E254 Angelo Solimando

This week's guest is Angelo Solimondo, who joins us from Costa Rica. Angelo is the bar manager at the brand new Two Michelin Keys Resort and Neko E, a Ritz-Coulton Reserve. In our conversation with Angelo, he shared his career journey from Italy that took him through various international locations including London, the Canary Islands, Florida, and the Cayman Islands, and along the way he developed his expertise in mixology and hospitality management. Throughout his career, Angelo has competed in cocktail competitions and focused on creating innovative drinks, influenced by his Italian background while adapting to different tropical environments and cultural contexts.

As the bar manager overseeing multiple venues at the luxury resort in Neko E, Angelo emphasizes commitment to sustainability, staff development, and providing exceptional guest experiences while maintaining high operational standards at all times. We want to thank Angelo for taking the time out of his very busy schedule to join us for this podcast, and we had great time talking with him. Make sure you check him out online on Instagram at Angelo Solimondo or check the show notes as always for all the links. Enjoy the show.

And we are back with another episode of the industry podcast. My name is Kip and as always this is Dan. Hey, that's me. How's it going, man?

Great to see you. We're good to see you too. Wonderful time hitting fall now. So it's getting cooler and getting darker earlier.

Yes, it is. Yeah. So we fell right back. Yeah.

We can have a whole other podcast and why we're still doing that. We are. That'll always go on until we die, I think, changing the clocks. Yes, at least until I die.

Yeah. Yeah. I think someone with you otherwise. Everything's good.

You know, getting back into bar business season now that Christmas party season. Christmas party is here. They come. So yeah, book now.

In fact, if you listen to this, you can get ahold of us at Sugar Run and Downtown Kitchener. If you can, if you can, info at Sugar Run dot CA to book Christmas parties, you can also DM us that Sugar Run bar on Instagram. And that's where you'll figure out what we're doing on a weekly basis. So follow us at Sugar Run bar, Downtown Kitchener.

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Z A K H A double N A H dot C O also hit me up. KipSonders.gmail.com for Wine from Malivar Winery and Spirits from Allure Distillery. As I mentioned last week, Allure has just been awarded the Gold Medal at the World Spirits Awards for their Lemon Shallow and also Silver Medal for the Cafe and the Wires Presil of Care. So check those out.

You can go to the distillery right there and Allure or you can email me once again at skipsonders at gmail.com. And let's say hypothetically Dan, you were someone looking to take these two spirits and make a cocktail out of it. What would you do? Well, I'd recommend in Biblioth because today's episode is in partnership with in Bibliotha Visual Cocktail app built by bartenders for bartenders.

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So let's get right to our guest joining us from Costa Rica. It's Angelo Solimando. Angelo, how are you? Hi, how are you?

I'm very good. Thank you. Good. Thanks very much for joining us.

I appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time. I'm guessing you're pretty busy down there with opening this lovely resort that you're working at. So, Yeah, well, actually, we are in low season right now right here in Costa Rica and all like in America, but things to do, you know, when it comes to an opening, it's always, you know, there, you know.

And so, yeah, how does that work? Like the high tourist season, like in a place that's so touristy like Costa Rica, how do you occupy yourselves during the downtime? Well, during the low season, you know, it's it's low covency, but you know, you have a lot of turnover of people because lower prices that's that comes, you know, in all Latin American and Caribbean before coming here in Costa Rica, it was actually in the Cayman Island and it's pretty much the same thing, you know, low season. You have a different people, a little bit more crowded, but you know, high season is a little bit more high prices.

You have a little bit higher covency, but you know, it's it's I prefer the high season because of the drier season. It's it's a, you know, this part of the world, you know, it's a lot of humidity when it comes to low season to this time of the year, especially September, October is it's incredible. It's it's raining basically every day. Right.

And so we should mention off the top, obviously you're the bar manager at the end. You helped open this new resort. What's the name of the resort? It's called Nekawi.

It's part of Ritz Carlton company. Yeah, it's part of Ritz Carlton Reserve, which is a little part of the company. It's part of the risk of the part that is a little part higher top of the company, which is a cold resort, actually, and we are only the number eight open in the old world. Oh, wow.

Where are the other ones? The other one, there is one. The first one actually was opening Puerto Rico. There are a few open in Asia in Middle East.

We have one in Saudi Arabia. We have one in Indonesia, Thailand, China, and Japan. Now the next one actually opening. I think it's just happening right now that is opening in Mexico.

The next one. You all are coming up in the next few years. Crazy. Okay.

So let's back it up a little bit. Angela, where are you from originally? I'm from the southern part of Italy. It's a little village, very close to a city called Matera.

Okay. And so when did you start getting into the service industry? Well, that comes to my high school. You know, I started to, you know, I joined the Ospidari School back in, I'm from the 80s.

So back in the late 90s, I don't know what happened in that time of the year, but all my friends of my same age are all in the Ospidari industry. And then all in the southern everybody, the Ospidari industry, I don't know why. But yeah, so I started the high school in Ospidari industry and obviously I got specialized in restaurant and bar, but during, you know, my school, I started to work. I was my first day of work was I was 15 when I did my first event back in restaurant in my village.

And from there, you know, every summer season, which is the break in Italy, you know, we do school from September to June all the way. And then we have three months off. And so those three months of summertime, we were actually investing our time into, into find a job in, you know, in tourist places, like Bremini or Sardinia, you know, all these places that are full of tourists in some time. But the idea was not actually to go there for work was actually to go there to have some money to do parties, you know.

Sure. But at the same time, you know, you were having fun and you were getting some experience. So at the time, I graduated myself in, in the high school. I already had some experience.

So I can jump into the, into the job in the industry a little bit faster, you know. Yeah. So now you're, you've got this experience. You've been working in the industry.

At what point did you start to think that maybe all this way I can move around the world, see different parts of the world? Like when did that come to your attention? Well, that was pretty early because my first three, four years of after graduation, you know, I was, I was mostly working seasonal jobs in Italy. You know, if you want to stop one year, you have to stop in a city and I never been a city person, you know, a big city person.

So I was more into islands and summer places and very little villages in up there in the mountains. So I was moving the first few years. I was moving from, you know, a summer vacation resort and then moving to a winter vacation resort and then moving on and on and on. And then all in a sudden, you know, I got an offer letter from London and well, you know, I was 21 back then.

And I didn't think twice. You know, I say that, yeah, just let's go. And I pack my stuff. That was my first time flying out of Italy and, you know, I just pack my stuff in less than, you know, three days.

And I flew out in London and that was my first time out when I realized my English was very bad back then. You know, I was struggling, you know, speaking English, but you know, I've been there for about six months in London. And that was my starting point, my lunch to the international industry, you know, because I realized how, you know, this industry can offer outside your comfort zone, which was, you know, my own country and different shape of, you know, hospitality you can have from a city, from a city, to an island to different places in the world, you know, from there, I went back to Italy for a couple of months and then I went straight to Canary Islands. And I started my passion to be an island person.

Okay, let's back it up a little bit though. Because when you go to London, London's obviously known for the cocktail scene, like where basically craft cotailing started, you could argue. So what kind of bar were you working there? Is that when you started to learn about craft cocktails and the sort of whole cocktail mixology situation?

Yeah, actually, I used to work in a restaurant that was called, I don't know if he's still there probably, but it wasn't was named a lot of people. I remember that time of, you know, I was a bar back. So I was closed in a two by two room in the bar back, making coffees, washing glasses, and then, you know, I had honor to make operatives, you know, just documentaries. Those are my first drinks I started to do, Bloody Mary's and all the boring things, you know, that the bartender doesn't want to do outside.

I remember back then was still allowed to smoke in restaurants and bars. So that was actually a cigar bar, a cigar lounge into a restaurant that was a restaurant just next to it in a different area. And the bar back was actually providing drinks for the bar and the restaurant. It was my first step into drinks.

Right. And so, like you mentioned earlier, there was basically, originally, this job was like, well, let's go party somewhere and this is a good way to make money while we're partying. When you first realized that like, oh, this is not just a vehicle for me to support my partying. This is like a way I can make a living and I might want to do this for my career.

Oh, yeah. Well, actually, I always knew that, you know, I always knew since the time of the school, I always knew that this is going to be my life. This is my passion and this is going to be my life, you know, serving people and mixing drinks is just not only a job. I think it's an art because you have to make people happy.

You need to, you know, you need to understand what people like and go around it, right? The party time was just, you know, at the beginning, I said, you know, I'm just coming out from Italy. You know, I just want to see and I want to enjoy. Yeah, yeah, of course.

I'm going to have to pay money, you know. And, you know, that was my way to meet people and to, you know, have fun at the same time by, you know, working during the day and having party and in the weekends. But, yeah, since the first day, I always say, you know, this is my life. This is my work.

So, okay, so now we'll jump back to where you were headed. You moved to the Canary Islands and that was when you decided you want to be an island bartender. Talk to us about your experience in Canary Islands. Where were you working and when did you know this is what I want to do?

In Canary Islands, you know, that was my first time going, actually, in a tropical place, you know, and I was so excited because I just want to jump in the ocean in Christmas time. For me, it was something impossible to know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My first year in Canary Islands, I was there in Gran Canary Islands.

There are seven different islands in Canary Islands. I was in Gran Canary Islands the first four years. But the first year I was ending up in a place in a very little town in the south of the island, working in a restaurant on the server because I always prioritized the traveling and the acquiring of international experience, no matter if it is behind the bar or, you know, serving people. For me, it was like, I want to go in that place, in that specific place, in that specific hotel or that specific restaurant.

So, I was just checking out the openings and just applying, you know, and so I ended up in this place that was called the little Venice. And I was impressed how many Italians were there and I was not learning Spanish at all. The first year I was like, after a few months, I said, why I came here? I mean, it's full of Italians.

I just decided to leave everything there, find a town on the city in the same island where there were less Italian population, you know, and they were, you know, a restaurant with less Italian people working inside. Because I was I was into, you know, learning the language as well. So everything I was traveling was not only for, you know, acquiring international experience at work and growing up professionally. But one of my really, one of my real passion actually to travel was actually to learn about different culture, you know.

So I know Canary Island is completely different from Spanish people. They are Spanish. They are from, yeah, it's part of Spain. But, you know, there are internal differences, you know, and I was into, I'm still into learning different culture.

And I wanted to meet local people, talk with them, you know, learn their language, you know, hanging out with them, or later than, you know, hanging out with Italians and talk Italians and dream the same things that Italian dream, you know, different, you know. And yeah, and then I moved to a different place and I started working in a different restaurant. I started to, you know, experience a little bit more the local and to learn a little bit the language. And then I moved to an all inclusive resort, right on top of a beach, which is called Playa Amadores, one of the most beautiful beaches there in the south of Gran Canaria.

And there I was actually working into the bar, a bar that was hosting about 600 people, 600 seats. So it was incredibly huge. There was every kind of show going there with snakes with birds, you know. So it was a pretty busy bar and that was my actually first experience behind the bar dispensing drinks, non-stop for three, four hours, not having time, not even for drinking a glass of water, you know.

And that was a big experience for me. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. And at what point did you really start to refine your sort of mixology?

Because at some point you start competing in competitions as well, right? So, yeah. So as I said, you know, that was big part of my life that I was prioritizing the travel part, right? So I was like one and a half year in a place, then I moved like after Canary Island, I'd been there for four years.

And then I moved to Florida. I worked there for Disney, Disney World. What did it change? Yeah.

Yeah. Big change. Still in a restaurant, but you know, completely different environment, different guests. And you know, somehow I acquired different experience.

And I met a lot of people. I met different people. So from there, I went to New York. I've been there only for six months.

And there I experienced the first fine dining restaurant, rather than fine dining restaurant in a store. And then, you know, I moved back to Italy. I was for four years in in Switzerland, which made me think about I am not the person of a cold place. So after four years, I flew back to Canary Island.

And I started in that time, actually I start, well, during my four years in Switzerland, I got graduated in a hospital management. And then I flew back to Canary Island. And I started working for the Ritz Carlton. There is a beautiful property there in Tenerife, which I was at the beneath.

I was into Bartender. I was a pool bar bartender there. And then I moved to the mission star restaurant as a system. So many there I've been for six months.

And then I had the opportunity to go to Canary Island. I was there for eight years, full bartender. Canary Island. Sorry.

I don't know if I said Canary Island. Canary Island. Yeah. It's a very small community, which had a big growth in the coffee ward, especially from 2016 that I joined until when I just left last year.

I've seen a huge, huge growth in the coffee ward and the bar ward when I joined came when I just arrived in Cayman Island drinks were pretty, you know, very, very good that I'm going on there, but still, you know, the drinks were more simple. while during these years we started to have a lot of competition coming in like war class, like floor the kanyasu standard challenge and all the local competition. And I always have been a person that I don't like to say in my comfort zone. I like challenges.

So when competition arrived in the islands, I just wanted to jump into it and give myself challenges. Right? This is, you know, joining competition has been a big part of my mixology growth, because when you have to get a drink ready, it's not only about the drink, it's about the experience. Or you have to do a lot of researches about the brand, not only the brand, are you, you know, are you paying the brand with all the different flavors and then obviously every competition is different.

They give you challenges, a specific challenge. You have to follow the rules. You have to do like a storytelling or you have to invent something to get people attention. Right?

So and that's, you know, it's a challenge that, you know, it's maybe two weeks of work just to get ready for that competition. But it's a lot of experience because those two weeks you don't sleep, you just research a lot of things, study and write down your speech and repeat your speech. And you know, it's not only one drink, it's public speech, it's a show, basically. And that's been a big part of my career growth.

Yeah. Yeah. And like that sort of turbo charges your career a little bit because, like, as much as you're used to at this point, making your own cocktails, etc, etc, and making your own drinks, but like having to do put that all together is like, now you're adding the performance to it, which we all do for a living when we're talking to our guests anyway, but you're doing the performance. But now you really have to, like you mentioned, research the product to develop a drink that's different than everybody else it might be offering, right?

So exactly. Yeah. Well, beside the research and everything, you, well, what I was trying to plan is always, you know, every time you do you participate in a competition, probably there are another 50 people participating in a competition that are taking great amazing cocktails and super amazing, you know, presentations. So what you have to think is that how I step apart from the mess, how do I, you know, wow the judges in a different way that maybe somebody is not thinking about, right?

Well, there should be always a wow factor into your presentation and drink that might be maybe a new brand new techniques that maybe nobody still is using in your area, or maybe the story or maybe just a glassware, you know, that you are using something has to wow the judges that's, you know, after 20 people competing at the end of the day, the judges has to, you know, they have to wrap up all the points and then you could think about, I remember about this guy because what do you say, or maybe the glassware or maybe something specific that makes you remember at the end of the day that sticks in the mind of the judges, you know. And so you're obviously an Italian now working in island bars, like Cayman Islands, and then now Costa Rica, wherever Canary Islands, do you find that there's anything from your home country that you bring to the drinks that you bring to these more tropical locations? Oh, everything. Just, you know, Italy, you know, it's beside what, you know, social media are showing that it's all about, you know, passing pizza and basic, you know, things Italy has a huge food and beverage background.

We have in Italy, we have basically beside tropical fruit, we have every kind of vegetables and every kind of, you know, all the best qualities. And I normally, when I come out, when I have to think about a drink, depending on why I'm designing a drink, if it is for the bar for a menu or for competition, whatever, but I always get, try to go back in my past and try to think about, you know, what's, what are the, the flavors that reminds me something specific in my life, right? When I was child, when I was teenage or whatever, or something that I really like that I can't, you know, I remember we had to do during a competition in Cayman Islands, we had to do a several cocktail that was served as an imperative, right? So what's what's an imperative is something that you have before dinner or something to start your dinner.

In Italy, we have a lot of starters, like salads, we have so like this caprésé, caprésé, pre-ingredence, well, four, if you put the olive oil, it's like tomato, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, that's it. Like four ingredients, how can we turn these four ingredients into a drink? So basically turning mozzarella into liquid mozzarella, you have way to do it, but that was not my point. I remember I was researching how to recreate the lactic acid in the mozzarella to make a drink that tastes as mozzarella, but there is no mozzarella inside.

And I came out with a lactoframmented tomato, like I just put tomatoes with salt in our vacuum bag and the lactoframmented lactoframentation, it's basically creating an environment into a vacuum bag with an ingredient of your choice. In that case, was tomato basic for me, with 2% of the weight of salt. Using 2% of the weight, you just allow the lactobacillus to grow in that environment, not other bacteria can grow in that environment, right? So the lactobacillus starts to ferment your tomatoes, eats the sugar of the tomato and transforms the sugar into lacto acids.

So when you're going to paste the liquids coming out after a few days of fermentation, coming out from the tomatoes, it gives you that creaminess that reminds you that California chardonnay with that buttery notes that comes from the lactobacillus and the lactoframentation, which is called a malic from the, I mean they transport the malic acid into lactic acid, but the idea is the same, it just to shape the acidity of the regular tomato into lactic acid, which gives you that more creaminess to your mouth and when you drink it, you think there is mozzarella inside, but there's not. That was based on gin, lactoframmented tomato water and basil oil drops on top of it. Yeah, dynamite, that sounds crazy. That sounds great.

And then okay, so I mean, that was a perfect representation of how you're bringing Italy to the island, but now that you've traveled through so many of these tropical countries, conversely, you've probably had a chance to go to local bars and restaurants in those areas that you've lived. How would you describe the bar and restaurant scene and the differences between them in all these tropical locations? You mean the difference between the tropical location between Italy and... No, between the different tropical locations, is there a difference between the kind of drinks they make in Cayman Islands or Canary Islands or Costa Rica?

Yeah, definitely. Well, tropical location they own tropical fruit. I spent my last 10 years in Caribbean, Latin America, so it's like Cayman Island is in the middle of Caribbean, Latin America here in Costa Rica. I have to say that there is a little bit of difference because Cayman Islands is a flat island.

It's a very small island, very sandy, very flat, and there are no altitude, there are no forests. The only thing that can be harvest in Cayman that is nothing from there is the mango, and I have to say it's one of the best mango I have tried in my life. You have all different mangoes there with all different flavors. Coming here in Costa Rica, which is one of the most biodiverse country in the world, has been a big jump.

Costa Rica is one of the best place where a bartender into mixology creating drinks or a chef, creating dishes and food, has thousands of ingredients that can work. Play around with flavor. You have plants, you have roots, you have a lot of fruits. Different region of Costa Rica has different fruits and different leaves.

For one of the bar of NECA we have a species bar, which the idea is actually to represent Costa Rica into its biodiverse products and sustainable practices. Costa Rica is one of the most expensive country in the Central America. But if you come here, you see the natural, the wildlife, really it's impressive because the country is respecting so much the wildlife and the sustainable country at 360 degrees. This is an amazing thing because I think transmitting or give this message of sustainability through drinks, representing the country you are in, it's just what people are sometimes looking for when they come to Costa Rica.

They want to experience these sustainable practices. They want to experience this biodiversity in this country. A lot of leaves and mango. We have a drink that's actually been designed to change with the season.

Here you have mango all year round. You can have the right season of the mango, the season of the right mango and the season of the green mango. The same drink, the same ingredients, two different flavors completely. You can show through a drink, actually the change of the season.

You have the green mango here, it's not just ripe, but the green mango here is eaten just like a green apple. You just slice it, you put spices on it, and you just eat it like a green apple has the same texture, the same acidity probably. The idea when you see mango inside the menu, you think about a right mango, but we give a different shape of mango flavor, which through our storytelling, we let guests know. With one ingredient, you have thousands of chances to give shape of a drink, shape of flavor to the same drink.

That's cool. Talking about you personally in your situation there now, you're the bar manager for this entire resort. You are supervising every bar in the resort. At the moment, we have seven different bars, which includes, well, seven different bars, which includes a cafeteria, which we also have a cocktail program into the cafeteria.

The cafeteria, which is called Caffering Con, is just named after the Rincon de la Vida, which is a national park right here, close by. This is why when you are sitting in the terrace, you are actually facing the beautiful volcano of Rincon de la Vida. It's just amazing. That represents the Costa Rica coffee and chocolate culture.

Our cocktail program inside the cafeteria is all about coffee, chocolate, ducer de leche, and these kinds of things that are very typical from this part of the world. The other six bars, we have a beach bar, which is a Iberian Spanish Portugal kind of concept with an open kitchen, and obviously the drinks are also inspired by Spanish ingredients. We are always using local ingredients, but with the Spanish touch, like a rather than use any generic vermouth, we use a Spanish vermouth, female cherries, and those are the basic, you know, the base of the drink, the of the cocktails, right? We have a Santa Bar, which is basically a three-top house.

It's just a platform built on top of a of a of a of a wooden pillar. It's just 16 seats. It's incredible because you have a beautiful amazing view of the sunset, and you are suspended into into the wild because you are surrounded by by, you know, trees. And so the idea of the cocktail program in that in that area is not to take away too much attention from the environment to the guests.

So why you are going that bar? You are just going there for to enjoy the area, to enjoy the surrounding and the sunset, right? So the drink program there is a little bit more easy drinking, refreshing, easy going drinks, like we have a twist on a mojito, which is, you know, basically we we do a courtyard with a reused citrus, reused citrus. It's basically we use the husks of the of the citrus that we juice every day to make an infusion and cook it through with the water and sugar and acids, and we extract essential oil from the skins.

So we are actually reusing the citrus twice, and that's the sustainable touch in that drink with a lot of means and, you know, lock around. You don't want to you don't want to take attention too much too much attention away from the sunset from the surrounding by serving up, you know, a drink that is the stars, the star of the show in that bar is what's what's around you, right? For yourself, right? So the product program in that bar is basically a little bit more easy going, while comparing to the speakeasy, which the star is actually the drink, you go there for the drink, you go there to enjoy the different flavor profile and different flavor mix into into a cocktail.

And so we have a cocktail program designed a little bit more sophisticated. We have a lab that we can we can use to produce actually our own distillates, our own clarified batches of cocktails. And you know, that's that's one of the start of the of the resort, which all our bartenders are aiming to arrive, you know, something that it's really, really, you know, motivating our bartenders here, because it's one of the it's the first actually resort and bar that has a lab where you can read the still products. So you have a lot of, you know, techniques to learn and develop.

And coming from a place where the cocktail world was a little bit more basic. So everybody who are in love with these words are aiming to, you know, develop, you know, this, you know, you start, you start working in in in in in a co-wee and you start in a in a bar and your aim is to get to the lab, right, to get the hands into the ingredients mix up, right? And I think it's also a kind of a motivation factor for for our bartender to have an objective, you know, we are a hotel with seven different outlets. You can move around the outlets just like you are moving in different bars, but we are you are within the same talent with the same company, you know, that is taking taking care of you, you know, and so I think it's a great opportunity also for our employees and bartenders to, you know, to develop these new techniques, right?

And what's what I really want to get out of my guys is to get out there, creative parts that maybe everybody has a creative creative little part that we just need to pick, just to make it come out, right? And this is the way we are coming out with different drinks and with different menus in the future, right? And are you so when you're opening this whole program for the resort, and you said mentioned this is your first time actually doing an opening that are you were like you have some say and how they build the lab in the speak easy, like that whole area of the program, or do they already want to do that and they were just looking for some advice? Like how did that work?

So basically when I joined the the property was last year in December, the property was already about to open. Obviously when you when you're building and you are planning to open such a big big hotel, you need to plan, you know, everything in advance. So you need consultancy, you need a company that works for your for your residents, you know, company that works for your bars to design to design the bar, like operation device, but also design the drinks, give a given idea of what we're going to do here, what we're going to do there, right? So there is a big work behind from different people and different companies as well.

So the COTEL program into, into NECA-WIG has been designed by a consultancy company that is called DRBOL. It's based in in London. Amazing people, they come to us in the opening. When I joined the COTEL, everything was already almost set up, right?

Beside the stuff was not there, but all the concept, all the all the art stuff that takes years or maybe, you know, months or years to come out with was already about to, you know, to be finalized, right? Amazing people from from DRBOL came to came to the resort. We had we had a 15 days of fully merchant into what they designed for us and and it's been a, you know, 15 days non-stop of trainings for for our stuff to get into what's the concept of everything bar and and we are just, you know, making making our did that concept and making our this this full operation and just keep the, you know, the hard work that's herbal did at the high standards, we just have the hard work to keep the highest standard within the time. I think it's pretty much intense, right?

To keep to keep it just like, you know, a mission start restaurant, it's easy to get a mission start. It's difficult to keep it for 10 years. So it's the consistency is the most hard part in our industry, I think, and because you you can rely to the same people all the time, you know, you have two know of employees, you have new employees coming in. So you have new managers coming in.

So you need to train and be sure that the trainers and the train and the train and the train and the you know, the people who are trained are always trained the same way to keep the standard always at the same time with the time, right? Which is our basically aim to be such an ultra luxury hotel, you know, consistency, I think is key. So what was that location to in such a pretty significant size staff? Where do you find most of the staff other staff localized or they more like yourself as well, like traveling and decide to live there for a while or how does that work?

Well, just like in every country, I think there are regulation when you when it comes to, you know, higher. So in terms of management, you can you are easy going to get people from whatever you need, because if you need that person with that specific skills, sure, the expertise, right? Exactly. You have all the all the, you know, the option to give a reason why to the government, why you want that person greater than a locker, right?

Because it's bringing new ideas inside, right? Well, when it comes to line stuff, it's a little bit more tough, but I think it's also it's also one of our aim, you know, we are a risk-content reserve. Every risk-content reserve has to showcase the local culture. They are all compared to regular risk-content, risk-content reserve, they are always located into remote places, very far away from everything.

And one of the key things is to, you know, showcase local culture. You want to, so there is nothing better than have local stuff, you know, that's part of our storytelling as well. So the drinks have a storytelling, but your personal story that you are here, your roots are in this, in this country, in this land. Your personal story that can share with your guests are just unique, you know, you are just made for yourself and for that specific guest.

It's just something like you can get internationally, otherwise you're going to break that kind of feeling of, you know, local culture, right? Yeah. Where do you personally wind up living then for yourself? Like is there core residences at the resort?

No, no, we just, you know, we have our own grants in the town close by. So the closest, the closest little village closest to Penisu Papagayo is a national park. It's a protected area, just like 90% of Costa Rican land is protected. And because of biodiversity, we have, we have Pumas, we have Jawwars, we have Poha in, Surrounded Resort.

I just found like working out on my job one day, one night, at midnight, I've seen a big huge to meet a boa. Just like you have monkeys in the morning, you have cappuccine monkeys and you have a holy monkeys just jumping from a tree to another tree and you are in the middle of the resort, right? So the Sunset Barra was talking about the other, just earlier. It was a little challenge because when monkeys discovered that something to play with every morning, they were going there, taking bottles and having parties, you know, it's been a group of cappuccine monkeys, eight o'clock in the morning, just with a bottle of tequila in their hand, you know, and just trying to open it, you know.

No, we had to find a way to pump everything up because it can stop wildlife to be to be what's right. So the little, the little, the closest little village to Penisola Fabraggio is basically 45 minutes away. So you have to travel 45 minutes every day, go to go there. Well, actually, it's if you're going to see like New York, like, like Chicago, 45 minutes is like, yeah, same thing.

Yeah, just around the corner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So we have to travel, it's 45 minutes to one hour away to get to the resort. Nobody's allowed to get there with a, with their personal car beside the, beside the, the management of the, of the resort. So all the line staff and employees, we provide like private buses, employees to go there and pick them up. We actually have a complete bus route with from different cities.

So they have a different time of the day based on, on their schedule, we are actually book their, their transportation as well. Right. That's awesome. Yeah.

Talk about our job to, to secure that our employees are out of stress and thinking of how do I get to my job? Yeah. You organize all the, all the transport for them. That's awesome.

And so you personally like dealing with all this, like what kind of hours are you working? Like what's your day look like? That's a good question. I don't know if you can, if we can actually say 16 hour day, but yeah, it's completely part of an opening.

So sign up to go there for an opening. You are not going there for having an easy life. So forget about it. Like every, every single person who is signing up as going into an opening, especially a big opening, like such a ultra luxury hotel, like our, our hotel is, it's like you have to set up 1000 of standards and pay attention to hundreds of details that you have to work on.

And you, you, you completely forget about the time. Like you, you are signing up for having your time dedicated to whatever you need to, right? That's, that's about for at least for the four, six months from the opening. So it's, it's, it's a challenge.

Like not for everybody. If somebody's looking for a job that, you know, sitting on your desk and doing your eight hours and going back home, that's not the place. Right? That's not the job.

Like an opening is a completely different things, has a different challenges. It's just like growing up a kid. Hey, it's, it's, it's a big challenge to growing up your kid, right? But in 10 years, you will see your kid, your, your son or dad growing up and you feel proud of it, right?

Every single manager or director who are involved into an opening of an hotel is, is feeling that, that thing is feeling that you are opening what you are opening is your baby. And you who have that feeling to, to have that sense of ownership of yourself and your job and, and take every single challenge and every single problem that is showing up every day as your own problem and solve it, no matter if it is three o'clock at night, no matter if it is seven o'clock in the morning, right? Your own business, you know, and that's the only way you can reach in shorter time, very high level of standards. And especially at a place like that, like a Michelin star place where it's like everything has to be perfect at all times.

Like there's no, like there's no room for like regression or like mistakes really like, obviously mistakes happen, but you got to keep those to an absolute minimum over seven different bars. Yeah, exactly. I mean, as you say, you know, you have to reduce the mistake, the mistakes in the, in the, in the processes, but mistakes are part of the process as well. And the only thing is that, and the key to grow is actually to learn about mistakes.

So we, we never have to repeat the same mistake. If we, if we have a mistake, also, you know, guests who are going into what's stepping in as first guests in the resort, they completely know that it's just a brand new open resort and maybe, you know, give me a leeway. Exactly. No, you know, mistake can happen.

You just recover the mistake right away. And you, and you just put an end of the mistake, you create a process, you create a, you know, depending on what's the mistake you create the process, or you involve a training to make that mistake, you know, not happening again. But the flip side of that, of course, is also that the more expensive a resort is the less people are willing to put up with mistakes from the guests then like they like, you know what I mean? Like, I'm paying this much, there should be no mistakes.

So that is the, yeah. That's a good, that's a very good point because obviously if you receive a perfect, I standard professional ultra luxury service and product in a regular restaurant that you pay $100 your dinner, you say, wow, everything, you don't even pay attention to how the server was, you know, the level of English of your server or how the server was, you know, standing and every, all these things, you know, while if you're paying that same dinner, $700 or $1000, then you are much more picky. You're paying attention, yeah. Oh, you have to look something, you know, yes, everything was great.

But then at the end of the day, the guest we're paying has all the rights to, you know, to compare the price paid service and the experience because we are not only, you know, provides ultra luxury service and products, we are providing ultra luxury experience. Experience is something that stays with you for the whole life. It's not about just the dinner and the best wah-hoo you had in your life and the best one you had in your life because that's, you know, from home, if I can pay forever for a night in a resort or for a weekend in a resort, I think I don't have a problem to buy a $1000 bottle and bring it to home. It's not the product point, the point is actually the people who are serving you, you know, that are giving you that feeling of you are in an authentic place, you are in a place that, you know, deserves what you are paying, right?

Because it's not about the food and the drink. I mean, obviously $1000, just an example $1000, you know, because I've been in places having dinner where you spend $1000 for a dinner. But if you see what you're eating and what you're drinking and you compare the money that's, that's, you know, compared to what you had, you say, okay, well, I can have the same dinner, you know, for half of the price or maybe less, right? But what gives you the value of that $1000 is the experience.

That's right. And I think that, I mean, there are some people who just like to spend a lot of money and like the whole point is spending the money. But I think most people, even people who are ultra wealthy would become into a place like yours, value is still the key. It's like, I want to feel like I got the experience that I paid for no matter how much money you have.

Oh, definitely, definitely. I mean, the value has to be, you know, it doesn't matter how much money you have, you still have, you still give the value to what you spend, right? And you, and you want to see, you know, the, the what something you return, otherwise, that really make any sense to travel and go somewhere else to experience what you expect, right? So we normally have guests that they have no problem on spending, whatever.

But if you are giving the right experience and, you know, a once in a lifetime experience that stays with you until the last day of your life, they will never regret of spending whatever they spend with you. They will never regret to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to come to you and those money because you creating an experience. I remember, I remember so many things in my past, right? And some of those things, you know, some of the best feelings you can have is this kind of nostalgia, what you had 10 years ago, that experience with that specific person, with, with that specific company in that specific location, right?

And states we do forever. So I don't care if I spent $1,000 for that dinner or that experience or whatever I spent, it's, it's something I give, give a value because it's in my memories, right? And I have that feeling every time I think about that, that experience, I'm still feeling it, right? That's right.

And the memory is what you're providing. And like, and for you to have to do this all the time, every day, at an opening spot and making, ensuring that all this is happening and looking after everything, you're looking after, I'm super surprised that you were able to give us this time. So, Angelo, thank you so much. We really appreciate you coming on.

Yes, tell our listeners where they can follow you on Instagram and where they can follow the resort. Yeah, actually, my Instagram is Angelo Solimando. Just like my name, my name, it's an open page, you can just follow and shoot me a message, whatever you feel like just saying hello or whatever. My workplace is a NECA We are with Cartoon Reserve.

It's located into the Peninsula Papagio, which is part of Guana Caste state in in Costa Rica, in the north west of Costa Rica. And it's basically, you can find it under NECA We are in Scotland Reserve in Instagram, every social media pages. And please, if you are listening to this, to this podcast, and you are coming by to to have a drink or to have a night or to have a dinner, and NECA We please ask for myself, I will be more than happy, you know, to check your hand and give you the best experience. Thanks Angelo.

Really appreciate it. Awesome to talk to you and like, yeah, keep doing what you're doing, and you've carved a great life out for yourself. I know you're working hard, but at least you're in the tropics. Yeah, yeah.

Thank you very much for your time and your invitation. Thank you. Thank you very much.