June 5, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time, time, time, Luck and Load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
From Michael Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Up the bar with our guest and we're talking business secrets,
the secrets of the secret sauce, as I like to
call it, of what makes your business run. An Oracle,
the fellow at Oracle who is behind NetSuite, which is
their AI machine learning package for business owners, is a
fan of the show and loves what we do and
(00:44):
wanted to sponsor when we have business interviews, and we
said absolutely, And you can get the Chief Financial Officer
the cfo's guide to AI and machine learning at NetSuite
dot com forward slash my last name netsweet dot com,
Berry NetSuite dot com slash Barry Russell. You talk about Sybelo,
(01:07):
Texas and opening a location in San Antone and are
outside of San anton and that's not your core.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I mean, I can see the.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Immediate challenge being most people there don't know what Gringos is.
Yet You've got such market equity in the greater Houston
area and that's a lot of capital to start in
a location like that. I know you're a guy that
studies and learns and asks a lot of questions. How
do you ramp up your name id to get people
(01:38):
in the door.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Well, I believe for starters are our building will have
a lot of carbon bills, so we're going to deliver
there for sure.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
And you know, we went to our furthest location now.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Is College Station only you could almost say that's kind
of Houston in a way because how connected the two
cities are. But College Station was our number two volume
store in twenty twenty four, and so that tells us
a couple of things that the brand has definitely a
(02:14):
market recognition already, and being that far away from from
the Houston market, but the suburbs again, I think we can,
we can, we can thrive there, and we'll know soon
enough because we'll be opening in Civilo hopefully by the
end of next year, in twenty twenty six. And as
(02:35):
a matter of fact, we had a meeting today on
the site, the site layout. That's gonna be a beautiful
location and and our Tombaugh.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
Opens up later this year. But you know, we we
have to test at some point.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
You know, as you well know Lupid Dirtias and Chewies
and all these brands, text Mactus is just popular and
that's that's the good thing about it, and we'll just
you know, go in and do what we do better
and and focus there and if we as long as
we deliver where we're supposed to do, we should do okay.
And we're not concerned about that, concerned about the stuff,
(03:09):
no gread no, just that we're just concerned about what
we can what We only focus on what we can control, and.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
That's the people on our seats. And that's it.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
We Every guest is important, every every meal. That's our
first core value, developing guest relationships, one mill at that time.
Every single meal we serve is important.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, it's it's a tough business.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I think people don't realize, you know, you always say
you're only as good as the last meal you've served.
It's funny how people there's a there's a meme that
goes around and I'll see about once a year and
it'll be this idea that you can have ninety nine
great meals at a locally owned restaurant around the corner
(03:50):
and on the hundred that's bad, and you go online
and you criticize the place having never complemented them online,
whereas you go to walmartin have a bad experience or
some national chain and have a bad experience and you
don't think to complain. And it was about supporting local
businesses for this very reason. In your business, that's the
(04:11):
tough part is you've got a lot of moving parts,
you got inventory that can spoil. You know, it has
to be delivered on time. You know all these things,
and it's easy to mess up. It's easier to mess
up than not. I have to ask you, Russell Lebara
Gringoes texmax dot com.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I have to ask you.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
It feels like I moved to Houston in nineteen eighty nine.
So my first eighteen years in Orange, we only had
two little Mexican joints, the Casa Ola and then we
had a local joint called Guadalajara, and it wasn't anything fancy,
but we loved it.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
It was good food. It was a Mexican family that
owned it.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And I moved to Houston and I was shocked at
how tex mex seemed to be everywhere, but it wasn't
nearly as prominent as it is now. It feels like,
I mean, it's the number one concept in America by far.
Why do you think textmes has exploded at least in
the Greater Houston area over the last thirty years or
has it always been this big.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
It's always been big relative to the population. But I
will say that there's a lot of value in text
added value in tex Mex. When you sit down, you're
automatically delivered a basket of chips and salsa, which a
lot of restaurants, casual dining restaurants, burger joints, what happen
(05:31):
you don't get that. And in our case, we also
provide the green sauce and the free ice cream as
you leave the restaurant. So those are those just bring
a lot of value to the experience, and it's unlimited.
I mean, you know, a lot of restaurants, like a Chilis,
they charge for this kind of stuff, and I think
that's one of the benefits of the restaurant tex Mex
(05:53):
restaurant industry as a whole. But you know, at the
end of the day, though, I mean, obviously you have
to pass on those calls through your pricing, but you know,
we we just know where we need to be on
our food costs. We know where our label needs to be,
and we also know where our volume needs to be.
And if we can hit hit on all cylinders, then
we can make money. But again, our focus is in
(06:16):
the individual experience.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
We don't.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
We don't, you know, put the cart before the horse,
because you know, you can go sounds real fast in
this business.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, And I think that's why so many fail. I
mean almost almost every restaurant does fail. And it's you know,
as a consumer. You know, I've spent a lot of
time studying restaurants by talking to people like you and
asking questions and going into your kitchen and.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Comparing notes and all this.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And everybody, every consumer wants to be a reviewer, so
so they can be very critical of restaurants.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And that's fine.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
It holds you to a high standard that makes you
want to try harder and all that, but the understanding
of how hard it is to liver. I mean, if
I cook a meal for the family, I'm going to
screw most everything up because when I do do it,
everyone's all excited until they eat, and I mess something
up every time, and it's frustrating. Imagine trying to do
that over and over and over again.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
It's tough.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
So if you hadn't done hospitality, if you had not
done restaurants, what do you think you would have done.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Oh, without a doubt. I've been in cells of some sort.
If I believe in something, I can sell it. As
a matter of fact, when I was selling for Elmetador
and I was calling on these restaurants, I had one
particular restaurant I would visit him and he knew our
family was in the restaurant business. But he told me
that my face, Russall, I would never buy from you.
That was a challenge to me. Seven months later he
(07:42):
was buying from me and we became friends.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
So cells.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
I love sales, and I almost went into it prior
to opening Gringos because I was trying to find my
place in this world and it was actually going to
be selling a high production corn and plumb tor tea
equipment California. Yeah, there was a really good company out to.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Launch equipment company. And as a matter of fact, my
brothers have a full part of.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Tea line from them that's probably over, I don't know,
one hundred and fifty feet long, which it's incredible to
watch fully automated from the from the dough to the
package product.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
It's fun to one.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Your big mister Michael Berry, Russell levarg Is, I guess
Ringo's tex smex is his primary restaurant.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
He also has Jimmy Changa's, and he has a lot more.
But we're talking business principles with him. Normally, when I
talk to Russell, it's about humanitarian things. It's about all
the good he does for Camp Hope, It's about all
the good he does for community, all the good he
does for his employees. Today we're talking business principles and
his life. And I love to do these interviews because
(08:55):
I find it interesting. I like to ask questions, and
I think some of you do as well. You were
saying about importing avocados.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Yeah, so the avocados Mexico.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Avocados from Mexico.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Used to only be allowed in the US if you
remove the seed. And of course we all know what
happens once you cut into an avocado. That shelf life
there's just hours, really and so and that was done
because of the California Avocado Commission. They were the mafia
of of avocados back in the day, and they controlled
(09:33):
a lot of what happened of the pricing of avocados.
I mean, they were expensive back then. They're expensive today,
but not as as expensive as they could be.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
But what had happened was with NAFTA.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
When NAFTA passed and what was it, ninety two ninety three,
everything was allowed to be imported exported between Mexico, Canada
and the US. But there were some exceptions, and one
of them was avocados. And the reason was, according to
California or whoever was in charge, the Mexican avocado had
(10:07):
a weavil in it that would contaminate the crop of
the US, so you could only ship them above the
freeze line in the US. And of course the major
demand for avocados was in Texas and Florida, and so
they didn't allowed for a few years only because the
California Avocado Commission growers they wanted to go into Mexico
and start controlling the farms and uh, and they did.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
They started buying up a lot of these production facilities
and packing.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Facilities, and then once they got control of Mexico's avocados,
they said, hey, okay, you can you can.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Bring them in. We've resolved the weevil.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Issue, and they started importing them from Mexico. So, uh,
Mexico produces something like seven or eight times what the
US does.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
And and and.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
It's a it's actually a great avocado because of the
soil that they're the most of the farms in mite
Conon where they're at, where they're located. But that's one
of the reasons why also the cartel got involved in avocados.
They are now extorting money from the farmers. They would
get the records of how any they don't call them acres,
but acres that they own, and they would charge them
(11:18):
attacks if you will, on their land. And that's caused
big problems as well. But it's because they call it
green gold. It's just it's just there's a lot of
money in avocados because they for one, you know, California.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Doesn't have.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
The same amount of land that used to have to
grow avocados. A lot of it's been given up to development.
Plus it's a water issue, believe it or not. It
takes eighteen gallons of water to produce one single avocado.
And obviously Mexico has it. In the US doesn't, California
doesn't have it.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
But I love avocados. It's my favorite fruit.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
As a matter of fact, I do too.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I love them, and you know Eddie Martini is allergic
to them. Eddie Martini is allergic avocados and bananas, two
of my favorite things in the world. Can you imagine
living your life like that? That's a y me god
kind of question.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
So why do avocados go bad shortly after you cut
into them?
Speaker 4 (12:14):
That's a good question. I mean they just oxidize. I
guess I.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Need you to note that answer by the next time
I talk to you. Can you ask Steven Gonzales at Houston
Avocado I will, because I bet he knows.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I bet he does. The actual reason.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
As a matter of fact, his boss, Mark used to
own an avocado farm in Mexico until the cartel took
it over and told him, Hey, if you want to
come get it.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
They literally told him that. He so, now you can
have it.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Wow, I mean you think about I mean, I wonder
what percentage of American consumption of avocados, which has to
be massive. I wonder what percentage is text mex restaurants.
I bet it's a good, good percentage. I wonder if
it's over half. Could be Oh, easily when you walk
into a restaurant easily, and you you are always going
(13:01):
into restaurants, learning from them, mentoring them, and enjoying them
a lot of people in your industry don't, like they
never have anything nice to say about other restaurants, and
that creeps me out, like why do you you have
to run everybody down to help yourself but you never
do that. When you walk into a restaurant, what is
something you see that you say this place is going
(13:22):
to succeed? And what is something you see that you go, well,
they're going to need to fix this or they're not
going to make it great question?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
So yes, I love to go into restaurants and get
that first impression when you walk in, what do you see?
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Because it's you know, in the restaurant industry, we deal
with all the senses, all.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Of them, and I like to look at just how
the staff are interacting throughout the restaurant. I like to
see what the lighting looks like. Lighting is so important.
People don't realize how important is and how it can
make or break and experience, especially for women because they
(14:04):
don't like a bright restaurant for whatever reason.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
But anyway, you know, how does the restaurant smell?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I mean, you know they're if you go into some
casinos now, they have their own dedicated scent being pumped
throughout the entire property because over time, uh, with mopping
and all the chemicals they use, uh, you know, with
mopping and cleaning, that's what the property starts to smell like.
And we've actually been talking with a company that provides
(14:32):
sense because we've talked about it. We're looking for a
spice scent of some sort to to uh to send
our restaurants with. We're testing it, but you know there's
UH so we look at that noise levels. Noise levels
are also critical because you should be able to have
a conversation across the table without screaming. And I don't
know about you, my hearing is not the same.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So I'm at and a lot of restaurants I get
the sense that they have designed to intentionally be loud
with harsh surfaces.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That bounce sound.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
And I don't jat at all, and especially I'm fifty four,
but you see older people out in public and that
bothers them. You know, you can see that, huh huh,
and it's not fun. Before before my dad got his
hearing aids, he didn't he wouldn't go He did not
want to go out with us to eat because he
couldn't hear because the sound, the ambient sound, was so
(15:28):
distracting to him. And you know, younger people don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I'll tell you.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
The other thing gets on my nerves has nothing to
do with you, is well it kind of does. Menus Now,
somehow they shrunk the font. They're using a font what
looks like about one. And as I've gotten older, I
can't read that small And I don't know why they
don't understand that older people need a little more, a
little need to be able to see.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
What's on the damn menu? Do you find that?
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Yeah? I do, But I mean that's why I carry
readers with me wherever I go.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I almost feel like I'm disabled if I don't have
a pair with me. But one thing that has to
go away is the QR code for menus.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Oh us, So that makes me crazy.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I want to read a menu holder men You feel
them and you touch it, you know, run it through
my fingers, what kind of what quality of paper was
it printed on? And and to I don't want to
have to go to my phone to read you. Oh
it drives me crazy. Russell Lebar is our guest whole type.
Don't you call me?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Don't you call me a chicken, Michael, Mary.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
We're talking to Russell Lebara, the founder and CEO of
Gringos Text mex dot com. But he calls himself the
master Enchilada Roller because it doesn't like it doesn't like
overly fancy things. He'd rather be the everyman, just like
anyone in his company, and I like that. We were
talking about the QR codes before we went to break
(17:03):
the QR codes at restaurants where they don't want to
print the menu, they want you to go to it
on your phone.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
I was at brass Ree nineteen years ago, before I
ever knew Charles Clark, and I went in and there
was or maybe I knew him by them, but they said,
would you like to see the wine list? And I
said I would, and they brought out an iPad and
I said, so I started, and I said, do you
have a wine list printed out? He goes, sure, I'll
(17:31):
get that for you, and I said, here, take your
iPad back because I don't want to acidentally walk out
with it. So the next day I'm talking about how
I don't like this trend of putting wines on an iPad.
And I was at a fancy restaurant, and I didn't
say where it was. So a month or so later,
I'm talking to Charles Clark and he said, I'm going
to make sure we always have a printed out menu
(17:52):
for you because I know you hate wine on the iPad.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
And I said, how do you know that?
Speaker 3 (17:57):
He goes, I listened to you every day and I said, yeah,
but I didn't say your name. I wouldn't have done that,
he goes, I was the first person in town to
do that. I know who it was. I know you
would have seen that at our place. And I said, wow,
that's that's really good. But that goes back way back.
That's been kind of one of my things. But some
people really seem to enjoy that because then you get
to see the label and the whole thing. So I
(18:19):
guess to each his own. So tell me three places.
Because you eat out more than anybody I know, and
you're always trying new restaurants, tell me three new restaurants
you've been to in the last six months that you
really liked, and tell me one thing about each that
you really liked.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Why you liked it.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Well, let's see here, And there's been so many of them,
and I like them for different reasons, and they're not
for everyone because I look at them, I guess through
a different lens. For example, Tokyo Madera, a lot of
people like it, a lot of people don't. It's kind
of a nightclub atmosphere. It's very loud.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
But what I like.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
What I like is that the effort they put into
the design, the interior design of that restaurant. It's it's
over the top, and I'm not saying I've learned anything
from it, but I just enjoy it. I go to
the one in Vegas quite often anytime I'm there.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
But that one and then.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Another restaurant that opened up recently, a Mexican restaurant, is
Mexican Sugar out of Dallas.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
They opened up on Dallas Street and they.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Did a nice job of creating a two story space,
which I would never recommend a restaurant open up a
two story restaurant because it's very difficult to manage. But
they did a great job of designing both levels and
I think they're going to do really well there. It's
something unique, and if they hurt anyone in the Inner Loop,
it's going to be Tokomadera because it's kind of the same,
(19:49):
kind of the same model. But another restaurant that opened
up that I've enjoyed a lot is Balboa suf clubh.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Philippi.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Yes, they did a really good job.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
But there's some former exacts of Hillstone or Houston's.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Yeah, and they opened up a location of Dallas. Plus
they have an.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Italian restaurant in the same development called Il Bacco, and
they're doing it just a fantastic is like it?
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Did you like it?
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Only been? I enjoyed it, but I haven't been back.
I've only been twice. B having it back. I've been
to Balbo more often.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
I was just talking to Eddie Martini about those two
restaurants and he was saying how much he likes those two.
He also eats out a lot, but he unlike you.
He eats out because he has a company credit card
and he can eat out at fancy restaurants, not because
he's checking them out.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
And who was the third one? Who was the third
restaurant or did you say it?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Well, I know I already said, yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Balbo was a third Mexican sugar in a Toka. But
there's just there's just so many great restaurants. Houston has
a revenue restaurant opening every single week. It seems like
like a movie premiere.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
But the pie is not. I don't think the pie
is large enough.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
To support all these restaurants, especially the overhead. Some of
them have the rents that many of them are paying,
are you know, five six seven hundred thousand a year
if not more in some cases, And and I just
don't know how they can make the numbers work.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
But you know, there's always people willing to.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Put money into an invest money in a restaurant, and
a lot of these restaurant tours are able to find
them so well.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Yeah, I think part of that is you got to
be inside the loop to be written about by the
by the food critics. That's where they all hang out,
preferably Montrose, and I think it's oversaturated Montrose and the
heights I think are oversaturated. And then you know folks
like you Open and Laporte and Katie, where none of
(21:51):
the restaurant you know, the Piqual five hundred folks go,
and where the restaurant tours that so desperately want to
be written about by the food critics. So you got
all these restaurants in this little pocket, and then you
got very little outside of that, mostly just chains. And
I think it just opens up an opportunity for folks
like you that say, well, we'll come in and serve
(22:12):
great food at a very good price and not be prissy,
and we won't be written about, but we'll still be
here twenty years from now hopefully.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
Yes, so it's supposed to work.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Remember when we talked about the interview format is when
I say something, then you have to say something more
than a couple of words.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Remember that part.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Yeah, but I want to say something worth saying. Good point. Yes, yes, okay,
that you were going to ask me something about my book.
I was How did you know that because you mentioned
it earlier?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Oh yes, I was so. Rush Limbaugh wrote two books.
And this is a guy who created content for three
hours a day for many many years and was the
best ever at it on the radio. He wrote two
books that were fabulously successful, financially, commercially, professionally.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
You name it.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And he said, I want A caller called up and said,
you know, you got to write another book. I read
your books. I love your books. And he said, I
won't do it, and he said, it's not for me.
I don't have an iron butt, and I just don't
have you know, when I get up out of the
seat from doing my show, I don't want to sit
down and write. It's harder than people realized. How was
(23:20):
the writing process for you compared to what you expected
it to be.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Well, mostly the.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Editing part that was the most challenging. But the content.
I'd actually been writing a lot of it over the years,
and I've already started keeping a I already have a
list going of all these different stories I want to
put in my next one? Should I write the next one?
And uh, because they're always these stories are always popping up.
I mean they just they just kind of create themselves
(23:47):
through through conversations with other people. A prime example this
my nephew called me a few days ago because he
wanted to open I knew the owner of this particular restaurant.
And the reason wanted to know was because he wanted
to take his wife there that night to celebrate her birthday,
and he wanted them to put on the marquee Happy
(24:09):
birthday so and so and so, And the reason was
because they had already they quoted him two hundred and
fifty dollars. Now, he had never been to this restaurant.
It's a very nice steakhouse and one I had never
heard of. But anyway, two hundred and fifty dollars just
seemed very very steep. But this restaurant missed an opportunity
(24:32):
to put the letters up. Let's say fifty dollars or
one hundred dollars or whatever, something more reasonable. But it's
like they said two hundred and fifty because we're doing
you a favor, and yet they missed the entire transaction
because they ended up going to another restaurant, and they
would have posted on social media and really probably helped
drive a few more tables there and maybe been a
regular guest.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
But why do you make those kinds? How can a
restaurant tour make those kind of mistakes? I don't understand it.
In such a competitive environment, I would have said, yes, sir,
we'll put it up, no problem, We'll do it for.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Free, right hold right there?
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Russell r Is our guest.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
More with him, will fart hard for the freedom to
hold the Michael Barry Show. Russell Labar is our guest
and talking about secrets of success.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
How you accomplish your goals, how you order your life,
Lessons learned, failures learned from And he's always embraced his
failures with me. And that's something I appreciate because when
I talk to people, whether on air or off, I
will often ask, almost always ask them, tell me a
(25:49):
major failure in your life and why that failure occurred.
Because if we let's say somebody opens a restaurant and
they open a rent. They have five restaurants, and they're
about to open their sixth and they open it and
it fails, and I say, what did you think was
(26:10):
going to happen? That didn't happen because nobody thinks they're
going to open a failed restaurant. They thought that the
neighborhood would be more supportive, or they thought that that
street had more traffic, or whatever it is. I think
we learned a lot from that. But you've also had
a number of successes, Russell lebar. When you look at
your life and things that you have succeeded at, where
(26:33):
do you see your successes.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Well, obviously it's been attracting the right people.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
I mean, I know, I'll keep going back to that,
but that's that's again that is what we are. We're
a collection of just people that share common interest and
common goals. But you know, most of our failures happened
during my twenties, and I call those are my college years,
(27:06):
if you want to call them that. But I learned
a lot and I'm grateful that I did, and I'm
grateful that everything that happened happened. But uh, you know,
going forward, you know, I don't want to have any
ferry that that would just destroy everything we've done. But
you know, we have to approach, you know, especially living
(27:30):
in such a litigious society. We we we have a
dispute right now going on with a team member, an
accident that happened. And you know, I've always been proud
of the fact that we've been involved in very few
lawsuits over the years, very very few. And sometimes you
(27:51):
have to see again, see the larger picture and not
uh say it's your way of the highway, and then
and then fight to the end and still end up
paying what you would have paid if you just settled
way back.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
And so I believe in you knowing locking hands instead
of locking horns. And we've been we've been.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Very successful at staying out of a lot of lawsuits
for that, and I consider those for some people being failures,
even though they may have thought they won. And yeah,
like I share some wild stories with you about family
members soon as family members. I mean, it's ridiculous sometimes,
but some people are determined to prove that they were right,
(28:33):
and they did, but it just cost them how many
hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal piece?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (28:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Percy Forman a very famous criminal defense attorney in Houston
many years ago. He was like the Flee Bailey of
his day, springing the OJ Simpson's of the era. And
he had a client who everybody knew was guilty and
he managed to get him off. And the story goes
that a newspaper reporter said, mister, mister Foreman, mister Foreman,
(29:04):
don't you doesn't it bother you that your client was
guilty and you got him off? And he said no.
He said, don't you think he should have to pay?
And he said, oh, he's going to pay dearly. And
the point was he got a Rolls Royce out of
the deal. And that's how the guy was going to
It was going to cost him a lot of money,
just maybe not maybe not going to prison.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
You mentioned lawsuits, Russell lebar.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
And one of the things when I talked to business
owners is, uh, everybody understands that that if you're in
the wrong, there should be a course, a recourse, or
a victim to make that right. Nobody has a problem
with that. It's the frivolous stuff that gets you. You
shared publicly a picture of a woman who walked into
(29:52):
one of your restaurants, I don't know which location, and
she looked around make sure nobody could see her, and
then she fell on the ground and proceeded to do
a snow angel and told everybody that the floor was
slick and she had fallen, and she wanted to you know,
several hundred thousand dollars or whatever. I don't know if
you remember the details of that case. How often does
(30:14):
that happen?
Speaker 4 (30:17):
More often than you might think. But we just have
people just falling over. I mean, those just be walking
and fall over.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
I when I travel to other countries and I look
at their sidewalks, their roads and everything, and I'm thinking, wow.
I mean, I went to a restaurant the other day
in Columbia and there were steps everywhere, and I'm thinking
in the US, it just couldn't happen because people be
tripping and falling everywhere. Yeah, it's it's ridiculous, but you know,
(30:51):
we have liability insurance property liability insurance, and the problem
with that, believe it or not, is it takes us
out of the equation where there is a dispute or
an alleged accident of some sort, and the insurance companies
they just settle. Unfortunately, they just they don't fight these
cases and they'll set all fifty seventy five one hundred thousand.
(31:15):
We had a guest and an team member one time
bump heads. They each turned around at the same time
and bumped heads. Of course, our team members fine, but
this this guest sued and was awarded one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
Well settled. The insurance companies settled with them.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
So they they just figured it's scheaper, they just figured
it's super to settle.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Well, then, you know assaulting that most people don't understand.
And this is this is the economics of it all,
is that that hundred thousand dollars, while the check was
written by the business owner, the person who's going to
end up paying that is the customer. So rolled into
every ten dollars you spend at a restaurant, is this
(31:57):
many pennies or this many dollars for lawsuits, and this
many dollars for avocados, and this many dollars for the rent,
and this many dollars for the air conditioning and that's
one of those things, and this many dollars for theft,
and so the rest of us pay for that nonsense.
So that's that's what makes it even worse. People have
this idea that there's the rich business owner and it's
(32:18):
good he should have to give up some of what
he has.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
He's not going to pay for it. It's going to be
passed on to the customer.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Well, if there's one bit of advice I could give
all business owners actually is making sure that every employee
signed a binding arbitration agreement.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
Because.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
It forces if there is an incident, it does force
their attorneys to have to work for it rather than
resolve it through an insurance company.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
And a lot of lawyers just want to send a
demand letter and get forty percent of what you're willing
to settle for before you have to engage in an
outside firm.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And that is the reality. Russell Lebara, I've kept you.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Longer than you agreed to stay, but you've been very
gracious with your time and very candid with your answers,
and I appreciate it, and I know our listeners do
it as well.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I appreciate all you do for our veterans with PTSD IT.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Camp Hope, all you do for your employees, your customers,
and our community.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
And I value and appreciate your friendship. Thanks for being
with FIN.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Thank you, Michael, appreciate its forgiving me.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Thank you, and good night,
It's that time time, time, time, Luck and Load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
From Michael Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Up the bar with our guest and we're talking business secrets,
the secrets of the secret sauce, as I like to
call it, of what makes your business run. An Oracle,
the fellow at Oracle who is behind NetSuite, which is
their AI machine learning package for business owners, is a
fan of the show and loves what we do and
(00:44):
wanted to sponsor when we have business interviews, and we
said absolutely, And you can get the Chief Financial Officer
the cfo's guide to AI and machine learning at NetSuite
dot com forward slash my last name netsweet dot com,
Berry NetSuite dot com slash Barry Russell. You talk about Sybelo,
(01:07):
Texas and opening a location in San Antone and are
outside of San anton and that's not your core.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I mean, I can see the.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Immediate challenge being most people there don't know what Gringos is.
Yet You've got such market equity in the greater Houston
area and that's a lot of capital to start in
a location like that. I know you're a guy that
studies and learns and asks a lot of questions. How
do you ramp up your name id to get people
(01:38):
in the door.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Well, I believe for starters are our building will have
a lot of carbon bills, so we're going to deliver
there for sure.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
And you know, we went to our furthest location now.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Is College Station only you could almost say that's kind
of Houston in a way because how connected the two
cities are. But College Station was our number two volume
store in twenty twenty four, and so that tells us
a couple of things that the brand has definitely a
(02:14):
market recognition already, and being that far away from from
the Houston market, but the suburbs again, I think we can,
we can, we can thrive there, and we'll know soon
enough because we'll be opening in Civilo hopefully by the
end of next year, in twenty twenty six. And as
(02:35):
a matter of fact, we had a meeting today on
the site, the site layout. That's gonna be a beautiful
location and and our Tombaugh.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
Opens up later this year. But you know, we we
have to test at some point.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
You know, as you well know Lupid Dirtias and Chewies
and all these brands, text Mactus is just popular and
that's that's the good thing about it, and we'll just
you know, go in and do what we do better
and and focus there and if we as long as
we deliver where we're supposed to do, we should do okay.
And we're not concerned about that, concerned about the stuff,
(03:09):
no gread no, just that we're just concerned about what
we can what We only focus on what we can control, and.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
That's the people on our seats. And that's it.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
We Every guest is important, every every meal. That's our
first core value, developing guest relationships, one mill at that time.
Every single meal we serve is important.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, it's it's a tough business.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I think people don't realize, you know, you always say
you're only as good as the last meal you've served.
It's funny how people there's a there's a meme that
goes around and I'll see about once a year and
it'll be this idea that you can have ninety nine
great meals at a locally owned restaurant around the corner
(03:50):
and on the hundred that's bad, and you go online
and you criticize the place having never complemented them online,
whereas you go to walmartin have a bad experience or
some national chain and have a bad experience and you
don't think to complain. And it was about supporting local
businesses for this very reason. In your business, that's the
(04:11):
tough part is you've got a lot of moving parts,
you got inventory that can spoil. You know, it has
to be delivered on time. You know all these things,
and it's easy to mess up. It's easier to mess
up than not. I have to ask you, Russell Lebara
Gringoes texmax dot com.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I have to ask you.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
It feels like I moved to Houston in nineteen eighty nine.
So my first eighteen years in Orange, we only had
two little Mexican joints, the Casa Ola and then we
had a local joint called Guadalajara, and it wasn't anything fancy,
but we loved it.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
It was good food. It was a Mexican family that
owned it.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And I moved to Houston and I was shocked at
how tex mex seemed to be everywhere, but it wasn't
nearly as prominent as it is now. It feels like,
I mean, it's the number one concept in America by far.
Why do you think textmes has exploded at least in
the Greater Houston area over the last thirty years or
has it always been this big.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
It's always been big relative to the population. But I
will say that there's a lot of value in text
added value in tex Mex. When you sit down, you're
automatically delivered a basket of chips and salsa, which a
lot of restaurants, casual dining restaurants, burger joints, what happen
(05:31):
you don't get that. And in our case, we also
provide the green sauce and the free ice cream as
you leave the restaurant. So those are those just bring
a lot of value to the experience, and it's unlimited.
I mean, you know, a lot of restaurants, like a Chilis,
they charge for this kind of stuff, and I think
that's one of the benefits of the restaurant tex Mex
(05:53):
restaurant industry as a whole. But you know, at the
end of the day, though, I mean, obviously you have
to pass on those calls through your pricing, but you know,
we we just know where we need to be on
our food costs. We know where our label needs to be,
and we also know where our volume needs to be.
And if we can hit hit on all cylinders, then
we can make money. But again, our focus is in
(06:16):
the individual experience.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
We don't.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
We don't, you know, put the cart before the horse,
because you know, you can go sounds real fast in
this business.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, And I think that's why so many fail. I
mean almost almost every restaurant does fail. And it's you know,
as a consumer. You know, I've spent a lot of
time studying restaurants by talking to people like you and
asking questions and going into your kitchen and.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Comparing notes and all this.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And everybody, every consumer wants to be a reviewer, so
so they can be very critical of restaurants.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And that's fine.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
It holds you to a high standard that makes you
want to try harder and all that, but the understanding
of how hard it is to liver. I mean, if
I cook a meal for the family, I'm going to
screw most everything up because when I do do it,
everyone's all excited until they eat, and I mess something
up every time, and it's frustrating. Imagine trying to do
that over and over and over again.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
It's tough.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
So if you hadn't done hospitality, if you had not
done restaurants, what do you think you would have done.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Oh, without a doubt. I've been in cells of some sort.
If I believe in something, I can sell it. As
a matter of fact, when I was selling for Elmetador
and I was calling on these restaurants, I had one
particular restaurant I would visit him and he knew our
family was in the restaurant business. But he told me
that my face, Russall, I would never buy from you.
That was a challenge to me. Seven months later he
(07:42):
was buying from me and we became friends.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
So cells.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
I love sales, and I almost went into it prior
to opening Gringos because I was trying to find my
place in this world and it was actually going to
be selling a high production corn and plumb tor tea
equipment California. Yeah, there was a really good company out to.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Launch equipment company. And as a matter of fact, my
brothers have a full part of.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Tea line from them that's probably over, I don't know,
one hundred and fifty feet long, which it's incredible to
watch fully automated from the from the dough to the
package product.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
It's fun to one.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Your big mister Michael Berry, Russell levarg Is, I guess
Ringo's tex smex is his primary restaurant.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
He also has Jimmy Changa's, and he has a lot more.
But we're talking business principles with him. Normally, when I
talk to Russell, it's about humanitarian things. It's about all
the good he does for Camp Hope, It's about all
the good he does for community, all the good he
does for his employees. Today we're talking business principles and
his life. And I love to do these interviews because
(08:55):
I find it interesting. I like to ask questions, and
I think some of you do as well. You were
saying about importing avocados.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Yeah, so the avocados Mexico.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Avocados from Mexico.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Used to only be allowed in the US if you
remove the seed. And of course we all know what
happens once you cut into an avocado. That shelf life
there's just hours, really and so and that was done
because of the California Avocado Commission. They were the mafia
of of avocados back in the day, and they controlled
(09:33):
a lot of what happened of the pricing of avocados.
I mean, they were expensive back then. They're expensive today,
but not as as expensive as they could be.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
But what had happened was with NAFTA.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
When NAFTA passed and what was it, ninety two ninety three,
everything was allowed to be imported exported between Mexico, Canada
and the US. But there were some exceptions, and one
of them was avocados. And the reason was, according to
California or whoever was in charge, the Mexican avocado had
(10:07):
a weavil in it that would contaminate the crop of
the US, so you could only ship them above the
freeze line in the US. And of course the major
demand for avocados was in Texas and Florida, and so
they didn't allowed for a few years only because the
California Avocado Commission growers they wanted to go into Mexico
and start controlling the farms and uh, and they did.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
They started buying up a lot of these production facilities
and packing.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Facilities, and then once they got control of Mexico's avocados,
they said, hey, okay, you can you can.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Bring them in. We've resolved the weevil.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Issue, and they started importing them from Mexico. So, uh,
Mexico produces something like seven or eight times what the
US does.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
And and and.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
It's a it's actually a great avocado because of the
soil that they're the most of the farms in mite
Conon where they're at, where they're located. But that's one
of the reasons why also the cartel got involved in avocados.
They are now extorting money from the farmers. They would
get the records of how any they don't call them acres,
but acres that they own, and they would charge them
(11:18):
attacks if you will, on their land. And that's caused
big problems as well. But it's because they call it
green gold. It's just it's just there's a lot of
money in avocados because they for one, you know, California.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Doesn't have.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
The same amount of land that used to have to
grow avocados. A lot of it's been given up to development.
Plus it's a water issue, believe it or not. It
takes eighteen gallons of water to produce one single avocado.
And obviously Mexico has it. In the US doesn't, California
doesn't have it.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
But I love avocados. It's my favorite fruit.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
As a matter of fact, I do too.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I love them, and you know Eddie Martini is allergic
to them. Eddie Martini is allergic avocados and bananas, two
of my favorite things in the world. Can you imagine
living your life like that? That's a y me god
kind of question.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
So why do avocados go bad shortly after you cut
into them?
Speaker 4 (12:14):
That's a good question. I mean they just oxidize. I
guess I.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Need you to note that answer by the next time
I talk to you. Can you ask Steven Gonzales at Houston
Avocado I will, because I bet he knows.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I bet he does. The actual reason.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
As a matter of fact, his boss, Mark used to
own an avocado farm in Mexico until the cartel took
it over and told him, Hey, if you want to
come get it.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
They literally told him that. He so, now you can
have it.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Wow, I mean you think about I mean, I wonder
what percentage of American consumption of avocados, which has to
be massive. I wonder what percentage is text mex restaurants.
I bet it's a good, good percentage. I wonder if
it's over half. Could be Oh, easily when you walk
into a restaurant easily, and you you are always going
(13:01):
into restaurants, learning from them, mentoring them, and enjoying them
a lot of people in your industry don't, like they
never have anything nice to say about other restaurants, and
that creeps me out, like why do you you have
to run everybody down to help yourself but you never
do that. When you walk into a restaurant, what is
something you see that you say this place is going
(13:22):
to succeed? And what is something you see that you go, well,
they're going to need to fix this or they're not
going to make it great question?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
So yes, I love to go into restaurants and get
that first impression when you walk in, what do you see?
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Because it's you know, in the restaurant industry, we deal
with all the senses, all.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Of them, and I like to look at just how
the staff are interacting throughout the restaurant. I like to
see what the lighting looks like. Lighting is so important.
People don't realize how important is and how it can
make or break and experience, especially for women because they
(14:04):
don't like a bright restaurant for whatever reason.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
But anyway, you know, how does the restaurant smell?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I mean, you know they're if you go into some
casinos now, they have their own dedicated scent being pumped
throughout the entire property because over time, uh, with mopping
and all the chemicals they use, uh, you know, with
mopping and cleaning, that's what the property starts to smell like.
And we've actually been talking with a company that provides
(14:32):
sense because we've talked about it. We're looking for a
spice scent of some sort to to uh to send
our restaurants with. We're testing it, but you know there's
UH so we look at that noise levels. Noise levels
are also critical because you should be able to have
a conversation across the table without screaming. And I don't
know about you, my hearing is not the same.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So I'm at and a lot of restaurants I get
the sense that they have designed to intentionally be loud
with harsh surfaces.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That bounce sound.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
And I don't jat at all, and especially I'm fifty four,
but you see older people out in public and that
bothers them. You know, you can see that, huh huh,
and it's not fun. Before before my dad got his
hearing aids, he didn't he wouldn't go He did not
want to go out with us to eat because he
couldn't hear because the sound, the ambient sound, was so
(15:28):
distracting to him. And you know, younger people don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I'll tell you.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
The other thing gets on my nerves has nothing to
do with you, is well it kind of does. Menus Now,
somehow they shrunk the font. They're using a font what
looks like about one. And as I've gotten older, I
can't read that small And I don't know why they
don't understand that older people need a little more, a
little need to be able to see.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
What's on the damn menu? Do you find that?
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Yeah? I do, But I mean that's why I carry
readers with me wherever I go.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I almost feel like I'm disabled if I don't have
a pair with me. But one thing that has to
go away is the QR code for menus.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Oh us, So that makes me crazy.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I want to read a menu holder men You feel
them and you touch it, you know, run it through
my fingers, what kind of what quality of paper was
it printed on? And and to I don't want to
have to go to my phone to read you. Oh
it drives me crazy. Russell Lebar is our guest whole type.
Don't you call me?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Don't you call me a chicken, Michael, Mary.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
We're talking to Russell Lebara, the founder and CEO of
Gringos Text mex dot com. But he calls himself the
master Enchilada Roller because it doesn't like it doesn't like
overly fancy things. He'd rather be the everyman, just like
anyone in his company, and I like that. We were
talking about the QR codes before we went to break
(17:03):
the QR codes at restaurants where they don't want to
print the menu, they want you to go to it
on your phone.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
I was at brass Ree nineteen years ago, before I
ever knew Charles Clark, and I went in and there
was or maybe I knew him by them, but they said,
would you like to see the wine list? And I
said I would, and they brought out an iPad and
I said, so I started, and I said, do you
have a wine list printed out? He goes, sure, I'll
(17:31):
get that for you, and I said, here, take your
iPad back because I don't want to acidentally walk out
with it. So the next day I'm talking about how
I don't like this trend of putting wines on an iPad.
And I was at a fancy restaurant, and I didn't
say where it was. So a month or so later,
I'm talking to Charles Clark and he said, I'm going
to make sure we always have a printed out menu
(17:52):
for you because I know you hate wine on the iPad.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
And I said, how do you know that?
Speaker 3 (17:57):
He goes, I listened to you every day and I said, yeah,
but I didn't say your name. I wouldn't have done that,
he goes, I was the first person in town to
do that. I know who it was. I know you
would have seen that at our place. And I said, wow,
that's that's really good. But that goes back way back.
That's been kind of one of my things. But some
people really seem to enjoy that because then you get
to see the label and the whole thing. So I
(18:19):
guess to each his own. So tell me three places.
Because you eat out more than anybody I know, and
you're always trying new restaurants, tell me three new restaurants
you've been to in the last six months that you
really liked, and tell me one thing about each that
you really liked.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Why you liked it.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Well, let's see here, And there's been so many of them,
and I like them for different reasons, and they're not
for everyone because I look at them, I guess through
a different lens. For example, Tokyo Madera, a lot of
people like it, a lot of people don't. It's kind
of a nightclub atmosphere. It's very loud.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
But what I like.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
What I like is that the effort they put into
the design, the interior design of that restaurant. It's it's
over the top, and I'm not saying I've learned anything
from it, but I just enjoy it. I go to
the one in Vegas quite often anytime I'm there.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
But that one and then.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Another restaurant that opened up recently, a Mexican restaurant, is
Mexican Sugar out of Dallas.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
They opened up on Dallas Street and they.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Did a nice job of creating a two story space,
which I would never recommend a restaurant open up a
two story restaurant because it's very difficult to manage. But
they did a great job of designing both levels and
I think they're going to do really well there. It's
something unique, and if they hurt anyone in the Inner Loop,
it's going to be Tokomadera because it's kind of the same,
(19:49):
kind of the same model. But another restaurant that opened
up that I've enjoyed a lot is Balboa suf clubh.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Philippi.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Yes, they did a really good job.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
But there's some former exacts of Hillstone or Houston's.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Yeah, and they opened up a location of Dallas. Plus
they have an.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Italian restaurant in the same development called Il Bacco, and
they're doing it just a fantastic is like it?
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Did you like it?
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Only been? I enjoyed it, but I haven't been back.
I've only been twice. B having it back. I've been
to Balbo more often.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
I was just talking to Eddie Martini about those two
restaurants and he was saying how much he likes those two.
He also eats out a lot, but he unlike you.
He eats out because he has a company credit card
and he can eat out at fancy restaurants, not because
he's checking them out.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
And who was the third one? Who was the third
restaurant or did you say it?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Well, I know I already said, yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Balbo was a third Mexican sugar in a Toka. But
there's just there's just so many great restaurants. Houston has
a revenue restaurant opening every single week. It seems like
like a movie premiere.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
But the pie is not. I don't think the pie
is large enough.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
To support all these restaurants, especially the overhead. Some of
them have the rents that many of them are paying,
are you know, five six seven hundred thousand a year
if not more in some cases, And and I just
don't know how they can make the numbers work.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
But you know, there's always people willing to.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Put money into an invest money in a restaurant, and
a lot of these restaurant tours are able to find
them so well.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Yeah, I think part of that is you got to
be inside the loop to be written about by the
by the food critics. That's where they all hang out,
preferably Montrose, and I think it's oversaturated Montrose and the
heights I think are oversaturated. And then you know folks
like you Open and Laporte and Katie, where none of
(21:51):
the restaurant you know, the Piqual five hundred folks go,
and where the restaurant tours that so desperately want to
be written about by the food critics. So you got
all these restaurants in this little pocket, and then you
got very little outside of that, mostly just chains. And
I think it just opens up an opportunity for folks
like you that say, well, we'll come in and serve
(22:12):
great food at a very good price and not be prissy,
and we won't be written about, but we'll still be
here twenty years from now hopefully.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
Yes, so it's supposed to work.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Remember when we talked about the interview format is when
I say something, then you have to say something more
than a couple of words.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Remember that part.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Yeah, but I want to say something worth saying. Good point. Yes, yes, okay,
that you were going to ask me something about my book.
I was How did you know that because you mentioned
it earlier?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Oh yes, I was so. Rush Limbaugh wrote two books.
And this is a guy who created content for three
hours a day for many many years and was the
best ever at it on the radio. He wrote two
books that were fabulously successful, financially, commercially, professionally.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
You name it.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And he said, I want A caller called up and said,
you know, you got to write another book. I read
your books. I love your books. And he said, I
won't do it, and he said, it's not for me.
I don't have an iron butt, and I just don't
have you know, when I get up out of the
seat from doing my show, I don't want to sit
down and write. It's harder than people realized. How was
(23:20):
the writing process for you compared to what you expected
it to be.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Well, mostly the.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Editing part that was the most challenging. But the content.
I'd actually been writing a lot of it over the years,
and I've already started keeping a I already have a
list going of all these different stories I want to
put in my next one? Should I write the next one?
And uh, because they're always these stories are always popping up.
I mean they just they just kind of create themselves
(23:47):
through through conversations with other people. A prime example this
my nephew called me a few days ago because he
wanted to open I knew the owner of this particular restaurant.
And the reason wanted to know was because he wanted
to take his wife there that night to celebrate her birthday,
and he wanted them to put on the marquee Happy
(24:09):
birthday so and so and so, And the reason was
because they had already they quoted him two hundred and
fifty dollars. Now, he had never been to this restaurant.
It's a very nice steakhouse and one I had never
heard of. But anyway, two hundred and fifty dollars just
seemed very very steep. But this restaurant missed an opportunity
(24:32):
to put the letters up. Let's say fifty dollars or
one hundred dollars or whatever, something more reasonable. But it's
like they said two hundred and fifty because we're doing
you a favor, and yet they missed the entire transaction
because they ended up going to another restaurant, and they
would have posted on social media and really probably helped
drive a few more tables there and maybe been a
regular guest.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
But why do you make those kinds? How can a
restaurant tour make those kind of mistakes? I don't understand it.
In such a competitive environment, I would have said, yes, sir,
we'll put it up, no problem, We'll do it for.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Free, right hold right there?
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Russell r Is our guest.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
More with him, will fart hard for the freedom to
hold the Michael Barry Show. Russell Labar is our guest
and talking about secrets of success.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
How you accomplish your goals, how you order your life,
Lessons learned, failures learned from And he's always embraced his
failures with me. And that's something I appreciate because when
I talk to people, whether on air or off, I
will often ask, almost always ask them, tell me a
(25:49):
major failure in your life and why that failure occurred.
Because if we let's say somebody opens a restaurant and
they open a rent. They have five restaurants, and they're
about to open their sixth and they open it and
it fails, and I say, what did you think was
(26:10):
going to happen? That didn't happen because nobody thinks they're
going to open a failed restaurant. They thought that the
neighborhood would be more supportive, or they thought that that
street had more traffic, or whatever it is. I think
we learned a lot from that. But you've also had
a number of successes, Russell lebar. When you look at
your life and things that you have succeeded at, where
(26:33):
do you see your successes.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Well, obviously it's been attracting the right people.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
I mean, I know, I'll keep going back to that,
but that's that's again that is what we are. We're
a collection of just people that share common interest and
common goals. But you know, most of our failures happened
during my twenties, and I call those are my college years,
(27:06):
if you want to call them that. But I learned
a lot and I'm grateful that I did, and I'm
grateful that everything that happened happened. But uh, you know,
going forward, you know, I don't want to have any
ferry that that would just destroy everything we've done. But
you know, we have to approach, you know, especially living
(27:30):
in such a litigious society. We we we have a
dispute right now going on with a team member, an
accident that happened. And you know, I've always been proud
of the fact that we've been involved in very few
lawsuits over the years, very very few. And sometimes you
(27:51):
have to see again, see the larger picture and not
uh say it's your way of the highway, and then
and then fight to the end and still end up
paying what you would have paid if you just settled
way back.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
And so I believe in you knowing locking hands instead
of locking horns. And we've been we've been.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Very successful at staying out of a lot of lawsuits
for that, and I consider those for some people being failures,
even though they may have thought they won. And yeah,
like I share some wild stories with you about family
members soon as family members. I mean, it's ridiculous sometimes,
but some people are determined to prove that they were right,
(28:33):
and they did, but it just cost them how many
hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal piece?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (28:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Percy Forman a very famous criminal defense attorney in Houston
many years ago. He was like the Flee Bailey of
his day, springing the OJ Simpson's of the era. And
he had a client who everybody knew was guilty and
he managed to get him off. And the story goes
that a newspaper reporter said, mister, mister Foreman, mister Foreman,
(29:04):
don't you doesn't it bother you that your client was
guilty and you got him off? And he said no.
He said, don't you think he should have to pay?
And he said, oh, he's going to pay dearly. And
the point was he got a Rolls Royce out of
the deal. And that's how the guy was going to
It was going to cost him a lot of money,
just maybe not maybe not going to prison.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
You mentioned lawsuits, Russell lebar.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
And one of the things when I talked to business
owners is, uh, everybody understands that that if you're in
the wrong, there should be a course, a recourse, or
a victim to make that right. Nobody has a problem
with that. It's the frivolous stuff that gets you. You
shared publicly a picture of a woman who walked into
(29:52):
one of your restaurants, I don't know which location, and
she looked around make sure nobody could see her, and
then she fell on the ground and proceeded to do
a snow angel and told everybody that the floor was
slick and she had fallen, and she wanted to you know,
several hundred thousand dollars or whatever. I don't know if
you remember the details of that case. How often does
(30:14):
that happen?
Speaker 4 (30:17):
More often than you might think. But we just have
people just falling over. I mean, those just be walking
and fall over.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
I when I travel to other countries and I look
at their sidewalks, their roads and everything, and I'm thinking, wow.
I mean, I went to a restaurant the other day
in Columbia and there were steps everywhere, and I'm thinking
in the US, it just couldn't happen because people be
tripping and falling everywhere. Yeah, it's it's ridiculous, but you know,
(30:51):
we have liability insurance property liability insurance, and the problem
with that, believe it or not, is it takes us
out of the equation where there is a dispute or
an alleged accident of some sort, and the insurance companies
they just settle. Unfortunately, they just they don't fight these
cases and they'll set all fifty seventy five one hundred thousand.
(31:15):
We had a guest and an team member one time
bump heads. They each turned around at the same time
and bumped heads. Of course, our team members fine, but
this this guest sued and was awarded one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
Well settled. The insurance companies settled with them.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
So they they just figured it's scheaper, they just figured
it's super to settle.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Well, then, you know assaulting that most people don't understand.
And this is this is the economics of it all,
is that that hundred thousand dollars, while the check was
written by the business owner, the person who's going to
end up paying that is the customer. So rolled into
every ten dollars you spend at a restaurant, is this
(31:57):
many pennies or this many dollars for lawsuits, and this
many dollars for avocados, and this many dollars for the rent,
and this many dollars for the air conditioning and that's
one of those things, and this many dollars for theft,
and so the rest of us pay for that nonsense.
So that's that's what makes it even worse. People have
this idea that there's the rich business owner and it's
(32:18):
good he should have to give up some of what
he has.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
He's not going to pay for it. It's going to be
passed on to the customer.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Well, if there's one bit of advice I could give
all business owners actually is making sure that every employee
signed a binding arbitration agreement.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
Because.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
It forces if there is an incident, it does force
their attorneys to have to work for it rather than
resolve it through an insurance company.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
And a lot of lawyers just want to send a
demand letter and get forty percent of what you're willing
to settle for before you have to engage in an
outside firm.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And that is the reality. Russell Lebara, I've kept you.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Longer than you agreed to stay, but you've been very
gracious with your time and very candid with your answers,
and I appreciate it, and I know our listeners do
it as well.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I appreciate all you do for our veterans with PTSD IT.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Camp Hope, all you do for your employees, your customers,
and our community.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
And I value and appreciate your friendship. Thanks for being
with FIN.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Thank you, Michael, appreciate its forgiving me.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Thank you, and good night,
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