All right, guys, it's Matt from Good News York,
and I am very excited. You might have noticed
this is not our place. This is a brand new place,
a place you're very excited about. If you haven't
figured out the logos or whatever, we are at
the brand new Taco Bell Cantina. It's not even
open yet. This is like a super exclusive. I really
got to thank these guys. And before this special
event, our man Mike was out today. So we brought
in a ringer here, Mr. Syracuse. Alec is back
with us to join us and learn all about this.
But let's dive into what's really happening here.
If you wouldn't mind, go ahead and introduce
yourself and tell us where we're at. Great, thank
you. So we're at the Malleus Cantina. My name
is Jessica. I am working in the marketing department
for Hospitality Syracuse, and Hospitality Syracuse
is the local franchise organization that owns
and operates the Taco Bells pretty much in all
of upstate New York. We're based right in Liverpool.
The ownership team and the owners live right
in the local area. I think a lot of people don't
realize how local we are. Even though we run
to talk about brand, we're all based right here
in Syracuse. That's something I was going to
mention. I'm so glad you brought that up because
we all see these. This is obviously a big national
company, but the reality is it's really just
local people who get to sell this national product.
Correct. Yep. Like I said, we work for Hospitality
Syracuse, and the brand is our governing factor,
but we're all employees of Hospitality Syracuse.
That's great. How many restaurants, how many
locations do you have altogether in your group?
This one opens, this will be our 113th location.
Wow. Yeah. Wow. You must span a very wide area
in New York here? Yeah, we go all the way from
Rochester to Albany, up to Watertown, all the
way up to Messina, down to Ithaca, Almyra, Owego.
And then we do have about 40 stores in western
Tennessee, which is another branch of our company.
That's incredible. That's incredible. Now, we
are here at the Taco Bell Cantina. Which that's
not a thing I've seen anywhere else, right? Correct.
So, yep, this is the Manlius Cantina, and Cantina
is kind of is an elevated brand for Taco Bell.
The first Cantina opened several years ago out
in California, where Taco Bell is headquartered.
And it's to do a full different experience when
you go to a Taco Bell. Yes, we have all your
favorite talk about food, but we also have lots
of events. We're going to have music, we're going
to have bingo, music bingo, trivia nights, some
great holiday parties, and we have... pretty
much a full bar, so you can enjoy all your favorite
Taco Bell food and come out at an event and have
an adult drink with it as well. Usually you go
to the bar and then you gotta find the open Taco
Bell afterwards, you know. I think you've really...
We've married the two. Yeah, you really save
people a lot of time and effort here. This is
so neat and so obviously, like you said, this
is a very rare concept so far. Do you think that
it's something that we'll see a lot more of?
I hope so. I mean, definitely I hope so. Like
I said, this is a first for our company, so this
is a really big undertaking for our company.
We're hoping once we get this one open and going
that, you know, we'll see what the future brings.
Yeah, that's really neat. It seems like there's
a lot of experiences that people are looking
for, right? And we've always had the traditional
restaurants and the food and the brand we love.
But... There's more to it, right? We gotta get
out of our house. We were talking a little bit
beforehand on how, you know, after COVID, it
seemed like people got a little comfortable with
a lot of takeout and not necessarily going to
the restaurants and things, and you're giving
them a reason. beyond the food to come here.
We hope so. Yeah, we hope so. Like I said, we're
going to have some really amazing parties here.
We're going to have Thanksgiving Eve or pre Thanksgiving
Eve, the night before Thanksgiving. You know,
it's a big night for everybody to go out. We're
going to have a great party here. We're going
to have some live entertainment. Some local radio
DJs are going to be here. All that will be to
be announced. Wow. We're going to have a jewelry
making girl or a girl who does like the permanent
jewelry is going to be here. A great party to
come. And I wanted to mention, too, about this
building that we're in. It's pretty unique. So
as you probably know, this was an old manliest
fire department. It was opened in 1968 and actually
ran as a fire department in 2017. And they closed
in 2017 and built their new location. And the
building has been empty since then. And so we
came to Manly and we said, you know, what are
you doing with that building? And they're like,
well, it's kind of just empty. And so we were
able to acquire the building, keep all the original,
you know, the exposed brick and stuff. And these,
you know, these big windows, which are a nod
to the fire department. And really keep that
feeling of reusing the building. It's a huge
footprint for us too. Yeah, I love you can see
that and those were obviously the doors where
the trucks would be, right? Yep, those are the
old bay doors. It's fair to say we're sitting
where the fire trucks would sit. Yes. Where they
would be parked back in the day. What an incredible
use. of this space, and how's it being received
so far by the people of Manlius? What are they
thinking about this place? Amazing. It's amazing.
The support, everybody that we reached out to
is so excited. You know, they're just, they can't
wait for us to get open and be part of it and
come in and see it. I think, you know, so welcoming,
the community, and not just Manlius, everywhere
in Syracuse, everyone we talk to, and they're
like, when do you open it? What's gonna happen?
Like, can't wait to come. You know, it's just,
it's gonna be, I think it's gonna be more of
a destination experience to come out. and enjoy
it. So with that question, when can we expect
to get our tacos and beer? You know, that is
the question. That's the question I get all day,
every day. Sure. I can tell you it will be before
Thanksgiving. OK. Obviously, we're having our
Thanksgiving party, but I can't release the date
quite yet. But if you visit our website at manliestcantina
.com or follow us on any of our social media
channels, Manliest Cantina, as soon as we confirm
the date and we're ready to go, it will be blasted
all through there and everybody will know. And
I'm just guessing here, but anytime you have
a project like this, usually there's some official
things and stuff like that that's always up in
the air. And I'm going to guess maybe that's
part of what's going on. I gotta talk about this
cup that's in front of us. So I've seen this
thing. Tell me if you've ever seen this thing.
Have you ever watched the show Bar Rescue, right?
John Taffer, he's shown this thing where he puts
it in the bar, they slam the cup down and it
fills with beer. They have this here. But Jessica,
if you could tell us, it goes beyond that, I
didn't even realize. There's like a giveaway,
a prize at the bottom. So we have a really cool
feature at our bar called Bottoms Up. So we'll
have five years on draft, including a local one,
Prison City. And so how it works is you take
one of these very unique cups, you put it down
on this, like, magnet, and it pushes the magnet
up and fills it from the bottom up. And then
when you're done, you get to keep the magnet
and they're collectible. And there's a whole
bunch of different designs. So it's kind of a
guess of which one you're going to get. So hopefully,
you know, people come out like, oh, I didn't
get the one I want. Let me order another beer.
That's it. But it's really fun. It's a unique
way to do it. And it's fun to watch them kind
of fill from the bottom. Are there magnets that
are going to be more rare than others? I don't
know. I guess you'll have to come and see. That's
a good question. That's quite an opportunity.
To me it reminds me of the old, you know, the
prize at the bottom of the cereal box. Except
here you get beer. You get beer. So that's a
positive. We also have, for those who are not
beer lovers, we're going to have very unique
twisted freezes. So a lot of people are familiar
with our... we're going to have expanded flavors.
So we're going to have five different flavors
of freezes. And so you can get those topped with
either a shot of tequila, rum, or vodka, your
choice. So it makes it boozy freezes, which are
very good. And we're also going to carry a Mountain
Dew. It's like a hard Mountain Dew in a can.
So for those of you who want to try that. And
we also have all your selsos, your Trulies, your
High Noons, a bunch of beer and cans and bottles,
and wine. Wow. If you wouldn't mind, just a little
behind the curtain, what is it like? Your organization
has always run these traditional restaurants.
Alcohol is a little bit of a different world,
right? What's that been like for you guys to
sort of adapt to that? Well, it's a huge learning
curve. We're very lucky that our team, our management
team, is phenomenal. We've been doing a lot of
training. We're going to have some of our senior
management from Rochester and Albany are going
to come in to support the team as well. It's
going to be a learning curve. I guarantee there's
going to be some pains, a few opening days when
we first open. We're expecting high volumes of
traffic. Yeah. So I think, you know, we're going
to work through all that. You'll see myself and
other of the senior team behind the bar doing
our bottoms up and supporting the team here.
So that's great. Well, it'll be a big joint effort
for the next next few weeks. Is there, you know,
obviously with the traditional items that comes
from the national organization, the recipes and
everything, do they provide as much guidance
on the canteen on the kind of the bar side or
is it more kind of free to the local? It's it's
they provide guidelines. Yeah. Right. here's
what you can do and what you can't do, and then
they kind of leave it up to us what we're going
to carry. We want to make sure it's popular with
locals, and that's why we have the prison city.
And we want to make sure that we're matching
local taste. So yeah, they leave that up to us.
That's great. So Taco Bell being such a large
brand, even though you guys are local, what was
the inspiration to make an experience -based
location? Yeah, so this is something, so when
the cantina concept rolled out a few years ago,
if we talk about it, it's something that's always
been kind of on our radar. And I think what happened
was when we saw this location, this old firehouse,
and then in Malias, which is such a great community,
we were like, wait, this might be the best opportunity
to, if we're going to do a cantina, let's do
a cantina in... this old firehouse and really
give it some personality. So I think it all kind
of worked together and came together and we were
like, yep, let's do it. That's awesome. Yeah,
that's a great question. Al, what's your favorite
Taco Bell menu item? Oh, Crunchwrap. Crunchwrap
Supreme. It's a classic. Big old Baja blast or
freeze, depending on the day. But, you know,
I'm really excited for an experience here because
even though it's, you know, national or whatever
you want to call it, It's local. It is. It is.
Super local. Super local. I mean, the owners
literally live in Syracuse. So like, I say that
over and over again. It's something I think people
really struggle with because, I mean, the company
started back in the 80s with one guy who bought
one Taco Bell, who mortgaged his house, and his
parents mortgaged their house. You know, to get
into it, and it was like... And then he got a
second one, and then a third one, and now we're
at 113. And that's like the American Dreaming,
right? And the owner of the company now, Matt,
he lives in Bowlandsville. He started when he
was a 16 -year -old team member at a store at
Albany, and just continued to work his way up,
and was offered a partnership in the company
10 years ago, and how he's a partner in this
amazing company. And it's really cool, and I
might be biased, because I've been around in
hospitality over 20 years. But this company is
so cool, so unique. A lot of our senior management
teams started like that, started as team members
and just continue to grow and grow. And, you
know, it makes a difference. There's, you know,
I remember when I was a kid working one of my
first jobs as a teenager, working at a fast food
place. And we used to joke about that going,
you know, as a CEO, he's he's never learned how
to make this. You know, do they know how to do
that? And clearly they do. That's that's huge.
And he'll jump on the line and he'll he'll be
here opening day. You'll see him. He'll look
very stressed. and might be sweaty a little bit,
but he'll be running around. That's a real in
it owner, and I love to hear that. To speak to
some of the experiences and things, if folks
don't necessarily realize, we're actually sort
of sitting on a stage right now. Yes. And the
idea there is you're going to have all kinds
of live musical acts and all kinds of things,
right? All kinds of live music. So our events
calendar just went live this morning on naliascantina
.com. We have some amazing people booked. Kaylee
Hale, and I knew I was going to forget it as
soon as you asked me all the names. Mark Neeney,
I think you pronounce it. Chris Wheel, he does
magic. Oh yeah. Like I said, Wright Mights Syracuse
is his events book. Awesome. We have trivia.
We just won the Trivia Guide today. The first
one will be on December 8th. It was just on Monday.
And then we have Music Bingo. Wow. Another gentleman.
His name is Bobby Pace. He'll be out doing Music
Bingo on Thursday nights. Wow. Friday and Saturdays
we'll have... live music. Yeah, so definitely
check out the events calendar. And that's awesome.
And it will be updating it constantly. That's
awesome. That's awesome. You got some outdoor
space. You've got some Big big area where you'll
be able to have these events just about how many
folks will this hold all together? Yeah, we can
see between 80 and 90 Wow and then you know doesn't
include this standing room, too So when it's
full it's gonna be really full and that doesn't
include the patio either and speaking of the
patio You mentioned obviously we're opening in
Syracuse in November But in the summer, we'll
have cornhole and yard games and stuff outside,
so that'll be something to look forward to in
the warmer months. That's phenomenal. So I don't
know if we touched on this, but is there, and
you might not be able to release this yet, but
is there going to be different menu items that
are a little bit higher -end, cantina version
compared to the regular Taco Bell? That's a great
question. No, all the menu, the actual Taco Bell
menu is going to be exactly as it is at every
other one, so you're going to be able to come
in and order whatever your normal favorite menu
items are. Cool. Gotcha. Yeah. And I also wanted
to point out, too, is that we're still hiring.
If you want a job, we hire at 16. All the way
up, we're looking for all shifts here in the
Manlius Cantina, and actually all of our Taco
Bells, but especially here to get us up and running.
We have amazing benefits. We have an amazing
scholarship program called the Litwa Scholarship
Program. Last year with our franchise. organization
alone. We had 19 employees win it. It's a national
scholarship for employees, but we had 19 of our
own. I think it was like over $230 ,000 they
won. You can win between $5 ,000 and $25 ,000
a year for four years. We had employees who just
graduated after winning it for four years. She
won $10 ,000 a year. and graduated college with
no debt because of that. And we have, I mean,
it's really incredible. And the scholarship itself
is based on what your passion is. It's not based
on financial need or sports or GPAs. It's based
on, you know, you have to answer three questions
and it's like, okay, what are your passions?
And then that's how they choose it. And it's
really cool. That's awesome. That's incredible.
Yeah. And one other thing, if you don't mind
me mentioning. No, please. Our charity record
is the Boys and Girls Club. So... When you go
through the drive -thru and they ask you to round
up, that's where the money is going. And that
all goes back to the Syracuse Area Boys and Girls
Club. Oh, that's great. This past year, we were
donating over $90 ,000 to the Boys and Girls
Club. We were the largest donator sponsor this
past year. And is that all from the rounding
up? Yeah, that's all for rounding up. So that's
all the change that you don't even want back.
Right. Especially now you can get pennies, right?
I don't want these coins. Come on, you throw
them in the car, they bounce around. They can
go to the Boys and Girls Club. Yeah, and it all
stays local. That's incredible. And that's just
in Syracuse. Out of all of our different markets,
it was over $700 ,000. Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow. So
a quick question about the drive -thru. How are
you guys gonna handle alcoholic beverages with
the drive -thru? That's a great question. You
cannot order an alcoholic beverage in the drive
-thru. Just like any other bar, any alcoholic
beverage you order has to be consumed here in
the restaurant. So you can't take it to go or
through the drive -thru. You can go down south
and they have the drive -thru. Those are cool,
right? They get away with that by handing you
the drink and the straw separately. And that's
their loopholes. They don't put the straw in
the cup. So they're not giving it to you to drink.
It's to take home, of course. Right. Anyway,
but that is a great question. Yeah, no, because
I feel like there's probably going to be a, you
know, there might be a few people, hey, I just
came for a drink through the drive -through and
then you got to send them home because they don't
know. Yeah, I'm sure people are going to ask.
But I think most people understand that, you
know, that's New York City law. It's not our
fault. Yeah, yeah. So we come on in and sit down
and have a drink and be safe and make sure you
get that Uber home. I think you mentioned earlier,
you'll likely be available on some of the delivery
things as well for people in the area too? Yep.
So DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats will all be our
partners. So anybody who wants to order from
delivery can definitely do that through their
apps. But I'm going to give you a little insider
tip. Okay. If you download the Talkabout app,
you can order through the Talkabout app for delivery
and you won't get charged. You up the charges
that the delivery partners charge on the menu
items. Gotcha. but it's still delivered by DoorDash.
I see. So a little tip there. That is a big tip.
Make sure you download the Taco Bell app and
order through the app, and you get more discounts.
This is not a planned plug, but I have done that
myself. And I will tell you, there's also some
coupons and deals you'll find in that that you
don't find in the regular app. Very cool. Don't
overpay for your tacos. Yeah. Use the app. And
I think you could tag that in anything. Use the
app. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Alec,
as a guy in real estate, when you see a place
like this, a project like this, how do you feel
that has the impact, you know, as you're selling
these other properties and things in main list
that are for lease? Does this help you? Well,
this to me is very heartwarming, the story of
the building. I love it. You know, going to an
old fire station, being able to see the structure
of the building still here and keeping that character.
It's awesome. I mean, you even got the exposed
brick. It's just, it's great. And it's super
exciting to see a company getting so involved
with the community. Because you don't see, you
know, local, you only see really local businesses
doing that. But then when it comes to something
like a Taco Bell. It's awesome to see live music,
stuff like that. It's going to be great. It's
going to be great. It's going to be amazing.
And as the hospitality of Syracuse, if you go
to our website, which is HRGFood .com, you'll
see how much we really are involved in our communities.
There's a little league field behind us. Last
year, when we knew we were coming, we did a big
sponsorship with them. We met with the town of
Manlyas Recreation Department yesterday. We're
going to be involved in their parade, their swan
fest, all kinds of things locally. That's so
great. So, yeah. where we try to get involved
as much as we can. Justin, this is just the coolest
place. It's so cool. In Manlius. No knock to
anything else in Manlius. Right. Except the swans.
The swans. The swans are so cool. They're the
kings of this place. Thank you so much for showing
us and taking the time. I know you're in the
middle of, this is probably the busiest time
other than when you open, trying to get ready
to open. Yeah, you can probably hear all the
destruction in the background. We still got people
installing our FUJITSA machines. We got electricians
here. We got all kinds of people here working
today. Hey, that's how it goes. And I love that
you're pulling out all the stops to get this
place going. So I got one last question for you.
How did the zoning work with converting this
from a fire station to a food? Yeah, that is
a great question. So I can't, I don't really
know all the details of that. It's not really
my wheelhouse, but I will say that the town was
fantastic to work with. From the time that we
presented the concept of the Cantina into the
whole zoning and permitting process, it was a
breeze and they were on board and made it happen
for us. That's awesome. We know that towns can
be pretty tough. Some towns are. We did not encounter
that here. That's wonderful. A welcoming community
is a night and day difference for the success
of any place. It's glad to have it. What a beautiful
place. And you've made it look absolutely gorgeous.
We'll cut to some shots from the outside so folks
can see if they have it already. And also, you're
not going to be able to miss it. You are. Just
a hair off the main street. You can see it from
the main street. I don't think anybody's gonna
have any trouble finding yet. Yep. Ample parking.
It's just doing everything right. You know what?
I did want to mention something really quick.
Sure. So the Cantina concept, while not new to
the brand, new to us, we are the very first Cantina
in the U .S. that has a drive -thru. What? Or
second, sorry, second one. So it's just a new
concept in general. They have a drive -through.
A lot of the cantinas are like in beach communities
or college communities where it's more of a walking
thing. So for us to have a drive -through is
super cool for the cantina. I love it. I love
it. Jessica, thank you so much. Thank you so
much for joining us as well, buddy. It's great
to have you in. Absolutely. And show this awesome
place off. We're going to have, if you're staying
tuned, we've got a bunch of different clips of
this place. You watch this interview when you
like it. Stay tuned to our other socials. Follow
Alec on all of his as well. He'll have some different
ones from all different angles. And this is just
awesome. And we will be back when the events
happen as well. Yes, we will definitely come
for opening day. I got to get my magnet and my...
burrito, and everything all in one spot. I love
this. This is so cool. I just want to play with
this all day long. Well, you can take that home
with you. I will. Now that you touched it. See,
here's the problem. I feel like I'm going to
get one of these drinks, and I'm going to start
playing with it while I got the beer in the cup.
Well, it's going to be funny. I'm going to show
you something. My coworker here, Danielle, went
to get something. So Bottoms Up obviously is
an astronaut. They do it all over. So they gave
us these really cool little signs to put out,
and I'm going to show you this sign. Because
you know people are going to do it, especially
after they've had a couple. But here's a science
that we get to put out. Oh, dear. It says, if
you poke, you'll get soaked. OK? So don't poke
the magnet on the bottom unless you want your
beer all over your leg. Yeah. So we'll have those
signs. But I'm still sure it will happen. I mean,
somebody will only do that once. Yeah. Right?
Maybe. This is great. The manliest Cantina, Taco
Bell, Alec, Jessica, I'm Matt. Danny, intern
Truman's back there having the absolute time
of his life. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you.