Ryan Labbe: The Infrastructure-First Mindset That Builds Enduring Hospitality Concepts

As part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restaurateur”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ryan Labbe founder of 81/82 .Hospitality professional and 81/82 Group President Ryan Labbe has built an innovate collection of food, beverage and nightlife concepts in the Las Vegas Valley, both on and off the Strip, redefining experiences for tourists and locals alike.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know’ you a bit. Can you share with our readers a story about what inspired you to become a restaurateur?

Thank you for thinking of me for this piece. There isn’t one singular story about why I got into this business. It was more of a gradual growth or evolution of hospitality and design for me. I began my career in bars and nightclubs wearing many different hats and realized fairly quickly I didn’t want to make that my long-term career choice, but I loved creating, meeting people, connecting the dots, etc. so a natural transition was restaurants and much smaller scale entertainment venues. I came up around a lot of very smart and successful hospitality veterans and was inspired how they made that transition and were able to still do what they love and continue to be “in the scene”. Creating a space/design, menu, cocktail program, and team is such a fun process, but getting to see guests experience what you created is why we all do it!

Do you have a specific type of food that you focus on? What was it that first drew you to cooking that type of food? Can you share a story about that with us?

I wish I could say I cooked our food, but that wouldn’t be fair to our guests! We have an excellent group of super talented chefs on our team. They do all the cooking, we as a team just try to find fun and creative ways to prepare dishes differently. In regard to food focus, we just happened to create two different Mexican concepts back-to-back, completely unexpectedly. We were looking for spaces for our Mediterranean tapas and breakfast concepts after Más Por Favor opened and sort of fell into the space that is currently La Neta.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? How did you overcome this obstacle?

Every business owner — no matter the business — faces challenges almost daily. However, I would have to say for me, it was opening Más Por Favor on January 26, 2020, and being told we had close on March 17, 2020 due to government mandates/Covid 19. We had just worked so hard to open, built an amazing team and boom — closed! It wasn’t a great feeling.

In your experience, what is the key to creating a dish that customers are crazy about?

The key is creating a dish that is a feel-good favorite, with a twist that makes it hit differently than a traditional recipe, and then finally an amazing a presentation that makes people come back for more.

Personally, what is the ‘perfect meal for you’?

For me this varies by mood. The perfect meal could be pizza or a perfectly cooked steak. Depends on how healthy or indulgent I’m trying to be at the moment.

Where does your inspiration for creating come from? Is there something that you turn to for a daily creativity boost?

I don’t have any one thing that gives me a creative boost. I try to pay attention to everything. I want to make sure that if someone is willing to leave their house and spend their hard-earned money at one of our spaces, we give them an experience they deserve!

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? What impact do you think this will have?

We are! We are so excited to be working on some new projects here in Vegas, as well as our first out of market space as a company in a new state.

What advice would you give to other restaurateurs to thrive and avoid burnout?

Although I don’t believe I’m in any position to serve advice just yet, I will say I’ve learned that to thrive, begin by building a solid team and pay attention to all the details, they matter! To avoid getting burnt out — my advice is don’t chase the money, know your bandwidth, and always take your time!

Thank you for all that. Now we are ready for the main question of the interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started as a Restaurateur” and why? Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Infrastructure before growth.
2. It is more important to have people around you with differing opinions than the same.
3. Never assume, always ask, and then ask again.
4. Attitude is equally as important as work ethic.
5. There is a fine line between creative and misunderstood.

What’s the one dish people have to try if they visit your establishment?

At Más Por Favor, I recommend the F-Bomb (our spin on nachos) — a bag of Fritos with your choice of protein and all the fixings. At La Neta, try the Birria Beef and Cheese, BFT. It’s a massive two person birria taco bone in.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

This is a tough one. But as a business owner I will keep it fun and light. I think there should be an approval process prior to those who leave ANY Yelp, Google, etc. review for businesses. People don’t understand how far one bad experience or one person’s opinion of something can go, especially if completely invalid.

Thank you so much for these insights. This was very inspirational!