Ep17 Dana Newcomer-Lopez - 35 Million Social Media Impressions on a Shoestring Budget: A Blueprint for Restaurant Survival

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  0:00  
Yeah, so I just was looking at all these different content creators, and I want to invite them to grand opening, smaller following, maybe they'll be happy for a free meal and shoot some content. I reached out to about six of them, and they all agreed, and now they have all blown up.

Scott Groves  0:13  
And how much traction Have you gotten the last couple years in social media marketing and people walking in the door because you just started with a conversation of like, Hey, this is what we're doing. Can you come make some content? I'll feed you for free. Welcome to Henderson HQ. This is the podcast where you get all the stories behind the businesses that make our community tick. Don't forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Hey there. Scott groves with the Henderson HQ Podcast. Today, we talked to my friend Dana, who is the managing partner for the angry Crab Shack off of sunset here in Henderson. And I gotta tell you, at first I was hesitant to interview somebody that is the owner in a larger multinational corporation franchise, but the conversation today was just a great reminder that behind every franchise, there is a franchisee who's paying the bills, investing their money, building the community. It was a great conversation. We talked all about staffing and margins and what she loves about living in Henderson, so check it out. Thanks for watching. Hey. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, Henderson HQ family. Scott groves here with the Henderson HQ podcast and the newsletter. Don't forget to subscribe at Henderson hq.com I'm actually here with a new friend, Dana, but in some ways, we're old friends, because when we moved up to Henderson about four years ago, the first restaurant that we discovered that was right down the street from our house was angry Crab Shack. And then come to find out years later that this is your establishment. So we got to know each other at a recent event we did there for a UNLV game. And welcome to the podcast. Dana, thank you. Thank you. All right, so how does one decide to open a very complicated business of a seafood restaurant? I have a little bit of insight in this, because my 22 year old, who lives in New York, wants to work in sustainable seafood, so he works at a seafood warehouse. He's actually the warehouse manager now, because he's the only person that can show up on time. So I hear all the stories behind the scenes about crab and lobster and shrimp, and I know more about the oyster reproductive system than I cared to ever know. And I know it's complicated. So how do you come about to be a restaurant tour?

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  2:20  
Well, a little crazy. No, just kidding. Yeah, no. So my sister used to work for the franchise, the brand, okay? And at the time, you know, there was nothing like this in Vegas, nothing at all. And she kept on saying, Dana, you know, you really got to open one in Henderson. She says, it's going to take off. It's going to do great. And I says, All right, you know, talked with my husband about it, and he's so safe. He's like, That's risky. I don't want anything to do with it. So after talking to him a few times, he was like, well, we at least got to go to Arizona, because that's where the hub is. Okay, we at least got to go to Arizona and try the food and check it out before I make any decisions, I'm like, All right, done. So we catch a flight, we go down there, and we just loved the vibe. We love the vibe, we love the food, we love the energy. We love the fact so I have a seafood sensitivity, not so much an allergy, but a sea seafood sensitivity. So I really can't even eat seafood. My husband loves seafood, so I would go to,

Scott Groves  3:28  
you go to seafood restaurant, and you can't eat seafood.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  3:31  
Well, trust me, I do every once in a while. It's like, I'll take a Benadryl. I'm like, I'm not missing out on this or whatever. But yeah, I have a sensitivity to it. After I had my daughter and my hormones changed, and yeah, Whoa, yeah. We used to do seafood buffets all the time, before my daughter and nothing, and then after I had her. And you

Scott Groves  3:49  
don't have a background in the restaurant business like you and your husband didn't grow up in Vegas, working the restaurant scene or anything like that.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  3:56  
So my family has a background, okay, restaurant business, my mother, my grandmother, my father, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, we opened bars, one restaurant, but a lot of bars and clubs, so I think to the tune of like, eight, okay, in Albuquerque. So I've always kind of been immersed in it. You know, my first job was being a dishwasher at a restaurant, okay? You know. Then I was a busser, and I waited tables, I cocktailed, so I kind of had an idea with the hospitality, how, how that went, you know, so and plus, I'm in the service industry. I also have a skincare business, so I don't know, it's food and it's skincare, but it's at the end of the day, it's about the guest. Yeah, you know the guests? I love that. Yeah, at the end of the day, it's about the guest. So I feel like I'm pretty good with that.

Scott Groves  4:47  
And so how long have you guys been opened? It'll be six

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  4:51  
years that we've had the keys, which was March 1. So six years of March, end of January, end of this month. It'll be five years that we've been open. Nice.

Scott Groves  5:02  
Is it true? Like, somebody's gonna fact check me on the stats and give me a nasty comment, but is it true that, like, 50 or 60% of restaurants fail in the first five years, or there's some god awful number like that? Oh yeah, yeah, okay, yeah.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  5:14  
It's no joke. And especially Vegas, Vegas is a hard nut to crack. And Henderson, yeah, I've seen and I said, this going into this, because we do have partners. And I said, you know, I have seen multi million dollar franchises not make it, you know, it has to have a different approach. It has to have a different approach. And it truly, truly does, being that as a franchise, you know, they're like, follow this model, which, by the way, it's a great model, but I think on the marketing side, needs to be tweaked, tweaked a little per capita, okay? Because every city is a little different, and things that might work a little better in Arizona, you know, probably won't work so well in Nevada or Georgia or Texas, you know, so. But it's tough. It's a tough gig for restaurants in general, but I do think for Henderson and Las Vegas. So we're pretty proud that it's been, will be five years that we've been open through covid.

Scott Groves  6:12  
It's well, it's pretty crazy, because a lot of people have asked me this, of like, what's the been? The most surprising thing about moving to Vegas or Henderson, it's like, you know what you're getting when you move to Vegas. The number one, most surprising thing is how quickly we've built community here. But number two is, like, you can walk into any restaurant in any strip mall, anywhere in the city, and it's going to be generally good, because bad restaurants just don't make it out here. There's there's so many options, there's so much, so much competition. Like, if you guys weren't good, you wouldn't have made it five years.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  6:42  
That's so true. Well, and I, like I said, you know, moment ago, and we survived covid. Yeah, you know, we survived.

Scott Groves  6:51  
So you opened, you opened right as covid was hitting and nobody could come in the door.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  6:55  
We got our keys March 1. Two weeks later, we covid happened. Oh, and my husband was like, really, you know? And well, it's only gonna be a couple weeks, you know, oh, it's only gonna be a couple more weeks, and so on and so forth. And we had to, you know, the PPEs and how to set up the restaurant and the spacing, and there's the shields, you know, between the booths. And, you know, we went through all that, and then everybody got checks. So everybody was buying crab legs. I mean, it was great, you know, it was great. But then once all the dust settled, you know, what did that look like, right? You know. So that's been a little bit of a challenge. You know,

Scott Groves  7:35  
what was surprising for you in setting up the business like, maybe, what was the biggest surprise you weren't expecting, working with a franchise, franchise or and then what's been like, the best thing that you've gotten as far as support of being a franchise.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  7:49  
So I think the hardest part is the marketing side of it. You know, to their credit, they've got, I want to say, and don't quote me, but I want to say there's like 15 locations in the Phoenix metropolitan area, so they all can kind of bounce off each other. So they basically, they have the visibility, the visibility, right? So when I express needs, you know, it's, it's not really taken, I don't want to say it's not taken seriously. It is taken seriously. But just kind of, Oh, it'll be fine. It'll be fine. It's just, I feel like we should have looked at this store, Henderson, as the only angry Crab Shack ever being open, right, right? You know, because you are the first one in the city, yeah? Pretend is the first one ever, and then take that approach, yeah. How would you market? You know, you have to build the business, right? You know, so, and it's a new franchise. It's still kind of in its I would say toddler phase. I wouldn't say infancy. I'd say, you know, we're getting to the toddler phase, you know. And it's a great they've got great food, great support, great recipes, you know. But that's the hardest part, is the marketing of it, yeah, you know. So within the last year, they've really said, Okay, kind of taken a step back and given us a little more freedom, you know, expanding on the marketing side of things.

Scott Groves  9:07  
Yeah, yeah. And same thing. Don't quote me on this. I can't remember the stats exactly, but I have a client down in LA who's open 2830 bars, builds it sells it. Builds the next one sells it, whatnot. And he told me some stat, and I'm gonna butcher this, but you'll get the idea of, like, 60% of the reoccurring clientele comes from, like, living within two miles of the bar, maybe even a mile. And then it's like, you know, it expands this circle out to where, if you get somebody that comes into the bar that lives 1015, miles away, you can kind of treat them like garbage, because they're never coming back anyway. It's like, especially bars are this very local, like, you go to your local bar, you can walk home, you get an Uber for 10 bucks. You can have a cocktail drive home. What do you find in the restaurant industry? Like, will people drive across town for the right food? Or do are you just geo targeting your market within two miles of. The location, five miles of the location. Like, have you seen anything on that? On like, who's your reoccurring clients that come in frequently?

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  10:06  
Well, it's funny, because it's all across the board. Really, it's all, yeah, we have people coming in town from, you know, far SEMA. So three guys came in from Wyoming for SEMA. They saw our social media post in Wyoming. They loved it so much. They came back with another eight guys from SEMA, and they were on the Strip. Oh, yeah. So we get that all the time, yeah, we see you in Texas. We see your social media in Texas, this was the first stop, really, yeah, yeah. So we get a lot of Vegas, just visitors that, and they find out about us from our social media. Now we do have also the pocket of locals, you know that I've got a couple that they come every Wednesday, every stinking Wednesday, for their date night or date lunch, you know. And they've been doing that for a while, you know, and it's just so you and it's just not them. There's multiple couples like that and people, right, you know, so and then I have, I have some great friends, and they live on the other side of the world, in North town, you know. And they come from Craig and the 95 and they'll drive all the way to the restaurant to eat because they love our seafood, you know, obviously to support too. But Right, right? They love it. They absolutely love it. So, you know, I think it's a little bit of everything

Scott Groves  11:28  
it is. When we go out once every other week for like, dinner, it's always a coin toss. As we're driving down the street, it's like, Okay, guys, are we going to angry crab shack or we go to sushi? And it's about 5050, that we that we pick the two. But talk about your social media, because I was in there and you had some had some social media influencers in there doing the lobster stuff, like, what made you think about adopting social media early to tell the story about the restaurant. What has that process look like? Like? Talk a little bit about that, because I know you've done it very, very well.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  11:56  
Thank you. The first year, when we opened, we had our grand opening, I want to say, five months after we opened, and I just started noticing on Instagram, there was a lot of foodies, you know. And five years ago that was kind of, it was a new thing. It was a new thing, right, right? And I thought, we need to ride this wave, you know. Because I was looking at all the viewers, I was looking at the content, I would even look at the viewers that liked the information in the page, and some were local, some were out of the state. And I thought, you know, this is great visibility, because I was managing the social media page at first, and I'm it's kind of embarrassing what I would post versus, you know what our social media guy posts now, you know, and, but yeah, so I just was looking at all these different content creators, and I'm thought, well, I want to invite them to grand opening, but if they're too big, I have to pay them, and I know we really can't afford them. So if they're new, kind of smaller following, you know, maybe they'll be happy for a free meal and shoot some content. And I reached out to about six of them, and they all agreed, and now they have all blown up like Talia. She's a big deal. Was she the

Scott Groves  13:14  
one that my son was knocking on the lobster with? No, that's Joy food.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  13:17  
So, yeah, awesome. She is awesome. And she actually first got viral through our restaurant. Oh, that's cool, yeah. So the It's beautiful, because so many foodies have gone viral from a restaurant like Las Vegas. Phil, he's the lobster King, and I think to this day, don't quote me, but last I heard, he's got the most views and likes on his angry crab post to date, nice, yeah, and he's big deal, you know, so, So anyhow, we found six, and one of them, his name was Amir and joy, and I forget the other gentleman. He's no longer a part of their partnership, but he approached me and he says, who's doing your social media page. And I'm like, Well, I am, you know. And he says, Well, I'd like to manage your social media page. So I sat back, you know, I talked with my partners. Everybody's like, okay, you know, Sure, let's do it. And the difference with him managing the page versus me and what I could create like, I know what I want. I know what I want it to look like. I just can't get it there, right, you know. So, yeah, so he took it over, and we had him for about a couple years, almost two years in talking with the partners and stuff, we thought, you know, we it's an expense, you know, is it really equating to the business? Are we getting, you know, an ROI on it? And I says, I think so, because, you know, I'm here and my managers are saying, Oh yeah, social media. They saw it on Instagram. They saw it on Tiktok, you know. And they were like, oh, there's no way. And I'm like, yeah, there it's happening, you know. So I acquiesce. And I says, All right, fine, we'll get rid of social media. And. And we'll have, we'll manage it in house. At this point, they had created a platform to where I can kind of upload things a little easier that looked a lot better than what I could your you know, which is a great tool to have for any franchisee that doesn't have the means of, you know, hiring a social media person or is not at all good with posts like myself, so, but that just wasn't grabbing the attention that I needed. I didn't think, you know, so we waited about a year and a half, and you know, it's that slow decline right in business, and you're just like, You got to pivot. You got to pivot. You got to find you got to figure something out. Just try something. And, you know, we just reverted back to the social media, which we felt that worked. So I reached back out to my social media guy, you know, because I just think he's great, you know. And if I could have him forever, I would really and he said, you know, absolutely so by having him, that opens the door to all his foodies, right, right? So it's kind of like they pay respect to their accounts. So, you know, he can say, Hey, come on down, and they won't charge you, you know, outside of feeding them, you know, they don't charge you the fee. Because normally, I think it's anywhere from 500 to $1,000 especially if you have large following, right? You know, so if you're well established, so we were able to kind of waive all that they got viral. So everybody's super willing to do it, because, believe it or not, we're going

Scott Groves  16:32  
viral. Everybody's winning, right? Yeah,

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  16:35  
it takes a village, right? Yeah. It really takes a village.

Scott Groves  16:38  
You know, I think something to be learned in there is, like, a lot of times when people think of business partnerships or whatever, they're thinking contracts and profit share and all this crazy stuff. And it's funny that that whole Genesis story is, like, I just reached out and invited some people for a free dinner. Like, how easy is that, right? And how much traction Have you gotten the last couple years in social media marketing, and people walking in the door because you just started with a conversation of, like, Hey, this is what we're doing. Can you come make some content? I'll feed you for free. It was probably not a lot of money to begin with. And then, you know, obviously people deserve to be paid for their services if they're managing the marketing. But just good reminder for the business people out there of, like, it doesn't, don't overthink it, just make the call and reach out, yeah, yeah.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  17:21  
And he was, they were so gracious. And, you know, like I said, I been outside of that little break. We're going on five years working together, you know, so, yeah, I don't know. I think it's a great thing. I think it's a good way to pivot. I think it's a good way to get yourself visibility. Well, we have a platform that we can really kind of monitor and really get a tangible idea on how many views, you know, how many impressions, how many interactions, and the last 90 days, at last, I saw it was 35 million impressions just from your Instagram. There are tick tock, just from the Tick Tock the Instagram and the Facebook, whoa, 35 million impressions, yes. So now, if you narrow it down, you know, is it all Henderson people? No, right? But I think for a franchise side, you know, that's visibility for the brand, because it's New York. It's Costa Rica, you know, it's, I mean, it's all over the map, right? But 35 million impressions, yeah,

Scott Groves  18:29  
and that's going to be giving some boost to like, the people in Phoenix, right? Because somebody sees on social media, obviously, they're not driving to Henderson, but they'll, they'll look up their local place. Hey, Scott grove. Just want to take a quick interruption here to give you a rundown of a couple businesses that are supporting the Henderson HQ, newsletter, podcast, website, Instagram, all the things number one, ethereal Med Spa, a true gym for your skin. Check them out. Ethereal Med Spa here in Henderson, right bet Auto Body love everything that they can do for you, whether it's a scratch and dent or whether it's a full custom remodel of a classic car. And then shout out to my friend Casey Hallstatt. He is the owner of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu. They have everything from very beginners, kids at four or five years old to the old man class that meets at six o'clock in the morning, which was where I'm at every morning. And also my friend Val who's doing some of the Instagram content for us, she runs a women's self defense class on Friday night. So whether you're a seasoned black belt, or you're just thinking about giving jiu jitsu a chance, or you want to get your kids into it, shout out to Casey Halstead, 10th Planet, and back to the podcast. This whole story is so interesting to me, just because you didn't own a restaurant before, and you guys took the risk to do this. What's next? Like? Are you going to open another, another location? Are you happy with where you're at? You mentioned little downturn in business, but now things seem to be on the on the upswing again, thanks to the social media so

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  19:52  
well, thanks to social media, that's helping, but I think we could do better. You know, we're really focusing on our grassroots. And one thing I can say, I. Outside of our competitors, we really give back to the community outside of the restaurant. Put that aside, just as a family, we did that before. And the beautiful thing about this brand, they do that in Arizona, they give back $1 of the proceeds from the French fries to Phoenix Children's Hospital. So $1 of every french fry. We give back to sunrise Children's Hospital. It's awesome. Yeah, we also hold, you know, a bunch of events for animal rescues. We do an Angel Tree, you know, I've done that now four years in a row. We did the Chet Buchanan toy drive. We did that for two years, but it was just hard lugging all the bikes down and try and finding the time, you know, because outside of all of this, my husband and I have jobs.

Scott Groves  20:48  
Oh, you still have another full time job. I do,

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  20:51  
I do. We I have a skincare business.

Scott Groves  20:54  
Oh, I thought that was like a little side passion project that you did for fun, side passion

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  20:58  
project that pays me. She's a blessing, yeah, which is a blessing, yeah. So I, you know, I have an entire team that I have a general manager. I have an operations manager. He comes down about once a month from Arizona, checks on things, make sure everything's good. I have a restaurant manager. I have, obviously, you know, from the house, back of the house, right? So I'm kind of push the marketing. I do a little admin stuff. I used to do the HR side of things. And I'm like, Yeah, that's not for me, right? So we have, actually, our partners are the founder of angry Crab Shack. Oh, okay, yeah, so he, we all kind of invested. And then there's, want to say, two or three retired Raiders football players that are also partners. And then a couple other one, he's out of New Mexico, and another one, I believe, is in Gilbert, Arizona.

Scott Groves  21:53  
And speaking of HR, you know, I always think about this Vegas. Vegas is a pretty transient community. Lot of people moving in and out all the time. Like, one of the things I've been sad about is like, I'll build a good relationship with a guy Jiu Jitsu. And they're like, Oh, I got a job here. This was kind of a checkpoint to get back to my hometown or whatever. And then also, I imagine a lot of wait staff in Vegas is like, there's a lot of competition. There's many levels to that job in Vegas. How are you finding team members? How are you retaining team members? Because, like, in my mind, running HR for a restaurant would be the seventh circle of hell, like I wouldn't be I wouldn't be able to deal with it. So how are you finding people, training people, retaining good people. Because I hear this from a lot of business owners, of like, oh yeah, staffing is my, my, my number one headache.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  22:42  
It's, it's, I think it's the hardest part of the job. I'm going to be completely honest, it's the hardest part of the job. I will say my team is awesome. I'm a little biased. They are awesome, and they kind of hold each other accountable, you know what I mean, and and train and coach each other outside of you know what my general manager does, and there's a whole training platform that they do online, but a lot of them is word of mouth. Hey, I know this guy. I can vet him. You know, he's a great dude. He you know, he's hard worker. So we'll tend to take their word for it. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't get out. But for the most part, I think we're at a really, really good place this last year, year and a half, you know, with employees, you know, you might have one hiccup here and there, but management, we will, like, find them through an outside source, you know. But other than that, yeah, pretty much word of mouth.

Scott Groves  23:39  
That's amazing, because I can tell you, I've been into your restaurant many, many times. Sometimes you've been there, sometimes the manager has been there. Sometimes there's been no manager there. So I've gotten, like, the full spectrum, yeah, and the people that you have are just nice, like, I really, I know that sounds corny, but like, when I go to a restaurant, you know, I could probably muddle through and make some broiled shrimp here, and some not as good as you guys make it. But it's like, you know, when I go to a steak restaurant, my wife has gotten to the point where she's an amazing steak cook. So like, if we go to a steak restaurant and the service isn't excellent, I'm just so angry. I'm like, why do we pay for something we could have made at home? But every time we've gone there, the people are super kind. My poor daughter has been going through this brutal, miserable stomach problem the last year. I could talk to you about that for hours, but luckily, she's on the mend, and it's like we've had to be awkwardly cautious about food. At the height of things, it was no garlic, no onions, no carbs, no dairy, no sugar, no pepper. I mean, the list just went on and on and on. And so we went in there. I was like, Hey, I'm not trying to be obnoxious, but, like, boiled shrimp only. They're like, No problem, sir, we'll figure it out. And it's like they're just your staff is excellent. Speaking about the build out, I think that you guys found an awesome location, right? Kind of, like, real estate Location, location, location. You're on a main highway, you've got an awesome deck. So I can't wait till it warms up, because we're gonna have a we're gonna have. Henderson, HQ, little party or business mixer or something there love to have, yeah, it's great. So when you were picking the location, I happen to know what the investment is for a commercial lease. That is a big, big decision. How long did it take you to find the place and negotiate the deal and all that type of fun stuff?

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  25:16  
So we found a couple locations. And then, of course, our partner, you know, Ron, who is the founder of the brand, he was in Arizona, and he was doing his research too. So he showed us the couple, and asked us what our thoughts, you know, because we're the locals, right? We kind of know what's good, what's not, you know, we really wanted to be off of Stephanie, okay, you know, because at the time, you know, that was like, restaurant row, yep, and at the there was really nothing. There was a spot. I think it's, what is the name? It's a new place. It's, was the old Genghis grill, okay, was it's called the Watch now, so we looked at that, but he wanted higher, you know, he has a vision, right? And we're gonna go with it, because a he founded the whole thing, seems so it worked out, and it's worked out just fine in Arizona. So we're, yeah, so we brought up the Joe's Crab Shack. We're like, what about this one? It's awfully big, you know, and going back and forth. And he did the whole negotiating side in Arizona for the lease and all that. So seems like we got a pretty good deal. We really wanted the one, which is now Chicago day amore, but that we couldn't get any information, which turns out that owner bought it. Oh, bought the land. So he bought it in the prime. He's sitting really pretty, so we're super happy for him, you know. But so we went back to the Old Joe's Crab Shack, and it was vacant for four years. It was a mess. Yeah, it was riddled with, you know, homeless and, yeah, it was a mess. There was, if you can imagine, anything that's on a patio. Yeah, it was on the patio and but yeah, so my husband, he's an electrician, and he knows a lot of people that are in the construction field, so we felt pretty confident that we can kind of turn it around, fairly reasonable, and that's exactly what we did. Nice. How long have you been in Henderson? 24 years. We've been that same house for 22 years.

Scott Groves  27:30  
So after seven years, you're a local, totally. So other than the angry Crab Shack in Henderson, give us some other of your like hot spots. What are places in Henderson that you like to visit, that you like to drink coffee at, not eat because, of course, you're only gonna eat at your restaurant. But give us some other stuff that, like maybe new people moving to Henderson might not

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  27:49  
know about mothership all the way mothership, mothership. Why do I not know this? Oh my gosh, mothership coffee. I will not do Starbucks. I will not do Dutch. Well, I will never, say never. Sometimes I just don't. I don't have the time. I wanted to drive through and I I want to do something quick, and then I always get mad at myself that I spent eight bucks and I didn't get the order right.

Scott Groves  28:09  
Wait, where's mothership coffee? Why am I better right across the street from the restaurant? Oh, I have seen that.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  28:15  
And then they have one on st rose, um, they have sunrise, which is off a sunset. Okay, so that's like a sister property.

Scott Groves  28:21  
Did they open one in Summerlin, in the in the outdoor mall there? Do you know? Because it sounds, it sounds like some place I've been, but definitely not in Henderson. Anyway. Okay, so mothership coffee that's lost one.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  28:31  
Oh yeah, it's so good. Okay, so so good. And it's just on you order it a specific way. It's like that every single time the consistency right is there, and that's huge, especially when you're paying seven bucks for coffee. I have a

Scott Groves  28:45  
buddy that worked for me 24 years ago, and we still call each other because both of us like a lot of extra ice in our drink. We will still text or call each other every time that we go through a drive through or like extra ice, lots of ice, please, and they give me a drink with no ice in it. I guess there's a lot more people that order drinks with no ice than extra ice. No ice than extra ice. So you say something about ice, they just assume they hurt in their head no ice. And so we call each other probably about once a month, like, yep, just drove through, got my Dr Pepper with no ice. And it's like that was, that was our argument for minimum wage never going up. But that's a different political podcast there. So what skills do you think you and your husband brought from skinny care business, electrician, not exactly a perfect map over to running a large franchise restaurant. What do you think it was about the two of you that allowed you to be successful in this build out in running the business like, what? What makes you you?

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  29:37  
We're not quitters. Wow. You

Scott Groves  29:40  
said that so quick. That must be like a ethos of Dana and family.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  29:44  
We're we're strong, we're not lazy, we're hard working. I'm the, I'm the one, you know, I pivot about this, and let's try this, and then, you know, and he's my stable, grounded guy, you know, not much of a risk taker. So it's total balance, total balance. Between he and I, and sometimes, you know, I can lay it all out for him, and he's like, okay, I get it. And then sometimes he's like, Absolutely not, because X, Y and Z, and I'm like, okay, I get it. But I think it's just, we're a great team. We're a great team, and we always recover because within a marriage, you know, to the stress of the investment and, you know, you know, because we took some of our retirement out, yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, you know. And it's just like, you know, we have some holy moments, you know, but at the end of the day, you know, we have each other. You know, we have each other, and that's all that matters. We have our health. We have our family, you know, and we're strong willed, and we work hard, and that's all we're doing the best we can. You know, if you have those components, at least, at the end of the day, I can say, you know, what I did, what I could,

Scott Groves  30:58  
is there. I mean, I'm sure there is. Maybe even tell me what the added stresses are when it's like, we're married, we're raising kids together. Now we have a business together. Now we're invested in this thing that's like part of our retirement together. Like, what added stress level has come or how are you dealing with that added stress level of like, not only being married, but now being in business together?

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  31:19  
Well, I hate to say it, but like, sometimes conversations will go to him, and he's like, I'm just maintenance. I'm just maintenance, you know? And he does, he does all the maintenance in the restaurant. He handles the tanks, you know. He handles all the maintenance throughout the restaurant. You know, he he's just maintenance, and he knows every single inch of that building, every breaker, every outlet, every fryer. I mean, he knows it all, so he just kind of stays in his lane. So when they people revert to him to ask him questions, he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he doesn't know the whole other side of things. So he'll say, Yeah, I spoke to so and so and this sounds like me, my wife, yeah, I spoke to so and so and and I says, Well, why did you say that? Because this and this and this is what's happening. Well, I didn't know, you know. So that that gets frustrating. I go to, well, do I need to update you? Well, I don't care about that stuff. I go, but that's the stuff they're talking about. Yeah, you know, your lane. Stay, yeah, stay in your lane, you know. And he'll say that. He'll say, my time is valuable, you know. And I get it because, you know, he works his butt off. He works his butt off, and he's going through a merger with his company. He works for lumen, and lumen is selling their low voltage fiber department to at&t, well, sub company of 18 t, so they're doing end of year stuff, and he's on meetings. And so sometimes, you know, hey, this needs to be fixed. This isn't, you know,

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  32:54  
so I guess I'm gonna work six, seven days for the rest of my life. Then, huh? You know,

Scott Groves  32:58  
that's the much enjoy being a business owner never stops. He leaves a

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  33:02  
house and in a huff, and then he comes back and he's nothing like nothing happened, happy to be home.

Scott Groves  33:08  
So pivoting, you actually own two businesses, which I didn't know when you originally walked in here, tell us about skin by Dana Lynn, that's

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  33:16  
my passion, my skincare business. I've been doing skincare for 30 years. My daughter actually just recently got her license, so we're working together. Like, aesthetician is medical esthetician, yeah? So I do radio frequency, micro needling, laser hair removal, deeper plane chemical peels, Dermaplaning facials. I mean, I can go on and on and on, and you have a location, I have location, yeah, off of Whitney ranch in Sunset. Okay, I've been there for 14 years, or, I'm sorry, four years. And before that, I was at a location off a horizon called Escape. I was there for 14 years.

Scott Groves  33:52  
So how does the customer service from skincare and peels on the face and stuff transfer over to you, teaching the team how to give great customer service to my daughter that can't have a million things on her shrimp, because I do feel like there must be a corollary, because your your people are so great

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  34:07  
well, you you got to make them happy. You know, I appreciate whoever who's ever sitting in our booth, you know, or sitting on my table. They don't. There's so much competition. They don't have to go to me. They don't have to go to our restaurant. You know. Do you know how many seafood boils, which, by the way, when we first opened, there was not one seafood boil place.

Scott Groves  34:25  
Well, I still don't know any other, because I only come to yours so Well,

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  34:29  
shortly after that, there was a Viking boil, I believe. And had a beautiful restaurant. They had a beautiful restaurant. I don't think they're there anymore. But then they just started. They just started popping up everywhere after us, you know, so, but that's why we got, you know, we wanted to do it. We're like, Oh, perfect, right? You know, we can target the market. And we forgot other people have the same ideas, you know. But yeah, at the end of the day, it's, be grateful for the people that are sitting at your table. Be grateful for the people that are, you know. I'm sitting on my bed and paying me for a treatment, you know, and I love to do it. It's crazy, like I can't believe I get paid to do what I love, you know, not everybody has that opportunity to have that calling, you know, and be able to make money with what they love to do. And I'm so blessed and grateful that I get to,

Scott Groves  35:19  
yeah, you know, we got introduced by Mr. Novak. Shout out, yeah, has the best, has the best Facebook group in town called Living in Henderson, there's like 80, 90,000 people in there. I did feel like, in your conversation, like a big part of what you're doing, and the conversation we had there is just networking, right? Like, just inviting people in. So can you talk about either how that comes naturally, or how you've forced yourself to be like, I own a business, I have to network to get people in the door, because that that shines through when we had a conversation

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  35:48  
at the restaurant. Yeah, so there's a lot of networking. There's a lot of networking to do. I'm a chamber member, and I'm partnered up with living in Henderson, Lisa and Chris and John. They're just so they're all so amazing, and they've done such a great job helping me. And I just really trust their judgment and what they recommend and and I'm pretty much open to anything, you know, like, let's try this. Let's do it. You know, I use the adage or this slang I says, you know, I just want to look at marketing like a big old pot of noodles, and I just want to grab it. I want to throw it at the wall, and whatever sticks, we'll focus on that. So that's kind of what I'm doing. I'm just throwing noodles at the wall and whatever sticks, we're going to focus on that. And one of them is, you know, the networking, just getting to know my community better. You know, during the day, it's a little tough, because I do work, right? So I find myself doing nighttime events, and I enjoy people, you know, sometimes it does make it for a long day, you know. But just all the connections, like, look, I got to meet you, you know, it's pretty, pretty awesome. Yeah, so I got to meet you. I got to meet your amazing son, you know, and and so. And there's that story times 100 right? Since I've been doing all of this, so it's just getting out there,

Scott Groves  37:08  
my kids could bankrupt me because, like, they could kill all you could eat sushi and come to your place and kill five pounds of shrimp every night. Like, if I, if I let them, we would have a $10,000 a month eating out bill. They're like, they're growing kids, and they go wild. What do you tend to attract at the business? Is it couples going on date night? Who wants to have a beer? Or is it big families? Like, if I, if I come into your place on a normal Tuesday, Wednesday night, what am I gonna see?

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  37:35  
You see some families Tuesday nights? It's kids eat free. Oh, yeah. So that writes that down. Yeah, kids eat free on Tuesday nights with a purchase of an adult meal and a drink. We will be rolling out the next day or two, 10% off to all our civil servants, our police officers, our firemen, our teachers, our nurses, our seniors. You know, that's one thing we're going to really focus on, is just giving back, you know, in that way nice, just everybody's kind of sitting on their pocketbooks, yeah, you know, and especially families, you know, it's rough right now. So inflation is a real thing. It's a real thing. It's a real thing. And so specific nights, like Tuesday night is, you know, kids eat free. But I see a lot of families. I see a lot of families. You get an occasional especially if there's an event in town, right? You know, like I said, the guy from SEMA, you know, they came in on a Wednesday, you know, from Wyoming. So we'll get people that pop in, you know,

Scott Groves  38:40  
we, you know, we're there watching the UNLV game, the bowl game. You have a great bar, by the way, thank you. Great setup. Do you get a lot of watch parties? Like, can you show UFC fights or stuff that's on things like that? Or, I think that's changed recently, with them going to Paramount. Maybe the licensing is a little bit easier now to show. But you guys, do? You guys do a lot of sport

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  39:01  
events there, we do. We show the games. Yeah, that's a big thing. We're open to anything. Last time we looked for UFC, I think the licensing, don't quote me on the number, but I think it was like, if it was over 50 people to get the fight was like, 1000s, yeah, you know, and then does that really fit the brand, you know? Because it is a family restaurant, right? You know. So we want to also be mindful of that. But I it's a conversation to have. Again, you know, have you ever

Scott Groves  39:33  
had music on your patio? I feel like that patio would play so well to like live music.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  39:37  
I think it would too. But again, it's a brand thing, you know. Oh, they don't like music. I mean, I think they like music, but I think, you know, they want to focus on the family restaurant. You know. Is it something maybe they'll consider one day? Maybe, you know, because we've got the space for it, yeah, you know. So we'll see interesting. Yeah, we'll see how much we want to pivot.

Scott Groves  39:59  
I'm guessing you don't. Have to, like, source the seafood in that whole headache, the franchise takes care of that.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  40:03  
They source it. They source it. I think the price increase was the most surprising. Oh, really, yeah, oh yeah.

Scott Groves  40:09  
How much have prices gone up for food service, labor, or stuff like that. It depends five years,

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  40:16  
I would say, and again, don't quote me, but I would say, from I see numbers, because I do all the approvals on our invoices and stuff daily. And I would say, like, our snow crab has doubled, doubled, almost doubled. Whoa, yeah, almost doubled. King is up there. Shrimp has gone up just a little bit. Are live. We're the only location that has life. Yeah, live, done. My kids love your tank. Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

Scott Groves  40:48  
So funny. They love your tank. They always want to, like, reach through the tank and touch things, and then one of your chefs brought out, like, a huge lobster. And my kid just turned into a little child who did not want to touch anything. And I even told him, like, money, you're gonna regret this. You're gonna regret this. If you don't hold this thing and take a picture. He's like, no, no. It freaked him out too much. I don't know why. Like, he'll touch a tiger, but he won't touch a lobster. So prices on, like, the higher end stuff up, like 100% is that's from off to look that up of the chat, GPT or something like, I'm guessing, healthcare, wages, all that stuff.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  41:20  
Yeah, everything's just gone up, and we can't fully increase our prices, right, you know, because then we can't price ourself out, right, you know. So we're kind of getting it, taking it in the shorts, you know, with the increase in the food, but yet not going crazy in the price increase, you know. So it's tough. Doesn't leave much meat on the bones, that's for sure.

Scott Groves  41:42  
No, there's a lot of businesses, like restaurants like high volume, low margin, right?

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  41:48  
Yeah, you'd be surprised. I think there we go. That's what surprised me, the margin, the profit margin, okay, yeah, just not as much as you were expecting. No, okay, no, no, never is no. But in all fairness, we did go through covid and right, you know, dealing with a shortage, a price increase,

Scott Groves  42:06  
yeah, nobody was expecting double digit inflation increases for five years.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  42:10  
No, no, no. Sometimes, like, we used to cry about it, at least I did now, now I can, I can laugh about it, because it's just so like, are you serious? Yeah, really,

Scott Groves  42:22  
yeah, tell me a couple things to close up here that you love about living in Henderson. You've been here for a long time. You stayed in the same house. You've committed to opening multiple businesses here. Like, there's got to be something you love about living here. I love the people.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  42:34  
I love the community. You know, I my gosh, it's home. Yeah, it's home. I mean, I can mindlessly drive, almost like mental autopilot, to where I need to go, you know. I love seeing the growth, you know, I love seeing the growth in the community too, you know,

Scott Groves  42:54  
yeah, 22 years you were here right after Green Valley was opened, right? It's about 20 years that they've had most of that open Green Valley High School, no Green Valley, like the era of the law of there, you've seen massive, explosive growth here over 25 years.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  43:09  
Oh yeah, I could kick myself had they not invested in something back then. But, you know, hindsight is 2020. It is, it is. But no, I just, I love the growth, and I just love the people and, you know, I love the little small businesses. That's one thing my husband and I do every weekend. We pick one local restaurant, and then we try to pay it forward, you know. And then there's always new spots to check out grow. It's, it's, you know, we like it.

Scott Groves  43:37  
What's one thing you're looking forward to in 2026 whether it's business, personal, for the for the community, like, what are you looking forward to this

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  43:44  
year, a change in this economy, hopefully administration can kind of figure this all out and get, not so much myself, you know, everybody, yeah, you know, a real opportunity to grow, you know, and families not struggling. You know, that's that's a huge thing. We contribute. Where I went out and I bought a bunch of Christmas gifts off of the Angel Tree myself, and because I know parents are struggling, they provide gifts for their kids, yeah, you know. And so just hopefully it's a little better for not just for me, but for everybody? Yeah, it is a

Scott Groves  44:21  
little weird right now, where it's like the people that are truly struggling are struggling, and hopefully the economy gets better for them. And then there is this whole other group of people that probably don't need to tighten their belts, but they're scared for whatever reason, politics, economy, whatnot, it's like, no, if you guys stop spending money when you can, you're actually hurting the people on the lower economic tier that, like, need those monies coming in because they're a waitress, or they're working in a service industry, or they're working in construction industry. So it's like this very weird double whammy where, like, yes, inflation is real, and there is a portion of the market getting priced out from spending money, and then there's another classical market that could be spending money, but they're just kind of playing a little tight to the vest. Which, you know, I guess that's why they're not in debt. And I tend to go into debt and then have to pay it off. So kudos, kudos to them for managing their finances, but for the greater economy, we need you guys to spend money.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  45:09  
Well, it's true, but I see both sides of the fence, because I'll tell you what, where, you know, the restaurant is making it I'm profiting on my other side. I mean, I I'm doing really well, you know, but then again, that's catering to a different demographic, right, right? You know, I, I'm hundreds of dollars in treatments, and I don't even blink an eye. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Groves  45:34  
Do any of your kids work for the restaurant? Or

Speaker 1  45:36  
have they so they both have love that.

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  45:38  
Yeah, they both have. My son worked there one day a week, and he was a bartender. And he was like, Yeah, this isn't for me. Okay, fair enough. And then, but my daughter was a busser. She's, or not, a busser. She was, well, yeah, she was a busser. It's called HBr host, bus runner. So they do all three so she did that. She quit her job for the City of Henderson. She worked the little after school program for City of Henderson for three years, and went and got a job on the strip as a buster to kind of or a host, to just kind of get some, you know, background in it. And so we hired her, brought her on. And then once she turned 21 she became a server, and then after a few months, she got behind the bar, so that, after a year of bar experience, she applied to tau group, and she got hired as bartender at the day club, and we'll probably never see her again after that little

Scott Groves  46:37  
bit more money at the day club than a re crowd shack. Sorry, yeah,

Dana Newcomer-Lopez  46:41  
so she's, she's loving her, but you know, that's where she got her feet wet, that hospitality knowledge, yeah.

Scott Groves  46:47  
Well, Dana, one, thank you for being on two, thank you for opening the franchise, because my kids and I love the restaurant. And three, as soon as it warms up a little bit, we'll get something scheduled on your patio for the Henderson HQ community. Fantastic. I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hey, it's Scott groves with the Henderson HQ podcast. I hope you got something out of that episode. If you enjoyed it, please don't forget to like, comment and subscribe to the podcast. It really helps the show grow. And by the way, if you are a business owner, or you know, a business owner who has an interesting product service or just an interesting backstory. Please. Please get in touch with us. Email us at the Henderson hq@gmail.com we would love to interview you, because that's what this show is all about. It's about building community, supporting local, individually owned businesses, and just making Henderson a great place to live. And don't forget, go to Henderson hq.com and make sure you sign up for our newsletter. We send out a once a week newsletter, no spam, about the most interesting local businesses, hot spots, restaurants, community events. Thanks for watching the show. Really appreciate you. You.