Ep #7-Striking Twice: The Electrifying Tales of a Desert Dynasty's Culinary and Electrical Ventures

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate,
inform and inspireentrepreneurship here in our
Coachella Valley.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello everyone.
This is Robert Mraz, and nextto me is Fina Mraz.
And this is CV Hustle, thepodcast designed to inspire,
educate and inform localentrepreneurship here in the
Coachella Valley, and the goalof this podcast is really to
speak to the top entrepreneurshere in the Valley.
You know cream of the crop, andtoday we've got really two

(00:38):
special guests.
I know if you ever thoughtabout getting into the
electrical field or even therestaurant field.
We've got something for youtoday.
So our special guests today areGreg Rangel of Rangel Electric
Thank you for being here, helloeveryone and also a tag team.
Today We've got his son, rubenReyes of Gastrogrind Burgers,

(00:59):
and you know that's one of thetop burger places here in the
Coachella Valley.
In the short time, so it's avery special doubleheader.
Today we're going to speak totwo of the top entrepreneurs
here in the game.
So you know we'll get rightinto it.
You know, fina, you've knownGreg for a long time.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
So, greg, here we are , yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
Isn't that crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
I know so Greg and I used to live in the same
apartment complex in Coachella.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
My mom used to be the manager of the apartments and
my mom would only rent toJehovah's Witnesses, which is
kind of crazy.
You're not supposed to do thatnowadays.
But my mom rented to his momand his mom had a whole bunch of
kids and my mom you know.
So it was cool.
We were like I was probably 14,15, right, it was a good time.
I 14, 15, and right, it was agood time, I think a lot younger
than that.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Really.
Honestly, I believe I think ithad to be anywhere 11 years old.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
Maybe, 10, 11, something like that, so it was a
long ass time ago, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
No, definitely we had to.
It was a good time.
I borrowed a lot of sugar fromyour mom.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
And power, you know, and electricity, banana bread
and everything.
So what happened after you guysmoved out?
Where did you go?

Speaker 1 (02:03):
You know, really we moved near Bagnuma Park.
Oh so that's your farm and itwas the newer projects, you know
we were mowing on up, Iremember feeling rich
you know when we moved overthere and we were near the park,
but basically, yeah, we justmoved down that way and from
there that's when I flew thecoop basically- yeah, well, you
had a lot of brothers andsisters, right?
Yeah, exactly, I got twobrothers and two sisters, only

(02:28):
one younger brother than me andthe rest were all older, so I
got my ass beat quite a bit.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
You know what it worked out for you.
Hopefully you're not beatingyour children today.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
I can now Not all the time.
Yeah, not all the time.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
We use phone books.
Phone books A sack of orangesyeah.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
So once you ended up flying the coop, as you said,
where did you go from there?
How did you start your business?

Speaker 1 (02:54):
You know really what I did at that point.
I started working when I was inhigh school.
I started working weekends andstuff like that and I was
working in construction doingelectrical things like that oh
really, and you know, to behonest, and I'm proud, not proud
at all to say but I'd say bythe 10th grade I dropped out of
school.
I just had Wow, I'd hate to sayit, I just had no interest, I

(03:14):
was just gone.
At that point.
You're right and I wanted tomake money.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
You know what?
You were kind of going straightinto a career.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
That's something that this is taking off for them.
Culinary school was oh yeah.
Yeah, not, that's true.
I mean still pay for it.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Oh my gosh.
Well sell some more burgers.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Here were some friends going to college.
I mean, that just wasn't me.
I just could not pay attentionenough.
My mind was somewhere else.
I just wanted to do something.
I saw people I get money, I sawI can do the same way, and it
wasn't all just about that.
I just wanted to, you know, befree you wanted your
independence, right money Ialready had mentors, and I've
always had mentors or friendsthat were older than me so so

(04:00):
the person that you worked for,yeah that they knew that you had
stopped going to high school.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, and they were like it doesn't matter, Just
keep on working.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, this was back in the day, not too far back in
the day, but they didn't caretoo much.
You know what I mean.
I mean nowadays they come dragyou and they take you back in A
little different.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
A little different now, that was just gone.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, so it's like I'm not working.
Can I work here?
Yeah, Like that, you know.
And even then you know Iprobably had no business, but I
started doing my own little sidework and stuff like that.
I didn't know too much about it, but I did, you know.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
So they trained you, though.
They trained you how to be anelectrician or were you just?
Digging ditches at that pointDigging ditches.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
I remember they called me an attic rat.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
And I was cool I was cool.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
You know it's funny.
I didn't know what the hellthat meant, but etiquette.
Yeah, that's me, man, I'm done.
I'm done, right, I want to bethe best etiquette and that was
it.
Yeah, that was pretty much it,but I learned how to do a job.
I wanted to learn everything Icould.
Yeah, because my thought was, Iwanted to be the owner.
What impressed me and I thinkwhat impressed me more was the

(05:02):
freedom.
Oh sure, because, yeah, yeah,and I mean honestly, you know,
there's only so much freedom.
We don't have much freedom.
We got, instead of one boss, wegot a thousand bosses now,
which is our customers.
But that's what impressed me,that's what got me, that's what
I wanted.
That was the ultimate goal.
I just wanted it for me and Iwant to be able to do it so what
kind of projects were youworking on when you started Like
?

Speaker 3 (05:22):
did you ever get shocked?

Speaker 2 (05:24):
All the time, really my first shock, you got a
cartoon where you put you know,yeah, I was doing it when I was
really young and I rememberturning up, yeah, exactly.
And just Don't do it that wayagain, right?
That's how you learn.
Yeah, that's how you learn,right.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Exactly.
But you, the fear goes away.
I didn't die.
Okay, I'll do it again.
I'm going to do that one again.
There's a lot of fear, but Igot to be the boss, I got to get
through it, so that's what Iwanted to do.
That was the big thing.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
So how long did you end up working for that person?

Speaker 1 (05:57):
It wasn't much.
It was maybe like six months,eight months.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
But at that time though, you had started your own
little side job.
Well, I started going to workfor other people.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
You know, I started going to work for other people.
Plus I was doing odd jobs.
You know I was.
You remember the Copacabana?
Yes, in Coachella I was there.
Oh yeah, really I was a bouncer.
I remember being a bouncer,they're like at 15 years old you
just stand here, don't letnobody come 15.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
He's drinking on the job site, Breaking some labor
law somewhere man.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah, yeah, you know.
I remember I got fired therebecause when they gave me a
check they said, okay, here'syour $150.
And the guy said, you know,social Security, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, $150.
I'm like, wait a minute, I wantto see what you took out, you
know took out.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
Huh, you know, you're just giving me 150.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
I'm working 80 hours a week, right, you know?
Yeah, once I ask questions,they're like hey, we don't need
you here anymore.
So, but it was things like that.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
But it was just trying to make money, trying to
get out of that absolutely just,but you were still living with
your mom at that point, right,so you kind of yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
So she wasn't too happy when I dropped out, but I
decided I had to go to work.
Sure, you know that was a bigthing and I remember I was
taking architecture class likedrafting.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Where at I?

Speaker 3 (07:12):
would talk to him a lot In CV, oh okay.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
And the guy was like, hey, where you been?
I said I went to go wear acouple houses and that, and it
was almost like he was asking mequestions.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Because you were getting a live experience, real
life experience and not behind adesk.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
You know, us guys right.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Let me answer those questions for you, yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
So you know you get puffed up, pumped up and you
know.
It just helped to go from there.
Oh my gosh, so that was reallyit and that was the big thing,
that's what I wanted to do.
So everything I did from there,I mean, I just wanted to learn
more and I went to go work for acompany out in, uh, in palm
desert they were wearing themarriott, I think.
By by the time I was 21, I wasrunning a crew of about 10

(07:56):
people.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
wow, 21 you're a baby .
Yeah, you're running crew,you're responsible people.
Well, I look.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
But you know you.
You know you.
Look back at a 21 year old,you're like oh man, that's a kid
.
Of course, when you're 21, 20,I'm a man, I think you're girl.
Oh yeah, you know everything.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
But you know what?

Speaker 1 (08:14):
I had a good time and I didn't realize it too much
because I was just busy movingforward.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
But I think too, you had to be responsible, oh
absolutely In order to do that,you had to be there on time, you
had to like, the job had tocontinue to get done.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Absolutely Right that was the big thing.
So that's exactly what it was.
You got to make sure the job'srunning.
You got to make sureeverything's on time.
The materials, I mean.
There was a lot of stuff towatch for, but I liked it, you.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
You like the responsibility.
I started being a boss ofsomebody else.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
It wasn't my business .
But now I'm a foreman now andit was kind of hard because
there's older people, you know,that don't necessarily want to,
you know, be told what to do byyou and but.
I was going.
That's all right, I just needyou to do this, were you?

Speaker 3 (08:55):
getting paid more than 150 dollars for 80 hours.
A little bit more about.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
That was 156 yeah, yeah, 156 bucks.
Oh my God, but yeah no, I thinkit was 10 bucks and 12 bucks,
and one day I'm going to make 14bucks, and you know, I mean I'm
not paying laborers 20 bucks.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Oh yeah, Minimum wage back then I wonder what it was.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
Times have changed and it's not that they wanted to
stay down money-wise, but youalso want them to have that
ambition kind of like I did,like I want to do good, I want
this to.
You did a good job you feltresponsible I wanted to show my
stuff first, before I even askedfor money.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
That's the way I learned back in the day, show
your shit first.
Then you ask for money.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
You don't ask for money and then say then I'll go
do it Right, I don't want totell you Dogs change.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, it's hard.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Younger generation Well it's hard because by now
I've had so many employees backin the day.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Okay so, take me after the Marriott.
So I'm assuming that after theMarriott you didn't have enough
time to really do side jobs then, or did you this?

Speaker 1 (09:58):
is the funny thing.
So when I was doing that, I wastrying to make money.
I mean, you know, I got with mywife and she had a couple of
kids and so instant family,right, sure.
And I'm trying to, I'm reallytrying to find a way to make
money and I'm thinking what canI, what can I do while I'm,
while I'm working my ass offhere, and I found a job throwing
the newspapers, I thought, well, I can do that before 6 am.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
I wasn't saying 5 am, 4 am.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Well, I get up at three because I had to wrap my
own paper.
Gosh, I had to be done with myroute by 6 am and I had to be at
the job site by 6.30.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Wow, wow when do you go to bed so early?
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (10:32):
now, oh man.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
I party hard for a while.
You were already training forthat back in the day, yeah yeah
yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
But I remember that and I had'm going to be a
foreman, and then I'm thinking,okay, I gotta start another
business or something.
And they had, they had, uh,they started a swap meet or
something, a fee market, theycall it at the fairgrounds and I
said I gotta sell somethingthere you know what'd you sell?

Speaker 3 (10:57):
don't tell me you were selling white socks,
everybody oh my god, that that'sanother world man.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
But I started selling , I think, pots and pans.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
We were just buying stuff, to sell it, to swap me.
How'd you even?

Speaker 1 (11:09):
get in the night.
You know, I saw somethingonline.
I can buy some stuff, yeah Imean just you're driving to go
get product yeah, you know I wasselling that, uh, before you
know it, I was selling, uh, mymother-in-law was making floor
arrangements, so we sold that,and this is me and my wife.
We're doing it all together atthis point she's kicking mass to
get out early in the morningand then I said, hey, I got an

(11:30):
idea, let's do this.
So we're selling that.
And then, before you know it,we're selling candies mexican
candies and toys, really yeah, Iwas on saturdays and sundays
and I had to go to home on itand we had to leave at 3 in the
morning.
Sometimes I took these guyswith me Get ready to go.
They're like let's go, it's aflea market right.
But I was doing that for awhile Just trying to make a buck

(11:51):
.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Okay, so tell me about the flea market lifestyle.
Did you have to pay your rentfor that spot?
How does that work?

Speaker 1 (12:03):
It's a tripground right that bombed horribly but
it took a while, so I did that.
You pay for your spot and it'sall up to you.
You hope it doesn't rain, youhope it doesn't get windy.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
That's the worst.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
And then we found one in Beaumont.
You wait in line becauseeveryone has their spot.
That was a pretty popular one,so you wait in line and if
people drop out and don't showup, then you can get in really
well, you go over there and youdon't know if you're gonna sell
anything, yeah, so then, you popshit up right away and you know
you start selling stuff.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
But at least I thought well, that's on the
weekends, at least wow, then Ican do my other stuff and you're
there from like morning to likelate in the afternoon.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
You know, sometimes you're the last one's there
because it's like hey, I want tosell anybody that comes by.
There's two, three peoplewalking by.
You know you want them to buyyour stuff.
Oh my gosh so it's tough.
So you were in sales from theget-go yeah, you know it's funny
because you know you see peoplewalking by and you're like, oh
man, they're coming, they'recoming in here and then they
walk by you're like oh shit INow putting up your signs.

(13:04):
Bye, yeah you know, but we werehustling and then we were all at
that point.
We're all hustling like afamily.
Hey, I need you guys to help meout.
I'm going to the flea market onSaturday and they were down.
They're kids, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
Do you remember doing that?
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
Yeah, did you like.

Speaker 4 (13:20):
Every Saturday.
It was just kind of a thing wedid.
I mean, it was kind of just aSaturday thing Go, get in the
van, go to Beaumont.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Family is there, yeah , Wow, it's funny because it's
like, okay, here I made 10 bucks, here's 10 bucks.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
They come back with more shit.
You're like God damn it.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
I mean, come on man, you know you find good stuff
there.
It's like hey, get in treasures, man Well we found some geese
there Remember?

Speaker 3 (13:42):
Oh, don't even bring up the geese.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Some ducks.
We bought two ducks for ourdaughters.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Oh, the worst thing in the world.
They stunk, they were nerdy.
Oh, the worst decision Like arabbit Pellets everywhere.
There you go, you think it's agood idea and you jump on it.
Well they're so cute whenthey're little exactly that's
the way we hustled and it's like, okay, I gotta move on, I gotta
, I gotta move up, I gotta startdoing some other things, yeah,
you know, and really work on myelectrical contract and that's

(14:09):
what I wanted.
That was the ultimate.
So what?

Speaker 2 (14:11):
what age did you start really focusing on the
electrician side and like reallysaying, hey, there's a, there's
a potential for me to do bigthings in this, in this world?

Speaker 1 (14:19):
well, that was kind of in the beginning, you know,
because that was always focus,you know.
But once I saw an ad in thepaper to go work somewhere else
saying, hey, you can make thisand you can make that, and you
know you get health and kind ofwork for a company where you get
health and days off.
So I hit him up and it was somecompany out of LA and it was
just basically a dispatchcompany and you know you charge

(14:42):
crazy, they charge change fromup there.
So I went to work over there.
That was big for me.
That was a big change because Iwas going to people's houses
and I'm using their menu to dowork and it was expansive.
So I got thrown out of a fewhouses.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
What do you mean?
That you were using their menu.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Or their menu for basically their electrical.
They want to add a plug.
You know they want to do alight.
You know, you go to their book,you add it up and you know,
before you know it, it's $1,500for like almost nothing.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
And you go, I'm going God dang it.
It's going to take me fiveminutes.
This is a ripoff.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
And it was commissioned.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
You know, so I'm you like fries with that, yeah?

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Well, the funny thing , and I always tell this story I
went to this old lady's houseand you know, it was just about
changing some smoke detectors,like five of them or something,
and it was like 900 bucks and I,just, I, I, I, just I couldn't
do it.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Were titanium batteries or what the hell, I
know exactly man, you know whatI'm thinking, and that's one
ultimate.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
I go, I finally need to just do this on my own,
because people don't need to paythis.
I can do it more inexpensiveand I can do it for myself and I
can start then.
So that was huge when I went towork for that company.
I think God sends you like Godshots, and I think that's what
that was, company.
I think God sends you like Godshots, and I think that's what
that was.
We're going to throw you intosales.
We're going to throw you intoeverything.
You're doing everything at thatpoint.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Well, I think that's like when you look back about
starting your own business, youdo start doing everything.
You have to know how to doeverything in your business
because you've got to know howall of it works.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
If somebody calls in sick, you're doing it.
That's when you start, that'sit.
Yeah, you gotta know you don'tcall, yeah yeah, we're there, no
matter what.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
You know, you guys know I was gonna say I used to
drive my forklift.
He used to do deliveries likeit, just, it, just.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
I started getting these jobs.
I tell my wife hey, I gotta godo this job, you know.
And she's like hey, I need yourhelp and kind of needed to help
me dig a little bit.
And she's like what, hey, let,hey, let's go, she was down, I
love it.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
I remember she was down, so your wife was your
first.
She was your first employee.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Oh my God, she's holding the ladder and it's like
Sunday afternoon, of course.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
I'd rather be home.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Truly a family affair , right, that's what it is,
that's what it takes.
You know what they're going to.
I mean, you know things likethat, and so it was always
hustling like that.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Okay, but how did Rangal Electric finally go?
So you got to get a bankaccount.
You've got to start doing.
You got to get business cards.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
How did that happen?
I stopped working for thiscompany.
I had to go on my own, nomatter what, and I was it's
funny, because we were buyingour first house and at that same
time I quit my job.
I remember the real estateagent.
That was great timing.
What are you doing?
And I'm like no worries man,I'm starting a business.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
He's like oh, you do that after you get out.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
You do that after you buy the house.
The dude was flipping his shit,you know, and I didn't get it.
I'm cool, right, I knoweverything, you know.
Well, you know what it is it'sgoing to work.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
I'm already doing this.
It had to, yeah, sink or swim.
It had to.
There was sink or swim.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
It had to work, I had to make it work and it was
really slow.
I went to go work for anothercompany for a little bit and,
you know, reluctantly, becausethat's not what I wanted.
I wanted my own.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
Right.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
So reluctantly.
And then, finally I was doingso much side work, one guy goes
hey, I got this big house thatI'd like you to work on.
And I thought, holy shit, thereit is.
Here, it is First one.
So I went to go tell myemployer which I was running
work for him at that point and Isaid, hey, dude, I got a role.
He's all.
Please don't do this to me, man.
He says I need you.
I got these crews.

(18:27):
I was running crews.
They were doing a bunch ofhouses in PGA and he offered me
a bunch of money.
I went and talked to my wife.
I said this dude's offering methis much money, more than I've
ever made for a salary.
I mean, we're stoked.
I can go do this house, whichwhen I'm done, it's only one
house, or I stick with this guyand keep working making good

(18:50):
money.
I've never made that before.
I got to go for my gut.
I can't, I can't, and that wassuch a for sure thing.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
It's hard.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
The local company has been around forever Great guy
to work for, you know.
And I said I told her, why am Idoing it?
She says cool Wow that's great.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
How old were you at this point, do you think 23.
What 23.
?

Speaker 1 (19:14):
I thought you were like 32 by now 23 years old.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
Why?

Speaker 1 (19:17):
are you just a baby?
And I had to hustle so it was atrip because now you're always
the young kid Everywhere I so itwas a trip because you're all
now you're always the young kideverywhere I went I go to.
That's why I saw I opened anaccount at the supply house.
I'm talking to people and youknow they all kind of look down
at you, a lot of them, you know,especially when you go in to
buy a supply house and you gotall these other contractors and
I'm doing there forever andyou're just yeah yeah, so it was

(19:39):
kind of a trip.
so I was always the underdog,always a don't know more, you
know, but that's what was thetrip, you know, and some people
look down on you, some peopleare trying to kind of step on
you too in a way.
Wow, I don't get too much inthat, but that's out there.
That's what happens, yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
But I didn't care.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
That's how you learn.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
With my attitude hey, that's cool, kept going because
this had to work, plus I'malready doing what I want to do
now, it's just whatever okay.
So I always think about mybusiness right, like I had to
open up a bank account, so youhad to open up a bank account.
And then you probably, when yougot this big job, you probably
started getting some big checksright, so you got to go deposit
those and you got to pay yourguys.
Like did you have guys?
How did?

Speaker 1 (20:22):
you get.
Yet I would hire some laborershere and there and I'd pay them
cash.
You know how that goes.
Okay, you can't do that, youcouldn't do it then, but you
absolutely can't do that now.
But, um, you know, pay someguys cash.
I do a lot of work myself.
Finally, I hired my cousin.
I put him on payroll it was oneguy and then I hired another
guy.
I remember I remember when Ihad one employee I didn't know
how I was gonna do do it andthen I needed another one and I

(20:44):
just couldn't sleep because Ineeded to hire another one.
But how can I afford anotherone?
That was in my head, how can Iget another employee?
Right?
And it worked out when I gotthem because I was here doing
more work, but we pulled thetrigger all the time.
Scary.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
Yeah, Starting a bit, and yeah, everything's risk
versus reward right.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah.
So I had an opportunity one dayto do a track of homes.
I had no business bidding atrack of homes, I'm doing it, I
don't give a shit right.
So I did that and they werelike, okay, well, you put in
your bid, we're going to haveyou do it and I need workman's
comp.
I'm kind of like what is that?

(21:23):
So my wife looks around.
I think she went to the statebecause the state fund was the
first one that will give youinsurance.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
No one else will.
If you have no history, thenyou go to state fund.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
No history, you go to state fund they can't deny you
Did that and it just startedgrowing.
From there it started growingcrazy.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
How many homes were in that track?

Speaker 1 (21:44):
I think it was 30, actually, but they did 10 at a
time.
For me that was nuts, so Istarted that.
And then that guy has anotherone, and has another one, and
then other people knew me asthat.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
Well, and I think too , what happens is you start
establishing like a reputationright, and so you start getting
like'm gonna finish the job, I'mgonna be there for you, I'm
gonna do what I need to do.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, and that's key and I took pride in that.
It takes right.
You're, you're proud.
Hey, you're the, the guy I gotthese 10 homes coming.
Yeah, dude, you tell me wherethey're at you know, I'm on it
you know, and now I probably didthat a little bit too much but
when you're hungry, gotta behungry, do it.
But when you start that work iscalm, you know you get the
insurance, hey, you, should itbe incorporated now, sort of

(22:29):
learning, all these things thatyou're like so do you start it
out as sole proprietor?
Yeah, that was first, yeah,that was first.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
We did that too oh man, we had no idea.
That's why we had no idea.
The cool part about that.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
You know, you can get some checks and cash them under
your name.
Yeah, it's a little bit moregray area.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
With the $100?
Yeah, you're doing that untilthe tax man comes, and then
you're broke again.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Now, once you start writing everything through the
books, I remember the first timeit got to the point one time.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
It was always a learning process.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
We got a CPA.
What's a CPA?
Yeah, let's see if we can findmy wife hey, find a CPA, you
know things like that Right.
And then we had to get anattorney for a couple things one
time, oh sure.
So we did that and it was justalways a learning process,
because I didn't know any ofthis.
I mean, I didn't finish highschool, not like they teach.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
Teach that in high school?
No way, they don't.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Which I believe in high school they should teach
you finance.
Yeah, Everybody talks aboutthat Teach you finance.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Teach you things.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
They teach you to go to work or they tell you to go
to work.
That's it.
Finances are everything.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
They should be teaching you things that are
practical in life.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
You know like how to balance a checkbook.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
That's the biggest thing.
That's like.
You know, it's just oureducational system is kind of
flawed in that.
That way it's not a lot ofpractical information.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
So it's not so a lot.
And then you know that's whyyou hire people to do what they
gotta do.
It's the way they gotta hiresomebody.
Every time was hire somebody,pay somebody.
It's like wait, what right youknow so, were you working did?

Speaker 3 (23:57):
were you working out of your home, or did you end up
eventually renting uh?

Speaker 1 (24:01):
yes, out of my home first.
So, people, I'd have the guysmeet me at my garage in the
morning, 7 am.
I tell them where to go.
It was all out of the garage,everything was out of the garage
, and then I finally had to getan office where was your first
office?
My first office was right herefor springfield lane ah, that's
where bobby is now.
Yeah, yeah springfield lane youdrive into the right across

(24:21):
from that restaurant wasn't inthat restaurant okay, karen's.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
Yeah, yeah, it was it was called something else
before.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
I think it was heavenly cafe.
Yeah, it's a cafe, somethinglike that.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah but it was right across from there.
But it was hard for me to pullthe trigger because I'm like, oh
my god I'm not gonna pay rent,I'm not gonna I know that's just
keep going up, right but I'lltell you what every time I
pulled the trigger and signedthe lease I mean it waslike
something it would come right.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
It worked.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
You were supposed to.
That was the piece that wasmissing and then it would work.
You still had to hustle.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Hustle never ended you keep those sales coming in
right.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
You've got a great sales personality.
You've got a great personality,so I'm sure it turns into sales
at some point, right?

Speaker 1 (25:02):
I try, I always tell you how that goes.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
We've got bad days.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Of course, but people got to like you first.
No matter what you sell, Ibelieve you work with the people
that you like.
Sure, and maybe that was it,because I think, regardless, I
was going to be an electrician.
I think, regardless, I wasgoing to have a business, how
successful, I don't know.
So I just had to you know, beyou know who I am, be friendly,
be you know.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
I'm excited.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
I like talking You're good at it, man, professional,
you know that's when you talk tosomebody, you know you feel
their passion.
And then when you feelsomeone's passion, you feel
passion Contagious.
It's like when somebody tellsyou hey, you, I got the scrape,

(25:50):
oh, man, the food only, andyou're like tasty, you're where
you can't wait to go, and that'skind of.
That's kind of how I see it.
But uh it, it, uh it went fromthere and I was always learning
process.
My next learning process was um, I I forgot who I was talking
to.
Something happened with anattorney or whatever they said
got to hire an attorney becauseyou need to do a handbook.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
Oh, I need a handbook , oh gosh.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yes, they said, well, you got 50 employees.
I had 50 employees, oh my God,and I had to get a handbook.
I had to offer health insurance.
There was a bunch of thingsthat I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
I'm like well wait, cross some invisible barrier.
Now that you have 50 employeesand now all these rules and
regulations apply, that was likethe next step.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
I'm like oh shit, are you kidding me?
I didn't really pay attentionto that 50 employees, but once
you have 50, that's a wholeother set of rules, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
So now at your height , how many employees?
Because I know you wereprobably one of the biggest
electrical contractors in theValley at your height right.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
It's funny.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
You had a contractors in the valley at your height
right a lot of employees, right,I at one point it was a little
over 80 employees.
That's, oh my god, that's forthis little valley.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
That is pretty amazing this is what trips me
out at my height uh, with 80employees.
I was 30 years old.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
Wow, that is a success all in itself.
Maybe, Honestly Well, you hadto have like help, right?
You always have to hire peoplethat it's going to help you,
right?
I'm sure Belinda was a hugehelp.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
Oh huge.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
And then you had a GM , I'm assuming, or what.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Without my wife it wouldn't go that far, because
they're the ones that push you.
I go homie.
What do you think of this?
That's far, because they're theones that push you.
I go home.
What do you think?

Speaker 3 (27:26):
of this that's where you bounce it off.
Of sure I mean, yeah, I've gotother people you can talk to,
but who's do you really?

Speaker 1 (27:28):
you know what he's looking out for your best
interest, he's gonna support you, babe, and you know she worried
with me too, and it's like ohshit, I did this job, I paid
guys.
They haven't paid me yet.
What are we gonna do?
I'd go to her what are we?
Gonna do you know, right it'sjust it was.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
It was like we're going back to the swap meet.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
I didn't even tell you one time.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
The kids laugh.
Sometimes I was sellingvacuumers door to door.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
No, it was a trip.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
No, it was a rainbow vacuum 1300 bucks, you know.
Oh my God, I was knocking ondoors offering diet Cokes.
If you, let me do us somethingwith you.
I forgot about that.

Speaker 4 (28:03):
Oh my God, it's a trip.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
I love it.
Sometimes it's embarrassing totalk about.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
But hey, that's.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
You know what you did .
What you had to do, do what yougot to do.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Every you just learn from everything right.
Every little experience bringsyou to something bigger.
It really does Everything.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, everything it's a trip.
I look back, I forget a lot ofthese things and sometimes the
kids trip out.
Oh, that's right.
Remember, and you know it'sthis and that one time we had
all the candies, you know,because I stopped selling at the
swap meet.
We had toys, we had everythingwe go to LA to buy, you know,
and they're like, hey, what can?
They took off and startedselling.

(28:38):
They got rid of all the candieswith the neighbors and had cash
.
Nice, we live in some apartmentcomplex or something.

Speaker 4 (28:44):
Well, maybe because we were robbing a laundromat too
, yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Stealing quarters and pennies.
It was a trip.
It was always just hustling.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
That's what it's all about when you're an
entrepreneur man.
You got to have that bug,otherwise it ain't going to work
right?

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Yeah Well, let me ask you this.
So you were always inresidential or commercial
lighting?
I?

Speaker 1 (29:13):
was always in residential.
At first, when I worked forother companies, they did a
bunch of different things.
But I remember when I got myfirst commercial job, I bid the
job.
I didn't have a guy to do it.
I figured I'll hire a guy.
It was a Zales jewelry store inthe mall.
Oh yeah, and they gave me thejob and I was like now what am I
going to do?
I got to go do the job, right.
So I hired a guy and stuff andthat was commercial and I do all

(29:37):
that.
I mean I just couldn't be thereno more you know what's the
difference.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
What do you mean?
Hire a guy to do the job?
What do you mean by that?

Speaker 1 (29:43):
it's commercial, especially like in a mall it's.
It's a different type ofelectrical, this commercial work
, so it's not necessarily justromex or wire.
You know things like that.
It's in conduit um there'sdifferent rules different
regulations.
The good thing on commercial iseverything on the plan.
You know, you see plans all thetime.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Commercial, it doesn't change Residential how
many plans do they have by thetime you're done?
Depends on the homeowner right,oh my God.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
I hate when I go to, I'm working, I'm laying them out
, I'm talking to homeowners,then they go hey, you got the
old plan.
And you're like, oh, we havethree other sets from there.
Yeah, exactly so it's differentfor commercial.
So then I ended up doing Ithink I did a veteran's medical
center.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
I ended up doing I just started doing, started
doing some bigger jobs.

Speaker 4 (30:33):
It was easy by then.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah, or it seems easy, but it was easy.
It was easy because I had guysdoing it, Plus I did the job.
I'd go sell it.
You know, get the plans.
We did some CVS stores, somebrand-new pop-up CVS stores.
My son-in-law was big onhelping me with that because I
started teaching him.
Oh, wow, you know electricaland teaching him how to bid.

(30:54):
And so we got some good-sizedcommercial buildings that we did
some CVS stores, we did someJohnny Rocket restaurants.
Oh commercial buildings and wedid some cvs stores.
We did some johnny rocketrestaurants.
Oh yeah, was that the hospital?
Yeah, um, some big jobs.
It was.
Yeah, it was.
It was a lot of, a lot of bigjobs like that, and it was, um,
it was just easy.
And then you got the man whenyou got.

(31:15):
You know, it's like when youtry to get your first fortune.
Now you got three of them.
Well, yeah, hell, yeah, I canload all this stuff Right, so it
just went from there.
Okay, just snowballed fromthere.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yeah, how in the hell did the restaurant business
start then?

Speaker 2 (31:31):
That's where Chef Ruben comes in.
Yeah, where did that end upcoming in Because now we're in a
totally different industry.

Speaker 4 (31:38):
It honestly started as a joke.
A joke, yeah, because I wasdriving by and it was like, hey,
you guys want more stress?
There's a restaurant opening up, there's a new space, it's
fully loaded.
All we have to do is remodelthe inside and literally I had
gotten.
I just left Marrakesh CountryClub or, no, no, bistro 60,

(31:59):
right there off of uh avenue 60in jefferson, trilogy yeah,
trilogy.
I just left there and, uh, I wasdoing my own, uh, my own
catering company, and I was, youknow you know, doing personal
meals, like you know, weekly umdietary meals for for some
clients and I had been drivingby in the fish and chip spot

(32:19):
right there next to.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
I used to eat there.
All the time I used to run intoyou all the time I was pissed.
I was pissed when they closedBest fried rice I ever had, yeah
, yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
And like I saw they were open and like I literally
just I text my mom and Greg.
I'm like, hey, do you guys wantmore stress?
There's a restaurant opening up, Do you?
There's a restaurant opening up?
You guys want to get anelectrical business?
And um, literally they calledme.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Like the next couple days was like yeah I could call
the guy no way he takes me thepicture on the window with the
for lease and restaurant and allthis other stuff and that just
stayed in my head hey, justlittle okay.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
What okay?
So let's let's take a couplesteps back.
You mentioned earlier that youhave culinary debt from school.
Tell me about that.
When did you start going like?
What made you want to get intothat?

Speaker 4 (33:11):
I always, I always enjoyed cooking, I mean like
ever, like my mom and greg whenthey were, uh, when they were
busy with the business.
I mean they were never.
They were never home.
They're always with clientsdoing stuff.
So I would get home, home fromschool, and, oh, I'm hungry.
What do I make?
You know, see what's in thefridge, throw stuff together,
heat up leftovers, you know,even to the point where it's

(33:31):
like, oh, you know, I'll makedinner, I'm bored.
So I just started cooking and itkind of always seemed like just
something I would enjoy.
I never really thought about itas like a career, just
something I enjoyed.
And then, you know, in my mindI was like, oh, you know
electrician, you knowconstruction, this, and that

(33:56):
I'll be an engineer.
But just one day, just kind oflike, I got a letter from a
culinary school and I was like,oh, you know, I really I do
enjoy letter from a culinaryschool and I was like, oh, I do
enjoy cooking, I enjoy this.
It's something I can see myselfgoing to every day and not
being like, oh, I got to go towork.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
Right Something you enjoy.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
Yeah.
So I was like all right, cool,I'll try that out.
And I told my mom about it andshe's right away.
Yeah, do it, Do it.
Why not Go for it?
The school is in Oregon thatthey sent me the letter from.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
Really, how in the hell did they find?

Speaker 4 (34:28):
you.
I have no idea.
They just random letter theysent to me in the mail.
It was probably because I wasan avid in high school, so I was
probably just you know theyprobably just sent my name out
to a bunch of places and I waslike Oregon, I don't want to go
to Portland, it's too far.
It's too far, and the schoolthat sent me that letter was

(34:51):
like well, we have a sisterschool in Pasadena.
Oh, there it is and I was like,all right, cool.
So I thought about it.
Thought about it, like, yeah,I'll go to culinary school.
You know my mom, she took me toall the interviews and
everything and it seemed like agood fit.
So I was like, cool, let's go.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
So how old were you at this point?

Speaker 4 (35:09):
17.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
Oh you're a baby, so were you?
Had you graduated Not?

Speaker 4 (35:12):
yet.
I haven't graduated high schoolyet when I went to culinary
school so I went to I was inhigh school and pretty much
after graduation, because I hadtaken for like a secondary
language, I had taken Japanese.
No shit, konnichiwa.
Yeah for four years I had takenJapanese for four years.

(35:36):
So literally I graduated highschool, I went to Japan for
about a month and a half, stayedthere as like an exchange
student what I had two weeks off.
And then I went to culinaryschool, Wow.
So it was like, yeah, you knowsome people, oh, I think a year
off, no, I had two weeks.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
That's more time to get in trouble you take some
time off, yeah exactly, or moretime to forget about what you
want to do.
Forget about it.
Yeah, not you on the chat.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
We had some friends that just came back from Japan
and they were just like amazedat the food.
Yeah, so when you were there,did the food like entice you
there To this day.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
The gas station sushi I had there is better than
anything I've like, with theexception of like one or two
places.
Is the gas station sushi that Ihad in Japan is better than
anything I've had here in a sitdown restaurant where I've paid
like 15, $20 for like a twopiece sushi.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
So note to self if you ever go to Japan, grab some
of that gas station.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
Yeah, shout out to.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
Lawson's.

Speaker 4 (36:36):
That's the best sushi I've had.
Pretty ironic.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
Okay, so you go to culinary school.
Are you driving back and forth?
Did you get a place?

Speaker 4 (36:47):
I had a room.
I took the domain and all thatstuff and paid for the books and
knives and it was all part ofthe tuition.
So I had my little apartmentover there that I shared with
like five people, so it was.
It was up up in pasadena.
I'd come down every every maybetwo, three weeks, just quick,

(37:10):
little you know, weekend visitand go back up to pasadena for
for collier school you want toknow what I'm thinking about
right now.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
Have you seen the bear?

Speaker 1 (37:20):
yeah, I can just see if you know, because that was
kind of cool, it was very funnybecause when he was in uh
college and he would tell us theshows he watched, which was um,
was it top chef?

Speaker 4 (37:29):
and that's when, like season one of top chef just had
to get just barely come out.
When, uh when, I went to go toschool, we watched everything
that he would.
We felt like we were you know,you feel like you're the one he
called.
How'd it go, man?

Speaker 1 (37:38):
oh yeah, what's hurting, because now we know
everything about what we get allinto.
What about this, what aboutthat?
But now we loved it, man.
You know it was a great schooltoo.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
Well, how?

Speaker 3 (37:48):
long were you in school?

Speaker 4 (37:49):
It was a year and a half five months externship and
then after that I came back andI started working at Sullivan's.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
We went uh sullivan's .

Speaker 4 (38:00):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
So I, my extra ship, was in hawaii, really yeah, so I
went to hawaii, um, but thatwas only like uh, three months
yeah three months and I cameback and I yeah, I started
working here in the valley.
I don't think I would come backafter I was thinking the same
thing, but cost living in hawaiiis super.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
I mean back in in 2005, a gallon of milk was like
$7.
Shut up.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
Okay, so then you come back.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Back to the dream or the joke.
The joke is not such a jokeanymore.
Right, this colony was called.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Cordon Bleu.
And so this thing was, I mean,fantastic and I mean the place
was amazing.
And sometimes we go see themand they're all working through
glass.
I mean, this is like medicaltype.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Precision cooking.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Right, it was a trip man and then in Pasadena, it was
just good.
Like I said, we were almostliving through him.
We couldn't wait to hear moreor see more or whatever.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
So I mean this school is really, really fantastic, so
you guys already had confidencethat he could knock it out of
the parking lot yeah, no,absolutely.
That's why there was nohesitation when he sent you the
joke.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Yeah, Well, and then us with the business man.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (39:16):
Well, it was one of those things as well, like for
the past, like, like literallysince I got out of culinary
school, was oh, let's open arestaurant, let's do this, I'm
not ready, I'm not ready, I needmore experience.
You know, at that point it waslike, it was like you know, I,
when I saw that place, I'm like,I think I'm ready, like I think
I got it, like it's like theuniverse spoke to you, right?
yeah, it's like, it's like kindof like everything kind of just

(39:37):
lined up and just like, click,wow, that's like.
I like.
I think I feel like I haveenough experience.
This place is open and it wasalready a restaurant.
So like, if, like, say, if wejust like bought a thrift store,
we'd have to get plumbing,plumbing, fire extinguishers,
fire suppression, uh, greasetraps, ventilation uh, grease

(39:58):
trap is the nightmare yeah,floor drains the whole.
Thing like so.
So this place was like alreadylike a setup restaurant, so it
was literally just refurbishment, decorate the inside how we
want, sure, and it was just like.
It was just like that rightmoment where it's like okay,
cool, I think I'm ready okay,but what made you say burgers?

(40:18):
uh, we kind of took us like asurvey of the area and it was
like, okay, cool, we got, youknow there's.
Uh, it was a brand new italianplace.
Next door to us.
We have the meat market, thenwe have eureka, then we got
gorilla burger over like wayover there, way over there, and
it was one of those things likeokay with, like a lunch spot is

(40:39):
needed.
There's really no outstanding.
There's good, decent, but nooutstanding things that make you
say wow, there's no outstanding, especially from his culinary
experience, where he's at nooutstanding sandwiches, salads,
burgers.
So it's like, okay, cool,there's a market for that kind

(41:01):
of food everywhere.
So close to El Paseo, not on ElPaseo, let's do it Like we
there's a, there's a, there's a,there's a keyhole and we have
the key.
That's kind of where we startedthe burger place.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
The cool thing is when we're trying to okay, what
should we do, how should we doit, I told them let's just go
try burger places, and so wetried.
Obviously we tried the localones before and this and that,
but we like going to LA a lot,especially since he was at
college and then he was livingin Hollywood for a while, you
know.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
Well, there's so much more selection out there in LA
too.
Well, you've got 11 millionpeople.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Someone's going to try some funky stuff.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
Holy shit, you know someone's going to do it, but
there was one place.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
We went one day and we literally had uh, we went to
three different burgerrestaurants and had three full
burgers in one day, I think.
And we went, yeah, we went totown that day, but we, I think
we went from carson to pasadenato, I think, west los angeles
and just I mean, we were justtrying shit, whatever we can
find, you know, but just forideas or whatever he kind of

(42:07):
already knew.

Speaker 4 (42:09):
I think we went all deep, deep in the hood in
Inglewood just to find this oneburger spot that was well known.
It's like okay, cool, it's likeHawkins.
Yeah, that's what it was.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
Hawkins Burgers.
You got to go there.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
It's in.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
Compton, right next to the hood.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
All right, do I need one of those A little bit of
rest, a little bit of rest Justkidding.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
But remember that the clean Compton of recently,
thank you, compton's not so bad,okay, yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
Okay, so I want to go back to Because you said you
worked for Sullivan's.
That is one of my personalfavorites.
I am the biggest fan of thepineapple knockout Nice, and I
know how to make it Awesome.
Fan of the pineapple knockoutand I know how to make it 12
days of soaking those pineapplesthe best.
So yeah, so okay.
So what did you do there atsullivan's?

Speaker 4 (42:54):
sullivan's is when I first started, so like literally
I was doing uh, salads anddesserts there okay and um, yeah
, I was working the pantrystation.
It was just kind of like a youknow making salads, make salad
dressings and you know, chopyour lettuce and then you kind
of got sick of that.
Um, it was.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
Um, it was kind of like a you know making salads
making salad dressings and youknow, chop your lettuce and then
you kind of got sick of that um, it was.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
um, it was kind of like no, I was, I really enjoyed
it there.
The chef, like because this isback when, um, culinary school
students, you, they were few andfar between, so like when, when
I joined that team, it wasliterally me and a bunch of like
45 year old guys and none ofthem had any culinary school
experience.
None of them had, you know, anykind of like professional

(43:33):
training.
It was literally like, oh,we're gardeners in the morning
and we fry stuff at night, wow.
So when I came in, I was like,I was like oh, how about we do
this, we do that?
You know, kind of like throwinga little professional culinary
school into it Flavor.
Yeah, exactly like throwing thelittle professional culinary
school into it.
Flavor, yeah, exactly, no punintended, and yeah, like I
really enjoyed it.

(43:53):
It's just, um, you know, costof living kept going up and it
was a corporate dining so theycould only they would only pay
you so much.
If you didn't fit that niche,they wouldn't pay you that much.
So, um, at that point I startedstarted because I had taken
Japanese for four years.
I knew the language and Istarted working at Okura Sushi
when they first opened.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Oh yeah, that's a big spot.

Speaker 4 (44:18):
Yeah, and little by little, they're kind of like
well, you know, you cancommunicate with us, because all
the chefs there were Japanese.
None of them spoke fluentEnglish.
So me being able to speakJapanese was like okay, cool,
they can communicate with you.
You have the culinary schoolexperience, we'll buy you a
sushi knife and you train withus, wow.

(44:39):
But you have to leave thesteakhouse.
So it's kind of just like allright, well, I'm learning
something new, I'm getting askill that's highly, highly
demanded, right.
And then you know, but I haveto leave the steakhouse and I
really love the steakhouse.
It was awesome.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
Did you tell him that the gas-stained sushi was still
better?

Speaker 1 (45:01):
No, Okay, I just checked.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
The thing about like Japanese sushi chefs very proud.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
We would go into a curry room and say hey, what are
you doing here?

Speaker 4 (45:14):
Shut up.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
And they're like hey, what do you have?
I'd say, you know what?
Tell the room to make us somestuff.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
He knows what we like , he would just come out.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
You know what it was.
He was not even on the menu, orwhatever.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
Off the menu stuff.
Yeah, that's the stuff rightthere.
You're so bougie now, greg, itwas fantastic it was quite
delicious.

Speaker 3 (45:36):
Okay, so tell me, what does it take to start a
restaurant?

Speaker 2 (45:40):
A lot.
That's got to be a lot ofthings.

Speaker 4 (45:42):
There's got to be a lot of things Crazy, a little
bit of crazy.
Yeah you, it can be totallysane.
You have to have a little bitof an alcohol addiction To get
through the day.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah, it helps.
You got to do what you got todo, right.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
All that helps, but yeah, pretty much it's a lot of
moving parts.
I always tell people the restwas the machine.
You're just the gear in themachine.
If, like, I tell people, if Iget taken out by some old person
driving down 111, like the restis still going to keep going,
they're going to find someone toreplace me.
It's like I'm just a cog in themachine, even like as much as I
do here.
I'm just the part like therestaurant is a machine.

(46:21):
It keeps going, no matter whatokay, but what?

Speaker 3 (46:25):
we're missing details , so I want to know.
So you called the place andsaid we're interested in this
unleashing.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
So this is where god comes in again and and I say
because he, you know, now he'slike greg, you know what's up,
what are we doing?
I said, all right, well, let'sgo check the place out.
I talked to the guy, we left.
I said we'll talk about it somemore and then I didn't call the
guy for like two weeks.
And then three weeks came alongand I thought and every morning

(46:54):
at 6 am when I wake up back,then it was at 6 am, but I'm
like this is the only thing inmy head.
And finally we called him again.
I said, hey, you know what,we'd like to check it out one
more time.
It's a month later.
Right, we check it out.
We're like should we do this?
Yeah, you know what, let's doit.
Okay, cool, we go see it.
I don't call the guy back againand another month goes by.

(47:18):
Oh my gosh Now this is arestaurant and up like this like
what year was this?
It's 2019, early 2019, okay,yeah.
So again, you know, thosethings are quick.
And it was still there and Ikept thinking and finally I, you
know he's like hey, what are wedoing?
I said you know what?
Call him right now, tell himwe'll go sign.
And I was just scared, likewhen I got my first office when

(47:40):
I got my first employee, allthis other stuff.
What am I going to do?
There was so much pressurebefore we even touched it that
we finally called him and I saidwhat do you think, man, he goes
?
Yeah, man, I got it this.
And that I said okay, cool, wewent.
I signed with him and Iremember there was so much
pressure before we signed thatonce I signed, pressure was off.

Speaker 4 (48:01):
Yeah, at that point I was Because you're just the
anxiety, right.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
It was the anxiety in our heads, and can we, and can
we?
And when we signed the lease,the only thing I thought I know
how to go to work and the onlything I thought Of course you do
, you're.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
Mexican.
Yeah, you're.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Mexican.
The only thing I thought now isI was like now let's go to work
, it's ours.
Now we got to make it happenand it's like okay, but how did
you know?

Speaker 3 (48:27):
Did you know how much food to order, like who to buy?

Speaker 4 (48:32):
from, because, with my experience in the food
industry, I had the names andnumbers of vendors and companies
, this and that.
So all that was taken care of.
At the time I was working mycatering company, I was working
at the, at creamistry, at theice cream ice cream place, as a
part-time um, so like it was alot of downtime.

(48:54):
So I like literally like mostof my time there at the ice
cream shop was, um, setting up,getting everything ready, and
the rest of the day was mewriting my notebook.
You know ideas, recipes, thisand that, and so by the time we
actually signed up and hadeverything done, I had planned
everything out, I had the menu,I had you know how much burgers
we needed to sell for the space,this and that.

(49:16):
You know.
I kind of had like a basicconcept of like what we needed
to do, what needed to get done.
I had like kind of like abusiness plan, like already in
my head like, okay, we need tosell X amount of burgers to make
this much profit.
We have, you know this, manyemployees.
But that was back when westarted, like because the

(49:36):
concept when we first startedwas like a counter, counter
service.
Hey, number 43, you're up, ding, ding, you know come get your
food.
But then it just kind ofevolved into something,
something else yeah, yourbusiness said oh no we're doing
this this

Speaker 2 (49:46):
Well, the market said this is what we need in the
market.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
You know when we started and what he's talking
about and I'll bring out thosenotes one of these days, I'll
post them or something.
But he says yeah, look, here'sthe kitchen.
And he drew it like a littlebit of a set of plans the
kitchen with the cook, and Imean holy shit, cook.
And I mean holy shit.
And then I said what?

Speaker 4 (50:10):
about the burgers.
And then he had the burgerswere drawn just like a set of
plans.
Unfortunately I don't knowwhere that notebook went, but I
like, literally had you know.
It'd be like a drawing of thebun, drawing of the sauce,
drawing of the lettuce, drawingof the tomato, like a blue
present.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
There's a line to it and it says lettuce three point
something, whatever.
Wow, I'm thinking just meat,right, no man.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
He has it down.
I told him, hey, yeah, when wewere doing it, that's that
culinary school coming out rightnow.
Yeah, oh, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
You look at these drawings.
I'm like, holy shit, he knowswhat he's doing.
Not that I didn't think he did,but when you know, contractor.
Again, I said hey, I need tostart shopping vendors.
I said you got it.
Where's the recipe?
Tell me what you need.
He said I'm working on it.
I said, okay, a week goes by.
I go, dude, come on.

(50:56):
And he goes I'm working.
I go look, what's the problemhere?
I said they're smart and final.
They got ketchup, they gotmustard, they got bread.
I'll do what's up.
And he goes dude, get out of mykitchen, you're not okay, I
want to.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
We're running low on time, so I want to talk about a
couple things.
I know there was an issue withthe name, so tell me how you
came up with the name.

Speaker 4 (51:19):
And now, tell me what's well, at first we were
grand house burgers, um, butapparently there was a was a
grand house monster burgers.
But why grindhouse what?
Where did that come?
Because we grind our ownburgers, everything, everything,
like you know, we, we don't buyfrozen meat, we don't buy
frozen patties that's why ittastes so good, yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
So let me say this real quick every time he would
cook something.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
This guy had to go to town, so at home he's making
something.
I mean it's over the top.
He's gonna make a.
It's over the top.
He's going to make a snack.
It's over the top.
I mean a freaking peanut butterand jelly.
It's over the top.
Everything was over the top andI didn't even think about the
restaurant.
He starts making these burgersand they're over the top, you
know.
And that came up with a namebecause we needed great.

(52:02):
First, I'm going to make all myown sauces.
I'm like, dude, make your ownsauces.
Hey, we're going to grind yourown meat?
Why can't we just buy the packsat Costco?
This is again my thinking, andhe says no.

Speaker 4 (52:13):
You don't get it Literally.
I'm like stop it right now orI'm done.
I said do your thing.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
Okay, so Grindhouse.
And then there was anotherGrindhouse somewhere else In.

Speaker 4 (52:23):
Atlanta, atlanta.
Yeah, so we thought we werecool.
We saw it when we first opened.
But it's like okay, cool it'son the other side of the country
.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
They're way over there.
Yeah, they don't give a shit.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
Yeah, what we didn't know was that this guy was an
attorney before he opened up therestaurant, so he literally had
all his T's crossed, all hisI's dotted, p's and Q's, all
made up to date, so he had anational trademark on anything
that had grind house burgers ormonster on it killer grain house
yeah, killer, killer.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Yeah, it was grain house killer burgers and I
thought, well, it ain't no thing, you know, we talked to our
yeah.

Speaker 4 (52:58):
So when we first opened we started getting uh
calls like oh yeah, I'll takethe grind house, the grind sauce
, and you know, I want a side ofchili and I'm like we don't
serve chili, we don't have thatsauce.
You know, did you read our menuand it turned out like they
were trying to contact thisburger chain in atlanta, but
they were getting us and somehowhe got, he got a wind of it,
got wind of it and luckily heplayed nice, like he was really

(53:20):
nice about it he was just likehey, change your name and then
we'll drop it.
So we spoke to an attorney andhe literally said like hey, this
guy's being really cool, he canget you for every single logo
that's on your, every singlemenu.
So if he had 30 menus, he wouldget us 30 times for just the
menus.
Every single logo that's on ourhats, every single logo that's
on our shirts, every single logothat's on our walls.

(53:42):
He's like, just change the name.
He's like just change the name.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
Get it over with, be done with it, be done with it.
The big thing I think that'show they were getting this was
social media, because peoplewere tagging and if you tag half
the name or the name wrong orwhatever, that's where it was
popping and mixing and that'swhen they hit us up.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
So then you changed it to Right Gasser Brand.
And how did that come about?

Speaker 4 (54:01):
That too.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Really, yeah, we couldn't decide.
It was time to decide, we needto decide.
And we kept letting it sit,like I let everything else sit,
and and they were saying, hey,you got a timeline here where
you got to change the name.
So we, you know we were talkingto what, what can we do?
I mean, at that point we, ourmind was just so much on on
house burger, grindhouse burgersthis is killer.

(54:24):
You know our logo.
I made up that logo out ofsomething else or whatever, but
anyways, we loved it.
So we didn't know what to comeup with.
And gastro you don't think agastro pub?
That you look at the definitionof, of gastronomy, which is
excellent food and all this andthat, and then burgers.
And it's like we need to justcome up.
And so I called the guy thatdoes all my signs and stuff over

(54:46):
there at Canyon Designs and Igave him two names.
I said we're doing this and hesays you're not doing that.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
He says you need to do this so in a way it was him
too.
He goes.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
This is what you need to do and I'll make signs for
you tomorrow.
And I said cool.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
It all worked out.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
And that's how it happened.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
But I had to get, which is real cool guy and he
helped us.
I think we know he was actuallyone of our customers.
Uh, he did all over, uh, ourlegal work for a sandwich.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
So he says, just hook me up with a burger, bro it
didn't keep going that way, butstill it started.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
We could get him to work for some, yeah but, but it
was, it was cool.
That's how okay, now I want totalk about one other thing, so
tell me about this um the foodnetwork found you guys on
because obviously you knocked itout of the park with the menu.
You guys are probably one ofthe best burgers here in the
coachella valley I canpersonally vouch for that.

(55:40):
So word spreads.
A couple years later, foodnetwork's showing up at your, at
your door.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
Tell us about that, well, pretty much it was, um, it
was a about that.
Well, pretty much it was a busyday.
Exactly, it was a busy, busyday and it was a busy lunch and
one of the servers comes up tome and is like oh hey, someone
wants to talk to you about somebusiness thing.
I'm like and we get those callsall the time- and she's like oh
yeah, we can offer you so muchof this on that.
You know, with your POS system,I tell them I'm busy Hang up on

(56:06):
them.
She's like it's from FoodNetwork.
I'm like give me that phone,I'll take that one.
I literally tell my cooks youtake care of the line, I'll be
back.
I've got to go talk to thesepeople.
I'm literally on the phone withthem.
They're like oh yeah, we'refrom Food Network.
They didn't tell me what showit was.
We're we're from Food Network.

(56:28):
They didn't tell me what showit was.
Like we're interested in you.
You know we've been hearing alot of buzz.
Everything was hush, hush andthey're like we want.
And they start just literallylike they put us through the
Spanish Inquisition, like whatare your recipes?
Who's working for you?
Give us your, your healthinspections, jesus Christ.
I mean literally who do you buyfrom this?

Speaker 3 (56:43):
like everything isn't that like?
When people are asking me aboutwho my vendors are, I'm like
why do you want to know?
Did you feel like that?
Like hey?

Speaker 4 (56:53):
at first I did.
But when they're like, oh, it'sfood network, I'm like, okay,
cool.
Like they're like barriers aredown.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
Yeah, yeah, and I remember he told me he goes hey,
they just called, is thatsomething you think we should do
?
And he says they're gonna sendan email and wait for an email.
And I'm like, okay, we're all,we're all waiting on the
computer and shit you know.

Speaker 4 (57:13):
And finally they sent an email and uh, they, it was a
process, so yeah it was like wehad to do like a couple uh zoom
interviews, a phone interview,uh, they came in person and
interviewed us and then finallyI said, okay, you're doing
diners, divers and dives, andwhat is it like?

Speaker 1 (57:28):
six it was six, seven hours easy of interviews yeah,
about that easy I sat down, yeahliterally all three of us
sitting in front of a laptop.

Speaker 4 (57:37):
You know, doing a zoom interview, um, you know
that or you know, we'll have thephone right there all like
talking.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
You know this and that and after all that we still
didn't know yeah, we stilldidn't know.

Speaker 4 (57:46):
Yeah, we still didn't know.
So we'll let you know.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
And then they come in and you bring a couple guests
in.
We were one of them, right?

Speaker 2 (57:53):
Thank you for inviting us.
You have to slow the slow-moreal quick to catch us, but we
were there.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was awesome.
So then he comes in and thenyou just did your thing on
camera.
Were you being on camera?
Were you nervous?

Speaker 4 (58:05):
A little bit.
I was a little nervous.
It was kind of one of thosethings like the production crew,
they're like all right, guyscoming in, we're about to start
filming.
If you got your whiskey, takeyour shots.
I'm like all right, cool, I gotit, I'm ready, I'm ready, yeah.
So after a few drinks it waskind of just like get all loose
and all right, cool, let's getready.

(58:26):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
Yeah, so it was, they had a problem.

Speaker 4 (58:33):
But yeah, it was very much a process, like there was
there's literally one girl inthe corner.
Her job was literally just totell us how much time it was
remaining until Guy Fieri gotthere, like literally, like he's
here in half an hour, he's herein an hour and a half.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
Five minutes, guys Get ready, it's like.
And then he rolled up in hiscool little Mustang.
Not even that that thing wasparked there in the morning.
It was parked there waitingCovered.

Speaker 4 (58:54):
He came in.
It was like some production vanjust got out.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
He came in a Suburban .
Yeah, the red car was there,that was the same.
I'm loving it.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
It's reality TV, man.
Once you've been through it, itkind of kills the magic.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
Yeah, but when you see the magic like that, it's
kind of like, oh, that's how itworks, but it's still a trip.

Speaker 4 (59:18):
Yeah, like.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
Guy.
He was only there, maybe abouttwo hours like hour and a half
if that.

Speaker 4 (59:21):
So which burger did?

Speaker 3 (59:22):
he eat All of them, oh really.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
He ate all of them.

Speaker 4 (59:24):
The main one they showed was the the smoky and the
surf and turf, but like those Imean it was.
I mean I've never seen anyoneinhale a burger like that.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
Okay.
So this tripped me up becauseit was a sudden there too, and I
thought, okay, they're going tobite it, talk about it this,
and that they finished them.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
Yeah, literally like they cut the burger in up to.

Speaker 4 (59:48):
it was like I was researching, like oh you know
what, if a guy doesn't like thefood and it's pretty much like
yeah, if he doesn't like thefood he'll take one bite and
just like set it down.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Like if you give him a chicken,he's like oh yeah, yeah, that
was chicken, right.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
But Liquor license?
Yeah, that's another.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Well, I don't want to say God.
I don't know if God throws aliquor in your car?

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
Well, yeah, but you get put into a lottery.

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
We got put into a lottery because you can.
First you look for a broker,because that's what it is
Basically.
There's only, let's say,there's 20,000 liquor license in
California.
That's it.
They don't make more.
So somebody has to go out ofbusiness or whatever, so that
they can go on on inventory orthey're revoked.
You know so.
So, uh, you know the easy,fastest way.

(01:00:41):
If you really need it and it'spart of the plan you go to a
broker and you pay 50, 60, 80,whatever someone feels like
selling their license for it'slike real estate, yeah.
Or you wait once a year and youpay, uh, seventy thousand
dollars, whatever, to the state.

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
Wow, you know, and they put you in a in the lottery
yeah, and by that time we hadit, we already had her bearing
my license for well, a year,year and a half, yeah, yeah, we
had that one since so it was,which is easy, that you walk to
an extent we were already ingood standing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
The liquor license, the spirits license, that's the
hard part oh yeah, and then putyou to the ringer fbi background
.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
I mean everything I didn't realize coming in
checking you out everythinginspectors.

Speaker 4 (01:01:19):
Where's your license?
Where's this?
Where's that?
Show me your paperwork.
Give me your certifications.
Where's?

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
yo, let me just get you a beer yeah, exactly down
let me show the main line.

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
Some whiskey and you'll find it well the funny
thing is.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
So now it's time for the reveal of who's gonna to get
it and who doesn't, and it's onZoom, and so Belinda's watching
it.
She said I'm going to check itout, we're working.
I said I can't you check it out?
I'll watch a little bit if Ican, but it's up in Sacramento
or whatever.
And we didn't hear our name andthe lady calling everything out
was an accent.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
Oh gosh.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
So we didn't understand nothing.
And finally she says theycalled and they're like yeah, so
you play it back and we werelike the second one's on the
list, wow.
We got your round book andwe're like whoa.
That's so awesome, that istough to get and we're grateful
oh yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, that was just another shot, that's awesome, so we were

(01:02:13):
able to do that and that that'sgreat, but they put you through
the ringer.
I mean, it's like I was in highschool.
Again.
They want you to write likeessays.
Yeah, why do you think you need?
no, I literally had to writelike a page and a half of why I
think the community deserves ourrestaurant with the liquor
license that was a funny thing,that's a weird, and they said it
can't be the typical answerlike oh, it's because you want

(01:02:33):
them to enjoy it with a beer,you have to come up with some
creative shit.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
Did you go on ChatGBT ?
Yeah, yeah, we were.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
ChatGBT back then back in 2019.

Speaker 3 (01:02:41):
That was before.
Chatgbt was a thing.
Yeah, that was definitely.
Yeah, it was ChatBring.
Yeah, I know that one.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
I used to like that one Right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
So obviously you guys got the restaurant going, your
business going in the next.
You know what you got somegoals going forward.
Where do you?

Speaker 4 (01:03:03):
see it going in the there's.
There's a few different waysthat we talk about going right
now.
We definitely need to upgradeour place.
Yeah, because we we outgrewthat spot maybe bubble like two
years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
But here's the funny thing is we?
I wanted to be the hole in thewall where every lines up to get
to, because we Went to LA andthat's a lot of the stuff was
you wouldn't necessarily go downto el paseo and find these
great places.
You'd go have to go look forthem maybe in the hood somewhere
.
Yeah, exactly, and so that'sthat's.
That's what it was here, and Iand and this, this I I don't
believe it's just a quantity,but it was a quality that
outgrew the place.

(01:03:28):
Absolutely.
That's what outgrew the place,because when we started, I
hadn't even tasted the burgeryet and we had the taste test
the day before we opened.
I had no idea what the hell wewere serving.
He knew.
And of course we're shellingout.
Oh, before anything, we builtthis place with our own hands.
We were in there helping cuttile and wood and painting and

(01:03:51):
all this.
So it was us Belinda, my wife,I mean, we were all doing that.
We hired some help for hearingthat, yeah, we'd go to.

Speaker 4 (01:03:57):
Home Depot.
Pick out the wood.
I don't know how many.
Home Depots yeah, all the woodsiding, kind of like those
panels that you have right there, me and Belinda in downtown.

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
LA, the truck loaded with chairs.

Speaker 4 (01:04:08):
Going to restaurant supplies.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
But going back to the day I had him, I'm like, okay,
we invited family and friendsand I had one of these burgers
that I hadn't had yet.
Because he's doing his thing,I'm supposed to stay out of the
kitchen, right?
Holy shit, was that good?
Yeah, I actually got him tostop eating well-done burgers.
Really, yep.

Speaker 3 (01:04:26):
I remember thinking what's wrong with the well-done
burger, not in my place, hernext, but I remember thinking
this was my thought.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
Shit, I think we're going to make it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
I remember saying it because I didn't know yet and I
thought, shit, we got a chance,I go.
Man, this is holy shit.

Speaker 3 (01:04:44):
It was good.
And then you go yes, it is,yeah, yeah.
At the end of the day, you gotto have the product.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
man, it was a small place and it was all about come
up and get it, but the style offood that it was and the quality
it was, people already had theimpression of bring it to me.

Speaker 4 (01:04:57):
We literally had people writing us bad reviews
because we didn't have clothnapkins, dip cloth, yeah, I mean
things like that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
People were like hey well, you got to get it over
here.
They already called your number.
They're like well, we're here,Bring it to me.

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
That's what it was.
You the best.
I mean, we order from you allthe time you know, I really do I
love your food it's great andit I to this day the best
brussels sprouts I've had in mylife.
My husband hates brussels buthe will eat yours, thank you and
my ass thanks you because I'vegained 10 pounds homemade sauces

(01:05:31):
again on the bottom he makes.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
I mean it's crazy To me, it blows me away
Everything's homemade sauces.

Speaker 4 (01:05:36):
Yeah, we get some people like they'll ask us.
Like we had one guy come in heordered a Caesar salad and he's
all in one ten sides of dressing.
I'm like, well, we're going tohave to charge you for it, we'll
give it to you.
We're going to have to chargeyou for it.
He got super mad and that I'mlike no, we make our sauces
in-house.
I mean it takes, you know, Ihave a cook separating egg yolks
and cleaning anchovies.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
It's not coming out of a bottle, baby.
Yeah, exactly the amount ofeggs we go through, I never knew
.

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
Buy some chickens next Chicken farm next so are we
thinking that we might bemoving locations here in the
future just to serve.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
You need to buy your own building.
Yeah, future, just to serve.

Speaker 4 (01:06:17):
Yeah, you need to buy your own building.
Yeah, that's that's, that's theultimate way.
Yeah, because one of the thebuilding we have is old.
It's old, like you know.
We have inspectors.
Come in and be like oh thisthing's like 30 years out of
code.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
It's like, oh yeah, it's still grandfather,
grandfather, yeah, exactly yeah,oh, when it comes to the
building, yeah, that's part ofthe worry about here.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Can't, can't, yeah, I can only do so much right,
exactly, but that that's part ofthe building you don't have to
worry about.
Here, we can only do so muchright.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
Exactly, but that's our big thing is we've all grown
the place more quality thananything, and we do need to move
.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
So in the next couple of years we can expect an
expansion coming soon.

Speaker 4 (01:06:47):
Yeah that, or we're going to buy an Italian place
next door, right?
I mean, that's always easier,right?
Just knock down the wall.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
So for people that haven't checked out your
restaurant you know I'm surethere's going to be some people
listening that haven't how canthey find you?

Speaker 4 (01:07:01):
How can they find you ?
We're right on Highway 111,across from Babaloo's, in
between the 7-Eleven and theAutoyac Meat Market on San Luis
Rey.
Yeah, right in between San LuisRey and Portola.

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
And I'm assuming you're on Facebook and Instagram
.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
Best way to order through online is just on the
website.

Speaker 4 (01:07:21):
Through our website.
We're also on DoorDash.
You can order through therePlenty of ways.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
Plenty of ways to check out the best burger in the
Coachella Valley, exactly, andwe recently just won best burger
in the Valley.

Speaker 1 (01:07:33):
I voted for it.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
They're absolutely the best, I gotta say yeah and I
well, I can say it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
I can say I don't cook it all right, but I was
telling our, you know, friend,that's the best burger.
They're, yeah, they are.
When I desire burger, that'swhat I go for.
What sucks is once I open thisrestaurant every time we go to
have dinner and they have aburger on the menu.
I got to order it because I gotto try it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
You got to take it out of there.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
I got to see what the competition is doing, whatever,
but no, they're bomb.

Speaker 3 (01:08:05):
And then how do people find you and your
business?

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
You know you Google it, Don't call me.

Speaker 3 (01:08:10):
Yeah, yeah, don't call my cell phone.

Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
But see, and that's one thing, number 760.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
You know, and we've expanded there too, so we're
under the same name because wehave a whole audio video
division and my son-in-law runs.
That's right, so we do havethat.
And it's starting solar right,it's essentially three in one,
because we do solar as well.
Solar's coming next huh, yeah,exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
So we're already doing solar contracts.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
We've got quite a few under our belt, but we're not
fully advertising anything yet.
We do it with our own customers.
Okay, you know for now, comingsoon, huh.

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
Yeah, you know, that's just how a business has
evolved.
It just happens that way, andI'm glad that you're doing that
because there's a need for it Igot one more thing coming up.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
I won't talk about it too much, but it's an extension
also, ringo electric.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
You know so, so I'm excited about that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
We'll have to have you back yeah bye season two,
season two yeah, no, absolutelybut yeah, you can google our
name ringo electric.

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
We'll be more than happy, and you know what I
really appreciate you guys, uh,having us here thank you, and
I'm really appreciated you guys,I've known you a long time I
know, you know, tile designs Ipay.

Speaker 3 (01:09:17):
I mean, come on, man, I gotta be interviewing you
guys you guys are killing it outthere, bobby's, bobby's,
getting shy, but I want to know,and from each one of you, what
do you think is?
And then I'm throwing acurveball what is some advice
that you've been given, the bestadvice about owning your own
business, or somebody, somebodythat you know right?

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
What's the best advice you've gotten in terms of
being an entrepreneur?

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
I would say God, cause there's so many, there's
so many much things out there.
But know that you're going tobe married to it.
You know what, that it's goingto be all the time.
Yeah, now, even if you're notat the office and you get a
chance to close it's, it's up inyour mind.
So make sure you love what youdo.
All right, that's the biggestthing.

(01:10:04):
You love what you do, you know?
Um, I think that kind of fixesit all.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
That'll carry you through.
Carry it through when you'resuffering, through those days
where you're just likeeverything's gone wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
Today I would say that one of the biggest things
and what comes to my mind rightnow is be honest, amen, be
honest 100%.

Speaker 4 (01:10:23):
For me, one of the best pieces of advice that I've
gotten was before you make adecision on the business, take a
step back and look at the wholepicture.
See the whole scenario for whatit is.
Look at all of the angles.

Speaker 3 (01:10:37):
That's really good picture.

Speaker 4 (01:10:38):
See the whole scenario for what it is, look at
all the angles.
Sure you know?
Make sure you know, make sureyour decision is right before
you make it like that's kind oflike you know.
Take a second, don't, don't berash, just take a breath, step
back, look at the whole picture,then make your decision very
good, see, see where it's gonnait's gonna end up yeah, and it's
not think of the where it'sgonna lead.
True, and the big thing is, it'snot what you make, it's going
to end up, think of where it'sgoing to lead.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
And the big thing is, it's not what you make, it's
what you keep tell me about it.
You can bring in millions andit can be gone as well what's
the worst advice you guys havegotten?
Just do it yeah, just do it.
Don't even think about it, justdo it see it works for some of
us yeah well, that's how sherolls.

(01:11:18):
Let's start with this shirt youknow, the big misconception is
I'm the boss, I get to do it, Ihave all the time in the world.
The reality is, like I saidearlier, you know, you don't.
It's like okay, I want a bosscustomer of ours at Rangel or at
Gastrogram, they're the boss,right then and there you got to
make sure every single one ofthem is happy, and I mean that's

(01:11:41):
just it, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:11:43):
One of the biggest, I guess, false advice I was given
was like because you're theboss, you're above everyone.
No, you're the same as everyone.
You have to respect them.
You have to same as everyone.
You have to respect them.
You have to respect youremployees Absolutely.
You have to treat them withrespect and you have to talk to

(01:12:06):
them like they're people.

Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
Yeah, that's kind of like someone told me like, oh no
, they work for you, they'reyour minions.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
That's the bad mentality.
I think it's the opposite.
I think you actually everybodythe same.
This is the funny thing that Iwas just thinking.
Right now, I don't know how tohelp.
I'm not in the restaurantbusiness, so what did I do every
day when I went in?
After I leave Rangyong, I'mgoing to go check how they're
doing.
I'm going to wash the dishes,wow.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
So it's the only time I wash the dishes I get busy.

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
I don't even want to go home.
Here's some pots.
I'll mess somebody's order up.
I'll go to the back.
When it was time for me to gohome.
I didn't want to leave until Isaw everybody leave First in
last to leave.
I didn't want to go.
I felt bad leaving the cook andRuben and the chef.

(01:12:50):
I know, when they're closed,the waiter's got to clean the
floors, I'm like.

Speaker 4 (01:13:00):
I got to clean the floors.

Speaker 1 (01:13:00):
I'm like I gotta help man.
I can't eat, and so it was.
It was tough, but that's.
That was the whole point.
You were all had to you, but Isaid we'll get you help.

Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
You know I'm cool with that, you know well.
Thank you, guys.
We want to thank you for comingand giving us a piece of your
time and, uh, you know just, wewant people to hear your story
and maybe connect and and whoknows inspire somebody to do the
same Thanks for having us.
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
Thank you for having us, and I can't wait to hear
some more of your guests,because there's a lot of
inspirations out there.
I think so too.
I was inspired by people, youwere inspired by people.

Speaker 2 (01:13:29):
That's what it's all about.
Man is giving to the nextgeneration coming up Exactly.
You never know who's going tolisten.
Maybe the next great chef islistening to Ruben over here.

Speaker 4 (01:13:38):
You never know.
So that's what this is allabout.

Speaker 2 (01:13:39):
So thanks for coming in, guys.
If you liked what you heardtoday, subscribe, like, share,
and we'll talk to you next time.

Speaker 1 (01:13:47):
Absolutely Thanks.

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