[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle. And Shelley. Shelley is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And Danielle is a community mobilizer and change maker. And this is the Medford Bites podcast. Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our guests.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford. And as always, tell us where you like to eat. Thank you so much both for joining me today. I wonder if you could just start by introducing yourself. So say your name and pronouns just a bit about who you are.
[SPEAKER_03]: My name is Vicky Burgoyne. I use she series pronouns. And I am co owner of Colleen's ice cream and sandwich shop in Medford Square.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: And I am Colin Burgoyne, the other owner of Colleen's and I use he him.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you. So we'll get into some more about Colleen's, but I'm going to ask you both the same question that I ask everyone on the podcast. So what is your favorite place to eat in Medford and what do you like to eat there? And I'll just pause to say that Colleen's has come up a bunch. So I'm curious to see what you guys, what your answer is.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Very nice. Well, thank you to everybody that brings us up. Yeah. I mean, in Medford, there's like two places that come to mind. Um, I know I'm only supposed to pick one, but there's like right next to us, there's four pizza, which opened up, um, within this year and they make like a great pizza, like when you're in the mood and they're all kind of like, you know, they're good for maybe one person or so. So you can kind of get a couple of different varieties, which I like. Um, and then there's deep cuts deli too, which makes like one of the best Cuban sandwiches, uh, I've ever had. So. It'd be tough to choose between the two of them, but I am more partial to pizza, so we go for pizza.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's the South Shore bar pizza, right?
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, which you don't see a lot of, which I think is nice, because it's different.
[Danielle Balocca]: I think some North Shore loyalists around here, too. Yeah, yeah. Nice. And Deep Cut's moving closer to you guys.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: They are, yeah. Yeah, they're going to be right in the square.
[SPEAKER_03]: Awesome.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great. And Vicky, what about you?
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's so many to name, but I will narrow it down to Goldilocks. I just love their bagels. We stock up and the owners are really nice, Lindsay and Ed. And then another place I know I'm only supposed to pick one too, but I love Ebisuya, the little market with the fresh sushi. It's so nice to have that there. And so I'm very happy to be in the square.
[Danielle Balocca]: great. Yeah, I've talked to like a few owners of uh different types of places in the square and it seems like there's a lot of like camaraderie and uh like friendliness between businesses which it sounds like you're all supporting each other which is great.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Well, I've always said, you know, there's like 50, 000 people in Medford and there's not one restaurant that can handle all of them. So, there's no reason for us to be at each other's throats like there's there's plenty of people and plus with the Chevalier coming in, we get lots of tourists now too. So, yeah, we can be in this together.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great. So yeah, I was hoping that you would tell us a little bit about calling. So a little bit about the history, how you guys came to be owners. Yeah.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Um, well, I can tell you, you know, it was my first job when I was, uh, I think I got hired when I was 15 years old. So that's, um, God, what is that? Like 2002, 2003, something like that. And. You know, I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the industry. Um, I stayed on until I went to college and even then I would go back on weekends and work there. Um, and it wasn't until, you know, I was at a crossroads in college and had to decide like, all right, you know, what do I want to do here? Um, you know, what do I like to do? And I was like, well, you know, I love working at Colleen's, so why don't I get in the restaurant business? And, you know, from then Colleen and I stayed in touch. and it was uh about five years ago almost that she reached out and you know she was looking to retire and sort of focus on her health and uh yeah we decided to make the jump.
[Danielle Balocca]: So you're not related to Colleen. I kind of wondered about Colin and Colleen if there was a relationship.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah no just uh serendipitous I guess but no Colleen um You know, she never had kids of her own. You know, we always used to say she had plenty of us working at the restaurant and really the restaurant was her baby. I mean, she gave everything to that place. She loved being in the square. You know, quick story about her. She, I think she was like 20 something when she was the manager of the Brighams that was there originally. And it was like the lowest performing Brighams in all of like the company. She came in. she made it the most profitable out of all the Brighams. They gave her an award, I think they called it the Spirit Award, something like, it was like $10,000 or $15,000. But back in the day, that was a lot of money. She used that money to eventually buy the business herself. And when Brighams went under, she said, my space is still good. So we're going to keep selling ice cream here.
[Danielle Balocca]: Wow. And Vicky, would you add anything?
[SPEAKER_03]: So I met Colin in 2010 and I just remember him saying, he's telling me stories about, you know, working at Colleen's and how much he loved it and how she was a mentor to so many people and how he learned to work really hard. And she taught him a lot about restaurants. And so, and I've always, I just enjoy going to restaurants and I enjoy eating. And so that was like one of my favorite things to do. Um, when I was asked to kind of help out with being in the restaurant, I was, I was absolutely excited because I enjoy the, uh, taking care of people. I like that aspect of hospitality. I like that the space is sort of that third place that people can go to, um, and just for the community to gather. So I am very happy to be part of it right now.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I feel like ice cream shops and sandwich shops are like do tend to be like really like big hubs and small communities right where I remember the ice cream shop it where I grew up every they had like pictures of all the like youth sports teams every year like that whoever won the like, you know, most games or whatever and it's like I think a place that people have like a lot of pride in and so I kind of wonder for you. both like kind of what your hope is in terms of like an impact on the community or how you interact with the community as as owners of Colleen's.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, it's huge for us. Like, I don't think you get into the restaurant business if you don't like being a part of the community. You know, you don't make that much money. If you do it right, you can make a living. But it's not like you're just swimming in cash. So you really do it for the people you do it because you want to see your friends come in every single day because you want to be a part of their life and be there for the good times and be there for the bad times. And we feel like you know, all the credit goes to Colleen, because when we took over the place, I mean, it was already established. Like, we have people coming in, generations of people telling us how much they love this place and what it means to them. And then I think, you know, we've kind of been able to start to attract that next generation, you know, the people who have never been to Medford or, you know, a lot of people are moving into Medford now. And so there's a lot of new families and stuff. And they need to learn about us and see what kind of, place that we can be for them. So we absolutely love the community. We want to be as central as we can. Our location is awesome in terms of that. We're right near the schools. Like I said, we're right near the theater, right near the highway. So people just want to come to us, and we want to accept them in.
[SPEAKER_03]: And just going off the whole community aspect, since we bought the place in December of 2018, I started to reach out to folks that I just found on Instagram, like people that were either doing crafts or art. And they didn't have a brick and mortar to sell or even just meet people. And so we would offer our space, and be a pop up space for a lot of people so I our first pop up was in March of 2019. And it's really exciting because. one of the people that were our regulars, Claire, she ended up opening up her own brick and mortar called Trove. And I think she was on your podcast. So it's just really cool to see the connections and how she started. And the company was a different name at that time, but it was obviously the beginnings of what she was hoping to have. And so I was really happy to see that we were able to support her and also get to know her. And that's what the pop-ups have been doing. And so we think that's really a great part of the community.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, so it's sort of like uplifting maybe the smaller businesses that don't have the same like, you know, brick and mortar space, as you said. You also sell, is it Mystic Coffee Roasters?
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: We do. Yes, yes, Sharon. Well, she used to have the space in the square and then there was that fire in her roaster. But, you know, she just loved making the coffee so much. She was like, well, I'm going to move somewhere else and still make my coffee and ship it down. And, you know, we get to be that space that that sells it for us. So that's great. What are your favorite things to eat at Colleen's? What are your favorite items on the menu? I'd say the Peyton is one of my favorite sandwiches. That's the turkey sandwich, pretty traditional, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, honey mustard, Swiss cheese. The Teddy is also one of my favorites, the prosciutto with mozzarella, roasted red peppers, olive tapenade. But, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the black and white fraps. You know, that's probably my, my go-to out of all the items. What's that? A black and white frap? Um, so a frap, uh, some, some people call it a milkshake, but it's essentially ice cream, um, syrup and milk blended together. And a black and white is when you take vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. So you kind of get the best of both worlds. And, uh, yeah, I remember, I remember that was like the first frap my grandmother ever made for me. And I don't think I ever bothered to try any other ones. I said, yeah, let's stick with it.
[Danielle Balocca]: It's a lot of good memories.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: You're bringing up around food and Colleen's and just sort of, I mean, well, that's, that's what food does for people, you know, it, um, it links you to your childhood, you know, to your, to your past. Um, you know, we've done a lot of traveling. We've been to a lot of places. We always try to eat the food wherever we go. And then, you know, when you kind of go somewhere local or you go to like that little place in town and It tastes just like what you had somewhere else, and it really transports you. It's the power of food.
[Danielle Balocca]: Vicky, did you have a favorite item or favorite thing to eat?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, I love the Peyton. And also the names of the sandwiches, we just named them after our relatives. So Peyton's my niece, and Teddy is our son. But I really love the soups. So the soups are really delicious. We have creamy tomato that's really nice in the winter with the grilled cheese. I really like the butternut squash soup. um and then just like the ice cream i i love ice cream so i mean when i when i married a chef i was very good and now he owns the restaurant and i help him with that and i own it too so and now you get ice cream too yeah now i get ice cream whenever i'm craving it especially when i was like pregnant i was like bring home ice cream for me
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, that's dangerous to have that sort of source of unlimited ice cream.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's actually it's been kind of funny because, you know, we don't have any ice cream now because we've been closed for the last eight weeks. And yeah, you kind of forget like, you know, what life is like when you don't just have it on tap and you can just get it whenever you want. You know, I have to like think about it. Do I want to get it at the supermarket? It's like, yeah, it's not the same. This is good.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. Yeah, I was wondering if like you have any thoughts about kind of hopes for your kids. It sounds like they're little, they'll probably grow up kind of around the restaurant and in the restaurant and kind of what you hope for them in that experience.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, you know, of course, there's part of me that, you know, hopes they'll follow in my footsteps, and they'll want to take over the business and, and all that. But I think, you know, when you realize just from talking to other parents and sort of seeing it for yourself is just how important it is to just like, support them no matter what they want to do and like not try to push your stuff on them too much and um you know just be there and i'll say this they're definitely going to work there when they're young like they might not have much of a choice about that um they'll have to help out but you know once they they become old enough they can decide what they want to do with their lives and we'll be there to hopefully the restaurant you know will support us enough that we can support them you know that's that's the game
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, I wonder if you want to share anything about what's happening at Colleen. So it sounds like you're doing some renovations, going to reopen soon.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: We are. We are. Yeah. So this renovation we had when we bought the place five years ago, that was always like the thought was like, OK, you know, buy it now and then we'll renovate and we'll kind of make it ours and we'll sort of, you know, build off what Colleen did. And I think originally we kind of thought that might happen in the first year, but you know there's the first year of your of your business and you have to give a lot to learn we certainly did. And then I think the second year was coven so then you know that kind of throws everything up up and down and then you have to. understand what the world looks like after that and like how do restaurants fit into that space. So, you know, it's taken us a minute, but four and a half years in, we've done it. We've done our renovation. We have essentially kept the bones, but just, you know, cleaned it up a little bit and For me, the thing that always frustrated me coming from like a kitchen standpoint, like a back of the house standpoint was just how the flow never felt right. It didn't feel efficient. You know, we always would make it work, but it was always a little chaotic. And I want something that, you know, is easy to replicate and something that's easy to train people on. And so we've essentially taken the area that was our semi-private dining room, and we've turned that into a full kitchen. It's enclosed, so I'll have my whole team back there, and I can really work with them and help train them so that everything works smoothly even when we're not there. And then the front is really Vicky's sort of vision of things. I don't know if she wants to tell you about that, all the cool things we have.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I really like to support local artists, so we've hired local artists to do the windows. We are hiring local artists to do some of the inside art. We're hoping to maybe use some local artists to just decorate the shop and kind of rotate out anyone that wants to kind of put their art up. So that's something I'm trying to coordinate and then bringing back the pop ups is really important to me so having a space that sort of appeals to everybody and can be easily transformed into that space for them is really important to me.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: And we got a cool new countertop, straight across. I don't know if people remember the old countertop, but it was sort of like leveled up and down. So it was like only a small area where you could like sit, but now we've made it much bigger to try to get that old school diner feel.
[Danielle Balocca]: I think I saw a sneak peek on Instagram.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, a couple of pictures floating out there.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, that's great. And it sounds like, again, you're integrating the community into the design, into what you include on the inside, and the pop-ups, and all of that. And one theme that we try to weave through all of our interviews is just this idea of inclusivity and diversity. And we did talk about community, but I wonder, Colin, you mentioned it earlier, what you've noticed and a change in the community. and what you maybe hope for for Medford and as a part of Medford to see in terms of like that theme of diversity and inclusivity.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, I mean, you know, on our end, you know, we're just a restaurant in the city. And I like to think that we serve like everyone in the city, both like the old and the new. Like I said, we have a lot of generational guests here as we kind of grab the newer people ourselves. And so, you know, something a restaurant can do is just sort of be a place for everyone where everyone can see each other. And you can have, I think, more respect for somebody if you see them and they're not just, the other that you hear about or that you think you know. And then on our end, you know, just from like our hiring, I always try to, I always say I look, I always try to hire the person who I think this job would be most helpful to, as opposed to like the person that's going to help us the most, you know. So we just look for good kids that want to learn, you know, that maybe don't have the experience yet. And, you know, we could give them something and, you know, they could take that and do great things in the world. I know how important it is, you know, for inclusivity and for everybody to feel like this is a place for them. And, you know, all of our, you know, we had the Black Lives Matter sign up. I know we have a lot of inclusive, like, signs up. That's all Vicky. You know, she sources this from, like, usually, like, local artists that make this stuff. And then she brings it into the space to kind of give us the identity. So she kind of ties it in, I think, tastefully and it's not so much like sort of like loud and in your face. It's just sort of telling everyone like, yeah, this is for everybody, you know, it's ice cream.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think what's really important is our staff, too, and making sure they feel welcome, because I think if our staff feel really good and they feel welcome and they feel like they can be themselves, then that's going to exude to the guests, right? The guests are going to feel taken care of because they're getting taken care of. And so I think we have a lot of folks on our staff that are non-binary that have they pronouns and we really emphasize like feeling comfortable to not only use your pronouns that you're comfortable with, but like correct us if we make mistakes, let's have a dialogue or And just have even with our guests to write it so it can be a really nice way to just learn from each other and in a safe environment hopefully that's like that's what we aim to be right a safe environment for everyone, where we can have. uh dialogue and be open with each other.
[Danielle Balocca]: It sounds like what you, like Colin, how you described your relationship to Colleen, right? Like a place where you could sort of learn and grow and like figure out what you like and enjoyed and wanted to do and even if some of your staff don't decide to buy Colleen's from you one day, you know, it sounds like they're like a like a nice mentorship experience, right? A place to feel safe, like they can be who they want to be and interact with the community in that way. And I have to say like your signage does stand out like I think especially during COVID when we weren't going into a lot of places, but you could see sort of what everyone was representing from the outside. It was like it was really nice to see and definitely stood out in the square. Thank you. Yeah. Great. You want to say when you anticipate to reopen?
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Uh, so we are slated for Tuesday. What did we say it was the 18th? Yes. Uh, we have some inspections that, you know, we have to go through to make sure everything's above board, but we feel pretty confident that we'll pass those. And then, yeah, we're going to open on Tuesday and then we'll be. We'll be closed Mondays, I think, for the foreseeable future. It's just important for us and our family that we have one day where the restaurant is not open and could possibly need us. But we're going to start opening on Tuesdays now, which we haven't been for the last few years, and just try to be open as much as possible. Awesome.
[Danielle Balocca]: Do you do like a summer hiring? Do you do like you have more staff in the summer?
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, typically, though, with the summer, it's a lot of just kids coming back, you know, so like you get your senior year in high school. And at that point, you're pretty well trained and you're good. And then you go off to college. So in the summer comes around, it's just kind of easy to take those kids and plug them in. It's like right here's 10 minutes to refresh you. And now you can just go ahead and do the job.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. kind of like a reunion then for some of those.
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, it is. No, usually like the new hires are at the beginning of the school year, end of the summer. That's when the fresh crop comes in.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, everyone settling into the new year. Well, anything else that you all want to mention before we wrap up for today?
[L-hLu0ibDYc_SPEAKER_00]: I just want to say thank you for having us, letting us talk about our space. This has a lot of meaning to me. I obviously have a huge history with the space, but I think doing this renovation and now we really get to tie Vicki into it. And, you know, this can become like more of like our space, which is really what I always wanted it to be, because it's a lot if it's just yours, you know. So I need someone to actually take some of that burden to have Vicky on board. And, you know, just to yeah, just to see her there and really have her own it is great for me.
[Danielle Balocca]: It sounds exciting, and I'm excited to see it and to eat some ice cream.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. Yes. We can't wait to see you there.
[Danielle Balocca]: All right. Well, thank you both so much.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Keshaman. Music is made by Hendrik Giedonis. We'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. You can reach out to us by email at medfordpod at gmail.com, or you can rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites. Never Bites. Good job.