Okay, today I'm at one of my most favorite places
to eat. They have the best margaritas around,
and the vibe is to die for. I'm at Windsor Eats
with the owner, Adriano Ciotoli. Hey! Hey, how
are ya? I'm great. I'm so happy to be here, minus
a margarita. We're working. It's closed today.
How long has Windsor Eats been around? Windsor
Eats itself as an entity has been around for
a lot longer than a lot of people realize. I
actually started it back in 2004. Yeah, we were
essentially a search engine for local food, local
drink in the area, for anyone. Because back then,
Google really wasn't... what it is today. And
I just sound so old saying that, but it wasn't
what it is today. And so when people were searching
for places to eat, it literally just gave you
a list of restaurant name, address, phone number.
Half of them had already been closed for who
knows how long. So I kind of looked at it as
an opportunity and created a hyper local search
engine for places to eat and drink. It was my
girlfriend at the time. You know, it's the same
argument everyone has. Where do you want to go
to eat? I don't know. How about you? I don't
know, how about you? And then you go to like
the same two restaurants over and over and over
again. And so I took my IT background from St.
Clair College, developed WindsorEats .com and
away we went and then just kind of identified
gaps until, you know, we started offering events,
tours, festivals, and then in 2022 opened up
our food hall. And it's great because it's indoor
and outdoor. A lot of people don't realize we
have an indoor. I know. It blows my mind because
you walk through it to get to the patio. But
we have an indoor and an outdoor space. But yes,
I mean, the showpiece is the patio. I think the
largest in the city with license for over 420
people. And we love hosting so many events out
there and live music and just kind of doing something
different almost every weekend. You really do.
I mean, events, we're talking about... You just
did Cinco de Mayo and then your Mexican city
at the Mexican village for carousel nations.
And a lot of people know us because of the Mexican
events we do, but we do so many other ones as
well. We do host my dog's birthday here, which
is we are a pet friendly establishment. But we
do things like we do a beer festival. We do a
cocktail festival. We've had movie nights by
bringing in a big screen out onto the patio,
which I've missed every time so far. It's been
great. Not that you've missed it, but not that
you weren't here. But doing all these different
events. And we even give our staff opportunities.
I'm talking to a staff member right now who is
really interested in starting a market. And we
said, have a go at it. We will give you our support
in everything that we know and our knowledge
and help you any way you need it to start a market.
Because you guys did that one on, a small one
on Mother's Day. Yeah, we did a Mother's Day
market, which was... Fairly successful. It was
a it was a busy day. I ended up buying a bunch
of stuff And great vendors like fresh cut flowers
were on site for that for for all the moms and
of course the margaritas and the Aperol spritzes
were were flowing that day But we love doing
little different things like that and kind of
supporting not just our staff, but really anyone
in the community. We have the space. We would
love people to utilize it to host different types
of events. I have photographed events here and
it's a lot of fun, indoor, outdoor, you name
it. There's a lot of... photographable moments
here or areas that people love. They were very
colorful and vibrant establishments. It's true.
But the thing is, what's nice is you can hold
an event inside, but it's not closing the business
down because they can just go outdoors and...
Yeah, 100%. So we've actually... built the site
so we can do exactly that we can do a private
party inside we actually have a wedding coming
up soon we do rent it out for weddings we do
micro weddings so it's a short ceremony a little
bubbly and appetizers afterwards and then away
they go but we can do that inside without even
disrupting the patio or the food trucks outside
and people are still able to to enjoy it and
i mean people can still travel indoor outdoor
if they're in the event absolutely we should
have had our cutting here if it would have been
around at the time. That would have been perfect.
It's definitely a different vibe for a wedding,
but a lot of people are looking for something
smaller and something a little more unique. And
I think we offer that. I like to think we offer
that. And you want to have a nice, relaxed vibe.
There's nothing better. I love weddings. I love
big weddings. They're beautiful. But I love small
weddings as well where you can just relax, enjoy
yourself. I prefer a smaller one because then
you can get to hang out. with everybody. Absolutely
and I know from a work perspective smaller weddings
are great too because the large ones can... Ooh,
take a lot out of you. Exhausting. They can drain
you, that's for sure. Now let's talk about food
trucks. Yes. How many do you have out here? We
currently have three food trucks on the patio.
We have Dosa Mosa doing Indian food, Keiru Snack
Bar doing Japanese fusion, and Rico Taco doing
Mexican food. And of course they're like... cult
following for their their birria tacos, but we
do bring in a bunch of other vendors. We recently
just had roaming flavors on site. We bring in
other chefs or or restaurants that want to test
something different. And so they'll they'll pop
up here for a night or a weekend just to sample
certain things. Now that one last weekend, who
is that one? That was roaming flavors. OK, John's
very disappointed because they had the best.
They should be back. They should be back, which
is a good thing. They want to be back. We want
to have them back. Yeah, because we're excited
about that. That tastes really good. I tried
some of his, but I like the Rico taco that. They
still have like your poutines. Yes. Oh, their
poutines are amazing. And that was, I mean, much
like any business owner, that's him kind of identifying
what his customers were asking for or wanting
in addition to the amazing tacos that he was
doing. And he kind of, you know, he had briefly
opened another truck called Frylicious. Yes.
And so he saw. which dishes people were buying
from that one and when he He transformed that
because Rico taco has been so successful Into
another Rico taco truck to bring to festivals
and events while he's still able to operate here
he took kind of those bestsellers from the frylicious
menu and inserted them into the the Rico taco
one which you may find weird that there's a buffalo
chicken poutine on a Mozzarella stick poutine.
They were so good hit they did frylicious did
have some really good sandwiches Yes, they did.
I still dream about that one. I know. That one
event. introducing them as content creators.
And I went home and I was so full, but I brought
some for John. I'm like, I had to eat everything.
It was just so good. We like to be a little gluttonous
when we're doing things. Not just when we're
showcasing some of the other chefs in the restaurants
and food trucks, but even when we're doing our
own events. We know the Windsor Market. We've
been doing this for so long. And so our focus
is always quality, but I don't know, maybe it's
the Italian culture in me and the eat, manja,
manja. Yes, we appreciate that. The clothing
stores appreciate that too. Always buying a size
up. We work in tandem with them and the gyms.
What was that June event you did last year where
I kissed a fish? Oh, the East Coast Kitchen party.
That was fun. That was a lot of fun. We are,
we're trying to finalize a date right now. That
was fun. It's looking like either August or September,
but we're definitely wanting to bring it back.
It was so much fun. And again, kind of, you know,
the different events that we do, we did a traditional,
you know, East Coast Kitchen party, as traditional
as we can without being in a... It's not really
a kitchen party, but we had the fiddlers and
the musicians playing music. We did the ceremony,
the Kissing the Cod ceremony, where you can become
an honorary Newfie. I am. Yep. Oh, yeah. There's
a great picture of that, too. A reel of going
in for two. The amount of people that came out
that wanted to celebrate their own culture of
being a Newfoundlander, it was amazing to see
them all come out and how proud. excited they
were that there was an event for them. We happened
to just be here that night and saw it and I know
six and Taryn and when I saw that she was doing
it's like okay why not what the hell I had already
had a margarita or two so I'll kiss the fish
but that that shot I'd rather kiss the fish than
have that shot. That was horrible. Screech was
nasty. Is rum? It's just a type of rum. Really
cheap rum. You could probably buy that at the
dollar store this year. There's a reason it's
called Screech versus Rum. But it's stuff like
this that is so much fun and then in the way
they're open year -round so we had the winter
and There was a s'mores bar hot chocolates. There
was a lot of different stuff. Oh, yeah winter
time too, and we try to We understand that, again,
as I was saying before, that most people associate
us with the patio, but because we're open year
-round, we try to do some fun things inside in
the wintertime, and even still utilizing our
outside space. So, yes, we have our little tabletop
s'mores kits, which we now offer year -round,
so anyone can get them and ask for them, which
is tough always having the chocolate and the
graham crackers in the back, ready to go. Without
eating them. Yeah, when I'm sitting here working.
on other things when we're not open. But we also,
in December, we completely transformed the entire
space into kind of a... like Christmas threw
up everywhere. We did a Christmas pop -up here
called Tinseltown Windsor. That was so much fun.
It was a lot of fun. The live Christmas music
every single night. Rudolph on the wall. Oh,
yeah, like the old school films showing. And
then even the whole menu was transformed into
Christmas themed drinks. And that was extremely
popular for us and extremely successful that
we are bringing it back this year. And we're
even going to be doing it for for Halloween this
year as well. We're going to do a Halloween town
pop -up for the entire month of October. Oh,
that'll be fun. I'm excited about that one. That'll
be fun. Although it's going to be a little tougher
to find people to play Halloween music. I don't
even know, is there Halloween music? Yeah, the
Monster Mash. We'll just play that on repeat
the whole night. Heavy metal, why not? We'll
find something. And the French song, C 'est l
'Halloween. Oh, I forgot about that. Just those
two. And I mean, you've also hosted trivia nights
and there's always something going on trivia
nights. You've had comedy here. I mean, this
is the place to hold an event. Oh, absolutely.
And we try not to say no when people approach
us about doing things. We always wished when
we were starting out and there were a couple
of people that that sort of because after I started
Windsor Eats, my sister was helping me out. She
came on board and has been a huge part of it
since almost the very beginning. And so we kind
of wish that there was more people willing to
do that when we were starting out So we always
try to be be as open and helpful as possible.
I know we had Ken Brandis Really helped us out.
He was the the organizer of a festival epic here
that used to be on the riverfront that would
get like 10, 15 ,000 people out for a food and
drink festival. And he gave us the opportunity
when we were just starting out, said, yeah, you
know, set up a tent, you know, have a display,
showcase what you're doing. And I like to think
it at least gave the confidence to really start
getting us going and get the ball rolling for
us. So we want to do that for other people as
much as possible. And when people like Jen Richardson
approach about doing festival or doing a comedy.
100%. Let's do this. Yeah. Well, let's find a
way to make it happen. So we're just going to
get down to the nitty gritty. Where the hell
did you learn to make that margarita? Oh my god.
There was a lot of trial and error with that
margarita. But it was really hard work, taste
testing. We literally, we sat there and we were
trying. So. We tried so many different types
of tequila, but then we tried all those tequila
with either Cointreau or Triple Sec or Grand
Marnier. And then we tried them all at different
ratios with each one. So there was a lot of testing.
And our margaritas are strong. They're strong,
but I... You get happy on one. Yeah, it's...
I like to think it's one of the best margaritas
I've had, you know, around. It is true. So we
didn't... We wanted to focus on that quality,
even if, you know, the price is a little higher
or or whatnot. It was just it was so good that
we we stuck with it and we like we use an aged
tequila as well, which makes it a bit smooth.
It is really nice, which makes it a bit smoother
as well. We tried to be as authentic as possible
with it. Yeah. So it's not any of this sugary
mix. No, but that's just the classic. Right.
Like we we probably have. Because we like to
have fun. I mean we have an event called margaritas
and mojitos Which the menu just turns into 16
margaritas 16 mojitos. When's that? I think that
one's in August. I think it's in August or July.
I can't remember off the top of my head July
22nd would be a good day. I'm not sure. Yeah
55. We'll get something going on. 55 baby. I'm
having my birthday party here. I was gonna say
that's an important age, but every year is an
important age. I survived. I feel that every
day. So how many margaritas do you have right
now? We probably have recipes for like 40 -ish.
different margaritas. We have our staple four
that always stay on the menu. We switch one in
and out, but right now it's the classic, our
jalapeno margarita, which is really popular as
well. Right now we have coconut, but our strawberry
shortcake is a very popular one as well. Our
classic used to outsell everything probably by
like... tenfold and then the strawberry shortcake
margarita came in and that will outsell the classic
some nights. I've tried them all except for the
spicy because I'm not a spicy person so when
I buy the the flight of them you always make
a or whoever makes a whiskey one. Yes the margarita.
And you can't tell. No it's I like to think it's
a really good whiskey sour. And I don't like
whiskey. No it's nice though. Yeah. Yeah it's
um we call it the margarita. Margarita's Canadian
cousin can we use a Windsor made whiskey in it?
But we yeah, we wanted to put our own little
twist on it I mean all the the spirits that we
use here we try to use local or Ontario as much
as possible But all our gin vodka and all our
whiskey is all Windsor made and so that's especially
the whiskey side of things Because I mean we're
I'd like to we call her the Windsor whiskey town,
Canada we want to showcase that and still take
a lot of our our tour and history. That we do
through Windsory through the years and bring
it into the space And then all of your beers
and your other like that's all local all local.
Yeah Half our fridge is usually local and the
other half is Ontario But it was interesting
because when the LCBO pulled everything from
the shelves we were like, okay We you know, let's
look through everything. We didn't have to pull
a single bottle. Yeah away So we we kind of promoted
saying, you know None of our recipes are having
to change because we haven't even had to remove
a single bottle from our shelves. You know, from
the very beginning of Windsor Eats, you know,
over 20 years ago, it's all been about supporting
local. And that was kind of just a friendly reminder
that we're still doing that. They are great.
And if you have the flight, don't drive. Yes,
and the flight, so if people are wondering and
listening and watching about wondering about
a flight, we do flights of margaritas, just like
wineries do flights of wine or breweries do flights
of beer. Yeah, it's wood. Yeah, so you get like
a half margarita of four different wines. And
I say they're like the fajita effect that when
it comes out, everyone turns and looks and then
they start ordering them. That's true. Yeah.
The other, during, I think it was during Mother's
Day, we sold about 60 flights. uh just in in
about five hours so they they become very popular
uh with uh with people not surprising whatsoever
now when are you open what are your days hours
we're open from thursdays to uh to sundays uh
so thursdays like we don't open late. We're five
to nine on Thursdays, five to eleven on Fridays
during the summertime, one to eleven on Saturdays,
and one to nine on Sundays. So we, you know,
we're very family friendly. We have games here
that both, you know, big big games like Connect
4 or Jenga outside that people play, but a lot
of board games inside that get used a lot. So
it's nice seeing a lot of people coming, especially
on Sundays during the day or early dinner time,
coming with their kids and playing the games
and letting them kind of... Run, you know have
fun a little bit while they're out for dinner
exactly and then they're always going around
and oh Can I pet your puppy and then mom and
dad are getting the margaritas? Smart on their
part Does it change? Is there any more days open
during the summer? During the summer, no, we
stay true with the Thursdays to Sundays. We had
considered opening up on Wednesdays, but we do
a lot of private events or we do things like
cocktail classes or sausage -making classes or
just renting out the space from Monday to Wednesday
that we decided against that. And also, I mean...
it's tough prepping for the the restaurants or
the food trucks for them to be prepping for for
more days as well. So they kind of gave their
feedback as well and we all decided because it's
very much you know I look at us as all a team.
It's not just the Windsor Eats food hall, but
we work together with the food trucks and trying
to bring people here. And, you know, they gave
their feedback and we kind of agreed with them
saying, no, Thursday to Sunday is enough and
gives them opportunities to do their catering
gigs and everything like that, too. I was very
disappointed that I missed your drink making.
class you had. We'll have more. We'll have more.
I know. I can't wait. I just had to make a few
tweaks of it. We gave a couple trial runs and
then I just have to make some tweaks to it and
then it'll be offered again. maybe as a one -off
or just to fill some open dates that we may have
and put it in there. But I definitely want to
do it. It's a lot of fun to show people what
we're doing, but also to see them realize that
they can make some pretty awesome drinks at home
too. Speaking of drinks, do you have a trailer
to go on location? We do. The little blue one.
We do. We have probably about... 12 years ago,
maybe a little more, we decided we were doing
some research and we saw in Australia, it was
extremely popular, that people were taking old
campers or horse trailers and converting them
into bars for events and weddings. And so we
started looking, we converted an old trillion,
1973 trillion camper into a mobile bar. And from
what we can gather, pretty sure it was the first
in Ontario. possibly Canada, there may have been
one on the west coast. But we transformed it
into a mobile bar. We've rented it out for weddings.
We travel the province with it, showcasing all
the drinks from Windsor and Essex County at food
and drink shows. So we've had a lot of fun with
that trailer. And we revamped it, gave it some
12 years old, right? It needed a little love,
and we just recently did that. And now it's available
for rent again for people. Wow, you guys do everything
here. That's why I love this place. We definitely
keep people on their toes with all the different
things that we do. And we like being a little
different. We always look at it if someone else
is doing something great. amazing. We don't need
to do it. We want to, you know, be their cheerleaders
and, you know, rah, rah, rah, cheer them on and
wish them all the success and differentiate ourselves
from what everyone else is doing. So we're always
trying to find kind of an edge by doing things
a little differently and kind of walking to the
beat of our own drum. Exactly. But you're also
really heavily involved in the community in this
area and this neighborhood, which is great. I
love this neighborhood. It's been nice and sometimes
I have to be reminded. It's only been three years
that we've been here. And so I don't have patience.
I'm always like, go, go, go, go, go. We have
to do this now. And then sometimes people remind
me, you've only been here for this little time
and you've already achieved all this at the food
hall. But we're big believers as well as we want
the love to spread in the community. So we are
constantly out there trying to clean up our alley,
our entryways in an alley. And we try to clean
it up for the neighbors and for ourselves. We
do host events in the alley as well and so I
know when we hosted the Electric Avenue Alley
Party for each time or actually for the first
time last year and we're going to be doing it
again this year, you know we went to all the
neighbours literally like pulled all the weeds
that were in their alleys made it spotless for
every single neighbour as well and you know murals
have been put up in the alleyway and then Denial
brought his festival, the Free For All Walls
mural festival, and used us as his headquarters,
so he put more murals around, and we're really
trying to make it a destination for people to
come and see and get more feet and eyes in this
little pocket, because not only are we in Little
Italy, we're also in the McDougal Street corridor,
which is rich in Windsor's black history. The
park right beside us, Olden C. Parker Park, has
some history behind it as well. And so we really
want as many people coming and seeing and enjoying
that and learning the history in the city as
well. And so it's, it was nice to hear when places
like Fogg and Kraftheads decided they wanted
to move here and be a part of it as well because
they're very like -minded individuals and businesses
like my sister and I and like Windsor Eats. And
so we've already been discussing when they finally
open all the different events and things we want
to do. to kind of enhance that even more. It's
going to be so much fun because they're going
to be right next door. Right next door. We can
just look out from our garage door and wave.
I know they've had some delays, but it looks
like things are finally starting to move forward
again, which is exciting. I know they're probably
more stressed and anxious about it than anyone,
but I would say next is my sister Pina and I.
We're excited to have neighbours. We're a little
bit of an island. right now by ourselves, so
to have other like -minded businesses beside
us that we can send people to and work together
with to draw more people to the neighbourhood.
And events. That's exciting. Oh yeah. It's really
exciting. It'll be fun. Now we're about, we said
it on Erie Street, it's 400 Erie Street? 400
Erie Street East, so we're just west of Howard
Avenue, right across the street from New Beginnings.
And definitely make sure to follow on Instagram
and Facebook. at Windsor Eats on all of them.
We're old enough that we were able to, it was
available on each and every one of those. And
then you have a website too? We do windsoreats
.com and we post, we're constantly, you know,
creating content and writing articles and everything,
not just about ourselves, but about, you know,
other food and drink businesses or events happening
as well. So we put it all put it all on our website,
obviously share them on our socials as well.
But I always recommend following us on each of
them because we do. We do keep it different on
each channel, just to keep it fresh. So just
to be selfish. But yeah, follow us on every single
thing imaginable. And share it all. All of it.
Thank you so much, Adriano. I appreciate it.
I really appreciate you having me here. Oh, at
your place. At my place, but on the podcast.
And again, my name is Tracy Martins. Thank you
so much for joining me for another episode of
YQG in Blue. Make sure to follow me on all social
media as well as any of your YouTube or a podcast
places that you listen. Have a good one.