Amid economic uncertainty and six years post-covid, how resilient is the Las Vegas restaurant industry?

That's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪ -Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and other supporters.

-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

Restaurants help drive the Las Vegas economy, and the pandemic forced them to transform.

Six years later, they are still confronting the high cost that covid ushered in, yet a new report from the National Restaurant Association says America's restaurant industry is poised for a year of measured growth.

So what do Las Vegas operators think of that, and how are they navigating the ongoing economic uncertainty?

For that, we turn to our panel of experts.

Sasi Phothidokmai, Owner and Founder of Weera Thai Group; Amanda Belarmino, an Associate Professor at UNLV's William F. Harrah's College of Hospitality; Regina Simmons, Owner and Founder of the vegan fast-casual dining outlet Tacotarian; and Chef Bruce Kalman, Owner of SoulBelly Barbecue.

Thank you all for joining us.

And we are at High Steaks restaurant in Las Vegas atop the Rio, a beautiful location.

This was started by acclaimed local chef James Trees.

He was supposed to be a part of this panel, had something come up, but he opened this in October, which is fairly recent.

And we have a couple of panelists here who are about to open or did open a new restaurant.

Bruce, I'll start with you.

What do you have coming up at Miracle Mile Shops, and why that format of dining?

(Bruce Kalman) So we are opening a quick-serve version of SoulBelly Barbecue.

-Why that versus another restaurant?

-SoulBelly, we've built a pretty strong brand for ourselves and a great name and reputation in town as serving high-quality barbecue, and so we're trying to further that brand.

We already have our burger location at the stadium, at Allegiant Stadium, called Burgersmith.

And, you know, this is something we've been working on for a while, is sort of this quick-serve model of SoulBelly.

And I think, as it relates to sort of the current atmosphere of the restaurant business and costs, especially, this is a much lower-cost operation for us to function.

It's just a kitchen.

It's a small kitchen.

It's a very limited menu.

We're able to utilize the equipment that we have at SoulBelly to smoke all the meat for this location, to produce sauces and other recipes that we're already making and transporting over, which minimizes our labor costs.

And so, you know, obviously, we're in the restaurant business.

It's hospitality.

We want to make people happy.

We want to serve a great product, and we want to provide a great experience overall.

And we're also, at the end of the day, we're here to make money, so we have to be mindful of that as well.

And so how do you balance the two?

-Sasi, you recently opened a new restaurant, 328Thai, but that was already-- There was already a restaurant of yours in that same location.

-Yes.

-What was it, and why did you change?

(Sasi Phothidokmai) Used to be Street Food by Weera Thai, but the concept is not fit what we have on the like Thai Street with so many now in town.

So I want to change to 328Thai, is more like Thai dining experience.

Inspiration for me and my husband, we like to travel and we want Thai food to be upscale.

-What is it about Las Vegas restaurants saying--and this is for you, Amanda--it has to be an experience.

When did that begin and why?

(Amanda Belarmino) Well, a lot of it comes from our guest, right?

I mean, when people come here, this is magic land.

This is where you come and everything's going to be different.

We want things, want everything to be elevated.

Our customers do when they come to visit us.

And so that's what we're seeing reflected in our dining, and we're seeing it reflected throughout the city because, you know, one of the things that we saw last year when we had sort of that dip in visitation, is a lot of the visitors who came here were going off Strip and exploring some of our wonderful local restaurants.

We saw that on Spring Mountain, that a lot of-- They said it was one of the best summers they've ever had, because so many people were going there to eat.

-Did you see that, Sasi, at your location?

-At the Chinatown location, yes.

-Really?

Okay.

-And so we're seeing that as our visitors come in, they want more of an experience.

They want everything to be a little bit special, a little bit, a little bit different.

And that's what has really, I think, changed within the last 10 years, but especially post-covid, because we were all, you know, we all got tired of making our own sourdough bread, and we wanted things that were going to be different and unique.

And I think that that's what we see reflected in consumer taste now.

-Regina with Tacotarian, last year you received the U.S.

Small Business Administration's "Small Business Person of the Year" for Nevada.

What are you telling those folks about what it is like to run a restaurant right now, folks in DC and policy makers?

(Regina Simmons) Well, I think overall, things are changing, and we're like in-- There's challenging times right now.

There definitely are.

Owning a restaurant, it's very different today, before covid.

Numbers are really different.

I think covid taught us how to adapt.

I mean, for us, it was not necessarily completely negative, because we are quick service, so our margins are very thin.

So it kind of forced us to create better systems.

Like I think covid taught us a lot on how to adapt and utilize that.

And you can still use it right now, but it's still tricky.

I mean, it is-- We sell tacos, $3 tacos.

So like our margins are thin, so we had to make sure that with the inflation right now, we are very focused on our cost, our waste, our labor, and understanding, too, that everything is difficult right now for everyone.

So a lot of people are being selective of where they're going to go and spend the money that they have.

So making sure that we keep our prices in a good price range where people want to come multiple times a week and not just one time a week or just giving them the right food, like delicious food, but the experience, too, so they come back.

-I mentioned that national report about the restaurant industry in America talking about measured growth for this year.

What do you think of that?

-I mean, my thought is that everything, you know, what goes up must come down and vice versa.

So, you know, I think last year was down for a lot of people for a lot of reasons.

What I'm seeing a lot more now, which is something I as a restaurant owner and chef strongly feel and believe in, is the level of hospitality that you provide within your business, that makes the difference.

And the Danny Meyer from Union Square Hospitality, that mentality of like, you know, it's not about the guest always being right, because they're not, right, but it's about what can you do to go above and beyond.

And sometimes it's the smallest thing.

At SoulBelly, we pay attention to when people book a reservation for a dessert--sorry--for a birthday, for an anniversary, for anything, any kind of celebration, or we ask, and then we have pre filled-out greeting cards with the SoulBelly logo on it that our whole staff sign, Hey, you know, thanks for joining us today to celebrate your special day.

Those are the little things.

We give it to them with, you know, with their, with their check.

Yeah, you get-- Everybody does a dessert with a candle, you know what I mean?

We do too, but we go, we do one little thing more.

And it's paying attention to what your guests are asking for and what they're saying.

-Okay.

And that's kind of what Sasi was talking about.

With your restaurant, it is an experience inspired by your travels from Las Vegas--sorry, from Thailand to Las Vegas.

-Yes, Las Vegas.

-What is it like being a restaurant owner right now?

-It's tough.

Everything, the cost, the labor is up, and but we have to adapt.

Since covid, we have to go like flexible with everything, yes.

-What did you become flexible with?

Was that deliveries or Uber Eats?

-Yeah.

Delivery, takeout, order online.

We use less people for like order, because we used order online and QR code scan is save us the time and labor.

-I order from Weera Thai all the time.

It's so good.

[laughter] My son loves it.

-You said off camera your son doesn't like much.

-He loves the chicken skewers.

-Regina, you said the same thing.

-Yeah.

[indistinct] -I also agree with you.

Like a lot of times when you have-- I mean, not everybody wants to talk to people, so having a kiosk or having a way for people to order through your app, it makes them order more food.

It makes them spend more money with you, so-- -Really?

-Yeah.

There's like a study about that, like people spent more money on a kiosk.

So I-- -Is there something psychological?

-I think they just see pictures and they're like, And I like this, and I like that.

I'm like, I'm totally like that.

I will just-- -I think it's the same when you-- That's why we buy so much stuff from Amazon, because it's all right there in front of you.

-Exactly.

-So and it feels more personal than looking at a menu board or a physical menu.

-And you don't have the pressure of having someone in front of you ordering fast or, like, we sell Mexican food.

Sometimes they don't understand what is that or this.

Right there, they can just look at pictures, read ingredients, and just keep ordering.

So there's definitely a part where, like, it's nice to have a person that people remember, and they make a connection with your employee.

And that is great because, that experience, they're going to remember that person where they came in and the person when they left.

But there's like different ways now that you can do that through social media or with a good marketing around your brand.

-How much has social media changed the restaurant industry?

-Yeah.

I mean, you know, especially, and like in a quick-serve type or, like, where-- I'm assuming the majority of your business is delivery, take out delivery.

And, I mean, it's all about social media, you know?

It's about getting people.

People, when you're at home, you're like, What do we want to eat tonight?

I don't know.

And then you start scrolling, and you're like, Oh, that looks good.

Right?

-People are looking at their social media.

-Yeah.

It makes up your mind for you, for people.

-Amanda, when we were talking ahead of this, you mentioned your students are-- -I have students that are influencers.

We've seen students that are influencers, or they are so influenced by that that they'll go to an influencer to decide where they're going to go to eat; whereas, other people, like I wouldn't necessarily do that.

But you see that especially with Gen Z, is that they're so influenced by this and people that they're loyal to, and it's going to make them go places and make them do things.

-We see that a lot.

Restaurants are not hospitality, just hospitality.

There's like, they're media brands.

So there's definitely a lot that you can take advantage with social media.

You can reach more customers, and then you can get back to those customers.

So like we, if you have a good social media team with influencers or with good pictures or good videos, you can attract the people to come in.

But once you have them, you can go back to them just like, Hey, remember that taco?

You love it.

You want to order it again, you know?

-Like, you're sending them a DM or something?

-Well, with our loyalty program, like if you sign in, we have a way to get back and be like, Hey, we know you like this taco.

It's Tuesday.

Let's go to Taco Tuesday, you know?

Like-- [laughter] So there's definitely different ways and different approaches that you can have with it, but I really think social media, it's a great tool for restaurants today.

-Do you want to add to that, Sasi?

Or you could also talk about tariffs.

What kind of impact have they had on you?

-The impact that I have is labor.

Since covid, we've got short of staff a lot, and then we have to keep training and training new staff.

And when customer came, the quality the food is taste different because we have to keep training the new chef every time.

-Why aren't people staying?

Why aren't-- -I feel like since covid, they have to go around, shop around, maybe shop restaurant, -Everything's changed.

People's loyalty is different.

I've noticed.

And I don't know if it's because, you know, during covid, people could get-- collect unemployment.

And I remember, because we opened May of 2021, so we were interviewing and hiring, and I would have to, I would put out an ad, and I would have to respond to 20 people to get like three people to actually show up to interviews, because as long as you showed in an email that you're applying, you can continue to collect those benefits.

So it's sort of empowered this mentality of, I don't have to work to make money.

And I feel like that still is.

It hasn't rebounded fully yet.

-Regina, what do you think?

-I think there's like a new mentality in our society, too.

You just see it.

And we have to adapt and work with the employees that we have to make sure we're working around their schedules, around they're, like-- It's not so much before when we were like, This is the schedule.

This is when you have to come.

Now we have to work a lot more with them to adapt around their lives and their schedule to make sure we have a good balance and we have good employees at the restaurant.

-Oh, do you want to add something?

-I was going to add, I think some of the things we've seen, too, is that a lot of those people that are young and in the workforce now, at least one year of their education was online, and that did backlashes on their ability to socialize, to work well with others.

It's not, it's, it's just a fact.

It's not a commentary on them as individuals, but it just took them out of that.

And so I think it makes them a bit more introspective.

I think it makes it a little bit harder for them to be accustomed to being in the workplace.

And so I think that that's part of what we're seeing.

-And they, a lot of them like that.

-Yeah.

-Like, I go back to my daughter, my daughter's like, I want an online job where I can be at home and I can be at my computer and just answer everyone through there.

I'm like, you know, there's a lot of people who really enjoyed the covid time, staying home for months and not doing much.

So we just have to know that it became an okay for them, a new normal for them, to be okay being that person without being hustling and working and taking all these three jobs at a time.

-And there's also people within that scope that are on the opposite end of the spectrum, right, that do want to come out, that do want that next-level experience.

And, you know, and that's where, you know, trying to capture business, you capture business by creating the experience, because people, they're going to forget what you did.

They're going to forget what you said.

They're going to forget what they ate.

But they're going to remember how you made them feel.

-Absolutely.

-And overall, they have this incredible experience.

Or if you, if you acknowledge somebody like, Hey, I heard it was your birthday, if you have every single staff member go by that table to say, happy birthday, that person is never going to forget that experience.

-I think you were telling me off camera that that desire for human interaction led you to getting rid of QR codes?

-Oh, my God.

When we-- We opened SoulBelly at probably the absolute worst time.

-And is that because you had no choice, you already put that much work in?

-Yeah, we started the process.

We actually were supposed to open in February, and we opened in May.

So it's actually not too bad in the world of restaurant openings.

[indistinct] -But so we opened with the traditional barbecue, you know, get in line, order at the register, and we have our, it's called the "meat and three" where we carve the meat and all the sides are out there.

We do it right out front.

And you sit down, we run the food to you.

That was our level of hospitality.

And then they would also offer more drinks and, you know, whatnot.

And then people got, people didn't want that, so we tried QR codes.

Figured out, you know, everybody's into QR codes now, everybody's doing it.

People were up in arms about it.

I couldn't believe it.

I was, I was shocked.

So we switched.

We ended up switching to a full-service model.

But to what we were saying earlier, you have to adapt.

You have to learn to adapt.

You don't want to change what you're doing every three weeks, but you have to listen to the majority of people and pay attention to your business level.

If people are complaining and your business levels are dropping, something's got to change.

-And that's a very good point, because, like, every restaurant is different, right?

So you have to see your customers, see what's working for them, and then just adapt and focus on what's working for the experience and to be able to make money, too.

-Amanda, how are you teaching resilience to your students?

-So I think a lot of it is, you know, bringing in speakers like you, and bringing in people to tell these stories, to see that.

-Pick a new career.

[laughter] But our students love Food & Beverage.

We're actually, we are actually developing a-- We have a General Hospitality degree, but we're developing a Food & Beverage degree just because of the, of the need and desire.

We're developing a Sports Management degree because of what we see in the exponential in sports.

We're developing a Technology Gaming degree because that-- because, you know, the people who do our technology don't know what we do on a daily basis.

So it's all those kind of things that we're seeing, because we're seeing that demand from our students, from our growth.

But we try to teach them, you know, within--to go back to Amber's question--we're trying to teach them in resiliency, What are the different things the businesses do?

What can you do?

What are your things?

I have an assignment where I have my students, Okay, you have your resume.

Now adapt your resume for these non hospitality jobs, if you had to do that.

Now adapt for a hospitality job you don't think you would want, because that's kind of where most people's career goes, is you think you're going to do this, but you end up doing that, and helping them to really understand those things.

-Sasi, you are also opening a Thai-Japanese restaurant.

When is that?

-It's coming up in a couple months.

-And so some people might think, hey, the economy can't be that bad if you're opening another restaurant.

-I have [indistinct] kitchen.

I want to open like Japanese, adapt to Northeastern Thai.

Because we are Thai, we specialize in Northern Thai food.

And we already have our food ingredient, so we just use what we have and adapt into like what we want to do, like Japanese and Thai.

-It's a very practical way of going about it.

-That's smart.

Menu engineering is so important, especially now.

I know for myself when I was a younger chef, it was about ego, and it was about, you know, what's the next coolest thing you can make?

You don't consider, I'm buying these five ingredients just for this one dish that we sell 10 of, but it didn't matter because, you know, and now it matters.

I mean, you have to, and it's really smart that you're doing that.

-And also like being conscious of what, what people really care about.

Like, we're doing franchising now, and we are cutting our menu.

And it's like, do people really gonna care about your grandmother's soup?

Nobody cares.

You know, like, they like this taco.

They like the asada fries.

So like, focusing on the successful items and multi-- like the ingredients that you have, try to use them in as many things as possible, to have variety, but being smart about the menu.

-And that's what you see in the chains that are successful, is that when you look at that menu, you're like, there's really only three proteins or there's only-- But how many different combinations are they making of it?

Yeah.

-Okay, tariffs.

Who's been impacted by them?

-I think we all.

-All of us.

-All of us, yeah.

There's you, everyone.

-Even on things we don't know about, yeah.

-I mean, I think the uncertainty of not knowing the prices that we're gonna get every day.

You have this price this week, and you're planning your menu around it and you're pricing, and the next week, you're like, what happened?

So there's really-- Inflation is all over the place with all this going on in the world.

And you know, we're getting in fights with everyone.

Everything is high.

Like, and things that you won't even think matter, but it's like, yeah, gas is up.

Everyone is going to have a extra charge to deliver anything to your restaurant.

So do you like it or not?

Everything is going up.

It's very difficult for all of us to keep our numbers like in place.

We don't want to raise prices, but sometimes we just don't have a choice.

We need to survive as well.

-And I know I mentioned some of the restaurants that you have opening, but you were telling me on the phone, Regina, you have a lot of friends closing their restaurants.

When did that start?

-I mean, I think this year alone.

Like we've had, it's been three-- it's been three months only, and you can see restaurants left and right.

Just go to Facebook right now.

They're going to tell you about three other restaurants closing.

And it sucks because we're all restaurant, restaurant owners.

We know how difficult it is.

You put all your savings, all your, your heart in this, and seeing that this economy is making it almost impossible for us to survive and seeing them close, it's just, it breaks our heart.

-And it isn't just this year.

I mean, it's we saw last year.

We've seen, I mean, it's just everything has just been exponentially getting harder and harder, I think, yeah.

And I think when you talk about the growth, I think what we're seeing in growth nationwide is just consumers are a little bit more likely to go out.

We're a very different market.

Let's say that.

But when you, when you look throughout the rest of the country, you see some more consumers going out to eat that had been perhaps holding back, but they're cutting in other areas, which I think is why they're saying, we see some growth going.

But at the same time, you're seeing other businesses closing, and you've seen it year after year, and it's just, it's just been very hard.

I mean, the increase in prices.

It just hurts businesses like this so much because those margins are so thin.

-Yeah.

-A message to lawmakers?

Any kind of policy change you would like to see?

-How long do we have here?

[laughter] -What's top of mind?

-I think for restaurants, I think a couple things.

Access to capital I think is a good thing.

I think today it's almost impossible for a restaurant to get a loan.

Even if you get an SBA loan, it takes months to apply for it, and most people get denied because they can't fill out the paperwork correctly.

So that opens the door for very bad banks with terrible loans with very high interest, and it lines up the restaurant for failure.

So I think there has to be more access for capital for, for any business.

-But I think especially for any, for any independents.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-Yeah, it's hard.

I mean, if there was a way to cap pricing on products, I mean, you know, I remember, it's not now, but we were paying almost $200 for one roll of aluminum foil at the restaurant.

You know, gloves-- -Gloves were-- - --were astronomical.

-You're saying "were."

When was "were?"

-That was around covid.

-Yeah.

It's still bad.

It's still not great.

And like for us, you know, what's going on is like meat, for example, right?

There was less head of cattle being processed because there's people not working, and so meat prices skyrocketed, which happened right when we opened a new barbecue restaurant.

And it feels like they haven't come down.

You know, we're like, we're just waiting for eventually it's going to come down, and it doesn't seem like it's going to, especially briskets.

You know, we've raised our price on brisket because we've had to.

People don't fully understand all that goes into-- They think, Oh, well, I see a brisket at a store.

It cost this.

I'm like, Yeah, well, half of that brisket is waste for me because of cooking and trimming.

I mean, we use it for other things, but the actual brisket itself, the cost, my cost per pound is more than double what it was when I bought it.

And people-- And then add in labor, add in other ingredients, add in the cost of wood, right, and all those things.

And everybody, people are up in arms about prices going up.

I'm like, it's either that or you're not going to have the restaurant to come to because we're going to have to close.

And so I think, you know, getting the public more educated on what's really going on behind the scenes, you know, how much we pay for linens now.

And, you know, just like for us, it's just towels and aprons.

It's expensive.

-Well, hopefully this conversation contributes to that education.

Thank you so much for joining Nevada Week.

-Of course.

-Thank you.

-And thank you for watching.

For any of the resources discussed in this show, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

And we'll see you next week on Nevada Week.