There's a lot of power in the passion for sandwiches. Today, we get into Detroit's vibrant food scene through the view of Carlos Parisi.
Carlos is behind Aunt Nee's, Detroit Sandwich Week, and Sandwich Party. He shares his journey from corporate life to Detroit's culinary community.
Discover the origins of Detroit Sandwich Week, where locals unite to celebrate sandwiches between Christmas and New Year's, supporting local businesses and fostering community spirit. Carlos also discusses the evolution of his food brand, Aunt Nee's, and the challenges and triumphs of building a local food company.
You can keep up with Carlos on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlos_parisi/?hl=en.
Listen in the player below, and scroll down for a complete transcript.
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Transcript of the conversation with Carlos Parisi
Jer Staes: On today's Daily Detroit, we're going to talk about building bridges through sandwiches, building a local food company, and Detroit's food scene. For today's show, Tuesday, December 10, 2024. I'm Jer Staes. And if you have feedback, let me know: dailydetroit@gmail.com
Daily Detroit is brought to you by the community. Support our work at patreon.com/dailydetroit.
Joining me in the Daily Detroit studio at TechTown is none other than the excellent Carlos Parisi.
Carlos Parisi: Hey!
Jer Staes: He's a head owner of Aunt Nee's, which I'm sure you've seen around town. If you haven't, you're going to learn about it today. And founder of Sandwich Week and Sandwich Party, both here in Detroit. Carlos, welcome to Daily Detroit! It has been a minute. In fact, this is your first time in-person.
Carlos Parisi: This is truly the first time that we're hanging out, which is crazy because.
Jer Staes: I have admired your work from afar for a while because you've been in the consumer packaged food space. You've been in the food creator space. You've been into getting events and bringing people together. We have shared sandwiches at Gonella's.
Yes, we have.
I'm really glad to have you here because I think we should talk about Detroit Sandwich Week, which is coming up at the end of this month, as well as there's just so much happening with, like, food and Detroit culture and things. I just feel like you're a good guy to catch up with.
I'm happy to be here. Thank you very much for having me.
Yeah. Yeah. So let's get into Detroit Sandwich Week first. You've been doing this for a while now, and I feel like it's a lot of fun. So what was the idea of oh, we're going to go around town and eat sandwiches, which, by the way, seems like an excellent way to spend your holiday weekend?
12 years ago, I started doing this with a couple of friends of mine when I worked in corporate. So before when I was still doing Aunt Knees, but it wasn't my main focus. And I wasn't really doing too much otherwise, we were doing pop-ups as High Five Taco at the time and just cooking around, having fun, working at Eastern Market still at the time, because we started Aunt Nee’s 15 years ago.
So 12 years ago, I was still working in a corporate job. [I] had a lot of good friends there. I think the coolest part about working there was that everybody became such good friends still to this day. You know, I keep connected with those people.
And throughout the year we started talking about sandwiches. We all love sandwiches. And we're like, you got to go to this spot in Livonia. You got to go to this spot in Troy. You got to go to this spot. And we would just toss out all these different places that are miles away from where we worked in Southfield.
And we decided that the week between Christmas and New Year's we all had to work. We were in the office, but all of our clients - nobody was working. So we really had nothing to do. It was like, “Oh yeah, we gotta catch-up.” And our bosses were like, “Well, I don't know, just look busy.”
So we took a three hour lunch every one of those days, and we called it “Sandwich Week,” where we would go out to these different places that we wanted to try out as a group of co-workers and try different sandwiches.
I feel like this should be a scene in the movie “Office Space” because, if people don't know, that movie is a cult classic. And I just can imagine the three hour lunch in the middle of the movie “Office Space,” that would be amazing.
Yeah, it's full of margaritas. We didn't care back then. I mean, imagine like an early 20 something year old and a group of other 20 something year olds that just really didn't care about work.
I was once an early 20 something year old. I can relate.
And that's how Sandwich Week started. And the more and more people that we told about our friends to meet us up and eat sandwiches, the more it developed. Obviously, like a year or two later, I quit corporate, and I started focusing solely on Aunt Nee’s, focusing on the other things that I wanted to do creatively here in the City of Detroit, as it pertains to food and other food related things, like pop ups and doing events.
But Sandwich Week was a thing that consistently remained an outing between me and my friends and the group of much larger friends that grew from it. So as of last year, we ended up saying, “Wow! We had probably about like 600 people in attendance for different Sandwich Week parties.”
Give people the 411 if they've never gone.
Sandwich Week, super simple week, sandwiched between Christmas and New Year's where you celebrate sandwiches. So we publish a schedule now of the different places that I like to go to for that week. The day, the place, the day and the time. And if you want to come and meet up and bring friends, family, whomever to eat sandwiches, do it. I'd love to see you because it's a way to celebrate the holidays without having to spend money on presents.
And, if anything, you're spending money to support local business, and you're hanging out with friends. And it's a week typically, where, for local businesses, they wouldn't necessarily see that kind of crowd.
Why don't we talk a little bit about the lineup this year? Because you, over the years, have visited some of the most venerable places between two slices of bread in Metro Detroit.
I am very thankful to say that we have incredible sandwich places in this city. We have great food in this city. I mean, we'll talk, but the food scene of the City of Detroit has changed so much over the years. I think previously what we saw was, you know, we had your high end, which was, you know, the London, the …
Chop House, and I was just at the Caucus Club over the weekend.
There you go.
Yeah.
And those places are institutions of the city. Always have been, for as long as I can remember. And then you had your low-end … you had your coneys. You had your ham shops. You had the spots that, like, the factory workers would stop by, grab a bite, and then head back to work. And that was basically it. There wasn't a lot of in-between.
But over the years, places like Mudgie’s and Supino and other places that started popping up and allowing for this nicer, occasion to go out with friends and enjoy a big meal without necessarily breaking the bank.
Now, I know that there will be all the details on your website, but, what is the lineup this year?
Lineup? It's beautiful. Mitsos on the 26th.
Underrated, by the way. New addition to the game. I can fully endorse Miztsos if you have not been [there]. They've only been around like a little bit, like a couple of years or something like that.
So a year and a half probably, right?
They're already kind of in there. But I'll tell you, the first time I had one of their pitas it was like angels singing. Yeah, it was amazing.
They know what they're doing. It's legit Greek street food. Where else can you find a gyro that's gonna be that flavorful, that impactful, that massive stuffed with fries?! And they do the OG One, the pork one. They'll also do the lamb. They'll do the chicken.
But the veggie sandwich. Have you tried the veggie sandwich there? [Jer, shakes his head to indicate he has not tried the veggie sandwich.]
No, dude. Okay, so they do … It's, like a slice of zucchini and a slice of eggplant that is baked and warmed, and it gives you this really nice meaty texture. Then, they do the fresh cold veg on top, the cold feta cheese and everything is just all combined together with this lemon garlic dressing. All made on their house made pita, which their pita just … If you just eat the pita by itself, you're in heaven.
But that sandwich by itself too, that’s one beautiful veggie sandwich. I never really talk about a veggie sandwich. Usually there's not a reason to. But these guys have given me a reason to talk about a veggie sandwich.
So that is going to be the 26th at noon. We're hanging out. They got some indoor, some outdoor. I'm going to bring a tent warmer. Everybody hang out, bring friends, bring your family. If you want to bring a tent and a warmer too, you do it. But we'll be hanging out there until everybody's done hanging out.
That is awesome.
Then the 27th, which is that Friday after Christmas is going to be Mudgie’s, the old standard, the staple. Greg Mudge himself was always a great friend of mine. And his family and friends continued to run that place the way that Greg wanted it. And it shows in every single aspect of what they do. It is as real as it gets. It's still very, very Corktown, very Detroit. And it's always going to be an ode to Greg Mudge.
So they've got, you know, something like 10,000 sandwiches on the menu. And they, you know, sometimes will do a special, and we're going to see if maybe they can bring back the Uncle Carlos this year as well on Saturday the 30th. No, I'm sorry, where are we at? The 26th. 27th. 29th. 28th. Geez, I can't even count.
It's your ship, captain. It's your ship.
The 28th. So that's that. Saturday at noon we'll be at Gonella's. That's going to be that outdoor tailgate style. We've had that as being a part of the staple for the last like four or five years.
Somewhere on the Internet is a picture, and I think it's Scott Millington who took it of me housing this giant sandwich. And I hope that producer Shianne is able to find it somewhere because I look ridiculous.
I've got it in my phone and I'll send it to you.
Oh, nice.
It's good. You look good.
So that's going to be noon. Come hang out, you know, dress warm. And then that night at 6pm is going to be the Rocco's party. So we're going to have raffle prizes. We're going to have … you know, the goal is to break the record for sandwiches sold at Rocco's again. We did it two years ago. We came super close last year. I want to see if we can break the record. Is there a number something like 800 sandwiches or like 1000 sandwiches? I forgot what. It is ridiculous.
All right, and then Sunday. I'm really looking forward to this one, because if you know about Sundays in the summer, you know that there's a couple of places to hang out for lunch. And one of those places has become Ladder 4 at noon.
Last year, if you went to the Ladder 4 event, anybody who remembers … John Yelanick was able to put together this insane sandwich. I don't even really know how to describe it. He had a sausage and a green, like, garlicky not necessarily pesto or any kind of other sauce that I'm familiar with. And all on the Baguette from the Mother Loaf, Jeremiah, and it's this incredible sandwich that he did. And he only did it that one time, never did it again. So who knows what he's going to do this year.
And then Monday, the final day of sandwich week, I'm very excited to announce that we're going to be with Mike Finsilver, Mo, the whole crew over at Tall Trees Cafe.
Okay, so I am not familiar with Tall Trees. I've heard about it. What's the deal with that?
Mike Finsilver has been in the scene for a long time. He used to work at Mudgie’s for a long time. He worked everywhere. And, I don't know if you ever went to the hot dog cart in the skip? [Jer nods affirmingly] Hell yeah!
May have stumbled through.
So that was him as well, doing those. And he's always wanted to do his own sandwich shop. He's always been great at sandwiches. He's been doing pop-ups for sandwiches for years, especially with Max next door. So he got a spot next to Max, and he's like, I'm opening up my shop finally.
So I'm so excited because this is somebody who has so much passion, not just about food here in the City of Detroit or in the Metro Detroit area, not also just about the people in the industry who have contributed to his successes. And he's seen development over time. But his biggest passion is going to be the sandwich for this day, and I'm excited to show it.
That is amazing. And now, what do people need to do to follow all this? Where do they go?
Just hop on my Instagram.
Okay.
Yeah. Carlos Parisi. If you Google my name, I'm sure you'll figure it out.
Now, I know that you're not somebody who talks about yourself first, so I'm going to make you do it a little bit.
Oh, God.
Because out in front of us on this table is an example of your excellent consumer packaged goods, as they say, or business. You've got your Aunt Nee’s.
You have … Now, I will admit that I was behind the eight ball on this. I was like, “Oh, I've bought your chips a bunch of times.” I did not know about the mild salsa, the mango chipotle salsa, or the small batch guac that is all there. And it's like I am … this table feels like a bounty in front of me. So, Aunt Nee’s, for you, what brought you into doing this here?
Oh, man. I started in 2009 with a friend of mine, Pat. His mom and dad started this salsa mix company as a hobby, his mom's hobby. She wanted to just take a packet of seasoning and then you add tomatoes and you make salsa from it. It was a thing that she wanted to do, and it was fun.
And then in 2008 and 2009, his dad lost his job, his internship ran up, and the only source of income that was coming into their house was going to be this packet that you mix in with tomatoes to make salsa.
So him and I were buds in a student organization called the American Marketing Association in college. I had actually gone to that first meeting because they had free pizza. So I met him there and he's just like, yeah, you know, we're doing this thing, blah, blah, blah. It's my mom's company. Like, I really want to start it and turn it into a real company.
But I, you know, we don't really have sales experience. I had just come back from [Las] Vegas at the time. I lived out there beforehand where I learned how to do sales working with a company out there. And, you know, obviously being Mexican and having a large portion of my life contributed to Mexican food and cuisine as well. He said, “I think it just kind of makes sense we should start this together and just kind of see how it goes.”
So him and I ended up hitting the road along with his family and just seeing what we could do to make his family survive, essentially. And we did. We were able to save his family that summer by selling a salsa mix.
So he kept it going. We started at Eastern Market that summer. It was April of 2009 when we started there, and we were the loudest kids there. You know, next to people selling plants and flowers and just like a pork vendor. And everybody's just, “kid, shut the hell up. Jesus. You're just yelling at everybody, trying to try the salsa rabble rousers.” And, that was the birth that year of what became Aunt Nee’s, the way that we see it today.
And as time went on, we developed the chips, with a local producer as well to help us out with it. We developed the fresh salsa, fresh guacamole, and started selling that all over the state.
I'm now proud to say that we are sold at every Whole Foods across the entire state of Michigan. A lot of different local stores as well. And also very happy to say that it's got kind of a cult following.
What have you learned in this journey? Because … I like to ask people who come through here. We've had a number of consumer goods from Detroit through here. What have you learned in this journey that you want to … that you would share with other people? Because a lot of people make a run at something like this, and most people don't make it. So what about your hustle and your group's hustle to make this happen?
There's a lot that I've learned. I've learned everything good and everything bad, basically. And I'm still learning every day because, I mean, that's just life, right? But I would say the biggest things that have kept me going and kept me understanding about what this means is that because of this, I've used Aunt Nee’s as an opportunity for me to be myself in every way. It's a launching pad for me to see what else I can do in the world. And I'm very thankful for that.
You know, I've been given a great opportunity with Aunt Nee’s to be more so an Eastern Market, more so in Detroit and the Detroit food community. And I think that the biggest lesson overall is just don't stop. Don't stop the grind. Don't stop the hustle. Don't stop being you and the most genuine version of you as possible. Because people will recognize that. Once that recognition is clear, it gives you an opportunity to do the things that you want to do.
And while Aunt Nee’s isn't the thing that's making me a millionaire, I'm not making money, really. I just pay my bills, and I'm happy with that. And it's given me the capacity to do the things that I love. To do, and while also working on growing a brand that I love. It's so crazy how I've seen this brand go from what it was to what it is today.
And anybody would have given up five years into it, and we actually talked about shutting it down three years into it, four years into it, five, 10, even today. But the fact that I haven't shut it down yet, I haven't closed the doors on Aunt Nee’s, that means a lot.
You know one day it's going to happen. Everything isn't forever. But where I'm at right now, I'm just happy to say that resilience is paying off for me. And I'm thankful for that and thankful for the city, for helping me out and allowing me to grow with the city as well.
And you've been at this for a few years through Aunt Nee’s, through Sandwich Week, through also your creative pursuits. I mean, there are times where I'm like, “Oh, there's Carlos on my television.” Right? Like, there's some really cool stuff that you've been up to. So you have a little bit of perspective. I want to ask you, what are a couple of the biggest changes between then that 10, 15 years ago and now?
Yeah. Oh, man. I mean, there's so much. If you want to just start with a microcosm that is Eastern Market. Eastern Market is completely different from now until, you know, what it was then.
It's so much more available and open, and there's still that culture and that ambiance that you want to see at a public market. The public market of old. You know, the live music and the grilling out and the people walking the streets carrying their bags.
That's all something that's just so real here that unfortunately, cities like Chicago or other cities that had these major outdoor markets have lost because they've turned their market spaces into large corporate campuses or places for bars, restaurants and condos.
While that's all fine and good, you have places for that. You don't need that. Keep a market the way it is. And the market here is legendary now. People talk about Eastern Market and the market community, the greater farm market community. People talk about Detroit's Eastern Market as an example of somebody who's still doing it.
And it's so hard to work that balance because obviously, like, residents mean more customers, right? So working that development balance where there is interest in people moving into the city and things like that. And how do you balance that where it's like if people want to move in near the market, but it doesn't take away … it's got to be a real challenge. I know they've just gone through a planned leadership change, but leadership change nonetheless. And that's a constantly difficult thing to kind of navigate because you want customers. You want to build that base; you want to build the city, but you don't want to create something that overtakes the good thing that you have.
Totally. It's about being genuine, being real, and keeping it as authentic as you possibly can. And that's one thing that Eastern Market actually did this year is they launched the authentic Eastern Market campaign. Hats off to them for doing that. It's basically the new marketing aspect, that they want to show the world that, “Yes, we're remaining Eastern Market guys. This is what we're doing, and this is what we have been doing. And we don't plan on changing.”
And that's just an ode to the City of Detroit for, you know, hats off to us for being so genuine and community focused here as a city. We've been about that life. We've been real, and real recognizes real in this city. You know, that's used. We talked about the food culture in Detroit itself.
That's the first and foremost thing that you see as a survivable business is how real are you going to be not just for your customers, not just to the outside world, but also for your employees, for your people, the people that are taking care of you.
It's so nice to know that we are a small business, community-focused city. But with that is the thrive [rather] than the necessity to be so genuine and so inspiring for each other because we really only have each other in this city for sure.
And it's only recently that you've seen kind of the business ramp up a little bit because there should be like, in order to take care of employees, you've also got to make the money.
Yeah, right.
It's all part of that system. It's always this, this balance with capitalism of like, you want to take care of your employees so you have to charge enough and you have to have enough customers. And it's always like working those dials. That's gotta be something that people in your shoes have to be challenged with. every day.
Oh my God. Every time that I ever had to raise the prices on my own stuff, I am so sad and upset. But I try to figure out a way where it's not necessarily going to be alienating any Customers. That's huge to me. You know, obviously I need to make a couple of bucks so I can at least pay the bills.
Right?
That's important. And I don't want to be a company that's not making any money at the end of the day. But the most important thing is retention of the people that have made this business what it is today. And that means that I take that wherever I go. You know, if I'm doing a pop-up or something, I'm not going to say, “Okay, cool, here's a $20 sandwich. You know, here's a, you know, a $30 nacho.” There's no reason for that. We make things affordable for each other because we take care of each other here.
So you've done a lot of work in the creator space. I don't know what other way to call it, but whether it's been stuff on YouTube, stuff, with some pretty … I can't even remember all the names, but some pretty famous people like doing stuff around food.
I sometimes see you on social media, pop-up and that stuff. I think it's really important in this time where it's great to get the national eyes on things. And when the New York Times does something, it's great for visibility and whatever.
But I am somebody who wants to put out the value of the people who are like here, living here, doing things here, creating content about here. Because I think that's so important for us to tell more and more of our food stories, especially in light of, you know, I don't want to talk about anyone like personally with this, but you know, Eater Detroit, the layoffs at Eater, that's a real gut punch.
What a blow.
Totally. And Serena does excellent work. As a creator myself here at Daily Detroit, I'm like, “Okay, what are the ways that these stories still need to be told?” And Vox isn't going to do it, but I feel like more of a responsibility to do it. You know what I mean? And work with people to do it because it's so important that we help push up our own food scene too. What are some of your thoughts with that?
I mean, completely agree. It's about banding together essentially, you know, that we've … I've already … Last night I went to the 8 Degrees Plato Chili cookoff that Steve Colladio put together. I'm sure you might be familiar with that, but 8 Degrees Plato is unfortunately closing down at the end of the year.
And, Steve Colladio and a ton of the people there that have found that place to be such an inspiring home to them have set-up events. And one of the events over the years has been the chili cook off.
Well, a lot of them were influential food writers and food heads in the city were also there. And we got to talking about what are we going to do? We have to do something. You know one of the people that I think is one of the greatest writers in food in the city is Courtney Burke.
Oh, yeah, Courtney's great.
Yeah. And I don't think that she gets enough flowers for everything that she does too. And I'd like to see … you know, I think that this is an opportunity for people to highlight each other, more so, not just under a banner of something like Eater, but highlight each other. As we are talking about this, because this is who we are. We're Detroiters. We're these people.
And, one of those people that I'm excited, really, honestly, to see more come from is Courtney, Bekah Galang as well, who helped me with the Detroit Sandwich Party. One of the other founders and organizers of the Detroit Sandwich Party. Another phenomenal writer. Nobody knows that she's all food Detroit. You know without that weekly reminder of the different popups and Detroit food things that are going on, a lot of people wouldn't know.
And there's so many people like that that are going to hopefully be able to say, “Okay, you know, this is a problem. It's a shame that Eater is gone. But this is also an opportunity for us to continue showing our face.”
Oh, for sure. And it's one of the reasons why, you know, my door is always an open door. It's kind of the show of shows for people to come through here and talk about what they're doing or their views on things or the stuff that's happening.
And I'm really glad to catch up with you because you've been doing so much. And I think it's just crucial and it's going to take everybody doing a part. You know what I mean? I don't think that there's going to be one answer to this. And it's collaborative and cooperative.
And sure, some people might look at [it as] competition, but to me, it's all about how can we lift each other up, because there's still so much more room to go, man. Like, I look at us. I mean, a lot of people say, well, Detroit's made a ton of progress. But I look at … I see so much more runway in the future, man. Like, so much.
I had a mentor, who would always say, “Dream big, and then dream bigger again.” Right? To make something happen.
Yeah.
And those are the kind of thoughts, as a longtime creator, about who to work with, how to add on things, just pushing forward so more people know about all these great places, these great products, these things to really celebrate. Because I believe food is something that can bring us together.
And on a serious note, a thousand percent Metro Detroit has had too many ways that we've been pulled apart over the decades. And any single way we can come together. And some of the more serious news, people might be like, well, it's just a, you're just talking about this thing opening. Well, but that's how you bring people together, right? You trust and you build things with people that you know.
And how do you get to know people over sandwiches?
Yeah. And that's one thing that I saw over Sandwich Week the last few years. It's so cool to watch the amount of people that have come out from all different walks of life. Ages, races, communities, doesn't matter who you are.
But people heard last year about Sandwich Week, and they decided to come out and bring their kids, bring their neighbors. And they didn't know anybody, but by the end of the week, they were having conversations with friends that they just met a couple of days ago, like they knew each other for years.
And because food brings people together, that's one reason why I love food so much. And sandwiches are the one thing that you see in every culture. So for that reason, sandwich is culture. Without a sandwich, I don't know. And if there isn't, then we'll make it a sandwich culture.
But, yeah, food. Food and sandwiches. I mean, that's why I love it so much, because it has to do with us really bonding together. You know, there's nothing more powerful than the movement of the greater people.
And that's one thing that I'm so thankful that this city has had that, as an example to the rest of the world that, yeah, we can do something powerful more than we don't need anybody. We don't need the corporate infrastructure, the money from the people that, you know, are telling us what we need to do. No, we're going to do things because we feel it's right.
So let's talk about to end it. What's next for you? Like, what have you got on the horizon? We're coming up into 2025.
Yeah, we are.
What are you excited about?
There's a lot, man. There's a lot. First and foremost, I'm getting married. That's a huge thing.
Congratulations!
Thank you. Thank you.
Round of applause. Round of applause.
Thanks to my amazing partner who keeps me alive. Another thing obviously. So Sandwich Week [is] coming up, just two weeks away.
Next year we're looking at doing the second annual Detroit Sandwich Party. That was a one day event where we had, you know, 25 - 30 different vendors, about 3 - 4,000 people show up. And it's just a day to celebrate sandwiches and have fun and party. And it felt like a real party to watch one of my friend's dads walk up to me double fisting, looking like, hey, yeah. And then he's like, he sees a buddy, he's like, “Oh, hey, what's up? I saw that man in college that day.” You know … but you know, there's that coming up.
We'll be doing another trip for Mexico. I do the food tours in Mexico City, so I'll be doing that again next year. I'm working with Visit Detroit right now to put out a really fun video about trends in the food and beverage world for the 2025 year.
There's just so much new restaurant openings, cafes like Tall Trees, friends who have moved from, you know, the smaller, whether it's, you know, service areas to now opening their own businesses. And it's inspiring.
It's beautiful to see. I mean, for me, it's only been like a 15 year career in this city of doing the things that I've been doing business-wise in the food industry. And in those 15 years alone, I've seen so much change year over year. Every summer is a different year. It's very obvious of a different Detroit that we have here. So to me, next year I'm just excited for what's coming up.
Where can people follow you? I assume on Instagram. “Carlos_Parisi”.
That's me. P as in Paul. A. R. I S I. It's like the city Paris with an I at the end.
And you can't miss it. Like you land on the page, you know who it is. Carlos, I really appreciate you! I appreciate running into you at places over the years or showing up at one of your pop-ups or something. And I appreciate, appreciate so much at what you do, and let's stay in touch man.
Vice versa, I appreciate you doing this, and I appreciate you always highlighting the people that are real. So thank you for doing what you do!
All right, we are done. Be sure to drop five stars on your favorite podcast app, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps tell the world what we're doing here. I'm Jer Staes. Remember that you are somebody, and I'll see you around Detroit.
