EP #241: Carmen Puentes-Croye with Graze Craze: From Law Enforcement to Charcuterie Artistry
May 21, 2024
Jeremy Wolf
Join me, Jeremy Wolf, for a heartwarming chat with the former law enforcement officer turned charcuterie artisan, Carmen Puentes-Croye. Carmen's journey is nothing short of inspirational; from patrolling the streets to delicately arranging the finest meats and cheeses — she's now the driving force behind Cooper City's latest culinary gem, Graze Craze. Together with her husband, they've woven their passion for service into every handcrafted board and box, transforming simple meals into edible art. As you tune in, Carmen spills the beans on how they infuse joy into every occasion, from lavish weddings to the simplest of lunches, with their beautiful creations.
Prepare to be seduced by the alluring world of charcuterie as we peel back the curtain on what it takes to build a business that's as much about fostering community as it is about food. The Puentes-Croys have crafted a new haven for food lovers — one where stories and connections are the main course. As Carmen shares their commitment to sourcing fresh ingredients and perfecting homemade delights, you'll find yourself eager to join the Graze Craze family, be it to savor their culinary masterpieces or to kindle new friendships. So sit back, relax, and let your appetite for connection and delectable eats be thoroughly whetted.
Join me, Jeremy Wolf, for a heartwarming chat with the former law enforcement officer turned charcuterie artisan, Carmen Puentes-Croye. Carmen's journey is nothing short of inspirational; from patrolling the streets to delicately arranging the finest meats and cheeses — she's now the driving force behind Cooper City's latest culinary gem, Graze Craze. Together with her husband, they've woven their passion for service into every handcrafted board and box, transforming simple meals into edible art. As you tune in, Carmen spills the beans on how they infuse joy into every occasion, from lavish weddings to the simplest of lunches, with their beautiful creations.
Prepare to be seduced by the alluring world of charcuterie as we peel back the curtain on what it takes to build a business that's as much about fostering community as it is about food. The Puentes-Croys have crafted a new haven for food lovers — one where stories and connections are the main course. As Carmen shares their commitment to sourcing fresh ingredients and perfecting homemade delights, you'll find yourself eager to join the Graze Craze family, be it to savor their culinary masterpieces or to kindle new friendships. So sit back, relax, and let your appetite for connection and delectable eats be thoroughly whetted.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:
Hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, Jeremy Wolf, and our guest today actually met. I want to say, Carmen, what was it? Three months ago, maybe at a chamber luncheon, we had the pleasure of meeting.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it's been about three months. Time flies.
Speaker 2:
Time flies when you're having fun and living life. So I met Carmen it's actually Carmen Puentes-Croy at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon and at the time I believe, she hadn't yet opened her doors. But since then she has opened and she's bringing directly here to Cooper City a business called Graze Craze. So we're happy to have Carmen on the show, we're happy to have Carmen in the community serving our great folks here in Cooper City.
Speaker 3:
So, carmen, thanks for joining us. Thank you, I appreciate inviting me on.
Speaker 2:
Of course, it's our pleasure, this is what we do, and thanks, as always, to our listeners for tuning in. So, carmen, tell everyone a little bit about Graze Craze.
Speaker 3:
So Graze Craze is a charcuterie board and box company. We are at 9600 Sterling Road, number 103 in Cooper City, directly across from Cooper City High School, in that Jeremiah Behia Bowles shopping plaza. So what we do, naturally we do charcuterie, but we do charcuterie from small charcuterie cups. That's what we affectionately refer to, our charcuterie cups. Charcuterie affectionately refer to our Charcutie, charcutie.
Speaker 3:
And we work ourselves up to large grazing boards, to potentially like a large grazing table. Our ingredients are fresh. We hand wash, we slice all of our meats, our cheeses. We have Epicurean meats cheeses. We also make house-made hummus, house-made jams, house-made pickles. It's just a great. It's a great entertainment piece. It could be something as large scale as a special event you know a wedding, you know a baby shower to something as quick as just coming in and you want a simple lunch bite. Our grab and graze boxes are a great alternative to not fast food. It's a healthier type of lunch. So nothing is, you know, ready, available, but it only takes us maybe 10 minutes to put together that lunch bite for you.
Speaker 2:
Awesome, very cool. So talk about the background, right. Charcuterie. Is this something that, going back many, many years, you always had a passion for, or is this kind of completely out of left field? What is your background and how did you end up here in Cooper City with a charcuterie business?
Speaker 3:
What is your background and how did you end up here in Cooper City with a charcuterie business? So funny our background my husband and I we've been married for 26 years and we are retired law enforcement officers. I served for 26 years and my husband served for 28. So charcuterie is definitely not our background. So charcuterie is definitely not our background.
Speaker 3:
But when we retired we we knew that we needed to find something that you know we were going to be just as passionate about in serving the public and as public servants. Obviously we were in the people business, so we figured that the hospitality business would definitely be a great niche for us and I'm a hobby baker. My husband likes to tinker with woodworking, so when we saw the Graze Craze concept, it just definitely stood out because you know working with your hands. I like to be in the kitchen. You know in the kitchen baking, you know just being a people pleaser and you know we all eat with our eyes. And this was something that just brought joy and I knew that if it brought joy to me and I could be passionate about making this and I could see the smile that someone would, you know, basically get when they received a board as a gift or just for entertainment purposes?
Speaker 2:
How did you guys land in Cooper City?
Speaker 3:
So we were looking for areas, and my family has lived in Cooper City their whole life. We don't personally live in Cooper City.
Speaker 2:
We won't hold that against you. Okay, you're an honorary resident because you have a business here.
Speaker 3:
We, um, we live out in West Miramar and that was particularly because my husband, uh, served for the city of Miramar for the 28 years Uh. So, uh, based on my family being here, uh, we are members of a church locally here, new Horizon Methodist. Um, our sons have uh, graduated I have one that's graduating this week from Archbishop McCarthy. Just, you know, our circle of friends, our circle of faith, our circle of, just, you know, everyone in the community was in the Cooper City area. So we figured that, you know, just having family close by having everything else that we do, that was a perfect place. And they do say Cooper City is someplace special. So it is a special place for us also, you know, with family and friends.
Speaker 2:
Well, let me just say thank you and your husband, both for your years of service. That's quite the interesting leap from law enforcement to charcuterie entrepreneurs here. So talk a little bit about Graze Graze I know I think we talked about this before you mentioned it is a franchise. So how did you ultimately link up? Is this something that you were looking for, a franchise specifically, and you went through a bunch of different concepts? Or you just immediately gravitated towards Graze Craze? And are they a national franchise? Where are they located?
Speaker 3:
So we were working with a franchise broker.
Speaker 3:
Honestly, being a hobby baker and having, you know, I did after I retired.
Speaker 3:
I worked for a you know a cookie company, blueprint Cookies, and I really wanted to get into something in the sweets field, whether it be cakes, cookies, just because that's what I really enjoy doing. So, in working with a franchise broker, the franchise broker, you know, just kind of gave us, you know, some information on just different things that are out there throughout the nation and, you know, just with new concepts that were coming, graze Craze came into our feed and then from there, once we started looking into it, it was just something that the colors were vibrant, the logo, we loved it, just the family type of environment that United Franchise Group has towards our franchisees. It was just an overall great fit for us. So that's how we found the franchise and, um, you know, we, we signed on with the franchise in october of 22. Uh, so it's been a little bit of uh, you know, just finding a location, you know, with the whole permit process, construction, build out, but it's, it's been a process yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 2:
I think people can benefit from knowing a little bit more about that process and how that works. If you're somebody that's looking to start a new business as an entrepreneur, a franchise can be a good avenue to do that, because there's already a concept in place. You don't have to go at it completely from ground up and you have a framework to kind of work with. So are they a national franchise? Do they have locations everywhere?
Speaker 3:
So are they a national franchise? Do they have locations everywhere? Yeah, so that was one of the things that also appealed to us, that Grey's Prez. While it was a popular new concept, they do serve as the leader in a concierge top of charcuterie. Right now they are a national concept, kind of like an international, because they're also in France and in.
Speaker 2:
Australia and Canada as well. Very cool, very cool. So how is the welcoming been here in Cooper City? Are you guys having a nice, warm welcome response? What are people saying about Graze Craze? I know that I could say. I think I could safely say that this is probably the first charcuterie business in Cooper City.
Speaker 3:
I think so. You know there are a lot of private chefs. There's a lot of, you know, private individuals that do this kind of stuff from home. But I can say that charcuterie and the comforts of being a business that's licensed by hotel and restaurants we are one of the few brick and mortars in the community that serves charcuterie and for Cooper City we're probably the only one.
Speaker 2:
Probably safe to say right.
Speaker 3:
Probably.
Speaker 2:
Well, very, very cool. So you mentioned earlier that you have a son that is graduating from high school. How many? You have any other children?
Speaker 3:
I have. I have two sons, so that was another. That was another reason, besides, of course, having been public servants and just being in the people business for as long as we have, and you know, in law enforcement. My oldest son, cody, he is a hospitality management major. My oldest son, cody, he is a hospitality management major. So this is this is his area. Our younger son, graduating from Archbishop. He was not sure whether he was going to go the hospitality route or if he was going to go the engineering route to totally, to totally different uh routes. Um, so we just figured that, uh, this was, you know, this concept, this business would be perfect for us, perfect, uh, in our leadership experiences and potentially leave a legacy, should they wish, to, you know, follow in that hospitality track and having a family business yeah, that's good stuff, that stuff.
Speaker 2:
That's one way I know that when kids mine are 10 and 12, but I guess when they leave the nest a lot of times they move to other states and they go away it's one way to keep them close right Is to get involved, involved in the family business and build a legacy there, absolutely.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely so. Just started your own business, for I'm guessing this was the first entrepreneurial, your first bout at entrepreneurism Is that a word Since law enforcement? So what has been one of the biggest challenges, transitioning from law law enforcement to becoming an entrepreneur and opening a business up from scratch?
Speaker 3:
I think for us the challenge was like the process of you know, when you, when you're not looking for space and you drive through a shopping plaza and you're like, oh my goodness, what is taking that landlord, what is taking that shopping plaza so long to fill those spaces, and it's really that the space has probably been already leased, and it's just like the permit process and then the construction process. It's. You know, they say you're only as good as the people who work for you and there is no I in team. Well, it's all those little teams that you rely on to get to the next step.
Speaker 3:
So if you're relying on a permit for you know, let's say, electrical, or you know mechanical or you know, whatever it is, you're relying on every little you know entity within that to kind of keep the wheels in motion. So for us, the biggest, I guess, learning curve here for us has been the process of you know that it's not a turnkey type of operation. Everything takes time and that has definitely been like now. If we were to do it again and open another business, we would definitely be so much more aware of timelines. But you, you are at, you know the, you're basically at someone else's mercy. Even though you might be type A or you might, you know, have goals and ambitions and timelines, you're at, you're at someone else's mercy in order to get things done. And that has definitely been an eye awakener for us and a learning, definitely a learning process for us.
Speaker 2:
On the flip side of that, what has been one of the biggest rewards in having opened this business?
Speaker 3:
So, besides, of course, still being in the people business, meeting new people, just hearing their stories, this is, you know, our boards are what brings people together. You know, whether it be something as informal as you having a bunch of friends over and maybe just, you know, watching a game, um, girls having a girls night out to something formal, celebratory event. When I see people come in, they're they're excited about what. You know, they're talking to me, they're telling me, they're asking me what do you think? Uh, and you know that you see the excitement in their eyes about the potential graduation or the potential, um, you know, I'm almost at the end of my chemotherapy and this is something I want to celebrate, you know, with family and friends, or I want to send this as a gift to my doctors.
Speaker 3:
That has been the most rewarding, coupled with being able to work with family, family business even though you know, my husband and I, steve, we've been in law enforcement, are, you know, we went to the police academy together. So we we we've done everything together. Besides, have a very, you know, happy marriage Now being, you know, working together, work. You know, our son works here, our niece, another cousin, works here. It's a family business that I really enjoy seeing everybody work. And it's not just to be corneo, it's the team thing. No, to see family come together and get this beautiful boards out, that's just. It touches my heart.
Speaker 2:
Very cool. You can see you're very passionate about what you do and we're very happy to have you in the community. Before we wrap up here, carmen, if there's one thing you'd like to leave our listeners with, what would that be?
Speaker 3:
Probably a little bit more about how, how we run our businesses. While charcuterie may be what we do, hospitality is at the epicenter of our business. So we are not in the business we graze, crave Southwest ranches, we are not in the business of charcuterie. We are in the business of hospitality and that connection is the most important part for us. The charcuterie part will come after. We want to hear your story, we want to know why you're coming in. We want to. We'll connect with you after. Did you enjoy the experience? So when we we want to make sure that our guests know that when you come here you're going to have that. It's going to be an experience of a hospitality first, and then the charcuterie will come after. And you know, we just we want to serve you. We want to definitely keep memories. Our mission statement is to inspire our guests through the art of grazing, to basically fellowship and create heart-filled memories. That's our mission statement. So when I say that, hospitality is at the forefront, we live by it, by our mission statement.
Speaker 2:
Love it, Love it. So I know you mentioned your location. You're right across from the Cooper City High School. What about your website contact information? How can our listeners reach out to you? How could they learn more?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so our website, grazecrazecom forward slash Southwest ranches. It's Southwest hyphen ranches, hyphen, fl. Our phone number is 954-947-G-R-A-Z. Graze, or 4729. We're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, so if you're in the area, please pop on in. You don't have to buy anything. We just love to meet a new friend.
Speaker 2:
All right Sounds good, and we will, of course, put a link down in the description to all of your contact information. Carmen, thank you so much for joining us today. It was a pleasure getting the opportunity to speak with you again and to share your message to our great community. And again, welcome to Cooper City.
Speaker 3:
Thank you so much, Jeremy Of course, of course.
Speaker 2:
Everyone take care. Have a wonderful day and we will catch you all next time on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everyone take care.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's GNPCooperCitycom, or call 954-231-3170.