January 24, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Russell Lebara is our guest. You know, it's funny how serendipity.
I suppose the line he was on gave out just
as I looked up and realized we're up against a break,
So it could not have worked out better. We've got
him back though. Russell Lebarra is our guest, and we're
talking business secrets, the secrets of the secret sauce as
(00:23):
I like to call it, of what makes your business run.
And 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 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
(00:47):
at netswite dot com forward slash my last name netsweet
dot com, Berry netsuitet dot com slash Barry Russell. You
talk about Sybelo, Texas and opening a location in in
San Antone, and are outside of San Antone, and that's
not your core. I mean, I can see the immediate
challenge being most people there don't know what Gringo's is.
(01:10):
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 in
the door?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Well, I believe for starters, our building will have a
lot of carbon pills, So we're going to deliver it
there for sure. And you know, we went to our
furthest location now is College Station only you could almost
say that's kind of Houston in a way because how
connected the.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Two cities are.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
But College Station was our number two volume store in
twenty twenty four, and so that tells us a couple
of things that.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
The brand has.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Definitely market recognition already, and being that far away from
from the Houston market, but 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
(02:21):
a matter of fact, we had a meeting today on
the site, the site layout. It's gonna be a beautiful
location and and our tombaw opens up later this year.
But you know, we we have to test at some point,
you know, as you well know lupid Ertias and Chewies
and all these brands. Text Max is just popular and
that's that's the good thing about it. And we'll just
(02:42):
you know, go in and do what we do best
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. And we're all concerned
about the stuff. Okay, No, it's just sound. We're just
concerned about what we can what We only focus on
what we can control and that the people on our seats,
and that's it. So we every guest is important, every
(03:04):
every meal. That's our first core value, developing guest relationships,
one mill at a time. Every single meal we serve
is important.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, it's it's a tough business. 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 and on the one hundredth
(03:32):
it's bad, and you go online and you criticize the place,
having never complemented them online, whereas you go to Walmart
and 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 tough part is you've got
a lot of moving parts, You've got inventory that can spoil,
(03:55):
you got 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 Lebarra Gringoes tex mex dot com, I
have to ask you. 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
(04:16):
Casola and then we had a local joint called Guadalajara,
and it wasn't anything fancy, but we loved it. It was
good food. It was a Mexican family that owned it.
And I moved to Houston and I was shocked at
how tex mechs 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.
(04:38):
Why do you think tex Mex has exploded at least
in the greater Houston area over the last thirty years
or has it always been this big?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
It's always been big relative to the population. But I
will say that there's a lot of value in Texana,
added value in tex Mex. When you sit down, your
autumn actually delivered the basket of chips and salsa, which
a lot of restaurants, UH, casual dining restaurants, burger joints,
what have you, you don't get that. And in our case,
(05:09):
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
and it's unlimited. I mean, you know, a lot of restaurants,
like a Chili's, they charge for this kind of stuff
and and I think that's one of the benefits of
the restaurant tex Mex restaurant industry as a whole. But
(05:30):
you know, at the end of the day, though I mean,
obviously you have to pass on those calls through your pricing,
but it you know, we we just know where we
need to be on our food costs. We know where
our labor 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 the the individual experience. We don't we don't,
(05:52):
you know, put the cart before the horse, because.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
You know you can. You can go sound real fast
in this business.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
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 comparing notes
and all this. And everybody, every consumer wants to be
(06:20):
a reviewer, so they can be very critical of restaurants.
And that's fine. 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 deliver.
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.
(06:42):
It's tough. So if you hadn't done hospitality, if you
had not done restaurants, what do you think you would
have done?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Oh, without a doubt, I've been sells of some sort.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
If I believe in something, I can sell it. As
a matter of fact, when I was selling frail Matador
and I was calling on these restaurants, I hadn't want
to particular restaurant. I would visit him and he knew
our family was in the restaurant business. But he told
me that my face, Russell, I will never buy from you.
That was a challenge to me. Seven months later he
was buying from me and we were became friends. So Cells,
(07:13):
I love Cells, and I almost went into a priorate
opening Gringos because I was trying to find my place
in this world and it was actually going to be
selling high production corn and flower to tea equipment out
of California. Yeah, there was a really good company out
to launch equipment company. And as a matter of fact,
my brothers have a full Florida tea line from them
(07:35):
that's probably over, I don't know, one hundred and fifty
feet long. It's it's incredible to watch fully automated from
the from the dough to the package product.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
It's fun to watch great.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Card be your big mister.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Ferry a bullet.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Russell LaVar is our guest Ringos text Smecks is his
primary restaurant. He also has Jimmy Changa's, and he has
a lot more. But we're talking business principles with him. Normally,
when I talked to Russell, it's about humanitarian things. It's
about all the good he does for Camp Pope, It's
about all the good he does for community, all the
good he does for his employees. Today we're talking business
(08:16):
principles and his life. And I love to do these
interviews because 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 2 (08:30):
Yeah, so the avocados Mexico. Alvocados from Mexico 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 at shelf life, there's just allurs,
really and so, and that was done because of the
(08:51):
California Avocado Commission. They were the mafia of avocados back
in the day, and they controlled 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 3 (09:09):
But what it happened was with NAFTA.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
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.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
And the reason was, according.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
To California or whoever was in charge, the Mexican avocado
had 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
(09:49):
the California Avocado Commission growers they wanted to go into
Mexico and start controlling the farms, and they did. They
started buying up a lot of these production facilities and
packing facilities. And and then once they got control of Mexico's avocados,
they said, hey, okay, you can you can bring them in.
We've resolved the weevil issue. And they started importing them
(10:13):
from Mexico. So, uh, Mexico produces something like seven or
eight times what the US does. And and and it's
a it's actually a great avocado because of the soil
that they're the most of the farms in mitchell conon
where they're at, where they're located. But that's one of
the reasons why. Also the cartel got involved in avocados.
(10:35):
They are now extorting money from the farmers. They would
get the records of how many they don't call them
acres but acres that they own, and they would charge
them 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 it worked.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
For one.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
You know, California doesn't have the same amount of alanda
used to have to grow a pocados.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
A lot of it's been given up to development.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
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. But I love alvocados.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
It's my favorite fruit. As a matter of fact, I
do too.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I love him. And you know Eddie Martini is allergic
to him. 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 ym god question exactly.
So why do avocados go bad shortly after you cut
into them?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
That's a good question. I mean they just oxidized. I
guess I need.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
You to know that answer by the next time I talked.
Can you ask Stephen Gonzales it ok, Houston avocado? I
sure will, because I bet he knows. I bet he does.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
The actual reason.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
As a matter of fact, his boss Mark used to
own an avocado farm in Mexico until the cartel took
it over and told them, hey, if you want to
come get it, they literally don't that so now you
can have it.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Wow. 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 Tex 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
(12:28):
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
(12:49):
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 2 (12:57):
So yes, I love to go into restaurant and get
that first impression when you walk in, what do you see?
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Because it's you know, in the restaurant industry, we deal.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
With all the senses, all 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 lighting
is and how it can make or break and experience,
(13:29):
especially for women because they don't like a bright restaurant
for whatever reason. But anyway, how does the restaurant smell?
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, with mopping and
all the chemicals they use, you know, with mopping and cleaning,
(13:53):
that's what the property starts to smell like. And we've
actually been talking with a company that provides 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
(14:13):
because you should be able to have a conversation across
the table without screaming. And I don't know about you,
My hearing's not the same.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
So I made no and I don't like loud restaurants,
and a lot of restaurants I get the sense that
they have designed it to intentionally be loud, with with
harsh surfaces that bounce sound. And I don't at all,
and especially I'm fifty four. But you see older people
out in public, and that bothers them, you know, you
(14:40):
can see that. Huh huh, and and it's not fun.
Before before my dad got his hearing aids, he didn't
he wouldn't go he didn't not want to go out
with us to eat because he couldn't hear because the sound,
the ambient sound, was so distracting to him. And you know,
younger people don't understand that. I'll tell you that the other
thing gets on my nerves has nothing to do with you,
(15:02):
is what it kind of does. Menus Now, somehow they
shrunk the font they're using a font 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 what's on the damn menu. Do you
find that?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I do, But I mean that's why I carry readers
with me wherever I go. 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 1 (15:37):
Oh Russell. That makes me crazy. I want to read
a menu, hold the 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.
Russeller Barr is our guesshole type. Don't you call me?
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Don't you call me? Michael Mary School.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
We're talking to Russell Lebara, the founder and CEO of
Gringos textmax 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
(16:27):
about the QR codes before we went to break the
QR codes on at restaurants where they don't want to
print the menu, they want you to go to it
on your phone.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I was at brass Frey 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 letting. I said, do
you have a wine list printed out? He goes, sure,
(17:00):
I'll get that for you, and I said, here, take
your iPad back because I don't want to accidentally 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 gonna make sure we always have a printed out
(17:21):
menu for you, because I know you hate wine on
the iPad. And I said, how do you know that?
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 that's been kind of one of my things. But
(17:43):
some people really seem to enjoy that because then you
get to see the label and the whole thing. So
I 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 into in the last six months that you
really liked, and tell me one thing about each that
(18:05):
you really liked. Why you liked it.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Well, let's see here.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
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, Tokoa Madera, a lot of people like it,
a lot of people don't. It's it's it's kind of
a nightclub atmosphere. It's very loud. But what I like,
(18:28):
What I like is that they the effort they put
into the design, the interior design of that restaurant.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
It's it's over the top.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
And 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. But that one
and then another restaurant that opened up recently, a Mexican
restaurant is Mexican Sugar out of Dallas. They opened up
on Dallas Street and there they did a nice job
(18:58):
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 it's something unique, and
if they hurt anyone in the Inner Loop, it's going
to be Tokeomadera because it's kind of the same, kind
(19:19):
of the same model. But another restaurant that opened up
that I've enjoyed a lot is Balboa suf Club.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Sam Philippi.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yes, they did a really good job, but there's some
former execs of Hillstone or Houston's and they opened up
a location in Dallas. Plus they have an Italian restaurant
in the same development called Ibaco, and they're doing.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
It just a fantastic is like it? Yes, did you
like it? I've only been.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I enjoyed it, but I haven't been back. I've only
been twice. By having it back, I've been to Balboah
more often.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I was just talking to Eddie Martini about those two
restaur fans 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 for And who was
the third win? Who was the third restaurant or did
(20:16):
you say it? Uh?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well, I know I already said, yeah, 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 a movie premiere.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
And but the pie is not. I don't think the
pie is.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Large enough to support all these restaurants, especially the overhead
some of them have the rents that many of them
are paying or you know, five six, seven hundred thousand
a year, if not more in some cases, and and
and I just don't know how they can make the
numbers work. But you know, there's always people willing to
put money into an invest money in a restaurant, and
(20:57):
a lot of these restaurant tours are able to find them.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
So oh yeah, I think part of that is you
got to be inside the loop to be written about
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
(21:21):
the restaurant you know, the fickle 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
(21:42):
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 3 (21:48):
Yes, that's why it's supposed to work.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
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. Remember that part.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Yeah, but I want to say something worth saying.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Oh good point, good point? Yes, yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
That you were going to ask me something about my book.
I was How did you know that because you mentioned
it earlier?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
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, you name it.
And he said, I want A caller called up and said,
(22:33):
you know, you got to write another book. I've 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 realize. How was the
writing process for you compared to what you expected it
(22:54):
to be.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Well, it was mostly the editing part that was the
most challenging, but the content 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 because they're always
these stories are always popping up, I mean they just
(23:15):
they just kind of create themselves through through conversations with
other people. A prime example this my nephew called me
a few days ago because he wanted to know if
I knew the owner of this particular restaurant. And the
reason he wanted to know was because he wanted to
take his wife there that night to celebrate her birthday,
(23:35):
and he wanted them to put on the marquee Happy
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
(23:57):
seemed very very steep that they this restaurant missed an
opportunity to put.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
The letters up. Let's say fifty.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
More tables there and maybe been a regular guest. I
don't know, but why do you make those kinds of
how can a restaurant tour make those kind of mistakes?
I don't understand it. In such a competitive environment.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
I would have said, yes, sir, we'll we'll put it up,
no problem, We'll do.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
It for free, right hold right there. Russell Barr is
our guests more than him. We will fight hard for
the freedom to holte the Michael Verry Joe A Heart
in your tender direction. Russell Lebarr is our guest and
talking about secrets of success, how you accomplish your goals,
(25:00):
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 major failure in your life
(25:21):
and why that failure occurred. Because if we let's say
somebody opens a restaurant and they open a rec 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 going to happen? That didn't
happen because nobody thinks they're going to open a failed restaurant.
(25:45):
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 learn a lot from that.
But you've also had a number of successes, Russell lebar.
When you look at your life and and things that
you have succeeded at, where do you see your successes?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Well, obviously it's been in attracting the right people. I mean,
I know, I'll keep going back to that, but that's
that's again that that is what we are. We're a
collection of just people that share common interest and common goals.
But you know, I most of my failures happened during
(26:33):
my twenties, and I call those are my college years
if you want to call them that.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
But I learned a lot and I'm grateful that I did,
and I'm.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Grateful that everything that happened happened. But you know, going forward,
you know, I don't want to have any failure that
that would destroy everything we've done. But you know, we
have to approach, you know, especially living in such a
litigious society. We we we have a dispute right now
(27:06):
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 have to see again,
see the larger picture and not uh say it's your
(27:28):
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. And so
I believe in, you know, locking locking hands instead of
locking horns. And we've been we've been very successful at
staying out of a lot of lawsuits for that, and
and i'd consider those for some people being failures, even
(27:48):
though they may have thought they won. And yeah, I could
share some weld stories with you about family members soon
as family members. I mean, it's it's ridiculous sometimes, but
some people are determined to prove that they were right,
and they did, but it just cost him how many
hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah, you know. Percy Foreman a very famous criminal defense
attorney in Houston many years ago. He was like the
Fly Bailey of his day, springing the oj Simpsons 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,
(28:33):
mister Foreman, 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,
(28:53):
just maybe not maybe not going to prison. You mentioned lawsuits,
Russell Lebar and one of the things when I talk
to business owners is everybody understands that if you're in
the wrong, there should be a course, a recourse for
a victim to make that right. Nobody has a problem
(29:15):
with that. It's the frivolous stuff that gets you. You
shared publicly a picture of a woman who walked into
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,
(29:38):
several hundred thousand dollars or whatever. I don't know if
you remember the details of that case. How often does
that happen?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
More often than you might think. But we just had
people just falling over. I mean, I think with those
to be walking and fall over. You know when I
travel to other countries and I look at their sidewalks,
their roads, their everything, and I'm thinking, wow. I mean,
(30:08):
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 ridiculous. But you know, we have liability insurance property
liability insurance, and the problem with that, believe it or not,
is it takes us out of the equation. Whenever there
(30:30):
is a dispute or an alleged accident of some sort,
and the insurance companies they just settle. Unfortunately, they they
don't fight these cases and they'll settle. Fifty seventy five
one hundred thousand. We had a guest and an team
member one time bump heads. They each turned around at
(30:50):
the same time and bumped heads. Of course, our team
member's fine, but this guest sued and was awarded one
hundred thousand dollars by the well settled the interest companies
settled with them figure it's cheaper.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Yeah, they just figured it's it's cheaper to settle well.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
But you know something 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 many
(31:28):
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. It's people
have this idea that there's the rich business owner, and
(31:48):
it's good he should have to give up some of
what he has. He's not going to pay for it.
It's going to be passed on to the customer.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
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 3 (32:07):
Because.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
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 1 (32:18):
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 an outside firm.
And that is the reality. Russell Lebara. I've kept you
longer than you agreed to stay, but you've been very
gracious with your time and very candid with your answers,
(32:40):
and I appreciate it, and I know our listeners do
as well. I appreciate all you do for our veterans
with PTSD at Camp Hope, all you do for your employees,
your customers, and our community, and I value and appreciate
your friendship. Thanks for being with us my family.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Thank you, Michael, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yes, and gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Elviss has left for Jilding.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Thank you, and goodnight,
Russell Lebara is our guest. You know, it's funny how serendipity.
I suppose the line he was on gave out just
as I looked up and realized we're up against a break,
So it could not have worked out better. We've got
him back though. Russell Lebarra is our guest, and we're
talking business secrets, the secrets of the secret sauce as
(00:23):
I like to call it, of what makes your business run.
And 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 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
(00:47):
at netswite dot com forward slash my last name netsweet
dot com, Berry netsuitet dot com slash Barry Russell. You
talk about Sybelo, Texas and opening a location in in
San Antone, and are outside of San Antone, and that's
not your core. I mean, I can see the immediate
challenge being most people there don't know what Gringo's is.
(01:10):
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 in
the door?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Well, I believe for starters, our building will have a
lot of carbon pills, So we're going to deliver it
there for sure. And you know, we went to our
furthest location now is College Station only you could almost
say that's kind of Houston in a way because how
connected the.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Two cities are.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
But College Station was our number two volume store in
twenty twenty four, and so that tells us a couple
of things that.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
The brand has.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Definitely market recognition already, and being that far away from
from the Houston market, but 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
(02:21):
a matter of fact, we had a meeting today on
the site, the site layout. It's gonna be a beautiful
location and and our tombaw opens up later this year.
But you know, we we have to test at some point,
you know, as you well know lupid Ertias and Chewies
and all these brands. Text Max is just popular and
that's that's the good thing about it. And we'll just
(02:42):
you know, go in and do what we do best
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. And we're all concerned
about the stuff. Okay, No, it's just sound. We're just
concerned about what we can what We only focus on
what we can control and that the people on our seats,
and that's it. So we every guest is important, every
(03:04):
every meal. That's our first core value, developing guest relationships,
one mill at a time. Every single meal we serve
is important.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, it's it's a tough business. 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 and on the one hundredth
(03:32):
it's bad, and you go online and you criticize the place,
having never complemented them online, whereas you go to Walmart
and 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 tough part is you've got
a lot of moving parts, You've got inventory that can spoil,
(03:55):
you got 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 Lebarra Gringoes tex mex dot com, I
have to ask you. 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
(04:16):
Casola and then we had a local joint called Guadalajara,
and it wasn't anything fancy, but we loved it. It was
good food. It was a Mexican family that owned it.
And I moved to Houston and I was shocked at
how tex mechs 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.
(04:38):
Why do you think tex Mex has exploded at least
in the greater Houston area over the last thirty years
or has it always been this big?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
It's always been big relative to the population. But I
will say that there's a lot of value in Texana,
added value in tex Mex. When you sit down, your
autumn actually delivered the basket of chips and salsa, which
a lot of restaurants, UH, casual dining restaurants, burger joints,
what have you, you don't get that. And in our case,
(05:09):
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
and it's unlimited. I mean, you know, a lot of restaurants,
like a Chili's, they charge for this kind of stuff
and and I think that's one of the benefits of
the restaurant tex Mex restaurant industry as a whole. But
(05:30):
you know, at the end of the day, though I mean,
obviously you have to pass on those calls through your pricing,
but it you know, we we just know where we
need to be on our food costs. We know where
our labor 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 the the individual experience. We don't we don't,
(05:52):
you know, put the cart before the horse, because.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
You know you can. You can go sound real fast
in this business.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
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 comparing notes
and all this. And everybody, every consumer wants to be
(06:20):
a reviewer, so they can be very critical of restaurants.
And that's fine. 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 deliver.
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.
(06:42):
It's tough. So if you hadn't done hospitality, if you
had not done restaurants, what do you think you would
have done?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Oh, without a doubt, I've been sells of some sort.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
If I believe in something, I can sell it. As
a matter of fact, when I was selling frail Matador
and I was calling on these restaurants, I hadn't want
to particular restaurant. I would visit him and he knew
our family was in the restaurant business. But he told
me that my face, Russell, I will never buy from you.
That was a challenge to me. Seven months later he
was buying from me and we were became friends. So Cells,
(07:13):
I love Cells, and I almost went into a priorate
opening Gringos because I was trying to find my place
in this world and it was actually going to be
selling high production corn and flower to tea equipment out
of California. Yeah, there was a really good company out
to launch equipment company. And as a matter of fact,
my brothers have a full Florida tea line from them
(07:35):
that's probably over, I don't know, one hundred and fifty
feet long. It's it's incredible to watch fully automated from
the from the dough to the package product.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
It's fun to watch great.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Card be your big mister.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Ferry a bullet.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Russell LaVar is our guest Ringos text Smecks is his
primary restaurant. He also has Jimmy Changa's, and he has
a lot more. But we're talking business principles with him. Normally,
when I talked to Russell, it's about humanitarian things. It's
about all the good he does for Camp Pope, It's
about all the good he does for community, all the
good he does for his employees. Today we're talking business
(08:16):
principles and his life. And I love to do these
interviews because 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 2 (08:30):
Yeah, so the avocados Mexico. Alvocados from Mexico 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 at shelf life, there's just allurs,
really and so, and that was done because of the
(08:51):
California Avocado Commission. They were the mafia of avocados back
in the day, and they controlled 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 3 (09:09):
But what it happened was with NAFTA.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
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.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
And the reason was, according.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
To California or whoever was in charge, the Mexican avocado
had 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
(09:49):
the California Avocado Commission growers they wanted to go into
Mexico and start controlling the farms, and they did. They
started buying up a lot of these production facilities and
packing facilities. And and then once they got control of Mexico's avocados,
they said, hey, okay, you can you can bring them in.
We've resolved the weevil issue. And they started importing them
(10:13):
from Mexico. So, uh, Mexico produces something like seven or
eight times what the US does. And and and it's
a it's actually a great avocado because of the soil
that they're the most of the farms in mitchell conon
where they're at, where they're located. But that's one of
the reasons why. Also the cartel got involved in avocados.
(10:35):
They are now extorting money from the farmers. They would
get the records of how many they don't call them
acres but acres that they own, and they would charge
them 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 it worked.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
For one.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
You know, California doesn't have the same amount of alanda
used to have to grow a pocados.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
A lot of it's been given up to development.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
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. But I love alvocados.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
It's my favorite fruit. As a matter of fact, I
do too.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I love him. And you know Eddie Martini is allergic
to him. 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 ym god question exactly.
So why do avocados go bad shortly after you cut
into them?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
That's a good question. I mean they just oxidized. I
guess I need.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
You to know that answer by the next time I talked.
Can you ask Stephen Gonzales it ok, Houston avocado? I
sure will, because I bet he knows. I bet he does.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
The actual reason.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
As a matter of fact, his boss Mark used to
own an avocado farm in Mexico until the cartel took
it over and told them, hey, if you want to
come get it, they literally don't that so now you
can have it.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Wow. 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 Tex 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
(12:28):
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
(12:49):
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 2 (12:57):
So yes, I love to go into restaurant and get
that first impression when you walk in, what do you see?
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Because it's you know, in the restaurant industry, we deal.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
With all the senses, all 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 lighting
is and how it can make or break and experience,
(13:29):
especially for women because they don't like a bright restaurant
for whatever reason. But anyway, how does the restaurant smell?
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, with mopping and
all the chemicals they use, you know, with mopping and cleaning,
(13:53):
that's what the property starts to smell like. And we've
actually been talking with a company that provides 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
(14:13):
because you should be able to have a conversation across
the table without screaming. And I don't know about you,
My hearing's not the same.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
So I made no and I don't like loud restaurants,
and a lot of restaurants I get the sense that
they have designed it to intentionally be loud, with with
harsh surfaces that bounce sound. And I don't at all,
and especially I'm fifty four. But you see older people
out in public, and that bothers them, you know, you
(14:40):
can see that. Huh huh, and and it's not fun.
Before before my dad got his hearing aids, he didn't
he wouldn't go he didn't not want to go out
with us to eat because he couldn't hear because the sound,
the ambient sound, was so distracting to him. And you know,
younger people don't understand that. I'll tell you that the other
thing gets on my nerves has nothing to do with you,
(15:02):
is what it kind of does. Menus Now, somehow they
shrunk the font they're using a font 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 what's on the damn menu. Do you
find that?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I do, But I mean that's why I carry readers
with me wherever I go. 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 1 (15:37):
Oh Russell. That makes me crazy. I want to read
a menu, hold the 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.
Russeller Barr is our guesshole type. Don't you call me?
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Don't you call me? Michael Mary School.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
We're talking to Russell Lebara, the founder and CEO of
Gringos textmax 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
(16:27):
about the QR codes before we went to break the
QR codes on at restaurants where they don't want to
print the menu, they want you to go to it
on your phone.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I was at brass Frey 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 letting. I said, do
you have a wine list printed out? He goes, sure,
(17:00):
I'll get that for you, and I said, here, take
your iPad back because I don't want to accidentally 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 gonna make sure we always have a printed out
(17:21):
menu for you, because I know you hate wine on
the iPad. And I said, how do you know that?
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 that's been kind of one of my things. But
(17:43):
some people really seem to enjoy that because then you
get to see the label and the whole thing. So
I 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 into in the last six months that you
really liked, and tell me one thing about each that
(18:05):
you really liked. Why you liked it.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Well, let's see here.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
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, Tokoa Madera, a lot of people like it,
a lot of people don't. It's it's it's kind of
a nightclub atmosphere. It's very loud. But what I like,
(18:28):
What I like is that they the effort they put
into the design, the interior design of that restaurant.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
It's it's over the top.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
And 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. But that one
and then another restaurant that opened up recently, a Mexican
restaurant is Mexican Sugar out of Dallas. They opened up
on Dallas Street and there they did a nice job
(18:58):
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 it's something unique, and
if they hurt anyone in the Inner Loop, it's going
to be Tokeomadera because it's kind of the same, kind
(19:19):
of the same model. But another restaurant that opened up
that I've enjoyed a lot is Balboa suf Club.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Sam Philippi.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yes, they did a really good job, but there's some
former execs of Hillstone or Houston's and they opened up
a location in Dallas. Plus they have an Italian restaurant
in the same development called Ibaco, and they're doing.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
It just a fantastic is like it? Yes, did you
like it? I've only been.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I enjoyed it, but I haven't been back. I've only
been twice. By having it back, I've been to Balboah
more often.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I was just talking to Eddie Martini about those two
restaur fans 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 for And who was
the third win? Who was the third restaurant or did
(20:16):
you say it? Uh?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well, I know I already said, yeah, 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 a movie premiere.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
And but the pie is not. I don't think the
pie is.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Large enough to support all these restaurants, especially the overhead
some of them have the rents that many of them
are paying or you know, five six, seven hundred thousand
a year, if not more in some cases, and and
and I just don't know how they can make the
numbers work. But you know, there's always people willing to
put money into an invest money in a restaurant, and
(20:57):
a lot of these restaurant tours are able to find them.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
So oh yeah, I think part of that is you
got to be inside the loop to be written about
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
(21:21):
the restaurant you know, the fickle 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
(21:42):
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 3 (21:48):
Yes, that's why it's supposed to work.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
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. Remember that part.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Yeah, but I want to say something worth saying.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Oh good point, good point? Yes, yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
That you were going to ask me something about my book.
I was How did you know that because you mentioned
it earlier?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
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, you name it.
And he said, I want A caller called up and said,
(22:33):
you know, you got to write another book. I've 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 realize. How was the
writing process for you compared to what you expected it
(22:54):
to be.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Well, it was mostly the editing part that was the
most challenging, but the content 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 because they're always
these stories are always popping up, I mean they just
(23:15):
they just kind of create themselves through through conversations with
other people. A prime example this my nephew called me
a few days ago because he wanted to know if
I knew the owner of this particular restaurant. And the
reason he wanted to know was because he wanted to
take his wife there that night to celebrate her birthday,
(23:35):
and he wanted them to put on the marquee Happy
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
(23:57):
seemed very very steep that they this restaurant missed an
opportunity to put.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
The letters up. Let's say fifty.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
More tables there and maybe been a regular guest. I
don't know, but why do you make those kinds of
how can a restaurant tour make those kind of mistakes?
I don't understand it. In such a competitive environment.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
I would have said, yes, sir, we'll we'll put it up,
no problem, We'll do.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
It for free, right hold right there. Russell Barr is
our guests more than him. We will fight hard for
the freedom to holte the Michael Verry Joe A Heart
in your tender direction. Russell Lebarr is our guest and
talking about secrets of success, how you accomplish your goals,
(25:00):
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 major failure in your life
(25:21):
and why that failure occurred. Because if we let's say
somebody opens a restaurant and they open a rec 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 going to happen? That didn't
happen because nobody thinks they're going to open a failed restaurant.
(25:45):
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 learn a lot from that.
But you've also had a number of successes, Russell lebar.
When you look at your life and and things that
you have succeeded at, where do you see your successes?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Well, obviously it's been in attracting the right people. I mean,
I know, I'll keep going back to that, but that's
that's again that that is what we are. We're a
collection of just people that share common interest and common goals.
But you know, I most of my failures happened during
(26:33):
my twenties, and I call those are my college years
if you want to call them that.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
But I learned a lot and I'm grateful that I did,
and I'm.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Grateful that everything that happened happened. But you know, going forward,
you know, I don't want to have any failure that
that would destroy everything we've done. But you know, we
have to approach, you know, especially living in such a
litigious society. We we we have a dispute right now
(27:06):
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 have to see again,
see the larger picture and not uh say it's your
(27:28):
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. And so
I believe in, you know, locking locking hands instead of
locking horns. And we've been we've been very successful at
staying out of a lot of lawsuits for that, and
and i'd consider those for some people being failures, even
(27:48):
though they may have thought they won. And yeah, I could
share some weld stories with you about family members soon
as family members. I mean, it's it's ridiculous sometimes, but
some people are determined to prove that they were right,
and they did, but it just cost him how many
hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah, you know. Percy Foreman a very famous criminal defense
attorney in Houston many years ago. He was like the
Fly Bailey of his day, springing the oj Simpsons 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,
(28:33):
mister Foreman, 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,
(28:53):
just maybe not maybe not going to prison. You mentioned lawsuits,
Russell Lebar and one of the things when I talk
to business owners is everybody understands that if you're in
the wrong, there should be a course, a recourse for
a victim to make that right. Nobody has a problem
(29:15):
with that. It's the frivolous stuff that gets you. You
shared publicly a picture of a woman who walked into
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,
(29:38):
several hundred thousand dollars or whatever. I don't know if
you remember the details of that case. How often does
that happen?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
More often than you might think. But we just had
people just falling over. I mean, I think with those
to be walking and fall over. You know when I
travel to other countries and I look at their sidewalks,
their roads, their everything, and I'm thinking, wow. I mean,
(30:08):
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 ridiculous. But you know, we have liability insurance property
liability insurance, and the problem with that, believe it or not,
is it takes us out of the equation. Whenever there
(30:30):
is a dispute or an alleged accident of some sort,
and the insurance companies they just settle. Unfortunately, they they
don't fight these cases and they'll settle. Fifty seventy five
one hundred thousand. We had a guest and an team
member one time bump heads. They each turned around at
(30:50):
the same time and bumped heads. Of course, our team
member's fine, but this guest sued and was awarded one
hundred thousand dollars by the well settled the interest companies
settled with them figure it's cheaper.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Yeah, they just figured it's it's cheaper to settle well.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
But you know something 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 many
(31:28):
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. It's people
have this idea that there's the rich business owner, and
(31:48):
it's good he should have to give up some of
what he has. He's not going to pay for it.
It's going to be passed on to the customer.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
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 3 (32:07):
Because.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
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 1 (32:18):
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 an outside firm.
And that is the reality. Russell Lebara. I've kept you
longer than you agreed to stay, but you've been very
gracious with your time and very candid with your answers,
(32:40):
and I appreciate it, and I know our listeners do
as well. I appreciate all you do for our veterans
with PTSD at Camp Hope, all you do for your employees,
your customers, and our community, and I value and appreciate
your friendship. Thanks for being with us my family.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Thank you, Michael, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yes, and gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Elviss has left for Jilding.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Thank you, and goodnight,
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