Digital Social Hour - Team Behind Cafe Lola Saint Honore & Three Little Chicks I Alexandra Lourdes & Steve Jerome DSH #365

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

Alexandra Lourdes and Steve Jerome come on the show to discuss their journey in the food industry. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly Factor: https://www.factor75.com/dsh50 LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXa... Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No, they gave us a three star because our donuts were too big. They were too big? Yeah, and so for us, to me, it hurts, not number one. I think that they think that we're just such a big business that we can take it, but they don't realize that we actually have so many employees that depend on us. And when these people are leaving reviews like that on small businesses, they can actually affect the business. For sure.

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Ladies and gentlemen, we are back. We're here with some Vegas legends today, Alexandra Lourdes and Steve Jerome. How's it going, guys? How you doing? Hi. Doing great. I'm great.

So talk to me about all the restaurants you guys own. Can you name them? Oh, gosh. Okay, so we have Cafe Lola. We have five locations. We have St. Honoré, and then we have Three Little Chicks that we just opened. Wow, so that's seven spots?

So we have seven. Yeah, we have the five Lolas, the two St. Honorés, and the Three Little Chicks. That's amazing. And one of the L. Yeah, we have the five Lolas, the two Saint Honorés, and the three little chicks. That's amazing. And one of the Lolas is in the form shops, right? Yeah, Cafe Lola. We just opened a year ago inside form shops. Wow.

Is that the most successful one, I'd assume? Yeah, it's definitely our most popular now. It's the highest revenue generator, but obviously the highest rent. In terms of profitability, I can't even ask. It's doing well. It's doing well. Yeah. It's been great. I always see it because I go to that escape room in that place. Oh, right. Yeah. I've done every room there. I always stop by there. The drinks you guys make at Cafe Lola, phenomenal. Thank you very much. Yeah. How did you come up with the menu and the drinks and all that? So I actually am very new to the restaurant world.

It's funny because Steve and I are so different. So me and my business partner, Lynn, actually started it. And Lynn's his wife. Lynn and my husband work out of the office, and they do most of the business side. And then Steve and I work in the outlets and do a lot of the food development side. The creative programming, anything food or drink.

Nice. So you guys complement each other. Yeah, it's definitely an amazing team. And so Steve and I also develop a lot of the menu items. So the drinks, I actually started, to be honest, I never made an espresso drink in my life before we started Cafe Lola. Wow. I never, ever drank espresso.

I never even used one of those professional espresso machines. And so we hired somebody and they taught us, right? I mean, that's what I think a lot of people don't realize is that if you have an idea and a dream, you just hire someone better than you and they teach you how to do it, right? So we hired someone. They taught us. And Steve and I just really jumped in and we just really loved that side of the world. And I'm super creative. I actually have a degree in art.

So I feel like that just, I love it. I love the colors. I love mixing things. You know, it just, it felt like art to me. Nice. And so, and I'm also really, really, I love ingredients. I love being more on the healthy side. So we, I try to do a lot of things with like more like organic maple, you know, agave.

I try to keep things a little healthier so people feel good about drinking it. So when I created all the menus or all the drinks, I always keep those in mind. Like, what would I want to drink, right? And so I keep them a little bit less sweet because I know when people go to Starbucks, they get sugar bombs, you know?

And I know people like that. So I always tell our staff too, I'm like, make sure you educate people that our drinks are a lot less sweet. So if they tell our staff too, I'm like, make sure you educate people that, you know, our drinks are, our drinks are a lot, you know, less sweet. So if they want them sweeter,

you can add more sugar, but I like to go less. And then we like to keep it seasonal too. So like every new menu item, or every new season, we come out with new menu items. So that's really fun. And then Steve actually develops a lot of the food items. So,

because he has a culinary kind of background, he's been, you want to talk about it? Yeah. Walk me through the process of creating a food item that goes on the menu. All right. So, um, I'll take you back all the way to, I guess the beginning. Um, so Lynn and Alex, um, had a marketing company and had

this idea to start, um, a cafe. So they had signed a lease and said, um, okay, we need a chef cause we're going to do food and we, so they had elaborate idea. We wanted to do healthy food though. We wanted it to be a different cafe. We wanted it to be like, because I used to go to coffee shops, like Lynn and I used to go to coffee shops and work and we'd be like, we can never eat here

because I'm gluten free. And I'm like, I'd always have to leave. They never had gluten free things. They never had dairy free. And so I told Steve, I'm like, when we create food, I want it to be healthy stuff, like avocado toast. I want all these different toasts. I want things that I can actually eat, like eggs. That's what I want at my coffee shop.

That's a good point. We sat down, and I said, well, come to the house. I'll do what I think it should look like. This will give you a framework, at least, and then we can hire a chef and put it to life. I think we did the first maybe, and some of those things are still on the menu. Yeah, avocado toast. Oh, that's my favorite.

Avocado toast? Yeah, that's avocado. So I just plated it the way I know food, right? Like working for Wolfgang Puck for all those years and then being at the win and then, you know, obviously. Do you guys spend a lot of time or money or both on food, especially cooking and ordering, delivery? Well, look no further than Factor, guys. Factor's got delicious ready-to-eat meals that you could

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So I just put out the food the way I thought it should look. And she tried it. Lynn tried it. And they were like, this is it. This is exactly what we want it to look like from the aesthetics. It was really small to start. Small, yeah. We started with just like five toasts, I think.

And she said, you're going to be the chef. And I said, whoa. Totally is perfect. Do you know how to cook? Yeah, I mean. He's Italian. All Italian. I've been around food my whole life.

Okay. You know, working for Wolf, I think I got just a ton of experience. We used to do like cooking classes during the day, dinner only restaurants. So we had the rooms during the day. Is his name Wolf? Wolfgang. Okay. But you call him Wolf. Wolf, yeah. Oh, there was classes there during the day? So yeah, we had Trattoria del Lupo, which was in Mandalay Bay. It was a dinner only restaurant, but they had like these world-class chefs that were just kind of like hanging around during the day. So all these convention, like people would come in and we used to do cooking classes and they would need, you know,

just help like, you know, prepping. And I was just around it like all the time um and then you learned how to like make sauces and you learned how to you know just just watching chop vegetables just everything i i think i learned very visually anyways and i did that for like 10 years just working you know but i was an operator and you know as a restaurant operator yeah but i yeah always like at home i cooked you know my growing a restaurant operator. Yeah. But, yeah, always, like, at home I cooked. You know, growing up, like, Italian recipes with my mom. So I've always been around it, but never, like, you know, as a skilled, like, professional chef. That's cool.

And really what we're doing in the restaurants, although it's elevated food, it's certainly not, you know, Michelin star food. I mean, it's not meant to be. Yeah. Casual. Casual food, home style, I think, but always with an emphasis on quality. Um, I think where we were again, if we're talking about the partnership wise, it's like, she has the idea, I can help with the flavors. And then we kind of come together on the aesthetic and the plating of it. And it, and it always looks, you know, looks great. Um, So I think that's kind of like the origin. But no, no formal training to answer your question.

Wow. No, that's fascinating because to me it looks like a lot of restaurants fail, right? And a lot of cafes fail. But it seems like you guys have a great partnership and that's why you guys are killing it. Yeah. I'll speak a little bit to that. Alex touched on it earlier. I think the four of us kind of really came together and we kind of stay really in our really clear lanes. Like my wife Lynn has the law degree. Michael, Alex's husband, comes from the finance world. He was a CEO of Raising

Cane's and has an HR background. So they are, you know, my wife's finding real estate, looking at contracts and deeds. Michael's, you know, helping us with finance and budgeting and forecasting, things that I certainly know how to do being in the restaurants and as an operator, but certainly don't love to do. My passion is in the restaurants. It's creating, it's, you know, guest experiences

and creating that kind of stuff. And that's having those two kind of behind the scenes, I think has allowed us to really, um, like flourish and do the things that we're passionate about. Um, I think the four of us working that way. Um, and again, it allows us to be creative and go in there and we'd be nimble. Like if she wants to create a drink, you know, today for tomorrow for some, you know, Tik TOK or something that's kind of cool and relevant or like Taylor Swift's coming in town. So we got to do donuts for her. Like we can do that on a dime.

You made donuts for Taylor Swift? We've done donuts for a lot of people. I just, not for her, but I did them like to celebrate her coming. So we did them for the store. You know what I mean? Wow. That's awesome. But I've done donuts for a lot of different celebrities, which has been awesome. That's cool. Yeah. store. You know what I mean? Wow. Yeah. That's awesome. But I've done donuts

for a lot of different celebrities, which has been awesome. That's cool. Yeah. I saw even Louis Vuitton, right? Yeah. And a few other big brands. We have a lot of really big brands.

Corporate brands. Yeah. And that's the power of the marketing you guys have, right? Yeah. Because you guys have marketing backgrounds. Yeah.

And you've done great with the branding. Thank you. Yeah. That's, again, let's see what's saying. It's like really nice that we've been able to focus

on that. And the branding part is something that I think that I'm really passionate about. I came from social media. So before I started this restaurant, I was a foodie. So I like would post all different, I'd go to all different local restaurants. I would post and like celebrate them. Right. And I would be like this, this restaurant, you should go check out.

It's so amazing. And so, and then I think that really helps us i think because i came from a consumer standpoint you know and i'm like i know what consumers like i know what consumers like to take photos of i know what like me as a foodie what i want to see on the menu so that's kind of where my perspective comes from and and kind of where are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest we'll click the application link below in the description of this video we are always looking for cool stories cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life click the application link below and here's the episode guys where i give ideas i always come up with these crazy ideas

and like we when we i now now just recently i started posting our development ideas so like when i come up with some crazy idea we do a video and those have been going so viral it's so funny you get millions of views. It's impressive. Crazy, yeah. Like just us doing a pickle pizza. I saw that one. And some of that's exaggerated

for the camera, but that's truthfully like how it goes down. She'll come in and she'll be like, and I'm like, really, we're doing this? And then it like,

it'll evolve, right? And it happens. And now it's going on the menu. Yeah, and now there's going to be a pickle pizza? There's going to be a pickle pizza. I've never seen that before. Starting in December.

Wow. So how do you stay on top of all these food trends? Because the food trends are insane. It's so fast. I know. It's so fast. Mostly, I think I'm the one that really immerses myself in social media because I live in it, right?

So I'm constantly on social media. Right. So if there's ever a trend that comes up, we'll pretty much, we'll jump on it pretty quick. Yeah, pretty quick. on it pretty, like right away. Yeah. Nice. And if not, that like, I mean, we pick and choose which ones obviously we go through, but for the most part we try to jump in. I think they have to be true to what we're, you know, the core of our business, right?

Like it doesn't make sense for us to do something that isn't Cafe Lola for Lola. Yeah. And it doesn't have necessarily food trends. It's just kind of things that are kind of trending or sounds or like happening. Even songs. Songs, yeah. I try to turn anything. I feel like that's like, he always says that's just like my talent, you know, is like figuring out how I can make this trend into my business, right?

So like turning donuts into songs, like I've done that before too. And those also go, they get millions of views because it's just entertaining, you know? It is. I don't see anyone else doing what you're doing with the donut stuff. Thank you. It's super funny. Now, was this successful from day one or was there? Oh, it wasn't?

Uh-uh. Okay. It actually was. I mean, even today, I know people just assume, I feel like that we're just like so successful because of TikTok, right? Or for social media. But there are months that we like lose money. Really? Yeah. Because we're just like so successful because of tiktok right or social media but there are months that we like lose money because yeah because there's we're not busy that much you know it's the reality of running a restaurant yeah i mean not they're not always like you know it's

low margin yeah it's low margins it's it's it's hard right yeah you asked why a lot of them fell earlier like there's a myriad of like reasons why I think why we've been able to stay above is because we are to what I said earlier, we're nimble. We're able to, to change things rather quickly. If things are, we see things are getting sideways. We're able to say, Hey, we got to, you know, like the great example, like the donut business, nobody was going out. We had a, you know, a staff of people sitting around. We said, you know, Hey, let's, let's start a new concept. Basically in the middle of, we started making pizzas, you know? So like, you have to be like able to do that. I think we actually had to close down the donut shop during.

So that was crazy. And then before that, we were only open for a year before that. And we would only make like 12, 12 donuts per flavor. And there were days where we would throw out 50% of them because we didn't sell them. And we were in this small parking lot, like no one knew where we were. And I remember telling Steve, I was like, if people just tried our donuts, I know they would love them. Like I remember, but there was, that was before TikTok blew up. And then enter social media and that's kind of what's propelled it like to where it is because without getting that messaging out there, like that's the other thing. You could have the greatest product in the world

and like if people aren't, they don't know if you, they don't know if you're alive. I mean, especially in this city. I think about it. I'm like, what did people do back? What did they do back in the day? That's a good point. Yeah. Cause I'm like, you could have such a good product, but you don't make it. No, but that's so true. Cause I stumbled across your donut shop on accident. Um, I was just in the area and it was the best donut I've ever had in Vegas. And I was like, this is way better than like Pink Box or whatever it's called. No, nothing against those. I mean, we're just a different – it's a different concept.

I mean, we make everything from scratch. You're talking about like 24-hour brioche dough. Yeah, the quality is noticeable. Yeah, creams, custards, all from scratch. I got four of them. I ate like two whole donuts. That's great. Those are big.

For us, that's amazing to hear because that's what we really want you to be able to tell difference. That's all we care about. I don't want to compare myself to anyone else, but I do think that we have the best donuts totally in the city or in the world. For sure.

Even in the cafe, the quality is so noticeable. I've been to a bunch of breakfast spots out here and you can notice. Yeah. For sure. And I'll always pay a little more for healthier options. Yeah. Yeah, it's something that we're,

you know, it's a core, it's a core value for us. It's like always has to have that quality. We have to be proud to serve it or else, you know, we're just not going to do it. Yeah.

So coming from the corporate restaurants, what's been that shift like for you? So for me, it's like, I kind of, I think I have kind of a unique background. So like working for the win is certainly that, right? You're talking about corporate America, stock traded, you know, union staff. Yeah. Working for Wolfgang is kind of a little bit of a mix. I think you get certainly big, you know, tourism spot, celebrity chef and all of that.

So I think I've learned a lot from both of the, you know, working in those two environments, but working for yourself and doing this for yourself every day, it's just a different animal. I mean, it requires so much of your time. It requires just, I mean, you have to give everything you have. And it's literally 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I mean, if we're not in the restaurants operating, we're at home, you know, talking about concepts or talking about ideas or looking at, you know, P&L statements and trying to figure out profitability. It just doesn't stop. We have over 120 employees now that are, you know, coming to work every day that are relying on us to, you know, to feed their families now.

So it's, I think the weight is a little bit different when it's yours, right? Yeah. So you guys are feeling a lot of pressure. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. People don't talk about this, you know. No, yeah.

That's important. And that's, and I was telling Steve actually earlier is that even when people like leave a Yelp review, for example, or like a Google review and they like bash your business, you know, for something small. Oh, that happen to you guys? It happens all the time. Really? Oh, yeah. Like I wouldn't go look at our reviews. Oh, is that bad?

Like they're – I mean I would say – No, I mean I think overall – and again,, I don't think it's indicative, like, of what actually is out there in terms of our reputation or thing, but there are, you know, like, we get comments like, went to the donut shop and they gave it, like, a one-star review because you're sold out of donuts. No, like,

no, they gave us a three-star because our donuts were too big. Yeah, like, they, and so for us, like, okay, it's to me, it hurts, not number one, right? It's like hurtful. I think that they think that we're like just such a big business that we can take

it, you know, but they don't realize like that we actually have so many employees that depend on us and like when these people are leaving reviews like that on small businesses, like they can actually affect the business. For sure. And like people will not go there because of that review. And now we have to businesses, like they can actually affect that, the business. For sure. And like, so people will not go there because of that review. And now we have to pay, like, I mean, we're paying out of our pocket anyway, some months, you know, because some months we need it.

But most, for the most part, I'm like, if you went to like a, like McDonald's, like and had a bad experience, like no one would leave a one-star review, but they're like leaving you bad reviews on these local businesses who support all these other families so to me that's crazy you know that's a good point yeah so to me that's like where i feel the pressure the most that like i'm like doing this whole yelp thing now i'm like i need to like get our stars out because i feel like i want people to really love us i can not just but i don't know how to tell people that like i don't know how to be like hey like just address it email me you know like we We don't want you to have a bad experience. And obviously a one-star review for not having donuts at 2 o'clock,

to me that's not warranted. That's not fair. No, I will say when I do see low reviews, like if it's below 4, my subconscious is telling me the food won't be good. So I usually won't eat there, honestly. See? Yeah. So it is damaging, especially for small local businesses. So I don't know. So what's the reviews out right now? I think we're at 3. Yeah. So it is damaging, especially for small local businesses. So I don't know.

So what's the reviews out right now? I think we're at three and a half. What? Some of them are four, but some are four. That's crazy.

The donuts are so good. Thanks. That's shocking to me. I know. I don't understand how someone can be the one star. Well, like I said,

some of it is like, hey, we came at 2.30 on a Saturday and they're sold out. I'm like, okay, well. A lot of them are that. A lot of them. Oh, so they don't

even eat it? No. Yo. No. That's crazy. No, well. A lot of them are that. A lot of them. Oh, so they don't even eat it. No. No. That's crazy. No, I would say 50% are one stars because we're sold out of donuts and they're pissed because they Ubered there and they can't get donuts. Which sucks. And they're like, why is a donut shop?

Messaging has been like, you know, pre-order, you know, come early. But also don't all donut shops sell out of donuts at some point? Yeah, for sure. I mean. The good ones do. Yeah. Right. You know what they should do?

They should. Right. I mean, it's not like you can, it's 24 hour go. It's like, you can't just make donuts. They should have a way where it connects to your CRM or at least you upload a receipt where only customers can leave a review. That would be more fair. More fair.

Totally, yeah. Yeah. So some of that, but you know. Do you guys want to keep scaling or are you content with seven locations right now? I think ultimately we do. I think right now we're at a place and a time where we got to kind of pump the brakes. Pause a bit. Yeah.

It's just, it becomes, I mean, like the Lola's, I think we could do it fairly easily if we had enough capital to do it the right way and get into the right markets. We have the infrastructure. I could see those crushing it in Cali. Yeah. I think they would do well just about any major market. I think that they certainly resonate with folks. and I think that the concepts are viable. I think the donut concept has probably the greatest potential out of all of them because it's such a great concept.

It's labor-intensive. Like I said, we're hand-decorating everything every day. Must take hours to make those, right? They do. Yeah, I think our baker gets in at 6 p.m. the night before. What? Works overnight.

Yo. Yeah, yeah. He works overnight. It's a 24-hour operation. Oh my God. A team of decorators come in at 4 in the morning. They're hand decorating until 7, 8 in the morning just to get donuts out.

I didn't know that much went into it. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's a project. Yeah, because we don't use any machines yet, you know, so everything is literally, like he's literally cutting 2,000 donuts by hand. Hand dipping them in. So 2,000 a we do about 1500 to 2000 a day yeah dang yeah

that's awesome so yeah i think i think ultimately i think we'd love to see these things kind of you know sprawl and and make it yeah regional to me it's like you know how crumble did it like to me saint honore has that potential you know like c has that potential, you know, like a couture cookie, you know, we're like the couture donut, you know? So I feel like it does have potential, but I think we need to streamline it a little bit more, like maybe get a couple of machines to help out because the labor is really high. When you're doing that kind of large scale production, yeah, we just need some equipment. Crumble probably had all machines, right?

Oh yeah. Well, cookies are different, right? Cause like to me, they're, you just, you make huge batches, you know, and then I think that they just bake them all. The toppings aren't as intense, I don't think. No, I mean, we're making all the creams. There's a lot to it. And we're making so many flavors.

But even if you talk about our new concept with three little chicks, this is a fried, like fast, casual fried chicken sandwich concept. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's no reason. We kept the menu real easy this one. Real simple. Just two sandwiches, right?

Two sandwiches and like tenders. And then you can do grilled or fried. Couple of salad options, that kind of stuff. But again, those choices are made, I think, through the lens of like, hey, this isn't just going to be a one-stop store. We want to be able to roll these out, you know, multiple stores in multiple cities, multiple states. So, I mean, certainly our focus is on scaling and growth, just not maybe right now. Yeah. Yeah.

What made you get into fried chicken? Because that's a totally different market than donuts. I know. I mean, honestly, everything. Cafe Lola is so different. Then there's the donut shop. And then we actually have a bunch of concepts on our, we like always, anytime we think of a new thing,

like I told him, I'm like, my next thing I want to do is a Mexican restaurant because I think it's needed. Like we didn't need a really good, like a fast, fast, casual Mexican that has really bomb food. Like I feel like it's needed here. Definitely. I used to eat Chipotle, but that's not even Mexican. So I told him that's next, but you know, I think, yeah, we'll, we'll get to it. But like, I think the same thing we try and, um, you know, there's no secret, right? We're getting into, somebody said it, like we get into really crowded spaces, but we're doing it a little bit differently.

We've kind of found our niche. Coffee, I think was the first one. Certainly donuts are on every corner. I mean, obviously my husband comes from raising canes. So I think we had, we had a little bit of background in chicken with him. Yeah. Canes crushes it. Yeah.

The scaling part of it and the math, you know, be able to produce on that kind of a scale. But it's, you know, it's, again, something that we're passionate about. It's named Three Little Chicks because we have three daughters. I have one daughter and Alex and Michael have, you know, two. Nice. So, I mean, and it was, again, you know, Lynn and Alex coming together and saying, hey, we want to put out better food, you know, that isn't, you know, like. Terrible for you. Yeah, that isn't, you know, like. Terrible for you.

Yeah, that isn't bad for you, right? Yeah. We're going to. Yeah, so like the breading is, the breading is made with quinoa flour. Wow. So it's actually naturally gluten-free, the chicken.

That's cool. Yeah, so it's, we wanted to make it, like Steve said, just a little bit healthier, you know, like, but still really delicious. That's why I stopped eating fried chicken, honestly. Oh, really? Because of seed oils.

Oh, wow, yeah. And like the breading. That we, and then we, all of our sauces are made in-house. We're using avocado mayo.ing. And then all of our sauces are made in-house. We're using avocado mayo for the base of the sauces. So just better choices and making just a little bit

of a better product. Yeah, I love that. I'll definitely try it. I'll post it this week. All right, come check it out. I think you'll love it. Since you guys have extensive food backgrounds,

I think you're qualified to answer this question. Okay, fire. What city in the United States has the best restaurants? You're probably good at this. I don't know. I would probably say, it's hard not to say New York City.

Okay. That's how I was going to say it. Basically, my 20s, basically, all my 20s, 30s, and into my 40s, that's all I did. I had a weekend off or a week off. I'd go to a city to eat. Wow. That's cool. I want that lifestyle. Well, I mean, it wasn't so glamorous. 40s that's all i did like i had a weekend off for a week off i'd go to a city to eat wow that's i mean that's cool i want that lifestyle well i mean it was wasn't so glamorous like you'd have a

weekend so like we would go everywhere we went to san francisco san francisco is probably in the top three okay i think san francisco too but i haven't been there in so long and i've heard i don't know i've heard that it's i've never eaten there actually food scene was amazing okay but there's there's like pockets in this country like that are awesome. Like Portland, I went to Portland for a weekend. Oh, really? It was awesome. Wow.

I haven't heard that one. Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, it just, I guess too, where I go like seasonally, like you go back east, like it's Boston, like the North end, like for Italian, like there's pockets of like some really great, great food. I love Boston. But if you get, gun to my head, one city to eat, you have to go to New York.

Okay. Per capita, like. Miami has some good spots too. Okay. So you guys haven't mentioned Vegas at all. Well, yeah. This is my hometown now.

I thought you meant out of Vegas. If I'm leaving. Vegas has some really cool spots. Yeah. I mean, we've brought every celebrity chef, but I think what's really cool about Vegas,

and I think we're kind of playing a part in that, is the local restaurants now. Yeah. You know think what's really cool about Vegas, and I think we're kind of playing a part in that, is the local restaurants now. Yeah. You know, cool things like Sundry that just popped up, you know, and that. The neighborhood spots that are, that are honey salt, we talked about earlier.

Like there's, there's starting to be like, you know, some of that too, which I think for a long time, like when I came here in the mid early nineties, there wasn't, there wasn't much of that at all. Yeah, I can see that. I prefer the non-strip spots sometimes. Yeah, me too. Because it's cheaper.

Yeah. Yeah. But it's fun that you can go to the strip if you want kind of that vibe too. Yeah, if you're feeling like balling out a little bit. Like Toca Madera is one of my favorites. I like Toca. Yeah. Yeah, I go to Carbone's like all the time when I got friends in town.

Like those restaurants, those are great restaurants. Yeah, they're time and place for those. I open Cut Steakhouse. Oh those I open cut steakhouse like I oh you open that yeah I love that stuff I've actually never been to cut really really

yeah there's so many steakhouses in Vegas it's like impossible to go to all of them that's like tough I'm going to the one in Red Rock tonight

T-Bones T-Bones yeah have you been there yeah I've been there okay yeah really good stuff yeah I'm excited yeah

all right so we answered cities what about best country for food Italy not even close oh Italy Yeah, have you been there? Yeah, I've been there. Okay. Yeah, really good stuff. Yeah, I'm excited. All right, so we answered cities. What about best country for food? Italy, not even close. Oh, Italy. I should say Portugal, maybe. Portugal has really good seafood. I was going to say that. I love seafood.

We went once. Yeah, we'd have to probably break it down by cuisine to be fair. But Italy, there's nothing like it. I haven't been to Italy yet. I want to go. You got to go. You definitely got to check it out. It's amazing.

The food there, the pasta, obviously. The whole thing. The meats. The lifestyle. But you can't compete with Portugal with the seafood. I don't know. The amalfi. That big crab. It was amazing. I have to say, when we left there, I was completely

blown away. It's a great country. Portugal? It's a great country. I do like crabs. Great place to visit. We went to this place. They bring out the crab and they're like, is this one okay? It's giant crab like it's a great great portugal it's a great country i do like crabs so great place to visit to this place i had this they bring out the crab and they're like is this one okay it's giant crab and it's like moving you know yes they did that to me at ma 32 oh yeah and it was like a thousand bucks but what's crazy is that this restaurant they bring it back to you and it's like flipped upside down they turn the inside of the crab into a crab soup yeah wow yeah and then you like eat the brain right yeah yeah yeah i've seen the inside of the crab into a crab soup. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And then you eat the crab legs. Oh, in the brain, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen that. People eat the crab brains. Yeah. It was pretty crazy. Yeah.

So what about refined agency? Is that sort of your marketing agency? So that's actually Lynn and I's business. When we first left UNLV, Lynn and I started a marketing agency and it was social media and it was, we call it interactive marketing because it wasn't just social media. We threw these events as well. And Elizabeth Blau actually is our first client.

She's like, I want you to run the marketing for Honey Salt. And obviously that's an amazing first client. She knows everyone. I was running Andiron at the time, and we were launching a happy hour. Yeah, I remember. And we said, let's get them in. Get people here. So they did.

Yeah, we got like 300 people. I've never seen a crowd. You got 300 people at a restaurant? It was insane. It was crazy. How? Because with Lynn and I, so Lynn was always this organized. She's always very organized.

And she's a lawyer, obviously. And she always threw these events. So she knew how to coordinate the event. And I knew social media. So I already had a little bit of a following and i was able to i posted the event and i told everyone about it and i'm i think i'm like just a good storyteller you know i think that's like a skill that i have for and on social media so it's very um it was easy for me to like you know invite people and get them there and then we got newsletters out and yeah everyone everyone came out it was crazy for me to like, you know, invite people and get them there. And then we got newsletters out and yeah, everyone, everyone came out. It was crazy.

The next day. I didn't know the power of it at that time. We hired them as our, as our marketing agency. I'm serious. It was like that quick. And then we took over. And that's how it started. Yeah.

And then, so we basically created a marketing agency overnight and I didn't know, we, Lynn and I honestly didn't know we were doing marketing at the time. We thought it was more just like, cause back then social media wasn't very popular. For restaurants, it was more like an individual thing. So to get restaurants on social media was kind of a newer thing using Instagram for business. So we kind of jumped on that train real quick and we're like, let's do it. And by the end of the first year, we had probably like, how many clients?

Like 20 clients or something. And it was not just restaurants it was like um fitness studios and just all the you know all these people are like oh wow like our business needs to be on social media too because they saw what we were doing yeah so we definitely jumped on that quick like which was really fun and we learned a lot and we learned so much from all these other businesses that we honestly were like okay i think we can do this ourselves like we can open our own restaurant because that helped you guys a ton with your restaurant yeah inspired us to really open want to open our own at least and that's why we opened the first cafe lola yeah because there's not many restaurants that have that you know that that loyal audience like you

guys have i see the same people eating at your spots oh yeah yeah and i feel like some restaurants they don't have that emotional attachment it's just like a spot you go to and chill but you guys have people posting your drinks like you do very good with the branding thank you yeah i think it has to do with just sharing our story and sharing like everything about like who we are and yeah it's always been genuine and true i think because it that is you know it is right like that's our we started them because of that um and i think that that's always kind of been the messaging and i think the people kind of embrace that. Yeah. So what's next for you guys?

Three Little Chicks just opened. Yeah. Three Little Chicks just opened. We have a lot of improving to do, obviously, and all the concepts. We want to streamline it a little bit. And we have GMs now at all of the restaurants, which is crazy.

At first we were like, maybe do we need GMs? We're not sure. So we hire GMs at every one now so we can really focus on kind of like strategy and really like, we're going to be launching a bunch of new stuff obviously for Christmas. Then we're already doing Valentine's Day. My assistant's over there,

like writing down everything we're doing. She's amazing. She's with us every day. We wouldn't be able to do this without her. Wow, yeah, she scheduled this. So shout out to your assistant. Yeah, she's amazing. Yeah. So yeah, we have just, I mean, every every day, we wouldn't be able to do this without her. Wow. Yeah. She scheduled this. So shout out to your assistant. Yeah. She's amazing. So yeah, we have just, I mean, every single day, I feel like we're doing something new. We're creating something new for the business. So yeah.

And do you guys think raising capital is in the plans? Definitely. Yeah. I think in order to grow and grow the correct way, I think you kind of have to do it. We've kind of funded and done all of these for, um, with the four of us doing them. Um, and it's worked, but if, if like, we want to like really grow this and build this the right way, you need infrastructure. You know, you need it, not just like equipment and like, but you need it from like the human resources and, and the people, you know, having a controller and having.

Yeah. I think we're right. Actually at that point, you know, we're just and having, yeah, I think we're right. I actually at that point, you know, we're, we're just talking about it. Yeah. That's us. That's like our goal for this year to, to hopefully get some fundraise and yeah. That's super exciting.

That's probably what crumble did, right? Scale the scale at the right way. Yeah. I think they did. We just talked about that. Yeah. Wow.

That's exciting. I can't wait to see what you guys do. Anything you want to close off with or promote? Just come visit. If you have a good experience, leave a five star review. Let's fix the reviews, guys. I know.

Exactly. Yeah. Come check them out. I think we'd love to see you in the restaurants. Yeah. Cafe Lola's great. Cool. Donuts and pizza is fantastic.

And our newest Three Little Chicks is. Yeah, let's do it man Do you guys do bulk orders? Yeah Like for the donuts? Oh yeah Yeah yeah Cool

I'll order like a hundred Because I have events all the time Oh that'd be great Yeah Cool We could put your logo on them Oh sick Yeah we could do whatever you want

Yeah Your face on it Yeah I mean We'll see we'll see Alright thanks for coming on guys Thank you Thank you for having us

Thank you Thanks for watching as always guys And I'll see you tomorrow