Hospitality Design - October 2024 - 145

How did that inform your fi rst restaurant, Gilligan's Bar and Grill
in Tucson?
Those years are the foundation of who I am today. When you run a business with
no money, you have to realize where every penny is. You make mistakes, but you
learn quickly. Otherwise, those doors are going to be closed the next day.
After selling that restaurant, what did you do next?
I opened another in Tucson and merged with some men in their 50s who had
another restaurant and some other businesses. I was 25 or 26 at the time, and
our relationship became like oil and water. I was in the restaurants working
every day, and these guys would come in aſt er golf and complain about things.
I worked with them for four years and owned part of the company, but they
fi red me. It turned out to be the best thing that happened to me. I opened
Wildfl ower in 1998 in Tucson, [the fi rst restaurant under the Fox Restaurant
Concepts umbrella]. We still have that restaurant in our portfolio. Fastforward
to today, all those restaurants I was fi red from are out of business, and
I've opened 150 restaurants along the way.
A green tile-wrapped reception desk greets guests at the Global
Ambassador in Phoenix, designed by Testani Design Troupe
How do you continue to come up with new ideas?
It was never my intention to open all these diff erent restaurants. It was more
driven by opportunity. I had opened a restaurant in Tucson and three blocks
down the street a building became available, and I made a deal with the
landlord. But I had to come up with something new because it didn't make
sense to repeat the fi rst restaurant. It happened organically.
How involved are you in the process?
I'm involved with everything: real estate, the menu, the music, the silverware.
I'm not a one foot in, one foot out kind of person. I'm all in.
What drove you to expand into Nashville with the AvroKOdesigned
Twelve Thirty Club?
It was an exciting project that we worked on for fi ve or six years. In the
middle of that, Covid happened. The biggest challenge in my career was
opening that restaurant. I'm a bett er operator because of that, but it was
challenging.
Walnut millwork mingles with art by Michael
Carso in the Global Ambassador guestrooms
What prompted your expansion into hotels with the Global
Ambassador?
I've always wanted to be in the hotel business. Early on, I did a management
deal inside a hotel. While I was running the business, I realized how broken I
felt the model was-with all these silos everyone was working in. I decided I
could do a bett er job. My goal was to acquire a piece of land, be the developer,
work with a contractor, and work daily-and intimately-with my design
team. I hired Judy Testani of Testani Design Troupe, who's done a lot of my
restaurants and some of my homes. She's my muse-we've done 50 or 60
projects together. We put together this great local team [with architecture
fi rm Nelson Partners]. There are fi ve restaurants, a members club, and it's
a non-branded hotel that we created from the ground up. We just received a
Michelin Key, which is amazing.
What did you take away from the process?
I built a hotel around F&B, which I know well, but I didn't know that much
about hotels. I like to think I know a litt le more about the business [now]. I
wanted [the hotel] to have its own identity. [I didn't] pay att ention to a lot of
other people's input, and every line item in the building is controlled by us. My
restaurant experiences are woven into the hotel. It was an obvious evolution
of what I wanted to do. hd
Le Âme brasserie in the Global Ambassador
boasts a Parisian chic aesthetic
Hear more from Fox on HD's What I've Learned podcast at hospitalitydesign.com/podcasts
hospitalitydesign.com October 2024
145
http://www.hospitalitydesign.com/podcasts http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
Hospitality Design - October 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - October 2024
