Our Chief Cannabis Officer for education Wendy Bronfein of Curio Wellness discusses the local business connection and partnership with CFG Bank Arena, rock and roll music and contesting and gifting for the holidays. Even Mariah Carey is coming to Baltimore to sing about Santa!
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
arena, strains, kiss, holiday, terpene profile, cfg, cannabis, vape, concert, baltimore, sweepstakes, week, tour, friends, curio, civic center, love, names, foreign, fun
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
wn st Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively in the post-holiday. I’m at a gravy I’m out of Turkey. I’m on to like football and hams and and like eggnog at this point. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery conjunction with the Friends of window nation and Jiffy Lube. MultiCare we’re taking the Maryland crab cakes we’re on the road 25th anniversary doing for crab cake tour stops this week. We’re Coco’s on Wednesday gertrudes Thursday, Hollywood casino on Friday up in Perryville. And then on Tuesday morning doodle special coffee edition over at State Fair in Catonsville. It’s been a little while since I’ve had Wendy brown fine on she is the Chief Brand Officer for all things. Curio wellness and foreign god are having to have a little bag here. Tis the season and the holidays and the Cana blitz that was happening over the week. Like the Blitz happened to the Chargers but world by week here. And I got something sort of a little bit for you this week. First off, how was your holiday? I know you have small children, big turkeys big family, the whole thing going on right?
01:06
Holiday was great. We had like 40 Some people at Thanksgiving. I have family from Australia that was in it was a great time. Yeah, we had 15 Kids 12 and under and now family in
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:18
Australia do tell I can’t let that just go. I’ve been in Australia three times. I love Australia so family flew all the way here for for Thanksgiving. It’s not even an Australian holiday. My
01:29
son My my my cousin my first cousin married a woman from Australia. They now live there and they came in for Thanksgiving.
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:37
Well you need to go visit them it’s good place.
01:39
Oh yes, I went for my honeymoon and it was fantastic. My place that I I will move there. That is where I will move.
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:48
See this you got to plan I love a plan. Of course when he provides the I’m a blunt person shirt. A courtesy of curio well it’s we’re gonna be doing our Maryland crab cake tour over in the far end daughter showroom. That’s this place that you pass, when you’re on on your crotch is still moving south at Timonium or north of originally wherever you might be. So I got a little out of the box thing for you this week, people are hitting me about the KISS concert, and CFG Bank Arena. And I would say one of the things about your brand and I did some work with you years ago, we had towels and different things like that. But since adult use is here, and you saw that coming on, and I’ve known you for a couple of years, and we talked about all these things, one thing that you were involved in as a brand very early on, and it was kind of obvious, and I’ve had Billy del on as well. And he’s got the little flower on the back of the CFG bank had was the CFG Bank Arena, and your relationship is a business with all that they’re doing. I mean, the place has been open like six and a half, seven months, it feels like it’s been there a million years, because the building has been there. But you know, kiss is coming to town and I gotta get my belt buckles out. You guys do a lot with CFG Bank Arena and contrasting and different things. I thought that to be kind of a fun thing. Because quite frankly, before adult use was even here. I’m going back to the rush concert at the Capitol Center on September 26 1980. Cannabis was involved with music at some point and concerts. But this is um, this is kind of a fun thing I think you guys do with music and with CFG bank. And more than that, I would say this the bill and I sent this the bill Cole early this morning is also and I have some friends Mike Rosenfeld from web connections involved with CFG Bank Arena and oak view and all that they do down there. It’s just been a great thing for the city to have kiss in town on their final concerts, you know?
03:31
Absolutely. So when ACFI was redeveloping the arena program was we’re still MediCal program. We were approached and we’re really excited to come on and be one of the founding sponsors with the arena group and, and learning that CFG was going to be kind of the title name. It’s it’s really been, I think, so exciting to see these bands come to town, we’ve had so many good shows. You know, for anyone who’s from here, you grew up with the arena, I have a list of of good and crazy things I’ve seen there. And to know that it was going the way that they were investing in it. I went and toured it when it was under construction and like just seeing how they were updating it the investment in the acoustics is amazing. I mean, if you’ve been to a show there since they’ve reopened the sound is phenomenal. And I just My hope is that like you know, it’s just kind of the epicenter for this regrowth in that part of the city you know and you start to see restaurants and shops and it becomes more of like a destination of we’re going to concert tonight let’s grab dinner here first let’s go out after I just think it can be so wonderful for the city.
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:39
I love you know my buddy Johnny Rollo Shogun fights John and I were altar boys together. We played on the same little league team we played on the same football team together. I’ve known him forever and one of the founding guys for MMA he put a little thing up this week is kisses in town and we’re Eastside Baltimore, East Baltimore, you know, thugs from Dundalk, who love kiss in 1978 and how destroyer love gone and rock and roll over and all that. But he put a little thing back on to the 1962 which is the club there and I just there’s something about it for me six months in because I like you I’ve been going all my life clippers game skipjack games, bandits, game blast games, Black Sabbath concerts in 1981 was Ronnie James Dio like Van Halen concerts back in the day with David Leroy, like all of my memories of the building. But the fact that when it is here, and it’s local, even on the night, we’re recording today when kiss is in town, and I found this is a free plug for you, Wendy, for you to go listen, because I know you’re a kiss fan. I interviewed Paul Stanley twice in my life once when I was 15 years old. At the news American in 1984. I don’t have the audio recording of that that got lost. But I do have he invited me to dinner one night, Paul Stanley invited me to dinner, and 1990 after a concert at the Patriots enter, they still had to make up off at that time, then put it back on. And I went down to dinner with them. And I found the tape. I’ve had the tape forever. I’ve never played the tape. I’ve never listened to it because it’s weird, having me at 21 sitting in a hotel room at one o’clock in the morning with groupies banging on the door with Paul Stanley in a robe and being Paul Stanley and talking to me, but I have the tape recording of it. And I broke it all down and I put it out. So now everything this week has been Kiss Kiss kiss on my timeline. It’s a big deal. They only played three more shows in the history of Kiss. And they’re doing this is one of their last three anywhere outside of New York. And it’s just sort of the things that used to come to the arena and the things that come to the arena now and I think about Queen John Mayer, Bruce Springsteen, the Eagles, the things that I’ve gone and done, let alone all my friends go and LL Cool J or the circus or whatever you have children. Like, I know you’ve been down there a lot, but this is Baltimore positive, right. And we talk about whatever’s going to happen at the harbor. I have Tom Kelso up at Hollywood casino talking about all this money that we’re given the Angelo’s family be shouty and what the sports thing is going to be. See if Japan Korea has actually happened. You know, it actually bill we dealt bought in you bought in a lot of people bought in people came here, you know, hotspot, and Paul Stanley, and Gene Simmons, and John Mayer, and they’re all coming here. And I think about the renaissance of the city. And this is no offense more important than cannabis or this or that or the the resurrection of the city begins with people coming back to the city and having a good time and wanting to come back again. And I just I tip my cap to you and everybody who saw this, because I don’t think a lot of people saw that the arena really could be six months into this and attraction. That’s bringing things like Bruce Springsteen and kiss and really, really relevant things here.
07:41
Yes, well, so we I was raised on music, and also going downtown for events with family. And so I totally agree with you. I mean, we doing this sponsorship with the arena was partially because we love music part, and partially because it’s could be good for our business. But mostly because we think it’s great for Baltimore. I mean, I totally agree with you that this could be the Renaissance. And a lot of the shows being a sponsor. I’ve just had a lot of communication with the staff who’s running it. And so like a lot of the shows that have come to town have been like the start of tours, which brings the artists to the city, even it’s not like they’re showing up and then they’re here for tonight. And they’re out. It’s like they are here a few days before the show is starting in our city, which is just such a big deal.
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:32
We’re competing with like Madison Square Garden, and these other rinks. They have hockey teams in there. They have basketball teams in there, they have a resident so people say, well, the arena can’t be anything. They’re gonna have a hockey NHL. And I’m like, no, no, no, no, no, it’s, you’re missing the whole point. The buildings available for bands to come and play and load in easily and load out easily. And now it has club and suites and people like you and your family. And and, and lots of sponsors supporting it. But more than that, it’s available and it’s on the circuit. And it’s not a tired, old dumpy building anymore. It’s a completely renovated, modern every time I go through the beer line, and I pulled my credit card out. And I realized I can just get things quickly and get back to my seat. So I don’t miss a song. And the bathroom. That’s just all of it. It’s just such an elevated experience. And I I would tell Frank Ramesh that I would tell anybody, look, whatever the promise was in the beginning. I’m relatively skeptical. You know about any of this because I’ve seen this for 50 years with the way I’m skeptical, the $1.2 billion. We’re throwing at the Angelus. I’m skeptical on Sky questions. But this thing’s actually that the baby has been born and we kiss we have kiss in town. And I think that that really should be celebrated that we have a really good thing going on here. 234 days a week that you guys have been a part of. People are begging you for tickets all the time, I’m sure right. Yeah. No matter what the music is. People want to go down and be a part of especially after the plague be a part of live entertainment again.
10:00
Yes and so we’ve been doing ticket giveaways through foreign daughter since the arena opened. So we usually have a an entry box sitting in the store right when you walk in, and you can fill out a form and then so you know, we did kiss we were given those way in the most recent, but we get advance notice of who’s coming and if we think people are going to be into that show, we grab tickets, and then we do a giveaway. So it’s always worth stopping by because you might win tickets.
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:29
I was always Peter Chris as a kid at that broke Paul Stanley’s heart when I told him that but I was always the drummer, I was always the cat guy trying to find those old pictures. I gotta get get some old ace freely stuff from Amberjacks, too. So rock and roll was on the agenda, you probably find is your I left a little rock and roll there. She’s the Chief Brand Officer for all things foreign daughter and our friends at curio, and we’re gonna be moving to crabcake tour over there by the mystery crabcake on the 15th we’re going to import one because I don’t have one there. But we’re gonna have a great conversation. So I want to talk to you about holidays too, because I was in the store last week. And I see. I mean, you really as a business. And I think one of the things that makes this, I have built coal on roofing they’ve been doing 100 years, some things are the same thing. Some things are different. But your whole industry and the way you’re marketing things, the kinds of products you can make. And I’ve toured your facility to say, my lottery friends have a peppermint scented, a lottery ticket. And you can make flavored things that can be seasonal things almost like specialty ice cream companies or, or beer companies make seasonal things. You can now get into that. And we’re sort of its neophyte, it’s we’re new to this, but you’re trying to figure out holiday things. And I already mentioned cannabliss, which are naming strains of flower in a football space. But give me a little holiday briefing. Because as you go through this, the holidays are fun. You have a storefront, you want to make it a little bit more fun. But also it’s it’s new to everyone. I think people come in with a lot of questions about things that smell funny or things that are flavored, but I know that you’ve moved into that space a little bit. Not that you’re that you’re Yankee Candle, but you’re getting there.
12:07
Yeah, so there’s sort of many layers, right. So the store itself has a whole holiday feel right, all the Twinkles and the treat the garland and everything going on. Lots of gifting. That is cannabis and non cannabis related. But I think the cannabis related is kind of what’s exciting right now, right? This is the first time that you could give cannabis as a gift, right? You can, you know, your mom.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:33
I mean, I just got a laugh out loud because I’m 55. And I just gotta say, as a stocking stuffer, like literally it’s amazing. We’ve come a long way windy. Let’s recap we come a long way.
12:47
We of course, it’s like Look who’s who’s the friend or relative to doesn’t sleep, get him some good night who whose body has aches and pains, get them move topical, right? You want to have a good time this holiday season. Try some church choose orange or mango that are gonna give you that energy and that social buzz like, you know, you’ve got a pre rolls in your stockings. Like, there’s so many choices. And I think, particularly if you have somebody who’s interested, but you think might be a little bit nervous about going to do that first purchase, it’s helpful to like, kind of give them the thing you think they might want. And then let them go back and have a sense because I always tease that, you know, the dispensaries are it’s like the Cheesecake Factory menu. Like there’s so many choices. And if you don’t know what you want or where you’re coming from, it’s it can be extremely overwhelming. So honestly, giving the gift might be helpful to people. We also I do have to do like a shameless plug. There’s a company here in town called crabcakes, and cannabis, and they make all kinds of fun apparel and swag that kind of have a Maryland spirit and a cannabis forward money mindset. And they’ve got some cool rolling trays and we have them available for sale. In our store. And in all of our pop ups around the state this month. Our brand ambassadors are giving them away as well. So if I find
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:02
crabcakes in cannabis, I met them somewhere in life’s journey in the last year.
14:09
Yeah, they’re it’s a fun group. They it’s a fun idea. And obviously it’s playing off of that line from Wedding Singer.
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:16
Now of course, right. Wendy for you with the wedding
14:20
wedding. Wedding Singer, but yeah, sorry. Oh, we
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:23
have some vape sweepstakes going on, too. I wanted to. You’re always doing different things. And I guess I miss interested in your business. And you see that, and the kinds of questions I asked when I toured places, but just how the industries sort of coming online as adult use and things that you’re trying to do to get people interested in. And I think when your sister was on she’s like, first thing we discovered is people in Maryland love cannabis. And I always hear that sort of ringing in my ear. And maybe you couldn’t before and you do now but but more than that. I’m trying things, experimenting with things and saying all right What’s a vape? So let’s start with there’s a vape. sweepstakes explained vapes to folks because I think they understand flower, and I always try to start with a total not even a one on one like a 100. Rudimentary because I come in there and I get overwhelmed by tinctures and waxes and saying I’m like, I don’t even know what that is I you know, what vape is vape is something you have a sweepstakes going on right now explain to folks the vape and where it comes from from flour.
15:27
So vape is oil from the flour, so the flour and in our case, we use co2 extraction, which is a kind of cleaner form of extraction, FDA approved a form of extraction. And we we pull the oil out of the flour materials, though, if you could think of the extractor, almost like a giant espresso machine where we’ve ground the flour into more of a powder texture, put it into this machine, and it is uses co2 at a supercritical state to release the oil from the flower material. And so that oil in a refined state is put into a small cartridge, which attaches to a battery, and then you draw through the mouthpiece to inhale. Now because it’s oil, it’s more concentrated. So a little bit of a vape goes a long way, it’s stronger than just smoking flower. So both are forms of inhalation. But the vape is going to be a stronger uptake. In a more concentrated form. The sweepstakes is for the fun of the holiday season. We all have a series of our strains that are like treats names like rum pie, or blueberry cookies, things that sound like delectable treats that felt very holiday ask, we gathered all those strains, and they they all have this sweepstakes sticker on them and they have a QR code on the back. And when you scan the QR code, if you buy that vape you’re eligible to win $500 And we’ll have up to four winners to
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:03
cash or store credit. That is cash cash. Okay, I need to ask you about this because I’ve never I was at a stupid questions. Run pi blissful wizard who comes up now and some of these are your your strange right there Curio strange name by you. You’re the only one in the world maybe some crow similar or it has derivatives of parent strains. But explain the naming of the strains. Because when you come in and you can be adult use now you come back, you look up on the monitor, banana, this strawberry that lemon, this is citrus that all of these things have fun names, memorable names. Are they useful in any way?
17:50
Well, so some of them are. So sometimes they’ll talk about strains that are gassy or fruity. So like when you think of something that has a diesel in it, versus like a blueberry, right? Those are a little bit on the nose in terms of the characteristics of that strain in its in its terpene profiles and how that impacts taste and smell that gives you those names that
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:15
are itself the smelling the flower, you would say this as more of this kind of kind of like Christmas trees all smell different, like literally right?
18:26
Yeah, so but but then we have like, we have a strain called Future ex wife. And we got another one in the garden called Future ex husband that clearly has nothing to do with how they smell or taste. But yeah, some of them do come to us named and some of them we name ourselves
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:47
who gets on the naming department is that you your sister who whose abuse in charge of this.
18:52
So some sometimes there are a lot of times they’re internal. And people in the cultivation team kind of collectively come together and come up with names. And then we finalize a choice. And then sometimes we’ve done it. Like the thing on social like we did something earlier this year that was named that strain and people submitted names. And then we picked one from all of the entries we had. So we give you like, we’ll give people awareness like this strain is cross of this and this or it’s terpene profile looks like this. So you have some sort of understanding of what to what you could think to expect or know about that strain if you’ve never had it because it’s obviously new. And then that informs their creativity to come up with some sort of name. Oh,
Nestor J. Aparicio 19:38
there’s any question in the industry. People want to go to websites, whether it’s an app and Leafly or whatever, and say what what is this? What’s it like? How’s it going to work? And I think that that’s always the biggest challenge for everybody in your industry, somebody coming in and even somebody that is has used as a medical car to saying, you know, I I need something different or I’m looking for Some sort of different reaction to to it and saying this is a new product. This is sort of like that, for someone to come in storefront foreign daughter and say, I prefer sativa is but I want to try this that on the part of giving people good service and giving them help that it’s not like old world headshot, that it’s literally you’re helping me get what I need that process for for people. What can they expect when they come in? And can they get consultation? I guess it more than anything else?
20:38
Yeah, so there’s two ways to get consultation. One is through our clinical director, who’s the pharmacist on staff, Dr. Nina, she is there and you she can do consultation with you. There’s no cost for that. And we do have a private space where you can meet with her. And the other is just at with one of our staff members in the dispensary, right, you can take as much time as you need to go through the choice isn’t what you’re looking for. I think when it comes we’re talking about vape when it comes to flower vape that experience is really linked to the terpene profile. And that’s where people really want to educate themselves to learn, what are the what are the individual terpenes? And what do they do, because that’s where you’re getting those effects where you’re saying like, you know, people sort of rely on saying, oh, I want sativa or indica or hybrid, right. But it is really the terpenes that are defining what that experience is. So if you want to feel uplifted, and your mood change and energized, right, which people would think is sativa, that that’s really more about which terpenes are present and in higher volumes, because that’s what’s driving you to feel that way. Versus I want to use this to sleep or I want to use this to relax or my my body needs to relax or my mind needs to relax. And it’s the terpene profile that drives that. And even if you were to go on the menu when you’re shopping, because you can look at the store menu online before you come in, and you click on a product, there’s usually like a circle graph that that shows the potency of any given terpene that you can see before you even come to the store like Oh, I think I like this because it’s really high and limonene and I want to feel energized and I want my mood uplifted. So that might be a good one for me. Well,
Nestor J. Aparicio 22:18
it is I don’t see overwhelming but it’s not an inexpensive product and doing research on it can only benefit you and I think you guys have done as good a job as any with your first place I ever went in and had a tourney tiny Turk guide, you know, like, like we used to get back to your real schedules, you get us you give out a little right terpene you know menu to say hey, this, because the better educated people are, the more they’re going to reap the benefits of using the product is a but but I think there was a blindness about all of it because of the government because of a lessness because of all of that, that now that it’s open, it’s real open and you get to carry a wellness.com and click on anything and get a pretty nice, much beyond what the bottle of wine would say back in the day. Right? Just literally. Yeah.
23:06
Absolutely. I mean, I think what what you get off of the label, what the staff and the help store can help you with what you can see on our website would be the equivalent of like, if you’re at a restaurant, and you’re ordering wine and you tried to explain to the smelly a what you wanted, right? How heavy you wanted it, how smooth the the taste the feel all that that’s that’s the same thing that’s happening here. But you actually have a label that if you understand what those attributes are, you can find your perfect fit.
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:38
Those that read the label and everything I eat, so I’m going to certainly do that as well. Foreign daughter and curio wellness sponsoring our 25th anniversary, we’re counting down all sorts of members. As we get up on radio row week, we’re going to be over farmed out or in Timonium on December the 15th. Do a little love version of the crabcake tour and have some conversations. Wendy brown fine is our guest She’s the Chief Brand Officer for all things curio wellness and foreign daughter and for you I guess last thing this sweepstakes and all the things holiday oriented stop into the store. And I would say for anybody your folks are really educated. You know, when I do have questions for they’re not they have answers. And if they don’t have answers, they can get me answers pretty quickly. And I think that that’s sort of a cut above it’s one of the reasons I’ve always come into foreign data from the beginning.
24:25
Thank you. I do have to ask isn’t we kick this off with with the CFG thing? Bottom Marina, what is the I’ll say like, funniest, most embarrassing worst show you ever saw their worst
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:41
show ever saw there. It’s funny you would ask me this right? Because I have stuff on my desk because and I’m gonna pull this out. I’m gonna pull some pictures out. I I was going through all my childhood pictures and I had a camera and I found all of these pictures. I was looking for my pictures with Kiss. This is REO Speedwagon from 1980 For at the Baltimore Civic Center. That’s Kevin Cronin. So I was going through all these pictures and trying to figure it out. This is Iron Maiden at the at the Civic Center. That’s Bruce Dickinson there in 1984. I have ACDC. Hold on. This is Angus Young, up on the riser plan to get so I have all of these pictures and most of them are from the Baltimore Civic Center. And of course, I’m looking for everything but what I can find, and I can only find like Peter Sutera from Chicago in an Orioles, Cal Ripken jersey from 1985. So I have all of these awesome
25:33
photo you Oh my god. Yeah. Oh my god, I think my dad would love that.
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:38
There’s a Peter Sutera. That was earlier in the show that was, you know, Love Me Tomorrow, stuff like that. So anyway, I have all of these opinions. There’s a lamb. I have some rush pictures here as well. I found some old pictures of this guy’s coming on the show next week. You’ll appreciate this. He’s written a book. This is none
25:58
of those are embarrassing. By the way.
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:00
This is Rick Emmett. From triumph. These are my pictures of him at the Baltimore Civic Center, the CFG Bank Arena, I should say. So he’s coming. He wrote a book. So I mean, I’m a rock and roll guy, I don’t know bad shows at the arena. I can only think of great ones. I mean, I’m being honest with you. I don’t think of anything. I always told my wife about the time when I was a boy in 1981 or 82. My neighbor Mr. Pete worked at the at the Civic Center. He was the guy tearing down the hockey rink and making it a basketball rink and helping bands he was on the local crew. And Mr. Pete would work down there and, and it was a band called The Sugar Hill gang. They were playing random sequence and Grandmaster Flash and Melly Mel, little white lines, and, you know, Sugar Hill and Rapper’s Delight. And I liked early rap. I didn’t go down that that road, I was more of a rock and roll. I love music, right. So Mr. Pete snuck me down to the arena. And it’s now where the men’s rooms are behind the middle concourse. Up in the corner. It’s literally a men’s room. It used to be a changing room and lockers for like workers at the arena. And he stowed me away there for six hours took me to work and one in the afternoon to break down the basketball game from up that day. And I got to see Sugar Hill gang play, and he snuck me in. I was the only kid there like it. You know, I don’t remember if it was cannabis involved that night in the crowd or not? Because usually, it was urien in the 80s. But So Andy, that would be like a crazy memory I happen i i love the arena, I and everybody that knows me. I’m 32 years on the radio now. I’ve always talked about how much I love the place and the fact that they fix it. And they bring Paul and Gene back in with Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer to play. Shout it out loud one more time for us. You know, and you guys are a part of it. Just the fact that it um, next year, there’ll be other bands. There’ll be other great stuff coming here. I just think it’s good for the city. And I’m glad we had a chance to talk about it because I’ve talked a ton of cannabis with you haven’t talked enough rock and roll with you.
28:06
I agree. All
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:07
right. And if you want to enter the contest for CFG bank, just get over to the foreign daughter. Come see us on the 15th I’m sure we’ll have some fun stuff. There’s always folks there promoting stuff and doing stuff because curio and foreign daughter work with a whole bunch of different people here in the state. And did we cover all the bases today? Are we ready for next week yet?
28:25
I think so. Next week. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:27
have to understand tinctures and wax. Can we do the homework on that? You’re ready for that? Sure. All right. We did edibles last week. You did all sorts of things in her lane. What he brought find is the Chief Brand Officer for all things curio wellness and foreign daughter get out see them. They have provided me with just a shirt for the ages the I’m a blunt person shirt for those of you listening on the radio, I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570 Towson Baltimore and we never stopped talking. Kiss rock and roll Baltimore positive. Stay with us.
