Picture the Coachella Valley, not just as a backdrop for music festivals, but as a canvas for the entrepreneurial dreams of Greg Rangel and Ruben Reyes. Greg, a self-made success in the electrical business, and Ruben, the culinary mind behind Gastrogrind Burgers, share their relentless pursuit of business innovation and the mouth-watering journey of a burger maestro. As we chat, you'll feel the warmth of their father-son connection and the fire of their ambitions, giving you a first-hand look at what it takes to build something from the ground up.
Whoever said lightning doesn't strike twice never met the Rangels. Greg's transformation from a high school dropout to an electrical enterprise owner is electrifying, while Ruben's segue from home cook to culinary wunderkind is nothing short of magnetic. Together, they unpack the complexities of their industries, from the perils of trademarking to the grit it takes to keep a restaurant sizzling. Their candid tales are a rich blend of humor and wisdom, sure to ignite the entrepreneurial spark in anyone.
Wrap up your headphones and get ready to absorb the kind of advice that can only come from those who have walked through the fire of entrepreneurship and emerged with their passion and humor intact. Greg and Ruben don't just share their success; they serve it up with a side of hard-earned insights on leadership, growth, and why treating your team like family is the secret sauce to a thriving enterprise. Tune in for an episode that promises to be as engaging as it is enlightening, with two guests whose stories are the real main course.
Picture the Coachella Valley, not just as a backdrop for music festivals, but as a canvas for the entrepreneurial dreams of Greg Rangel and Ruben Reyes. Greg, a self-made success in the electrical business, and Ruben, the culinary mind behind Gastrogrind Burgers, share their relentless pursuit of business innovation and the mouth-watering journey of a burger maestro. As we chat, you'll feel the warmth of their father-son connection and the fire of their ambitions, giving you a first-hand look at what it takes to build something from the ground up.
Whoever said lightning doesn't strike twice never met the Rangels. Greg's transformation from a high school dropout to an electrical enterprise owner is electrifying, while Ruben's segue from home cook to culinary wunderkind is nothing short of magnetic. Together, they unpack the complexities of their industries, from the perils of trademarking to the grit it takes to keep a restaurant sizzling. Their candid tales are a rich blend of humor and wisdom, sure to ignite the entrepreneurial spark in anyone.
Wrap up your headphones and get ready to absorb the kind of advice that can only come from those who have walked through the fire of entrepreneurship and emerged with their passion and humor intact. Greg and Ruben don't just share their success; they serve it up with a side of hard-earned insights on leadership, growth, and why treating your team like family is the secret sauce to a thriving enterprise. Tune in for an episode that promises to be as engaging as it is enlightening, with two guests whose stories are the real main course.
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate, inform and inspire entrepreneurship here in our Coachella Valley.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone. This is Robert Mraz, and next to me is Fina Mraz.
Speaker 2:And this is CV Hustle, the podcast designed to inspire, educate and inform local entrepreneurship here in the Coachella Valley, and the goal of this podcast is really to speak to the top entrepreneurs here in the Valley. You know cream of the crop, and today we've got really two special guests. I know if you ever thought about getting into the electrical field or even the restaurant field. We've got something for you today. So our special guests today are Greg Rangel of Rangel Electric Thank you for being here, hello everyone and also a tag team. Today We've got his son, ruben Reyes of Gastrogrind Burgers, and you know that's one of the top burger places here in the Coachella Valley. In the short time, so it's a very special doubleheader. Today we're going to speak to two of the top entrepreneurs here in the game. So you know we'll get right into it. You know, fina, you've known Greg for a long time.
Speaker 3:So, greg, here we are, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4:Isn't that crazy.
Speaker 3:I know so Greg and I used to live in the same apartment complex in Coachella.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 3:My mom used to be the manager of the apartments and my mom would only rent to Jehovah's Witnesses, which is kind of crazy. You're not supposed to do that nowadays. But my mom rented to his mom and his mom had a whole bunch of kids and my mom you know. So it was cool. We were like I was probably 14, 15, right, it was a good time. I 14, 15, and right, it was a good time, I think a lot younger than that.
Speaker 1:Really. Honestly, I believe I think it had to be anywhere 11 years old.
Speaker 4:Maybe, 10, 11, something like that, so it was a long ass time ago, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, definitely we had to. It was a good time. I borrowed a lot of sugar from your mom.
Speaker 3:And power, you know, and electricity, banana bread and everything. So what happened after you guys moved out? Where did you go?
Speaker 1:You know, really we moved near Bagnuma Park. Oh so that's your farm and it was the newer projects, you know we were mowing on up, I remember feeling rich
Speaker 1:you know when we moved over there and we were near the park, but basically, yeah, we just moved down that way and from there that's when I flew the coop basically- yeah, well, you had a lot of brothers and sisters, right? Yeah, exactly, I got two brothers and two sisters, only one younger brother than me and the rest were all older, so I got my ass beat quite a bit.
Speaker 3:You know what it worked out for you. Hopefully you're not beating your children today.
Speaker 1:I can now Not all the time. Yeah, not all the time.
Speaker 4:We use phone books. Phone books A sack of oranges yeah.
Speaker 3:So once you ended up flying the coop, as you said, where did you go from there? How did you start your business?
Speaker 1:You know really what I did at that point. I started working when I was in high school. I started working weekends and stuff like that and I was working in construction doing electrical things like that oh really, and you know, to be honest, and I'm proud, not proud at all to say but I'd say by the 10th grade I dropped out of school. I just had Wow, I'd hate to say it, I just had no interest, I was just gone. At that point. You're right and I wanted to make money.
Speaker 3:You know what? You were kind of going straight into a career.
Speaker 4:That's something that this is taking off for them. Culinary school was oh yeah. Yeah, not, that's true. I mean still pay for it.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh. Well sell some more burgers.
Speaker 1:Here were some friends going to college. I mean, that just wasn't me. I just could not pay attention enough. My mind was somewhere else. I just wanted to do something. I saw people I get money, I saw I can do the same way, and it wasn't all just about that. I just wanted to, you know, be free you wanted your independence, right money I already had mentors, and I've always had mentors or friends that were older than me so so the person that you worked for, yeah that they knew that you had stopped going to high school.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and they were like it doesn't matter, Just keep on working.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this was back in the day, not too far back in the day, but they didn't care too much. You know what I mean. I mean nowadays they come drag you and they take you back in A little different.
Speaker 2:A little different now, that was just gone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's like I'm not working. Can I work here? Yeah, Like that, you know. And even then you know I probably had no business, but I started doing my own little side work and stuff like that. I didn't know too much about it, but I did, you know.
Speaker 3:So they trained you, though. They trained you how to be an electrician or were you just? Digging ditches at that point Digging ditches.
Speaker 1:I remember they called me an attic rat.
Speaker 4:And I was cool I was cool.
Speaker 1:You know it's funny. I didn't know what the hell that meant, but etiquette. Yeah, that's me, man, I'm done. I'm done, right, I want to be the best etiquette and that was it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was pretty much it, but I learned how to do a job. I wanted to learn everything I could. Yeah, because my thought was, I wanted to be the owner. What impressed me and I think what impressed me more was the freedom. Oh sure, because, yeah, yeah, and I mean honestly, you know, there's only so much freedom. We don't have much freedom. We got, instead of one boss, we got a thousand bosses now, which is our customers. But that's what impressed me, that's what got me, that's what I wanted. That was the ultimate goal. I just wanted it for me and I want to be able to do it so what kind of projects were you working on when you started Like?
Speaker 3:did you ever get shocked?
Speaker 2:All the time, really my first shock, you got a cartoon where you put you know, yeah, I was doing it when I was really young and I remember turning up, yeah, exactly. And just Don't do it that way again, right? That's how you learn. Yeah, that's how you learn, right.
Speaker 1:Exactly. But you, the fear goes away. I didn't die. Okay, I'll do it again. You know what I mean. I'm going to do that one again. There's a lot of fear, but I got to be the boss, I got to get through it, so that's what I wanted to do. That was the big thing.
Speaker 3:So how long did you end up working for that person?
Speaker 1:It wasn't much. It was maybe like six months, eight months.
Speaker 3:But at that time though, you had started your own little side job. Well, I started going to work for other people.
Speaker 1:You know, I started going to work for other people. Plus I was doing odd jobs. You know I was. You remember the Copacabana? Yes, in Coachella I was there. Oh yeah, really I was a bouncer. I remember being a bouncer, they're like at 15 years old you just stand here, don't let nobody come 15.
Speaker 2:He's drinking on the job site, Breaking some labor law somewhere man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know. I remember I got fired there because when they gave me a check they said, okay, here's your $150. And the guy said, you know, social Security, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, $150. I'm like, wait a minute, I want to see what you took out, you know took out.
Speaker 4:Huh, you know, you're just giving me 150.
Speaker 1:I'm working 80 hours a week, right, you know? Yeah, once I ask questions, they're like hey, we don't need you here anymore. So, but it was things like that.
Speaker 3:But it was just trying to make money, trying to get out of that absolutely just, but you were still living with your mom at that point, right, so you kind of yeah exactly.
Speaker 1:So she wasn't too happy when I dropped out, but I decided I had to go to work. Sure, you know that was a big thing and I remember I was taking architecture class like drafting.
Speaker 4:Where at I?
Speaker 3:would talk to him a lot In CV, oh okay.
Speaker 1:And the guy was like, hey, where you been? I said I went to go wear a couple houses and that, and it was almost like he was asking me questions.
Speaker 2:Because you were getting a live experience, real life experience and not behind a desk.
Speaker 1:You know, us guys right.
Speaker 3:Let me answer those questions for you, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1:So you know you get puffed up, pumped up and you know. It just helped to go from there. Oh my gosh, so that was really it and that was the big thing, that's what I wanted to do. So everything I did from there, I mean, I just wanted to learn more and I went to go work for a company out in, uh, in palm desert they were wearing the marriott, I think. By by the time I was 21, I was running a crew of about 10 people.
Speaker 2:wow, 21 you're a baby. Yeah, you're running crew, you're responsible people. Well, I look.
Speaker 1:But you know you. You know you. Look back at a 21 year old, you're like oh man, that's a kid. Of course, when you're 21, 20, I'm a man, I think you're girl. Oh yeah, you know everything.
Speaker 4:But you know what?
Speaker 1:I had a good time and I didn't realize it too much because I was just busy moving forward. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:But I think too, you had to be responsible, oh absolutely In order to do that, you had to be there on time, you had to like, the job had to continue to get done.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Right that was the big thing. So that's exactly what it was. You got to make sure the job's running. You got to make sure everything's on time. The materials, I mean. There was a lot of stuff to watch for, but I liked it, you.
Speaker 3:You like the responsibility. I started being a boss of somebody else.
Speaker 1:It wasn't my business. But now I'm a foreman now and it was kind of hard because there's older people, you know, that don't necessarily want to, you know, be told what to do by you and but. I was going. That's all right, I just need you to do this, were you?
Speaker 3:getting paid more than 150 dollars for 80 hours. A little bit more about.
Speaker 1:That was 156 yeah, yeah, 156 bucks. Oh my God, but yeah no, I think it was 10 bucks and 12 bucks, and one day I'm going to make 14 bucks, and you know, I mean I'm not paying laborers 20 bucks.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, Minimum wage back then I wonder what it was.
Speaker 1:Times have changed and it's not that they wanted to stay down money-wise, but you also want them to have that ambition kind of like I did, like I want to do good, I want this to. You did a good job you felt responsible I wanted to show my stuff first, before I even asked for money.
Speaker 4:That's the way I learned back in the day, show your shit first. Then you ask for money.
Speaker 1:You don't ask for money and then say then I'll go do it Right, I don't want to tell you Dogs change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 1:Younger generation Well it's hard because by now I've had so many employees back in the day.
Speaker 3:Okay so, take me after the Marriott. So I'm assuming that after the Marriott you didn't have enough time to really do side jobs then, or did you this?
Speaker 1:is the funny thing. So when I was doing that, I was trying to make money. I mean, you know, I got with my wife and she had a couple of kids and so instant family, right, sure. And I'm trying to, I'm really trying to find a way to make money and I'm thinking what can I, what can I do while I'm, while I'm working my ass off here, and I found a job throwing the newspapers, I thought, well, I can do that before 6 am.
Speaker 3:I wasn't saying 5 am, 4 am.
Speaker 1:Well, I get up at three because I had to wrap my own paper. Gosh, I had to be done with my route by 6 am and I had to be at the job site by 6.30.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow when do you go to bed so early? Yeah?
Speaker 1:now, oh man.
Speaker 4:I party hard for a while. You were already training for that back in the day, yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:But I remember that and I had'm going to be a foreman, and then I'm thinking, okay, I gotta start another business or something. And they had, they had, uh, they started a swap meet or something, a fee market, they call it at the fairgrounds and I said I gotta sell something there you know what'd you sell?
Speaker 3:don't tell me you were selling white socks, everybody oh my god, that that's another world man.
Speaker 1:But I started selling, I think, pots and pans.
Speaker 2:We were just buying stuff, to sell it, to swap me. How'd you even?
Speaker 1:get in the night. You know, I saw something online. I can buy some stuff, yeah I mean just you're driving to go get product yeah, you know I was selling that, uh, before you know it, I was selling, uh, my mother-in-law was making floor arrangements, so we sold that, and this is me and my wife. We're doing it all together at this point she's kicking mass to get out early in the morning and then I said, hey, I got an idea, let's do this. So we're selling that.
Speaker 1:And then, before you know it, we're selling candies mexican candies and toys, really yeah, I was on saturdays and sundays and I had to go to home on it and we had to leave at 3 in the morning. Sometimes I took these guys with me Get ready to go. They're like let's go, it's a flea market right. But I was doing that for a while Just trying to make a buck.
Speaker 3:Okay, so tell me about the flea market lifestyle. Did you have to pay your rent for that spot? How does that work?
Speaker 1:It's a tripground right that bombed horribly but it took a while, so I did that. You pay for your spot and it's all up to you. You hope it doesn't rain, you hope it doesn't get windy.
Speaker 4:That's the worst.
Speaker 1:And then we found one in Beaumont. You wait in line because everyone has their spot. That was a pretty popular one, so you wait in line and if people drop out and don't show up, then you can get in really well, you go over there and you don't know if you're gonna sell anything, yeah, so then, you pop shit up right away and you know you start selling stuff.
Speaker 3:But at least I thought well, that's on the weekends, at least wow, then I can do my other stuff and you're there from like morning to like late in the afternoon.
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes you're the last one's there because it's like hey, I want to sell anybody that comes by. There's two, three people walking by. You know you want them to buy your stuff. Oh my gosh so it's tough. So you were in sales from the get-go yeah, you know it's funny because you know you see people walking by and you're like, oh man, they're coming, they're coming in here and then they walk by you're like oh shit I Now putting up your signs.
Speaker 1:Bye, yeah you know, but we were hustling and then we were all at that point. We're all hustling like a family. Hey, I need you guys to help me out. I'm going to the flea market on Saturday and they were down. They're kids, you know.
Speaker 3:Do you remember doing that? Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, did you like.
Speaker 4:Every Saturday. It was just kind of a thing we did. I mean, it was kind of just a Saturday thing Go, get in the van, go to Beaumont.
Speaker 1:Family is there, yeah, Wow, it's funny because it's like, okay, here I made 10 bucks, here's 10 bucks.
Speaker 4:They come back with more shit. You're like God damn it.
Speaker 1:I mean, come on man, you know you find good stuff there. It's like hey, get in treasures, man Well we found some geese there Remember?
Speaker 3:Oh, don't even bring up the geese.
Speaker 2:Some ducks. We bought two ducks for our daughters.
Speaker 1:Oh, the worst thing in the world. They stunk, they were nerdy. Oh, the worst decision Like a rabbit Pellets everywhere. There you go, you think it's a good idea and you jump on it. Well they're so cute when they're little exactly that's the way we hustled and it's like, okay, I gotta move on, I gotta, I gotta move up, I gotta start doing some other things, yeah, you know, and really work on my electrical contract and that's what I wanted. That was the ultimate. So what?
Speaker 2:what age did you start really focusing on the electrician side and like really saying, hey, there's a, there's a potential for me to do big things in this, in this world?
Speaker 1:well, that was kind of in the beginning, you know, because that was always focus, you know. But once I saw an ad in the paper to go work somewhere else saying, hey, you can make this and you can make that, and you know you get health and kind of work for a company where you get health and days off. So I hit him up and it was some company out of LA and it was just basically a dispatch company and you know you charge crazy, they charge change from up there. So I went to work over there. That was big for me. That was a big change because I was going to people's houses and I'm using their menu to do work and it was expansive.
Speaker 1:So I got thrown out of a few houses.
Speaker 3:What do you mean? That you were using their menu.
Speaker 1:Or their menu for basically their electrical. They want to add a plug. You know they want to do a light. You know, you go to their book, you add it up and you know, before you know it, it's $1,500 for like almost nothing.
Speaker 3:And you go, I'm going God dang it. It's going to take me five minutes. This is a ripoff.
Speaker 1:And it was commissioned.
Speaker 3:You know, so I'm you like fries with that, yeah?
Speaker 1:Well, the funny thing, and I always tell this story I went to this old lady's house and you know, it was just about changing some smoke detectors, like five of them or something, and it was like 900 bucks and I, just, I, I, I, just I couldn't do it.
Speaker 3:Were titanium batteries or what the hell, I know exactly man, you know what I'm thinking, and that's one ultimate.
Speaker 1:I go, I finally need to just do this on my own, because people don't need to pay this. I can do it more inexpensive and I can do it for myself and I can start then. So that was huge when I went to work for that company. I think God sends you like God shots, and I think that's what that was, company. I think God sends you like God shots, and I think that's what that was. We're going to throw you into sales. We're going to throw you into everything. You're doing everything at that point.
Speaker 3:Well, I think that's like when you look back about starting your own business, you do start doing everything. You have to know how to do everything in your business because you've got to know how all of it works.
Speaker 2:If somebody calls in sick, you're doing it. That's when you start, that's it. Yeah, you gotta know you don't call, yeah yeah, we're there, no matter what.
Speaker 3:You know, you guys know I was gonna say I used to drive my forklift. He used to do deliveries like it, just, it, just.
Speaker 1:I started getting these jobs. I tell my wife hey, I gotta go do this job, you know. And she's like hey, I need your help and kind of needed to help me dig a little bit. And she's like what, hey, let, hey, let's go, she was down, I love it.
Speaker 2:I remember she was down, so your wife was your first. She was your first employee.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, she's holding the ladder and it's like Sunday afternoon, of course.
Speaker 2:I'd rather be home.
Speaker 1:Truly a family affair, right, that's what it is, that's what it takes. You know what they're going to. I mean, you know things like that, and so it was always hustling like that.
Speaker 3:Okay, but how did Rangal Electric finally go? So you got to get a bank account. You've got to start doing. You got to get business cards.
Speaker 1:How did that happen? I stopped working for this company. I had to go on my own, no matter what, and I was it's funny, because we were buying our first house and at that same time I quit my job. I remember the real estate agent. That was great timing. What are you doing? And I'm like no worries man, I'm starting a business.
Speaker 3:He's like oh, you do that after you get out.
Speaker 1:You do that after you buy the house. The dude was flipping his shit, you know, and I didn't get it. I'm cool, right, I know everything, you know. Well, you know what it is it's going to work.
Speaker 3:I'm already doing this. It had to, yeah, sink or swim. It had to. There was sink or swim.
Speaker 1:It had to work, I had to make it work and it was really slow. I went to go work for another company for a little bit and, you know, reluctantly, because that's not what I wanted. I wanted my own.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:So reluctantly. And then, finally I was doing so much side work, one guy goes hey, I got this big house that I'd like you to work on. And I thought, holy shit, there it is. Here, it is First one. So I went to go tell my employer which I was running work for him at that point and I said, hey, dude, I got a role. He's all. Please don't do this to me, man. He says I need you. I got these crews. I was running crews. They were doing a bunch of houses in PGA and he offered me a bunch of money. I went and talked to my wife. I said this dude's offering me this much money, more than I've ever made for a salary. I mean, we're stoked. I can go do this house, which when I'm done, it's only one house, or I stick with this guy and keep working making good money. I've never made that before. I got to go for my gut. I can't, I can't, and that was such a for sure thing.
Speaker 4:It's hard.
Speaker 1:The local company has been around forever Great guy to work for, you know. And I said I told her, why am I doing it? She says cool Wow that's great.
Speaker 3:How old were you at this point, do you think 23. What 23.?
Speaker 1:I thought you were like 32 by now 23 years old.
Speaker 3:Why?
Speaker 1:are you just a baby?
Speaker 1:And I had to hustle so it was a trip because now you're always the young kid Everywhere I so it was a trip because you're all now you're always the young kid everywhere I went I go to. That's why I saw I opened an account at the supply house. I'm talking to people and you know they all kind of look down at you, a lot of them, you know, especially when you go in to buy a supply house and you got all these other contractors and I'm doing there forever and you're just yeah yeah, so it was kind of a trip.
Speaker 1:so I was always the underdog, always a don't know more, you know, but that's what was the trip, you know, and some people look down on you, some people are trying to kind of step on you too in a way. Wow, I don't get too much in that, but that's out there. That's what happens, yeah.
Speaker 3:But I didn't care.
Speaker 1:That's how you learn.
Speaker 3:With my attitude hey, that's cool, kept going because this had to work, plus I'm already doing what I want to do now, it's just whatever okay. So I always think about my business right, like I had to open up a bank account, so you had to open up a bank account. And then you probably, when you got this big job, you probably started getting some big checks right, so you got to go deposit those and you got to pay your guys. Like did you have guys? How did?
Speaker 1:you get. Yet I would hire some laborers here and there and I'd pay them cash. You know how that goes. Okay, you can't do that, you couldn't do it then, but you absolutely can't do that now. But, um, you know, pay some guys cash. I do a lot of work myself. Finally, I hired my cousin. I put him on payroll it was one guy and then I hired another guy. I remember I remember when I had one employee I didn't know how I was gonna do do it and then I needed another one and I just couldn't sleep because I needed to hire another one. But how can I afford another one? That was in my head, how can I get another employee? Right? And it worked out when I got them because I was here doing more work, but we pulled the trigger all the time. Scary.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Starting a bit, and yeah, everything's risk versus reward right.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I had an opportunity one day to do a track of homes. I had no business bidding a track of homes, I'm doing it, I don't give a shit right. So I did that and they were like, okay, well, you put in your bid, we're going to have you do it and I need workman's comp. I'm kind of like what is that? So my wife looks around. I think she went to the state because the state fund was the first one that will give you insurance.
Speaker 2:No one else will. If you have no history, then you go to state fund.
Speaker 1:No history, you go to state fund they can't deny you Did that and it just started growing. From there it started growing crazy.
Speaker 3:How many homes were in that track?
Speaker 1:I think it was 30, actually, but they did 10 at a time. For me that was nuts, so I started that. And then that guy has another one, and has another one, and then other people knew me as that.
Speaker 3:Well, and I think too, what happens is you start establishing like a reputation right, and so you start getting like'm gonna finish the job, I'm gonna be there for you, I'm gonna do what I need to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's key and I took pride in that. It takes right. You're, you're proud. Hey, you're the, the guy I got these 10 homes coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, you tell me where they're at you know, I'm on it you know, and now I probably did that a little bit too much but when you're hungry, gotta be hungry, do it. But when you start that work is calm, you know you get the insurance, hey, you, should it be incorporated now, sort of learning, all these things that you're like so do you start it out as sole proprietor? Yeah, that was first, yeah, that was first.
Speaker 2:We did that too oh man, we had no idea. That's why we had no idea. The cool part about that.
Speaker 1:You know, you can get some checks and cash them under your name. Yeah, it's a little bit more gray area.
Speaker 2:With the $100? Yeah, you're doing that until the tax man comes, and then you're broke again. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Now, once you start writing everything through the books, I remember the first time it got to the point one time.
Speaker 4:It was always a learning process.
Speaker 1:We got a CPA. What's a CPA? Yeah, let's see if we can find my wife hey, find a CPA, you know things like that Right. And then we had to get an attorney for a couple things one time, oh sure. So we did that and it was just always a learning process, because I didn't know any of this. I mean, I didn't finish high school, not like they teach.
Speaker 3:Teach that in high school? No way, they don't.
Speaker 1:Which I believe in high school they should teach you finance. Yeah, Everybody talks about that Teach you finance.
Speaker 2:Teach you things.
Speaker 1:They teach you to go to work or they tell you to go to work. That's it. Finances are everything.
Speaker 2:They should be teaching you things that are practical in life.
Speaker 1:You know like how to balance a checkbook.
Speaker 2:That's the biggest thing. That's like. You know, it's just our educational system is kind of flawed in that. That way it's not a lot of practical information.
Speaker 1:So it's not so a lot. And then you know that's why you hire people to do what they gotta do. It's the way they gotta hire somebody. Every time was hire somebody, pay somebody. It's like wait, what right you know so, were you working did?
Speaker 3:were you working out of your home, or did you end up eventually renting uh?
Speaker 1:yes, out of my home first. So, people, I'd have the guys meet me at my garage in the morning, 7 am. I tell them where to go. It was all out of the garage, everything was out of the garage, and then I finally had to get an office where was your first office? My first office was right here for springfield lane ah, that's where bobby is now. Yeah, yeah springfield lane you drive into the right across from that restaurant wasn't in that restaurant okay, karen's.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it was it was called something else before.
Speaker 2:I think it was heavenly cafe. Yeah, it's a cafe, something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah but it was right across from there. But it was hard for me to pull the trigger because I'm like, oh my god I'm not gonna pay rent, I'm not gonna I know that's just keep going up, right but I'll tell you what every time I pulled the trigger and signed the lease I mean it was- like something it would come right.
Speaker 3:It worked.
Speaker 1:You were supposed to. That was the piece that was missing and then it would work. You still had to hustle.
Speaker 2:Hustle never ended you keep those sales coming in right.
Speaker 3:You've got a great sales personality. You've got a great personality, so I'm sure it turns into sales at some point, right?
Speaker 1:I try, I always tell you how that goes.
Speaker 3:We've got bad days.
Speaker 1:Of course, but people got to like you first. No matter what you sell, I believe you work with the people that you like. Sure, and maybe that was it, because I think, regardless, I was going to be an electrician. I think, regardless, I was going to have a business, how successful, I don't know. So I just had to you know, be you know who I am, be friendly, be you know.
Speaker 4:I'm excited.
Speaker 1:I like talking You're good at it, man, professional, you know that's when you talk to somebody, you know you feel their passion. And then when you feel someone's passion, you feel passion Contagious. It's like when somebody tells you hey, you, I got the scrape, oh, man, the food only, and you're like tasty, you're where you can't wait to go, and that's kind of. That's kind of how I see it. But uh it, it, uh it went from there and I was always learning process. My next learning process was um, I I forgot who I was talking to. Something happened with an attorney or whatever they said got to hire an attorney because you need to do a handbook.
Speaker 3:Oh, I need a handbook, oh gosh.
Speaker 1:Yes, they said, well, you got 50 employees. I had 50 employees, oh my God, and I had to get a handbook. I had to offer health insurance. There was a bunch of things that I didn't know.
Speaker 2:I'm like well wait, cross some invisible barrier. Now that you have 50 employees and now all these rules and regulations apply, that was like the next step.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh shit, are you kidding me? I didn't really pay attention to that 50 employees, but once you have 50, that's a whole other set of rules, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So now at your height, how many employees? Because I know you were probably one of the biggest electrical contractors in the Valley at your height right.
Speaker 1:It's funny.
Speaker 3:You had a contractors in the valley at your height right a lot of employees, right, I at one point it was a little over 80 employees. That's, oh my god, that's for this little valley.
Speaker 1:That is pretty amazing this is what trips me out at my height uh, with 80 employees. I was 30 years old.
Speaker 3:Wow, that is a success all in itself. Maybe, Honestly Well, you had to have like help, right? You always have to hire people that it's going to help you, right? I'm sure Belinda was a huge help.
Speaker 1:Oh huge.
Speaker 3:And then you had a GM, I'm assuming, or what.
Speaker 1:Without my wife it wouldn't go that far, because they're the ones that push you. I go homie. What do you think of this? That's far, because they're the ones that push you. I go home. What do you think?
Speaker 3:of this that's where you bounce it off. Of sure I mean, yeah, I've got other people you can talk to, but who's do you really?
Speaker 1:you know what he's looking out for your best interest, he's gonna support you, babe, and you know she worried with me too, and it's like oh shit, I did this job, I paid guys. They haven't paid me yet. What are we gonna do? I'd go to her what are we? Gonna do you know, right it's just it was.
Speaker 3:It was like we're going back to the swap meet.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 3:I didn't even tell you one time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The kids laugh. Sometimes I was selling vacuumers door to door.
Speaker 3:No, it was a trip.
Speaker 1:No, it was a rainbow vacuum 1300 bucks, you know. Oh my God, I was knocking on doors offering diet Cokes. If you, let me do us something with you. I forgot about that.
Speaker 4:Oh my God, it's a trip.
Speaker 2:I love it. Sometimes it's embarrassing to talk about.
Speaker 1:But hey, that's.
Speaker 2:You know what you did. What you had to do, do what you got to do.
Speaker 3:Every you just learn from everything right. Every little experience brings you to something bigger. It really does Everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everything it's a trip. I look back, I forget a lot of these things and sometimes the kids trip out. Oh, that's right. Remember, and you know it's this and that one time we had all the candies, you know, because I stopped selling at the swap meet. We had toys, we had everything we go to LA to buy, you know, and they're like, hey, what can? They took off and started selling. They got rid of all the candies with the neighbors and had cash. Nice, we live in some apartment complex or something.
Speaker 4:Well, maybe because we were robbing a laundromat too, yeah.
Speaker 1:Stealing quarters and pennies. It was a trip. It was always just hustling.
Speaker 2:That's what it's all about when you're an entrepreneur man. You got to have that bug, otherwise it ain't going to work right?
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, let me ask you this. So you were always in residential or commercial lighting? I?
Speaker 1:was always in residential. At first, when I worked for other companies, they did a bunch of different things. But I remember when I got my first commercial job, I bid the job. I didn't have a guy to do it. I figured I'll hire a guy. It was a Zales jewelry store in the mall. Oh yeah, and they gave me the job and I was like now what am I going to do? I got to go do the job, right.
Speaker 1:So I hired a guy and stuff and that was commercial and I do all that. I mean I just couldn't be there no more you know what's the difference.
Speaker 3:What do you mean? Hire a guy to do the job? What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1:it's commercial, especially like in a mall it's. It's a different type of electrical, this commercial work, so it's not necessarily just romex or wire. You know things like that. It's in conduit um there's different rules different regulations. The good thing on commercial is everything on the plan. You know, you see plans all the time.
Speaker 3:Commercial, it doesn't change Residential how many plans do they have by the time you're done? Depends on the homeowner right, oh my God.
Speaker 1:I hate when I go to, I'm working, I'm laying them out, I'm talking to homeowners, then they go hey, you got the old plan. And you're like, oh, we have three other sets from there. Yeah, exactly so it's different for commercial. So then I ended up doing I think I did a veteran's medical center.
Speaker 3:I ended up doing I just started doing, started doing some bigger jobs.
Speaker 4:It was easy by then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or it seems easy, but it was easy. It was easy because I had guys doing it, Plus I did the job. I'd go sell it. You know, get the plans. We did some CVS stores, some brand-new pop-up CVS stores. My son-in-law was big on helping me with that because I started teaching him. Oh, wow, you know electrical and teaching him how to bid. And so we got some good-sized commercial buildings that we did some CVS stores, we did some Johnny Rocket restaurants.
Speaker 1:Oh commercial buildings and we did some cvs stores. We did some johnny rocket restaurants. Oh yeah, was that the hospital? Yeah, um, some big jobs. It was. Yeah, it was. It was a lot of, a lot of big jobs like that, and it was, um, it was just easy. And then you got the man when you got. You know, it's like when you try to get your first fortune. Now you got three of them. Well, yeah, hell, yeah, I can load all this stuff Right, so it just went from there. Okay, just snowballed from there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how in the hell did the restaurant business start then?
Speaker 2:That's where Chef Ruben comes in. Yeah, where did that end up coming in Because now we're in a totally different industry.
Speaker 4:It honestly started as a joke. A joke, yeah, because I was driving by and it was like, hey, you guys want more stress? There's a restaurant opening up, there's a new space, it's fully loaded. All we have to do is remodel the inside and literally I had gotten. I just left Marrakesh Country Club or, no, no, bistro 60, right there off of uh avenue 60 in jefferson, trilogy yeah, trilogy.
Speaker 4:I just left there and, uh, I was doing my own, uh, my own catering company, and I was, you know you know, doing personal meals, like you know, weekly um dietary meals for for some clients and I had been driving by in the fish and chip spot right there next to.
Speaker 3:I used to eat there. All the time I used to run into you all the time I was pissed. I was pissed when they closed Best fried rice I ever had, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:And like I saw they were open and like I literally just I text my mom and Greg. I'm like, hey, do you guys want more stress? There's a restaurant opening up, Do you? There's a restaurant opening up? You guys want to get an electrical business? And um, literally they called me.
Speaker 1:Like the next couple days was like yeah I could call the guy no way he takes me the picture on the window with the for lease and restaurant and all this other stuff and that just stayed in my head hey, just little okay.
Speaker 3:What okay? So let's let's take a couple steps back. You mentioned earlier that you have culinary debt from school. Tell me about that. When did you start going like? What made you want to get into that?
Speaker 4:I always, I always enjoyed cooking, I mean like ever, like my mom and greg when they were, uh, when they were busy with the business. I mean they were never. They were never home. They're always with clients doing stuff. So I would get home, home from school, and, oh, I'm hungry. What do I make? You know, see what's in the fridge, throw stuff together, heat up leftovers, you know, even to the point where it's like, oh, you know, I'll make dinner, I'm bored.
Speaker 4:So I just started cooking and it kind of always seemed like just something I would enjoy. I never really thought about it as like a career, just something I enjoyed. And then, you know, in my mind I was like, oh, you know electrician, you know construction, this, and that I'll be an engineer. But just one day, just kind of like, I got a letter from a culinary school and I was like, oh, you know, I really I do enjoy letter from a culinary school and I was like, oh, I do enjoy cooking, I enjoy this. It's something I can see myself going to every day and not being like, oh, I got to go to work.
Speaker 3:Right Something you enjoy.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So I was like all right, cool, I'll try that out. And I told my mom about it and she's right away. Yeah, do it, Do it. Why not Go for it? The school is in Oregon that they sent me the letter from.
Speaker 3:Really, how in the hell did they find?
Speaker 4:you. I have no idea. They just random letter they sent to me in the mail. It was probably because I was an avid in high school, so I was probably just you know they probably just sent my name out to a bunch of places and I was like Oregon, I don't want to go to Portland, it's too far. It's too far, and the school that sent me that letter was like well, we have a sister school in Pasadena.
Speaker 4:Oh, there it is and I was like, all right, cool. So I thought about it. Thought about it, like, yeah, I'll go to culinary school. You know my mom, she took me to all the interviews and everything and it seemed like a good fit. So I was like, cool, let's go.
Speaker 3:So how old were you at this point?
Speaker 4:17.
Speaker 3:Oh you're a baby, so were you? Had you graduated Not?
Speaker 4:yet. I haven't graduated high school yet when I went to culinary school so I went to I was in high school and pretty much after graduation, because I had taken for like a secondary language, I had taken Japanese. No shit, konnichiwa.
Speaker 4:Yeah for four years I had taken Japanese for four years. So literally I graduated high school, I went to Japan for about a month and a half, stayed there as like an exchange student what I had two weeks off. And then I went to culinary school, Wow. So it was like, yeah, you know some people, oh, I think a year off, no, I had two weeks.
Speaker 2:That's more time to get in trouble you take some time off, yeah exactly, or more time to forget about what you want to do. Forget about it. Yeah, not you on the chat.
Speaker 3:We had some friends that just came back from Japan and they were just like amazed at the food. Yeah, so when you were there, did the food like entice you there To this day.
Speaker 4:The gas station sushi I had there is better than anything I've like, with the exception of like one or two places. Is the gas station sushi that I had in Japan is better than anything I've had here in a sit down restaurant where I've paid like 15, $20 for like a two piece sushi.
Speaker 2:So note to self if you ever go to Japan, grab some of that gas station.
Speaker 4:Yeah, shout out to.
Speaker 2:Lawson's.
Speaker 4:That's the best sushi I've had. Pretty ironic.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you go to culinary school. Are you driving back and forth? Did you get a place?
Speaker 4:I had a room. I took the domain and all that stuff and paid for the books and knives and it was all part of the tuition. So I had my little apartment over there that I shared with like five people, so it was. It was up up in pasadena. I'd come down every every maybe two, three weeks, just quick, little you know, weekend visit and go back up to pasadena for for collier school you want to know what I'm thinking about right now.
Speaker 3:Have you seen the bear?
Speaker 1:yeah, I can just see if you know, because that was kind of cool, it was very funny because when he was in uh college and he would tell us the shows he watched, which was um, was it top chef?
Speaker 4:and that's when, like season one of top chef just had to get just barely come out. When, uh when, I went to go to school, we watched everything that he would. We felt like we were you know, you feel like you're the one he called. How'd it go, man?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, what's hurting, because now we know everything about what we get all into. What about this, what about that? But now we loved it, man. You know it was a great school too.
Speaker 4:Well, how?
Speaker 3:long were you in school?
Speaker 4:It was a year and a half five months externship and then after that I came back and I started working at Sullivan's.
Speaker 1:We went uh sullivan's.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I, my extra ship, was in hawaii, really yeah, so I went to hawaii, um, but that was only like uh, three months yeah three months and I came back and I yeah, I started working here in the valley. I don't think I would come back after I was thinking the same thing, but cost living in hawaii is super.
Speaker 4:I mean back in in 2005, a gallon of milk was like $7. Shut up.
Speaker 3:Okay, so then you come back.
Speaker 2:Back to the dream or the joke. The joke is not such a joke anymore. Right, this colony was called.
Speaker 1:Cordon Bleu. And so this thing was, I mean, fantastic and I mean the place was amazing. And sometimes we go see them and they're all working through glass. I mean, this is like medical type.
Speaker 2:Precision cooking.
Speaker 1:Right, it was a trip man and then in Pasadena, it was just good. Like I said, we were almost living through him. We couldn't wait to hear more or see more or whatever.
Speaker 2:So I mean this school is really, really fantastic, so you guys already had confidence that he could knock it out of the parking lot yeah, no, absolutely. That's why there was no hesitation when he sent you the joke.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, and then us with the business man. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Well, it was one of those things as well, like for the past, like, like literally since I got out of culinary school, was oh, let's open a restaurant, let's do this, I'm not ready, I'm not ready, I need more experience. You know, at that point it was like, it was like you know, I, when I saw that place, I'm like, I think I'm ready, like I think I got it, like it's like the universe spoke to you, right?
Speaker 4:yeah, it's like, it's like kind of like everything kind of just lined up and just like, click, wow, that's like. I like. I think I feel like I have enough experience. This place is open and it was already a restaurant. So like, if, like, say, if we just like bought a thrift store, we'd have to get plumbing, plumbing, fire extinguishers, fire suppression, uh, grease traps, ventilation uh, grease trap is the nightmare yeah, floor drains the whole.
Speaker 4:Thing like so. So this place was like already like a setup restaurant, so it was literally just refurbishment, decorate the inside how we want, sure, and it was just like. It was just like that right moment where it's like okay, cool, I think I'm ready okay, but what made you say burgers?
Speaker 4:uh, we kind of took us like a survey of the area and it was like, okay, cool, we got, you know there's. Uh, it was a brand new italian place. Next door to us. We have the meat market, then we have eureka, then we got gorilla burger over like way over there, way over there, and it was one of those things like okay with, like a lunch spot is needed. There's really no outstanding. There's good, decent, but no outstanding things that make you say wow, there's no outstanding, especially from his culinary experience, where he's at no outstanding sandwiches, salads, burgers.
Speaker 4:So it's like, okay, cool, there's a market for that kind of food everywhere. So close to El Paseo, not on El Paseo, let's do it Like we there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a keyhole and we have the key. That's kind of where we started the burger place. Yeah.
Speaker 1:The cool thing is when we're trying to okay, what should we do, how should we do it, I told them let's just go try burger places, and so we tried. Obviously we tried the local ones before and this and that, but we like going to LA a lot, especially since he was at college and then he was living in Hollywood for a while, you know.
Speaker 3:Well, there's so much more selection out there in LA too. Well, you've got 11 million people.
Speaker 1:Someone's going to try some funky stuff.
Speaker 4:Holy shit, you know someone's going to do it, but there was one place.
Speaker 1:We went one day and we literally had uh, we went to three different burger restaurants and had three full burgers in one day, I think. And we went, yeah, we went to town that day, but we, I think we went from carson to pasadena to, I think, west los angeles and just I mean, we were just trying shit, whatever we can find, you know, but just for ideas or whatever he kind of already knew.
Speaker 4:I think we went all deep, deep in the hood in Inglewood just to find this one burger spot that was well known. It's like okay, cool, it's like Hawkins. Yeah, that's what it was.
Speaker 1:Hawkins Burgers. You got to go there.
Speaker 3:It's in.
Speaker 1:Compton, right next to the hood.
Speaker 3:All right, do I need one of those A little bit of rest, a little bit of rest Just kidding.
Speaker 2:But remember that the clean Compton of recently, thank you, compton's not so bad, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I want to go back to Because you said you worked for Sullivan's. That is one of my personal favorites. I am the biggest fan of the pineapple knockout Nice, and I know how to make it Awesome. Fan of the pineapple knockout and I know how to make it 12 days of soaking those pineapples the best. So yeah, so okay. So what did you do there at sullivan's?
Speaker 4:sullivan's is when I first started, so like literally I was doing uh, salads and desserts there okay and um, yeah, I was working the pantry station. It was just kind of like a you know making salads, make salad dressings and you know, chop your lettuce and then you kind of got sick of that. Um, it was.
Speaker 3:Um, it was kind of like a you know making salads making salad dressings and you know, chop your lettuce and then you kind of got sick of that um, it was.
Speaker 4:um, it was kind of like no, I was, I really enjoyed it there. The chef, like because this is back when, um, culinary school students, you, they were few and far between, so like when, when I joined that team, it was literally me and a bunch of like 45 year old guys and none of them had any culinary school experience. None of them had, you know, any kind of like professional training. It was literally like, oh, we're gardeners in the morning and we fry stuff at night, wow. So when I came in, I was like, I was like oh, how about we do this, we do that? You know, kind of like throwing a little professional culinary school into it Flavor.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly like throwing the little professional culinary school into it. Flavor, yeah, exactly, no pun intended, and yeah, like I really enjoyed it. It's just, um, you know, cost of living kept going up and it was a corporate dining so they could only they would only pay you so much. If you didn't fit that niche, they wouldn't pay you that much. So, um, at that point I started started because I had taken Japanese for four years. I knew the language and I started working at Okura Sushi when they first opened.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's a big spot.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and little by little, they're kind of like well, you know, you can communicate with us, because all the chefs there were Japanese. None of them spoke fluent English. So me being able to speak Japanese was like okay, cool, they can communicate with you. You have the culinary school experience, we'll buy you a sushi knife and you train with us, wow. But you have to leave the steakhouse. So it's kind of just like all right, well, I'm learning something new, I'm getting a skill that's highly, highly demanded, right. And then you know, but I have to leave the steakhouse and I really love the steakhouse. It was awesome.
Speaker 3:Did you tell him that the gas-stained sushi was still better?
Speaker 1:No, Okay, I just checked.
Speaker 4:The thing about like Japanese sushi chefs very proud.
Speaker 1:We would go into a curry room and say hey, what are you doing here?
Speaker 4:Shut up.
Speaker 1:And they're like hey, what do you have? I'd say, you know what? Tell the room to make us some stuff.
Speaker 2:He knows what we like, he would just come out.
Speaker 1:You know what it was. He was not even on the menu, or whatever.
Speaker 2:Off the menu stuff. Yeah, that's the stuff right there. You're so bougie now, greg, it was fantastic it was quite delicious.
Speaker 3:Okay, so tell me, what does it take to start a restaurant?
Speaker 2:A lot. That's got to be a lot of things.
Speaker 4:There's got to be a lot of things Crazy, a little bit of crazy. Yeah you, it can be totally sane. You have to have a little bit of an alcohol addiction To get through the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it helps. You got to do what you got to do, right.
Speaker 4:All that helps, but yeah, pretty much it's a lot of moving parts. I always tell people the rest was the machine. You're just the gear in the machine. If, like, I tell people, if I get taken out by some old person driving down 111, like the rest is still going to keep going, they're going to find someone to replace me. It's like I'm just a cog in the machine, even like as much as I do here. I'm just the part like the restaurant is a machine. It keeps going, no matter what okay, but what?
Speaker 3:we're missing details, so I want to know. So you called the place and said we're interested in this unleashing.
Speaker 1:So this is where god comes in again and and I say because he, you know, now he's like greg, you know what's up, what are we doing? I said, all right, well, let's go check the place out. I talked to the guy, we left. I said we'll talk about it some more and then I didn't call the guy for like two weeks. And then three weeks came along and I thought and every morning at 6 am when I wake up back, then it was at 6 am, but I'm like this is the only thing in my head. And finally we called him again. I said, hey, you know what, we'd like to check it out one more time. It's a month later. Right, we check it out. We're like should we do this? Yeah, you know what, let's do it. Okay, cool, we go see it. I don't call the guy back again and another month goes by.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh Now this is a restaurant and up like this like what year was this? It's 2019, early 2019, okay, yeah. So again, you know, those things are quick. And it was still there and I kept thinking and finally I, you know he's like hey, what are we doing? I said you know what? Call him right now, tell him we'll go sign. And I was just scared, like when I got my first office when I got my first employee, all this other stuff.
Speaker 1:What am I going to do? There was so much pressure before we even touched it that we finally called him and I said what do you think, man, he goes? Yeah, man, I got it this. And that I said okay, cool, we went. I signed with him and I remember there was so much pressure before we signed that once I signed, pressure was off.
Speaker 4:Yeah, at that point I was Because you're just the anxiety, right.
Speaker 1:It was the anxiety in our heads, and can we, and can we? And when we signed the lease, the only thing I thought I know how to go to work and the only thing I thought Of course you do, you're.
Speaker 3:Mexican. Yeah, you're.
Speaker 1:Mexican. The only thing I thought now is I was like now let's go to work, it's ours. Now we got to make it happen and it's like okay, but how did you know?
Speaker 3:Did you know how much food to order, like who to buy?
Speaker 4:from, because, with my experience in the food industry, I had the names and numbers of vendors and companies, this and that. So all that was taken care of. At the time I was working my catering company, I was working at the, at creamistry, at the ice cream ice cream place, as a part-time um, so like it was a lot of downtime. So I like literally like most of my time there at the ice cream shop was, um, setting up, getting everything ready, and the rest of the day was me writing my notebook. You know ideas, recipes, this and that, and so by the time we actually signed up and had everything done, I had planned everything out, I had the menu, I had you know how much burgers we needed to sell for the space, this and that. You know.
Speaker 4:I kind of had like a basic concept of like what we needed to do, what needed to get done. I had like kind of like a business plan, like already in my head like, okay, we need to sell X amount of burgers to make this much profit. We have, you know this, many employees. But that was back when we started, like because the concept when we first started was like a counter, counter service. Hey, number 43, you're up, ding, ding, you know come get your food. But then it just kind of evolved into something, something else yeah, your business said oh no we're doing this this
Speaker 2:Well, the market said this is what we need in the market.
Speaker 1:You know when we started and what he's talking about and I'll bring out those notes one of these days, I'll post them or something. But he says yeah, look, here's the kitchen. And he drew it like a little bit of a set of plans the kitchen with the cook, and I mean holy shit, cook. And I mean holy shit. And then I said what?
Speaker 4:about the burgers. And then he had the burgers were drawn just like a set of plans. Unfortunately I don't know where that notebook went, but I like, literally had you know. It'd be like a drawing of the bun, drawing of the sauce, drawing of the lettuce, drawing of the tomato, like a blue present.
Speaker 1:There's a line to it and it says lettuce three point something, whatever. Wow, I'm thinking just meat, right, no man.
Speaker 2:He has it down. I told him, hey, yeah, when we were doing it, that's that culinary school coming out right now. Yeah, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:You look at these drawings. I'm like, holy shit, he knows what he's doing. Not that I didn't think he did, but when you know, contractor. Again, I said hey, I need to start shopping vendors. I said you got it. Where's the recipe? Tell me what you need. He said I'm working on it. I said, okay, a week goes by. I go, dude, come on. And he goes I'm working. I go look, what's the problem here? I said they're smart and final. They got ketchup, they got mustard, they got bread. I'll do what's up. And he goes dude, get out of my kitchen, you're not okay, I want to.
Speaker 3:We're running low on time, so I want to talk about a couple things. I know there was an issue with the name, so tell me how you came up with the name.
Speaker 4:And now, tell me what's well, at first we were grand house burgers, um, but apparently there was a was a grand house monster burgers. But why grindhouse what? Where did that come? Because we grind our own burgers, everything, everything, like you know, we, we don't buy frozen meat, we don't buy frozen patties that's why it tastes so good, yeah.
Speaker 2:So let me say this real quick every time he would cook something.
Speaker 1:This guy had to go to town, so at home he's making something. I mean it's over the top. He's gonna make a. It's over the top. He's going to make a snack. It's over the top. I mean a freaking peanut butter and jelly. It's over the top. Everything was over the top and I didn't even think about the restaurant. He starts making these burgers and they're over the top, you know. And that came up with a name because we needed great. First, I'm going to make all my own sauces. I'm like, dude, make your own sauces. Hey, we're going to grind your own meat?
Speaker 1:Why can't we just buy the packs at Costco? This is again my thinking, and he says no.
Speaker 4:You don't get it Literally. I'm like stop it right now or I'm done. I said do your thing.
Speaker 3:Okay, so Grindhouse. And then there was another Grindhouse somewhere else In.
Speaker 4:Atlanta, atlanta. Yeah, so we thought we were cool. We saw it when we first opened. But it's like okay, cool it's on the other side of the country.
Speaker 3:They're way over there. Yeah, they don't give a shit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, what we didn't know was that this guy was an attorney before he opened up the restaurant, so he literally had all his T's crossed, all his I's dotted, p's and Q's, all made up to date, so he had a national trademark on anything that had grind house burgers or monster on it killer grain house yeah, killer, killer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was grain house killer burgers and I thought, well, it ain't no thing, you know, we talked to our yeah.
Speaker 4:So when we first opened we started getting uh calls like oh yeah, I'll take the grind house, the grind sauce, and you know, I want a side of chili and I'm like we don't serve chili, we don't have that sauce. You know, did you read our menu and it turned out like they were trying to contact this burger chain in atlanta, but they were getting us and somehow he got, he got a wind of it, got wind of it and luckily he played nice, like he was really nice about it he was just like hey, change your name and then we'll drop it.
Speaker 4:So we spoke to an attorney and he literally said like hey, this guy's being really cool, he can get you for every single logo that's on your, every single menu. So if he had 30 menus, he would get us 30 times for just the menus. Every single logo that's on our hats, every single logo that's on our shirts, every single logo that's on our walls. He's like, just change the name. He's like just change the name.
Speaker 1:Get it over with, be done with it, be done with it. The big thing I think that's how they were getting this was social media, because people were tagging and if you tag half the name or the name wrong or whatever, that's where it was popping and mixing and that's when they hit us up.
Speaker 3:So then you changed it to Right Gasser Brand. And how did that come about?
Speaker 4:That too.
Speaker 1:Really, yeah, we couldn't decide. It was time to decide, we need to decide. And we kept letting it sit, like I let everything else sit, and and they were saying, hey, you got a timeline here where you got to change the name. So we, you know we were talking to what, what can we do? I mean, at that point we, our mind was just so much on on house burger, grindhouse burgers this is killer. You know our logo. I made up that logo out of something else or whatever, but anyways, we loved it. So we didn't know what to come up with. And gastro you don't think a gastro pub? That you look at the definition of, of gastronomy, which is excellent food and all this and that, and then burgers. And it's like we need to just come up. And so I called the guy that does all my signs and stuff over there at Canyon Designs and I gave him two names. I said we're doing this and he says you're not doing that.
Speaker 2:He says you need to do this so in a way it was him too. He goes.
Speaker 1:This is what you need to do and I'll make signs for you tomorrow. And I said cool.
Speaker 3:It all worked out.
Speaker 1:And that's how it happened.
Speaker 4:But I had to get, which is real cool guy and he helped us. I think we know he was actually one of our customers. Uh, he did all over, uh, our legal work for a sandwich.
Speaker 1:So he says, just hook me up with a burger, bro it didn't keep going that way, but still it started.
Speaker 2:We could get him to work for some, yeah but, but it was, it was cool. That's how okay, now I want to talk about one other thing, so tell me about this um the food network found you guys on because obviously you knocked it out of the park with the menu. You guys are probably one of the best burgers here in the coachella valley I can personally vouch for that. So word spreads. A couple years later, food network's showing up at your, at your door.
Speaker 4:Tell us about that, well, pretty much it was, um, it was a about that. Well, pretty much it was a busy day. Exactly, it was a busy, busy day and it was a busy lunch and one of the servers comes up to me and is like oh hey, someone wants to talk to you about some business thing. I'm like and we get those calls all the time- and she's like oh yeah, we can offer you so much of this on that.
Speaker 4:You know, with your POS system, I tell them I'm busy Hang up on them. She's like it's from Food Network. I'm like give me that phone, I'll take that one. I literally tell my cooks you take care of the line, I'll be back. I've got to go talk to these people. I'm literally on the phone with them. They're like oh yeah, we're from Food Network. They didn't tell me what show it was. We're we're from Food Network. They didn't tell me what show it was. Like we're interested in you. You know we've been hearing a lot of buzz. Everything was hush, hush and they're like we want. And they start just literally like they put us through the Spanish Inquisition, like what are your recipes? Who's working for you? Give us your, your health inspections, jesus Christ. I mean literally who do you buy from this?
Speaker 3:like everything isn't that like? When people are asking me about who my vendors are, I'm like why do you want to know? Did you feel like that? Like hey?
Speaker 4:at first I did. But when they're like, oh, it's food network, I'm like, okay, cool. Like they're like barriers are down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I remember he told me he goes hey, they just called, is that something you think we should do? And he says they're gonna send an email and wait for an email. And I'm like, okay, we're all, we're all waiting on the computer and shit you know.
Speaker 4:And finally they sent an email and uh, they, it was a process, so yeah it was like we had to do like a couple uh zoom interviews, a phone interview, uh, they came in person and interviewed us and then finally I said, okay, you're doing diners, divers and dives, and what is it like?
Speaker 1:six it was six, seven hours easy of interviews yeah, about that easy I sat down, yeah literally all three of us sitting in front of a laptop.
Speaker 4:You know, doing a zoom interview, um, you know that or you know, we'll have the phone right there all like talking.
Speaker 1:You know this and that and after all that we still didn't know yeah, we still didn't know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we still didn't know. So we'll let you know.
Speaker 3:And then they come in and you bring a couple guests in. We were one of them, right?
Speaker 2:Thank you for inviting us. You have to slow the slow-mo real quick to catch us, but we were there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was awesome. So then he comes in and then you just did your thing on camera. Were you being on camera? Were you nervous?
Speaker 4:A little bit. I was a little nervous. It was kind of one of those things like the production crew, they're like all right, guys coming in, we're about to start filming. If you got your whiskey, take your shots. I'm like all right, cool, I got it, I'm ready, I'm ready, yeah. So after a few drinks it was kind of just like get all loose and all right, cool, let's get ready. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was, they had a problem.
Speaker 4:But yeah, it was very much a process, like there was there's literally one girl in the corner. Her job was literally just to tell us how much time it was remaining until Guy Fieri got there, like literally, like he's here in half an hour, he's here in an hour and a half.
Speaker 3:Five minutes, guys Get ready, it's like. And then he rolled up in his cool little Mustang. Not even that that thing was parked there in the morning. It was parked there waiting Covered.
Speaker 4:He came in. It was like some production van just got out.
Speaker 1:He came in a Suburban. Yeah, the red car was there, that was the same. I'm loving it.
Speaker 2:It's reality TV, man. Once you've been through it, it kind of kills the magic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but when you see the magic like that, it's kind of like, oh, that's how it works, but it's still a trip.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like.
Speaker 3:Guy. He was only there, maybe about two hours like hour and a half if that.
Speaker 4:So which burger did?
Speaker 3:he eat All of them, oh really.
Speaker 1:He ate all of them.
Speaker 4:The main one they showed was the the smoky and the surf and turf, but like those I mean it was. I mean I've never seen anyone inhale a burger like that.
Speaker 1:Okay. So this tripped me up because it was a sudden there too, and I thought, okay, they're going to bite it, talk about it this, and that they finished them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, literally like they cut the burger in up to.
Speaker 4:it was like I was researching, like oh you know what, if a guy doesn't like the food and it's pretty much like yeah, if he doesn't like the food he'll take one bite and just like set it down. Oh yeah, yeah. Like if you give him a chicken, he's like oh yeah, yeah, that was chicken, right.
Speaker 3:But Liquor license? Yeah, that's another.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't want to say God. I don't know if God throws a liquor in your car?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, but you get put into a lottery.
Speaker 1:We got put into a lottery because you can. First you look for a broker, because that's what it is Basically. There's only, let's say, there's 20,000 liquor license in California. That's it. They don't make more. So somebody has to go out of business or whatever, so that they can go on on inventory or they're revoked. You know so. So, uh, you know the easy, fastest way. If you really need it and it's part of the plan you go to a broker and you pay 50, 60, 80, whatever someone feels like selling their license for it's like real estate, yeah. Or you wait once a year and you pay, uh, seventy thousand dollars, whatever, to the state.
Speaker 4:Wow, you know, and they put you in a in the lottery yeah, and by that time we had it, we already had her bearing my license for well, a year, year and a half, yeah, yeah, we had that one since so it was, which is easy, that you walk to an extent we were already in good standing.
Speaker 1:The liquor license, the spirits license, that's the hard part oh yeah, and then put you to the ringer fbi background.
Speaker 2:I mean everything I didn't realize coming in checking you out everything inspectors.
Speaker 4:Where's your license? Where's this? Where's that? Show me your paperwork. Give me your certifications. Where's?
Speaker 3:yo, let me just get you a beer yeah, exactly down let me show the main line.
Speaker 4:Some whiskey and you'll find it well the funny thing is.
Speaker 1:So now it's time for the reveal of who's gonna to get it and who doesn't, and it's on Zoom, and so Belinda's watching it. She said I'm going to check it out, we're working. I said I can't you check it out? I'll watch a little bit if I can, but it's up in Sacramento or whatever. And we didn't hear our name and the lady calling everything out was an accent.
Speaker 3:Oh gosh.
Speaker 1:So we didn't understand nothing. And finally she says they called and they're like yeah, so you play it back and we were like the second one's on the list, wow. We got your round book and we're like whoa. That's so awesome, that is tough to get and we're grateful oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was just another shot, that's awesome, so we were able to do that and that that's great, but they put you through the ringer. I mean, it's like I was in high school. Again. They want you to write like essays. Yeah, why do you think you need?
Speaker 1:no, I literally had to write like a page and a half of why I think the community deserves our restaurant with the liquor license that was a funny thing, that's a weird, and they said it can't be the typical answer like oh, it's because you want them to enjoy it with a beer, you have to come up with some creative shit.
Speaker 3:Did you go on ChatGBT? Yeah, yeah, we were.
Speaker 1:ChatGBT back then back in 2019.
Speaker 3:That was before. Chatgbt was a thing. Yeah, that was definitely. Yeah, it was ChatBring. Yeah, I know that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I used to like that one Right.
Speaker 1:So obviously you guys got the restaurant going, your business going in the next. You know what you got some goals going forward. Where do you?
Speaker 4:see it going in the there's. There's a few different ways that we talk about going right now. We definitely need to upgrade our place. Yeah, because we we outgrew that spot maybe bubble like two years ago.
Speaker 1:But here's the funny thing is we? I wanted to be the hole in the wall where every lines up to get to, because we Went to LA and that's a lot of the stuff was you wouldn't necessarily go down to el paseo and find these great places. You'd go have to go look for them maybe in the hood somewhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and so that's that's. That's what it was here, and I and and this, this I I don't believe it's just a quantity, but it was a quality that outgrew the place. Absolutely. That's what outgrew the place, because when we started, I hadn't even tasted the burger yet and we had the taste test the day before we opened. I had no idea what the hell we were serving.
Speaker 1:He knew. And of course we're shelling out. Oh, before anything, we built this place with our own hands. We were in there helping cut tile and wood and painting and all this. So it was us Belinda, my wife, I mean, we were all doing that. We hired some help for hearing that, yeah, we'd go to.
Speaker 4:Home Depot. Pick out the wood. I don't know how many. Home Depots yeah, all the wood siding, kind of like those panels that you have right there, me and Belinda in downtown.
Speaker 1:LA, the truck loaded with chairs.
Speaker 4:Going to restaurant supplies.
Speaker 1:But going back to the day I had him, I'm like, okay, we invited family and friends and I had one of these burgers that I hadn't had yet. Because he's doing his thing, I'm supposed to stay out of the kitchen, right? Holy shit, was that good? Yeah, I actually got him to stop eating well-done burgers. Really, yep.
Speaker 3:I remember thinking what's wrong with the well-done burger, not in my place, her next, but I remember thinking this was my thought.
Speaker 1:Shit, I think we're going to make it.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I remember saying it because I didn't know yet and I thought, shit, we got a chance, I go. Man, this is holy shit.
Speaker 3:It was good. And then you go yes, it is, yeah, yeah. At the end of the day, you got to have the product.
Speaker 1:man, it was a small place and it was all about come up and get it, but the style of food that it was and the quality it was, people already had the impression of bring it to me.
Speaker 4:We literally had people writing us bad reviews because we didn't have cloth napkins, dip cloth, yeah, I mean things like that.
Speaker 1:People were like hey well, you got to get it over here. They already called your number. They're like well, we're here, Bring it to me.
Speaker 3:That's what it was. You the best. I mean, we order from you all the time you know, I really do I love your food it's great and it I to this day the best brussels sprouts I've had in my life. My husband hates brussels but he will eat yours, thank you and my ass thanks you because I've gained 10 pounds homemade sauces again on the bottom he makes.
Speaker 1:I mean it's crazy To me, it blows me away Everything's homemade sauces.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we get some people like they'll ask us. Like we had one guy come in he ordered a Caesar salad and he's all in one ten sides of dressing. I'm like, well, we're going to have to charge you for it, we'll give it to you. We're going to have to charge you for it. He got super mad and that I'm like no, we make our sauces in-house. I mean it takes, you know, I have a cook separating egg yolks and cleaning anchovies.
Speaker 1:It's not coming out of a bottle, baby. Yeah, exactly the amount of eggs we go through, I never knew.
Speaker 2:Buy some chickens next Chicken farm next so are we thinking that we might be moving locations here in the future just to serve.
Speaker 1:You need to buy your own building. Yeah, future, just to serve.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you need to buy your own building. Yeah, that's that's, that's the ultimate way. Yeah, because one of the the building we have is old. It's old, like you know. We have inspectors. Come in and be like oh this thing's like 30 years out of code.
Speaker 1:It's like, oh yeah, it's still grandfather, grandfather, yeah, exactly yeah, oh, when it comes to the building, yeah, that's part of the worry about here.
Speaker 2:Can't, can't, yeah, I can only do so much right, exactly, but that that's part of the building you don't have to worry about. Here, we can only do so much right.
Speaker 1:Exactly, but that's our big thing is we've all grown the place more quality than anything, and we do need to move.
Speaker 2:So in the next couple of years we can expect an expansion coming soon.
Speaker 4:Yeah that, or we're going to buy an Italian place next door, right? I mean, that's always easier, right? Just knock down the wall.
Speaker 2:So for people that haven't checked out your restaurant you know I'm sure there's going to be some people listening that haven't how can they find you?
Speaker 4:How can they find you? We're right on Highway 111, across from Babaloo's, in between the 7-Eleven and the Autoyac Meat Market on San Luis Rey. Yeah, right in between San Luis Rey and Portola.
Speaker 3:And I'm assuming you're on Facebook and Instagram.
Speaker 2:Best way to order through online is just on the website.
Speaker 4:Through our website. We're also on DoorDash. You can order through there Plenty of ways.
Speaker 2:Plenty of ways to check out the best burger in the Coachella Valley, exactly, and we recently just won best burger in the Valley.
Speaker 1:I voted for it. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:They're absolutely the best, I gotta say yeah and I well, I can say it.
Speaker 1:I can say I don't cook it all right, but I was telling our, you know, friend, that's the best burger. They're, yeah, they are. When I desire burger, that's what I go for. What sucks is once I open this restaurant every time we go to have dinner and they have a burger on the menu. I got to order it because I got to try it.
Speaker 2:You got to take it out of there.
Speaker 1:I got to see what the competition is doing, whatever, but no, they're bomb.
Speaker 3:And then how do people find you and your business?
Speaker 1:You know you Google it, Don't call me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, don't call my cell phone.
Speaker 4:But see, and that's one thing, number 760.
Speaker 1:You know, and we've expanded there too, so we're under the same name because we have a whole audio video division and my son-in-law runs. That's right, so we do have that. And it's starting solar right, it's essentially three in one, because we do solar as well. Solar's coming next huh, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:So we're already doing solar contracts.
Speaker 1:We've got quite a few under our belt, but we're not fully advertising anything yet. We do it with our own customers. Okay, you know for now, coming soon, huh.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, that's just how a business has evolved. It just happens that way, and I'm glad that you're doing that because there's a need for it I got one more thing coming up.
Speaker 1:I won't talk about it too much, but it's an extension also, ringo electric.
Speaker 3:You know so, so I'm excited about that.
Speaker 2:We'll have to have you back yeah bye season two, season two yeah, no, absolutely but yeah, you can google our name ringo electric.
Speaker 1:We'll be more than happy, and you know what I really appreciate you guys, uh, having us here thank you, and I'm really appreciated you guys, I've known you a long time I know, you know, tile designs I pay.
Speaker 3:I mean, come on, man, I gotta be interviewing you guys you guys are killing it out there, bobby's, bobby's, getting shy, but I want to know, and from each one of you, what do you think is? And then I'm throwing a curveball what is some advice that you've been given, the best advice about owning your own business, or somebody, somebody that you know right?
Speaker 2:What's the best advice you've gotten in terms of being an entrepreneur?
Speaker 1:I would say God, cause there's so many, there's so many much things out there. But know that you're going to be married to it. You know what, that it's going to be all the time. Yeah, now, even if you're not at the office and you get a chance to close it's, it's up in your mind. So make sure you love what you do. All right, that's the biggest thing. You love what you do, you know? Um, I think that kind of fixes it all.
Speaker 2:That'll carry you through. Carry it through when you're suffering, through those days where you're just like everything's gone wrong.
Speaker 1:Today I would say that one of the biggest things and what comes to my mind right now is be honest, amen, be honest 100%.
Speaker 4:For me, one of the best pieces of advice that I've gotten was before you make a decision on the business, take a step back and look at the whole picture. See the whole scenario for what it is. Look at all of the angles.
Speaker 3:That's really good picture.
Speaker 4:See the whole scenario for what it is, look at all the angles. Sure you know? Make sure you know, make sure your decision is right before you make it like that's kind of like you know. Take a second, don't, don't be rash, just take a breath, step back, look at the whole picture, then make your decision very good, see, see where it's gonna it's gonna end up yeah, and it's not think of the where it's gonna lead.
Speaker 4:True, and the big thing is, it's not what you make, it's going to end up, think of where it's going to lead.
Speaker 1:And the big thing is, it's not what you make, it's what you keep tell me about it. You can bring in millions and it can be gone as well what's the worst advice you guys have gotten? Just do it yeah, just do it. Don't even think about it, just do it see it works for some of us yeah well, that's how she rolls.
Speaker 1:Let's start with this shirt you know, the big misconception is I'm the boss, I get to do it, I have all the time in the world. The reality is, like I said earlier, you know, you don't. It's like okay, I want a boss customer of ours at Rangel or at Gastrogram, they're the boss, right then and there you got to make sure every single one of them is happy, and I mean that's just it, absolutely.
Speaker 4:One of the biggest, I guess, false advice I was given was like because you're the boss, you're above everyone. No, you're the same as everyone. You have to respect them. You have to same as everyone. You have to respect them. You have to respect your employees Absolutely. You have to treat them with respect and you have to talk to them like they're people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's kind of like someone told me like, oh no, they work for you, they're your minions.
Speaker 1:That's the bad mentality. I think it's the opposite. I think you actually everybody the same. This is the funny thing that I was just thinking. Right now, I don't know how to help. I'm not in the restaurant business, so what did I do every day when I went in? After I leave Rangyong, I'm going to go check how they're doing. I'm going to wash the dishes, wow.
Speaker 2:So it's the only time I wash the dishes I get busy.
Speaker 1:I don't even want to go home. Here's some pots. I'll mess somebody's order up. I'll go to the back. When it was time for me to go home. I didn't want to leave until I saw everybody leave First in last to leave. I didn't want to go. I felt bad leaving the cook and Ruben and the chef. I know, when they're closed, the waiter's got to clean the floors, I'm like.
Speaker 4:I got to clean the floors.
Speaker 1:I'm like I gotta help man. I can't eat, and so it was. It was tough, but that's. That was the whole point. You were all had to you, but I said we'll get you help.
Speaker 3:You know I'm cool with that, you know well. Thank you, guys. We want to thank you for coming and giving us a piece of your time and, uh, you know just, we want people to hear your story and maybe connect and and who knows inspire somebody to do the same Thanks for having us. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having us, and I can't wait to hear some more of your guests, because there's a lot of inspirations out there. I think so too. I was inspired by people, you were inspired by people.
Speaker 2:That's what it's all about. Man is giving to the next generation coming up Exactly. You never know who's going to listen. Maybe the next great chef is listening to Ruben over here.
Speaker 4:You never know. So that's what this is all about.
Speaker 2:So thanks for coming in, guys. If you liked what you heard today, subscribe, like, share, and we'll talk to you next time.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Thanks.