Who We Are
Our Story
From medicine to food to functional wellness.
01
The Beginning
Yonatan has been using adaptogens since he was 15 years old. Intuitive about it. Craving intensity, energy, and power. Call it past life knowledge. He knew the plants without knowing anything. He studied medicine for years before walking away. A year and a half from the finish line. The deeper he went, the clearer it became: the system was built on profit and treatment, not healing. He dropped out. Found what he was looking for through food. Trained at a gastronomic school that answered every question his professors never could. Moved to Montreal and dove headfirst into the restaurant world. Busboy, runner, server, chef, manager, grand manager. Every position, every lesson. He fell in love with hospitality, with the explosion of flavor, and with the power of real food to change how people feel.
02
Botica Bistro
When Yonatan moved to Playa del Carmen, he missed what Montreal had given him. That level of service, that intention behind every plate. So he built it. In 2024, alongside co-founder Peter Shonk, he opened Botica Bistro at Calle 38 Norte 18. The only adaptogen bar and food-as-medicine bistro in the Riviera Maya. Every ingredient serves a purpose. No seed oils. No refined sugar. No refined flour. No pesticides. No shortcuts. This is where Excalibur was first served to customers. Where the kitchen became a lab and every dish became proof that clean, powerful food does not have to sacrifice flavor. The celebration of health through taste, ambiance, and hospitality that Playa del Carmen had never seen.
03
Botica Labs
Excalibur was not born in a corporate lab. It was born from years of personal use, research, and experimentation. Seven adaptogens. Reishi, Chaga, Lion's Mane, Cordyceps, Astragalus, Shilajit, and Rhodiola. Selected not at random, but for how they work together. Synergy, not marketing. Customers at the bistro kept asking the same question: how do I take this home? That demand became Botica Labs. What started behind the bar is now shipping across Mexico. Making functional wellness accessible beyond the restaurant walls. The mission is simple and it has never changed: health is power, food is medicine, and nature already holds the answers.
The Founder
Yonatan Torices
Former Medical Student · Chef · Founder of Botica Bistro & Botica Labs
Half Mexican, half Belgian. Former medical student who walked away from a system that prioritized profit over healing. Trained chef with years of experience in Montreal. Reiki master. Sound healing practitioner. Life coach. Founder of Botica Bistro, the only adaptogen bar in Playa del Carmen. Formulator of Excalibur. Using adaptogens since he was 15. Living proof that health is power and real food changes everything.