Family business keep Wimberley fit and awake

The husband and wife team of Justice Quintana and Rachel Emry stays pretty busy.

They run the Just Results gym and Blanco Brew coffee house in Wimberley.

As if running two growing businesses isn’t enough, throw in four children, ages eight to 15.

Here’s a typical day for Rachel. She’s at the coffee shop from 6:30 a.m. to around 9 a.m., then it’s off to the gym to conduct classes and personal-training sessions. Then back to Blanco Brew from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., home for a couple hours, then back to the health club for more classes.

She figures she works 70 hours a week, or so — more when there’s a special event that needs to be catered.

Here’s a typical day for Justice: He wakes up at 4 a.m. and is on the road before 5. He stops by Blanco Brew to get prep the baked goods before his first personal training session at 5:30. He takes time to take the kids to their various schools, then it’s back to the gym until 7:30 or so.

“Let’s just say HEB curbside delivery is amazing,” says Rachel.

And their two business are prospering.

Blanco Brew

It was once called Maui Wowi. Then it became Indigo Brew. Rachel wanted her coffee house to reflect Wimberley so she changed the name to Blanco Brew.

“I wanted to create our own brand and our own reputation,” says Rachel, “We wanted something that was uniquely Wimberley.”

Rachel’s business partner is her father, Tim Walkup. Tim spends most of his time in a warehouse in New Braunfels where he imports coffee from various Latin American nations, roasts it, stores it, and ships the coffee out to a number of retail outlets. They are in talks now to get the brand into HEB’s Central Markets.

Before Blanco Brew, Rachel, who went to culinary school in Austin, was a personal chef and a personal trainer. She’s been a chef since 2003.

Rachel and Tim bought Blanco Brew in March of this year. The property negotiations took months because the Sonic fastfood chain also had its eye on the property near the busy “Y” intersection at RR12 and FM 2325.

Rachel quickly reconfigured the menu. “Now everything is made from scratch, in-house,” she says, as she adds frosting to her fresh maple-bacon rolls. She converted a store room into a small kitchen and uses her own recipes or old family recipes.

Her cheesecakes, cookies and cupcakes are deliciously displayed at the front counter. There are seasonal items as well. Pumpkin muffins are a big fall item.

The biggest seller is a latte — in various flavors. The meat-stuffed croissant is also popular. They sell gluten free and dairy free items. “Any kind of free you want we have,” says Rachel with a laugh.

The coffee house has a homey feel. The work of local artists lines the walls. There’s a “living room” in back that local organizations can reserve for meetings.

Rachel tried to get a drivethrough window but the city balked, citing traffic concerns. Instead, she’s working on an app that will allow customers to order their drinks and snacks ahead of time and they’ll be ready when the customer arrives.

A patio has been added to the front of Blanco Brew and the impact has been immediate. “We noticed a spike in sales since that (the patio) opened,” says Rachel. “Overall, since we opened, our sales have increased 30 percent. We’re growing at a steady rate.”

The first Sunday of each month, Blanco Brew hosts a car show that’s becoming a popular attraction. Plans are in the works for a local art fair.

Eric Jentsch, the store’s assistant manager, figures they serve 300-350 people a day. Last month, more than 16,000 food items were sold.

Blanco Brew employs five baristas and an assistant manager. The store is open seven days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.

Just Results

Just Results has an open, airy feel. The equipment is new and in tip-top shape. The service is personalized. If you have a membership and don’t show up for a while — as has been known to happen in the fitness business — you can expect a call. “Hey, just checking on you. Haven’t seen you lately. You feeling OK? Miss you.”

There are mirrors at Just Results and there are no TV sets lining the walls. “We want you to just focus on yourself,” says Justice, whose name is a translation from the Spanish “justo” reflecting his Spanish heritage. “If you are doing something wrong, we’ll tell you. That’s what we are here for,” adds Rachel.

The motto is: “No egos. No pressure. Just results.”

Just Results has been around since 2012. It was first located at the “Y” shopping center in Wimberley. In 2017, it relocated to the Mountain Pass Center, 14500 RR 12, Suite 14. They started with 800 square feet of space and now have 6,000 square feet, including 5,000 square feet of training space. On one side is the gym; classes are held on the other side.

In 2013 they had opened a fitness center in San Marcos, but that recently closed so they could concentrate on the Wimberley location.

The customer base has grown about 20 percent a year.

Just Results specializes in Krav Maga, a form of self defense developed in the 1940s for Israeli security forces. It combines aspects of real fighting, boxing, judo, wrestling, karate and jiu jitsu. In the Hebrew language, the root word krav means “combat” and maga means “contact.”

Justice is a licensed instructor with more than 17 years of experience. “It is based on natural responses,” explains Justice. “It’s a modern self-dense system. It’s martial arts with no rules.”

Over the years, Justice has trained military and law enforcement personnel as well as kids and women. Beginners can become “street safe” in six months, says Justice.

There are Krav Maga classes as well as general fitness sessions, strength training and Pilates lessons. In all, there are some 20 classes during the week. Personal training is also offered, as well as massage.

One of the special classes is for people who suffer from Parkinson’s disease, a disorder of the central nervous system. Symptoms include shaking, slow movements, balance problems and changes in speech. According to the Mayo Clinic aerobic exercise is the best way to slow the advance of the disease.

So about 30 people with Parkinson’s gather at Just Results to practice no-conatct Krav Maga. They bob and weave. They duck. They punch. They laugh. All the while, improving their strength and balance.

“That’s probably one of the most rewarding programs we have here at Just Results. It’s kinda neat when you think about it,” says Justice.

Just Results is open six days a week and closed on Sundays. There is 24-hour access. “When we created this club we wanted to make it user friendly, but we also wanted to make it so no one could get hurt,” says Justice.

A dream

The business plan is something like this: Get your coffee at Blanco Brew and you’ll have enough energy to work out at Just Results which is just down the road.

“We started with nothing,” says Rachel. “No money. No jobs. Just a dream.”