City, tacos and stuff. I know a gang of people I can call up and say, “Let’s go hit this truck at one in the morning.” So who does that here? I don’t know. Ricardo: It’s crazy. They seem to come out of nowhere. Kari: And they’re very loyal. Ricardo: A lot of people are transplants from other big cities and they know street food. Me growing up in Vegas, I’ve never eaten off a hot dog stand, you know? Street food is nonexistent in Vegas, partly because you don’t have any main places where you walk down the streets and there’s a lot of shops. It’s pretty separated. You don’t even know your neighbors. Kari: In Centennial Hills you do. It’s our own little town out there. Ricardo: You have really kinda primed that area, because that’s one of our best stops. Jet: I don’t think I’ve been out there. Kari: You should check it out. They’ve got great cupcakes! Jet: It seems like you really have to cherry pick in Vegas to find food. Ricardo: Yes. Kari: I think the mom and pop culture is finally coming back. For a while there it was all franchises, and that’s how the strip mall mentality grew. I think people are tired of it. I am.
Word of mouth, viral style Jet: So it’s all about Twitter now. That’s how you get the word out. If you’re the face of the bakery, they know you on Facebook and then they come and see you … Kari: I get that all the time. Jet: That’s the secret to our businesses. People do what we do, but we utilize social media to advertise and do marketing. Kari: And it’s free, and fun. You get to read people’s stuff and connect with them. Ricardo: You can let them in on your whole story. I think that’s why we get a lot of families and mothers. I think they take a motherly role a little, because I’m younger and they want to see this guy do well. Jet: You’re working that angle. We all are working something. Ricardo: It’s funny because I just fell into it, just being myself. Kari: Personality has a lot to do with it. I’m very loud anyway, and Twitter lets me be extra loud. Ricardo: I guess we are working an angle but we didn’t go into it with that intention. Jet: I’m not saying you’re playing a character,
but you could. Kari: A lot of people do, and it pisses me off. Because if you follow someone and then find out it’s not them, it’s disappointing. Brock: It’s just word of mouth, right? Ricardo: It’s the new word of mouth. Brock: It’s massive volumes of it, at hyperspeed. A neighborhood place, like Kari’s and Ric’s, it doesn’t apply the same way as it does to a Strip restaurant. So what do you do? Jet: I came here with the aspirations of running something in between a local spot and the Strip. I love my guests and I depend on them for survival, but I wanted to establish things like Wednesday night dinners. But things are different. We’re at a five star property. So I’m also at this place in life where these are my dreams, this is the menu I wrote for the restaurant, and this is the menu I’m going to use at the restaurant. Call it selling out, call it what you will, but the guests are the guests and they’re always right. And it’s not dudes from L.A. and New York and Chicago always here, it’s the dudes from middle America now, in this economy. So let’s make them happy. Social media might be one out of every hundred persons that knows me online and is coming through. But I still need to connect with the community, so that’s why I started blogging and Twitter here. Kari: You’re in a totally different ballgame. Jet: But I was a neighborhood dude in L.A., and now I’m here. Kari: That’s why I love Vegas! That’s what Vegas can do. You can be yourself but also be huge, locally, in town and then in the world. It’s great. Jet: It’s a great platform, as long as you don’t lose yourself in it.
Everyone’s a critic Kari: We get a lot of bloggers, a lot of comments, and honestly, when people write about you, you just kind of cross your fingers. But it’s nice when there’s some personality, when it’s something I would actually read if I wasn’t in it. Brock: There’s a difference between somebody who does it because they enjoy it and then, the career Yelper. Jet: Right. “Let me get my rating as high as possible. I need that elite status.” Kari: I got someone who came in saying, “What’s not so sweet here?” You’re in the wrong place. I’m the master of buttercream. He gave me like, one star, and it’s on Urban Spoon. It pops up every time.
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Jet: That stuff lives forever. They don’t understand that. We live this every day. One fell swoop with the keyboard and that’s it. Ricardo: Blogging is a little more personal, a no-namer just doing what they love. If you’re doing something worthwhile, you’re always going to have those people, negative comments. Brock: Your businesses have an interactive quality that lends itself well to bloggers and all the online stuff, and Kari has been blogging since before she got close to opening. Kari: It started with me saying, there’s a building open, I should probably put a shop in there because if I don’t, I’m going to watch someone else do it. My sister would always ask me what’s going on, so I thought, I’ll just blog and she can check it. Then people all over the country started reading it and asking me questions. I was like, people are reading this? This was in 2007. Now it has a really cool chronicle of what happened. I still do it but not as much as I’d like, which disappoints me. I want to use my blog to be real. The customers see that and I think it makes us stand out a lot. I just want to tell people how it is. Jet: So you’ll bend to Yelp? Kari: I don’t bend. I can’t give them what they want. They want everything. Jet: I could care less what Yelpers think. With you, it’s totally different. I have the luxury of a captive audience. And I’m always gonna lose, because this is not a model that Yelpers love. You can go to Spring Mountain and get an Asian meal for a quarter of the cost, although it won’t be the same. Kari: Everyone should have to work in a restaurant before they say a word. Butter is expensive. I could use shortening, but I won’t. This megachip cookie is a dollar and I should charge more, but … this is like my heart on a plate. Jet: That’s an amazing cookie. Kari: That’s a serious cookie. Ricardo: It is. It’s all chips. Jet: That’s no joke. It’s like elven bread. You could eat that s--- for a week, and just break off a little bit at every meal. Brock: It will last you all the way to Mordor. Jet: I’m going to take the rest and wrap it in a leaf and carry it around … oh yeah, sustenance. What was the name of the elven bread? Kari: We can Google it. (pulls out phone) Brock: One piece of bread for four Hobbits. Jet: Remember? For like a month. (laughs) I am a nerd. Kari: Lambas? Lembas? Jet: Lembas Bread! That’s right. DC