We recently connected with Cesar Cortez and have shared our conversation below.

Cesar, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I came up with the idea for El Brewjo around 2015. I remember distinctly that the idea came to me while I was enjoying a sandwich and a beer at the counter of a local family run staple in Orange called Hollingshead Delicatessen. I frequented this spot at this time and I just enjoyed the ambience and was drawn to the fact that it was three generations of family behind the counter.

In this instance I realized that if you have a great ambience, you make your guest feel like family, you offer a consistently delicious product, the rest will fall into place. I refrained from doing anything about El Brewjo for years simply because of the fear behind leaving what, at the time I deemed as a “well paying career.” When the pandemic occurred in 2020 I had an “Aha!” moment, as most did, and realized that there was more to life than working a 9-5 job, staring at a screen all day. I up and quit my job, got a few gigs in the food industry so I can learn the ropes, and the rest, as they say, is history.

El Brewjo initially was idealized as a taco stand, but as I delved deeper into who I was and what I wanted to offer, I felt that my deep and life-long love of burgers was where it was at. I spent all of 2020 doing Research and Development, cooked so many burgers for many friends and family trying to nail down the recipes for the burgers I wanted to offer.

At the time, the smashburger craze was just beginning. Orange County only really had a few spots offering similar options of the classic smashburger variation of pickles, onions on a Martin’s Potato Bun, my vision was to approach the Smashburger from a lense of a Queer Mexican kid from the Modena neighborhood of OC and that was to do the opposite of what everyone else was doing. Between the names of our burgers, our branding (which is reflective of our Mexican heritage) and our flare for humor and spicy latino sass; we’d be providing OC with a new variation of “Smashburgers” or as I call them; “Cheeseburgers Chingonas.”

Cesar, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a son of two former migrant farm workers from Mexico, so my soul is rooted by our Mexican heritage. I’ve seen firsthand the struggle of an immigrant and what it takes to achieve the “American Dream.” My folks are strong willed, dedicated and family oriented and extremely hard working people. My parents both worked 12-hour days, in labor gigs mostly, and growing up they really helped me develop a great work ethic and showed me skills that could eventually be applied as an entrepreneur.

I never thought I’d end up the owner of a food business as I’ve always been a creative and wanted to have a career in music film or television. I started many bands, I took drama classes, majored in TV/Film production, did anything possible to try and make it in that industry. After college when I hit the real world, I found that breaking into the industry in LA wasn’t easy and I eventually got lost in the hustle and bustle of life and ended up in a 9-5 career that was destroying my soul. Eventually, I found that this lifestyle caused me to lose the love I had for myself and those dreams I once had.

I eventually found joy in cooking and realized that I could be creative while working with food. I re-focused my energy on me, my vision of what kind of lifestyle I wanted and what I wanted to share with the world. As I worked to get El Brewjo off the ground, I started doing pop ups solo, eventually my brother stepped in as my cook and then both of my parents started helping us out. As our name grew in our community, I saw how people were gravitating toward our story, our food and the fact that we were fully family run. I slowly started realizing that working with my family, sharing our love of culture, food and family with others, has allowed me to achieve my own version of the “American Dream.” And that’s what El Brewjo is all about; food, culture and family.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients is obviously social media. By consistently posting and keeping your following informed, doing giveaways, and offering exciting and new specials, our social media page has grown, which in turn brings more in-person attendance. Our customers often share food pics and tag us which leads to further exposure and growth. Additionally, with the evolution of social media and the importance of “influencers” and “foodie pages” one must look at them as the new way to market. No one takes ads on the radio or tv or even online anymore. Investing in content influencers with strong followings is also a smart and worthy investment.

However, I do want to mention that word of mouth remains a very powerful source of new clients as well.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

One of the toughest things when I left my previous career and took a leap to start and focus on El Brewjo was having to essentially start over. I had previously never worked in the restaurant space, so I had to find gigs wherever I could so I could start to learn the ins and outs of the food industry.

Aside from the obvious and significant pay cut, I also had to start working positions from the bottom to the top.

One of my new jobs at the time was a host position at a new BBQ joint that was opening. I trained for months prior to our open date and I had to swallow my pride with this job. Here I am, a man in his mid 30’s working as a host and my fellow co-workers in the same position as I, were as young as 16 years old. Furthermore, to add insult to injury, one of my 16 year old co-workers told me her mom knew me. Apparently her mom and I graduated high school together in 2004. This was embarrassing in so many ways, but at the end of the day I was providing myself with skills that would ultimately be applied to my own business.

I eventually got another job working for a prestigious chef and I was thrown into the gauntlet of being an actual cook. To endure the level of stress, then the pressure of Chef’s expectation and Chef directly overseeing your every move was a level of intensity and stress I had never endured before. One that would lead to me being able to endure this environment. Though I sure have my moments.

In retrospect, both these positions shaped me and taught valuable lessons and skills to apply to my own business. Now seeing the few successes we’ve had, I can look back and be grateful, humbled and proud to have been a host, a line cook and now business owner.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.elbrewjoburgers.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elbrewjo
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/elbrewjo
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/el-brewjo-orange-2