City of Dreams: Unveiled

Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a k u and v studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:14
Good morning dreamers and creators. You're tuned into the City of Dreams unveiled. Your monthly deep dive into the pulsing heart of Las Vegas is art and entertainment scene. I'm your host, Jeff Lowen. Here to peel back the layers of creativity and inspiration that fuel our city's most innovative minds.

Unknown Speaker 0:40
Good morning, everybody. I'm super excited to have Eric Adams as my guest today. He's the founder of dog and whistle and we're gonna explore a lot of different things with Eric Eric's this amazing entrepreneur located here in Las Vegas. And it wasn't what he started out to be. But I think his dog and whistle company and the product that it makes is going to be really interesting for all of those pet lovers, pet owners, that sort of thing. Because Eric is a guy who likes to do good in this world. I'm super excited to have you here. Welcome, Eric.

Unknown Speaker 1:15
Jeff, thank you so much for having me. Super excited to be here. So happy to get a chance to share my story to talk about the the talk about dog and whistle and you know, just a little bit about the city and how we can reduce the carbon footprint.

Unknown Speaker 1:28
Yeah, absolutely. So before we get into what your current company is, let's take it a step back. Where are you originally from?

Unknown Speaker 1:34
Born and raised in Gary, Indiana. So currently, there are only two famous people from Gary, Indiana. So there's Michael Jackson, and then there's myself. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 1:42
I love it to famous and how So you grew up there? What was your interest? And like, what did you go to college for? What's your interest?

Unknown Speaker 1:53
Yeah. So growing up, it was, you know, definitely raised in a household where, you know, my father wasn't as much as the culinarian as I grew up to be. So there was a different passion where I wanted to emulate kind of those women in my life, my grandmother specifically where she was a amazing cook. I mean, this woman would, she would keep every piece of protein, every piece of fruit and veggie and she would create a amazing meal out of it. And right then and there, I knew I wanted to become to either someone in the kitchen or on my own restaurant one day. And it started junior year of high school where I just decided to go to vocational school and learn about the studies and education and then went over to Baker College in Muskegon, Michigan, and pursued my culinary arts degree. And it went amazing to the point where the mystery basket came and didn't do so well. But I did take a pivot and wanted to learn more about the front of the house side, just because I wanted to learn about the operations, profit and loss. Just just overall understanding the business aspect of food and beverage. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 3:08
so you're a culinary chef.

Unknown Speaker 3:10
So I wouldn't say chef, okay, specifically. But I do have a little bit of training in which I do utilize that with my current, my current venture right now,

Unknown Speaker 3:20
do you cook at home?

Unknown Speaker 3:21
So if my wife, my wife was going to listen, and she says, No, he cooks more for the dogs than he does for us at home. So okay, taking a little bit of a step back. But I do make it a point that you know, at least once or twice every week that I'll go ahead and in the kitchen and cook something specifically something that I love. You know, I'm a big sucker for meatloaf. You know, I think there's just something about the Midwest or Chile. My kids love it. So we'll we'll do something of that nature. My wife's Puerto Rican. So we kind of take a break from the the Puerto Ricans side of food and bring in some some American eyes or African American based foods,

Unknown Speaker 4:01
young gardens. A good old pot of chili is the best thing in the winter in the Midwest,

Unknown Speaker 4:05
or a hot summer day. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 4:08
that's true, too. So how did you transition from the Midwest to Las Vegas, Nevada?

Unknown Speaker 4:13
Ah, man, Jeff, I tell you I came out here in 2007 specifically to come and visit my grandparents and my uncle who was just moved out here at the time and when I tell you that coming from the Midwest and moving and coming out here to visit it was a eye opening experience right to just come see come and see the city that's just so vibrant, nothing never closed. I mean, that is very unheard of coming from coming from the Midwest and and from that point, I remember where I thought I was coming out for vacation, but in reality, I came out here just to start doing interviews, right so okay, it was to the point where I was like, Okay, I'm just gonna go by go to Cole's buy me the suits, get a resume done real quick and just throw in some resumes just to see what happens right and and There was a interview that I did grab, I was pretty excited about it. It was with a specific venture that was opening up at the Palazzo, because that was right as a Palazzo was opening up. And I got a chance to make it to the final interview to the point where I had to reschedule my flight. And I waited, I want to say probably six hours for this interview, I was just so determined. I was like, I'm gonna get this job. Yep. And I waited and got the interview with the final person. And the lady asked me one question, do I have culinary or union experience in Las Vegas? I said, No, she said, thank you very much. And I was just taken aback. I said, uh, you gotta be kidding me. So Right. From that point, I did fly back home to to the Midwest. And I was talking to my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, and, and I said, You know what? We're gonna move to Vegas. Wow. And she said, Well, you know, it just doesn't work like that, you know, we just can't up and leave. And, you know, you know, how my family is. And you know, it was all about doing the right thing, getting married things of that nature. And I said, Okay, would you like to get married? And she said, what I said, Yes, lets you know that you're the right one. For me, I believe we're going to make this work. And, and I really want to go to Vegas, and I want to, I want you to be there with me. And the rest is history. We came out here and I came out here first in 2008, February 15, to be exact, took a look around for some jobs, just you know, it was right in the middle of the recession. Not a lot of jobs were hiring at the time. But I did end up getting a great opportunity at the stratosphere in which I started my career. Okay. And

Unknown Speaker 6:44
I think that's just amazing on your, you know, your determination of like, you had this goal in mind, and you're gonna make it work and everything else, the obstacles along the way, you seem to just like, overcome them very easily. Is that the nature of your character?

Unknown Speaker 7:01
I wouldn't say very easily, it definitely takes. It took some time. Just a very resilient, determined person to, you know, do something that I think that a lot of people back at home would probably, you know, relinquish, to have the opportunity right now to come come their way. And I just was so determined that I'm not going back home. Yeah, I think that was just a backup that's in the back of my mind. Like, I'm just gonna do it. I'm not going back home. I love home. But there's nothing for me at home been Vegas is where I want to make it. So it's just more of a determination factor of just not saying no, not being afraid to take challenge challenges, not being afraid to take the next step. And I think that I get that from my mother, my mother, she passed when I was 10. But before she passed, she was the only woman in Northwest Indiana that had her journeyman card. So this woman was Wow. Very Educated in terms of construction, electrician plumbing, she, and she did this based off of a bet from my father and my grandfather, like, you know, she's not gonna do it. Right. Like, I'll show you and I think that's where, you know, I get that determination from as my parents.

Unknown Speaker 8:14
Yeah. And I also feel that's like the spark of being an entrepreneur. Like, you don't go into that lightheartedly. Like, if you're going to be a hardcore entrepreneur, or a serial entrepreneur in a sense. You don't see those, they're just bumps in the road of like, Okay, we're gonna go down this curve, or we're gonna go down that way. And you just stay focused on the the end game, basically.

Unknown Speaker 8:38
Yeah, just just sticking with it. Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing, right? And, and there's, my grandmother says that she's like, everyday isn't Sunday. So every day is not going to be perfect, right. But there's certain things that you just have to go through the trials and tribulations and, you know, different pitch competitions that I may not win. And at the time, I'm super just upset, ready to flip a table, but then in the back of my mind, and I think about it, I'm like, Okay, well, maybe it just wasn't the time, right. Yeah, our or maybe the company wasn't positioned to where it needs to be to take on that, that that task that is needed, or that someone's looking for because the one thing is that I don't want to make myself look unprepared or make my company look unprepared. We want to be prepared.

Unknown Speaker 9:23
Right, right. I do want to do a shout out. You mentioned your mother and your grandmother, to all the women who influence us in our lives. It's such a powerful journey. So shout out to all the moms, the grandmothers, sisters, all the females that really do empower each other and us as males as we grow up through our experience. So yeah, definitely.

Unknown Speaker 9:46
And also just another thing to note too, is that, you know, having a father figure in the life is so important as well, right? You know, he my father, just, uh, he worked in a steel mill for you know, 30 years and You know, he was a hard nosed get up and go type of guy, and you know, went to work and he may not have liked it. But, you know, he, he really took on the task of raising a child that lost a parent with a grandmother. Right? Right and staying with him. But he also didn't. didn't keep me away from my mother's side of the family like he embraced it. Right. And that was the one of the great things that I really appreciate him for is that just allowing for that relationship just to continue to flourish? Yep. So definitely shout out to all the father system that's in the last two

Unknown Speaker 10:34
amazing relationships there everything in life sounds right. Okay, fast forward to the stratosphere. 2008 you start working there in a restaurant, what do you what are you doing there?

Unknown Speaker 10:45
So I started at the buffet, actually. So I started as famous buffets, the real famous buffet. So started off at the Stroud Stratusphere buffet. And I was not super excited about it just because us culinary and full service restaurant type of guy. But I said, You know what, I think that it's going to, it's going to really bring the opportunities that I need, right? Sure, get my foot in the door, and work my way up and started at the, at the buffet work there for a couple of couple of months. And then there was opportunity, where I was able to transition to the beverage department and learn more about spirits and learn more about the operations from cocktail, waitresses, and bartenders and understanding that whole factor and, and that was a great opportunity to because I was able to look at the beverage side, I know about the food side, but learning about the beverage side, that was exciting. And then after that point, transition all the way up to top of the world as the top of the world assistant manager, right. And that was a super exciting where I know I keep saying super exciting, but it's super exciting to the point where it's like, Okay, I'm going to the top. So getting to the top of the world restaurant, and then and then having that opportunity to go back downstairs to the buffet as a general manager of the buffet where I built those relationships with the people that I started with. And I had the opportunity to actually run a venue, right, so to the point where mid 20s, like taking ownership of something and not being afraid and making a mistake and in learning from those mistakes. And that was amazing to do that for close to a year and then get an opportunity to go back up to top of the world restaurant as a Assistant General Manager. Right. So almost one more one more step before then hitting that high peak. And, and did that was super comfortable at top of the world restaurant and they became General Manager. Right. And that was a, we're talking a $20 million venue that was one of the highest highest generating revenue centers within the city of Las Vegas. So at that restaurant, I mean, we were doing close to 1000 covers, yeah, on the weekends with three turns. And it was just an amazing experience just to see that type of volume and, and really have that. That aha moment. Right. Like, I made it, you know, and it was to the point where, you know, I loved it, I enjoyed it. But there's always a thing in the back of your mind, like what's next. Right, right. So after stratosphere transition over to SLS, which is the Sahara time Yeah, at the time, and this is the Heron now. But got the opportunity to where I wanted to work at SLS and you know, work with SPE, and possibly become a director of food and beverage, just because there was more Upswing there. Plus was also looking to move to Florida. Alright, that was kind of in the back of your mind too, but really enjoyed working at that. That casino to the point where I met so many great managers, so many great people where I became a general manager of restaurants. So we're talking to Cleo, Katsuya Umami Burger, Northside cafe, like overseeing all those restaurants to the point where have managers under me, and now it's like, okay, I'm kind of like a district manager in a casino, which was super cool. So I, I really got a lot. I learned a lot about p&l that way and learn a lot about the business and learn how to be fashionable without a tie, because they brought that SPE Miami flavor, right? So I really love that too. But once again, you know, after a year and a half, two years, what's next, right? So I remember seeing a posting for an amazing startup that was opening downtown comedy clubs, theaters. And it was a luxury theater that was similar to Ipek things of that nature, but they were opening a downtown and I applied for Director of Operations super excited about it and right because for one, it was something that was downtown. And then it was black owned. Okay, as a startup. Yeah, right. So just to really be in an ecosystem to to see, you know, a start up with, you know, your creative by personal color group of people of color, just building something from the ground up. That's kind of where, you know, the spark happened with becoming an entrepreneur because it's like, Man, I really am being motivated by what my individuals what my leaders are doing, right? What's next? I want to do something, right. I want to figure out something. And I remember driving to eclipse one day and driving downtown and I drove past a hydrogen club and I was like, You know what? There's people walking dogs, but where are they getting their pet food from? Okay. And it was just like, just like that. It's just out of the air. And I'm like, oh, pet food company. I was like, can't be that like, maybe put some put put a culinary spin on it. Sure. You know, put a little twist on it right and do something really cool. And that's where dog and whistle was born. Were just off that, that being in that ecosystem, Zappos, Tony Shea, startup world, it was just like, Okay, I'm going to create this. This is this is going to be my baby. And this is what I created.

Unknown Speaker 16:05
And at this point, did you have a pet? Yes, I

Unknown Speaker 16:08
did. Okay, yeah, I did a dog a cat. I had I had a little dog yet. That's okay. So yeah, it was a, you know, rocket, you know, still my little one still growing up. And maybe prior to that I did had dogs growing up, but they were always passing due to have health related issues. Sure. All right. So it's just kind of like, in the back of my mind, it's like, okay, something has to be going on with this pet food. And then if they're having diabetes, you know, heart related issues, or just crazy things that we go through. It's like, why it was happening, right? Has to be the food. Right? And not the one shots at anyone but just has to be it has to be the food. So that's when I created dog and whistle. And as I created Dogon was so I'm still working with Eclipse. You know, there was an amazing opportunity, as you can, as you listen, I look for opportunities to where, okay, now I did a startup, what's next? And then I had the opportunity to work for a chef who bear flair, Hubert Hubert Keller at floor by chef who bear Mandalay Bay. And I was there for close to two years. And that was an amazing experience to work with a celebrity chef, and learn, you know, just being just that ecosystem again, right? Just this is world renowned chef that has been trained by Chef Paul buku. And just working for MGM at the time and learning and having those relationships like this was super exciting. It was very exciting. But still had dog and whistle going. So dog and whistle is my moonlight. So dog and whistle started as these just traditional pet food company, he just treats single ingredient treats, okay. But when I was at Mandalay, there was this sustainability company, this sustainability program that they had where they will put different color foods and different color bins and send it out to the pig farms. But they're the foods that were being thrown away were perfectly good foods, and I'm just like, Okay, well, what was going on? Okay, for one, someone makes an error with ordering. I gotta send it back to the distributor, technically, they can't resell it. The second thing could be, we're coming up on closers. We're going to have to just clear out the freezers, clear out the fridges, whatever the case may be just perfectly good foods. And I was like, Okay, well, Dogon was so where we rescue where we rescue foods from restaurants, distributors, and create pet food. And that's kind of how I put it together. As I'm working, it was kind of it was like an aha moment. It was seriously like Dean, like a light bulb just went on. And as I was in the kitchen, and I was like, Okay, I'm not gonna tell you to buy this. It's gonna be a great idea. So, that's what I started doing is that I start reaching out to those distributors that you know, I see emails, it's like, Hey, what are you guys doing with these with this food that that's being ordered erroneously. And they're just like, well, we have to throw it away. How about this? How about this, this avenue? Or what about this? And that's where a different ideas came up in terms of rescuing foods. Now, mind you, dog and whistle still going strong, still doing farmers markets, still doing different events and still working full time family to kids. After that, working at Mandalay, I decided to focus more on instead of doing a two meal period restaurant doing a one meal period restaurant where then I had transitioned over to Cosmopolitan as the general manager for a roast rabbit ly modern day supper club. Super exciting nights only so it freed up my days. So I was able to you know, go to the kitchen more focus on meals, focused on treats, doing a lot of different events, and then just worked rose rabbit ly all the way until the Close, you know, didn't make it until it didn't make it after COVID. Sure. So at that point, when when COVID happened, I just decided to take a break. You know, I took a break from the industry, it was super rough talk to my wife and said, you know, how about I just do something different? So I got into the financial world of helping businesses obtain the ERC, the employee retention tax credit, yeah, it was remote. But I was able to focus on dog and whistle like, super full time. Yeah. And it was just a great opportunity to have

Unknown Speaker 20:32
Yeah. Now when you say focus, like are you physically in a kitchen making the food? And how do you know what's healthy for the pets? Like, do you work with somebody? Or you just innately knew? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 20:44
no. So I am in the kitchen, commercial kitchen full time. So nothing is made from the house. So everything is operated out of a commercial kitchen. Pretty well known commercial kitchen that a lot of food trucks operate out of it's pretty funny. Because people are like, Wait, that's, that's dog food? Like, yes, it's pet food, it looks, it looks better than mine. Right, exactly. And then I work as I work alongside with veterinarian consultants, and they have ingredients that are approved for pets, ones that are not approved for pet, so we stick within those parameters of the actual ingredients that's approved. And then we curate the meal, we curated the meals based off the recipes that they generated, as well as the guaranteed analysis. So a lot of times was, you know, hey, this is what I'm thinking, this is what I would like to create. Here are the ingredients. Is this a proof? Yes. And make created the recipes. And I just follow those recipes as batches.

Unknown Speaker 21:39
Amazing. And your Do you have? Do you have a staff? Or do you literally cook and package? And then I'm guessing people order it and then how does it get delivered.

Unknown Speaker 21:50
So it's all fresh, it is all fresh. So vacuum sealed, frozen. So there's very limited staff, but did have a staff when I did have a pop cafe in which we'll talk a little bit about in terms of the cafe, I didn't get a chance to speak on that yet. But you know, I am in the kitchen, doing the vacuum sealed, making sure everything is prepared frozen, and then I deliver myself right gear at gas up right before work and do deliveries kind of scale back on the events. Just because it was very time consuming a lot a lot on the bottom on your body in terms of setting up, taking down, going home, taking a shower getting ready for work. So just being very strategic in terms of which events make the most sense for

Unknown Speaker 22:40
me. And that's just entrepreneurship and pivoting Correct. You think you you think your customers want this? And then they tell you what they really want? And then you have to adjust in correct. You know, figure it out on the fly? Yes. I'm talking about the pub

Unknown Speaker 22:54
cafe. Yeah, so Okay. Lopo cafe. So that was actually a concept that I created. When I was at cosmopolitan. So it was located in the heart of downtown at the Ferguson. Yeah. Huge hit at the beginning. And it was think of it as Chipotle for dogs. Okay, right. So you come in, you get your fresh meals made to order. It was all upcycled ingredients, you were able to just to come in, just do an ala carte meal if you wanted to. You don't have to do a subscription meal, but just to an amenity to where you can come in down at the Ferguson have a fresh meal made to order for your pups. And you can get a coffee or coffee at one of our nearby coffee shops, right? So just somewhere to bring collisions, right positive collisions, as Tony Shea would say, just serendipitous collisions to where it's pets, you know, people were having fun, people aren't enjoying ourselves. And it was just an amazing opportunity to have. It was a little a little hard to be, you know, to sustain a hourly wage that's comparable to competitors on a strip like this share your realistic, right and, you know, it just made the most sense to kind of scale back whenever it's time to, you know, revamp it. We will once we have the funding. But just to focus on, you know, transition those customers back to DTC.

Unknown Speaker 24:12
I picked up on one word, upcycling, yes. So I want to I want to thank a mutual friend Sue Marshall. Yes. Hi, Sue. Yeah, exactly. Sue started a upcycling food company called Net Zero in Minneapolis and they basically upcycle food waste. So think of spent grain from breweries. How can they take that and then turn it into a product that a bakery can use and it really closed the loop cycle. And I know she's doing amazing work up there from egg shells to oat mash to like, sky's the limit cocoa beans, right Kobe's vanilla beans. Yeah. And I didn't even know that there was that whole industry happening until you know, Sue and I started talking about it. And then she said, Oh my gosh, you've got to meet Eric and in Las Vegas. So would talk to me a little bit more of like the end cycle of like closing that loop that you're doing.

Unknown Speaker 25:05
Yeah. So definitely it was pretty fun because I didn't know the term upcycling until I was introduced to the upcycle Food Association, right? So it's like, wait a minute, there's, there's an association that's doing exactly what I'm doing. So I'm with like minded individuals, and we're after the same goal. Cool, awesome. So the goal is to look at how can we become a solution for these distributors here at Las Vegas, right. But then also, the, the supply chain is so large within the city, that we're able to really, you know, create amazing pet food sustainably, to create amazing pet food consistently, but become a solution to where they can hit their ESG goals. And then eventually, that transfers to restaurants or excuse me, hotels, right. So if hotels that have those buffets, we can create some type of private label for you. So if you're pet friendly, you now can say that we're participating in upcycling by rescuing those foods. I

Unknown Speaker 26:03
think that's so so brilliant on many different levels, like, especially, you've taken an opportunity in Las Vegas with the massive hotels and the food waste that we all know that happens. And you're creating something amazing. That's going to actually help pets. At the end of the day.

Unknown Speaker 26:24
We haven't even hit cats yet. That's right. That's the beauty of it. Yep.

Unknown Speaker 26:28
So you're only focused on dogs only

Unknown Speaker 26:29
on dogs so far. Just just just so far. Yep. Um,

Unknown Speaker 26:33
any advice for an entrepreneur who's got a dream? And, you know, what, what's the first steps?

Unknown Speaker 26:41
First steps that are? Just speak curious. Right? Be curious. And gosh, I have to think outside the box. We I always say that we were put on this earth for a reason. And we may not know that reason until later on in life, where upcycling was in front of me this whole time, and I never even realized it. Because I just thought that my grandmother was just being creative. But this woman create, she had upcycling right in front of me. So I'm like, Okay, wait a minute, I'm taking what I've learned in the past, and now doing something that can better educate or better supply my business. Right? So being curious, think about all those different times where it may seem weird, but it may turn into a great opportunity where you can create a business changed and change the narrative. Yep.

Unknown Speaker 27:21
And what's next for you? So? Yes,

Unknown Speaker 27:25
so doggone Wessel, we are now in the cohort for a generator. So we are going to be in the cohort for generator which is super awesome. As well as the Battleborn ventures. So hit receive our first round of funding. So super, super excited, because we're gonna be accelerating now. We are having conversations with different hotels in terms of doing some rescuing within their buffets. So very excited about that amazing. We will be participating at Super zoo, during Black Business, black business pitch event. So we're going to talk about dog and whistle there. But stay tuned, we're gonna be doing some amazing things out within the city. That's amazing.

Unknown Speaker 28:04
Congratulations on the success of where you are today. I look forward to continuing to monitor your journey and see big things happen, because I think it's really is an amazing, an amazing business that is doing good for the world. And so congratulations on that. Thank you, Joe. It's been a pleasure having you. I hope one day we can have you again. Yes. And explore the 2.0 where you're at and celebrate, you know, the big businesses in town that you are, are working with and showing how valuable they are and how dedicated they are to, you know, closing the loop on food waste as well.

Unknown Speaker 28:42
Yeah. So I think our city has a huge opportunity to where we can, you know, really change the narrative and get into that startup world, right. Do some really cool things. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 28:49
But it all starts with people like you. So thank you. Thank you. And best of luck.

Unknown Speaker 28:55
Thank you. Thank you so much, Jeff.

Unknown Speaker 28:56
Remember to tune in to the next episode on August 25 at 9am. Until then, make sure you're supporting your local artists and entrepreneurs. I'm Jeff London. Thank you for listening

Transcribed by https://otter.ai