August 9, 2024 • 41 mins
What if the critical turning point in your career was just one brave decision away? Join us on the Vegas Circle Podcast as we sit down with kris Moran, a trailblazer in Las Vegas's nightlife and gaming scenes. From his humble beginnings as a bartender in New York to becoming an influential figure in the city's vibrant nightclub culture, Kris's journey is a testament to resilience and vision. Hear about his roles with top nightlife entities like the Light Group and Tau and how he navigated the sweeping changes in bottle service culture. Get ready to be inspired by his transition from nightlife to owning gaming taverns like The Standard and Torrey Pines Pub.
Becoming one of Las Vegas's youngest tavern owners was no easy feat. Kris Moran walks us through the grueling process of securing his gaming license, sharing the extensive background checks, legal challenges, and significant personal investments involved. Learn about the different types of gaming licenses and the complexities of managing gaming machines to ensure profitability. Discover how Kris handles the substantial payouts to patrons and the strategies he employs to mitigate financial risks while running a successful business.
Balancing entrepreneurship with fatherhood, Kris Moran emphasizes the importance of prioritizing family and mentorship. He shares heartfelt stories about the significance of being present at his children’s events and how his blue-collar upbringing shaped his values. Kris also delves into the essential support systems that help him navigate personal struggles and business challenges. With practical advice on personalized customer service and community engagement, Kris inspires small business owners to compete effectively with larger chains. Plus, get his dining recommendations and motivational insights that encourage you to keep pushing towards your goals, no matter the obstacles.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts,
paki and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase people
in our city who make it happen.
On today's podcast, we've gotsomething special.
We're going to be exploring theinspiring journey of an
entrepreneur who's made his markin the nightlife industry, also
has been in the podcast spaceand also has been approved to
(00:32):
get his own gaming license,which will be interesting to be
able to jump into.
Currently has a couple oftaverns.
Welcome to the circle.
Owner of the Standard andTorrey Pines Pub.
Mr.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Chris Moran.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Thank you guys.
First of all, studio here isway more than I expected.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
This is amazing.
You guys are very organized.
As someone that had my ownpodcast, I can say I know the
work that it takes to do this.
I know the dedication, the time, so I appreciate you taking
your time even to hang out withme.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So thank you, man.
That means a lot coming fromyou.
Man, that means a lot man forreal, Of course.
But, man, let's jump right inquick background on your story.
Nightlife executive hosted yourown podcast.
Got in that space.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Now you own gaming, which is unreal the gaming
industry and yeah, you know sobeing an east coast guy, kind of
your dream if you're a realeast coast guy is to somehow be
a legal bookie, because all yourfriends are making money being
doing all this kind of stuff andyou don't want to be in the the
illegal world.
So when I moved out to Vegas in2009 or 10, I thought to myself
(01:27):
you know, I would go to allthese local bars and, being from
Vegas and being here, you guysknow there's a gaming bar in
every corner.
They're all busy, you can gamblein 7-Eleven and I would sit
there and, just like everybodyelse, I would put my money in
mindlessly and lose and everyonce in a while that ding, ding,
ding, you win.
But at the end of the day youlook down the bar and there's 14
(01:47):
other people gambling andeveryone's having a great time
losing their money and I thoughtto myself one day how do I
become those people that aremaking that money right, how do
I get in that space?
So that kind of was the firstthing that piqued my interest.
Now, didn't have money, didn'thave any connections.
I moved out here from new yorkas a bartender, um, and all the
(02:07):
guys that run nightclubs for themost part are all east coast
guys yeah, so I had mostly newyork right, new york jersey,
like or there's maine is reallygood too.
Randomly, a bunch of my buddies,um, and you kind of gravitate
towards each other being samekind of people out here.
If you're from a certain area,you look a certain way, talk a
certain way.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
And there's no gray area Exactly, you know so we all
speak the same language.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So it worked out that I kind of worked my way into
the nightclub world and I hadreally great mentors at the time
.
And, yeah, from 2000 and I'dsay so I was here 2009.
I got into the nightclub worldprobably 2012.
And from there up until rightuntil the day of COVID shutdowns
, which I'll never forget isMarch 17th 2020, you know, st
Patrick's day.
Up until that, I was nightclub,right, I was in that world, in
(02:54):
that space, and during that timeI had always in the back of my
head thought, okay, well, Idon't want to do this forever.
You know being out until fourin the morning, five, six in the
morning, eight in the morning.
You know the, the hustle, thegrind.
I enjoy it, I'm good at it, Ilike it, I have friends here,
but I I know this is notsustainable for most people.
And that's kind of like where Igot my idea of maybe I should
(03:16):
get into my dream, which wouldbe to own one of these bars that
I've been sitting in for years.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That's crazy.
Yeah did you start off with tau?
Is that what would you startwith I?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
actually worked at tau in new york city for a
little while so.
So I was like old school tau,um, you know.
And then when I moved out hereI got connected with the light
group uh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
So that's what I was thinking.
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's okay, light group, which is now, yeah,
through a couple mergers taugroup, um, but the light group
back in the day, east coast guysas well, um, and I remember
eddie mcdonald remember from macagency started with, of course,
and light group honestly kindof was the standard for bottle
service as well, as steve wentin excess for bottle service in
town.
No one had ever done that before.
(03:55):
No one had ever said, hey, goto the club and you're gonna sit
down instead of dancing andyou're gonna get bottles and pay
a,000 for two bottles ratherthan $40 at the store, and
you're going to have a reallygood looking waitress and you're
going to have a jack dude, youknow, tatted up as your busser.
Like that was never a thingback in the day.
And Light Group kind of createdthat market, you know, and it
(04:18):
worked out and it just kind ofexpanded, expanded like, oh, I
like being VIP, I like beingbehind a rope, um.
So yeah, I started with thoseguys.
I learned a lot.
They ended up selling tohakasan and hakasan group kind
of absorbed it and what I didwas I kind of went instead of
going with the hakasan group, Istayed with the old school light
guys, okay, and which, and theyopened up light and daylight at
(04:39):
mandalay bay and I ended upbecoming a director of vip
services essentially for them,or customer development was my
title and my job essentially wasto much like Andrew Pacheco
that was here my job was to runmy my squad of you know 15 guys
and sell the venue, and thatbecame kind of my jumpstart.
I eventually worked my way intoHakkasan Group and during COVID
I was running Wet Republic,which was arguably one of the
(04:59):
best two pools in town with theEncore Beach Club.
And I remember being so excitedI finally hit, you know, sort
of the pinnacle of my career.
You know we're going to run thebest pool, we're doing
renovations, it's going to lookso great and we ran one weekend
and COVID shut everything down.
Oh wow.
You know so like the worstpossible timing ever, but in the
meantime, I always had thisthing going on the side, and
(05:30):
that's literally what I wantedto ask you.
So, did you build your firsttavern, basically as like a side
hustle?
Yeah, while you were.
Yeah, it was, it was, it was myplan.
So I got very lucky.
I partnered up with someone, um, who's you know, 20 years older
than I am, but I had workedwith him shortly and I basically
said look, this is my visionand I'll I'll run it back in
about 2014,.
I had went to my local tavernhere that I used to be a regular
at, and I was a pretty biggambler at the time, making that
host money, just cash.
No kids, no responsibilities.
And I went to the managementthere and I said, hey look, I
(05:53):
want to bartend.
I just want to learn the gamingbusiness because everyone wants
gaming experience.
Right, I want to bartend.
I'm obviously a bartender, I'vedone it for years.
I want to work the worst shifts.
I don't steal, I barely drink.
I'll probably gamble all mytips back at the end of the
night.
I'll pack this place because itwas a very industry hotspot.
All the people I know wouldcome here after work.
I'd get all the busters and thewaitresses and the strippers
(06:14):
and whatever.
And I remember at the end of theinterview I thought to myself
like when do I start?
And they looked at me and hesaid, unfortunately.
And they looked at me and hesaid, unfortunately, I just
don't think you'd be a good fithere Really.
And now, owning a bar, Iunderstand he didn't want to
lose me as a player, but backthen, being very raw from New
York and kind of feeling acertain way, I sat up and I just
looked at him.
(06:34):
I said don't worry, I'll openmy own fucking bar anyway, just
like that.
And he looked at me and saidlike okay, good, like good luck.
You don't know what thatentails.
And I had no idea what thatentailed.
I had no idea how expensive itwas going to be.
Um, but I decided from that dayin 2013 or 14, that I was never
going to work at another bar foranybody ever again, until I
opened my own.
And the first and the firsttime I bartended at a gaming bar
(06:55):
was 8 august, 15th 2021, whenthe standard tavern opened.
So from that time that six,seven years was planning, saving
, you know, pitching my friends,family, all that.
You know I didn't grow upwealthy or anything.
I didn't have.
Mommy and daddy's money helpedme out a little bit with certain
things, but by no means didthey like.
Here you go.
Here's a blank check.
You know my partner's not superwealthy, so I grassroots a lot
(07:17):
of these funds and, honestly, Ithink, years of doing really
good business and years of beinghonest and responsible and
caring about people first.
People trusted me and you had anetwork.
And I had a great networkcorrect.
But these people trusted me.
They said you know what?
We're not even investing inthis business because we don't
know the business.
We're investing that you'regoing to do the right thing.
And, of course, my number onething in any of my business
(07:39):
ventures is I don't want to letyou down.
I'm more worried about myinvestors, who might only own 5%
10%, than I am even aboutmyself, because they're trusting
me.
Right, and that's a big dealtrusting someone with your money
.
So that's kind of like how itall started.
So, yeah, I was.
It was going on being built inthe background COVID happens.
So I ended up.
You know Hakkasan group kept meon for a while but eventually
(08:00):
there's no money coming in.
We got to cut some of theseguys.
So I ended up getting cut withthe promise of you could have
your job back whenever the worldopens.
But I decided like, hey look, Ihad a little girl.
I was having another littlegirl on the way.
I'm like I got to save mybusiness.
So I decided, instead of thisbeing my side hustle, I'm going
all in and I'm going to do theoperations.
(08:21):
I'm going to do the operations,I'm going to be the general
manager and the owner and I'llbartend, I'll mop the floors,
whatever it takes.
I'll figure it out, and I havenever been a business owner
before.
This is weird.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I got to all of a sudden pay payroll.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I all of a sudden got to do ordering and the
internet's out.
What do I do?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
And blah, blah, blah blah blah, know it worked out,
it worked out.
Yeah, I was gonna ask you, youknow, how do you get that
translate?
You know, going from thenetwork side of being an
executive and you know nightclub, obviously there's a lot of
similarities between that and abar, but obviously vastly
different.
Yeah, you have to startworrying about payroll.
How do you set it up?
How do you?
It's on the fly, you're afirefighter.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You.
I swear to you.
I swear to you my favorite, youknow my favorite clip on
YouTube ever, and I watch itonce a month.
I might post it once every twoor three months on my on my
Facebook and my Instagram, justto remind myself, is Teddy Atlas
in the corner with TimothyBradley.
I don't know if you guys arefamiliar, but he's in the corner
.
Teddy Atlas is one of the bestboxing trainers of all time,
Timothy Bradley, great Americanboxer, and he's in there with
him and he's like we are firemen.
We live in the fire and timothybradley is looking at him like
I'm ready to kill somebody andhe did, and he won, and it was
(09:29):
such a moment, like you said,like that's what it is, you're
in the fire and if you're notready for it and if you're not
prepared, you're going to getburned and eventually all
business owners go through it.
I, I think, the first timearound.
You know if you're not failing,if you're not failing, if
you're not making mistakes, thenyou're not doing it right.
You know you're not tryingenough.
So, a lot of trial and error, alot of things I wish I can go
back from, but the trend as faras the question, I think it
(09:51):
translated great.
You know, I I'm not a naturalleader, I don't think.
I think I'm a natural hustler.
So, like, this is the way tomanage people, this is the way
to manage expectations, this isthe way to manage business.
(10:11):
And thank God for those guys,cause it was up to me I go crazy
you know, you can lead them inby showing exactly different.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
So I've I've learned a lot and I'm learning every day
.
I mean, I read more leadershipbooks.
I read, I listen to audio tapes, even on the way here, right, I
listen to tony robbins, Ilisten to alex hormosi like I
listen to all the same guys weall do.
You know, goggins gets me firedup, and what's the common
denominator with them is theirleaders, their true, true
leaders, and not everybody hasthat.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I think it's a skill what people think, and that's it
.
That's the biggest thing, right?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
they just this is what I'm doing.
Follow me, and it always worksout somehow.
So, yeah, I mean, I think ittranslated great.
I think that, again, learningon the fly has been my biggest
strength, where, okay, I made amistake.
Admit it.
I made the mistake, it's on me,I have to own it.
And now, next time I won't dothat, maybe I'll make another
(11:01):
mistake, but at least that firstone won't be there anymore.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
So it's been a process.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
man, it's been awesome.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
And you kind of like putting all your eggs in that
basket, though, because goingfrom that securing that and
being able to work in thatenvironment.
Having to like jump all in,that must've been nerve wracking
.
I had that experience.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, I mean, you got family guys right.
I knew that gaming in Las Vegasis the heart of this city.
Now you could tell me everyother business you want
restaurants, this, and that I'vedone it all.
(11:36):
I've worked it all.
The gaming is what keeps thelights on.
It's why the chandeliers andthe carpet are nice so.
I knew that I was going to havea gaming license and I got
approved.
And when I got approved, theyhad told me that I was the
youngest tavern owner in thecity.
That was what I wanted to askyou.
So that's true.
That is true at the time thatthat it wasn't passed down
through family right, cause alot of bars pass them the
(11:57):
licenses down, which is whatever, but I was the first and the
youngest.
The youngest.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Can mommy ask you what age were you?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I was 35 at the time, yeah, so at the time I was the
youngest licensee and they hadeven told me like they looked at
me kind of you.
You know this is an older mangame.
This is guys and women.
I mean.
It's the lawyer fees it allracks up.
It's you're looking to build abar licensing and the background
check the stack of papers thisbig.
They go back 20 years, personal, residential.
(12:24):
They'll call your brother, yourmother, your grandma, how,
their teachers, how was he as akid?
What do you do for work?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
where's the money coming from money coming from my
agent would call me.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
You have an agent that kind of does your
background.
They'd call me at three in themorning.
Why did you just take out $800?
At the Rhino I'm having a goodtime, Okay cool.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
We just want to know Like the FBI Worse.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
We're harder.
So, yeah, that process is wild,very expensive, so I had put
every dollar I had into it.
But I knew ultimately thatgaming was going to be the
savior and if people are hittingthat button and enjoying
themselves and how we had goodfood and a good staff and a
clean environment, that it wouldall work out what's the
difference between?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
like that gaming license, like the 7-eleven?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
so there's doing that same thing so essentially,
there's three different kinds ofgaming licenses.
There probably might be more,but the three main ones would be
what's called um, a supper clublicense or a convenience store
license.
Usually it's five to sevenmachines, okay, um.
Then you have tavern licenses,which you would know.
It's all the bars, but I have15 machines.
And then it's non-restricted,which is anything more than that
.
Casinos now non-restricted.
(13:24):
To get those obviously wild,you need to own the land.
You know to build a new casinoright now, as far as today's
rules go, need to have 200 rooms, which is why you see smaller
casinos like Durango pop up.
Oh, like the boutique.
Right Because they don't want tobuild massive things, and
Durango did it perfectlyFantastic, and they're about to
do Inspirata.
They're about to do Sky Canyon.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Shout out to the Boutique's man they're sharp,
awesome company.
Oh they're.
They're going to do Sky Canyon,yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I live up there too.
That's why, by my book.
So, yeah, those are the mainlicenses and there's deals you
work out.
Like for my deal, I get an Xamount percentage and it's
negotiable with the people thatmaintain the machines, right?
So you have a company that putsthe machines in.
I give them X percentage of thewinnings every week or month,
whatever, and they maintenancethem, they handle them, they
handle all the money.
So there's a lot that goes intoit, you know.
(14:11):
And even these small 7-elevens,I mean, you see, you walk in
there, there's someone alwayshitting a button there I mean
terrible gap, I mean everywhere.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
The worst the grocery stores yeah, like you go get
groceries, I'm gonna stay hereand get it.
That's always the thing I spend60 bucks on my groceries.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Let me try to do a 60 blackjack, I get free groceries
you know, and I've seen peoplein there down five, ten
thousand000, $10,000.
No problem.
So one thing that really reallyimpressed me.
Right we start doing yourresearch and everything.
You guys paid out $300,000 lastmonth and you share it yeah.
To basically say hey, I thinkit was like $326,000.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
And that's a slower month for us.
The summer months for tavernsare slower because obviously the
sports are kind of slowed downnow, sure After basketball,
basketball and hockey finals.
The golden Knights winning lastyear was huge for us.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
The ACEs winning right.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
We carried us all the way through the summer, but
generally the hot months are theslow months we're we're really
busy in the fall, um, but yeah,we pay out tons of money and
that payout is you know, overall.
But we have people hit jackpotsroutinely for five, 10, $15,000
.
We've paid out 38 grand acouple times.
I mean that's someone betting$4.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So it's pretty wild to think that in a little local
tavern where you go get yourburgers and your pizzas, that
you can go hit for 40 grand, 80grand, and it happens all the
time.
I got to ask you because I'mgetting nervous just talking
about it, that's not scary toyou.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It is scary when you have to pay $38,000?
It's scary, but you play itlike it's the market.
You look at the long-termvision.
It's all a long-term game.
If you look at it in shortspurts a week, a month you'll go
crazy and early on, when you'refirst starting out, you might
not be that cash flush You'relooking every day.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
That's what I'm saying.
You're looking every day.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
That's a lot of overhead.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
They have a certain amount of money that, so the
companies themselves back you.
So let's say in a situationlike somebody hits for $40,000
at my bar.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I don't have $40,000.
Maybe you just opened it thefirst time, right, yeah, $40,000
.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So they'll come and they'll have a Brinks truck with
40 racks.
They'll fill out the tax form,give it to the guest and then
what happens is it'll go by theend of the week.
So I have 40 grand, but maybewe made 10 the rest of the week.
So now we're negative 30.
They'll take five, seven offthe next couple of weeks.
So if I make 15, 20, 30 grandthey'll just take, which is nice
(16:19):
.
It's almost like aninterest-free loan, but you're
still responsible for it.
But I like that You're notgetting killed, murdered, of
course, because they're yourpartners, they want you to
operate, they want your accountto do well, because they're
getting X percentage and theyknow too, just like a casino.
So you see it all the time inthe in the review journal oh,
this guy won a million dollarsat caesars.
Yeah, well, for the day,caesars won 1.2.
So is that terrible?
Speaker 1 (16:39):
not really still positive.
Yeah, yeah, of course that'show gaming works.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So it's really just a long term and it's all
mathematics, right.
The machines will generally payback anywhere from 92 to 98,
depending.
You know like you go to thestrip, they'll, they'll.
Uh, some of the smaller casinoswill advertise we pay 99 back.
That means they're only holdingone percent.
So if somebody's betting andthey bet a hundred thousand
dollars throughout the day,you're hitting the button,
that's a thousand bucks that thecasino makes you know which at
(17:05):
the end.
For them it's no problem, aslong as someone's sitting there
pushing the buttons yeah, Idon't gamble, so just thinking
about how that works is justunreal.
I don't gamble, I lose.
Yeah, you like gambling, I knowI lose.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
That was one decision I made when I moved to Vegas.
I've been here since 07, so 17years now and I was like I can't
, I don't even want to learn.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I don't know anything about it.
Best thing you can do.
Yeah, I try my best.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
worst thing that happens if someone like you.
The worst thing to happen is ifyou win that's.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
That's what happens right, that's the first hit and
it definitely takes a certainyou know, do I people always ask
me this too like do you battlemorally, because you know
sometimes someone could be inthere losing their?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
mortgage.
Reading my mind right now,that's literally what I was
gonna.
Yeah, you feel bad about that,like because people got game.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I mean, we all got problems, of course all of us,
of course, you know I Do youfeel bad coming there every
single day.
I sympathize, but I don't feelbad because I've also been there
.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I'm a gambler.
That's real.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
There's been nights I've been at Bellagio and I've
dumped 10, 15, 20 Gs in myyounger days and I think to
myself do they really care aboutme?
No, they don't.
And it's entertainment on acertain level and as you get
older, and hopefully as you gothrough tough times, you kind of
realize okay, well, now I'mgoing to make it entertainment.
Are there people that strugglewith it?
Yes, there are.
We do our best also to kind ofrecognize that, so I will even.
(18:23):
It's probably not the bestbusiness practice in the world,
but for karma purposes I'll talkto someone and be like hey, are
you okay?
Do you need anything?
And most of the time peoplethey're not going to tell you
you know, but they'll say, okay,but for me at least, I'm
checking in and at the end ofthe day they're going to go
gamble somewhere.
We at the standard tavern, forexample, we've got probably more
(18:48):
bars within a two mile radiusthan anywhere else in the city.
We've probably can I provideHopefully good food, hopefully
great service, a cleanatmosphere that you enjoy, some
smiling faces, some laughs andat the end of the day, there's
also people there that smoke me,that hit for 10 grand.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
So it's like those guys don't feel bad for me.
Not at all, Not at all.
They don't feel bad.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Not at all, and it's all fun.
But again, do I feel morallyobligated to everyone?
No, I can't.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
It's business too.
It's business.
You've got to run a business.
I get it Right Apple doesn'tfeel bad.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I pay $1,000 for these things every couple years?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
No, they don't care at all.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
So I try to get myself in that mindset, because
if I worried about every singleperson individually, there's no
way you could be in thisbusiness.
That's true.
I'm selling somebody a $20,000table you know, and and I know
that you know the night's goingto be fun, they're going to have
a great experience, but is itworth it?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I don't think it's worth it, you know but in real
estate, exactly In the casino, Ican talk with eight.
Yeah, it's all real estate.
Yeah, and then, when the lightsget out, and what's the?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
host job.
Jay Sean, andrew, all thoseguys in our relationships was
hey, how can I just make thisexperience where I know you're
spending more money than youprobably ever spent in your life
, but how can I make this atleast a little softer, better?
And we it's no different at thebars.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Yeah, and you kind of touched on a little bit like
the, the, the competitive natureof the industry in Vegas.
You know, like I said,everybody's ran on gambling a
lot of drinkers here, a lot ofgood food and a lot of
competition.
You, how do you, when you'reopening a bar?
I think that's the part thatwould scare me the most.
Right is the amount ofcompetition with this type of
industry that we're in rightlike, is it?
How have you navigated that andseparated yourself from that,
(20:20):
that competition that's allaround you?
Speaker 2 (20:22):
the vegas tavern scene, where I'm in now, has
shrunk a lot.
A lot of the bigger companies,the pts, you know, the stations,
casinos, even the jet gaming,which is Herbst those guys are
now entering the tavern spacebecause they know the value
right, so they're starting tobuy up all the independent guys
like me.
Now, a lot of people would bescared of that, because that's
(20:42):
like owning a burger shack andthen McDonald's opens on your
corner or Burger King right.
So it's a little scary.
Their marketing is way betterthan yours.
They can.
They have so many employeesthat can do this and that
meanwhile I'm the marketer, I'mthe social media guy.
Yeah, I'm this right.
You just can't compete.
So I look at it like it's apositive and I spin it off like
hey look, when a guest come inor I'm talking to somebody, you
(21:03):
can definitely go to a pts.
I think there's like 70 or 80locations.
You can go gamble at a dotty,you can go gamble at a dotty's
right, whatever.
But I'm the.
I'm a family-owned business.
You have a big mural in there.
It's family-owned.
My.
You know the a and the standardwith the heart is my daughter,
audrey I keep yeah yeah, so youknow I try to make it a little
bit more.
I try to hit people's emotionalside, like would you rather
support the big company or doyou want to come here?
(21:23):
And then I can give you alittle bit more love.
I can give you some t-shirts, Ican throw you some golden
knights tickets on the side tohelp know if you're losing a
little bit of money.
I'll just give you my ticketsor I'll give you a gift card to
your favorite restaurant thatmaybe isn't even here.
I just want to send you and yourhusband or your wife somewhere
nice.
So that's kind of like the edgethat we have where those guys
can't.
Right there, they're hamstrungby their corporate rules.
So that's what I try to do.
What can we do better?
Sometimes a little edgier incertain things, maybe our social
(21:46):
media can get.
I have the advantage.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I try to narrow it on that, because that's the only
way, you're never going tocompete with the big business
otherwise.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And then the end goal for most people like me is get
three, four, five of thesethings, package them up and then
go.
Hey guys, do you want?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
this I was going to ask you is that the?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
long-term goal Is it exit?
It's always an option.
Myself, I'm 39.
My partner is 60, you know, inhis he's 60 now, I believe Um,
and a partner, another one, isin his fifties and I think they
probably have that goal morethan I do, um, because I can
work another 20, 30 years and becomfortable and I have young
(22:23):
kids that maybe I'd pass thisdown to and I'd like to create a
legacy.
At the same time, cashing out,I mean, that's why you build a
small business.
Right is the cash out.
So I play it by ear.
I'm only three years in on thefirst bar.
We just took over the secondbar yesterday.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
That's the Torrey Pines.
Yeah, Torrey Pines Pub.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Congratulations man, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
So the long-term vision, we'll kind of see how it
goes.
It really depends on the market.
I mean, rents are getting to becrazy, supermarket it's no
different for me.
Food is crazy expensive, laboris getting more expensive.
If things keep going in thatdirection, which I don't know
how long it can really sustain,then, yeah, eventually a sale
(23:04):
might happen.
But for now I love what I do.
Being my own boss and employingpeople in town is probably my
favorite part of it.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, one of the things I noticed all the
business owners we interviewspecifically man, like, or
franchises, right, how do youfeel about like?
Or what do you put in place,like, for the structure for
stealing, right, because, steph,yeah, everything goes out the
back door.
Yeah, so, like, what do you putin place to be able to make
sure that you're solid?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
you know, honestly, I think it starts with hiring.
Okay, I think hiring andtraining is the most important.
If someone wants to walk out ofmy restaurant with a steak in
their pocket, they're going todo it 1,000%.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
They're going to do it or they're going to give it
to wherever it is Right right.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
However, and stealing in the restaurant world can be
defined in multiple ways.
If you give somebody extrasilverware and napkins at their
table that they might not use,is that stealing or negligence?
If you want to call it right,so I have use.
Is that stealing or negligence?
If you want to call it right,so so.
So I have really good things inplace where I say, okay, guys,
you know, let's, let's not tryto throw away the forks today.
Let's try to make sure napkins,the guests have what they need,
of course, but let's not overdoit.
(24:02):
And as far as like blatant theft, they always get caught.
And I've learned this and I'vebeen, I've been in food and
beverage for 20 years, I'm, youknow, more than 25.
And at every level, the snakesshow themselves in the grass.
And when you find it, it'sabout building a culture to say,
and you don't want to buildlike rats and snitches, but I
have people that care about meso much at my job where they'll
(24:22):
call me and say, hey, and justusing a name, hey, steve, he's
not doing the right thing.
You should keep an eye on it.
And if I've got those peopleworking with me and for me, then
I've done my job, you know, andI can't sweat the small stuff.
There's always going to betheft.
The good thing about gamingwhich kind of separates gaming
from everything else is, onceyou put that money in the
machine, that's gone.
I can't touch it, my managerscan't touch it, my staff can't
(24:46):
touch it.
So if somebody goes and puts ahundred dollar bill in there,
they're not getting it back.
That cash is there forever.
So what's the worst a bartendercan do?
Give a couple extra drinks.
We have things in place to lookat that, to see and over time
you can have levels and you doyour due diligence.
But I don't worry about it.
I can't because if it's, I knowowners that watch their cameras
all day long.
They're on their phones.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
That's going to drive you crazy too.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
You'll go insane and I know owners like that you know
, and they're constantly firingpeople and this and that it's
like slow down, let's hirebetter, let's hire quality
people.
Let's check their references,which I know a lot of people
don't even do that anymore.
I call you got three references.
I'm going to call.
(25:26):
Say hey, how Is he honest, ishe trustworthy?
How long was he there?
If I see people had 10 jobs intwo years, I don't want that
person.
They could be great people, butthat tells me they're probably
not a good employee.
So you know my staff.
I have very little turnover,which I'm thankful for.
That's powerful, yeah, and theylove their job.
Hopefully, if they're listeningand they come to me with stuff
(25:47):
more than I even have to ask,that's awesome, man.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, I know we've talked about this.
We've all got kids right.
Yeah, you know that's a big hotbutton for me.
What's being a girl dad for you?
Man?
I know, that's everything.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I'm going to get emotional.
Yeah, I uh.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Yeah, you just had a birthday too recently, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, my girls for me are my entire life just on
myself.
Yeah, yeah, and I'm sorry.
I always.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
I'm not even sad, I'm not sad I'm very, I'm happy,
right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
but my girl and all my friends know I talk about my
girls all the time and my girls,audrey and violet.
You know they're seven andone's going to be three in two
weeks and there's no joy likecoming home to two little girls
that don't care about your day.
They don't know what bills needto be paid.
They don't care about your day.
They don't know what bills needto be paid.
They don't know what yourrelationship situation's like.
They don't know your health.
(26:38):
They don't know any of thatstuff.
They just want daddy Right.
And for me it's by far thegreatest joy of my life.
Um, it gets challenging.
I am a single dad, so it getschallenging juggling schedules,
but I have them a lot purposely.
Um, and that's probably also myfavorite part about being an
entrepreneur or a business owneris the flexibility to have the
time with them, because I knowthat time goes like that right,
(27:01):
it's the ultimate thief is time.
And um, yeah, being a girl,that is amazing, like learning
how to braid hair, and mydaughter's gymnastic school is
that one right across the streetfrom you guys.
So, I'm there, you know, once ortwice a week or I try to get
there as much as I can.
I go to all the dance recitalsand everything with the cheer
competitions and, um, yeah, man,it's, it's being a girl.
Dad, I tell people all the timethe two things that you can
(27:23):
never prepare for in my life, atleast that no one could ever
coach you on you can read allthe books you want is being a
business owner and being a dador a parent with you.
You know, you don't know untilyou're in it.
Every day is something new.
I enjoy all their littlemilestones.
You know whether it's walkingmy three, she's going to be
three, but she's fully pottytrained.
It was like the best day of mylife because she was she was so
excited so yeah, man, Iabsolutely love being a dad.
(27:46):
It's my heartbeat, it makes mego I love it.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
I wanted to ask you that just because of the
conversation you and I had onthe phone, I mean, when we were
setting this up, it's like look,what day are we trying to do it
?
Let's try to schedule it forthis day, because I got my kids
this day and I love it justbecause I'm a father of two boys
and that's my everyday it getsme emotional too, just talking
about them.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
And I'm a girl dad too.
Yeah, Congrats.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
No, that's my seven-year-old is seven, going
on 17 right now my seven goingon 40.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
I'm in the car and it's.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Taylor Swift and it's this and that, and I'm just
laughing like this is, you know,I'm sure you guys same way.
Like you, picture your lifegoing a certain way and
obviously things happen, theytwist and turn, and then when
you reach this point of yourlife, it's like man, what's
really important.
Like man, what's reallyimportant.
Can my phone wait a little bit?
Do I have to look at ESPN rightnow?
Or does my daughter showing meher new dance move or handshake,
(28:37):
or cartwheel, or a car she madeon Minecraft?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Exactly, you know it's amazing, like Chris and I,
when we first started this whenmy wife she's not here right now
, but when we first started this, right we kind of went left
right.
We were like Howard Stern,talking crazy.
We didn't put out probably 35episodes, right.
But the funny thing was Chrisand I we had talked about on the
side like we wanted a platformwith like substance and
(29:01):
something that our kids couldlisten to Absolutely.
So, like my kids, they'll cometo the podcast and listen in and
they'll listen to this episode,you know what I mean Because
it's powerful, because they'rewatching.
They're watching everythingthat we do.
Like you said, you're not aleader.
You are a leader becausethey're watching everything that
you're doing, right.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
That was on YouTube.
I call it walking rooms in town.
They're watching the podcast onYouTube.
What's going on here?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
My kids do it all the time, they're paying attention
to it, they pull it up and theylearn so much for it.
But I appreciate yourtransparency.
People need to hear that.
They need to hear single dadsare still kicking behind and
doing what you're doing,absolutely when you're at the
recitals and stuff, because it'smotivating man yeah, super
motivating, and I grew up.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
You know my parents were blue collar.
You know my mom was astay-at-home mom with four kids.
I was the oldest my dad growingup.
You know I didn't meet mybiological father until I was 31
or 32.
Oh wow my dad, who I call him mydad.
He's essentially my stepdad,but he raised me UPS guy, you
know.
So up at 6am in the New Yorkcold or the New York heat home
at seven or eight, has to beback to work early.
(29:59):
So I saw what real hard work islike, you know, and I saw my
mom, what a real mom was like,and she's fantastic.
My parents are actually herethis weekend Amazing, having
them here Right.
And I saw and I learned fromthem from them, you know, you
can still be compassionate andstern and you can still be hard
working.
And my dad, for all the stuffhe did on the weekends was at my
(30:19):
basketball games, at my soccergames, at my lacrosse games, as
best he could.
So I think of it now like Ihave way more of a luxury and
free time than he ever had.
What's my excuse?
yeah you know, am I busy?
Do?
Can I skip this dinner with myfriends?
I catch.
Do I have to go to carbone thisweekend to see my boys in town?
What's important, right, rightand, and they all my friends
know, right.
And I understand if you were totell me hey, I got some of my
(30:40):
kids, yeah, no, questions rightdads get it now some of the
people that I'm friends withthat don't have kids.
They're still peter pan at 38,39 years old.
They might not understand.
They really don't of.
Hey, my daughter's got a fever.
I'm going to stay home.
What do you mean?
It's a fever, yeah, but it's mydaughter and she's crying and
she needs me, she needs dad.
So, yeah, man, I agree, I thinkit'd be great to see more men
(31:03):
show up for their kids, and Isee this at these cheer events.
Right, there's not many dadsthere.
Trust me, if anyone gets it, Iget it.
I try to show up as much as Ican within reason.
If I'm not working, that's theonly reason that I would.
If I don't have, like apressing, pressing issue at work
, it can wait an hour or two,because the face of your kids
seeing you at these events orschool events or whatever, it's
(31:24):
priceless.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
I'm in that, whether you want to call it corny or not
, I'm in that only momentsituation.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
So I get it and it's a it's a something I had to
learn because I think you know,naturally I'm pretty selfish.
I like doing things on my own,I like just chilling, I like
just hanging out.
If I got free time, I want tocatch up on Game of Thrones or
watch Sopranos for the 10th time, but it's like.
Of course I like that kind ofstuff and there's a time and
place for that.
But, like Like you guys know,man, it makes me smile every
time when my girls see me it'sNothing better.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Oh my God, nothing better.
Yeah, I wanted to ask you,mentorship's huge, you know, for
all of us, I would assume,especially for me.
But what's been a pivotalmoment for you?
Or you know, I know you've gotmentors, maybe on the business
side, that have, you know,partnered with you.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
But what's been a newer thing for me?
Something as you get intobusiness more and get a little
bit older and need more help andyou have more questions, right,
because you don't know whatyou're doing Fatherhood,
business, personal life,whatever I have distinct people
in different sections of my life.
So, as an example, I have afriend that lives out here.
If I go through hard times,whether it's relationships or
(32:32):
whether I'm struggling with myown, whether it's depression or
anxiety, whatever I go to him,we're in the gym together.
You know, we're in the gym.
We're in the gym four or fivedays a week and it just gets it
all out and that's my guy that Igo to If I have business
questions.
I got a guy that I call thatanswers the phone at all the
time, any day or night.
What do you need?
No questions, no, nothing.
What do you need any day ornight?
(32:54):
What do you need?
No questions, no, nothing.
What do you need?
Um?
And then as far as fatherhood,I've got a good group of guy
friends that have been throughit.
They either single dads, eitherdivorced or or whatever, and
they understand the strugglesometimes or like the emotions
that all go through with allthat, how do you handle
different things?
And I call them and they're onit and I think that that is so
important for people and reallyjust being in touch with and
being self-aware, you know, nottrying to put everything on your
(33:14):
shoulders all the time becauseI got blind spots, of course you
know, and, and sometimes whensomeone says something to you,
it clicks.
And I think with the socialmedia stuff now it's even better
because you can literally go oninstagram or youtube and google
.
You know, dad, depressed,divorced business owner and
there'll be someone there givingyou some great advice that you
might not have had before.
(33:34):
Or a group of people to talkabout Right, right and it's like
holy crap, you're gettingintroduced to all these things
that you previously didn't have.
That's the power of technology.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I like, me too, what you're talking about right now
Me too.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
And they're all.
I just look at it like how manytools do you yourself ironclad
and you can build yourself up inall these different areas and
you've got people which I have,great mentors and and honestly,
it's almost like, um, it'salmost like the Alcoholics
Anonymous program, right, whereyou have a mentor or a sponsor
and then eventually you becomethat right and I'm seeing that
(34:05):
now where I have right, I haveyoung guys that I know that from
the gym and from you, know fromrandom places that I've been to
and they reach out to mebecause maybe they're having
their first kid or maybe theywant to, or maybe them and their
girl split, or maybe they'reopening, they're trying to open
up their own business and I'mmore than happy to sit down hey,
I got 15 minutes, let's startto do it.
And and I think that thatfeeling of giving back a little
(34:26):
bit and I don't have all theanswers, but but I might have
the answers that they don't haveand I think that feeling of
giving back has been massive.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
So mentorship you get energy from that.
Yeah, just talking with people.
You know what I mean.
Just learning.
You know what those blind spotsare.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah, Like when was?
I'm curious for you guys, whenwas your first time where you
looked at maybe a non-father,not a non-family member and said
like I, I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Mike Popovich, a friend of mine in Colorado,
miami, colorado, and I'll neverforget, just because one thing
he said to me I'll never forgetI've been with my wife 20 years
Congratulations, that's amazing.
I appreciate that.
He was like if you're notfighting with your wife, you're
lying, and I respected that somuch from somebody that he told
me straight up.
He was like everybody hasproblems.
(35:11):
Excuse my language, but they'refull of shit if they're yeah,
if they don't have happy golucky.
Yeah, it does not happen theinstagram couple correct always
somebody yeah yeah, but he gaveme a lot of tips and I'll never
forget on that, and he's wasvery successful, business-wise,
perfect.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
So yeah, so yeah, I'll never forget people that
you know are doing it right,like the parents that you think
are doing it right, taking thepeople being there for their
kids.
Like you said, you find thosepeople and you try to ask them
those open questions.
One thousand percent.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I'm dealing with this issue.
Yeah, I've had a few a lot ofcoworkers over the years that
I've respected and learned fromand I think that when you start
talking to people on that level,they open up to you in a way
that you might not have thought.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Oh yeah, totally agreed.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
You're like hey, how's your relationship with
your kids or your wife or what'sgoing on at work?
And most people will tell youyou know and then you're like oh
my god, I'm going through thattoo and we're all right and no
one or they don't, they don'tfeel comfortable telling you,
you know, and it's like once youbreak that, that, especially as
men, right, because, listen,I'm a dude, yeah, I don't want
to sit here you'll be soft Idon't want to sit here and cry
at a table with my guys, but atthe same time, if my boy's
(36:10):
struggling.
We know the suicide rates of men, especially single men,
especially single businessmen,is ridiculously high.
I don't want to have to.
I don't want to have to one daylook at my friends and say I
wish you would have called me.
You know, I call my friends, Iactively, and my friends call me
.
Hey, what's up?
How you doing, what's going on.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
How's everything with this situation?
How's?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
business, how's life, you know what's going on and
that's so important and I thinkthat so many people who shy away
from that.
But I think the power of socialmedia it's been helping and
platforms like this it's beenhelping where guys can, because
women do it all the time.
Yeah, you know, they sit thereand they tell each other their
feelings and this and that, andit might be a different level,
but for guys is like justchecking in and it means a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yeah, it's that locker room man.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
It's a locker room barbershop, you know course, so
Business advice setup.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
So business advice what would you share with
somebody you, you built yourside hustle right, working as an
executive.
What would you share from justone nugget?
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Yeah, I think I get asked this a lot and I think
that there's two for me.
Number one I've heard, I'veseen some of your other podcasts
a lot of entrepreneurs say thesame exact thing.
It's it's build your teamaround you, be able to delegate,
be able to not put everythingon you.
Make sure that the peoplearound you have your best
interest, make sure you havetheir best interest in mind.
You know, take care of yourpeople.
(37:17):
If you're taking care of them,if people are getting paid well
and they're being treated rightand they know listen.
Sometimes business could beslow, right, but if they know
that you care about them and youmake sacrifices and you do
things for them and you check inon them, these guys will be
here for you for the end Solidfor them and you check in on
them.
These guys will be here for youfor the end Solid, right, and
that's what I want to do.
And then my second thing for mepersonally.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
You know everybody saw the Last Dance.
Right, we have Matt Maxson on.
They've developed the LastDance, so I'm a huge.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Last Dance guy.
I've always been a huge MJ guy.
By no means am I Michael Jordanin anything but what I love
about him and what I canresonate with.
I need to take things personal.
I have to have my own enemy, soto speak, even if it's not real
, because to wake up happy andevery that doesn't get me going,
I need to say, okay, that guytold me that I couldn't do this.
Or that guy said that my barsucks.
(38:03):
Or this person left a review onYelp and said that my food
wasn't good, so now I'm gonnamake it the best it's ever been.
And I, for me, internally, Iuse that as my motivation every
day.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Love that.
Yeah, yeah, love that.
Man Just transition.
We always talk aboutrestaurants, man, so give us one
Vegas restaurant that you love.
Maybe the Hole in the Wall afine dining, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I won't give the generic answers.
I already know that.
You know, let me give you two.
So I guess my one kind ofgeneric answer.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
If I was going Italian.
My spot is Piero's.
Piero's is excellent.
I just met one of the ladies atone of the concerts.
I forgot her name.
Actually, I owe her a phonecall, so I'm glad you brought up
Piero's.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
There you go, call her.
That's a great hookup overthere.
Yeah, she's great.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
She's been the bar lady for years.
That's a fantastic spot, that'sa fantastic spot.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Obviously, I had a lot of clients come into town or
customers, however you want tocall them for the nightclub days
and they would always pushCarbone, carbone, and I love
Carbone.
I'm a Carbone guy.
I'm from New York.
If anyone needs a reservation,I got you in New York.
That's a tough one.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I can get you.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Shout out to Adam but yeah, that's a good one.
Blue Ribbon Sushi, if you'venever been.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Oh, yeah, we've been to Blue Ribbon Sushi.
There was one at Cosmo, I don'tthink it's there anymore.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
There's one in Red Rock.
They just opened one in GreenValley Ranch.
I've been to one at Red Rock.
Very good Surprisingly the bestfried chicken probably in the
whole city oh wow, I have neverheard that before the whole
chicken.
But they're regular chickenwings with a wasabi honey dip.
Let me just put everybody on,don't take up my reservation.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
I usually go on Wednesdays.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Don't take my reservation, but Blue Ribbon
Sushi chicken, especially, isthe spot.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
That's two good spots , man, so Piero's and Blue
Ribbon Sushi.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Shout out to both of them, man, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
What else do you want to leave us out on?
Anything we forgot to ask you.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
No, you know, getting a platform like this and being
able to speak is great aboutbusiness.
I really encourage people tokind of really follow your
dreams, and what I mean by thatis not just have like I want to
open up a nail salon or I wantto be this and that it's like.
It takes time.
It does.
It took me seven years.
People always say congrats, itmust be so exciting.
It's not that exciting becauseI've been doing it in my head
(40:12):
for seven years.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
We've been doing this for six years.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Yeah, you know, you know right Like congratulations.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
This is amazing, You're like yeah, but that costs
, you know, five grand that I'vebeen doing this and I had to
sacrifice my family time to behere.
So I wish more people wouldtake that chance, because on the
other side of that is just anabundance of happiness,
self-fulfillment.
You know, entrepreneurship isnot for the weak.
I say it all the time and I sayit about being a dad too.
(40:37):
I say being a dad's not hard,but being a great dad is, you
know.
And being an entrepreneur isnot very hard.
You can start your own shop, butbeing a good one and being an
active one is.
So I hope and I wish thatpeople maybe take a little bit
of my story and say this guyfrom New York didn't know
anything at all, worked his wayup, use his connections, did
things the right way, didn'tborrow cheat and steal from from
(40:57):
everyone.
I, I did it how I was supposedto do it and we're growing.
So two locations right now I'mlooking at a third here in the
Southwest part of town andhopefully from then we just run
it up.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
We support you, man.
We appreciate man.
We're going back.
I definitely do.
It's an absolute pleasure tosit down.
What's the social handles?
So the Standard Tavern is theunderscore standard underscore
LV, and the same thing withTorrey Pines Pub is Torrey
underscore Pines underscore pub.
Okay, my personal is my name,chris Morihan, underscore LV.
I'm boring now.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
I got rid of all my club stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
It's just family inspired sometimes watching.
So if you want to follow me orthe bars, I definitely
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Well, check them out, man, Pay attention to them.
We support you and check us outat thevegascircuitcom and
subscribe with us, man.
But I appreciate you, man.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
That was awesome, man .
Appreciate your time, guys.
Thank you guys, that was reallygood.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Yeah.
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts,
paki and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase people
in our city who make it happen.
On today's podcast, we've gotsomething special.
We're going to be exploring theinspiring journey of an
entrepreneur who's made his markin the nightlife industry, also
has been in the podcast spaceand also has been approved to
(00:32):
get his own gaming license,which will be interesting to be
able to jump into.
Currently has a couple oftaverns.
Welcome to the circle.
Owner of the Standard andTorrey Pines Pub.
Mr.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Chris Moran.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Thank you guys.
First of all, studio here isway more than I expected.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
This is amazing.
You guys are very organized.
As someone that had my ownpodcast, I can say I know the
work that it takes to do this.
I know the dedication, the time, so I appreciate you taking
your time even to hang out withme.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So thank you, man.
That means a lot coming fromyou.
Man, that means a lot man forreal, Of course.
But, man, let's jump right inquick background on your story.
Nightlife executive hosted yourown podcast.
Got in that space.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Now you own gaming, which is unreal the gaming
industry and yeah, you know sobeing an east coast guy, kind of
your dream if you're a realeast coast guy is to somehow be
a legal bookie, because all yourfriends are making money being
doing all this kind of stuff andyou don't want to be in the the
illegal world.
So when I moved out to Vegas in2009 or 10, I thought to myself
(01:27):
you know, I would go to allthese local bars and, being from
Vegas and being here, you guysknow there's a gaming bar in
every corner.
They're all busy, you can gamblein 7-Eleven and I would sit
there and, just like everybodyelse, I would put my money in
mindlessly and lose and everyonce in a while that ding, ding,
ding, you win.
But at the end of the day youlook down the bar and there's 14
(01:47):
other people gambling andeveryone's having a great time
losing their money and I thoughtto myself one day how do I
become those people that aremaking that money right, how do
I get in that space?
So that kind of was the firstthing that piqued my interest.
Now, didn't have money, didn'thave any connections.
I moved out here from new yorkas a bartender, um, and all the
(02:07):
guys that run nightclubs for themost part are all east coast
guys yeah, so I had mostly newyork right, new york jersey,
like or there's maine is reallygood too.
Randomly, a bunch of my buddies,um, and you kind of gravitate
towards each other being samekind of people out here.
If you're from a certain area,you look a certain way, talk a
certain way.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
And there's no gray area Exactly, you know so we all
speak the same language.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So it worked out that I kind of worked my way into
the nightclub world and I hadreally great mentors at the time
.
And, yeah, from 2000 and I'dsay so I was here 2009.
I got into the nightclub worldprobably 2012.
And from there up until rightuntil the day of COVID shutdowns
, which I'll never forget isMarch 17th 2020, you know, st
Patrick's day.
Up until that, I was nightclub,right, I was in that world, in
(02:54):
that space, and during that timeI had always in the back of my
head thought, okay, well, Idon't want to do this forever.
You know being out until fourin the morning, five, six in the
morning, eight in the morning.
You know the, the hustle, thegrind.
I enjoy it, I'm good at it, Ilike it, I have friends here,
but I I know this is notsustainable for most people.
And that's kind of like where Igot my idea of maybe I should
(03:16):
get into my dream, which wouldbe to own one of these bars that
I've been sitting in for years.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That's crazy.
Yeah did you start off with tau?
Is that what would you startwith I?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
actually worked at tau in new york city for a
little while so.
So I was like old school tau,um, you know.
And then when I moved out hereI got connected with the light
group uh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
So that's what I was thinking.
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's okay, light group, which is now, yeah,
through a couple mergers taugroup, um, but the light group
back in the day, east coast guysas well, um, and I remember
eddie mcdonald remember from macagency started with, of course,
and light group honestly kindof was the standard for bottle
service as well, as steve wentin excess for bottle service in
town.
No one had ever done that before.
(03:55):
No one had ever said, hey, goto the club and you're gonna sit
down instead of dancing andyou're gonna get bottles and pay
a,000 for two bottles ratherthan $40 at the store, and
you're going to have a reallygood looking waitress and you're
going to have a jack dude, youknow, tatted up as your busser.
Like that was never a thingback in the day.
And Light Group kind of createdthat market, you know, and it
(04:18):
worked out and it just kind ofexpanded, expanded like, oh, I
like being VIP, I like beingbehind a rope, um.
So yeah, I started with thoseguys.
I learned a lot.
They ended up selling tohakasan and hakasan group kind
of absorbed it and what I didwas I kind of went instead of
going with the hakasan group, Istayed with the old school light
guys, okay, and which, and theyopened up light and daylight at
(04:39):
mandalay bay and I ended upbecoming a director of vip
services essentially for them,or customer development was my
title and my job essentially wasto much like Andrew Pacheco
that was here my job was to runmy my squad of you know 15 guys
and sell the venue, and thatbecame kind of my jumpstart.
I eventually worked my way intoHakkasan Group and during COVID
I was running Wet Republic,which was arguably one of the
(04:59):
best two pools in town with theEncore Beach Club.
And I remember being so excitedI finally hit, you know, sort
of the pinnacle of my career.
You know we're going to run thebest pool, we're doing
renovations, it's going to lookso great and we ran one weekend
and COVID shut everything down.
Oh wow.
You know so like the worstpossible timing ever, but in the
meantime, I always had thisthing going on the side, and
(05:30):
that's literally what I wantedto ask you.
So, did you build your firsttavern, basically as like a side
hustle?
Yeah, while you were.
Yeah, it was, it was, it was myplan.
So I got very lucky.
I partnered up with someone, um, who's you know, 20 years older
than I am, but I had workedwith him shortly and I basically
said look, this is my visionand I'll I'll run it back in
about 2014,.
I had went to my local tavernhere that I used to be a regular
at, and I was a pretty biggambler at the time, making that
host money, just cash.
No kids, no responsibilities.
And I went to the managementthere and I said, hey look, I
(05:53):
want to bartend.
I just want to learn the gamingbusiness because everyone wants
gaming experience.
Right, I want to bartend.
I'm obviously a bartender, I'vedone it for years.
I want to work the worst shifts.
I don't steal, I barely drink.
I'll probably gamble all mytips back at the end of the
night.
I'll pack this place because itwas a very industry hotspot.
All the people I know wouldcome here after work.
I'd get all the busters and thewaitresses and the strippers
(06:14):
and whatever.
And I remember at the end of theinterview I thought to myself
like when do I start?
And they looked at me and hesaid, unfortunately.
And they looked at me and hesaid, unfortunately, I just
don't think you'd be a good fithere Really.
And now, owning a bar, Iunderstand he didn't want to
lose me as a player, but backthen, being very raw from New
York and kind of feeling acertain way, I sat up and I just
looked at him.
(06:34):
I said don't worry, I'll openmy own fucking bar anyway, just
like that.
And he looked at me and saidlike okay, good, like good luck.
You don't know what thatentails.
And I had no idea what thatentailed.
I had no idea how expensive itwas going to be.
Um, but I decided from that dayin 2013 or 14, that I was never
going to work at another bar foranybody ever again, until I
opened my own.
And the first and the firsttime I bartended at a gaming bar
(06:55):
was 8 august, 15th 2021, whenthe standard tavern opened.
So from that time that six,seven years was planning, saving
, you know, pitching my friends,family, all that.
You know I didn't grow upwealthy or anything.
I didn't have.
Mommy and daddy's money helpedme out a little bit with certain
things, but by no means didthey like.
Here you go.
Here's a blank check.
You know my partner's not superwealthy, so I grassroots a lot
(07:17):
of these funds and, honestly, Ithink, years of doing really
good business and years of beinghonest and responsible and
caring about people first.
People trusted me and you had anetwork.
And I had a great networkcorrect.
But these people trusted me.
They said you know what?
We're not even investing inthis business because we don't
know the business.
We're investing that you'regoing to do the right thing.
And, of course, my number onething in any of my business
(07:39):
ventures is I don't want to letyou down.
I'm more worried about myinvestors, who might only own 5%
10%, than I am even aboutmyself, because they're trusting
me.
Right, and that's a big dealtrusting someone with your money
.
So that's kind of like how itall started.
So, yeah, I was.
It was going on being built inthe background COVID happens.
So I ended up.
You know Hakkasan group kept meon for a while but eventually
(08:00):
there's no money coming in.
We got to cut some of theseguys.
So I ended up getting cut withthe promise of you could have
your job back whenever the worldopens.
But I decided like, hey look, Ihad a little girl.
I was having another littlegirl on the way.
I'm like I got to save mybusiness.
So I decided, instead of thisbeing my side hustle, I'm going
all in and I'm going to do theoperations.
(08:21):
I'm going to do the operations,I'm going to be the general
manager and the owner and I'llbartend, I'll mop the floors,
whatever it takes.
I'll figure it out, and I havenever been a business owner
before.
This is weird.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I got to all of a sudden pay payroll.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I all of a sudden got to do ordering and the
internet's out.
What do I do?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
And blah, blah, blah blah blah, know it worked out,
it worked out.
Yeah, I was gonna ask you, youknow, how do you get that
translate?
You know, going from thenetwork side of being an
executive and you know nightclub, obviously there's a lot of
similarities between that and abar, but obviously vastly
different.
Yeah, you have to startworrying about payroll.
How do you set it up?
How do you?
It's on the fly, you're afirefighter.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You.
I swear to you.
I swear to you my favorite, youknow my favorite clip on
YouTube ever, and I watch itonce a month.
I might post it once every twoor three months on my on my
Facebook and my Instagram, justto remind myself, is Teddy Atlas
in the corner with TimothyBradley.
I don't know if you guys arefamiliar, but he's in the corner
.
Teddy Atlas is one of the bestboxing trainers of all time,
Timothy Bradley, great Americanboxer, and he's in there with
him and he's like we are firemen.
We live in the fire and timothybradley is looking at him like
I'm ready to kill somebody andhe did, and he won, and it was
(09:29):
such a moment, like you said,like that's what it is, you're
in the fire and if you're notready for it and if you're not
prepared, you're going to getburned and eventually all
business owners go through it.
I, I think, the first timearound.
You know if you're not failing,if you're not failing, if
you're not making mistakes, thenyou're not doing it right.
You know you're not tryingenough.
So, a lot of trial and error, alot of things I wish I can go
back from, but the trend as faras the question, I think it
(09:51):
translated great.
You know, I I'm not a naturalleader, I don't think.
I think I'm a natural hustler.
So, like, this is the way tomanage people, this is the way
to manage expectations, this isthe way to manage business.
(10:11):
And thank God for those guys,cause it was up to me I go crazy
you know, you can lead them inby showing exactly different.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
So I've I've learned a lot and I'm learning every day
.
I mean, I read more leadershipbooks.
I read, I listen to audio tapes, even on the way here, right, I
listen to tony robbins, Ilisten to alex hormosi like I
listen to all the same guys weall do.
You know, goggins gets me firedup, and what's the common
denominator with them is theirleaders, their true, true
leaders, and not everybody hasthat.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I think it's a skill what people think, and that's it
.
That's the biggest thing, right?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
they just this is what I'm doing.
Follow me, and it always worksout somehow.
So, yeah, I mean, I think ittranslated great.
I think that, again, learningon the fly has been my biggest
strength, where, okay, I made amistake.
Admit it.
I made the mistake, it's on me,I have to own it.
And now, next time I won't dothat, maybe I'll make another
(11:01):
mistake, but at least that firstone won't be there anymore.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
So it's been a process.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
man, it's been awesome.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
And you kind of like putting all your eggs in that
basket, though, because goingfrom that securing that and
being able to work in thatenvironment.
Having to like jump all in,that must've been nerve wracking
.
I had that experience.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, I mean, you got family guys right.
I knew that gaming in Las Vegasis the heart of this city.
Now you could tell me everyother business you want
restaurants, this, and that I'vedone it all.
(11:36):
I've worked it all.
The gaming is what keeps thelights on.
It's why the chandeliers andthe carpet are nice so.
I knew that I was going to havea gaming license and I got
approved.
And when I got approved, theyhad told me that I was the
youngest tavern owner in thecity.
That was what I wanted to askyou.
So that's true.
That is true at the time thatthat it wasn't passed down
through family right, cause alot of bars pass them the
(11:57):
licenses down, which is whatever, but I was the first and the
youngest.
The youngest.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Can mommy ask you what age were you?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I was 35 at the time, yeah, so at the time I was the
youngest licensee and they hadeven told me like they looked at
me kind of you.
You know this is an older mangame.
This is guys and women.
I mean.
It's the lawyer fees it allracks up.
It's you're looking to build abar licensing and the background
check the stack of papers thisbig.
They go back 20 years, personal, residential.
(12:24):
They'll call your brother, yourmother, your grandma, how,
their teachers, how was he as akid?
What do you do for work?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
where's the money coming from money coming from my
agent would call me.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
You have an agent that kind of does your
background.
They'd call me at three in themorning.
Why did you just take out $800?
At the Rhino I'm having a goodtime, Okay cool.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
We just want to know Like the FBI Worse.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
We're harder.
So, yeah, that process is wild,very expensive, so I had put
every dollar I had into it.
But I knew ultimately thatgaming was going to be the
savior and if people are hittingthat button and enjoying
themselves and how we had goodfood and a good staff and a
clean environment, that it wouldall work out what's the
difference between?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
like that gaming license, like the 7-eleven?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
so there's doing that same thing so essentially,
there's three different kinds ofgaming licenses.
There probably might be more,but the three main ones would be
what's called um, a supper clublicense or a convenience store
license.
Usually it's five to sevenmachines, okay, um.
Then you have tavern licenses,which you would know.
It's all the bars, but I have15 machines.
And then it's non-restricted,which is anything more than that
.
Casinos now non-restricted.
(13:24):
To get those obviously wild,you need to own the land.
You know to build a new casinoright now, as far as today's
rules go, need to have 200 rooms, which is why you see smaller
casinos like Durango pop up.
Oh, like the boutique.
Right Because they don't want tobuild massive things, and
Durango did it perfectlyFantastic, and they're about to
do Inspirata.
They're about to do Sky Canyon.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Shout out to the Boutique's man they're sharp,
awesome company.
Oh they're.
They're going to do Sky Canyon,yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I live up there too.
That's why, by my book.
So, yeah, those are the mainlicenses and there's deals you
work out.
Like for my deal, I get an Xamount percentage and it's
negotiable with the people thatmaintain the machines, right?
So you have a company that putsthe machines in.
I give them X percentage of thewinnings every week or month,
whatever, and they maintenancethem, they handle them, they
handle all the money.
So there's a lot that goes intoit, you know.
(14:11):
And even these small 7-elevens,I mean, you see, you walk in
there, there's someone alwayshitting a button there I mean
terrible gap, I mean everywhere.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
The worst the grocery stores yeah, like you go get
groceries, I'm gonna stay hereand get it.
That's always the thing I spend60 bucks on my groceries.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Let me try to do a 60 blackjack, I get free groceries
you know, and I've seen peoplein there down five, ten
thousand000, $10,000.
No problem.
So one thing that really reallyimpressed me.
Right we start doing yourresearch and everything.
You guys paid out $300,000 lastmonth and you share it yeah.
To basically say hey, I thinkit was like $326,000.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
And that's a slower month for us.
The summer months for tavernsare slower because obviously the
sports are kind of slowed downnow, sure After basketball,
basketball and hockey finals.
The golden Knights winning lastyear was huge for us.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
The ACEs winning right.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
We carried us all the way through the summer, but
generally the hot months are theslow months we're we're really
busy in the fall, um, but yeah,we pay out tons of money and
that payout is you know, overall.
But we have people hit jackpotsroutinely for five, 10, $15,000
.
We've paid out 38 grand acouple times.
I mean that's someone betting$4.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So it's pretty wild to think that in a little local
tavern where you go get yourburgers and your pizzas, that
you can go hit for 40 grand, 80grand, and it happens all the
time.
I got to ask you because I'mgetting nervous just talking
about it, that's not scary toyou.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It is scary when you have to pay $38,000?
It's scary, but you play itlike it's the market.
You look at the long-termvision.
It's all a long-term game.
If you look at it in shortspurts a week, a month you'll go
crazy and early on, when you'refirst starting out, you might
not be that cash flush You'relooking every day.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
That's what I'm saying.
You're looking every day.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
That's a lot of overhead.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
They have a certain amount of money that, so the
companies themselves back you.
So let's say in a situationlike somebody hits for $40,000
at my bar.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I don't have $40,000.
Maybe you just opened it thefirst time, right, yeah, $40,000
.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So they'll come and they'll have a Brinks truck with
40 racks.
They'll fill out the tax form,give it to the guest and then
what happens is it'll go by theend of the week.
So I have 40 grand, but maybewe made 10 the rest of the week.
So now we're negative 30.
They'll take five, seven offthe next couple of weeks.
So if I make 15, 20, 30 grandthey'll just take, which is nice
(16:19):
.
It's almost like aninterest-free loan, but you're
still responsible for it.
But I like that You're notgetting killed, murdered, of
course, because they're yourpartners, they want you to
operate, they want your accountto do well, because they're
getting X percentage and theyknow too, just like a casino.
So you see it all the time inthe in the review journal oh,
this guy won a million dollarsat caesars.
Yeah, well, for the day,caesars won 1.2.
So is that terrible?
Speaker 1 (16:39):
not really still positive.
Yeah, yeah, of course that'show gaming works.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So it's really just a long term and it's all
mathematics, right.
The machines will generally payback anywhere from 92 to 98,
depending.
You know like you go to thestrip, they'll, they'll.
Uh, some of the smaller casinoswill advertise we pay 99 back.
That means they're only holdingone percent.
So if somebody's betting andthey bet a hundred thousand
dollars throughout the day,you're hitting the button,
that's a thousand bucks that thecasino makes you know which at
(17:05):
the end.
For them it's no problem, aslong as someone's sitting there
pushing the buttons yeah, Idon't gamble, so just thinking
about how that works is justunreal.
I don't gamble, I lose.
Yeah, you like gambling, I knowI lose.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
That was one decision I made when I moved to Vegas.
I've been here since 07, so 17years now and I was like I can't
, I don't even want to learn.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I don't know anything about it.
Best thing you can do.
Yeah, I try my best.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
worst thing that happens if someone like you.
The worst thing to happen is ifyou win that's.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
That's what happens right, that's the first hit and
it definitely takes a certainyou know, do I people always ask
me this too like do you battlemorally, because you know
sometimes someone could be inthere losing their?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
mortgage.
Reading my mind right now,that's literally what I was
gonna.
Yeah, you feel bad about that,like because people got game.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I mean, we all got problems, of course all of us,
of course, you know I Do youfeel bad coming there every
single day.
I sympathize, but I don't feelbad because I've also been there
.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I'm a gambler.
That's real.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
There's been nights I've been at Bellagio and I've
dumped 10, 15, 20 Gs in myyounger days and I think to
myself do they really care aboutme?
No, they don't.
And it's entertainment on acertain level and as you get
older, and hopefully as you gothrough tough times, you kind of
realize okay, well, now I'mgoing to make it entertainment.
Are there people that strugglewith it?
Yes, there are.
We do our best also to kind ofrecognize that, so I will even.
(18:23):
It's probably not the bestbusiness practice in the world,
but for karma purposes I'll talkto someone and be like hey, are
you okay?
Do you need anything?
And most of the time peoplethey're not going to tell you
you know, but they'll say, okay,but for me at least, I'm
checking in and at the end ofthe day they're going to go
gamble somewhere.
We at the standard tavern, forexample, we've got probably more
(18:48):
bars within a two mile radiusthan anywhere else in the city.
We've probably can I provideHopefully good food, hopefully
great service, a cleanatmosphere that you enjoy, some
smiling faces, some laughs andat the end of the day, there's
also people there that smoke me,that hit for 10 grand.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
So it's like those guys don't feel bad for me.
Not at all, Not at all.
They don't feel bad.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Not at all, and it's all fun.
But again, do I feel morallyobligated to everyone?
No, I can't.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
It's business too.
It's business.
You've got to run a business.
I get it Right Apple doesn'tfeel bad.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I pay $1,000 for these things every couple years?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
No, they don't care at all.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
So I try to get myself in that mindset, because
if I worried about every singleperson individually, there's no
way you could be in thisbusiness.
That's true.
I'm selling somebody a $20,000table you know, and and I know
that you know the night's goingto be fun, they're going to have
a great experience, but is itworth it?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I don't think it's worth it, you know but in real
estate, exactly In the casino, Ican talk with eight.
Yeah, it's all real estate.
Yeah, and then, when the lightsget out, and what's the?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
host job.
Jay Sean, andrew, all thoseguys in our relationships was
hey, how can I just make thisexperience where I know you're
spending more money than youprobably ever spent in your life
, but how can I make this atleast a little softer, better?
And we it's no different at thebars.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Yeah, and you kind of touched on a little bit like
the, the, the competitive natureof the industry in Vegas.
You know, like I said,everybody's ran on gambling a
lot of drinkers here, a lot ofgood food and a lot of
competition.
You, how do you, when you'reopening a bar?
I think that's the part thatwould scare me the most.
Right is the amount ofcompetition with this type of
industry that we're in rightlike, is it?
How have you navigated that andseparated yourself from that,
(20:20):
that competition that's allaround you?
Speaker 2 (20:22):
the vegas tavern scene, where I'm in now, has
shrunk a lot.
A lot of the bigger companies,the pts, you know, the stations,
casinos, even the jet gaming,which is Herbst those guys are
now entering the tavern spacebecause they know the value
right, so they're starting tobuy up all the independent guys
like me.
Now, a lot of people would bescared of that, because that's
(20:42):
like owning a burger shack andthen McDonald's opens on your
corner or Burger King right.
So it's a little scary.
Their marketing is way betterthan yours.
They can.
They have so many employeesthat can do this and that
meanwhile I'm the marketer, I'mthe social media guy.
Yeah, I'm this right.
You just can't compete.
So I look at it like it's apositive and I spin it off like
hey look, when a guest come inor I'm talking to somebody, you
(21:03):
can definitely go to a pts.
I think there's like 70 or 80locations.
You can go gamble at a dotty,you can go gamble at a dotty's
right, whatever.
But I'm the.
I'm a family-owned business.
You have a big mural in there.
It's family-owned.
My.
You know the a and the standardwith the heart is my daughter,
audrey I keep yeah yeah, so youknow I try to make it a little
bit more.
I try to hit people's emotionalside, like would you rather
support the big company or doyou want to come here?
(21:23):
And then I can give you alittle bit more love.
I can give you some t-shirts, Ican throw you some golden
knights tickets on the side tohelp know if you're losing a
little bit of money.
I'll just give you my ticketsor I'll give you a gift card to
your favorite restaurant thatmaybe isn't even here.
I just want to send you and yourhusband or your wife somewhere
nice.
So that's kind of like the edgethat we have where those guys
can't.
Right there, they're hamstrungby their corporate rules.
So that's what I try to do.
What can we do better?
Sometimes a little edgier incertain things, maybe our social
(21:46):
media can get.
I have the advantage.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I try to narrow it on that, because that's the only
way, you're never going tocompete with the big business
otherwise.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And then the end goal for most people like me is get
three, four, five of thesethings, package them up and then
go.
Hey guys, do you want?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
this I was going to ask you is that the?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
long-term goal Is it exit?
It's always an option.
Myself, I'm 39.
My partner is 60, you know, inhis he's 60 now, I believe Um,
and a partner, another one, isin his fifties and I think they
probably have that goal morethan I do, um, because I can
work another 20, 30 years and becomfortable and I have young
(22:23):
kids that maybe I'd pass thisdown to and I'd like to create a
legacy.
At the same time, cashing out,I mean, that's why you build a
small business.
Right is the cash out.
So I play it by ear.
I'm only three years in on thefirst bar.
We just took over the secondbar yesterday.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
That's the Torrey Pines.
Yeah, Torrey Pines Pub.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Congratulations man, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
So the long-term vision, we'll kind of see how it
goes.
It really depends on the market.
I mean, rents are getting to becrazy, supermarket it's no
different for me.
Food is crazy expensive, laboris getting more expensive.
If things keep going in thatdirection, which I don't know
how long it can really sustain,then, yeah, eventually a sale
(23:04):
might happen.
But for now I love what I do.
Being my own boss and employingpeople in town is probably my
favorite part of it.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, one of the things I noticed all the
business owners we interviewspecifically man, like, or
franchises, right, how do youfeel about like?
Or what do you put in place,like, for the structure for
stealing, right, because, steph,yeah, everything goes out the
back door.
Yeah, so, like, what do you putin place to be able to make
sure that you're solid?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
you know, honestly, I think it starts with hiring.
Okay, I think hiring andtraining is the most important.
If someone wants to walk out ofmy restaurant with a steak in
their pocket, they're going todo it 1,000%.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
They're going to do it or they're going to give it
to wherever it is Right right.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
However, and stealing in the restaurant world can be
defined in multiple ways.
If you give somebody extrasilverware and napkins at their
table that they might not use,is that stealing or negligence?
If you want to call it right,so I have use.
Is that stealing or negligence?
If you want to call it right,so so.
So I have really good things inplace where I say, okay, guys,
you know, let's, let's not tryto throw away the forks today.
Let's try to make sure napkins,the guests have what they need,
of course, but let's not overdoit.
(24:02):
And as far as like blatant theft, they always get caught.
And I've learned this and I'vebeen, I've been in food and
beverage for 20 years, I'm, youknow, more than 25.
And at every level, the snakesshow themselves in the grass.
And when you find it, it'sabout building a culture to say,
and you don't want to buildlike rats and snitches, but I
have people that care about meso much at my job where they'll
(24:22):
call me and say, hey, and justusing a name, hey, steve, he's
not doing the right thing.
You should keep an eye on it.
And if I've got those peopleworking with me and for me, then
I've done my job, you know, andI can't sweat the small stuff.
There's always going to betheft.
The good thing about gamingwhich kind of separates gaming
from everything else is, onceyou put that money in the
machine, that's gone.
I can't touch it, my managerscan't touch it, my staff can't
(24:46):
touch it.
So if somebody goes and puts ahundred dollar bill in there,
they're not getting it back.
That cash is there forever.
So what's the worst a bartendercan do?
Give a couple extra drinks.
We have things in place to lookat that, to see and over time
you can have levels and you doyour due diligence.
But I don't worry about it.
I can't because if it's, I knowowners that watch their cameras
all day long.
They're on their phones.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
That's going to drive you crazy too.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
You'll go insane and I know owners like that you know
, and they're constantly firingpeople and this and that it's
like slow down, let's hirebetter, let's hire quality
people.
Let's check their references,which I know a lot of people
don't even do that anymore.
I call you got three references.
I'm going to call.
(25:26):
Say hey, how Is he honest, ishe trustworthy?
How long was he there?
If I see people had 10 jobs intwo years, I don't want that
person.
They could be great people, butthat tells me they're probably
not a good employee.
So you know my staff.
I have very little turnover,which I'm thankful for.
That's powerful, yeah, and theylove their job.
Hopefully, if they're listeningand they come to me with stuff
(25:47):
more than I even have to ask,that's awesome, man.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, I know we've talked about this.
We've all got kids right.
Yeah, you know that's a big hotbutton for me.
What's being a girl dad for you?
Man?
I know, that's everything.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I'm going to get emotional.
Yeah, I uh.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Yeah, you just had a birthday too recently, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, my girls for me are my entire life just on
myself.
Yeah, yeah, and I'm sorry.
I always.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
I'm not even sad, I'm not sad I'm very, I'm happy,
right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
but my girl and all my friends know I talk about my
girls all the time and my girls,audrey and violet.
You know they're seven andone's going to be three in two
weeks and there's no joy likecoming home to two little girls
that don't care about your day.
They don't know what bills needto be paid.
They don't care about your day.
They don't know what bills needto be paid.
They don't know what yourrelationship situation's like.
They don't know your health.
(26:38):
They don't know any of thatstuff.
They just want daddy Right.
And for me it's by far thegreatest joy of my life.
Um, it gets challenging.
I am a single dad, so it getschallenging juggling schedules,
but I have them a lot purposely.
Um, and that's probably also myfavorite part about being an
entrepreneur or a business owneris the flexibility to have the
time with them, because I knowthat time goes like that right,
(27:01):
it's the ultimate thief is time.
And um, yeah, being a girl,that is amazing, like learning
how to braid hair, and mydaughter's gymnastic school is
that one right across the streetfrom you guys.
So, I'm there, you know, once ortwice a week or I try to get
there as much as I can.
I go to all the dance recitalsand everything with the cheer
competitions and, um, yeah, man,it's, it's being a girl.
Dad, I tell people all the timethe two things that you can
(27:23):
never prepare for in my life, atleast that no one could ever
coach you on you can read allthe books you want is being a
business owner and being a dador a parent with you.
You know, you don't know untilyou're in it.
Every day is something new.
I enjoy all their littlemilestones.
You know whether it's walkingmy three, she's going to be
three, but she's fully pottytrained.
It was like the best day of mylife because she was she was so
excited so yeah, man, Iabsolutely love being a dad.
(27:46):
It's my heartbeat, it makes mego I love it.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
I wanted to ask you that just because of the
conversation you and I had onthe phone, I mean, when we were
setting this up, it's like look,what day are we trying to do it
?
Let's try to schedule it forthis day, because I got my kids
this day and I love it justbecause I'm a father of two boys
and that's my everyday it getsme emotional too, just talking
about them.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
And I'm a girl dad too.
Yeah, Congrats.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
No, that's my seven-year-old is seven, going
on 17 right now my seven goingon 40.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
I'm in the car and it's.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Taylor Swift and it's this and that, and I'm just
laughing like this is, you know,I'm sure you guys same way.
Like you, picture your lifegoing a certain way and
obviously things happen, theytwist and turn, and then when
you reach this point of yourlife, it's like man, what's
really important.
Like man, what's reallyimportant.
Can my phone wait a little bit?
Do I have to look at ESPN rightnow?
Or does my daughter showing meher new dance move or handshake,
(28:37):
or cartwheel, or a car she madeon Minecraft?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Exactly, you know it's amazing, like Chris and I,
when we first started this whenmy wife she's not here right now
, but when we first started this, right we kind of went left
right.
We were like Howard Stern,talking crazy.
We didn't put out probably 35episodes, right.
But the funny thing was Chrisand I we had talked about on the
side like we wanted a platformwith like substance and
(29:01):
something that our kids couldlisten to Absolutely.
So, like my kids, they'll cometo the podcast and listen in and
they'll listen to this episode,you know what I mean Because
it's powerful, because they'rewatching.
They're watching everythingthat we do.
Like you said, you're not aleader.
You are a leader becausethey're watching everything that
you're doing, right.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
That was on YouTube.
I call it walking rooms in town.
They're watching the podcast onYouTube.
What's going on here?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
My kids do it all the time, they're paying attention
to it, they pull it up and theylearn so much for it.
But I appreciate yourtransparency.
People need to hear that.
They need to hear single dadsare still kicking behind and
doing what you're doing,absolutely when you're at the
recitals and stuff, because it'smotivating man yeah, super
motivating, and I grew up.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
You know my parents were blue collar.
You know my mom was astay-at-home mom with four kids.
I was the oldest my dad growingup.
You know I didn't meet mybiological father until I was 31
or 32.
Oh wow my dad, who I call him mydad.
He's essentially my stepdad,but he raised me UPS guy, you
know.
So up at 6am in the New Yorkcold or the New York heat home
at seven or eight, has to beback to work early.
(29:59):
So I saw what real hard work islike, you know, and I saw my
mom, what a real mom was like,and she's fantastic.
My parents are actually herethis weekend Amazing, having
them here Right.
And I saw and I learned fromthem from them, you know, you
can still be compassionate andstern and you can still be hard
working.
And my dad, for all the stuffhe did on the weekends was at my
(30:19):
basketball games, at my soccergames, at my lacrosse games, as
best he could.
So I think of it now like Ihave way more of a luxury and
free time than he ever had.
What's my excuse?
yeah you know, am I busy?
Do?
Can I skip this dinner with myfriends?
I catch.
Do I have to go to carbone thisweekend to see my boys in town?
What's important, right, rightand, and they all my friends
know, right.
And I understand if you were totell me hey, I got some of my
(30:40):
kids, yeah, no, questions rightdads get it now some of the
people that I'm friends withthat don't have kids.
They're still peter pan at 38,39 years old.
They might not understand.
They really don't of.
Hey, my daughter's got a fever.
I'm going to stay home.
What do you mean?
It's a fever, yeah, but it's mydaughter and she's crying and
she needs me, she needs dad.
So, yeah, man, I agree, I thinkit'd be great to see more men
(31:03):
show up for their kids, and Isee this at these cheer events.
Right, there's not many dadsthere.
Trust me, if anyone gets it, Iget it.
I try to show up as much as Ican within reason.
If I'm not working, that's theonly reason that I would.
If I don't have, like apressing, pressing issue at work
, it can wait an hour or two,because the face of your kids
seeing you at these events orschool events or whatever, it's
(31:24):
priceless.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
I'm in that, whether you want to call it corny or not
, I'm in that only momentsituation.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
So I get it and it's a it's a something I had to
learn because I think you know,naturally I'm pretty selfish.
I like doing things on my own,I like just chilling, I like
just hanging out.
If I got free time, I want tocatch up on Game of Thrones or
watch Sopranos for the 10th time, but it's like.
Of course I like that kind ofstuff and there's a time and
place for that.
But, like Like you guys know,man, it makes me smile every
time when my girls see me it'sNothing better.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Oh my God, nothing better.
Yeah, I wanted to ask you,mentorship's huge, you know, for
all of us, I would assume,especially for me.
But what's been a pivotalmoment for you?
Or you know, I know you've gotmentors, maybe on the business
side, that have, you know,partnered with you.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
But what's been a newer thing for me?
Something as you get intobusiness more and get a little
bit older and need more help andyou have more questions, right,
because you don't know whatyou're doing Fatherhood,
business, personal life,whatever I have distinct people
in different sections of my life.
So, as an example, I have afriend that lives out here.
If I go through hard times,whether it's relationships or
(32:32):
whether I'm struggling with myown, whether it's depression or
anxiety, whatever I go to him,we're in the gym together.
You know, we're in the gym.
We're in the gym four or fivedays a week and it just gets it
all out and that's my guy that Igo to If I have business
questions.
I got a guy that I call thatanswers the phone at all the
time, any day or night.
What do you need?
No questions, no, nothing.
What do you need any day ornight?
(32:54):
What do you need?
No questions, no, nothing.
What do you need?
Um?
And then as far as fatherhood,I've got a good group of guy
friends that have been throughit.
They either single dads, eitherdivorced or or whatever, and
they understand the strugglesometimes or like the emotions
that all go through with allthat, how do you handle
different things?
And I call them and they're onit and I think that that is so
important for people and reallyjust being in touch with and
being self-aware, you know, nottrying to put everything on your
(33:14):
shoulders all the time becauseI got blind spots, of course you
know, and, and sometimes whensomeone says something to you,
it clicks.
And I think with the socialmedia stuff now it's even better
because you can literally go oninstagram or youtube and google
.
You know, dad, depressed,divorced business owner and
there'll be someone there givingyou some great advice that you
might not have had before.
(33:34):
Or a group of people to talkabout Right, right and it's like
holy crap, you're gettingintroduced to all these things
that you previously didn't have.
That's the power of technology.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I like, me too, what you're talking about right now
Me too.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
And they're all.
I just look at it like how manytools do you yourself ironclad
and you can build yourself up inall these different areas and
you've got people which I have,great mentors and and honestly,
it's almost like, um, it'salmost like the Alcoholics
Anonymous program, right, whereyou have a mentor or a sponsor
and then eventually you becomethat right and I'm seeing that
(34:05):
now where I have right, I haveyoung guys that I know that from
the gym and from you, know fromrandom places that I've been to
and they reach out to mebecause maybe they're having
their first kid or maybe theywant to, or maybe them and their
girl split, or maybe they'reopening, they're trying to open
up their own business and I'mmore than happy to sit down hey,
I got 15 minutes, let's startto do it.
And and I think that thatfeeling of giving back a little
(34:26):
bit and I don't have all theanswers, but but I might have
the answers that they don't haveand I think that feeling of
giving back has been massive.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
So mentorship you get energy from that.
Yeah, just talking with people.
You know what I mean.
Just learning.
You know what those blind spotsare.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah, Like when was?
I'm curious for you guys, whenwas your first time where you
looked at maybe a non-father,not a non-family member and said
like I, I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Mike Popovich, a friend of mine in Colorado,
miami, colorado, and I'll neverforget, just because one thing
he said to me I'll never forgetI've been with my wife 20 years
Congratulations, that's amazing.
I appreciate that.
He was like if you're notfighting with your wife, you're
lying, and I respected that somuch from somebody that he told
me straight up.
He was like everybody hasproblems.
(35:11):
Excuse my language, but they'refull of shit if they're yeah,
if they don't have happy golucky.
Yeah, it does not happen theinstagram couple correct always
somebody yeah yeah, but he gaveme a lot of tips and I'll never
forget on that, and he's wasvery successful, business-wise,
perfect.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
So yeah, so yeah, I'll never forget people that
you know are doing it right,like the parents that you think
are doing it right, taking thepeople being there for their
kids.
Like you said, you find thosepeople and you try to ask them
those open questions.
One thousand percent.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I'm dealing with this issue.
Yeah, I've had a few a lot ofcoworkers over the years that
I've respected and learned fromand I think that when you start
talking to people on that level,they open up to you in a way
that you might not have thought.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Oh yeah, totally agreed.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
You're like hey, how's your relationship with
your kids or your wife or what'sgoing on at work?
And most people will tell youyou know and then you're like oh
my god, I'm going through thattoo and we're all right and no
one or they don't, they don'tfeel comfortable telling you,
you know, and it's like once youbreak that, that, especially as
men, right, because, listen,I'm a dude, yeah, I don't want
to sit here you'll be soft Idon't want to sit here and cry
at a table with my guys, but atthe same time, if my boy's
(36:10):
struggling.
We know the suicide rates of men, especially single men,
especially single businessmen,is ridiculously high.
I don't want to have to.
I don't want to have to one daylook at my friends and say I
wish you would have called me.
You know, I call my friends, Iactively, and my friends call me
.
Hey, what's up?
How you doing, what's going on.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
How's everything with this situation?
How's?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
business, how's life, you know what's going on and
that's so important and I thinkthat so many people who shy away
from that.
But I think the power of socialmedia it's been helping and
platforms like this it's beenhelping where guys can, because
women do it all the time.
Yeah, you know, they sit thereand they tell each other their
feelings and this and that, andit might be a different level,
but for guys is like justchecking in and it means a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yeah, it's that locker room man.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
It's a locker room barbershop, you know course, so
Business advice setup.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
So business advice what would you share with
somebody you, you built yourside hustle right, working as an
executive.
What would you share from justone nugget?
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Yeah, I think I get asked this a lot and I think
that there's two for me.
Number one I've heard, I'veseen some of your other podcasts
a lot of entrepreneurs say thesame exact thing.
It's it's build your teamaround you, be able to delegate,
be able to not put everythingon you.
Make sure that the peoplearound you have your best
interest, make sure you havetheir best interest in mind.
You know, take care of yourpeople.
(37:17):
If you're taking care of them,if people are getting paid well
and they're being treated rightand they know listen.
Sometimes business could beslow, right, but if they know
that you care about them and youmake sacrifices and you do
things for them and you check inon them, these guys will be
here for you for the end Solidfor them and you check in on
them.
These guys will be here for youfor the end Solid, right, and
that's what I want to do.
And then my second thing for mepersonally.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
You know everybody saw the Last Dance.
Right, we have Matt Maxson on.
They've developed the LastDance, so I'm a huge.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Last Dance guy.
I've always been a huge MJ guy.
By no means am I Michael Jordanin anything but what I love
about him and what I canresonate with.
I need to take things personal.
I have to have my own enemy, soto speak, even if it's not real
, because to wake up happy andevery that doesn't get me going,
I need to say, okay, that guytold me that I couldn't do this.
Or that guy said that my barsucks.
(38:03):
Or this person left a review onYelp and said that my food
wasn't good, so now I'm gonnamake it the best it's ever been.
And I, for me, internally, Iuse that as my motivation every
day.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Love that.
Yeah, yeah, love that.
Man Just transition.
We always talk aboutrestaurants, man, so give us one
Vegas restaurant that you love.
Maybe the Hole in the Wall afine dining, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I won't give the generic answers.
I already know that.
You know, let me give you two.
So I guess my one kind ofgeneric answer.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
If I was going Italian.
My spot is Piero's.
Piero's is excellent.
I just met one of the ladies atone of the concerts.
I forgot her name.
Actually, I owe her a phonecall, so I'm glad you brought up
Piero's.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
There you go, call her.
That's a great hookup overthere.
Yeah, she's great.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
She's been the bar lady for years.
That's a fantastic spot, that'sa fantastic spot.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Obviously, I had a lot of clients come into town or
customers, however you want tocall them for the nightclub days
and they would always pushCarbone, carbone, and I love
Carbone.
I'm a Carbone guy.
I'm from New York.
If anyone needs a reservation,I got you in New York.
That's a tough one.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I can get you.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Shout out to Adam but yeah, that's a good one.
Blue Ribbon Sushi, if you'venever been.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Oh, yeah, we've been to Blue Ribbon Sushi.
There was one at Cosmo, I don'tthink it's there anymore.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
There's one in Red Rock.
They just opened one in GreenValley Ranch.
I've been to one at Red Rock.
Very good Surprisingly the bestfried chicken probably in the
whole city oh wow, I have neverheard that before the whole
chicken.
But they're regular chickenwings with a wasabi honey dip.
Let me just put everybody on,don't take up my reservation.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
I usually go on Wednesdays.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Don't take my reservation, but Blue Ribbon
Sushi chicken, especially, isthe spot.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
That's two good spots , man, so Piero's and Blue
Ribbon Sushi.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Shout out to both of them, man, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
What else do you want to leave us out on?
Anything we forgot to ask you.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
No, you know, getting a platform like this and being
able to speak is great aboutbusiness.
I really encourage people tokind of really follow your
dreams, and what I mean by thatis not just have like I want to
open up a nail salon or I wantto be this and that it's like.
It takes time.
It does.
It took me seven years.
People always say congrats, itmust be so exciting.
It's not that exciting becauseI've been doing it in my head
(40:12):
for seven years.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
We've been doing this for six years.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Yeah, you know, you know right Like congratulations.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
This is amazing, You're like yeah, but that costs
, you know, five grand that I'vebeen doing this and I had to
sacrifice my family time to behere.
So I wish more people wouldtake that chance, because on the
other side of that is just anabundance of happiness,
self-fulfillment.
You know, entrepreneurship isnot for the weak.
I say it all the time and I sayit about being a dad too.
(40:37):
I say being a dad's not hard,but being a great dad is, you
know.
And being an entrepreneur isnot very hard.
You can start your own shop, butbeing a good one and being an
active one is.
So I hope and I wish thatpeople maybe take a little bit
of my story and say this guyfrom New York didn't know
anything at all, worked his wayup, use his connections, did
things the right way, didn'tborrow cheat and steal from from
(40:57):
everyone.
I, I did it how I was supposedto do it and we're growing.
So two locations right now I'mlooking at a third here in the
Southwest part of town andhopefully from then we just run
it up.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
We support you, man.
We appreciate man.
We're going back.
I definitely do.
It's an absolute pleasure tosit down.
What's the social handles?
So the Standard Tavern is theunderscore standard underscore
LV, and the same thing withTorrey Pines Pub is Torrey
underscore Pines underscore pub.
Okay, my personal is my name,chris Morihan, underscore LV.
I'm boring now.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
I got rid of all my club stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
It's just family inspired sometimes watching.
So if you want to follow me orthe bars, I definitely
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Well, check them out, man, Pay attention to them.
We support you and check us outat thevegascircuitcom and
subscribe with us, man.
But I appreciate you, man.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
That was awesome, man .
Appreciate your time, guys.
Thank you guys, that was reallygood.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Yeah.
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