesis is there are a lot of tech companies that are offering food. They're offering breakfast, lunch and dinner and people aren't leaving their building. And I know that you feel that in the city and people are also ordering food online. I mean definitely like roasters and like people doing the same things that we're doing are feeling that, you know, and it's unfortunate because I want there to be more of a push from these companies to go out and spend the money that they're making in the bay area to support local communities. And I know some [00:24:30] businesses do that and I know salesforce highly encourages people to get out of the building and things like companies like that. But I wish that would become more of a trend. Speaker 3:The food industry is lost a lot of line cokes. You know, we've, we've been reading a lot about that where a lot of the larger companies where they have really well outfitted kitchens inside their offices, you know, where you can be a chef and be more nine to five [inaudible] and not have the long hours that a lot of restaurants do from open to close and clean up, you know, pretty cushy. But that just means [00:25:00] that those people don't go outside, you know, they just sort of stay there. They eat there, you know, and the only thing missing or is just some, some cots for everyone. Speaker 2:I mean I think, I think people will eventually realize that they want places in their community to hang out and they'll do that. And I think we're just in a point of this, the technology swing right now where it's difficult and I think a lot of businesses even in the mission felt it last year and probably will continue to feel it as people interact more with food and technology and get it delivered to their house versus going out. Speaker 3:For me, when I really started [00:25:30] getting into food, it was with like a, a good group of people that, uh, were my local community when I was living in New York City still, uh, before moving out to the west coast. And all of our get together is revolved around food and cooking and everyone getting together. And I feel like this is just sort of a continuation of that. And you know, you go to a friend's house and someone's doing dinner and everyone always inevitably ends up in the kitchen for some reason or other. And though that doesn't happen at maker's common because it's a restaurant, we can't actually do [00:26:00] that. Um, it's being able to feed people and, and you know, provide that experience in a way that's no different than, you know, hanging out with your friends and giving them the information if they need it and giving them the an emanating. Speaker 3:Exactly. You know, and maybe, you know, introducing some new things that you never had before, especially in the cheese front. There's so many cheeses that we represent and that's such an amazing community unto itself. And to be able to fold that into like my community to the Berkeley community and you know, the wine and [00:26:30] the beer and in the charcuterie and, and to just be proud of that and to be humbled to by the, the support that we've received from our founders. And you know, all of that just comes together. It can't be more about community than that. Speaker 2:Food has been a big part of my life growing up. Like my family always sat around the table and I do it from a real, I'm originally from Wisconsin, so the cheese really is in my veins. But yeah, you know, we had long family dinners around the table and it's always been such a big [00:27:00] part of my life. And I feel like that community aspect and what coming around a table of like home cooked food does is just so irreplaceable and like my daily life and I hope it is. I want it to be in everyone's life, certainly my son's life. And you know, the conversations that happen and how we talk to each other as humans and like understand like how each other feels and you know, what challenges and things that people are going through. And I really feel like food has an amazing way to connect people in a, in a way that very little else does. Speaker 2:You know? [00:27:30] And for me, that connection really to food came moving to the bay area and really understanding what a great tomato tasted like and what a fuzzy peach coming up the behind, you know, like what that felt like, you know? And just that close connection to food. And we spend so much time and attention on so many things in our life, but like everything that we're putting into our body can sometimes be forgotten. Mission cheese was an effort to really showcase the cheesemakers and make consumers or connect consumers so that next time they go to the grocery they might be asking about Sophia [00:28:00] or fat bottom girl or Dunbarton blue so that our local cheese makers can grow and scale and stay around. You know, and you know the last few years we have seen some fall out and it's sort of scary cause I do feel like the good food movement was on such a tear. Speaker 2:And I think it's been, there's so much happening right now that it's sort of hard to stay focused on it. And I do really think that having a robust agricultural system that feeds us is so important. I think mission cheese has become a remarkable gathering place and a place to tell stories and to introduce people to new and interesting [00:28:30] things that are off the beaten path so that our food system stays diverse and fun and engaging and I hope makers as an extension of that. If some of our listeners want to reach you guys or do you have a website? Tell us how to, Speaker 3:yeah, a maker's common.net for the website. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram. Just maker's common Twitter as well. So I'll just walk down to 1954 university avenue. Exactly, exactly. Between Belvia and MLK and then joy, we want [00:29:00] guests building that community and get people in the door. What is actually in Velveeta? That's a great question. I mean it's anyone really no processed cheese food. I'm sure it's a lot of vegetable oil. Yeah, processed, processed cheese food is what it generally says on the label for things like that. Like that was our goal is to like get rid of the stigma that comes along with that word, which is like, I mean it means Kraft singles, right? I mean a great idea to change that perception. And I always, I always kind of stutter a little bit when I go to say like, Oh, you know, American, [00:29:30] Oh, do I really want to say American cheese? Like go, you always have to throw craft in the middle or something. I like American craft cheese, but not with the k leaving crowd. I just say American cheese. I think if American cheese makers are Speaker 2:the most amazing people too, I mean, that is really why I am made American cheese because they're the most collaborative, amazing, Speaker 1:genuine, beautiful group of people that you'd ever meet. I want to thank you though for being on the program. Thanks for Eric and Sarah. Yeah. [00:30:00] You've been listening to method to the madness, the public affairs show on k a l expertly celebrating bay area innovators. You can find all of our podcasts on iTunes university. We'll see you next time. [inaudible]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our first Striv Sports feature with the Coyotes, we talk with volleyball coach Sarah Dvorak about her team's early season loss to Mitchell, the tough early season schedule, and trying to get to Lincoln in November.

The story about how I met today's guest (Episode 21), Sarah Dvorak, is quite unique. You'll have to listen to the show to learn more, but suffice to say, this email was a big part of it. I had the unique opportunity to record this episode at Sarah's house in San Francisco. SO. MUCH. FUN. I got to meet her husband, see her newborn, eat some cheese ... and riff about cheese (and more!) for 30 minutes. In case you missed any of the previous episodes, you can catch them here by visiting the Living Your Passion landing page. Are you ready to get your cheese on? During this episode ... Sarah and her husband Oliver allowed me into their home to record this episode in person! Sarah served me some really (REALLY) good cheese (see picture). We learned about how Sarah got interested in - the passionate about - cheese. We talked about American cheese (Kraft Singles!) for a bit. Sarah shared how the name "Mission Cheese" came about - not what I thought! We discussed "farm to table" and "local" ... stuff. Sarah talked about her "aha moment" with cheese. Too funny! Sarah revealed her future plans for Mission Cheese. Sarah gave some sage advice for how to find your passion (Hint: Involves TRYING stuff). More About Sarah Who am I? I’m Sarah Dvorak of Mission Cheese. I live and work in San Francisco. What do I do? That’s a really interesting question. I’m a cheese evangelist and a small business owner. At Mission Cheese we promote and tell stories about American artisan cheese and how it’s evolved over the last decade to a vibrant and delicious industry. That’s the crux of what I do. And that’s why I do it; to share the abundance of what’s out there today. To help increase sales of domestic cheeses and help them scale their businesses to where they’re sustainable and viable. Find out more in this amazing blog post / interview. Links Discussed In This Episode The Cheese Evangelist. An interview with Sarah Dvorak, of Mission Cheese Mission Cheese on Twitter Sarah on Instagram California Artisan Cheese Guild The woman in Alaska who said "Eff It" and quit her job Enjoyed this episode? Please consider subscribing (if you haven't already). Also, what would be really awesome? If you could rate and review the show ... and use those fancy social sharing icons below to tell the world! Alternatively, you can subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe via email (scroll to the bottom). Finally, if you know someone who bleeds passion (or maybe it’s you), please email me at djwaldow at gmail dot com. Oh, and if you have a connection to LeBron James, please let me know. I think he’d be a great person to talk to about his passion for basketball. #DeadSerious