Digital Social Hour - How Barry’s Became the Hottest Steakhouse in Vegas | Chef Barry and Yassine Lyoubi DSH #1221

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

🔥 Chef Barry & Yassine on Building Vegas’ Hottest Steakhouse, Social Media & Restaurant Trends 🍽️🚀 In this delicious deep dive, we sit down with Chef Barry & Yassine, the masterminds behind Barry’s Downtown Prime, one of Las Vegas' most iconic steakhouses located at Circa Resort & Casino. They share insider secrets on: ✅ How Barry’s became one of the top steakhouses in Vegas ✅ The power of social media & food influencers in the restaurant business ✅ The secret to creating an “Instagrammable” restaurant experience ✅ The rise of high-end dining & the future of steakhouses ✅ How they built a space catering to celebrities, athletes, and food lovers This mouthwatering episode is a must-listen for foodies, entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes of the restaurant industry! 📲 Follow Chef Barry, Yassine & Barry’s Downtown Prime: 🔗 Instagram: @BarrysPrime 🔗 Chef Barry’s Instagram: @ChefBarry 🔗 Website: BarrysPrime.com 🔗 Yassine's Instagram: @yassine.Lyoubi  ⏱ CHAPTERS ⏳ 00:00 – Why Every Restaurant Needs an “Instagrammable” Experience ⏳ 03:15 – How Barry’s Became One of Vegas’ Top Steakhouses ⏳ 07:30 – The Rise of Social Media & Food Influencers in Restaurants ⏳ 12:10 – The Most Popular Dishes at Barry’s & What Makes Them Special ⏳ 17:40 – The Evolution of Fine Dining in Las Vegas ⏳ 23:50 – What It Takes to Build a Legendary Restaurant Brand ⏳ 30:25 – The Secret to Getting Celebrities & Athletes in Your Restaurant ⏳ 36:10 – The Competitive Steakhouse Industry in Vegas ⏳ 42:00 – The Most Expensive & Luxurious Meals on the Menu ⏳ 50:15 – How Social Media Changed the Way People Dine ⏳ 55:30 – What’s Next for Barry’s & the Future of Dining in Vegas 🔥 Apply to Be on the Podcast & Business Inquiries: 🎙 APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application 📩 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail]

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because the more they're on their phones, the more coverage we're getting as a restaurant. So when you're designing a menu nowadays or you're designing a restaurant, one of the first questions is, what's Instagrammable? What dish is gonna be Instagrammable? Of course you want it to be good,

you want the flavor to be there, presentation to be there, consistency, but you want it to be an Instagrammable dish and you want your restaurant to have multiple Instagrammable locations. I mean, if you go to Berry's and you look at the women's restroom, for example, load it up, yeah, I mean, that's right.

Number one, most Instagram, we have the most selfies out of any other restaurant in the bathroom. We can almost do an Instagram page for Barry's or social page for Barry's of just bathroom selfies. I mean, everyone that goes in there loves it. All right guys, got Chef Barry and Yacine here today from their famous steakhouse. Thanks for coming in guys.

Of course, thank you for having us. I always tell people your guys steakhouse is one of my favorites in town if not my favorite so thank you Yeah, high regards from me And you guys are new right cuz circus pretty new well new in the sense of going to Circus. Yeah Yeah, but you've been around for a minute. We've been around for a minute. How long? I've been in Vegas now what women who come here 98 Yeah

You guys have seen a lot of development. A lot of development. Did you see Vegas kind of blowing up like the way it has? Well man, I never thought it would get to this, but yeah, I mean, it's pretty special time right now. Yeah. Cause I feel like 97 you could have got a steel on some real estate out here. Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. In hindsight, it's 2020. I wish I could go back. I remember even after that when it got really crazy in what was it, 2004, 2005, and people were lining up outside of all the home builders for two, three days in a row to try to buy homes. That was right before the crash.

Damn. But that's when we saw the biggest price hike in real estate. Yeah, everybody thought they were realtors. I mean, yeah. Everybody was buying houses in the 100s prior, right? And were realtor's. I mean, yeah, everybody was buying houses in the 100s prior, right? And then all of a sudden everything starts hitting the twos and people are like, oh shoot, you gotta go buy.

People are waiting outside of KB Homes and all the builders. I bought my first house for $89,000. Holy crap. Back in 98, yeah. How many square feet is it? Maybe 1,600, 1,500 square feet. That's still crazy, though.

Yeah, it's, yeah. That's nuts. Now you can't find shit for that price. No. No. Not even a condo, nothing. Yeah. Even like houses that are like three, 400K

or like kind of regular out here, you know? Yeah. I mean, it depends on your expectations, I guess, but times have changed for sure. Oh, absolutely. Man, what do you? For the better. Yeah, for the better.

Well, for you guys, yeah, because you won as many people here as possible Right load it up Yeah, load it some days that come to your spots fully packed. It's impressive. You guys got a big location, too Great location, right? We didn't I mean, it's what we got 17,000 square feet between the kitchen I think a little bit little more 18 most hate that's gotta be one of the biggest state houses in town All right. Yeah, we got lucky with the with the build out on that because we're the only location in the basement at Circa. So everything at Circa

is floor one, ground level, which is Fremont Street level, two and three. And we've pretty much got the whole basement to ourselves, right? There's a bunch of back of house stuff going on, right? Offices, storage, etc. So we kind of had carte blanche in terms of how we wanted to get that kitchen designed, how big we wanted to make the dining room. I mean, we went full shebang. Again, we opened pre-COVID and the design process was about a year and a half prior to COVID or a year before COVID.

So we designed the entire restaurant based off of wanting to do a lot of group dining. So we have, I mean, you've seen the restaurant. You guys usually sit in the front like where the DJ is. But if you walk all the way through the back, we've got 350 seats, flexible room. Yeah, I sat there last time actually in the back. I didn't even know that was there. Yeah, so that restaurant that we designed is everything that we always wanted

and we didn't have in other restaurants, which really caters to larger parties and make it more private, you know? So it's working out great. No, I feel spacious, man, because other steak houses, we don't have to name anyone, but you feel cramped, you know? You get in there, it's loud as hell,

and you can't even hear the person across the table from you. We're pretty loud on weekends. Yeah, I mean, the design allows us to be a little more spread out. Restaurant business is cutthroat as it is, and an empty seat costs a lot of money So everyone tries to pack them in overbook reservation slot stuff. We're very fortunate with the amount of space we have to not have to

To cram them in that much right except for Valentine's Day. That's my birthday. It will be Deuce Alley's. She says your birthday Yeah, oh, yeah, it's fast. That is birthday, too. No way. Yeah. Wow. I've never met another person born on Valentine's Day I've never met another person burn on Valentine's Yeah, it's a rare thing man. Yeah, you guys we packed that day but I was trying to do a little staycation Damn shit was like 600 night at the at where I Venetian It's usually like two three hundred but Valentine's Day people are just do I go to the Venetian when you can come to Circa I've actually never stayed in Circa. I want to try it one is a great Yeah, definitely I want to have some of my networking events there, too I've been talking to Richard shout to Richard. Yeah. Yeah, that's the guy right there. Absolutely. He's the one who put us in touch, right? Yeah, yeah, well

Yeah, he's been great. How did you two get together? we we first worked together at nine steakhouse back in 2010-11 Yeah, very very I mean he was a local famous celebrity chef. No call We were together at Nine Steakhouse back in 2010, 11. Something like that. Yeah, Barry, I mean, he was a local famous celebrity chef. No, go on. I was looking for a move up career-wise,

and I got an opportunity to interview there. Barry met the team at the Palms at the time, and it was, you know, Palms was the location, right? I heard. Yeah, that was nightlife-wise, restaurant-wise. There can never be another spot like the Palms, like the way they did everything, George and the family. And it was, it was special chemistry.

I've heard that from a lot of locals that Palms was the spot. It was way before I moved here, but what do you think happened? Why do you think it kind of fell off a little bit? Well, I think, you know, you can only be world champion for so long, right? You can only hold on for so long.

And then the next guy comes along, the next guy comes along. It's like, well, I just think it was it was time, time for someone else to come along, you know, but I mean when when the Malou family ran it with Michael Morton and Scott DeGraff being partners with them at Nine Group, they were so far ahead of their times. I mean George had visions and these guys had great visions and what was to come with the real world, with the first filming of the real world

at the Palms when we opened, I mean, that was the hurricane, right? That just put us on the map. And then with the nightclubs and Ghost Bar and Club Rain and they had the Buddha Bar and Carduno's and Johnny Brennan with his theaters, the Palms was the studio 54 Vegas, ahead of its time.

I mean, you had everybody coming in, them owning the Sacramento Kings at the time. I mean, it was just a hot spot, a celebrity haven for athletes, actors, musicians, everything. Then the recording studio goes in, man, it was just perfect. It was popping.

It was, and I don't think that could ever be repeated. I mean, you know, every 100 years something great comes along, right? Vegas, that was just the perfect storm for me. I mean, you know, it was amazing. Very blessed to be a part of it. I always see the suite there with the basketball, the half court.

Yeah. Yeah, that looks so fun. Chris Brown plays there. That was pretty, that was a lot of fun. Yeah, they paved the way. I mean, they were thinking outside of the box and no one else during that time, which was what, late 90s, early 2000s?

Yeah. 2001. No one was really taking that risk, right? Vegas was a little more traditional. They were catering to the, Vegas went through that phase where they were trying to cater to families, right? Yeah. Everyone had a theme park and a water park.

That was way early 90s. Oh, like the circus, circus. Mm-hmm. And then that left, and then the Maloof family paved the way with the nightlife and restaurant portion and then what happened is everyone else picked up and the thing is you have an advantage. If you're Steve Wynn, you were on the Strip.

If you're the Cosmo, you're on the Strip, you're in the Hub. So now you have the formula that someone else tried and worked out for them already. You apply it, you spend more for bigger name DJs and it's done. I think that was, I wouldn't say the downfall of the palms, but I would say that was what took the trophy away and give first place to a lot of other spots. Yeah, now it seems like the win is a spot, right? From what I hear.

Yeah, I mean, when you talk about the perfect combo of nightlife and high end and big spending customers, there's no way you can discount the fact that the win is probably the mammoth on the strip, right right? Yeah, I mean I was there for dinner the other night and We walked by excess and I'm like I'm saying to my friend Tony. I says can you believe this that we do this 20 years ago? He said yeah, but they just they dress a lot worse these days You should see the way these girls are dressed in the way these guys are dressed It's just like man. days. You should see the way these girls are dressed and the way these guys are dressed. It's just like, man, where did the time go, you know?

They're practically naked these days when they show up there. Naked, clothes ain't matching. It's just a disaster. But listen, I heard you can't even, what is the table there? 15,000 on a Friday or Saturday night? You got a table like that?

At least 10,000. 10 to 15? Yeah, depending on who's performing, could be even more. Like New Year's is like 25. And then the place was and it was what's today today's Friday? We went Thursday night We went Wednesday night for dinner. Yeah, and it was rocking on a Wednesday night. Wow. I didn't want to go I didn't go in I'm not a big club guy man people always like because they I say I live in Vegas They assume like I go out and stuff. I don't even drink, you know

And you want to talk about you want to talk about clubs then the days of the palms club reign was where 9 steakhouse was in a little set back towards the pool I remember the line would be to the end of Brennan theaters. Holy crap. That's like 300 400 yards people waiting to get in line no shot of them even getting in. Damn. I mean it was crazy just just crazy the club scene was just that was like probably the I think it was crazy. Just crazy. The club scene was just, that was like probably the, I think it made like number top 10 clubs in the country. I could see that man. Yeah I wonder where Vegas ranks in nightlife. I know LA just

got ranked the worst in nightlife. Did it? Yeah. As of recent? It was like a few days ago yeah. Because people just go on their phones when they get inside the club. What are the metrics for that? Just like the... are doing? Yeah, I wonder how they polled it, but I'm assuming they just polled people out of 10 and said how much fun did you have or something. I don't know. People complaining. Yeah.

Because no one's really dancing anymore. Like my generation, we're just pulling up to the club and the bar, and we're on our phones. I'm sure you see that at the restaurant too, right? Everybody's on their phones. There's like 15 people in a booth sitting on top of the chairs pouring a vodka Red Bull and on their phones. I could see that. No one enjoys their meal anymore without being on the phone. 10, 15 people in a booth sitting on top of the chairs, pouring a vodka Red Bull and on their phones,

I could see that. No one enjoys their meal anymore without being on the phone, it's crazy. How about enjoying the people you're with? Forget about the food, right? Enjoy the people you're with, like how often you all get to go together and have dinner, right?

I mean, put your damn phones down. What's going on? You know, we say that, right? We say that as customers when we go out, we're like, we don't want everyone to be on the phone, but as restaurateurs, it's almost hypocrisy, right? Because we want people to be on their phones, because the more they're on their phones,

the more coverage we're getting as a restaurant. So when you're designing a menu nowadays, or you're designing a restaurant, one of the first questions is, what's Instagrammable? What dish is gonna be Instagrammable? Of course you want it to be good, you want the flavor to be there, presentation to be there, consistency, but you want it to be good, you want the flavor to be there, presentation to be there, consistency,

but you want it to be an Instagramable dish, and you want your restaurant to have multiple Instagramable locations. I mean, if you go to Berry's and you look at the women's restroom, for example, load it up, yeah, I mean, that's right. Number one most Instagram, we have the most selfies out of any other restaurant in the bathroom.

We can almost do an Instagram page for Berry's or social page for Berry's of just bathroom selfies. Everyone that goes in there loves it, right? With the pink marble. And then you have our garden room with the tree and then you have the DJ area. So yeah, we criticize it as guests of me because you and I are getting old.

So we go out with our kids around our phones. But you, as a business owner, you want that, right? Yeah, I mean, I'm glued. Even dinner at home, I'm on my phone while I'm watching YouTube while I'm eating. And my girls always pissed. But I just so- You take your phone to the bathroom too, right? Yeah, so add I'm glued even dinner at home. I'm on my phone while I'm watching YouTube while I'm eating Yeah, and my girls always pissed, but I just so you phone to the bathroom too, right? Yeah, so addicting man It's addicting man How much did like food influencers and social media change the the business for you guys like people like Keith Lee and all those food Influencers night and day over the years and we yeah, we saw it happen. I remember overnight overnight

I remember we were we were running nine steakhouse. And in about, I would say 2010 or 11, is when people started hiring social media managers or promoting someone who was fluent in the social media world to that position in the hotel. And we have a meeting with our entire staff. And the property marketing VP was like, hey, you got to meet our social media manager.

We're like, what the heck's a social media manager? And she comes in and she makes us all sign up on Twitter at the time and Instagram create a page and okay now you guys are gonna have to sign something and we want all of your hourly staff to tag these hashtags and we're like you know scratching our heads and then from then on it was there was no return. We started hosting within six months of that we were hosting hashtag Tuesday events and and then then there was no return. We started hosting, within six months of that, we were hosting hashtag Tuesday events and then it changed completely, right? Now it's to the point where most restaurants

or a lot of restaurants, including us, don't even have a print marketing budget anymore. It's all a social marketing budget. Yeah, I mean you wanna do some quid pro quo with some of these social media guys and invite them in for dinner in exchange for a post. Yeah. That's way more valuable than you're paying five, six grand for an ad in a magazine that

your demographic's probably not even going to see. Yeah. You know? No, I agree because they'll tell their friends and they'll send you guys business. It's like a domino effect. Yeah. It just goes on and on. I mean, that's what happened with me, man.

Richard brought me in once. He paid for my meal. And then I've sent you guys like probably hundreds of people at this point. Thank you. Yeah, so shout out to you guys So there's that portion right it which is to make sure you get the guys in to hashtag it But then you only have one shot to impress it right come in and you didn't have a good dinner True, maybe you would have done. Hey, you know Richard for a favor I'm gonna hashtag these guys or or or include them and then after that you like I'm not Yeah, yeah

So you have to you have that one shot when they come in to wow them and then then after that, you'd be like, I'm not going back. Yeah. So you have to have that one shot when they come in to wow them. And then you've got a customer. First impression, yeah. Because there are so many steakhouse options in Vegas. It's got to be one of the most competitive. Yeah, but you know, it is. You're right about that.

But when I first started with Charlie Palmer Steak, there was just a handful of steakhouses. They weren't really, there was different restaurants and hotels and whatnot. But, I mean, Emeril had his steakhouse and Charlie came in and then Manuel Le Bay followed up with another steakhouse and it just seemed like everybody's doing steakhouses throughout the years. So every hotel has a steakhouse. At least one. At least one.

Yeah, it's crazy. Some of them have like two or three. Yeah. Yeah, it's nuts. Even though the hotel's two or three. Yeah. Yeah, it's nuts. Even though the hotel's off strip, like you got Hanks and Green Valley. It's a staple. If you're a hotelier, you're building your food and beverage program,

usually the main restaurant, the main attraction is gonna be a steakhouse. Yeah. That's what, I mean, for Americans and for this country, that's what fine dining and social environments require is a steakhouse. Yeah. Talk business at a steakhouse,

go to romantic dinner at a steakhouse. Steakhouse doesn't necessarily mean that, hey, we just have steaks, we have everything. We have a vegan menu at a steakhouse. Yeah. You need everything these days, right? Where do you rank Vegas steakhouses compared to New York steakhouses?

Best, best in the world. You think Vegas is the best? Vegas, for me, has the best restaurants in the world. Because mostly every chef is here. Whether they're here or not, their business is here. Right. Joe Robichon, Guy Savoie, Charlie Palmer, all the great ones here, Michael Mina.

Yeah. I mean, they're here. That's true. John George. John George, Thomas Keller, everybody's here're here. That's true. Yeah, John George George Thomas Keller Everybody's here, buddy. Yeah, you know and they be he's got it here. They just brought the famous New York one to Caesars, right? Peter Louver. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I haven't tried it yet, but I heard that one's really good. All right In New York. Have you had it in New York? Yeah, sure. How was it? Well, New York's off the charts

That's a state. I used to go there when you could use a credit card you'd have a Peter Lugar credit card or it was cash oh wow but the times have changed you know I'm saying so yeah it was New York New York was it's an experience you know I have not we haven't been to the one out here yet mm-hmm we've got a few restaurants that are on the list yeah sometimes it's hard to replicate because some of the pizza spots come out here, it doesn't hit the same amount. I grew up in Jersey.

Yeah, and Vegas is a different beast, right? A lot of chefs come out there, out here, and think they can do what they do, where they're from. It just doesn't work. Right. It just doesn't work. You have to know your clientele. We're going 28, 27, and 28 years strong.

We know our clientele well. We know what they want. We know how to produce. That's what we do great. Yeah, you guys, oh God. No, I was gonna say, a lot of that has to do when you see these restaurants that are successful in other locations, including overseas.

A lot of that doesn't have to do with the actual owners or restaurateurs saying, hey, let's take a shot at Vegas. A lot of that has to do with, it's like sports scouting, right? And I'm a big soccer fan, and soccer clubs have scouts that go around the world and try to spot talent to bring them to the team. So hotels have that here, right?

Their VP of Food and Beverage and their departments go around the world and try restaurants and try to convince people who own a restaurant in, I don't know, the Amalfi Coast or in London to open in Vegas. Wow. And a lot of times you see people turn it down because they feel that it's succumbing to

and selling out, right? So, coming to the capitalism and selling out. So, they're like, nope, we're successful here in Tokyo, so we don't want to open in Vegas. But a lot of times it's too good, it's really an awesome opportunity for them. You have a couple of VPs in nice suits that dine at your little restaurant in New York and convince you that, hey, we can open one in Caesars or at MGM. You guys are going to be successful.

And then sometimes it's a flop, because exactly what Chef was saying, it's like it's a great little cute location. Mom and Pop join in Brooklyn. That's been successful for years, but it's not necessarily going to work when you have the masses that are walking through Caes's Palace looking for the best deal, right? And a cheap bite. So that's kind of what happens with these restaurants that come out.

Some work, some don't. I mean look at Bavette's. Bavette's is a famous eatery in Chicago and it works great out here. I love Bavette's, man. That's my favorite spot for bone marrow. Holy crap, they hook you up on bone marrow there. You have bone marrow with me or no? No. Oh, you gotta try it. I gotta try it, okay. That's my favorite spot for bone marrow. Holy crap, they hook you up on bone marrow there. You have bone marrow with me or no?

No. Oh, you gotta try it. I gotta try it, okay. Yeah, please come on in. I'll definitely try it. Bone marrow's one of my favorite appetizers. It's so good. I didn't know hotels were doing that.

That's really interesting. Other than Circa, which hotel do you think has the best dining in Vegas? I think it would be hard to deny that you have a. I would say when. Yeah, well, it's a good platform. But Venetian's been known, I mean, especially with their former leadership in the food and beverage department.

I think that they have one of the biggest platforms, one of the most renowned platforms. They're bringing Kote to the Korean steakhouse. There you go, see? They're always on the front. And look, they finally closed the deal with Jose Andres I Bizarre meat right I saw that longest time was I actually opened that place. Oh you did It's a harb in back in is that leaving the Sahara. Yeah, I think it's are they staying it's gone already

Or is it goes to be on yeah, it's gonna open up at At the Venetian, okay, yeah, and then you have then of course you have Cosmo Aria that whole combo I mean, it's hard to it's hard to battle them too. I think they're very Very aggressive with their their plan to Overall hotels serve good food. Yeah, it's hard to pick their yeah, Aria solid. Yeah, Carbone John George's Dente fun is pretty good the Asian spot. Yeah. I'm sure you guys are doing a lot of R&D on the side, right? Oh, he's I mean here in Vegas and then traveling mostly you know to get ideas yeah Europe a lot Middle East soon and then I mean just going around

town and trying stuff should we go to Chicago for the restaurant show over you just to stay on top of what's happening in our industry Chicago and New York are great spots I love it what's your guys most popular dish and what's the story behind the creation of it? How did it come about? Well, I mean, there's so many popular dishes we've done all through the year. My favorite dish now is the lobster flambe.

That's my ultimate favorite dish. I think it's just an amazing dish. A seven pound main lobster taken out of the shell, sauteed in some truffle oil with shallots and garlic, flamed with some brandy, finished with some truffle butter with shallots and garlic. Flamed with some brandy. Finished with some truffle butter, a splash of cream and lobster stock. Fresh truffles, asparagus, potato gnocchis,

all combined together. Finished with a little sea salt. It's my favorite dish. The lamb chops, parmesan, pine nut crust is one of our staple dishes. Bone marrow flies out of the restaurant, right? Damn, I didn't know that. Yeah, and our rib cap, our prime rib cap,

our spinae muscle. That's just good. So we've got so many great dishes, but my favorite dish is the lobster flambe that I prepare table side for the guests when they come in. It's quite pricey, but listen, we're in Vegas. Treat yourself, don't cheat yourself. You make some money, hit the restaurant after, you know?

My boy just made 500K last week. What, with Parley? Cosmo, no, blackjack oh you gotta you gotta be on it you gotta be on a sick run he was betting 10k a hand he actually usually loses like a hundred or 200k but this trip he just ran hot really yeah so does he so what's his dining etiquette when he's playing does he actually stop for a full meal or yeah I actually grabbed a meal with the, what's that Asian restaurant in the Cosmo? Mamufoku. Mamufoku, yeah.

And they comp his meals and stuff. So yeah, he eats. I mean, they comp you a lot when you're gambling that much. All his shows and everything. That's the cool part about Vegas, you know? Some of the most interesting guests for us over the years have been gamblers, right? Yeah.

And they're different types of gamblers. There are poker players and poker players just take a full on two, three hour break and go have a dinner. Then you have blackjack players, and you have sports bettors at Circa, obviously with what Derek Stevens built with Sportsbook-wise. But the most interesting is picking these guys' brains

when they eat. Some of them want to talk, some of them are just like, hey, I'm here at the bar, I want to grab a bite and go. But they're also some of the best tippers, is gamblers. And I don't know if that has to do with the fact that they just won or not, but I think it's just part of their- Could play a role, plus they believe in karma,

I feel like, right? Good energy. Vinny Paz won, my friend, just got inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame. And he was in Vegas after, Roy Jones, I'd just beaten him, there's a big story behind it. He was in Vegas, I Jones had just beaten him. There's a big story behind it. He was in Vegas, I think he dropped like 100,000 and he had a couple of dollars in his pocket

and he's walking down the street when it was Bally's at the time. And I don't know, casino host seeing him walking, he says, hey Vinny, he says, what's happening? He goes, hey, what's up? He goes, you gonna come and play? He goes, ah, I didn't get too much money on me right now. He says, but he says, I'll give you a line,

I think it was 10 or $15,000. He wins almost a million dollars. What? That night, yeah. With a $10,000 or $15,000 line. Holy crap. Marty Kunkel was the dealer, and I met Marty throughout the years, and he comes in with him every once in a while.

They still talk to each other. But you know, for like 10 or 15 thousand to win a million dollars, and a guy was splitting tens, doubling down on tens and getting an ace, that's the luck and the horseshoe we had in his ass, right? I mean, that's crazy. Dude, that's the biggest R.O.I. I've ever heard. That's the big, that's a true story.

Yeah, cause usually to win a million, you need to start with six figures at least. 10 to 15, might even have been 12, I don't know what the exact number is. Oh my gosh. Did he come in? He was in town this week. I didn't see him.

Yeah, that's nuts. Vegas is known for legendary stories like that, right? I'm sure a lot of guys celebrate historic nights at your spot, right? I've seen you guys cook for a lot of famous people after fights and stuff. A lot of famous fighters, singers, everybody comes in. Yeah. It's really cool.

We're blessed. That's impressive. You guys really crush it, I think, comes in. Yeah. It's really cool. We're blessed. That's impressive. You guys really crush it, I think, on the word of mouth and the marketing aspect. Thank you. Compared to other steakhouses. I don't really see other steakhouses doing that. Thank you.

Right? Yeah, I mean, it's also respecting the privacy of these people when they come in. A lot of places have automatically called their whole PR and marketing department down from the hotel to start doing pictures and making them sign stuff. And for us it's like, hey, we just let them come in, have dinner, and if they're in the mood,

we'll do a picture, and if they're not in the mood, we're like, hey, here's my card, here's my number, the owners, and then that just makes them come back. I love it. I love coming back like that. I tell them, sign it or you're not eating. I also think downtown is kind of more low key too. For sure.

You know? You know, a lot of people thought when we were going downtown, they're like, you guys ain't gonna make it downtown. There's nothing happening there. It's a dead horse, you know? But. And I'm like, you don't know who you're dealing with.

You know, we got a great team. We produce great product. Punch Design did our restaurant. Gem did our kitchen. I mean we know how to, we know how to, people just have to come. We know how to put it together, you know? And it's a very special place. Very, very special. Yeah, not many reasons for me to go downtown, but you guys I will make that trip for, for sure. It's, it's, and you know what's simple, people don't think

it's hard to get there. You just pull into Cirque Valley under the hotel part, you pull right in, Valley under the hotel part, you pull right in, you're less than 150 feet from the escalator to go down. You can take an elevator or an escalator down. That's the luxury of being in that basement is easy access to the restaurant. You don't have to wait.

It's super easy. It's super easy. Even the South Park's not that bad of a walk. No, it's not that bad of a walk. I love it though. They made it good. What do you guys got planned for this year any events or anything cool coming up? What do we have cool coming up February of course Super Bowl this weekend Mother's Day coming up

Well, let's let's go. Let's go into the future. Yeah, this year was the first year that we did Thanksgiving to go, right and It went really well. I think we did what, 300 dinners to go? Maybe 300? Damn, close to four. Close to four. And you know, the best way to learn is by doing something and seeing what the mistakes are and how you can get better and next year, this year's gonna be much, much better.

You know, we're gonna do some different sides, the price will be right around the same, it's gonna be bigger and better and easier. I mean, first of all, it's very, very easy. You just pull into the valet. We personally take the food out to you. But we're going to make that. That, for me, I'm excited for that Thanksgiving.

That's going to be pretty cool. That's such a smart idea. Who came up with that Thanksgiving to God? It was a collaborative effort with Circa, jumped in on that a lot as well. Their marketing department and Derek Stevens give us the blessing to use the valet. But in this day and age, especially after COVID

with cost of goods, it's very hard for restaurants to survive anymore. So you throw competition in there, which already exists in a city like Vegas. Now you're not only fighting for top line revenue, you're scrambling to make your bottom line be successful. So you've got to think outside the box. So to go, most restaurateurs prior to COVID

didn't like to do to-go orders because you feel as a chef or as a restaurateur that your best product is served right there at the restaurant. Once people take it to go and it's in a box, it's not gonna be a good representation of your restaurant. But after COVID and everyone was doing to go orders and you have the advent of all of the Uber Eats and all the ride share eateries,

you kind of have to jump on board. So now every year, we close the year planning for the next year to think, how are we going to make the bottom line larger by not sacrificing anything for the guests and then doing to go orders the way we did Thanksgiving is definitely a successful way to do it. Yeah that's gonna be cool to see this year how that turns out. The rising costs I did want to talk about that because you see people on social media complaining about like the price of eating out but you guys got hit hard on that right? Super hard. So the meat industry poultry industry got hit a couple years ago I mean it's it's great

when you look at sometimes I sit back and I look at a P&L, a profit and loss statement from a restaurant we were running maybe five, six years ago and you compare it to today, it's almost like you're in a different country and a different era. Wow, it's that drastic in five years? Listen, if you have anyone on the show

that has a breakfast restaurant, they're dying right now because of eggs. Oh. Eggs are, it's just nuts. I just paid $14 for a dozen of organic eggs. I couldn't believe it. Wow, that's crazy. So you're constantly having to think of creative ways

to maximize your bottom line, and then there's just some things that hit you just out of control, right? So if, you know, we don't have as much eggs on our menu as breakfast restaurants do, but you have to find ways to get creative all by not sacrificing your quality. So, I mean, the easy answer is you raise your prices, right?

But how much can you keep raising your prices in restaurant business? There's a point where you raise your prices and you're gonna lose revenue because people are gonna be like, dude, I'm not paying $100 for a filet. Like when I saw filets go up in the last couple years, when we were doing our R&D before opening berries,

we went to, I wanna say it's prime at the Bellagio maybe in 2020, 2019 or 2020. And when I saw that bill at the end and the filet, or even on the menu, I was like, this is freaking, it's like a slap to the face. Then we went to Mayfair, have a cocktail at the bar, and it wasn't a table side cocktail, it wasn't anything. It was just a regular old fashioned, and it was like 28

bucks. Damn. Jeez. For a drink? What's going on here? Yeah, so there's only so much you can do. I guess Bellagio and Unstripped, maybe you It wasn't anything it was just a regular old-fashioned. It was like 28 bucks damn For a drink what's going on here? Yeah, so there's only so much you can do I guess Bellagio and on strip Maybe you can get away with that you can't do that downtown no 20 max for drinks is like my rule Oh, yeah, I mean right otherwise you feel it's an insult otherwise psychologically. It just doesn't feel yeah It doesn't feel good so with that in mind. You've got to find ways to To to keep your bottom line going. It's just consistency and taking care of people

and hoping more people come back. Because you don't want to sacrifice on quality. Some places do. And I guarantee you, you'll stop going to places where you go back and you're like, that dish didn't taste the same. It's the same price as it was, but it didn't taste the same. You're not going back.

No, that's happened to me so many times, actually, in Vegas. That was a lot. You guys saw New Sur Edges close last week, Salt Bae's restaurant. Yeah, we went there first week it opened. I think it was too expensive personally. I mean, I know he has the brand and everything

so he could probably charge more, but I think it was too much more. You know, people will try it. Like I think I agree, people will try it the first time and then they see the bill at the end. Like we had dinner there, I think it was three of us, and the bill was like $2,500. Holy crap. Right and we didn't we had you got the gold stick. No we didn't get that. We tried a lot of things you

know and he came out and said hello and whatnot but it was an expensive restaurant and I mean you know you're you're next to T-Mobile. Yeah. Eataly is across the street there's a lot of action when the games are going on and whatnot, right? But I mean, it was probably a hot place to get to and it is a hot place. The parking was horrendous. The parking was terrible.

It's also not a pre-game. That's why location is such a key factor in opening a restaurant. Because, I mean, you can argue that that's a great location. I would argue that it's not for that concept, right? It's not really a pre or post-game type restaurant. And when right across the street inside... MGM. MGM, yeah.

Eataly, right? Eataly, yeah. That's a pre post game type of place, right? You're not going to sit down and have a $5,000 dinner and purchase roast steak, right? Yeah. But I think there's so many things with that. First of all, shout out to all the guys that work there during the opening that opened it. We know the GM, the former GM. And it's always sad to see a restaurant go down. But you can kind of see the writing on the wall.

And it also didn't help the whole World Cup debacle. I mean, he lost a lot of respect internationally. I saw that, yeah. The pitch, grabbing the cup, forcing Messi into a fold. Yeah, what was he doing? That was wild. Yeah, that was just a lot going on in one shot. And a lot of people took offense to that.

Yeah. And I mean, the rest of the world is huge on soccer. So when you disrespect the cup and the number one player in the world like that, I think that affects your brand image. I mean, soccer's the biggest sport. Somebody got him on the field. So somebody's head's rolling.

Yeah, someone got fired in that situation. But no, you're right. Soccer is probably the biggest sport in the world, right, in terms of viewership. So yeah, that was damaging to him. I never got into soccer until I met him. Yeah. And we were in the Caribbean

when we opened up our friends place down there and the World Cup was up. Was it the World, what year was it? Yeah, 2018. 2018? Yeah. The World Cup was here. Have you had like any soccer players come through? Yeah, who's from Croatia? Oh, we have former soccer former soccer players. Yeah

Former soccer because we haven't had any honestly. We've had every other sport in there Well, my dream would be whenever there's like a game in town Yeah, you've got to find the right context for it. But like there was a classical two years ago Real Madrid Barcelona Oh, yeah, that was that would have been sick to have some of those players. Yeah, that would have been cool. I'll put you guys in touch with Gary Bracco. Do you know him? He's a help. He does Dana White's health. He's his health advisor. He's Ronaldo's health guy. Oh nice. Yeah. Yeah, so maybe you guys can get Ronaldo in there. You know who? Jose Bautista, he used to play for the Toronto Blue Jays. Yeah.

He just purchased the local soccer team. What is it? It's like a AAA soccer team here. Oh, crap. And they play at Cashman. Yeah. Yeah, so he actually brought a bunch of the players in. Oh, that's cool.

I don't know who those guys are, you know. Yeah, I can't name any AAA players personally. Have you guys seen a trend health-wise, people care more about their health at the restaurant? Because that's like a big thing right now on social media I I I haven't seen it in our restaurant because it is a steakhouse and when you're ordering lobster flambés and desserts and All those kind of crazy dishes, right? um

I really haven't seen it. I haven't have you I mean, I mean there are some people that we do on a different scale Here's how it works. So a lot of the the the the got flex Lewis. Yeah dragons layer and his entire team they come to Barrett religiously, and they're great and they send us tons of business and The way it works is they'll make a reservation for someone was a bodybuilder from Brazil or someone from the UK Like both mr. Olympias 212 and main mr. Olympia came and dined right after right now So there's two ways they do it. If they are dining after their show, they're splurging. But a lot of times they're in prep, so we'll get texts from people at Dragon's Air or their coaches telling us, hey, when they come in, can you guys please do this? And it's very specific instruction. It's like cook a filet, no butter, no seed oils. Yeah, so you see that then there's there's the vegan

Trend that that picked up and became a way of life, which is why we actually have on our regular dinner menu We have an entire vegan section because people tend to eat You know less red meat and they want vegan. So yeah, there is a trend in that manner Wow, I didn't know the vegan trend was that strong. So you gotta make a subterranean. Vegan air is really strong. Holy crap. But also the hospitality factor kicked in for us because in the past, if you're a vegan or you have to eat gluten-free or you have a dietary restriction

and you're eating with a group of six, you kinda stand out, right? And it's not the best way to make a guest feel. So let's say you're the vegan and us three dining, you have to ask for a separate menu or they're gonna talk to the chef for you. So if you include those items on the regular menu, it makes them feel included into the dining experience,

which for us is what hospitality is about. That makes sense. Are you guys on the food delivery ops too or no? We are not. Was that by choice? Yeah, and I don't think, there was a whole debacle with that before we even started.

It was during COVID, the rates of Uber Eats and everyone, we jumped in with all of the local restaurants in terms of how that works. But I don't think that there's going to be much of a demand for higher end. We don't foresee anyone going on there and ordering $300 worth of steak on Uber Eats. I could be wrong. I mean maybe that's something we need to explore. I don't think so because I think if somebody wants something to go, we do a lot of to-go food, believe it or not, people come and pick up some stuff, but I agree, I don't think we should. Yeah, I was asking, because I don't see many good steakhouses on,

I order Postmates like five times a week, and I never see any nice steakhouses on there. Would you order from a fine dining steakhouse if you wanted a filet mignon? I would try it, but it probably wouldn't taste as good, to be honest. No, because it's traveling, it's steaming in the box you. I'd eat hot. Yeah, so that's a good point It'd have to be quick delivery for it to be worth it

If it gets there cold then paying a hundred bucks for cold steak You know Damn and then you're reheating. So if you're you know, if you're if you're keen on your temperature of your steak You're changing that completely. Yeah, no, that's facts. Like when I microwave food, it doesn't hit the same, ever. You know? Well guys, where can people find both of you on social media and learn more about Berry's and Circa? So we're, for the restaurant, we're at Berry's Prime.

B-A-R-R-Y-S-P-R-I-M-E, right? At Berry's Prime. We're pretty active on there. We repost a lot of the stories people post and a lot of our events and food is on there. Yeah. At Chef Barry. At Chef Barry.

Chef Barry, cool. We'll link it below guys. Definitely check them out. One of my favorite steak houses in Vegas. Thanks for coming on guys. Thanks for having us. Great to be here and thank you for having us. Absolutely.

Come and have some bone marrow. Oh I will, that's on my list. Next week we'll be there. All right guys, take it easy. Thank you. Thank you. Get ready for Las Vegas style action at BedMGM, the king of online casinos.

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