The Science of Satisfaction: How to Keep your Customers Happy with Guest John O'Donnell EP 54 43:45

From the art of the deal to keeping it real. Live from the Simply Vegas studios, it's The Power Move with John Gafford. Back again, back again, back again for another episode of The Power Move. I'm your host, John Gafford. With me to the left, me as always, Colt the Bulgarian Mongoose Amadan.

That's right. How are you, Colt? I'm doing good. You're doing good? Yeah. Beautiful day. Not 120 hours. I'll tell you this. I'll tell you this. We got a great show today, man. As markets change, as business changes, as everything happens, everything goes along, there are certain things that are a necessity to survive if you're in business, let's just say.

to survive in these markets as we go along. And one of the things I would say you have to have is an elite level of customer experience. It's something that we preach amongst all of our brands. And I got to tell you, I went to eat at one of my favorite spots on Saturday.

And got to see one of my favorite people. And to me, like we live in Las Vegas, Colt, don't we? Is this where we live? I mean, some of us more than others, but we live here in Las Vegas, which is the entertainment capital of the world. And I got to tell you the one guy when it comes to elite customer experience in the hospitality industry that I know I condom into coming in today. Yeah.

Economist coming in. So yeah, without further ado there, guys, this is my good friend John O'Donnell. John, how are you? Good. Good. Very good. Very honored to be here, gentlemen. Very honored to be here. That must have been a strong martini we gave you Saturday night, Johnny. I got you convinced about all these wonderful things you're saying. No, no, no, no. I'm going to tell you a funny story about that, though. I'll tell you a funny story. I'm like, what? Are you talking about me? No, no, no.

talk about you. I don't know. I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you a funny story, which is this. So my wife, uh, you know, occasionally, um, she has an alter ego named vodka, Gidget.

It doesn't come out. No, not often, but vodka get you. I'll tell you about it. Right. And as we're driving home from you, cause she drank more than I did cause I was driving. And as we're driving home from you, I look over at her and she just got this look on her face, like just kind of angry a little bit. And I said, you're right. She's like, nah, I said, did you get, you know, did you maybe drink too much? She's like, ah, I think, I think maybe a little bit too much.

And I said, she goes, he made my drinks too strong. Hang on a second. She goes, he made my drink too strong. And I said, baby, you're drinking martinis. And she goes, yeah, but no, they were lemon drop martinis. And he should have put more drop in my martinis than he did vodka. And I was like, you know, I'm just not even going to argue with that. We're just going to let it go. So, yeah, I guess when Gidget comes in, more drop and less vodka will go from that. But-

We had a good time though, right? We had a great time. We had a great time. But again, you know, John's been in this town for a really long time. He is a part of one of the best restaurant groups here in an internship capacity. And I want to kind of pick his brain about what, you know, he does and how he does what he does to make sure everybody that comes in feels special. Because again, I believe success leaves clues. And I think that you can learn, I think we can all learn a lot from

from just what this guy does. And we're lucky to have you here, super happy to have you, which is great. So...

You know, normally this is the time when we kind of get and talk about nonsense, and I even told you we were going to talk about nonsense. There's a lot of nonsense. Do you have anything that happened this week, Colton, that we want to talk about? Do we just want to talk about how my stocks keep crashing? I mean, it's a bunch of nonsense. We don't need to go into it. I think we could learn a lot more from him than my nonsense. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I don't think we need to go into your top. You like Tom Cruise? No, stop. You know what? I went and saw Top Gun. Oh, here we go.

Amazing. And I don't like Tom Cruise. He's up there with Tom Hanks. And it was actually a great movie. I thought it was. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Especially that Harald Faltenmeier, that top-down music coming through all the time. You just want to take off. You've got to go see it in the movie theater, too. Oh, you do. You've got to have the experience blasting it. Yeah.

You have to. I love how it was like a shot for shot, almost remake at the very beginning. When he took off, I thought that was awesome. But I'm proud of you for going to see a movie with a Tom star. Yeah, he's out there with my Tom Hanks. I know you hate Tom Hanks. It's just really strange in every direction, but it's all right. Welcome to the podcast. So let's get right into it with you. So the one thing, and I want to tell you, if you're listening, it's like, well, what qualifies this guy? And you're going to hear the whole story, but I'm going to tell you real quick what

why this guy's amazing. And look, as much as I like to think that I'm special, as much as I like to think that I am someone that people remember, I genuinely feel that this story could apply to anybody that sits with you at your place. That was a strong martini, John. No, it wasn't. No, no, no. No, I'm telling you, we walked in, we sit down, and through the course of our meal, I haven't been to your spot there in probably six months, probably six, seven months, been a minute. And then through the course of conversation as we're sitting there talking, as we always do,

You said, hey, have you talked to Myron again? Yeah, that's right. And Myron is the guy that runs the Smith Center. Super lovely guy. Wonderful, wonderful person. Lovely guy. And I met him at your bar. And I met him because you introduced me to him. And that's not the uncanny thing. The uncanny thing was you said, no, no, no. You were sitting there. Gidget was sitting there. And Myron was sitting there. And it was six months ago. And we walked out of there.

And I'm thinking, I'm like, dude, I go to the store to buy one thing and I get there and I'm like, what am I here to buy? And this guy remembered where I was sitting six months ago. And the way that that made me feel when I was there, the way that the way that that made me feel was,

- Special. - It's special, but it was so much more important to me than how good the food was and how good the drink was or how much drop was in the lemon drop. It was so much more important to me how you made me feel. And that's, to me, what the key is of elite customer experience. And that's why I hounded you this week to get you in the seat that you're in.

Johnny. Well, hey, Colt, great to be here. And thank you for that wonderful introduction. And, you know, we're very blessed. I'm especially very blessed. We're a great company, some great people, surrounded by great people. Got some great food, got some great drinks. Chef Pat does a great job cooking.

where I am at one steakhouse at the Virgin Hotel. We'll plug right there. But John, just the other night when you were in, when you were in before, one of the beauties, one of the great things that I'm able to do in my position behind the bar is introduce friends to friends and then new friends to old friends and other people. So, you know, when Myron was sitting beside you seven months ago,

I thought, well, how wonderful. This is Myron, John, Gidget. You guys started talking, communicating. And if there had been other people at the bar on the other side, if there was some kind of alignment, I would try to get you connected. I love the fact of our community within the community. I love the fact of, like, we just had a birthday party, one of our really good guests' birthday party, and the majority of the people he invited were,

to spend the birthday party at the bar where all folks that he had met over the years at our steakhouse or at our La Camita downtown, our Mexican restaurant downtown, or Crush at the MGM. So it's a huge honor for me. And I get a lot of satisfaction out of that, to be able to see that. It makes me...

Hey, it makes me happy. It makes me happy to be able to do that, to be able to make those connections work. If you go back seven months to the first podcast we did after I met Myron at your bar-

I said, I did a whole thing for like probably five minutes about if you go to a restaurant, try to eat at the bar because you never know who you're going to meet. Right. And that was, that was the driving force behind that was that influence there. What were you going to say, Cole? No, I was just going to say, you know, the higher ups in the restaurant industry or the nightclub industry, they're really good at doing that. And that's something I've noticed with the top of the top is that,

connecting people with other people. You know, is that something you learned growing up or something you learned here in Vegas? Let's back up. I want to hear the whole story. So walk me through young John O'Donnell. All right. Well, I was born in the summer of 69. Okay. Got it. Perfect. In Dublin, Ireland and had, you know, lived in the city, then moved down the country and

We got in the bar business down there. So the family was in the bar business. Yeah, we were in the bar business for a little bit, and then we moved from there into the small town. What was the first, I always ask everybody that comes here that's successful, I ask this one question. What was the first hustle? What was the first way you were making money? How old were you? Oh, probably my best gig ever. What was it? Alter boy. Okay, wait.

I was an altar boy, too, and I wasn't making money as an altar boy. Weddings and funerals. Altar boys, yeah. They break you off to be an altar boy. Oh, yeah. That was the first. Really? Yeah. You can't beat that. You know what I mean? Hey, that was a great time. St. Benedict's Church. Light the candles. Ring the bells. Bring the wine. That's it, buddy.

Run back, light it up, get in and out, you know? And then it was just a wonderful experience. I remember, I always think back about that. And that was, yeah, that was my first gig. So 12 doing that, I'm guessing. No, I was about eight or nine. They start you young in Ireland. Oh, yeah. And I was lucky, too. I got to work from the 10 o'clock, the 11 o'clock, and the midday as well sometimes. Wait, so you got paid every mass you worked? No, no, no. Oh, just the special events. The mass was what you did. And then you got paid for weddings and funerals.

It was always an envelope for the altar boys, right? For the weddings and funerals, right? There still is, I'd imagine. Got it. I don't think I ever got a nickel for it. I grew up in a small southern town. I never got a nickel for serving anything like that. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. And then we were in the fish business in Ireland. What's the fish business in Ireland? We had a wholesale retail fish business in the middle of Ireland. Okay.

In the 80s. These are your parents? Yeah, my parents. Yeah, mom and dad. How many brothers and sisters? I'm the eldest of five. One brother, three sisters. So I still have two sisters living back in Ireland. Mom and dad are in New York.

And my youngest sister, she's in New York. And my brother is in New York, too, right now as well. So actually, we're all going to be in Ireland in August for like a week and a half. Oh, that's awesome. And spending some time with mom. And actually, they were all just here. Everybody was just here back in April. We got to go to see a Knights game, played golf with my dad, my brother, and everything. Great time. A really close family then. Yeah. Yeah. And we have a WhatsApp that pretty much every day. Yeah.

There's pictures of kids. There's pictures of this or pictures of that. Today, I'll probably put a picture up of being with you. Oh, we'll get a picture before we go. No, for sure. So what age in Ireland did you plan to make the big jump to the States? Well, I was planning from the age of when I was about that size. Then I got to 19. I'm like, I need to move out. So you went to school. You finished school in Ireland, all that stuff there. Oh, yeah. Then I moved to London then. I moved to London when I was 19. I had a great time there. I moved over there.

worked at some fun places there. I was in a restaurant, bar stuff over there too. You know, over there I was a manager. Right. And then I moved to New York City in 1993. I'm like, none of this manager stuff. Let's just, all my friends are making money bartending. Right. Let's jump on this wagon right here, you know? And you get to actually come in and go home and leave the job at the work. Oh my God, it was like going to the ATM. Yeah. So started off there and then back in 1996, 95, 96, before me, before I,

I was always intrigued by Las Vegas. I'd never actually been to a place that had good weather. You know, growing up in Ireland, it's cold, wet, miserable, you know? In London. In London as well. It doesn't make you very happy every day. It's like the trifecta of bad weather. Yeah. Of all great cities, but...

Let me do something exciting. Let me do something fun. And different folks that I bumped into or met or this or that, and just Vegas, Vegas, Vegas was in my head. And I went down to Liberty Travel. Remember back then you had to go down and walk into a travel agent to buy a ticket? Yeah. And I bought a ticket. It was cheaper to buy a return ticket than one way to come to Las Vegas. Really? Yeah.

I remember it was during the carpet convention on February 1st, 1996. And I remember telling the people on board, you're going to Vegas, where are you staying? No idea. What are you going to do? No idea. No idea. No idea. Dude, you know what's funny? You know how many people I know, their Vegas story started just like that? Yeah. My favorite was I knew an executive for Lenar at one point, and he said he got drunk and

Got on the wrong plane in like 1982. That's when you could do that. And wound up here. Exactly. Can't do that anymore. And wound up here and never left. Really? Yes. It was like his 82s. Like I got drunk and got on the wrong plane and just never left. I think Vegas does that. I had a guy that he was...

higher up in the golf industry and he just came through to play golf one day and was headed to Arizona and just never left. Just never left. I got a game tomorrow I'm going to start and he started hustling people and then sticking around. So, okay, I want to talk about that because, again, that's something that what you just said. So how old are you when this happens? So that was, I was about 26. You're about 26. 26, yeah. So you literally just cashed everything out

And you said, I'm going with no plan. It wasn't really a lot to cash. It was a lot to cash. I had one of those little foldy over suit bags, you know? One of those bags you put your suit in. I had the one suit you put in. You tie it. You know, it was like one of those...

Huckleberry Finn types arriving at the airport. I went down. Okay, genius. When I get off the plane, what are you going to do now? Right. I say to myself, and I went down to where all the yellow pages were and there was a free phone. And I saw this, uh, sunrise villas, uh, uh, motel. I'm like, Oh, let me call this place up. It's nice. Call the place up. It was like 130 bucks a week. You have a room. We got a room and I'd seen these things in a movie and I'm like, Oh, the wild west. Here I am. I get the cab. It was a checker cab.

Checker Star cap, 1925. I remember the fair and everything like that. So I walk in. There's bars in the window. I'm like, oh, my God, I've seen these in the movies, too. What am I going to do here? Sir, I just spoke to you on the phone. He's like, yeah, we got the room. I go, there's the cash. He goes...

You know, we don't take cash. Anyway, I went up to Circle K, bought a 12-pack of beer, and went back and went up, sat down in my room. What do I do now? It was one of those old TVs where you had to, like, you know, turn the switch. You know, go, hey, move it over this way. But next day, I walked from Fremont up to the Luxor. And, you know, all those iconic things like the TI you'd see. Wait, you walked from Fremont Street to the Luxor? Luxor the next morning. Well, I was pretty close to it. I was on East Charleston. Okay, all right. What month was this? Oh, it was February 1st, 1996. Okay, good. So it wasn't summertime. Yeah.

Oh, no, but to me, that was a beautiful day. Oh, yeah. I was going to say, come from New York. Yeah, and walking down Fremont. Stop for a second. Stop for a second. So what was going through your mind when you were just like, I'm just going to pack up my stuff with zero plan? Okay, let me ask you a question. Do you think that was irresponsible, or do you think you were just, I got balls on me?

Because here's the reason I say that is because one of the biggest problems people have with succeeding at anything is getting off zero. Yeah. Getting from zero to one. I mean, forget getting a 50. Yeah. Most people can't get to one. And here you are. I mean, that's a pretty decent sized risk, man. Is that something that it kind of excited me, though, the fact of even around the remember the plane because members of the carpet convention, these folks seem to me.

Where are you going to stay? Who do you know? And I was like, nobody, nobody. What are you going to do? And I was like, I don't know yet. And I remember thinking to myself, scared but excited. Yeah. Scared but excited. And I was thinking, this is going to be a great story if I pull this off. Right. You know? And I just said, you know, it's going to be okay. I got cash. I got money. Did you think about a worst case scenario or just determined you were going to figure it out? No, I wasn't really scared of that, you know? Yeah.

Burn the bridges, man. The motel where I was staying on East Charleston, I was like, man, are all these neighborhoods like that around here? Little suspect. What's going on? And all that stuff evolves over time, you know? So I remember that day. I remember thinking to myself, okay, let's network here.

So as I walked up and down Fremont Street, which I'd seen on TV, I'm looking for, because it says your name and it says where you're from. So I was looking Colt Island, John Island. So each place I'd walk into, I'd walk into. And look for the Irish. It wasn't like I was searching them out, but I was looking, okay, I wanted to find, okay, where's the local Irish pub? Right. Yeah.

So eventually that day, walking by TI, walking by the Mirage, and being amazed by all these things, you know, and just being amazed, blown away. I watched in the MGM, and I saw this one guy that said, Michael Ireland. And I'm like, hey, Michael. And he was a craps dealer. Wish I'd seen him since or whatever like that. But I say, hey, where's the local bar? Where do the guys go here? He goes to Crown and Anchor down the street on East Tropicana.

Next day, I went down there, met up with some guys there. This one guy, hey, I have an apartment right next door. I'm like, perfect. Hey, how about this? He goes, I'm a supervisor at the convention center for security. You want a job? I said, sign me up. So now you're here. I want to go to work straight away. You're here one day, and you got a job, and you got an apartment. Well, in a few days, yeah. So I went, like, didn't pay a lot, but it was great to be going to work and then doing something. And, like, I...

I remember just going like, well, this is amazing. This is great. You know, is there a lot of fear? Is it this or that? Of course, it's the questions, a bit of self-doubt. There's always going to be that. It doesn't matter what you do in life. But I've really enjoyed it when I think back about it. Something you said that is so key in business-wise is –

you're looking with people you could connect with right away. And I don't think people realize that. People are willing to help people they see themselves in or whatever, and you seeking out people that had mutual life stories with or whatever, being from Ireland, was very smart. And I think if you're building a new business or you're looking to move to a new market, that's how you got to do it. Because if you go in the wrong place and keep looking, you're not going to connect very well with them.

No, I agree. And it's always the common threads you look for. I'll tell you a great story from the weekend if you want to hear it. So I wanted to, with our mortgage and title operations growing, and when you grow and you get bigger and you do things, you piss off the existing establishment. They get mad. And it's so funny that people can't believe that you're just successful because you're successful. They think you have to be cheating somehow. Yeah.

So they want to start trying to complain to the different divisions or boards or whatever it is to try to get you in trouble. And it is what it is. It's not a thing. But me, being hyper aware that that is probably coming, I wanted to get the best representation we could or the best advice we could on things that are compliant within RESPA. So I start doing research for the best RESPA attorney in the country, the person that specializes better in this

And I find that this is the guy that lectures at these major events on joint venture partnerships and affiliates, which is what we do, right? Right.

And so I'm like, okay, cool. This is obviously the guy. So I look and I'm like, where does he live? And I'm like, New Orleans. Oh, really? So I hit my float group, my Mardi Gras float group. I hit it up and I go, does anybody know this guy? Within two seconds I get, yeah, he's, his kids are best friends with my kids. I'm like, give me a warm intro. So here's the best respite attorney in the country. And I got to spend two hours with him on the phone, picking his brain. We've hired him now on retainer, but I got to pick his brain for two hours on a Sunday just

Just because I looked for that common thread. That would have taken weeks to try to get past. Oh, my God, to try to get past his gatekeepers. It would have been a nightmare. And then if he wanted to take you on, maybe, right? Like, the common thread is so key in business, and that was brilliant of you to do. Yeah. Go find your people, man. Find your people. It all kind of worked out, you know, and then...

That job, and then I moved into that condo, and then a friend moved out from New York. He got a job as a manager at the Palm Steakhouse, the form shop that's at Caesars Palace. He hired me there as a bartender over there. Great. In the meantime, he introduced me to some other friends that had a room in a house. Right.

So I move in this house, I get a pool. And I'm like, what? So now you go from- Now that's normal, you know? But at that time for me, moving here to Las Vegas, growing up in Ireland, lived in New York, lived in London, to have a swimming pool in your house, oh my God. Yeah. And you can swim if you want. Now I don't swim in February or March. But back then I would have. I'm like, what the hell is going on here? But it was just-

And the Palm's a good – that was a good stick. That was great. That was a great place. Love that place. The new guy at the Palm, too, I came in there as a new guy, so I worked a lot of lunches. And the Palm at the time was the powerhouse for lunch in town. So I got to see a lot of people in town, and I got to meet a lot of people in town and to make friends with a lot of good folks in town that –

You know, been so fortunate to the folks I've worked with over the years, you know. And then after that, then I worked at Morton's on Flamingo for a little bit. And then in 2002, August 2002, 20 years ago. Yep. And that's when I got hired at Nine Steakhouse at the Palms. Which was the spot. There was the spot. The spot. So it was about eight months after the Palm, nine months after Palms was open. I came in there and...

That was just, wow, that was just a great time in Las Vegas. Well, that's why I mentioned. It was a huge, huge, that's a huge change, a huge time of change. And at the Palms, I feel we were really a big part of that. And it was an honor to be a part of it and to experience the fun we had every day. Oh, yeah. That's where we met. My wife obviously worked at the Palms as well. Yes, that's right. And that's where we met a million years ago. I saw Gidget pretty much most days there. Yeah, you did. Yep, yep. What do you think?

Made 9 so special. Because I don't know...

Is there a comparable restaurant in the heyday, like with the Nine restaurant? I mean, I don't think there is a comparable one restaurant like that. No, I think the only thing that might be even remotely close, and I don't necessarily love it as a restaurant, not to speak bad of your competitors, but STK. And I don't love STK. But it's the only thing that I could say remotely has that similar vibe to what Nine does. Not the vibe, but it still doesn't have the...

The cachet. The cachet of it. What do you think made Nine so special? I always try to explain that to people, how crazy that was. You really had a full night right there. You had a great casino. It was easy to navigate, easy to get around. You'd come out and dinner with us. You'd have some wonderful, wonderful food. It was a beautiful room with the ceiling changing and a cool crowd.

it was just a great scene right there the room itself was pretty simple you never crowd you never know who you see you never know what kind of celebrity was going to be there right we're very fortunate with celebrities lots of different different uh many people it's funny seeing people in tv i'm like oh i remember he was at nine steak house or she was at nine steak house or like britney getting married or something and being part of that whole thing you know and

But definitely that celebrity thing really helped us out a lot. And then once you dinner with us, you were able to go to Ghost Bar. You were able to go to Rain. You were able to go to Playboy. You were able to go to Moon. And that entertainment flowed on through the evening. It never stopped.

And we were so locals, too, accessibility-wise, a lot to do as well. Being able to come in valet at the front, and you're right there, and you're in the door, or shoot around the back, come in the back way, right off the strip right there. I think that was a lot to do, too. And what Michael did, and Michael and Scotty did, just creating those venues, creating that excitement, and hiring the right people. So it's great, great, great, cool, cool people that led us. With Michael Morton today, that...

I've been with Michael 20 years now. Very, very, very fortunate. And he lets our personality come out. He wants you to be like that. We're not working at the other...

larger hotels where, you know, this is what you can't show your personality. You know, it's just like being, be quiet, you know, be service, be quiet. But it's for me, it's that, that's one of the, one of the, one of the cool things. When, when, when, when nine shut down and they were going to switch it over to Scotch 80, did they offer you to stay on at Scotch? Did they want you to stay there? Were you gone before? I was already gone in 2012. You'd already done La Camita downtown. Well, no, we opened La Camita downtown on 6th and Fremont.

Love Locker Mead. I still spend some time down there. We just started doing brunch down there, actually. Yeah, I love Locker Mead. Yeah, so I'm just down there on Saturday. Stop by there and stuff. Yeah. I just had my birthday there, too. Sorry, let me ask a different question. The Mortons, you said you worked at Mortons for a short amount of time. Did you get a relationship with them there, or was it strictly from the Palms when they really knew who you were? Oh, Michael Morton, yes. Yeah.

Well, Michael's dad actually sold Morton's about 50 years ago. So there's no affiliation there. No affiliation whatsoever. So Michael opened Nine Steakhouse and the Nine Group at the Palms back in 2001. And then I joined Michael and Jenna then in 2002 at Nine Steakhouse when I called him Mr. Morton. And now it's Michael. So we've been together and we're friends.

very close to as well with our friendship when did you leave when did you leave nine when did you at 2012 september 2012 you went where straight to la comedia uh yes that's when so a short time after that then um i joined forces then with michael again michael and jenna morton again and we opened up la comedia downtown on may 2013 but at that at that point you go from being bartender to being partner

- Yes, yes, I became partners then with Michael and Jenna. - So I love that because look, there's two ways to get into business in this world, right? There's two ways. You can either have the money to do it or you can sweat into it. And I've done both. I've done both of them. So I appreciate it so much.

And what was that process like of you going, of them coming to you and you talking about what you could do and what you thought? Was it your vision? Was it their vision? Did they want to plug you in? What was that process like of going from the guy behind the bar to being now a partner? What was that like? Pretty cool, John. It's like when you make a partner, it sounds like a law firm or something. It is a little bit. We're a hospitality company, so...

You really, it's real simple. He just, we just, we just try to take care of our guests, one guest at a time. And for me being behind the bar all the time, try trying to just take care of them one guest at a time and you know, have them come back. Was lock committee your idea or Michael's? Oh no, no, no, no, no. All Michael, Michael's all Michaels. And he just said, Hey, I think he'd be great for this. Yes. Yes. Myself. Anything I can do to help. So, you know, Michael, Michael, Michael's the boss. Michael's the boss. What, what do you think made you stand out? Right? Like,

Because I do know multiple people that know you, right? We don't really know each other, but I do know, and everybody's got the same thing as what John said. He's an amazing, amazing person. Human being, great.

Do you think that that's what makes you stand out is your customer service? Did you have a martini as well before you came in? No, no, no. But I love customer service. And I spend money eating out, and I hate getting bad customer service. It seems like John and I always preach this. There's been a lot lately. We went to go see you, actually. You weren't there, and we ended up having a drink somewhere else.

and we ordered he wasn't there remember i told you we're in a couple weeks before yeah i think i'd cover it that week yeah three weeks ago a month ago we were in another restaurant trying to see you 30 minutes later we still hadn't got a drink no one said hi to us like well you know may all those places keep doing what they do right yes well i don't know i don't mean that at all but what you call i think that for for for us one of the things that i've learned over the years and i think you'll learn when we when i when we go out to different places

The key for our business, for me, I feel, is acknowledgement. Just to be acknowledged. Just to be acknowledged. You know, when people come in for the first time to one steakhouse, or it's their returning time, or it's their 10th time, like when you came. Their first time is really important to make that connection with them. If somebody's waiting for me, I like to give them a smile, a look, or say something. But some kind of acknowledgement. Just let them know that we care. Because that first hit...

you know what that that first hit of something coming in to our environment and to have them coming back is like oh yeah he said hi wow they're so front like what happens when a hostess you have to host this thing the hostess is a bit off or she's too busy or this and you're like you walk away going oh they're they're a pain in the ass over there that's john's right isn't that what happens what you and that's you have a negative feeling well you just sit there and you're like let's go find somewhere else and you walk out on hundreds of dollars of

I, one of my biggest peeves about Vegas restaurants, and I'll tell you what it is, is I hate these places that hire the super hot 19 year old Instagram model hostesses because they don't want to be there.

They're angry they're there. They'd rather be working at Hakkasan, bringing bottles to tables with a sparkler, making $150,000. They don't want to be there. But conversely, we use De Palma as an example a lot of time. You walk up and the maitre d' is there. He's always happy to see me. He's always glad I'm there. The 19-year-old Instagram model is pissed she has to stop knowing what she's doing to talk to me. So I don't know why they keep doing that. It drives me crazy. But I think you want to know what his magic is. I'll kind of tell you what I think it is.

I've never heard anybody when I've talked to, you know, I know a lot of people that know you, a lot of the same people. I should come here more often. This is a wonderful place. No, but here it is. We bring people on. Here's the truth. And this is what you should strive for. I've never heard anybody say you make good drinks.

ever. And I'm not saying you don't, I'm just saying that's, you look at, you look at what your function, like when you're behind that bar, you're the guy that brings the drinks and does whatever. I've never heard one person say you make drinks, but everybody says you're amazing at what you do. And because what you do has nothing to do with drinks.

And I think that is what makes an elite customer experience. If you can transcend whatever service or process or thing you're trying to do to give these people and just make them feel special in a way that they don't anywhere else, it's going to be really hard for you to be successful. I mean, you can't just make shit drinks, but it's going to be really hard for you to be not successful what you do. So I have a question. You know, here's my next question. Do you think you have a photographic memory? I...

I just, I remember the times. I remember what we've spoken about or I remember something. I don't think, no, I don't have a photographic memory, but I do remember experiences with people. So my question was going to be, do you correlate people to things?

Like, how do you remember people's names? Because you know everybody. I think that it's, we're getting, for me, we're getting way too deep on this, the, like, photographic memory. No, this is how you help people. This is what we do. For me, it's just part of the business. It's part of the business. It's about the acknowledgement, about being recognized. How does that make you feel? You know, you come in the other night, you're like, wow. You know, and we've been friends a long time, so we're going to have that acknowledgement right there.

But the person that comes back the second or third time, you know, that's the impact, right? If someone stays in the hotel, you get them on the first night. My dream is to have them come back the second. I'm like, I will, you know, and try to get their name. And we just have fun. And I love that first interaction. I love having that. And for us, we got some great food. We got some great drinks. We have a great experience for you. Well, I think, again, that... We have a great... Like, my God. Like, that bone-in filet, that ribeye, that...

You know, our sides, our side dishes. Like, I'm getting hungry right now. Well, I think then that goes to also say that if you don't 100% believe in the product that what you're selling, it's really hard to be enthusiastic at that point. I'm so fortunate again. Like, Chef Pat at One Steakhouse. Like, you know, Chef Mario La Camita. You know, these guys, they have the same passion. They have the same passion. Driven from Michael Morton and Jenna Morton until, you know, that just enjoy what we do. And

just to love it and to put that love into what we do to care, you know, to have that, to have that ownership of, of, of it's, it just makes me feel good. Right. If the product was bad, would you stay?

Products never been bad for us. No, I'm hype. I know no chance. It's going to be bad. I'm saying hypothetically speaking, we'd never, we'd never get to that stage. You know what I mean? Yeah. We, we got some great people with us and they're not, they're not, you know, just that, that level of excellence is so we get taken care of. Why would you, you know, and learn about each other. Yes. That level, that level of, of excellence just so programmed to the ethos of what you're doing. That salmon we have on like the lobster butter sauce. Yeah.

This is not customer service, but it even sells. We're schlepping our product. There we go. That's how it works. But yeah, boys, it's down to acknowledgement. I walked in the dry cleaners, my dry cleaners the other day, and there was...

one person in front of me the lady was on her own i'm standing there and and you know i'm like okay and she goes hey i'll be with you in a couple minutes i'm on my own and guess what i already feel like i should go back and help her out yeah i'm like hey take your time if that took 10 20 10 minutes i would have been fine right yeah you know just for the fact that i got acknowledgement yeah you know and that that's the key the key to everything really i suppose in us as humans is

is that we want to be here. We want to be knowledge. I'm not an important, especially when people come into a place like one steakhouse or any of our venues, you got to just, hey, gotcha. And then where are you from? Oh, wow. Yeah, I've been there.

Yeah. So is there a technique, again, back to the memory, is there a technique you use to remember somebody's name or do you just remember it? It's just now I don't remember everybody's name. Right. You know. See, it feels like you do, though. It so feels like you do. Well, you just got me in the right nights, John. Ha, ha, ha.

you know maybe i am special then i don't know who knows maybe i am but do you think that you subconsciously do like i walked in and you you already put my name with something right like do you think you do that with everybody or was my name just unique that you're like oh do you ever well what i think you're colt sievers right the fall guy from back in the day that's what name association right there but

Not with everybody? He's kind of the fall guy of this show. I'm always the fall guy. My mom named me after her. It's so funny because I finally found out what I was truly named after because my mom would reference it, but she didn't know the exact thing until you just came in. And he actually had his name legally changed from Bitch Amadon to Coke a couple years ago. So there you go.

Such a dick. Such a dick. Whatever. Oh, boy. I hate this guy. So what is, what's one of the wilder nights you've had at work? Oh, boy.

Ooh, Vegas has some more. Saturday? Saturday? Saturday. When there was literally almost a fist fight between... No, that was just... That was in the casino. Oh, boy. That was just a misunderstanding from a couple of people. Which I thought was highly entertaining, too. It was entertaining. And nobody... It was just fun, a couple of people having a couple of words. But that's what happens, right? That's what happens. That's what happens. Welcome to Vegas. You know...

Got to tell you, so a fun night or whatever. So my birthday, I'm Irish-Mexican, right? So I was born, well, I'm not Irish-Mexican. So I was born in Cinco de Mayo. So when we opened La Camita, I always made the joke about I'm Irish-Mexican. So I had like a get-together at La Camita and invited tons of people down there. And, wow, probably 150, 200 people came throughout the day and throughout the night. Oh, wow.

I just, I was like, oh my God, how about how, I just felt so honored.

And that people came to our community. They were able to enjoy our food. They were enjoying their good times. But see that sense of the community again when I'm talking about the happiness that it gave me. That they're all friends and good guests of ours for many years. But now they're all going to see each other that night. Hey, hey, hey. So that connection through our community, within the restaurant, is the part that makes me happy. Yeah.

So that's the, like, so personal satisfaction, that's way up there. Yeah. Do you ever hear like a husband getting yelled at by his wife for gambling too much? Because I noticed when people are in fights, they don't realize that people are sitting next to him. Right next to him. Like, I hear some interesting fights. It doesn't happen as much. I wish, like, not that I wish it would happen, but,

We all like good entertainment, don't we really? Oh my God. There's times I'm sitting at a bar and I hear some stuff. Just because your wife yells at you more than most, don't try to justify how people yell. Not everybody's wife yells at them, Colt. This isn't a problem exclusive to you. If I could, just a fun story on something like that.

remember about a month ago, I remember there was one night and this gentleman came in and he had with his family and with his wife and everything, the family, the wife, and they take off. And then all of a sudden he arrives back an hour later with a different girl, with a young lady from, you know, from, uh, I think she might've worked in one, the gentleman's establishment in town. But, uh,

I was like, wow, that's interesting. Yeah, that's a ball move. Whatever you want to do. None of my business. That might be a power move. That is a power move. That's a bad move. That's a bad power move. Do you see a lot of that?

No. Because you've always worked at, I mean, nine probably a little less, but like the Palm and one or not that. Well, I'd like to see a lot of people, at least a lot of people having fun and having a good time. Yeah. It's so funny, man. In this town, you think it runs rapid. I think it runs rapid in any town. I think you just see it here. But we've always said here, that's like one of my things. Like if you cheat on your wife, I won't do business with you.

Because if you'll screw your wife over, what are you going to do to me? Yeah, you screw your wife. It's always been one of my ethoses, and I don't break that. And I've actually had some partnerships where people have done that, and I've been like, and I'm out.

Yeah. Cause I wasn't gonna wait for the other shoe to drop and that's how it is. So let me ask you this because you are the keeper of, of so many great places here in Vegas. And it is a lot of people's dream to move here and get in the hospitality business. So what do you, I mean, obviously the standard that you guys hold within the Morton family of restaurants is so high. What do you look for in, in people that you hire, especially front of the house or dealing with guests? What are you, what qualities are you looking for in those people?

Customer service. Customer service. What's your interaction? How are you going to be with a guest? Is the guest going to feel comfortable? Do you really care? Do you really care? Do you really care about what we do, or are you just coming for the paycheck and going home that night? Are you going to show up early and go home late? That's key for us. How are you going to be with our guests, but how are you going to mix with the rest of us as well? Are we all going to get along? Absolutely.

How quick are you to pull the plug on people that don't hold that? Oh, I don't get involved in any of that at all. That's for – That's somebody else's job? That's for Dust, our general manager, the other managers, or Michael. I come on at like a 30-day trial period type like other places. I don't really get into that whole how that works or whatever like that. We're in the hospitality business. So there's in-house hospitality too of taking care of our fellow employees as well that are able to take care –

of our guests so if we've got a great atmosphere within our it's funny i just played golf with our general manager yesterday uh dustin and um we were just talking afterwards at lunch about how how the whole place i was saying how great like our you know our bus boys and the servers if i need something they're always there like that to help out you don't know you don't necessarily get that in every place in town but so but once you have a great working vibe with people and when you have a great product when you have great food and great drinks

And if you're able to have fun with each other but get the job done in a professional manner and make the guest happy, that's what hospitality is all about right there. In-house guests, ourselves, and our front-of-house guests. And that's the key right there, yeah. Well, dude, you know what, man? On that, I think we're going to wrap it up, dude. If you want to see a master at work, I mean a true master at his craft and really learn what it is and eat great food as a bonus to that.

I mean, I find, you know, me, you know, being in the hospitality business that I was early in my career and then just sitting there, just master of his craft. I love watching it. If you want to see that, where can they find you? What nights? Where? How am I going to find you? Johnny. Colt. Colt Seavers. Johnny. I look forward to seeing you on Gidget. Please guide soon on Colt. Of course. I'd love to see you have again. We will have those strong martinis too. I'll bring my wife where she can yell at me and it'll be entertaining for you. See, there you go. That's what we do.

Well, actually, right after I leave here, I'll be heading over to one steakhouse at the Virgin Hotel. And I'm usually there like Tuesday to Saturday. And then we also have La Camita downtown, which we just started doing brunch. So I kind of hang out there a lot of Saturdays and Sundays.

And then the other two restaurants are in the family? We have Crush, our American Grill at the MGM. And also we have the Greek Sneak, our Greek restaurant, right beside Crush at the MGM. And we have La Cove at the Wynn. That's my Mother's Day brunch spot. Yeah. It's my Mother's Day brunch spot. Oh, my goodness. It's such a beautiful. We have those windows open now. Overlooking the pool. Gorgeous. Nice breeze at nighttime. And you see all the Vegas color and the wind.

Wonderful things. I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, John, thank you so much, man. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Thanks for having me here today. No, of course. I need to come back here more often. Anytime. Anytime. Anytime. I hear you talking. I'm like, who are they talking about? Who's this guy walking through the door? I'm like, hold on. How much time do I have? Anytime. And guys, listen, if you, again, like I said when we started this, if you've got a business that's

and we're going into some weird times, man. It is a weird, weird time with the economy and inflation and everything else, and the markets, I don't care what market you're in, it's going to constrict.

And if you want to survive and make it from one side of this to the other, making sure that you take care of your customers and have that elite level of customer experience is something that's so important. So take the advice of my good friend, John O'Donnell. It's all about how they feel, man. It's more important how they feel than what you can actually do.

look at these are huge restaurants in a huge you're you're ground zero of amazing restaurants yeah and it's because you work your ass off right where people noticed it and everything so if you're a waiter waitress or whatever you think why i'm just here just make a quick tip somebody's watching you that's right and it can be it can be life-changing that's it so strive for that elite level of customer experience i promise it will change your business and if you're gonna move

Remember, guys, keep moving forward. See you next time. That was great, guys. Hey, it's John Gafford. If you want to catch up more and see what we're doing, you can always go to thejohngafford.com. We'll share any links of things we talked about on the show as well as links to the YouTube where you can watch us live. And if you want to catch up with me on Instagram, you can always follow me at thejohngafford. I'm here. Give me a shout.