Vegas Circle

The Hibachi King of Vegas: Zach Tolen aka Vanilla Rice’s Story

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Behind every successful restaurant lies a story of grit, determination, and unwavering passion. Zach Tolan's journey from teenage dishwasher to celebrated chef-entrepreneur perfectly captures this spirit of culinary perseverance.

The founder of Vanilla Rice Hibachi House began his culinary career at just 15 years old, washing dishes alongside his 12-year-old brother for cash under the table. What started as a simple way to earn money transformed into something much more profound when a manager's dismissive words—"dishwashers don't get raises"—lit a fire within young Zach. Those words, now the title of his forthcoming book, became the catalyst for his entrepreneurial journey.

As Zach developed his hibachi cooking skills, he discovered something unexpected: his natural talent for entertainment. Working at a traditional hibachi restaurant, he became so popular that he'd receive up to 30 requests per night from guests specifically asking for "that white guy" to cook for them. Yet amidst the onion volcanoes and flaming showmanship, Zach noticed something curious—his friends who visited frequently would eventually say, "Bro, just cook the food. We don't need the show." This insight sparked the innovative concept behind Vanilla Rice: delicious hibachi cuisine without forcing customers to sit with strangers or endure unwanted theatrics.

Zach's approach to business challenges reveals his fighter's mentality: "I look at business as a boxing match. Every day I wake up, I'm gonna get swung at. Have I been swung at like this before? Do I know how to counter it?" This resilient perspective, coupled with unique training methods where he teaches cooks from scratch rather than hiring experienced chefs, has propelled Vanilla Rice toward his ultimate goal—building a national brand that stands alongside giants like Chipotle and McDonald's.

What began in his mother's backyard has evolved into a thriving multimillion-dollar operation, with expansion plans already underway. As Zach says with confidence, "We've already done the hardest part." Follow @VanillaRiceLV on social media to watch this culinary underdog story continue to unfold. Are you ready to experience hibachi reimagined?

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 to people in our city who make it happen. On today's podcast, man, we got something special. Man, we've got a young entrepreneur. Started off as a dishwasher Originally. He's been building this business for about five years now, built it into a multi-million dollar business. He's actually the owner of Vanilla Rice Hibachi House. We of Vanilla Rice Hibachi House. We've got celebrity chef Mr Zach Tolan. Man, what's going?

Speaker 2:

on AKA Vanilla Rice man. That's right, thank you. Thank you for the intro.

Speaker 1:

I appreciate it Well overdue man, yeah for sure, we've been in a lot of the same circles, man.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Finally got a chance to connect on the phone and be able to put this together, man, but let's jump, was it? You and your brother as dishwashers?

Speaker 2:

So it was me at first washing dishes, and then my brother was like man I'm trying to make some money too, and so luckily the owner of the restaurant. Let's just say we weren't legally allowed to work at the time I was 15.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say y'all look young as hell.

Speaker 3:

He saw that picture? Yeah, I was 15.

Speaker 2:

He was 12. And so as long as we stayed in the dish pit and had somebody else putting the dishes away, we were cool.

Speaker 3:

And we got cash too, so even better. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, and they could pay us little, Like it was like $7 an hour.

Speaker 2:

It was like this is amazing. You're rich, you know. Yeah, we felt rich yeah.

Speaker 1:

One thing I noticed about you, man, is you have a great energy when you're building your YouTube channels, when you do your videos. It's definitely you could feel the energy from it. Where did you get this confidence from, and what actually catapulted you to actually start your own business? Because it's hard to do. The restaurant business is hard.

Speaker 2:

Well, the confidence, I think, definitely stems from my parents. My parents are very outgoing, they're in the music industry.

Speaker 3:

So they've been professional musicians their whole life.

Speaker 2:

My dad passed away when I was 15. Sorry to hear that. Yeah, it's definitely, definitely. He was somebody that you know we'd go to the grocery store and I'm like yanking on his shorts like Dad, can we go? He's in there talking to everybody hey good to see you again. I'm like we just saw him two days ago. Let's go. And we talked to anybody, you know, didn't matter. You know white, black, it didn't matter.

Speaker 1:

He was talking to anybody and he so they're city of brotherly love. You know, that's just kind of what you're doing. It's an amazing place and um.

Speaker 2:

So you know, they're very personable, outgoing um, and they're in the entertainment industry. So I just think over the years I kind of just picked that up on myself on my own and myself turned into that personality. I mean I would get kicked out of class for talking too much. But you know, just having a conversation, you know make cracking jokes, um, and just being confident, I just, you know, I just I don't really know, you know what.

Speaker 3:

I mean, Sometimes you get those things where you're just like I wonder that sometimes.

Speaker 2:

Right, yeah, um, but to start my own business. You know, I, like you said, I started as a dishwasher and I just kept, uh, and it sounds funny, because I wasn't chasing money, but I wanted to get a raise. Yeah, and this is actually the title of my book that's going to come out this year. It's called Dishwashers Don't Get.

Speaker 1:

Raises You're good with the branding.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you, You're good with the branding.

Speaker 1:

Well, that actually wasn't.

Speaker 2:

You know, what's funny is like these are things that people said to me, right? Like somebody called me hey man, I heard about this raise thing, I want to get a raise. And he looks me in the eyes and he's like dishwashers, don't get raises.

Speaker 2:

Oh dang, that's such a stage, right, yeah, and that was one of those pivotal moments in my life of like, well, how the hell do I get a raise? And then you know over time, and then it'll be time to either you know there's a couple that I joke there's a few different angles. You go once you hit the top of like a family-owned restaurant, you either go to culinary school and get into the hotel, or you start your own business, or you become an alcoholic and you never leave that restaurant yeah and I kind of saw different people go different routes and just super quick, I actually cooked at Osaka Japanese Bistro on Horizon Ridge and Eastern, so obviously you guys know that area.

Speaker 2:

It's a healthy area and I wasn't just a cook that cooks in the back of the restaurant. Nobody knows who I am. I'm super quiet. I was out there entertaining and having conversations with the guests. So I'm asking them hey, what do you guys do?

Speaker 1:

This is the third time I've seen you here this week.

Speaker 2:

You know eating hibachi three times a week is not normal. Yeah, and it's not. It's not it's not it's not a normal thing to do, but they're coming on a tuesday getting the sake and I even ended up cooking for you guys know, bradley oh yeah, I cook for him so many times. That's how I found out about who the guy was, and so you know I'm asking and I just keep hearing businesses and business and I work for myself and all that kind of stuff. So you know that was the route I want.

Speaker 3:

I thought I wanted to say yeah, I mean, I tried, I tried school, by the way, I did, I did it just yeah, yeah is that how you always felt. So I know you go through and you start through the dishwasher path right, and then did you do like the server route and then ultimately land on being a cook or management or like if kind of fall into. Yeah, I kind of fell in there, but I.

Speaker 2:

I did every position in the restaurant, but not as a title right like I served tables, but I was never a server you know like I'm.

Speaker 2:

I was the kind of guy that if I'm just standing there not really doing anything and I didn't I didn't smoke cigarettes, I never smoked cigarettes. I mean, I've tried it, you're right, you know, but I wasn't the guy that was like, oh, there's nothing to do, let me go take a smoke break. I'm in the restaurant, I'm bored and I'm the young, you know white guy in the restaurant. They're all looking at me like yo, zach, what you doing Just standing there. So I'd always no-transcript what's after peeling shrimp and the next thing, you know, it just kind of spiraled into.

Speaker 3:

yeah yeah, and then cooking is like where you landed on, being like the thing you're most passionate about before moving into your own business. Right, I think, like we all have different aspects of it. Like maybe you love business or maybe you love the customer service, is cooking like the part of it that made you want to branch in, like I could do this. I can provide great quality food.

Speaker 2:

So I think it was actually more of the, and it's funny because my my restaurant right now is all takeout.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it's only takeout.

Speaker 2:

It's only takeout, so there's no kind of model, um, but at the time though, I actually didn't even really like cooking, I just liked entertaining. I love going out there taking shots at the customers you know, throwing the eggs in the hat. You know getting a few numbers.

Speaker 2:

You know like I enjoyed that right like that was the most fun and I always joked about. And you just have to cook to be able to do that. Yeah, right, um, and then it just turned into I just kept getting requests. Right, I was like I didn't even know I could get a request and it went from one and I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah, they're like hey, hey we want seven o'clock tonight. Can zach cook for us? Can that? Well, they say, can that white guy cook for us?

Speaker 2:

we don't remember his name and I went from like one a month and I was like, oh my God, I just got to record. Somebody asked for me like because one of the first tables I went to they like did this little whisper to the side and the server comes up to me and goes, zach, they want an Asian guy.

Speaker 3:

And I'm like damn that's soul crushing, you know.

Speaker 2:

So I was like all right, fine, I'm 17, whatever dude, like screw you guys, right. But like I said, so it went from one a month to one a week to one a day, to like I was getting 12 requests a day, like New Year's Eve, the busy nights. Let's say we have 50 reservations, I'm probably requesting for 30 of them.

Speaker 3:

That's wild. Yeah, because Apache is different. Like you're already putting on a show, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Oh no, we're cooking and we are flipping eggs in the hat knives behind the back fire on our hands, doing all that fun stuff, but while going so fast, because at the end of the day, we've got a lot of reservations and we've got to turn these tables out, and so I think I really loved the entertainment part more than the cooking.

Speaker 1:

What made you go to the model of takeout?

Speaker 2:

So at the time my friends would come right. So obviously I was cooking for families and and birthdays and they want the entertainment. But then my friends would come and they would come once or twice a week and I'm doing the regular spiel, the onion volcano, choo-choo, and they're like bro just cook the food.

Speaker 3:

Dude like we're good, we don't need to.

Speaker 2:

So we know you could do this, zach, and my boss is over there like keep doing the show, because that's what I that's the job. And so that that one started like really resonating with me like, huh, just cook the food, just cook. This guy loves coming here.

Speaker 2:

He tells me don't even do the show multiple people gonna pay for it he's still gonna pay the same exact price, but just cook the food I just want to eat. I don't. I'm not here with a family, I'm here with a homie. We just came and stopped by to see you, yeah, and then also to also too. I mean, it's a lot cheaper to open a restaurant yeah, especially hibachi, yeah and a whole sit down with eight to ten tables, hood vents, all that.

Speaker 3:

So, yeah, um, that was kind of the model I just thought to do and I just I mean it makes sense, because I'm not, honestly, to be candid, I don't go to hibachi because I don't want the whole show. Like that's my, my whole thing is like I, I don't want to sit there. I'm on just a date night. I'm trying with a group of people that I don't know and I'm getting a whole show. They're throwing eggs at me and shrimp and stuff.

Speaker 2:

I'm good and I always say right, like we're, we're never gonna take that model away from what they've built, yeah, what the you know traditional hibachi has built, we'll never.

Speaker 2:

I mean there's still birthdays and homecomings and my kids love it like you got kids and and and you know, uh, wedding receptions, all that kind of stuff. We'll never that away. That's still going to be there. But we're making food for people that don't like you said, they don't want a shrimp tossed in their mouth or they don't want to sit with people that they don't know Right, Like I saw that on Valentine's day. You know you're getting couples of parties at two and they're not just going to sit two people at a table that sits 10. You're getting four, four parties of two at one table.

Speaker 3:

That's my biggest problem. I don't like sitting with random people. Sometimes I'm trying to eat dinner Like I just want to.

Speaker 2:

Here's another one that I would notice. Right, it's like you're sitting with with, let's say, there's four people here and four people here, and these four just came out just to eat. And these four came out cause it's the kid's birthday. So now I'm not stupid. I see in their face like bro, yeah, like getting the kid on the grill, I think.

Speaker 1:

I'm having a good time. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. When did you actually start then? So when did you actually open up the first kind of brick and mortar of the Hibachi House? Was that eight years ago?

Speaker 2:

No, no, no, no. So I've only had my restaurant for three years, okay, I've had the brand for five, okay, but in total cooking and in the restaurant industry, starting as a dishwasher, it's been about 13 years.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay, so you put it at work, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

They say, like the restaurant business, you have multiple chefs on and just restaurant folks is just in general one of the hardest businesses just to stay in.

Speaker 3:

Like, nah, like nah, no, I'm just kidding. Yeah, I mean, what's your?

Speaker 1:

secret to be able to do because I know you have your. You have your youtube channel you're talking about and kind of teaching folks. But what is that? So? What's what's helped you keep that?

Speaker 2:

I think, what's the secret?

Speaker 1:

I think it's. What was it 80? I think I read that it's high.

Speaker 3:

It's like 80 in the first year or something like.

Speaker 1:

It's pretty well I was reading I think it's the first year it's only like 23 that yeah, I'm saying I think it's like 80, like after like five after four or five years. Yeah, it's unreal.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're getting, we're. We're into year five now and so we're. You know, I'm praying to the Lord and just keep doing what I'm doing and things are working, but I think, um, obviously good food, right, because I presence and everybody that's going to watch this knows that we have a very good social media presence. Yeah, but I have restaurants, like one of my favorite spots and it's just like hole in the wall, one spot. Their sign is cracking on this on the side of the building. They have 120 followers on social media and they're busy every single day. Yeah, uh, ross, j's aloha kitchen oh yeah, that spot is fire.

Speaker 2:

I've been going there since I was 14 years old. Somebody the other day day was like what you know about this spot.

Speaker 1:

I said, bro, I've been coming here, Get out of here and their social media is whack, but the food is good.

Speaker 2:

The food is good but they've been there for a very long time. And then word of mouth, so that's the community.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, there's those one-off that shows how powerful they've been.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they used to go all the way, but it's just the family that runs it and I think they had hiring problems or whatever. Right, yeah, all I can say is for me and for the up-and-coming restaurants that are trying to get into the market, is you just got to stay relevant. You have to stay top of mind, top of sight, always in front of new people, always in front of the same people, and just really hammer out that social media. Really, really yell from the rooftops.

Speaker 3:

And what does that kind of first three months look like? You build this business. It's exciting, you go, you're finally making this venture, you're getting ready to throw your hat into the ring and start your own thing. But it takes a lot of capital, a lot of investment, a lot of just overall learning process to try to understand how to navigate and run a business from scratch. It's very different being an entrepreneur than being a manager of a business. What was that kind of like first 30, 60 days look like for you as you're kind of rolling this out and getting kicked off the first time Of the brick and mortar or when I actually started the business.

Speaker 3:

I guess the one where you really started serving people right Starting to have purchase inventory get.

Speaker 2:

I kind of operated from like a hood street drug dealer mentality. I did it kind of backwards. I didn't have a website at first. I didn't have uh, I didn't know even what percentages were. I didn't know any of that, I just knew I started with a thousand bucks. At the end of the week I had six. I paid my people that were there in cash, took that thousand out to buy more food and I had this X money left over. I was like, oh my God, like right.

Speaker 2:

And so that was pretty much the first, I would even say the first two years, maybe two and a half years, of my business. Um, until I started getting around. You know other entrepreneurs that are in the food space and they're like so what are your profit? What are your percentages? You know, what are you, what are you operating at? I'm like a thousand and he goes a thousand. What like a thousand dollars? Like bro, there's only a hundred, but what are you talking about? Then he started teaching me all this kind of stuff. So you know that that was how I operated at first. You know there was no software besides instagram.

Speaker 2:

That was it I just straight did it like the street hustle you know just street hustle blasting it out there on the job training oh exactly, I learned so much and I I never took any loss as a failure. It was always a lesson, um, but it was nerve-wracking. I mean I actually so real quick. Just a quick story I actually started a brand called backyard hibachi in my friend's backyard before the pandemic, when I was still working at my job, and you guys have had plenty of business owners on here. What happens with friends in business usually goes really well no, it's the most thriving thing ever, right.

Speaker 2:

And so we ended up all having a falling out, unfortunately, and to the point where they were like man, we're going to keep going. Man, screw Zach, we could do this without him. And I went back to work Like nothing happened. I gave him everything. I gave him the money in the bank account, all the grills, everything. I said, go for it. You know, we were working like commission, but like what's commissioned on? Like a $30 a box, like 2% commitment, what it was stupid, right. And so my buddy was like bro, why don't you go cook your plates again? And I had such a traumatic experience cause I lost all my best friends and starting a business, and I was like, nah, man, I don't think so, dude, that's not. I don't think I ever want to do that again, but it think I ever want to do that again. But it just kept, like you know, in my head like just start, start selling plates start selling plates?

Speaker 3:

yeah, it just kept.

Speaker 2:

I just couldn't go to sleep like I just kept thinking of it and luckily at the time I mean I don't know how wells fargo gave me this credit card, but I was. I had a five thousand dollar credit card and I obviously, from the experience I had with my other business, I knew exactly what to get. So I just went on to the website. I went on all the websites swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe and I didn't have anywhere to cook. I was in an apartment. I had nowhere to like. I could have cooked on my stoves, but all I know is flat tops. I never really cooked, yeah, on pots and pans. So I order a flat top and I get it delivered to my mom's house and she's like zach, what is?

Speaker 3:

all this stuff.

Speaker 2:

I was like oh yeah, I was wondering if I could cook in your backyard and she was like hell, no.

Speaker 3:

No way.

Speaker 2:

And I'm like because you know I grew up there and sold a couple things out of her house.

Speaker 3:

You know, and she's like you're selling more stuff out of my house. It's her traumatic experience. Exactly, it's her traumatic experience.

Speaker 2:

And so I ended up convincing her not convincing, but you know giving her rent and I was like fine, we'll do whatever we can. And so that's how that all started.

Speaker 1:

So you started a band like Lil Russell. Lil Russell do a lot of his. He was doing concerts out of his backyard.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, exactly, he still is, yeah, yeah yeah, Lil Russell, yep, and that's exactly how it was is now, but he's older, a lot older than me, and he's over there freaking out like Zach. We're not legal. Oh my God, we're going to get shut down by the police this and that.

Speaker 1:

That's what I was going to ask you because, I know they probably get paid just for turning people in. Yeah, and so the?

Speaker 2:

whole thing was, you know, because it was the pandemic, right, we couldn't have people congregating but we would have lines down the street and the cops ended up showing up one day and they just walk in and you know, my heart just sinks. I'm like, oh no, we're screwed, right, we're just packing up, we're screwed. My uncle like an old drug dealer, so he's thinking we're getting busted by the police, like getting raided, you know. Yeah, and they kind of just looked around they made. I asked them if they wanted food and they're like no, we're good, just slow it down a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, have a good day, Just keep it moving.

Speaker 3:

Oh wow, I'm so shocked. I'm surprised they didn't really shut it down. That's because I always get nervous about that too. I'd be just like your uncle. I think you're going to shut me down, oh no, he started sweating, turned all bright red. I next step right, you're doing that, you're getting successful, you're making a little money, you kind of getting your processes down. How does that translate to open up your brick and mortar store?

Speaker 2:

So you know a lot of people jump right into brick and mortar right Like they just save their life savings and jump brick and mortar.

Speaker 2:

That's why we have such a high failure rate, because they don't realize the actual grind and actual hard work it takes to run a restaurant, Like the amount of hours you have to put in. I mean, I can't speak for a lot of other businesses, but I can imagine it's pretty much the same. When you're first starting, you have to do a lot of groundwork. A lot of people think that they're just going to open a restaurant and they're going to hire employees and everything's going to be dandy, Like, yeah, if you're a celebrity, you know if you have the bank account padded or you know, or a backup account anyway, and um, so there's, there's levels, right, Like I recommend everybody starting from the house. You're not going to get popped by the health department If you're selling your house. If you're selling that much food from your house that you're scared that you're going to get popped, you should already be moving to the next level.

Speaker 2:

You should not still be in your house doing a hundred grand a month. That's crazy. And have friends that do that. Hey, it's all. Do you right? Um, yeah, and I'm I'm sure you guys have heard of ghost kitchens, oh yeah yeah, that's literally what I was gonna ask you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, basically that's your concept of what you're doing now, and I've heard they're all over las vegas ghost.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, but the catering aspect, right, correct so, so, like even mr beast, like he would do a ghost kitchen out of and he would like it. Like like buca di beppo would sell Mr Beast Burgers. Yeah, you know, so I went into. It's basically a shared kitchen, slash ghost kitchen in a sense, and it's where you can rent out space from a big restaurant facility basically, and everybody in there is renting space and time slots.

Speaker 1:

Shout out to Chef John Apologize, we had somebody who talked about the ghost kitchen.

Speaker 2:

He owned one of them. My bad, I apologize.

Speaker 1:

John, which one do you own? Jesus Christ, you're going to put me on the spot.

Speaker 3:

There was a brand new development, one right. Yeah, it was a nice one that's horrible, I forgot, I can't remember where it was at.

Speaker 1:

He's had Ghost Kitchen. They're crushing it, they're crushing it.

Speaker 2:

I'm not going to lie. One day, I'd love to open one one day, because the business model, that's the business model, oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

Especially dramatically and everybody's like no, I don't really. I'd rather prefer to go to Uber Eats than go out there to eat anymore.

Speaker 2:

I just get all right online yeah no, exactly, and it's, it's and it's all, and it's an awesome alternative to somebody with not a lot of capital that wants to test out their food To see what actually flows.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, to see if this is even for them Good point Right, I'd say you might spend three grand.

Speaker 2:

you know startup costs buying your Spying, your pots and pans food, paying for your hours.

Speaker 1:

That overhead is very low for three grand.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, and that's three grand to get started. It's about $400 a month on the bare minimum or not, the second tier package under bare minimum. And then you add hours to that. Yeah, then you add your hours, you know if you want to be in there more hours, stuff like that. But it got to a point when I was in that ghost kitchen for so long like I was paying damn near a restaurant rent because of all the hours and the ride you get. So for 450 bucks a month you get one dry rack, one refrigerator rack, one freezer rack. In 40 hours a month I was doing 50 hours a week. I had five dry racks, five refrigerator racks, two freezer racks and it adds up. You know it's 50 bucks a rack, this and that shelves and I was paying like three, four grand a month. I'm like man, I need to get my own spot.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, cheap it right now.

Speaker 1:

Start really looking at the numbers.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm like man and then you're sharing it with other people, so I have to fight for hours. I would have to book months in advance to get those, because a lot of people in there are pop-up shops or caterers.

Speaker 1:

For specific events, exactly I.

Speaker 2:

I was running it like a full on. We're open five to nine five days a week, and so I would have to book or I'd get screwed, you know.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, oh, that's interesting. Yeah, so none of the festivals that make them seem that no, no.

Speaker 2:

And that's why I said it's a great alternative to you know, test out your, your, your, your products, right. And so there are other ones, not to go too deep in it. But there are other ones where you can rent the in a smaller individual kitchen and you can operate like that. But the one I was in was like a, basically a giant room and you had different stations and you all shared one cook station.

Speaker 1:

Wow, yeah how did you? Because? So you do a lot of kind of I guess I would say, menus of services, right, so you've you cook as a celebrity chef. Will you actually go to someone's home and cook for them still now and do that?

Speaker 2:

oh yeah, oh yeah, I still do that all the time.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah, is that how you got your name out there where you would have somebody like dana white or somebody like the baby or whoever it is coming to town, where they would ask for you and be able to cook for them I'd say that for sure, I'm definitely word of mouth, uh, by going to people's house, but also also I mean like I praise to the social right.

Speaker 2:

Like social media has just took me to a whole nother level. But I was explaining to somebody the other day right, like when you cook for a celebrity and you're not a weirdo, right, you're not a fangirl, you're not all up on their john they're like, okay, you know, because they're, because, at the end of the day, right like, we bring uh, you know, we bring a cleaning person to our house. You know, if they don't work out, we're just gonna go get another cleaning person. Right, if they're amazing, like, okay, cool, but it's to the point where these are, you know, high-level celebrities and they're not just gonna have eight to ten different hibachi guys come to their house. You know, you show up, you do a great impression. They're like, okay, I can trust this person in my house. I well, they might wait another two days to see if I show back up or something yeah, they might show they might wait.

Speaker 3:

That's a real thing, yeah, and it is.

Speaker 2:

And so, um, you know, I, I, obviously I get a picture, because you know that's what's at the end of the day. They're celebrities, they like that kind of stuff. Right, like, hey, can I get a picture with you? Yeah, no problem. And then you know, I'm trustworthy, I'm trustworthy around their kids. I'm not, I wasn't super fanboy on them, and you know they just keep inviting me back and then word of mouth spreads that hey, you can trust this guy at your house.

Speaker 3:

And yeah, next thing, you know, it's just I mean hard.

Speaker 1:

Is it like for like I look at on a bigger scale, like catering right, like you'll cook for a whole event? How do you make sure like the quality is good in every single meal? What's the science to do something like that? To make sure everything is good and represents, you know, vanilla rice.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm still figuring it out to get it to a T right, that's hard, that's very hard yeah it's all in your training, right, when it comes to other employees as well.

Speaker 2:

It's all in your training. It's all in your, your systems and processes, right? Um, you have to have good training systems and also not just training, because I, because I could train you and then I never train you again for six months and it's like a. You know, every day you kind of get a and I don't like to use the word lazy, but you know slack off a little bit here and then after six months you're cutting every corner and you're like I walk.

Speaker 2:

I've had this happen to me. If I walk in, I go. Who taught you this? They're like I don't know, I thought you did.

Speaker 2:

I'm like no way I did not um and you're gonna get bad reviews right. That's kind of how you know the. The reason why restaurant owners don't grow is because they're so scared to like let go of the reins to get a back, because you might get a bad review or something like that and you want the product so perfect. But you never grow like that. You're stuck in the kitchen. You have to put your faith into other people, but not just that. You have to be able to train well, you have to have a good training system, good processes and you have to pick the right people. And I know that sounds kind of crazy, but none of my cooks that cook with me right now have ever cooked in their life really not one, I mean maybe down the road or what I taught everybody from scratch.

Speaker 3:

Sometimes that's better because they said they only know your process. Yeah, so you can't develop bad behaviors if you only learn one way.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and so it's all with my training system. I train them exactly how I'll do it, and then I retrain and I don't retrain in like a hey, you're messing up, like I need to show you this. It's like, no, every 30 days we retrain, everybody gets a retraining session, everybody. And it's just like, one day I won't do that anymore. It'll be somebody that retrains. But as of right now, I still have the time to be able to do that, that stuff, you know, and we just we're doing, uh, if, if, the UNLV men's basketball and we just did it for them two weeks ago and oh, don't get me wrong, bro, we dropped them 40 plates off. I'm like, for the next three days, like, oh my God, not even next day. I'd message her right away hey, let us know if everything's good.

Speaker 2:

I'm still like oh my God, Because I didn't fully. I helped cook it.

Speaker 1:

But you know 20 of them bad reviews and stuff like that. How do you deal?

Speaker 2:

with that. I used to not even be able to sleep at night. To be honest, I used to like I used to be up all night. I couldn't believe it. I used to want to change my personal.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, oh yeah. When I first started yeah for sure, cause you know I'd sit there and be like you put your emotions too much in it a little bit Obviously. I've learned not to. I'm a lot better now. But I'm like bro, like this is my entire identity, like I'm vanilla rice, like I don't know what else I would have if.

Speaker 2:

I didn't have this restaurant 13 years right 13 knows, one day, if I sell, you know it'll be sad, but if I'm cashing a nice check, cool. But as of right now, this is who I am and like. That's why I put more passion into it and put more emotion. Um, but you know, at first, you know, I'm reading these reviews and it had me questioning my whole entire recipe.

Speaker 2:

I'm like, oh my god, maybe the teriyaki sauce was a little too thick right and I'm like, oh no, but I came to a point where I've cooked for, so I've probably sold. I mean, I want to say Close to a million plates in the last five years. That's a lot. And so when I, when I put it into perspective like that, and you come up with a velocity, yeah.

Speaker 2:

When you come up with the. Not everybody has the same taste buds. Not every cook's going to have the same night. It kind of don't get me wrong. I still review it with the, with the cook that was there the night. I'm still not gonna just brush it off, but it doesn't. It doesn't hurt as bad as it used to. You know I just go, hey, you know what that's a part of.

Speaker 3:

You know letting the reins off to somebody else now there's world-class, world-class restaurants that still get negative reviews, so you can't be perfect every night. Yeah, I mean I look at.

Speaker 2:

I mean you go, look at Chipotle's reviews and they're a brand I'm seeking to be like. That I will be like, and their reviews are terrible, and you go to their restaurant, their line's out the door.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, very true. They're like one of the best stocks out there too, Chipotle, they're killing it. Oh yeah, have you looked at their comments.

Speaker 2:

Their comments are— I never have. I try not to eat there as much as possible. My go, but that place is. They have some rough reviews sometimes. I look at the line where they make the stuff and I'm like you should you need to switch that up? Just pouring beans on top of old beans, you can tell, because the little ring of the beans is still.

Speaker 3:

But I do like Chipotle, I'll muscle Chipotle.

Speaker 1:

I'll eat it.

Speaker 2:

I'll eat it, but it's only if she chooses it. I'm not going there, just because, Just because it's hard for me to eat at restaurants, especially when I see that my family's the same way.

Speaker 3:

She's not a big Chipotle person.

Speaker 1:

When it comes to like, um, problem solving right, like I know, you've experienced a lot of adversity. You know probably losing team members, maybe people stealing, which is a huge thing. You know food getting messed up, like problem solving, like what's, what's one thing that maybe can help. You know a listener or maybe somebody that's a chef right now that maybe they want to start their own restaurant. What would you share with them as far as problem solving, that's kind of helped you to kind of excel?

Speaker 2:

Well, once you accept that you're not, when you open a business, you're not. You're not really like a cook anymore. You're not a server, you're a problem solver. That's that once you. That's what you are. I'm a firefighter, like I'm gonna get a tattoo of a firefighter or something you know, just because that's what I agree with you, I wake up every day and this is why I relate to uh, all the fighters.

Speaker 2:

Like all the fighters. I relate to them so much because I look at business as a boxing match or an mma match. Every day I wake up, I'm gonna get swung at it's just. Have I been swung at like this? Have I been swung at like this? Have I been swung at the? Have I been swung at like this before? Do I know if this punch is coming? Do I know how to counter it? So you know, if I've been in this situation before, I know how to counter it, or I know how to dodge it, or I know how to overcome it, you know then a new challenge comes and you get, you get cracked, you know, and it's like at first, I mean you, you're in, the wise is happening to me.

Speaker 2:

Mentality the whole time instead of wise is happening for me. And so once you finally switch that mentality up, I mean you know, you just problems come and you're just like, okay, well, what did you do to fix it? And then also, too, you know, I I try to push that kind of mentality onto my employees, right, like they don't have the entrepreneurial mentality, but I still try to give them entrepreneurial traits, sure, like hey, if there's a problem in the restaurant, please try to fix it first, and if you can't call the manager, and if the manager can't fix it, then she'll call me. But don't just see that the water is leaking out the faucet and like maybe it's loose a little bit, go and just you know, tighten it up a little bit, you know, and so that also holds them accountable as well.

Speaker 2:

Um to problem solve. And then now we have a whole problem solving crew, you know, and that's that's what it is. It's all mentality, it's all mindset. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

What's next for you? As far as you mentioned, you got a restaurant. Opening up was a Charleston and Jones, so is that the next step is trying to open up more? You know restaurants throughout the throughout the city.

Speaker 2:

Well, the biggest goal is I. I will be the next vanilla rice, hibachi will be the next brand, up there with Cane's, Chipotle, uh, uh, mcdonald's. You know, when you hear all these brands, it's going to be up there with those for sure, and so that's the main goal. And so, right now, it's just, you know, not only quality of the food, but growing the brand and just pumping out. I don't want to say as many restaurants as possible, but as many quality restaurants, right, because at the end of the day, I mean I could open a hundred if they all you know, half of them suck.

Speaker 1:

You said, the key word. Yeah, I got those guys about the catering Cause. That's hard yeah.

Speaker 3:

I do quality restaurants, and so I'm not young.

Speaker 1:

You're still young as hell, man, oh man, 28.

Speaker 2:

That's beautiful, yeah, I'm blessed, I'll be 29 this year, so I'm going to hit that 30 soon, you know. But I have a long way to go and I'm in this for the long game. Yeah, and once I realized that, it made this a lot easier because you know I have friends that you know they're in sales and they're in sales and they're in these like higher margin businesses and man, I'm shiny object syndrome, like what you doing over there, what are you selling? Man, let me get some of that Right. And you know, when I finally found out what my purpose, or came to the realization, what I think my purpose on life is, that like helped out a lot and I truly think I was put on this earth to you know, grow food brands Like that. Um, and so, as far as like what the next steps are, it's just keep doing what I've already done. Um, have you guys ever heard of Ike's sandwiches?

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, so we're supposed to interview.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

She's partnered with Marshawn Lynch. I think, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

That's so that he's a mentor of mine Get out of here. Yeah, and so he's he's got 117. I'm like, dude, what are you talking about? Bro, you have 170 restaurants Like doesn't it get harder? He's like no, he's like, yeah, you get a little bit more problems, this and that, he's like, but you've already done the hardest part. Because the first one is the hardest one Building the culture, building the brand, building the systems and processes, building something that nobody's ever built before is the hardest part. He goes now to get over again.

Speaker 2:

He's like I got to 100 so fast after the first one and I'm like I don't know what you mean. I'm like you sound crazy, dude.

Speaker 1:

That's powerful, I mean he's right, though it's funny we were supposed to interview him during a pandemic.

Speaker 2:

Everything shut down. God, he could have made it out. Everything shut down.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he's a mentor you always make it very successful. Thank you, yeah, he. So I uh, I met him. You guys know david melzer, his real estate, he does a lot of stuff. He does a lot of sports management.

Speaker 2:

He does a lot of stuff, so I one day I mean I do a lot of oh, he just said uh, byron, from look who he just did the the business pitches.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah, I've got the name of the show kind of like shark tank gotcha.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I didn't even see that, but that's no.

Speaker 1:

No, he is that dude right there's like a legend.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, um, I, I was into uh, like you know I don't like the word gurus, but you know the social media guys. I got into that when I was at the restaurant. That's what helped me also get into business. You know, like starting to think like entrepreneurs and stuff like that. And I must have opted into one of his like automated messages. And one day I get a message like hey, it's david melzer, want to come hang out with me at in and out. And I'm like, yeah, I'm like I know this is an automated message. Well, hell yeah. And so I go to in and out and he's there and I'm like, oh, my god, it's like, ah, this is crazy that's funny, and so I went.

Speaker 2:

So then I got another message and I went to the second one, or sorry, it was a third one that I went to and at that point, you know, I always I'm. It's basically it's like what you just said, like not shark tank, but he stands there, he talks and you ask him questions. I'm always somebody that's. Hey, my name is vanilla rice. I own a restaurant this is my question for you how much time that saves you just learning from somebody like that, oh yeah oh yeah, no, no, that dude right there, he, he is, I'm.

Speaker 2:

I take advantage of these kind of opportunities, right, because, like his dinners are, I mean he does these private dinners like three grand.

Speaker 3:

I'm like yeah, I can't you know I'm like I can't do that so hey, I did some free came up.

Speaker 2:

I'm like I'll take it, that's awesome. Um, and so I get to the third one. By this time he's like, hey guys, you know, I go ask him a question. Hey guys, it's vanilla rice, right, I bought your bottom food. So I'm like, cool, he's already introduced me. This is crazy. And I was like, hey man, my brand did multiple next year. What's some tips and advice you could give me? And he literally looks at me. He goes well, you know who you're standing next to. And I look over this little short ball dude and I'm like hi, how you doing? I just shake his hand. He's like, yeah, that's ike. He owns 117, uh, restaurants.

Speaker 3:

Oh, my god, how you doing I was like wow, nice to meet you. I'm like oh my goodness, he goes that's the guy to ask.

Speaker 2:

And then he just gave me a business card and that's how that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah oh, that's awesome. That's like right place, right time, the whole time.

Speaker 2:

We were there for an hour already, didn't even know this guy was that's why you gotta ask, but you never know, yeah, you never know.

Speaker 1:

When you're nice, we always ask everybody all of our guests about, uh, restaurants in vegas. I know you eat a lot of your probably food. Yeah, what's your favorite restaurant?

Speaker 2:

I know you guys gonna ask this, so I don't eat at a lot of restaurants to be honest, I usually cook my own food or I eat at my restaurant. A lot, but I don't even go out to really like the Strip or anything like that. I've heard you guys' podcast. You guys are saying names of restaurants.

Speaker 1:

Off the Strip too. I've heard both, but I do more local.

Speaker 2:

Like I said, I just went to before this, we just went to Parsley, Mediterranean.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I love Parsley, yeah, parsley. Yeah, they got one off Tropicana in Fort Apache yeah, they do, and then the one I just went to is down the street from here. It's actually really good, by the way. Yeah, it's one of my favorites. Yeah, it's really good.

Speaker 2:

And you know my daughter can eat the. Got a Mediterranean Middle East. There you go. Yeah, you got the same.

Speaker 1:

Definitely got the yeah.

Speaker 2:

Like you guys heard of Lucino's Pizza.

Speaker 3:

I don't know Where's that one at.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's on Chopping Pecos.

Speaker 3:

I've heard of Lucino's.

Speaker 2:

It's like you walk in there and it's straight Philly Straight.

Speaker 3:

Philly oh yeah, those guys are good too, those guys' pies. They have good pizza there too.

Speaker 1:

I'm not even going to lie. When we went to Philly, we went to Angelo's. Was it Angelo's?

Speaker 3:

Oh, yeah, you got Angelo's. Oh, angelo's, the best thing we've ever had in my life.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you don't go there, my uncle wanted to take us there, just to you know. See, the tourist spot and all that, and then I haven't been back in years.

Speaker 1:

No that South Philly spot was popular.

Speaker 3:

I dream about it. I try to look up the recipes. She got mad at me. I've been like six months trying to figure it out. You have a cooking cheese thing in your kitchen.

Speaker 1:

He brought one back on the plate.

Speaker 3:

He brought the pizza and the. Sometimes you got to do that. I made my fiance try it. She wasn't happy. What?

Speaker 2:

are you guys' favorite restaurants.

Speaker 1:

Too many, Too many. And the one thing that I will say, like you said, the Strip that's what I'm liking about Vegas now is we're getting so much great food off the Strip. Oh yeah, it's just. I mean so many different things is happening, but I probably would say Cali Bash is definitely one. Like I was telling you before, I haven't had a good spot, Ole owns, but there's too many of them, man.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, Pac is eating in almost every restaurant in Vegas. He has a checklist.

Speaker 1:

It's all the bougies You're going to have to send that to me? Yeah, because it's the experience of going out to eat, right. I just love it, especially trying new restaurants, and we, my wife and I, we we pick different stuff to go and bring our kids, cause then they can experience it. You know what?

Speaker 2:

I mean, yeah, for sure. Yeah, getting them out and experience different types of cultures and environments, and then we bring them internationally.

Speaker 1:

It makes them, you know, not be pigeonholed.

Speaker 2:

No, for sure yeah.

Speaker 1:

They're yeah, yeah yeah. It's a Mexican spot.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a cool experience. The food's good, but the experience is cool. They bring out the tacos hangouts. Is that on Fort Apache?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they got two. They opened one off of Rainbow too.

Speaker 2:

The one I went to was, I think, in Summerlin, in Boca Park. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that place was cool.

Speaker 1:

I took a date night there.

Speaker 3:

Gomez's spot V&A.

Speaker 1:

Brazil.

Speaker 2:

V&A Brazil. You guys been to Hank's I have not. At the Green Valley Ranch I have not Steakhouse.

Speaker 3:

I heard somebody else just mentioned them recently too, and said it was fantastic Steak with the chimichurri.

Speaker 1:

I got to check out Hank's. That's on the list. Somebody yeah, I think somebody did mention that.

Speaker 2:

We did just mention that. He's like, yeah, this is my business, this is my 85th business. I was like 1,000%.

Speaker 1:

Andrew's a trip Gotcha. Yeah, he's a cool dude. He's a cool dude. We'll talk offline. I'm curious what he had to say. Andrew's legit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he's cool.

Speaker 1:

And I saw his off food to somebody that sean was doing a podcast too. Yeah, he's a beast, yeah, he's a good guy. So next up, you said, is restaurant business and you're trying to build this into a franchise.

Speaker 2:

That's the goal franchise, corporate, um, just the big. I always say this, right, like there's people that tell me you know, hey, zach, you should go franchise, hey, zach, you should go corporate. This brand did this, this brand did that. Yeah, I'm gonna go. Yeah, but nobody's been zach tolan that started this brand. So I'm gonna do it my way, and and not that that means I'm gonna do it a whole different way. That's never been invented. Yeah, but I'm gonna do it whatever way I can't like I you know I'm not gonna stick with one way and do that like.

Speaker 2:

If someone's like, hey, I want to buy four franchises, I'm gonna be like, okay, if they're like, I have the opportunity to open six corporate stores, okay, you know, then that's at least in my world right, you know, there's blueprints on what businesses have done before and this and that.

Speaker 2:

but, like I say, I don't like too much. I take advice, but I don't like people telling me what I should do. I'll listen, but I'm just like okay, cool, I'll take that, but you know, who knows what's going to happen right, and it's working for you too.

Speaker 1:

It's working your style. So, yeah, and I told me.

Speaker 2:

I told me he's like you got to get to your first 10 locations. He said I don't care how you get there. He's like they need to be either be 10 shitholes or I'm sorry, yeah, I got you. Yeah, yeah, 10, 10 bad spots, or or you know he's like, because this is what he said. He said he said when my friends were opening up and he owns a sandwich shops a little different you don't need the hood vents and the green straps and all that000 each. He's like I was opening restaurants for $30,000. He's like, and I got to 10 faster than all of them, he's like, and the second I got to 10.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, then I shoot 10.

Speaker 2:

But he's like I had 10 terrible restaurants, Like they were horrible locations, horrible buildings, he's like but I got to 10, and that's what solidified my brand.

Speaker 3:

That's great Well we're going to keep supporting you man.

Speaker 1:

It's good stuff, man. It's good to be able to sit down with you and see what you're doing. Man, we support what you're doing and check us out at the Vegas Circle. I'm sorry, check us out at thevegascirclecom, but you got to shout out your social medias, man. Yeah, got you. Where am I?

Speaker 2:

looking Right here. Yep, it's your boy. Underscore my business. My restaurant is VanillaRiceLV. On all platforms, make sure to follow us. We're trying to get to 100,000 followers. We're almost there. We're at like 71,000. Getting close, I will have that by the end of the year. That's on my list. Powerful that, and my personal brand. And then, yeah, I mean, just keep following.

Speaker 1:

We'll be all around the city. Well, check us out at thevergascirclecom.

Speaker 3:

I don't know why I'm tongue-tied man Give us a tip from I need a drink.

Speaker 2:

I messed myself up, man, but we appreciate you, man. Thank you, brother.

Speaker 1:

I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3:

This was awesome.