Meet Audrey Sutherland Jesse Valenciana | Founders & Owners

We had the good fortune of connecting with Audrey Sutherland Jesse Valenciana and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Audrey Sutherland, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
We’re from Chicago, which is a wonderfully diverse, multicultural city. Living there directly impacted who we are in many facets of our lives, especially our business. We had the world at our fingertips and we learned about it one bite at a time. It was something we never took for granted.

Some cities have a single ethnic grocery store or one great restaurant from a different country or region, whereas Chicago has entire neighborhoods dedicated to specific countries.

Having access to global food in Chicago made the world seem less daunting and a little bit smaller. It encouraged us to learn more about these beautifully diverse cultures which ultimately shaped who we are and how we want to make the world seem smaller through the food we make.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We own a food brand in Nashville, TN called Secret Bodega.

We’re a couple of Chicago transplants that moved to Nashville during the pandemic. We began hosting pop-ups as a way to tell stories about food that we were missing from back home; ones that weren’t readily available in our new surroundings.

As we did more food pop-ups, we realized that not everyone could attend every event. We wanted folks to have the opportunity to eat our food in the comfort of their homes, so we started talking about launching a line of packaged goods. We’re extremely excited to be launching our packaged food line that’s going to include various condiments, snacks and beverages inspired by the street and comfort food that we grew up eating. Our offerings promise to be as delicious as they are creative.

A lot of hard work, sacrifices, and long hours go into where we are and where we’re going, but at the end of the day, we can say with certainty that it’s 100% worth it. Everything comes with its challenges and we have learned to lean on each other when those challenges prove difficult and sometimes impossible. We’ve learned to listen to our brains, trust our guts, and do what makes our hearts feel at ease. There’s always a way to figure things out, so we do our best to trust the process.

We want people to know how passionate we are about what we do and how hard we strive to make something we’re proud to share with our community.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh man. We have so many friends and family that visit us, so we keep multiple running lists of our favorite spots around town. We’ll do our best to keep it brief but we could easily turn this into a short novel.

Food is always the most important part of any trip, obviously. In no particular order, these are the spots we ALWAYS recommend trying: Bill’s Sandwich Palace, Maiz De La Vida, St. Vito’s Focacceria, Bad Luck Burger Club, Iggy’s, Butcher & Bee, Redheaded Stranger, Rolf & Daughters, Arnold’s Country Kitchen, and Xiao Bao, to name a few.

For drinky drinks, try these: Barrique Brewing, Barrel Proof, Mickey’s Tavern, Atta Boy, Dino’s Bar, Wilburn Street Tavern, Never Never, Robert’s Western World.

Other noteworthy spots to check out: Grimey’s & Living Waters Brewing campus, Radnor Lake, South Cumberland State Falls, Shops at Fatherland, Eastside Bowl, Musician’s Corner

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Our families and friends deserve the biggest shoutout. Having their unwavering support eases any fear we have in business ownership. From driving cross country to deliver products for us, to following us to other cities for our events, we couldn’t be luckier.

Another huge shoutout goes to Nashville. There are so many people that are not only supportive of our business but encouraging and open to everything we have brought to the table. Our fellow small business owners here are incredibly generous with their knowledge and have welcomed us with open arms. Our clients and partners are our biggest cheerleaders who push us to continue delivering the best products possible. And most obviously, our customers. So many of them have become our friends, always coming to our events and showing us love.

We truly can’t do this without all of these folks.

Website: https://www.thesecretbodega.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesecretbodega/

Image Credits
John Caruthers, Jaime Black, Casey Irwin Photography, Carlos Artalejo, Rachel Dwyer