Maduro State of Mind | Episode 3 | Karma Cigar Bar, Merrillville, Indiana
The president of Tortillas Nuevo Leon sat down with Dhirien Shah at Karma Cigar Bar for a conversation about legacy, the lessons that only arrive years after you first hear them, and why a cigar lounge becomes the one place a working entrepreneur finally lets his guard down.
There’s a detail Jesus Martinez mentioned almost in passing that stopped the conversation cold.
He was talking about his father — the early years of Tortillas Nuevo Leon, waking up as a kid and noticing that his dad always went to bed early. “I never realized what that meant back then,” Jesus said. “But now I do that. Now I understand why he went to bed so early — because it was a tough day.”
Across the table at Karma Cigar Bar, Dhirien Shah nodded slowly. He understood exactly what Jesus was saying. Every founder does. You don’t inherit a lesson like that by hearing it. You inherit it by living long enough to finally feel its weight.
That’s the moment this episode is really about.
Fifty Years Is Not an Accident
Tortillas Nuevo Leon was founded in 1975. Jesus Martinez, who serves as president, runs it today alongside his twin brother Jamie and their sister — the same family that built it from a small Chicagoland operation into a 60,000-square-foot facility in Hammond, Indiana, now serving 20 states.
The accounts speak for themselves: Jewel-Osco, Walmart, Mariano’s, Meijer. Route trucks running their own deliveries across the Chicago metro and Northwest Indiana. Distributors carrying the product to the rest of the country.
“We celebrated 50 years last year,” Jesus said.
Fifty years in the food industry is not luck. It’s not good timing or a fortunate market. It’s a daily decision — made by multiple generations of the same family — to show up before everyone else does.
Jesus’s day starts at 4 a.m. By 5, the route drivers are loading. Production runs from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., five days a week. He has been doing this long enough to recognize his father in his own routine.
The Lesson His Father Taught Him
Dhirien asked the question directly: What’s one lesson your father taught you about business that you still use today?
“The most that I’ve learned — and I still use it to this day — is that you’re the first one in and the last one out,” Jesus said. “You have to learn every position that’s there, so that when you’re training somebody, you’re actually training them. They’re not training you.”
He and his siblings started at the bottom. They cleaned bathrooms. They ran production lines. They drove the delivery routes, got to know every store manager on the circuit, then came back inside as supervisors. No position was skipped, no department treated as beneath them.
“Learning everything helps you appreciate more of what you’re doing,” he said.
But here’s what made the answer land: he didn’t understand the lesson when he first received it.
When Jesus was young, he watched his father work those same long days — and like any kid, he just saw a man who went to bed early. He didn’t see the weight being carried. He didn’t understand the cost.
He does now.
There’s something worth sitting with in that. Some business lessons arrive as instructions. Others arrive as experiences. The most durable ones — the ones that actually shape how you run an organization — are the ones you have to live long enough to understand. His mother earned the same quiet respect. She handled the business paperwork while raising six children, managing the household, keeping the whole operation from the edges. Jesus mentioned her specifically, unprompted. That detail mattered to him.
The Cigar as Pause Button
Jesus Martinez has been coming to Karma Cigar Bar for years. Dhirien has watched him walk through the door after closing major corporate accounts — sometimes in the morning, still running on the energy of a deal. Other nights, he arrives late, carrying the day.
“This is my spot,” Jesus said.
When Dhirien asked what happens to his mind when he finally sits down and lights a cigar, the answer came quickly: “It’s like when you get a monkey off your back.”
Throughout the day, he explained, you are making decisions — solving problems, reading situations, managing people, calling it right under pressure. Then you leave. And somewhere on the drive to Karma, you start thinking about the evening that’s ahead. “And it gets you ready for the next day. That’s how I feel.”
He admitted the purpose of the visit shifts over the course of a single evening. When he first arrives and lights up, he’s still processing. Then the friends show up, and he doesn’t want to talk about work anymore. He just wants to be present.
“It also gives you a sense of forgetting,” he said. “At least for a little while.”
He also said something that every entrepreneur in the room recognized: he’s walked into Karma carrying a business problem and left seeing it differently. “When you’re smoking, you start thinking a little bit more rational. At work, the pressure is there — you may do things too quick. But when you’re sitting down, the body’s relaxed, the mind is more open to other ideas.”
Not every problem gets solved at the table. But some of them finally get seen clearly.
What a Cigar Lounge Actually Is
Someone once asked Jesus what makes a cigar lounge different from a regular bar. His answer was specific.
At a bar, he said, there’s noise. You’re surrounded by movement and sound. There’s no space for anything to breathe. A cigar lounge is different — and not just because of what’s in the humidor.
“For people who don’t smoke, they’re not going to understand,” he said. “But for cigar smokers — you understand what it means when you light up a cigar.”
That shared understanding is what Karma is built on. Not a product. Not a transaction. A culture.
What keeps Jesus coming back year after year? He gave three things: the friendships, the selection, and the ability to simply be himself. “It’s a place where you can relax, have a drink, and just be yourself.”
When Hyon asked what Karma does that customers probably don’t realize they appreciate, Jesus pointed directly at the people. “Chuck is a great guy. Hyon is a great guy. Dhirien is a great guy. As soon as you walk in, you get that interaction — Chuck hugs you, says hello. They’ll sit down and talk to customers, have a smoke with them.”
He paused.
“It’s like a family here.”
Working With Your Twin
Jesus and Jamie Martinez are twins. Working with your twin every day — in a 50-year-old family business, inside a 60,000-square-foot facility, across 20 states — is a particular kind of relationship.
Hyon asked the question most people want answered but never ask: After working with your brother all day, do you actually want to smoke a cigar with him afterward?
“I do,” Jesus said. “Even after having a disagreement during the day.”
The reason, he explained, is straightforward. “The relationship I have with my brother — I don’t know if it’s that way with all twins, but it’s a special relationship. We can disagree, but we’re not going to let that affect the relationship we have with each other.”
Who’s easier to negotiate with — a customer or Jamie?
“Jamie,” he said, without much hesitation. “Because we like the same things. We’re so alike in so many ways that it’s just ridiculous.”
Who’s more stubborn? He took a deliberate pause on that one. “He could be a little stubborn at some point. I could probably be stubborn too. But as long as we agree at the end of the day, it’s fine.”
And what has working with family taught him that business school never could?
“As long as the family agrees with the direction the business is supposed to go, you’re going to have a great relationship with your family. I’ve known businesses where families don’t get along — and those businesses don’t last.”
Fifty years says something about how the Martinez family does it.
The Good Life
Near the end, the question shifted.
As you get older, what’s become more valuable to you — time, family, friendship, or experience?
“Family comes first,” Jesus said. “Then the friendships. Time is important too, because as you get older, you’re losing time. And then the experiences you’ve made.”
What does the good life look like to you now?
He didn’t reach for anything complicated.
“When everything is all said and done and you’re ready to retire — you’ve done what you have to do. You’re sitting on the beach smoking your cigar, having your drink. And the next generation is taking over, and you don’t have to worry about anything.”
What cigar is he hoping to be smoking at Karma twenty years from now, with Jamie beside him?
“Padrón. The Dámaso.”
Watch the Episode
The full conversation with Jesus Martinez is the third episode of Maduro State of Mind, recorded live at Karma Cigar Bar in Merrillville, Indiana.
Visit Karma Cigar Bar
If you’ve been thinking about coming in, now’s a good time.
The humidor carries one of the largest selections in Northwest Indiana — Perdomo, Padrón, Davidoff and beyond. The staff knows the product and knows the room.
Upcoming at Karma:
- 🏈 Bears vs. Eagles — Monday, September 28 | 10 wings for $10
- 🥩 Steak Night — September 24 & October 22 | 16 oz. ribeye, sides, an old fashioned, and a cigar — all for $50
- 🎷 Live Jazz: Javon Watson — Thursday, October 8 | Doors at 8 p.m.
Karma Cigar Bar
850 W 81st Ave, Merrillville, Indiana 46410
All cigar content is intended for adults 21 and older.
