Opening the Pikesville Far & Dotter with hometown style and local comfort

It once was a Panera on Reisterstown Road but if you’ve seen the changes, you should stop in and see the newest Far & Dotter storefront. Curio Wellness Chief Brand Officer Wendy Bronfein educates Nestor about bringing the family business home to the Pikesville community with a new partnership with former NBA player Al Harrington and his Viola line.

Wendy Bronfein of Curio Wellness discussed the opening of the new Far & Dotter store in Pikesville, a partnership with Viola, a multi-state cannabis brand. The store offers treatment rooms, an esthetician, and a massage therapist, similar to the Timonium location. The Elkton store is undergoing a remodel. Wendy highlighted the launch of a 5.5-gram multi-pack of Viola’s caviar pre-rolls and a new spring collection of Edie Parker vapes. She also mentioned an upcoming rebrand of their entire product line. The stores aim to improve efficiency and customer experience through new operational methods and online shopping options.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Curio Wellness, Far & Dotter, Pikesville, Viola partnership, cannabis products, treatment rooms, customer experience, product remodel, athlete involvement, family connection, online shopping, curbside pickup, new products, rebranding, community impact.

SPEAKERS

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Wendy Bronfein, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are taking the merrily crab cake tour out on the road. I have the Back to the Future scratch off. It’s been a lucky batch. Thus far, we’ve been at Cooper’s pub this week. We’re also going to be a Coco’s pub in Laravel on Wednesday, the 30th and first time ever back in White Marsh, melt stomping us. I think I was at this joint the night it opened. Red Brick station on the avenue in White Marsh. I wait till I get Bill block. I’m saying I never thought this brewery thing would catch on. Well, 30 years later, year we are and last week, I had the pleasure, honor, was a beautiful day out. It used to be an old Panera where I had lunch with Marvin Lewis all the time and ate bagels. You now can stop by and see our friends from curio wellness at far and daughter in Pikesville, right in Reisterstown Road. Wendy Brown, fine. It has been just a minute, or a minute a half. I And people say, Where’s Wendy? What happened? To her? I’m like, she’s built this Pikesville thing, man, this is not a small thing to be opening up a store. And I remember when you opened simonium in the spa and all the things that were going on there. It’s different. The second one, maybe a little bit,

Wendy Bronfein  01:16

huh? Yeah, yeah. We opened last week. It’s very exciting. This, that store in particular is in partnership with Viola, who is a multi state cannabis brand that was coming into Maryland to bring their their brand to this market. So it’s a really cool partnership. We actually work with them in Missouri as well, so just kind of extending the reach of what we do together. But yeah, the peg so store has a lot of the same services and products as Timonium. So there are two treatment rooms there. We have an esthetician and a massage therapist, just like we have treatment rooms in Timonium. And then the whole suite of lifestyle products that can go along with anything you purchase in the dispensary, cannabis or non cannabis related. And then we actually, our Elkton store as well, has been going through its remodel to officially become kind of of the look and feel of the foreign daughter brand. So that remodel is going to be done very soon, but has really created a better efficiency and increased the customer experience at that store as well.

Nestor Aparicio  02:26

Alright, so I attended the opening, and I saw these fellas in these Viola things, and they’re really good looking gear that they had on. And it’s a brand I didn’t know. I remember that like it’s an old phone company Viola, and I looked at him saying, hey, that’s Al Harrington from the NBA. He played washing you ever, you know? I mean, I’m an old NBA person, right? So, um, I caught on to that. And I’ve talked to other folks at Eugene Monroe who play for the Raven seers in the cannabis space, we always use Snoop Dogg and rappers and different stuff like that. But athletes getting involved in wellness, getting involved in cannabis, um, give me that connection a little bit. And you said rolling it out, maybe that’s why I’d never heard of it, huh? Yeah, the

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Wendy Bronfein  03:07

so we kind of we come to the cannabis category in a similar way. Viola has a family connection as well. So Al’s grandmother had glaucoma, and he had suggested to her cannabis for the treatment, which I think she very quickly was like, You’re crazy. You know, that kind of reaction, similar to how and I brought up to my dad, like looking into this space, and he was like, You’re crazy. But somehow we both managed to get to get our family members on board. But she she did end up trying it, and found a lot of relief, and then following that, it sort of was the inspiration and led to the creation of the company. And viola is her name, so he had named the company for her.

Nestor Aparicio  03:51

Well, that’s a nice story. I’m gonna have to get him on and talk basketball and cannabis and and really business. And, like a lot of times I come to you on the business side of things because I’ve been driving by your place for years watching the industry open. I met a new industry leader at your event. There were community people, there were politicians there, but more than that, the thing that you had written, the very nice little speech, and we had some donuts and coffee as I remember at the parking lot, just as I remember it when it was Panera, but you talked about your family, and you talked about, this is my home community, and it is. And when you do something in your own town, I know anything that happens in Dundalk, you know, it’s a bigger deal for me. I don’t want to tell everybody that outside, not even in Essex, but only in Dundalk. But I felt that different. I mean, I’ve known you a good period of time. Now, I felt like that you might open other stores in a place, but this was kind of a special thing to have your family out and have it be right in a corner. We’ve you probably ate at the Panera there too at some point. I bet you did. Yeah.

Wendy Bronfein  04:55

I mean, well, my first job was at Lenny’s Dell. Which was, you know, like a block up one direction from this store, and then the rest of my jobs in high school were at the wood Home Shopping Center the other direction. So, you know, it’s definitely, did

Nestor Aparicio  05:12

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you want Freddie Edwards over there? Get me a nice tie or a jacket or something like, No, I did not work at the I shopped over there all the time. I got coffee and all that stuff. I loved wood home.

Wendy Bronfein  05:21

Now, I worked at the gift shop and the paper store, the card store there. That’s

Nestor Aparicio  05:26

why I didn’t know you then, I guess you know. But that you know. But that area, I guess, for anyone that we’re all laughing about, and anybody that’s driven up and down Royster center, we’ve all driven up and down there a million times for a million different reasons in a million different ways, and to have your place there. That’s That’s cool,

Wendy Bronfein  05:45

yeah. And, and in the today, in terms of the dispensaries, you know, there’s not, particularly as you kind of move into more of an Owings Mills, Randallstown area that has been sort of a hole since medical was created, there is a dispensary up closer to Reisterstown. There’s one that ultimately came along in security, but there was sort of an unserved market. And so in that connection, my parents were raised in Randallstown, went to Randallstown high I was raised in the Pikesville area, went to, you know, from Millbrook to Pikesville High and so, you know, this is, it was much more, you know, look, Timonium is just as much Baltimore County, right. But to your point, like, the way you said Dundalk, like, yes, this was like, Wow. It’s really right back where we started. So it definitely was a very, a very special day.

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Nestor Aparicio  06:42

Well, well, town and neighborhoods from a product standpoint. You know, I shop at your store, Timonium. Pin shopping at your store. You come on. Your sister comes on. We tell stories. We talk about strains and places and carry out and like backdoor. And, you know, my wife shopped on 420 in Timonium. And I swear to you, one of your 420 deals came over and she said they’ve got donuts today’s day, we have to shop. And I’m like, No, it’s like 40% off the reason you go but, but honestly, clicking on things, and anybody that’s ever purchased anything in the cannabis space, for the most part, there are times you can’t find a product you’re looking for because you run out, or there’s not enough of this, or not enough of that, or only so many units. And this would be true, I guess, when I was getting books out of the library and I was a kid, this this branch has it, that branch doesn’t have it. What you know when you’re now have having three locations, including Elkton, just for the experience for people. Let’s say I live in green spring halfway, you know, and I’m looking for something online, or clicking online, the notion that yet timonia might not have it pipe the shopping part of it online because, and this is all because of you. Wendy Brown, fine. We shop online now, like I go in and click. I did a little basket. I do the whole thing that you then do curbside. Just wander around your showroom and wait, hang around as much as I used to you talked me into curbside. So now, other than getting donuts, blondies and they were really good. They were delicious, but, but I mean, from a from a shopping standpoint, I used to be a guy to stop in look at, used to have a paper menu in a back way. You mean, I’ve been through all sorts of manifestations of this, but I would just think shopping online. I want to know what you have and where both store same thing. Give me a little primer on that, because that that’ll confuse me as a as a customer. So,

Wendy Bronfein  08:39

so so we have one individual who does the buying for our stores. So they should share a very similar mix of products. To your point, you know, if there was something that really trended very popular, and one store kind of got that crowd and they came and bought it out, I guess that could happen. But for the most part, I think we tend to have a balanced collection between the locations of what we know people like what’s new that we want to bring out for people to try. So I think you can. It’s pretty dependable. Now, of course, if you are in like this general area, you can ping pong between Pikesville and Timonium, really, to your own convenience, right? Are you close to home? Work, errands, whatever it is? Well, that would

Nestor Aparicio  09:26

be my point that you hit me with a happy hour special. Say it’s special on this or whatever. With both stores, with one store, have something in another store, have something else. Because I’m I could shop at either store, and I’m not the only one. Especially, you know, anybody turn around North side of the beltway you you want to go out and say, Yeah, I want to see I want to see the new store. The open air in Pikesville is now a foreign daughter. Wanna go check that out? But maybe, you know, if one store had something another one wouldn’t. That would, that would move me in one way. That’s all, yeah, and

Wendy Bronfein  09:54

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both stores do have curbside so you can take advantage of that at both locations.

Nestor Aparicio  09:59

Wendy Brown, fine is here. She educates us about all things cannabis and in the space and curio wellness and foreign daughter. She’s been very, very busy getting the Pikesville location open. So if you said similar in styles, again, I’ve seen the Timonium store go through a few different sort of machinations before you got it to where you wanted. Give me a little backstage how the sausage is made and get into place over the place open this time around to make it everything you dream Timonium of being but a new location, you get to try new things.

Wendy Bronfein  10:32

So I think you know, in general, that the esthetic, style and all of that is is very much the same more so where we kind of updated is much more our back of house. Right over time, we have understood greater efficiencies and how we run the operation to make it the optimal experience for the customer. So I think more of what is new or different is really kind of in our behind the scenes workflow versus what the customer sees, I we do have what I think is like an interesting approach to a product drop. So rather than having we have these pass through windows that we use on in Timonium and in this store, we came up with a new way to send orders from the back of the store to the front. And so that will be interesting to see how it plays out. Because if it is effective, it may be a new way that we do it across the board, because it’s just could be a more efficient approach. But again, that’s all about how we run our operation. But it turns into that customer delight moment for the people who are either ordering online for pickup, coming in and ordering on site, doing curbside all those things, is really to streamline that experience. You know, we’ll, we’ll talk to you and guide you for as long as you need. But, you know, I think, like you’re saying, with curbside, people just want convenience and efficiency, so we’re trying to deliver that.

Nestor Aparicio  11:55

I’ve been backstage in Amazon once, and it’s just like the the the efficiencies that have been built in the fix. I worked at the newspaper back in the 80s, and in our sports department on the newsroom, we had these tubes, and they’re just, like, the tubes maybe, like at a bank, you see, sometimes, yeah, they could send the tubes out. And I’m thinking, Man, when that came along that changed the world, you know, that we could just send our copy up into a tube. And I’m thinking, yeah, backstage is different in different places now. Wendy brown finds got it together the new location of far and daughter, our partners here on 26 years, about to become 27 years. I’m hoping you’ll help me with my August promotion. I’m going to eat my 27 favorite dishes in Baltimore, food for the crab cake tour and and for the Maryland lottery in August. So our next anniversary, at least, we’re going to be doing some eating and things like that.

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Wendy Bronfein  12:45

Give me when you say, help you. Do you mean, come with you and eat somewhere. Because that I would definitely, well, somebody

Nestor Aparicio  12:50

asked me, I was out at Beaumont last week doing the show, and I had my rocker buddy John Allen out. He’s playing m3 I had Chad weaseling out. We talked about the NFL draft and stuff. And, you know, a guy had asked me about, like, this promotion that I’ve been talking about. He’s like, is it going to be all, like, platters and fufu she, she and expensive stuff. And I like, you know what really happened? I looked through the whole list, and there’s only, like, a couple of things that are even over 1015, bucks. Like, all of these things are a little nashy, small, little things that people don’t know about. They’re not necessarily sponsors, although some are. But these are just like my things. They’re my go to. They’re my hangs. And I want to I’m going to be like the the pizza guy to create a run on blueberry muffins in Timonium that I tried to bring you last week. You didn’t even eat my blueberry muffin, as I remember, give everybody a little primer as well on new products, because it’s springtime. Is there anything new coming out? It’s April, it’s going into May. Every time I used to bring you on, there were new flavors, new this new that you guys are. You’re different than the other brands in this state. You really are innovative, and you’re you’re using science, and you’re trying to help people, and you’re also really making nice flavors to effects I know that.

Wendy Bronfein  14:02

Oh, thank you. Yes, we work very hard on the flavors. More recently, a product we’ve had out for years called caviar, which is an infused pre roll that was always available in a one and a half gram single pre roll. We’ve just launched that in a in a 5.5 gram multi pack, so five smaller units in one box. Those recently came out. The Edie Parker line that we produced coming out early May, is going to have a special spring collection of vapes so that their standard line is always there. But they’re having a special offering this spring, this month, we just released our for this quarter, a special chew flavor called Strawberry Daydream that is out that’s a THC only, so 10 milligrams or 40 milligrams. It’s available in so medical or adult use. And really the big thing that’s kind. Ming is, and we can talk about this as we get closer, but we’re going to we’re doing a whole rebrand, so our whole collection is going to be the portfolio, the packaging, everything is getting updated and to a new look and feel and a new kind of categorization of products. So that’s all coming out, starting next month. I

Nestor Aparicio  15:24

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knew there was a reason. You weren’t here. You’ve been busy. I knew this opening Pikesville and keep its monium flying along and and up in Elkton now as well. Foreign daughter, when he brought fine her family Maryland. People doing Maryland things help people through a wellness is called curio wellness. You can find out everything you need to know out online. And of course, stop by, and if you remember, stop by the open air in Pikesville rushes down road. It is now a foreign dollar location. Stop and see the friendly people in there. I met them all last week and check out the new location. Hey, I know you’ve been busy at some point. Listen, I managed to not talk baseball with you because things are not going well right now. I didn’t wear my orange, I didn’t wear my purple. I went straight black here. But you worried about him.

Wendy Bronfein  16:08

I don’t want to be worried early. It’s early. We got a lot of money. We

Nestor Aparicio  16:13

got a lot of innings to eat too. I’ll tell you that right now. But they got to hit the ball. That’s the most important thing. This is true. Alright, Wendy, who scenario, hit the ball down the middle, as they always do at the foreign daughter a curio wellness. Big appreciation to them for our partnership the education part of what we’re doing, as well as the donuts. Last week, I was very appreciative of that in the free coffee. I am Nestor. We are W N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.