January 24, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Russe Lebar is our guest. Ringo's text next Jimmy Chonga's
is so much more. You were talking about building a
culture and how proud you are of the people you
have that have been with you as many as thirty
It's from day one, literally from day one, and that's
unheard of in the hospitality industry. You and I have
had conversations about Johnny Caraba. I think one of the
(00:21):
reasons Carabas is a special restaurant, a special company is
his ability to retain employees for their entire careers. You
go to the Carabas on Vas and there are multiple
waiters there who have children who are also waiters there.
It's a career, not a job for a kid after
they finished high school. He keeps his people for a
(00:43):
long time, and you do too, and there's reasons for that.
You create a great workplace. But I interrupted you. I
had to work up against the break, go ahead and
finish that one if you would.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
What was the thing, Well, I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
We're both we both have dementia. You were talking about
Heather starting with you since she was eighteen. You talking
about a culture and a business that will last beyond
your time.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Oh yes, yes. So I was talking about these chains
that come and go, and there's so many of them.
They start off at a certain level of quality, and
then they get taken over by private equity and these
accountants start driving the brand saying, look if we if
we just cut a little bit here, we'll be able
to save X dollars. And they'll do it and they'll
(01:24):
see the results thinking well, we can probably cut a
little more here or there, and before you know it,
you don't even recognize the brand anymore. And so I
would just share that a story about that recently with Heather,
and I said, you know, we need to get some
watches and I need to pass them down to my
leadership team. And on the face of it, it says
these to say, not on my not on my watch,
because whoever takes over the reins will have to make
(01:48):
big decisions and the last thing they want to do
is is make a decision that's going to drive the
business down and change it what made it successful. There's
a to share something differently. There's a restaurant in Fort Worth.
You may have heard of it, Joe T. Garcia's Yep.
Of course, they've been in business since like nineteen eighteen
(02:09):
or something like that, and this third generation running it.
And you know, when we do site selections, not that
we're going to Fort Worth, but when you do site selections,
you kind of want to look at alcohol cells for
the restaurants that you're going to be here, And just
out of curiosity, I was looking at their alcohol cells
and they're tremendous, soul, tremendous in fact that their alcohol
(02:30):
sales in one month is the equivalent of five or
six gringos alcohol sales in a month. It's phenomenal. But
and their cash only business, which is wild.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But anyway, no, I'm just I'm just processing. I'm sorry,
I'm spellbound. Yeah, wow, i'd slinging a lot of booth.
That is slinging a lot of booth.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
That is.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So tell me about a mistake you made when you started.
I'd love to you're I know you're good at that,
but I want you to tell me about a mistake
you made. No, you know what, I want to go back.
Always tell the story about having to give up the
keys to your vehicle and what a humiliating moment that was,
and how you draw on that energy a lot to
(03:10):
guide you.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Now, well, yes, in my twenty so I lost my
house to foreclosure when I was twenty six years old,
and I returned a vehicle because I could no longer
afford the four hundred and twenty dollars ninety one cent payment.
It was a Ford Bronco, and I remember dropping off
at the dealership and then walking away from it and
then turning around at it to look at it one
last time, and telling myself inside, I'm down, but I'm
(03:34):
not out. And I think that all too often people
define themselves. They defined themselves through failure, and really you're
supposed to fail forward, as John C. Maxwell said, failing forward,
you learn from those mistakes to not repeat them, but
find the lesson in them. And there's so many of them.
And we, for example, and you know, we had opened
(03:54):
Gringos Seafood Kitchen. That was what was it, my two
point eight million dollars seafood platter next to Gringos Max
Kitchen and Stafford and we closed it a year and
three months later. And one of the things I didn't
like about that particular location, besides they didn't have the cells,
was that we were next to the feeder road and
the road noise just drove me crazy. I mean when
you were sitting out there, it was just very, very loud.
(04:16):
So when we opened up Jimmy Changos Katie in twenty thirteen,
we purchased some real estate not on the freeway feeder road,
but just set back just a little bit. Well, we
may have set ourselves back just a little too much,
and so in the future we will never make that
mistake again because it can be very costly, and we
will always only do freeway locations for the most part
(04:39):
in this where within a master plan development that has
enough traffic to support at Gringoes. But there's a lot
of benefit to being on a freeway. I know that
not hurri King, but Waterburger sells on freeway locations versus
off the Beaten Path are just drastically different. So you know,
if you're going to make the investment, you definitely want
(04:59):
to make sure you maximize its potential.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, I learned that one the hard way. I used
to say that the RCC was one thousand feet from
being the hottest place in town. Good fund exactly, if
if only. Yeah, So when you look at today how
you lead, you lead a big operation, you have a
lot of employees. When you look at how you lead today,
(05:25):
how is that different from when you started.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well, I definitely am not as involved in the day
to day operations as I used to be. It's more
of the larger picture of you know, future site developments.
I enjoy always being involved in some way. But you know,
we men, you rolled out items. I like to get
involved in that new drinks, just giving feedback and you know,
(05:50):
we have fun. We'll meet in the in the back
kitchen area of our corporate office and we'll put a
couple of dishes out there or drinks, and we just
go to town and we try to you know, go
with the majority feedback as far as you know what's hot,
what's not, and you know, just be candid. I think
all too often a lot of people are afraid to
be candid. And there's nothing wrong with it. I mean,
(06:13):
your opinion matters, and we want everyone to know that.
So even our corporate office staff that they have a
lot of input in what we do, just because they're
there trying it and letting us know what they think.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Is that. I always wondered about this because I get
to see my people face to face. Jim works from home,
but we communicate thirty times a day. Is it hard
having started with just you and a cook? Is it
hard having grown to the point that you have employees
that you don't get to see or see very often.
(06:47):
And your name, you know, Gringo's text mex is Russell
Lebarrow and everybody knows it. And somebody could walk in
and you know, we're going to have a bad experience, right,
Everyone's going to have a bad experience on occasion. Is
that hard for you having to to let go of
that level of being able to see every person that
comes in the door.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It's Uh. I really did enjoy when we had three locations,
four locations, five, you know, where I could visit every store,
uh every almost not every day, but almost every day,
and and uh interact with the staff, and that's most
of what I enjoy them, you know doing. But as
we've grown, it's it's changed a lot. I enjoy giving
preciates whatever I visit, when the restaurants right before opening,
(07:27):
and and talking to our servers, uh, you know, the
the frontline, UH team that they can impact a visit,
you know, in a positive or negative way. Just they
have that kind of power, you know, And so Uh,
you always have to make the story about them and
how it impacts them, because it's not it's not you
can't tell them, hey, we need you know, seals, or
(07:47):
we need to make that sumner of dollars or whatever. Uh,
it's it's how does it impact them? And and I
always like to tell our servers that, you know, uh.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Hold right there, we're gonna we're gonna come back to
I always like to tell our servers so that you
and I don't forget that since we all seem to
forget thing.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Hold.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Russell Lebara is our guest ringostexmex dot com is his website.
That's where you can buy the book, talk about the
book in a moment. That's where you can learn about
his restaurants, his story, the family story, the business story,
the the story of the people who work there. He
also owns Jimmy Chonga's You said, I always tell employees.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
That, Yes, I always like to tell our servers, Uh
at during appreciate that, you know, working at Gringos. If
they don't make the company part of their long term career,
I want the experience to be one of the best
that they've ever had. And I want them them to
continue developing and mastering a skill set. And it's really
(08:47):
a skill set of communication with the public because it's
something that's being lost because of technology. Everyone has their
face and their phone, and so that they can they
can really take these these skills that they're learning and
apply them in their future careers. And they're all going
to have one. I tell them, Look, thirty years from now,
forty years from now, you're going to be somewhere in
(09:08):
the third that's either on the ground or six feet under,
but you're going to be somewhere. And so why not
start creating tomorrow today? And you can do that just
by working somewhere like a restaurant. I mean, it's a
beautiful thing, it really is. And we have a lot
of servers that earn let's say, one hundred dollar tip
(09:29):
and I always tell them, listen, you earned it, yes,
but it wasn't just the service. The service was important.
But at the end of the day, just like that,
receiving that one hundred dollars tip made you feel good.
You did something so well interacting with this guess that
(09:49):
you made them feel so good that they were willing
to part ways with that one hundred dollars bill, and
you'd be surprised how many servers receive one hundred dollar tip.
And it's incredible. And that's part of the culture that
that is infectious obviously, and and for good reason. But
I just it's just a wonderful thing to create a
working environment where excellence is our motto and always trying
(10:15):
to improve at every level every single day. And and
as long as we continue doing that, it's like a
person in a relay race. There's no way you can
lose that race if you've been given that lead unless
you back down and and and and uh don't continue
moving the same way. But uh, we we just have
(10:35):
a wonderful team and I couldn't speak, you know, about
them more highly than they are.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
But and they feel the same about you. And I
love that Russell Lebar is our guest. I do want
to say thanks to Oracle. They have a product called
net Suite, and they wanted business owners to know about it,
and they knew we were doing business interviews over the
years and one of the guy who's responsible for NetSuite
(11:04):
with Oracle is a fan of our show and loves
what we do and said we'd like to sponsor your
business interviews. Why not. You can get the cfo's Guide
to AI and Machine Learning at NetSuite dot com slash
berry my last name, NetSuite dot com, slash berry. And
(11:27):
the idea is, if you've got data all over the place,
and like Russell Lebarrow, needs to make a decision quickly,
you need your data quickly. You need AI, you need
machine learning. You need that technology because you have manual
entry of everything and manual retrieval and manual processing, and
you can't get your information fast enough. To get the
(11:48):
cfo's Guide to AI and Machine Learning, go to NetSuite
dot com forward slash berry my last name, Russell. When
you talked about servers, you have employed poyees from you know,
bartenders to what used to be called waiters servers. Many
of those become managers. And on a when you hire
(12:10):
somebody or the kitchen, do you have or when you
did hire at that level, now that's for your managers.
Do you have kind of a process that's important that
you'd say, here's the fundamentals of hiring good people.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You know, some people interview very very well, as you
can imagine, but you know, sooner or later, whatever their
personality traits are they come out. But at the end
of the day, I don't think there's such thing as
a bad employee. I really think that's just bad leadership.
And I think that we've just done a good job
(12:44):
at weeding out individuals that just don't really fit us.
And that's a good thing. I mean, we've had people
come and go, but a lot of times they just can't.
They don't buy, they don't drink the kool aid, so
to speak. But yeah, we we just I think my
management team overall does a great job because there is
a certain you know, image you want to portray, you
(13:06):
want your staff to portray. And you know, we've we've
changed the way we've you know, our standards have changed,
only not because we wanted them to, because society has
just evolved. There was a time where you couldn't even
have tattoos, you know, but or even other things that
you know, we've had to change or adapt to because
(13:27):
times are changing, whether it's you know, something like tattoos
or just just quality of life schedules. I mean, we're
doing things that are unheard of twenty thirty years ago.
So you know, we we listen and we try to
pay attention to what's going on within the industry to
(13:50):
remain competitive, because we all, at the end of the day,
compete by comparison, and we want to make sure that
you know we're doing what is expected out in the marketplace.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I was at your Katie location my good friend Stephen Woodard,
DPS trooper. A lot of folks know Woodard, and it
was a Saturday, and went out to see North Shore
play in the state semifinal, which they shockingly did not win.
They were expected to win state this year. It's a
strong team. But afterwards, the stadium was not far from Gringos,
(14:25):
and I said, let's go to Ring Gringos, and of
course he loves Gringos. And we were there and there
was an employee, very pretty light skinned black woman, I
forget her name. She could be a model, and she
had something on her hand that looked almost like a
cast and her arm I can't remember. And I said,
as I'm sitting there, what happened and she said, oh, nothing,
(14:49):
I have a tattoo. We're not you know, you're not.
We're not allowed to show our tattoos at work. And
she doesn't know that I know you. But I took
the opportunity to say, well, I think the owner probably
has a concern that employees make a positive reflection and
some people are bothered by tattoos. But I thought that
was a pretty bold thing because that's saying, yes, you
(15:11):
can still work here, but there are things that may
upset some customers, and it's important that you project the
right image. I don't know how you came to that conclusion.
I just thought it was pretty bold.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah. Well, like I said, our address code has changed
quite a bit, but it's still still positive.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
So we talk about making tough decisions, and everybody wants
to be the person who makes good decisions, tough decisions,
but it's not easy to make tough decisions, and so
the rubber hits the road when a tough decision might
cost you money. So coming up, I'm going to ask
(15:50):
you about what was probably a tough decision for you,
and maybe you made it easily, but it would be
for a lot of people because it's a decision that
costs you money, but it's probably turned out to be
the right thing for your business. Russell Lebarro our guest.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, A
depression is.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
When you lose your It's Michael Verry.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Russell Lebarra is the founder and owner. I don't know
what is Tyler's chairman of the board. I think Jonathan
Kim is the president maybe CEO of Ringo's text mex
but his business card does not say CEO or chairman
of the board or anything else. It says Master Enchiladaoler,
which is designed to reflect his position that I am
(16:38):
the guy that can go in the kitchen and wood
or clean the floors, or wipe down the restrooms or
whatever else. And I love that approach about him, the
servant leader. I wanted to ask you about a tough decision.
And we all talk about tough decisions. You know, you
have to make the tough decision. Everybody says that, but
it's not until you say, Hey, sometimes you got to
(16:59):
kick your kid out because they there's a failure to
launch and they're not they're not leaving. Sometimes you have
to say something that makes someone angry. So I told
you I was at Katie location with Stephen Woodard, my
DPS buddy, a couple of weeks ago, after a football
game and we're sitting there and he was driving me,
so I wasn't driving, so I could drink more than
(17:22):
I would have if I was driving. In fact, my
rule with my wife is her rule is you can
go anywhere you want, you can drink as much as
you want, but if you're drinking, you can't drive. And
so Uber is my friend, or if I'm going with
Uncle Jerry or someone else, I ride with them. And
so I had I can't remember I want to say.
(17:46):
I want to say it was that that orange crush margerite.
Y'all had a specialty marguerite at the time. I don't
remember what it was, but I had to specially margarita.
And then I had another one. No, I didn't, I had.
I had beer that day. I had two beers, and
so I had two beers and I'm ready to have
my third one and We've been there for a while
(18:07):
and I'm not driving, and I'm completely loucid, and I
ordered another one and she said, I'm sorry, sir, I
can't give you a third drink. And I looked at her, like,
you're joking, right am? I slurry? And I said, oh man,
I've been here long enough to process this. And by
the way, I'm not driving, And she said, I'm sorry,
(18:27):
I can't, And I thought, you know, I can respect
that because business liquors where people make their money, especially
in tex mex To have a policy, and I'm sure
you must have problems with people being drunk to say,
we're a family restaurant and we're going to choose to
lose the marginal money that you would spend because at
(18:48):
the point at which you get drunk and some people
would cause a problem. That's a decision of business owners
should be willing to make. Customers can choose whether they
like it or not, and they can choose not to
come back. How tough of a decision was that for you?
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Well, it all has to do with liability. So our
drink policy is no more than four and one of
the drinks you had must have had contained two shots
in it. But it's easier to manage when the policy
is consistent across you know, twenty something locations.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Russell, I need you to answer the questions, but not
out me on what was in my glass. I like
to tell my story the way I want to tell
my story.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Well, it's for drink minimum She did it right, and
as much as I love you, we couldn't bend the
rules for you because then I'm sending the wrong message
to the entire staff.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
She didn't know who I was, but it didn't matter that.
The point was she enforced the rule and I respected
that there was a rule. Now, listen, there will be
people who like to go in and get hammered, and
they would say, I'm mad at you. You didn't sert. Well,
guess what you don't have to eat there. There's a
text max on every quarter you can go. I respect
(20:01):
businesses that are upfront, have their rules, articulate their rules,
and stick to their rules because it's part of a
bigger business concept. Hey, some people aren't good for our restaurant.
We also don't want pedophiles, rapists, ornked people in here,
no matter how much they're going to spend. I mean,
I respect that, I really do. I think that's a
(20:24):
hard thing to do. That's the quote unquote tough decision,
and you may lose money in the short run to
make more money to be a place that people want
to go because you do the right things. I'll give
you a good example. Our mutual friend Beaver applan. I
asked Beaver one time. I said, y'all don't allow eighteen
wheelers at BUCkies and I would have to think that
(20:48):
they buy more gas than anybody. Why don't you let
them in? And he said, families don't want to be
at a truck stop, and truck stops tend to attract
certain things around the truckers, not the truckers themselves. That
families don't want to be around. And so in order
to be what we are, we have to give up
(21:09):
that revenue stream in order to get this one over here.
And I thought, wow, that's the again, tough decision, but
the right decision.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Right. That's the third model at the end of the day,
that's a model.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So you read a lot of books because you are
always reading something and always quoting something from what you're reading.
How do you choose what books you're going to read
and what is your time of day you read? Because
a lot of people say to me that they would
like to read more, and they'll say when do you read?
(21:45):
And I tell them I read on the pot I
read before I go to bed. There are certain times
that I read that if I didn't read a book,
i'd be reading my phone and doom scrolling Twitter or
whatever else, and I get more out of reading. But
have you made a time or when is your time
to read? Because I know you're a big reader.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well, thank god for audio books. But I from my
house to my office is about a thirty minute drive,
so you can knock out quite a bit of a
book just listening on the way to work. So I
do that a lot. But I mostly listen to autobiographies
of people I admire, and that's where I get a
(22:28):
lot of my wisdom, if you will. But there's some
really great material out there.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
There is a lot of great material, and I find,
you know, the term self help has a bad meaning,
and there are guys who are you know, it's a
whole industry like wellness, and I think some of it
is complete pablem But I find there are certain people
that are very good at explaining things in a way
that I can read it and apply it and make
(22:55):
minor improvements to my life. Exercise is very important to you.
Fitness is important to you. Good health is important to you.
Was that always the case or was there a moment
where you made a conscious decision.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
It's mostly been the case throughout my life. But there
was a time in my thirties where I would say
that my core was not where it should have been,
and I had back problems. And ever since then, I've
done sit ups consistently and I've never had a back
problem since. So I like to keep the core up.
(23:31):
For sure, I wouldn't do it. I don't run like
I used to.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
But no, I'm convinced that running is bad for you.
None of that's had so many back problems from running.
I think running is absolutely horrible for You're just absolutely horrible.
Tell me a restaurant that you've eaten at recently. I've
got about thirty seconds in this segment. Tell me a
restaurant you've eaten at recently that impressed you.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Milton's in the Village, Rice Village, owned by Benji Levitt.
He converted a restaurant the second floor he had opened
up a different concept and then closed it shortly after,
but re just reopened it as Milton's Italian Restaurant. And
I probably had the best lasagna that I've ever had anywhere.
(24:21):
But then I went there last night with some friends
and they didn't have the exact same lasagna they had.
They had a vegetarian style lasagna last night. I didn't
order it for that reason, so I'm gonna go back
and get the Bolonnais version of it if he will.
Was because it was excellent, outstanding.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Benji is unafraid of the radar restaurant who open or
close a restaurant Milton named for his grandfather, Milton Levitt.
We're talking to Russell Ibarra Ringos Texmex dot com and
we'll continue.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Add a little bit about these wore houses I know
all about.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Ramon wants to know what around the world as well.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Whistling bunghole spleen splitters, whisker biscuits, honkey riders, hooskerdoes hohosker,
don'ts nips and dazers with it without the scooter stick
or one single whistling kiddy chaser.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Michael Show. Russell Levarro, my friend, mentor and the owner
of Gringo's Text Mex is our guest. You mentioned that
you had a great meal at Milton's, which Benji Levitt
has in Rice Village. You sent me an email of
(25:32):
a conversation between you and Michael Sambrooks, who has a
Text Mex joint called Candente and he is following your lead,
which makes you a mentor of his also, and at
I guess that location he has created similar to your
Plateau Soldado, which gives two dollars per plate to Camp
(25:52):
Hope and ends up being hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's
a lot, a lot of money every year just off
people ordering that dish, and he doing a bendera plate
with very similar When people ask, you're always talking to
another restaurant owner, and often it's someone I think you're
(26:15):
hoping to learn from. You were talking to me about
the the Riz Carlton CEO or the four Seasons. I
can't remember but four seasons. And yet some of the
time it's a one, one shop small business owner that's
meeting with you. What do people ask you when they
meet you and they want to learn from you? What
(26:36):
kind of questions do you typically get?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Well, I mean a lot of them want to know
if their cost of goods are lining up with the
industry standards, and of course everyone's standards are going to
be different depending on their overhead. But I met recently
with a a It was a Puerto Rican Honduras type
restaurant up on the north west side of the town.
The owners reached out to me via Instagram and wanted
(27:04):
to set up a meeting, so we did at my
office and they were just curious about a lot of things.
You know, they're not where they want to be. Their
cost the goods are way too high, their labor is
way too high, and their prices are just way too low.
So that's probably the reason. But I've had several young
entrepreneurs reach out to me. One of them was on
(27:26):
Berto Martinez that owns Space City Bidia downtown Houston, and
his story is unique and it's a prime example of
what it takes to become successful. So this young man
about thirty four years old, he bought a burger franchise.
Those an Israeli burger franchise called im the letters I
(27:47):
Am Burger, and they started popping up all around the
United States. I think they had eight hundred franchises sold
or something. But he opens four months before COVID, so
he's basically dead in the water before he even got started.
And uh so when when final that he was able
to open up, of course never did the cells he
(28:07):
needs to do. He ended up, uh deciding to close
the restaurant and was basically handing the keys to the
landlord and saying, look, I can't make it. And but
he had noticed that there was this new trend of
tacos going around called Biddia Tacos and it's basically my kids, Yeah, okay,
(28:31):
well well yeah, so uh you know, it's like a
cassidia but you know, you get some consummee to dip
your taco in. And he so he opened up this
place called Space City VideA and it's a small restaurant
in downtown but he, uh, he is doing incredible, incredible
(28:51):
numbers and he's already looking for his second location in Parland.
And so we've been kind of Jonathan and I both
have kind of been guiding along to help him negotiate
the lease or look at the terms and uh and
have a plan going forward. But we love doing stuff
like that for people, and you know, and and never
(29:13):
really expecting anything back except maybe a free free taco
or something, but you know. And then I had another
gentleman from up in the Kingwood area that owns local
cantina and he has a restaurant there on the lake
and he is doing really really well, and he reached
out and we've met several times. I've taken him to
(29:34):
the Rockets game now and and but I love surrounding
myself with young entrepreneurs because sometimes I wish I could
go back and start all over again, because it's been
fun and and it's it's it's even it's it's a
lot more fun in the early days because it's new.
It's it's like a child when you're you know, he's
(29:55):
growing up. Everything around them is new, and so in business,
you know that there's something really sweet about that, and
I missed that. So I guess that's one of the
reasons why I have an open line all the time
to entrepreneurs that want to get started and help them
as much as I can.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
There's also something invigorating about the passion of a new owner.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
You know that.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I've known people that had a day job, but they
cooked on the weekend or at night, and they were
good at it, and they save up and then they
quit their job, which man, is such a hard thing
to do. You know, you've got the steady income and
they you know, they're people. What people don't realize is
when you show up first day to eat, you don't
realize that that was just a shell. You know, they
(30:44):
had to build all this stuff out and then to
make all those decisions. Now finally we're ready, we're opening up.
You know how exciting You've told the story before on
you know, opening the blinds on your first day and
waiting on the first car to come in and you
were going to serve them and you had your kitchen
guy in the back. There is something really cool. You
use the word sweet, which I think is is the
(31:05):
right term. There's something cool like, uh, you know when
I talked to Crockett or Michael's friends and I ask them,
you know, what are you going to do this summer
and what are you studying and what and just hearing
there their kind of nervous but ambitious optimism. It's it's invigorating.
It's it's good for me, it's good for the soul.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
It really is, it really is.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
You were supposed to say more than it really is.
You're supposed to add something to that. That's that's how
the interview format works.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I'm practicing, so.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
I love it. I love it. How do you decide
where to put a new location because and the reason
I ask is you've been very successful at location selection
and it's not just a you know, put your finger
to the to the wind. There's a text mex joint
on every corner already. There are competing concepts, there's a
(32:05):
lot of other restaurants, there are many choices. Have you
learned over the years kind of this is what works
for us.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Well, like I've mentioned previously, freeway locations will always be
for us now. But as far as expanding the Gringos chain,
we we have Houston pretty much covered. I mean we
could there are some spots we could probably put other locations,
but we're starting to venture outside the market. We're going
(32:36):
to be opening in Sybelo, Texas or right outside of
San Antonio shirts and then in Kyle, Texas as well,
both on nine thirty five, and then we're looking at
a couple other places, one outside of Austin. But we'll
always remain in the suburbs. That's kind of our lane of.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
This and explain why, and.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Well, well, lots of reasons, but one is a lot
more families in in in the suburbs. There's the real
estate is a lot less expensive in the suburbs, and
and mostly because it's an underserved market. With the level
that we bring to to the market to the to
the marketplace, because I would much rather, you know, be
(33:23):
a big fish in a small pond than vice versa.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
So uh wait, right there, wait wait wait wait right
there Russell Lebara, as our guests, will continue our conversation
with him coming up
Russe Lebar is our guest. Ringo's text next Jimmy Chonga's
is so much more. You were talking about building a
culture and how proud you are of the people you
have that have been with you as many as thirty
It's from day one, literally from day one, and that's
unheard of in the hospitality industry. You and I have
had conversations about Johnny Caraba. I think one of the
(00:21):
reasons Carabas is a special restaurant, a special company is
his ability to retain employees for their entire careers. You
go to the Carabas on Vas and there are multiple
waiters there who have children who are also waiters there.
It's a career, not a job for a kid after
they finished high school. He keeps his people for a
(00:43):
long time, and you do too, and there's reasons for that.
You create a great workplace. But I interrupted you. I
had to work up against the break, go ahead and
finish that one if you would.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
What was the thing, Well, I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
We're both we both have dementia. You were talking about
Heather starting with you since she was eighteen. You talking
about a culture and a business that will last beyond
your time.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Oh yes, yes. So I was talking about these chains
that come and go, and there's so many of them.
They start off at a certain level of quality, and
then they get taken over by private equity and these
accountants start driving the brand saying, look if we if
we just cut a little bit here, we'll be able
to save X dollars. And they'll do it and they'll
(01:24):
see the results thinking well, we can probably cut a
little more here or there, and before you know it,
you don't even recognize the brand anymore. And so I
would just share that a story about that recently with Heather,
and I said, you know, we need to get some
watches and I need to pass them down to my
leadership team. And on the face of it, it says
these to say, not on my not on my watch,
because whoever takes over the reins will have to make
(01:48):
big decisions and the last thing they want to do
is is make a decision that's going to drive the
business down and change it what made it successful. There's
a to share something differently. There's a restaurant in Fort Worth.
You may have heard of it, Joe T. Garcia's Yep.
Of course, they've been in business since like nineteen eighteen
(02:09):
or something like that, and this third generation running it.
And you know, when we do site selections, not that
we're going to Fort Worth, but when you do site selections,
you kind of want to look at alcohol cells for
the restaurants that you're going to be here, And just
out of curiosity, I was looking at their alcohol cells
and they're tremendous, soul, tremendous in fact that their alcohol
(02:30):
sales in one month is the equivalent of five or
six gringos alcohol sales in a month. It's phenomenal. But
and their cash only business, which is wild.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But anyway, no, I'm just I'm just processing. I'm sorry,
I'm spellbound. Yeah, wow, i'd slinging a lot of booth.
That is slinging a lot of booth.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
That is.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So tell me about a mistake you made when you started.
I'd love to you're I know you're good at that,
but I want you to tell me about a mistake
you made. No, you know what, I want to go back.
Always tell the story about having to give up the
keys to your vehicle and what a humiliating moment that was,
and how you draw on that energy a lot to
(03:10):
guide you.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Now, well, yes, in my twenty so I lost my
house to foreclosure when I was twenty six years old,
and I returned a vehicle because I could no longer
afford the four hundred and twenty dollars ninety one cent payment.
It was a Ford Bronco, and I remember dropping off
at the dealership and then walking away from it and
then turning around at it to look at it one
last time, and telling myself inside, I'm down, but I'm
(03:34):
not out. And I think that all too often people
define themselves. They defined themselves through failure, and really you're
supposed to fail forward, as John C. Maxwell said, failing forward,
you learn from those mistakes to not repeat them, but
find the lesson in them. And there's so many of them.
And we, for example, and you know, we had opened
(03:54):
Gringos Seafood Kitchen. That was what was it, my two
point eight million dollars seafood platter next to Gringos Max
Kitchen and Stafford and we closed it a year and
three months later. And one of the things I didn't
like about that particular location, besides they didn't have the cells,
was that we were next to the feeder road and
the road noise just drove me crazy. I mean when
you were sitting out there, it was just very, very loud.
(04:16):
So when we opened up Jimmy Changos Katie in twenty thirteen,
we purchased some real estate not on the freeway feeder road,
but just set back just a little bit. Well, we
may have set ourselves back just a little too much,
and so in the future we will never make that
mistake again because it can be very costly, and we
will always only do freeway locations for the most part
(04:39):
in this where within a master plan development that has
enough traffic to support at Gringoes. But there's a lot
of benefit to being on a freeway. I know that
not hurri King, but Waterburger sells on freeway locations versus
off the Beaten Path are just drastically different. So you know,
if you're going to make the investment, you definitely want
(04:59):
to make sure you maximize its potential.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, I learned that one the hard way. I used
to say that the RCC was one thousand feet from
being the hottest place in town. Good fund exactly, if
if only. Yeah, So when you look at today how
you lead, you lead a big operation, you have a
lot of employees. When you look at how you lead today,
(05:25):
how is that different from when you started.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well, I definitely am not as involved in the day
to day operations as I used to be. It's more
of the larger picture of you know, future site developments.
I enjoy always being involved in some way. But you know,
we men, you rolled out items. I like to get
involved in that new drinks, just giving feedback and you know,
(05:50):
we have fun. We'll meet in the in the back
kitchen area of our corporate office and we'll put a
couple of dishes out there or drinks, and we just
go to town and we try to you know, go
with the majority feedback as far as you know what's hot,
what's not, and you know, just be candid. I think
all too often a lot of people are afraid to
be candid. And there's nothing wrong with it. I mean,
(06:13):
your opinion matters, and we want everyone to know that.
So even our corporate office staff that they have a
lot of input in what we do, just because they're
there trying it and letting us know what they think.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Is that. I always wondered about this because I get
to see my people face to face. Jim works from home,
but we communicate thirty times a day. Is it hard
having started with just you and a cook? Is it
hard having grown to the point that you have employees
that you don't get to see or see very often.
(06:47):
And your name, you know, Gringo's text mex is Russell
Lebarrow and everybody knows it. And somebody could walk in
and you know, we're going to have a bad experience, right,
Everyone's going to have a bad experience on occasion. Is
that hard for you having to to let go of
that level of being able to see every person that
comes in the door.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It's Uh. I really did enjoy when we had three locations,
four locations, five, you know, where I could visit every store,
uh every almost not every day, but almost every day,
and and uh interact with the staff, and that's most
of what I enjoy them, you know doing. But as
we've grown, it's it's changed a lot. I enjoy giving
preciates whatever I visit, when the restaurants right before opening,
(07:27):
and and talking to our servers, uh, you know, the
the frontline, UH team that they can impact a visit,
you know, in a positive or negative way. Just they
have that kind of power, you know, And so Uh,
you always have to make the story about them and
how it impacts them, because it's not it's not you
can't tell them, hey, we need you know, seals, or
(07:47):
we need to make that sumner of dollars or whatever. Uh,
it's it's how does it impact them? And and I
always like to tell our servers that, you know, uh.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Hold right there, we're gonna we're gonna come back to
I always like to tell our servers so that you
and I don't forget that since we all seem to
forget thing.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Hold.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Russell Lebara is our guest ringostexmex dot com is his website.
That's where you can buy the book, talk about the
book in a moment. That's where you can learn about
his restaurants, his story, the family story, the business story,
the the story of the people who work there. He
also owns Jimmy Chonga's You said, I always tell employees.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
That, Yes, I always like to tell our servers, Uh
at during appreciate that, you know, working at Gringos. If
they don't make the company part of their long term career,
I want the experience to be one of the best
that they've ever had. And I want them them to
continue developing and mastering a skill set. And it's really
(08:47):
a skill set of communication with the public because it's
something that's being lost because of technology. Everyone has their
face and their phone, and so that they can they
can really take these these skills that they're learning and
apply them in their future careers. And they're all going
to have one. I tell them, Look, thirty years from now,
forty years from now, you're going to be somewhere in
(09:08):
the third that's either on the ground or six feet under,
but you're going to be somewhere. And so why not
start creating tomorrow today? And you can do that just
by working somewhere like a restaurant. I mean, it's a
beautiful thing, it really is. And we have a lot
of servers that earn let's say, one hundred dollar tip
(09:29):
and I always tell them, listen, you earned it, yes,
but it wasn't just the service. The service was important.
But at the end of the day, just like that,
receiving that one hundred dollars tip made you feel good.
You did something so well interacting with this guess that
(09:49):
you made them feel so good that they were willing
to part ways with that one hundred dollars bill, and
you'd be surprised how many servers receive one hundred dollar tip.
And it's incredible. And that's part of the culture that
that is infectious obviously, and and for good reason. But
I just it's just a wonderful thing to create a
working environment where excellence is our motto and always trying
(10:15):
to improve at every level every single day. And and
as long as we continue doing that, it's like a
person in a relay race. There's no way you can
lose that race if you've been given that lead unless
you back down and and and and uh don't continue
moving the same way. But uh, we we just have
(10:35):
a wonderful team and I couldn't speak, you know, about
them more highly than they are.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
But and they feel the same about you. And I
love that Russell Lebar is our guest. I do want
to say thanks to Oracle. They have a product called
net Suite, and they wanted business owners to know about it,
and they knew we were doing business interviews over the
years and one of the guy who's responsible for NetSuite
(11:04):
with Oracle is a fan of our show and loves
what we do and said we'd like to sponsor your
business interviews. Why not. You can get the cfo's Guide
to AI and Machine Learning at NetSuite dot com slash
berry my last name, NetSuite dot com, slash berry. And
(11:27):
the idea is, if you've got data all over the place,
and like Russell Lebarrow, needs to make a decision quickly,
you need your data quickly. You need AI, you need
machine learning. You need that technology because you have manual
entry of everything and manual retrieval and manual processing, and
you can't get your information fast enough. To get the
(11:48):
cfo's Guide to AI and Machine Learning, go to NetSuite
dot com forward slash berry my last name, Russell. When
you talked about servers, you have employed poyees from you know,
bartenders to what used to be called waiters servers. Many
of those become managers. And on a when you hire
(12:10):
somebody or the kitchen, do you have or when you
did hire at that level, now that's for your managers.
Do you have kind of a process that's important that
you'd say, here's the fundamentals of hiring good people.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You know, some people interview very very well, as you
can imagine, but you know, sooner or later, whatever their
personality traits are they come out. But at the end
of the day, I don't think there's such thing as
a bad employee. I really think that's just bad leadership.
And I think that we've just done a good job
(12:44):
at weeding out individuals that just don't really fit us.
And that's a good thing. I mean, we've had people
come and go, but a lot of times they just can't.
They don't buy, they don't drink the kool aid, so
to speak. But yeah, we we just I think my
management team overall does a great job because there is
a certain you know, image you want to portray, you
(13:06):
want your staff to portray. And you know, we've we've
changed the way we've you know, our standards have changed,
only not because we wanted them to, because society has
just evolved. There was a time where you couldn't even
have tattoos, you know, but or even other things that
you know, we've had to change or adapt to because
(13:27):
times are changing, whether it's you know, something like tattoos
or just just quality of life schedules. I mean, we're
doing things that are unheard of twenty thirty years ago.
So you know, we we listen and we try to
pay attention to what's going on within the industry to
(13:50):
remain competitive, because we all, at the end of the day,
compete by comparison, and we want to make sure that
you know we're doing what is expected out in the marketplace.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I was at your Katie location my good friend Stephen Woodard,
DPS trooper. A lot of folks know Woodard, and it
was a Saturday, and went out to see North Shore
play in the state semifinal, which they shockingly did not win.
They were expected to win state this year. It's a
strong team. But afterwards, the stadium was not far from Gringos,
(14:25):
and I said, let's go to Ring Gringos, and of
course he loves Gringos. And we were there and there
was an employee, very pretty light skinned black woman, I
forget her name. She could be a model, and she
had something on her hand that looked almost like a
cast and her arm I can't remember. And I said,
as I'm sitting there, what happened and she said, oh, nothing,
(14:49):
I have a tattoo. We're not you know, you're not.
We're not allowed to show our tattoos at work. And
she doesn't know that I know you. But I took
the opportunity to say, well, I think the owner probably
has a concern that employees make a positive reflection and
some people are bothered by tattoos. But I thought that
was a pretty bold thing because that's saying, yes, you
(15:11):
can still work here, but there are things that may
upset some customers, and it's important that you project the
right image. I don't know how you came to that conclusion.
I just thought it was pretty bold.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah. Well, like I said, our address code has changed
quite a bit, but it's still still positive.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
So we talk about making tough decisions, and everybody wants
to be the person who makes good decisions, tough decisions,
but it's not easy to make tough decisions, and so
the rubber hits the road when a tough decision might
cost you money. So coming up, I'm going to ask
(15:50):
you about what was probably a tough decision for you,
and maybe you made it easily, but it would be
for a lot of people because it's a decision that
costs you money, but it's probably turned out to be
the right thing for your business. Russell Lebarro our guest.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, A
depression is.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
When you lose your It's Michael Verry.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Russell Lebarra is the founder and owner. I don't know
what is Tyler's chairman of the board. I think Jonathan
Kim is the president maybe CEO of Ringo's text mex
but his business card does not say CEO or chairman
of the board or anything else. It says Master Enchiladaoler,
which is designed to reflect his position that I am
(16:38):
the guy that can go in the kitchen and wood
or clean the floors, or wipe down the restrooms or
whatever else. And I love that approach about him, the
servant leader. I wanted to ask you about a tough decision.
And we all talk about tough decisions. You know, you
have to make the tough decision. Everybody says that, but
it's not until you say, Hey, sometimes you got to
(16:59):
kick your kid out because they there's a failure to
launch and they're not they're not leaving. Sometimes you have
to say something that makes someone angry. So I told
you I was at Katie location with Stephen Woodard, my
DPS buddy, a couple of weeks ago, after a football
game and we're sitting there and he was driving me,
so I wasn't driving, so I could drink more than
(17:22):
I would have if I was driving. In fact, my
rule with my wife is her rule is you can
go anywhere you want, you can drink as much as
you want, but if you're drinking, you can't drive. And
so Uber is my friend, or if I'm going with
Uncle Jerry or someone else, I ride with them. And
so I had I can't remember I want to say.
(17:46):
I want to say it was that that orange crush margerite.
Y'all had a specialty marguerite at the time. I don't
remember what it was, but I had to specially margarita.
And then I had another one. No, I didn't, I had.
I had beer that day. I had two beers, and
so I had two beers and I'm ready to have
my third one and We've been there for a while
(18:07):
and I'm not driving, and I'm completely loucid, and I
ordered another one and she said, I'm sorry, sir, I
can't give you a third drink. And I looked at her, like,
you're joking, right am? I slurry? And I said, oh man,
I've been here long enough to process this. And by
the way, I'm not driving, And she said, I'm sorry,
(18:27):
I can't, And I thought, you know, I can respect
that because business liquors where people make their money, especially
in tex mex To have a policy, and I'm sure
you must have problems with people being drunk to say,
we're a family restaurant and we're going to choose to
lose the marginal money that you would spend because at
(18:48):
the point at which you get drunk and some people
would cause a problem. That's a decision of business owners
should be willing to make. Customers can choose whether they
like it or not, and they can choose not to
come back. How tough of a decision was that for you?
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Well, it all has to do with liability. So our
drink policy is no more than four and one of
the drinks you had must have had contained two shots
in it. But it's easier to manage when the policy
is consistent across you know, twenty something locations.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Russell, I need you to answer the questions, but not
out me on what was in my glass. I like
to tell my story the way I want to tell
my story.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Well, it's for drink minimum She did it right, and
as much as I love you, we couldn't bend the
rules for you because then I'm sending the wrong message
to the entire staff.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
She didn't know who I was, but it didn't matter that.
The point was she enforced the rule and I respected
that there was a rule. Now, listen, there will be
people who like to go in and get hammered, and
they would say, I'm mad at you. You didn't sert. Well,
guess what you don't have to eat there. There's a
text max on every quarter you can go. I respect
(20:01):
businesses that are upfront, have their rules, articulate their rules,
and stick to their rules because it's part of a
bigger business concept. Hey, some people aren't good for our restaurant.
We also don't want pedophiles, rapists, ornked people in here,
no matter how much they're going to spend. I mean,
I respect that, I really do. I think that's a
(20:24):
hard thing to do. That's the quote unquote tough decision,
and you may lose money in the short run to
make more money to be a place that people want
to go because you do the right things. I'll give
you a good example. Our mutual friend Beaver applan. I
asked Beaver one time. I said, y'all don't allow eighteen
wheelers at BUCkies and I would have to think that
(20:48):
they buy more gas than anybody. Why don't you let
them in? And he said, families don't want to be
at a truck stop, and truck stops tend to attract
certain things around the truckers, not the truckers themselves. That
families don't want to be around. And so in order
to be what we are, we have to give up
(21:09):
that revenue stream in order to get this one over here.
And I thought, wow, that's the again, tough decision, but
the right decision.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Right. That's the third model at the end of the day,
that's a model.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So you read a lot of books because you are
always reading something and always quoting something from what you're reading.
How do you choose what books you're going to read
and what is your time of day you read? Because
a lot of people say to me that they would
like to read more, and they'll say when do you read?
(21:45):
And I tell them I read on the pot I
read before I go to bed. There are certain times
that I read that if I didn't read a book,
i'd be reading my phone and doom scrolling Twitter or
whatever else, and I get more out of reading. But
have you made a time or when is your time
to read? Because I know you're a big reader.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well, thank god for audio books. But I from my
house to my office is about a thirty minute drive,
so you can knock out quite a bit of a
book just listening on the way to work. So I
do that a lot. But I mostly listen to autobiographies
of people I admire, and that's where I get a
(22:28):
lot of my wisdom, if you will. But there's some
really great material out there.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
There is a lot of great material, and I find,
you know, the term self help has a bad meaning,
and there are guys who are you know, it's a
whole industry like wellness, and I think some of it
is complete pablem But I find there are certain people
that are very good at explaining things in a way
that I can read it and apply it and make
(22:55):
minor improvements to my life. Exercise is very important to you.
Fitness is important to you. Good health is important to you.
Was that always the case or was there a moment
where you made a conscious decision.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
It's mostly been the case throughout my life. But there
was a time in my thirties where I would say
that my core was not where it should have been,
and I had back problems. And ever since then, I've
done sit ups consistently and I've never had a back
problem since. So I like to keep the core up.
(23:31):
For sure, I wouldn't do it. I don't run like
I used to.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
But no, I'm convinced that running is bad for you.
None of that's had so many back problems from running.
I think running is absolutely horrible for You're just absolutely horrible.
Tell me a restaurant that you've eaten at recently. I've
got about thirty seconds in this segment. Tell me a
restaurant you've eaten at recently that impressed you.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Milton's in the Village, Rice Village, owned by Benji Levitt.
He converted a restaurant the second floor he had opened
up a different concept and then closed it shortly after,
but re just reopened it as Milton's Italian Restaurant. And
I probably had the best lasagna that I've ever had anywhere.
(24:21):
But then I went there last night with some friends
and they didn't have the exact same lasagna they had.
They had a vegetarian style lasagna last night. I didn't
order it for that reason, so I'm gonna go back
and get the Bolonnais version of it if he will.
Was because it was excellent, outstanding.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Benji is unafraid of the radar restaurant who open or
close a restaurant Milton named for his grandfather, Milton Levitt.
We're talking to Russell Ibarra Ringos Texmex dot com and
we'll continue.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Add a little bit about these wore houses I know
all about.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Ramon wants to know what around the world as well.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Whistling bunghole spleen splitters, whisker biscuits, honkey riders, hooskerdoes hohosker,
don'ts nips and dazers with it without the scooter stick
or one single whistling kiddy chaser.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Michael Show. Russell Levarro, my friend, mentor and the owner
of Gringo's Text Mex is our guest. You mentioned that
you had a great meal at Milton's, which Benji Levitt
has in Rice Village. You sent me an email of
(25:32):
a conversation between you and Michael Sambrooks, who has a
Text Mex joint called Candente and he is following your lead,
which makes you a mentor of his also, and at
I guess that location he has created similar to your
Plateau Soldado, which gives two dollars per plate to Camp
(25:52):
Hope and ends up being hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's
a lot, a lot of money every year just off
people ordering that dish, and he doing a bendera plate
with very similar When people ask, you're always talking to
another restaurant owner, and often it's someone I think you're
(26:15):
hoping to learn from. You were talking to me about
the the Riz Carlton CEO or the four Seasons. I
can't remember but four seasons. And yet some of the
time it's a one, one shop small business owner that's
meeting with you. What do people ask you when they
meet you and they want to learn from you? What
(26:36):
kind of questions do you typically get?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Well, I mean a lot of them want to know
if their cost of goods are lining up with the
industry standards, and of course everyone's standards are going to
be different depending on their overhead. But I met recently
with a a It was a Puerto Rican Honduras type
restaurant up on the north west side of the town.
The owners reached out to me via Instagram and wanted
(27:04):
to set up a meeting, so we did at my
office and they were just curious about a lot of things.
You know, they're not where they want to be. Their
cost the goods are way too high, their labor is
way too high, and their prices are just way too low.
So that's probably the reason. But I've had several young
entrepreneurs reach out to me. One of them was on
(27:26):
Berto Martinez that owns Space City Bidia downtown Houston, and
his story is unique and it's a prime example of
what it takes to become successful. So this young man
about thirty four years old, he bought a burger franchise.
Those an Israeli burger franchise called im the letters I
(27:47):
Am Burger, and they started popping up all around the
United States. I think they had eight hundred franchises sold
or something. But he opens four months before COVID, so
he's basically dead in the water before he even got started.
And uh so when when final that he was able
to open up, of course never did the cells he
(28:07):
needs to do. He ended up, uh deciding to close
the restaurant and was basically handing the keys to the
landlord and saying, look, I can't make it. And but
he had noticed that there was this new trend of
tacos going around called Biddia Tacos and it's basically my kids, Yeah, okay,
(28:31):
well well yeah, so uh you know, it's like a
cassidia but you know, you get some consummee to dip
your taco in. And he so he opened up this
place called Space City VideA and it's a small restaurant
in downtown but he, uh, he is doing incredible, incredible
(28:51):
numbers and he's already looking for his second location in Parland.
And so we've been kind of Jonathan and I both
have kind of been guiding along to help him negotiate
the lease or look at the terms and uh and
have a plan going forward. But we love doing stuff
like that for people, and you know, and and never
(29:13):
really expecting anything back except maybe a free free taco
or something, but you know. And then I had another
gentleman from up in the Kingwood area that owns local
cantina and he has a restaurant there on the lake
and he is doing really really well, and he reached
out and we've met several times. I've taken him to
(29:34):
the Rockets game now and and but I love surrounding
myself with young entrepreneurs because sometimes I wish I could
go back and start all over again, because it's been
fun and and it's it's it's even it's it's a
lot more fun in the early days because it's new.
It's it's like a child when you're you know, he's
(29:55):
growing up. Everything around them is new, and so in business,
you know that there's something really sweet about that, and
I missed that. So I guess that's one of the
reasons why I have an open line all the time
to entrepreneurs that want to get started and help them
as much as I can.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
There's also something invigorating about the passion of a new owner.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
You know that.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I've known people that had a day job, but they
cooked on the weekend or at night, and they were
good at it, and they save up and then they
quit their job, which man, is such a hard thing
to do. You know, you've got the steady income and
they you know, they're people. What people don't realize is
when you show up first day to eat, you don't
realize that that was just a shell. You know, they
(30:44):
had to build all this stuff out and then to
make all those decisions. Now finally we're ready, we're opening up.
You know how exciting You've told the story before on
you know, opening the blinds on your first day and
waiting on the first car to come in and you
were going to serve them and you had your kitchen
guy in the back. There is something really cool. You
use the word sweet, which I think is is the
(31:05):
right term. There's something cool like, uh, you know when
I talked to Crockett or Michael's friends and I ask them,
you know, what are you going to do this summer
and what are you studying and what and just hearing
there their kind of nervous but ambitious optimism. It's it's invigorating.
It's it's good for me, it's good for the soul.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
It really is, it really is.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
You were supposed to say more than it really is.
You're supposed to add something to that. That's that's how
the interview format works.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I'm practicing, so.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
I love it. I love it. How do you decide
where to put a new location because and the reason
I ask is you've been very successful at location selection
and it's not just a you know, put your finger
to the to the wind. There's a text mex joint
on every corner already. There are competing concepts, there's a
(32:05):
lot of other restaurants, there are many choices. Have you
learned over the years kind of this is what works
for us.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Well, like I've mentioned previously, freeway locations will always be
for us now. But as far as expanding the Gringos chain,
we we have Houston pretty much covered. I mean we
could there are some spots we could probably put other locations,
but we're starting to venture outside the market. We're going
(32:36):
to be opening in Sybelo, Texas or right outside of
San Antonio shirts and then in Kyle, Texas as well,
both on nine thirty five, and then we're looking at
a couple other places, one outside of Austin. But we'll
always remain in the suburbs. That's kind of our lane of.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
This and explain why, and.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Well, well, lots of reasons, but one is a lot
more families in in in the suburbs. There's the real
estate is a lot less expensive in the suburbs, and
and mostly because it's an underserved market. With the level
that we bring to to the market to the to
the marketplace, because I would much rather, you know, be
(33:23):
a big fish in a small pond than vice versa.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
So uh wait, right there, wait wait wait wait right
there Russell Lebara, as our guests, will continue our conversation
with him coming up
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