SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hustlers, on today's episode of the Trump to Hustle podcast, we're joined by an entrepreneur making a major impact on the culture and hospitality scene here in San Antonio. He's the owner of Elsewhere and Elsewhere 2, two of the city's most talked-about venues, and plays an active role behind the scenes serving on multiple advisory boards, including Business San Antonio, Fiesta, and Domissions. This individual has built more than just businesses. He's helping shape the future of the city itself. Today's episode, Taryn Furman. Welcome to another episode of the Turn for the Hustle Podcast, where real estate investors and entrepreneurs show their stories, strategies, and mindset behind our hustle. I'm Michael Giannis, aka Mr. Hustle. To my right, Scott Amoon. Let's go. And today's special guest, Taryn Furman. Furman. Taryn Furman. How you doing, man? I'm doing well. Yourself? Good, man. I'm glad you're on this podcast, man. Same. Before we get started, let's get this out the way. My hustle is real estate flipping, real estate wholesaling, and real estate subject too. When someone thinks of Taryn, what's Taryn's hustle?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Hospitality and uh giving back to the community.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

I like that second part, man. The hospitality, yeah, that's what you're known for.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

We're gonna get into it on how Taryn's known for hospitality. But giving back to the community, elaborate a little bit on that.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Uh you know, my career, that fills one cup, and that's great. It pays my bills, it does all the things. But as I've gotten older, this other cup is more important. And I and that cup is given back. And so I like I'm kind of a professional board member at this point. I'm on seven boards, six boards, um, visit San Antonio. Uh, you know, obviously help tourism, help our city. Uh, the Mission Heritage Partners, we take care of the other four missions besides the Alamo. Um, the San Antonio River Foundation. It's the nonprofit arm of the San Antonio River Authority. Um, we do community events, uh public art, things like that. Um, I was in Leadership San Antonio, uh class 47, uh with steering committee class 48. Um, yeah, I just I'm I'm hyper involved in in uh oh I'm also on the the board of uh primarily primates. It's the oldest uh primate sanctuary here in the country. We take care of 33 chimpanzees and 250 other smaller primates.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

I didn't realize you were so active in the city. Yes, sir. Before being active in the city, before the nightclubs, before the uh entertaining spots that you do have, who was Taryn before all of that?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Hmm. Um you know, my dad died when I was four, my sister died when I was fifteen. So I was uh kind of an angry kid. Got into gotten into trouble. Uh thank god my mom stuck it stuck it out with me and uh pressed hard to uh get me back on the right direction. And uh yeah, but all of those uh just like with everything, you know, those those moments in my life shaped who I am. So Born and raised? Born and raised, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Sister 15 said, Dad four. What high school do you go to?

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Central Catholic.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Central Catholic, okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Central Catholic Mafia.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Mafia.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

I don't know about the mafia part, but it's a running joke around the city because we you know the we have 10,000 living living alumni, and most of them are doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, you know, state reps, you know, politicians, all these people. And so, and we're a tight-knit group. It's uh it's the oldest all-boy high school in Texas, it's the oldest high school in San Antonio, and so our uh our legacy, you know, runs deep.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Learning a lot. The first two minutes of this podcast, we're learning a lot. One about you and and two about the city, about the high school. That's cool. Yeah. So after high school, what was the first step? What was the first coming from alumni where it's prestigious for the most part? Right. What was Taryn's first step out of high school?

SPEAKER_00 3:40

So actually, my senior year of high school, um, I worked uh as a promoter at a nightclub against the best wishes of my mother. She's like, Wow, what's nightclub? Uh club level back in the day, um, Callahan in Fredericksburg. Um, and yeah, I uh a friend of mine's boyfriend worked there, and I was like, Oh, you got you gotta get me in there. Like hook me up. So uh went over there and uh I knew the first first night I walked in there, I was like, all right, this is what I want to do. I want to curate these experiences for people and uh and the energy and you know all the fun as as both of y'all know. Um and then went off to excuse me, I went off to Baylor for college, didn't finish, uh came back here and uh started working uh as a bar back, bartender, system manager, manager, GM, etc. And here we are.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Second bears, though. What was your uh what were you going for?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Uh business and marketing.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Business and marketing.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

It was Baylor again, right? Yeah, yeah. No shit. Yeah, towards the Army cadets. Nice. Yeah, it was pretty cool. So you come back and you say hospitality. You said earlier something about your mom didn't like the the fact. I mean, who was, right? High school student, right? Working at a club. How old were you?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Uh I was 18. Oh, you didn't. Yeah. Uh but I like I said, I was uh an angry kid, got in a lot of trouble. So I didn't and I didn't drink, which was definitely a good thing because I would have gotten in ten times more trouble if I had drank. Uh so I didn't drink. I just I again love the energy, love the um the atmosphere of of a nightclub. And so and I was there to work to fucking hustle uh to work. And so um I like I said, worked in all these different positions and learned everything, you know, every different role of of the business. And that's obviously helped me in my career.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

By being in every single role, you think that's needed to become a bar owner?

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Uh not needed, but it's it it'll give you the advantage for sure. Yeah. Um, you know, I I I still think that I can probably run circles around some bartenders and stuff. I say that, but it's been a while since I've actually tended bar. But um yeah, I it's definitely helpful to understand what what you're asking your employees to do, what's needed to to get to that level.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Being in that bar business, the different positions, what do you think is the toughest one?

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Um you know, uh any uh uh the top's always always the toughest because you got all you have to solve all the problems. And I mean and and just like with any business owner, whether it's in hospitality or real estate or whatever, you know, that that at the end of the day, that's what we're doing is we're solving problems. And you gotta be pragmatic, you've got to be tenacious and get out there and figure it out.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

We were talking about this off camera before we started recording, but people don't realize what it takes to run a spot. No. People walk into a spot and think, okay, you call your DJ, he comes in DJs, you open the doors, and people flood in and you serve some drinks and you make some money and you go home and everybody's rich and happy, right? That's basically what your average day-to-day person would think about when you're owning a spot like that. But there are so many things that go into it, as I learned coming from the outside. So, somebody you've got the lifelong being in the industry, I came from the wireless industry and went straight from wireless to nightlife, and it's totally, totally different. So obviously it can be done because we actually shared the same space. We'll get into that in a little while. Um, and we did really well with desire. But it takes a person who my thing was when I was starting the business, how do I create a place where people want to go? Right. The same thing like you just said a second, how do you curate that energy? And that's what I knew getting into it was that has to be the difference. Everybody serves drinks, everybody has the same DJs, being in town, they're bouncing the same DJs, everybody's got basically the same thing going on, other than where it's physically located on a map and what the interior of the space looks like. How you make that person feel is where they're gonna spend their money. Right. If they feel like they're safe, if they feel high energy, if they feel like they can have a good time there, like if they that's really what the difference was. And so when I was reverse engineered, you I you're you hear me talk about this all the time here in the business and then on the podcast. I always like to reverse engineer things because that's really how things get done in my mind, is we're not really creating anything new. We're just figuring out what works. So I went to Vegas a few times and would see what Vegas is doing. Obviously, yeah. Before we opened, afterwards, yeah, it's a whole other story. But before we opened, I would go to because I had never gone out here really. I went out when I was 21 and I opened the club when I was 31. So it was like a 10-year time gap between the time I had gone out. I was going out in the Rio days, Rio, entre, stuff like that. And I hadn't been out, you know, in a while. And so how do you figure out what do people want? Well, you go see what's going on, what's popular, and go from there. Because I'm not, you as you know, I don't listen to music, I don't watch movies. I am so out of tune with like culture that it's crazy to think that I was able to produce a spot that did so, so well for a while. But it's just like what you said, you've got to create an environment that people want to come, show up, have fun. But how do you do that? And so I'll let you kind of take take over the conversation. But you did it with else, with not elsewhere well and with Ivy rooftop, which happens to be the same spot where Desire was at. Yeah. So how did you come up with that? You went from bartending, you went from doing all the roles, understanding the business, how it works, ins and outs. How did you finally get to that opportunity to say, hey, I'm gonna open up my first spot?

SPEAKER_00 8:47

So my uh I worked downtown at uh Suede Lounge on Houston Street uh back in the day. And um a a friend of mine and a regular customer of mine, um, he was a custom home home builder here in town, and he was like, Hey, I got all this extra money, you wanna open a club with me? I said, Great, let's do it. So um my first bar was back porch, which is now Hushroom, but it was social house and grotto and a couple other things. But um, and so we opened that, and it was this was kind of before Stone Oak had popped off. And like, not to pat myself on the back, but I feel like Back Porch really accelerated Stone Oak into kind of this little nightlife spot. And um, and so we did I did that for a year with him, and uh, you know, we'll get into this too, but bad business partners are you know really throw a wrench into things. So um I sold my shares back to him and uh had some coin in my pocket, and now I had something that I could show a bank or an investor that proved, hey, this is the ROI that you know we we stand to make here. So uh took all that to the bank and uh wanted to build San Antonio's first rooftop bar. And so I Ivy was that. And um, yeah, it to so to your question, uh like we were talking before before we started recording, um I I'm a wannabe artist, but I'm creative and I I I love you know interesting spaces and unique spaces. And so um, you know, the the tree that was on top of the the roof at Ivy was uh a big deal and it's like oh when you're driving down 1604, people like, oh yeah, I I've seen that place with the tree on the roof. Yeah, that was us. So um, you know, just to your point, you have to make it unique, you have to make it different. You have to, it's something interesting that people want to go and spend you know a night out at.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

So how um when you were thinking of Ivy, why first rooftop in the town? How did you even get the concept? What it what was behind all that?

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Uh, you know, you I the running joke is is San Antonio's, you know, 10 years behind Dallas, Austin, Houston, um, which, you know, we are, but for I think for some good reasons. You know, we it Austin's our closest neighbor and we we always kind of compare ourselves to it. But in Austin's quick rise in the past, you know, 10 years, they've lost what Austin is. They've lost their culture. And so, you know, here's San Antonio that is abundant of co with culture, and uh, and you know, all these meetings that I am in with the city and the things that I'm involved in, like we're growing, but we have the opportunity now to grow intentionally and like see what Austin or Dallas or Houston, what their missteps were, so that we don't lose, you know, that big city, small town feel that everyone, you know, the the first question out of everybody's mouth, oh, what high school did you go to? You know, and and there's a connection between anybody and everybody. Um so you know, you go to Austin, there's all these rooftops, you go to Houston, Dallas, same. And um, so I was like, Well, you know, what are we doing? We we gotta we gotta have a rooftop. And so um, where Desire and Ivy were, um, the building owner, um, he in the renderings he had a little rooftop space on there. I was like, oh, all right, let's let's explore this. And so we had to reinforce the roof and things like that, but we got it done. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

How many clubs have you owned so far?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Uh 12.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

I've been part of as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Yeah, 12 over the past 16 years. What was the first one? Ivy? Uh no, back porch. Backporch, yeah. Back porch.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

So going to the Ivy, because that one's a historic spot, right? What was before Ivy again?

SPEAKER_03 12:12

Hey, who's the first one? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Tin in that whole center, yeah. I thought it was something before Ivy. After that was Green.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Greenhouse, and then Lush, then Lush, and then Desire. And then Desire. And now Hyde. Hyde, yeah. Hyde.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Okay. So really cool spot. And I think Ivy was the first time you were on your own. Or was that the back porch? Yeah. Ivy. How was that transition? As an entrepreneur, as a hustler, it's like, man, I'm taking that. You sold back porch, right? And you sold your shares. How was that first initial intent in your stomach? Like, all right, this is my time to shine. Yeah. Let me put my stamp in San Antonio. 100%. As an entrepreneur, what was the mindset in moving into that?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Again, coming from a bad partnership, um, and I and because of the success of Back Porch, everyone was like, oh, you know, I'll throw in money, you need investors, blah, blah. And I was like, you know what? No. I want to do this on my own. I don't want to be accountable to anybody, minus a bank, but they're not, you know, they're not in the day-to-day, obviously. Um, and so yeah, it was that it was exciting, but also scary for sure. I mean, any any entrepreneur will tell you that there's that when that risk is there, you know. It's you know, do you are you confident in yourself, your abilities, and and to to get it done.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

So Financial wise, did you go all in or you had a safety net kind of safety cushion?

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Uh no, I w I went all in. All in. Yeah, we had to get creative with uh the financing, and uh uh, but you know, it it worked out.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

So the fact that banks would even loan in that day to uh nightclubs is insane because they won't touch bars, restaurants, nightclubs.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Especially that was 2008, and so like you know the housing market had just collapsed, and like banks you know were pulling back, and most of our our local banks are conservative as it is. And so it took, like I said, took some creativity, but we got it done.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

For the audience members that are watching, what is the ROI of a nightclub? Like, how does that work? What's the standard would you think would be because you've been in the industry for 16 years. You know, I'm a real estate guy, right? I can buy a house, flip a house, make money and I want to make for someone, I guess, as a business owner, what would the returns be on something like that?

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Uh 20% is good. Um, you know, it if you're smart in business and you can read a PL and be like, oh, I need to trim this up and do this. I mean, you can get that higher than 20%. Um, you know, margins are are good, but you know, I'm the culmination of my failures or not not necessarily failures, but the things that I've learned over the course of my career. And and, you know, as I've gotten older, my tastes have changed as far as going out. Like you couldn't give me a nightclub to own or operate. I'm sure you feel the same at this point. Um, and that's kind of why I created elsewhere is you know, it's a it's chill, it's you go with your family, friends, whatever, hang out for a few hours. Um, and the the concept is scalable and sustainable. Um, you know, a nightclub is kind of a flash in the pan. There's definitely a shelf life to it. Uh two, three years, tops if if you're doing it right, and you got to rebrand or remodel, etc. And so, you know, elsewhere, we rebrand and we continue to evolve the space with different art installations and and you know, new drinks and get creative, but again, it's not that flash in the pan like a nightclub. Um, and so again, the the back to your question, my ROI is bigger on a place like elsewhere because my overhead is way lower than a place like Ivy or you know, back porch or things like that.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

You keep mentioning bad partners here and there. How do what is one to look out for? I mean, what was the and then you laugh about it too? Yeah, you laugh about it too. So uh bad partners, I mean I heard stories here and there, but I don't know. I mean, I'm not I wasn't in the nightlife like you were guys were. How does that work? I mean, one, the importance of a good partner. We all want a good partner, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:45

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

But telltale signs, like I think you said the first one you sold out early because of bad partnership.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Yeah. Um he had gotten to uh again, he he was making a lot of money in his custom home building business and uh just was living outside of his means and then robbing Peter to pay Paul and et cetera, et cetera. And I, you know, me being at the time I was the youngest bar owner in town as at 23, uh, 24, 23. And um he it was it kind of to our point earlier, he got into it one to park some money somewhere, but he was partying, he was staying up late, he had drugs in the office, and like I don't do that shit, especially at my at my job at my place. And I'm like, dude, if TABC walks in here, we're fucked. Like, what are you what are you doing? And I'm the one that's here, I'm going to jail. So uh I got out of there as quickly and as cleanly as as I could. Um, but yeah, uh, you know, this goes back to our conversation before we started rolling here. Um, you know, a lot of people get into the nightlife business for the wrong reasons. Um, because they think it's gonna be quick, easy, fun money to to party, do drugs, drink for the girls, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, the the partying and the girls, yeah, that's fun, sure. And that's that's a perk of the job, but at the end of the day, it's a business just like anything else. And it the second you keep you take your eye off of it, employees are stealing, this isn't getting handled. And whether the customer realizes that or not, like even with my partnerships that have gone bad, like that infighting between the partners that trickles down to staff, that trickles down to customers, and and again, whether they consciously realize that or not, but it it definitely changes the the feeling of the company and the the business.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

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SPEAKER_03 18:22

So let's run real quick through your career. Started off the first spot, then went to Ivy. That spot changed twice. Yep. And because you said obviously there's a natural, as we know, natural shelf life of two to three years. And then you got into another bad partnership with a different group.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

So yes. So uh uh Ivy and greenhouse were on my own, and I was burnt out at that point. And so I had wanted to sell it. I, you know, put out my feelers on you know who would wanted to buy this. And uh our mutual partners uh came to me and uh they were like, all right, well, we're gonna give you two options. We can buy you at 100% or we can buy 70% of it and uh but and still have you involved. And I was like, all right, I'll take a look at both, but if I stay on, I don't want the responsibility of day-to-day. You know, I had some stipulations. And they're like, yeah, okay. It's like shit, okay, let's do it. So uh I was getting mailbox money there for another, you know, two, three years while Lush was hot. And um probably first year into it, they were like, hey, let's, you know, we're all making money. This is great. Let's let's do another one. I said, shh, okay, cool. If it's the same kind of setup as this, great. Um, and so we did Boulevard, and Boulevard from night one was a disaster. Um again, too much infighting, too many chiefs trying to, you know, give their opinions to staff and customers and letting these people in, letting these underage girls drink and blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's not how I I'm I run a good business. I run I run a tight chip. And you have to do it. Yeah. And so it just didn't work out. And so uh before I had sold Boulevard and even and I lost a shit ton of money on it, and I'm freaking out. Like, how am I gonna pay my bills? Like, how are we gonna pay the staff? All the things. Um, I had written a the business plan that would eventually turn into elsewhere. And, you know, it's it's always hard to see the forest for the trees, and I'm sure you guys have been in business a long time. You know, when you're in a tight spot and you're just trying to keep your head above water, and you're like, all right, you know, you just gotta make the next right decision that's right in front of you. And uh, but that time in my life, I, you know, I've everything was falling apart. And so I went up and down uh River North and Broadway uh district, where elsewhere is downtown, and I talked to Silver Ventures that owns the Pearl, I talked to Gray Street, I talked to Hickson, I talked to David Adelman, and um I really wanted the spot that elsewhere is in. And um the owner of that, uh Andrew Weisman, is a family friend of mine, but I didn't really know him, but our families were friends, and so I went and bugged him for about six months. Like every week I'd go to Mr. Juicy, his restaurant, and be like, hey man, come on, what are you doing with this place? Let me buy it from you. And he's like, No, I'm gonna I'm gonna redo the concept and blah, blah, blah. And so I went around him and I talked to his landlord, David Adelman, and I was like, hey man, this is what I've done in the past, this is what I want to do with this. And he's like, you know what? I agree with you. Let me let me pressure on him on my side. And so um, a week later, Andrew calls me and he's like, Hey, you still want to do this? Yes, sir, let's get it done. So um, like I said, January 2020 that happened, and then March 2020 happens, and the world's you know, upside down.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

Let's pause for a second because this is interesting timing on your side, because this is where I start to come in. Yeah. And so you got out of Boulevard and Lush at the same time, or was that two separate exits?

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Uh two separate exits. Um, yeah, we I think we had already sold to you, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:47

No, because I bought from I bought from David. At some point. I don't know when that all happened.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Oh, that's right. Yeah. Um But you were

SPEAKER_03 22:01

Yeah. So with Boulevard, had that place not have ever happened, I probably would never be where I'm at. Right. So my story was COVID was here, basically, and I was in the wireless business. I had 42 retail stores, and you do not want to be in retail with 200 grand or so a month worth of overhead, most of it in real estate, if people can't walk into your stores. And I had been wanting to get out of that business for a long time, anyways, and that was my excuse. And so I got out, took six months off, and then I was texting everybody I knew, which was few and far between in the nightlife business, because I had the grand idea of doing nightlife. Sure. Not that it was never a lifelong dream. It was never something, it was just, it was literally a business I wanted to come in and run. I figured it would be profitable. I can kind of see trends. If something's down, you want to buy it while it's low before it goes back up, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And so I texted Justin Vitech because I'd known him since I was like 18. And I just said, hey, you want to do a spot? No. I texted one other guy, I came over who was, and he knows he didn't want to do it. And I texted Anthony, because Anthony was the only other guy I knew because I was a VIP customer back in the day out at uh what's it called? Um Excess. No, no, no, Alpha 281. The big one. Yeah, Excess. Was it XS? Yeah. So, anyways, so I was a big, big client out there, and so I just texted him. I still had his number, we hadn't talked in you know 10 years or whatever. And I said, You want to do a spot? He said, No. Why then he texted me back like a day later? But I've got an interesting opportunity if you want to invest in a spot that we're going to rebrand. It was Boulevard, and we now went to PreVot. And so that's how I got in with him, met Mike, uh not Mike, met um Morgan. Morgan. Eric. Eric Morgan. Eric, Eric takes me to David, the whole thing happens. And then I figured out that you were the original owner of not only the first spot, but also the second spot. And so that's how we came in contact and the whole tree story and whatnot. Yeah. Um, but that's interesting that you got out. I would say we probably missed each other by a few months then. Oh, for sure. Because you were already just doing, you know, he was probably selling me your shares that you got back anyway.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

I honestly I think that's what what happened, yeah. Um yeah, because I at that point, like my mental health was more important than any money that I stood to make. And I was like, dude, I'll I'll walk away. Like I this is not worth the bullshit. And uh again, I didn't know how I was gonna pay bills and you know, I I had no income at the moment. And um, like I said, just it's hard to see the force for the trees in that in that. But now that I can take a step back and look at that the that year or so, I'm like, damn, I'm proud of myself. I, you know, just again, make that make the right decision that's right in front of you.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

When you lost that amount, is the significant amount? Six figures?

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Yeah, it was a it was a yeah, and then but Anthony came back and like gave me, you know, whatever I I probably took your money and gave it to me, yeah, uh or somebody's money. Um but uh I mean it wasn't substantial by any means, but it it kept me afloat, so you know.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Okay. And then during that part you said elsewhere was already in your in your vision.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

How did you come up with the concept? I mean, that's different. Um, I would assume, especially when you open January 2020.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Yeah. Um, you know, yeah, uh elsewhere is an outdoor beer garden. It's a outdoor beer garden. Nothing, yeah, it's not a concept that's not been done before. It has. But uh again, the the kind of the curation of the the vibe and the the art installations and the Instagram and you know, all those things, uh, you know, it's it was a distressed asset when it was the luxury. Um the previous owner did not have uh good management there, and so he would just open whenever somebody like felt like working that day. And I mean it's a primetime spot on the Riverwalk. Um, and you know, now I and I'll again not to pat my own self on the back, but this comes from my landlord, David Adelman, who owns 1221 apartments and um where River North Ice House is, where uh Hot Joy, and I mean he owns all that property right there. And uh he's going back to our good operator conversation, like he was very particular on what operators he's bringing in. And, you know, that makes the world a difference because of course there's you can find a million guys that want to open a bar, especially a sports bar or whatever, but he's very strategic on who he's picking. And I'm like, man, you like thank you for picking finding these good operators, you know, to be neighbors and like grow this district. And I was like, man, and elsewhere's right in the middle of it. And he stopped me and he goes, No, elsewhere's at the heart of it. And I was like, man, I'll take that complimentary.

SPEAKER_03 26:17

You don't want him to put a uh burnhouse next to you, Down? No, I'm I'm good. Yeah, no thanks.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Um, you know, but our uh so Elsewhere was kind of the the anchor or is the anchor tenant down there uh that is now like spurred uh this really mature district that's not the Pearl, that's not Southtown, that's not, you know, uh St. Mary's strip. It it's there's something for everybody there. You know, there's again River North Ice House, great sports bar, River Sun, little Latin jazz place that you kind of feel like you're in Cuba. You know, obviously elsewhere, Hot Joy, Mercy Jones just opened. Um, there's a lot of cool spots down there.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

So as you're doing elsewhere, how long did it take for you to start thinking elsewhere too?

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Uh almost immediately. Uh well, I so I take let me back up. So March 2020 happens and the world shuts down. Um, and so you know, everybody in hospitality is freaking out. Like, what the fuck are we gonna do? Um Lucky for us, uh, you know, we have a full kitchen, so we were allowed to open when restaurants were allowed to open. Plus, being outdoors, uh, some of the restrictions were a little less, but also customers just felt more comfortable being outside. So we kind of thrived during COVID to the point where you know, all of our neighbors around us, there's you know, so many apartments and condos and things around us that we were everyone's local spot. And so, you know, as the world started opening back up, we had already kind of you know cemented our place on the river there. And um, and then we just kept growing from there. So to your question, um, probably uh a year, uh six, eight months into it, I was like, all right, this is again sustainable, scalable, this concept isn't going anywhere. Let's start looking for it elsewhere too. And so, you know, we I there's a an AI program called Placer, and uh you put a geofence around elsewhere downtown, and it'll tell you, you know, how long people are coming. It scrapes phone data, and so it'll tell you how long people are staying there, where they're coming from, where they're going to afterwards, their household medium income, their credit scores. Uh, you know, it's not giving me personal information, but just kind of categorizing all these people. And so we we took some of that data and we went, all right, where is, you know, besides our initial neighbors, where are these people coming from? What are they doing? Um, and so we looked at these parts of town that, you know, the this place or AI data was given us. So we looked at Alamo Ranch, uh, but nothing really jumped out at us over there, you know, and it it weirdly enough, it just so happened, all right, now I'm back to where where this all kind of all started, uh kind of by where I did throw a rock, right?

SPEAKER_03 28:41

Yeah, like right there.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Yeah. Uh you can definitely look down into the rooftop from the Ferris wheel. So, but yeah, and so we got a good deal on the land, um, got room to grow. I've already got phase two, three, and four in my head. Just you know, how big is the land? Six acres.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

When you say a good deal, you might start how much what a good deal means?

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Uh one point six.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

One point six. How was that valued?

SPEAKER_00 29:02

Did you get an appraisal or how does the um so it was kind of an arm's length deal. Um, my business partner's dad owned the land, and um, you know, that was kind of what he paid for it. I mean, market value is probably a little higher than that, uh, but he let it go for what he paid for it. So, but and then two acres of it are in uh a floodplain that's not a floodplain anymore. So, I mean, that was pretty much free land. Um, but yeah, that we're trying to petition FEMA to release the floodplain status because Martin Marietta, the rock quarry is right behind us, and since they've mined the earth for the past 30 years, it doesn't flood anymore. So it could be usable land.

SPEAKER_03 29:40

Correct me if I'm wrong, too. I don't even know if you know this. The same landlord, owner of the land that you bought was the same landlord of that first building, Jimmy LSR. Yeah, shout out to Jimmy, it's pretty cool. So circle moment, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Yeah, for sure. So his son uh is 12 years younger than me, and like I went to his eighth grade graduation at the academy, and like now he's my business partner, we own two bars together. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 29:59

That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

But he's you know, when when that all came about, I'm like, yeah, hell yeah. You know, no one's a sharp guy, he's thirsty, hungry. Let's let's do this.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

So what was the concept of that Ferris wheel? Because I remember when that Ferris wheel was first announced, that was all over the city. Right. Ferris wheel, San Antonio, kind of bringing back old vibes from downtown. And that Ferris wheel, before you even opened, yeah, people were stopping by, taking a lot of content, a lot of reels, a lot of videos, and said this Ferris Wheel is coming to town. What was the idea?

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Uh again, I just I'm kind of a weird guy. That's the hard sea part. Yeah. Yeah. And um, and and going back to our conversation, like what what is what's gonna separate myself from other every other place? Like, if it's just an outdoor beer garden, am I am I another little Woodrow's? Am I, you know, what what what can I add or change that will make me different? And um so yeah, I wanted a Ferris wheel and Nolan, my business partner, the bank, everybody was like, what? No, we're we can't do that. We're not gonna do that, it's gonna be too expensive. Insurance, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, part of being a business owner, part of being the uh on the hustle. We're gonna figure it the fuck out.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Where do you even buy a Ferris wheel?

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Uh, I got this one from Turkey.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

How'd you even find a Ferris wheel in Turkey? How does that's what I want to know? Like when I got there, I was there this past weekend. I was like, it's cool, Ferris wheel. And I was thinking in my head, I was like, man, where do you even buy a Ferris wheel? Do you make it? Do you build it?

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Yeah. Uh so I the this company I found, Tekken Luna Park, uh based out of Turkey. They've been in business for 50 years. Um, the founder's son now owns it. And um, so I got on Google. Um, but back up a sec. Um I'm good friends uh with the CEO of the San Antonio Zoo, Tim Morrow. And Tim is like, oh, I got a Ferris wheel guy. Of course you do. Send me his number. So I talked to the to this guy, Eli, who is actually doing the giant wheel, the observation wheel downtown at St. Paul Square that's in the works. Um, but he was gonna put 175-foot Ferris wheel on uh elsewhere two's property and we're gonna do a ground lease. I didn't have to pay for it, it's gonna be great. Um, and we were getting through that process. And um, long story short, uh Camp Bullis behind us was like, no, you can't do that. You can't look down into the you know the army base. So I was like, all right.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

So how do you even how did you know that? Through permitting and yeah, the blue context, Camp Bullis and free that part out.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Uh the city, the city did. Uh like we were in, we were within all the the code and and everything for the city, but once Camp Bullis got a hold of it, they were like, no, I can't do that. So um and so then I went back to Eli and I was like, hey, can we drop it down? He's like, you know, these are observation wheels. These aren't like, I mean, my Ferris wheel is nice, but it's not 175 feet. Mine's 53 feet. Um, and so he's like, you know, if from an economy scale, if we if we make it smaller, the the ROI on it is not, you know, it's not good for us. I'm like, oh, fair enough. So um, you know, the city didn't really know that story until now, I guess. Um my my thing was always to just get, you know, a 50-foot one, a used one from a carnival. Well, through that process, Eli and I became friends, and he was like, do not buy one of those. He's like, you're gonna spend five times as much on maintenance, insurance, you know, that those things are meant to be put up, taken down, put up, taken down. Like you're gonna run into a lot of issues. He's like, but you know, here's a couple websites, check out um IAPA, which is the international amusement, whatever, whatever. Uh, you know, check with them. So I found this company out of Turkey. Um, obviously, never been to Turkey, never met these guys. Uh, the entire correspondence was through WhatsApp. So I essentially bought a Ferriswell on WhatsApp. Uh and uh even my contractor was like, dude, are you are you sure this thing's gonna show up? Or you just did you just get scammed? But we got it, and uh, here it is.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

So that's a that's a tough feeling to buy a Fair as well WhatsApp. How do you have that feeling like, oh, this is what I'm gonna do? I did my due diligence.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Yeah, I I again looked into the company. They they are a member of IAPA for the past you know 15 years or whatever. And so I called Iappa and I was like, hey, I don't know, you know what you what information you could give me. And you know, they're like, well, they're they're in good standings, they've been a member 15 years, they go to a lot of our trade shows, you know. They're yeah. And so I went back to Eli and I was like, Hey, have you heard of this company? He's like, I I have not worked with them personally, but they're a reputable company, so um yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:11

Interesting country, known for hair plants, fairers wheels, and not having good sales whips. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

They buy Fairswell WhatsApp, they give you a tracking number.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Yeah, pretty much. And I I tracked the boat through, you know, over through the Atlantic Ocean.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Who puts it together?

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Um, so they were it was supposed to come with five of their engineers to help put it together. Um, but Trump's shit was going on and they couldn't get visas. So the only the only two people in the company that had visas was the owner and his like head sales guy. Well, they don't really put this kind of shit together. So they were on FaceTime with the guys putting it together, but my metal fabricator that built me the the giant uh flower tunnel, uh-huh. Um, they you know they they work with metal and they put all this kind of stuff together uh as it is, and so they they're the ones that actually torque the bolts and everything. And they're Danco, Danco Construction, great company, uh super smart guys, but they got it up and running.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

Honest picks and regulation.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:07

It's crazy all the stuff that goes around in the background that people have, again, we talked about this before, has no idea what goes into running a business. So even the stuff of like tariffs, oh yeah, uh the visas and all that stuff that nobody would understand, and all the things don't even appreciate a lot of times that that business owners have to go through just to get the attraction that everybody wants. You have to drum through so many hoops, so it's cool to see the back end side of it.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Kind of wild. The I I have a family friend that was in it that's a customs uh broker, and so she walked me through this whole process. So that like that was easier. Yeah. Um, I had posted a picture of the Ferris wheel on my Facebook. I live in Castle Hills. Uh the ex-mayor of Castle Hills owns an insurance company. He texted me, he's like, Hey, I saw your Ferris wheel. You know I had an insurance company. I was like, Yeah, I don't know, but I got an insurance guy. And he's like, No, I specifically do amusement rides across the country. I was like, Oh, well shit. His business uh is at the top of my street, so I walked my happy ass to the to his office, sat down with him. Uh I thank God because they walked me through that insurance process, which uh was cumbersome, but like I needed a stamp for an amusement ride from the Texas Department of Insurance. Like, to your point, a lot of things go into this that people don't realize. But thank goodness I had I had a lot of friends in this in this field, surprisingly, that kind of helped me.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

So what about licensing? Because I know not anybody can just go throw up a six flags ride and hope people get on and live.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

You have to actually have that's what the the Texas Department of Insurance they came out and inspected it and gave me a stamp and a sticker, and you know it's gotta be within regulations and emergency stops and all the things. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

In case I want to buy a Ferrisville that's 50 foot tall, how much does it go for? Uh put together all this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

Like right under 400 grand, like 400,000. Yeah. Site work, shipping, tariffs, all the things.

SPEAKER_02 36:51

400 grand. You guys see that? What er Taryn's willing to do for the city? That's a really cool feature, man. As soon as you I mean, you can't miss it, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

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SPEAKER_03 38:04

I have a two-part question. The first part is unfortunately, our city has had its share of shootings at nightclubs, bars, violence, uh, for lack of a better word, riffraff running around the scene. How do you keep your spot so clean?

SPEAKER_00 38:21

Uh you know, it there there is a formula to it. You know, the the music you play, the drinks you uh the price of drinks, uh what you serve, um, you know, what you're playing on on a screen or a TV, things like that. Um, and I just by again, culmination of my failures and my experience, you know, have found that sweet spot. Um, you know, thank goodness we we've never had a single uh fight or or anything at elsewhere, downtown or elsewhere too, um, which is kind of rare to your to your point. It's it's sad that, you know, I I I when I go out, I go out to have a good time with my friends, try and get laid or whatever. And, you know, there's people that go out specifically looking for shit to do you know, to hurt. So it's unfortunate.

SPEAKER_03 39:06

So I know the back end side of it for the viewers who are watching, there's a difference between your setup and most other bars and nightclubs being that you don't have a full-on liquor license, but you can still run circles around these guys, numbers-wise, selling alcohol. So, how is it that you're able to do both sides?

SPEAKER_00 39:23

So when we bought Elsewhere Downtown, uh, it came with a beer and wine license. And so when we bought it, I of course, my again, my history, my wheelhouse is is liquor. So, of course, I was like, we're we're gonna get a liquor license. But then COVID happened, we're just like, ah, fuck it, let's just open, see what happens. Um, and also the setup of downtown is is different. You know, it's it's two windows, two counter service windows. There's not a physical bar top. Um, so be a little harder to retrofit that or whatever. But as we got into it, my taxes are lower, my insurance is lower, inventory is easier. Um, you know, it's it's I'm kind of spoiled now. I don't really want to go back to liquor. But uh to your question, over the course of these past six years with Elsewhere Downtown, we have found creative ways to fill those gaps on what we can serve and what what we offer customers. So we use fermented vodka, fermented tequila. So my legal threshold as a beer and wine license is 17% alcohol. So, you know, our our frozen margaritas are made with fermented tequila, same blue agave that's in Don Julio or whatever. Uh, it's just the process of it is fermentation instead of being distilled. So 17% versus 40%. And, you know, we uh we have these drink me potions, you know, to kind of go along with the whole whimsical vibe. And, you know, they're blue and they brew glitter and they they swirl and it's pretty. Um and then, you know, shots and things like that, you know, again, try to fill those gaps with with fun, different, unique things.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

That's really cool that you've been able to do that because most business owners are just looking at, oh, everybody's gonna want vodka. I have to have to have vodka, right? Well, you have it just in a different way. So kudos to you for finding a way not only to I don't say get around the liquor licensing, because you're not doing that, you're within your means to do that, but at the same time, you're able to enhance the business by not having the riffraff, and unfortunately, the people coming around that don't need to be around. So the second part to my question is what I have my opinions on this. One of the reasons why I got out of the business. Where do you think nightclubs specifically are going in this new generation we live in? What's the what's I have my opinion, but I want to hear what your thoughts are.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

I mean, that's a great question. You know, as as you know, anytime you open up Facebook or Instagram, it's like, oh, Gen Z is not drinking as much, blah, blah, blah. Uh, which is true. Um, and you can definitely see see it. Um, you know, a lot of places are offering THC drinks and things like that. And and we do too, but just recently, probably in the past month or two, we've got real intentional with those, with our offerings. So we I made a whole separate menu of you know, all a lineup of seltzers, some over ice options, but we also started selling like edibles and gummies. And again, the intentionality behind the menu has now kind of brought it to the customers, you know, forefront, and we're selling the shit out of them. And so people and you know, one of my managers, my downtown GM, was worried that people are gonna buy, you know, a bag of these edibles and just sit there and get fucked up. And but it's that's not the case, you know. It it's it's a different vibe, and people, you know, will have one one gummy or one little rice crispy treat or whatever, and then you know, 15 minutes later, they're like, Oh, I feel good, and I'm just hanging out, I'm swinging, you know, on the river or I'm riding the Ferris wheel and they're just having a good time. So uh again, it's it's finding creative ways to attract those customers. So uh as far as nightclubs go, I you know, I I thank goodness I'm out of that space. Um, because I I I think that it is a harder, harder grind than what we do it elsewhere. Uh again, you the relevance of the DJs and and what what the that next trend is is definitely harder to put your, you know, keep your finger on that pulse.

SPEAKER_03 42:59

Do you think I'll ask the direct question? Do you think nightclubs are dying?

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Uh yes and no. Again, I I think as as the the paradigm shift keeps happening, um, owners are gonna have to get creative uh with what they're offering. I mean, you're never gonna not have people that wanna get together with friends and and congregate and or go to a concert or whatever. Uh it's just it's we're gonna have to package it differently. So um and that it's kind of an exciting time because it'll weed out the people that don't really belong in this business as it is. Um and so for for the good operators, they'll figure they'll figure a way out to continue.

SPEAKER_03 43:41

My thoughts are that one, people were drinking less, which is for sure, if you can just look at the stats. Two guys our age, people our age, would go out in a time where there was no social media or very little of it, right? If you wanted to hook up with somebody, you wanted to meet somebody, you had Had to go out, and that's typically you weren't going to a steakhouse, right? You were going to a nightclub, a bar. Um, but now the younger generation has it so easy. You can swipe on bumble all day until you might meet somebody, you can send a DM on Instagram and hook up with somebody. And so there's really no need from a social level for the newer, younger generation. There's no need on from a social level to even go out and do that. You don't have to dress up, you have to go spend money on clothes, you don't have to spend money on getting there, you have to spend money at the door, you don't have to go buy her a bottle just to get rejected. You can get rejected with a simple DM and be done with it, right? And so that's my thinking behind it. I do think that there will be a subset of people who still want to go out. I don't know if it's enough to support a business. I do think that similar to a concert, there's only certain places you can go to do that. Unfortunately, Beyoncé or whoever's probably not coming to San Antonio, but she'll go to Dallas or Houston, right? Right. All these big people may not be coming to whatever city you live in, but you could I think you'll always be able to go to Vegas, Miami, New York.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

Well, Vegas is hurting like crazy right now.

SPEAKER_03 44:58

Even at that, even being the nightclub capital of the world, right? And so I think there'll be some shifts going on there. But I think, I mean, just my opinion, I think that you'll have nightclubs in those bigger cities and what that looks like going forward, who knows? But I do think in in I say smaller cities. San Antonio's, you know, two and a half million people or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

We just we just went up. We're the sixth largest city in the country now.

SPEAKER_03 45:15

So even a smaller city like San Antonio, unfortunately, I don't know that there's a vibrant nightclub scene. Nightlife, yes. Spots like yours, bars, uh uh dive bars, speakeasies for sure. I just don't know that nightclubs are a thing ten years from now.

SPEAKER_00 45:31

And uh yeah, and I agree. Again, that it it's gonna be up to some operators to come up with creative ways to uh to capture that that that audience back. Um, you know, and and that's why that's why I'm glad I'm not in the nightlife in the nightclub business anymore. Um, you know, elsewhere downtown and especially downtown. I mean, we get a lot of tourists. Um we get our neighbors around us, obviously, but we do we capture a lot of tourists that are coming back and forth from downtown proper to the Pearl. Um and now that we've you know established, made our a name for ourselves, um, you know, people people come and seek us out now. So that's good. Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 46:09

Running an operation like elsewhere and elsewhere too. What is someone like yourself as an operator who's been doing this for a long time, what's that mindset you have to have? What's that motivation? What's that drive that says, hey, I'm gonna get up, household, do what I gotta do, and make sure that this company or this vision I'm creating, how does that one push himself to do that?

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Uh that's the key word, push. Um you know, we were supposed to open elsewhere two in uh June and construction delays, et cetera, we didn't open until October. But I had given my GC uh October 3rd is the date. Figure it the fuck out. We gotta make this happen. And we were all sitting at Elsewhere 2, like a week before October 3rd, and uh I'm I'm kind of annoyed with everybody at this point because I'm like, there's things that need to get done. And um my GM for Elsewhere Two is just like, you know, why why are you so and my business partner were like, why are you so insistent? I'm like, what am I supposed to do? Just sit here and let let it just happen if it's gonna happen? No, you gotta keep pushing. The same thing with the tree uh at Ivy, the same thing with the Ferris wheel. Like people tell you guys no all the time, but what are you as business owners, as entrepreneurs, no? I'm gonna figure it out, I'm gonna solve that problem and I'm gonna move on to the next problem. Um so yeah, I mean it's it's that that mentality of I'm just gonna keep moving forward as as hard and as fast as I can.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

In this industry, hospitality, I would assume, is very tough, I would think. What's like a really tough battle you had in this industry space itself? A lesson, a really hard-earned, hard-learned uh method of going through something like, man, now that I know this, anyone else wants to be in this industry space, you need to know.

SPEAKER_00 47:53

Um You know, again, shifting from nightclubs to to whatever the hell elsewhere's concept is.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

You know, just like what is that concept?

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Uh you know, I I mean it's a whimsical beer garden, but whimsical. Yeah, whimsical beer garden. Um but you know, it's it's a sp it's it's a community space. And and that's it, honestly, that's you know, going back to my kind of giving back. Obviously, I'm in the business to make money, but elsewhere downtown and elsewhere too are these spaces that people can come and and use and enjoy. Uh, you know, we're inclusive. Like we're uh we're big proponents of the LBGTQ community. We do dog adoption events almost every weekend. You know, we we do uh fitness classes. Uh Black Swan Yoga is having uh Wondress and Well Wellness in Wonderland Fitness Festival uh this Saturday at Elsewhere too. And they're doing like five different yoga classes, all these different like fitness vendors. Um it's about curating that space to where community comes. And whether, whether I'm making you know money off of these people or not, they're gonna remember, hey, you know, I went and did yoga at Elsewhere too. That place is really cool. Let's go back and have dinner or a drink or whatever. So um, you know, making these spaces for for community is is really important. And I think that kind of goes to the question of, you know, these nightclubs are dying. Well, all right, how are they gonna evolve? Uh and you know, third spaces are are are needed because people still want to gather and community and be together and sit here and and have conversations. Uh it's just a matter of how you package that to a customer.

SPEAKER_03 49:20

Yeah, and I think that's why nightclubs also are dying, because it's not a place you can go to have conversations. It's typically stupid, loud. The guys are there for one reason, the girls are there just to try to have fun, but they can't because the guys are being weirdos. And like it's just a weird setup. Now, if you really look at it from the outside, it's a very weird setup in today's society. Back in, you know, 2000s, 90s, 80s, whatever, it made sense, right? But I feel like now it's just, I don't know, I really don't think it's gonna go anywhere. But to your point, I think what your business has that kind of contrary to what I just said, I want to counter uh contradict myself, but people don't want to go out as much anymore because they don't one, they're a lot of kids are socially awkward because of the whole internet thing. They're scared of getting rejected. But because everything lives online now, classes are online, different experiences are online, uh, you can learn online. Like with us, you can learn real estate online, you don't have to go to a seminar anymore. Like a lot of the in-person stuff has migrate online, especially after COVID, right? We learned how to do everything online, we learned how to operate the entire world online. But because of that, and with AI and all the other stuff that's coming out, I think that me personally, I really believe, and it's not because I'm stupid smart, but just the people I listen to and Elon Musk and other people that are saying these things, is that experiences is what's going to make a ton of money over the next 10 years. Because when everything is so cheap and easy online and easily replicated, and you can generate movies, and so you don't even need, you know, a film company anymore because you can just create a movie in 10 minutes and it's going to know what you like and it's going to make it to what you like. How do you have something different that stands out? And so having an in-person experience, that's one reason why we brought back at the beginning of the year in-person meetups, because people want that in-person connection. People want that, you know, people our age specifically, and I think that the younger generation eventually will catch on to that. Um I think there is a yearning in some of those people for that. But I think that's why churches are doing so well right now, right? It's a in-person experience where you can connect with other people uh around a common theme. And so, same thing with your spa. The difference between your spa, as we've been going over, is that it's an experience. It's what you feel when you get there, it's the different benefit, you know, events that you do, it's the different setup with the the Ferris wheel or with being on the riverwalk or with all that stuff. So I think that's the key for any business going forward. If you can do some kind of in-person event and then also making it a very special feeling. Like for us, we're gonna do in office days. If you can come into our office and see our team, you probably can invest too, right? So you get that feeling by doing that. And so, same thing with you, Joe.

SPEAKER_00 51:39

That's the power of community uh in collaboration. You know, you put four of us in a room, we're gonna sit here and bullshit just like we're doing now. Yeah, and one idea sparks this idea, and then here we go. You know, Zoom or you know, DMing somebody uh over WhatsApp, that's not that's not happening. That collaboration isn't there. Yeah, so I understand like bigger companies' frustration with you know trying to get people to come back to in office, uh, because that's where that's where the magic happens is that community and being together.

SPEAKER_02 52:07

Definitely. Is there a next business venture after elsewhere too?

SPEAKER_00 52:12

Um I we've yeah, we we've got uh obviously elsewhere, like I said, scalable and sustainable. So we're we're always on the lookout for another elsewhere spot. Um I own a couple spots or I'm partners in a couple spots in Austin. So Austin was kind of the the next natural move, but again, Austin's saturated. There, I good luck finding a piece of property even remotely close to either elsewhere downtown or two uh without paying through the teeth for it. Um but we've looked at um New Bromfels, we've obviously looked at Austin. Um some people sent us some things uh in Fort Worth and in Houston. So, you know, we've got our ears to the ground, but um especially for elsewhere three or elsewhere whatever I might call it. But um, you know, I've got some other concepts that I would want to do uh here in town, uh like a mezcal and tequila bar called the Aniejo Pendejo. Um a that's cool. Yeah, uh real you know, dark and and moody in there and and have you know some really good good mezcal and tequila and and uh fun little kind of tapas dishes and things. Um would love to do another concept called Midnight in Paris. Um I hate comparing it to like Great Gatsby because that's kind of been played out, but 1920s Paris, uh super craft cocktails, do like burlesque shows every night. Uh again, an experience, something very different.

SPEAKER_02 53:27

So but how'd the name elsewhere come up?

SPEAKER_00 53:31

Um so there again, I'm I'm big into art and experiences and and kind of weird stuff. Uh there is an artist uh out of uh San Francisco or Oakland that built this kind of immersive game uh over like the course of two or three years. And uh like he would put uh flyers or whatever on like on telephone poles, and you'd take a little number, you know, phone number, and you'd call it and it'd send you over to this place downtown, and you'd have to go find this. And it was like it was a scavenger hunt, but it was it was a gamification of art. And anyway, the the bad guys in in this gamification were the Zhuzun Institute and the good guys were the Elsewhere Society. And elsewhere, as I'm watching this, like reading all about it, and then they made this documentary about the the game. Um, and actually ABC, no, AMC uh did a show called Dispatches from Elsewhere um about the game. And the the the word elsewhere, it's not here, it's not there, it's not work, it's not home. It it implies an experience, it implies, you know, something something beyond. So elsewhere.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 54:44

Yeah. And actually I reached out to the guy that created this game and I was like, hey, you know, love the documentary, love the game, you know, whatever. Uh named my bar after it. And so he was like, Hey, you got time for a phone call? I was like, Yeah. He's like, Well, I'm working on this new project, you know, we might be able to collaborate or whatever, so that's kind of cool.

unknown 55:02

But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:05

You being so involved in all the boards downtown and all this stuff. I've I've seen, I followed your story obviously a lot, and so I've seen all the stuff you've been doing with the uh the parades and just everything, the uh Alamo and all that stuff. Is in the cards for Taryn one day a mayor run?

SPEAKER_00 55:21

Uh well I live in Castle Hills, so I can't run for San Antonio mayor, but uh I don't think so. Uh I well, I don't know. I it's nothing's ever off the table. Um you know, I I'm I'm happy where I'm at right now and the things that I'm involved in. Uh visit San Antonio, being on their board is a big one. Um, you know, going back to hospitality, we, you know, San Antonio, hospitality in San Antonio equates for 150,000 jobs. That's$24.3 billion in 2025 uh for economic impact for the city. That's huge. It's incredible. Um and you know, and here comes Project Marvel that will reshape our city. Uh and not just for the the reasons that you know have been talked about, you know, over and over and over. Um, but you know, an intrinsic value that Marvel is gonna bring is talent retention and talent attraction. People want to live, and this this is why we have some of the best universities in Texas in this city, but what do what do these kids do when they graduate? They want to go to Austin, they want to go to Dallas, they want to go to Houston, they want to go somewhere fun, that they can work and play and have a good time. Well, San Antonio's fun, you just gotta you gotta look for it a little harder than some of these other major cities, but there's a million things to do in San Antonio at any given time. But when we place Project Marvel downtown and we build this true entertainment district, well, that's more attractive for companies when they're trying to pitch, hey, you know, you want to come work in San Antonio, yeah, there's there's the Spurs are downtown, we got this going on, we got this. Um, you know, so it's it's a a bigger deal than uh than just kind of the the standard ROI that that it'll bring to the city. Uh it'll it'll reshape you know who we are as a city. Again, like I said, we just went up to the sixth largest city in the country. It's time we started acting like it.

unknown 57:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:04

No, that's all good points because I've I've from the outside kind of watched the battle that's going on back and forth with the city and and the representatives that are for it and the ones that are against it. And I don't I see it's a hundred percent benefit. I don't understand why anybody would be against it. Um but anyway, it's a different story. But uh it's a good protect perspective that you uh bring up because I know a lot of people in that same situation having owned a college bar that they all come here to go to college, and then the second they're done, they can't get out of the city fast enough. And it's a great place. You know, I was born and raised here. Well, all three of us were born and raised here. Is it the funnest city in the world? No, but like you said, there is always a million things to do, you know, from the Pearl to SeaWorld to Fiesta, Texas to the Alamo to running trails to, you know, whatever. There's a million things to do, but there isn't like a centralized spot. You really do have to kind of spread out and figure out where you want to be. And so I think that will be a very, very big benefit for the city. I'm hoping that everything, I mean, it seems like you know more than I do. It seems like it's on track.

SPEAKER_00 57:55

It's we're we're getting there. Yeah. I mean, there's some some hurdles, but hey, we we got the the first hurdle down by getting prop A and B pass. So that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 58:03

So for people who've never this may be the first time they see you, obviously this is a real estate podcaster, probably a lot of new guys that have never seen you. Where can people connect with you? Where can they find you? Where what's the best place for them to reach out to Taran?

SPEAKER_00 58:13

Uh me personally, uh my Instagram, TarynArt, A R T, um, again, art collector, whatever. Uh, but elsewhere SATX or elsewhere.2 on Instagram.

SPEAKER_03 58:23

Any final words you want to leave with the viewers?

SPEAKER_00 58:27

Um, you know, what one thing, kind of exactly to what you're talking about, you know, there's always something fun going on in San Antonio, but because San Antonio is so spread out, people have their bubbles. And I and I get it. Like I'm I'm guilty of that as well. But uh being involved in all these different things across the city, you know, I'll I'll go down to Confluence Park on the South Side and like go to um Sonic Transmission, which is this like cool DJ thing, whatever. Fun is cool. It's cool shit. Uh, you know, there's always something going on at the Pearl, there's always something going on in Southtown. It's always frustrating to me when my north side friends or my my friends that live in their little bubble, hey, come down here, come come experience this event or you know, go explore your city because the city is really cool and has a ton of history. We're 300, 300 years old, over 300 years old, and there's always something going on. And the city's embedded with such deep culture that you know a lot of these other major cities lack. And so there's always something fun and interesting and uh entertaining going on.

SPEAKER_03 59:23

So last thing. So for on that point, for people who do live here and they live in their bubble, what's the best way for them to even find out about things that are going on? Is it is it visitsa.org or what's the best.

SPEAKER_00 59:32

Visit San Antonio, um, you know, or just follow their Instagram, uh, things like that. Um, you know, again, there's there's these districts. You know, again, we're we're the six largest cities, so now there's these districts popping up, like the River North District, like Southtown, St. Mary's. You know, go go down there, go explore. Um but yeah, I mean, obviously Instagram, social media is, you know, the the key to kind of finding all that out. But yeah, visit San Antonio and the River Walk always has uh good content on on what's going on around the city. Um yeah, or or like I said, just go go show up one of these districts, come down to River North and and park your car, have a beer elsewhere, go down to River North, go stop in at River Sun and listen to some cool jazz music, you know, just go go wander around.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:14

Do like we had to do in the old days, go out and actually go find things, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:19

Um, Taryn, so you definitely bring a lot to the city, right? You bring a lot of value to the city. You're doing a lot as a certified hustler. This is the Trump the Hustle podcast. When Taryn thinks of Trump the Hustle, what does that mean to Tarren?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:31

What does that mean? Um, I don't I that's a good, great, great, great question. Uh, I don't know. You know, again, I I I'm a pusher, so that that's part of my hustle is just to continue to push forward and to and to do the next right thing. Um, but again, I I I try and think outside the box and you know, with all the things that I'm involved in, the events that I go to, again, I I'm I'm guilty of being in my bubble. I want to go explore my city and find the the cool stuff and then maybe be on a podcast and tell the public about it, you know? Um so I just being a part of the community is is part of the hustle for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:06

Awesome. We really do appreciate you taking the time. It's an honor to have you on this podcast. We've been friends for a while. We're glad that you got to make it on and uh share your story. We're excited to get it out to the to the public, and hopefully that they do take your advice and explore the city because it is a great place to explore, and there's so much good here. Um, unfortunately, we do get a bad rep with you know some of the violence and instantly, but there's some there's some great stuff out there. So, guys, we appreciate you tuning in. It's been another great episode of the Turn Up the Hustle Podcast. We hope that you get value out of this podcast every single week. If you do, we highly ask that you like and subscribe to the channel. And as always, as always, turn up the hustle. We will see you on the next one. Let's go.