Minyong Ordoñez, a Filipino anthropologist, explains that the Filipino culture defines Filipino identity as: “the [Filipino] culture manifests goodness and virtues, creativity, and accomplishments in symmetry with the people’s material and spiritual faculties,” quoted by Fr. Aris Martin in his Santo Niño Christology dissertation chapter, which I got to read at his request, shortly after I interviewed two Fil-Am business owners.
It described the converging growth of Don Sagarbarria and Mike Zuñiga’s business, as owners of Max’s and Lucy’s Ensaymadas, (M &L) as well as Lord Meynard Llera, owner of Kuya-Lord Pop-Up Series and former sous chef of Bestia, the top restaurant in Los Angeles.
M & L offers ensaymadas, while Kuya Lord offers kamayan (meal sharing using hands) packages.
A customer posted on Facebook about the ensaymadas: “These were delicious. They were lighter, fluffier, and more perfectly petite than I grew up with, and the taste elicits a full body-sense memory! They really are a memory! Enough to make you miss your lola (grandmother) or hug her tight if she is still around! Really yummy. Sarap. Sarap (delicious).“
Customers likened M&L’s ensaymadas to Mary Grace’s, made with 100% real butter, eggs and topped with grated Edam cheese in the Philippines, at $13.70 for six pieces.
Comparatively, Max’s and Lucy’s in Los Angeles are $24/dozen in LA, Orange, San Bernardino, Koreatown, SFV and trunk sales in San Diego and Las Vegas.
Margarita Reyes, a distributor opened up new markets by joining a Facebook group, SoCal Pinoys with 21,000 members. 80% of orders for the Inland Empire, Orange, and San Bernardino is credited to this group. Her peak sales were 70 dozens a week in one county.
Ana Burog opened up new areas of distribution in San Diego, Las Vegas, and San Bernardino. She pushes to bring the products to as many customers who pre-order, eager to serve them. She is rewarded with favorable texts like: “finishing three before even getting home. This is so so good.” Burog posted on Facebook, the highest she sold that week: 100 dozens.
“100 dozens made it real for us”
First, the context, the grim circumstances of 2020 given Coronavirus, topped at 58, 456,049 confirmed cases, global deaths of 1,385, 163 and in the US, at 12,177,301 cases and 256,442 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins dashboard, on Nov. 22. Staggering US deaths exceeded the casualties incurred in World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War.
By mid-March 2020, commercial businesses had shut down, except banks, clinics, supermarkets, newspapers, pharmacies, and hospitals. Though restaurants had phased in openings, food was picked up on the curbside or delivered. On Nov. 21, 2020, businesses were ordered to close from 10 pm to 5 am until Dec. 21, to stop the third wave of surges.
UCLA’s Center for Neighborhood Knowledge (CNK) reported on Oct. 30, 2020, in “Covid-19 Impacts on Minority Businesses and Systemic Inequality, ” that steep declines occurred in ethnic neighborhoods’ businesses located in Chinatown, Boyle Heights, Leimert Park, as well as comparison neighborhoods of Larchmont Blvd., Venice, and Sherman Oaks that they researched. CNK surmised that lack of capital access, assistance, the decline in foot traffic, and tourists led to these grim conditions, as the shutdown orders.
Yet, Max’s and Lucy’s (M & L) Ensaymadas and Kuya Lord’s Pop-Up Series defied these trends. They grew during this challenging period. These businesses sustained support from the Fil-Am community and they grew largely in part from the high quality of their products, responsive customer service and perhaps, stress eating during this pandemic.
Exponential growth by word of mouth and Facebook group
For those familiar with baking, leavening agents such as baking soda, baking powder and yeast are used to make the bread rise, a foaming action that traps air bubbles, giving the final ensaymada (butter cheese brioche) its nice, airy, fluffy, light texture. It is a process called “proofing.”
Much like proofing, M & L’s sales grew from 30 dozens every two weeks to 50 dozens a week.
“Everybody is helping,” Sagarbarria, M& L’s co-owner and CFO said: “During Mother’s Day and Nurses’ Week, we had an explosive growth of 100 dozens in a day.”
It went from being a passion project of “simply wanting to preserve and promote the product that speaks so much of our Filipino culture and tradition, a “moral obligation” of sorts,” Mike Zuñiga, co-owner, and COO wrote in his email to me, to a serious viable business. The growth compelled them to rent a commercial kitchen, but with the new equipment, which already increased production capacity by tenfold, the production was still a week behind in satisfying demands.
The raves are heartfelt, as families would send boxes to their relatives in Northern California, Illinois, North Carolina, Boston, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, opting to pay for next day air shipment, just so they can share their enjoyment.
I myself sent boxes to family and friends in Texas, New Mexico, and Maryland.
As in any good business, much like cream rising from its milk base, it is marked by elements called the three P’s: people’s caring practices, product quality, and a process that is managed well through its details.
This personal observation, gained from regulating thousands of food manufacturers as a former public health regulatory professional of nearly 3 decades, matches the stated principles of Marcus Lemonis who is the star of “The Profit” on CNBC, CEO of Camping World, Good Sam, and two more businesses, with a net worth of $2 billion. Of the three “P”s, Lemonis said that the “people are the most important.” Without good people, good processes and good products only do so much,” he emphasized.
The product and process: 64 dozens trashed as below quality standards
How did it start in the first place?
Mom and Kay Sagarbarria had left some molds and proofer, from when they operated House of Silvanas in Los Angeles.
Zuñiga started to experiment with the recipe, just “wanting to share a family recipe that has been preserved by both tradition and love,” he wrote in his email to me.
He experimented with types of flour to use, given the varying protein content of available supplies, as well as finding the right source for the cheese used and butter for the brioche topping.
Then, the production molds became an issue; they barely had enough to meet the customers’ orders. They had to find a local source that could make the molds for them in the thousands.
The ensaymadas are baked fresh daily, six days a week by a dedicated crew of musicians, headed by co-owner, Zuñiga, whose shift starts at 330am and ends at 5 pm. His only day off is Monday yet, he still works another job, an 8-hour shift.
The production crew consists of musicians/friends, some had lost their full-time jobs during this pandemic. His mom, though retired, has become active in helping with production, and providing home-cooked meals to the crew.
In transitioning to the new commercial kitchen, 64 dozens were trashed, as the brioche was too dry and the convection oven temperature and times had to be adjusted. They simply did not meet the high-quality standards, set by the owners.
“Everyone is helping,” with love and respect for Zuñiga, the COO who heads the production, which includes Xave Avendaño, a junior in St. Genevieve High School. I asked him how long he works, and he responded: “I work as long as Tito Mike needs me.”
Xave clocks in at the last two hours of the production day, works with a smile, and looks forward to what to give his family for the holidays.
Like family, the production crew is treated well, including their distributors who are paid their commissions. Though others have offered to open up new markets to sell to grocery stores, the co-owners have paused, as they put a premium on the quality of their products, which are freshly baked and consumed right away. #trustovergains #peopleoverprofits are the lived principles of this small business. They also value the trust they have with their existing distributors, benefiting them first, before developing relationships with new distributors.
Sagarbarria, a co-owner with Zuñiga, delivers to customers in San Fernando Valley area, after working an eight-hour day in IT (information technology). He is the CFO, in charge of finding suppliers and applies for the necessary business and health permits.
Repeat customers include nurses, who are front liners in the caring of patients. Though registered nurses are 4% nationally in America, 3 out of 10 who have died from Coronavirus are reported as Filipinos. This is a grim statistic for our Fil-Am community and their survivors.
Yet their zest for life, the enjoyment of simple pleasures, goes on, much like a brioche that makes them recall a memory of a loved one cannot be thumped down, as they continue to order by the dozens.
I checked Venmo (similar to Paypal) one evening, and I counted 15 folks paying for their boxes of ensaymadas. One customer posted: ”You didn’t disappoint. It’s totally worth the hype. Thanks, Ana, for making it happen.”
M & L was founded initially to introduce a product familiar to the Filipino palate. “This is the closest to the ones I’ve tasted in Mallorca, Spain. Thanks, Don of Max’s and Lucy’s, I now taste memories from my childhood. My mother in Heaven would be shaking her head and laughing at my little luxury,” wrote Lu Sobredo, who is finishing her novel during this pandemic.
“How does a memory taste? Welcome back to the sweet taste of home. Our classic ensaymada is a lavish mix of butter, sugar, and cheese – a contrasting yet blended surprise of salty-sweet flavors. Soft and light brioche buns – a home-baked cloud of goodness with every bite,” M & L’s teaser page on Facebook accurately described its quality product and why it is “proofing” its business and love-leavened by the owners, the crew, the distributors, and the customers.
You know it is so good when one’s priest/friends take the time to say thank you, make a polite request to taste them again, and describes them as “heavenly bites of goodness.”
Even #princess2015la, my 5yo granddaughter dances to every bite when she gets it as her occasional snack treat.
It is simply a complete ecosystem of goodness, virtues, and creativity – all features of the Filipino culture, synergistically derived from the founders, owners, production crew members, distributors, and customers. I have never seen anything like it after regulating thousands of businesses in 3 decades.
Part II – Kuya Lord’s Pop-Up Series