The Secret Behind Vegas' Top Food Influencer| Ryusauce DSH #675
00:00 It's like you're getting deported right now. Whoa. So I went to jail for like, I was in jail for like four months fighting that. Moral of the story is like, I live in gratitude and relationship is all I really care about these days because I was the first person to fill the entire immigration courtroom with American citizens. Holy crap. Yeah.
00:19 And I spoke like this and they let me out, dude. That is insane. All right. The food legend himself, Ryu Sauce. thanks for coming on man how are you you've been running uh thanks for thanks for having me yeah you've been running the food scene in vegas man i don't know about running it but yeah i've been in the game for a while now it's over a decade i've been doing this full time you know so yeah man it's it's been fun i still can't but till this day i still can't believe i eat for a living you know what a job bro i know like i don't know if people know this but when i first how i know you is because of food yeah it's delicious still like bro that's how i know you is
00:57 delicious i know that's how it started that was one of the best investments i've ever made buying that company oh it was a pre-existing company that you bought? Yeah. So I bought it five years ago and it came with the username and I ran that for a while, but I stopped. I didn't believe the username, dude. What a username. I had Edible too. Oh, that's right. Yeah. I had both of those. And when you came out to Vegas, we're like, dude, delicious is in town. I'm in town. Yeah. But I had to stop. What? I had to of those. And when you came out to Vegas, we're like, dude, Delicious is in town. I'm in town. Yeah. But I had to stop.
01:28 What? I had to stop running it a year ago. Oh, it's gone? Yeah. I've never revealed the story, but basically I would do these food reviews, right? So I'd go to restaurants, hire a videographer, film it. I would order the most popular dishes. And I would rate each dish on a scale of zero to 10.
01:42 Was it for Delicious or for something else? It was for both. Okay. I posted on my personal too. But yeah, I did like 10 or 15 episodes. And I had to stop, dude, because people were taking it too personally. What? No, that's the reason?
01:54 Yeah. And Vegas, as you know, is a small town. A hundred percent. I don't think a lot of people know that. It's like a small, big town. So if you get a couple of restaurant owners that don't like your review they're gonna tell their friends and i just didn't want that so before i got to that stage i stopped doing it before you got like canceled and i wasn't even giving like terrible reviews i was just being honest like what what were you saying
02:19 dude so have you seen dave portnoy's pizza? Bro, it's one of my idols. Yeah. I'm a huge, I'm a stoolie, dude. Exactly. So I would say my scale wasn't as strict, but it was close. My grading scale. So what? So for me. I mean, I feel like a lot of people, I don't. I always believe in like not posting stuff that I don't like, you know, rather than being like too honest but like i there have been a handful of times where i got a sponsor gig and i just email them saying keep the money i don't really want to post this
02:50 and i like that because that's authentic but now i see more and more of people who goes up and down you know and i don't think they should take that so personally because it's so subjective right i mean just because you said that yeah doesn't mean that other people are not going to like it, you know, but. Right. And that's how I thought too. But for me, when I go out to eat, I'll order 10 things. So I'm not going to like every single dish, you know what I mean? Just statistically. So on like half the dishes, I would give like a five or six or sometimes even lower. Right. And yeah, they just didn't like it. I can't believe that, dude. I'm glad you told me this story. Because now I know.
03:27 I couldn't even find delicious. Exactly, man. I had to shut it down. Oh, shit. Yeah, dude. And I really like food. I'm a big foodie. I don't think people understand
03:35 how big that account was. It was huge. I think it had over a million. Yeah, I thought it was two million. But whatever it was. And the hashtags were nuts. When you landed in Vegas, we're like, oh, shit.
03:44 This is right off the bat one of the biggest foodie towns in town. You were the first guy I messaged, I think. whatever it was. And the hashtags were nuts. When you landed in Vegas, we're like, oh shit, this is out of, right off the bat, one of the biggest food. You were the first guy to message, I think. Yeah. Well,
03:51 we were already running an agency by then. So we had a lot of clients and stuff like that. And the fact you've been doing it for 10 years, because 10 years ago, restaurants weren't really
03:57 aware of influencers. It was, you know, one by one photos on Instagram. It wasn't TikTok, it wasn't even around. Yeah. So my story there is like I used
04:06 to just post, like take pictures of food and post on Facebook. And a lot of my friends did like that. So my wife found me an app called Food Spotting. It was before Instagram. It originated in San Francisco. And it was like Instagram for food.
04:22 And it was worldwide. About maybe like half a million users on it. And what you do, like, there's a ranking system because there's points. Like, if you post a lot,
04:29 you get points and depends on the reviews and all the, like, the engagement. So, you can find, like,
04:35 a number one food spotter in the world. He was in Spain. And by the time you get to, like, top 100, these guys are pro food photographers
04:41 and stuff like that. But, I got so geeked out on it, I got up to, like, number 50. Wow. In the world. after like 3500 posts and um and then it got bought out by open table okay and then it got just disintegrated oh they shut it down it didn't shut it down but there's no more updates founders left you know so a lot of those people lost their home and a lot of those people jumped into Instagram. And that's, I feel like that was the right time
05:09 because when I jumped in, I realized that in Vegas, there was only less than 10 guys that are kind of moving some needles on Instagram in Vegas. And it's a small town, it's 2 million people. So I just started unloading my, I was already editing my photos and stuff like that by then and then i just unloaded and caught on fairly fast i love it you know i
05:31 had a nine to five but i was um getting invited to these openings and stuff like that and i just became too much i was going like two dinners a night four restaurants on the way you know how that goes just ramps up and was like a very beginning of that explosion. Yeah. And what an evolution. I mean, now it's bringing in so much traffic to these restaurants, these influencers. Yeah, if they're not doing it, they're almost behind now. Way behind.
05:56 I mean, look at Keith Lee. If he posts your restaurant once, sold out. Legend, right? And I'm so glad that he's from Vegas because, you know, that's the – like if when in doubt, look at what Keith Lee is doing. We can always go back to that and say there's no more like talks of, is this working or does this actually work or not? Yeah.
06:15 But on a micro level, dude, we've had like in the last seven like micro influencer events that we've had because our agency is called Jump Force, JMP Force, and we call ourselves like contemporary creative agency but to get hired there you have to be somewhat of an active creator yeah even down to the pa all the way up to client services whatever you want to do in our office you have to be somewhat of an active content creator on and we're although we're not like big followers, we don't care about the followership. We care about the local focused creators.
06:51 Like, you know, the guys that have Las Vegas in their handle. Food in Las Vegas. And Las Vegas. We go for those. And we're in LA. We're in Phoenix. And we have the same strategy.
07:01 We just want guys that has the most amounts of local followers on their account because we've realized that even if you have 25 000 followers if you have las vegas on your handle and you only do food in las vegas your growth on your top cities is literally just all las vegas cities right and we've created massive results out the door, three-hour, four-hour lines. Wow. We've done that seven, eight times in a row in like last six months.
07:31 That's crazy. And that's just from a row. And not even food now, like claw machine place, it was like four-hour line in the rain. Dude, those are blowing up. I went to one last week. Do you know why that is? It's because the margin, the business model is so great.
07:43 It's basically gambling. Yeah. You know, it's gambling money. money yeah and it's yeah i saw the numbers these guys are making insane i mean dude i spent a hundred bucks even if you win the grand prize i cost them like 10 bucks exactly and it's all coming from china yeah all these plushies are costing like two three dollars and the kids are just pumping yeah it's a great model honestly really it's a small space yeah packed and stuff like that. I've been doing that. Agency's been around for like seven years, six and a half years.
08:12 I've never really talked about growth. I feel like I'm just having fun and just money comes along with it. That's awesome. But we've had a really successful run for like six and a half years. I think we hit our million dollar run right the second year amazing doubled our numbers until i think last year stuff like that holy crap bro it's been good dude that's amazing because a lot of agencies are struggling right now actually i don't know if you're well i think the problem is scalability you know like what type of agencies
08:41 uh mainly social media marketing that i've noticed, like Facebook ads and stuff like that. I think it takes creators to get this pop in. I think the art of taking over somebody else's account and growing that account to what it needs to be, it's a skill, dude. I've done a few keynotes, and the first thing I say when I go up to the stage is like the problem I think is everybody thinks social media is easy, especially in food because, you know, personal brands, I don't know a lot about too many other industries, but in food, I feel like a lot of people think, Oh, these guys are just making videos of food and just posting it. It's just, there's more to it. And as restaurant owners, it's probably emotional. They probably think their food's the best. So, so they get invested in it.
09:27 Yeah, so my big thing when I ask clients about brand identity, I tell them, okay, why should I eat at your sushi restaurant other than any other sushi restaurant? But you can't tell me two things. Not because of taste, because everybody thinks that there's the best taste and service. Is there anything else that you can tell me that stands out for me that I need to eat here over any other sushi place?
09:52 That usually helps in social media because everybody thinks that their food tastes best. Everybody thinks that their service is the best. What else is available? But the agency model, yeah. I think social media, the scalability is a bitch. I feel like everybody, if you're a content creator
10:11 and you got content creators working on your content, I feel like artists have a hard time letting go of their art for somebody else to do it. So me and my partner, when I first got into the agency model and we were starting it, I think the opportunity
10:27 that we saw is that there's a lot of mercenaries in town. There's a lot of good content creators making good money, but the majority of them are one-man bands. If we're able to... Now, how our agency works, I've been in sales all my life.
10:43 I sell and I can put it, literally put it into this like assembly line of creators that does different parts. I separate account executive, client service, production manager, production, video, posting, all that kind of stuff. And it just goes down the list.
10:59 I don't have to be involved. That's sick. So you're very organized. Yeah, I try to go, I think it took us six years to accomplish that and get the right team to do it. But shout out to my team. It's been a really good process to get to that level where we can execute a lot more deals. Well-oiled machine.
11:17 Yeah. So now I don't have to manage any accounts. I love that. And you'll never run out of restaurants in Vegas. No, I just don't see that happening. I don't really find myself running into same leads of other agencies either. Oh, really? Maybe I don't know, but I just, that's how, oh, and the entire time that we've been in business, bro, it's 100% incoming leads. Wow.
11:39 So no ads or anything? No, no. Incredible. Like, hey, I'm this person, come use us. Like, bro, if I were to get on this cold call mode and start reaching out, I feel like it would be like crazy. Yeah, if you ran ads. I've never even done that. You got the track record.
11:54 You got the team. You got the system. Everybody in our team is somebody that you might follow in town. Oh, I've seen all of them. Yeah. Las Vegas Phil. Do you have Starfish on to you? No.
12:03 But those are really good friends of ours but those guys are basically the unicorns of the of the business but we have great like jules kim and our special las vegas rigs and all these guys that are like super talented they are understood as one of the best content creators in town and they they work within our agency as executives um that's been great, man. For a boy that came to America 13 years old. I came to America 13 years old by myself. Wow. 1989.
12:33 I'm 49. I'm going to turn 49 this year. I'm going to turn 50 next year, bro. You look young. It's always the Asians that you can never tell. Asians on raisin, baby. Yeah. I would have guessed you were in your 30s.
12:42 I appreciate that. No, for real. Those Asians, man. You got no grays. That's the one thing that I kind of like hoping that it lasts. Like the salt and pepper is coming. So you came at 13. Did you speak English?
12:55 No, by myself. Well, you know, I was an international student. So I guess the story is like you're familiar with Asians coming over. Yeah. In Korea, a lot of these parents are sending their kids but there's mandatory military in korea so a lot of 16 to 19 year olds you were getting caught and getting denied their their their visa so my parents decided that 13 is the way to go do it early bro and i came i landed in ohai california which is like a santa barbara area and the boarding
13:23 school i have to live in the school. I couldn't speak any English. No Koreans there. Wow. I remember setting up, like, okay, I'm just going to say, hi, my name is Paul. How do you do? A couple sentences, no matter what anybody says. People go, are you hungry?
13:38 I'm like, hi, my name is Paul. I would just start there. And then a year after that, I moved down to San Diego. My parents' genius idea. And then a couple, like a year after that, I moved down to San Diego. It was like my parents' genius idea was to like buy a house and my 21-year-old sister was going to come and become my legal guardian. Then I moved and her visa gets delayed. So I was in this house, four-bedroom house,
13:59 pool and a slide by myself. At 14? 14 years old. Wow. But the coolest thing about that is like the the street that was on like cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac and there's like 14 guys and girls that are like in my grade at my school and they're the most popular kids in my school oh wow so i just instantly became this like a party house uh i'm just lucky with people that's basically you know they taught me how to
14:26 speak english i had the biggest eighth grade party you've ever seen in your life eighth grade party like i had alcohol there like i asian like i've always been you know people go oh you're this um food content guy and then i always thought myself was like my forte in life is sales and i think in relationship that's like i think where my passion is yeah so when i'm 14 bro i found out that liquor store guys are korean i just started shooting the shit with them it took us like a two month ramp up to my party and like they shut down the store and sold us alcohol wow yeah you're good at networking man so that's how i look at you though bro whenever i see you like i'm in this master digital mastermind chat on oh the whatsapp whatsapp dude it's mind-blowing i like this is i look up to guys like you that has this keen ability for networking like i've
15:21 been to many of your events that are like, if you're, you know, I think million dollar plus business income. Yeah. And dude, it's been, you're, you're the guy that I look up to. I appreciate that. It's a new era. I think we're very similar. I think you were pre social media. I've just been able to take what you did with like an extra step almost. Cause now I could connect the dots a lot quicker with people. Yeah yeah but you're in a lot of other businesses too you know what i mean i think yeah i think you're an ai right like ai i've done crypto i've done b2b thing yeah i wore a lot of hats which honestly during the pandemic you were fucking blowing up yeah it worked for me but i i don't give that advice to most people yeah i mean it's not about that for me it, it's how I see you networking these people. Like, okay, let's just talk about the show.
16:08 I don't know if I've ever seen a podcast that posts twice a day consistently like that. On YouTube, yeah. And having that many, bro, like we host Las Vegas Philz podcast at our office. Yeah. It's fucking a lot of production. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be cursing.
16:29 No, you're good. I know you beep out cursing but um yeah that's like i don't think people understand that posting twice a day like you you you end the show saying i'll see you tomorrow yeah that's mind it's like so much pressure just listening to that one line it's it's crazy because uh that's that's bro i look at those type of things. Yeah. The consistency, work ethic, the networking, and the wide reach that you have. And these little texts that you invite me to and you go in there and you just see the list of the people that are in there. You're like, wow. Yeah. It's mind-blowing. It's important to be consistent.
16:57 I mean you know this. People will forget you if you're not posting daily. How long have you been building your black book? Oh, for years. Since college, man. And I've always been in network mode because I knew it's who you know, not what you know. Like a lot of these people you've known for years?
17:10 Or you're, I guess... In the WhatsApp chat? Yeah, I've known a lot of those guys for years because I pay to go to events, masterminds, conferences, and I've just compiled the best of the best. I've had all these people out. And people in that chat, it's all the previous guests of the podcast,
17:24 plus connections, like personal connections of mine. That what i you know i feel like i've i always tell people i learned everything the hard way so like i've i feel like i had a late start but i feel like i just started dude i'm 50 you look young dude but you should take a genetic dna test how do you i'm so genetically or wait what does that even mean dude you could test your biological age are you serious yeah i want to test that like that's i'm really interested yeah i'll put you in touch um so chronologically i'm 27 biologically i'm 21 wow you can okay dude you got a long 27 year yeah you do a little cheek swab i feel like uh i i've gotten a late start so um so like i So I'm looking forward to that. Now I live...
18:07 I've had a couple... I've had crazy life stories. So I have a couple of what people would say hitting, quote unquote, hitting the rock bottom a couple of times. I've had a crazy drug run. I've had crazy arrests. I've had...
18:21 Dude, I had a crazy... You got arrested. I cannot picture that. I've been to jail in town 14 times. What? I've done a tour, like the Grand Tour, they call it. I've been arrested one time and went to
18:34 this Henderson. And then when I thought I was getting out, they would recuff me because I have a case in the county. And then when I was getting out, I thought I was getting out and they recuffed me and go to city. I've done the whole tour without knowing that i was i had all these holds you know bro i was a mess i had like a two years of runway okay so like when i when i was able to work i started working at these uh for for like retail fashion i was i was the first i think i was like
19:01 the first straight guy that they've ever hired atbe. Bebe, remember a long time ago? Bebe? Yeah, the girls' clothes. And then I got into nightclubs because I used to go out a lot. That was all good until I started hitting the phones. I realized that I had this thing about sales. I was interesting, NLP, stuff like that, and I started getting into sales. But when I hit the phones, I was in this crazy phone rooms.
19:26 I started doing some hard drugs. And then that led into like multiple arrests, dude. Wow. I was like smoking glass. Like what? Meth. I guess that's what that is. I can't even picture this, man.
19:37 Yeah. Dude, I was 117 pounds. I don't really talk about it that much, but I was 117 pounds. I have a belt right now. Yeah. I used to make holes as I was getting skinny. If I put that belt on right now, the last hole I made is like here, dude. Holy. I was like all sunken in, went to jail like many times. It was like a two-year stretch of that, and I got out of it.
20:01 I was supposed to go to prison after my last arrest did that last time i got arrested i was on the other side of a stop sign there was i was on the other side of the street a car in gear foot on the brake passed out with a glass pipe in my hand with like a hundred percocets in my pocket holy crap the cop like banging on the window saying put your car in park that's the last time I ever got arrested. And then I was supposed to go to prison there, but I had a PO. I was already on probation. I had a PO that looked at me and go, Ryu, you're going to die in prison.
20:35 Like, I look like this. So he vouched for me to go to half a house. You know what a half a house is? Truck rehab, right? They come out like these prisoners. They come out to get acclimated to the real real real life yeah so i saw people coming out and that's where i got i got cleaned up luckily and then so the reason i'm telling you is because 15 years after i got cleaned up now i haven't had a parking ticket in 15 years i'm dating my current wife mindy i'm a director of sales at a travel company.
21:09 During the trouble phase, no attorney or no judge ever asked me, are you a citizen? Because I spoke like this. 15 years later, bro, ICE came to my door. Immigration came to my door and said, hey, 15 years ago, you had these. I was a green card holder. I had felonies. It's like you're getting deported right now whoa so i went to jail for like i was in jail for like four months
21:30 fighting that like it was a gunshot i was supposed to get deported but this is why i'm the the moral of the story is like i live in gratitude and relationship is all i really care about these days because the entire town that are not my family my family can't help me had to come together just dude i had like guys with free ryu shirts outside the jail i had fucking uh go fund me that went crazy i was the first person to fill the entire immigration courtroom with american citizens holy crap yeah and i spoke like this and they they let me, dude. That is insane. Yeah.
22:07 And my wife single-handedly beat this case. She's like a goody-goody from Midwest, never known my past. Had to dig up all these people, call all these people, got 60 letters from my clients like Samsung, Boeing, and all that kind of stuff. Incredible, man. Because you provided so much value to community. So now all I care about is relationships. Wow. much value to community so now all i care about is relationships wow and this is why i i look up to people that are widely networked because that's that's where i want to go i care a lot
22:32 about relationships man for real all i really you know i if business bro like i i you know when you're in sales you have this like kind of like of confidence where tomorrow I could lose everything, but I don't care. I could rebuild it like this. I feel like I can just rebuild it super fast. Everything could come crunching down tomorrow, but if you're good sales, I should be okay. So I have that confidence in business,
23:01 and I don't really run for money. I don't even know how much money I make. Wow. You don't think about it? Well, my wife is an accounting and she's the accountant for the whole business. So I don't really think about that much. I think about top number, think about revenue and stuff like that times to time. But I really think about how well people are doing in our company and the culture of it and the relationship that i'm building because that never goes away yeah for me like i've experienced this time where i had to press the button go if you're my friend i need your fucking help that i've had
23:35 that before like dude they like i i have 60 some letters from my friends and clients that wrote basically these letters are like them writing to my judge what kind of person i am the time to time i bust out and read it it's the you i wish everybody could have that type of literature that they can read and then it'll just kind of like give you an idea of how valuable your relationship is and what that means to them and stuff like that so that's powerful your friends don't tell you what they really think about you. Yeah, it's kind of awkward to ask, right? Well, now that I do have somewhat of a network, I feel like a hard thing is to keeping up with the network.
24:19 Right. You have best friends. A lot of times you don't talk to them for a while because they're your best friends. You think it's okay. I feel like I'm now learning a little bit more to like how to keep up simple one word text is good you know like just to make sure that you're in touch with them yeah i do that on flights i'll check in with people because we're so busy during the day that we forget to text our old childhood friends or something. That's a great idea.
24:45 I just need to find a better time to send out those messages and just to say hi. Yeah, it's important. You don't know what people are going through. I mean, you've had two crazy moments you just explained. Yeah, well, maybe more will come. But I feel like those are the battle scars that people need to be to to get some motivation behind you to get get to where i need to go yeah i feel like a lot of people that's been on this podcast i like i've looked at all a lot of them have that type of story you know almost everyone
25:14 you notice they go through some really low lows it's almost it almost makes you think of it's kind of a prerequisite to success almost yeah i i i it. I'm not saying that you can't if you don't have it, but a lot of people that I know that are successful has, you know, when I tell them some people, my story, they kind of relate,
25:34 a lot of them. Yeah. No, there's some deep traumas with a lot of successful people. I'm a numbers guy, so I look at the data and I'm like, okay, over 80% of people
25:40 grew up in a really rough environment that are successful. Really? In my network, at least. I'm pretty sure that sounds about right. Yeah. And then almost every time I've worked with someone that has come from a family of money,
25:53 it's usually never worked out, just in my experience. Fucking amen, dude. How do you like Vegas? Dude, I love it. Food seems strong out here. People are good. There's always a conference, always it uh food scene strong out here people are good there's always a conference always an event uh ufc is out here i mean dude it's hard to beat honestly tell me about food
26:12 dude what what do you what are you eating these days okay come from east coast let's talk about two things burgers and pizza like what are you a are you a like an east coast burger guy like i used to like burgers a lot like shake shack better than in and out like that type of stuff that's a tough one if you factor in price i like in and out more yeah same i think you do have to factor in price as long as you're in the same class of chains like if you're in the chain burger thing of course there's tons of burger places that are probably better if they're just you know one two three five location places but in that sense i would say i don't know i guess i'm a in and out guy what's your in and out order dude
26:50 i get so i'm allergic to bread are you allergic to bread so i get the lettuce wrap yeah can you do that at shake shack now i don't know i haven't been to shake shack just because i have to spend 50 bucks there to get full okay because one burger is not enough you know so my order is probably the same i get double single uh buster fried animal style protein style yeah i'm about the same yeah that's great and pizza do you like any pizzas out here uh pizza rocks decent no shit i what you don't like it no no that's like my a lot of people don't say that, dude. Really? And I feel like that is it. Okay, Pizza Rock is our client. Shout out to Pizza Rock.
27:28 Yeah, they're in my top three. Bro, I got to tell you, the flex they have is probably the biggest flex in any... So Tony Gemignani, who started that brand, he's a man from Fremont, California. He's a 13-time world pizza champion. And people go, what does that mean? What does a world pizza champion mean?
27:47 This guy who is in Fremont, California, goes to Italy all the time. He goes to Naples, enters a Neapolitan pizza competition, and wins. Wow. He's done that 12, 13 times where he has to get police escorted out because this American keeps winning these pizza competitions out there. And that's the flex. Not many people can say that.
28:14 So what Pizza Rock is great about is they have different types of pizza and they do them well. They have Detroit, they have Chicago Cracker Thin, they have New York, they have Neapolitan. They have like eight different ovens in their facilities, both of them, because they need to do different types of pizza. Oh, there's two of them?
28:31 Yeah, there's one in Green Valley Ranch. That's the one I go to. Oh, bro. I think downtown is pretty much Mecca of pizza in Vegas, right? There's one in downtown. Okay, I didn't know that. Yeah, I like that one. I like the one in Resorts World, Mulberry Street, I think.
28:43 Oh, really? Wow, I haven't eaten there in a minute. Really? I thought that one was decent. And one in Resorts World, Mulberry Street, I think. Oh, really? Wow, I haven't been there in a minute. Really? I thought that one was decent. And the new one in Durango, Prince Street, I like that one a lot. The New York Water Machine. Dude, have you seen the machine? No.
28:54 Oh, so they make New York water there. I have a video of it. They have a silver machine, a filter system that turns the water into its bro. They're serious. That's why it's great. So a lot of people say that.
29:10 A lot of people say Prince Street now taking over. I think those are pretty good assumptions right there. Did you ever see Portnoy's
29:18 Dom DeMarco's review? I haven't. Is that in Vegas? It's probably the highest review that he's given in Vegas. I just tried it. It's good. It's good. I don't think it that in Vegas? It's probably the highest review that he's given in Vegas. I just tried it. It's good. It's good.
29:28 I don't think it's better than Pizza Rock, but okay. You might be biased since they're a client. True that. Now, since you're Korean, I got to ask you, Korean barbecue, top spot. Bro, there's not that. I wish there's a better Korean barbecue scene in Vegas. Have you tried some Korean barbecue? I've tried a lot of them.
29:43 Okay. So, I mean, obviously, if we're just going for the meat quality and the meat uh i would go to eight ounce i guess right but for me like if you're a korean and you eat in korea or something like that you go to those you go to places for that one dish not like a general you know what's the best korean barbecue like for me to go eat sundubu like soft tofu you know soup i i i like lee's korean barbecue although also a client bias but they make their own tofu at the facility i've seen it they make their soft tofu there and they have really good korean barbecue uh by hands down the best raw marinated crab is also at least really so looking at those things although it might not be the highest quality like wagyu you
30:32 can get at at eight eight ounce the amounts of punch on the side dishes that come out stellar at eight ounce you don't get as many um i go there you know and it's such an underrated place if i want to eat my best korean dish like my favorite korean dish is kalbi jjim it's like this uh braised short rib stewy thing sounds amazing it's like my favorite i love short rib yo bro it's like this tender slow roasted with carrots and amazing but if i want that i would go to daeho which is like this tender, slow-roasted carrots and amazing. But if I want that, I would go to Deho, which is like this brand new – their specialty is karbijim there. So you go to these places for that one thing that you're looking for.
31:15 If I wanted to just go for the highest quality beef to grill, I would go to Samurai Japanese Barbecue. It's more yakiniku kind of like a style. Okay. Have you been there? I haven't been there. Bro, the story, I don't know if it's true, but I guess the guy is owner of Samurai Motorsports
31:33 or something like that, and he just wanted to build a place for him to go eat. Wow. That's baller, dude. You know what I mean? So they have their own sourcing from Japan. It's not A5. I think there's a lot of A5.
31:45 There's A5 tongue. I've never had that. They have A5 tongue there. Wow. It's only like maybe like nine tables, 10 tables. It's, I don't even, I shouldn't be saying this. Yeah, spoil it for everyone. But if you're going to go for quality,
31:59 I would just go there because it's so good. But it's not like a Korean barbecue style. You eat like you grill one piece at a time, and there's a grill. Amazing, dude. Wow, that makes sense. I just went to an all-you-can-eat Wagyu spot. It's David Zao's place.
32:14 I forget the name. Chubby Kettle. Yeah, it's owned by Chubby Kettle Group. Mizaki or something like that? Something like that. Hot Pot, right? Yeah. He's about to open up a barbecue place too.
32:25 I saw it. Dude, he's crushing it. RUK Wagyu Barbecue because they have their own farm. Oh. So they used to do this hot pot and he also owns X Pot. They have their own Wagyu farm. I didn't know that. So they're able to cut costs and they're able to produce a ton of.
32:43 That makes sense because he's got so many spots out here. Bro, shout out to – he's killing it, dude. Yeah. All right. This is a controversial one. Do you leave a tip on takeout orders? Yes. I'm kind of like a crazy tipper because of the industry that I'm in
33:00 and the amounts of free food that I do eat. And I feel like a lot of times the servers are not really taken care of. And there's a lot of influencers in our – I hear this. I don't know this. But there are a lot of creators in my industry that doesn't tip. Really? Yeah, I've heard this. Wow.
33:17 I don't know for a fact, but I've heard venues say that they're – I always tip. They ate for free and didn't tip, blah, blah, blah. So I am a big tipper, dude. I'll tip any chance that I can. I usually leave $100 to $200 tips when I eat something for free and stuff like that. I'm kind of like a weird case. On a to-go food, yes.
33:40 I do weirdly not tip as much on uber eats because now it's insane amount of markup and insane amount of fees on there but i i actually talked about this another podcast where people are like yo these drivers don't make anything you need a tip so now i'm better at it but do you tip on it to go so on takeout i do but i feel guilty right but it's not like a satisfying tip like when i'm dining in i I'll tip 20% every time. And I won't think about it. But on takeout, it's like, you deserve this. Right.
34:11 So I tip a little bit, but not 20%. I've actually seen like gas stations leave a tip. Like, you know, like retail place where there's no need for a tip. I've seen that type of stuff going on. I don't do that. But if there's any service involved in it, I tip. I've seen that type of stuff going on and I don't do that. But if there's any service involved in it, I would. I agree. I mean, I definitely would
34:29 agree with a person that doesn't tip to go because that used to be the thing. That used to never tip on to go. But I just am in this industry where I'm in debt and I feel like it comes back. Being a big tipper is noticeably the service has been whenever you go back. Being a big tipper is noticeably,
34:45 the service has been, you know, whenever you go back. 100%, especially in Vegas. So that's like a long-term strategy for me. Yeah. They might become a client one day. So I just wanted to do that. Yeah, no, if I get a free meal,
34:56 like shout out to Circa. They caught my whole birthday dinner. It was like 2000 bucks. I tipped like a thousand just because. There you go. If you're getting a free meal, you should be tipping at least 50%. 100%, that's meal, you should be tipping at least 50%. A hundred percent.
35:05 That's same, you know? So yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm a pretty big tipper, dude. I believe in that.
35:12 Yeah. It comes back. I believe in energy for sure. What have you been eating, dude? Like what, what's, what else is there?
35:18 You got anything else? I was going to go like cuisine by cuisine. Okay. And see where your top spots. Let's do it. Oh my God, dude. We already did Korean barbecue. We did pizza. Let's do it. And see what are your top spots. Let's do it. Oh, my God, dude. We already did Korean barbecue. We did pizza.
35:28 Let's do steak houses. Ooh, I got a lot. I got, like, my favorite spots on the Strip. I got off the Strip. I got downtown. Do you have one that's, like, one that sticks out? I like Barry's a lot, dude. Okay.
35:44 Barry's is good. I've been there once. Hank's is good sometimes. Yeah. you have one that's like one that sticks out i like berries a lot dude okay berries um i like hanks is good sometimes yeah so me i i love also we're the agency record for stations so that's also biased but i love majority of the steakhouse like one of the most underrated steakhouses of all time is sonoma cellar which is is in Sunset Station. Same quality, not same, but similar quality meat as the other station casinos. Unbelievable pricing. Very good. So Hank's and T-Bone's,
36:14 Red Rock and Green Valley Ranch, I would just swear by that. Anytime you want a good special meal, go to any of those places. Fat Crab Legs, really good steak. They source their steaks differently between the two, but to any of those places. Fat crab legs, really good steak. They source their steaks differently between the two, but the majority are the same.
36:30 I cannot say enough good things about them, but Nico's, dude, is a very special place for me. Nico's? Nico's, the steakhouse at Durango. I haven't been there yet. Oh! Dude, they have this seafood program that you don't see at the other steakhouses.
36:47 They have like dry-aged branzino. Whoa. Ever heard of that? No. Amazing. They also have a steakhouse burger. I put that in a different category of burgers. They have one of the most amazing burgers I've ever had.
37:01 I might go there after this. Because they have Wagyu and all this kind of stuff, and they blend all that in-house to make this special patty, and they make this Smashburger style. I had their first ever 4x4 ever made by them. Bro, mind-blowing. And my chocolate cake post there happened to just blow up. I guess a lot of people are eating the chocolate cake there.
37:20 They have a 20-layer chocolate cake. Holy. Amazing. 20 layers. By the way dude i think i might have one of the highest viewed food reels that i've seen on my feed long time ago how many views 128 million views holy crap and that was the chocolate video no uh it was like a blooming onion like a onion bomb video oh i've seen that one many times it's a and that creates a lot of results but at the end of the day what i'm hoping for is like you know i i love it when the place that i love goes good
37:53 you know usually you can't really control that but i you know when whenever post like the nikos thing you gotta try nikos i'll try it on the strip steakhouse i would go golden steer peter luger i like bavette's have you been to bavette's the bone marrow oh my gosh that was like my favorite place until you know peter luger is great i love their menu how simple their menu is steak for two and rib steak for two like it's it's. I thought, I've just only been there like twice. Great. Downtown, my pick is Oscar Steakhouse.
38:29 Also a client, but you just don't get that view. You're looking right down the barrel of the Fremont Street in a dome. That's sick. And it's super gangster. Oscar Goodman
38:39 used to be the mayor of Las Vegas. He used to be the attorney for all the mobsters. Crazy amounts of story. He has these like dinner series all the time. He tells you be the attorney for all the mobsters. Crazy amounts of stories. He has these dinner series all the time. He tells you about these stories. They just built a new patio so you can sit outside and look down the
38:51 Fremont Street and stuff. Highly suggested. I gotta check that one out. This is a controversial one, actually. People's answers I've seen have differed a lot, but sushi. That's my specialty, dude. I mean, it depends on how big you want to go, but my go-to sushi place is Sushi Hero on Eastern. It's right next to Taco y Taco, Masahiro.
39:12 This is like a place where I would take a date where I can control my order. It's not omakase, but by far the best nigiri sessions you could probably have. They have kamashita toro. There's otoro, and then there's kamashita toro that comes from like your collar i really love ordering the the medley of tuna from you know maguro to like all the way up to kamashita and having that they have nodoguro which is like black throat sea perch i think is the name of the fish
39:45 one of my favorites and my all-time favorite cut is ocean trout uh umimasu and that's they have that there at all times and their nigiri's portions how they do it how many ingredients are that they care about from japan that's like my go-to place now if you go to like level if you want to go all out kame omakase is probably the best uh kaiseki if you want to do kaiseki kaiseki sanga also does really good kaiseki japanese and i think like one of the highlights right now is the tuna cutting at omakase kiara i've seen your videos on that i don't have a video of that oh wasn't you but it was yeah but everybody that at our office everybody's been there um they do this massive bro i that's that's like my next but i think that's like blowing up right now the the tuna
40:37 cutting ceremony seems really fun i mean that fish is huge that they're cutting what have you eaten sushi places in town i've tried both of those omakase ones you just mentioned kame and the other one i liked kame kaiseki sanga you've tried kaiseki yuzu yuzu is another place and kaiseki sanga i haven't tried sanga i would try sanga okay both handled by my boy uh las vegas phil but kaiseki sanga is the place to go got it i'll try that one it's but kaiseki, right? It's not all of it is sushi. Have you ever tried, do you do all you can eat sushi places ever? I used to.
41:10 I used to too. Now I don't. Why is that? Just quality. Same. Yeah. After the pandemic, when the fish prices went up,
41:20 I've seen a lot of places drop their quality rather than raising their price. Two options. Raise your of places drop their quality rather than raising their price. Two options. Raise your price or drop your quality. Bro, too many places are using very bad quality fish, so I can't go there. I can't. I wish there was a spot where it was just premium. I would pay like $50, $60.
41:37 There are a couple places that is worthy. I'll tell you about them. Okay. A lot of those are my clients, dude, and I still don't go. Yeah, because I used to go to Necco, but the quality, I just can't anymore. See?
41:52 Those are the type of stuff that's going to get you in trouble, dude. I know, right? You know what I mean? No, but it's just... What else? You got Thai in there? I do.
41:59 That's Thai food. Hands down, Lotus Asylum. Have you been? Yes. Okay. Have you been to a lot of Thai places in town? Not really. What nationality?
42:07 So I'm half Chinese. Okay. So you obviously like Chinese and Thai. Yeah. But what have you really liked? I liked China Mama. I liked Ma 32. My favorite.
42:19 Yeah, I thought that was solid. I think it's a 42 day prep for the duck. Wow. Or like 37 day. Like people don't understand. That's the best duck you can get, in my opinion. You ever like this?
42:33 Like I hate picking duck that comes with the bao buns. I like the tortilla, the thin. Yeah, same. You know? I don't know. To me, whenever I have a special guest in town, they're staying on the strip. I take them to Mott 32, get the duck, and get the lobster and get the lobster mopped tofu oh yeah it's always a fun time there i almost
42:49 spent a thousand dollars on crab legs there i believe it thousand dollars is very doable there dude you know that that's the thing about the price is crazy have you been to chengdu taste no i've heard of it though um so i'm a big sichuan peppercorn guy like i love sichuan peppercorn flavor that's the place that you should go okay uh but thai lotus asayam hands down um it's just you know you should always order the northern thai food there uh i just have a post about cow soy that i had there like chef so. The original chef literally made it for me. She doesn't even cook there anymore, but she made it for me hands-on.
43:28 And I dubbed it with a video from Anthony Bourdain and Jet Tilla eating there saying, this is the best Thai food place in town and if not in the country. That Khao Soi is the best in the world. That's what I, amen. So good.
43:44 All right, this is going to be a hot one so which hotel do you think has the best restaurants in vegas man on the strip let's do on the strip and then off the strip we actually had this podcast and i think my number one was the venetian oh because uh because of so many things that they have there that they do it right, dude. I think the other creators said, what was the number one, was it? Cosmo, Aria. Cosmo was another one.
44:18 Cosmo has great, like Momofuku is our client. Yeah. So they have Momofuku, Haleo you know um buden sx um stk stk zuma they just open up a new one zuma is so good dude yeah zuma is really good that's another sushi place that i really love uh but yeah you're right i i think i think cosmos definitely up there i think my number one on that list i forget i think I think it was Venetian. I've never heard Venetian as an answer. Because of mat. Yeah, dude.
44:51 They got Milos too, right? Yeah, Milos is there. There's so many other things that I cannot think of right now. They got an amazing bakery cafe there. La Zepaneta or something. It's by Sandbox VR. Really? Yeah, it's the best breakfast.
45:04 Well, I like Mizuno. Miznon. Miznon is the place. Yeah, that's a good spot too. And they also opened Hasalan there. That's another really good place for us. But I like Venetian Palazzo. I think Wynn was part of it.
45:23 I forget the podcast. And downtown, I kind of picked Plaza, and people thought that that was kind of crazy because Circa has really good, you know, it has berries and stuff like that. But, yeah, and off the strip, I think it has to be Durango now, dude. I feel like Durango,
45:40 it was going to be Red Rock or Green Valley Ranch, but Durango just... Have you ever been to You or Me? That's another sushi place that I really like. No, it's in Durango. You or Me Sushi is originated in downtown Las Vegas, but it's amazing, dude. You should go there. If, you know, like a date night, rather than going to this like a hole-in-a-wall sushi concept,
45:59 go to You or Me at the Eat Your Heart Out. They have Shang Noodle there, hand-pulled noodles. They have the Fiorella's there with Mark Vetri. But they have Miho. Nico's is like one of my favorites. Summerhouse. Bro, their sportsbook is insane. The food program there is also stellar.
46:19 I feel like Durango has to be the one now, dude. I agree. It used to be Green Valley for me, but I'd say Durango's got the edge. Green Valley is about to come up, though. They just put in Blue Ribbon there, and then they're about to put in a few more restaurants, so that's going to change. Yeah, that's exciting.
46:34 Is that your area? I live around there, yeah. Bro, you cannot go wrong with Hank's, you know, and Pizza Rock is in there. Yeah. And then there's a couple other ones. Yeah, I think it's going to come up. And the Oyster Bar at Durango, also stellar.
46:49 They have the same recipe as the Pal-A-Station Oyster Bar. Red Rock just changed their Oyster Bar concept to the same recipe as Pal-A-Station, so you can get the same pan-roast at Durango. And Nielsen's, dude, our client, is a custard at durango and nielsen's dudes our client is a custard ice cream shop nielsen's um i think that's one of the best ice creams in town and sorry not sorry i'm thinking those two are the top top two in town i agree i can't even make it sorry not sorry yeah i think they just opened one by my house uh inspirata inspirata yeah i
47:22 live around that area bro that place is blowing up yeah i'm telling they're building a casino out there too yes station go that's gonna be a station yep crazy i just heard that not too long ago that's a new new for me yeah vegas is growing so quick man we got the sphere got that's that's blue that's what have you eaten at fountain blue i have i want to hear your take on it i i thought it was okay. I actually have an... Dude, I have a one-month-old baby right now. Oh, congrats. Thanks. It's been... I have not really...
47:52 After Super Bowl, I've been just kind of slowing down a lot on going out and trying new places. It's the majority of my client work. I'm barely taking meetings. This is my two-hour hall pass out of that. Wow. I'm honored. No, but I wish i can go to more places in fountain blend if true i'd try to figure it out but q k y u i actually had a video with they may they allowed me to cook inside the kitchen i cooked tomahawk smoked tomahawk their tomahawk is smoked i've never seen that before where they
48:23 grill it and then they smoke it. Q is Asian. And I've eaten at so many Asian-inspired restaurant on the Strip. I don't really like a lot of them. No. This one, bro, was good.
48:35 I would highly suggest Q restaurant at the Fountain Blue. That's good to know. Dude, I want to explore more there. What do you think about Komodo? Good, but expensive. Have you ever tried Komodo in Miami? Yes, I want to explore more there. What do you think about Komodo? Good, but expensive.
48:46 Have you ever tried Komodo in Miami? Yes, I've tried Miami. The Miami's way better. Oh. Yeah, but it makes sense. See, that consistency thing is a bitch. Well, they're closer to the water, so I understand it from a point of view of logistics
48:58 that the seafood's going to be better at the Miami one. Unless you're flying in daily like Mizumi, they fly in their sushi from Japan. But they do, though. That should not be an issue. Oh, they do? That is a problem. No you're flying in daily like Mizumi, they fly in their sushi from Japan. But they do, though. That should not be an issue. Oh, they do? That is a problem. No, I don't know if they do,
49:09 but a lot of restaurants do fly in things daily to make sure that, like, Milos and all those seafood places have to do that. Yeah. What do you think about the Peter Luger and East Coast Peter Luger and West Coast? I haven't tried either. Oh, you haven't?
49:22 I'm going to try Luger's this week because you said it's really good. I mean, if you're from New York, you're an Italian guy, Italian food guy? Yeah, I grew up in Jersey. I like Italian. Pizza?
49:33 Pizza, bagels. I love Indian. I want to talk to you about Indian. I only go to a few places for Indian. I'm not like, I wish I was more of an expert in Indian food, but I'm not.
49:43 I would go Taj Palace is where I go. I've had that one too. Mint. Have you tried mint? I've had mint. A couple of places like that. But Taj Palace is my go-to.
49:53 They just opened up a new one in Westside, which is closer to my house. I've moved from your neighborhood to West Summerland now. The dark side. Bro. I'm in Red Rock Canyons. I'm the very last right you can take off charleston and i love it it's just like a whole different you're far yes it's it's hard to find houses in summerlin man it's insane inventory is scarce yeah and it was majority for my daughter's
50:18 daughter's school she is four gonna be five uh she's about to go into school, so she kinda wanna buy this school that she wants to go to. And, dude, I have a 21-year-old son, dude. What? Yeah,
50:31 I have a 21-year-old son. Shout out to Tristan. He just started spinning. He's in music. He was an audio engineer for a lot of big shows and then he started, he dropped an album
50:41 and stuff on Spotify. I gotta send it to you. Yeah, send it out. Drum and bass. But now he started working. He works as a DJ at one of the restaurants in Fontainebleau, and he's doing pretty good.
50:52 Okay, that's cool. That's a big range of kids, 21 and then a four-year-old. He's like an uncle to my other kids, dude. But yeah, with my ex, my current wife. Shout out to Mindy. She's holding them forward. People come to me and say hey are you getting any sleep and i like feel bad saying that i don't get any sleep
51:10 because she's really not getting any sleep she's breastfeeding and stuff like that so dude she's holding down the fort right now i cannot be happier good woman by your side is very important are you are you are you single or what's what's no i've been in six and a half years we're getting married next year really yeah and Yeah, and I attribute a lot of- Are you a proposed- I proposed already, yeah. I learned about that space. Take the longest-
51:31 Like, take your time. Like, I always tell people the proposal state is my favorite because when people say you're engaged, people light up and they want to give you stuff and all this. When you say you're newly wed it's not as powerful like people are like yeah i'm too i'm married too welcome to hell but but when you're engaged is is that i i loved our engagement phase puppy love right cherish that i love it we'll end it off this where do you rank vegas in terms of food for cities in America? I wish I was well-traveled enough to know and be valid in that.
52:07 But I would probably say convenience of trying the things that it's good around the country-wise, it has to be number one. Like it has to be, I don't know about like the best Italian food or best this or best that to be this. But if you're in it to try a lot of things around the country all in one place, this has to be the place for it. Because majority of the good restaurant concepts, second place, second location is in Vegas.
52:38 That's true. And if you're good somewhere else, good chance that they're going to come here or we're going gonna inherit it here but of course if it comes down to just food in general i would say new york la you know i'm an asian food guy so i don't really know about asian food any other places and like korean food is definitely la for me you know um for mexican food i'm i'm a big sand i'm from i grew up in san diego i'm a surfer and i play in a band like uh like i'm a i'm a baja california like in my burrito i don't like rice i just need meat pico de gallo and guacamole that's what i what i like i don't like rice and fries and stuff like that my burrito by far fish tacos to all the tacos and san diego is my place
53:23 um italian food i don't know i i've only been to new york once all the bag San Diego is my place Italian food I don't know I've only been to New York once all the bagels and stuff you don't find in in Las Vegas I don't even know what a good bagel is
53:32 I mean Seagulls is decent Seagull Mania and there's Abel's Bagels too I believe I've never been there but I heard they're good but
53:39 like I went to New York and one place that I clearly remember till being amazing was Russ and Daughters. It's like smoked lox and bagels and stuff like that. It's just like amazing Jewish deli type of bakery. So we lack that.
53:56 If you want that type of stuff, cure me and stuff like that, I would say New York. Pizza, New Haven is probably where you need to go. I've never been, but I'm thinking New Haven, Connecticut is where Sally's is and all that kind of stuff. And I'm a big Portnoy fan. So I believe in that. But yeah, like I don't know about Chinese food,
54:14 but those are Korean food. LA. Got it. Good to know. Rye, where can people find out more about you and your agency? On my Instagram, dude,
54:23 Rye, you sauce RYU, like the street fighter guy and sauce. What my Instagram, dude. Ryu Sauce, R-Y-U, like the Street Fighter guy. And Sauce. What a name. Yeah. I kind of like tell people about that, but people don't know about Street Fighter.
54:33 That's like showing my age, right? People slowly started not know what Street Fighter is. It's like a problem for me. Anyway, yeah. At Ryu Sauce. And my agency is jmpforce.com. We do social media and creator campaigns for food industry, at Raich Sauce. And my agency is jmpforce.com. We do social media and creator campaigns for food industry, real estate, weddings.
54:49 We have the Las Vegas Wedding Bureau as our client and the Little Chapel and a couple of stuff. Nice. And personal brands. And we've started taking on other industry clients maybe three years ago and being successful at it. So that's about it. Amazing, man.
55:01 We'll link it below. Thanks for coming on. That was fun. Thanks for watching, guys. See you tomorrow.
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