The Foodfluencers: One Trick Pony on Becoming Your Favorite Peanut Butter

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1:24They're a regular. Built Hospitality is available now for restaurant groups everywhere. Learn more at BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. That's BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. And check out what Built Hospitality is going to do for you and your restaurant. Customers, they would always complain about the oil separation. Yeah, yeah, right. Experience just recently. Yes. And then if you don't mix it all the way, the last bit in the jar is like cement peanut butter that you have to throw out. So I started thinking more entrepreneurially. The idea is it sits on the shelf upside down. So the lid's on the bottom.

1:59Oil is rising to the top of the jar when it's on the shelf. And then when you bring it home for the first time and flip it over, the oil will be on the bottom of the jar. So when you open it, you're not met with that layer of oil. There's a super wide opening for the lid. So again, like you have room to actually stir and there's no internal shoulder on the jar. so your knife can go all the way to the side of the jar and you're not like, you know, getting around that shoulder in the jar. It's very smart.

2:26Live from Pepsi Studios in New York City, it's the Hospitality Hangout Podcast with the restaurant guy and the finance guy. And joining us today, Jimmy, is Lucy Dana, the co-founder and CEO of One Trick Pony, The most delicious, crazy, crunchy peanut butter I have ever had in my entire life. Jimmy, I got to tell you, you know, the only thing that goes better with crunchy peanut butter, it's Pepsi. Because everything is better with Pepsi. You know that, Jimmy, right? You know what? That was a wonderful, shameless, but wonderful plug for a friend at Pepsi and well-deserved. You know what I think?

3:07What do you think, Jimmy? I think Gatorade goes very well. Starry and peanut butter. I think Gatorade goes very well. Pure leaf ice tea. Siete chips goes really well. Poppy soda goes really well. Do you want me to keep going? No, just say everything's better with Pepsi. Everything's better with Pepsi, Jenny. All right. I had the privilege of welcoming everyone more formally to the Hospitality Hangout, a hospitality-focused podcast where the founders of Brandon share their insights and bring innovation and technology leaders that are making things happen in the industry we love. Today, we are continuing our Food Fluencer mini-series, the CPG Edition, where we're spotlighting the brands that are influencing what we eat, not just how we discover it.

3:47And today it's all about, I got two words for you, Shatsy. Why? Peanut butter. Is that two words or one word? It is definitely two words. Are you sure? I am absolutely certain. Peanut butter? Peanut. Peanut butter. Peanut butter. Two words. That's what I'm saying. All right. One Trick Pony is the peanut butter brand that had the confidence to name itself after its one big idea and then execute the idea so brilliantly that this whole category had to take notice. A pink upside-down jar, although I see you have the... Well, yeah, there's more than one skew, Jimmy. More than one skew. I mean, yeah.

4:19You happen to have the minty green... Silky is the original OG, I think. You have the green, okay, two ingredients. Okay, two words, two ingredients. Not good to have two ingredients in peanut butter. No stirring. You can currently find it... Is it just peanuts? You can currently find it in Whole Foods and, chatty, not 100, not 200. but over 300 stores and growing fast. That's what we got. Well, you know, to me, it's very interesting because Lucy grew up in D.C. And when I think peanut butter, you know where I immediately go to? Georgia. Oh, I was going to say D.C. Okay, go to D.C. I was going with President Jimmy Carter.

4:53She attended Duke. Oh, love it. And cultural anthropology is what she studied. There you go. And when I think about peanut butter and cultural anthropology, nothing, nothing comes together more, right? And then you start thinking about environmental science and policy. She went abroad to University of Cape Town, started working at Uber in 2014, you know, become tech. Here's what all started. Blue bottle coffee. And we're going to get into this with Lucy. This is just me opining on it. But blue bottle coffee became something with product growth, chief of staff, something big over there. You know, did a whole bunch of other stuff.

5:28Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, and then something happened with call your mother, Deli and Timber Pizza in D.C. Don't know what it is. We're going to find out. And somehow she went to Argentina. I don't know how. I know she won tickets. I have no idea. But somehow she goes to Argentina with her brother, Andrew. Right? And Andrew loved peanut butter. Always incredibly. She went for a wedding. She went. Well, I don't know if it was a wedding or what. But she went to Argentina. You said it was a wedding? I have an idea. All right. So we'll just bring. You know, let's just bring Lucy in. Ladies and gentlemen, here she is.

5:56Lucy did it. Why should I talk about it? We'll just have Lucy come in and tell us what the hell's going on here. Here we go. Because, I mean, this is crazy. who starts a peanut butter company to me oh lucy dana that's who starts one lucy welcome to the show tell me what the hell's going on here what did i get right when did we start where do we start with you i mean it's such an interesting i mean well you're an anthropologist and you're uh well tell us everything oh my god i mean i went to duke as an engineering major and i was always good at math and science so i'm like okay this is a path i went to one engineering class called my mom crying and was like i cannot do this so why what was going on was it just so boring i don't know it was just like so over my head i went to like a small high school so i was used to class wait a minute how'd you get into duke it was over your head i'm doesn't do duke check for these things first it was just not for me is all i'll say so i thought duke is one of those schools no one gets in jimmy no one gets in duke's a hot school you apply to duke no one gets in someone's getting in lucy dana get in you know she said i don't like it here no no she didn't say she like duke no she said she was not enamored by the engineering class that's what i said that's what i heard you say that's what i said yes yeah all right so keep going yes i don't know if uh anthropology was like my life's calling or if it has anything to do with where i am now but that's what i did it sounds very much it sounds together whatever it is we'll take it took you to here yes every got other food over there everything you did is what led you here so first of all go blue devils i'm a fan blue devils i don't want to date myself but 1985 you know you know i'm a big tarheel fan i know you're a big tarheel fan uh-oh that's julian's father went to north carolina jim's grandfather well my freshman year we won the basketball championship and i kind of like thought that would happen every year so i'm like what like this is special and then this is yeah like they were burning the benches and i'm like i mean apparently it's a little hard a little hard all right i want to dive in because i'm I mentioned, or actually Shatzi mentioned the trip to Argentina, and I just took a shot in the dark that it might have been something to do with a wedding.

8:01And I have to tell you, if you've never been to a wedding in Argentina, get yourself some Argentinian friends because they know how to throw a wedding. But, Luthie, let's say you went to Argentina, okay, not because you were looking to discover a company, but you went. And let's talk about that. You're at your brother's wedding, okay? and you're not there scouting business opportunities you're not doing market research okay you're enjoying a wedding and as i said they really know how to throw a wedding but somewhere how do you know they don't throw a wedding when have you been to argentina i've been to an argentinian wedding you've never even been to argentina i have been to argentina and i've been to a wedding i used to be in the emerging markets i went down to argentina when that jimmy when you were 15 no when i was in my not once have you ever said anything about argentina you know what it never came up you never asked and i gotta tell you all right they they know how to throw away.

8:54Julie, can you chat GPT this? Have Jimmy ever been Argentina? Just Google best weddings in the world. I think he would probably come up with Argentina and maybe India. I thought India. I said India. I said India and Argentina. Anyway, let's get it. But somewhere between the Asado and the Malbec, peanut butter becomes the revelation. So walk me through it, okay? What was it about the peanut butter that stopped you in your tracks? Because peanut butter is one of those things that Americans grow up with. We eat every day. We got our Jif, we got our Skippy, got the smooth, got the crunchy. You know, it's not like people are thinking about peanut butter.

9:26We got our staples. But you tasted this peanut butter in Argentina and you kind of said, this is completely different. And more importantly, it led you to build a company. You know, I would have just said or Shatch would have said, I'll just take a couple of cases, you know, order a case and send it home. You're like, I'm not taking cases home. I'm building a company. So tell me about this trip to Argentina that has now spawned One Trick Pony. Yes, the lore behind the brand. So yeah, we were in Argentina for my brother and my sister-in-law's wedding. My sister-in-law is from Argentina. So we went down a couple weeks early.

9:59We were, you know, kind of bopping around being on vacation before the wedding and we were trying the local peanut butter. We grew up on peanut butter. So like on bagels instead of cream cheese, we were always eating peanut butter, but we weren't brand loyal to anything. So we'd kind of go to the store, buy whatever. and there was no kind of like yeah dedication or loyalty to any one brand so we tasted this peanut butter in argentina and everyone thinks of argentina as like the beef and the wine and the dulce de leche but they are a huge peanut grower and exporter um i forgot the percentage but it's like a huge percentage of the world's peanuts come from argentina eight percent i'm told there you go it's not huge i would have said like 40 but we'll meet in the middle 40%, 38%, but who's counting?

10:47Yeah. And so, yeah, we were like struck by the texture and the taste of these peanuts. Came home. I was working for Blue Bottle Coffee. I wanted to do something more entrepreneurial. My brother and my sister-in-law run a chain of bagel delis called Call Your Mother in D.C. and now in Denver and soon to be other cities. And they were looking for a new peanut butter provider for their delis. So I wanted to do something else. What were they using? Like Skippy? They were using, not Skippy. like a natural brand um but they weren't like obsessed with it um and so yeah my brother was like well why don't you start something with these peanuts we have this connection we'll be your first customer we'll put it on the bagels and here we are three plus years later wait a minute this is so when you went to argentina you tasted like there's a lot of peanut butter going around there people just making their own peanut butter and you're like wow this is really good they're like oh well these come from argentinian peanuts and you're saying like the peanut butter that where eating here that we all grew up on that's like it could be a mix of peanuts from all over the place they use like a whole bunch of different peanuts here we don't know like kind of like orange juice we don't know where the orange you come from they could be from from brazil right so but there and and and you and you met them people and you're like so you met the peanut guys yeah so i think it's a couple things so the peanuts here yeah no one's doing like single origin and i was working at blue bottle coffee where it's all about you know the farm and the tree where like the specific bean comes from so i kind of had that like idea of thinking about origin in my head and then a lot of the peanut butter on the market in the u.s still uses sugar and palm oil so you're not getting like the pure peanut taste right so um peanuts are actually indigenous to south america there's like there was like hieroglyphics or something discovered in peru of like drawings of peanuts in the case in the caves so that's how they prove that um so it's like the perfect climate to grow these delicious peanuts this is unbelievable yeah so you've so so now you got this opportunity to sell peanut but but you're just you know the people making the peanuts and the peanut butter so originally we were producing in argentina so yeah we linked up with a manufacturer in argentina we would get the peanuts there we would manufacture there and then we would import to the u.s like full container loads of peanut but it wasn't one trick pony yet it was one trick pony when we first started yeah okay now what was it what's the is there a meaning behind the name i mean i think i know what it is jimmy probably knows what it is i don't know what it is yeah we wanted to do one thing one thing well so we make really really good peanut butter and that's it and then we wanted something you know playful nostalgic so when you thought about this and and because the design of the whole thing is kind of crazy right it's upside down i know the original is pink so where's that whole marketing because this is like great marketing and i know that the the the peanut butter that i that we grew up and it's like it was a jar and every jar looked exactly the same brown yeah but no that remember the one that they put the peanut butter and they to put jelly in it remember the jelly was in the peanut butter and he could scoop it i don't know who did that one remember that one it's good looking right but every jar looked exactly the same you go to the supermarket is everyone like it's like one guy's making these jars right and everyone's like and i'll just put a different label on it right but you guys are like it's like it's it's nothing like everything we've ever seen before yeah so when we first launched we were in off the shelf glass jars and we were in those jars for a couple of years and every time i would go to a grocery store demo or talk to our customers they would always complain about the oil separation in that yeah yeah right yes you always looked at it it kind of kind of you're like grossy out a little bit like what's going on here coagulates exactly like you look at it on the shelf it's gross you open the jar you're like splashed in the face with it it's messy yeah when you try and smoosh it around it the oil goes all over you i had that experience just recently yes and then if you don't mix it all the way the last bit in the jar is like cement peanut butter you have to throw out so at first i was kind of like these people are morons like it just is what it is like what are we going to do?

14:33And then kind of started thinking more entrepreneurially and was like, you know, everyone's complaining about the same thing. Like I should lean in here. So we for a year behind the scenes, we're designing these jars. So we were thinking of like the craziest ideas ever on what to do. But yeah, the idea is it sits on the shelf upside down. So the lids on the bottom oil is rising to the top of the jar when it's on the shelf. And then when you bring it home for the first time and flip it over, the oil will be on the bottom of the jar. So when you open it, You're not met with that layer of oil. There's a super wide opening for the lid.

15:04So again, like you have room to actually stir and there's no internal shoulder on the jar. So your knife can go all the way to the side of the jar and you're not like, you know, getting around that shoulder in the jar. So we launched these. It's brilliant what it is, Jimmy. It's smart. It's very smart. See what anthropologists know. So we launched these last summer. There you go. I watched people in their environment. Yeah. It's good. Yeah. I want to talk. What do you want to talk about, Jimmy? Well, you mentioned the name. and Lucy helped define it. But I think we have an emerging, literally, business school case study coming from One Trick Pony.

15:40Most companies would never admit to having a single trick. It almost sounds like an admission. Like, we do one thing, okay? Now, that said, when you say you do one thing, and you do it better than anybody else, I gotta tell you, you're making a statement. So I feel like what I heard about One Trick Pony and then I had the privilege of now tasting your products, to me it screams confidence, brand confidence. And you're not apologizing. You're owning and telling people, we are so good at this one thing. We're executing it to a perfection. That is our brand. So talk me through that. The decision, what does it feel like now?

16:23The decision to focus on this one thing, and I know you and Chad just talked about the brand, But it still is such a differentiator when you walk down and see the packaging. In a sea of brown, you have these colors that are popping. So talk about that a little bit, these jars, and talk about now how are your guests reacting to it. Yeah. I mean, it's really like scroll stopping on your phone and also stroll stopping in the aisle. So I think we really are popping off the shelf in a way that no other brand is doing it. and when we first launched we you know did a bunch of consumer research in quotes meaning like asked our family and friends and what we were hearing was that there was the natural peanut butters but they all were boring look the same like browns greens whites and then there was like the fun brands but it was filled with stuff you probably don't want to eat every day so we're kind of trying to play in that middle of the venn diagram of like clean ingredient natural peanut butter but also fun cool brand that pops off the shelf so and that way i feel like it's hard enough to just like run a company as it is and stay in stock and get on the shelves and sell through and all that so we're really just trying to stay focused at the beginning of making peanut butter and making it the best peanut butter we have now the trick of the jar um and we're experimenting a little bit with putting peanut butter into other things and we're starting to do like seasonal flavors but we get emails every day that are like do almond butter do cashew butter and i'm like no like we're shut up in nicer words but yeah don't cut me leave me alone we're doing we're one trick pony we get the we get really crazy emails we were out of stock for a few months and i was getting like hate mail about it i'm like yeah we're trying to make money we're trying to be in stock trust me yeah that's yeah when once people start loving it well i gotta tell you look social media is a big it's a big it's a big direct differentiator today because i mean you're basically going into like a legacy business these legacy brands that we've grown up on or at least i have you know and no one's really made any headway and it's just kind of like here's the peanut butter eat it you know I think like adding like making chunky I think chunky was like a big deal right like putting like that was like the big innovation right and and really hasn't changed and you guys are really changing the game a little bit I mean your TikTok you've got thousands and thousands of followers on TikTok you got um 20 ,000 Instagram followers you got this crazy design it's these the pink and the light blue and this green color you're upside down you're really literally turning peanut butter upside down i mean what are the big guys saying are they getting mad at you or they did someone come on i figure like don't don't they want to buy you right now i mean i wish jimmy be negotiating a deal it is funny finance guy working on a deal right now to call your agent hello so when it's time i'll call you so actually at expo west this was funny in march so expo west is like the big you know that's the big food show right shows yeah so um we couldn't even afford to have like a real booth inside the show so we did this organic marketplace which was the day before the show is much cheaper smaller and we're standing there and i had my free labor aka my husband working the booth with me and all of a sudden i look up and he's talking to this guy who has like this curly long hair and the guy's grilling him he's like well where do you get your peanuts where are you manufacturing all this stuff and i'm like trying to keep one ear out and then this woman walks up to me and she says oh do you know who that is and i say no and she says that's justin of justin's peanut butter oh oh oh there you go yeah meanwhile my husband is peanut butter cups though did they make just peanut butter so they make peanut butter yeah they make peanut butter they a big portion of their revenue um was the peanut butter cups when they got acquired they got acquired and then they just did this deal behind the scenes where justin is now back so i think they're trying to like reinvent themselves so um i don't know i mean we're on the radar but we're still like you know way smaller than they are so i think we're good for now that's really super exciting now let's talk let's continue with these with these influencers and what's been going on over there with everything you guys are doing over there.

20:19I mean, you have Justin's coming over there. What about collaborations? Are you doing any collaborations with anybody? Because I feel like that's the hot thing to do, especially in CPG. He's getting collabs going. What are you doing with that? Yeah, so collabs are huge for us. When you have a tight budget, it's like such a good way to get in front of a new audience and kind of like create this buzz around your brand. So we're thinking about collabs in two ways. One of them is getting limited edition menu items on cool menus at coffee shops and ice cream shops and donut shops and that kind of thing.

20:48So we just did a Sunday collab with Seed and Mill in Chelsea Market in New York. We just did a donut collab with homies. So we love doing that. And then the other way that we're starting now to think about collabs is doing collab peanut butter flavors. so one cool way that we're using social is to kind of test ideas and see what people are into before we actually like make it a flavor so we used ai to create a jar um that was banana bread flavor and we kind of teased it with gonanas which is like a banana bread company and it went freaking wild on social media it got like 200 000 views 10 000 likes and we were kind of joking like Like if this gets 10 ,000 likes, we'll make it a real flavor.

21:30And boom, it did. So now we're working behind the scenes to see how we can actually make it a reality. Now, what happened with here in New York? Julia Mervis is a big influencer, big food, lifestyle kind of thing. I think she's from New York. Maybe I'm not. Yeah, she is from New York. Yeah. And she's all like, how did she how did she find this? And what happened there? Was that you guys sent her a sample or she just was in Whole Foods and was like, oh, my God. Or what happened there? That was big. That went viral. You guys did your research. So, yeah, we went viral with, like, Gen Z in the fall.

22:00So, Julia Mervis and then her friend Ashton Earl, who's Alex Earl's sister, they both discovered us just at Butterfield in New York City. Oh. Yeah. Butterfield. They got the good yogurt there. Fantastic market. Yeah, Jimmy lives across the street over there. Great market. We have a Froyo collab there right now. He stops and gets his Froyo yogurt every day. You got to go. We have a PBJ Froyo collab this month. So, you got to go. Jimmy, I will be there this afternoon. We got to do a – I'll be there this afternoon. do a uh a flavor yeah we have to do a flavor safari over there hello hello team what are we doing right it just launched like two days ago someone's someone's putting something in my chat here i don't know what that is yeah so i mean that's big stuff though i mean ashton earl and alex earl's sister i don't know who ashton is but i mean alex earl i know she is and julian that's unbelievable yeah so they both posted organically and then it kind of set off this like domino effect with people on tiktok so everyone then wanted to do their own taste test and then they were you know inspiring 10 people to go buy it and do their own taste test so it was kind of like this like ongoing boost whereas other influencers and food people who have you know way more followers had posted before but we would see a bump in sales for like a day or a week and this was like months long um yeah my dog loves peanut butter what about what about like dog food i mean is that like is that like like treats like dogs love peanut butter right they do they love bacon and peanut butter jimmy am i am i my dog everyone like they love bacon love peanut butter our original unsalted skew we called one trick puppy oh you see one trick puppy i like that's cute yeah but then the problem is people are writing in being like is this human safe yes and it was a mess so we rebranded it just to unsalted well i like that better but it's still i still think it's it's fun to just i mean i give it to my dog can't i yeah but i saw a commercial for dog food they say like they say it's like you can just anyone can eat it like that's the big thing now with dog food i i kind of like where luza's going that let it be for people and if people want to give it to them that's what i mean that's an option i don't give it to your dog give it to you yes you can give it to your dog not the other way around yes let's not make it for dog no but what i was thinking is how cute is it like jimmy you just got a puppy right and what redford right redford so how cute would it be if we had filled red furs first like how cute would it be if we have Redford Sundae Freshling and we scoop a little of One Trick Pony and we and we put that on social media because a TikTok with the with your puppy is cuter than you.

24:22You just gave me such a good idea. So I feel like the big thing with influencer gifting right now is that like they're getting so much stuff that it's like it has to be really personalized for them to actually open it on their Instagram and show it. So like there's this bandaid company that's making like trendy band-aids and they paint the outside of the influencer box to be like super personalized and it's like people want to open it because it's all personalized. If I can make a jar with people's dog's name on it, so it could say like Redford's Puncher Coney or whatever. See, the first idea, by the way, is free.

24:53Yes. Right, Jimmy? First idea is free. First idea is free. My dog Redford is now, he is on Instagram, and he's got some deals. Of course he is. He's got some deals in place, and I have to say he's very available. He's still available. Okay, let's talk. He'll come for the low, low price of just one more bag, one more bag of these treats, and I'm sold. he's redford is in who else should we get who else should we get to be on like try your thing anyone else besides redford he'll take care of everything all right all right all right i want to ask about you you mentioned um call your mother so you guys and and clearly now i understand it was a great family relationship but there's this amazing built-in restaurant credibility story that that that collaboration created for you and and now like i feel like this is you mentioned some of the coffee shops and pastries, it's clear that you are thinking about the collaborations and partnerships with restaurants and food service.

25:50So when I think about, you know, again, one chip pony, two clean ingredients, compelling story, a brand that photographs well because your beautiful packaging, you know, this is what chef-driven restaurants, I think, are into and boutique hotel, you know, breakfast programs. I think we're also in a protein craze right now. and peanut butter is one of the OGs of people thinking about it being a, you know, for energy and protein. So, you know, made with one trick pony, is there this, is this, is this a moment that's coming where you're, we're going to see the one trick pony or made with as really a compelling partnership that you're going to see in some real high end and some, I'll just say some really fun restaurants.

26:29I hope so. I mean, because our, our peanut butter is a little bit more expensive than, you know, if you're going to buy a tub of Skippy or whatever. So I think it behooves the restaurant, like if they're going to buy it and use it in their stuff, like to call out the brand and, you know, use us as marketing engine behind it. So I feel like people aren't just like buying it behind the scenes and like dumping it into a smoothie with no kind of glory around it. So most of the collabs we do with restaurants, it is like brand forward facing. But I think it's a great marketing strategy because like you get this new, you know, audience and then um we get the aura that like we're bigger than we are so you get to taste it and then you know next time you're at whole foods or target or whatever it is you'll be like oh i think i saw that brand on that menu where i tried it um and it leads into then in-store purchases wait who's call your mother deli who's that so that's my brother and my sister-in-law that's their day day job um they run this bagel deli working on one trick pony there you go i mean isn't that isn't Isn't that, isn't the call your mother, how many stores they got these days?

27:30I think they have like 20 now. So they're in D.C., Denver, and they're going to Chicago. Is it French or they own them all? They own them all. I mean, that's unbelievable. Because it's, you know, it's Jew-ish. Exactly. Jew-ish deli. It's a Jew-ish deli. Jewish deli. It's a Jew-ish. It's Boca meets Brooklyn. Nice. Right? Yeah, so they have white fish, but they'll put bacon on the bagel, you know. Yeah. Oh, Jimmy doesn't like that? No. Why? No, no, no, no. No, no, my no is I have no dietary restrictions. I can eat bacon. I'll put bacon on my bagel. So wait, if white fish and bacon on your bagel, does that break your two meat rule or no?

28:07It wouldn't break my two meat rule, but I would tell you I probably just enjoy the white fish on the bagel. I don't think I'd add the bacon to it. But then again, I would do bacon and I would do white. I don't think I'd mix. But I have no dietary restrictions or religious restrictions that prevent me from doing it. that's what i'm saying it's yeah i've never been to one of these delis i'm sorry to call about you i like i'm very intrigued by this i don't want to be next time you're in town come on we'll get you so i mean that's is your so is your peanut butter sold there yeah so they have a peanut butter and jelly bagel they do a bunch of like fun like they're about to come out with a pbj latte um and then my sister-in-law is the chef there so you know she pushes our peanut butter on a lot of items and then they sell the jars and the packets front of house too yeah i love i love this this is absolutely fantastic all right so let's talk about this so what's so what's next for you guys now i mean what's i mean you got the one trick pony so what's that the new flavors in the pipeline are we making ice cream and what are we doing we cancel the dog food idea jimmy and you squash that idea boys so what are we doing i mean i see what are you eating jimmy what is that oh try this this is amazing what's that amazing so you got peanut brittle what is this it's uh caramel crunch peanut butter popcorn so that i do every now and then you get a little pretzel oh yeah that's the best thing it's like a surprise and delight so is that the thing when you're a one-trick pony it's like you say that but ultimately you need more skews you got to get of course the markets are like we can't just stick one thing on the shelf we need more I mean we're branding and they make you start doing more stuff is that what happens so there's like two routes you can go I think in cbg like one is you can expand within your aisle so to say So for us, that would be like make almond butter, make cashew butter.

29:51So when you go into the nut butter set in a grocery store, you're taking up like a lot of shelf space. Yeah. So if you think of like SAUZ, S-A-U-Z, that tomato sauce company, they now have like 11 SKUs or something crazy in Whole Foods. Like you go to the aisle and it's just all of them. So that's one route you can take. Or you can take like an ingredient kind of driven approach, which is what we will likely do. So it'll be like peanut butter as a platform. so it'll be like we have our core skews which is peanut butter in a jar and then we're doing peanut butter popcorn we're doing peanut butter chocolate we're doing peanut butter bars whatever it is and kind of like use our one core ingredient and then you know put it in a bunch of stuff from there make peanut butter cups and go right after justin exactly one day so for now we're still under cup company what are they um yeah but reese's got in big trouble they like they weren't using real chocolate or something yeah it was like yeah and then they change it so how could that make it how could you be making chocolate without chocolate i know that was funny because they got like good press for going back to real chocolate i'm like shouldn't right everyone's like oh we just go back to real i'm like i've been eating fake chocolate these years when did they stop me it was just it was so silly yeah like apparently like one of the one of the og like family members was like really mad like his great great great great grandfather and like was bobby reese or something and he came up with the whole peanut butter cup yeah he was like my grandfather my great great great great grandpa be turning in his grave because you're not using chocolate yeah i'm sorry there was something that's not gonna happen with you guys right no we're not finding out your peanut butter no peanuts are we yeah and well maybe like you know my great great granddaughter will take this and god knows what my great great grandma lucy may she rest in peace she'll be turning her grave we're making peanut butter with no peanuts anymore come back a ghost yeah what if you stop using argentinian peanuts is that happening can we talk about that right now is that or no we're not so it's it's not happening now but i think it is a question is like we started with these argentinian peanuts um now kind of the trick is these jars so do people actually care that it's from argentina or do they just care that it tastes good so should we could we do a taste that should we do would you really know the difference i think that's the question i mean jimmy carter may he rest in peace he swore by the peanuts in georgia right yeah there's a lot of good peanuts there are we are we importing our peanuts now there's i mean there's good peanuts in the U.S., there's Brazil, there's a bunch of other places you can get.

32:08So I think that's like a long-term question. Also, as we continue to grow, like what is the supply for us of these peanuts? So TBD, we'll see. All right. Well, listen, Jimmy, I got to take a, we got to take a quick break and we are going to be right back with a little hot or not. We got sandwich so far. We got branded quick fire. You don't want to miss anything here. We got Lucy Dana on right now, founder, CEO, president, chairman, creative director of crazy crunchy peanut butter. Well, actually it's really not. It's one trick pony. I'm just having to be eating crazy, crunchy peanut butter. Jimmy had the smooth one, and he said it's out of sight, and then he also was eating this peanut butter popcorn.

32:44Delicious. You can't go wrong with this. This is basically, it's caramel corn. It's just great fun. Why'd they put pretzels in there? Was there a story to that? It was a treat. It was a treat when I found the pretzel. Yeah, why'd you put pretzels in there? You want to tell us? Surprise and salty. You'll tell us when we come back. When we come back from break, you'll tell us why there's a pretzel in the peanut butter popcorn. Oh, it says with salty pretzels. Oh, it's a treat. All right, we'll be right back. Don't go away. Hey everybody, I gotta tell you, we're gonna talk about Built. Built Hospitality.

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34:47And we are back with a little hot or not. But first, we left. We want to ask. The Caramel Crunch Peanut Butter Popcorn has salty pretzels. What's the, who put that in there? It seems like you're adding extra things that maybe someone doesn't even want. No, it's a little salty. Whose idea was that? Is that Jimmy's idea? You talking to Jimmy? I support it. Because Jimmy wants like, he wants Doritos in there. No, no, no, no. He wants Cheetos in there. No, no. He's put all the Pepsi snacks in there. I like the salty treat that I found when the pretzel came up. Like, ooh, a little salty treat. Yeah, what happened there?

35:18Was that like one of those peanut butter cup moments where the pretzels met and like it dropped in accidentally? No, we tasted a version without it and then with it, and we polled our audience and they wanted the pretzels. So here we are. I like it. Yeah. You know, because we grew up with Cracker Jacks, right? Yes. I would get that in my stocking. Yeah. I did. Nobody wanted the peanuts, Jimmy. I'm sorry. I did. I wouldn't lie to you. I love the peanuts. When you get Cracker Jacks, all you want is you want the prize. Yes. And you hope it's probably a tattoo or something cool. Yes. And you want the caramel corn.

35:49And the peanuts. Nobody wants the peanuts, Jimmy. That's why everyone gave you their peanuts. You know what they want? pretzels right that would have been a nice so are you guys now attacking that segment the the caramel corn who makes that now what was it cracker jacks who owns cracker jacks i don't know team team can we get some information on that can we find out who owns cracker jacks these days because they like they must own the caramel corn category well now there's other people doing that now so is that a big thing for you guys no it's more like a fun e-commerce thing only so kind of our strategy is like launch these fun you know peanut butter extensions on our website see if they sell and then only what sells well online will we take into retail so retail is expensive it's cutthroat so it's like you don't want to try something out on the shelves of whole foods because if it doesn't work you've wasted a lot of money oh you know who owns cracker jacks pepsi these guys of course they own everything i know they own cracker jacks but do you ever think about doing like what like so is your stuff all directed do you have a whole direct to consumer channel yeah so we're like 50 50 e-com retail right now so 50 e-commerce 50 stores is that like amazon or is that like like who does all that it's our own website so we have shopify in our own warehouse really i love it no that's great that's super profitable all right let's jump into hot or not we'll talk about all these different things all right lucy are you ready let's do it jimmy are you ready i'm ready all right hot or not cpcp do you want to explain how the game is no she didn't like lucy danny you know she knows how to play come on yeah hot or not cpg brands opening their own restaurants hot or not do you have an example no no it's just hot or not uh hot okay jimmy will opine later and we'll learn so much subscription boxes for condiments are subscription boxes hot or not not everything bagel seasoning literally on everything is that hot or not not pickle flavored everything is that hot or not pickled flavored soda pickled ice cream pickled peanut butter pickled popcorn pickled caramel corn is that hot or not i think it used to be hot we've reached not it's not we used to be hot jimmy we're not pickles are not hot but there's a pickles are hot pickles and everything is not oh wait pickles are hot yes Yes, pickles and everything.

38:05Pickle flavor, I think not. So pickles are still hot. I agree with Lucian, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, call your mother. Deli probably sells a lot of pickles. They do. They have a big old pickle. Do they make their own pickles? I don't know, actually. I think they partner with local people. All right, truffle everything. Is that hot or not? Truffle everything? Truffle this? No, that's not either. Nostalgic childhood flavors. Are we seeing that back? Is that a big thing? That's hot? I feel like we're running with the PB &J. everything right now. That's hot. Jimmy, CPG, did you write them down or you want me to tell them?

38:40I wrote them down. You wrote them down? I wrote them down. So efficient, Jimmy. I wrote them down. Jimmy, do you want to opine on some of these hots or nots or what do you want to talk about here? Well, I guess I'll ask Lucy to kind of expand upon any time Shatz, he brought up this kind of you know, the pickle everything, the everything you know, bagel spread on everything. The truffle. The tuna flavored everything. Your body language and you're shaking your head like no no no no no no so i i do think those things certainly come in and out um and and i i feel they're like i don't want to say uh like a bottle rocket something like a it like they they come out of the gate strong but then they tend to fizzle a little bit but nostalgia i think you embrace and i've been i've been seeing that a lot in restaurant brands i'm seeing that with cpg and at the core of your business the peanut butter the the og the pb and jay so kind of talk about the maybe what's trendy has a moment but not lasting versus nostalgia has a lasting am i reading the room correctly yeah i think you're hitting it on its head so with all these like you know pickle everything i think if you're the first one to do it you get that shock factor and the virality and the cool thing of it and then like when you're the 100th person to do it it's like kind of cringe like it's not holding the bag it's not yeah it's not cool anymore yeah he left holding the bag but nostalgia it's like you would go back for seconds whereas like a pickle flavored soda whatever you'd probably take a like you know one sip it's kind of a joke thing so it's like yeah we're here for the repeat buys not the not the shock factor yeah here's the repeat here yeah you're staying power that's exactly has yeah i i would agree but i mean i i'm seeing now like now there's i mean literally pickled flavored potato chips pickled flavored pistachio nuts.

40:24They literally are pickling everything. I'll just say, when I walk into a venue, and all of a sudden you see the pickled flavored martini or whatever it is, my thought is, man, jumping on the bandwagon. Just getting on, coming on in. And respectfully, I like pickles, but I don't want pickled flavor in all my stuff. I actually don't want it at all. What are your thoughts on a tuna on rye flavored everything? Great sandwich, but no thank you on everything. Tuna rye martini? No, thank you. No? I said no, sir. Tuna on rye peanut butter? Tuna is kind of standalone. That's its own gap. I think we're going back to dog food territory.

40:58Would you like a tuna on rye milkshake? I don't know. You don't like that. All right, Lucy, I'm giving ideas because I love tuna on rye. All right. You miss 100 % of the shots you don't take, right? There you go. Jimmy? Jimmy, that's Jimmy's line. We both subscribe to it. Jimmy's line. All right, listen, let's go on to a little sandwich safari. Is it a sandwich? This is always a big controversy. Jimmy still is arguing about these things. Don't lead the witness. Just give her the choices. Is a hot dog a sandwich, Lucy? No. Is a hamburger a sandwich? I feel like it should be, but no. Is a dumpling a sandwich?

41:35No. Even in China? Like, if you go to Beijing, do they think it's a sandwich? Just because it's like carb around filling? I don't know. Somebody had to ask if it's on the list. I got to ask you these things. The Beijing wasn't on your list. The dumpling as a sandwich was on your list. I feel like if you go to China and you say, can I have a dumpling? They would like, do you want the dumpling sandwich? They don't say that? They don't say that. Lucy gave that a no. Keep going. Is Pop-Tart with peanut butter inside? Is a Pop-Tart a sandwich? No. The Pop-Tart's not. What if you take two Pop-Tarts, you put peanut butter and jelly in between the Pop-Tarts.

42:11Is that a sandwich? I feel like you're blowing my mind because to me, a sandwich is like, yeah, bread filling bread, and some of these are that. but they're not sandwiches. PB &J on a toasted English muffin? Hard yes. Hard yes. Hard yes. Hard yes. I got to tell you, I like PB &J on an English muffin, but do you do it open-faced or closed? I do indecision toast where I do it open-faced and I do like one PB &J, one cream cheese, so you got a little bit of both. I like that. You call that indecision? Yeah, indecision toast. I did that recently. I did PB &J and one half of my English muffin. I did butter on the other.

42:50There you go. So what else? So, Jimmy, a hamburger, no. Hot dog, no. Dumpling, no. Pop-Tart, no. I didn't even say about croissant because I didn't want to hear about it. So nothing is a sandwich. I just want to be clear. Lucy does not even think a sandwich exists. I just want to be clear. Lucy and I, you know, speaking the same language. Empatico. I agree with every one of Lucy's answers. In fact, I emphatically agree with every one of Lucy's answers. A hot dog is not a sandwich. A hamburger is not a sandwich. A dumpling is not a sandwich. Tell me what a sandwich is. What's a sandwich? I think Lucy explained there's two independent pieces of bread.

43:24Or we could stretch it. You probably could do it with lettuce. What about matzah? I take matzah and I put some peanut butter on it. Two separate pieces. So matzah. Again, two independent come together with something protein. You said bread. Well, I was saying bread, but you could do it with matzah. I think you could do it with lettuce. You can have two pieces of lettuce and then stick protein in the middle or something. It has to be protein now? No. You said protein. For example, you stick something in between. That's what I was saying. But if it's contiguous, if it's like a dumpling where you're stuffing a croissant or stuffing a dumpling.

43:54Stuffing. Not a sandwich. Stuffed means not sandwiched. Matzah with jelly. With another piece of matzah. That's a matzah jelly sandwich. There's no protein, though. So I said there's something in between the two independent pieces of. All right. This debate will continue to go on because now you said protein. I just like that Lucy nailed it. She got it. It's just an aura. It doesn't really fit the definition, you know? All right, listen. Let's jump into lightning round quick fire. Jimmy, do you want anything more to say on the sandwich safari? I just liked her answers. You did? I did. So we're done with that.

44:28We're done with that. All right, we're going right to the quick fire. I had a PB &J this weekend. I'm probably on a one PB &J sandwich per week. Really? Wow. Sylvia and I. My daughter makes my PB &J sandwich. Well, let me ask you this. Before we go into the quick fire, Like protein is like on fire right now. And my kids, all they want is protein, everything, just protein. I mean, peanut butter has always been known and peanuts have protein. Is there a lot of protein in peanut butter and peanuts? There's eight grams per serving, but it's high calories. So like calories to protein, it's actually not high protein, but people eat it and think it is.

45:06Yeah, it's more of a fat. So is it, so if I'm like working out, should I eat peanut butter or I shouldn't eat peanut butter? I mean, you're probably better off having like protein powder. But if you want to enjoy your life, add a little peanut butter, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so it's so it's live a little. So it's got protein, but it's not like crazy protein. Right. So what about adding some protein to it? Make it a high protein peanut butter. What do you think about them apples? I feel like you can't trust like anything on a label. There is a brand that has a protein peanut butter. And I looked at the back and it has eight grams of protein, which is not any higher than anything.

45:39Yeah. I'm like, so it's just peanut butter. So that would just be a labeling. you could just throw like protein on it and people are like, oh, there's protein. There's always protein, but you don't have to do anything different. That's just more of a marketing. You probably just throw, like it says no sugar added, no palm oil. Oh, it does say eight grams of protein. We call it out. So I think we'll redo that and make it bigger. Yeah. Maybe we'll put it on the saddle of the horse. When did you join the team? When did you get involved? What are you talking about today? I thought we were the partners, aren't we?

46:05I thought we work with Lucy now. My brother wanted to call out the protein in the whole jar, so he wanted to say 100 grams of protein. I'm like, no, this is misleading. Yeah, it could be misleading. Yeah, I don't know. But I like the way the barcode is shaped like a peanut. Is that legal? Isn't there requirements? Isn't there a rule about that? As long as it scans, you can do whatever you want. Oh, you can. Yeah. All right, Jimmy, we're learning so much here. Lucy's dropping knowledge. Dropping knowledge. I'm not going to tell you. All right. Brandon Quickfire, Jimmy. enough out of you all right what is your dream partnership for one trick pony what is your dream collaboration who do you want to collab with what is it i want to collab with a restaurant benny blanco benny blanco yeah he is why but like that's music guy what's i know but that's when i think it's more interesting is like when it's not so does he like peanut butter do we know about this he's a big foodie all right if you had to delete either instagram or tiktok forever and will say this will be one trick pony.

47:09Who are you? What are you getting rid of? I'm deleting TikTok for one trick pony, but for my personal use, I'm deleting Instagram. Do you like your peanut butter smooth or do you like crunchy? I came into this liking crunchy better, but now I'm going smooth, more versatile. You mean you came into this podcast or you came into this business? I came into this business, always buying Chunky, and then now, yeah, I'm a smooth gal. Why is that? I wonder. It's more versatile. Yeah, you can dip it easier. But isn't it funny? Like, it was always smooth. And when whoever came out with Chunky was like, they were like, they reinvented.

47:45Like, you'd think that, you know, like they split an atom or something. I know. Like, let's just not blend it up as much. Right? Well, what's funny is, you know how you make crunchy peanut butter is that you take smooth peanut butter and then you mix in peanut pieces. So it's not. Oh, I thought they just didn't blend it all the way up. No. So it's literally smooth and you're adding crunch? Yes. Not even crunchy. Yeah. I mean, it is, but it isn't. It's fake. What type of bread do you like with your PB &J? I mean, you like smoothie now. You're not a crunchy gal. What is your go-to bread for PB &J?

48:17What do you recommend? What does One Trick Pony say? Yeah, I'm going toasted sourdough. What's the last thing that you Googled or like chatted or did? Oy, oy, oy. Last thing I Googled. Jeez. I don't know if I can reveal that. Number one podcast in hospitality and food service. No, I will say I'm working a lot with Claude on like nutrition facts. So we're launching these new seasonal flavors coming up. And like I used to be like deep in the weeds of like a spreadsheet of like, you know, I have five grams of this, 10 grams of this. And that is like something that's like so good. Yeah, Jimmy switched everything to Claude now.

48:51Somebody told him chats for losers and you got a Claude. Now he's just Claude-ing everything. That's kind of what the kids are saying. He has a whole relationship with Claude. Lucy, how do you take your bagel? Candied salmon cream cheese. So I do a bagel scooped, toasted with that, and then cucumbers. Well, I like the cucumbers, but what is candied? What's the crew? What's candied? Candied salmon. So it's like smoked, but it's a little bit sweet. Oh, you peaked Jimmy's interest. I did. I mean, once you tell, I mean, Jimmy's ready to go, and he's like, wait a minute, wait a minute. Shatsy, hold on a second here.

49:26Don't go so fast. Let me hear about this sweet salmon. What is this salmon you speak of? So maybe Yom Kippur next year, Jimmy, will be a new addition. We've already eliminated turkey from Thanksgiving. The Frischling family breakfast will be catered by Call Your Mother. They do cater. You may just have to move. And let me ask you, the last thing is, what's your go-to, like right now, your food fluencer account? What do you like? Who do you like to follow? Who are you looking at? Who are you getting a laugh from? Who are you enjoying? I love Broma Bakery. So her real name is Sarah Fennell, but she makes all, like, dessert sweet stuff.

50:01And then, yeah, she posts a little bit about her life. I'm looking her up on Instagram. What is it? Veroma Bakery? Veroma, B-R-O-M-A, bakery. Veroma, B-R-O-M-A. Oh, there it is. Wow, 1.4 million followers. Yeah. Veroma Bakery. Jimmy, you got to take us home, buddy. Lucy, I want to thank you so much for joining us on the podcast, dropping some knowledge, a lot of knowledge, agreeing with me or me agreeing with you on what is and is not a sandwich. Arguing with me the entire time. And we're both disagreeing with my brother or one other mother, Mr. Michael Schatzberg. That's hard to do. But really, for everything you and the team are doing at One Trick Pony, super excited for what you guys not only have done, but what you're going to do.

50:39Expect big things. I expect big things from you and your team. So I already look forward to congratulating you. If anyone wants to get in touch with our friend Luce, you can email the podcast team at podcast at branded.nyc. And Chatsy, you have her cell phone, by the way. I have Lucy's cell phone. Even though you claim that people don't hit that email address, people have been hitting it. Really interesting. We have been getting it. I think, you know why? Because I've been saying to people that no one's emailing us, and they are now. They are emailing us. People are emailing us now. I got to tell you, real big macas have been emailing us on that over the - What's a maca?

51:14A big maca. Big deal. Big deal. It's a big deal, maca? Isn't it maca? Like a maca? Isn't it a big maca? So again, you want to reach Lucy? You got to come to us. podcast at branded.mic and we'll make it happen. But sincerely, Lucy, wishing you guys great success with your company. Shatsy, bring us home. If you want to buy One Trick Pony, go to onetrickponynuts.com, right? Check it out and tell them Shatsy sent you. I think in the promo code, you put in Hangout and you get 20 % off. I made that up. So that's one more. You'll get an error. And don't worry, Lucy, I'll send you Shatsy. You'll get an error code there.

51:51Listen, if you don't check out our newsletter every weekend, the Hospitality Headline, go to hospitalityheadline.com. Check it out every Saturday morning. It's a really great read, a lot of fun stuff, and you get to see all the great stuff that I'm writing about because I'm writing a lot of stuff, and it takes me a long time to write it. If you want to check out Lucy, check us out on YouTube, at HospitalityHangout. Check us out and follow you. We'll see everything, everything we're doing. Okay. Cheers, everybody.