Vegas Circle

From Pitch to Plate: Joe Mikulich’s Culinary Rise with Anima & EDO

• The Vegas Circle

Share episode

Send us a text

What happens when a passionate soccer player trades the field for a fine dining kitchen? Tune in to hear Joe Mikulich's incredible journey from his humble beginnings in a farmer-style household to becoming the co-owner of Anima by EDO and EDO Gastro Tapas and Wine. Hear the transformative story of how beer and wine classes at UNLV ignited Joe's passion for hospitality, leading him through early work experiences in fine dining and a significant stint at Bazaar Meats. Learn how mentorship and relationships played crucial roles in his rise within the Las Vegas culinary scene.

Discover the bold risks and rewarding successes that come with building a restaurant empire from scratch. Joe, alongside his partners, faced numerous challenges but ultimately triumphed with their Gramercy location, all while carefully choosing the perfect name—Anima. Get an insider's look at their future plans, including the exciting launch of a French and Spanish brasserie-style restaurant in Vegas. The strong bond and unified vision among these restaurateurs are key to their unique dining experiences, and we dive into their hands-on approach to crafting memorable meals.

True hospitality is more than just great food—it's about making people feel genuinely welcome. Joe shares invaluable insights into building a strong cultural foundation within a team, fostering respect and support that lead to low employee turnover. From branding and marketing strategies that prioritize organic growth to the lessons learned from entrepreneurial risks and failures, this episode is a treasure trove of wisdom for aspiring restaurateurs. Don't miss out on Joe's future projects, including a new Seattle venture and a potential nonprofit focused on health and fitness, promising exciting developments on the horizon.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, paki and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success and culture, and this is our platform to showcase the people in our city who make it happen. On today's podcast, we've got something special. I'm a big fan of this gentleman sitting with us. We're going to be jumping into the inspiring journey of a restaurant owner, the path of his success, the challenges he's overcome and the secrets behind his two culinary masterpieces. We're welcoming to the circle co-owner and partner of Anima by EDO and EDO Gastro Tapas and Wine. We've got Joe Mikulich.

Speaker 2:

Welcome, that's exciting. That was the nicest intro. I appreciate you, man. Yeah, that's nice.

Speaker 1:

But seriously, man, big, big, big fan of your restaurant, specifically Anima at EDO. We've had multiple guests that we've had on that. When we spotlight restaurants, we asked them you know what's their favorite restaurant, and they bring it up. But let's jump right in, man. So what kind of inspired you to get into hospitality?

Speaker 2:

right in man. So what kind of inspired you to get into hospitality? So I'm born and raised in vegas and, honestly, soccer was my life. Growing up I played soccer, it was the only thing I cared about. So I learned from a young age, just like hard work reaps, like a reward, and I and now that I got out of soccer from growing up I kind of, uh, pushed that onto the business side, I guess. So, okay, the hospitality point came um, I, I played for unlv. I had no idea what the heck I wanted to do and I literally, like I had to declare. A major Sophomore year came around and I was like, hey, like whatever UNLV is probably good at, I'll go that route, yeah sure.

Speaker 2:

I didn't know what I wanted, but if that was going to be a good idea, I went for it. So ended up falling in love with hospitality. More on the beverage side, um, started taking like beer classes and wine classes and stuff like that, then worked my first harvest and I was like man, this sounds like a lot of fun. I was raised really like a farmer lifestyle. My parents are very like, uh, rustic, uh, easy living, simple lifestyles, okay, and uh, they kind of pushed that onto me and I learned those like attributes from a young age. So, um, it felt good to make others happy, um, and from like, the simplest way and um, so I quit playing soccer.

Speaker 2:

Um, with that hospitality degree and me getting more into the wine side, um, it was really easy for me to use that um to start working in fine dining in Vegas. So I, I think I started when I was 17 working in some fine dining spots Wow, lower tier ones, like things that have been open forever. And then, funny enough, actually, guys that you know, yassin Laoubi oh, yeah, of course, great guy.

Speaker 1:

He's in Morocco right now, also a UNLV grad.

Speaker 2:

Yes. We knew of each other through that and then just through friends. He also loves soccer.

Speaker 1:

He's a huge soccer fan.

Speaker 3:

Massive man Massive.

Speaker 2:

And he approached me. He was like hey, man, I'm opening this restaurant called Bazaar, would you be interested? And he hired me as a server when I was I think I was 21. Wow, and. I stayed at Bazaar for 10 years.

Speaker 1:

We were just talking about Bazaar. You had to have been flying the wall because we were just talking about Bazaar Meats. No kidding, I swear to you. Yeah, that's amazing. You know, yassin. Yassin's a good friend of the show, good person to learn from too.

Speaker 2:

Oh, he's amazing.

Speaker 3:

Very knowledgeable.

Speaker 2:

He's just a good honestly what he's doing now with Barry and Marco and all those guys.

Speaker 1:

they because I want to go to the World Cup with him, because it's going to be in his home country, Morocco. So my kid's a huge soccer fan, so that's great man. So UNLV, huge hospitality school, right. So getting your degree there, did you just know? Hey, I'm at UNLV, I'm in service industries, the Mecca, obviously in Vegas with the strip and everything Seems like it would be a home run to get into. That sure you know degree.

Speaker 2:

You thought you were gonna go pro and then just said hey, yeah, I mean, I did I, I injuries and just like, honestly, I just wasn't good enough, it wasn't, it wasn't my, my path and um, it was honestly the funniest.

Speaker 2:

The first thing that kind of led me to like get into hospitality was I'd be in a restaurant, I can't remember. It was probably during restaurant week, ironically, which is right now and, um, you know, poor college student, I went to a restaurant, I don't even remember what it was. I remember like looking around and I saw this guy walking through the restaurant that works there serving wine in dapper in a suit, and I was like man, who is this dude, like I don't know what he is? Another restaurant? Yeah sure, but I was like I want like he's like the. I literally remember this. I called him like the james bond that.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I want to be that guy and from the you know young kid I was like that sounds fun. I wasn't even thinking about like the career.

Speaker 1:

Sure.

Speaker 2:

And I started sitting wine that way, and then it was you know kind of all she wrote.

Speaker 3:

You know how important do you think that you and LV experience is right, that's obviously a big hospitality hub, like you guys both mentioned. But as you get older and you start getting into the workforce and you build that connection with your team. But as you've continued your career, how important are those relationships you built in the hospitality environment that benefited you now?

Speaker 2:

No, totally yeah. I mean, this city is so darn small. I ran just from like just meeting you guys today. We know literally, yeah, 3, 4, ej we were talking about earlier with Feature, shout out to EJ and Feature and people want to support people they know and that they like, and I think that, with this city being so small, I think it's very easy to build a lot of traction if you do the right things, but it's also on the downside if you do the wrong things.

Speaker 1:

It goes quick. Yeah, I agree. Let's talk about the kind of restaurants, because you've got two separate restaurants, obviously, one in Gramercy, one in Chinatown. Let's first start off. The first restaurant opened in 2018, right in Chinatown, correct? Yep? What made you choose Chinatown for this kind of style of food? Sure, because it's a Latin, you know, kind of Barcelona, spain. Yeah, I'd say.

Speaker 2:

Spanish is pretty out there now we don't really. I guess we call it free-flowing. Okay, so I have. My partner's name is Oscar. He's an amazing guy. He's straight from Barcelona. Our other partner the three of us are kind of what makes EDO Hospitality, so've seen actually hired my partner to be his replacement. At bizarre. His name is Roberto.

Speaker 1:

Leandro.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Great guy he's been in the city for a long time. Uh, he became like my mentor and he was ready to leave the trip. So he's like, hey, I'm like, I got this amazing chef from Barcelona. He's moving to the United States. We were thinking about doing our own thing together. Do you want to be a part of it? It took a while. We decided this is the route we're going to go.

Speaker 2:

Edo was our first concept Initially. Honestly, it was very, very traditional tapas, spanish tapas, really. Only there were some little bits and pieces of some creative stuff. But Oscar was really trying to be as mellow as possible just to not freak people out. Sure, uh, now, what we're doing, I think the the market really dictated it, but I mean, we would have people coming and wanting to try more and try different things. And, um, oscar's on. Honestly, he's my favorite person on the chef side. He's so creative and, uh, he lives and breathes a hospitality and food and beverage, so like, what we're doing at EDO is so vastly different than what we started and what we imagined it was going to be. And so that's EDO, if you were to ask me, is like our hub for, like all things gastronomic, it's the creative center. You know, as we're growing and we have some other things on the down the pipeline. Now in Vegas, edo will probably be like that R and D restaurant.

Speaker 2:

It's probably going to turn into like just tasting menu, where this is where we get creative as much as possible.

Speaker 3:

Love it. That's a good environment for that, like in Vegas, I think to your point. It's hard to be as out there but there's so much competition where people are kind of striving for that. Now and, if you like, how quickly did you figure that you needed to like shift into that direction? Because it is easy to like keep it basic. But you know we were talking about earlier, like the bazaar. Like you want to go somewhere where you can have an opportunity of experience and you wouldn't do like you're on vacation or you're wanting to go out on one time, one time a week we can get burgers anywhere. Like in a lot of time do I want to try something wild? Like how did you make that shift?

Speaker 2:

or it was. I think it was a few things. I mean a lot of it. When we opened, there was a lot of momentum behind us, like oh, two of these guys are from Bazaar and Jose speaks for himself with regards to creativity and we learned a lot from that and I would still say Bazaar Me is one of the most creative restaurants in this city, I agree, and if we can be any sort of bit past that, I mean we're flattered. But I think, with people knowing we came from there, I expected a little bit like hey be more creative.

Speaker 2:

Show us what you got.

Speaker 1:

Take some risk yeah.

Speaker 2:

And Oscar's definitely all about that. He's definitely taken that very, very well.

Speaker 3:

I'm sure he was excited to hear it. Yeah 100%.

Speaker 2:

And now it's polar opposite. We're like hey man. Shout out a little bit this one's we love everything you do, but this one might be a little bit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, too much Occasionally happens. Most of the time it doesn't. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, push the envelope. Tell us what the EDO stands for. We were talking about it offline. That was pretty cool, man. How'd you come up with that concept?

Speaker 2:

We were, you know, I think, for us initially we wanted the name of the restaurant for EDO to not just be based on a cuisine, spanish or whatever, because we knew Oscar's very creative and we have plenty of Japanese cuisine and whatever. We didn't want to be bound by one culture. So we were like, hey, why don't we call it an acronym or a name that the hospitality industry appreciates or recognizes? So, having an extra day off, um, initially it came, it came about with us when we were like talking, like oh, like there's no better feeling when you knew that you were scheduled to work this day and based on, like you know, business levels, or overstaffing, you got, you got the cut text. Or like you got asked to take the day off. So, overstaffing, you got the cut text. Or like you got asked to take the day off, so you had like no plans for that day.

Speaker 2:

So it's kind of like you have this day and that feeling is kind of fun to us.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a hell of a day man, that's a good story.

Speaker 3:

That's great. Whatever you want, yeah, that's great branding Very, very good branding.

Speaker 1:

I can see the future of what you guys could do with that A lot of different.

Speaker 1:

So in the world of business right, you touched a little bit about some of your partners it's extremely hard, right, finding the right partners to be able to work with. Like, how did you know you wanted to work with these two partners and make those decisions and jump in Because the capital can be high, obviously in the restaurant industry and overhead and all of that Not getting along? You know a lot of those different things and obviously, theft and people having different side. You know businesses and stuff, but what made you choose? Uh, you know them and and and lean on them.

Speaker 2:

Good question, Um, you know there's also there's, there's always going to be, a level of like uncertainty. I think that's natural.

Speaker 2:

Um, you know, I've known these guys for, I think, seven years now. Uh well, oscar, seven, roberto a little bit more, since I had bizarre and um, yeah, I mean, initially it's like you know, we're not, we didn't ask for, we didn't get any funding from anyone else, it's our own money. Um, there's a lot of risk in that too. Um, I, I think, I think we we spent enough time together to be like hey, like this is going to be us, um, and we went through a lot of hard times and we've gone through a lot of stress and now it's like now it's to the point where, like, things are going so well that we're starting to reap rewards and we're starting to see the benefit, and it's like man, I did this for you, you're doing this for me.

Speaker 2:

This is a very exciting thing. I could never imagine leaving my guys now. That's awesome, it's impossible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you guys have absolutely exploded at the Gramercy location, right? I think it's only been open for we were talking about because we went to the restaurant prior.

Speaker 2:

I can't remember the name of it but Kitchen Table Squared, kitchen Table Squared, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So Chris and I have been there and had drinks at the prior location, but I think 2022 is when you guys opened right.

Speaker 2:

It's exploded since then.

Speaker 1:

What do you think has been the secret to your success? Is it the branding and marketing, or just people knowing good food?

Speaker 2:

You know, when we just had EDO, we had so many people that were locals that came into the restaurant and, as much as I love that restaurant, the parking is always very crowded and packed Sure. So we had guests coming that lived up in our neck of the woods that were like, oh man, this parking is such a hassle. They wanted something new, something nicer. And EDO is as great as I think it is, it's definitely a little bit like a hole-in-the-wall, diamond-in-the-rough type of restaurant. So I think there's a different demographic that really wanted something of us to go out there. We want a different demographic that really wanted something of us to go out there. We don't want to get after it right. So we were already looking for a new location. We were thinking about going to Uncommons. It just didn't work out there. And then Gramercy came about. The three of us all live right in that area.

Speaker 3:

So it was very convenient.

Speaker 1:

And it just kind of all worked itself out.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, business side, we negotiated a great deal um for like a second gen restaurant and kind of had to work with what was already left there and then make our adjustments to what we thought was was suitable. But it was. It worked out very well okay, it's a great name.

Speaker 3:

How did you come up with the name? See, I didn't come up with the intriguing. How did that one come up? Yeah, so anima um.

Speaker 2:

We already knew that that restaurant was going to be like a focus on the Mediterranean, more specifically, italy and Spain.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2:

So we were like, man, we should come up with a name that probably means the same meaning in both Italian and Spanish. Okay, and I couldn't figure it out. It was a wreck of my brain. My partner, roberto, came up with it and we were walking through our cellar at EDO and there's a famous wine from the island of Mallorca, spain, called.

Speaker 3:

Anima Negre Black Soul.

Speaker 2:

And he's like, why don't we call it Anima?

Speaker 3:

And I was like man sure.

Speaker 2:

Honestly, I was so exhausted at that point.

Speaker 3:

You can call it anything, you can call it whatever you want, and yeah, it kind of just caught on, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's funny, some things just make sense and they feel right sure and that's what it comes down to. But so two and a half years you guys have done it. You got you guys obviously private, like you said, your own money and everything. Is this the goal? To maybe like franchise and open this up in la and chicago and new york city and things like that?

Speaker 2:

we do have some cool things, I guess. I guess, um, it's public knowledge now, but we have. We have a third restaurant coming to ve oh okay, oh awesome, I didn't know that we're just waiting on permits to get construction started, but we're going to be where Cleaver is.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, of course.

Speaker 2:

Paradise, right? Yep, that whole development. The owner's just putting so much money into making that beautiful.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it's already got a huge fac Renovation has been amazing over there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so that's going to be our third concept in Vegas.

Speaker 1:

Same as Anima or Nope.

Speaker 2:

This will be a focus on French in Spain. Awesome, like a French brasserie.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Brasseria is going to be the name of it, that's a really good name it's going to be a focus on, I guess, owed to like a more of a approachable fun atmosphere.

Speaker 3:

Okay, I don atmosphere okay. Um, you know, I don't know if we're gonna do tasting menu there, it'll be a little bit more of like a big bar setting more fun or atmosphere. Um, yeah, it's the third. Okay, how does this kind of planning phase work out? Because it's not like you're to paki's point. You're not just plug and playing like you're building brand new concepts or brand new menus, brand new everything, and you know, when you're going from one to the next, like how does that planning phase work for you? Is it a lot of tasting ahead of time, a lot of pen to paper, or is it more of a vision than a thought?

Speaker 2:

I don't know if there's a right or wrong way to do it. I will say that we always I think restaurateurs always when they're together we just kind of like, in our free time, just start spitballing ideas of what like oh, this would be a sick name, this would be a sick restaurant. So we actually had the concept of Brasserie already kind of made and we were just like we just need to find the right room for it. Again, going back to Oscar, this guy, we do a lot of new menus pretty often. We do wine dinners at Anima every month, and Oscar and then some of my newer guys that work under Oscar that kind of run the day-to-day ops for um, for anima, are crazy talented.

Speaker 2:

they're guys from robuchon oh, okay, now they joined our group that are studs and uh, so we make these special custom menus all the time for these wine dinners that aren't menus that we have in the restaurant usually. And uh, you do that enough times. I think you start getting you know one winner every dinner.

Speaker 1:

One winner every dinner. Love that, yeah, that's interesting.

Speaker 3:

That's hard. That's a lot of work for Oscar.

Speaker 1:

You guys do something really like it's excellent, right, like you can go there and talk, obviously, to your team and you're like what do you recommend, sure? And I don't know how they do it, but they figure it out and it's amazing how they've been able to do it. So, from your perspective, having this background right, hospitality is everything. Man. What is hospitality to you? Just being, obviously, you went to school for it. You've been now in the trenches of building your own company. What would you say is kind of like true hospitality.

Speaker 2:

Man to me. I think that true hospitality to me is just making people feel good. I think that through hospitality to me is just making people feel good, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I think there's plenty of examples of that, especially here, in Las Vegas, where this is like a, I would argue, a hospitality hub, I agree Destination for it, and there's so many different experiences that I've had, and I'm sure everyone has had, where they go to a restaurant and like, let's say, for example, the food's not like amazing, but for some reason you still go there because the people there still make you feel good.

Speaker 1:

I agree.

Speaker 2:

And there's so many examples of that, and that's why you have restaurants that have stayed for 30, 40 years old. It's definitely, you know, the food, I think, is a part of it, but I've had plenty of bad meals where I'm like man, I still had a really good time, and vice versa. You can have the best food possible but if, like the service and like the way you fell overall was not there, I probably wouldn't go back.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you know that makes sense. You get a little more grace if you kind of put at least one part of the package totally just effort.

Speaker 2:

Man. I really think I talk to my guys all the time about just like effort. Hospitality to me is just like an effort thing and kind of like layering on that.

Speaker 3:

you know, as you're expanding, right, and you're, there's only the three of you, right, they're kind of this hub, but you've done this together at one location to be able to establish that, but as you expand and your time gets pulled away a little bit more, you don't have the time to instill that same level of customer service or some of these same metrics that you were used to. How do you, as you're expanding, how do you try to build that cultural foundation at these new locations? What have you done to try to instill that?

Speaker 2:

it's been, it's been a. Really, if there's anything that I've taken away from going from one restaurant to two now it's it's that. It's um, and I'm 33 like. I'm not by no means like a pro at this, but what it is. What I found is successful for me is like creating a very cool, cool culture where not only does the team respect us, but they also, um know that we have their back and I think we've done a really good job of creating this family environment to where, like, hey, we've got you, but we we want, because we got you, we know that you can be like so much better. And if you keep that mentality with my guys, like I mean, I, I, I haven't lost a single employee server-wise at Anima since we opened.

Speaker 2:

That's powerful Turnover is a huge thing in restaurants and I think it speaks leaps and bounds for our group, not only myself as a leader, but the rest of the team. We've become such a cool family where there's plenty of restaurants they can go and they know this too that they can make a lot more money. We're not offering insurance right now. We will be very, uh, very soon but, um, there's some, there's another x factor that keeps them there and keeps them happy, and it's outside of the monetary thing, which I think a lot of people in vegas just go for only that and then their lives are miserable.

Speaker 1:

That's a very yeah, I applaud you to To not have the turnover that is a strong statement.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, this time, this culture right now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we were just my wife and I were just talking about that. Most people would. You know there's been studies of people changing jobs on purpose because they get the increase you know from going job to job. But they don't realize, you, you know. What I wanted to ask you about is branding. So you guys have branded and done that. What's been like your best use of promoting, you know, your companies and use of money? Is it bringing in influencers? Has it been, you know, doing the traditional advertising? What's been kind of working for you guys? Oh man.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, this is a question that, if I knew the answer exactly, yeah.

Speaker 2:

You know the riddle. The interesting thing with us is we're not, we understand this. We're never going to be the restaurant, like the group, that makes the most money. Sure, we being a byproduct of being like a restaurant that tries to do like very creative things and gastronomic and things that are a little bit out of the ordinary, sure, we make restaurants where, like people can go and like also learn a new ingredient or new, new something. Right, you're naturally going to kind of pigeonhole yourself away from like the masses.

Speaker 2:

So, and our marketing is kind of interesting because, like we're us putting a billboard up, we're gonna attract a lot of people, but it might not be the people that uh, really are are understanding of like what, what they're about to get themselves into, sure, okay, um, so we, we we're a little bit more organically and how we like grow that okay, um, we, we put a lot more emphasis towards like building our team, like our, our, our staff and our culture. Um, of course, we like have influencers and we are in like great standing with food writers in las vegas. Yeah, I think that's the most important. I think another big part of it, too, is like we take care of our industry when they come to the restaurant, like we, we lace them up because we know that, like you know, it's it's kind of a. It's hard to like break down the equation exactly, but I know that if I take care of you, you'll have a voice and you'll talk to other people that will also be probably going to your restaurant and, like you know, going to us.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, yeah. What would you suggest to eat there? So let's say you go to a NEMA. What do you eat? Or you know for our listeners, or or, if it's for you know, gastro, what would you suggest for them to sit down and?

Speaker 2:

eat the first time. If you were coming for the first time, I would say a tasting menu. Okay, yep, both are built there. You know, we, I think we're like one of the like. It's a very low point of entry, like cost-wise, to like an amazing, like spread of like. You know, the best of what we have.

Speaker 1:

Sure.

Speaker 2:

That happens most of the time. That's really what, like most of my guys try and sell, because it's a fun way to taste a lot of things without one getting too full. Yeah, you know, we want you to learn something. You're not going to like everything exactly. That's not the point. The point is like, hey, like you're trying something you've never had before, um, in a creative way, when you know and and we do have a bunch of people that have done that before, they love us and they will come to the restaurant now and they're like, hey, like the price point's not an option like you just do, do whatever you guys want to do, and obviously that's like the home run. Sure, that's the fun ones. Um, on the regular menus, I think it's moving into summertime. I'm in a much more of like a fish kick I usually like a steak guy okay um yeah, and I would say I'm a big ribeye dude.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

So steak houses I definitely miss, but in summertime it's just too dang hot.

Speaker 3:

Yeah and heavy. Yeah, you start sweating when you walk out. Yeah, sure.

Speaker 2:

So there's a Branzino at the restaurant, there's a Dorada at the restaurant. That are both amazing. Okay, that are a little bit lighter in a food coma type thing.

Speaker 1:

That's good man. Mentorship is huge for both of us and I know you mentioned Yassin and some other kind of mentors. But what's kind of the biggest lesson that you kind of learned? Building the hospitality Because, I mentioned, you're 33 years old. It's still a lot to learn, just like us, but what would you say is the biggest lesson you've learned from some of your mentors and coaches?

Speaker 2:

Man, I would say, and I think this is like a I don't know if it's a generational thing, but I think a lot of people get their ego in the way of, like, trying to learn and sometimes, um, I've I've always been like a for the most part, a pretty quiet, uh person and I think, because of that, like I you know, there's a famous quote like you um, I'm going to botch this, but there's a lot of people that don't listen to. They listen to reply, not to understand, and I've always been like someone that just like just absorbs what people say.

Speaker 3:

And.

Speaker 2:

I've learned so many good things and bad things, but it's all, it's just information Sure, and I've learned so much and, like I think I've grown mostly because of that with the mentors that I've had.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. Yeah, I'm glad you said that Listen versus understand, right, I have a hard time with that because I've talked, but you're right, you do need to listen more. Yeah, that's great For business advice. You know we obviously talk about small business owners. You've been able to build this on your own capital. You know what would you share with them?

Speaker 2:

If you feel strong about wanting to do something, go all in, fail fast and then learn from it. We've made plenty of mistakes. I think everyone that's in business has made plenty of mistakes. We learn from them and you hope that you remember them and you don't make them again. But that's how we grow. There's way too many examples of it. But people make. You have to make mistakes. You have to be willing to learn from them and just take the risk and grow Sure, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Patrick Brennan has been in my mind since last time I talked with him and he was saying in one of our last podcasts he was saying like, look, you can always go back to the corporate world. Like and he caught me off guard with that because it's true like he's like, let's just take the risk and, you know, throw, throw the dice and see where it hits so because you can always go back and you don't want to kick yourself, worst case scenario.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a beauty of a life, right for sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we were talking about restaurants, right? I'm a big foodie, I love to hear it about, and we want to know from you for sure what is your favorite restaurant in Vegas, or what would you suggest somebody that goes to especially being a homegrown, I guess she's one, one or you can give a couple.

Speaker 2:

Up to three. Yeah, up to three. I think that's why we're going to have some people call me up.

Speaker 1:

We just want to know, because we want to know where to eat at.

Speaker 3:

Also, I know I guess Go on your social media page for honorable mentions, Lee yeah.

Speaker 2:

I'll give three.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

I've always had an amazing experience at Raku, Raku okay.

Speaker 1:

I think it's a sleeper in the city for Japanese cuisine oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

Raku's great. It's been around for forever.

Speaker 1:

They just close on their dessert spot. That's the best dessert spot to have ever been to, excellent, yeah, I used to go with all my kids all the time.

Speaker 2:

It's like super traditional, wholesome people. They're very amazing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Raku's great.

Speaker 2:

I would say that actually this is going to be a funny one, but for casual cuisine I love Viva Zarepa's.

Speaker 3:

What is?

Speaker 2:

that it's a Venezuelan food.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, I used to get all the time delivered to my house. It is really good. Yeah, on.

Speaker 1:

Las Vegas Boulevard.

Speaker 3:

Yep, yeah, I know exactly where it is.

Speaker 2:

So Sean had a part.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I know exactly where it is.

Speaker 2:

And then if I had to say one more, I would say Bizarre Meat man.

Speaker 1:

Three gems, okay, awesome, I think you gave three, except for Bizarre Meats. I know people mentioned that before, but the other two I don't think anybody's mentioned. Give them a try. That's awesome, man, good stuff. What else are you focusing on? I know obviously you've got the third restaurant coming up off of Paradise, but maybe something that we forgot to ask you, that you maybe want to leave us out on.

Speaker 2:

We're grinding. This year, we've been blessed we're going to partner with a hotel group in Seattle. Oh, okay, it's going to happen next year, but the conversation is already being had. Sure, we'll be opening up a restaurant and a hotel in. Seattle, probably Q2 next year.

Speaker 1:

Good stuff. Congratulations on that, thank you.

Speaker 2:

I'm still into fitness heavily. It's a big part of my life, so I'm probably going to be creating like a run club in Las Vegas. Get out of here, okay.

Speaker 1:

Good stuff.

Speaker 2:

I love charity work, I love volunteering and stuff like that. It's a big part of my life so I want to do my own nonprofit eventually.

Speaker 3:

Okay, that's awesome, that's fantastic, yep.

Speaker 2:

And doing something about the health. Maybe this run club will be like the jumpstart to it. That's great.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I don't know if I'll figure it out.

Speaker 2:

I'll figure it out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's all man. Congratulations man being able to do it and grow to another market, which is great, and Seattle's awesome.

Speaker 2:

That's a great city. Great market yeah, for sure, great city. A lot going on, but it should be good as far as the style of cuisine in.

Speaker 3:

Seattle similar type of setup too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're going to be us. It's going to still have our name on it and our swag. Okay, we will have to like focus on, you know, ingredients from Seattle and around nearby states and stuff like that, but it'll still be like our twist.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

It'll have our identity.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, yeah Well, definitely follow what these guys are doing. Man, I've always had a great experience I'm not just saying it because I reached out to you, but great service literally at both of your restaurants. So I applaud what you guys are doing to support you. I'm looking forward to the Paradise restaurant opening up 100%. Love to check that out, appreciate it, but what's some of the social handles for people to check out the?

Speaker 2:

restaurants and things yourself. Edo is at EDOTAPAS. Anima is Anima by E-D-O. Perfect. My personal is Joe Mikulich awesome. J-o-e-m-i-k-u-l-i-c-h. Awesome.

Speaker 1:

That's it well, we appreciate hanging out with us man, we support you and check us out at thevegasurcom. So appreciate your time, man.

Speaker 3:

Thank you man, such a pleasure great stuff, yeah.