The Secret Behind Vegas' Top Food Influencer| Ryusauce DSH #675

It's like you're getting deported right now.

Whoa.

So I went to jail for like I was in jail for like four months fighting that.

Moral of the story is like I live in gratitude and relationship is all I really care about these days because I was the first person to fill the entire immigration courtroom with American citizens.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

And I spoke like this and they let me out, dude.

That is insane.

All right.

The food legend himself, Ryu Sauce.

Thanks for coming on, man.

How are you?

You've been running the...

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, you've been running the food scene in Vegas, man.

I don't know about running it, but yeah, I've been in the game for a while.

Now it's over a decade.

I've been doing this full time, you know.

So, yeah, man, it's been fun.

I still can't, but till this day, I still can't believe I eat for a living.

What a job.

Bro, I know, like, I don't know if people know this, but when I first,

how I know you is because of food.

Yeah.

It's delicious still, like, bro, that's how I know you is delicious.

I know.

That's how I started.

That was one of the best investments I've ever made buying that company.

Oh, it was a pre-existing company that you bought?

Yeah, so I bought it five years ago, and it came with the username, and I ran that for a while.

I couldn't believe the username, dude.

What a username.

I had Edible, too.

Oh, that's right.

Yeah, I had both of those.

And when you came out to Vegas, we're like, dude, Delicious is in town.

I'm in town.

Yeah.

But I had to stop.

What?

I had to stop running it a year ago.

Oh, it's gone?

Yeah, I've never revealed the story, but basically, I would do these food reviews, right?

So I'd go to restaurants, hire a videographer, film it.

I would order the most popular dishes and I would rate each dish on a scale of zero to 10.

Was it for delicious or for something else?

It was for both.

I posted on my personal, too, but yeah, I did like 10 or 15 episodes, and I had to stop, dude, because

people were taking it too personally.

What?

No, that's the reason?

Yeah.

And Vegas,

Vegas, as you know, is a small town.

A hundred people.

I don't think a lot of people know that.

A lot of people are like a small, big town.

So if you get a couple restaurant owners that don't like your review, they're going to tell their friends.

And I just didn't want that.

So before it got to that stage, I stopped doing it for you.

You got like canceled.

And I wasn't even giving like terrible reviews.

I was just being honest.

Like, what were you saying, dude?

So have you seen Dave Portnoy's pizza reviews?

Bro, they're one of my idols.

Yeah, so I'm a huge, I'm a Stoolee, dude.

Exactly.

So I would say my scale wasn't as strict, but it was close.

My grading scale.

So what?

So for me.

I mean, I feel like a lot of people, I don't.

I always believe in not posting stuff that I don't like, you know, rather than being too honest about it.

Like,

there have been a handful of times where I got in a sponsor gig and I just email them saying, keep the money.

I don't really want to post this.

And I like that because that's authentic.

But now I see more and more of people who goes up and down, you know, and I don't think they should take that so personally because it's so subjective, right?

I mean, just because you said that

doesn't mean that other people's not going to like it, you know, but right, and that's how I thought too.

But for me, when I go out to eat, I'll order 10 things.

So I'm not going to like every single dish.

You know what I mean?

Just statistically.

So on like half the dishes, I would give like a five or six or sometimes even lower.

Right.

And yeah, they just didn't like it.

I can't believe that, dude.

I'm glad you told me this story.

Yeah.

Because now I know I couldn't even find delicious.

Exactly, man.

I had to shut it down.

No, shit.

Yeah, dude.

And I really like food.

I'm a big foodie.

I don't think people understand how big that account was.

It was huge.

I think it had over a million.

Yeah, I thought it was 2 million, but whatever it was.

And the hashtags were nuts.

When you landed in Vegas, we're like, oh, shit, this is out of right off the bat, one of the biggest foods.

You were the first guy I messaged, I think.

Yeah.

Well, we were already running an agency by then, so we had a lot of clients and stuff like that.

And the fact you've been doing it for 10 years, because 10 years ago, restaurants weren't really aware of influencers.

You know, one by one one photos on instagram there wasn't tick tock wasn't even around yeah uh so my story there is like i i used to just post like take pictures of food and post on facebook and a lot of my friends like that so um my wife found me an app called food spotting it was before instagram originated in san francisco and it's like a

instagram for food and it was worldwide about maybe like half a million users on it and what you do like there's a ranking system because there's points like if you post a lot you get points, and depends on the reviews and all the engagement.

Uh, so you can find like a number one food spotter in the world, he was in Spain, and by the time you get to like top 100, these guys are pro-food photographers and stuff like that.

But, um, I got so geeked out on it, I got up to like number 50 in the world

after like 3,500 posts,

and um,

and then it got bought out by Open Table, okay, and then it got just disintegrated.

Oh, they shut it down,

it didn't shut it down, but there's no more updates, founders left.

So a lot of those people lost their home, and a lot of those people jumped into Instagram.

And that's, I feel like that was the right time because when I jumped in, I realized that in Vegas, there was only less than 10 guys that are kind of moving some needles on Instagram in Vegas.

And it's a small town, it's 2 million people.

So I just started unloading my.

I was already editing my photos and stuff like that by then.

And then I just unloaded and caught on fairly fast.

fast I love it I had a 95 but I was getting invited to these openings and stuff like that and they just became too much I was going like two dinners a night four restaurants on the weekend you know how that goes just ramps up and was like a very beginning of that

that explosion yeah and what an evolution I mean now it's bringing in so much traffic to these restaurants these influx they're not doing it they're almost behind now way behind i mean look at keith lee if he posted your restaurant once oh sold out legend right?

And I'm so glad that he's from Vegas because

when in doubt, look at what Keith Lee's doing.

And we can always go back to that and say, you know, there's no more talks of, is this working or does this actually work or not?

Yeah.

But on a micro level, dude, we've had like in the last seven like in my micro-influencer events that we've had, because I don't, our agency is called John Force, JMP Force, and you know, we're, we call ourselves like contemporary creative agency, but to get hired there, you have to be somewhat of an active creator, even down to the PA, all the way up to client services.

Whatever you want to do in our office, you have to be somewhat of an active content creator on.

And we're, although we're not like

big

followers, we don't care about the followership.

We care about the local focused creators, like, you know, the guys that have Las Vegas in their handle, food in Las Vegas, and, you know, in Las Vegas.

We go for those, and we're in LA, we're in Phoenix, and we have the same strategy.

We just want guys that has the most amounts of local followers on their account because we've realized that even if you have 25,000 followers, if you have Las Vegas on your handle and you only do food in Las Vegas, your growth on your top cities is literally just all Las Vegas cities.

And we've created massive results.

out the door three hour four hour lines wow you know we've done that seven eight times in a row in like last six months.

That's crazy.

And that's all.

And not even food now, like Claw Machine Place.

It was like four-hour line in the room.

Dude, those are blowing up.

I went to one last week.

Do you know why that is?

It's because the margin, the business model is so great.

It's basically gambling.

Yeah.

You know, it's gambling money.

Yeah.

And it's, yeah, I saw the numbers.

These guys are making insane.

I mean, dude, I spend $100.

Even if you win the grand prize, I cost them like $10 million.

Exactly.

And it's all coming from China.

All these plushes are costing like $2, $3.

And the kids are just pumping.

Yeah, it's a great model, honestly.

Exactly.

Really?

It's a small space packed and stuff like that.

I've been doing that.

Agency's been around for like seven years, six and a half years.

I've never really talked about growth.

I feel like I'm just having fun and this money comes along with it.

It's awesome.

But we've had a really successful run for like six and a half years.

I think we hit our million-dollar run rate the second year.

Amazing.

And then doubled our numbers until, I think, last year stuff like that holy crap bro it's been good dude that's amazing because a lot of agencies are struggling right now actually I don't know if you're aware

I think the problem is scalability you know like what type of agencies uh mainly social media marketing that I've noticed like Facebook ads and stuff like that

I think it takes creators to get this pop in for like I think the art of taking over somebody else's account and growing that account to what it needs to be it it's a skill dude it's not yeah.

I have done like a few keynotes, and the first thing I say when I go up to the stage is like, the problem, I think, is everybody thinks social media is easy, especially in food, because, you know, personal brands, I don't know a lot about too many other industries, but in food, I feel like a lot of people think, oh, these guys are just making videos of food and just posting it.

It's just.

There's more to it than that.

And as restaurant owners, it's probably emotional.

They probably think their food's the best, so they get invested in it.

Yeah.

So like my

big thing when I I ask clients about brand identity, I tell them, okay, why should I eat at your sushi restaurant other than any other sushi restaurant?

But you can't tell me two things, not because of taste, because everybody thinks that theirs is the best taste and service.

Is there anything else that you can tell me that stands out for me that I need to eat here over any other sushi place?

And that usually helps in social media because everybody thinks that their food tastes the best and everybody thinks that their service is the best.

What else

is available?

But the agency model, yeah,

I think social media, the scalability is a bitch.

I feel like everybody, if you're a content creator and you got content creators working on your content, I feel like artists have a hard time letting go of their art for somebody else to do it.

Like me and my partner, when I first got into the agency model and we were starting it, I think the opportunity that we saw is that there's a lot of mercenaries in town.

And like there's a lot of good content creators making good money, but the majority of them are one-man bands.

So if we're able to kind of like...

So now, like how our agency works, I've been in sales all my life.

I sell and I can put it, literally put it into this like assembly line of creators that does different parts all the way from I separate accounts, you know, account executive, you know, client service, production manager, production, video, posting, you know, all that kind of stuff.

And it just goes down the list.

I don't have to be involved.

Got six.

You're very organized.

Yeah, we try to go.

I mean, it took us six years to accomplish that and get the right team to do it.

But yeah,

shout out to my team.

It's been a really good process to get to that level where we can execute a lot more deals.

Well-oiled machine.

Yeah.

So now I don't have to manage any accounts.

I love that.

And you'll never own out of restaurants in Vegas.

No, I just don't see that happening.

I don't really find myself running into the same leads as other agencies either.

Oh, really?

Maybe I don't know, but I just, I, I, that's how, oh, and the entire time that we've been in business, bro, it's 100% incoming leads.

Wow.

Like no ads or anything?

No, no, like, hey, I'm this person.

Come use us.

Like, bro, if I were to get on this cold call mode and start reaching out, I feel like it'll be like crazy.

Yeah, if you ran ads.

I've never even done that.

You got the track record.

You got the team.

You got the system.

Everybody in our team is somebody that you might follow.

Oh, I've seen all of them.

Yeah, so Las Vegas, Phil.

Do you have Starfish under you?

No, but those are really good friends of ours.

But those guys are basically the unicorns of the business.

But we have great, like Jules Kim and Kido Special, Las Vegas Rigs, and all these guys that are super talented.

They are understood as one of the best content creators in town.

And they work within our agency as executives.

Yeah, it's been great, man.

Like for a boy that came to America 13 years old.

I came to America 13 years old by myself.

Wow.

1989.

I'm 49.

I'm going to turn 49 this year.

I'm going to turn 50 next year, bro.

You look young.

It's always the Asians that you can never.

Asian on raisin, baby.

Yeah, I would have guessed you were in your 30s.

Ah, I appreciate that.

No, for real.

Those Asians, man.

You got no grays.

That's the one thing that I kind of like hoping that it lasts.

It's like the salt and pepper is coming.

So you came at 13.

Did you speak English?

No, by myself.

Well, you know, I was an international student.

So I guess the story is is like, you're familiar with agents coming over.

Yeah.

In Korea, a lot of these parents are sending their kids, but there's mandatory military in Korea.

So, a lot of 16 to 19-year-olds were getting caught and getting denied their visa.

So, my parents decided that 13 is the way to go.

Do it early.

Bro, and I came, I landed in Ojai, California, which is like a Santa Barbara area and the boarding school.

I have to live in the school.

Yeah.

Couldn't speak any English.

No Koreans there.

Wow.

I had to like, I remember, like, setting up, like, okay, I'm just gonna say, Hi, my name is Paul.

How do you do a couple, a couple sentences, no matter what anybody says.

So

people go, Are you hungry?

I'm like, Hi, my name is Paul.

I would just start there.

And then a couple, like a year after that, I moved on to San Diego.

It was like my parents' genius ideas was to like buy a house, and my 21-year-old sister was going to come become my legal guardian.

Then I moved, and her visa gets delayed.

So I was in this house, four-bedroom house, pool, pool and a slide by myself.

At 14.

14 years old.

Wow.

But the coolest thing about that is like the street that I was on, it's like Colossac to Culosac.

And there's like 14

guys and girls that are like in my grade and my school.

And they're the most popular kids in my school.

Oh, wow.

So I just instantly became this like a party house.

I'm just lucky with people.

That's basically, you know, they taught me how to speak English.

I had the biggest eighth grade party you've ever seen in your life.

Eighth grade party.

Like, dude, I had alcohol there.

Like, I was at the age of, like, I've always been, you know, people go, oh, you're this food content guy.

And then I always thought myself as like, my forte in life is sales.

And I think in relationship, that's like, I think, where my passion is.

Yeah.

So when I'm 14, bro, I found out that liquor store guys are Korean.

I just started sharing the shit with them.

It took us like a two-month ramp up to my party.

And like, they shut down the store and sold us alcohol.

Wow, yeah, dude.

You're good at networking, man.

So

that's how I look at you, though.

Bro, whenever I see you, like, I'm in this master, digital mastermind chat on

the WhatsApp, dude.

It's mind-blowing.

I like this is, I look up to guys like you that has this keen ability for networking.

Like, I've been to many of your events that are, like, if you're, you know, I think million dollar plus business.

Income, yeah.

Yeah.

And, dude, it's been you're you're the guy that I look up to.

I appreciate that.

It's a new era.

I think we're very similar.

I think you were pre-social media.

I've just been able to take what you did with like an extra step almost because now I could connect the dots a lot quicker with people.

Yeah, but you're in a lot of other businesses, too.

You know what I mean?

I think

you're in AI, right?

AI, I've done crypto, I've done B2B.

Yeah, I wore a lot of hats, which honestly.

During the pandemic, you were fucking blown up, dude.

Yeah, it worked for me, but I don't give that advice to most people.

Yeah, Yeah, I mean, it's not about that.

For me, it's how I see you networking these people.

Like, okay, let's just talk about the show.

I don't know if I've ever seen a podcast that posts twice a day consistently like that.

And having that many, having that many,

bro, like we host Las Vegas Phils podcasts at our office.

Yeah.

It's fucking a lot of production.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to curse because I know you beep out cursing.

But yeah, that's like, I don't think people understand that posting twice a day, like you end the show saying, I'll see you tomorrow.

That's mind-blowing.

It's like so much pressure just listening to that one line.

It's crazy because that's,

bro, I look at those type of things.

Yeah.

The consistency, work ethic, the networking, and the wide reach that you have, and these little texts that you invite me to, and you go in there and you just see the list of the people that are in there.

You're like, wow, mind-blowing.

It's important to be consistent.

I mean, you know this.

People will forget you if you're not posting daily.

How long have you been building your Blackbook?

Oh, for years, since college, man.

And I've always been in network mode because I knew it's who you know, not what you know.

Like a lot of these people you've known for years or you're like, I guess often.

In the in the WhatsApp chat?

Yeah, I've known a lot of those guys for years because I pay to go to events, masterminds, conferences, and I've just compiled the best of the best.

I've had all these people out and people in that chat, it's all the previous guests of the podcast, plus connections, like personal connections of mine.

That's what I, you know, I feel like I've, I always tell people I learned everything the hard way.

So like I've, I feel like I had a late start, but I feel like I just started, dude.

I'm 50.

You look young, dude.

But I feel like you should take a genetic DNA test.

How old are you?

So genetically or

what does that even mean, dude?

So you could test your biological agenda.

Are you serious?

Yeah, I want to test that.

Like, that's, I'm really interested.

Yeah, I'll put you in touch.

So chronologically, I'm 27.

Biologically, I'm 21.

Wow.

You can.

Okay.

Dude, you got a long 27 year fifty.

Yeah, you do a little cheek swab.

I feel like I've gotten a late start.

So

I'm looking forward to that.

Like now I live, I've had like a couple, you know, I've had crazy life stories.

So like I've had what people would say hitting, quote unquote, hitting the rock bottom like a couple of times.

I've had a crazy drug run.

I've had crazy arrests.

I've had, dude, I have to jump in.

You got arrested.

I cannot do it.

I've been in jail in town

14 times, maybe.

What?

Like, okay, I've done a tour like the grand tour they call it i've been arrested one time and went to this count henderson and then when i thought i was getting out they would recuff me because i have a case in the county and then when i was getting out i thought i was getting out and they would recuff me and go to city i've done the whole tour without knowing that i was i had all these holds you know bro i was a mess i had like a two years of run when okay so

Like when I when I was able to work, I started working at these for for like retail fashion I was I I was the first, I think I was like the first straight guy that they've ever hired at Bebe, BB.

Remember a long time ago?

Bebe?

Yeah,

the girls' clothes.

And then I got into nightclubs because I used to go out a lot.

That was all good until I started hitting the phones.

I realized that

I had this thing about sales.

I was interested in NLP, stuff like that.

And I started getting into sales.

But when I hit the phones, I was in this crazy phone rooms.

I started doing some hard drugs.

And then that led into like multiple arrests, dude.

Wow.

I was like smoking glass, like what?

Meth.

I guess that's what's what that is.

Like, I can't feel this picture of this, man.

Yeah, dude, I was 117 pounds.

I don't really talk about it that much, but I was 117 pounds.

I have a belt right now that I used to make holes as I was getting skinny.

If I put that

on right now, the last hole I made is like here, dude.

Holy.

I was like all sunken in.

Went to jail like many times.

It was like a two-year stretch of that.

and I got out of it.

I was supposed to go to prison after my last arrest.

Dude, last time I got arrested, I was on the other side of a stop sign.

I was on the other side of the street, car in gear, foot on the brake, passed out with a glass pipe in my hand, with like a hundred Percocets in my pocket.

Holy crap.

The cop like banging on the window saying, put your car in parked.

That's the last time I ever got arrested.

And then I was supposed to go to prison there, but I had a PO, I was already already on probation had a PO that looked at me and go right you you're gonna die in prison like look at like I look like this you know so he vouched for me to go to half a house you know what a half a house is where they drugry hobby they come out like these prisoners they come out to get acclimated to the real real real life yeah so I saw people coming out and that's where I got I got cleaned up luckily and then

So the reason I'm telling you is because 15 years after I got cleaned up, now I haven't had a parking ticket in 15 years.

I'm dating my current wife, Mindy.

I'm a director of sales at a travel company.

During the trouble phase, no attorney or no judge ever asked me, are you a citizen?

Because I spoke like this.

15 years later, bro, ICE came to my door.

Like immigration came to my door and say, hey, 15 years ago, you had these.

I was a green card holder.

Yeah.

Had felonies.

It's like, you're getting deported right now.

Whoa.

So I went to jail for, like, I was in jail for like four months fighting that.

Like, it was a gunshot.

I was supposed to get deported.

But this is why

the moral of the story is like, I live in gratitude and relationship is all I really care about these days because the entire town that are not my family, my family can't help me, had to come together.

Dude, I had like guys with free Ryu shirts outside the jail.

I had fucking GoFundMe that went crazy.

I was the first person to fill the entire immigration courtroom with American citizens.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

And I spoke like this, and they let me out, dude.

That is insane.

Yeah.

And my wife single-handedly beat this case.

She's like a goody-goody from Midwest, never known my past.

Had to dig up all these people, call all these people, got 60 letters from my clients, like Samsung, you know, Boeing, and all that kind of stuff.

Incredible, man, because you've provided so much value to community.

So now all I care about is relationships.

Wow.

And this is why I look up to people that are widely networked because

that's where I want to go.

I care a lot about relationships, man.

For real.

That's all I really, you know,

if business, bro, like, I, you know, when you're in sales, you have this like kind of like a confidence where tomorrow I could lose everything, but I don't care.

I could rebuild it like this.

I feel like I can just rebuild it super fast.

Like I can be everything could come crunching down tomorrow, but if you're good sales,

I should be okay.

So I have that confidence in business, and I don't really run for money.

I don't even know how much money I make.

You don't think about it?

Well, my wife is an accounting, and she's the accountant for the whole business.

So I don't really think about that much.

I think about top number, think about revenue, and stuff like that times to time.

But I really think about how well people are doing in our company and the culture of it and the relationship that I'm building.

Because that never goes away.

And for me, like I've experienced this time where I had to press a button and go, if you're my friend, I need your fucking help.

I've had that before.

Like, dude,

I have 60-something letters from my friends and clients that wrote, basically these letters are like them writing to my judge what kind of person I am.

Time to time I bust it out and read it.

I wish everybody could have that type of

literature that they can read.

Then it'll just kind of like give you an idea of how valuable your relationship is and what that means to them and stuff like that.

So that's like your friends don't tell you what they really think about you.

Yeah, it's kind of awkward to like ask, right?

Well, you know, and now that I do have somewhat of a network, I feel like a hard thing is to keeping up with the network.

Right.

Like you have best friends.

A lot of times you don't talk to them for a while because they're best friends.

You think it's okay.

I feel like it's I'm now learning a little bit more to like how to keep up.

Simple one-word texts is good, you know, like just to make sure that you're in touch with them.

Yeah, I'll do that.

I'll do that on flights.

I'll check in with people because we're so busy during the day that we forget to text our old childhood friends or something.

That's a great idea.

You know, I just need to find a better time to send out those messages and just to say hi.

Yeah, it's important.

You don't know what people are going through.

I mean, you've had two crazy moments you just explained.

Yeah, well, maybe more will come, but I feel like those are the battle scars that people need to be to to get some motivation behind you to get to where you need to go.

Yeah.

I feel like a lot of people that's been on this podcast, I like, I've I've looked at all a lot of them, have that type of story.

Almost everyone, you notice, they go through some really low lows.

It almost makes you think of it's kind of a prerequisite to success.

Almost, yeah, I I I believe it.

Not saying that you can't if you don't have it, but a lot of people that I know that are successful has

you know, when I tell them some people, my story, they kind of relate a lot of them.

Yeah, no, there's some deep traumas with a lot of successful people.

I'm a numbers guy, so I look at the data and I'm like, okay, over 80% of people grew up in a really rough environment that are successful.

Really?

In my network, at least.

I'm about your older.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure

that sounds about right.

Yeah.

And then almost every time I've worked with someone that has come from a family of money, it's usually never worked out.

Just in my experience.

Fucking amen, dude.

How do you like Vegas?

Dude, I love it.

Food seems strong out here.

People are good.

There's always a conference, always an event.

UFCs out here.

I mean, dude, it's hard to beat, honestly.

Tell me about food, dude.

What are you eating these days?

Okay, come from East Coast.

Let's talk about two things, burgers and pizza.

Like,

are you an East Coast burger guy?

I used to like burgers a lot.

You like Shake Shack better than In-N-Out, like that type of stuff?

That's a tough one.

If you factor in price, I like In-N-Out more.

Yeah, same.

I think you do have to factor in price as long as you're in the same class of chains.

Like, if you're in the chain burger thing, of course, there's tons of burger places that are probably better if they're just, you know, one, two, three, five location places.

But in that sense, I would say, I don't know.

I guess I'm an In-N-Out guy.

What's your In-N-Out order, dude?

I get, so I'm allergic to bread.

Oh, you're allergic to bread.

So I get the lettuce.

That's the crap.

Yeah.

Can you do that at Shake Shack now?

I don't know.

I haven't been to Shake Shack just because I have to spend 50 bucks there to get full.

Okay.

Because one burger's not enough, you know?

So my order is probably the same.

I get double, single,

mustard-fried animal style,

protein-style.

Yeah, I'm about the same.

Yeah, that's great.

And pizza, do you like any pizzas out here?

Pizza Rock's decent.

No shit.

What, you don't like it?

No, no, that's like my.

A lot of people don't say that, dude.

Really?

And I feel like that is it.

Okay, Pizza Rock is our client.

Shout out to Pizza Rock.

Yeah, they're my top three.

Bro, I got to tell you,

the flex they have is probably the biggest flex that anybody.

So Tony Giamignani, who started that brand, he's a man from Fremont, California.

He's a 13-time World Pizza Champion.

And people go, what does that mean?

What does World Pizza Champion mean?

This guy, who is in Fremont, California, goes to

Italy all the time.

Like

he goes to Naples, enters a Neapolitan pizza competition and wins wow and he's done that 12 13 times where he has to get police escorted out because American keeps winning these pizza competitions out there crazy and that's the flex like not many people can say that so what Pizzarok is great about is they have different types of pizza and they do them well like they have Detroit Chicago Cracker Thin they have New York they have Neapolitan.

They have like eight different ovens in their facilities, both of them, because they need to do different types of pizza.

Oh, there's two of them?

Yeah, there's one in Green Valley Ranch.

That's the one I go to.

Oh, bro.

I think downtown is pretty much Mecca of pizza in Vegas, right?

There's one in downtown.

Okay.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, I like that one.

I like the one in Resorts World, Mulberry Street, I think.

Oh, really?

Wow, I haven't eaten there in a minute.

Really?

I thought that one was decent.

And the new one in Durango, Prince Street, I like that one a lot.

The New York Water Machine, dude.

Have you seen the machine?

No.

Oh, so

they bring, well, they make New York water there.

So there's like a I have a video of it.

They have like this sil like a silver machine, a filter system that turns the water into its pro.

It's they're serious.

That's why it's great.

So a lot of people say that.

A lot of people say Prince Street now taking over.

I think those are pretty good assumptions right there.

Did you ever see Port Noise Dom DeMarcos review?

I haven't.

Is that in Vegas?

It's probably the highest review that he's given in Vegas.

I just tried it.

It's good.

It's good.

I don't think it's better than Pizza Rock, but

you might be biased since they're a client.

True that.

Now, since you're Korean, I got to ask you, Korean barbecue, top spot.

Bro, there's not that.

I wish there's a better Korean barbecue scene in Vegas.

Have you tried some Korean barbecue scenes?

I've tried a lot of them.

Okay.

So, I mean, obviously, if you're just going for the meat quality and the meat,

I would go to eight ounce, I guess, right?

But

for me, like, if you're a Korean and you eat in Korea or something like that, you go to those, you go to places for that one dish, not like a general, you know, what's the best Korean barbecue?

Like for me, to go eat sundubu, like soft tofu, you know, soup,

I like Lee's Korean barbecue, although also a client bias.

But they make their own tofu at the facility.

I've seen it.

They make their soft tofu there, and they have really good Korean barbecue.

By hands down, the best raw marinated crab is also at Lee's.

Really?

So looking at those things, although it might not be the highest quality wagu you can get at

eight ounce, the amounts of pancha on the side dishes that come out,

stellar, at eight ounce, you don't get as many.

I go there.

And it's such an underrated place.

If I want to eat my best Korean dish, like my favorite Korean dish is karbichim.

It's like this braised short rib, stewy

thing.

Sounds amazing.

It's like my favorite dish of all time.

Yo, bro, Bro, it's like this tender,

slow-roasted with carrots and amazing.

But if I want that, I would go to Dejo, which is like this brand new, their specialty is karbichy.

So you go to these places for that one

thing that I'm looking for.

If I wanted to just go for the highest quality beef to grill, I would go to samurai Japanese barbecue.

It's more

yakiniku kind of like a style.

Okay.

Have you been there?

I haven't been there.

Bro.

The story, I I don't know if it's true, but I guess the guy is owner of Samurai Motorsports or something like that.

And he just wanted to build a place for him to go eat.

Wow.

That's baller, dude.

You know what I mean?

So like they have their own sourcing from Japan.

It's not A5.

I think there's a lot of A5 there.

There's A5 Tongue.

I've never had that.

They have A5 Tongue there.

Wow.

It's only like maybe like nine tables, ten tables.

It's, I don't even, I shouldn't be saying this.

Yeah.

Spoiler for everyone.

But if you're going to go for quality, I would just go there because it's so good.

But it's not like a Korean barbecue style.

You eat, like, you grill one piece at a time, and there's a grill.

Yeah.

Amazing, dude.

Wow.

That makes sense.

I just went to an all-you-can-eat wagyu spot.

Is that David Zauf's place?

Is that

forget the name, but Chubby Kettle?

Yeah, it's owned by Chubby Kettle Group.

Yeah.

Mizaki or something like that.

Something like that.

Hot Pot, right?

Yeah.

He's about to open up a barbecue place, too.

I saw it.

All-you can e Wagyu barbecue because they have their own farm.

Oh.

So they used to, you know, do like this hot pot, and

he also owns X-Pot.

They have their own Wagyu farm.

I didn't know that.

So they're able to cut costs and they're able to produce a ton of.

That makes sense because he's got so many spots out here.

Bro, shout out to he's killing it, dude.

Yeah.

All right.

This is a controversial one.

Do you leave a tip on takeout orders?

Yes.

I'm kind of like a crazy tipper because of the industry that I'm in and the amounts of free food that I do eat.

And I feel like a lot of times the servers are not really taken care of.

And there's a lot of influencers in our, I hear this, I don't know this, but there are a lot of creators in my industry that doesn't tip.

Really?

I've heard this.

Wow.

I don't know for a fact, but I've heard venues say that they're, you know, I always tip, even if I ate for free and didn't tip, you know, blah, blah, blah.

So

I am a big tipper, dude.

So I'll tip any chance that I can I usually live I leave like $100 to $200 tips when I eat something for free and stuff like that.

So I'm like kind of like a weird case on a to-go food.

Yes.

I do weirdly not tip as much on Uber Eats because now it's

insane amount of markup and insane amount of fees on there.

But I actually talked about this in another podcast where people are like, yo, these drivers don't make anything.

You need a tip.

So now I'm better at it.

Do you tip on a to-go?

So on takeout, I do, but I feel guilty.

Right.

But it's not like a satisfying tip.

Like when I'm dining in, I'll tip 20% every time and I will

think about it.

But on takeout, it's like, do you deserve this?

Right.

So I tip a little bit, but not 20%.

I've actually seen like gas stations leave a tip.

Like, you know, like retail place where there's no need for a tip.

I've seen that type of stuff going on.

I don't do that.

But if there's any service involved in it, I would.

I agree.

I mean, I definitely would agree with a person that doesn't tip to go because that used to be the thing.

Yeah, you never, never tip on to go.

But

I just am in this industry where I'm in debt.

And I feel like it comes back.

Being a big tipper is noticeably the service has been, you know, whenever you go back,

especially in Vegas.

So that's like a long-term strategy for me.

Yeah.

They might become a client one day.

So I just, I just wanted to do that.

Yeah, no, if I get a free meal, like, shout out to Circa.

They caught my whole birthday dinner.

It was like 2,000 bucks.

I tipped like 1,000 just because

if you're getting a free meal, you should be tipping at least 50% off.

Oh, 100%.

That's

same.

Yeah,

I'm a pretty big tipper, dude.

I believe in that.

Yeah, it comes back.

I believe in energy for sure.

What have you been eating, dude?

Like,

what else is there?

You got anything else?

I was going to go like cuisine by cuisine

and see your top spots.

Oh, my God, dude.

We already did create barbecue.

We did pizza.

Let's do steakhouses.

Ooh, I got a lot.

I got like my favorite spots on the strip.

I got off the strip.

I got downtown.

Do you have one that's like one that sticks out?

I like Berry's a lot, dude.

Okay.

Berry's is good.

I've been there once.

Hanks is good sometimes.

Yeah, so me, I love...

Also, we're the agency of record for stations, so that's also biased, but I love majority of the steakhouses.

Like one of the most underrated steakhouses of all time is Sonoma Cellar, which is in Sunset Station.

Same quality, not same, but similar quality meat as the other station casinos.

Unbelievable pricing.

Very good.

So Hanks and T-Bones, Red Rock

and Green Valley Ranch, I would just swear by that.

Anytime you want a good special meal, go to any of those places.

Fat crab legs, really good steak.

They source their steaks differently between the two, but majority are the same.

that i i i i i cannot say enough good things about them but nico's dude is a

very special place for me nico's nico's the steakhouse is at drango i haven't been there yet oh dude they have this uh seafood program that you don't see at the other steakhouses they have like dry aged branzino whoa ever heard of that no amazing they also have a steak uh a steakhouse burger like i don't i put that in a different category burgers they have one of the most amazing burgers I've ever had.

Dude, I might go there because they have Wagyu and all this kind of stuff, and they blend all that in-house to make this special patty, and they make a Spanish burger style.

I had their first ever 4x4 ever made by them.

Bro, mind-blowing.

And my chocolate cake post there happened to just blow up.

I guess a lot of people are eating the chocolate cake there.

There's 20-layer chocolate cake.

Holy.

Amazing.

20 layers.

By the way, dude, I think I might have one of the highest-viewed food reels that I've seen on my feed a long time ago.

How many views?

128 million views.

Holy crap.

And that was the chocolate video?

No.

It was like a blooming onion, like an onion bomb video.

Oh, I've seen that one many times.

And that creates a lot of results.

But at the end of the day, what I'm hoping for is like, you know, I love it when the place that I love goes good.

You know, usually you can't really control that.

But

whenever I post like the Nico's thing, you've got to try Nico's.

I'll try it.

On the strip, Steakhouse, I would go Golden Steer, Peter Luger.

I like Bovettes.

Have you been to Bovevets?

I love Bovettes, the bone marrow.

Oh my gosh.

That was like my favorite place until,

you know, Peter Luger is great.

I love their menu, how simple their menu is.

Steak for two.

Steak for two and rip steak for two.

Like,

it's amazing.

I thought, I just only been there like twice.

Great.

Downtown, my pick is Oscar Steakhouse, also a client, but you just don't get that view.

You're looking right down the barrel of the Fremont Street in a dome.

That's sick.

And it's vague, super gangsters.

Oscar Goodman used to be the mayor of Las Vegas.

He used to be the attorney for all the mobsters.

Crazy amounts of story.

He has these like dinner series all the time that he tells you about these stories.

I would highly suggest, they just built a new patio so you can sit outside and look down the Fremont Street and stuff like that.

Highly suggested.

I got to check that one out.

This is a controversial one, actually.

People's answers I've seen have differed a lot, but sushi.

That's like my specialty, dude.

I mean, it depends on how big you want to go, but my go-to sushi place is sushi hero on Eastern.

It's right next to Takoi Tako,

Masahiro.

This is like a place where I would take a date where I can control my order.

It's not Omakaze,

but by far the best nigiri sessions you could probably have.

They have kamashida toro, like there's o Toro, and then there's kamashida toro that comes from like your collar.

I really love ordering the medale of tuna from you know maguro to like all the way up to kamashida and having that.

They have

nodoguro, which is like black throat sea perch, I think is the name of the fish.

One of my favorites and my all-time favorite cut is ocean trout, umimasu.

And that's, they have that there at all times.

And they're nigiri's portions, how they do it, how many ingredients are that they care about from Japan.

That's like my go-to place.

Now, if you go to like level, if you want to go all out,

kame omakaze is probably

the best.

Kaiseki, if you want to do kaiseki, kaiseki sanga also does really good kaiseki Japanese.

And I think like one of the highlights right now is the tune-cutting at Omakazakiara.

I've seen your videos on that.

I don't have a video of that.

Oh, wasn't you?

But it was, yeah, but everybody that at our office, everybody's been there,

they do this massive, bro.

That's like my next.

But I think that's like blowing up right now, the tuna cutting ceremony.

Seems really fun.

I mean, that fish is huge at their cutting.

Have you eaten sushi places in town?

I've tried both of those.

Omikate ones you just mentioned.

Kame and the other one.

I liked kame.

Kaiseki Sanga.

You've tried.

Kaiseki Yuzu.

Yuju is another place, and Kaiseki Sanga.

Oh, I haven't tried Sanga.

I would try Sangha.

Okay.

Both handled by my boy, Las Vegas Phil.

But kaiseki sanga is the place to go.

Got it.

I'll try that one.

But kaiseki is different, right?

Not all of it is sushi.

Have you ever tried, do you do all you can-eat sushi places ever?

I used to.

I used to too.

Have you?

Now I don't.

Why is that?

Just quality.

Same.

Yeah.

After the pandemic, when this fish prices went up, I've seen a lot of places drop their quality rather than raising their price.

Two options.

Raise your price or drop your quality.

Bro, too many places are using very bad quality fish, so I can't go there.

I can't.

I wish there was a spot where it was just premium.

Like, I would pay like 50, 60 bucks.

There are a couple places

that

is worthy.

I'll tell you about them.

A lot of those are my clients, dude, and I still don't go.

Yeah, because I used to go to Neko, but like, the quality, I just can't anymore.

See, those are the type of stuff that's going to get you in trouble, dude.

I know, right?

You know what I mean?

No, but it's just.

What else?

You got Ty in there?

I do.

That's Thai.

Thai?

Hands down, Lotus as I am.

Have you been?

Yes.

Okay.

Have you been to a lot of Thai places in town?

Not really.

What nationality?

So I'm half Chinese.

Okay, so you obviously like Chinese and Thai.

But what have you really liked?

I liked China Mama.

I liked Mott 32.

My favorite.

Yeah, I thought that was solid.

I think it's a 42-day prep for the duck, right?

Like 37-day.

Like, people don't understand.

That's the best duck you can get, in my opinion.

You ever, like,

I hate pecking duck that comes with the bow buns.

I like the tortilla, the thin,

you know.

I don't know.

To me, whenever I have a special guest in town, they're stained on the strip.

I take them to Mott 32, get the duck, and get the lobster Mopotofa.

Ooh, yeah, it's always a fun time there.

I almost spent $1,000 on crab legs there.

I believe it.

$1,000 is very doable there, dude.

You know, that's the thing about the price is crazy.

Have you been to Chengdu Taste?

No, I've heard of it, though.

I'm a big Sichuan peppercorn guy.

Like, I love Sichuan peppercorn flavor.

That's the place that you should go.

Okay.

But Thai, Lotus Osiam, hands down.

It's just,

you know, you should always order the northern Thai food there.

I just have a post about cow soy that I had there, like Chef Saito.

Oh, good.

The original chef literally made it for me.

She doesn't even cook there anymore, but she made it for me hands on.

And I dubbed it with a video from Anthony Bourdain and Jettilla eating there saying, This is the best Thai food place in town, and if not in the country, that cow soy is the best in the world.

That's what I am.

So good.

All right, this is gonna be a hot one.

So, which hotel do you think has the best restaurants in Vegas?

Man, on the strip?

Let's do on the strip and then off the strip.

We actually had this podcast, and I think my number one was the Venetian.

Oh,

because

of

so many things that they have there that

they do it right, dude.

I think the other

the other creators said, what was the number one?

Was it Cosmo, ARIA?

Cosmo was another one.

Cosmo has great, like, Momofuku's our client.

Yeah.

So they have Momofuku,

Helleo, you know, Budan SX,

STK, STK Zuma they just open up a new Zuma is so good dude.

Yeah, Zuma is really good.

That's another sushi place that I really love

But yeah, you're right.

I think Cosmo is definitely up there.

I think my number one on that list I forget.

I think it was Venetian because I've never heard Venetian as an answer because of Mott

Yeah, dude and and and they got Milos too, right?

Yeah, Milos is there

There's so many other things that I cannot think of right now that they got an amazing bakery cafe there La Zeppa Neta or something.

It's by Sandbox VR.

Really?

Yeah, it's the best breakfast.

Well, I like Mizzuno.

Miznan.

Miznan is the place.

Yeah, that's a good space.

And they also opened Hasalon there.

That's another really good place for us.

But I like Venetian Palazzo.

I think Wynne was part of it.

I forget the podcast.

And downtown, I kind of picked Plaza, and people thought that that was kind of crazy because Circa has really good, you know, it has berries and stuff like that.

But yeah, and off the strip, I think it has to be Durango now, dude.

I feel like, I feel like Durango, it was going to be Red Rock or Green Valley Ranch, but Durango just,

have you ever been to you or me?

That's another sushi place that I really love.

No, it's a Durango.

You or Me sushi.

It's originated in downtown Las Vegas, but it's amazing, dude.

You should go there.

If, you know, like a date night, rather than going to this like a holding oil sushi concept, go to you or me at the Eat Your Heart Out.

They have Shang Noodle there, hand-pulled noodles.

They have the Fiorellas there with Mark Vetri, but they have Miho.

Nico's is like one of my favorites.

Summerhouse, bro, their sports book is insane.

The food program there, also stellar.

I feel like Durango has to be the one now, dude.

I agree.

It used to be Green Valley for me, but I'd say Durango's got the edge.

Green Valley is about to come up, though.

They just put in Blue Ribbon there, and then they're they're about to put in a few more restaurants.

So that's going to change.

Is that your area?

I live around there, yeah.

Bro,

you cannot go wrong with Hanks, you know, and Pizza Rock is in there.

Yeah.

And then there's a couple other ones that, yeah, I think it's going to come up.

And the Oyster Bar at Durango, also stellar that have the same recipe as the Palestinian

oyster bar.

Red Rock just changed their oyster bar concept to the same recipe as Palestation.

So you can get the same pan roast at Durango.

And Nielsen's, dudes, our client is a custard ice cream shop, Nielsen's.

I think that's one of the best ice creams in town.

And Sar Natsari, I'm thinking those two are the top two in town.

I agree.

I can't even see it.

Sar Natsari?

Yeah, I think they just opened one by my house.

Insperada.

Insperada, yeah.

I live around that area.

Bro, that place is blowing up.

Yeah.

I'm telling you.

They're building a casino out there, too.

Yes.

Station goes.

That's a good station.

Yep.

Crazy.

I just heard that not too long ago.

That's a new new for me.

Yeah.

Vegas is growing so quick, man.

We've got the sphere, got

Fountain Blue.

Have you eaten at Fountain Blue?

I have.

I want to hear your take on it.

I thought it was okay.

I actually have an, dude, I have a

one-month-old baby right now.

Oh, congrats.

So, like, thanks.

It's been like I have not really

after Super Bowl, I've been just kind of like slowing down a lot on going out and trying new places.

It's majority of my client work.

I'm barely taking meetings.

This is like my two-hour hall pass out of the wow.

I'm honored.

No, but

I wish I can go to more places in Fountain Blind for sure.

I'd try to figure it out.

But Q, K-Y-U.

I actually had a video with they made, they allowed me to cook inside of the kitchen and cook the tomahawk, smoked tomahawk.

Their tomahawk is smoked.

I've never seen that before, where they grill it and then they smoke it.

Q is Asian, bro.

And I've eaten at so many Asian-inspired restaurants on the strip.

I don't really like a lot of them.

This one, bro, was good.

I would highly suggest Q

restaurant at the Fountain Blue.

That's good to know.

Dude, I want to explore more there.

What do you think about Komodo?

Good, but expensive.

Have you ever tried Komodo in?

Yes, I've tried Miami.

The Miami's way better.

Oh.

Yeah, but it makes sense.

See that consistency thing is a bitch.

Well, they're closer to the water, so I understand it from a point of view of logistics that the seafood's going going to be better at the Miami one.

Unless you're flying in daily, like Mizumi, they fly in their suitcase.

They do, though.

That should not be an issue.

Oh, they do?

That is a problem.

No, I don't know if they do, but a lot of restaurants do fly in things daily to make sure that like Milos and all those seafood places have to do that.

What do you think about the Peter Luger and East Coast, Peter Luger, and West Coast?

I haven't tried either.

Oh, you haven't?

I'm going to try Luger's this week because you said it's really good.

I mean,

if you're from New York,

you're an Italian guy, Italian food guy?

Yeah, I grew up in New Jersey.

I like Italian.

Pizza.

Pizza bagels.

I love Indian.

I want to talk to you about Indian.

I only go to a few places for Indian.

I'm not like, I wish I was more of an expert in Indian food, but I'm not.

I would go Taj Palace is where I go.

That's my good.

I've had that wood too.

Mint, have you tried Mint?

I've had Mint.

A couple places like that.

But Taj Palace is my go-to.

They just opened up a new one in West Side, which is closer to my house.

I've moved from your neighborhood to West Summerlin Summerlin now.

The dark side.

Bro, like, I'm in Red Rock Canyon.

So I'm the very last right you can take off of Charleston.

And I love it.

It's just like a whole different.

You're far.

Yes.

It's hard to find houses in Summerlin, man.

It's insane.

Inventory is scarce.

Yeah, and it was majority for my daughter's daughter's school.

She is four, gonna be five.

She's about to go into school, so she kind of wanted to buy this school that she wants to go to.

Dude, I have a 21-year-old son, dude.

What?

Yeah, I have a 21-year-old son.

Shout out to Tristan.

He just started spinning.

He's in music.

He was an audio engineer for a lot of big shows, and then he started, he dropped an album and stuff off Spotify.

I got to send it to you.

Yeah,

drum and bass.

But now he started working.

He works as a DJ at one of the restaurants in Fountain Blue.

And he's about to.

He's doing pretty good.

Okay, that's cool.

That's a big range of kids, 21 and then a 14.

He's like an uncle to my other kids, dude.

But yeah,

my ex, my current wife, shout out to Mindy.

She's holding down the fort.

Like, you know, people come to me and say, hey, are you getting any sleep?

And I feel bad saying that I don't get any sleep because she's really not getting any sleep.

She's breastfeeding and stuff like that.

So,

dude, she's holding down the fort right now.

I cannot be happier.

Good woman by your side is very important.

Are you single or what's no?

I've been in six and a half years.

We're getting married next year.

Really?

Yeah.

And I attribute it to you.

Are you a proposed proposal?

I proposed already, yeah.

I like it.

Take the longest

proposal.

Like, take your time.

Like, I always tell people the proposal state is my favorite because when people say you're engaged,

people light up and they want to give you stuff.

And all this, when you say you're newly wed, it's not as powerful.

Like, people are like, yeah, I'm married too.

Welcome to hell.

But when you're engaged,

I loved our engagement phase.

Puppy love, right?

Cherish that.

I love it.

We'll end it off this.

Where do you rank Vegas in terms of food for cities in America?

I wish I was well-traveled enough to know and be valid in that, but I would probably say convenience of trying the things that it's good around the country-wise, it has to be number one.

Like it has to be,

I don't know about like the best Italian food or best this or best that to be this.

But if you're in it to try a lot of things around the country all in one place, this has has to be the place for, because majority of the good restaurant concepts, second place, second location is in Vegas.

It's true.

And

if you're good somewhere else, good chance that they're going to come here or we're going to inherit it here.

But of course, if it comes down to just food in general,

I would say New York, LA.

I'm an Asian food guy, so I don't really know about Asian food.

Any other places in Korean food is definitely LA for me.

you know

For Mexican food I'm a big San Diego I grew up in San Diego I was a surfer and I played a band like

Like I'm a Baja California like in my burrito I don't like rice.

I just need meat pico de galla and guacamole.

That's what I what I like I don't like rice and fries and stuff like that in my burrito by far fish tacos to all the tacos San Diego is my place

Italian food.

I don't know.

I've only been to New York once all the bagels and stuff you don't find in Las Vegas.

I don't even know what

I mean.

Siegel's is decent, Segal Mania.

And there's Abel's bagels, too, I believe.

I've never been there, but I heard they're good.

But like, I went to New York, and one place that I clearly remember till being amazing was Russ and Daughters.

Have you been there?

It's like smoked locks, you know, and bagels and stuff like that.

It's just like amazing Jewish deli type of bakery.

So, yeah, you know, we lack that.

If you wanted that type of stuff, cured meat and stuff like that, I would say New York.

Pizza, New Haven is probably where you need to go.

I've never been, but I'm thinking New Haven, Connecticut is where Sally's is and all that kind of stuff.

And I'm a big Portnoy fan, so I believe in that.

But yeah, like,

I don't know about Chinese food, but those are Korean food,

LA.

Got it.

Good to know.

Ryu, where can people find out more about you and your agency?

On my Instagram, dude, Ryu Sauce, R-Y-U, like the Street Fighter guy and sauce.

What a name.

Yeah,

I kind of like tell people about that, but people don't know about Street Fighter.

Like, that's like showing my age, right?

Like, people slowly started not know what Street Fighter is.

It's like a problem for me.

Anyway, yeah, at Rice Sauce.

And my agency is jmpforce.com.

We do social media and creator, you know, and campaigns for food industry, real estate, weddings.

We have the Las Vegas Wedding Bureau as our client and the Little Chapel and a couple of stuff.

Nice.

And personal brands.

And we've started taking on other industry clients maybe three years ago and being successful there.

So that's about it.

Amazing, man.

We'll link below.

Thanks for coming on.

That was fun.

Thanks for watching, guys.

See you tomorrow.