May 16, 2025 • 40 mins
Behind every successful restaurant lies a story of grit, determination, and unwavering passion. Zach Tolan's journey from teenage dishwasher to celebrated chef-entrepreneur perfectly captures this spirit of culinary perseverance.
The founder of Vanilla Rice Hibachi House began his culinary career at just 15 years old, washing dishes alongside his 12-year-old brother for cash under the table. What started as a simple way to earn money transformed into something much more profound when a manager's dismissive words—"dishwashers don't get raises"—lit a fire within young Zach. Those words, now the title of his forthcoming book, became the catalyst for his entrepreneurial journey.
As Zach developed his hibachi cooking skills, he discovered something unexpected: his natural talent for entertainment. Working at a traditional hibachi restaurant, he became so popular that he'd receive up to 30 requests per night from guests specifically asking for "that white guy" to cook for them. Yet amidst the onion volcanoes and flaming showmanship, Zach noticed something curious—his friends who visited frequently would eventually say, "Bro, just cook the food. We don't need the show." This insight sparked the innovative concept behind Vanilla Rice: delicious hibachi cuisine without forcing customers to sit with strangers or endure unwanted theatrics.
Zach's approach to business challenges reveals his fighter's mentality: "I look at business as a boxing match. Every day I wake up, I'm gonna get swung at. Have I been swung at like this before? Do I know how to counter it?" This resilient perspective, coupled with unique training methods where he teaches cooks from scratch rather than hiring experienced chefs, has propelled Vanilla Rice toward his ultimate goal—building a national brand that stands alongside giants like Chipotle and McDonald's.
What began in his mother's backyard has evolved into a thriving multimillion-dollar operation, with expansion plans already underway. As Zach says with confidence, "We've already done the hardest part." Follow @VanillaRiceLV on social media to watch this culinary underdog story continue to unfold. Are you ready to experience hibachi reimagined?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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 to
people in our city who make ithappen.
On today's podcast, man, we gotsomething special.
Man, we've got a youngentrepreneur.
Started off as a dishwasherOriginally.
He's been building thisbusiness for about five years
now, built it into amulti-million dollar business.
He's actually the owner ofVanilla Rice Hibachi House.
(00:21):
We of Vanilla Rice HibachiHouse.
We've got celebrity chef MrZach Tolan.
Man, what's going?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
on AKA Vanilla Rice man.
That's right, thank you.
Thank you for the intro.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I appreciate it Well overdue man, yeah for sure,
we've been in a lot of the samecircles, man.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Finally got a chance to connect on the phone and be
able to put this together, man,but let's jump, was it?
You and your brother asdishwashers?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So it was me at first washing dishes, and then my
brother was like man I'm tryingto make some money too, and so
luckily the owner of therestaurant.
Let's just say we weren'tlegally allowed to work at the
time I was 15.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I was going to say y'all look young as hell.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
He saw that picture?
Yeah, I was 15.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
He was 12.
And so as long as we stayed inthe dish pit and had somebody
else putting the dishes away, wewere cool.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
And we got cash too, so even better.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, and theycould pay us little, Like it was
like $7 an hour.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It was like this is amazing.
You're rich, you know.
Yeah, we felt rich yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
One thing I noticed about you, man, is you have a
great energy when you'rebuilding your YouTube channels,
when you do your videos.
It's definitely you could feelthe energy from it.
Where did you get thisconfidence from, and what
actually catapulted you toactually start your own business
?
Because it's hard to do.
The restaurant business is hard.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, the confidence, I think, definitely stems from
my parents.
My parents are very outgoing,they're in the music industry.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So they've been professional musicians their
whole life.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
My dad passed away when I was 15.
Sorry to hear that.
Yeah, it's definitely,definitely.
He was somebody that you knowwe'd go to the grocery store and
I'm like yanking on his shortslike Dad, can we go?
He's in there talking toeverybody hey good to see you
again.
I'm like we just saw him twodays ago.
Let's go.
And we talked to anybody, youknow, didn't matter.
You know white, black, itdidn't matter.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
He was talking to anybody and he so they're city
of brotherly love.
You know, that's just kind ofwhat you're doing.
It's an amazing place and um.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
So you know, they're very personable, outgoing um,
and they're in the entertainmentindustry.
So I just think over the yearsI kind of just picked that up on
myself on my own and myselfturned into that personality.
I mean I would get kicked outof class for talking too much.
But you know, just having aconversation, you know make
cracking jokes, um, and justbeing confident, I just, you
know, I just I don't really know, you know what.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I mean, Sometimes you get those things where you're
just like I wonder thatsometimes.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Right, yeah, um, but to start my own business.
You know, I, like you said, Istarted as a dishwasher and I
just kept, uh, and it soundsfunny, because I wasn't chasing
money, but I wanted to get araise.
Yeah, and this is actually thetitle of my book that's going to
come out this year.
It's called Dishwashers Don'tGet.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Raises You're good with the branding.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Oh, thank you, You're good with the branding.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Well, that actually wasn't.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
You know, what's funny is like these are things
that people said to me, right?
Like somebody called me hey man, I heard about this raise thing
, I want to get a raise.
And he looks me in the eyes andhe's like dishwashers, don't
get raises.
Oh dang, that's such a stage,right, yeah, and that was one of
those pivotal moments in mylife of like, well, how the hell
do I get a raise?
And then you know over time,and then it'll be time to either
(03:26):
you know there's a couple thatI joke there's a few different
angles.
You go once you hit the top oflike a family-owned restaurant,
you either go to culinary schooland get into the hotel, or you
start your own business, or youbecome an alcoholic and you
never leave that restaurant yeahand I kind of saw different
people go different routes andjust super quick, I actually
cooked at Osaka Japanese Bistroon Horizon Ridge and Eastern, so
(03:50):
obviously you guys know thatarea.
It's a healthy area and I wasn'tjust a cook that cooks in the
back of the restaurant.
Nobody knows who I am.
I'm super quiet.
I was out there entertainingand having conversations with
the guests.
So I'm asking them hey, what doyou guys do?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
This is the third time I've seen you here this
week.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You know eating hibachi three times a week is
not normal.
Yeah, and it's not.
It's not it's not it's not anormal thing to do, but they're
coming on a tuesday getting thesake and I even ended up cooking
for you guys know, bradley ohyeah, I cook for him so many
times.
That's how I found out aboutwho the guy was, and so you know
I'm asking and I just keephearing businesses and business
and I work for myself and allthat kind of stuff.
So you know that was the routeI want.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I thought I wanted to say yeah, I mean, I tried, I
tried school, by the way, I did,I did it just yeah, yeah is
that how you always felt.
So I know you go through andyou start through the dishwasher
path right, and then did you dolike the server route and then
ultimately land on being a cookor management or like if kind of
fall into.
Yeah, I kind of fell in there,but I.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I did every position in the restaurant, but not as a
title right like I served tables, but I was never a server you
know like I'm.
I was the kind of guy that ifI'm just standing there not
really doing anything and Ididn't I didn't smoke cigarettes
, I never smoked cigarettes.
I mean, I've tried it, you'reright, you know, but I wasn't
the guy that was like, oh,there's nothing to do, let me go
take a smoke break.
I'm in the restaurant, I'mbored and I'm the young, you
know white guy in the restaurant.
(05:08):
They're all looking at me likeyo, zach, what you doing Just
standing there.
So I'd always no-transcriptwhat's after peeling shrimp and
(05:31):
the next thing, you know, itjust kind of spiraled into.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
yeah yeah, and then cooking is like where you landed
on, being like the thing you'remost passionate about before
moving into your own business.
Right, I think, like we allhave different aspects of it.
Like maybe you love business ormaybe you love the customer
service, is cooking like thepart of it that made you want to
branch in, like I could do this.
I can provide great qualityfood.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
So I think it was actually more of the, and it's
funny because my my restaurantright now is all takeout.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Oh, it's only takeout .
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It's only takeout, so there's no kind of model, um,
but at the time though, Iactually didn't even really like
cooking, I just likedentertaining.
I love going out there takingshots at the customers you know,
throwing the eggs in the hat.
You know getting a few numbers.
You know like I enjoyed thatright like that was the most fun
and I always joked about.
And you just have to cook to beable to do that.
(06:25):
Yeah, right, um, and then itjust turned into I just kept
getting requests.
Right, I was like I didn't evenknow I could get a request and
it went from one and I'm likeyeah, yeah, yeah, they're like
hey, hey we want seven o'clocktonight.
Can zach cook for us?
Can that?
Well, they say, can that whiteguy cook for us?
we don't remember his name and Iwent from like one a month and
I was like, oh my God, I justgot to record.
Somebody asked for me likebecause one of the first tables
(06:47):
I went to they like did thislittle whisper to the side and
the server comes up to me andgoes, zach, they want an Asian
guy.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
And I'm like damn that's soul crushing, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So I was like all right, fine, I'm 17, whatever
dude, like screw you guys, right.
But like I said, so it wentfrom one a month to one a week
to one a day, to like I wasgetting 12 requests a day, like
New Year's Eve, the busy nights.
Let's say we have 50reservations, I'm probably
requesting for 30 of them.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
That's wild.
Yeah, because Apache isdifferent.
Like you're already putting ona show, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Oh no, we're cooking and we are flipping eggs in the
hat knives behind the back fireon our hands, doing all that fun
stuff, but while going so fast,because at the end of the day,
we've got a lot of reservationsand we've got to turn these
tables out, and so I think Ireally loved the entertainment
part more than the cooking.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
What made you go to the model of takeout?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So at the time my friends would come right.
So obviously I was cooking forfamilies and and birthdays and
they want the entertainment.
But then my friends would comeand they would come once or
twice a week and I'm doing theregular spiel, the onion volcano
, choo-choo, and they're likebro just cook the food.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Dude like we're good, we don't need to.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So we know you could do this, zach, and my boss is
over there like keep doing theshow, because that's what I
that's the job.
And so that that one startedlike really resonating with me
like, huh, just cook the food,just cook.
This guy loves coming here.
He tells me don't even do theshow multiple people gonna pay
for it he's still gonna pay thesame exact price, but just cook
the food I just want to eat.
I don't.
I'm not here with a family, I'mhere with a homie.
(08:17):
We just came and stopped by tosee you, yeah, and then also to
also too.
I mean, it's a lot cheaper toopen a restaurant yeah,
especially hibachi, yeah and awhole sit down with eight to ten
tables, hood vents, all that.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
So, yeah, um, that was kind of the model I just
thought to do and I just I meanit makes sense, because I'm not,
honestly, to be candid, I don'tgo to hibachi because I don't
want the whole show.
Like that's my, my whole thingis like I, I don't want to sit
there.
I'm on just a date night.
I'm trying with a group ofpeople that I don't know and I'm
getting a whole show.
They're throwing eggs at me andshrimp and stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I'm good and I always say right, like we're, we're
never gonna take that model awayfrom what they've built, yeah,
what the you know traditionalhibachi has built, we'll never.
I mean there's still birthdaysand homecomings and my kids love
it like you got kids and andand you know, uh, wedding
receptions, all that kind ofstuff.
We'll never that away.
That's still going to be there.
But we're making food forpeople that don't like you said,
they don't want a shrimp tossedin their mouth or they don't
(09:10):
want to sit with people thatthey don't know Right, Like I
saw that on Valentine's day.
You know you're getting couplesof parties at two and they're
not just going to sit two peopleat a table that sits 10.
You're getting four, fourparties of two at one table.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
That's my biggest problem.
I don't like sitting withrandom people.
Sometimes I'm trying to eatdinner Like I just want to.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Here's another one that I would notice.
Right, it's like you're sittingwith with, let's say, there's
four people here and four peoplehere, and these four just came
out just to eat.
And these four came out causeit's the kid's birthday.
So now I'm not stupid.
I see in their face like bro,yeah, like getting the kid on
(09:47):
the grill, I think.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I'm having a good time.
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
When did you actually startthen?
So when did you actually openup the first kind of brick and
mortar of the Hibachi House?
Was that eight years ago?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
No, no, no, no.
So I've only had my restaurantfor three years, okay, I've had
the brand for five, okay, but intotal cooking and in the
restaurant industry, starting asa dishwasher, it's been about
13 years.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Oh, okay, so you put it at work, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
They say, like the restaurant business, you have
multiple chefs on and justrestaurant folks is just in
general one of the hardestbusinesses just to stay in.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Like, nah, like nah, no, I'm just kidding.
Yeah, I mean, what's your?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
secret to be able to do because I know you have your.
You have your youtube channelyou're talking about and kind of
teaching folks.
But what is that?
So?
What's what's helped you keepthat?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I think, what's the secret?
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I think it's.
What was it 80?
I think I read that it's high.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It's like 80 in the first year or something like.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
It's pretty well I was reading I think it's the
first year it's only like 23that yeah, I'm saying I think
it's like 80, like after likefive after four or five years.
Yeah, it's unreal.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, we're getting, we're.
We're into year five now and sowe're.
You know, I'm praying to theLord and just keep doing what
I'm doing and things are working, but I think, um, obviously
good food, right, because Ipresence and everybody that's
going to watch this knows thatwe have a very good social media
presence.
Yeah, but I have restaurants,like one of my favorite spots
(11:06):
and it's just like hole in thewall, one spot.
Their sign is cracking on thison the side of the building.
They have 120 followers onsocial media and they're busy
every single day.
Yeah, uh, ross, j's alohakitchen oh yeah, that spot is
fire.
I've been going there since Iwas 14 years old.
Somebody the other day day waslike what you know about this
spot.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I said, bro, I've been coming here, Get out of
here and their social media iswhack, but the food is good.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
The food is good but they've been there for a very
long time.
And then word of mouth, sothat's the community.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yeah, there's those one-off that shows how powerful
they've been.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, they used to go all the way, but it's just the
family that runs it and I thinkthey had hiring problems or
whatever.
Right, yeah, all I can say isfor me and for the up-and-coming
restaurants that are trying toget into the market, is you just
got to stay relevant.
You have to stay top of mind,top of sight, always in front of
new people, always in front ofthe same people, and just really
(12:07):
hammer out that social media.
Really, really yell from therooftops.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And what does that kind of first three months look
like?
You build this business.
It's exciting, you go, you'refinally making this venture,
you're getting ready to throwyour hat into the ring and start
your own thing.
But it takes a lot of capital,a lot of investment, a lot of
just overall learning process totry to understand how to
navigate and run a business fromscratch.
It's very different being anentrepreneur than being a
manager of a business.
What was that kind of likefirst 30, 60 days look like for
(12:32):
you as you're kind of rollingthis out and getting kicked off
the first time Of the brick andmortar or when I actually
started the business.
I guess the one where you reallystarted serving people right
Starting to have purchaseinventory get.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I kind of operated from like a hood street drug
dealer mentality.
I did it kind of backwards.
I didn't have a website atfirst.
I didn't have uh, I didn't knoweven what percentages were.
I didn't know any of that, Ijust knew I started with a
thousand bucks.
At the end of the week I hadsix.
I paid my people that werethere in cash, took that
thousand out to buy more foodand I had this X money left over
.
I was like, oh my God, likeright.
(13:07):
And so that was pretty much thefirst, I would even say the
first two years, maybe two and ahalf years, of my business.
Um, until I started gettingaround.
You know other entrepreneursthat are in the food space and
they're like so what are yourprofit?
What are your percentages?
You know, what are you, whatare you operating at?
I'm like a thousand and he goesa thousand.
What like a thousand dollars?
Like bro, there's only ahundred, but what are you
(13:28):
talking about?
Then he started teaching me allthis kind of stuff.
So you know that that was how Ioperated at first.
You know there was no softwarebesides instagram.
That was it I just straight didit like the street hustle you
know just street hustle blastingit out there on the job
training oh exactly, I learnedso much and I I never took any
loss as a failure.
It was always a lesson, um, butit was nerve-wracking.
(13:48):
I mean I actually so real quick.
Just a quick story I actuallystarted a brand called backyard
hibachi in my friend's backyardbefore the pandemic, when I was
still working at my job, and youguys have had plenty of
business owners on here.
What happens with friends inbusiness usually goes really
well no, it's the most thrivingthing ever, right.
(14:08):
And so we ended up all having afalling out, unfortunately, and
to the point where they werelike man, we're going to keep
going.
Man, screw Zach, we could dothis without him.
And I went back to work Likenothing happened.
I gave him everything.
I gave him the money in thebank account, all the grills,
everything.
I said, go for it.
(14:29):
You know, we were working likecommission, but like what's
commissioned on?
Like a $30 a box, like 2%commitment, what it was stupid,
right.
And so my buddy was like bro,why don't you go cook your
plates again?
And I had such a traumaticexperience cause I lost all my
best friends and starting abusiness, and I was like, nah,
man, I don't think so, dude,that's not.
I don't think I ever want to dothat again, but it think I ever
want to do that again.
But it just kept, like you know, in my head like just start,
(14:50):
start selling plates startselling plates?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
yeah, it just kept.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I just couldn't go to sleep like I just kept thinking
of it and luckily at the time Imean I don't know how wells
fargo gave me this credit card,but I was.
I had a five thousand dollarcredit card and I obviously,
from the experience I had withmy other business, I knew
exactly what to get.
So I just went on to thewebsite.
I went on all the websitesswipe, swipe, swipe, swipe,
swipe and I didn't have anywhereto cook.
I was in an apartment.
(15:14):
I had nowhere to like.
I could have cooked on mystoves, but all I know is flat
tops.
I never really cooked, yeah, onpots and pans.
So I order a flat top and I getit delivered to my mom's house
and she's like zach, what is?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I was like oh yeah, I was wondering if I could cook
in your backyard and she waslike hell, no.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
No way.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And I'm like because you know I grew up there and
sold a couple things out of herhouse.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
You know, and she's like you're selling more stuff
out of my house.
It's her traumatic experience.
Exactly, it's her traumaticexperience.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And so I ended up convincing her not convincing,
but you know giving her rent andI was like fine, we'll do
whatever we can.
And so that's how that allstarted.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
So you started a band like Lil Russell.
Lil Russell do a lot of his.
He was doing concerts out ofhis backyard.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, he still is, yeah, yeah yeah,
Lil Russell, yep, and that'sexactly how it was is now, but
he's older, a lot older than me,and he's over there freaking
out like Zach.
We're not legal.
Oh my God, we're going to getshut down by the police this and
that.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
That's what I was going to ask you because, I know
they probably get paid just forturning people in.
Yeah, and so the?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
whole thing was, you know, because it was the
pandemic, right, we couldn'thave people congregating but we
would have lines down the streetand the cops ended up showing
up one day and they just walk inand you know, my heart just
sinks.
I'm like, oh no, we're screwed,right, we're just packing up,
we're screwed.
My uncle like an old drugdealer, so he's thinking we're
getting busted by the police,like getting raided, you know.
Yeah, and they kind of justlooked around they made.
(16:46):
I asked them if they wantedfood and they're like no, we're
good, just slow it down a littlebit.
Yeah, have a good day, Just keepit moving.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Oh wow, I'm so shocked.
I'm surprised they didn'treally shut it down.
That's because I always getnervous about that too.
I'd be just like your uncle.
I think you're going to shut medown, oh no, he started
sweating, turned all bright red.
I next step right, you're doingthat, you're getting successful
, you're making a little money,you kind of getting your
processes down.
How does that translate to openup your brick and mortar store?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
So you know a lot of people jump right into brick and
mortar right Like they justsave their life savings and jump
brick and mortar.
That's why we have such a highfailure rate, because they don't
realize the actual grind andactual hard work it takes to run
a restaurant, Like the amountof hours you have to put in.
I mean, I can't speak for a lotof other businesses, but I can
imagine it's pretty much thesame.
When you're first starting, youhave to do a lot of groundwork.
(17:34):
A lot of people think thatthey're just going to open a
restaurant and they're going tohire employees and everything's
going to be dandy, Like, yeah,if you're a celebrity, you know
if you have the bank accountpadded or you know, or a backup
account anyway, and um, sothere's, there's levels, right,
Like I recommend everybodystarting from the house.
(17:55):
You're not going to get poppedby the health department If
you're selling your house.
If you're selling that muchfood from your house that you're
scared that you're going to getpopped, you should already be
moving to the next level.
You should not still be in yourhouse doing a hundred grand a
month.
That's crazy.
And have friends that do that.
Hey, it's all.
Do you right?
Um, yeah, and I'm I'm sure youguys have heard of ghost
kitchens, oh yeah yeah, that'sliterally what I was gonna ask
(18:16):
you.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, basically that's your concept of what
you're doing now, and I've heardthey're all over las vegas
ghost.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, yeah, but the catering aspect, right, correct
so, so, like even mr beast, likehe would do a ghost kitchen out
of and he would like it.
Like like buca di beppo wouldsell Mr Beast Burgers.
Yeah, you know, so I went into.
It's basically a shared kitchen, slash ghost kitchen in a sense
, and it's where you can rentout space from a big restaurant
facility basically, andeverybody in there is renting
space and time slots.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Shout out to Chef John Apologize, we had somebody
who talked about the ghostkitchen.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
He owned one of them.
My bad, I apologize.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
John, which one do you own?
Jesus Christ, you're going toput me on the spot.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
There was a brand new development, one right.
Yeah, it was a nice one that'shorrible, I forgot, I can't
remember where it was at.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
He's had Ghost Kitchen.
They're crushing it, they'recrushing it.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I'm not going to lie.
One day, I'd love to open oneone day, because the business
model, that's the business model, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Especially dramatically and everybody's
like no, I don't really.
I'd rather prefer to go to UberEats than go out there to eat
anymore.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I just get all right online yeah no, exactly, and
it's, it's and it's all, andit's an awesome alternative to
somebody with not a lot ofcapital that wants to test out
their food To see what actuallyflows.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah, to see if this is even for them Good point
Right, I'd say you might spendthree grand.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
you know startup costs buying your Spying, your
pots and pans food, paying foryour hours.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
That overhead is very low for three grand.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, you know, and that's three grand to get
started.
It's about $400 a month on thebare minimum or not, the second
tier package under bare minimum.
And then you add hours to that.
Yeah, then you add your hours,you know if you want to be in
there more hours, stuff likethat.
But it got to a point when Iwas in that ghost kitchen for so
long like I was paying damnnear a restaurant rent because
of all the hours and the rideyou get.
(19:52):
So for 450 bucks a month youget one dry rack, one
refrigerator rack, one freezerrack.
In 40 hours a month I was doing50 hours a week.
I had five dry racks, fiverefrigerator racks, two freezer
racks and it adds up.
You know it's 50 bucks a rack,this and that shelves and I was
paying like three, four grand amonth.
I'm like man, I need to get myown spot.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Yeah, yeah, cheap it right now.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Start really looking at the numbers.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, I'm like man and then you're sharing it with
other people, so I have to fightfor hours.
I would have to book months inadvance to get those, because a
lot of people in there arepop-up shops or caterers.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
For specific events, exactly I.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I was running it like a full on.
We're open five to nine fivedays a week, and so I would have
to book or I'd get screwed, youknow.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Yeah, oh, that's interesting.
Yeah, so none of the festivalsthat make them seem that no, no.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And that's why I said it's a great alternative to you
know, test out your, your, your, your products, right.
And so there are other ones,not to go too deep in it.
But there are other ones whereyou can rent the in a smaller
individual kitchen and you canoperate like that.
But the one I was in was like a, basically a giant room and you
had different stations and youall shared one cook station.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Wow, yeah how did you ?
Because?
So you do a lot of kind of Iguess I would say, menus of
services, right, so you've youcook as a celebrity chef.
Will you actually go tosomeone's home and cook for them
still now and do that?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
oh yeah, oh yeah, I still do that all the time.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Okay, yeah, is that how you got your name out there
where you would have somebodylike dana white or somebody like
the baby or whoever it iscoming to town, where they would
ask for you and be able to cookfor them I'd say that for sure,
I'm definitely word of mouth,uh, by going to people's house,
but also also I mean like Ipraise to the social right.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Like social media has just took me to a whole nother
level.
But I was explaining tosomebody the other day right,
like when you cook for acelebrity and you're not a
weirdo, right, you're not afangirl, you're not all up on
their john they're like, okay,you know, because they're,
because, at the end of the day,right like, we bring uh, you
know, we bring a cleaning personto our house.
You know, if they don't workout, we're just gonna go get
another cleaning person.
(21:51):
Right, if they're amazing, like, okay, cool, but it's to the
point where these are, you know,high-level celebrities and
they're not just gonna haveeight to ten different hibachi
guys come to their house.
You know, you show up, you do agreat impression.
They're like, okay, I can trustthis person in my house.
I well, they might wait anothertwo days to see if I show back
up or something yeah, they mightshow they might wait.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
That's a real thing, yeah, and it is.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
And so, um, you know, I, I, obviously I get a picture
, because you know that's what'sat the end of the day.
They're celebrities, they likethat kind of stuff.
Right, like, hey, can I get apicture with you?
Yeah, no problem.
And then you know, I'mtrustworthy, I'm trustworthy
around their kids.
I'm not, I wasn't super fanboyon them, and you know they just
keep inviting me back and thenword of mouth spreads that hey,
you can trust this guy at yourhouse.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And yeah, next thing, you know, it's just I mean hard
.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Is it like for like I look at on a bigger scale, like
catering right, like you'llcook for a whole event?
How do you make sure like thequality is good in every single
meal?
What's the science to dosomething like that?
To make sure everything is goodand represents, you know,
vanilla rice.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, I'm still figuring it out to get it to a T
right, that's hard, that's veryhard yeah it's all in your
training, right, when it comesto other employees as well.
It's all in your training.
It's all in your, your systemsand processes, right?
Um, you have to have goodtraining systems and also not
just training, because I,because I could train you and
then I never train you again forsix months and it's like a.
You know, every day you kind ofget a and I don't like to use
(23:17):
the word lazy, but you knowslack off a little bit here and
then after six months you'recutting every corner and you're
like I walk.
I've had this happen to me.
If I walk in, I go.
Who taught you this?
They're like I don't know, Ithought you did.
I'm like no way I did not um andyou're gonna get bad reviews
right.
That's kind of how you know the.
The reason why restaurantowners don't grow is because
they're so scared to like let goof the reins to get a back,
(23:38):
because you might get a badreview or something like that
and you want the product soperfect.
But you never grow like that.
You're stuck in the kitchen.
You have to put your faith intoother people, but not just that
.
You have to be able to trainwell, you have to have a good
training system, good processesand you have to pick the right
people.
And I know that sounds kind ofcrazy, but none of my cooks that
cook with me right now haveever cooked in their life really
(24:03):
not one, I mean maybe down theroad or what I taught everybody
from scratch.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Sometimes that's better because they said they
only know your process.
Yeah, so you can't develop badbehaviors if you only learn one
way.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah, and so it's all with my training system.
I train them exactly how I'lldo it, and then I retrain and I
don't retrain in like a hey,you're messing up, like I need
to show you this.
It's like, no, every 30 days weretrain, everybody gets a
retraining session, everybody.
And it's just like, one day Iwon't do that anymore.
It'll be somebody that retrains.
But as of right now, I stillhave the time to be able to do
(24:29):
that, that stuff, you know, andwe just we're doing, uh, if, if,
the UNLV men's basketball andwe just did it for them two
weeks ago and oh, don't get mewrong, bro, we dropped them 40
plates off.
I'm like, for the next threedays, like, oh my God, not even
next day.
I'd message her right away hey,let us know if everything's
good.
I'm still like oh my God,Because I didn't fully.
I helped cook it.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
But you know 20 of them bad reviews and stuff like
that.
How do you deal?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
with that.
I used to not even be able tosleep at night.
To be honest, I used to like Iused to be up all night.
I couldn't believe it.
I used to want to change mypersonal.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
When I first started yeah forsure, cause you know I'd sit
there and be like you put youremotions too much in it a little
bit Obviously.
(25:25):
I've learned not to.
I'm a lot better now.
But I'm like bro, like this ismy entire identity, like I'm
vanilla rice, like I don't knowwhat else I would have if.
I didn't have this restaurant 13years right 13 knows, one day,
if I sell, you know it'll be sad, but if I'm cashing a nice
(25:45):
check, cool.
But as of right now, this iswho I am and like.
That's why I put more passioninto it and put more emotion.
Um, but you know, at first, youknow, I'm reading these reviews
and it had me questioning mywhole entire recipe.
I'm like, oh my god, maybe theteriyaki sauce was a little too
thick right and I'm like, oh no,but I came to a point where
I've cooked for, so I'veprobably sold.
I mean, I want to say Close toa million plates in the last
(26:08):
five years.
That's a lot.
And so when I, when I put itinto perspective like that, and
you come up with a velocity,yeah.
When you come up with the.
Not everybody has the sametaste buds.
Not every cook's going to havethe same night.
It kind of don't get me wrong.
I still review it with the,with the cook that was there the
night.
I'm still not gonna just brushit off, but it doesn't.
It doesn't hurt as bad as itused to.
(26:29):
You know I just go, hey, youknow what that's a part of.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
You know letting the reins off to somebody else now
there's world-class, world-classrestaurants that still get
negative reviews, so you can'tbe perfect every night.
Yeah, I mean I look at.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
I mean you go, look at Chipotle's reviews and
they're a brand I'm seeking tobe like.
That I will be like, and theirreviews are terrible, and you go
to their restaurant, theirline's out the door.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, very true.
They're like one of the beststocks out there too, Chipotle,
they're killing it.
Oh yeah, have you looked attheir comments.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Their comments are— I never have.
I try not to eat there as muchas possible.
My go, but that place is.
They have some rough reviewssometimes.
I look at the line where theymake the stuff and I'm like you
should you need to switch thatup?
Just pouring beans on top ofold beans, you can tell, because
the little ring of the beans isstill.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
But I do like Chipotle, I'll muscle Chipotle.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I'll eat it.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I'll eat it, but it's only if she chooses it.
I'm not going there, justbecause, Just because it's hard
for me to eat at restaurants,especially when I see that my
family's the same way.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
She's not a big Chipotle person.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
When it comes to like , um, problem solving right,
like I know, you've experienceda lot of adversity.
You know probably losing teammembers, maybe people stealing,
which is a huge thing.
You know food getting messed up, like problem solving, like
what's, what's one thing thatmaybe can help.
You know a listener or maybesomebody that's a chef right now
that maybe they want to starttheir own restaurant.
What would you share with themas far as problem solving,
that's kind of helped you tokind of excel?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Well, once you accept that you're not, when you open
a business, you're not.
You're not really like a cookanymore.
You're not a server, you're aproblem solver.
That's that once you.
That's what you are.
I'm a firefighter, like I'mgonna get a tattoo of a
firefighter or something youknow, just because that's what I
agree with you, I wake up everyday and this is why I relate to
uh, all the fighters.
Like all the fighters.
I relate to them so muchbecause I look at business as a
(28:14):
boxing match or an mma match.
Every day I wake up, I'm gonnaget swung at it's just.
Have I been swung at like this?
Have I been swung at like this?
Have I been swung at the?
Have I been swung at like thisbefore?
Do I know if this punch iscoming?
Do I know how to counter it?
So you know, if I've been inthis situation before, I know
how to counter it, or I know howto dodge it, or I know how to
overcome it, you know then a newchallenge comes and you get,
(28:40):
you get cracked, you know, andit's like at first, I mean you,
you're in, the wise is happeningto me.
Mentality the whole time insteadof wise is happening for me.
And so once you finally switchthat mentality up, I mean you
know, you just problems come andyou're just like, okay, well,
what did you do to fix it?
And then also, too, you know, II try to push that kind of
mentality onto my employees,right, like they don't have the
entrepreneurial mentality, but Istill try to give them
(29:00):
entrepreneurial traits, sure,like hey, if there's a problem
in the restaurant, please try tofix it first, and if you can't
call the manager, and if themanager can't fix it, then
she'll call me.
But don't just see that thewater is leaking out the faucet
and like maybe it's loose alittle bit, go and just you know
, tighten it up a little bit,you know, and so that also holds
them accountable as well.
(29:21):
Um to problem solve.
And then now we have a wholeproblem solving crew, you know,
and that's that's what it is.
It's all mentality, it's allmindset.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
What's next for you?
As far as you mentioned, yougot a restaurant.
Opening up was a Charleston andJones, so is that the next step
is trying to open up more?
You know restaurants throughoutthe throughout the city.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Well, the biggest goal is I.
I will be the next vanilla rice, hibachi will be the next brand
, up there with Cane's, Chipotle, uh, uh, mcdonald's.
You know, when you hear allthese brands, it's going to be
up there with those for sure,and so that's the main goal.
And so, right now, it's just,you know, not only quality of
the food, but growing the brandand just pumping out.
(30:01):
I don't want to say as manyrestaurants as possible, but as
many quality restaurants, right,because at the end of the day,
I mean I could open a hundred ifthey all you know, half of them
suck.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
You said, the key word.
Yeah, I got those guys aboutthe catering Cause.
That's hard yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
I do quality restaurants, and so I'm not
young.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
You're still young as hell, man, oh man, 28.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
That's beautiful, yeah, I'm blessed, I'll be 29
this year, so I'm going to hitthat 30 soon, you know.
But I have a long way to go andI'm in this for the long game.
Yeah, and once I realized that,it made this a lot easier
because you know I have friendsthat you know they're in sales
and they're in sales and they'rein these like higher margin
businesses and man, I'm shinyobject syndrome, like what you
(30:43):
doing over there, what are youselling?
Man, let me get some of thatRight.
And you know, when I finallyfound out what my purpose, or
came to the realization, what Ithink my purpose on life is,
that like helped out a lot and Itruly think I was put on this
earth to you know, grow foodbrands Like that.
Um, and so, as far as like whatthe next steps are, it's just
keep doing what I've alreadydone.
(31:04):
Um, have you guys ever heard ofIke's sandwiches?
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Oh yeah, so we're supposed to interview.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
She's partnered with Marshawn Lynch.
I think, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
That's so that he's a mentor of mine Get out of here.
Yeah, and so he's he's got 117.
I'm like, dude, what are youtalking about?
Bro, you have 170 restaurantsLike doesn't it get harder?
He's like no, he's like, yeah,you get a little bit more
problems, this and that, he'slike, but you've already done
the hardest part.
Because the first one is thehardest one Building the culture
(31:34):
, building the brand, buildingthe systems and processes,
building something that nobody'sever built before is the
hardest part.
He goes now to get over again.
He's like I got to 100 so fastafter the first one and I'm like
I don't know what you mean.
I'm like you sound crazy, dude.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
That's powerful, I mean he's right, though it's
funny we were supposed tointerview him during a pandemic.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Everything shut down.
God, he could have made it out.
Everything shut down.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, he's a mentor you always make it very
successful.
Thank you, yeah, he.
So I uh, I met him.
You guys know david melzer, hisreal estate, he does a lot of
stuff.
He does a lot of sportsmanagement.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
He does a lot of stuff, so I one day I mean I do
a lot of oh, he just said uh,byron, from look who he just did
the the business pitches.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Okay, yeah, I've got the name of the show kind of
like shark tank gotcha.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Yeah, yeah, I didn't even see that, but that's no.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
No, he is that dude right there's like a legend.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Yeah, um, I, I was into uh, like you know I don't
like the word gurus, but youknow the social media guys.
I got into that when I was atthe restaurant.
That's what helped me also getinto business.
You know, like starting tothink like entrepreneurs and
stuff like that.
And I must have opted into oneof his like automated messages.
And one day I get a messagelike hey, it's david melzer,
want to come hang out with me atin and out.
And I'm like, yeah, I'm like Iknow this is an automated
(32:51):
message.
Well, hell yeah.
And so I go to in and out andhe's there and I'm like, oh, my
god, it's like, ah, this iscrazy that's funny, and so I
went.
So then I got another messageand I went to the second one, or
sorry, it was a third one thatI went to and at that point, you
know, I always I'm.
It's basically it's like whatyou just said, like not shark
tank, but he stands there, hetalks and you ask him questions.
(33:12):
I'm always somebody that's.
Hey, my name is vanilla rice.
I own a restaurant this is myquestion for you how much time
that saves you just learningfrom somebody like that, oh yeah
oh yeah, no, no, that duderight there, he, he is, I'm.
I take advantage of these kindof opportunities, right, because
, like his dinners are, I meanhe does these private dinners
like three grand.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I'm like yeah, I can't you know I'm like I can't
do that so hey, I did some freecame up.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I'm like I'll take it , that's awesome.
Um, and so I get to the thirdone.
By this time he's like, heyguys, you know, I go ask him a
question.
Hey guys, it's vanilla rice,right, I bought your bottom food
.
So I'm like, cool, he's alreadyintroduced me.
This is crazy.
And I was like, hey man, mybrand did multiple next year.
What's some tips and advice youcould give me?
And he literally looks at me.
He goes well, you know whoyou're standing next to.
(33:49):
And I look over this littleshort ball dude and I'm like hi,
how you doing?
I just shake his hand.
He's like, yeah, that's ike.
He owns 117, uh, restaurants.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Oh, my god, how you doing I was like wow, nice to
meet you.
I'm like oh my goodness, hegoes that's the guy to ask.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
And then he just gave me a business card and that's
how that.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yeah oh, that's awesome.
That's like right place, righttime, the whole time.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
We were there for an hour already, didn't even know
this guy was that's why yougotta ask, but you never know,
yeah, you never know.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
When you're nice, we always ask everybody all of our
guests about, uh, restaurants invegas.
I know you eat a lot of yourprobably food.
Yeah, what's your favoriterestaurant?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I know you guys gonna ask this, so I don't eat at a
lot of restaurants to be honest,I usually cook my own food or I
eat at my restaurant.
A lot, but I don't even go outto really like the Strip or
anything like that.
I've heard you guys' podcast.
You guys are saying names ofrestaurants.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Off the Strip too.
I've heard both, but I do morelocal.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Like I said, I just went to before this, we just
went to Parsley, Mediterranean.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Oh, I love Parsley, yeah, parsley.
Yeah, they got one offTropicana in Fort Apache yeah,
they do, and then the one I justwent to is down the street from
here.
It's actually really good, bythe way.
Yeah, it's one of my favorites.
Yeah, it's really good.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
And you know my daughter can eat the.
Got a Mediterranean Middle East.
There you go.
Yeah, you got the same.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Definitely got the yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Like you guys heard of Lucino's Pizza.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I don't know Where's that one at.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah, that's on Chopping Pecos.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
I've heard of Lucino's.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
It's like you walk in there and it's straight Philly
Straight.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Philly oh yeah, those guys are good too, those guys'
pies.
They have good pizza there too.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
I'm not even going to lie.
When we went to Philly, we wentto Angelo's.
Was it Angelo's?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Oh, yeah, you got Angelo's.
Oh, angelo's, the best thingwe've ever had in my life.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, you don't go there, my uncle wanted to take
us there, just to you know.
See, the tourist spot and allthat, and then I haven't been
back in years.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
No that South Philly spot was popular.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I dream about it.
I try to look up the recipes.
She got mad at me.
I've been like six monthstrying to figure it out.
You have a cooking cheese thingin your kitchen.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
He brought one back on the plate.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
He brought the pizza and the.
Sometimes you got to do that.
I made my fiance try it.
She wasn't happy.
What?
Speaker 2 (36:07):
are you guys' favorite restaurants.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Too many, Too many.
And the one thing that I willsay, like you said, the Strip
that's what I'm liking aboutVegas now is we're getting so
much great food off the Strip.
Oh yeah, it's just.
I mean so many different thingsis happening, but I probably
would say Cali Bash isdefinitely one.
Like I was telling you before,I haven't had a good spot, Ole
owns, but there's too many ofthem, man.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Yeah, Pac is eating in almost every restaurant in
Vegas.
He has a checklist.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
It's all the bougies You're going to have to send
that to me?
Yeah, because it's theexperience of going out to eat,
right.
I just love it, especiallytrying new restaurants, and we,
my wife and I, we we pickdifferent stuff to go and bring
our kids, cause then they canexperience it.
You know what?
Speaker 2 (36:47):
I mean, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, getting them out andexperience different types of
cultures and environments, andthen we bring them
internationally.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
It makes them, you know, not be pigeonholed.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
No, for sure yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
They're yeah, yeah yeah.
It's a Mexican spot.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a cool experience.
The food's good, but theexperience is cool.
They bring out the tacoshangouts.
Is that on Fort Apache?
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, they got two.
They opened one off of Rainbowtoo.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
The one I went to was , I think, in Summerlin, in Boca
Park.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that placewas cool.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
I took a date night there.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Gomez's spot V&A.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Brazil.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
V&A Brazil.
You guys been to Hank's I havenot.
At the Green Valley Ranch Ihave not Steakhouse.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I heard somebody else just mentioned them recently
too, and said it was fantasticSteak with the chimichurri.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
I got to check out Hank's.
That's on the list.
Somebody yeah, I think somebodydid mention that.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
We did just mention that.
He's like, yeah, this is mybusiness, this is my 85th
business.
I was like 1,000%.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Andrew's a trip Gotcha.
Yeah, he's a cool dude.
He's a cool dude.
We'll talk offline.
I'm curious what he had to say.
Andrew's legit.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, he's cool.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
And I saw his off food to somebody that sean was
doing a podcast too.
Yeah, he's a beast, yeah, he'sa good guy.
So next up, you said, isrestaurant business and you're
trying to build this into afranchise.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
That's the goal franchise, corporate, um, just
the big.
I always say this, right, likethere's people that tell me you
know, hey, zach, you should gofranchise, hey, zach, you should
go corporate.
This brand did this, this branddid that.
Yeah, I'm gonna go.
Yeah, but nobody's been zachtolan that started this brand.
So I'm gonna do it my way, andand not that that means I'm
gonna do it a whole differentway.
That's never been invented.
Yeah, but I'm gonna do itwhatever way I can't like I you
(38:33):
know I'm not gonna stick withone way and do that like.
If someone's like, hey, I wantto buy four franchises, I'm
gonna be like, okay, if they'relike, I have the opportunity to
open six corporate stores, okay,you know, then that's at least
in my world right, you know,there's blueprints on what
businesses have done before andthis and that.
but, like I say, I don't liketoo much.
I take advice, but I don't likepeople telling me what I should
(38:53):
do.
I'll listen, but I'm just likeokay, cool, I'll take that, but
you know, who knows what's goingto happen right, and it's
working for you too.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
It's working your style.
So, yeah, and I told me.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
I told me he's like you got to get to your first 10
locations.
He said I don't care how youget there.
He's like they need to beeither be 10 shitholes or I'm
sorry, yeah, I got you.
Yeah, yeah, 10, 10 bad spots,or or you know he's like,
because this is what he said.
He said he said when my friendswere opening up and he owns a
sandwich shops a littledifferent you don't need the
hood vents and the green strapsand all that000 each.
He's like I was openingrestaurants for $30,000.
He's like, and I got to 10faster than all of them, he's
(39:31):
like, and the second I got to 10.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Yeah, then I shoot 10 .
Speaker 2 (39:34):
But he's like I had 10 terrible restaurants, Like
they were horrible locations,horrible buildings, he's like
but I got to 10, and that's whatsolidified my brand.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
That's great Well we're going to keep supporting
you man.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
It's good stuff, man.
It's good to be able to sitdown with you and see what
you're doing.
Man, we support what you'redoing and check us out at the
Vegas Circle.
I'm sorry, check us out atthevegascirclecom, but you got
to shout out your social medias,man.
Yeah, got you.
Where am I?
Speaker 2 (39:57):
looking Right here.
Yep, it's your boy.
Underscore my business.
My restaurant is VanillaRiceLV.
On all platforms, make sure tofollow us.
We're trying to get to 100,000followers.
We're almost there.
We're at like 71,000.
Getting close, I will have thatby the end of the year.
That's on my list.
Powerful that, and my personalbrand.
(40:18):
And then, yeah, I mean, justkeep following.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
We'll be all around the city.
Well, check us out atthevergascirclecom.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
I don't know why I'm tongue-tied man Give us a tip
from I need a drink.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I messed myself up, man, but we appreciate you, man.
Thank you, brother.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
I appreciate you guys .
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
This was awesome.
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 to
people in our city who make ithappen.
On today's podcast, man, we gotsomething special.
Man, we've got a youngentrepreneur.
Started off as a dishwasherOriginally.
He's been building thisbusiness for about five years
now, built it into amulti-million dollar business.
He's actually the owner ofVanilla Rice Hibachi House.
(00:21):
We of Vanilla Rice HibachiHouse.
We've got celebrity chef MrZach Tolan.
Man, what's going?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
on AKA Vanilla Rice man.
That's right, thank you.
Thank you for the intro.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I appreciate it Well overdue man, yeah for sure,
we've been in a lot of the samecircles, man.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Finally got a chance to connect on the phone and be
able to put this together, man,but let's jump, was it?
You and your brother asdishwashers?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So it was me at first washing dishes, and then my
brother was like man I'm tryingto make some money too, and so
luckily the owner of therestaurant.
Let's just say we weren'tlegally allowed to work at the
time I was 15.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I was going to say y'all look young as hell.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
He saw that picture?
Yeah, I was 15.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
He was 12.
And so as long as we stayed inthe dish pit and had somebody
else putting the dishes away, wewere cool.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
And we got cash too, so even better.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, and theycould pay us little, Like it was
like $7 an hour.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It was like this is amazing.
You're rich, you know.
Yeah, we felt rich yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
One thing I noticed about you, man, is you have a
great energy when you'rebuilding your YouTube channels,
when you do your videos.
It's definitely you could feelthe energy from it.
Where did you get thisconfidence from, and what
actually catapulted you toactually start your own business
?
Because it's hard to do.
The restaurant business is hard.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, the confidence, I think, definitely stems from
my parents.
My parents are very outgoing,they're in the music industry.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So they've been professional musicians their
whole life.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
My dad passed away when I was 15.
Sorry to hear that.
Yeah, it's definitely,definitely.
He was somebody that you knowwe'd go to the grocery store and
I'm like yanking on his shortslike Dad, can we go?
He's in there talking toeverybody hey good to see you
again.
I'm like we just saw him twodays ago.
Let's go.
And we talked to anybody, youknow, didn't matter.
You know white, black, itdidn't matter.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
He was talking to anybody and he so they're city
of brotherly love.
You know, that's just kind ofwhat you're doing.
It's an amazing place and um.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
So you know, they're very personable, outgoing um,
and they're in the entertainmentindustry.
So I just think over the yearsI kind of just picked that up on
myself on my own and myselfturned into that personality.
I mean I would get kicked outof class for talking too much.
But you know, just having aconversation, you know make
cracking jokes, um, and justbeing confident, I just, you
know, I just I don't really know, you know what.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I mean, Sometimes you get those things where you're
just like I wonder thatsometimes.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Right, yeah, um, but to start my own business.
You know, I, like you said, Istarted as a dishwasher and I
just kept, uh, and it soundsfunny, because I wasn't chasing
money, but I wanted to get araise.
Yeah, and this is actually thetitle of my book that's going to
come out this year.
It's called Dishwashers Don'tGet.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Raises You're good with the branding.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Oh, thank you, You're good with the branding.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Well, that actually wasn't.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
You know, what's funny is like these are things
that people said to me, right?
Like somebody called me hey man, I heard about this raise thing
, I want to get a raise.
And he looks me in the eyes andhe's like dishwashers, don't
get raises.
Oh dang, that's such a stage,right, yeah, and that was one of
those pivotal moments in mylife of like, well, how the hell
do I get a raise?
And then you know over time,and then it'll be time to either
(03:26):
you know there's a couple thatI joke there's a few different
angles.
You go once you hit the top oflike a family-owned restaurant,
you either go to culinary schooland get into the hotel, or you
start your own business, or youbecome an alcoholic and you
never leave that restaurant yeahand I kind of saw different
people go different routes andjust super quick, I actually
cooked at Osaka Japanese Bistroon Horizon Ridge and Eastern, so
(03:50):
obviously you guys know thatarea.
It's a healthy area and I wasn'tjust a cook that cooks in the
back of the restaurant.
Nobody knows who I am.
I'm super quiet.
I was out there entertainingand having conversations with
the guests.
So I'm asking them hey, what doyou guys do?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
This is the third time I've seen you here this
week.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You know eating hibachi three times a week is
not normal.
Yeah, and it's not.
It's not it's not it's not anormal thing to do, but they're
coming on a tuesday getting thesake and I even ended up cooking
for you guys know, bradley ohyeah, I cook for him so many
times.
That's how I found out aboutwho the guy was, and so you know
I'm asking and I just keephearing businesses and business
and I work for myself and allthat kind of stuff.
So you know that was the routeI want.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I thought I wanted to say yeah, I mean, I tried, I
tried school, by the way, I did,I did it just yeah, yeah is
that how you always felt.
So I know you go through andyou start through the dishwasher
path right, and then did you dolike the server route and then
ultimately land on being a cookor management or like if kind of
fall into.
Yeah, I kind of fell in there,but I.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I did every position in the restaurant, but not as a
title right like I served tables, but I was never a server you
know like I'm.
I was the kind of guy that ifI'm just standing there not
really doing anything and Ididn't I didn't smoke cigarettes
, I never smoked cigarettes.
I mean, I've tried it, you'reright, you know, but I wasn't
the guy that was like, oh,there's nothing to do, let me go
take a smoke break.
I'm in the restaurant, I'mbored and I'm the young, you
know white guy in the restaurant.
(05:08):
They're all looking at me likeyo, zach, what you doing Just
standing there.
So I'd always no-transcriptwhat's after peeling shrimp and
(05:31):
the next thing, you know, itjust kind of spiraled into.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
yeah yeah, and then cooking is like where you landed
on, being like the thing you'remost passionate about before
moving into your own business.
Right, I think, like we allhave different aspects of it.
Like maybe you love business ormaybe you love the customer
service, is cooking like thepart of it that made you want to
branch in, like I could do this.
I can provide great qualityfood.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
So I think it was actually more of the, and it's
funny because my my restaurantright now is all takeout.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Oh, it's only takeout .
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It's only takeout, so there's no kind of model, um,
but at the time though, Iactually didn't even really like
cooking, I just likedentertaining.
I love going out there takingshots at the customers you know,
throwing the eggs in the hat.
You know getting a few numbers.
You know like I enjoyed thatright like that was the most fun
and I always joked about.
And you just have to cook to beable to do that.
(06:25):
Yeah, right, um, and then itjust turned into I just kept
getting requests.
Right, I was like I didn't evenknow I could get a request and
it went from one and I'm likeyeah, yeah, yeah, they're like
hey, hey we want seven o'clocktonight.
Can zach cook for us?
Can that?
Well, they say, can that whiteguy cook for us?
we don't remember his name and Iwent from like one a month and
I was like, oh my God, I justgot to record.
Somebody asked for me likebecause one of the first tables
(06:47):
I went to they like did thislittle whisper to the side and
the server comes up to me andgoes, zach, they want an Asian
guy.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
And I'm like damn that's soul crushing, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So I was like all right, fine, I'm 17, whatever
dude, like screw you guys, right.
But like I said, so it wentfrom one a month to one a week
to one a day, to like I wasgetting 12 requests a day, like
New Year's Eve, the busy nights.
Let's say we have 50reservations, I'm probably
requesting for 30 of them.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
That's wild.
Yeah, because Apache isdifferent.
Like you're already putting ona show, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Oh no, we're cooking and we are flipping eggs in the
hat knives behind the back fireon our hands, doing all that fun
stuff, but while going so fast,because at the end of the day,
we've got a lot of reservationsand we've got to turn these
tables out, and so I think Ireally loved the entertainment
part more than the cooking.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
What made you go to the model of takeout?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So at the time my friends would come right.
So obviously I was cooking forfamilies and and birthdays and
they want the entertainment.
But then my friends would comeand they would come once or
twice a week and I'm doing theregular spiel, the onion volcano
, choo-choo, and they're likebro just cook the food.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Dude like we're good, we don't need to.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So we know you could do this, zach, and my boss is
over there like keep doing theshow, because that's what I
that's the job.
And so that that one startedlike really resonating with me
like, huh, just cook the food,just cook.
This guy loves coming here.
He tells me don't even do theshow multiple people gonna pay
for it he's still gonna pay thesame exact price, but just cook
the food I just want to eat.
I don't.
I'm not here with a family, I'mhere with a homie.
(08:17):
We just came and stopped by tosee you, yeah, and then also to
also too.
I mean, it's a lot cheaper toopen a restaurant yeah,
especially hibachi, yeah and awhole sit down with eight to ten
tables, hood vents, all that.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
So, yeah, um, that was kind of the model I just
thought to do and I just I meanit makes sense, because I'm not,
honestly, to be candid, I don'tgo to hibachi because I don't
want the whole show.
Like that's my, my whole thingis like I, I don't want to sit
there.
I'm on just a date night.
I'm trying with a group ofpeople that I don't know and I'm
getting a whole show.
They're throwing eggs at me andshrimp and stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I'm good and I always say right, like we're, we're
never gonna take that model awayfrom what they've built, yeah,
what the you know traditionalhibachi has built, we'll never.
I mean there's still birthdaysand homecomings and my kids love
it like you got kids and andand you know, uh, wedding
receptions, all that kind ofstuff.
We'll never that away.
That's still going to be there.
But we're making food forpeople that don't like you said,
they don't want a shrimp tossedin their mouth or they don't
(09:10):
want to sit with people thatthey don't know Right, Like I
saw that on Valentine's day.
You know you're getting couplesof parties at two and they're
not just going to sit two peopleat a table that sits 10.
You're getting four, fourparties of two at one table.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
That's my biggest problem.
I don't like sitting withrandom people.
Sometimes I'm trying to eatdinner Like I just want to.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Here's another one that I would notice.
Right, it's like you're sittingwith with, let's say, there's
four people here and four peoplehere, and these four just came
out just to eat.
And these four came out causeit's the kid's birthday.
So now I'm not stupid.
I see in their face like bro,yeah, like getting the kid on
(09:47):
the grill, I think.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I'm having a good time.
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
When did you actually startthen?
So when did you actually openup the first kind of brick and
mortar of the Hibachi House?
Was that eight years ago?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
No, no, no, no.
So I've only had my restaurantfor three years, okay, I've had
the brand for five, okay, but intotal cooking and in the
restaurant industry, starting asa dishwasher, it's been about
13 years.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Oh, okay, so you put it at work, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
They say, like the restaurant business, you have
multiple chefs on and justrestaurant folks is just in
general one of the hardestbusinesses just to stay in.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Like, nah, like nah, no, I'm just kidding.
Yeah, I mean, what's your?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
secret to be able to do because I know you have your.
You have your youtube channelyou're talking about and kind of
teaching folks.
But what is that?
So?
What's what's helped you keepthat?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I think, what's the secret?
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I think it's.
What was it 80?
I think I read that it's high.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It's like 80 in the first year or something like.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
It's pretty well I was reading I think it's the
first year it's only like 23that yeah, I'm saying I think
it's like 80, like after likefive after four or five years.
Yeah, it's unreal.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, we're getting, we're.
We're into year five now and sowe're.
You know, I'm praying to theLord and just keep doing what
I'm doing and things are working, but I think, um, obviously
good food, right, because Ipresence and everybody that's
going to watch this knows thatwe have a very good social media
presence.
Yeah, but I have restaurants,like one of my favorite spots
(11:06):
and it's just like hole in thewall, one spot.
Their sign is cracking on thison the side of the building.
They have 120 followers onsocial media and they're busy
every single day.
Yeah, uh, ross, j's alohakitchen oh yeah, that spot is
fire.
I've been going there since Iwas 14 years old.
Somebody the other day day waslike what you know about this
spot.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I said, bro, I've been coming here, Get out of
here and their social media iswhack, but the food is good.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
The food is good but they've been there for a very
long time.
And then word of mouth, sothat's the community.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yeah, there's those one-off that shows how powerful
they've been.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, they used to go all the way, but it's just the
family that runs it and I thinkthey had hiring problems or
whatever.
Right, yeah, all I can say isfor me and for the up-and-coming
restaurants that are trying toget into the market, is you just
got to stay relevant.
You have to stay top of mind,top of sight, always in front of
new people, always in front ofthe same people, and just really
(12:07):
hammer out that social media.
Really, really yell from therooftops.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And what does that kind of first three months look
like?
You build this business.
It's exciting, you go, you'refinally making this venture,
you're getting ready to throwyour hat into the ring and start
your own thing.
But it takes a lot of capital,a lot of investment, a lot of
just overall learning process totry to understand how to
navigate and run a business fromscratch.
It's very different being anentrepreneur than being a
manager of a business.
What was that kind of likefirst 30, 60 days look like for
(12:32):
you as you're kind of rollingthis out and getting kicked off
the first time Of the brick andmortar or when I actually
started the business.
I guess the one where you reallystarted serving people right
Starting to have purchaseinventory get.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I kind of operated from like a hood street drug
dealer mentality.
I did it kind of backwards.
I didn't have a website atfirst.
I didn't have uh, I didn't knoweven what percentages were.
I didn't know any of that, Ijust knew I started with a
thousand bucks.
At the end of the week I hadsix.
I paid my people that werethere in cash, took that
thousand out to buy more foodand I had this X money left over
.
I was like, oh my God, likeright.
(13:07):
And so that was pretty much thefirst, I would even say the
first two years, maybe two and ahalf years, of my business.
Um, until I started gettingaround.
You know other entrepreneursthat are in the food space and
they're like so what are yourprofit?
What are your percentages?
You know, what are you, whatare you operating at?
I'm like a thousand and he goesa thousand.
What like a thousand dollars?
Like bro, there's only ahundred, but what are you
(13:28):
talking about?
Then he started teaching me allthis kind of stuff.
So you know that that was how Ioperated at first.
You know there was no softwarebesides instagram.
That was it I just straight didit like the street hustle you
know just street hustle blastingit out there on the job
training oh exactly, I learnedso much and I I never took any
loss as a failure.
It was always a lesson, um, butit was nerve-wracking.
(13:48):
I mean I actually so real quick.
Just a quick story I actuallystarted a brand called backyard
hibachi in my friend's backyardbefore the pandemic, when I was
still working at my job, and youguys have had plenty of
business owners on here.
What happens with friends inbusiness usually goes really
well no, it's the most thrivingthing ever, right.
(14:08):
And so we ended up all having afalling out, unfortunately, and
to the point where they werelike man, we're going to keep
going.
Man, screw Zach, we could dothis without him.
And I went back to work Likenothing happened.
I gave him everything.
I gave him the money in thebank account, all the grills,
everything.
I said, go for it.
(14:29):
You know, we were working likecommission, but like what's
commissioned on?
Like a $30 a box, like 2%commitment, what it was stupid,
right.
And so my buddy was like bro,why don't you go cook your
plates again?
And I had such a traumaticexperience cause I lost all my
best friends and starting abusiness, and I was like, nah,
man, I don't think so, dude,that's not.
I don't think I ever want to dothat again, but it think I ever
want to do that again.
But it just kept, like you know, in my head like just start,
(14:50):
start selling plates startselling plates?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
yeah, it just kept.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I just couldn't go to sleep like I just kept thinking
of it and luckily at the time Imean I don't know how wells
fargo gave me this credit card,but I was.
I had a five thousand dollarcredit card and I obviously,
from the experience I had withmy other business, I knew
exactly what to get.
So I just went on to thewebsite.
I went on all the websitesswipe, swipe, swipe, swipe,
swipe and I didn't have anywhereto cook.
I was in an apartment.
(15:14):
I had nowhere to like.
I could have cooked on mystoves, but all I know is flat
tops.
I never really cooked, yeah, onpots and pans.
So I order a flat top and I getit delivered to my mom's house
and she's like zach, what is?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I was like oh yeah, I was wondering if I could cook
in your backyard and she waslike hell, no.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
No way.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And I'm like because you know I grew up there and
sold a couple things out of herhouse.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
You know, and she's like you're selling more stuff
out of my house.
It's her traumatic experience.
Exactly, it's her traumaticexperience.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And so I ended up convincing her not convincing,
but you know giving her rent andI was like fine, we'll do
whatever we can.
And so that's how that allstarted.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
So you started a band like Lil Russell.
Lil Russell do a lot of his.
He was doing concerts out ofhis backyard.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, he still is, yeah, yeah yeah,
Lil Russell, yep, and that'sexactly how it was is now, but
he's older, a lot older than me,and he's over there freaking
out like Zach.
We're not legal.
Oh my God, we're going to getshut down by the police this and
that.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
That's what I was going to ask you because, I know
they probably get paid just forturning people in.
Yeah, and so the?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
whole thing was, you know, because it was the
pandemic, right, we couldn'thave people congregating but we
would have lines down the streetand the cops ended up showing
up one day and they just walk inand you know, my heart just
sinks.
I'm like, oh no, we're screwed,right, we're just packing up,
we're screwed.
My uncle like an old drugdealer, so he's thinking we're
getting busted by the police,like getting raided, you know.
Yeah, and they kind of justlooked around they made.
(16:46):
I asked them if they wantedfood and they're like no, we're
good, just slow it down a littlebit.
Yeah, have a good day, Just keepit moving.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Oh wow, I'm so shocked.
I'm surprised they didn'treally shut it down.
That's because I always getnervous about that too.
I'd be just like your uncle.
I think you're going to shut medown, oh no, he started
sweating, turned all bright red.
I next step right, you're doingthat, you're getting successful
, you're making a little money,you kind of getting your
processes down.
How does that translate to openup your brick and mortar store?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
So you know a lot of people jump right into brick and
mortar right Like they justsave their life savings and jump
brick and mortar.
That's why we have such a highfailure rate, because they don't
realize the actual grind andactual hard work it takes to run
a restaurant, Like the amountof hours you have to put in.
I mean, I can't speak for a lotof other businesses, but I can
imagine it's pretty much thesame.
When you're first starting, youhave to do a lot of groundwork.
(17:34):
A lot of people think thatthey're just going to open a
restaurant and they're going tohire employees and everything's
going to be dandy, Like, yeah,if you're a celebrity, you know
if you have the bank accountpadded or you know, or a backup
account anyway, and um, sothere's, there's levels, right,
Like I recommend everybodystarting from the house.
(17:55):
You're not going to get poppedby the health department If
you're selling your house.
If you're selling that muchfood from your house that you're
scared that you're going to getpopped, you should already be
moving to the next level.
You should not still be in yourhouse doing a hundred grand a
month.
That's crazy.
And have friends that do that.
Hey, it's all.
Do you right?
Um, yeah, and I'm I'm sure youguys have heard of ghost
kitchens, oh yeah yeah, that'sliterally what I was gonna ask
(18:16):
you.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, basically that's your concept of what
you're doing now, and I've heardthey're all over las vegas
ghost.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, yeah, but the catering aspect, right, correct
so, so, like even mr beast, likehe would do a ghost kitchen out
of and he would like it.
Like like buca di beppo wouldsell Mr Beast Burgers.
Yeah, you know, so I went into.
It's basically a shared kitchen, slash ghost kitchen in a sense
, and it's where you can rentout space from a big restaurant
facility basically, andeverybody in there is renting
space and time slots.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Shout out to Chef John Apologize, we had somebody
who talked about the ghostkitchen.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
He owned one of them.
My bad, I apologize.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
John, which one do you own?
Jesus Christ, you're going toput me on the spot.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
There was a brand new development, one right.
Yeah, it was a nice one that'shorrible, I forgot, I can't
remember where it was at.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
He's had Ghost Kitchen.
They're crushing it, they'recrushing it.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I'm not going to lie.
One day, I'd love to open oneone day, because the business
model, that's the business model, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Especially dramatically and everybody's
like no, I don't really.
I'd rather prefer to go to UberEats than go out there to eat
anymore.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I just get all right online yeah no, exactly, and
it's, it's and it's all, andit's an awesome alternative to
somebody with not a lot ofcapital that wants to test out
their food To see what actuallyflows.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah, to see if this is even for them Good point
Right, I'd say you might spendthree grand.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
you know startup costs buying your Spying, your
pots and pans food, paying foryour hours.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
That overhead is very low for three grand.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, you know, and that's three grand to get
started.
It's about $400 a month on thebare minimum or not, the second
tier package under bare minimum.
And then you add hours to that.
Yeah, then you add your hours,you know if you want to be in
there more hours, stuff likethat.
But it got to a point when Iwas in that ghost kitchen for so
long like I was paying damnnear a restaurant rent because
of all the hours and the rideyou get.
(19:52):
So for 450 bucks a month youget one dry rack, one
refrigerator rack, one freezerrack.
In 40 hours a month I was doing50 hours a week.
I had five dry racks, fiverefrigerator racks, two freezer
racks and it adds up.
You know it's 50 bucks a rack,this and that shelves and I was
paying like three, four grand amonth.
I'm like man, I need to get myown spot.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Yeah, yeah, cheap it right now.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Start really looking at the numbers.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, I'm like man and then you're sharing it with
other people, so I have to fightfor hours.
I would have to book months inadvance to get those, because a
lot of people in there arepop-up shops or caterers.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
For specific events, exactly I.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I was running it like a full on.
We're open five to nine fivedays a week, and so I would have
to book or I'd get screwed, youknow.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Yeah, oh, that's interesting.
Yeah, so none of the festivalsthat make them seem that no, no.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And that's why I said it's a great alternative to you
know, test out your, your, your, your products, right.
And so there are other ones,not to go too deep in it.
But there are other ones whereyou can rent the in a smaller
individual kitchen and you canoperate like that.
But the one I was in was like a, basically a giant room and you
had different stations and youall shared one cook station.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Wow, yeah how did you ?
Because?
So you do a lot of kind of Iguess I would say, menus of
services, right, so you've youcook as a celebrity chef.
Will you actually go tosomeone's home and cook for them
still now and do that?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
oh yeah, oh yeah, I still do that all the time.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Okay, yeah, is that how you got your name out there
where you would have somebodylike dana white or somebody like
the baby or whoever it iscoming to town, where they would
ask for you and be able to cookfor them I'd say that for sure,
I'm definitely word of mouth,uh, by going to people's house,
but also also I mean like Ipraise to the social right.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Like social media has just took me to a whole nother
level.
But I was explaining tosomebody the other day right,
like when you cook for acelebrity and you're not a
weirdo, right, you're not afangirl, you're not all up on
their john they're like, okay,you know, because they're,
because, at the end of the day,right like, we bring uh, you
know, we bring a cleaning personto our house.
You know, if they don't workout, we're just gonna go get
another cleaning person.
(21:51):
Right, if they're amazing, like, okay, cool, but it's to the
point where these are, you know,high-level celebrities and
they're not just gonna haveeight to ten different hibachi
guys come to their house.
You know, you show up, you do agreat impression.
They're like, okay, I can trustthis person in my house.
I well, they might wait anothertwo days to see if I show back
up or something yeah, they mightshow they might wait.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
That's a real thing, yeah, and it is.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
And so, um, you know, I, I, obviously I get a picture
, because you know that's what'sat the end of the day.
They're celebrities, they likethat kind of stuff.
Right, like, hey, can I get apicture with you?
Yeah, no problem.
And then you know, I'mtrustworthy, I'm trustworthy
around their kids.
I'm not, I wasn't super fanboyon them, and you know they just
keep inviting me back and thenword of mouth spreads that hey,
you can trust this guy at yourhouse.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And yeah, next thing, you know, it's just I mean hard
.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Is it like for like I look at on a bigger scale, like
catering right, like you'llcook for a whole event?
How do you make sure like thequality is good in every single
meal?
What's the science to dosomething like that?
To make sure everything is goodand represents, you know,
vanilla rice.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, I'm still figuring it out to get it to a T
right, that's hard, that's veryhard yeah it's all in your
training, right, when it comesto other employees as well.
It's all in your training.
It's all in your, your systemsand processes, right?
Um, you have to have goodtraining systems and also not
just training, because I,because I could train you and
then I never train you again forsix months and it's like a.
You know, every day you kind ofget a and I don't like to use
(23:17):
the word lazy, but you knowslack off a little bit here and
then after six months you'recutting every corner and you're
like I walk.
I've had this happen to me.
If I walk in, I go.
Who taught you this?
They're like I don't know, Ithought you did.
I'm like no way I did not um andyou're gonna get bad reviews
right.
That's kind of how you know the.
The reason why restaurantowners don't grow is because
they're so scared to like let goof the reins to get a back,
(23:38):
because you might get a badreview or something like that
and you want the product soperfect.
But you never grow like that.
You're stuck in the kitchen.
You have to put your faith intoother people, but not just that
.
You have to be able to trainwell, you have to have a good
training system, good processesand you have to pick the right
people.
And I know that sounds kind ofcrazy, but none of my cooks that
cook with me right now haveever cooked in their life really
(24:03):
not one, I mean maybe down theroad or what I taught everybody
from scratch.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Sometimes that's better because they said they
only know your process.
Yeah, so you can't develop badbehaviors if you only learn one
way.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah, and so it's all with my training system.
I train them exactly how I'lldo it, and then I retrain and I
don't retrain in like a hey,you're messing up, like I need
to show you this.
It's like, no, every 30 days weretrain, everybody gets a
retraining session, everybody.
And it's just like, one day Iwon't do that anymore.
It'll be somebody that retrains.
But as of right now, I stillhave the time to be able to do
(24:29):
that, that stuff, you know, andwe just we're doing, uh, if, if,
the UNLV men's basketball andwe just did it for them two
weeks ago and oh, don't get mewrong, bro, we dropped them 40
plates off.
I'm like, for the next threedays, like, oh my God, not even
next day.
I'd message her right away hey,let us know if everything's
good.
I'm still like oh my God,Because I didn't fully.
I helped cook it.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
But you know 20 of them bad reviews and stuff like
that.
How do you deal?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
with that.
I used to not even be able tosleep at night.
To be honest, I used to like Iused to be up all night.
I couldn't believe it.
I used to want to change mypersonal.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
When I first started yeah forsure, cause you know I'd sit
there and be like you put youremotions too much in it a little
bit Obviously.
(25:25):
I've learned not to.
I'm a lot better now.
But I'm like bro, like this ismy entire identity, like I'm
vanilla rice, like I don't knowwhat else I would have if.
I didn't have this restaurant 13years right 13 knows, one day,
if I sell, you know it'll be sad, but if I'm cashing a nice
(25:45):
check, cool.
But as of right now, this iswho I am and like.
That's why I put more passioninto it and put more emotion.
Um, but you know, at first, youknow, I'm reading these reviews
and it had me questioning mywhole entire recipe.
I'm like, oh my god, maybe theteriyaki sauce was a little too
thick right and I'm like, oh no,but I came to a point where
I've cooked for, so I'veprobably sold.
I mean, I want to say Close toa million plates in the last
(26:08):
five years.
That's a lot.
And so when I, when I put itinto perspective like that, and
you come up with a velocity,yeah.
When you come up with the.
Not everybody has the sametaste buds.
Not every cook's going to havethe same night.
It kind of don't get me wrong.
I still review it with the,with the cook that was there the
night.
I'm still not gonna just brushit off, but it doesn't.
It doesn't hurt as bad as itused to.
(26:29):
You know I just go, hey, youknow what that's a part of.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
You know letting the reins off to somebody else now
there's world-class, world-classrestaurants that still get
negative reviews, so you can'tbe perfect every night.
Yeah, I mean I look at.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
I mean you go, look at Chipotle's reviews and
they're a brand I'm seeking tobe like.
That I will be like, and theirreviews are terrible, and you go
to their restaurant, theirline's out the door.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, very true.
They're like one of the beststocks out there too, Chipotle,
they're killing it.
Oh yeah, have you looked attheir comments.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Their comments are— I never have.
I try not to eat there as muchas possible.
My go, but that place is.
They have some rough reviewssometimes.
I look at the line where theymake the stuff and I'm like you
should you need to switch thatup?
Just pouring beans on top ofold beans, you can tell, because
the little ring of the beans isstill.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
But I do like Chipotle, I'll muscle Chipotle.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I'll eat it.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I'll eat it, but it's only if she chooses it.
I'm not going there, justbecause, Just because it's hard
for me to eat at restaurants,especially when I see that my
family's the same way.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
She's not a big Chipotle person.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
When it comes to like , um, problem solving right,
like I know, you've experienceda lot of adversity.
You know probably losing teammembers, maybe people stealing,
which is a huge thing.
You know food getting messed up, like problem solving, like
what's, what's one thing thatmaybe can help.
You know a listener or maybesomebody that's a chef right now
that maybe they want to starttheir own restaurant.
What would you share with themas far as problem solving,
that's kind of helped you tokind of excel?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Well, once you accept that you're not, when you open
a business, you're not.
You're not really like a cookanymore.
You're not a server, you're aproblem solver.
That's that once you.
That's what you are.
I'm a firefighter, like I'mgonna get a tattoo of a
firefighter or something youknow, just because that's what I
agree with you, I wake up everyday and this is why I relate to
uh, all the fighters.
Like all the fighters.
I relate to them so muchbecause I look at business as a
(28:14):
boxing match or an mma match.
Every day I wake up, I'm gonnaget swung at it's just.
Have I been swung at like this?
Have I been swung at like this?
Have I been swung at the?
Have I been swung at like thisbefore?
Do I know if this punch iscoming?
Do I know how to counter it?
So you know, if I've been inthis situation before, I know
how to counter it, or I know howto dodge it, or I know how to
overcome it, you know then a newchallenge comes and you get,
(28:40):
you get cracked, you know, andit's like at first, I mean you,
you're in, the wise is happeningto me.
Mentality the whole time insteadof wise is happening for me.
And so once you finally switchthat mentality up, I mean you
know, you just problems come andyou're just like, okay, well,
what did you do to fix it?
And then also, too, you know, II try to push that kind of
mentality onto my employees,right, like they don't have the
entrepreneurial mentality, but Istill try to give them
(29:00):
entrepreneurial traits, sure,like hey, if there's a problem
in the restaurant, please try tofix it first, and if you can't
call the manager, and if themanager can't fix it, then
she'll call me.
But don't just see that thewater is leaking out the faucet
and like maybe it's loose alittle bit, go and just you know
, tighten it up a little bit,you know, and so that also holds
them accountable as well.
(29:21):
Um to problem solve.
And then now we have a wholeproblem solving crew, you know,
and that's that's what it is.
It's all mentality, it's allmindset.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
What's next for you?
As far as you mentioned, yougot a restaurant.
Opening up was a Charleston andJones, so is that the next step
is trying to open up more?
You know restaurants throughoutthe throughout the city.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Well, the biggest goal is I.
I will be the next vanilla rice, hibachi will be the next brand
, up there with Cane's, Chipotle, uh, uh, mcdonald's.
You know, when you hear allthese brands, it's going to be
up there with those for sure,and so that's the main goal.
And so, right now, it's just,you know, not only quality of
the food, but growing the brandand just pumping out.
(30:01):
I don't want to say as manyrestaurants as possible, but as
many quality restaurants, right,because at the end of the day,
I mean I could open a hundred ifthey all you know, half of them
suck.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
You said, the key word.
Yeah, I got those guys aboutthe catering Cause.
That's hard yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
I do quality restaurants, and so I'm not
young.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
You're still young as hell, man, oh man, 28.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
That's beautiful, yeah, I'm blessed, I'll be 29
this year, so I'm going to hitthat 30 soon, you know.
But I have a long way to go andI'm in this for the long game.
Yeah, and once I realized that,it made this a lot easier
because you know I have friendsthat you know they're in sales
and they're in sales and they'rein these like higher margin
businesses and man, I'm shinyobject syndrome, like what you
(30:43):
doing over there, what are youselling?
Man, let me get some of thatRight.
And you know, when I finallyfound out what my purpose, or
came to the realization, what Ithink my purpose on life is,
that like helped out a lot and Itruly think I was put on this
earth to you know, grow foodbrands Like that.
Um, and so, as far as like whatthe next steps are, it's just
keep doing what I've alreadydone.
(31:04):
Um, have you guys ever heard ofIke's sandwiches?
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Oh yeah, so we're supposed to interview.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
She's partnered with Marshawn Lynch.
I think, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
That's so that he's a mentor of mine Get out of here.
Yeah, and so he's he's got 117.
I'm like, dude, what are youtalking about?
Bro, you have 170 restaurantsLike doesn't it get harder?
He's like no, he's like, yeah,you get a little bit more
problems, this and that, he'slike, but you've already done
the hardest part.
Because the first one is thehardest one Building the culture
(31:34):
, building the brand, buildingthe systems and processes,
building something that nobody'sever built before is the
hardest part.
He goes now to get over again.
He's like I got to 100 so fastafter the first one and I'm like
I don't know what you mean.
I'm like you sound crazy, dude.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
That's powerful, I mean he's right, though it's
funny we were supposed tointerview him during a pandemic.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Everything shut down.
God, he could have made it out.
Everything shut down.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, he's a mentor you always make it very
successful.
Thank you, yeah, he.
So I uh, I met him.
You guys know david melzer, hisreal estate, he does a lot of
stuff.
He does a lot of sportsmanagement.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
He does a lot of stuff, so I one day I mean I do
a lot of oh, he just said uh,byron, from look who he just did
the the business pitches.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Okay, yeah, I've got the name of the show kind of
like shark tank gotcha.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Yeah, yeah, I didn't even see that, but that's no.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
No, he is that dude right there's like a legend.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Yeah, um, I, I was into uh, like you know I don't
like the word gurus, but youknow the social media guys.
I got into that when I was atthe restaurant.
That's what helped me also getinto business.
You know, like starting tothink like entrepreneurs and
stuff like that.
And I must have opted into oneof his like automated messages.
And one day I get a messagelike hey, it's david melzer,
want to come hang out with me atin and out.
And I'm like, yeah, I'm like Iknow this is an automated
(32:51):
message.
Well, hell yeah.
And so I go to in and out andhe's there and I'm like, oh, my
god, it's like, ah, this iscrazy that's funny, and so I
went.
So then I got another messageand I went to the second one, or
sorry, it was a third one thatI went to and at that point, you
know, I always I'm.
It's basically it's like whatyou just said, like not shark
tank, but he stands there, hetalks and you ask him questions.
(33:12):
I'm always somebody that's.
Hey, my name is vanilla rice.
I own a restaurant this is myquestion for you how much time
that saves you just learningfrom somebody like that, oh yeah
oh yeah, no, no, that duderight there, he, he is, I'm.
I take advantage of these kindof opportunities, right, because
, like his dinners are, I meanhe does these private dinners
like three grand.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I'm like yeah, I can't you know I'm like I can't
do that so hey, I did some freecame up.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I'm like I'll take it , that's awesome.
Um, and so I get to the thirdone.
By this time he's like, heyguys, you know, I go ask him a
question.
Hey guys, it's vanilla rice,right, I bought your bottom food
.
So I'm like, cool, he's alreadyintroduced me.
This is crazy.
And I was like, hey man, mybrand did multiple next year.
What's some tips and advice youcould give me?
And he literally looks at me.
He goes well, you know whoyou're standing next to.
(33:49):
And I look over this littleshort ball dude and I'm like hi,
how you doing?
I just shake his hand.
He's like, yeah, that's ike.
He owns 117, uh, restaurants.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Oh, my god, how you doing I was like wow, nice to
meet you.
I'm like oh my goodness, hegoes that's the guy to ask.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
And then he just gave me a business card and that's
how that.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yeah oh, that's awesome.
That's like right place, righttime, the whole time.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
We were there for an hour already, didn't even know
this guy was that's why yougotta ask, but you never know,
yeah, you never know.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
When you're nice, we always ask everybody all of our
guests about, uh, restaurants invegas.
I know you eat a lot of yourprobably food.
Yeah, what's your favoriterestaurant?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I know you guys gonna ask this, so I don't eat at a
lot of restaurants to be honest,I usually cook my own food or I
eat at my restaurant.
A lot, but I don't even go outto really like the Strip or
anything like that.
I've heard you guys' podcast.
You guys are saying names ofrestaurants.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Off the Strip too.
I've heard both, but I do morelocal.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Like I said, I just went to before this, we just
went to Parsley, Mediterranean.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Oh, I love Parsley, yeah, parsley.
Yeah, they got one offTropicana in Fort Apache yeah,
they do, and then the one I justwent to is down the street from
here.
It's actually really good, bythe way.
Yeah, it's one of my favorites.
Yeah, it's really good.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
And you know my daughter can eat the.
Got a Mediterranean Middle East.
There you go.
Yeah, you got the same.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Definitely got the yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Like you guys heard of Lucino's Pizza.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I don't know Where's that one at.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah, that's on Chopping Pecos.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
I've heard of Lucino's.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
It's like you walk in there and it's straight Philly
Straight.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Philly oh yeah, those guys are good too, those guys'
pies.
They have good pizza there too.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
I'm not even going to lie.
When we went to Philly, we wentto Angelo's.
Was it Angelo's?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Oh, yeah, you got Angelo's.
Oh, angelo's, the best thingwe've ever had in my life.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, you don't go there, my uncle wanted to take
us there, just to you know.
See, the tourist spot and allthat, and then I haven't been
back in years.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
No that South Philly spot was popular.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I dream about it.
I try to look up the recipes.
She got mad at me.
I've been like six monthstrying to figure it out.
You have a cooking cheese thingin your kitchen.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
He brought one back on the plate.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
He brought the pizza and the.
Sometimes you got to do that.
I made my fiance try it.
She wasn't happy.
What?
Speaker 2 (36:07):
are you guys' favorite restaurants.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Too many, Too many.
And the one thing that I willsay, like you said, the Strip
that's what I'm liking aboutVegas now is we're getting so
much great food off the Strip.
Oh yeah, it's just.
I mean so many different thingsis happening, but I probably
would say Cali Bash isdefinitely one.
Like I was telling you before,I haven't had a good spot, Ole
owns, but there's too many ofthem, man.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Yeah, Pac is eating in almost every restaurant in
Vegas.
He has a checklist.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
It's all the bougies You're going to have to send
that to me?
Yeah, because it's theexperience of going out to eat,
right.
I just love it, especiallytrying new restaurants, and we,
my wife and I, we we pickdifferent stuff to go and bring
our kids, cause then they canexperience it.
You know what?
Speaker 2 (36:47):
I mean, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, getting them out andexperience different types of
cultures and environments, andthen we bring them
internationally.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
It makes them, you know, not be pigeonholed.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
No, for sure yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
They're yeah, yeah yeah.
It's a Mexican spot.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a cool experience.
The food's good, but theexperience is cool.
They bring out the tacoshangouts.
Is that on Fort Apache?
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, they got two.
They opened one off of Rainbowtoo.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
The one I went to was , I think, in Summerlin, in Boca
Park.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that placewas cool.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
I took a date night there.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Gomez's spot V&A.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Brazil.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
V&A Brazil.
You guys been to Hank's I havenot.
At the Green Valley Ranch Ihave not Steakhouse.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I heard somebody else just mentioned them recently
too, and said it was fantasticSteak with the chimichurri.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
I got to check out Hank's.
That's on the list.
Somebody yeah, I think somebodydid mention that.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
We did just mention that.
He's like, yeah, this is mybusiness, this is my 85th
business.
I was like 1,000%.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Andrew's a trip Gotcha.
Yeah, he's a cool dude.
He's a cool dude.
We'll talk offline.
I'm curious what he had to say.
Andrew's legit.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, he's cool.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
And I saw his off food to somebody that sean was
doing a podcast too.
Yeah, he's a beast, yeah, he'sa good guy.
So next up, you said, isrestaurant business and you're
trying to build this into afranchise.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
That's the goal franchise, corporate, um, just
the big.
I always say this, right, likethere's people that tell me you
know, hey, zach, you should gofranchise, hey, zach, you should
go corporate.
This brand did this, this branddid that.
Yeah, I'm gonna go.
Yeah, but nobody's been zachtolan that started this brand.
So I'm gonna do it my way, andand not that that means I'm
gonna do it a whole differentway.
That's never been invented.
Yeah, but I'm gonna do itwhatever way I can't like I you
(38:33):
know I'm not gonna stick withone way and do that like.
If someone's like, hey, I wantto buy four franchises, I'm
gonna be like, okay, if they'relike, I have the opportunity to
open six corporate stores, okay,you know, then that's at least
in my world right, you know,there's blueprints on what
businesses have done before andthis and that.
but, like I say, I don't liketoo much.
I take advice, but I don't likepeople telling me what I should
(38:53):
do.
I'll listen, but I'm just likeokay, cool, I'll take that, but
you know, who knows what's goingto happen right, and it's
working for you too.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
It's working your style.
So, yeah, and I told me.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
I told me he's like you got to get to your first 10
locations.
He said I don't care how youget there.
He's like they need to beeither be 10 shitholes or I'm
sorry, yeah, I got you.
Yeah, yeah, 10, 10 bad spots,or or you know he's like,
because this is what he said.
He said he said when my friendswere opening up and he owns a
sandwich shops a littledifferent you don't need the
hood vents and the green strapsand all that000 each.
He's like I was openingrestaurants for $30,000.
He's like, and I got to 10faster than all of them, he's
(39:31):
like, and the second I got to 10.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Yeah, then I shoot 10 .
Speaker 2 (39:34):
But he's like I had 10 terrible restaurants, Like
they were horrible locations,horrible buildings, he's like
but I got to 10, and that's whatsolidified my brand.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
That's great Well we're going to keep supporting
you man.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
It's good stuff, man.
It's good to be able to sitdown with you and see what
you're doing.
Man, we support what you'redoing and check us out at the
Vegas Circle.
I'm sorry, check us out atthevegascirclecom, but you got
to shout out your social medias,man.
Yeah, got you.
Where am I?
Speaker 2 (39:57):
looking Right here.
Yep, it's your boy.
Underscore my business.
My restaurant is VanillaRiceLV.
On all platforms, make sure tofollow us.
We're trying to get to 100,000followers.
We're almost there.
We're at like 71,000.
Getting close, I will have thatby the end of the year.
That's on my list.
Powerful that, and my personalbrand.
(40:18):
And then, yeah, I mean, justkeep following.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
We'll be all around the city.
Well, check us out atthevergascirclecom.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
I don't know why I'm tongue-tied man Give us a tip
from I need a drink.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I messed myself up, man, but we appreciate you, man.
Thank you, brother.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
I appreciate you guys .
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
This was awesome.
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