Ken Pelletier

00:00We are supported by Robbins Insurance, a local insurance agency providing customized insurance policies, sound guidance, and attentive service. Robbins Insurance is the go-to agency for hospitality professionals in Nashville. Listen, Robbins knows how hard industry professionals work every single day. They also know how devastating accidents can be. Be it a grease fire that damages the kitchen, a severe storm that cuts off power, or a customer slip and fall incident. Both the extensive experience and the savvy to create a policy that protects your business from accidents like those, you can rest easy knowing that the work you've put in will not be for nothing. Visit Robbins' website at robbinsins.com to request a consultation or call Matthew Clements directly. His number is 863-409-9372. Protection you can trust. That's Robbins. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll.

01:12Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon Food Service and Caroline Galzin, our amazing co-host and owner of Nicky's Coal Fired, will be joining us shortly as we talk with Ken Peltier. And we get into how I met Ken Peltier and his whole story. He is one of the co-founders of a beverage brand called Calexo. Calexo.co is how you find them. They are a beverage brand that infuses THC and CBD into their beverages. The story of how they came up with this brand, they've been working on it for years, is really awesome. And I know Ken, I know his family and we were hanging out talking. I said, dude, I'd love to share kind of what you do on the podcast.

02:21And so he said, yeah, man, I'm in town for Christmas. Let's do it. So this product is available via the internet. You can buy it on their website at Calexo.co. And if you go right now to our Instagram page at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio with the post that talks about this episode, if you if you if you like the post, if you follow us and then you go follow Calexo beverages and then you tag somebody who you think would like it, we are going to give away a 12 pack, which is a $60 value. And he has vowed to throw some fun things in with that 12 pack. So we're giving away we're going to give you a 15% off code that comes with this episode. If you want to try it, it is dry January. So this is something that qualifies for dry January if you want to give it a shot or you can come out if you're into the dry January thing.

03:21We just had an episode with Stephanie and Kristen the other day talking about dry January. There is a market that's going to be happening this Saturday and it is going to be at Killjoy. And so this Saturday coming up is going to be the sixth of January. This is going to be coming out on the fourth. And so you got two days from 11 to three over at Killjoy. There's going to be a whole bunch of non alcoholic beverage brands, THC brands. I will be there recording, recording interviews, recording, talking to sober people, kind of just checking it out, seeing what it is. I will have representation from Fat Bottom Brewery with me and they're going to be giving away samples of the Hop Fizz. You hear me talk about Hop Fizz all the time. It is dry January. This is a sparkling hop water with hops and natural flavors. This is amazing. There's zero alcohol, zero calories, zero sugar, zero carbs. It is so delicious, so refreshing and crisp for a non alcoholic option.

04:23This is something you can get for your guests. I've got it in all three of my restaurants now, but you can get it for your guests through debt distributing. Just tell them you want the Fat Bottom Hop Fizz and they'll send it out to you. It's in a 16 ounce can and it is delicious. If you want to try it, come out to Killjoy on Saturday and I'd love to meet you and we'll hook you up with some Hop Fizz. Okay, coming up this Monday, just as we have more announcements, we're going to be talking with Khalil Arnold. Khalil is the owner of Arnold's Country Kitchen and they are coming back. The episode's going to, I'm going to put it out on Sunday, but they open again for lunch starting January the 8th. So this coming Monday, they're going to be open for lunch and we have the full story. So you may have seen an article here, an article there. Hey, Arnold's is reopening, but we have him for an hour and he tells us the entire story of why they're reopening. What happened in this whole crazy fiasco?

05:23Are they going to be doing Arnold's after dark? And then we talk about the future of Arnold's. What are we going to be doing? Where are they looking? Where might we see the next iteration of Arnold's show up? Really fun interview with Khalil and that's going to be, it's going to be out in just a couple days. So this is going to come out on Thursday. That'll be out on Sunday. Let's check that out and then stay tuned because the following week we're going to be talking with Brian Baxter, who is the executive chef over at the Catbird Seat. And I had dinner at the Catbird Seat and then the next day we did this interview with Brian Baxter and it was just me and Brian. And I kind of like went over every aspect of his menu. OK, so the first course was like this. Tell me about that. And he just described each one of the courses, where he came up with the idea for it. So if you've ever eaten at the Catbird Seat, it's really intricate and it's very intentional and the food is phenomenal. So he explains how all those ingredients come together.

06:23It's kind of like a beautiful mind thing. I told him I said it was like seeing a really good band play and then getting to interview the band the next day and be like, remember that song that you sang? It was awesome. So that is something to look forward to. That's going to be the next episode after Khalil. And then we're going to be talking with Christina, who's the owner of the legendary Milkshake Shack. We've got Ben, I'm sorry, Max Goldberg is going to be coming up here in a couple of weeks as well. We are chock full of amazing interviews to start 2024. We thank you for hanging out with us and lots of fun things. Hope you're doing dry January. If you're doing it, stick in there, give you guys an update. If you listen to the last episode, I said on New Year's, I was going to quit nicotine and I have. Excuse me. New Year's Day, I stopped it and I was freaking out on Monday and Tuesday because of like physical withdrawals. It was horrible.

07:25And I meditated and I took some deep breaths and I chewed some bubble gum. And here we are. We're on day four now and I'm good like I am. I'm there still. It is still not easy, but I think the physical side is over and I'm going to beat this thing. So I'm really excited. I'm using this as my accountability. I'm saying it on the show so that you all will hear it and be like, dude, you can't do that shit. Let's not do that anymore. And yeah, so if you want an update on that, that's how I'm doing. I'm doing dry January rocking it out. And I'm so excited to bring you guys this episode today with Ken Peltier. I think you're going to enjoy it. And let's jump into it right now. Super excited today to welcome in Ken Peltier. And Ken is the co-founder of Calexo. So I just I do a little intro like that because I want people to know who you are.

08:29But as an extending, we've been sitting in the studio talking and I was like, why are we not recording this? We got to keep going because we've just been we've been talking and I'm like, no, this is fun stuff. So we can continue where we're talking. But now we're recording. Awesome. So you are the co-founder of Calexo, which is a beverage brand. And your beverages are infused with THC and CBD. That's correct. Or not infused with THC and CBD. Yeah, that's also correct. Do you have both? We do. We've no alcohol anywhere. Yeah. And thank you so much for having me on the show. This is this is a lot of fun. I've had a long personal connection with you all being that, you know, your your neighbors to my my in-laws. Yes. Over over in West Nashville. And so so our kids play with your kids. And this is a fun extension of our friendship. So let's get it. Let's give it. Let's give that background. Your wife grew up. I've known your wife since I was 12.

09:29Forty four. The majority of my life. She has two sisters. They live across the street from me growing up. And both of our parents still live in those houses. And I live two houses down now from those other houses. And you come you live in California. And you guys come. So it was Christmas night. And we're all having dinner at my parents' house. And they came over and we just it was always great to see him. But we started talking about his beverage and kind of that because it's been a development for a long time. Yeah. And now it's like out and it's going in there. I have so many questions around this. And we had I loved our conversation. I go, do you come in while you're in town? And I want to have because it's dry January. Right. So I mean, dry January, everybody's talking about not drinking alcohol. And there's all these other options. You provide an amazing option, but there's so much around THC infused beverages that I was super curious. And you know exactly what you're talking about. And I thought this is a great way to introduce this into our city to talk to kind of an expert.

10:34So here we are. Well, yes. Hi, Caroline. By the way, Caroline's here. I don't want to forget about jumping right in. Guys, go for it. There's a there's a million questions that pop up as soon as we start talking about the beverage. It's it's been a fascinating journey. It's been five years since we started. And, you know, Mary, my mother in law is is part of the origin story, actually. Really? Yeah. She's the most amazing woman on the planet. She is. And and being the most amazing woman on the planet is is is part of what backs into this story is is, you know, you know, cannabis and weed was was not necessarily something that I came to early in life. It was like late for me. It was 28, 29 years old and kind of found myself, you know, switching to cannabis from alcohol after my kids were born, after I was trying to like be a little bit more health conscious.

11:35And my co-founder, who was also on his own non-alcoholic journey, you know, he had a very different way of backing into that because he had gotten a rare eye cancer that meant that he he couldn't drink alcohol at all as part of his recovery. He's cancer free now, but still can't touch alcohol just just because his his liver is would be very compromised. And the next thing to have her relapse. So did cannabis help with his recovery at all? Was that something that was prescribed? Because in California, it's completely legal. That's part you can actually prescribe that as somebody's rehab for something like that. You know, I think there's a lot of research that still needs to get done about how how effective cannabis is for cancer recovery. But did it help him? Absolutely. Because it's for appetite to build appetite and all these things that are the side effects that come from it. Absolutely. But it wasn't until after his in his recovery phase that he found it. And it was and it was actually the the mood altering effects, the the anti-anxiety, the relaxation that that it gave a pathway to for for him to relax that was an alcohol that that led him to go, oh, my goodness, I can have a much more present in body inebriation that that's that's easier to control and is way less damaging to my body and found a lot of delight that way.

13:01Yeah. So so we found ourselves at a Christmas party with Mary and Ernesto, who are visiting from Nashville in Los Angeles. And, you know, we didn't want to go outside and and smoke a joint on the patio and come back smelling like reefer. That's that's that's not the the style when you're in front of Mary Gwally. You just a little bit more respect and care. So so I had a tincture because I was I was in my, you know, having my teen pot phase in my in my late 30s. At that point, I was like, I've got a tincture. You just put some drops on your tongue. It's like swallowing medicine. It's a little bitter. And my co-founder, Brandon, you know, had this beautiful little epiphany where he was like, oh, they're like bitters, like cocktail bitters. And went into the fridge, grabbed a little this little that and made us these these cocktails on the spot using the the the tincture as the that sort of bitter agent. And 30 minutes later, we were back inside the party in the social circle again, having the the same sort of connections that we were used to having with the alcohol.

14:09But we were drinking something different and feeling good. And we kind of caught eyes with each other across the room and we're like, what is this? So it's completely organic. Yeah. And we went out to the stores to try and find versions of it that we could, you know, work into our lifestyle. You know, we wanted to I wanted to find my maker's mark. I wanted to find my, you know, Heineken and they weren't there at all. And it didn't surprise us so much because the cannabis industry is very nascent at that point. You know, California had just legalized within, you know, six, seven months. And, you know, at that point, it went from, well, if we can't find what we're looking for in the store, how hard is it to make these things? A lot harder than you think. A lot harder than you think. And so that being five years ago, we've we've done this for for four years. We've launched a total of 12 different skews, some of them just different formats and bottle sizes and most of them in the California recreational adult use market.

15:17So when I'm saying that for the Nashville folks, it's it's going into a dispensary. You're passing usually an armed guard who checks your ID, you know, bars on the windows kind of style in some cases. In other cases, they design them to look like an anthropology and make them as fighting as possible. But it's still a very high touch, but tender led experience. You're personally shopped through the store typically. Sure. And all the goods are behind cases. It's not where you want to be presenting your product as a brand, even in the best case scenarios in the best stores. We couldn't really get the audience to grow past the very adventurous super fans that were going to walk into that store in the first place. We needed to branch out and find ourselves in traditional on and off premise locations. Yeah, I was I guess it never really occurred to me before. I've certainly seen, you know, kind of beverage type of products in dispensaries.

16:19But I guess you don't really get that same experience of like, you know, if I go to frugal McDougall and I'm, you know, got a table set up and oh, would you like to taste my wine? It's on the shelf right over there. We're on sale for Christmas. You really can't do that experience or even. Right. Well, and also the demographic of people who are going in to a dispensary are pretty much looking for they know exactly what they want. And if you're going to do a five milligram thing, they got to buy a bunch of that. They're probably looking for the biggest bang for their buck. They want the gummy that's a hundred milligram that they can chop up or a can that's a two hundred milligram. Can is something they can pour an ounce of and shoot to get the buzz versus a five milligram. So and it's and so you're a hemp derived product. Right. So so so Calexo is Calexo is a is a is a is a beverage company. That's that's the the latest version of what we are is is Calexo is just a beverage company.

17:21And what we like to do is is to delight humans with alternative drinking experiences, whether it be completely non-alcoholic and virgin experiences like our like our canned cocktails or sorry, canned mocktails. Some don't necessarily love the word mocktail, but you know, there's not non-alcoholic cocktails, non-alcoholic cocktails. There you go. But then each one of those flavors that we have, we also have infused options. And those infused options are there for the people who really don't want to experience the alcohol anymore, but still want the experience of the lift and that social relaxation and unwinding that does come from alcohol. And we just want to provide it in a way that's kinder and and more gentle to to people's bodies, let them wake up without a hangover, you know, kind of re-experience a new style of inebriation. Can we go back a little bit? Because we were right at this. We were at this party. We had this aha moment. Hey, if we enjoyed the social experience of having a drink, but we don't drink.

18:27So having a drink that also inebriates you a little bit. When did that leap happen? Like you guys decide, hey, look, we want to do this. Let's figure this out. You all get together. How hard is it to make that? What were some of the biggest obstacles you had to overcome? And then just the science behind this. The biggest, biggest obstacle is cannabis and how it's perceived in America. That that sort of hinges a lot of the different problems that we we faced. Problem number one is where do you make this beverage? You know, as most beverages are made in copackers or small breweries, places like that. But for a startup beverage, you need a reliable copacker. And there was none. There were there were, you know, shells of them being built. But there were zero that could compliantly, you know, put our liquids in a can and get them to the market. And that's that was step one. So the first year was just tracking and following all the different players in the California space.

19:32But because it was federally illegal and the state of California had legalized it, you know, on the state level, every product that I made was landlocked within the borders of California. And if I wanted to make a product in Nashville or Georgia or New York, I would have had to have a manufacturer in each one of those places once they had their own legalized state cannabis system. So the problem was, was that you've got money pouring into the system. You've got venture capital. You've got all these different sources of of private funds and all these people trying to start legal businesses in this new legal market. But they were very, very contained. The distributors had to be licensed cannabis distributors and not have any other business attachments to alcohol or anything like that. The retailers similar. You couldn't sell other products than cannabis in them. Definitely couldn't sell alcohol at them. And the manufacturers likewise.

20:33So you needed specialized supply chain companies for every single step of the process. And all of a sudden, you weren't just the only startup. Every single person you're partnering with was also a startup. And when when the whole system was on such, you know, sort of tenuous grounds and tiptoes and borrowed money at that point, it it it it didn't have the best chances for success immediately. And a lot of those were the problems getting started. The limitations of of manufacturing, limitations of distribution channels and limitations of how many physical retailers there were. So we got to the point after four years of this and said, look, just the total addressable market, if we're just throwing it to convenience stores, if we're comparing convenience stores that can sell alcohol versus the California retailers we can address with with this, it's like a seventy seven X difference in locations.

21:39Wow. I know. And, you know, those became sort of gave way at the end of the first year when the first manufacturer came online and we were able to get some products into the market. You know, our investors started showing up and recognizing that this was going to be a great option potentially in the future. And then the pandemic hit, which put us back a little bit because we had to form go out of being more of like a classy premium bottle size. We had like a twenty two ounce bottle. And before the pandemic, that was great because you could each pour two and a half milligrams, like sort of splitting a bottle of wine. We're trying to really code the social aspect of it into the product format. And the pandemic happened. And the question was, am I supposed to drink the whole thing? I mean, for some people, for some people, yes, absolutely. And that's how we found our diehard fans that are just, you know, have loved us since since they first tried us.

22:43And I have to mention, of course, that our flavors are really what stand out the most. We had a we had a my co-founder, Brandon, and and I spent a lot of time early on messing with these things, trying to figure out how to make them just absolutely like the most delicious thing possible, because it's not delicious. And it's so new and all these other things. And then there's a ton of them hitting the market. Exactly. What's going to make you stand out? Exactly. Yeah. So we so I have a design background. It's part of the reason that that, you know, we we kind of look as established and as well put together as we do is that that's been my my livelihood for a really long time. The can is beautiful. Thank you. The actual product itself looks like I holding this can like it's like a little piece of art. Yeah, it's really cool. Yeah. And and there's so much like subliminal signaling that we're trying to put into aspects of the design.

23:47You know, the there's there's a real reference of optical art. That's that was key as a reference point in the optical art of like, oh, is it going up or is it going down? What is the dimension was was really important to us because we wanted it to signal. Hey, this is you're going to have a perspective shift when you have this product and and we want you to be ready for it. So I notice your logo is a half circle or almost like a sunset. Is that what's the is there some significance or? Yeah, that's the well, the brand is was California brand. Each of the flavors is is is a little love letter to different parts of California. And, you know, because of that, you know, our name Calexo is is is, you know, sort of suggestive, a little love from California. And the the cell X. Oh, yeah. A little Cali X. Oh, yeah. Now I get it.

24:48Yes. But it's, you know, it the sunrise initially was also part of the the the beverage labeling because we had some we had aspirations to do a low and a high dose as well. So the low dose was going to have just a little sunset. And then the high dose was going to have a very much more of that sun exposed. Oh, that's cool. So a lot of a lot of these things are sort of designed to be systems that we could play out over the years if we were successful and just now we're finally getting into doing it. That's really cool. I love what you're doing. And I think I'm aware of all this stuff. I've been to dispensaries I've partaken before. You're a cool dad. I'm a cool dad. But I understand the difference. There's a whole culture that this is a whole controlled substance and there's a bunch of different types of it.

25:51There's Indica, there's a sativa, there's a hybrid, there's hemp, there's CBD, there's oil, there's tinctures, there's drinks. I understand all of that. I think it's wonderful. I think it is so great that it is legal or federally. I think that it should be legal everywhere because a lot of people can utilize these products for good. And buying a dime bag from somebody and rolling it up and smoking it, you have no idea what you're getting. It could be anything. To be able to specifically know what you need when you need it and to be able to dose exactly what you need is amazing to me. I get that. You get that. You get that. The general public does not get that. And so we were talking the other night about on-premise. And we're talking to restaurateurs. So if I'm a restaurateur and I'm thinking, hey, my beverage reps like my liquor reps are coming in now and they're showing me new products. They're showing me, hey, I've got this product, a product X, but this has THC in it.

26:53This is cool. This is better than booze is one that we can get around here. And it has THC in it. And there's two bars. There's one right off of Division Street. And then there's one, the weed place in Germantown. Buds and Brews. Buds and Brews. There's one in East too. There's one in East. Yeah, right next to Pearl Diver. So those places, and I think that they make it illegal. You can't buy both at the same time. So there's something in Tennessee, I may be getting a piece of this wrong, but Tony knows what it is. I've heard him repeat it many times. And it has something to do with the farm bill. Perhaps you're familiar with the law here. There's kind of like a loophole workaround to selling cannabis products here that has something to do with the farm bill. I don't like the word loophole, but because it makes it seem like we're circumventing something on purpose, but we're totally circumventing something on purpose because it was really explicitly written into the law. And I feel like America is kind of based on the idea that like, well, the law says I can do this and that lets me do X, Y, and Z.

27:59And it's up to the people and their elected officials to kind of put the cap on that where appropriate. I think you have a lot of other industries here, but won't go into that. So the farm bill is interesting because the farm bill is this omnibus bill that gets passed every four or five years or so. And the last one was in 2018 and the previous 2014. And those two bills did something really interesting to the hemp industry, which up till that point was struggling because it was held to the standard of any THC in the hemp products were instantly making it that schedule run federal crime drug. So in 2014, 2018, they wrote into the bill an allowance for a higher cap of THC. And they raised it, you know, if you're looking at your stereo volume, 0.3% higher.

29:00And they wrote it as 0.3% or less of the total dry weight means that it's hemp and is exempt from this Controlled Substances Act. What that really did for the industry was massive because, number one, it allowed for other cannabinoids to be legal instantly. So that's why you saw CBD proliferate first across the country because it's that's a byproduct of hemp. And so if you can breed, you know, like a Monsanto and, you know, breed breed a type of cannabis that grows with a very low percentage of THC, then then all of the other cannabinoids that you can extract from that crop are also going to have some applications in the market. You know, the next thing that people figured out was that, wow, 0.3% doesn't make any sense for flour necessarily because 0.3% in like a rolled up joint.

30:05Like you were saying, you know, that's not going to be very effective. Most people are used to 10 to 20 percent, you know, in some cases now. But when you take take the amount of THC that you would need to have an effect, like say from a gummy and put that amount into a gummy and ask what that percentage is. Well, that's way below 0.3% and has an effective dose that you can feel. Now people are like, great, we can get gummies out there. So the beverages started taking a look at this and I would say summer of 22. And what what happened was Minnesota very explicitly wrote it into their local laws that said, yes, you guys can use the farm bill. And as long as it's under 0.3%, you can make these things in in the local breweries and you can sell them at local retailers in the state on and off premise, like very explicitly.

31:12And they're just exploded. It just exploded. There were there were, I think, two or three small, small craft breweries that were saved. And I talked to a can, a can, a bright can supplier of the like the blank cans that fill basically the whole state. He said that the invoices were just new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, just kind of trailing off, trailing off, very slowly trailing off. And then as soon as the law passed, it was ping, just jumped up. Well, they all became copackers and now are doing, you know, millions in revenue and expanding. One of them told me they were hiring an extra 15 people. I mean, this is really pivotal for a lot of people, especially from the alcohol industry, who are experiencing this trailing off of interest in alcohol in lieu of, you know, better, better for you beverages. The non-alcoholic space, you know, for sure is one of them.

32:12But then, you know, there's still that group of people who will participate in Dry January next month and say, well, well, Dry January means I can I can still have THC, right? I can still have a good time and not be drinking alcohol. And so people kind of go for this Cali sober thing as a mixture. And the when I got to Nashville for a couple, you know, like a week ago, I went on a little tour of the local spots and was really, really pleasantly surprised how many of my my friendly competition that I'm actually, you know, we're we're we're working on this together, you know, to bring the category out together as a group. I'm very, very happy to see our brands all throughout Nashville already. It's happening. It's happening. Yeah. So how does this kind of the changing of the regulation with the farm bill? How does that affect your brand and the ability to were you a product that was previously only able to be sold in dispensary?

33:17And now you can be sold anywhere. Yeah. And and through a very simple change, I took the one component, the THC component. And instead of sourcing it from this regulated channel, I sourced it from the hemp channel. And the hemp channel has its own infrastructure and and and and sort of legal structures around it. You know, the hemp, the hemp THC is USDA approved, is tested in a DEA approved lab. And every single can has a QR code that you can scan with your telephone. And and it takes you directly to our site where you can read a very deep certificate of analysis of exactly what's in it. So interesting. And it's and we really appreciate this this extra sort of microscope and lens held to us because we want to make sure that all these products, mine and others getting to the market right now, are are going to are going to give people a good time. And it's something that they can kind of like hang their hat on and can exist in existing retail structures where people have the trust.

34:24I don't want to I don't want to have a single can of mine be picked up and give people a bad time, you know, over consumption, flavor, anything like that. We we just we just we we only have one chance to make that impression and we need it to be an excellent impression. So to sell these types of products and maybe every state is different to sell these types of products. Do you have to have any sort of license like tobacco license or, you know, the way you have a liquor license? Obviously, you don't have to have a liquor license. But is there any sort of regulation around selling it? Or can I say, hey, I'm going to open a corner store and I want to sell Coca-Cola in this product. And it's the same thing. Yeah, this is the neat thing. This is where where I get to say, just like alcohol over and over and over again, just like alcohol. And you do have to pay attention to your local licenses and laws, and they do vary state by state. The overarching federal law that allows for these things means that that, you know, the entire country starts with this yes position.

35:26And locally, they they can, you know, like I was saying, the people and the government in local sessions can can put some guardrails up. Interesting. Do you do you happen to know Brandon? Because I know Killjoy sells some like cannabis drinks. I don't think she has to have a separate license to sell it. It's so interesting. I don't think so. I mean, it certainly doesn't seem like it because, you know, it's right on the shelf next to. Yeah, no, I don't think so. But there's still best practices that we highly suggest. And we do we do our own version of ABC. I think you have to be 21 or over. Yeah, we suggest we suggest, you know, you just like alcohol. You you card card for adults and you follow basic ABC kind of like ideals. You know, when when we came over Christmas, Christmas Day and chatted, one of your questions that I thought was really interesting was was about overconsumption.

36:27And like as a as an on premise specifically, how do you get comfortable with this with this new this whole new thing that's in your space? Like you're kind of used to, you know, dealing with with overconsumed alcohol customers. What do you what do you do next? Or just I don't know how you as a bartender, how do you manage that as a bartender when somebody comes in? And there's there's another product out there called Canocane, right, which is a new new product out there. Justin Meist is that a brand name or it's a it's a brand name. And it's a it's like a concentrate. Right. So there's it's like a liter bottle. And then you sell it like one ounce at a time and you pour an ounce of this into a cocktail and you can sell them for 10 bucks. But it's like a 10 milligram shot that you can put into a drink, which is a lot. And so my fear is, OK, so I've got bartenders that are putting a shot of this. What if they put an ounce and a half on accident? What if they overpour a little bit and go, hey, man, I hooked you up?

37:29Well, this person is now drinking a drink. Maybe it's an alcoholic cocktail. Maybe it's not. I don't know the law on what it would be, but maybe they have a Coca-Cola with that in it and they're drinking a beer. Well, they chug that or they shoot the Canocane and then they drink two or three beers. And then all of those things hit at the same time. And what if they order another one? Hey, I'm not feeling this. Give me another one. Then all of a sudden they consume 40, 50 milligrams of THC while hanging out with their friends and they lose their shit. What? Because people have never had it. I'll give it a shot. Why not? Hey, how bad could it be? I mean, being impaired is being impaired. I would just apply the same, you know, if somebody seems like they're over served, then you stop serving them. I mean, I just would use the same exact common sense that I would use without, you know, selling somebody alcohol. It's like, hey, this guy seems fucked up. I'm going to call him an Uber. I'm not going to let him get in his car. I'm going to see his friends around and quit serving him. Here's a cup of coffee. I don't know. What I was saying was I just think so many people have not experienced what THC, the effects of THC because it's been taboo or it's been illegal.

38:37And it hasn't been part of our culture. I think it's also a lot of these products because they're regulated that you're getting from dispensaries because of the way they're made are so much stronger. I like my mother-in-law, I think is a great example. She's like, oh, as a teenager in the 70s, we'd like smoke a little joint with my friends. We get giggly. It's fun. Whatever. Because it's probably like garbage weed. And then she tries, you know, the little weed pen that my husband or one of my brother-in-laws has. And she's like stoned out of her mind and she hates it. I tell you what, I know people have personally lost because they played that game with heroin. And coming back to where you thought you were when the last time you had it is deadly. And you know what's not deadly? Hitting that weed pen. You were going to be uncomfortable because you did not respect it. And you just went ahead and hit the hardest thing that there is on the market. You know, for your first time in 20 years when your tolerance has been reset, that's a life lesson.

39:38And take your life lesson. Right, right. And that's why I hang my hat on THC over anything else. Because in the long term, you know, answer your question about the bartender is you're absolutely right. You know, everything that you're learning about how to take care of an over consumer is 99.9% there with alcohol. You know, the signs will be different for sure. Some slight reeducation will be needed for sure. But, you know, the ABC and, you know, TTV and a lot of the alcohol regulatory structures are most of the way to where we want to be as an industry as well. That's why we actively talk to and recruit and look for support from that industry quite a lot. And when we're doing restaurant trainings, bar trainings for how to serve our stuff, that's where we usually start.

40:38It's like, what would you do for somebody who's over consuming alcohol and leaves the establishment potentially and smokes a blunt and maybe hasn't done that in a while and then comes back in and orders more alcohol? You know, that how you would handle that situation is how you would handle a situation with a Calexo, except that they're not leaving and you can see how much they're consuming. So you get so getting people to consume the THC in the bar is is one way that you do get a little bit more control because you can observe what's happening versus people who are leaving to consume cannabis. You know, the one other thing that I'll say to that is that restaurant to restaurant, you know, bar to bar, they're going to do it differently. I saw a really fascinating LinkedIn post and I spend most of my time doing business development on LinkedIn. I love it. Somebody posted a sign that was taped to a bar in Minnesota where they've been doing this for about a year and a half now.

41:42And they go they go pick a lane. If you're going to have THC will only serve you THC. If you pick alcohol will only serve you alcohol. No switching lanes. You like no cross fading and and that's no no drinks with both. And that's a legal thing in most states. And the other one was they they had a 25 milligram cap per night. So right there, they're putting their own guardrails up about how they want to take care of and handle their business. And and I know I applaud them like so much for that. And everybody's got to find their own path in their own way. You know, a honky tonk bar is going to deal with, you know, an over consumed alcohol customer. No, they're not in a certain way. I was going to say in a certain way and, you know, a very fancy restaurant will handle it a very different way.

42:44But each of them are going to handle it. And, you know, I expect that they'll handle the THC customers as well. What the THC customers do have as an advantage is their hangover will not exist. Fair enough. So do you guys know if we're allowed to serve these products in bars and restaurants in Tennessee? Because a few years ago now, it was before the pandemic, it was kind of that CBD boom that you were talking about earlier. We decided we were going to do a 420 menu and we made a pizza that we made like a like a CBD pesto basically and put on a pizza. And then the health inspector came in, like got word of it somehow and reached out to us and was like, you have to take this off your menu immediately. You're not allowed to serve this without knowing exactly what what their complaint was. Do you know, do you remember what the exact complaint was? Just that you're not allowed to serve CBD like as a consumable food product. And who knows, it might have been a, you know, the health department maybe didn't know what it was and just said, let's shut this down.

43:44Maybe it wasn't an actual legal precedent. But my understanding has always been that we're not allowed to sell these products. But but I actually have no idea. I think that that that having, you know, in California, one of the things that we're doing is is we're just going ahead and trying to answer those questions as much as possible for the retailers ahead of time. And that's part of our pitch. Education and advocacy is is is baked in everything we do at this point. You know, there's a lot that we've got to cover for the consumers. Of course, they're getting it quite well. Quite well, actually, the the retailers, they're they're the ones that have more vested interests. They've got, you know, not just, you know, their their livelihoods, but their employees livelihoods on the line in some cases and don't want to lose their liquor licenses in a lot of cases, you know, because all sorts of different things. So so what I found is is that asking the questions ahead of time and just being very, very, very dogged about, you know, can I do this covers yourself the most.

44:52And I've got, you know, emails from a couple different, you know, ABCs in a couple different states saying either, you know, if you follow the laws, then we have no problem here. Or, you know, we don't have the resources to adjudicate, you know, these sorts of things, which I think is the case in Tennessee generally is that, you know, but but, you know, I went to Reds, which is a lovely spot over over on our side of town. And and they have a cold case that says 21 plus must be 21 plus to buy, you know, all over it. Little refrigerator by the front. That's that's where all the tea beverages are for them. But, you know, just up the street at a different place. They had them all behind the counter, you know, in in the back area where the, you know, where the, you know, the brown brown liquors, clear liquors usually go in in a kind of beer liquor. Exactly, exactly. So so and I asked him, I was like, why is it back there?

45:55And they were like, somebody came in and told us we're going to sell these things. It has to be behind the bar. It has to be like out out of you can't let people somebody. Well, I mean, but that sounds par for the pay that that absolutely does. I really want to get into the education piece. One of the things that we kind of landed on the other day was that there's always going to be the experimenter in the restaurant who's probably going to overdo it and potentially lose their shit. And I said, over time, if that case is in the front of liquor store, over time, people are going to take that home. They're going to experiment. We're going to it's going to become a normal thing. I have no doubt in my mind if it stays legal. But there's a lot of this is the number one thing you can do is just educate. I want to get into some education, but we're going to take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors and then we'll jump right back in. Two thousand twenty four. Here we go. This is the time to make a change. I talked about this on the last episode. Have you gone back and looked at your invoices?

46:59Look at your contracts, folks. Go back and see when your contracts are up because your dish machine, your chemicals, your broad line vendors, everybody. All these are contracts that continue to re up. If you don't stop them or tell them intentionally to continue them, you can negotiate these deals and you can make changes. I'm telling you right now, stop, stop baking your own bread. Stop buying frozen bread in two thousand twenty four. Let Sharpies deliver you fresh baked bread every single day. It is a game changer. It is an absolute game changer. And you just got to do it. It is it is vital to the success of a restaurant to get good, fresh baked bread. You can check how to get a hold of Sharpies right in the notes for this podcast. Or you can look them up at Sharpies dot com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S dot com. I do want to talk about Super Source.

48:01Now, this is a dish machine and chemical company that will come in and actually help consult with you on how to use less chemicals, how to be as efficient as possible. And they're not going to make you sign any contract. There's no contract to sign. So if you don't like them, you go back and you can sign a seven year deal with somebody else. But I think Jason Ellis will earn your business every single week like he is for so many restaurants all over the city. And if you're looking for the big stuff, guys, broad line vendors, this is the time to really look back and see what you spent last year and make some changes. If you need to learn more, I recommend Gordon Food Service. I recommend an entire process. If you want to learn more about this, you can contact me directly and I will give you the inside scoop. You need to email me at Brandon at New Light Hospitality dot com.

49:02That is my email address to help you with your vendor negotiation. How do you do it? What are some tips and tricks? These are the things. So email me. But I recommend Gordon Food Service. They're doing an amazing job. It's 2024. You got to do this stuff. I also would be remiss if I did not say Cytex. Whoever your linen company is, you've got to find a linen company that look at your linen number. If it's two percent last year, that's way too high. It needs to be around one percent. Look at what your linen costs are. If they are too high, you need to make a change. But you're not going to know that unless you look at that contract. So do all of these things and send me an email. Let me know how I can help you do that. Our goal is to build community and our goal is to help you succeed. If you're a locally owned and operated restaurant, I want to help you do that. So let's get back to this interview right now with Calexo.

50:03All right. We are back again. We are with Ken Peltier. Ken Peltier is the co-founder of Calexo and we're back. Jump back into the conversation. I was asking, your products are available here in Tennessee? Yes. Anywhere locally that we can? Yes, in Cool Springs. There's a lovely shop there called the Bottle Shop at McEwen. Oh, yeah. That's a great shop. I know and completely organically. We wholesale our products on a website called Air Goods. We're primarily D to C right now, so consumers can just go to our website, Calexo.co, and order cases straight to their house, even on subscription, which a lot of people really enjoy that option. But for wholesalers, we wanted to make it very easy, while we're still trying to sort distribution out and answer a lot of these kind of bigger existential questions about where do THC beverages belong in the market. We just wanted to give small shops like Killjoy and the Bottle Shop at McEwen chances to get our products directly.

51:11So right now FedEx is our distributor, and you can get us wholesale at a company called Air Goods, so at airgoods.com. That's where they can pick us up. They pick us up, put us in the store, and I went to go visit the other day and see it for the first time and buy my own product from a store in Nashville. It's a little bit of a mindfuck. That's really cool. It's a restaurant podcast. Oh, there we go. All right. We're all back by the dumpster, still casually smoking joints. Yes. Wouldn't be the first time. No. I was a big fan of the dugout. What's the dugout? The little wooden thing that has the bat. You know, like a cigarette, you know? We had to go sweep the parking lot before the shift, and I was like, I'll sweep the parking lot. You go in the back of the building and grind that thing in, look like you're smoking a cigarette, and then you walk back in to do line up, and you're like, let's do this thing. Everything's okay. I mean, it's such...

52:13I was 19. I mean, no judgment. Yeah, no judgment. Do it in 2021. Yeah, we've got kids coming up. I would much rather have my kids get into my, like, we, like, Calexo stash than get into my, like, whiskey stash, for sure. But, you know, it's one of those things that, you know, seeing our product in Nashville, like I said, it's just an absolute, like, perspective shift for ourselves, because that's not even started yet in California. There's still that almost Stockholm syndrome of, I can't sell this in my store. I'm not allowed to, even though they are. You know, that's that education piece that we're doing a lot in the sales department. That's a great segue. What do people need to know about THC? How are you educating people to erase the stigma behind it, if that's a thing?

53:16It's definitely a thing. And I think the biggest thing is just being available in people's, like, circles. And, you know, I'm not going to mass change everybody's opinion with a Super Bowl commercial, necessarily. It would help. It might help. But at the same time, you know, I think media is hyper-polarizing right now, you know, and the easiest way to convince somebody is to do it virally. And if you can convince one person, and that person is going to go home and have a conversation with their mother or father and say, here, try these things. These are different. You know, that change of mind is really powerful. And coming from family or friends, you know, people trust it a bit more than you would from any kind of advertisement we do. So that's why I say education and advocacy is our marketing currently.

54:20And in every conversation I get to have, every can that people try is that perspective shift for people. And, you know, the number of mothers first time having cannabis being our product is something that I have personal pride in. And, of course, you know, sorry, Mary, for writing you on public airwaves. But, you know, Mary Gwally's first time having cannabis was a Calexo. Many years later, it was like once we got established and, you know, it was kind of secret for a while still. It was like, no, no, no, this is it's drugs, you know, dare to keep kids off drugs. I do think that's how a lot of this stigma is going away, though. So many people with like boomer age parents who, you know, we all grew up kids of the 80s and 90s that are like, weed is bad.

55:22Don't smoke weed. You know, everybody's getting in trouble for weed. It's like this very taboo thing. But, you know, all our parents in the 60s and 70s smoked weed. But now that dispensaries are legal and it's all coming back around. It's like, you know, both my husband and I see our parents who when we were teenagers, it was like the most taboo thing. And now they're going to the dispensaries and eating edibles. And, you know, I mean, it's just like such a regular thing to them, which is kind of funny for us now to be like, wow. Well, I mean, if you think about parents taking Xanax, right? Or my doctor prescribed me Xanax because I have anxiety because I'm whatever the drug people do. There's a type of cannabis that you could go get a 1906 makes a pill as a brand that makes a pill, a genius drop or a bliss or something. That is a two and a half milligram gummy or a five or a pill, five milligram pill. If I need to chill out and it's on set in 20 minutes that you don't have to smoke a joint.

56:23You don't have to drink something where you're going to get high and you're not going to be in control of yourself. You could micro dose something and totally do. And you don't have to take a benzodiazepine. I mean, that's the that's legal. We can prescribe that in Nashville. You can do these drugs that will kill you. Or you could take a low dose THC and do most and cover most of that. But now you can do that. The legalization of it allows you to break it down into those tiny little spaces and take it for what you need it for. So we were talking about this before we started recording. And I was saying that I'm somebody who, unfortunately, it looks so great to everyone who's getting high and having fun. I've had a lot of really, really horrible experiences with cannabis, like mostly negative experiences. And I have never done edibles or like how to drink like this because I'm terrified. You know, I what what should I just say? You know, I'll take my Xanax and take a nap or what?

57:26What would you say to somebody like that? Yeah, I think that I think that what's absolutely true is that everybody's different. And and cannabis affects everybody differently. It's sort of almost like a fingerprint in a way. Like your endocannabinoid system is is is a part of how your body functions naturally. And and the THC is and CBD and all these cannabinoids are taking advantage of it in this way. And the the the fact that your system doesn't play well is is that's your that's you communicating with your own body. You know what's good for you and what isn't. And that should always be listened to. If you have a bad experience with our products, don't I don't want you to force it, you know. But but we've also tried to cover for that at the same time. And that's why I call this a beverage company for us. We're not a cannabis company anymore. We're a beverage company and we make non alcoholic versions of our of our beverages as well.

58:27And and what the idea was there was we had a lot of people coming to us over the years saying these drinks are so delicious. But I don't always want to be high. I sometimes I just want a delicious drink and feel like I'm drinking something refined and and like a cocktail. But, you know, a step above a La Croix or something like that. And and when we when we thought about releasing these hemp beverages to the market, what was also happening simultaneously over the last year or two is this non alcoholic movement has absolutely erupted in a way that that I did not predict happening at all. So so we felt it was very natural to just connect the dots there and say you can have our products with and without the cannabinoids. So if you want to enjoy our products, you can you can get those online and completely free of the THC and make your own drinks with them as a mixer or or to enjoy them by themselves.

59:42You know, whatever gets you there is important to you. And we don't want to interrupt that flow. We just want to provide you with something that you can enjoy. Nice. Also, every time that you've experienced it, have you done like a higher dose? Have you like smoked? Do you hit the pen or? I mean, I honestly I've I've literally probably like hundreds of times over the course of my life. Like, you know, you're in high school, you're at a party, you smoke a joint or, you know, smoke a blunt, whatever. As I've gotten older, I've tried it less and less just because I have had so many bad experiences. And the last time I, you know, I've like tried like a little tiny baby sip of a weed pen that somebody's like, oh, this one's like nothing. And I'm like instantly so high, like the last time I smoked weed, I just started crying within like 10 seconds of taking the tiniest hit of something that I was assured is like smoking nothing.

01:00:44Well, if you know, if I can give general advice, the the way that I suggest that anybody who who hasn't tried cannabis before is sort of set up for the same for the same experience that you're having. Where just a little bit will will will is too much. So what we suggest for everybody is to start low and go slow. And the reason for that is, is the five milligrams of THC in our 12 ounce can is is evenly distributed. So each sip is going to have a proportional amount. So if you start and have a few sips and can wait 10 to 15 minutes and see how that feels, you can decide whether or not you you want to continue the journey or stop the journey. And and that works throughout the can. If you get to the halfway point, 15 minutes in, you've you start to feel the effects.

01:01:44You can go, oh, OK, I'm at a spot that I want to stop or not. The other thing that we try and suggest is is it's all about set and setting the comfortability of you. And and your like feelings are are are really, I would say, like turned up and sort of amplified with with cannabinoids and THC it. So being somewhere where you're very comfortable at like potentially at home in the woods alone around, you know, a support structure that can like, you know, hold your hair. You know, hopefully it won't go that direction. But, you know, hold your hand. You know that that those considerations do need to be in in your mind as you're choosing to try the THC drink for the first time. And once you've had it, once you've got have had a chance to feel what a couple sips is like, you know, a can is like a couple cans is like, then you've got your comfortability to, you know, to find your bliss your own way.

01:02:59And I recommend to everybody do this. Just that process right there for cannabis in general. For sure. If you've never experienced THC or you don't know much about it, but you're interested, don't go to a restaurant and try it for the first time. Hell no. Don't do that. That's what that's what I'm afraid that that was my fear was that people come and go, oh, you sell it here. I'll try it for the first time. Like, how do I deal with that? It's not going to make you go crazy. Everybody's experience is different, but it will make you feel different than alcohol. And it does make you a little more introspective and creative. And there's amazing benefits to it. Experiment. Get a can and do one ounce, two ounces, three ounces. Wait a little time. See which see what you like. See how you feel and experiment. Check it out because it's not it's not a crazy thing. It's totally normal. Hey, we're we're almost out of time. I want to say thank you so much for doing this and kind of last minute. We're talking Christmas night. I'm like, what are you doing next week? Same thing I'm always doing.

01:03:59Talking about Calexo and I want to talk about Calexo. It's Calexo.co. That's the brand name is Calexo. Calexo. If you go check them out at Calexo.co, you can see their infused selections and they have a citrus. Is it Citrus Rose? Citrus Rose. That's Citrus Rose. No, Citrus Rose. And it's infused five milligrams THC, five milligrams CBD. You offer free shipping with this and you can buy them directly from your website right here. You also have a cucumber citron and that is infused as well. Five milligrams THC, five milligrams CBD. And then the one you had Stephanie had the other night was the semi-tropic and I had a sip of that delicious. Thank you. Best tasting drink like this that I've ever had. I mean, like I said, ever had. That's the point. It was delicious. And I just took a sip. I didn't get to drink because everybody wanted everybody was like, I want to try that. I want to try that. So I only got a sip, but it was delicious.

01:05:00Are you going to leave this here for me? Absolutely. He's got the one can of the cucumber citron here that I'm going to try. But you can buy a sample pack with four of each of these or six of each. You get 20. So yeah, we do sample packs a lot of different ways, which we're just trying to crisscross it. So you can get all of our products, either 12 or 24 packs online. And we have some sample packs that are just infused, sample packs that are just uninfused. But if you really want to go for it, we've got something called the multi-pass, which is absolutely a wink to the fifth element. And that's four of each of the flavors infused, uninfused as a 24 pack. So you can really experience. They're great for gifts because you can give somebody a way to try it with and without the cannabis. It's a nice way to kind of extend the non-alcoholic idea into some different directions.

01:06:00And if you're a liquor store and you're listening to this and you want to carry the brand, you could bring it in this way and then you would have something that's kind of exclusive. There's only one other place, two of them. I don't know if Stephanie's selling it yet, but I'm sure she will over at Killjoy. But if you're anybody else, you could have something that is distributed like crazy and you could bring it in and it could be an exclusive for you. We put a link right at the top of our web page. There's a little scrolling banner and you just click that for the wholesale page. I think if you go to the website at colexo.co, you can see the cans. You can see the artwork. You can see the vibe of the company and the culture that you guys are doing. And it's really beautiful and I love it. What else do you want to say, man? The last thing we do, I'll say this. The last thing we do is the Gordon Food Service final thought, which is anything you want to say as long as you want to say it. But you get to take us out. So whatever you want to say, you got about six minutes. Do whatever you want. It doesn't have to be the full six minutes.

01:07:01It could be 30 seconds. It could be two seconds. What choice? I think the most fun I get to have with Colexo is thinking about the future possible locations that you could have these products. And the reason I like to think, play these mind games, which is really fun to do, is there's a stigma that comes with the cannabis that's long based on the war on drugs and all these different things that, you know, the Cheech and Chong-ism, the stony baloney-ism of it. But thinking about it past that, like, you can really have a lot of fun. One of the places that started carrying us in Chicago is a theater. And having the ability to consume cannabis indoors at a theater watching a show, be it a music show or anything like that, well, come on. Another fun one that I love to think about is Las Vegas, because in Las Vegas is a very strange dynamic where cannabis is legal in the state, but hyper-legal in the casinos. And you'll see no smoking signs, no smoking cannabis signs everywhere in the casinos.

01:08:14But I've estimated that each cannabis consumer is spending 30 minutes away from a table, gambling, to go outside, very far away outside, to be able to have that cannabis experience before they come back in. If you can just serve it to them at the table, that makes a lot more sense. You know, cruises, a lot of different places where, like, overconsumption of alcohol is a problem. This displacement of cannabis for alcohol in public consumption spaces has a tangible effect, and people are really noticing it. In bars and restaurants, they're noticing that people add food or desserts to their tabs. If you've had a cannabis drink, you're going to order a dessert more than likely.

01:09:15And when you have situations like these large music shows and things like that, the overconsumption of alcohol can lead to fights. I don't like to criticize people for drinking alcohol in general, but there is a real effect here. People have noticed that when we have alcohol-free shows that only have THC cannabis or cannabis beverages, that this, just like the demeanor of the crowd at the end of the night, is different. Concessions double. We sold so much popcorn tonight, pretzels. Absolutely. And, you know, it's also, for the alcohol industry, it's, you know, a full 30, this is by Molson Core's own research, full 30% of the youngest drinking cohort, which is 18 to 30, will not drink alcohol, period.

01:10:20And they therefore change their company from an alcohol company to a beverage company as well. And they now have a Beyond Beer section that is solely focused on non-alcoholic options. Did anybody see White Claw in their latest product? In the White Claw non-alcoholic? I saw that. You mean like La Croix? The same thing. Now we have non-alcoholic White Claw. I thought it was a meme. I think it's real. It is real. I thought it was a meme at first. Well, I think Red Bull changed the game for anybody. Just your perception of who's going to beat Coke and soda, and then all of a sudden the energy drink segment opened up and it was like, oh shit, what's the next Red Bull? What's the next thing? And I think this is really good. The timing is perfect for this because alcohol retailers, wholesalers, distributors are all watching the margins get really tight.

01:11:23They're watching skew rationalization pull beer skews off shelves. Unfortunately, a lot of craft off the shelf for non-performance and a widening and deepening of the non-alcoholic shelves. I'm thinking athletic beer. That is an absolute must on almost every restaurant's menu. We have it on ours. And what we want to be is the option right under that. And that's the type of product that we're designing and pushing forth in the world is something that can be a really good alternative for people wherever they're consuming. All right. So there you go. You've heard it. If you are doing Dry January this month and you want to try another option, try Calexo. Like my product salesman voice, my pitch man there. You're going to be so good on TV.

01:12:26Thank you so much for joining us, Ken. It's a pleasure having you. And if you wouldn't mind being our expert on this, I may call on you in the future to throw in different things. We're going to go to our correspondent in California, Ken Peltier. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure meeting you as well. Happy New Year, man. Happy New Year. All right. Cheers.