Full Transcript – Scott Porter – Wild Business Growth Podcast #346

This is the full transcript for Episode #346 of the Wild Business Growth podcast featuring Scott Porter – San Diablo Artisan Churros, Chief Churro Officer. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

Scott Porter 0:00
For us, the churro is like a blank slate and a canvas that we can paint on and do whatever we want.

Max Branstetter 0:22
Churro. Hello. Welcome back to Wild Business Growth. Welcome back to wild business growth. This is your place to hear from a new wild entrepreneur every single Wednesday morning turning wild ideas into wild growth. I’m your host. Max Branstetter, founder and Podcast Producer at max podcasting that’s and this is Episode 346, today’s guest is Scott Porter, the owner, founder and Chief Churro Officer of San Diablo Artisan Churros. They make absolutely mouthwatering, ingenious churros, including itty bitty churros, including spicy churros, including, at the time of this recording, they’re selling crickets on their website. And in this episode, we talk how to get incredibly out of this world, creative with whatever you’re making. Scott’s experience starting an airline and a phenomenal showcase of innovation and creativity as it relates to tacos, as well as if churros weren’t enough. Oh, and a little bit of Charles Barkley, it is churro.

Max Branstetter 1:39
Scott. Enjoyyyyy The churrooooooo!

Max Branstetter 1:49
Aaaaaalrightyyyyy we are here with Scott Porter, Owner, Founder, Chief Churro Officer, one of the many chief churro officers we’ve had on this podcast, San Diablo and they’re artisan churros. I am a sucker for churros. I think every time my family and I ate at a Mexican restaurant growing up and they had churros for dessert, I was like, We need to get those. So this is a churro dream come true. Scott, thanks so much for joining How you doing today?

Scott Porter 2:19
I’m doing great. Thank you so much for having me. I should have had a little bit more foresight and sent you some churros ahead of our time to talk. And so I’m sorry I didn’t do that, but we’ll I’ll send it to you as a thank you afterwards, the churro need is real. I understand it.

Max Branstetter 2:36
Appreciate that, and that was the whole point of this interview. So I’m going to sign off now, so see you, Scott, but exactly, mission accomplished, the greatest interview ever. No excited to get to all the Turo stuff, and really appreciate that, but before that, so you’ve got a really, really interesting background, and you’ve worked and even started businesses in a wide range of industries. And the one that jumped out at me and really took me into the sky was the fact that I’ve never talked to anybody who started their own airline before. Can you share that story?

Scott Porter 3:08
Sure, yeah, yeah. The business analogies of like, getting off the ground or, you know, it, we’re really taking off. You know, they never ended when we were starting surf air. So surf air was the, is the first all you can fly membership airline and so a little bit different than, like a jet suites or or even commercial. It’s kind of like an interesting combination between both. Basically, you pay a monthly fee and you can fly as much as you want anywhere that we served so and we started in California, and so, yeah, it was one of those, I mean, it was one of those things that when my good friend Wade approached me, Wade ireley approached me and approached the four of us that were the founders, and said, I’ll never forget that day when he called me On the phone. It was New Year’s Day in 2012 I’m like, what year was that? 2012 Yeah, 2012 and he he and he said, Hey, we just got accepted into this incubator in Santa Monica. Do you want to come help start an airline, launch an airline? I’m like, I literally remember those words like ringing in my ears, because you never get asked these questions, right? And so yeah, I of course, like, and we all stopped what we were doing, and none of us had any previous airline experience, but we were hustlers, and we wanted to make it happen. And we’re driven by this mission to do something that no one had ever done before. This all you can fly membership airline model, it was amazing. We had just a fantastic leadership team. We did it in the year and a half we launched, and it took us a year and a half to get the funding and. The FAA clearance and two rounds of fun. Fundraising had the unique challenge of marketing the airline, but we could not pre sell anything, so we just basically, for a year and a half, I just had to, like, tease people with membership, like, Hey, this is coming. We can’t take your money yet because it’s not legal to do that. So that was really, really interesting to just like, continue to, like, do market research, figure out how people were going to use the airline as members, you know, and what that membership experience looked like. We wanted to, basically, one of our big things was to obviously reducing the pain that frequent like airline commuters have, and then restore all of the joy and nostalgia of the way that flying used to be. It used to be really exciting and and sexy. And you know, so we were flying in and out of the local regional airports so that you didn’t have the same TSA security clearance. You could arrive 1015, minutes before your flight, park for free as long as you want. You walk on the tarmac. We know your name. Hey, Max. It’s so great to have you back. Here’s your Wall Street Journal and your, you know, your cranberry juice or whatever, like, we wanted to create this allure and this mystique of the romanticism of flying again, and just make it easy and get people time and back in their schedule. And it was so amazing. Yeah, we get together frequently, the founders, and we all actually ended up living in Utah after, after we launched in Southern California and the airline’s still going. It was a fantastic team to be a part of, and really amazing to be able to do something that hadn’t ever been done before. It was awesome. Very, very like the fondest memories.

Max Branstetter 7:01
Well, good on you, because I don’t even know airlines were, like started. I think they were just, like a thing. They’re just around, except for, like, Richard branstet. But

Scott Porter 7:11
yeah, and it’s hard, and it turns out that, like, it’s a tough industry. I mean, Richard branstet has a famous quote where someone asked him, What’s the quickest way to be come a millionaire? And he said, Well, you start with a billion dollars, and then you launch an airline. So it’s, it’s, it’s an infamous quote in the industry where airlines are tough. Airlines are tough. We all use them and need them and maybe have loyalty. Are part of the loyalty programs and everything. But it’s, it’s a tough industry, but it is so fun. We had so much fun.

Max Branstetter 7:50
So let’s get from flying planes to flying churros. So San Diablo, which naturally progression career. Yeah, naturally. And if you look up the pictures of your airline, all the all the planes are shaped like churros. Natural tie there, but San Diablo, so really, really cool brand that you’ve come across, and I think it’s like, there’s so many food brands, and as I say, foodpreneurs out there, and it’s so hard to differentiate yourself. But I think churros is, like, a really, really fun space to be in, and you’ve done an amazing job, and mouthwatering job of making it like a kind of gourmet artisan, like fun, but also premium brand. Where did you first fall in love with Charles?

Scott Porter 8:34
My obsession with your I was like, you and I was like, kid. I literally have, I don’t I, honestly, I’ve been scouring the internet. So if anyone listening can help me with this, there was, like a whimsy, something I found, like an old logo from like the 80s, and I can’t and it looks so familiar, and it like I can start to smell it when I go and I we visited my great aunt in Southern California when I was a little kid. We grew up in Canada, and so we went down to visit. And I remember these churros, and I remember it, but I whimsy, whimsy, something I can’t remember. It was like a cool little store. We went there churros, and I was like, Oh my gosh, these are so amazing. And as a kid, you know, you don’t have a very refined palate. It’s like, sugar and cinnamon. You’re like, oh, this is great. And it’s baked goods. And you’re like, carbs, you know? And so, and then fast forward, I was a missionary for the LDS church, The Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints, in Mexico for two years. And so I lived in the northeastern part of Mexico, that’s where I just became absolutely obsessed with everything Mexican, the people, obviously, the culture, their heart, the language, the food, the food, the food, which is like the language of love in Mexico and. So I was obsessed with tacos. I knew I wanted to go back. I went back after I was done being a missionary, and during my undergrad studies, I did an internship in Mexico City while I was in Mexico City, which I think is like the best food city in the world. And there’s a magical part of the town in the southern part of the city that’s called koyuakan, and it is like street food paradise. So imagine everything that you want your like your wildest street food dreams to come true. So, tacos, tamales, churros, obviously, churros, churros, churros. I mean, there’s like seven churro places within like a two block radius, ice cream, like street corn, you know, marquesitas, anyway, all sorts of street food. I had my fresh my first fresh filled churros there when I went to Coyoacan, I still remember exactly the street corner Rio Jordan. And it’s like, I still go there all the time, because I lead taco tours to Mexico City, but that’s a whole other story. So I had these fresh filled churros, and I’ve never been the same since. It was like, I mean, you know how it is when you travel and you eat great food, and you’re like, wait a second, why can’t pizza be this good back home. I don’t understand, why can’t I have tacos like, al pastor this good in America? Like, what’s the problem here? What like? And so I have that same thing. Like, why do we have such lame churros back home that you’re always, like, attracted to them and you but then you end up you being usually disappointed. It’s like, they’re too hard, they’re not tasty enough. They’re like, there’s just, like, something missing. They smell really great. So that was the birth of the idea in the back of my head where, I mean, many of us have these ideas when we’re traveling, like, oh, we should start a real pizza place, or we should start a real churro place. And so I had that thought, and then had five different career lives between that moment and nine years ago, when we decided that it was time to bring high quality, premium, fresh filled churros to America. And I was actually when I when I was thinking about starting San Diablo, I was like, Wait a second. I don’t understand. Why has no one ever brought churros like this to America? I don’t get it like there was a lot of time that passed from that moment when I had my first but I understand now why it’s hard. Turns out, churros are hard.

Max Branstetter 12:42
You have a knack for getting into businesses that are unexpectedly hard. But you actually, you revealed a kind of a common theme that’s come up among, as I say, wild entrepreneurs on the podcast. Like seeing an idea in another country that’s like, This is amazing. Why isn’t it in the US and then bringing it and, like, making it a success. So, like, we had really early on in the podcast, we had Emily Griffith, who started little bucks, and she was studying abroad in Australia. And, like, love those, like, bowls, you know, like granola bowls, or a si bowls like that. And they would use little, like, buckwheat seeds in there. She’s like, these are so good and tasty and healthy for you. Like, why are they not in the US? And she kind of brought that to the s and start a whole thing. We’ve had another guest who’s a military veteran, and when he was serving in the Middle East, the saffron was so amazing there. And it’s like, it’s hard to get good saffron, good quality saffron, and it’s like, such a whole process. And so he brought that to the US. So, like, there’s so many amazing stories like that. Yours is definitely have the sweeter variety. But in terms of that aspect, this the sweet and delicious aspect of it, so like, it’s one thing to have your eyes set on shows, it’s another thing to actually make them and start to scale them. How did you perfect the recipe and get it to a point that actually this is something we feel good about serving to customers and actually selling to retailers out there.

Scott Porter 14:03
The recipe that we use as that we’ve now tweaked it and made it our own. But the base of that recipe was from a dear friend, Sam oteo. We were at his restaurant. He He’s like a brilliant chef. What like delicious? I just love to eat his food. He just makes the most amazing Mexican food. And the first time that we met, we were geeking out about Mexico City, obviously. And he, like, made, I finished eating, we’re still talking, and there no one else was there. For some reason, it was maybe a weird time of day. And he’s like, Hey, do you want to try some churros? And I’m like, of course, like, take it back. Don’t ask me these questions. Yes, just bring me the churros. And so he pulled out this thing, and he’s like, and he hand pulled them. He didn’t have an extruder, he didn’t have a piping bag. He just, like, pulled the dough and, like, deep fried it, right there. He’s like, Yeah, this is my grandmother’s recipe from Oaxaca. And I’m like, I ate them, and then I said I was working in surf air at the time when I was eating them. And I said, Oh my gosh, dude, these are freaking amazing. These, I think are the best churros I’ve ever had. And I said, I’ve dreamt about starting a churro business. Actually had this in the back of my head. You know, I have all my Evernote like, ideas of businesses. And he’s like, Oh, do you want the recipe? And I said, Sure, yeah. I mean, I’m in the I’m in the thick of, like, the airline business, and we thought that was going to be the rest of my life sort of thing. And so he gave me the recipe. I filed it away in Evernote. And then it was about a year and a half later when we weren’t at the airline anymore. And so that idea was resurrected. And so I called him, I said, Hey, Sam, I think I’m actually gonna start a churro business. Is this okay if I use your grandma’s recipe? He’s like, Oh, yeah, totally. So we have since, like, tweaked it and made it our own, but it was a very speedy process because we, we decided to launch at a harvest festival here in Utah. Well, we decided to, like, I called them and I said, Hey, I see that you’re looking for vendors. And they said, Yeah, what do you sell? No business at the moment. No Name, no business. I’d only made the recipe maybe twice in my life. And then I said, artisan filled churros. She’s like, Oh my gosh, it’s been our dream to have filled churros at corn bellies, the name of this festival. And I was like, really? Like, your dreams about ready to come true. And she said, How long have you guys been in business? I said, Well, we would be launching at corn bellies. She was like, Oh. I said, Okay, listen, why don’t we do this? I will bring you and everyone’s everyone that’s involved in the decision making process. I’ll bring you all the churro flavors. You can sample them all, test them, and then you guys can decide whether or not you want us at the festival. She’s like, that’s great. We’re meeting in three days. There’s going to be 15 of us, and can you come and bring us churros? I’m like, Absolutely. What the heck I had? I like, I said, I hadn’t done the recipe, so it’s when you bring up the recipe. You weren’t anticipating an answer this long. Anyway, it was my friend’s grandma’s recipe that we tweaked, but then we had to, like, expedite and fast track this recipe. I called my friend Mindy, who was like a VP at Goldman Sachs that quit that job to pursue her passion of baking. I called her. I’m like, Mindy, what are you doing all day tomorrow? I think I’m launching a churro business. We got to make sure that this recipe works. And so what are you doing all day tomorrow? Can you help me make churros? I think I’m starting a churro business. So she did anyway. So three days, we came up with the name. All the fillings did the tasting. They’re like, This is amazing. We think you should have two booths at corn bellies. So we they’re like, Oh, can you bring your two booths? I’m like, Oh, absolutely. We didn’t even have one booth, right? But yes, we’ll bring our two booths. Yes, 100% that’s kind of the recipe. And really like, what got us going? But it was, you know, fast tracked, and now it’s, I mean, we’ve won best pastry in the state of Utah for seven years. You know, we continue to get rave reviews from people and eye rolls in the back of their head and, you know, comments about, you didn’t make these angels, did? You know sort of things? It’s a special dough, though it and there’s a reason why there’s not a lot of churro businesses, because it’s hard. The dough is finicky. The dough is a pattashou dough for all the bakers out there, which is a cooked dough that you boil the water, you melt the butter, you add the flour, you add the eggs, all of these things, like, we make from scratch, but it is very special. It is very particular. And like, there could be extra humidity in the air, and it doesn’t anyway. So there’s lots of things about it, but I can geek out about the food part of it, but it’s been a fun a fun journey to get it all kicked off with the right recipe, and that’s really made a huge difference, because then that’s what took us to, like, Okay, well, we’ve been making millions of churros for the last nine years doing events, and now, like, we got to take these high quality, premium churros to everyone. So that’s what, what? We’ve launched two new churro product lines that are in like grocery stores and at restaurants and everything. So we have our frozen churros and our snack churros, but I’m sure we’ll get into that.

Max Branstetter 19:49
So yeah, well, actually, that those exactly was wondering is like just looking through your your offerings, you’ve really tested the format and innovated, and you know, you’ve kind of got. The frozen wrap, but also the you have, like the churro bites, or what’s the official name,

Scott Porter 20:05
itty churros, itty bitty churros. How could I forget that these are like crispy, little crunchy churro bits? Oh, my God, that’s like a dream. Yeah, we just invented this, like, six months ago, and they’re already in stores. They’re already down, down the street from your house.

Max Branstetter 20:27
For those just listening, I just ate a couple through the screen, so that’s pretty cool. But how do you and team continue to innovate and try out new formats like that? Because that, like trues in itself, are already like, Ooh, cool. Like, everybody loves TROs. They’re great. And then you kind of took it to that next it to that next level, like, Wow, there’s so many different

Scott Porter 20:45
things we can do with it. For us, the churro is like a blank slate and a canvas that we can paint on and do whatever we want. And so we have so like, my team, they’re like, oh my gosh, Scott’s got this crazy idea. Again, over the years. Obviously, we’re most people know, like the long churros, right? Like you get a Disneyland, or used to get its Costco or at the fair, whatever, and they’re covered in cinnamon sugar, maybe they have a dipping sauce or whatever. But we, I wanted to, like, dial things up at the from the very beginning, our whole thing for the entire time, has been fresh filled churros. So churros that are made fresh on the spot, and our little like, different twist to it is that they were Mini, so they’re, like, three inches long, and we fill them they’re hollow, and we fill them with happiness, is what we say. So like,

Max Branstetter 21:40
yeah, just, does happiness have nutrition facts?

Scott Porter 21:42
Well, we’re, I’ll get into that, because we’re actually going to be, you know how people talk about, like, nutrient dense food, yeah, and there’s, like, a nutrient density index for food and how, like, heavy they are with nutrients. We’re going to create a happiness density index so food that has happiness density and churro, I don’t know if it’s possible that anything could be more dense with happiness than a churro, but we decided to like the classic filling flavors that you basically get everywhere we have dulce de leche, Nutella and sweet and condensed Milk. Those are the ones that we always serve. And then we rotate through seasonal flavors as well. So right now we’re just finishing up lemon curd for the summer, coconut cream raspberry and then in the fall, we’re obviously getting into pumpkin cheesecake and wild berry caramel apple filling flavors. So those start we do we crush in this holidays, we crush candy canes and put those on the outside of the churro and do a peppermint cream. So there’s, like, so many fun things we could do on the sweet side. We have a restaurant that is in Long Beach called beasties. It’s a Mexican smash burger concept, which is amazing. I can’t wait to eat there. They just launched, like two weeks ago, or did a soft launch. We’re going to be at the launch next week, but they are already serving our churro fried banana splits. Oh, so wrap your brain around this for a second. So we take a banana, slice it lengthwise, coat both sides in churro dough, deep fry them, cover them with cinnamon sugar. Then it has the three scoops of ice cream, whipped cream, and like, drizzle, all the drizzle you want. So it’s pretty insane.

Max Branstetter 23:35
This is my I mean, often I’ll talk to guests who kind of like, I’ll get hungry throughout the interview, but I this is like a workout of my stomach. I’m like, doing, like, a full like, I don’t know, like peloton class here,

Scott Porter 23:51
no, well, just wait, because I got more coming. We have the churl fried banana split. We’ve also experimented. We’ve done like churro fried pineapple spears, where we’ll dip them in like a coconut cream. So it’s almost like a deep fried pina colada vibes. So we’ve also experimented with tons of things on the savory side too. So we take Little Smokies, wrap them in churro dough, we call them baby dogs, and we deep fry them, and we have a Diablo sauce that you dip them in. We’ve done a churro a bacon wrapped churro dog, so it’s basically what every corn dog wants to be when it grows up. It’s like a hot dog. We cover in bacon, cook it, then cover it in churro dough, deep fry it, and then you dip it in with our Diablo sauce is the best. It’s like spicy, kind of our signature spicy sauce. And you don’t have to worry because all of our team knows CPR, and we have a defibrillator on hand because it is a heart attack, and it’s so good. Yeah, so. So for us, it’s been we’re just like, constantly innovating with flavors. You know, when we decided last year to go into the frozen churro space, this is our our take and bake churros. So we decided to like, well, let’s do our classic churros, and we’ll just like, make them three inches long already, filled them with dulce de leche. So all the consumer has to do when they get home is pop them in the air fryer, and then you have hot, fresh churros anytime and that you never had before. And then, like, the innovation just keeps going, right? And so we’re like, Well, what if we made them really tiny? And there’s actually a whole story about how this happened, but and captured all of that, and then we freeze dried them into like a snackable churro that now you can take with you anywhere, and it requires no prep, but you get all that churro flavor that you love and crave, but you don’t have any prep work, and it’s not like long, and now you can have it anytime.

Max Branstetter 26:00
You know what I’m thinking of is, you know, the that movie Napoleon Dynamite was infamous for when he just had the tots in his pocket. You could do the same thing with the itty bitty bites. Just have, like the Turo bites in your pocket anytime you know you want.

Speaker 1 26:15
Totally Yeah. Ready to go and love that.

Max Branstetter 26:20
So actually, so you, we’ve kind of hinted at, but not dived divin deep into it, but from the marketing prowess and kind of you’ve created buzz with your brand, there’s one story that I’d love for you to share that I think is so cool. Can you share, kind of the behind the scenes of how you got your brand? San Diablo, mentioned by Charles Barkley on inside the NBA

Scott Porter 26:44
when the NBA All Star game was coming to Salt Lake City, which is where we’re based, and we knew ahead of time that Charles Barkley was obsessed with Charles like he loved it. There were a couple of like things that he had talked about on inside the NBA as it relates to San Antonio. But anyway, there’s like, a whole thing about churros, and so it we were on a mission to get figure out how to get him churros the entire week that he was here. And so we were, we were like, stalking him. It was like, shameless stalking, and we followed him around. And we were like, did it all on social media. So, like, anywhere where he was, we were, like, trying to get him the churros, but his handlers could never, never let us buy him. So the very last day during the all star game, we brought down, we contacted, we got in touch with his, one of his agents, and we’re like, here he is broadcasting right now. We’re just going to take these churros down. And so we took him down to where he was broadcasting. He was on a break his agent. I said, here, here, please give these. Charles Barkley, she did. And then he, like, waved at us and said, Thank you. But we didn’t see him eat them. But then we heard back on a text from the from his agent, and she said, Chuck loved the churros. And we were like, Yeah, that was so awesome. But and so then fast forward, a week later, it was on inside the NBA. They were reflecting about the NBA All Star, and he and Shaq thought that Salt Lake City was boring. It’s not a boring town. I mean, it’s not like New York City, but they were kind of bored here, and so they were bagging on Salt Lake. And he said, Yeah, like Salt Lake City, that was, you know, that was a real bust, except those churros, and that’s just what he

Max Branstetter 28:37
said. He left it. He didn’t say our name, he didn’t say anything, but that was, like, all we needed, or like, he, like, that was the highlight in his time here in Salt Lake. Was, was the churros. So, yeah, that was fun. Yeah. Well, it’s brilliant that you and team were in tune with it and knew that he kind of, like, had an effect. Well, everybody, you know, they always give him crap on that show for how much he likes food and all that, but which, who doesn’t? But you were in tune with the whole show churro and food snack history with him, but also the fact that you, you didn’t just think of it as like, hey, let’s give him a little treat while he’s in town. You, you like, documented it on social media and kind of made it a whole thing that you know, fans of your brand could rally around and create some more buzz with it. So that’s just awesome. Big fan of Chuck, also a big fan of rapid fire Q and A little curveball for you. There. You ready for it and wrap up with it? All right, let’s get wild. Let’s let’s get artisan. I don’t even know what that means from a question standpoint. I don’t either, but I’m on board. I’ll say it I’ll say it with an old English accent. No, I’m just kidding. I already speak English. Let’s get wild. I said that you’re from Alberta. Can you remind me the name of the town you’re from? Lethbridge. Left. Grew up in Lethbridge. That’s right, so I was doing some research on Lethbridge. Oh, hey, we’re also watching Big Bang theory right now. So it’s kind of funny whenever. There’s something train related. Anybody geeks out about trains? You think of Sheldon in that show is obsessed with trains. I saw that Lethbridge has, like, this iconic, super tall bridge with railroad tracks on it, yeah. Is that like a destination in town? Like, is that like a thing or just looks cool in

Scott Porter 30:15
pictures? Oh, yeah. I mean, everyone was like, like, that is that was, at least when I was growing up, it was like, that was the thing. The high level bridge is what they called it, yeah, very creative name for it, by the way. I know it’s amazing. I don’t know how they came up with that. But then below was Indian battle Park, and we would always go there and play, and so it was always in the background. And anyway, yeah, big deal. Like there’s so much pride around the high level bridge in Lethbridge.

Max Branstetter 30:45
Well, anybody tuning in, look at, just search high level bridge. It’s pretty cool. It almost looks like an AI made up image, because it’s just so big, and they’re Wait, like trains go 300 feet in the air. On top of that, it’s, it’s pretty surreal. So, so that’s, that’s where you grew up, right under the train track. Now I’m just going, but Mexico City, what was the thing you loved the most about Mexican city? Except, like, I won’t let you say, the street food,

Scott Porter 31:11
the people, I mean, I like, I mean, even as obsessed and as much as I love and long for and dream about and want it to be my last meal in mortality, in Mexico City, like I would still say the people, I mean, the people, the culture, it just it’s changed who I am. It’s changed how I think, how I operate, how I navigate life, how I want to be. I want to be so outward focused, thinking of others and kind and MI CASAS to Casa and the people. It’s just, it’s the best. They’re the best.

Max Branstetter 31:49
So much to learn from. And also the best is tacos. I know you’re a taco super fan. You’ve, you’ve done taco tours. As you said, What is the you know, if you had your your last meal on your deathbed or death row, and I’m just going, but if you had your last meal, we’ll call it a master’s dinner, if you, if you won the Masters, and you had a meal there that was three different tacos. What fillings would you put in those three tacos?

Scott Porter 32:18
I mean, no question, al pastor, a little bit extra crispy, left on the grill, preferably like a delicious spicy salsa. Obviously, it’s, you know, that’s one of the secrets of a great taco. Lime, no question, pineapple, of course, onion, cilantro, like, Duh. And I now I would do so if I had three, so that’s one, or you could duplicate those. Okay, so this is, this is what my three would be, because so I would do, I would do the Costa, which is a where they put, like, Gouda cheese on all of that that I mentioned, or on the on the meat, and they put it on the flat top, and they grill it so the cheese is crispy, and then all of those toppings on top. That is, I think that’s what that actual bite and taco with guacamole too, please, or at a minimum, avocado, which is kind of unusual to put on pastor, but I just, it is just it becomes the perfect bite for me. And I literally want that to be my last bite. I think, no, I mean, I not that. I think that I want that to be my last bite. I was gonna say, I think I will need to die in Mexico City because I want to have that one in my mouth. So anyway, so there’s that. That’s one of the three tacos. The other would be absolutely carne asada, like mesquite grilled carne asada. I don’t need cheese on that one, but onion, cilantro, amazing salsa on a corn tortilla. That’s basically all I need in life, is those two tacos. But I would, since you gave me three, I would add another, and I think it would have to be, I’m thinking of this amazing taco cheese guy, but I also don’t need cheese, but this particular one is like, it’s fire. I mean, it’s just like, drop the mic. I can’t believe. So they take a chili poblano, like the one that you do chili rellenos with, and they stuff it with Gouda, and then they grill it so it has, like the char on the outside of the pepper, and it makes the cheese like lava inside. And so then they will do that and combine that with, like a carne asada, also mesquite grilled. Chop the living daylights out of all of that together. Mix it up. I can’t. Even tell you how incredible it is, like, I’m a char guy. I like a little char. I love, like savory flavor. You put your lime juice on there, and onion cilantro, a super spicy salsa. It is perfection to me. I mean, those three tacos, those are dreams, dreams coming true.

Max Branstetter 35:24
So if you could do a fourth taco, no, just kidding, no, I I respect the craft. That’s one of the most impressive answers and detailed answers I’ve ever heard. You can tell the creativity and thought that goes into your churros just from that little snippet of the passion for tacos as well. So, Scott, you’re the man. Thank you so much. Really, really appreciate it. Huge fan of what you’re doing now, I’m craving tacos and churros. So thank you for that, but

Scott Porter 35:53
I’ll get you some

Max Branstetter 35:55
appreciate it. Yeah, the pepper one that sounded pretty

Scott Porter 35:58
good. So did you? Do you? Do you like spice too. We didn’t even talk about this. Yeah, do you know that we have an abanero Cinnamon, sugar dusted? I knew there was a spice in one. I didn’t know it was habanero. Oh, boy. So abanero, and this is how much that we care about flavor. I didn’t want to do like, weak sauce, Cayenne or, like, even jalapeno. That’s so like, common, but abanero, it has a very distinctive experience, right? Fire, yeah, it’s a delayed burn. Anything it touches burns and like, there’s a word in Spanish called, are they? It just like, sizzles, like on the back of your throat, on your lips, and so people will eat it. This is what I love about these. So they’ll pop these little itty bitty churros in their mouth, and they’ll eat it. And they’re like, Oh, these aren’t that these aren’t that spicy. Like, 54321, like, oh, whoa, whoa. That’s spicier than I thought. Oh my gosh, that’s hot. And because it then builds, it’s so it’s a delay, it tricks you, it thinks that you, makes you think it’s not spicy. And then there’s a delay, and then it builds, and it doesn’t go away easily. And so we wanted to create this, like distinctive eating experience that’s definitely going to be memorable. So I’m going to send you some spicy ones, and I’ll send you the classics, and you’ll have all the churros you need, and then you can go down to the store down the street and get them.

Max Branstetter 37:30
So thank you so much. Yeah, I mean, your distribution is on fire, just like you have an arrow bites. So thank you so much. Really, really appreciate it. I can’t wait to try all these, and I guess I’ll need, like, a glass of milk and a damp towel on hand as well. But where’s the best place, if people are to try out your churros, where’s the best place to connect with you and your brand online? Absolutely.

Scott Porter 37:51
Yeah, you could go to our website, SanDiabloChurros.com, or our Instagram, or TikTok, where we do Tiktok shop live broadcast. We’re actually getting ready for one right now.

Max Branstetter 38:04
Nice. This is your, I’m honored to be your pregame pump up. Yeah, exactly,

Scott Porter 38:09
yeah. So on any of those, on any of the socials, we’re @SanDiabloChurros. Also, that’s our handle. And feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn too. I’m just Scott Craig Porter on LinkedIn, and I have a taco emoji around my name too. So, for obvious reasons, because there’s no Juro emoji yet, we’re working on that.

Max Branstetter 38:29
It’s only a matter of time. Well, tacos will have to do for now in emoji land, all right. Last thing, final thoughts, it could be a quote. It could be a fifth taco. No, just words to live by, just kind of one line send us home here,

Scott Porter 38:40
I for some reason, over the last couple of days, like this idea that I think my mom kind of instilled this in me, this concept of you never know, this idea of you never know, like, almost, kind of like the whole you miss every shot that you don’t take, sort of thing, like, you never know. What could come of this. So like, give it a try, and if it doesn’t work out, that’s okay. Like, move on. But like, you never know what’s gonna happen when your friend says, Hey, do you want this recipe for my churros, my grandma’s churros and and I’m like, Sure, so I file it away. You know, you never know when you might end up using that and having it change your life.

Max Branstetter 39:27
You never know how hungry you’re gonna get during a podcast episode. But should have seen this one coming. Scott, thank you so much for sharing your San Diablo Artisan Churros story, and thank you, Wild Listeners for tuning into another episode. If you want to hear more wild stories like this one, make sure to follow or subscribe to wild business growth on your favorite podcast app and hit subscribe on YouTube for the video versions. YouTube is @MaxBranstetter. You can learn all things about my podcast production business. MaxPodcasting. The Podcasting to the Max newsletter, Wild Business Growth, or yours truly at MaxPodcasting.com Until next time, let your business Churr-Run Wild…Bring on the Bongos!!