SUMMARY:
Recorded on June 8, 2021 – Ready for a challenge and hard work, we speak with Michel Falcon about his new venture, Brasa Peruvian Kitchen – fast casual Peruvian inspired food. Michel elaborates on how Flavourful, Fast, Functional are Brasa’s guiding principles, along with a ‘people first’ mentality that spans from employee to supplier.
Time Stamps:
- Intro – 0:01
- Covid – 4:54
- Business – 24:27
- Personal – 45:33
- City – 1:05:376
- Rapid Fire – 1:18:03
- Conclusion – 1:21:28
Show Description:
Michel is of Canadian Peruvian upbringing and grew up in Vancouver. Having made Toronto his home for the past six years, the one question he asks himself is, “Why didn’t I move to Toronto sooner?”
Partner at the wildly popular Baro on King Street West, he is a speaker, author, restaurateur and ‘People First’ expert. Michel consults companies on how to improve human relationships on all levels.
He is a resilient optimist and has a short term memory when it comes to success. He graciously moves with a bit of cynicism and lives in the realm of healthy paranoia.
Conceptualized in the beginning of 2019, Michel noticed that food was changing and becoming very transactional in nature. Wanting to explore the fast casual food scene, Michel decided to begin the process of opening a new fast casual, Peruvian influenced, concept restaurant called ‘Brasa Peruvian Kitchen’.
In February 2020, ready to move forward, he verbally raised $350,000 in 24 hours and then Covid happened. He shares his learnings from that experience.
Brasa isn’t a traditional Peruvian restaurant. It does, however, lean heavily on Peruvian flavours and ingredients. The food will be familiar and will also be functional, with influences based on its history. We learn about Nikkei, Peruvian fusion style food, with influences from China and Japan, and how this wildly tasty scene emerged.
Michel was inspired early in his career and one person that inspired him was Danny Myers in NYC. We hear the story of how he managed to locate his executive assistant and got a 7 minute meeting with Danny. Why 7 minutes, you may ask? Because it stands out!
“People are my thing,” says Michel. Treat staff, customers AND suppliers the best way you can. He wants to grow Brasa the same way a business grew in the 1970’s. Treat people well, make good food and give them a great experience and they will come back. It’s as simple as that.
Company culture and engaged employees are of the utmost importance and in 5 years he sees Brasa with multiple locations across North America. He is curious about how Brasa will look in Japan and China. Michel is up for the challenge and he’s aiming high!
Like many of our guests, Michel loves Kensington Market. It doesn’t feel as if it belongs to Toronto, “but then you look up and you see the CN Tower”.
His favourite charity – anything to do with animals. The end goal – “I’m 75 years old and I’ve bought massive plots of land in countries like Peru and there’s just 2000 animals there, roaming that land.”
We look forward to watching Michel grow and expand beyond the hospitality and restaurant industry!
Website: www.brasaperuvian.com
Links to Share: IG: @michelfalcon @brasaperuvian
