Our 27th Anniversary of #TastyNes wouldn’t be complete without talking food, golf, Bananas and some cannabis science with Curio Wellness Chief Brand Officer Wendy Bronfein as Nestor continues to bring every resident west of York Road eastward to Essex to taste the Pizza John’s tastiness. Even the vegetarians go home happy…
Nestor Aparicio and Wendy Bronfein discuss the progress of Curio Wellness and the Baltimore Bananas baseball team. Wendy highlights the therapeutic benefits of cannabis, mentioning ongoing research with Gastro Health for Crohn’s patients. They also touch on the positive changes in Baltimore, including the BMW golf tournament and the city’s improving conditions. Wendy shares her family’s enthusiasm for the Bananas, noting the immersive fan experience. Nestor reflects on his Maryland crab cake tour, promoting local businesses like Pizza John’s. They also discuss personal health, with Wendy encouraging Nestor to schedule a colonoscopy.
Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Pizza John’s
- Nestor Aparicio introduces the Maryland crab cake tour, mentioning various food items like pizza, cheesesteaks, and French fries with gravy.
- Nestor talks about the Maryland lottery and the lucky sevens doublers for their 27th anniversary.
- Nestor mentions Brett from Pizza John’s and his pizza, expressing his desire to make pizza himself.
- Wendy Brown Fine joins the conversation, discussing the pleasures of good Essex pizza and the popularity of Pizza John’s.
Discussion on Pizza John’s and Local Food Preferences
- Wendy mentions seeing Pizza John’s at the wine merchant and her desire to pick it up at the real spot.
- Nestor talks about his love for Philly pretzels and the Philly pretzel factory in Harford County.
- Nestor shares his experience of pulling the cheese off his cheesesteak and his happiness with the provolone.
- Nestor recalls his interaction with Wendy’s father at BMW, highlighting his passion for his work.
Curio Wellness and Cannabis Industry Progress
- Wendy discusses the progress of the cannabis industry over the past decade, mentioning the potential for federal changes.
- Wendy talks about the therapeutic lens of cannabis and its use for conditions like cancer.
- Nestor shares a personal story about a friend, Ray, who used cannabis products during cancer treatment.
- Wendy explains the efficacy of their products and the importance of research in the cannabis industry.
Research and Efficacy of Cannabis Products
- Wendy details the ongoing study with Gastro Health, focusing on Crohn’s patients and the use of cannabinoids.
- Wendy explains the challenges of conducting research due to federal and state conflicts.
- Wendy discusses the potential benefits of a federal schedule change for cannabis research.
- Nestor and Wendy talk about the importance of proving efficacy and the role of research in the industry.
BMW and the Impact of the Golf Tournament
- Nestor reflects on the success of the BMW golf tournament and its impact on the community.
- Nestor mentions the involvement of his wife and the beauty of the event.
- Wendy shares her experience of the event, noting the improvements made to the course since the last visit.
- Nestor and Wendy discuss the community’s pride in hosting such events and the positive impact on Baltimore.
Bananas and the Fan Experience
- Wendy shares her family’s experience with the Baltimore Bananas, highlighting the immersive nature of the event.
- Wendy describes the excitement and engagement of the fans, including her son’s interaction with the players.
- Nestor and Wendy discuss the unique aspects of the Bananas’ game, including the continuous music and the involvement of the players.
- Wendy mentions the merchandise setup and the enthusiasm of the fans, including older adults who attended without children.
Food Preferences and Local Favorites
- Wendy shares her love for ice cream, particularly Harker Brothers’ dark ice cream.
- Wendy discusses her favorite Greek food options, including Plaka and the bakery’s European feel.
- Nestor and Wendy talk about their favorite non-meat dishes and the quality of the food at these establishments.
- Wendy mentions her experience with vegetarian options at steakhouse events and the satisfaction of non-meat eaters.
Curio Wellness and Foreign Daughter
- Wendy provides an overview of Curio Wellness and its products, including their availability in various states.
- Wendy explains the role of Foreign Daughter as their retail store and the focus on improving quality of life through cannabis products.
- Nestor and Wendy discuss the importance of education and the stigma surrounding cannabis.
- Wendy highlights the range of products offered, from traditional forms like tablets and topicals to more modern ones like vaping.
Positive Outlook on Baltimore and Maryland
- Nestor expresses his optimism about Baltimore and Maryland, mentioning the progress in various areas.
- Wendy agrees, noting the positive changes and the community’s efforts to support local businesses and events.
- Nestor shares his recent experience driving around Baltimore and feeling hopeful about the city’s future.
- Wendy and Nestor discuss the importance of local support and the impact of events like BMW on the community’s morale.
Health and Wellness Promotion
- Nestor talks about his upcoming colonoscopy and the importance of health check-ups.
- Wendy shares a personal story about a friend’s positive experience with a colonoscopy.
- Nestor mentions GBMC as his hospital of record and the importance of medical care.
- Wendy and Nestor discuss the role of wellness and the support from sponsors like GBMC in promoting health awareness.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Curio Wellness, Baltimore love, summer science, Maryland crab cake tour, Pizza John’s, cannabis industry, therapeutic lens, Crohn’s study, BMW golf tournament, fan experience, Orioles, Greek food, wellness products, Maryland lottery, GBMC sponsorship.
SPEAKERS
Wendy Bronfein, Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, A, F, 1570 task of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively in Essex, Maryland, where I get treated even better than I do in Dundalk. We’re doing the Maryland crab cake tour. I’m calling it the pizza the cheesesteak tour, some french fries and gravy as well. All are brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I do have the lucky sevens doublers for our 27th anniversary, as well as the pressure your Lux. There will be no whammies as part of this, I am winding down my week. Brett here at Pizza John’s has said, yeah, you talk about my pizza. I don’t want to talk about my pizza anymore. I want to make the pizza so it is a Friday afternoon at the end of the day, end of the week. Wendy Brown, fine, our returning champion has made her way from, I say, the other side of town, to anywhere west of York Road. People do not know the pleasures of good Essex pizza. You are one of many that said, Yeah, I hear about that all the time, but I want to send you home with some pizza for your kids and and your hub. And you’re gonna say they do things right over here in Essex. But I’ve already had three people here, already stole the virtues of curio wellness and foreign daughters. So you have customers on the east side of town here as well. Well,
Wendy Bronfein 01:10
that’s lovely to hear. I can extol the virtues at least of pizza John’s in that they sell it at the wine merchant. Yes, and I always, I haven’t gotten it, but I always see it up on the sign of like, pizza John’s pick it up here today, so, but I want to pick it up at the real
Nestor Aparicio 01:24
spot, right? Well, they have the shells too. Like even on day 27 when I’m up in Harford County, I love Philly pretzels. And there’s a Philly pretzel factory up there. Not a sponsor in any way. I just they’re number 27 I wanted to feature their pretzel because every time I’m in Bel Air. I will drive miles out of my way to get these fresh pretzels because they remind me leaving a spectrum in a concert or a ball game. Hot pretzel. Hot pretzel. Yeah, Philly, yeah. They sell pizza. John’s the shell pizzas in their casing to wise markets has pizza, John, I mean, you can, you can order them around the country and get upset, but it’s nothing like just driving over here. I pulled the cheese off my cheesesteak, and it was all like gooey and provolone, and so I’m very, very happy. And I must say this reconnected with you this week at BMW, and I always say this about your dad. Your dad’s been on the show one time. It was with Gina shock, and it was this great thing about his passion for doing this. And I really offended him. I showed up at the event and I said, Oh, hey, how you doing? How’s your summer hanging out in Florida? Get anything done? He’s like, pal, I’m working every day. I’m working in this company. And I’m like, I just didn’t know. Like, I didn’t know. And he’s like, I’m passionate about this. I know you’re passionate, but I thought you know golf tournament and this and that your dad’s working. Man. I mean, you, all of you over there are so front line about what you’re doing that you get so tickled you were here. Ray Bachman yells, curio love you. Robbie Leonard, like gets me through some nights. And it’s like I said to your dad, I think stigma is down a little bit, a little bit even four years later at the golf tournament, a little bit definitely, Oh, definitely, yeah. Well, I don’t know. You don’t measure this day to day as to what a cannabis company would be in your vision a decade ago, to making it legal, getting grow, getting sites, getting bringing people and bringing other people in everything that you’ve accomplished, and maybe you don’t get a pat on the back, or you don’t ring a bell at the top, or your profits are up or down, or costs are up or down, but like, you’ve really jumped into a space here where, I think a lot of us wondered, what’s this industry going to be like? Are we going to be able to be in pizza John’s and talk? I mean, you probably did wonder about that 10 years ago, right?
Wendy Bronfein 03:43
Yeah, we’re, Oh, definitely in a different place since, like, a decade ago, for sure. I mean, we could be on the heels of maybe something changing federally, if we’re very lucky. So I think we have come a long way. I think the majority of people the data shows are definitely aligned towards looking at the category differently, particularly when you’re thinking about it through its therapeutic lens, like I know some people here were talking about using it because of conditions they suffered from and stuff like that, and so I think they people just really had cancer
Nestor Aparicio 04:13
last year. So Ray sitting here eating a whole pizza, and I’m just happy he’s alive. Give him a hug. I took him to a sticks concert last year. Was about to go into treatment. It was a dark night. You got your bud the night before they’re going to the cancer treatment. It’s it’s not fun. You sit here watching me pizza, and he’s like, Hey, man, got some gummy Hey, man, you know whatever you got to do. But and for my wife, 10 years ago, probably changed my mind. And Sanjay Gupta, we say to you that what was happening with the medicine part of this, and this is where your dad gets involved, because the GI, the Crohn’s, and the products that you do, it’s so on the up and up. It makes it easier for me to talk about medicine and what it’s doing for people, because that’s really where your jam is from, the efficacy part, right? I mean, that’s what you’re trying to get to the heart of here. That is. Not a game, and it’s not what you thought it might be on the streets in the 80s, and certainly not Reefer Madness, but your company specifically has been front line of what a medicine is.
Wendy Bronfein 05:12
Yeah. Well, you know, we’re not, we’re not, we’re still not federally legal, and based on the way the state behaves on the topic, we cannot make any sort of claims to what anything can do. But, yeah, I mean, we believe that there is a value to this plant, to the human body and in a way that improves people’s quality of life. And that’s how you know, however the patients or consumers who come to the dispensaries define that, like we’re there to provide solutions for it.
Nestor Aparicio 05:37
Well, in order to prove efficacy, there’s a whole process that goes along for you to even have this storefront, have adult use be legal, speak to the science of it and where we are, because I think that that’s clearly the most important thing from a licensing standpoint. All that is what a claim is and what the research is being is showing being done. You’re on the research end of this, and not not everybody. Is not every dispensary you get in front of. Not everybody with a license to grow cannabis in the state is as focused on this part of it as you are.
Wendy Bronfein 06:09
So today in the state, you can it was written into the law abilities to do different forms of research and protocols you can fall follow to do that, which is really great, because we’ve been trying to do that for years. We ask years, we actually are now able to conduct a study that we’ve started in partnership with gastro health, which is a GI practice here in Maryland, and that is to look at a product that we’ve developed through a placebo controlled trial. We have an IRB, which is part of the mechanisms you need to do real research. And so there are patients Crohn’s patients around the state who have elected to participate in this study. And the studies ongoing, so other people can join it through gastro health if they want. But to look a
Nestor Aparicio 06:53
lot about Crohn’s, right? I mean, you, you have a family member suffers from this, yeah? This, this is something that’s they’ve had trouble treating Correct.
Wendy Bronfein 07:00
Yeah? So, so basically, the are, the thought process by us and our scientific board was that there may be a blend of cannabinoids delivered in a specific way through a pill that may be able to help address the symptoms related to that. And so we were able to get approval from the state to do this placebo controlled trial. And so there are patients who have gone through the proper channels with this gastro health the GI practice to be able to participate in the study. And so when we complete the study, we’ll be able to get, see the analysis, and find out the report and the effects, and see if you know, do we prove that there is a formulation that is effective? Was it not effective? Whatever it was, but at least we’re able to do it. And I think that’s part of the hardest piece, because with the federal state conflict, it’s really hard to research the efficacy, and so you get caught in this place where there’s so many anecdotal stories of people whose lives are improved, like even like Ray was talking about when he was dealing with cancer, but there’s not the ability to do the research the way that like NIH Hopkins, Maryland, whomever does in a traditional medicinal space. And so we always
Nestor Aparicio 08:07
say coming up with a drug called Advil or coming up with Tylenol, right? But right
Wendy Bronfein 08:12
if, if we get this schedule change that is being talked about on the federal level, that will really change the game, you know, it will make it harder, I think for the state to have attitudes of negativity and stigma towards the topic, even if the citizens of the state voted for it to be legal, and it will make it easier, broadly, for everyone to do the right kind of research. And we can’t myth bust unless we can do so. It’s like a chicken and the egg like I can’t give you the data unless you allow me do the research the right way, and I can’t do the research the right way, because I’m sitting under schedule one. So you’re kind of constantly fighting that. I think
Nestor Aparicio 08:45
that sums it up. Wendy Brown, finest here. She’s a curio wellness and foreign daughter. We try to educate folks here. That’s what we try to do. We’re pizza John’s. I’m trying to educate people about cheese steaks and pizza and good food and all the things that go along with it. The BMW part of this, I want to talk to you about not just your sponsorship, but the involvement and the course you’re familiar with what goes on out of caves. And on the dig up, I was out there in June for the media day, and I saw they were just bringing scaffolding up. That was the shell of, literally, what was the tent that I sat in as your guest last week, coming up the hill and to see the transformation of that course. And I’ve talked to I had RJ Shepherd on this week from Forest Park as a fan and as somebody who’s golfed the course at various points and gone up there, that what happened four years ago was such a successful thing that it came back. And I’ve said, look, a bunch of guys that have the money to have that kind of golf course and improve that kind of golf course, I don’t think it did all of that just to put on a television show. Last weekend, we really showed on and showed out as a community, as Baltimore County, as Baltimore City, as the state of Maryland, all that Wes Moore came down and did best. Golfer in the world came in hit a memorable shot in the playoff that just hasn’t happened in my lifetime. I’ve been in sports 35 years here. We had the LPGA here back in the late 80s, the Annika Sorensen. I mean, we’re going back almost 40 years ago. That was 35 years ago, I bet that thing was and now in this last four years, we’ve had the ability to have a tournament here. And I spoke to my wife about this because she was out of town, and we talked at length on Sunday after I was your guest, and I said she would have loved it because of the outdoor, the walking, the beauty. She likes golf more than I do, in a general sense, but she’s never had the ability to go to an event. It just hasn’t been down the street. She’s been to NASCAR because she’s from New Hampshire, and they run a race up there. And she went with her sister for years as part of like us, having gone to the Preakness or something. Well, it’s here, you know, we get to do it. Not a lot of people have been a horse race against all odds, right? But going to a golf tournament and walking around and seeing how physical it is on the golfers, what they did to make it a party and a festival above and beyond your tent, just people walking around and seeing each other. I just thought it was a beautiful thing, and it was a vision of these folks at caves, your dad being among them to say, we have a beautiful course. We’re in Maryland, we’re in Baltimore. We’re going to put this damn thing on, and we’re not going to do it once. We’re going to do it twice, and maybe more. I just there’s, there’s not enough of that that goes on. It was just a beautiful thing. Yeah, just one of the soliloquy there went.
Wendy Bronfein 11:35
So I did it was, it was great. I mean, yeah, it was definitely leveled up from four years ago and four years ago was amazing, but, and they did make changes to the course the first time they came, and then they invested in the course since that last visit. So it was, it was a fantastic weekend.
Nestor Aparicio 11:53
Well, yeah, and I think you know, but She’s coughing here. I have a cough button. There you go. Wendy Brown, finest here for carrier wellness Florida. Have you fed her any pizza cheesesteak yet? Probably should have gotten a drink to start this whole thing, the germs from the children in the house. Oh, don’t. Don’t do that to me. Now, so I want to get you on to this topic here, and I will, I can bring get your drink. But bananas, I have been acquainted with your child, and every time I’ve seen your boy, and he’s 5am, I saying like five by five every time I see him, you identify me and his world as a baseball guy. So he now recognizes me, now that he seen me, and we fist bumped over Adley grudgeman and whatnot, that he talks baseball with me, and I saw you before I saw him at BMW, and we’re at this golf event, and all you’re talking about is the bananas. Robbie Leonard just left. He’s got a six year old, an eight year old, I will freely admit I did not poop on the bananas. On the air. I did not. I just simply said, I don’t understand it. And that was like pooping on it when I said I didn’t understand how do you you’re you don’t like the bananas, and so my wife and I gave it a little go, and I had a titter and a laugh about Nanners, and I’ve told that story. But like any of you with kids, specifically your boy who loves the Orioles, this was like a religious experience right, right up there with our Harlem Globetrotters. Yeah, childhood, right? Well, he
Wendy Bronfein 13:19
so he didn’t know what to expect at all. And it was, it was pretty funny when it started, because when they called out the lineup, he they were like, running through all the names, and everybody had, like, their first name, their last name was like a nickname in the middle, and then they said their number and their position. And he keeps tapping me, trying to pick up the stats to retain it. And I’m like, you don’t have to remember the players like they’re not going to the All Star game you have study in the Orioles, though, right? I don’t know he, like self chooses to know all the players and their positions and tell me who’s on the injured list and what.
Nestor Aparicio 13:50
Nobody puts him up to this. No, not at all. I mean, he reminds me a little of me. I mean, like I loved baseball that much when I was five. But I would talk to anybody who loved baseball about and they’d always be amazed by how much I knew, like, your kid is so down that he showed up at like, five o’clock, and I’m half in the bag. I mean, I’m in the curio wellness day. It was a no bar. I had ginger ale and Captain Morgan and and your son came at me, and I’m high five, and I said, Tell me about the bananas. And, yeah, like the flirt with him. Hang out with him a little bit. And he’s like, the Orioles won 12 to nothing today. And I’m thinking to myself, I took an Uber out here. Your mom invited me. Your grandfather, I’m out here having fun. We got golf. I didn’t even know the Orioles played, but I went on the air that night with Luke to do our segment, and I said to Luke, they won 12 to nothing today. I never even looked at all because I trusted him. I trusted him. I learned to do that. I took him like every time I’ve ever taught baseball with him, he just knows what he’s talking about. So like, reminds me of
Wendy Bronfein 14:53
me. I’ve had a couple instances like that where he’s told me something about someone leaving the teams I’m. One’s injured. Someone pitched last night. And I’m just like, gospel. And then I like, pull out the phone to just like, is that right? What’s he talking about? And it’s like, damn if it isn’t right. And I’m like, where do you get this stuff? Why does
Nestor Aparicio 15:11
he love the Orioles so much? You having to figure this out. He’s from Baltimore. Well, the bananas thing. Well, I mean, I know you love the orals and all that, but I know you’re also not like the stack girl, right? You mean, he talks more baseball with me than you can, yes, like, literally, he knows more about the team than you know. Yeah, I bet if he were here today, you would know that Adley Richmond’s heard. He would know that Samuel basado had a contract. Well, some maybe he would even know about contracts at five.
Wendy Bronfein 15:33
I don’t know about some of it is because at preschool there were other there were teachers who were also Orioles fans, and so then he would talk to them about stuff. And so sometimes you get facts that way, but sometimes it could literally be because he heard, he hears the sports on the radio, or he watches part of the game, or he just, I don’t know, he’s just interested, yes, and he’s a sponge. So like,
Nestor Aparicio 15:56
yeah, yeah. I mean, that’s what I mean about baseball. So when a kid like that that really does take baseball seriously. And those players and a young little kid, five year old kid, when they see bananas, run me through their eyes in this because you are so excited to tell me about the bananas. I did an hour with Robbie Leonard here. We did Democrats, Republicans, Trump. We did all the serious stuff, legal stuff, city stuff, challenges, but when I got the bananas with him, oh my god, he lit up my kids. I mean, the bananas are this shining thing for a lot of you. I need more happiness in my life beyond a cheesesteak at Peter John’s. What
Wendy Bronfein 16:36
so after? So the so the Monday after they were here, I went to dinner with a bunch of people. My brother was one of them. He said he had watched his like interview on YouTube, but the guy who started it, and their whole thing is about the fan experience, which the whole thing made sense after he told me about this, because it is, it is like, I mean, you’re just like, you’re not just watching a show. You’re like, in the show, they’re out there. The people
Nestor Aparicio 17:00
went blind, though, right? Totally. But I like you went. You told me the story that somebody you had done a favor, who had a favor, and somebody
Wendy Bronfein 17:06
had tickets, right? Literally, a friend had tickets, and asked us if we
Nestor Aparicio 17:09
wanted to, and they went to be really good seats, because they had an experience with the bananas. So you get good seats, and you showed up. What did you think you were seeing like? Because I don’t know either. I when they came to town, I’m like, I sort of know it, I sense, like, Chippendales. I’m like, the dudes kind of dance, women, oh, women kind of like it. Kids kind of like it. It’s the Harlem Globe Trotters for baseball. Well, that guy takes offense to that, right? He does. He doesn’t like that particular
Wendy Bronfein 17:33
Well, that’s what I thought. I thought it was like, you know, it’s sort of gamified in terms of, like, it’s not, it’s not the serious roles of baseball, it’s their roles of banana ball. And there’s and I knew there was, like, the tricks, a la, the Globetrotter so it was just like, kind of this more frivolous, fun kind of thing. But I didn’t know that, like, the continuous music that, like, there’s never, it’s like, add like, you’re just like, this is happening and that’s happening, and people are over there, and then there’s a band walking through the stadium, and then half the team comes up. Team comes up the steps in the middle of the game, and like, people are just it’s much, you feel so much closer to it, and they make you so much of a part of it, versus, like, okay, everything is inside the diamond, and you’re in the seats, and maybe a ball comes out there, and maybe as they’re moving to the dugout, they talk to you, but like, it’s more
Nestor Aparicio 18:18
like Tony’s and Tina’s wedding. Yes, right? I’m thinking, like, immersive Exactly. Yeah, it’s 100%
Wendy Bronfein 18:23
that’s a good way to, okay, well,
Nestor Aparicio 18:25
I haven’t been yet, and I’m now, like, titillated enough to be like, All right, next year, I’ll stop a curio wellness at far down, and I’ll go and, you know, like, and I’ll, I’ll drink it in, and I’ll try to maybe go with, like, somebody whose kids, I can see it through their eyes a little because I’m not a grandparent, but that’s the thing. But I was a great parent. I took my kid do all sorts of stuff. I’m not anti frivolous. I just didn’t get it. I don’t get it even
Wendy Bronfein 18:54
one team. I don’t think, I think you have to go in some ways to get it. I haven’t watched it on TV. I need to do that now, because I don’t think you can understand how many different things I mean, like, literally, when we went out into the concessions to, like, go to the bathroom and get stuff, there were, like, banana, what I’ll call characters, just in that area, doing stuff that, you know, it wouldn’t be like, Oh, it’s the middle of the game and, like, there’s an Oriole just back here talking to people, like, while they’re
Nestor Aparicio 19:17
old kid, it is very Disney. Like, you run into the characters, like, going through, yeah, the fun
Wendy Bronfein 19:21
part. But like, there also was, it’s funny because you said, I, well, I’m not a grandparent, and we wouldn’t go have a kid to go with. But like, that was the one thing I noticed. There were lots of group of adults, and I would say they were probably more in like, the 6070, plus zone, who were just there for the bananas, like they had the year they knew it. They chose to come. They chose to come as a couple couples, like they they were not bringing grandchildren. They were there because they wanted
Nestor Aparicio 19:48
to see it. So I keep thinking, for them, it’s probably a little bit like, what’s that American Ninja Warrior? It’s a television it’s like going to the wrestling matches. You know, it’s right, like, it’s in your town. You. Yeah, yeah. It’s like the roller derby or whatever. They have roller derby names, like, your boy trying to figure out what their names are. They all have a roller derby name. Like, literally, how do I find that roller derby is real? I had Emily Keller on, who’s a former mayor of hagerston. She’s the opioid response czar, special Secretary named by Wes Moore, and she’s a friend of mine, and had her on last week at Mako, and she told me, my daughter’s a robot roller derby, like champion. I’m like, that’s a thing in Hagerstown. She just got back from Australia. She’s like, the number 117 year old roller derby defender in the world. And I’m like, I didn’t know this, but the bananas they have, like, a league now, yeah, there’s more teams getting involved with beside the firefighters. So I guess though I’ll have a chance to see them again, and then when they come back, you’re there, right? Like, oh, I would go. Your boy would not.
Wendy Bronfein 20:51
I just gotta know if he would demand it, but I would go back again.
Nestor Aparicio 20:54
So it’s more fun for the parents. Well, that’s what this
Wendy Bronfein 20:57
I think he was, I think at first, because I think he thinks it’s fun now, but I think when he first was there, just like us, he didn’t know what to expect. So I think it was confusing, because they weren’t playing baseball the baseball way. And so then it was like, Well, wait, what’s like when they do this stunt with like, there’s no walks, so it’s like when it gets to the fourth ball, the player can run as long the batter can run it for as far as they can before every player on the field touches the ball. So they’re doing this goofy, like, Dude and like, and the play. And they normally hold them at first, the way they do it. How do you find when you’re there? Oh, they before teach you. They tell you the nine rules before the game starts.
Nestor Aparicio 21:34
Yeah, okay. They teach you the rules. Okay,
Wendy Bronfein 21:37
all right. So then it’s just, like, so goofy to watch it, but it’s catch the fall at our game. I mean, when they played the replay, it looked like it was going to fall out from the club seats, but he leaned over like halfway and caught the ball, and everyone went crazy.
Nestor Aparicio 21:50
Robbie Leonard had got a ball. He didn’t catch it. He said, If we would have caught it in the air, which it’s an out in the game.
Wendy Bronfein 21:56
Yeah, if so, if you but I think, I think it’s only, I think it’s like a nothing but net kind of catch. Because, like, I think even if you, like, kind of stumble with it does that doesn’t count, you’d have it’s like a give that fan a contract
Nestor Aparicio 22:06
Rex party kind of thing. So Robbie was showing me the the darkness and all the kids with their phones out and cold place playing, oh, he’s like, it’s, he said it’s like a rock concert for kids. Yes,
Wendy Bronfein 22:18
I mean, the stadium. It’s like, it’s like a million different I mean, even the Rita’s ice was themed like we ended up with, we got, like a one person got a bananas, and one got a firefighters, because you could get, like, specialty Rita’s ice that night. I mean, everything was banana. Fide.
Nestor Aparicio 22:37
I mean, I’m a marketing guy and you’re a marketing gal, you know what? I mean, you’re a brand officer. I’ve managed this brand that some people listen to. I have great respect for anybody that can grow something out of nothing. I mean, like, literally, yeah, and I love baseball, but I just don’t get the more I talk to more of you who are enthused about it, the more I would put my fun hat on and, you know, try to think of it in that
Wendy Bronfein 23:04
way. Well, the funniest part was that, ironically, I had been in South Carolina the week going into it. And where we were in South Carolina, we flew in and out of Savannah. So when I got to the savannah airport on Thursday, I saw in, like, the, like, the little gift shop. And the thing I saw the bananas, like, oh, I should get Mac a shirt, because we’re going to the game, and then it’ll be so special that he comes with something not knowing that the merch setup is crazy and that every single person would be in bananas gear. So had I not had that, I feel like he would have shown up and looked like a freak, and just like an Orioles shirt at this thing, we
Nestor Aparicio 23:34
went to Coopers north on the day after the first night to Adam Jones was the Friday night. What you like to go Friday or Saturday? I’m a Friday. You went Friday. So Saturday, we were Cooper’s north in the afternoon, watching the real Orioles. And there were just gobs of people coming in wearing bananas gear, groups of ladies, like six ladies at a table, all older than me, who were just like, This is what they were doing, and I’m like, and they were really enthused about it, really enthused about it, like we watched on TV last night. We’re finally going to a game. We’re so lucky to get tickets. And I’m like, Adam Jones is going to the Hall of Fame next week. Are you lucky to get tickets for that? So Wendy Brown, fine is here. We’re in Essex. She will be enjoying pizza, John’s. We’re doing our 27 favorite things eat. So this is where. And I want to get back to caves, and we’ll talk about BMW, but I want to talk about food, because I had this idea to do crab cakes years ago and build this brand, the Baltimore positive. And AI even likes me. So all these years in now, I’m trying to come up with a theme in August that gets me driving around a little bit, like I go to Mako in Ocean City. So I pick some places over there. I was gonna do cream of crab soup in Maryland. Crab soup still might do that next year. People want me to do cheese steaks and the guy does the pizza thing. I don’t want to do any of that. I don’t do things already done. So for me this year I got to, like April, I started thinking about, people would ask me where my favorite crab cake is, and where do you go to get this, or where that? And I’m thinking, there are some places I eat. Eat that are not sponsors. I don’t as much as people think. I take pictures everything I eat and put it up. I don’t, but there are a couple places I’ve never given them love. They’re small businesses, my favorite place, where I get Chinese food, where I get Thai food. I don’t put up pictures of that every day, but I thought this month, I’m gonna do that. You’ve given me a chance underwriting our 27th anniversary, but this has been a lot of pressure to, like, go backwards through the things that I really wanted to eat, that I really wanted to promote, and my wife’s out of town last two weeks, and I text her though, damn. Like, I’m doing a really terrible job with this thing, because I can’t eat enough to keep up and getting the leftovers. Like, I went got Thai food the other night, and four days later, I still had Thai food in my refrigerator. I’m like, Can I really go get a corned beef sandwich? Now? Am I really down with a big beef soon? I take it a half a cheesesteak home, and I still have Chinese in my refrigerator from two nights ago. So I just want to say I’m, I’m dilly dallying, and I’m gonna get into September before I get all 2827 of these things out. But do you have like faith, if I were to say to you, what’s your favorite thing to eat, or a couple three places, or when your sister comes home for a weekend, a place you gotta go, or a thing you gotta do? Because that’s kind of where my spirit in this was. Now, I’ve been coming to pizza, John’s, if I met you when we were 19, I was coming here. I’ve been coming here my whole life. So this is an institution of biblical proportions over here. But anybody West New York Road, they’re like, Yeah, I hear it on the radio. Or, you know, it’s kind of not like, I don’t drive through Essex unless they golf down here at Rocky Point where you’ve been here. Never been here. No, haven’t been here. So this would be one of the places. If I was on a date with you and knew you long enough we were friends, long enough if you visited me on the east side of town at throwing a party, whatever we you would have gotten a pizza with me, or at some point, if you knew me for any length of my life, because this, if it would have been time to take anybody for pizza. Say, get in the car. We’ll go to Pizza John’s Essex. We got to drive over there from Dundalk. We’ll get there. So this is, like, authentic to me. I called it number nine on my list. I have eight other places I’m going, not above this or better than this. I’m trying to do them in order, but I really had the labor. And three of the top four places that are coming next week are not sponsors. Two of them, I have never put a social media post up about in my life. Have you revealed them? Are they? No, I’m not going to tell I’m not saying anything. One of them, I have definitely plugged online a few times because it’s one of my I say one of my favorite things, it’s actually number one. So this is coming next week, and then one of them are, it’s a tried and true place that I’ve been going for 30 years. Everybody would associate me with this place, but they’re not a sponsor. So I’ve really tried to, like, mix it up. But it’s been like, do I like that cookie more than that cake? Do I like that cheese steak more than that crab cake? Do I like that fried shrimp better than that oyster, Rockefeller. These are the kind of decision. I’m gaining weight. So what? Where are your place? You do you have a go to dish, a go to place, even, like in New York or something you worked in New York. I mean, like, Do you have a thing that you crave, that you last supper kind of craving.
Wendy Bronfein 28:21
Oh, well, that’s a different that’s a different meal entirely. But, okay, my brain for it just defaults to ice cream. So, oh, I don’t live far from Jupiter’s in Mount Washington, and never been there. It’s, it’s like small, just like classic little, kind of like ice cream shop, like, walk in, give your order milkshakes, regular old toppings, all that. And it’s, but it’s, it’s also Harker brothers, which I do, oh, it’s dark ice cream, yeah, okay, which I wondered, yeah, and, and my, I actually were talking about Mac. I tease that he’s, like, like, 60% Harker brothers and 40% enchiladas. Because I was pregnant with him. I like, ate that non stop. It showed as well. But, yeah, no, I that’s which. And now it makes me think I do love enchiladas at Mary Luna.
Nestor Aparicio 29:11
See, now I’m just literally trying to get I’m giving my heartfelt, well thought out six months of putting things on, taking things off, going back to places with my wife and eating and saying, is this worthy? I mean, like, is this not one of the greatest things you’ve ever had? Like, literally, that’s, that’s where my delineation is on all of this, and that’s why I’m I’m taking it not just because you’re sponsoring. It’s got my name on it, but people ask me for recommendations all the time. And I swear to you, if you drive over to Pizza John’s and you get something here, it’s gonna be great. Yeah. And I love that part of my sponsors. I feel that way. My foreign daughter, you know, if you want to be educated about cannabis in the space this, you want to go to the experts, I’m always looking for the next best thing when I go to. New York and get pizza as good as this. I got two or three places in New York that are my New York go tos, but that’s part of wanting to go to New York. And I can only get my pizza, you know, at this place on 28th and Broadway that I go and I get a little slice of Margarita up there, and it’s nothing like this pizza at all. Brick oven pizza is not like this either. There’s a place in Chicago called pequods that’s more of a Detroit style, more like a Pizza Hut, deep dish, kind of caramelized. Oh, I love that. But that’s not this. But if I take you for pizza in Baltimore, bringing you here, and if I’m getting a cheesesteak, I haven’t found a cheesesteak that’s better than the cheesesteak here. So that’s why I’m pimping. This is number nine. Okay, if I’m doing the official countdown with you, you
Wendy Bronfein 30:46
also had me, like, really on the Greek brain. But I can’t pick one place, because I have, like, probably love Greek food, yeah, but I probably have three different options that all serve sort of different What do you go for? So well, be more Greek, like, the truck, yeah, never had that go ahead. Oh, yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 31:06
And then what do you get on there? Like, just a kid, oh, or a souvlaki, or
Wendy Bronfein 31:10
I get, like, the platter with shrimp and rice and salad and and Pita. And then it’s gonna be this basically the same meal. I don’t eat meat, so this, no, it’s not gonna get as interesting. And then placa on Eastern, okay, sorry. Or placa, they have a beautiful bakery in the front. And one of our family friends, the his mother, made these delicious Greek dessert and that this the bakery there rival
Nestor Aparicio 31:38
these are my favorite, like that. They’re the little cookies with the with the powdered sugar. They’re made with the almonds, like the almond paste, almost, yeah. And, I mean, I love baklava, like I I love Greek dessert. So you’re this is what this shows about, is finding, what’s the name of this place? Why do I not know about this? Is it near ikos, where it used to be right on, it’s
Wendy Bronfein 32:00
increased where, you know, where there’s, like, PLA case there, Wells Fargo, yeah, across the street, pay my mortgage. There they have, like, a party space. It’s like you walk in the bakery. Feels like you are in Europe, like it’s just gorgeous.
Nestor Aparicio 32:15
Yeah, yeah, okay. It’s on the same block where one of my favorite restaurants called Rio lispo, which was a Portuguese restaurant, was on the corner. It was the old Athenian in the 70s. So it’s the same block there. The they had a Rio de Janeiro, 15 foot by six foot mural that is in my wall, on my wall. So I’ve had that in five different places I’ve lived I have this grand mural of Rio de Janeiro that came from that block in Greektown. All right, even though it’s not Greece, it’s it’s Brazil, but it was so I have driven by this s the atorio placa 10,000 times, and I just haven’t gone in. Yeah, it’s two doors down from Zorbas. It was Zorbas. Was that? Zorba has always had the the lamb chops.
Wendy Bronfein 33:07
Now I won’t eat that, but, yeah, that’s
Nestor Aparicio 33:09
right, you don’t do a meat. Okay, I’m gonna
Wendy Bronfein 33:11
have really good gigantes. They have amazing french fries, Greek salad, the shrimp. I mean, I’ll eat all that.
Nestor Aparicio 33:17
You eat fish, you eat you eat shrimp, you eat crab cakes. Yes, but you don’t eat meat.
Wendy Bronfein 33:22
Yes, land animals. Now,
Nestor Aparicio 33:25
why was I the idiot that invited you to a barbecue, Korean barbecue, and you said
Wendy Bronfein 33:29
yes, because I leave the vegetarian. I mean, I’ll eat the non meat stuff I don’t eat so I don’t get, like, worried about being with people who eat me. And I
Nestor Aparicio 33:36
don’t care about that. Why would you let me invite you to a steakhouse when you don’t eat meat? Because
Wendy Bronfein 33:39
there are plenty of things that don’t you just that polite No, because I knew what that restaurant was, I wanted to go there. All right, I think that meat eaters don’t understand that. Like those who don’t eat meat are, like, totally satisfied when they have the things they like, but they don’t have meat, and they’re happy
Nestor Aparicio 33:55
if their husband and their friends all have a good time. Yeah, okay. All right, good enough. Wendy Brown, fine. Is here. She was a curio wellness and foreign daughter. Get the elevator speech for what curio is, what Foreign daughter is. And anybody out there that may have a stigma about this, or tittering about this this far along in the game, or want to learn more about this, because the one thing whenever I spent time with you, your family, anytime I’m in a foreign daughter, just the seriousness and the science and the wellness part of this and the newness, along with the stigma that it is carried, leads people to come in a different way, at a different pace, with different privacy, with different questions that maybe they don’t even want to take to the internet. You know, they want to, they want to see and feel somebody who can help them and have a place they can trust and that’s the thing I feel when I’m in foreign daughter I’m there are people there that are way more educated than I about these topics and are willing to help you out. Pretty friendly.
Wendy Bronfein 34:52
Yeah, so curio wellness is a cannabis company. We’re here in Maryland. We’re also in Missouri. Our products actually just became available. In New Jersey as well, and they’re soon to come to New York. I didn’t know this New Jersey. Yeah, all right. And foreign daughter is our retail store. So in Maryland, we sell to virtually every other dispensary in the state. So wherever you are, there are products in those stores. But those stores that we own are called foreign daughter. There’s which
Nestor Aparicio 35:19
is why Ray and Robbie and my friend Scott in Harford County use curio branded products, but they get them at a different dispensary, a dispensary near you, right? Literally, yeah, they sell Hershey’s ice cream here at Pizza John’s. They sell that. That’s the way you think of the curio brand. Exactly, is being okay, because people do get confused by that when they see you curios. Got a 10 at BMW is what? Okay, that’s the brand, but I saw Foreign daughter, right? So, yeah, okay, yeah. Now Pikesville,
Wendy Bronfein 35:50
of course, right. So Pikesville, Timonium and Elkton is where our stores are. But then, like you said, everywhere around the state. But yeah, our bent has always been that there is active ingredients in this plant that we can channel into products that can improve quality of life. So I think people do default to thinking about things like flour or vaping, which is something that we make and things you can buy in the dispensary, but it also gets into a whole range of products that are more traditional, like tablets and choose topicals. I know you and I are both hard on the topicals, but like, yeah, so it’s it just really kind of you people come in, we hear what they’re trying to solve for, what they’re trying to improve, and then we try and place the best product with the person.
Nestor Aparicio 36:35
They’re doing, the science they’re doing, the wellness curio, wellness, foreign daughter. When you see them, think of us in our friends, in our 27th anniversary here, they’ve been with us for a number of years, keeping us going. We’re trying to keep education going. And you’re trying to give away your CFG Bank Arena to you still have the sponsorship down at the arena. It’s been, I don’t know, it’s been a really great couple of years for Baltimore. I think I felt that way with the BMW. I felt that way with the crime numbers being down. I feel that way. Mako, when I was down there last week, I said Republicans and Democrats getting along better than I would expect that they’re really I get some hope for the state in talking to electeds and non elected and the kind of businesses and being out of caves and seeing people trying to, like, stand up for Baltimore. Stand up for Maryland, get the bridge rebuilt, create a company here, stay here, raise their kids here. I don’t know, I feel, I’m feeling more bullish about all of this lately.
Wendy Bronfein 37:30
I agree. I’ve been bullish for a couple years now, and I think, like we’re starting to see the fruits that. Well, you moved home, yeah, you didn’t live here for a period of time, right? Yeah, so you came back for this. Yeah, you know, I said this
Nestor Aparicio 37:43
to a friend the other night. We went to dinner at Clavel on 25th and my wife’s been out of town, and our cat said her, I wanted to take her out because I’m eating I need someone help me eat this food, quite frankly. So she worked at the hospital. I went down to pick her up, and I took pairing Parkway down, and I cut across like Lake Clifton, and by what used to be Sears, which is now the courthouse and and blacks and wax. And then I went down Broadway, and then I went back through the city, like Madison monument, up toward North Avenue 25th and then, you know, then back over to and I’m just driving around. And this was after I was in Mako and after BMWs earlier in the week. And I thought, city’s getting better. I mean, I was driving around 456, at night, during daylight, looking out. I’m talking trash cleanup problems, people with dry liens, you know, homeless, just all of it. And I made right turns, left turns. I wasn’t trying to avoid anything or whatever. Had the windows down and I thought it’s getting better. I mean, I literally, I just, I felt that my soul. So I want to say that on the air, but driving around, I do feel
Wendy Bronfein 38:49
like it’s getting better. I would agree. I think it’s very different. All right. Well, we’ll get
Nestor Aparicio 38:53
downtown together sometime here, not just for bananas. Football season start, right? You know you’re I need a purple shirt.
Wendy Bronfein 39:00
I know I got one. I saw him in the closet.
Nestor Aparicio 39:02
All right, medium well might be a large party. Curio, wellness and foreign daughter. Our friends at the Maryland lottery have said, have a new sponsor to GBMC is sponsoring me. I know you’re into wellness and curio and all that, but I haven’t had a colonoscopy yet, so I Yeah, yeah. So I’m trying to get more right about my health care and my physician and the fact that I have knock on my wood, knock on my head. My wife goes to the doctors. Enough for a family. You know, my wife’s been through everything. She’s been to hell and back. And she always says to me, you know, you might want to check in once in a while with a doc, you know? And I’m like, How long has it been? And I’m
Wendy Bronfein 39:48
like, too long. You’re a guy. I don’t know why it’s so hard to
Speaker 1 39:51
go to the doctor. Here’s where it is.
Nestor Aparicio 39:54
But you rubber gloves calling, yeah, drink to drink. Do all so I had Dr scare on last month. Teeth talking about the the procedure that we’re going to talk about, that we’re not I don’t want to talk about it’s making me uncomfortable. Makes so GBMC has been my hospital of record forever. There really are my hospital. And when I started talking about doing segments like I do with you, like I do with cop and like we do with the lottery, like we do with a lot of my clients. Let her ask it everybody that she’s like, what we do this? You’re gonna have to come in and, like, we go to the doctors into my my wife’s like, Please sponsor him. Please sponsor him. GBMC, so well, you love your husband too, right? So you’re painting his ass about stuff he’s got to do that isn’t what
Wendy Bronfein 40:40
to do totally and I might eat. I had my art like, in our friend group. My first friend had colonoscopy this year, and we were together before it was like, we’re all hanging out. And
Nestor Aparicio 40:51
then why does everybody brag about it when they get
Wendy Bronfein 40:53
it? I don’t know. But we were all intrigued, because we’re like, oh, you’re the first one. Like, tell us, right? So we were hanging out, and she’s like, Well, I gotta go, because I gotta start drinking the drink and, like, whatever time. Like, whatever time, like, Okay. And then we were all
Speaker 1 41:03
together, says, I gotta drink the drink. I know exactly what’s happening to them. But
Wendy Bronfein 41:08
here’s the thing. Like, this was the funniest part. Afterwards, she said, Okay, so tell us, like, what? Tell us what. How was it? And the response was, 10 out of 10. And, like, what? And she was like, you know, I love a medically induced nap, and I felt really light and clean after it. I give it a 10 out of 10. And so then I was like, well, it doesn’t seem like it’s that I
Nestor Aparicio 41:30
need her number. I need her to be my encouragement the night before. Wendy Brown, fine is here. Yes, GBMC is our sponsor, and yes, I’m going to have fun as I march, as I marched down Charles Street, my procedure done at some point here this fall.
Wendy Bronfein 41:47
My calendar, yeah, you gotta make the appointment, because now everyone’s waiting to hear like, if you take us on the journey, you’re
Nestor Aparicio 41:54
not gonna get pictures everything. That’s all I’m gonna say. My thanks to Wendy. My thanks to Robbie Leonard. My thanks to the Republican contingent that came out today. Councilman David Marks was here earlier. He’s got newborn child, so he’s got the eyelids go. JB Jennings, who’s always kind to me and invites me out to his parties in Ocean City and other places, and his hockey events and all that. So, you know, I’m trying with the Republican, Democrat to east to west, the right to left. We’re all trying to get along here, and I’ve had a lot of great guests here, and it’s all because of people like Wendy brown fine and her family, Curia wellness, putting us out here, allowing these conversations pizza. John’s hosting them. I’ve had French fries cheesesteak, but I have not had any pizza yet. I know what am I waiting for? Right? Here’s what I’m going to tell everybody, get the Hawaiian pizza here. Get the pepperoni added on. And as they said in the Bronx Tale, forget about it. After that, take pizza home. I’m gonna send Wendy home with some pizza. My thanks to the Maryland lottery and everybody for making this week so much fun. We’re this close to kickoff, and Luke sat in Owings Mills. We’re back for more. We are W, N, S T, a 1570 task of Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
