Ed Pizzarello: The Man Behind the Most Unique Five Guys Ever Built

Vegas can make a normal business model look impossible, and that’s why we wanted this conversation. We’re joined by Ed “Pizza” Pizzarello, a longtime Five Guys franchise owner and operator who went from four-diamond hospitality and consulting to helping open the third Five Guys franchise store back in 2002. He tells us what it felt like to bet on a small “cult burger” brand before it had the systems and scale it’s known for today, and what changes when a franchise grows into a global name.

Then we go full Las Vegas. Ed breaks down the thinking behind a true flagship Five Guys on the Strip near the Venetian, including what it takes to build a 10,000-square-foot destination with a bar, late-night energy, and menu ideas you won’t find back home. We talk boozy milkshakes, how alcohol changes shake texture, and why seasonal R&D matters when your brand promise is “fresh.” If you’re curious about restaurant tech, you’ll love the details on ordering kiosks loaded with 35 languages for international guests, plus the “Brand Ambassador” role that keeps service human and helps customers order the right amount.

We also get real about restaurant ownership: construction costs in Las Vegas, why an $8 million build can happen fast, and how a rare 50-50 joint venture with the Five Guys founding family changes the usual franchise fee structure. Along the way, Ed shares leadership lessons on culture, loyalty, and staying steady through lumpy demand tied to travel and big events. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves business stories, and leave a review with your biggest question about franchising or building a brand in Las Vegas.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet The Guest

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, Pocky and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success, and culture. And this is our platform to showcase people in our city who are making it happen. And on today's podcast, we have just that. We've got an amazing guest with us, a five guys franchise owner, uh, one of the largest locations in the country, located just in our backyard, which is Las Vegas. So we're welcome into the circle, uh, Mr. Edward. I gotta say this right, is it Pizzerelli? Just like the food, man, Mr. Pizza. Is that the right pizzerelli? Pizza. Pizza Pizzerelli. Yeah. Okay, there it is, man. So and so before we even jump in, man, podcast guy, too, also, right? So 400 episodes.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

That was why I loved knowing I was gonna come on the podcast. I'm all I'm a fan of everybody else's podcast. I love digesting them. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah, for almost as long as you guys, 420 episodes. Oh awesome.

From Hotels To Early Five Guys

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Wow, killing it, killing it, man. So how did you let's jump right in, man. So how did you jump in and becoming a uh uh franchise owner with five guys? You said 23 years you own a franchise, but how long have you actually been in the burger business?

SPEAKER_02 0:58

So I I was actually I was actually in four star, four diamond hotels for for quite a while. Okay and I started my own consulting company. It's right around 9-11, and you know, I I built a company on my own. And you know, when when 9-11 happened, I mean there were all these tragic things that happened, but you know, the one subset of that was nobody needed a hospitality consultant because nobody was traveling. So I went and sold cars at CarMax. I mean, I gave free consulting to all my clients until they could afford to pay me. And right as the business was starting to track again, a a good friend of mine who's uh a poker player now lives here in Vegas, we were having a just a general conversation right as poker was starting to blow up. And he's like, Hey, I want I'm gonna buy some uh some burger franchises. Do you want to run them for me? And I said, Hell no, but I'll find somebody to run them for you. And for about six months, I said no. You know, I come from a lower middle class family in New York, you know, no college graduates, no family wealth. And he pushed me hard and said, Look, I'll I'll give you a stake in the business if you come run it for me. And I figured, you know, I could always rebuild my business. I I you know I did it to I did it twice. So we figured we'd take a chance on this this you know cult burger concept in DC called Five Guys. We opened the third franchise store ever back in 2002, and the rest is history.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

What did he see in you that he knew that you know he wanted to partner with you?

SPEAKER_02 2:14

He was a lawyer, and so he he knew he didn't have the food service background and he knew that was what I did. Okay. Um he loved five guys as a concept and he really thought that it had legs, but he also knew, and he's always said this, he knew that like he had the business side of it potentially, but he was never gonna run the food side of it. And so we've had a good partnership for for 20 plus years, and and like quite frankly, with the success of Five Guys, you know, it's given me the opportunity now to be a cash investor in our business where I started out as a sweat equity guy, you know, 20 plus years ago.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

What where were uh insight he had, right? Obviously, at that point in time, five guys was not what it is now, it's a national chain and it's six locations. Yeah, well, what what was his like initial impression of it that made him really buy into it? And did you see this vision of the future kind of playing out this way? I didn't, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

So he he went to college in the DC area. And back then, five guys was cheap eats, like it was the burger in town, they were affordable, the whole bit, big portions, and he loved it. And for me, it was, you know, I thought it was fine, but there weren't really any systems. They always took over old restaurants, and so they did it in the most affordable way possible because it was just a family that wanted to build a business for their kids. So I was skeptical. And you gotta think, I mean, I know I'm the old guy here in the room, but you know, 20 plus years ago, the only two places you really got a burger were you went to McDonald's, where it was in the warming tray behind you when you ordered, or you went to there was a chain in DC back then called Houston's, but it was mostly like a white tablecloth steakhouse and they had a burger in the middle. Yeah, I remember Houston's, yeah. But there wasn't Smash Burger or any of these other concepts. You didn't go to a counter, order a burger, wait for it, get hand cut fries. Like that wasn't a thing. You got that from a really good restaurant. So five guys was sort of they were their own lane. It was so different from everything else.

Flagship Vegas Store And Boozy Shakes

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah, it was very interesting. Now you just kind of see the franchise model, I'm sure, evolve. At that point, you're saying when you had three, they don't have the same systems you do at thousand, right? Right. It's very different experience. Like we get a lot less, I would say, I would assume that you get a lot less flexibility now than you did maybe before. How do you kind of see that shift in dynamic? Is it a positive or like a negative situation?

SPEAKER_02 4:14

I mean, it's both at the same time, obviously, because in the beginning we were able to help shape the brand. Um, a lot of like almost every piece of equipment in the kitchen is one that I had a hand in specing when we decide to build more restaurants. On the flip side, you know, back then we had to do those things to make sure that our restaurants could survive and be profitable. So there was this push and pull. You fast forward to today where quite frankly, you know, you want some level of control because you want to know that the franchisee down the road from you is gonna do all the same things you're gonna do, have that same passion.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

But at the same time, especially with this Vegas location that's truly a one of one, you want to know that the brand can think outside of the box and say, well, we we need to do this Vegas style. It's gonna be all these things that we've never done, boozy milkshakes, 10,000 square feet, open all night, that that all stuff. And so we've really had to work with the brand to make them feel comfortable outside of their skin.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

And so you guys have the large is it was it 10,000 square foot? The largest North America. Yep. There's there's a couple overseas that are just a little bit bigger. Dubai and South Korea crush it.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Wait, five guys is in Dubai?

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Yeah, Dubai and South Korea, and the South Korean location got so busy, they actually have a virtual queue almost like a Disney to get in during opening weeks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

So you guys are low, so you your store is in is it Venetian?

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Yeah, so it's out in front of Venetian. If you remember where uh Madame Tussaud's is wax museum. So underneath that was a uh 10,000 square foot Sephora. It was actually their first Sephora Sephora location in the world. Oh no. Apparently, from what I learned, there was a warehouse down the end of the strips, like sort of where our stratosphere was, that they that Sephora opened in, and that they decided their first retail store would be there right when Venetian opened, so like late 90s. And at the very beginning, all the the the women that work there that would show the makeup, they're dressed from head to toe in black and they had black gloves on, and they would hand you the makeup with black gloves.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Okay, the first Sephora store. I was learning a lot of stuff here too. He giving us some history, giving us some history, man. That's good stuff. 20 plus years.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Yeah, that's wild.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Yeah, yeah. So it's amazing. So this Chris will be excited about this. You guys got the first walk-up bar or something, too, right? From Irish fanning. And you tell me about all these shakes offline, man. So get let's get into that a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So so if if you don't know five guys, they've always been about fresh. And so they there's a franchisee, his name is Bill. I've known him a long time, and he was the one that convinced five guys to do shakes because before that they said, Well, we don't know, it's gotta be ice cream and fresh toppings. We can't, you know, we can't do a mix and all this stuff because they they just they wanted to be fresh like their burgers. Yeah. So you you rewind, you know, you know, almost 15 years ago, Bill convinces them to go to milkshakes. The milkshake that launched it was a bacon salted caramel milkshake. And I'll be honest. A bacon salted. Bacon in a shake is not my thing. So try it. It's not my thing. But but the family member, the Morel family member that tried it loved it. And that was what launched us. So our launch shake here on the strip is a boozy salted caramel peanut butter bacon shake with bourbon in it. And people love it.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

But the bourbon, I'll try it with the bourbon. I'll try it with the bourbon in it, but that sounds crazy. So you guys got a so full full bar menu, is this is straight up Vegas. It's all the pieces of Vegas. Very Vegas.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

We're serving the you know the the the yard slushies and the whole bit. And with the shakes, it's a tough thing because if you think about it, so like a five guy shake is a really thick, hand spun, you know, good flavor. You start adding alcohol to it, you thin it out. So we've had to experiment, and it's been this back and forth of so we did a seasonal apple pie shake around the holidays.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

That sounds dangerous. Yes, and you can't taste the booze of that's the delicious part.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

So we we uh were experimenting with apple pie filling because we wanted like we didn't want to just add flavor, we want it to be a unique shake, but we also need to thicken it. So it's like, well, what if we what if we got apple pie filling and we blend it into the shake?

SPEAKER_01 8:00

That's like that's why the peanut butter comes in, right? Exactly to kind of consistency. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Sounds amazing. Yeah, yeah. That's good stuff, man.

Strip Real Estate And Stadium Traffic

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Yeah, and this so as you identify like the location, you know, how much how much effort did you put into saying I want this large store? Like I want it to be flagship, I want like that's the my my desire to do that.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Yeah, the so the the the seven or eight year odyssey shortened down to 15 seconds is when we took we took this territory back, it was not running well. We took it back from the franchisee that was running it back in 2017. We said, we know how to run this, we're gonna turn these stores around because we owned it back in 2008, sold it. 2017 wasn't running well. We took it back and said, we need a strip location. We failed to sign a lease in so many different locations, including the location that we're gonna open in this summer. Uh, that Adidas spot was a spot we looked at seven, eight years ago and we lost the lease on it at the very last minute. We have tried for a while. We thought if you're gonna own a burger territory in Vegas, you gotta be on the strip. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

100%. I can't even imagine what what kind of foot traffic will you guys get with this new digital screen and everything that you've been talking about, man? What kind of traffic do you guys put in your budget that you think people are gonna go past?

SPEAKER_02 9:09

There's some pretty massive numbers. I think what even skews the numbers further is as you guys know, the baseball stadium is opening around the corner. And from a parking standpoint, you know, even though there's parking on the the T-Mobile side of Las Vegas Boulevard, what we see typically is you see a bunch of people who will park in the MGM garage or they'll park in the Aria garage to go to the stadium because there's not enough parking right there. So people park further away and they they sort of trickle in. So we think even though I expect there will be plenty of parking on site where the stadium is, there's also gonna be a ton of folks who are gonna park in the the the lot behind uh hard rock and the lot behind MGM, and so we're gonna have our opportunity to to get all those passers by for I mean you figure what you know, another I mean at a bare minimum you'll have how many home games you know you gotta hook.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

So I think it's um baseball's not my thing, but it was a hundred and something games. But that's awesome compared to Raiders and hockey and all of that. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

So we get 81 home games, and then you figure there'll be even though there's a ton of venues, there's gonna be some concerts that'll be at the basics.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

The stadium is absolutely beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

I imagine there'll be an all-star game there because why not make it? So we're we anticipate that that's gonna really even ramp up the traffic further.

Kiosks, Languages, And Service Culture

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Sure. Yeah. What what's your take on, not to go on fully on a on a rabbit hole, but you know, you see a lot of the franchise, like every store you go into now, everything's automated with computers and not people and things like that. What's your take on that? Because you see McDonald's is going that option. I I know that's your competitor, but what is what's five guys taking your personal take on you know, transitioning to just customer service in general and not be full robots?

SPEAKER_02 10:43

You know, uh Vegas has been a really interesting model for us because, as you guys know, ton of international travelers. So for us, having the ability to order electronically is huge because the kiosk speaks every language. You know, we've got 35 languages loaded on the kiosks in Vegas more than any other five guys in the country because of the people that come in. So if you I never think about that. Yeah. But if you guys think about us, so like I'll like I'll be honest, like I eat a lot of other restaurants that serve burgers. I eat at McDonald's. When I go to McDonald's, I'm getting either a medium or a large fry with my combo. If you do that at five guys, I mean we're gonna drown you in front of us so if you've never you guys got some of the best fries, man.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Thank you. I'm just saying because you dare, but you guys got really good fries.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Yeah, occasion ones is smart. Oh, I love the Cajunes. Yeah. But for us, it's sort of a combination between telling the customer about the experience and having the computer there to help them for the things they don't know. First off, people order with their eyes, so big picture of all the toppings and all that stuff. But on the flip side, if somebody walks in, they never ordered it five guys. If the three of us walked in, we never ordered. We probably all each order a French fry. We probably only need one or two. You're right. So for our value prop, we always have an employee stationed at the kiosk to talk the customer through it. We we actually talk people down from ordering because the way we see it is well, we might get them once and sell them that big fry, but then they're gonna go, well, I wasted all that money. So we so we we actually have an employee position we created just for this location called Brand Ambassador, and that person is at the kiosks every single hour of the day, coaching customers through the orders, answering questions, and then guiding them on how much food they should order. We see that as a value prop to the customer, which ultimately hopefully means that they want to come back because we didn't we didn't screw them and get them that we got you that one time and we got you to spend that extra money.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Yep. I was just talking with a chef this afternoon, friends of Chris and our. I don't want to say his name because I want to tell his business, but they're having a hard time, right? But they're more in like the I don't want to say like super high end, but in that middle, you know, nice, nice, nice restaurant, nice, nice lounge. But it seems like this type of concept, the chicken concepts, there seem like they're not having the issues that a lot of these other restaurants are. Is that is that true? That was what's behind the curtain?

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Or yeah, to be honest, yeah, business has been lumpy for us. Um there's some times where we're crushing it. During CES, we had somebody who walked in from South Korea and they said, Hey, we couldn't get into the new five guys that opened in South Korea. There's 25 of us here. Can you hold a table for us? We're gonna come over for lunch. So there's certain times of year that are crushing it. That being said, shortly after CES, we've got the concrete show and shot show as well as the rodeo. None of those really performed for us maybe as as highly as we thought they would. I mean, they were still busy, of course, yeah. But I mean, during CES, and also too, like our secret crazy time, if you were to walk into our restaurant about 30 minutes after the Backstreet Boys finished performing, wall to wall, people dressed in white, every single table occupied, yeah, some of our busiest hours. So we're just we're sort of learning. So I I I don't I wouldn't say that your friend is right or wrong about where we are for I like travel's definitely down. We all know that. For sure. I think part of what we're trying to do is is learn who that core customer is and how we talk to them. And I think, you know, I've said this a number of times. I think our North Star is the woman who lives in St. Louis, Missouri. She's coming to Vegas for three days for a conference. Why does she need to come to Five Guys? She's got one at home. Well, she needs to come to Five Guys in Vegas because of all the special things we have.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

It's different. Yes, what you just showed me on your computer is completely different.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

That's a great, a great point. Because I think like Taco Bell, right? Right. I love Taco Bell all the time. But I love going down to the Taco Bell at the strip because they have the yard slushies with the Baja Blast with alcohol and it's just a great experience. It's a very different environment. So I think it makes a lot of sense. But are you seeing that people right now are having you know just that discretionary income? And is it because they're coming here that maybe they're putting it on corporate cars or a little bit different experience than at home if I'm trying to eat on a Thursday, maybe I don't have that much discretionary income.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

I think, yeah, I definitely think there's a a YOLO element to everything in Vegas. I think you guys know that. A great example for us is we we bought an initial order of the the yard glasses for slushies, and we didn't really know what the demand would be. And we've had some programming stuff with our digital menu board, so we weren't able to get the prices up there. So we're charging a price for this slushie with alcohol in it. The customer can't see the price up on the board. We're not trying to hide it from them. Um we've got a board on the counter that tells them the price, but it's not like screaming in their face like uh you know other places on the strip. We sold 500 of them in 60 days with a five guys, a special welcome to five guys Vegas logo on them. These are three foot-tall souvenirs. We all know not a single one of those 500 ended up on an airplane at all. They're all somewhere nearby. But but people were like, oh, this is cool. It's got a cool logo on it. Like, I want to buy it, take it home. Yeah. And it was the actual glass? It was plastic. Oh, plastic.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Okay, so I did the same thing. I buy I got like so many fat Tuesday ones at my house.

Demand Swings, Vegas Spend, And Merch

SPEAKER_02 15:35

I gotta tell you. Yeah, well, that's that's why we're leaning heavily into merchandise now. We got you know, custom-made patches for hats, you know, some great glasses. We're working on a set of playing cards, stuff that, again, people can take home with them. Yeah, we're seeing that demand.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

You've been in this business for a long time. What what does it take to become a successful franchise owner in your in your space? Because it's hard. It's hard. Yeah. It is, yeah. In your perspective, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Yeah, I I I mean I I I like to tell folks I mean, I everything that I do right is because I learned it the hard way. Like I, you know, I've I've done everything wrong, uh, some things multiple times. Yeah. I think the thing I've come around is the restaurant industry has changed a lot. I'll sound like the old guy in the room when I say, you know, if you think back to the days of Blockbuster video, you know, when kids would come to work for me, they could go work at Blockbuster for roughly the same price, and they wouldn't end up going home smelling like you know burgers and fries. Yeah. So we've got to make it fun for them. At the end of the day, culture is everything about about us from a from a family standpoint. I won't share a ton of details about it because the personal family situation, but we have an employee who had been with us for a while, his brother still works for us. Um he lost his life earlier this year, and I wear a bracelet on my arm you know, to remember him. He was a part of our team. And we have you know, team events, we you know, we we help support the family afterwards. Those things are important to us from a culture standpoint. And on the flip side of that, what we expect from our employees is to protect us like they're our family. And I think we've had a lot of success with that in an area where employees are transient, they can obviously find easier places to work than hoofing it all the way to the strip. It there has to be something that they can connect to or they'll move to the next job. And so for us, I think the thing I've learned over decades, and again, more of like how not to do things, working in places where it was about the bottom line and it wasn't about culture. I can't expect someone making 15 or 20 bucks an hour to treat you well in my restaurant if I treat them like crap. They're just not gonna do it. And if I treat you like if like you talk about Taco Bell Cantina, if you show up and I serve you poorly, you're a local. You're not coming to the strip unless there's a real reason to do it. So if I if if it's just eh, if it's just okay, you'll you'll take your money somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

So we really have to. Edward, you figure this out. Our our friend Peter Cross, he talks about all the time. We always talk about corporate culture. And I don't think anybody other than him uh and yourself have mentioned that. And that's that's so important because you're 100% right because people don't care. If they don't feel that energy, they're like it's less more.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

I think nowadays it's less about the paycheck, because like to your point, you can get it anywhere. And either way, you're gonna have well, do I want to go to work every day for$15 an hour and be treated terrible and then have to put all this hard work with no opportunity to grow? So I totally get it. I've been there a bunch of times as well.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Sure. Yeah. Transition a little bit. What what surprised you most financially when you became an owner? But what surprised that's a great question. Wow.

Hiring, Leadership, And Team Loyalty

SPEAKER_02 18:31

I like I I had watched a hand. I've been wanting to ask somebody this. I have I I watched a number of episodes to get ready for the questions that you guys have. I want to do something different. Well, you definitely definitely did something different. I think the thing that surprised me most about the from a financial standpoint, about being an owner, is just how much it costs to build a restaurant. Operations, I mean, I think most people understand the basics of like what labor cost is, how much a pound of ground beef. But man, construction, and especially in a market like Vegas, where the best contractors are all union labor, yeah, the cost for construction and how to manage that is huge because if you spend too much coming in, the rest of the model falls apart. Yeah, your ROI is out the door.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Yeah. So can you share with the what the one will be on the strip? A ballpark of what that is?

SPEAKER_02 19:24

So so the first store that we built, and yeah, I'm I'm I'm an open book. Okay. First store that we built, the one that's in front of the Venetian, all told in for about eight million dollars. Oh crap. Yeah, that'll that'll that'll that'll take your breath away. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

So even for this store, do you have to pay the same franchise fee or is it a different franchise fee because of a certain situation?

SPEAKER_02 19:43

We're very fortunate. So we've had a relationship with the Morel family that started five guys 40 years ago. It's their 40th anniversary. We've had a relationship with the family for over 20 plus years. The father, Jerry, is one of only three people I've ever even considered doing a handshake deal with. Very trustworthy folks. We came to an agreement. This is a true joint venture partnership with them. It is a 50-50. You know, they put in half the money, we put in half the money, split the profits right down the middle. And so, because of that, this location doesn't have the typical franchise fees. Got it. We operate it, we don't charge a management fee in exchange for you know them being our partners on it and giving it the corporate gravitas to be able to negotiate with some of these landlords. And I think it's a pretty reasonable partnership. You know, we put our time in, they put their name and brand online, and we split the we split the expenses 50-50.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

I could tell why the lawyer wanted to invest with you just in a struggle. And I'm not just saying that. You could tell a lot because look, my my dad's taught me that for years, like doing the business with a handshake, yeah, it's hard to be able to do, you know what I mean, and and have that trust. That's how we've done our we've known each other, what, 12, 13, 14 years, and we built a company doing that by handshake. And it's it's hard to do nowadays because a lot of people you don't trust, especially when dealing with those zeros that you got behind it.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

Yeah, yeah, well, and and I mean having a Pistons fan and a Bulls fan in a place.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

We still talk shit to each other, but but we respect it. We respect it. Yeah. What's um what's the hardest moment as an owner that you've had to deal with uh, you know, over the over the years?

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Oh hardest moment I've ever had to deal with was very early on the restaurants. We had a we had been approached by it was a satellite school that it was a like a preparatory high school, had a relationship with Georgetown University, and they took disadvantaged kids off of the street, and the the way that they stayed in the program was they got a job so they weren't involved with gangs and drugs and stuff like that. And we had we had a kid who came to us from the program this is over twenty years ago, and you know, the the people that ran the program would come to the restaurant on a nightly basis to check on them and make sure that they were actually there when they were supposed to be. And and this young man stayed with us for a while, always like right on the edge. And ultimately, you know, we we in partnership with the organization that was looking over these kids, made the difficult decision that he just wasn't cutting it. There was, you know, there were way too many issues and we tried to be patient with the kids because we knew that this was a chance for them. And, you know, with the oversight from the program, they said, look, like you you you need to move on from him and you know he needs to find another job and that's just the way this works. And but three or four months after we we you know made the decision to part ways with him and and he sort of found his way into a bad place. He had stopped showing up to work and so like he didn't give us much of a choice. But you look back in the rearview mirror and say was something else I could have done you know somebody from the program showed up and told us that they found him in a ditch dead. And it was like God, you know, was there something else we could have done?

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

Could we had him stay at the restaurant at night? Or what's something you just always second guess yourself. Yeah. Always second guess yourself. And look, I mean knock on wood plenty of great stories that came out of that program of kids that came to work for us that went on to to do their own thing. One who worked for me for a couple of decades who got what you know before he worked for me he sold drugs to help make sure he could pay for his his daughter to have a roof over their head. So there's always success stories but but with those success stories are are heartbreaking stories.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Yeah that's I wasn't expecting you to say that but that's tough. That's really tough. What would you say now because we're in this I mean we all I don't we all have kids at the table it's like everything is this get rich quick scheme or not get rich quick scheme but but social media makes it think like you're just getting it instagratification is a better word. That's right Chris but you've been in the trenches you've built you've learned the business and you've made a career out or now you're an owner what would you say you know business and life advice for entrepreneurs that are listened to this that like what they should do like what should be their next step because a lot of them they might work in the corporate world and they want to build a business or the dream or whatever. They don't have the capital you know eight million whatever it is yeah what would you say to them that it's impacted you that might help them?

SPEAKER_02 23:55

So I'd say two things. One because you touched on kids and I just want to mention that real quickly I think you know I I know my kids are older than yours.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

How old are your kids? Nine and 10.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Yeah so so I have a daughter in college. If you want to get your final exam on how well you raise your kids wait till they get to college and then you find out that like oh your daughter got both of her credit cards hacked because she did something silly and you did and you're like gosh I should have taught her more about finances. So there's a final exam coming up you guys should get it for I failed my first one. I think from an entrepreneur standpoint there's a guy who we coinvest with and he had this saying he would say all the time out on this tech tour that we did it for a number of years. He would say that you know everybody thinks they're more secure working for a big corporation when in reality they'll let you go whenever it serves them best. And if you bet on yourself that's where you have the most security. Now not everybody's an entrepreneur. What I would say is that entrepreneurism is easier today than it's ever been in my entire life. And sometimes I think people think entrepreneurism is a bigger thing than than they think it is. Entrepreneurism isn't running a restaurant entrepreneurism is starting your own podcast and finding a way to monetize it. You don't need a million dollars to start a business I have friends who make a living buying and reselling stuff on the internet that they're you know they're they're just really good at it. They didn't need any capital to start the business. So I think entrepreneurism to me is taking control of your finances and your future and that doesn't necessarily need to involve having a big pot of money.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Yeah I love that man just to add to that too I think finance should be taught in every elementary school shocking that it's 100% it should man because just learning what you just said is I remember we had Tiffany I apologize Tiffany I forgot your last name she owned Tiabi Coffee and all the different businesses but that was one of the first things she said was bookkeeping. You need to be taught bookkeeping because that's what's helped her with all her businesses is being able to see what's behind the ear and audit it you know so awesome man I love what you're saying. So when you're not eating at your restaurant I heard you said McDonald's and all the other ones so we always ask guests about I feel like Vegas has the best food in the world. What what is your favorite restaurant in Vegas?

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SPEAKER_02 26:01

It's tough to say a favorite I've got a bunch but I'd say one of my go-to's on the strip is probably Zuma Cosmopolitan I don't know if you guys have been but it's one of my it's one of my faves it's it's a Japanese fusion restaurant. They have three separate kitchens they got a sushi kitchen is that Cosmo yeah like right across from Secret Pizza. Yes yes so it's got a it's got a sushi kitchen it's got a a robotic grill that's right out in the middle of the dining room and then the chef has like their own innovation innovative plates and it's all essentially Japanese tapas. So you can order 10-15 plates for dinner.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

I love Japanese food I ordered Cosmo all the time I've never been there we gotta check that out that's been on our list so we have a road trip okay he's in the Vegas Circle guys are going to a wine list too I like wine I like cabs so okay that's good you mentioned that anything else we forgot so you have the MGM store when is the MGM store opening up you said so we're almost a permit so we think summertime June July okay and that'll be the the cool thing there is 2026 of 2026.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

Okay yep we'll have we'll have a we'll have two bars one of them overlooking the strip open air and I think we talked a little bit uh pre-show about I'd love to have you guys come podcast from the balcony.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Yeah that'd be awesome I think it could be a lot of fun make that happen yeah we got to make that happen man it's it's amazing what you what you showed me on there is a one and I don't want to give the secrets we're gonna very all I can tell you is pay attention to what they're doing because my kids are going to be all over it and they're really they're really mad they didn't come tonight because they like yes they love five guys well and on top of that we also have we we chatted a little bit about this before another mutual friend but we're gonna be opening up in the plaza downtown shout out to Jonathan Jocelyn shout out to Jonathan Jocelyn Bronson and all those guys we have tried to find the right Fremont Street location like I played poker at Binions back when the World Series was there 20 plus years ago.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

But it the real estate on Fremont Street is so expensive we could just never find the right deal. And Jonathan just gets us. So few unique things a little like peek under the kimono we've got a custom sign that we're putting up on the outside of the building that will lean heavily into the plaza theming takes over the parking side of the parking garage they gave us permission to take that down and put something up there we're gonna we're looking for local artists to paint murals on the patio to really lean into the plaza motif and then we're building a hot dog cart in front of the carousel bar. Oh wow until we're open and we'll and we'll be running after that but you can buy a five guys hot dog grab and go right there at the at the head of Fremont in Maine.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

See I just to your point is I love Fremont I love the arts district I love that whole area that they're doing because it's way better than a strip where you can just walk around and do stuff in I think it's more local. Yeah it's way more local.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

I love that you guys got I got one more history feed for you that I just learned so I didn't know this the carousel bar out in front of there did you know that used to be the pool?

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Oh I did not know that either no John we had Jonathan on the pod but I don't think he ever told us to I learned that last week we're trying to find power for the for the hot dog car.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

And so we go in the the power for the carousel bar is in the center of the bar like buried in in the middle we go in and there's this all this concrete up above and there's rebar and there's this hole cut in it I'm going like what's all this and there's water dripping down he goes like oh this used to be the pool. I'm like what are you talking about? He says it was a martini glass pool it leaked like crazy. I don't think I remember that.

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SPEAKER_00 29:09

I'm gonna have to look up pictures of that I got to put on somewhere because they've been there for like 60 years I think yeah apparently it was only a couple years after they opened it converted from the pool to the carousel bar.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Wow I mean it makes sense the location does look like it would fit a pool.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Yeah now that I think they were one of the first I think Jonathan said he was one of the first people to have pickleball courts like way back in the day. Yeah so that's awesome we're gonna keep rooting for you man so you guys have how many stores here in Vegas?

SPEAKER_02 29:31

So there's nine total in Vegas these will be 10 and 11 the one at the one in front of MGM and then the plaza. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Well congratulations man check this guy out and he's got his own podcast too with travel and everything. Yep doing some amazing things so what's your social handles people can reach out to you on yeah so with the last name like Pizza you got to get into it.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

So I am on everything I am at Pizza in Motion because I'm always moving 180,000 miles on airplanes last year. Oh wow last year 180,000 miles I'm just gonna shut up I didn't crazy crazy Europe Hong Kong and then obviously a ton of back and forth between DC and Vegas and a couple other fun trips we do I'm I'm headed to New Zealand for a couple of days and okay so what's your favorite I'm gonna ask you last question what's your favorite country to go to we try to pick a different country every yeah hands down it's so easy man where my family's from Italy.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Hmm on our list for the summer we were looking at either Italy or Dubai went to Japan last year.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

So when we're done I'm gonna help you plan an Italy trip.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Like I love Italy we've been I was like Italian in another life so I love Italian food does always say that I love Italian food. Yeah so okay good stuff man well check him out five guys amazing check us out thevegascircle thevegascircle.com and uh subscribe with us so appreciate your time man thank you so much appreciate it was great stuff