Vegas Circle

Kris Morahan: From Nightlife Expertise to Community Pub & Bar Pioneer

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What if the critical turning point in your career was just one brave decision away? Join us on the Vegas Circle Podcast as we sit down with kris Moran, a trailblazer in Las Vegas's nightlife and gaming scenes. From his humble beginnings as a bartender in New York to becoming an influential figure in the city's vibrant nightclub culture, Kris's journey is a testament to resilience and vision. Hear about his roles with top nightlife entities like the Light Group and Tau and how he navigated the sweeping changes in bottle service culture. Get ready to be inspired by his transition from nightlife to owning gaming taverns like The Standard and Torrey Pines Pub.

Becoming one of Las Vegas's youngest tavern owners was no easy feat. Kris Moran walks us through the grueling process of securing his gaming license, sharing the extensive background checks, legal challenges, and significant personal investments involved. Learn about the different types of gaming licenses and the complexities of managing gaming machines to ensure profitability. Discover how Kris handles the substantial payouts to patrons and the strategies he employs to mitigate financial risks while running a successful business.

Balancing entrepreneurship with fatherhood, Kris Moran emphasizes the importance of prioritizing family and mentorship. He shares heartfelt stories about the significance of being present at his children’s events and how his blue-collar upbringing shaped his values. Kris also delves into the essential support systems that help him navigate personal struggles and business challenges. With practical advice on personalized customer service and community engagement, Kris inspires small business owners to compete effectively with larger chains. Plus, get his dining recommendations and motivational insights that encourage you to keep pushing towards your goals, no matter the obstacles.

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 people in our city who make it happen. On today's podcast, we've got something special. We're going to be exploring the inspiring journey of an entrepreneur who's made his mark in the nightlife industry, also has been in the podcast space and also has been approved to get his own gaming license, which will be interesting to be able to jump into. Currently has a couple of taverns. Welcome to the circle. Owner of the Standard and Torrey Pines Pub. Mr.

Speaker 2:

Chris Moran.

Speaker 3:

Thank you guys. First of all, studio here is way more than I expected.

Speaker 2:

This is amazing. You guys are very organized. As someone that had my own podcast, I can say I know the work that it takes to do this. I know the dedication, the time, so I appreciate you taking your time even to hang out with me.

Speaker 1:

So thank you, man. That means a lot coming from you. Man, that means a lot man for real, Of course. But, man, let's jump right in quick background on your story. Nightlife executive hosted your own podcast. Got in that space.

Speaker 2:

Now you own gaming, which is unreal the gaming industry and yeah, you know so being an east coast guy, kind of your dream if you're a real east coast guy is to somehow be a legal bookie, because all your friends are making money being doing all this kind of stuff and you don't want to be in the the illegal world. So when I moved out to Vegas in 2009 or 10, I thought to myself you know, I would go to all these local bars and, being from Vegas and being here, you guys know there's a gaming bar in every corner.

Speaker 2:

They're all busy, you can gamble in 7-Eleven and I would sit there and, just like everybody else, I would put my money in mindlessly and lose and every once in a while that ding, ding, ding, you win. But at the end of the day you look down the bar and there's 14 other people gambling and everyone's having a great time losing their money and I thought to myself one day how do I become those people that are making that money right, how do I get in that space?

Speaker 2:

So that kind of was the first thing that piqued my interest. Now, didn't have money, didn't have any connections. I moved out here from new york as a bartender, um, and all the guys that run nightclubs for the most part are all east coast guys yeah, so I had mostly new york right, new york jersey, like or there's maine is really good too.

Speaker 2:

Randomly, a bunch of my buddies, um, and you kind of gravitate towards each other being same kind of people out here. If you're from a certain area, you look a certain way, talk a certain way.

Speaker 1:

And there's no gray area Exactly, you know so we all speak the same language.

Speaker 2:

So it worked out that I kind of worked my way into the nightclub world and I had really great mentors at the time. And, yeah, from 2000 and I'd say so I was here 2009. I got into the nightclub world probably 2012. And from there up until right until the day of COVID shutdowns, which I'll never forget is March 17th 2020, you know, st Patrick's day. Up until that, I was nightclub, right, I was in that world, in that space, and during that time I had always in the back of my head thought, okay, well, I don't want to do this forever. You know being out until four in the morning, five, six in the morning, eight in the morning. You know the, the hustle, the grind. I enjoy it, I'm good at it, I like it, I have friends here, but I I know this is not sustainable for most people. And that's kind of like where I got my idea of maybe I should get into my dream, which would be to own one of these bars that I've been sitting in for years.

Speaker 1:

That's crazy. Yeah did you start off with tau? Is that what would you start with I?

Speaker 2:

actually worked at tau in new york city for a little while so. So I was like old school tau, um, you know. And then when I moved out here I got connected with the light group uh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So that's what I was thinking. I don't know why.

Speaker 2:

It's okay, light group, which is now, yeah, through a couple mergers tau group, um, but the light group back in the day, east coast guys as well, um, and I remember eddie mcdonald remember from mac agency started with, of course, and light group honestly kind of was the standard for bottle service as well, as steve went in excess for bottle service in town.

Speaker 2:

No one had ever done that before. No one had ever said, hey, go to the club and you're gonna sit down instead of dancing and you're gonna get bottles and pay a,000 for two bottles rather than $40 at the store, and you're going to have a really good looking waitress and you're going to have a jack dude, you know, tatted up as your busser. Like that was never a thing back in the day. And Light Group kind of created that market, you know, and it worked out and it just kind of expanded, expanded like, oh, I like being VIP, I like being behind a rope, um.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, I started with those guys. I learned a lot. They ended up selling to hakasan and hakasan group kind of absorbed it and what I did was I kind of went instead of going with the hakasan group, I stayed with the old school light guys, okay, and which, and they opened up light and daylight at mandalay bay and I ended up becoming a director of vip services essentially for them, or customer development was my title and my job essentially was to much like Andrew Pacheco that was here my job was to run my my squad of you know 15 guys and sell the venue, and that became kind of my jumpstart.

Speaker 2:

I eventually worked my way into Hakkasan Group and during COVID I was running Wet Republic, which was arguably one of the best two pools in town with the Encore Beach Club. And I remember being so excited I finally hit, you know, sort of the pinnacle of my career. You know we're going to run the best pool, we're doing renovations, it's going to look so great and we ran one weekend and COVID shut everything down. Oh wow.

Speaker 2:

You know so like the worst possible timing ever, but in the meantime, I always had this thing going on the side, and that's literally what I wanted to ask you. So, did you build your first tavern, basically as like a side hustle? Yeah, while you were. Yeah, it was, it was, it was my plan. So I got very lucky. I partnered up with someone, um, who's you know, 20 years older than I am, but I had worked with him shortly and I basically said look, this is my vision and I'll I'll run it back in about 2014,. I had went to my local tavern here that I used to be a regular at, and I was a pretty big gambler at the time, making that host money, just cash.

Speaker 2:

No kids, no responsibilities. And I went to the management there and I said, hey look, I want to bartend. I just want to learn the gaming business because everyone wants gaming experience. Right, I want to bartend. I'm obviously a bartender, I've done it for years. I want to work the worst shifts. I don't steal, I barely drink. I'll probably gamble all my tips back at the end of the night. I'll pack this place because it was a very industry hotspot. All the people I know would come here after work. I'd get all the busters and the waitresses and the strippers and whatever.

Speaker 2:

And I remember at the end of the interview I thought to myself like when do I start? And they looked at me and he said, unfortunately. And they looked at me and he said, unfortunately, I just don't think you'd be a good fit here Really. And now, owning a bar, I understand he didn't want to lose me as a player, but back then, being very raw from New York and kind of feeling a certain way, I sat up and I just looked at him. I said don't worry, I'll open my own fucking bar anyway, just like that. And he looked at me and said like okay, good, like good luck. You don't know what that entails. And I had no idea what that entailed. I had no idea how expensive it was going to be.

Speaker 2:

Um, but I decided from that day in 2013 or 14, that I was never going to work at another bar for anybody ever again, until I opened my own. And the first and the first time I bartended at a gaming bar was 8 august, 15th 2021, when the standard tavern opened. So from that time that six, seven years was planning, saving, you know, pitching my friends, family, all that. You know I didn't grow up wealthy or anything. I didn't have. Mommy and daddy's money helped me out a little bit with certain things, but by no means did they like. Here you go. Here's a blank check. You know my partner's not super wealthy, so I grassroots a lot of these funds and, honestly, I think, years of doing really good business and years of being honest and responsible and caring about people first. People trusted me and you had a network.

Speaker 2:

And I had a great network correct. But these people trusted me. They said you know what? We're not even investing in this business because we don't know the business. We're investing that you're going to do the right thing. And, of course, my number one thing in any of my business ventures is I don't want to let you down. I'm more worried about my investors, who might only own 5% 10%, than I am even about myself, because they're trusting me. Right, and that's a big deal trusting someone with your money. So that's kind of like how it all started. So, yeah, I was.

Speaker 2:

It was going on being built in the background COVID happens. So I ended up. You know Hakkasan group kept me on for a while but eventually there's no money coming in. We got to cut some of these guys. So I ended up getting cut with the promise of you could have your job back whenever the world opens. But I decided like, hey look, I had a little girl. I was having another little girl on the way. I'm like I got to save my business. So I decided, instead of this being my side hustle, I'm going all in and I'm going to do the operations. I'm going to do the operations, I'm going to be the general manager and the owner and I'll bartend, I'll mop the floors, whatever it takes.

Speaker 2:

I'll figure it out, and I have never been a business owner before. This is weird.

Speaker 3:

I got to all of a sudden pay payroll.

Speaker 2:

I all of a sudden got to do ordering and the internet's out. What do I do?

Speaker 3:

And blah, blah, blah blah blah, know it worked out, it worked out. Yeah, I was gonna ask you, you know, how do you get that translate? You know, going from the network side of being an executive and you know nightclub, obviously there's a lot of similarities between that and a bar, but obviously vastly different. Yeah, you have to start worrying about payroll. How do you set it up? How do you? It's on the fly, you're a firefighter.

Speaker 2:

You. I swear to you. I swear to you my favorite, you know my favorite clip on YouTube ever, and I watch it once a month. I might post it once every two or three months on my on my Facebook and my Instagram, just to remind myself, is Teddy Atlas in the corner with Timothy Bradley. I don't know if you guys are familiar, but he's in the corner. Teddy Atlas is one of the best boxing trainers of all time, Timothy Bradley, great American boxer, and he's in there with him and he's like we are firemen.

Speaker 2:

We live in the fire and timothy bradley is looking at him like I'm ready to kill somebody and he did, and he won, and it was such a moment, like you said, like that's what it is, you're in the fire and if you're not ready for it and if you're not prepared, you're going to get burned and eventually all business owners go through it. I, I think, the first time around. You know if you're not failing, if you're not failing, if you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing it right. You know you're not trying enough. So, a lot of trial and error, a lot of things I wish I can go back from, but the trend as far as the question, I think it translated great. You know, I I'm not a natural leader, I don't think. I think I'm a natural hustler. So, like, this is the way to manage people, this is the way to manage expectations, this is the way to manage business. And thank God for those guys, cause it was up to me I go crazy you know, you can lead them in by showing exactly different.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, right.

Speaker 2:

So I've I've learned a lot and I'm learning every day. I mean, I read more leadership books. I read, I listen to audio tapes, even on the way here, right, I listen to tony robbins, I listen to alex hormosi like I listen to all the same guys we all do. You know, goggins gets me fired up, and what's the common denominator with them is their leaders, their true, true leaders, and not everybody has that.

Speaker 1:

I think it's a skill what people think, and that's it. That's the biggest thing, right?

Speaker 2:

they just this is what I'm doing. Follow me, and it always works out somehow. So, yeah, I mean, I think it translated great. I think that, again, learning on the fly has been my biggest strength, where, okay, I made a mistake. Admit it. I made the mistake, it's on me, I have to own it. And now, next time I won't do that, maybe I'll make another mistake, but at least that first one won't be there anymore.

Speaker 3:

So it's been a process.

Speaker 2:

man, it's been awesome.

Speaker 3:

And you kind of like putting all your eggs in that basket, though, because going from that securing that and being able to work in that environment. Having to like jump all in, that must've been nerve wracking. I had that experience.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, you got family guys right. I knew that gaming in Las Vegas is the heart of this city. Now you could tell me every other business you want restaurants, this, and that I've done it all. I've worked it all. The gaming is what keeps the lights on. It's why the chandeliers and the carpet are nice so.

Speaker 2:

I knew that I was going to have a gaming license and I got approved. And when I got approved, they had told me that I was the youngest tavern owner in the city. That was what I wanted to ask you. So that's true. That is true at the time that that it wasn't passed down through family right, cause a lot of bars pass them the licenses down, which is whatever, but I was the first and the youngest. The youngest.

Speaker 1:

Can mommy ask you what age were you?

Speaker 2:

I was 35 at the time, yeah, so at the time I was the youngest licensee and they had even told me like they looked at me kind of you. You know this is an older man game. This is guys and women. I mean. It's the lawyer fees it all racks up. It's you're looking to build a bar licensing and the background check the stack of papers this big. They go back 20 years, personal, residential. They'll call your brother, your mother, your grandma, how, their teachers, how was he as a kid? What do you do for work?

Speaker 3:

where's the money coming from money coming from my agent would call me.

Speaker 2:

You have an agent that kind of does your background. They'd call me at three in the morning. Why did you just take out $800? At the Rhino I'm having a good time, Okay cool.

Speaker 3:

We just want to know Like the FBI Worse.

Speaker 2:

We're harder. So, yeah, that process is wild, very expensive, so I had put every dollar I had into it. But I knew ultimately that gaming was going to be the savior and if people are hitting that button and enjoying themselves and how we had good food and a good staff and a clean environment, that it would all work out what's the difference between?

Speaker 3:

like that gaming license, like the 7-eleven?

Speaker 2:

so there's doing that same thing so essentially, there's three different kinds of gaming licenses. There probably might be more, but the three main ones would be what's called um, a supper club license or a convenience store license. Usually it's five to seven machines, okay, um. Then you have tavern licenses, which you would know. It's all the bars, but I have 15 machines. And then it's non-restricted, which is anything more than that. Casinos now non-restricted. To get those obviously wild, you need to own the land. You know to build a new casino right now, as far as today's rules go, need to have 200 rooms, which is why you see smaller casinos like Durango pop up. Oh, like the boutique.

Speaker 2:

Right Because they don't want to build massive things, and Durango did it perfectly Fantastic, and they're about to do Inspirata. They're about to do Sky Canyon.

Speaker 1:

Shout out to the Boutique's man they're sharp, awesome company. Oh they're. They're going to do Sky Canyon, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I live up there too. That's why, by my book. So, yeah, those are the main licenses and there's deals you work out. Like for my deal, I get an X amount percentage and it's negotiable with the people that maintain the machines, right? So you have a company that puts the machines in. I give them X percentage of the winnings every week or month, whatever, and they maintenance them, they handle them, they handle all the money. So there's a lot that goes into it, you know. And even these small 7-elevens, I mean, you see, you walk in there, there's someone always hitting a button there I mean terrible gap, I mean everywhere.

Speaker 3:

The worst the grocery stores yeah, like you go get groceries, I'm gonna stay here and get it. That's always the thing I spend 60 bucks on my groceries.

Speaker 1:

Let me try to do a 60 blackjack, I get free groceries you know, and I've seen people in there down five, ten thousand000, $10,000. No problem. So one thing that really really impressed me. Right we start doing your research and everything. You guys paid out $300,000 last month and you share it yeah. To basically say hey, I think it was like $326,000.

Speaker 2:

And that's a slower month for us. The summer months for taverns are slower because obviously the sports are kind of slowed down now, sure After basketball, basketball and hockey finals. The golden Knights winning last year was huge for us.

Speaker 1:

The ACEs winning right.

Speaker 2:

We carried us all the way through the summer, but generally the hot months are the slow months we're we're really busy in the fall, um, but yeah, we pay out tons of money and that payout is you know, overall. But we have people hit jackpots routinely for five, 10, $15,000. We've paid out 38 grand a couple times. I mean that's someone betting $4.

Speaker 1:

So it's pretty wild to think that in a little local tavern where you go get your burgers and your pizzas, that you can go hit for 40 grand, 80 grand, and it happens all the time. I got to ask you because I'm getting nervous just talking about it, that's not scary to you.

Speaker 2:

It is scary when you have to pay $38,000? It's scary, but you play it like it's the market. You look at the long-term vision. It's all a long-term game. If you look at it in short spurts a week, a month you'll go crazy and early on, when you're first starting out, you might not be that cash flush You're looking every day.

Speaker 1:

That's what I'm saying. You're looking every day.

Speaker 3:

That's a lot of overhead.

Speaker 2:

They have a certain amount of money that, so the companies themselves back you. So let's say in a situation like somebody hits for $40,000 at my bar.

Speaker 3:

I don't have $40,000. Maybe you just opened it the first time, right, yeah, $40,000.

Speaker 2:

So they'll come and they'll have a Brinks truck with 40 racks. They'll fill out the tax form, give it to the guest and then what happens is it'll go by the end of the week. So I have 40 grand, but maybe we made 10 the rest of the week. So now we're negative 30. They'll take five, seven off the next couple of weeks. So if I make 15, 20, 30 grand they'll just take, which is nice. It's almost like an interest-free loan, but you're still responsible for it.

Speaker 2:

But I like that You're not getting killed, murdered, of course, because they're your partners, they want you to operate, they want your account to do well, because they're getting X percentage and they know too, just like a casino. So you see it all the time in the in the review journal oh, this guy won a million dollars at caesars. Yeah, well, for the day, caesars won 1.2. So is that terrible?

Speaker 1:

not really still positive. Yeah, yeah, of course that's how gaming works.

Speaker 2:

So it's really just a long term and it's all mathematics, right. The machines will generally pay back anywhere from 92 to 98, depending. You know like you go to the strip, they'll, they'll. Uh, some of the smaller casinos will advertise we pay 99 back. That means they're only holding one percent. So if somebody's betting and they bet a hundred thousand dollars throughout the day, you're hitting the button, that's a thousand bucks that the casino makes you know which at the end. For them it's no problem, as long as someone's sitting there pushing the buttons yeah, I don't gamble, so just thinking about how that works is just unreal.

Speaker 2:

I don't gamble, I lose. Yeah, you like gambling, I know I lose.

Speaker 1:

That was one decision I made when I moved to Vegas. I've been here since 07, so 17 years now and I was like I can't, I don't even want to learn.

Speaker 2:

I don't know anything about it. Best thing you can do. Yeah, I try my best.

Speaker 1:

worst thing that happens if someone like you. The worst thing to happen is if you win that's.

Speaker 2:

That's what happens right, that's the first hit and it definitely takes a certain you know, do I people always ask me this too like do you battle morally, because you know sometimes someone could be in there losing their?

Speaker 1:

mortgage. Reading my mind right now, that's literally what I was gonna. Yeah, you feel bad about that, like because people got game.

Speaker 2:

I mean, we all got problems, of course all of us, of course, you know I Do you feel bad coming there every single day. I sympathize, but I don't feel bad because I've also been there.

Speaker 1:

I'm a gambler. That's real.

Speaker 2:

There's been nights I've been at Bellagio and I've dumped 10, 15, 20 Gs in my younger days and I think to myself do they really care about me? No, they don't. And it's entertainment on a certain level and as you get older, and hopefully as you go through tough times, you kind of realize okay, well, now I'm going to make it entertainment. Are there people that struggle with it? Yes, there are. We do our best also to kind of recognize that, so I will even. It's probably not the best business practice in the world, but for karma purposes I'll talk to someone and be like hey, are you okay? Do you need anything? And most of the time people they're not going to tell you you know, but they'll say, okay, but for me at least, I'm checking in and at the end of the day they're going to go gamble somewhere.

Speaker 2:

We at the standard tavern, for example, we've got probably more bars within a two mile radius than anywhere else in the city. We've probably can I provide Hopefully good food, hopefully great service, a clean atmosphere that you enjoy, some smiling faces, some laughs and at the end of the day, there's also people there that smoke me, that hit for 10 grand.

Speaker 3:

So it's like those guys don't feel bad for me. Not at all, Not at all. They don't feel bad.

Speaker 2:

Not at all, and it's all fun. But again, do I feel morally obligated to everyone? No, I can't.

Speaker 1:

It's business too. It's business. You've got to run a business. I get it Right Apple doesn't feel bad.

Speaker 2:

I pay $1,000 for these things every couple years?

Speaker 1:

No, they don't care at all.

Speaker 2:

So I try to get myself in that mindset, because if I worried about every single person individually, there's no way you could be in this business. That's true. I'm selling somebody a $20,000 table you know, and and I know that you know the night's going to be fun, they're going to have a great experience, but is it worth it?

Speaker 1:

I don't think it's worth it, you know but in real estate, exactly In the casino, I can talk with eight. Yeah, it's all real estate. Yeah, and then, when the lights get out, and what's the?

Speaker 2:

host job. Jay Sean, andrew, all those guys in our relationships was hey, how can I just make this experience where I know you're spending more money than you probably ever spent in your life, but how can I make this at least a little softer, better? And we it's no different at the bars.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and you kind of touched on a little bit like the, the, the competitive nature of the industry in Vegas. You know, like I said, everybody's ran on gambling a lot of drinkers here, a lot of good food and a lot of competition. You, how do you, when you're opening a bar? I think that's the part that would scare me the most. Right is the amount of competition with this type of industry that we're in right like, is it? How have you navigated that and separated yourself from that, that competition that's all around you?

Speaker 2:

the vegas tavern scene, where I'm in now, has shrunk a lot. A lot of the bigger companies, the pts, you know, the stations, casinos, even the jet gaming, which is Herbst those guys are now entering the tavern space because they know the value right, so they're starting to buy up all the independent guys like me. Now, a lot of people would be scared of that, because that's like owning a burger shack and then McDonald's opens on your corner or Burger King right.

Speaker 2:

So it's a little scary. Their marketing is way better than yours. They can. They have so many employees that can do this and that meanwhile I'm the marketer, I'm the social media guy. Yeah, I'm this right. You just can't compete. So I look at it like it's a positive and I spin it off like hey look, when a guest come in or I'm talking to somebody, you can definitely go to a pts. I think there's like 70 or 80 locations. You can go gamble at a dotty, you can go gamble at a dotty's right, whatever. But I'm the. I'm a family-owned business. You have a big mural in there. It's family-owned. My. You know the a and the standard with the heart is my daughter, audrey I keep yeah yeah, so you know I try to make it a little bit more.

Speaker 2:

I try to hit people's emotional side, like would you rather support the big company or do you want to come here? And then I can give you a little bit more love. I can give you some t-shirts, I can throw you some golden knights tickets on the side to help know if you're losing a little bit of money. I'll just give you my tickets or I'll give you a gift card to your favorite restaurant that maybe isn't even here.

Speaker 2:

I just want to send you and your husband or your wife somewhere nice. So that's kind of like the edge that we have where those guys can't. Right there, they're hamstrung by their corporate rules. So that's what I try to do. What can we do better? Sometimes a little edgier in certain things, maybe our social media can get. I have the advantage.

Speaker 3:

I try to narrow it on that, because that's the only way, you're never going to compete with the big business otherwise.

Speaker 2:

And then the end goal for most people like me is get three, four, five of these things, package them up and then go. Hey guys, do you want?

Speaker 1:

this I was going to ask you is that the?

Speaker 2:

long-term goal Is it exit? It's always an option. Myself, I'm 39. My partner is 60, you know, in his he's 60 now, I believe Um, and a partner, another one, is in his fifties and I think they probably have that goal more than I do, um, because I can work another 20, 30 years and be comfortable and I have young kids that maybe I'd pass this down to and I'd like to create a legacy. At the same time, cashing out, I mean, that's why you build a small business. Right is the cash out. So I play it by ear. I'm only three years in on the first bar. We just took over the second bar yesterday.

Speaker 1:

That's the Torrey Pines. Yeah, Torrey Pines Pub.

Speaker 3:

Congratulations man, thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

So the long-term vision, we'll kind of see how it goes. It really depends on the market. I mean, rents are getting to be crazy, supermarket it's no different for me. Food is crazy expensive, labor is getting more expensive. If things keep going in that direction, which I don't know how long it can really sustain, then, yeah, eventually a sale might happen. But for now I love what I do. Being my own boss and employing people in town is probably my favorite part of it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, one of the things I noticed all the business owners we interview specifically man, like, or franchises, right, how do you feel about like? Or what do you put in place, like, for the structure for stealing, right, because, steph, yeah, everything goes out the back door. Yeah, so, like, what do you put in place to be able to make sure that you're solid?

Speaker 2:

you know, honestly, I think it starts with hiring. Okay, I think hiring and training is the most important. If someone wants to walk out of my restaurant with a steak in their pocket, they're going to do it 1,000%.

Speaker 1:

They're going to do it or they're going to give it to wherever it is Right right.

Speaker 2:

However, and stealing in the restaurant world can be defined in multiple ways. If you give somebody extra silverware and napkins at their table that they might not use, is that stealing or negligence? If you want to call it right, so I have use. Is that stealing or negligence? If you want to call it right, so so. So I have really good things in place where I say, okay, guys, you know, let's, let's not try to throw away the forks today. Let's try to make sure napkins, the guests have what they need, of course, but let's not overdo it.

Speaker 2:

And as far as like blatant theft, they always get caught. And I've learned this and I've been, I've been in food and beverage for 20 years, I'm, you know, more than 25. And at every level, the snakes show themselves in the grass. And when you find it, it's about building a culture to say, and you don't want to build like rats and snitches, but I have people that care about me so much at my job where they'll call me and say, hey, and just using a name, hey, steve, he's not doing the right thing. You should keep an eye on it. And if I've got those people working with me and for me, then I've done my job, you know, and I can't sweat the small stuff. There's always going to be theft. The good thing about gaming which kind of separates gaming from everything else is, once you put that money in the machine, that's gone. I can't touch it, my managers can't touch it, my staff can't touch it. So if somebody goes and puts a hundred dollar bill in there, they're not getting it back.

Speaker 2:

That cash is there forever. So what's the worst a bartender can do? Give a couple extra drinks. We have things in place to look at that, to see and over time you can have levels and you do your due diligence. But I don't worry about it. I can't because if it's, I know owners that watch their cameras all day long. They're on their phones.

Speaker 1:

That's going to drive you crazy too.

Speaker 2:

You'll go insane and I know owners like that you know, and they're constantly firing people and this and that it's like slow down, let's hire better, let's hire quality people. Let's check their references, which I know a lot of people don't even do that anymore. I call you got three references. I'm going to call. Say hey, how Is he honest, is he trustworthy? How long was he there? If I see people had 10 jobs in two years, I don't want that person. They could be great people, but that tells me they're probably not a good employee. So you know my staff. I have very little turnover, which I'm thankful for. That's powerful, yeah, and they love their job. Hopefully, if they're listening and they come to me with stuff more than I even have to ask, that's awesome, man.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I know we've talked about this. We've all got kids right. Yeah, you know that's a big hot button for me. What's being a girl dad for you? Man? I know, that's everything.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to get emotional. Yeah, I uh.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you just had a birthday too recently, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, my girls for me are my entire life just on myself. Yeah, yeah, and I'm sorry. I always.

Speaker 1:

I'm not even sad, I'm not sad I'm very, I'm happy, right, yeah?

Speaker 2:

but my girl and all my friends know I talk about my girls all the time and my girls, audrey and violet. You know they're seven and one's going to be three in two weeks and there's no joy like coming home to two little girls that don't care about your day. They don't know what bills need to be paid. They don't care about your day. They don't know what bills need to be paid. They don't know what your relationship situation's like. They don't know your health. They don't know any of that stuff. They just want daddy Right.

Speaker 2:

And for me it's by far the greatest joy of my life. Um, it gets challenging. I am a single dad, so it gets challenging juggling schedules, but I have them a lot purposely. Um, and that's probably also my favorite part about being an entrepreneur or a business owner is the flexibility to have the time with them, because I know that time goes like that right, it's the ultimate thief is time. And um, yeah, being a girl, that is amazing, like learning how to braid hair, and my daughter's gymnastic school is that one right across the street from you guys.

Speaker 2:

So, I'm there, you know, once or twice a week or I try to get there as much as I can. I go to all the dance recitals and everything with the cheer competitions and, um, yeah, man, it's, it's being a girl. Dad, I tell people all the time the two things that you can never prepare for in my life, at least that no one could ever coach you on you can read all the books you want is being a business owner and being a dad or a parent with you. You know, you don't know until you're in it. Every day is something new. I enjoy all their little milestones. You know whether it's walking my three, she's going to be three, but she's fully potty trained.

Speaker 2:

It was like the best day of my life because she was she was so excited so yeah, man, I absolutely love being a dad. It's my heartbeat, it makes me go I love it.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to ask you that just because of the conversation you and I had on the phone, I mean, when we were setting this up, it's like look, what day are we trying to do it? Let's try to schedule it for this day, because I got my kids this day and I love it just because I'm a father of two boys and that's my everyday it gets me emotional too, just talking about them.

Speaker 3:

And I'm a girl dad too. Yeah, Congrats.

Speaker 2:

No, that's my seven-year-old is seven, going on 17 right now my seven going on 40.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I'm in the car and it's.

Speaker 2:

Taylor Swift and it's this and that, and I'm just laughing like this is, you know, I'm sure you guys same way. Like you, picture your life going a certain way and obviously things happen, they twist and turn, and then when you reach this point of your life, it's like man, what's really important. Like man, what's really important. Can my phone wait a little bit? Do I have to look at ESPN right now? Or does my daughter showing me her new dance move or handshake, or cartwheel, or a car she made on Minecraft?

Speaker 1:

Exactly, you know it's amazing, like Chris and I, when we first started this when my wife she's not here right now, but when we first started this, right we kind of went left right. We were like Howard Stern, talking crazy. We didn't put out probably 35 episodes, right. But the funny thing was Chris and I we had talked about on the side like we wanted a platform with like substance and something that our kids could listen to Absolutely. So, like my kids, they'll come to the podcast and listen in and they'll listen to this episode, you know what I mean Because it's powerful, because they're watching. They're watching everything that we do. Like you said, you're not a leader. You are a leader because they're watching everything that you're doing, right.

Speaker 3:

That was on YouTube. I call it walking rooms in town. They're watching the podcast on YouTube. What's going on here?

Speaker 1:

My kids do it all the time, they're paying attention to it, they pull it up and they learn so much for it. But I appreciate your transparency. People need to hear that. They need to hear single dads are still kicking behind and doing what you're doing, absolutely when you're at the recitals and stuff, because it's motivating man yeah, super motivating, and I grew up.

Speaker 2:

You know my parents were blue collar. You know my mom was a stay-at-home mom with four kids. I was the oldest my dad growing up. You know I didn't meet my biological father until I was 31 or 32.

Speaker 2:

Oh wow my dad, who I call him my dad. He's essentially my stepdad, but he raised me UPS guy, you know. So up at 6am in the New York cold or the New York heat home at seven or eight, has to be back to work early. So I saw what real hard work is like, you know, and I saw my mom, what a real mom was like, and she's fantastic. My parents are actually here this weekend Amazing, having them here Right. And I saw and I learned from them from them, you know, you can still be compassionate and stern and you can still be hard working. And my dad, for all the stuff he did on the weekends was at my basketball games, at my soccer games, at my lacrosse games, as best he could. So I think of it now like I have way more of a luxury and free time than he ever had. What's my excuse?

Speaker 2:

yeah you know, am I busy? Do? Can I skip this dinner with my friends? I catch. Do I have to go to carbone this weekend to see my boys in town? What's important, right, right and, and they all my friends know, right. And I understand if you were to tell me hey, I got some of my kids, yeah, no, questions right dads get it now some of the people that I'm friends with that don't have kids. They're still peter pan at 38, 39 years old. They might not understand. They really don't of.

Speaker 2:

Hey, my daughter's got a fever. I'm going to stay home. What do you mean? It's a fever, yeah, but it's my daughter and she's crying and she needs me, she needs dad. So, yeah, man, I agree, I think it'd be great to see more men show up for their kids, and I see this at these cheer events. Right, there's not many dads there. Trust me, if anyone gets it, I get it. I try to show up as much as I can within reason. If I'm not working, that's the only reason that I would. If I don't have, like a pressing, pressing issue at work, it can wait an hour or two, because the face of your kids seeing you at these events or school events or whatever, it's priceless.

Speaker 1:

I'm in that, whether you want to call it corny or not, I'm in that only moment situation.

Speaker 2:

So I get it and it's a it's a something I had to learn because I think you know, naturally I'm pretty selfish. I like doing things on my own, I like just chilling, I like just hanging out. If I got free time, I want to catch up on Game of Thrones or watch Sopranos for the 10th time, but it's like. Of course I like that kind of stuff and there's a time and place for that. But, like Like you guys know, man, it makes me smile every time when my girls see me it's Nothing better.

Speaker 1:

Oh my God, nothing better. Yeah, I wanted to ask you, mentorship's huge, you know, for all of us, I would assume, especially for me. But what's been a pivotal moment for you? Or you know, I know you've got mentors, maybe on the business side, that have, you know, partnered with you.

Speaker 2:

But what's been a newer thing for me? Something as you get into business more and get a little bit older and need more help and you have more questions, right, because you don't know what you're doing Fatherhood, business, personal life, whatever I have distinct people in different sections of my life. So, as an example, I have a friend that lives out here. If I go through hard times, whether it's relationships or whether I'm struggling with my own, whether it's depression or anxiety, whatever I go to him, we're in the gym together. You know, we're in the gym. We're in the gym four or five days a week and it just gets it all out and that's my guy that I go to If I have business questions.

Speaker 2:

I got a guy that I call that answers the phone at all the time, any day or night. What do you need? No questions, no, nothing. What do you need any day or night? What do you need? No questions, no, nothing. What do you need? Um? And then as far as fatherhood, I've got a good group of guy friends that have been through it. They either single dads, either divorced or or whatever, and they understand the struggle sometimes or like the emotions that all go through with all that, how do you handle different things? And I call them and they're on it and I think that that is so important for people and really just being in touch with and being self-aware, you know, not trying to put everything on your shoulders all the time because I got blind spots, of course you know, and, and sometimes when someone says something to you, it clicks.

Speaker 2:

And I think with the social media stuff now it's even better because you can literally go on instagram or youtube and google. You know, dad, depressed, divorced business owner and there'll be someone there giving you some great advice that you might not have had before. Or a group of people to talk about Right, right and it's like holy crap, you're getting introduced to all these things that you previously didn't have. That's the power of technology.

Speaker 1:

I like, me too, what you're talking about right now Me too.

Speaker 2:

And they're all.

Speaker 2:

I just look at it like how many tools do you yourself ironclad and you can build yourself up in all these different areas and you've got people which I have, great mentors and and honestly, it's almost like, um, it's almost like the Alcoholics Anonymous program, right, where you have a mentor or a sponsor and then eventually you become that right and I'm seeing that now where I have right, I have young guys that I know that from the gym and from you, know from random places that I've been to and they reach out to me because maybe they're having their first kid or maybe they want to, or maybe them and their girl split, or maybe they're opening, they're trying to open up their own business and I'm more than happy to sit down hey, I got 15 minutes, let's start to do it. And and I think that that feeling of giving back a little bit and I don't have all the answers, but but I might have the answers that they don't have and I think that feeling of giving back has been massive.

Speaker 1:

So mentorship you get energy from that. Yeah, just talking with people. You know what I mean. Just learning. You know what those blind spots are.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Like when was? I'm curious for you guys, when was your first time where you looked at maybe a non-father, not a non-family member and said like I, I'll never forget it.

Speaker 1:

Mike Popovich, a friend of mine in Colorado, miami, colorado, and I'll never forget, just because one thing he said to me I'll never forget I've been with my wife 20 years Congratulations, that's amazing. I appreciate that. He was like if you're not fighting with your wife, you're lying, and I respected that so much from somebody that he told me straight up. He was like everybody has problems. Excuse my language, but they're full of shit if they're yeah, if they don't have happy go lucky.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it does not happen the instagram couple correct always somebody yeah yeah, but he gave me a lot of tips and I'll never forget on that, and he's was very successful, business-wise, perfect.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, so yeah, I'll never forget people that you know are doing it right, like the parents that you think are doing it right, taking the people being there for their kids. Like you said, you find those people and you try to ask them those open questions. One thousand percent.

Speaker 2:

I'm dealing with this issue. Yeah, I've had a few a lot of coworkers over the years that I've respected and learned from and I think that when you start talking to people on that level, they open up to you in a way that you might not have thought.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, totally agreed.

Speaker 2:

You're like hey, how's your relationship with your kids or your wife or what's going on at work? And most people will tell you you know and then you're like oh my god, I'm going through that too and we're all right and no one or they don't, they don't feel comfortable telling you, you know, and it's like once you break that, that, especially as men, right, because, listen, I'm a dude, yeah, I don't want to sit here you'll be soft I don't want to sit here and cry at a table with my guys, but at the same time, if my boy's struggling.

Speaker 2:

We know the suicide rates of men, especially single men, especially single businessmen, is ridiculously high. I don't want to have to. I don't want to have to one day look at my friends and say I wish you would have called me. You know, I call my friends, I actively, and my friends call me. Hey, what's up? How you doing, what's going on.

Speaker 3:

How's everything with this situation? How's?

Speaker 2:

business, how's life, you know what's going on and that's so important and I think that so many people who shy away from that. But I think the power of social media it's been helping and platforms like this it's been helping where guys can, because women do it all the time. Yeah, you know, they sit there and they tell each other their feelings and this and that, and it might be a different level, but for guys is like just checking in and it means a lot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's that locker room man.

Speaker 3:

It's a locker room barbershop, you know course, so Business advice setup.

Speaker 1:

So business advice what would you share with somebody you, you built your side hustle right, working as an executive. What would you share from just one nugget?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think I get asked this a lot and I think that there's two for me. Number one I've heard, I've seen some of your other podcasts a lot of entrepreneurs say the same exact thing. It's it's build your team around you, be able to delegate, be able to not put everything on you. Make sure that the people around you have your best interest, make sure you have their best interest in mind. You know, take care of your people. If you're taking care of them, if people are getting paid well and they're being treated right and they know listen. Sometimes business could be slow, right, but if they know that you care about them and you make sacrifices and you do things for them and you check in on them, these guys will be here for you for the end Solid for them and you check in on them. These guys will be here for you for the end Solid, right, and that's what I want to do. And then my second thing for me personally.

Speaker 1:

You know everybody saw the Last Dance. Right, we have Matt Maxson on. They've developed the Last Dance, so I'm a huge.

Speaker 2:

Last Dance guy. I've always been a huge MJ guy. By no means am I Michael Jordan in anything but what I love about him and what I can resonate with. I need to take things personal. I have to have my own enemy, so to speak, even if it's not real, because to wake up happy and every that doesn't get me going, I need to say, okay, that guy told me that I couldn't do this. Or that guy said that my bar sucks. Or this person left a review on Yelp and said that my food wasn't good, so now I'm gonna make it the best it's ever been. And I, for me, internally, I use that as my motivation every day.

Speaker 1:

Love that. Yeah, yeah, love that. Man Just transition. We always talk about restaurants, man, so give us one Vegas restaurant that you love. Maybe the Hole in the Wall a fine dining, whatever it is.

Speaker 2:

I won't give the generic answers. I already know that. You know, let me give you two. So I guess my one kind of generic answer.

Speaker 1:

If I was going Italian. My spot is Piero's. Piero's is excellent. I just met one of the ladies at one of the concerts. I forgot her name. Actually, I owe her a phone call, so I'm glad you brought up Piero's.

Speaker 2:

There you go, call her. That's a great hookup over there. Yeah, she's great.

Speaker 1:

She's been the bar lady for years. That's a fantastic spot, that's a fantastic spot.

Speaker 2:

Obviously, I had a lot of clients come into town or customers, however you want to call them for the nightclub days and they would always push Carbone, carbone, and I love Carbone. I'm a Carbone guy. I'm from New York. If anyone needs a reservation, I got you in New York. That's a tough one.

Speaker 3:

I can get you.

Speaker 2:

Shout out to Adam but yeah, that's a good one. Blue Ribbon Sushi, if you've never been.

Speaker 3:

Oh, yeah, we've been to Blue Ribbon Sushi. There was one at Cosmo, I don't think it's there anymore.

Speaker 2:

There's one in Red Rock. They just opened one in Green Valley Ranch. I've been to one at Red Rock. Very good Surprisingly the best fried chicken probably in the whole city oh wow, I have never heard that before the whole chicken. But they're regular chicken wings with a wasabi honey dip. Let me just put everybody on, don't take up my reservation.

Speaker 3:

I usually go on Wednesdays.

Speaker 2:

Don't take my reservation, but Blue Ribbon Sushi chicken, especially, is the spot.

Speaker 1:

That's two good spots, man, so Piero's and Blue Ribbon Sushi.

Speaker 2:

Shout out to both of them, man, yeah absolutely.

Speaker 1:

What else do you want to leave us out on? Anything we forgot to ask you.

Speaker 2:

No, you know, getting a platform like this and being able to speak is great about business. I really encourage people to kind of really follow your dreams, and what I mean by that is not just have like I want to open up a nail salon or I want to be this and that it's like. It takes time. It does. It took me seven years. People always say congrats, it must be so exciting. It's not that exciting because I've been doing it in my head for seven years.

Speaker 1:

We've been doing this for six years.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you know, you know right Like congratulations.

Speaker 2:

This is amazing, You're like yeah, but that costs, you know, five grand that I've been doing this and I had to sacrifice my family time to be here. So I wish more people would take that chance, because on the other side of that is just an abundance of happiness, self-fulfillment. You know, entrepreneurship is not for the weak. I say it all the time and I say it about being a dad too. I say being a dad's not hard, but being a great dad is, you know. And being an entrepreneur is not very hard.

Speaker 2:

You can start your own shop, but being a good one and being an active one is. So I hope and I wish that people maybe take a little bit of my story and say this guy from New York didn't know anything at all, worked his way up, use his connections, did things the right way, didn't borrow cheat and steal from from everyone. I, I did it how I was supposed to do it and we're growing. So two locations right now I'm looking at a third here in the Southwest part of town and hopefully from then we just run it up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

We support you, man. We appreciate man. We're going back. I definitely do. It's an absolute pleasure to sit down. What's the social handles? So the Standard Tavern is the underscore standard underscore LV, and the same thing with Torrey Pines Pub is Torrey underscore Pines underscore pub. Okay, my personal is my name, chris Morihan, underscore LV. I'm boring now.

Speaker 3:

I got rid of all my club stuff.

Speaker 2:

It's just family inspired sometimes watching. So if you want to follow me or the bars, I definitely appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Well, check them out, man, Pay attention to them. We support you and check us out at thevegascircuitcom and subscribe with us, man. But I appreciate you, man.

Speaker 2:

That was awesome, man. Appreciate your time, guys. Thank you guys, that was really good.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.