John Terzian: The King of LA Nightlife and Building The h.wood Group from Scratch | E156 - In Search Of Excellence

Episode Transcript
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John Terzian (00:00):
Tell us how someone gets banned from the

(00:01):
Queen Mary. Rented out. QueenMary. They don't do like rent
outs like that at the time. So Ihad convinced them it was a
wedding, and this party wasabsolutely insane. The Queen
Mary was completely thing.
Almost got shipwrecked. The guythat I convinced when he came in
and saw that it wasn't awedding, the look of
disappointment on his face to mewas so sad. So they put me on a
very serious band list.

Randall Kaplan (00:22):
They're working for DJ AM, he's with Travis
Parker on his Lear 35 a jet. Thejet crashes.

I had stopped working for them five months
prior. The plane went off therunway. It was a very rough
situation.

Welcome to In Search of Excellence, where I
get to meet some of the mostsuccessful, iconic and
interesting people in the entireworld today. My guest is one of
my closest friends, Don turzian,who's the co founder and runs
the H wood group, which owns 11incredibly successful and iconic
nightclubs and restaurantsaround the world, including
Bootsie bellows and nice guydelilahs, and they have six more
they're building on the horizon.
John, thanks for being here.

(01:05):
Thank you. Welcome to in churchof excellence. Thanks for having
me. I appreciate it. I alwaysstart my podcast with our
family, because our familyhelped shape our values, our
personality and our future. Yourdad, Dick was a lawyer who
represented the city of Malibu,among other things. Your mom,
Kathy, was a school teacher.
What was it like growing up inWestwood, and how did your
family influence your future?

(01:25):
Yeah, my, I grew up in a youknow, it's funny, I was like,
didn't realize it till later,but I was kind of like the black
sheep of the family. My, youknow, my mom's a teacher, music
teacher and fourth grade teachermy whole life. My dad's an
attorney. Loves the law. That'swhy I ended up going to law
school. My brothers will diehard lawyer

and so, you know, they, I think the whole life, I
was the only one that was alittle different. I was an
artist, you know, I was insports, you know, things like
that. But at a you know, theyreally shaped me. Because at the
very end of the day, you know,the best people, they were the
absolute best people. And thatwas the only thing they asked of
me, is to be a good human sothat's something that it's
really like stuck with me andkind of who I want around me as

(02:07):
well. I mean, I've met yourparents several times at our
charity event. They'reincredibly proud of you, and
it's fun to just see themveiling. If I can use a Jewish
word of or, you know, ask my sonout there, look at Yeah, look at
what he's done in his life.
Yeah. Well, they thought I was,you know, look, it's nice that
now they thought I was insane.
When I got out of law school anddidn't pass the bar, I went to

(02:28):
work for a DJ. So they, at thattime, thought I was absolutely
out of my mind and thought I wasgoing nowhere. So I think it's
good now that they're like, theycan be proud of me. You're very
cool guy. You make fun of methat I'm not that cool and I'm
not that cool, but when you wereI appreciate your non coolness.
I think it's a good aspect. It'sa good attribute. Why is that a
good attribute? I think it'sbetter to be that way, just

(02:49):
natural. It's funny, because

you'll make fun of me that I'll pass 10 o'clock
at night. Which which I do on

so often. You get you take it. I take it. You take
it. Late Night,

yeah, when Madison gets all dressed up, and
then I, you know, we've been atnightclubs in Vegas who've been
to some of your players, and I'min there for half an hour, and
it's like, you know, why do youwant to go home if I got all
dressed up and we're here forthe night? So I think it's
amazing. I take it now. Whatwere you like between ages three
through 10? I don't think

I've ever really changed who I am, which is
pretty i, which is prettyinteresting in the sense I've
kind of always been the sameway. You know, I'm interested in
what I think, why I think Iwhatever success I've had in
hospitality, I think has to dowith my natural liking of a lot
of different things. I have a,you know, love of art, and a

(03:43):
love of sports, and, you know,love of history. Like, I'm in
like, different pockets of like,life, and I've been that way
since I was a little kid, youknow. And so I think, you know,
my thing was always, even when Iwas a little kid, I remember
even at like, six and seven, Iwas always the one to bring
everyone together. So if it wasmy family, I was the one to make

(04:04):
them all laugh. I was the onedoing skits. I was the one, you
know, and then that went, thatwent into elementary school, in
high school, like my house, andwhat I did was always the glue
of everyone around me, myfriends and family. It was like
my thing was always like beingkind of like the center of
bringing everyone together. Youknow, that's kind of always how

(04:25):
I've been. You know, at some

point you picked up a football, yep, and you must
have been pretty good atfootball, because you started
for a very competitive HighSchool in LA, why don't you tell
us about when the first time youpicked up a ball? Well, I

played, you know, basketball was my main sport my
whole life, and I absolutely,like, loved it and lived and
breathed it. And then, you know,one day I was like, I want to
try, you know, in flag, orwhatever it was, I can't
remember, I think, seventhgrade. And, you know, while I
while I don't have the speed Ihad, I had a good arm, you know,
I just was naturally able to doit, which a lot of people, I

(04:58):
guess, aren't, and I had. Upgoing into it and loving it, you
know. And so played at HarvardWestlake, and I think it really
shaped a lot of what I do,because of, you know, as a
quarterback, and at the end ofthe day, it's, it's very that
the skill set for that has to doa lot with being a leader in
business, in life. And then Iwent on, and was a walk on, on

(05:18):
the USC team, right? You know,as a quarterback, as like six
string wit, right?

We'll get to that in a minute. But what did
you do to train to become aquarterback? I mean, I have a
great arm as well. I can throw aprofessional ball 50 yards with
tight spiral with some heat. Icould have never played because
I couldn't take a hit, and Iwasn't that athletic, and I was
very thin. I mean, you're smallfor a quarterback as well, and

(05:43):
you were playing at a major,major high school,

you know, one thing I did, I have, I have an
insane work ethic, you know,much like, much like you from
who I know, and I had that at ayoung age, and I didn't know
how, I mean, I'm a crazy workethic. And I just, were I, you
know, I was, I was doing, youknow, morning trainings and
weekend trainings and, like,everything you know, under the

(06:06):
sun of what it would take to bea quarterback. And, you know, I
didn't have that in my family.
No one was in sports, no one wasin no one was in that, really.
So it was really me learningthat and just working my ass
off, you know.

So you went to USC on an art scholarship, but
you didn't take the artscholarship, and as you said,
you were a walk on to thefootball team.

I went, I was gonna go to Michigan. I got an
art scholarship to Michigan.
Man, you made the wrong choice.
I accepted. I went to Michigan,and it was, I know you're,
you're, you're a Michigan guy.
My entire life, I grew up on theFab Five, and I was obsessed
with going to Michigan, becausemy whole family went to USC I
was I was like, I had to dosomething opposite. And I just
love Michigan, and I go toMichigan, good. It was fine. I

(06:51):
was going to do it, and I wasgoing to do art there. I was
going to give up football,because the only ones that were
really interested in me infootball were very small
schools, so I had to make adecision if I'm going to go on
to be football or if I'm goingto go on to have a normal
college career. And so that's,you know, that's I decided to
do. And, you know, art was stillis my passion, you know. So I

(07:13):
was like, Okay, I'll do that.
And then I had a friend was alittle older than me, or a year
older, and was like, come downto a party at SC and I went to
USC, and I called my parents,and I'm like, I don't know why
anyone would not go to thisschool. I'm not going to
Michigan. And they were like,well, you're, you've already
accepted. I'm like, I because Ihad applied to like, five

(07:35):
schools, and USC was one ofthem, and I had gotten in, and I
was like, I there's, this is theonly school I'm going to so once
USC and wasn't on the footballteam or anything, but I get a
call midway through my likefreshman year from the from the
coach. I thought it was a prankcall, to be honest, but the
coach at the time, Hackett, washis name, and they wanted my the

(07:58):
tight the starting tight end forme was the star of the country
for in high school, Alex Holmes.
Alex, yeah, and they wanted himso bad. And he said he'll only
go if I play, if I walk on. So Iwas like, Look, I'll take it. So
I walked on. And, I mean, it wasgrueling. I was the, I was the
lowest totem pole, but it wasreally good, you know, I have to

(08:19):
say, looking back on it amazing.
But, you know, 5am workoutsevery day, then practice, then
class, then practice and filmlike, I mean, it was, it was
intense, you know, and I youdon't get a red shirt when
you're as low totem pulled so, Imean, you get annihilated.

Great student.
Think you had a 3.7 GPA at USC,yeah. And one of your roles
there was to help recruit theplayers. Yep, so tell us, Hey,
John, this is Coach Hackett. Wegot some guys coming in. We'd
like you to take them out torestaurants and nightclubs.

No, yeah, it didn't. It didn't exactly look
at that, but it like morphedinto that, you know, which is
interesting, because I do creditalmost everything that I'm doing
today with stem from that,actually, because basically, the
coaches started to recognizethat this, like, fifth string
football player who was nevergoing to play in the actual
game. I was friends with all theplayers, like I was hanging out

(09:14):
with them, and they were like,you know, you have a good like,
You're from LA, you kind of knowthe thing where you get along
with all the players. And youknow, we're we're in the we're
in the hunt on recruiting. Whydon't you take out, I can't
remember at the time, the firstperson take this person out,
he's coming in town. We reallywant him. And so I did, and I

(09:36):
really got along with thatfamily. And they were like,
whatever you did was amazing.
Could you do that more to mewith with incoming recruits. And
so I did, and I ended up, like,really, putting together a
program with Alex, to be honest,homes of, like, taking these
recruits out, having, like, areally good time showing them,
like, showing them like, what itwhat it's like to come to LA
USC, you know everyone you know.

(10:00):
One of the big things is beinghomesick your kid from Georgia
or Florida or whatever it mightbe. It's like, see, they got to
feel a family, you know. And Ilearned that at a young age, and
I and it really grew big, andlike, what I'm doing today with
hwood, a lot of it grew out ofthat thing, because I did that
for years, and that's how thatcame about today,

the best players go for the money, right? N, I L,
they have Michigan paid BryceUnderwood, number one player in
the country, reportedly, tenmillion there are all kinds of
people who got involved withthat. Back then, it was
different. The players could nottake money. And one of the
things I wanted every school,and I know this from players and
coaches, the recruits wouldcome, and part of the fun of the

(10:43):
party was helping the recruitshave sex with women. I mean,
that was going on everywhere.
Yep. Did you see any of that atUSC?

I really didn't, actually, I know that's a big
thing. Now, you would haveparties where you'd have, like,
girls and whatever. But I reallydidn't see anything as crazy as
that. In that regard, I thinkthat was, like, a lot of, like,
older years of things, but thatwas not anything that, like,
went down with, like, what Iwas, we were involved with ours
was more like entertainment,fun, like, you know, you would

(11:14):
take, it's funny, you wouldtake, like, a restaurant that,
like, was like, dead on a, youknow, late night, and we just
fill it with, like, the, youknow, fun people and, you know,
in college, so it's like, youknow, you create a little, a
little fun vibe, and that'sreally what it was, and more
hand holding on, like theirfamily and stuff. But, you know,
back to your point on the peopletake the money. That is only I

(11:39):
have learned, because I'm prettyactive in the in the USC and I L
world. What I've learned is, isthat goes for a certain top
person where, you know, be toughto tell a kid to, like, not take
ten million you know, orwhatever it is, but those only,
there's only a few of that.
Everything else under, underthat. I will say there, this
still comes down to, like,having the right feel and the

(12:02):
right people. And it's not justabout the money. And I And I've
met, I've met, you know, goodamount of these kids and, like,
and their families. And I think,if I think more, I think it's, I
have to say, I think it's swungback a little bit that it's,
yes, you need some aspect of themoney. It can't be nothing
anymore. But I do think it'smore about the right fit, you
know, which gives some hope,because the NFL world is out of

(12:24):
control.

You were throwing parties in college and
you were basically bringingpeople to restaurants, including
celebrities. So how on earthdoes a kid in college know
celebrities well enough to say,hey, come join us, and we're
going to have a fun time at thisrestaurant.

Well, I didn't know, you know, this first of
all, way back then, totallydifferent time. There wasn't, it
wasn't even paparazzi, you know.
And so part of my, part ofsomething that I'm fortunate
about, was I was from, I'm fromLA and a handful of my friends
started to become pretty big,you know, celebrities acting and
music and things. And so when Iwas doing parties and bringing
people together, they would comejust because they're my natural

(13:04):
friends. It became a thing, youknow. And so that's really how
it worked then. And you know, atthe end of the day, even to this
day, you know, Mo like, it's anatural thing. It's a genuine
relationships, you know, that's,that's the way it works best,
you know. So,

who are some of these people back then, when
you're in college, who becamecelebrities as, and you were
bringing to these parties? I

don't know if it was bringing to them, but it was
more like the ones that werearound were like, you know, the
Paris Hiltons of the world atthe Olsen twins. And, you know,
they were, they were all in thesame, you know, circle of
friends, you know, if you will,you know, and so that's, you
know, Lindsay Lohan, you know,like that. At that time, it was

(13:50):
like everyone was around, andthen you'd have, you'd have a
good mix of people, and, like,kind of went from there, you
know, there's a

concept that goes on at restaurants and
nightclubs, nice, nicerestaurants and nightclubs that
restaurants will actually paypeople to bring in beautiful
women and models and they eatfor free. And that's a foreign
concept for people who don'tlive in LA or New York, was
that? Was that happening? Wasthat part of the deal is you're

(14:17):
going out, and wrangling is theword that I hear lots of times
where you're a promoter, andhey, you know your job is to
find beautiful women and bringthem in and get paid for it.
Well, I

was a promoter, a promoter, for a lot of years. I
don't think, I don't think, Idon't it's not so much for
restaurants, for nightclubs,nightclubs, you nightclubs, you
you get paid to bring people infor restaurants, it's pretty
rare where you're paying, Idon't know of anyone paying to
bring bring people torestaurants, but they eat for

free. A lot eat for free. Yeah, my wife said
that she never paid for meal inNew York, a lot eat for free.
That is crazy. I said, Gosh,that's so unfair. That's
discrimination. I guess, guys,

that's different, because. Is that that would be,
you know, first of all, New Yorkis a different, different,
different situation. But yeah,they would do tons of comps. You
know, celebrities get comped allthe time too, right? You know,
so that's, that's part of it

all. Do yours pay when they come into the nice
guy in Delilah, yeah, everyone,it's, everyone pays. It's too

hard to like, It's too hard. The nightclubs are
different. The nightclubs. Youthe nightclubs, you comp a lot
of people, you, you, you haveto, you have to do that to
create a party. So

if Bieber's coming in a nightclub, he gets a
table, he's got the alcohol, andhe's not paying it's

more about whoever is a friend of mine, you know,
and that is there, you know, Ithink that's, that's more of
how, of how it is, or me, or mypartner, Brian, like one of us,
if we're, if we're, if it's theright thing, then, then, yeah,
you know, but that's very that'sthe nightclub world versus the
restaurant world. Tell

us how someone gets banned from the Queen Mary

is, how'd you know that? Did I tell you that? No,
oh my gosh, that's so good. TheQueen Mary, I think I'm still on
their ban list. He's sad,actually, because my wife, my
wife one year or one of us, waslike, we should take the kids
there. I'm like, in my head, Iwas like, I don't know if we can
go there

Vegas, where you can't go back, because I've got
your your photo somewhere.

I you know, my the USC parties that I was doing
were got really big. Really,really big. I grew a really big
company. Actually, like I didit, two of my best friends, Rick
and Brandon, were with me on it,and we did this thing where we
really grew this thing to be. Itwas a pretty massive company,

(16:36):
and that ended up being passeddown. And so we, you know, in
the height of it, I basicallyrented out, not basically rented
out Queen Mary. However, whatdoes

that cost, by the way? I mean, that's a huge
give people a sense of, peopledon't know what the Queen Mary
is. It's in Long Beach. It's

in Long Beach.
Yeah, I don't remember what itwas. I want to say a few 100
grand or something.

I mean, the ship must be a football field long
will feel wrong. But

it was an off night. It was like a whole, like
a Monday or something, and butthis is where, you know, I'll
admit it, and they, you know,they don't do, they don't do
like rent outs like that at thetime, and so, especially not to
a college kid. And especiallynot so I had convinced them. I
really, like, went in andconvinced them a whole other

(17:25):
story of what it was. It was ait was a wedding, and it was,
like a whole thing around it,like I did this whole thing,
like it was it, you know, itwas, you know, looking back on
it, not something I should havedone in that regard. But I
really wanted to do this eventthere, right? So rented it out,
and this party was absolutelyinsane. It was like one of the
best events we've done, I'vedone ever, ever. It was insane.

(17:49):
But the place just got, I mean,the Queen Mary was completely
thing almost got shipwrecked,you know, and, and you
obliterated the Queen Mary. Andthe guy that I convinced I'll
never forget the head of it whenhe came in and saw that it
wasn't a wedding. I mean, his hethe look of disappointment on
his face to me was so sad. I waslike, Oh my gosh. I, like, felt

(18:10):
really bad. And so they put meon a very serious ban list.

That's why that same night, he said, man, you're
done. Oh, they, they took down.
I mean, it was, it was notpretty. Did they kick everybody
out that night. Or you could,they did. We

had thought we had 1000s of people there. We do.
Because when I was doing this atthe time, it was like ticketed
events and things, you know, itwas like a whole people pay

to get in, and then you make a profit based on
the revenues, less the rentalcosts. Yeah, where they're more
sponsors, whatever sponsors. Sowhat kind of money we're making
on event like that back incollege, you know,

I don't remember on that event, but I was made. I
was, we were making good cash atthe time. Like, it was, it was
real, $10,000 a party, more,more. Yeah, in college, it was
great, yeah. I was like, youknow, I was like, I'm, this is,
like, this is the life, yeah.

I mean, my son, you know, Charlie

through law school.

Yeah. So let's talk about law school. The one
here, would Charlie did what?
Oh, no, he Well, you know,Charlie does a lot of things,
but he is 21 now legal, and so,you know, he'll pay and high
school, he'll pay 50 bucks toget into some someone rents out
a house. They trash the place,by the way, so I don't know who
these idiots are renting outtheir house. And, you know,
Charlie says they're packed withpeople. So these guys are

(19:25):
making, like you said, cash, youknow, taking cash at the door,
you know, 100 bucks. And hesaid, there's 500 people there.
I mean, that's 50 grand.

No, no, I was, yeah. And I had a whole system.
I had a big event once a month,and then I had multiple small
events during so I was making,you know, big events you'd make.
You know, 1520, grand, small,small events, few 1000, you
know, so it's crazy. I mean,when you're in college, it's
like, you know,

you go to law school, your dad's a lawyer,
your brother Jim is a lawyer,yep, and you didn't pass the
bar? No, did you try? I didtwice. It's. You did, and what
was it you just didn't study?
No, I studied, but it justwasn't your thing. It's a very
big thorn in my side. Yeah, itmakes, just makes you stronger.
I Yeah, although I never passed,

it's a hard one, you know, in that regard. No, I
really, I really did. Now, I wasworking, you know, I was, I was,
at the time, I started to workfor, upon going on to the second
one, second bar, I started towork for the, kind of the first
celebrity DJ, DJ AM, and hismanager, Larry, and they, I was
fortunate enough that theyspotted me and took me in. They

(20:32):
were like, you know, do yourthing with us. You're great. So
I was kind of like an assistantand like everything for them,
like, literally, and so I thinkon the second one was, and we
were opening the first clubcalled lax, yeah. Think on the
second one I was a littleironically, I did, when you're
close enough, you they send youhow many points you missed. And

(20:54):
so I was off by like nine. Like,it was crazy. First one, I
clearly just didn't, you know.
And then I was like, You knowwhat? It's just not for me. I
me. I was never going to lawschool to be a lawyer ever.
There was a chance I wanted tobe a sports agent, because I
worked for a sports agent, and Iobviously liked that, you know,
every, every, every, every guyloves, you know, has that dream

(21:14):
of the sports agent world atsome point, you know, type of
thing. But I it wasn't for me. Ireally went, you know, my dad
was pretty serious about he was,like, the one thing I ask is,
you get a law degree no matterwhat you do. I don't care what
you do in life. Have a lot ofgreat and I'm very thankful for
that, because my mind is soartistic, like so often to
artistic land, that law schoolreally grounded it to speak,

(21:39):
read, write and think in aprocessed way, like tenfold and
and really speaking, it does adoes a whole thing first for
someone like me. And so I thinkthat's why I'm really
appreciative of that. I went,even though it was not fun for
me,

right? As you know, I also went to law school.
Hated every minute of it. Hatedpractice. I had probably the
worst start to a career, threejobs in eight months, basically
told to leave. Well, one's toldto leave for sure, and the other
move, move or leave. So I had arecord. But me, I feel the same
like I today. I learned how tothink in a different way, a
structured way, a very focusedway, that I didn't have before,

(22:20):
but it was very painful readingeveryday case law, and just like
every word, I just can't standwhat I'm reading and what I'm
learning. But I think graduatedegree is a helpful thing for a
lot of people. Do you agree?

I fully agree. I think look to each their own.
You know, I know a lot ofsuccessful that don't, but I do
think it matters. I do think ithelps you see, you see a
difference. At least myself,there's a difference in level of
reading, writing, thinking, youknow, processing. It's
definitely a big difference. So

whenever, for people, crazy shit happens.
Sometimes you're working for DJAM, he's with Travis Barker on
his Lear 35 a jet. The jetcrashes. Yeah. But when did you
learn about that and tell usabout your your fear of the PJ
now, yeah,

it's, it's rough, yeah. I mean, I, we, I had left,
I had stopped working for them,for AM, and them, I don't know,
maybe five months prior, sixmonths prior, and they took, he
took a different like assistanton the on the trip, you know,

(23:27):
because I didn't leave his sidein that regard. And the plane
went off the runway, andeveryone you know passed away.
And it besides Travis and am,and really like haunting to
think, you know, a I would havebeen on that, you know, be
really brutally sad for thepeople on that that passed away,

(23:51):
and their families people diedin that because, yeah, they
didn't die though, no, theyjumped out. But it was, it was a
rough scene. It was a very roughsituation, and I it's been, you
know, I'm better on the on theprivate jet now only because
there's, there's, I don't know,but it's been a, it was a fear.

(24:14):
I mean, I would not take one foryears and years and years, and
to this day, I went to therapyover flying overall. To this
day, and I have to travel quitea bit, and to this day, I dread
every moment of getting on theplane. You planned

my bachelor party, and we'll talk about that
later. For sure, that was anincredible weekend, but I
remember one of the guys in thegroup got us a private jet, and
you said, I'm not going onprivate jet. So you and I sat
back and coach, I think, on aSouthwest flight, like, you can
see everyone piloting a privatejet, like, you know, John's my

(24:50):
guy. And obviously we're, we'regoing together. Sorry for

that. Sorry. I don't think I would do that
today. Again, they were cramped.
I will not take us. I'm. Mean, Isound like a I can only say this
because I don't own a privatejet, but I would not take, I
would not go on a small one.
Yeah, I go on heavy set onesonly. Then I'm okay, right? But
I am. Absolutely hate it, right?
Hate every aspect of flying.

Madison, I we had a portfolio company. They
were having a kickoff party upin San Francisco, and I couldn't
make it because of the kids. Isaid, No, what? So one of the
guys sent us a VLJ, very lightjet, Honda jet Eclipse, I think
it was, and it's a four seater,and I just wondered if I could
get into it, because I'm veryclaustrophobic. And we get in,

(25:35):
and the thing is decked out.
It's very, very nice. So we getthere, we fly into a rainstorm
that was coming. Okay, a littleshaky on the way there, on the
way back, we nearly died. We'recoming into Santa Monica
Airport, where, this is wherepeople on the west side take off
and land from. The jet was likea salt and pepper shaker. I've

(25:57):
never been any I've never seenanything like that. We're going
to die. I said, Madison, we'regoing to die. We're going to
die. She's calm as can be. Youknow Madison very well. And I'm
dying. And then I was worriedthe plane was going to break
apart. And the two pilots young,30 year old, Marines, stocky,
and you could see the forearmsof these guys just, and I kept

(26:19):
trying to talk to them. We okay.
We okay, no response. And theywere trying to get me. This was
jet sweet, before they had thebefore they had, you could fly,
Marshall, you know, they wantedyou to buy into their
partnership, or whatever. We getto Santa Monica, below the
clouds. And I'm like, All right,this is so great. We're going to

(26:42):
be fine. And there's a system onthese jets where the like the
Mayday system comes on ifsomething wrong is happening. So
we're coming down to the runway,and the lights start blinking,
abort, abort, abort. And youcould see this thing going,
like, three feet off the runway,four feet off the runway, we're

(27:03):
going to land. If we're land,we're going to land on one of
the buildings, the hangers. Andall of a sudden, you could see
these guys again, just thrustingyou could see their muscles
bulging. And we get up throughthe sky. We're fine. We're like,
that was the craziest shit. Thatwas probably the closest I've
come in my entire life to dying.
We land at Burbank, and we'relike, okay, so we got to get a

(27:23):
Uber back to Santa Monica. Ourcar is there. It's like, one in
the morning. The guy picks us upin the Uber, and he has three
tear jobs coming right out ofthe eye tattoos. And for those
people who don't know what thatis, those are kills. Those are
gang guys. If you have ateardrop, that's that's a kill.

(27:45):
So we're driving back with someguy with three tear drops, and
I'm saying to Madison, like, sowe pretended to get on the phone
with someone fake, and said, Ohyeah, we're getting picked up.
Yeah, us drivers. You see thesecool you know, his name is
Miguel, whatever. And you know,we're in this car, and it's
like, yeah, the ride's easy, therides we kept the phone open the
whole time.

I bet you won't fly a small plane again.

No, I'll never get in that plane again. That's
the that's the thing. Yeah, youknow, some of our friends have
planes, and it's nice. You know,we've we ride a couple times. I
don't like taking things frompeople, I feel obligated. So
we'll fly coach sometimes whenpeople, people ask, but you
know, the private jet is theultimate luxury. Totally agree,
LAX. You don't own it. You workthere and you mop floors. One of

(28:34):
the things today that I think alot of our generation, they
don't like doing the shit work.
How important was doing the shitwork, like mopping floors to
your career. I think

it made, I think it was the make or break for me.
I have to say they, you know,and I hate to, I hate to you're
right, and I hate to sound likethe old guy, but I have noticed
the generational issue whereit's like they're skipping so
many steps, but yeah, I like,you know, mopped the floors, I
counted the cash, I made surethe repair maintenance, I made

(29:04):
sure the promotions were good.
Like it was, like, all of theabove doesn't happen anymore at
all. And like, I don't where Ithink the issue is, my theory
always is, you could drop me inthe middle of a foreign town,
and I'm gonna figure it out withmy business. I'll figure out,
figure out with a restaurant.

(29:25):
I'll figure out whatever,because I had that background, I
think the, I think where a lotof the new generation, I won't,
I won't say everyone is there.
They're skipping that major stepof learning the building blocks
and learning the work ethic thatgoes into it, you know. And who
knows, we'll see what happensand shakes out from it. All of

your venues have people who work in the bathroom
full time. Most, most of yourvenues, you know, the nicer ones
you got people who work fulltime in the bathroom. They're
dressed nightly nicely. Theyhave the mints there and the
toothpicks and whatever elsethey. Tip jars there, and I like
taking surveys in my head andjust counting. You know, what
percentage of people are leavingtips for men and women who work

(30:11):
in the bathroom? I mean, if youthink about this, like if the
bathrooms are smelly, the peopleare drunk, the guys are
sometimes peeing on the floor.
They got to clean it up. Ialways make sure to tip everyone
20 bucks in whatever venue thatI go into. And it just, it makes
me mad that everyone justignores them. Basically, I know
I agree. How hard are those jobsto fill, or how many people are

(30:34):
applying to work full time inone of your bathrooms? You know

we I think we use outside services now on making
sure to find that, because it'snot easy to find, to find staff.
It's not easy at all, you know.
So you're it's good that you dothat, because not enough people
do not know people are like,treating people well like that.
It's crazy.

I mean, they love me because I'm the biggest
tip in the jar. And then when Icome back to the bathroom. We
had a few beers or whatever.
It's like, you know, they'reyour best friend, yeah, yeah. At
our charity event, you know thatwe had it at your venue, and
we'll talk about that 100 bucks,you know, just to make up, just
to make up for it, because, youknow, people are just not
tipping. Like, that's our, ourevent, you know, we invited
people there, yeah. And it'slike, you know, you

gotta, you got it.
You got to take care of peoplethat are working. I always
really try to, like, you know,my big thing is always like,
bussers. They're the oneskilling themselves. Yeah, you
look at a busser and there, andeveryone's kind of ignoring
them. So it's always really goodto, like, pay attention to
those, to those jobs and theseplaces. So

let's talk about the bussers. I was a waiter in
college and in law school. Cheatcheese. Cheat cheese, Olive
Garden.

Oh, it wasn't olive. Oh, no, both, both.

We split Chee, Chees and olive. Yeah, you know,
like chi. Chi cheese out alittle tight with shirt, Spanish
style with little frills on thearm. It was not the most
masculine thing. I like it,though. Yeah, good, good, good
experience. You really learn theservices when you're a waiter.
Yeah, tell us how this splitworks. So you got a tip. Talk

(32:13):
about the restaurant split, andthen the bottle girl split. In
terms of who gets, who gets.
What do the waiters have to giveto the bus boy, I give to the
tip jar, to the General Staff.
Well,

so one thing's very important. We cannot get
involved in tips as a as anowner, so you have to be very
careful on on that that's,that's number one. Number two
are you're referring to. So whenyou saying bottle girls, that's
for the or bottle that's, yeah,nightclubs, the

nightclubs. But so restaurant, like when I was a
waiter, yeah, I had to give acertain amount to, I forget what
percent of my tips, and thenthat was split between the bus
boys, yeah, who don't get tips,right? And that was a big part
of their comp. So

we do pooling. And so the, you know, the pool, the
pool, will decide on whatthey're going to tip out to
bussers and whatever. Ithonestly varies. It varies
everywhere. The bartenderssometimes have their own tip
pool, so it can vary. But wehave to stay very careful about

(33:13):
not being involved in the tipprocess, because California law
so but yeah, that's, that's howit goes. And we do it. We're,
we're a house tip pool. Let'stalk about your first club. You
actually raise money for thestork next to a mall. Yeah?
Well, attached, yeah, attached amall. Yeah. Two story building

(33:34):
Warhol windows. Why put thosein? You put in the Warhol
window, yeah? So it was an old,yeah, it was an old Carl's Jr at
the side of Hollywood Highlands.
I have no idea what I wasthinking. I was just a complete
moron, you know, but I had avision. I think I was a little
ahead of my time with it,because what I built there is
really what I'm doing today withplaces. But it was like an old,

(33:56):
it was an old Carl's Jr. It waslike a bad space to take, and
then we rebuilt it all. And Iwent super, you know, had Warhol
window shipped. What

does that mean?
A Warhol window, I'm a big

I'm obviously big into art and furniture and
stuff, and so I'm a big vintagevintage shopper, right? Sorcerer
and the Warhols factory was upfor auction, you know, the
factory, and that he did all hisart in New York. And so there
was a way to get the windows,which were, like gorgeous, these

(34:36):
gorgeous windows that did notget made today, and like, crazy
colored glass, like a slightlyfrosted glass, like, you know,
stuff that doesn't get made. Itwas, like, really cool. And
shipped them from, you know, NewYork, and did a bunch of things
like that, right? And built thisinsane, I think it was like,
14,000 square feet, two storycalled The stork, which was a,

(34:57):
you know, I've always had a loveof history and history. Oracle
old school places, the storksupper club in New York was like
one of the cool old places. Andso that was, you know, we raised
money from friends and familyand and and launched it. And it
was my first, my first thing,but I went a little too
hardcore, like, you know, youhad to recite a poem to get in

(35:20):
the door

you had to do.
Well, let's talk about the tearoom separately, because that
was, that was separate, rightfrom the stork. No tea room came
later, but I thought the poemwas for the tea room. No, it was
for, it was for in store. Okay,so that's sort of nuts. Yeah,
it's nuts. So it's pretty cool.
It's very cool. I mean, it'svery different, very different.
So how old are you at this time,at this point, when you're when

(35:43):
you open the store? I

was 27 I think 28 it was 2007 it opened. So yeah,
and you raise two to $3 millionfor it, yeah, yeah. And who'd
you go to? I mean, your parents,right? Parents, friends and
family, you know, and it's agreat learning lesson.

(36:06):
Unfortunately, didn't work out,but we built everything off of
it, you know, we were alwaysable to bring good crowds. So we
brought such big crowds that itactually became a ended up
becoming a public nuisance, butthe tea room that you're talking
about, the tea room, wasactually a pretty cool story,

(36:32):
and why? What I think I learnedfrom that is what we ended up
kind of building off of with Hhood. Can

we just go back before we get into the tea room
for one second? Who? Did you goto to raise money at 27 year
old, first time raising a lot ofmoney like that. Then, how did
you convince people to invest?

Well, I went to, you know, I had a pretty great
network, you know, fortunately,thanks to Harvard, West Lake,
USC, Pepperdine law school, youknow, family and friends, I had
a good network. You know, I'm Ithink most, I think everyone,
whether, whether they be hardpressed to find someone to not

(37:14):
say that I'm extremely aboveboard. And so I think that's
always really important for aninvestor. So even at a young
age, and I think, I think that'sit was good that I had gone to
law school, because at least Ihad some, some under me. But
think even at a young age, withzero credibility for owning a
place, the one thing was, washaving that, you know, people

(37:37):
knew that I've never done a drugin my life. You know, I'm not
into it for, you know, anythingother than business and being
above board, you know. And wedidn't, you know, I didn't take
a salary that whole time. Oh,historic. I mean, I lived at
home with my parents, you know.
So I did stuff that peoplewouldn't do. You can't predict
success or failure, but you can.

(37:57):
You can behave in a way thatmakes people you know trust you
and know that you know you're init for the right reasons. And
that's how, that's how I was,it's how I am to this day, you
know. And we, and we had like 30investors, literally, for 30 or
40 investors, like a publicoffering. So

25 $50,000 checks. 25 up

to like 150 I think, was, was what it was.
Yeah. So

tell us about Samir and

the tea room. So the tea room, I wish I still had
it, very special place.
Basically, what we realized was,at the time, we changed the name
from stork to H hood, and it wasthis big place. It was a
restaurant, night club, lounge,everything. And one thing that
we did have going for us is weare always bringing, at the time

(38:44):
the paparazzi world was gettingbig and we had, we were bringing
big like friends or becomingpretty big celebrities, and they
needed a place to, like, have aprivacy so we had this dead
space. It was legitimately astorage closet. It was like the
size of, I mean, it was, Ithink, 1000 square feet. It was

(39:05):
very small. And I had my friendfrom high school, Sameer, who
had come to me about his familywas big in the tea world. And he
had this idea about, this is allthe same time. He had this idea
about doing tea infused liquorand making it, like, healthy and
wellness, and, you know, kind ofall the above. So this idea of,

(39:26):
like, putting together this,like, kind of like, interesting
idea where it's like, it'scalled the tea room, so it's
like, people feel kind of goodsaying they're going to tea
room, even they're going to abar, and making it soup, like,
the most exclusive place, like,buy a landslide, since it's
small, and, like, off to theside, and that's what we ended
up doing. And it becameliterally the biggest hit in LA

(39:47):
like, that was, like, that wasthe place that everyone wasn't

Katy Perry coming to the tea room. And that
helped, all people knew, knewshe was coming there. So that
helped, sort of put you on themap.

Yeah. She was a massive supporter, you know,
stuff like that, like, made amassive difference, you know.
And we had a handful of thosethat that would come and be
there, and it was just,honestly, it's a good little,
good little vibe. And the DJ,the DJ was on a piano, so it was
like a fun, you know, differentthing. It was just, it was cool,
you know, wasn't it wasn'tstuffy when you got it, like

(40:23):
when you were able to get in, itwas just like, you know, you had
gotten in, and it was like agood little vibe.

We'll talk about why it shut down in a minute,
but stork shut down, and thenyou reopened it a few months
later, as h would correct. Sonow let's talk about you being
harassed by the police, yep, andpicking you up, driving you
around, dropping you off in themiddle of nowhere.

Crooked cops.
Yeah, they were, they were, theywould come in and arrest,
handcuff me. They They took mypartner. They took Brian to
jail. You know, handcuffed, tookhim in.

He was put in a cell by himself. Yeah, they

they would handcuff me and drive me around.
They were wanting a payoff,because I think vice was getting
paid off by everyone else. 5k amonth was going right back then,
something like that. And, youknow, there was in my head at
one point I was like, Man, do Ijust, like, what do I do? But
I've just, it goes back to howyou're raised. You know, my my

(41:29):
dad and mom are so above board.
And you like, Thank God thatthat's how I was raised, because
can't ever go back when youchange that way. So I just, I
stayed super firm, and look, Ilost the battle because they
ended up getting us shut down.
But thank God I'd ever paidanyone off, and thank God I
never did, because they turnedout to be crooked cops. They got
caught. The guy, the mainsergeant, got caught years later

(41:55):
on, taking bribes and whatever.
But unfortunately, he had, youknow, done this thing with us
and run us out, you know. AndI'll never forget, you know, we
went to court on this publicnuisance. And I will never
forget, sitting there, theentire LAPD force came in to
testify. Crazy was so it was sosketchy.

So please, brotherhood, and

what's crazy and so now, and ironically, I'm so
active for the LAPD now, andthey're amazing. I'm on, you
know, I help with the lapf, andI think it was just a bad, it
was just a bad, you know,Sergeant, bad cop. Honestly,
it's a bad little, bad littlesection. It's

crazy. You're all out. Well, it's crazy that
it took these bribes for a longperiod of time and they didn't
get fired. Well,

they got fired, and I think they got fired in
the end, years later. I'm notsure what ended up happening,
but, but pretty sure got firedor went on whatever. But it's
crazy, and it's like they don'tteach you that stuff in, you
know, when you're coming out.
It's like they don't teach youhow to handle that. You know,
very scary getting handcuffedand driven around. Very scary.
I've been

handcuffed before in a police car. It's
It's crazy, and I'll tell thestory here. You know, the first
time, there may or may not havebeen a second time, but I had a
girlfriend who lived inBrentwood. I lived in Brentwood,
and I was on the Enter list, andI had a key. I left my key at

(43:33):
home, and she we were in afight, and then she texted me,
okay, come on over. So it's like12 o'clock at night, and I go
over there in my big Detroit RedWings hoodie and my sweatpants,
I've got slippers on, and herroommate hated me, because when
you have a boyfriend as aroommate and the boyfriend takes

(43:54):
over, then you're blowing offyour roommate. So they're no
longer friends. So she reallydespise me. And so my
girlfriend, at the time, wasdrunk and taken some Nyquil. So
I get in because they let me in.
I'm on the list. I get in thereand I'm knocking like on the
wall, and I'm saying, hey, youknow, I'm not gonna mention your
name, but I said, hey, hey,knocking. Knock on there. I'll

(44:18):
tell you when we're doneshooting, and I'm knocking on
the door, and you know, I'mlike, Hey, let me in. Let me in.
Let me in. And I'm standing outthere for maybe five minutes.
The next thing I know, elevatoropens and have you ever had a
gun pointed at you with one ofthe red lights No, circling your
chest? No. So these two gotthree people come out of the

(44:39):
elevator. They're shouting onme, get down. Get down. Get
down. And there's a red dotcircling on me, get I'm all that
down. Now, down. Now they comeup, and they basically push me
onto the floor, knee in theback, handcuffs behind the back.
I'm thinking, Oh my God. Like,this is fucking nuts. What's
going. On here, and I saw mywhole career flash in front of

(45:02):
me right, like I'm thissuccessful businessman. I think
I have a good reputation, andI'm on the floor with a knee on
my back, like I'm a perp, andthe guy stands me up, leaves me
on the wall. They frisk you,yeah, right. And then he said,
You know what? What are youdoing here? I was invited. My
girlfriend lives there. When Isaid, I have a Blackberry, you

(45:25):
know, let me get it, they'relike, I'll reach it from your
pocket. And there was some codewhen you call in breaking and
entering, yeah, there's somecode that goes out on the radio,
and these cops will put thesirens on 100 miles per hour you
get where you're going, someonecould get murdered right now.
And you know, they blow throughstop lights. They put themselves

(45:48):
at risk, and their adrenalinesPump it when they see someone
standing outside its own place.
And so I said, let me get outthe Blackberry. And so I said,
No, he'll put it out. Turn iton. I still have the cuffs on,
and I had to turn it on and givethe guy the code, the password,
and then he said, uncuff them.
Because I said, Hey, come onover. And the cops were fucking

(46:12):
irate, absolutely irate. And Isaid, the cops, you should
arrest the girlfriend. And bythe way, to this day, to this
day, the police report is stillthere. Like you, you can't, you
can't wave it from the record,huh? It's, yeah, they told me,
you know, no one, no one wouldever find this. That's really

(46:34):
funny. Depose one day. Oh my,here we go. Here we go. But I
did something very smart, by theway. And again, we'll talk about
preparation and how that's a keypart of my success. I thought
about in the future, I said, Allright, not going to marry this
girl. I gotta get something inwriting, yeah? So I had her

(46:54):
write a letter to the police.
Yeah. This was completelyunfair. It never happened. It
never should have been. And thenI had notarized, right? Just
thinking ahead, you know nothinggonna run for office. You know
that would never happen. But Ithought, Hey, I gotta, never
know. Gotta speaking career. Younever know. I know. I definitely

(47:17):
know. So you have a lot offailures. Yeah, and you're 27
years old, you're penniless, andyou move back into your parents
house, in your childhoodbedroom, yeah, tough time. Those
are low time. We've all beenthere. What were you thinking?
When can you remember the daywhere you actually were moving
back in and you got yoursuitcases or boxes sort of

(47:39):
sitting on your bed at night.
Yeah,

I mean, I do remember. I do remember moving
back in, and I do remember, it'sso weird because I think I have,
like, I think I have, like,almost sometimes, an unhealthy
optimism, but it's gotten methrough life. So I can't knock
it, because I just, I think Iall, you know most, I think most

(48:01):
people at a time would be sodepressed, and I was more the
opposite. I was more like, I'mgonna find I'm gonna work
harder. I'm gonna like, do X, Yand Z better. I'm gonna, you
know, it's like a crazy fireunder me, you know, at no time.
I remember my parents one timewere like, Okay, what are you
gonna do now? I'm like, What doyou mean? And they're like, you

(48:22):
want to go to you want to go,you know, figure out job wise.
I'm like, No, I'm doing this.
And they're like, literallynothing like so it was a low
time. However, I really put alot of fire under myself. You
know, that's, that's like,that's how I get through it,
through things, how part,

how important is failure and resilience to our
future success?

It'd be hard pressed to find not failing to
be successful. I don't know how.
I don't know how it happens,because you have, you almost
have to, and it's unfortunatebecause I'm sure there's people
that are very successful thathad no failures, but I don't, I
don't know. I mean, it'd be,it's crazy, because you need
that drive, you know, I alwayssay that i i work like, go be

(49:07):
played, or it's like, you just,I always have to have some sort
of, like, anger in me. And Idon't mean that in like, an
actual way. I mean it like, I'mlike, driven to like, I gotta
like, win. I gotta like have, Igotta have it be the best. I
got, you know, and if you don'thave that failure under you, I'm
very thankful that, you know,knock on wood are my big
failures were early, but younever know. We have failures

(49:30):
along the way, constantly. Youknow, it's just all how it's all
how you take it and pivot andreact. And

we have to take a step back, sometimes to take a
step forward. So the next jobyou got was at the Beverly as a
promoter. So you know, you nolonger own a club, you're back
to a promoter. So you're takinga massive step back. You're
getting paid to bring people into the Truesdale. So tell us
about well, to the Beverly. Way,and then tell us about guy,

(50:01):
starkman, the relationshipthere, and then how that
basically turned back to whereyou wanted to go. Yeah,

it's like, you know, it's you never know where
life's gonna take you. So I'mreally big on relationships and
kind of like just believing inletting things like come as they
do good work and see how thingsplay out. And so my Brian, my
partner, Brian, who we started Hhood together and store, he was
always really close with Guystarkman, and guy was like an

(50:30):
older version of us. He hadguys, he had Jerry's Deli. His
family was Jerry's deli, and hehad Truesdale nightclub. And
then he had turned his onenightclub called guys into the
Beverly. And Brian was like, youknow, we lost H hood, we lost
all of our clubs. You know? He'slike, I'm either gonna go back
to business school or and I'mlike, can't. Like, we have to.

(50:51):
We'll rebuild. We'll figuresomething out. And he, he got
us, you know, he guy was like,I'm opening this. Why don't you
come? Like, really be a majorpart of it. So me and Brian went
and did that, opened it, andwere promoters for it, which,
you know, I absolutely hatedthat, going back to that,

(51:11):
however, I embraced it. Andlike, you know, both of us and
we did a good job. And luckily,you know, were we stayed close
with him. And luckily, you know,he came to us one day, and he
had another club, and he waslike, if you guys could raise
some money, why don't you Idon't care anymore about this.
He's like, why don't you buyTruesdale for me? So we did. We

(51:34):
raised some money, and $2million I don't remember what
the total was at the time, butaround that, yeah, yeah. Around
2 million,

1 million, I think, went to guy, and another
million went to build out theclub. I'm

not, I don't remember exactly the thing, but,
but whatever, whatever it was,it was, it was, it was probably
around that, but we, we boughtit, and we had this idea. I had,
I had been, had mutual friendswith David Arquette, who was
just coming off of beaches, madhouse, and he had this whole
idea that I love to do thisexperiential nightlife,

(52:07):
nightclub world, which wasreally innovative, innovative at
the time. And I love the factthat all of our, all of our big
like, friends and family andclients, were all in that West
Hollywood area, so we could,like, really capitalize. And so
that's that spot ended upbecoming Bootsy Bellows, which
was a wild success, and we namedit after his mom. His mom was a

(52:31):
pin up girl in the 60s, and hername was Bootsy Bellows. So we
had this whole thing wherepuppets walking around and
burlesque girls. And it was justa fun, very interactive
nightclub and that, and it wasreally that, that, you know, got
us back on our path. And we werelike, we can, we can really do

(52:52):
this, you know, that's, that'sfrom from there. So thank God,
you know, for guy and doingtaking a step back, as you said,
because, you know, had I had toobig of an ego and said, No, I'm
not going to go be a promoter, Iwould have never really been in
that position. I wouldn't behere today. One

of the biggest mistakes for people in the
workforce when things aren'tworking out, or they're not
happy, is they're not willing totake a step back to move
forward. I think it's absolutelycrazy. It is.

It is crazy, but you have to, it's you have to,
you have to learn how to do it,you know, suck it up. You have
to learn how to do it and nothold on. A lot

of our success.
Cool things happen at specificmoments. July 5, 2012 Katy
Perry's movie comes out thatnight, and she brought everyone
back in the van to Bootsiebells, I think it was your first
night opening. Associate, JustinBieber in the van. Big, big
night for you. Yeah, that was abig night. That was a good
night. You weren't expecting herto bring, come up, come that

(53:47):
night and bring all these coolpeople, no,

but, but she's, like, you know, she's, she's one
of the greatest supporters tous. So, you know, that's a,
that's a, that's a good one.
But, yeah, that stuff like that,like, really catapulted us. You
know

that I am responsible for almost burning
down Bootsie bellows and KatyPerry saving Bootsie bellows
from burning to the ground. Why?
I don't know about this. So thestory was, I'm single, and it's
really awesome for a not thatcool guy like me to have friends
like you that are cool. And Iremember said, Hey, Randy, what

(54:24):
are you up to tonight? And Isaid, Oh, I've got this date
with this girl. It's the firstdate. Said, why don't you come
by? Katy Perry is having aprivate party for this guy,
Faraz, who she just signed. He'sa piano player, is going to be
the next Sam Smith, like, No,I'm not sure. I said, Come on
by. So went to boa steak houseacross the street, and then I
went to Bootsie bells. You know,you want to go, they want to go

(54:46):
there. And Bootsie Bell had asecond room in the back for
those people. There's a pianothere, and beautiful goose and
we had one right next to thepiano. And there were these
little votive candles. And atsome point, I'm sitting there
talking to this date, firstdate, and it starts smoking, and

(55:06):
there's smoke coming upeverywhere. And she had this
beautiful white leather jacketthat actually caught on fire,
like there were flames there.
And Katy Perry comes over, and Inotice it, and takes the jacket
that was burning, and startslapping the vote of candle like
this, and I was it was just, itwas a crazy story. The story

(55:29):
gets a little Yeah, I saved Isaved you. The story gets a
little crazier. Sounds likeKatie saved us, yeah, Katie
saved you, yeah. It was myfault. Yes. Very you were the
arson, very unresponsible guest.
The story gets a little crazy,by the way, and I'm going to
divert this for a little bit,because it comes back to Katie.
I went back to her apartmentthat night, and she had all

(55:54):
these nice clothes, and she justmoved to Los Angeles. She was a
model. Her dad was a policeofficer up north. Her mom was a
hairdresser who was cutting hairin a small town for $12 a
haircut. And so she had movedhere, and she'd only been here
for two months. She had allthese nice things, Barney's

(56:15):
bags, in the closet, and I laterlearned that she was and this
happens in LA, I didn't knowthis thing was a thing, but I
found out that a wealthy man waspaying her a certain amount of
money a year to give her a carand clothing allowance, and then
he could, I mean, you've heardthese stories. I mean, I didn't

(56:35):
know this even existed, right?
This was in the movies, and sothis was your first date. This,
this was our first date. How didyou meet her on Facebook? She
she wrote and by the way, mywife knows the story, you know,
she thinks I was creepy. By theway, when I was single, you
know, people would set you up onthese blind dates. So, you know,

(56:57):
she beautiful, whatever,whatever. And then you get
there, and it was like falseadvertising sometimes. And so
you go to Facebook and 30pictures, don't lie. And so this
woman had posted, I'd friendedher weeks out, and said, Who's
going to Vegas this weekend? Ihad no plans on going to Vegas,
but I said, Hey, I may be there.
And so that started theconversation. And then, you
know, etc, etc. So I learnedthis of this relationship. I'm

(57:21):
like, Okay, this is absolutelynuts. We're done. The Grammys as
you know, it has this charityfunction the night before, and
we're all the people who areplaying at the Grammys play. So
I was invited. I went and, Imean, everyone was there. I
mean, Bruce Springsteen was themain guy who played seven songs.
But I mean, everyone Neil Young,Katie played, and I saw Katie,

(57:42):
who was sitting two tables away,and I love Katy Perry, and I
wanted to go take a picture andsay, Hey, Katie, I'm Randy. I
met you with John. Yeah, yeah.
She didn't know who I was, butyeah, yeah. And I said, Do you
remember the fire and youslapping down the Jag? And she
said, Yeah. And she said, Youstill dating her? And I said,

(58:07):
No. And I just gave her the onelighter. And she said, What a
fucking bitch. Great. So thatwas the last time I saw Katie. I
like that. There you go. So I'mglad I didn't burn on your van.
Actually, I'm glad I'm notresponsible for burning that.
Bootsy Bellows,

very glad. Thank God so Bootsie is a

hit. And right around the time that little
later, you had a concept for aWest Side venue at a hotel. I'm
not sure how much you want toget into this, but someone stole
the concept. It became massivelysuccessful, and the guy told
you, you're going to be a noone, so I'm going to take

(58:46):
advantage of you. Yeah, whathappened? What? What can you say
publicly? And then, how did thatmotivate you and say, Hey, screw
you. I am going to be somebody.
And we'll see what happens?

Yeah, you know, I won't, I won't name names, but
yeah, we created a whole reallycool concept that I was in. This
is actually right before BootsyBellows. They were kind of same
time. Yeah, I, you know, since Ilong time West Side, and I knew
that, like, there needed to besome sort of new night life in
the west side. I grew up growingup there, and my family is all

(59:19):
Santa Monica, and so I was like,you know, there's got to be
something there. So I created,or we had my company team, and I
had created this, like, reallycool concept to do at a hotel.
They stole it, and, you know,really, like, wrote me a, I
don't know, 10 grand check orsomething, which, to me, was a
big deal to like, I couldn't nottake to, like, not sue them,

(59:41):
right? So I was so angry that,you know, I went and convinced,
I went and found another barnext to Georgios. I started to
go in there. Total shit hole,total shit hold the hideout.
Called the hideout, yeah, Itook, I took my my wife on the.
Our first date was basicallythere at Georgiou. So I was

(01:00:03):
like, I want to see this placenext door. So we went in there,
and she was like, there's aliterally holes in the wall,
like it was, it was absolutelycrazy, flies on, like the bar
and stuff. It was pretty bad.
But I had convinced, you know,it had been dilapidated, and
fortunately, I had waited aroundlong enough for weeks and and I
had convinced the owner to giveme a shot. And I think what the

(01:00:26):
way I convinced him is, I said Itold him the story of how I'd
gotten screwed, and I said, I'mso hungry. I'm going to
literally anything my entirelife. Is going to live and
breathe this place like we are.
I'm going to crush it. And so hewas like, okay, you know you're,
it's yours. And he gave, gave me100 grand to redo it, which is

(01:00:48):
insane, that I redid the placefor 100 grand and turned into
what I called shore bar. Had ahybrid model where there was a
members room up top. Everyonehad a locker as a whole touch
and feel thing, and became amassive hit, massive hit. It
really like, was, like, the WestSide nightlife. And so, you

(01:01:09):
know, we don't we, as of lastyear, we don't have it anymore,
but it was a 12 year run, longtime for our barn. Yeah, yeah,
you

Randall Kaplan (01:01:16):
made me cool because I got, I got the
membership. Yeah, it was packed.
There were lines out front. AndI just be like, oh, you know,
yeah, Randy, yeah. You remember,oh yeah. I mean, they all knew
that we were really goodfriends, yeah. And so there was
a second level where that wasreally cool. There were lounges.
I mean, downstairs are a coupleof booths, stand up tables, and
then there was a big loungeupstairs. We had your own

(01:01:37):
bartender, so, yeah.

John Terzian (01:01:39):
I mean, you know, it's funny, that model to this
day is what I see. What works isthat very deep touch where it's
like, you know, you have thatpeople want to have that extra
level of care. And so that'sthat really worked there.
Welcome

Randall Kaplan (01:01:53):
to part one of my incredible interview with one
of my closest friends, Johnjerseyan, who's the founder of
the H wood group, which owns 11of the most successful nightclub
and restaurant venues around theworld. Stay tuned for some of
the craziest customer servicestories you've ever heard in
your life.

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John Terzian: The King of LA Nightlife and Building The h.wood Group from Scratch | E156

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}John Terzian: The King of LA Nightlife and Building The h.wood Group from Scratch | E156