GARY: Next on "Start Up" we head to Manhattan's Lower East Side to meet up with Cedric Hernandez and Charles Dela Cruz, the owners of Essex Squeeze, a fresh juice shop that offers a healthy taste of New York.

All of this and more is next on "Start Up."

♪ ANNOUNCER: Spectrum Business recognizes the importance of small businesses to local communities, so we're investing $21 million to help small businesses access funding to help them grow.

Spectrum Business.

More than an internet, phone, and TV provider.

♪ The first time you made a sale online was also the first time you heard of a town named... MAN: Dinosaur.

We just got an order from Dinosaur, Colorado.

MAN: No way!

ANNOUNCER: Build a website to help reach more customers.

WOMAN: Wait, wait, wait, wait!

One more.

ANNOUNCER: GoDaddy.

Tools and support for small business firsts.

♪ My name is Gary Bredow.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.

As the country continues to recover, small business owners everywhere are doing all they can to keep their dream alive.

So we set out for our tenth consecutive season to talk with a wide range of diverse business owners to better understand how they've learned to adapt, innovate, and even completely reinvent themselves.

♪ This is "Start Up."

♪ Juicing may seem like a rather recent trend, but in fact, it dates back to as early as 150 BC.

The first record of juicing was from an ancient tribe in Israel who created the process of mashing pomegranates and figs for the health benefits of the juice.

Fresh juice, devoid of any chemical additives, is highly sought after by consumers globally.

These juices are composed of the 100% pure form of fruits and vegetables.

The global pressed juice market is projected to grow from 1.15 billion to 1.86 billion by 2029.

Today I'm heading to Manhattan's Lower East Side to meet up with Cedric Hernandez and Charles De La Cruz, the owners of Essex Squeeze, a fresh juice shop inspired by Manhattan's Lower East Side.

I'm excited to meet the guys and learn more about their business.

♪ ♪ Tell me a bit about where you grew up.

CEDRIC: I grew up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Basically, it was a wild, wild, like, city back then.

No gentrification, none of that.

GARY: Yeah.

CEDRIC: Very dangerous area.

GARY: Really?

CEDRIC: Yeah, very bad.

I mean, I got robbed a couple of times at, like, knife point, um, and, um, like, it was just one of those places that after dark, you knew you couldn't, like, you know, leave your, your, your house.

I mean, my mom did not allow us to leave the house at a certain time.

GARY: Okay.

CEDRIC: And, um, it was just every corner was run by different crews or, like, you know, gangs, so they had those kind of areas.

I never talk about this, but, like, my father was killed in this neighborhood actually growing up, so it was really... GARY: Oh, wow.

CEDRIC: Yeah, really, like, made my youth, like, really tough to, like, walk by myself.

I had to go to therapy and all this stuff because it was just something that, um, knowing that you had this great relationship with somebody that was so close to you, and then this neighborhood takes him from you.

Um, it makes it a tough place to be.

GARY: How old were you?

CEDRIC: Um, eight years old.

GARY: Oh, my gosh.

I'm so sorry, man.

CEDRIC: But I like to talk about those kinds of stories because at the same time, it's just, like, just growth.

Like, you know, it made me understand how the streets are.

And you become, like, you know, stronger and a better person because now you start saying, "Okay, I'm not going to go the route of like, okay, I have, um, this burden in my life, so now I feel like I need to, like, oh, I don't have a father figure, so I'm gonna just go the wrong route."

And it was easy to go the wrong route in this neighborhood because the drugs, the gangs, you felt that they were always accepting.

But it was just something that I was, I'm going to go and, you know, like, I'm just gonna go that right route.

And the good thing is I had a good family and had a good, um, friend base, and that was easy to go the right route.

♪ GARY: Where are we right now in the city?

CEDRIC: Um, well, we're in the Lower East Side.

Now it's considered like Alphabet City, going almost into the East Village.

This is Avenue A we're on right now.

It's always been Avenue A, B, C and D. GARY: That's where Alphabet City comes from.

CEDRIC: Yeah, exactly.

Now what we're going into right here, this right here is Thompson Square Park.

And back when we were younger, this park was full of junkies.

GARY: Full of junkies?

CEDRIC: Yeah, most parks were, that's where they settled at, they slept at.

This park was really bad, and now it's, you know, super nice.

GARY: As a kid, what did that make you feel, like walking through here as a kid?

CEDRIC: You know, it was so normal, sad to say, right?

GARY: Normalized.

CEDRIC: Yeah, like, I never saw it differently.

And then you started seeing that they started putting money into the parks.

And it was like, "Oh, we actually have a park."

But it was just kind of like, just like pavement, and we saw needles everywhere.

♪ GARY: When did the concept for Essex Squeeze first come up?

CEDRIC: Basically, I've always wanted to give back to the community.

That's how it all started.

It was just something that, um, I knew that I was always an athlete, I was always somebody that stayed and was in shape.

But then I was also running the doors in a lot of clubs in New York City.

GARY: Okay.

CEDRIC: And always was in that nightlife.

And kind of in that circle of people that were doing a lot of bad things with themselves, you know, like, kind of like, you know, drinking or drugs.

And it was just, like, kind of the lifestyle.

My favorite word has always been in life is "balance."

And I think that if people have balance, they have everything.

Like, if you're a person that just, like, works hard and works out all day or, um, just eats bad and doesn't do anything.

GARY: You burn out, no matter what.

CEDRIC: Yeah.

Either way, you're gonna really struggle.

So I'm that type of person that's like, okay, I'm gonna go support the local businesses and like eat, like, a burger or whatever, but at the end of the day I'm gonna go back and, like, work it off or, like, have a green juice just to end the night.

I've always thought that the best thing would be is to have, like, a running space where we charge memberships.

People can run anytime they want, they can come, and they will have different, um, run times.

And then I said that I would, um, bring in a juice shop that would be inside the store, and they'll have like a store, they'll have like a running clothing store.

So it'll be a mix of, like, running space, a clothing running store, and also a juice shop.

And this was like 12, 13 years ago.

Charles, my partner's father, owned this produce, you know, company and selling vegetables and stuff like that.

Then he was just like, oh, something opened at the market where this family has the produce store.

GARY: Perfect.

CEDRIC: He was like, "Something opened up, I think I'm gonna do maybe a juice shop."

I was like, "What?

I've been wanting to do a juice shop for like twelve years."

He was like, "Really?"

He's like, oh, well, um.

I was like, "Yeah, I'll invest.

Let's do this together.

I have a lot of ideas.

And I've been really planning this for so many years."

And then he said, "Yeah," he got me in on it.

GARY: Tell me about the whole beginning of Essex Squeeze.

CHARLES: Because of the pandemic, there was a space available inside the Essex Market.

Mentioned this idea, I was like, "You know, there's a spot available in the Essex Market.

A juice bar might be a good idea."

He was stoked.

GARY: Yeah.

CHARLES: I'm telling you, I'm trying to go home that night, and he's talking to me for two hours about his ideas and how he had this in mind.

I was trying to go home, and he wouldn't let me leave because he just kept talking about these ideas, and I was like, "Okay."

Every time I saw Cedric, he would take me to the side and just talk about ideas and ideas and ideas and how we had to execute this plan.

♪ ♪ ♪ GARY: What is Essex Squeeze and where did the name come from?

CEDRIC: I remember my partner Charles and I, we were looking for names, and that was tough because, you know, you want-- that's very important.

GARY: It's huge.

CEDRIC: And finally, um, we had the location in Essex, and let's just call it Essex Squeeze.

After that it was just, like, let's get these, like, the names.

We wanted to make sure that the names were something... GARY: Of the juices?

CEDRIC: Yes.

That represented us as New Yorkers and also as the Lower East Side.

So it was just experiences that we had as kids.

You know, it's not like what's happening now, but it was just those kind of.. GARY: Very personal stuff.

CEDRIC: Yeah, so for example, I'm gonna just throw one out there.

GARY: Yeah, I want to hear a few.

CEDRIC: We have one called Avenue D Beets.

Avenue D, growing up for us, was a place that you'd get the beat down.

So we're like, "Oh," GARY: Avenue D Beets.

CEDRIC: Yeah, so, like, everybody knew.

GARY: I love that.

CEDRIC: Yeah, so you just stayed away.

And they had that, they were notorious for that.

And that's what the neighborhood was.

It was just like something like, let's put it into a positive thing now.

You got beets, and it's the main ingredient, beets.

GARY: Double entendre.

CEDRIC: So you get Avenue D Beets.

GARY: I love it.

CEDRIC: We just went back to all those memories, and we're like, we're gonna put these in our juices.

So that was really important to us, to just make sure it represented who we were.

And then just to make sure that they were delicious.

So we went through the whole thing of, like, you know, with our juice guy that's been in juices for over ten years, and kind of like, "Hey, would this go?

Would this go together?"

And making all these blends.

Because the whole thing from the beginning is like, if we want people to find the balance, we want to make sure that they actually enjoy these juices.

And now we've changed so many people.

I know people that drink this on a regular basis, like, I never drank a juice in my life, and there it is.

If we've changed one person's life um, and just, like, and make money at the same time, isn't that just a beautiful thing?

GARY: Awesome.

CEDRIC: And that's what we wanted to do.

♪ ♪ GARY: How is the product different in any way?

KATHERINE: Compared to regular, let's call it chain juices, where they put filler, different things.

This is 100% just... GARY: No powder.

KATHERINE: Fresh squeezed juice.

Yeah.

And to me, that's amazing, right?

Especially with COVID, things like that, you want to keep yourself healthy and clean.

Um, so I, interestingly, don't even live in this specific neighborhood and I've been here four times this week.

GARY: So you make it a destination.

You make it a point to come in here.

KATHERINE: Yes.

It's just the proper flavor of what is this part of New York.

And so it's even better to support businesses like his.

GARY: How can a person, a normal person maintain balance in their life?

CEDRIC: I feel like it's just something they have to enjoy, right?

Like, you have to, like, make sure that you enjoy whatever you do.

Obviously, everybody's gonna like to eat sloppy and eat all that stuff.

That's just naturally gonna feel good to you, but then when you finish after, you might feel sluggish.

So we want people to, like, understand that you can have some greens in your smoothie, and it's gonna make it delicious.

And we could also make some juices with some fruits and throw in maybe some greens in there, and it's still gonna taste good.

So it's just like, if you're gonna spend $7 eating some fast food thing, just, you know, grab a juice and, you know, incorporate that, find the balance.

Again, I'm gonna still eat my burgers because I love that stuff.

GARY: Balance, man.

Debits and credits.

CEDRIC: Yeah, exactly.

Debits and credits.

But that's what it is.

We want to make sure that people still, like, just, you know, can enjoy their life, but at the same time, you know, throw in that juice, which is still gonna be great.

It's gonna taste good.

GARY: Talk about the first steps in actually turning this concept of Essex Squeeze into an actual business.

CEDRIC: Finding, like, where we could get equipment because we don't... we had a budget.

We don't come from a lot of money, so it was just also like... GARY: Self-funded.

CEDRIC: Yes.

Oh, yeah.

I have friends that own juice shops here in New York.

And I was like, "Hey, um, can you guide me?"

And they guided me on basically what to buy, you know, where to get it from.

GARY: Nice.

CEDRIC: And, you know, they're always like, go always second-hand.

That's a very important, um, thing that I want to tell people.

There's always restaurants that are gonna go out of business, and that's unfortunate, that's what happens.

So you're always gonna find, you know, a second-hand machine for like half of the price or even less than half.

That's what we did.

GARY: Talk about the early stages of getting health department license, all the permits that you need to be a food handler, all the sort of red tape that you have to cut through to actually own a business like this.

CHARLES: It's very difficult because it's like no one's guiding you.

So now you're going to the health department, you're gonna go get your sales tax license, and no one guides you, so you're pretty much filling out paperwork.

Then a week later, you find out you're missing something else.

The Health Department of New York is very strict, like everything needs to be up to par.

But it's also good.

It keeps us... GARY: Keeps you clean.

CHARLES: On our toes, it keeps us clean.

And it makes sure we put our best foot forward at all times.

GARY: How did that first location go when you first opened Essex Squeeze?

CEDRIC: It felt great, but it was horrible at the same time because we opened in the pandemic.

We opened in June of 2020.

GARY: Oh, wow.

CEDRIC: Which I think makes it a better story, right?

Because we went, and a lot of people were like closing and having tough situations.

We were like, we're gonna try to do this because we know that it's important for people to now strengthen their immune system.

So let's put it out there, and hopefully it, you know, catches on.

But the bad thing was that in New York City, all the restaurants were closed, so you really couldn't go in.

But we were lucky that we were in a place that had, like, supermarkets, like the produce section that his father has is kind of like a little supermarket.

GARY: That's an essential business so it was open.

CEDRIC: So they allowed us to open.

So we were allowed to open.

So people slowly started to know, "Oh, there's a juice shop in there."

And it started growing and slowly started doing well.

And, like, now we're very consistent in that location.

It's, you know, we're part of the community.

Everybody, like, they need their juice every day, and that's beautiful to see.

We were able to use the money that we made for that first location to open our second.

♪ GARY: How is the business actually doing?

CHARLES: Business is doing fairly well.

Our Essex Street location has been established for two years, so that's pretty much running on its own.

Fifth Street has been open for about a year, so it's also picked up.

It's gotten more of a neighborhood feel, and we're very happy with that.

Our Brooklyn location we just opened a few months ago, and we're doing phenomenally well there.

It's also a mall setting, and it just has a great vibe.

It's a healthier lifestyle since the pandemic, so everyone wants to juice, they're more interested in our product.

So thankfully, it's been a great run, and we can hope to continue.

GARY: Are you focusing on communities, or what's your expansion plan?

CEDRIC: You know what?

We've gotten a lot of offers from people already, like, "Hey, can you open here?

Can you open there?"

And we're just like, oh, it's too much.

Like, we have a gym there that's like asking us to open five locations-- GARY: A gym would be amazing.

CEDRIC: Yeah.

I was just like, okay, five locations sounds like a lot.

So we're just trying to focus on these right now, and hopefully, you know, maybe one day go into franchising.

We never know.

The sky's the limit when it comes to this because we know that we have something special and it's different and it really, it's relatable to people around the world.

GARY: In a business partnership, a lot of times, you know, people sort of have to stay in their lanes.

What is your lane and what is your partner's lane?

CEDRIC: You know what?

We've kind of like done a little bit of everything.

My thing is I love to deal with customers, so I love to talk about the things.

I love to-- So, I'll get to there, and I'll have a long conversation with them, literally talking about how they grew up in the neighborhood, how we grew up in the neighborhood, how it all came about, what the juices does for you and all these things, and it kind of like builds that relationship with the customer.

GARY: You like being customer-facing?

CEDRIC: Yes, I love that.

But at the same time, it's just really tough, because we have two locations now to capture, to do both.

So, um, but as much as I can, I try to pop in there for a few hours a day, just, like, talk to the customers.

♪ ♪ ♪ GARY: Start by telling us your name and when you first, uh, encountered Essex Squeeze, your first experience with them.

POWER: My name is Power Malu.

I'm born and raised here in the Lower East Side.

So I heard of Essex Squeeze by the community speaking about that some people from the neighborhood were starting their own juice brand.

GARY: Nice.

POWER: And that's how I first heard about it.

GARY: How does it compare?

How does it rate to other, other juices that you've had?

POWER: The most important thing out of all the way it rates is that it's made with love.

It's people from the community that actually want to serve their community, and that's the difference between getting juice from somewhere else where it's just people from outside of the community that are coming in to sell their product.

These guys have been here their whole life.

So I've heard about them, I've met them before, I've hung out with them.

And so it makes me more "orgulloso," as we like to say in Spanish, more prideful to be able to support a business that truly is owned by people from the community.

GARY: Awesome.

What would you say to somebody that's coming into the city for the first time, never tried Essex Squeeze?

POWER: I would say, if you want to feel like you're part of a community and you want to try an authentic juice from a juice brand that is from the people, by the people, come to Essex Squeeze, because you're not only gonna try a delicious juice, but if you have questions about the community and how to maybe explore the community, they'll be able to point you in the right direction.

GARY: Every business needs certain, you know, resources to function, whether it's WiFi, Internet, POS system, all of that.

Talk about some of your experiences getting those things set up.

CEDRIC: That's actually what I went and did myself.

I find the POS system, and I was like, it was just dealing with the people, you know, the merchants, merchant services, all these different things.

Learning about that because it was something that I never did before.

GARY: Right.

CEDRIC: And just learning how it works.

And we're still learning little things, even how to get, like, discounts for people and stuff like that.

GARY: It's one of the necessary things you just have to, it's kind of like, I don't want to call it the boring part, but you have to have these things to function.

CEDRIC: It's all these little things, like, businesses have so many things that you need that you don't know until you actually get into it, like from getting the signs, like where are you getting it from?

You know, it's something that we needed to find the right one.

And Charles actually worked at Clover for a while, so we work with Clover.

And then when it came to the Internet, I mean, it was Spectrum, and basically we use them.

GARY: And then for social, are you handling it all yourself or do you have other people doing it?

CEDRIC: We put more people's stories, like when people put stories on us, like, oh, favorite juice or whatever, and then we kind of like repost all those things.

That's what we do a lot of.

And we really appreciate that when the customers do that because they're really just... GARY: They're posting for you.

CEDRIC: Yes, they're posting for us, and people are seeing that people actually like it so they'll come out and, you know, try it.

And that's what we're getting.

It's kind of like happening naturally.

It's not like about the social media.

I think if we do get into that, it would be a lot, you know, maybe even more successful.

We also like doing a lot of, like, now we got into the whole, you know, like, making flyers and stuff like that, for, you know, just for the community to know that we're here because we're new to this location.

In the other location, it was so easy because people came for other things in the market.

GARY: Foot traffic, huge foot traffic.

CEDRIC: Yeah.

So this is like something new for us that we have to actually promote.

So now it's like, okay, now we're gonna get into all this.

GARY: We're here very early, so I'm sure that's probably gonna come.

Talk about your business partnership.

What is it like working with a friend like Cedric?

CHARLES: It has its ups and downs, you know, mostly good.

Sometimes we bump heads.

But we both have our purpose.

We both have our purpose.

He's so nitpicky and little things, but it makes our business... GARY: Better.

CHARLES: Way better.

GARY: Yeah.

CHARLES: And it makes us look and feel a certain part that I would easily overlook.

But by having someone like that, it's like we're a perfect yin and yang.

We work well together.

GARY: Sometimes people say, you know, don't go into business with friends.

Kiss of death.

That's obviously not the case with you.

CEDRIC: You know what?

I'm gonna tell you something.

We do have our differences, and that's just the honest truth.

People have to understand that it's not gonna be, just because you're friends, like, oh, yeah... it's tough.

And I always tell him, we always have this conversation, sometimes when we go through little things, because that's just what happens, I tell him, "Hey, we're gonna separate this and talk about it like businessmen instead of friends because we don't want to lose that.

I'd rather lose a business than lose a friend because it's so special to me.

We met in first grade.

It's just like my best friend.

Like, you know, I have a handful of people I can say that about, and he's one of them.

So to have this business with him is really, like, just something special.

GARY: Anything specific that you would change from opening the business to where we are now?

CHARLES: Uh, I wouldn't.

I will take every bump in the road, I will take every headache, I will take every good moment, I will take every lesson, and I will use it to grow.

GARY: What advice do you have for anyone opening a business out there?

CHARLES: Make sure the numbers make sense.

Uh, do not go over your head because the first couple of months or couple of years are very difficult.

When you do something, do give it your all.

Don't half-ass it.

You got to make sure you just bring all you can.

So give it your full potential so that way, when it does pan out, it was your hard work.

And if it doesn't pan out, you don't have any regrets that you didn't do your all.

GARY: What about the future?

Where do you want to see Essex Squeeze in the next couple years?

How big do you want this to be?

CEDRIC: As big as it can get.

Like I said earlier, sky's the limit.

I really think that we're in a place that, um, that people know that they need to be healthy and they're being more, uh, they're looking more into it.

So I feel like we're, we're in that right space right now.

And with the connections, the people, the city that we're starting in.

When you can make it in New York, it's just like Frank Sinatra said, right?

GARY: You can make it anywhere.

CEDRIC: I think we make it here, people will really say, "These guys probably have a good product because it's hard to make it in New York."

So if we do well here, we look to be, like, national.

And hopefully, like, one day we can even get into our country, the Dominican Republic, like to see, like, the country our parents, you know, grew up in, and it's because we love that.

We would love to, like, you know, educate them about that, too.

They don't really juice that much.

It's more like just grab a fruit from the tree and eat it, you know, which is beautiful.

But it's also like just to have these kind of juice shops in Dominican Republic would be great.

GARY: You personally, are you happy?

CEDRIC: I am.

I am.

I'm happy, you know.

I'm happy that, um, we're growing.

For me, it's always been that I try to do this like a selfless act, like, of, like trying to help out, but then it kind of feels selfish because it makes me feel so full.

That's why I feel like I'm happy because these are things that I've always wanted to do and I love.

And, um, and when you do something you love, it just, it doesn't feel like work.

That's what I love, that I don't feel like I'm working.

Sometimes, yeah, when I get those stressful calls, I'm like, "Oh, this is work."

GARY: Right.

CEDRIC: But it's like... GARY: Overall.

CEDRIC: But overall, at the end of the day, it's something that, that makes me happy.

GARY: I'm incredibly grateful to have spent time with Cedric and Charles.

Here's a couple of neighborhood guys doing something great to give back to the community, and Essex Squeeze is a representation of their high-energy upbringing and the city that's inspired them.

The Lower East Side was such a vibrant and diverse community for Cedric and Charles to grow up in, full of immigrant families striving to make a living.

And it was that fertile ground that inspired these two entrepreneurs to stay off the streets and build a healthy type of hustle.

From Charles mastering food service and hospitality at the world-renowned Katz Deli to Cedric co-founding the Bridge the Gap running movement, these gentlemen combined their skills and passions to fulfill their childhood entrepreneurial dream to provide healthier options for people in the Lower East Side.

And I believe the sky is the limit for this dynamic duo.

For more information, visit our website and search episodes for Essex Squeeze.

♪ Next time on "Start Up," we head to New Kensington, Pennsylvania, to meet up with Mike Malcanas, the owner of Olde Town Overhaul, a company on a mission to revive downtown New Kensington and open doors for new business owners.

Be sure to join us next time on "Start Up."

♪ Would you like to learn more about the show or maybe nominate a business?

Visit our website at startup-usa.com and connect with us on social media.

♪ ♪ We got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us before we pay our dues ♪ ♪ We got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us before we pay our dues ♪ IAN: Awesome!

♪ WOMAN: No, no, no.

Don't touch it.

GARY: Oh, for you, yeah.

MAN: Aww, that's cheating!

GARY: Piggybacking off my bull!

[woman laughs] ANNOUNCER: The first time you made a sale online was also the first time you heard of a town named... MAN: Dinosaur.

We just got an order from Dinosaur, Colorado.

MAN: No way!

ANNOUNCER: Build a website to help reach more customers.

WOMAN: Wait, wait, wait, wait!

One more.

ANNOUNCER: GoDaddy.

Tools and support for small business firsts.

Spectrum Business recognizes the importance of small businesses to local communities, so we're investing $21 million to help small businesses access funding to help them grow.

Spectrum Business.

More than an internet, phone, and TV provider.

♪