John Terzian: The King of LA Nightlife and Building The h.wood Group from Scratch | E156
01:02:09 Share

Tell us how someone gets banned from the Queen Mary. Rented out Queen Mary. They don't do rent outs like that at the time. So I had convinced them it was a wedding and this party was absolutely insane. The Queen Mary was completely, the thing almost got shipwrecked. The guy that I convinced, when he came in and saw that it wasn't a wedding, the look of disappointment on his face to me was so sad. So they put me on a very serious ban list. You're working for DJ AM.

He's with Travis Barker on his Lear 35A jet. The jet crashes. I had stopped working for them five months prior. The plane went off the runway. It was a very rough situation.

Welcome to In Search of Excellence, where I get to meet some of the most successful, iconic, and interesting people in the entire world. Today, my guest is one of my closest friends, Don Terzian, who's the co-founder of the H-Wood Group, which owns 11 incredibly successful and iconic nightclubs and restaurants around the world, including Bootsy Bella's, The Nice Guy, Delilah's, and they have six more they're building on the horizon.

John, thanks for being here. Thank you. Welcome to In Search of Excellence. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. I always start my podcast with our family because our family helps shape our values, our personality, and our future. Your dad, Dick, was a lawyer who represented the city of Malibu, among other things. Your mom, Kathy, was a school teacher. What was it like growing up in Westwood and how did your family influence your future? Yeah, I grew up in a

You know, it's funny. I was like, didn't realize it until later, but I was kind of like the black sheep of the family. My mom's a teacher, music teacher and fourth grade teacher my whole life. My dad's an attorney, loves the law. That's why I ended up going to law school. My brother's a diehard lawyer. And so, you know, they, I think the whole life

i was the only one that was a little different i was an artist you know um i was in sports you know things like that but i had a you know they really shaped me because at the very end of the day you know the best people they were the absolute best people and that was the only thing they asked me is to be a good human so that's something that it's really like stuck with me and kind of who i want around me as well i mean i've met your parents several times at our charity event they're incredibly proud of you and it's fun to just see them

Yeah, yeah. Vailing, if I can use a Jewish word. Or, you know, that's my son up there. Look at what he's done in his life. Yeah. Well, they thought I was, you know. Look, it's nice that now they thought I was insane. When I got out of law school and didn't pass the bar, I went to work for a DJ. So they, at that time, thought I was absolutely out of my mind and thought I was going nowhere. So I think it's good now that they're like, they can be proud of me. You're...

Very cool guy. You make fun of me that I'm not that cool, and I'm not that cool. But when you were... I appreciate your non-coolness. I think it's a good attribute. Why is that a good attribute? I think it's better to be that way. It's natural. It's funny because you'll make fun of me that I'm out past 10 o'clock at night. Yeah.

Which I do on occasion. So often. You take it late night. Yeah, when Madison gets all dressed up. And then I, you know, we've been at nightclubs in Vegas. It would have been some of your plays. And I'm in there for a half an hour and it's like, you know, why do you want to go home if I got all dressed up and we're here for the night? I think it's amazing. I'll take it. Now, what were you like between ages 3 through 10? Oh.

I don't think I've ever really changed who I am, which is pretty interesting in the sense I've kind of always been the same way. I'm interested in what I think, why I think I, whatever success I've had in hospitality, I think has to do with my natural personality.

liking of a lot of different things. I have a love of art and a love of sports and a love of history. I'm in different pockets of life and I've been that way since I was a little kid. And so I think my thing was always, even when I was a little kid, I remember even at six and seven, I was always the

one to bring everyone together. So if it was my family, I was the one to make them all laugh. I was the one doing skits. I was the one, you know, and then that went into elementary school and high school. Like my house and what I did was always the glue of everyone around me, my friends and family. It was like,

my thing was always like being kind of like the center of bringing everyone together. You know, that's kind of always how I've been, you know. At some point, you picked up a football. Yep. And you must have been pretty good at football because you started for a very competitive high school in LA. Why don't you tell us about when the first time you picked up a ball? Well, I played, you know, basketball was my main sport my whole life. And I absolutely like loved it and lived and breathed it. And then

You know, one day I was like, I want to try, you know, in flag or whatever it was. I can't remember. I think seventh grade. And, you know, while I while I don't have the speed, I had I had a good arm. You know, I just was naturally able to do it, which a lot of people, I guess, aren't. And I ended up going into it and loving it, you know, and so played at Harbor West Lake. And I think it really shaped a lot of what I do because of.

You know, as a quarterback, at the end of the day, it's very, that, the skill set for that has to do a lot with being a leader in business and life. And then I went on and was a walk-on on the USC team. You know, as a quarterback. I was like sixth string. Right. We'll get to that in a minute. But what did you do to train to become a quarterback? I mean, I have a great arm as well. I can throw a professional ball 50 yards with tight spiral with some heat.

I could have never played because I couldn't take a hit and I wasn't that athletic and I was very thin. I mean, you're small for a quarterback as well. And you were playing at a major, major high school. You know, one thing I did, I have an insane work ethic, you know, much like you, from what I know. And I had that at a young age and I didn't know how, I mean, I'm a crazy work ethic. And I just, I...

I was doing morning trainings and weekend trainings and everything under the sun of what it would take to be a quarterback.

um and you know i didn't have that in my family no one was in sports no one was in no one was in that really so it was really me learning that and just working my ass off you know so you went to usc on an art scholarship but you didn't take the art scholarship and as you said you're a walk on to the football team i went i was going to go to michigan i got an art scholarship to michigan man you made the wrong choice i accepted i went to michigan

And it was, I know you're a Michigan guy. My entire life, I grew up on the Fab Five and I was obsessed with going to Michigan because my whole family went to USC. I was like, I had to do something opposite and I just love Michigan. And

I go to Michigan, it was good. It was fine. I was going to do it and I was going to do art there. I was going to give up football because the only ones that were really interested in me in football were very small schools. So I had to make a decision if I'm going to go on to be football or if I'm going to go on to have a normal college career. And so that's what I decided to do. And art still is my passion. So I was like, okay, I'll do that.

And then I had a friend who was a little older than me or a year older and was like, come down to a party at SC. And I went to USC and I called my parents and I'm like, I don't know why anyone would not go to this school. I'm not going to Michigan. And they were like, well, you've already accepted. I'm like, I because I had applied to like five schools and USC was one of them. And I had gotten in and I was like, I there's this is the only school I'm going to. So.

Went to USC and I wasn't on the football team or anything, but I get a call midway through my freshman year from the coach. I thought it was a prank call, to be honest, but the coach at the time, Hackett was his name. And they wanted my, the starting tight end for me was the star of the country in high school.

Alex Holmes. And they wanted him so bad. And he said, he'll only go if I play, if I walk on. So I was like, look, I'll take it. So I walked on. And I mean, it was grueling. I was the lowest totem pole, but it was really good. I have to say, looking back on it, it's amazing. But it's 5 a.m. workouts every day, then practice, then class, then practice and film. I mean, it was intense. Yeah.

You know, and I you don't get a red shirt when you're as low totem pole. So, I mean, you get annihilated. Great student. I think he had a three point seven GPA at USC. Yeah. And one of your roles there was to help recruit the players. Yeah. So tell us, hey, John, this is Coach Hackett. We got some guys coming in.

uh would like you to take him out to restaurants and nightclubs no yeah i didn't it didn't exactly look at that but it but it it like morphed into that you know which is interesting because i do credit almost everything that i'm doing today with stemming from that actually because basically the the coaches started to recognize that this like fifth string football player who was never going to play in the actual game i was friends with all the players like i was hanging out with them and

They were like, you know, you have a good, like you're from LA. You kind of know the thing where you get along with all the players and, you know, we're in the hunt on recruiting. Why don't you take out, I can't remember at the time, the first person, take this person out. He's coming in town. We really want him. And so I did. And I really got along with that family. And they were like, whatever you did was amazing. Could you do that more to me with incoming recruits?

And so I did. And I ended up like really putting together a program with Alex, to be honest, Holmes of like taking these recruits out, having like a really good time showing them, like showing them like what it is.

What it's like to come to LA, USC, you know, everyone, you know, one of the big things is being homesick. Your kid from Georgia or Florida or wherever it might be, it's like, they got to feel a family, you know? And I learned that at a young age and it really grew big. And like what I'm doing today with H-Wood, a lot of it grew out of that thing because

I did that for years, and that's how that came about. Today, the best players go for the money, right? NIL, they have Michigan paid Bryce Underwood, number one player in the country, reportedly $10 million. There are all kinds of people who got involved with that. Back then, it was different. The players could not take money. And one of the things I wanted every school, and I know this from players and coaches, the recruits would come.

and part of the fun of the party was helping the recruits have sex with women. I mean, that was going on everywhere. Did you see any of that at USC? I really didn't, actually. I know that's a big thing. Now, you would have parties where you'd have, like, girls and whatever, but I really didn't see anything as crazy as that in that regard. I think that was, like,

a lot of like older years of things. Um, but that was not anything that like went down with like what I was in, what we were involved with. Ours was more like entertainment, fun. Like, you know, you would take, it's funny. You would take like a restaurant that like was like dead on a, you know, late night and we just fill it with like the, you know, fun people and, you know, in college. So it's like, you know, you, you create a little, a little fun vibe and, and that's really what it was. And more handholding on like their family and stuff. Um,

But, you know, back to your point on the people take the money that is only I have learned because I'm pretty active in the in the USC and I'll world. What I've learned is is that goes for a certain top person where, you know, be tough to tell a kid to like not take ten million dollars, you know, or whatever it is.

But there's only a few of that. Everything else under that, I will say that this still comes down to having the right feel and the right people. And it's not just about the money. And I've met a good amount of these kids and their families. And I think more, I have to say, I think it's swung back a little bit that it's, yes, you need some aspect of the money. It can't be nothing anymore. But I do think it's more about the right fit.

you know, which gives some hope because the NIL world's out of control. You were throwing parties in college and you're basically bringing people to restaurants, including celebrities. So how on earth does a kid in college know celebrities long enough to say, hey, come join us and we're going to have a fun time at this restaurant? Well, I didn't know, you know, this, first of all, way back then, totally different time. There wasn't, there wasn't even paparazzi, you know? And so,

Part of my part of something that I'm fortunate about was I was from I'm from LA and a handful of my friends started to become pretty big, you know celebrities acting and music and things and so when I was doing Parties and bringing people together and they would come just because they're my natural friends. It became a thing, you know and so that's really how it how it worked then and

you know, at the end of the day, even to this day, you know, like it's a natural thing. It's genuine relationships. You know, that's that's the way it works best, you know. So who are some of these people back then when you're in college, you became celebrities and you were bringing to these parties? I don't know if it was bringing to them, but it was more like the ones that were around were like, you know, the Paris Hilton's of the world and the Olsen twins and

You know, they were they were all in the same, you know, circle of friends, you know, if you will, you know. And so that's, you know, Lindsay Lohan, you know, like that at that time, it was like everyone was around. And then you'd have you'd have a good mix of people. And I kind of went from there. You know, there's a concept that goes on at restaurants and nightclubs, nice, nice restaurants and nightclubs that.

restaurants will actually pay people to bring in beautiful women and models and they eat for free. And that's a foreign concept for people who don't live in LA or New York. Was that happening? Was that part of the deal as you're going out and wrangling is the word that I hear lots of times where you're a promoter and hey, your job is to find beautiful women and bring them in and get paid for it? Well, I was a promoter, a promoter for a lot of years. I don't think, it's not so much for restaurants, for nightclubs.

Nightclubs, you get paid to bring people in. For restaurants, it's pretty rare where you're paying. I don't know of anyone paying to bring people to restaurants. But they eat for free. A lot eat for free. Yeah. My wife said that she never paid for a meal in New York. A lot eat for free. That's crazy. I said, gosh, that's so unfair. Yeah.

That's discrimination against guys right there. That's different because that would be, you know, first of all, New York is a different situation. But yeah, they would do tons of comps. You know, celebrities get comped all the time too. Right. You know, so that's part of it all. Do yours pay when they come into the nice guy in Delilah? Yeah. Everyone pays. It's too hard to like...

It's too hard. The nightclubs are different. The nightclubs you comp a lot of people. You have to do that to create a party. So if Bieber's coming to the nightclub, he gets a table, he's got the alcohol, and he's not paying? It's more about whoever is a friend of mine.

you know and and and that is there you know i think that's that's more of how of how it is or me of or my partner brian like one of us if we're if we're if it's the right thing then then yeah you know but that's very that's the nightclub world versus the restaurant world tell us how someone gets banned from the queen mary it's how do you know that did i tell you that no oh my gosh that's so good the queen mary i think i'm still on their ban list

I'm pretty sad, actually. Because my wife one year, or one of us, was like, we should take the kids there. And in my head, I was like, I don't know if we can go there. It's like Vegas, where you can't go back because they've got your photo somewhere. The USC parties that I was doing got really big. Really, really big. I grew a really big company. Actually, they...

I did it, two of my best friends, Rick and Brandon, were with me on it. And we did this thing where we really grew this thing to be, it was a pretty massive company. And it ended up being passed down. And so we, you know, in the height of it, I...

basically rented out, not basically, rented out Queen Mary. However... What does that cost, by the way? I mean, that's a huge... Give people a sense of... People don't know what the Queen Mary is. It's in Long Beach, right? It's in Long Beach. Yeah. I don't remember what it was. I want to say a few hundred grand or something. I mean, the ship must be...

A football field long. Football field long, but it was an off night. It was like a whole, like a Monday or something. And, but this is where, you know, I'll admit it. And they, you know, they don't do, they don't do like rent outs like that at the time.

And so, especially not to a college kid and especially not. So I had convinced them. I really like went in and convinced them a whole other story of what it was. It was a it was a wedding and it was like a whole thing around it. Like I did this whole thing. Like it was it, you know, it was, you know.

Looking back on it, not something I should have done in that regard, but I really wanted to do this event there. So Red's at it out. And this party was absolutely insane. It was like one of the best events we've done, I've done. Ever. Ever. It was insane. But the place just got, I mean, the Queen Mary was completely...

Thing almost got shipwrecked, you know? You obliterated the Queen Mary? And the guy that I convinced, I'll never forget the head of it, when he came in and saw that it wasn't a wedding, I mean, the look of disappointment on his face to me was so sad. I was like, oh my gosh. I felt really bad. And so they put me on a very serious ban list. That's why. That same night he said, man, you're done?

Oh, they took down, I mean, it was not pretty. Did they kick everybody out that night or you couldn't? They did? We had thousands of people there. Because when I was doing this at the time, it was like ticketed events and things. You know, it was like a whole... People pay to get in and then you make a profit based on the revenues less, the rental costs. Yeah. Were there more... Sponsors or whatever. Sponsors.

So what kind of money were you making on an event like that back in college? You know, I don't remember on that event, but we were making good cash at the time. Like, it was real. $10,000 a party? More. More. Yeah. In college, it was great. I was like, you know, I was like, this is the life. Yeah. I mean, my son, you know, Charlie. I continued through law school. Yeah. So let's talk about law school. Wait, I want to hear what Charlie did what? Oh, no. Well, you know, Charlie does a lot of things. Yeah.

But he is 21, not legal. And so, you know, he'll pay in high school, he'll pay 50 bucks to get in a... Someone rents out a house. They trash the place, by the way. So I don't know who these idiots are renting out their house. And, you know, Charlie says they're packed with people. So these guys are making...

Like you said, cash, taking cash at the door, 100 bucks a head. He said there's 500 people there. I mean, that's 50 grand. - No, no, I was, yeah. And I had a whole system. I had a big event once a month and then I had multiple small events during it. So I was making big events, you'd make 15, 20 grand, small events.

a few thousand, you know? So it's crazy. When you're in college, it's like, you know. You go to law school. Your dad's a lawyer. Your brother Jim is a lawyer. Yep. And you didn't pass the bar. No. Did you try?

I did, twice. You did? What was it? You just didn't study? No, I studied. But it just wasn't your thing? It's a very big thorn in my side. Yeah, but it makes you stronger. Yeah, although I never passed. It's a hard one, you know, in that regard. No, I really did. Now, I was working. You know, I was, at the time, I started to work for, upon going on to the second one, second bar, I started to work for...

the kind of the first celebrity DJ, DJ AM and his manager Larry. And I was fortunate enough that they spotted me and took me in. They were like, you know, do your thing with us. You're great. So I was kind of like an assistant and like everything for them, like literally everything.

And so I think on the second one was, and we were opening the first club called LAX. Yeah. Um, I think on the second one, I was a little, ironically I did when you're close enough, you, they send you how many points you missed. Uh, and so I was off by like nine, like it was crazy. First one, I clearly just didn't, you know? Um,

And then I was like, you know what? It's just not for me. I was never going to law school to be a lawyer ever. There was a chance I wanted to be a sports agent because I worked for a sports agent. And I obviously liked that. You know, every, every, every, every guy loves, you know, has that dream of the sports agent world at some point, you know, type of thing. But yeah,

I, it wasn't for me. I really went, you know, my dad was pretty serious about, he was like, the one thing I ask is you get a law degree, no matter what you do. I don't care what you do in life. Have a lot of grade. And I'm very thankful for that because my mind is so artistic, like so often to artistic land that law school really grounded it to art.

Speak, read, write, and think in a processed way like tenfold. And really speaking, it does a whole thing for someone like me. And so I think that's why I'm really appreciative that I went.

even though it was not fun for me. Right. As you know, I also went to law school, hated every minute of it, hated practice. I had probably the worst start to a career, three jobs in eight months, basically told to leave. Well, once told to leave for sure. And the other move, move or leave. So I had a record, but me, I feel the same. Like I, today I learned how to think in a different way, a structured way, a very focused way that I didn't have before.

But it was very painful reading everyday case law and just like every word. I just can't stand what I'm reading and what I'm learning. But I think graduate degree is a helpful thing for a lot of people. Do you agree? I fully agree. I think, look, to each their own. You know, I know a lot of successful that don't. But I do think it matters. I do think it helps. You see a difference, at least myself. There's a difference in level of reading.

reading, writing, thinking, you know, processing. It's definitely a big difference. So when we're for people, crazy shit happens sometimes. You're working for DJ AM. He's with Travis Barker on his Lear 35A jet. The jet crashes. Yeah. But when did you learn about that? And tell us about your fear of the PJ now. Yeah, it's rough. Yeah, I mean, I...

We, I had, I had left, um, I had stopped working for them, uh, for AM and them, I don't know, maybe five months prior, six months prior. Um,

And they took he took a different like assistant on the on the trip because I didn't leave his side in that regard. And the plane went off the runway and everyone passed away. And besides Travis and I am in.

really like haunting to think, you know, a, I would have been on that, you know, be really brutally sad for the people on that, the passed away and their families. People died in that. Cause yeah, they didn't die though. No, they, they jumped out. But it was, it was a rough seat. It was a very rough situation. And I, it's been, you know, I'm, I'm better on the, on the private jet now only because there's big, there's, I don't know.

But it's been a, it was a fear. I mean, I would not take one for years and years and years. And to this day, I went to therapy over flying overall to this day, and I have to travel quite a bit. And to this day, I dread every moment of getting on a plane. You planned my bachelor party. And we'll talk about that later for sure. That was an incredible weekend. But I remember one of the guys in the group got us a private jet and he said,

I'm not going on a private jet. So you and I sat back and coached, I think, on a Southwest flight. I'm like, you can see everyone piloting on a private jet. Like, you know, John's my guy, and obviously we're going together. Sorry for that. No, don't be sorry. It was great. I don't think I would do that today again. The jet was too small. They were cramped in anyway. I will not take a... I mean, I sound like a... I can only say this because I don't own a private jet, but I would not take... I would not go on a small one. Yeah. I'd go on heavyset ones only, and then I'm okay. Right. But I am...

Absolutely hate it. Right. I hate every aspect of flying. Madison, we had a portfolio company. They were having a kickoff party up in San Francisco, and I couldn't make it because of the kids. I said, no. So one of the guys sent us a VLJ, very light jet, Honda jet.

Eclipse, I think it was. And it's a four-seater. And I just wondered if I could get into it because I'm very claustrophobic. And we get in and the thing is decked out. It's very, very nice. So we get there. We fly into a rainstorm that was coming. Okay, a little shaky on the way there. On the way back, we nearly died. We're coming into Santa Monica Airport, which is where people on the west side...

take off and land from. The jet was like a salt and pepper shaker. I've never been any, I've never seen anything like that. We're going to die. I said to Madison, we're going to die. We're going to die. She's calm as can be, you know, Madison very well. And I'm, I'm dying. And then I was worried the plane was going to break apart. And the two pilots, young 30 year old Marines stocky. And you can see the forearms of these guys just, and I kept,

Trying to talk to them. We okay? We okay? No response. And they were trying to get me. This was jet suite before they had the, before they had, you know, you could fly a commercial. You know, they wanted you to buy into their partnership or whatever. We get to Santa Monica below the clouds and I'm like, all right, this is so great. We're going to be fine. And there's a system on these jets where the,

Like the Mayday system comes on if something wrong is happening. So we're coming down to the runway and the lights start blinking, abort, abort, abort. And you could see this thing going like three feet off the runway, four feet off the runway. We're going to land, if we land, we're going to land on one of the buildings, the hangars. And all of a sudden you could see these guys again, just thrusting. You can see their muscles bulging. And we get up through the sky and

We're fine. We're like, that was the craziest shit. That was probably the closest I've come in my entire life to dying. We land at Burbank and we're like, okay, so we got to get an Uber back to Santa Monica. Our car's there. It's like one in the morning. The guy picks us up in the Uber and he has three tier jobs coming in.

Right out of the eye, tattoos. And for those people who don't know what that is, those are kills. Those are gang guys. If you have a teardrop, that's a kill. So we're driving back with some guy with three teardrops. And I'm saying to Madison, like, so we pretended to get on the phone with someone fake and said, oh, yeah, we're getting picked up. Yeah, he's a driver. He's cool. You know, his name is Miguel, whatever. You know, we're in this car and it's like, yeah, the ride's easy. The ride is we kept the phone open the whole time.

I bet you won't fly a small plane again. No, I'll never get in that plane again. That's the thing. Yeah. You know, some of our friends have planes, and it's nice. You know, we ride a couple of times. I don't like taking things from people. I feel obligated. So we'll fly coach sometimes when people ask. But, you know, the private jet is the ultimate luxury. Totally agree.

LAX, you don't own it, you work there and you mop floors. One of the things today that I think a lot of our generation, they don't like doing the shit work. How important was doing the shit work like mopping floors to your career? I think it was the make or break for me, I have to say. And I hate to, you're right, and I hate to sound like the old guy, but I have noticed the generational issue where it's like they're skipping so many steps.

But yeah, I like, you know, mopped the floors, I counted the cash, I made sure the repair maintenance, I made sure the promotions were good. Like it was like all of the above. It doesn't happen anymore at all. And like, I don't, where I think the issue is, my theory always is you could drop me in the middle of a foreign town and I'm going to figure it out with my business. I'll figure out, figure out the restaurant, figure out whatever. Because I had that background.

I think where a lot of the new generation, I won't say everyone, is they're skipping that major step of learning the building blocks and learning the work ethic that goes into it.

And who knows? We'll see what happens and shakes out from it. All of your venues have people who work in the bathroom full-time. Most of your venues, the nicer ones. You've got people who work full-time in the bathroom. They're dressed nicely. They have the mints there and the toothpicks and whatever else. They have tip jars there. And I like taking surveys in my head and just counting what percentage of people are leaving tips for mints

men and women who work in the bathroom. I mean, if you think about this, like if the bathrooms are smelly, the people are drunk.

The guys are sometimes peeing on the floor. They got to clean it up. I always make sure to tip everyone 20 bucks in whatever venue that I go into. And it just, it makes me mad that everyone just ignores them basically. I know. I agree. How, how hard are those jobs to fill? How many people are applying to work full time in one of your bathrooms? You know, we, I think we use outside services now on making sure to find that because it's not easy to find, to find a staff. Um,

It's not easy at all. You know, so it's good that you do that because not enough people do. Not enough people are like treating people well like that. It's crazy. I mean, they love me because I'm the biggest tip in the jar. And then when I come back to the bathroom, we had a few beers or whatever. It's like, you know, they're your best friend. Yeah. Yeah. At our charity event, you know, that we had at your venue. And we'll talk about that. A hundred bucks.

you know, just to make up, just to make up for it. Cause you know, people are just not tipping. Like that's our, our event, you know, we invited people there and it's like, you know, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta take care of people that are working. I always really try to like,

My big thing is always like bussers. They're the ones killing themselves. When you look at a busser and everyone's kind of ignoring them. So it's always really good to pay attention to those jobs in these places. So let's talk about the bussers. I was a waiter in college and in law school. Chi-Chi's. Chi-Chi's. The Olive Garden.

Oh, it wasn't all of them? Oh. No, both. Both. All right. We split. Chi-Chi's and all of them. Yeah, you know, like Chi-Chi's had a little tight with shirt, Spanish style with little frills on the arms. It was not the most masculine thing. I like it though. Yeah. Good, good, good experience. You really learned the customer service business when you're a waiter. Yeah. Tell us how the split works. So you get a tip.

Talk about the restaurant split and then the bottle girl split in terms of who gets what. Do the waiters have to give to the busboy, give to the tip jar, to the general staff? Well, so one thing is very important. We cannot get involved in tips as an owner. So we have to be very careful on that. That's number one. Number two...

You're referring to... So when you're saying bottle girls, that's for the... Or bottle... That's nightclubs. The nightclubs. But restaurant, like when I was a waiter, I had to give a certain amount to... I forget what percent of my tips. And then that was split between the busboys who don't get tips. Right. And that was a big part of their comp. So we do pooling. And so the pool will decide on...

what they're going to tip out to bussers and whatever. It honestly varies. It varies everywhere. Bartenders sometimes have their own tip pool. So it can vary. We have to stay very careful about not being involved in the tip process.

Because? California law. But yeah, that's how it goes. We're a house tip pool. Let's talk about your first club that you actually raised money for, The Stork, next to a mall. Yeah, well, attached to a mall. Yeah, attached to a mall. Two-story building, Warhol windows. Well, I put those in.

You put in the Warhol window. Yeah. So it was an old, yeah, it was an old Carl's Jr. At the side of Hollywood and Highlands. I have no idea what I was thinking. I was just a complete moron, you know, but I had a vision. I think I was a little ahead of my time with it because what I built there is really what I'm doing today with places. But it was like an old, it was an old Carl's Jr. It was like a bad space to take. And then we rebuilt it all. And I, and I went super,

you know, had Warhol window ship. What does that mean? A Warhol window? I'm a big, uh, I'm, I'm obviously big into art and, and, uh, furniture and stuff. And so, um, I'm a big vintage, vintage shopper, right? Sorcerer. And, um, the, the Warhol's factory was up for auction. Uh, you know, the factory and that he did all this art in New York. Um,

And so there was a way to get the windows, which were like gorgeous, these gorgeous windows that did not get made today and like crazy. Colored glass. Like a slightly frosted glass, like, you know, stuff that doesn't get made. It was like really cool and shipped them from, you know, New York and did a bunch of things like that. Right. And built this insane. I think it was like 14,000 square feet, two story building.

called the stork which was a you know i've always had a love of history and historical old school places the stork supper club in new york was like one of the cool old places um and so that was you know we raised money from friends and family and and and launched it and it was my first my first thing but i went a little too hardcore like you know you had to recite a poem to get in the door

You had to do... Well, let's talk about the tea room separately because that was separate, right, from the Stork? No, tea room came later. But I thought the poem was for the tea room. No, it was for in Stork. Okay, so that's sort of nuts. Yeah, it's nuts. So... It was pretty cool. It's very cool. I mean, it's very different. Very different. So how old are you at this point when you opened the Stork? I was 27, I think, 28.

It was 2007 it opened. So yeah. And you raised two to $3 million for it? Yeah. Yeah. And, um, who'd you go to? I mean your parents, right? Parents, friends and family, you know, and, um, it was a great learning lesson. Um, unfortunately didn't work out. Uh, but we built everything off of it. You know, we were always able to bring good crowds. So we brought such big crowds that,

It actually ended up becoming a public nuisance. But the tea room that you're talking about, the tea room was actually a pretty cool story and why what I think I learned from that is what we ended up kind of building off of with HWOOD. Can we just go back before we get into the tea room for one second? Who did you go to to raise money, a 27-year-old, first time raising a lot of money,

like that? How did you convince people to invest? Well, I went to... I had a pretty great network, fortunately, thanks to Harvard Westlake, USC, Pepperdine Law School, family and friends. I had a good network. I think most... I think everyone, whether they...

I'd be hard-pressed to find someone to not say that I'm extremely above board. And so I think that's always really important for an investor. So even at a young age, and I think it was good that I had gone to law school because at least I had some under me, but I think even at a young age with zero credibility for owning a place,

The one thing was, was having that, you know, people knew that I've never done a drug in my life. You know, I'm not into it for, you know, anything other than business and being above board, you know, and we didn't, you know, I didn't take a salary that whole time. Oh, it's dark. I mean, I lived at home with my parents, you know, so I did stuff that people wouldn't do. You can't predict success or failure, but you can, you can behave in a way that,

makes people trust you and know that you're in it for the right reasons. And that's how I was. That's how I am to this day. And we had like 30 investors, literally, 30 or 40 investors, like a public offering. So 25, $50,000 checks? 25 up to like 150, I think was what it was, yeah.

So tell us about Samir and the Tea Room. So the Tea Room, I wish I still had it. Very special place. Basically, what we realized was at the time, we changed the name from Stork to H-Wood. And it was this big place. It was a restaurant, nightclub, lounge, everything. And one thing that we did have going for us is we were always bringing, at the time, the paparazzi world was getting big.

And we had we were bringing big friends or becoming pretty big celebrities and they needed a place to like have a privacy. So we had this dead space. It was legitimately a storage closet. It was like the size of I mean, it was, I think, a thousand square feet, which is very small. And I had my friend from high school, Samir, who had come to me about his his family was big in the tea world.

And he had this idea about, and this is all at the same time, he had this idea about doing tea infused liquor and making it like healthy and wellness and, you know, kind of all the above. So we had this idea of like putting together this like kind of like interesting idea where it's like, it's called the tea room. So it's like people feel kind of good saying they're going to the tea room even though they're going to a bar and making it like the most exclusive place, like by a landslide. So since it's small and like off to the side,

And that's what we ended up doing. And it became literally the biggest hit in LA. That was the place that everyone wanted. Wasn't Katy Perry coming to the tea room and that helped?

all people knew, knew she was coming there. So that helped sort of put you on the map. Yeah. She was a massive supporter, you know, stuff like that, like made a massive difference, you know, and we had a handful of those that, that would come and be there. And it was just, honestly, it's a good little, good little vibe. And the DJ, the DJ was on a piano. Um, uh, so it was like a fun, you know, different thing. Um, it was just, it was cool. You know, it wasn't,

It wasn't stuffy when you got in. When you were able to get in, it was just like you had gotten in and it was like a good little vibe. We'll talk about why it shut down in a minute. But Stork shut down and then you reopened it a few months later as H-Wood, correct? Yep. So now let's talk about you being harassed by the police. Yep. And picking you up, driving you around. Yep.

dropping you off in the middle of nowhere, crooked cops. Yeah, they were. They were. They would come in and arrest, handcuff me. They took my partner, they took Brian to jail, you know, handcuffed, took him in. He was put in a cell by himself. Yeah. They would handcuff me and drive me around. They were wanting a payoff because I think vice was getting paid off by everyone else. 5K a month was going right back then. Something like that. And, um,

You know, there was in my head at one point I was like, man, do I just like what do I do? But I've just it goes back to how you're raised. You know, my my my dad and mom are so above board. And you like, thank God that that's how I was raised, because you can't ever go back when you change that way. So I just I stayed super firm. And look, I lost the battle because they ended up getting a shutdown. But thank God I never paid anyone off. And thank God I never did, because they turned out to be crooked cops. They got caught.

And the guy, the main sergeant, got caught years later on taking bribes and whatever. But unfortunately, he had done his thing with us and run us out. And I'll never forget, we went to court on this public nuisance. And I will never forget sitting there, the entire LAPD force came in to testify. It was crazy. It was so sketchy. The police brotherhood.

And what's crazy, and so now, ironically, I'm so active for the LAPD now, and they're amazing. I help with the LAPF, and I think it was just a bad sergeant, bad cop, honestly. It's a bad little section.

It's crazy. They're all out. Well, it's crazy that they took these bribes for a long period of time and they didn't get fired. Well, they got fired. And I think they got fired in the end, years later. I'm not sure what ended up happening, but pretty sure got fired or went on whatever. But it's crazy. And it's like they don't teach you that stuff. And, you know, when you're coming out, it's like they don't teach you how to handle that. You know, very scary getting handcuffed and driven around.

Very scary. I've been handcuffed before in a police car. It's crazy. And I'll tell the story here, you know, the first time. There may or may not have been a second time. But I had a girlfriend who lived in Brentwood. I lived in Brentwood and I was on the enter list.

And I had a key. I left my key at home, and she, you know, we were in a fight, and then she texted me, okay, come on over. So it was like 12 o'clock at night. And I go over there in my big Detroit Red Wings hoodie and my sweatpants, and I've got slippers on, and her roommate hated me because when you have a boyfriend as a roommate and the boyfriend takes over, then you're blowing off your roommate. So they're no longer friends. So she really despised me. Yeah.

And so my girlfriend at the time was drunk and had taken some NyQuil. So I...

get in because they let me in i'm on the list i get in there and i'm knocking like on the wall and i'm saying hey you know i'm not going to mention your name but i said hey hey and i'm not gonna know who it is not gonna knock on there i'll tell you when we're done shooting um and i'm knocking on the door and you know i'm like hey let me in let me in let me in and i'm standing out there for maybe five minutes the next thing i know elevator opens and

Have you ever had a gun pointed at you with one of the red lights circling your chest? No. So these two guys, three people come out of the elevator. They're shouting on me, get down, get down, get down. And there's a red dot circling on me. Down now, down now. They come up and they basically push me onto the floor, knee in the back, handcuffs behind the back. I'm thinking, oh my God, like this is fucking nuts. What's going on here?

And I saw my whole career flash in front of me, right? Like I'm this successful businessman. I think I have a good reputation. And I'm on the floor with a knee on my back like I'm a perp. And the guy stands me up, leans me on the wall. They frisk you, right? And then he said, you know, what are you doing here? I was invited. My girlfriend lives there. When? I said, I have a BlackBerry. You know, let me get it. They're like,

I'll reach it from your pocket. And there was some code when you call in breaking and entering. Yeah. There's some code that goes out on the radio. And these cops will put the sirens on 100 miles per hour. You get where you're going. Someone could get murdered right now. And, you know, they blow through stoplights. They put themselves at risk. And their adrenaline is pumping when they see someone standing outside its own place and

And so I said, let me get out the Blackberry. And so I said, no, he'll put it out, turn it on. I still have the cuffs on and I had to turn it on and give the guy the code, the password. And then he said, uncuff him. Because I said, hey, come on over. And the cops were fucking irate. Absolutely irate. And I said to the cops, you should arrest the girlfriend.

And by the way, to this day, to this day, the police report is still there. Like you, you can't, you can't waive it. You're from the record. Huh? It's, you know, they told me, you know, no one, no one would ever find this. That's really funny. Deposed one day. Oh my gosh. Here we go. Here we go. But I did something very smart, by the way. And again, we'll talk about preparation and how that's a key part of my success. I thought about in the future, I said, all right, not going to marry this girl.

I got to get something in writing. Yeah. So I had her write a letter to the police. Yeah. This was completely unfair. It never happened. It never should have been. And then I had notarized. Right. Just thinking ahead. You know, nothing would run for office. That would never happen. But I thought, hey, I got to. Never know. Speaking career, you never know. I know.

I definitely know. So you have a lot of failures. Yeah. And you're 27 years old. You're penniless. Yeah. And you move back into your parents' house in your childhood bedroom. Yeah. Tough time. It was a low time.

We've all been there. What were you thinking when, you know, can you remember the day where you actually were moving back in and you got your suitcases or boxes sort of sitting on your bed that night? Yeah. I mean, I do remember, I do remember moving back in and I do remember. It's so weird because I think I have like, I think I have like almost sometimes an unhealthy optimism, but it's gotten me through life. So I can't knock it.

Because I just, I think I, you know, most, I think most people at the time would be so depressed. And I was more the opposite. I was more like, I'm going to find, I'm going to work harder. I'm going to like,

do X, Y, and Z better. It's like a crazy fire under me. I remember my parents one time were like, okay, what are you going to do now? I'm like, what do you mean? And they're like, you want to go figure out job-wise? I'm like, no, I'm doing this. And they're like, literally nothing. So it was a low time. However, I really put a lot of fire under myself. You know?

That's how I get through things. How important is failure and resilience to our future success? It'd be hard-pressed to find not failing to be successful. I don't know how it happens because you almost have to. And it's unfortunate because I'm sure there's people that are very successful that had no failures, but I don't know. I mean, it's crazy because you need that drive.

You know, I always say that I work like Kobe played, where it's like I always have to have some sort of like anger in me. And I don't mean that in like an actual way. I mean it like I'm like driven to like I got to like win. I got to like have I got to have it be the best I got, you know. And if you don't have that failure under you, I'm very thankful that, you know, knock on wood, my big failures were early. But you never know. We have failures along the way.

You know, it's just all how, it's all how you take it and pivot and react. And we have to take a step back sometimes to take a step forward. So the next job you got was at the Beverly as a promoter. So you no longer own

a club. You're back to a promoter. So you're taking a massive step back. You're getting paid to bring people in to the Truesdale. So tell us about, well, to the Beverly and then tell us about Guy Starkman, the relationship there, and then how that basically turned back to where you wanted to go. Yeah. It's like, you know, it's, you never know where life's going to take you. So I'm really big on relationships and kind of like just believing in, in letting things like

Come as they do good work and see how things play out. And so my Brian, my partner, Brian, who we started H-Wood together and store, he was always really close with Guy Starkman. And Guy was like an older version of us. He had guys. He had Jerry's Deli. His family was Jerry's Deli. And he had Truesdale nightclub. And then he had turned his one nightclub called Guys into the Beverly.

And Brian was like, you know, we lost Atria. We lost all of our clubs. You know, he's like, I'm either going to go back to business school or, and I'm like, can't like we have to, we'll, we'll rebuild, we'll figure something out. And he, he got us, you know, he,

Guy was like, I'm opening this. Why don't you come like really be a major part of it? So me and Brian went and did that, opened it and were promoters for it, which, you know, I absolutely hated that going back to that. However, I embraced it. And like, you know, both of us and we

Did a good job. And luckily, you know, we stayed close with him. And luckily, you know, he came to us one day and he had another club. And he was like, if you guys could raise some money, why don't you? I don't care anymore about this. He's like, why don't you buy Truesdale from me?

So we did. We raised some money. $2 million. I don't remember what the total was at the time, but around that. Yeah, around $2 million. $1 million, I think, went to Guy, and another million went to build out the club. I don't remember exactly the thing. But whatever it was, it was probably around that. But we bought it, and we had this idea.

I had mutual friends with David Arquette who was just coming off of Beecher's Madhouse. And he had this whole idea that I love to do this experiential nightlife, nightclub world, which was really innovative at the time. And I love the fact that all of our big friends and family and clients were all in that West Hollywood area so we could really capitalize.

And so that spot ended up becoming Bootsy Veloz, which was a wild success. And we named it after his mom. His mom was a pinup girl in the 60s. Her name was Bootsy Veloz. So we had this whole thing where puppets walking around and burlesque girls. And it was just a fun, very interactive nightclub.

That and it was really that that got us back on our path and we were like, we can really do this. That's from there. So thank God for Guy and taking a step back, as you said, because...

Had I had too big of an ego and said, no, I'm not going to go be a promoter, I would have never really been in that position. I wouldn't be here today. One of the biggest mistakes for people in the workforce when things aren't working out or they're not happy is they're not willing to take a step back to move forward. I think it's absolutely crazy. It is crazy, but you have to. You have to learn how to do it. Suck it up. You have to learn how to do it and not hold on. A lot of our...

Success. Cool things happen at specific moments. July 5th, 2012, Katy Perry's movie comes out that night and she brought everyone back in a van to Bootsy Bell's. I think it was your first night opening. So she had Justin Bieber in the van. Big, big night for you. Yeah, that was a big night.

That was a good night. You weren't expecting her to come that night and bring all these cool people? No, but she's one of the greatest supporters to us. So that's a good one. But yeah, stuff like that really catapulted us. You know that...

I am responsible for almost burning down Bootsy Bellows and Katy Perry saving Bootsy Bellows from burning to the ground. Why? I don't know about this. So the story was, I'm single and it's really awesome for a not that cool guy like me to have friends like you that are cool.

And I remember I said, hey, Randy, what are you up to tonight? And I said, oh, I've got this date with this girl. It's a first date. He said, why don't you come by? Katy Perry is having a private party for this guy, Faraz, who she just signed. He's a piano player. He's going to be the next Sam Smith. I'm like, no, I'm not sure. He said, come on by. So went to Boa Steakhouse across the street. And then I went to Bootsy Bell's. You know, I want to go there. I want to go there.

And Bootsy Bell has had a second room in the back for those people that don't know. There's a piano there and beautiful boosts. And we had one right next to the piano. And there were these little votive candles. Yep.

And at some point I'm sitting there talking to this date, first date, and it starts smoking. And there's smoke coming up everywhere. And she had this beautiful white leather jacket that actually caught on fire. Like there were flames there. And Katy Perry comes over and notices it and takes the jacket that was burning and starts slapping the votive candle like this. And it was just, it was a crazy story. It's good.

The story gets a little, yeah, I saved you. The story gets a little crazier. Sounds like Katie saved us. Yeah, Katie saved you. Yeah, it was my fault. Yes, yes. You were the arson. Very unresponsible guest. The story gets a little crazy, by the way, and I'm going to divert this for a little bit because it comes back to Katie. I went back to her apartment that night.

And she had all these nice clothes. And she had just moved to Los Angeles. She was a model. Her dad was a police officer up north. Her mom was a hairdresser who was cutting hair in a small town for $12 a haircut. And so she had moved here, and she had only been here for two months. She had all these nice things, Barney's bags in the closet,

And I later learned that she was, and this happens in LA. I didn't know this thing was a thing, but I found out that a wealthy man was paying her a certain amount of money a year to give her a car and clothing allowance. And then he could, I mean, you've heard these stories. I mean, I didn't know this even existed, right? This was in the movies. And so this was your first date? This was our first date. How'd you meet her? On Facebook. Okay.

She wrote, and by the way, my wife knows the story. She thinks I was creepy. By the way, when I was single, people would set you up on these blind dates. Oh, she's beautiful, whatever, whatever. And then you get there and it was like false advertising sometimes. And so you go to Facebook and 30 pictures don't lie.

And so this woman had posted, I had friended her weeks, I said, who's going to Vegas this weekend? I had no plans on going to Vegas, but I said, hey, I may be there. And so that started the conversation and then, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So I learned this of this relationship. I'm like, OK, this is absolutely nuts. We're done.

The Grammys, as you know, has this charity function the night before. And where all the people who are playing at the Grammys play. So I was invited. I went. And I mean, everyone was there. I mean, Bruce Springsteen was the main guy who played seven songs. But I mean, everyone, Neil Young, Katie played. And I saw Katie, who was sitting there.

you know, two tables away and I love Katy Perry and I wanted to go take a picture and say, hey, Katy, I'm Randy. I met you with John. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She didn't know who I was, but yeah, yeah, yeah. And I said, do you remember the fire and you slapping down the Jag and she said, yeah. And she said, you still dating her? And I said, no. And I just gave her the one lighter and she said, what a fucking bitch.

Great. So that was the last time I saw Katie. I like that. There you go. So I'm glad I didn't burn down your van. Actually, I'm glad I'm not responsible for burning down Bootsy Bellows. Very glad. Thank God. So Bootsy's a hit. And right around the time that, a little later, you had a concept for a Westside venue at a hotel. I'm not sure how much you want to get into this, but...

Someone stole the concept. It became massively successful. And the guy told you, you're going to be a no one, so I'm going to take advantage of you. Yeah. What?

What can you say publicly? And then how did that motivate you and say, hey, screw you. I am going to be somebody and we'll see what happens. Yeah. You know, I won't name names, but yeah, we created a whole really cool concept that I was, and this is actually right before Bootsy Bellows. They were kind of. Same time. Yeah. I, you know, since I long time Westside and I knew that like there needed to be some sort of new nightlife in the Westside. I'd grown up there and.

My family's all Santa Monica and all that. So I was like, you know, there's gotta be something there. So I created, or we had my company team and I had created this like really cool concept to do at a hotel. They stole it. Um, and you know, really like wrote me a, I don't know, 10 grand check or something, which to me it was a big deal to like, I couldn't not take a, to like not sue them. Right. Um, so I was so angry that, um,

You know, I went and convinced, I went and found another bar next to Giorgio's. I started to go in there. Total shithole. Total shithole. Called the hideout. Called the hideout, yeah. I took my wife on our first date was basically there at Giorgio's. I was like, I want to see this place next door. So we went in there and she was like, there's literally holes in the wall. Like it was absolutely crazy. Flies on like the bar and stuff. It was pretty bad.

But I had convinced, you know, it had been dilapidated. And fortunately, I had waited around long enough for weeks and I had convinced the owner to give me a shot. And I think the way I convinced him was I said, I told him the story of how I'd gotten screwed. And I said, I'm so hungry. I'm going to literally anything. My entire life is going to live and breathe this place. Like we are. I'm going to crush it.

And so he was like, okay, you know, it's yours. And he gave me $100,000 to redo it, which is insane that I redid the place for $100,000. And it turned into what I called Shore Bar. Had a hybrid model where there was a members room up top. Everyone had a locker. It was a whole touch and feel thing and became a massive hit.

massive hit. It really was like the West Side Nightlife. And so, as of last year, we don't have it anymore, but it was a 12-year run. Long time for a bar. Yeah. You made me cool because I got the membership. It was packed. There were lines out front. I'd just be like, oh, yeah, Randy. Yeah, you're a member. Oh, yeah. I mean, they all knew that we were really good friends. And so there was a second level of

where that was really cool. There were lounges. I mean, downstairs are a couple of booths, stand up tables, and then there was a big lounge upstairs where you had your own bartender. So yeah, I mean, you know, it's funny that model to this day is what I see what works is that very deep touch where it's like, you know, you have that people want to have that extra level of care. And so that's that really worked there. Welcome to part one of my incredible interview with one of my closest friends, John Terzian, who's

who's the founder of the H-Wood Group, which owns 11 of the most successful nightclub and restaurant venues around the world. Stay tuned for some of the craziest customer service stories you've ever heard in your life.