How Las Vegas’ Refined Hospitality Group Obtained Its Begin

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Earlier than there have been strains out the door, Alexandra Lourdes and Steve Jerome had been simply attempting to resolve totally different issues.

Lourdes, then a Ph.D. pupil at UNLV, had began collaborating on campus occasions along with her buddy Lin Smith Jerome, who was married to Jerome and would quickly turn into her closest inventive associate.

On the time, Jerome was working a high-end steakhouse and wanted to spice up foot visitors. He requested Lourdes and Smith Jerome to prepare a contented hour on the restaurant. The occasion packed the patio, and it lit a spark for a brand new enterprise.

The completely happy hour labored so nicely that the restaurant wished extra — weekly occasions, full-on advertising assist, an actual partnership. There was only one challenge: Lourdes and Smith Jerome did not technically have an organization. In order that they made one. That evening, Smith Jerome filed the LLC paperwork. Lourdes mocked up a emblem on the eating room desk. Out of the blue, they had been within the restaurant advertising world, prioritizing storytelling, group and in-person power over conventional advertisements. What began as a one-off collaboration rapidly turned The Refined Company — and finally, the muse for Refined Hospitality Group.

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Bouncing from espresso store to espresso store with their laptops, Lourdes and Smith Jerome finally thought, Why not simply create one we really like working in? They introduced Jerome in as a associate, and their concept turned Café Lola: half inventive hub, half espresso store and the primary idea the three of them constructed collectively.

Constructing on that momentum, they launched Saint Honoré — a boutique doughnut store tucked right into a hard-to-find car parking zone, the place they adorned pastries by hand and hoped somebody would are available in.

"We had been throwing extra doughnuts away than we had been promoting," Jerome says. "One buyer would trickle in. That was it."

Lourdes determined to doc what life appeared like as a small enterprise proprietor. "I ended up doing a day-in-the-life [video], and I simply began filming all the pieces I used to be doing, adorning doughnuts, and that video blew as much as like 1,000,000 views," she says. "Unexpectedly, I turned a storyteller."

Lourdes has since grown her viewers to greater than 1,000,000 followers on Instagram and a couple of.5 million on TikTok.

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Constructed totally different, constructed collectively Jerome would be the first to let you know he is not on social media. He prefers to let the meals and hospitality communicate for themselves. However he additionally is aware of the facility of what Lourdes does with a telephone and a narrative.

"She brings individuals in. I attempt to preserve them coming again," he says.

That line is not only a catchphrase. It is how Refined Restaurant Group works. Lourdes leads content material and group, drawing audiences by means of genuine storytelling. Jerome handles operations, high quality and visitor expertise. They do not compete for a similar position. They complement one another in each one.

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That readability has allowed them to remain small, quick and deeply linked to their visitors. Refined does not want company approval to pivot. If a menu merchandise is not resonating or a buyer remark surfaces one thing new, they'll alter the identical day. New concepts come from employees, followers and generally their very own children. The hole between concept and execution is usually simply 24 hours.

The staff's agility reveals within the ideas they've constructed: 5 Café Lola areas, two Saint Honoré retailers (additionally residence to their pizza spinoff, Pizza Nameless), the fried hen model 3 Little Chicks, and two full-service eating places, Sorellina and Emilio's, every a tribute to their households. What ties all of it collectively is not a delicacies. It is a perspective.

They care about high quality. They care about pace. They usually care concerning the individuals on each side of the counter.

What began as a contented hour experiment and a quiet doughnut store has turn into a mannequin for learn how to construct one thing larger with out dropping your voice. They did not simply develop a restaurant group. They constructed belief, one story at a time.

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Earlier than there have been strains out the door, Alexandra Lourdes and Steve Jerome had been simply attempting to resolve totally different issues.

Lourdes, then a Ph.D. pupil at UNLV, had began collaborating on campus occasions along with her buddy Lin Smith Jerome, who was married to Jerome and would quickly turn into her closest inventive associate.

On the time, Jerome was working a high-end steakhouse and wanted to spice up foot visitors. He requested Lourdes and Smith Jerome to prepare a contented hour on the restaurant. The occasion packed the patio, and it lit a spark for a brand new enterprise.