WHAT WE DO:
We're in the business of making people smile. We're in the business of bringing a little sunshine into people's lives. To me, that's what lemonade is: A little sunshine in a glass just for you and yours.
We use real whole fruit in everything we do. We partner up with local businesses whenever possible. We produce all of our specialty syrups. When you order a Strawberry Lemonade from Smash & Squeeze, all you're getting are lemon juice fresh squeezed that same day you're drinking it, fresh strawberries, distilled water, and 100% cane sugar. That's it. When you order a Jalapeño lemonade, guess what's in your cup? You guessed it. Just replace the Strawberries with Jalapeños.
With this website, we're expanding a little. This website is the seed to what's been my goal from the very start: The Smashing Market, a bookstore café market. I don't have the money for a brick & mortar just yet, so this website is how this project is beginning.
I'll of course be selling lemonade and chai, my two staple products. I'll be adding new products from my own kitchen as well as products from other cool vendors as the opportunities present themselves. Books, poetry, and storytelling are a huge part of who I am, so the first product other than drinks that you'll see on this website are my own books. We will soon have a small selections of books from other folks as well.
Don't hesitate to reach out to us for any reason. Smash & Squeeze started because I desperately needed a way to pay rent during the pandemic, however it also came from a place inside my heart where from nothing I'd like to build a loose community of folks who like nothing more than a little sunshine in their glass.
Peace & Lemonade,
François Pointeau
Head Lemon Squeezer
WHERE WE COME FROM:
I was born in Brittany, France. I grew up in a tiny town in West Texas. I grew up as an illegal alien. I was kicked out of the USA in my mid-twenties, and for some reason came back in my early thirties. My friends in Berlin call me the Celtic Cowboy. My friends in Paris call me Frankois. I have lots of names. I like that. However I'll stick to my new title: Head Lemon Squeezer.
Before the lockdown, I was a Beverage Director - Head Bartender - Sommelier kind of dude. In France, I worked as a hotel manager, though I also worked for a small television production company at one point for a year or so, and for a couple of years I worked the harvest at several wineries as a migrant worker. When I moved back to Austin, I ended up accepting a job at my first interview, and ended up managing liquor-fine-wine stores for over 5 years, and moved on to just selling wine for another company at the retail level before going back to the restaurant industry where I was until the lockdown.
During all this time I managed to publish 3.5 books -- you'll have to ask -- and was the host and producer of this really cool radio show at KOOP 91.7 FM in Austin for seven years.
When my family moved to San Francisco in 1981, I attended a private French school, and my English teacher back then got me all excited about writing and poetry, and at that young age, I decided that I would be a poet. This has not gone very well -- if financial measures is all you look at -- however I'm proud of at least a couple of poems I've written. Most of them I'd rather not see again. I "self-published" -- in quotations because I'm not sure that xerox & staples can really be considered publication... I mean, it is technically -- several manuscripts in my late teens-early twenties that I believed were god's gift to literature, and that I now hope have disappeared for eternity. I am however really proud of my last book, "Songs of the Rollin Chateau" that I wrote while living in an RV and traveling throughout the South West and California in 2015-2016. I completed this collection while living in my RV on the sidewalk in Austin next to the Whip where I worked as the local Wine Dude. My first book "Beer Songs for the Lonely," was written in France & Maine, and though it is full of flaws, I love that book.
I no longer drinks alcohol, however I really enjoy making drinks for people, and I especially like being behind the bar holding court with a variety of folks week in and week out.
Come see me at Smash & Squeeze Lemonade stand, and hang out for a few minutes. Tell me your story, tell me your name, tell me your dreams. It won't make any of it happen, however it'll make you feel good. And while you're talking, I'll make you a little concoction mixing a little sunshine in a cup just for you. That'll make both of us smile. And in my book, that's worth the price of a lemonade.
Peace & Lemonade,
François Pointeau
Head Lemon Squeezer