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The Real Estate of The h.wood Group

RE|STRUCTURED News had the opportunity to sit down with Tony LaPenna, VP of Corporate Partnerships at The h.wood Group, at the company’s West Hollywood office to discuss all things h.wood.

PRESENTED BY RE|STRUCTURED NEWS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN MCKEE AND THE H.WOOD GROUP

VIDEOGRAPHY BY CHASE ALI-WATKINS

h.wood group los angeles

When speaking of the hospitality industry, primarily in Los Angeles, The h.wood Group is naturally a part of that conversation. The h.wood Group is a Los Angeles based hospitality and lifestyle company with a diverse portfolio of nightlife and restaurant venues. Started in 2008, longtime friends turned business partners John Terzian and Brian Toll turned their vision for a unique nightlife company into a reality, redefining the “norm” of the industry. The company’s multi-concept portfolio ranges from Los Angeles, to Las Vegas, to Miami, to Nashville, and internationally, in Dubai and Toronto.

The RE|STRUCTURED News team sat down with Tony LaPenna, Vice President of Corporate Partnerships at The h.wood Group, to discuss the real estate of The h.wood Group, what differentiates The h.wood Group from other companies within the hospitality industry, how The h.wood Group has maintained its distinct persona and scaled its business, the process of restaurant and club openings, the company's domestic and international presence, and so on.

Can you please walk us through how you started at The h.wood Group, your role as the VP of Corporate Partnerships, and your growth throughout the company from 2011 until now?

I came in and I always felt like I was a fireman. If there was something special that we needed to get handled, if there was a problem, I had a role. Every night I was at every single venue trying to make the right decision for the business and then it turned into coming into the office every single day and figuring out how we make one venue, two venues, five venues, ten venues, the best that they can be. We were really a small business, we were a mom and pop, and as we got bigger, we continued to bring on the right talent. We hired operators that know the industry better, who have seen successes and have seen failures and learned by mistakes, and we started to find holes that we needed plugged.

 

I've always been a people's person. Today it’s an art to have a conversation, but I’ve always had that gift of gab. I'm extremely loyal and my ability to maintain conversations has escalated and elevated, especially while working with multiple brands.

How do you define The h.wood Group? What was your understanding of The h.wood Group before you leaped into it and how can we define that for other people from a third point of view?

It was with Bootsy Bellows and The Nice Guy that The h.wood Group really became The h.wood Group. You had these two guys who really knew a lot of people and knew the right people. LA is such a big city, but it is a small town. There were four or five people you needed to know in Los Angeles and John Terzian was definitely one of those guys. When Bootsy opened it was a period where bottle service was coming to the West Coast and instead of 700 people walking into a venue and going to the bar, they said “Hey I want some real estate and I want to buy that table.”

 

It's very tough to get liquor licenses, especially until 2am, seven days a week, full liquor, in the city of Los Angeles or the state of California, since each venue is grandfathered in for the liquor license. You will continually see the same property over the years reinvent itself because the liquor license is so important. We were the only candy store on the block for a year or two and it was the perfect group at the perfect time. It was that age group that wanted to go out, had money, and wanted to be at the hot, hip places. 

 

The beauty of what we’ve done at The h.wood Group is that every single venue is not massive. It’s not about overcrowding, and it’s not about putting 1,500 people in a room. It’s about putting in the right 300 people. When you go after the right group, everybody grows together.

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“It takes a special person to be in this business. You have to want to serve, you have to want to help people, and that's not something you learn when you're 35. You have to have that your whole life.”

Is that what drew you into the hospitality scene?

I have been in this business my whole life, but it takes a special person to be in this business. You have to want to serve, you have to want to help people, and that's not something you learn when you're 35, but rather, you have to have it your whole life. I moved here from New York to open a restaurant and it did not happen. It was right in 2003 during the real estate boom when I was looking at a property that was a dollar a square foot. A year later, that property was six dollars a square foot, so we ended up not doing it. I was always looking for something else to do and just happened to fall into this. 

The h.wood Group has many spaces within L.A., the U.S., and even overseas. Can you please walk us through these various spaces? How does each venue’s identity become established? What does the process of this look like, including menu, interior/exterior design, etc?

There's no real rhyme or reason as to how each venue’s identity is created. A lot of people ask this question and I go back to when John had the idea of the 40 Love concept, which is a sports bar. He built out a deck and this deck sat on his desk for four years before we actually found a venue to create 40 Love. The Nice Guy opened because people were always going out to dinner beforehand or they wanted to do something different. Then, The h.wood Group opened Delilah because that bottle buying group was getting older and they did not want to sit in the flashing lights every night but still wanted to go out. With Delilah, the music was a bit lower but also the night built itself up and progressed into a bit more night-lifey, but still not a full club. 

 

There are many reasons as to why building a venue works out. You have an idea for four years, build out a deck, and wait until you find the right room. Or, you see a venue that you like and think about how it could work perfectly for your next project. 

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From your time and experience in the industry, how easy or difficult is the process to find the right location, especially in a city like L.A.?

Finding the right location for your venues is really difficult. First, you have to find a venue that has the right liquor license for what you want to do. Then, you have to worry about parking, what the landlord wants, what the design aesthetics are. In this city, it is really tough to find the right venue. 

 

The h.wood Group has stayed around West Hollywood, since it has a mom-and-pop feel. The reality is you are going into City Hall to get a permit, and you’re seeing the same person day in and day out. Overall, it is very tough, but when you find that location and you do things right, magic happens.

 

It seems as though The h.wood Group is occupying so much “real estate” within the hospitality industry. Ever since the company’s creation in 2008, The h.wood Group has set the tone and altered the landscape of the industry as a whole. How has The h.wood Group been able to scale the business from Miami to Las Vegas to Los Angeles and beyond? 

 

Las Vegas was a venue with an upscale opening and it was important that we could still stay true to the The h.wood Group brand with the creation of each new venue. We did want to expand, but we wanted to make sure that it was done correctly. You want to make sure that if you are going to expand out, that whatever is going on at home stays exactly the way it's supposed to be. The most important thing we’ve done is build the right staff. No matter if you are in Miami, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, or Dubai, you have to make sure that you have like-minded people, whether it is at the top of the company or the bottom. 

 

Beyond hiring like-minded people at these new venues to make sure you're properly reflecting your brand, you have to continue to fly out and make sure that the lighting, sound, and staffing is right. It’s really making sure that the brand stays up to the standard that it's supposed to be. 

 

In this business, you cannot change the date of a venue’s opening night. The venue’s official opening requires weeks of preparation, which includes reservations, staffing, food, ordering liquor, and so on. If someone's coming in tonight and it's their birthday, we're going to create a particular menu, but that is all done weeks prior. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes. For that one particular dish, one particular drink, one particular night, every single thing has been thought out. That takes days, weeks, months, and years to build out. 

 

Was there an opening outside of Los Angeles that stood out to you?

Everybody has their hand in every venue opening. Vegas was extremely grand. Las Vegas doesn't open up a venue to make $100,000 a year and everything has to be massive. We spent thousands and thousands of dollars on an invitation and that alone blows my mind. 

 

Everybody has their own hand in it, whether it’s a sous chef who’s building out a menu plan or a recipe plan for somewhere else. There are many people that have their hands in it. Just because they were not standing in front of the step and repeat that night does not mean that they did not have a hand in it.

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What is the difference between New York and L.A. in terms of nightlife and restaurant spaces? They are both hotspot cities but how do you see them so differently?

 

​With New York, because you can go until 4:00 am in comparison to 2:00 am here in Los Angeles, it is very different. 

 

You basically have two hours here or an hour and 45 minutes to run a business. You do so much work for realistically six hours a week, like a car that never really gets to sputter. On the other hand, in New York, even at 4:00 am., there's something else going on. You're finding something until 6:00 in the morning. The difference is that here in L.A., there are amazing people. You have so much wealth within such a small footprint; you have people in arts, in fashion, in music, in movies. 

The h.wood Group in L.A. is never going to hit the same numbers that Vegas or New York or other cities do, but you can make a bigger impact here because of who's walking in your door. In comparison, you may be having a bigger night financially somewhere else, but that does not overpower what you can do marketing-wise, which in reality, is more important for your business than the numbers.

 

John Terzian calls The h.wood Group's venues “places” of “safe havens.” Delilah West Hollywood has even been named “an unofficial sanctuary for the rich and famous.” How does  The h.wood Group maintain its feeling of exclusivity and intimacy, which attracts celebrities to its various restaurants and nightclubs? What sets The h.wood Group apart from other hospitality brands?

 

The intimacy that guests feel at our venues is attributed to the aesthetics of the room, the size of the room, the amount of people present, and the seating in the room. You feel as if you’re at a party, but you're still in your own group, enjoying the moment. 

 

The lighting is so important, as it makes the room feel intimate and vibrant. As far as the clientele, if you build trust within a particular circle, it's going to attract other people in that industry. These guests are going to know that they're able to go in and let their hair down, without worrying about the photographers or staff calling anybody. Something that has been integral for The h.wood Group is the trust and loyalty that our guests have, knowing that no one is trying to make any money off of their backs. It's a unique company. 

 

Our clientele is aware that good humans own these venues. When you go to other restaurants here, you notice 50 paparazzi sitting outside. I want someone to be able to walk through the back door, get in their car, and drive out without being photographed. I want someone to know that they can come in and sit at the bar and have a drink and not worry that it's going to end up on TMZ tomorrow.

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How did Covid impact the hospitality industry as a whole and especially disrupt The h.wood Group's business? In turn, how did The h.wood Group recover and “bounce back” from this period of time?

COVID changed the entire game, as the younger demographic have become more and more introverted. When I was 18, I was out every single night. Today, I have an 18-year-old who may not go out all weekend. It's a completely different demographic. You had to, one, get through the pandemic for your business. The landlords did not necessarily always care. Corporations were able to succeed because they have the backing, but the mom-and-pop, they couldn't succeed. It was crazy trying to shift to doing takeout but that didn't work. It may have worked for companies that were used to doing takeout previously. However, nobody thought to go to Spago to get their tuna cones for takeout. Therefore, it was really tough for companies then to refocus and readjust, to try to say, “Hey, we don't know when we're going to be back. How do we pay the bills? How do we continue to keep this business afloat?” We tried to keep as many employees as we could. We have employees who have significant others and children. You never realized what you had on your shoulders until you had to really recognize that you were responsible for all of these people.

L.A. is such a transient city. You have people that are coming in because they want to be celebrities or performers or be in this or that industry. They're coming here and they're between the ages of 21, 22. 25. They didn't have families at the time, and we were their families. There is an evident burden that you are putting on yourself to try to get them back to work. Then you reopen and you are trying to find great staff that want to work, who aren’t necessarily introverted. I need someone that is going to want to take you on a journey for two hours; staff that allow you to forget about your flat tire, and forget about the leak under your sink. You're going to restaurants and venues to forget about your everyday problems. It was really tough to find the right person who’s going to get you to really think about you being in the moment. 

 

Achieving that experience isn't just about a great dish. Service matters more than food in my mind. Even if you had a decent meal, you will never come back to a venue if you experienced horrific service. So it was rough during COVID but then probably even harder finding the right people to return to work.

 

How does the nightlife industry in restaurant spaces affect the economic and social climate of L.A. as a whole?

After COVID, people have inherently become more and more introverted. Delilah as a restaurant has more of a lounge-like feel. You're going to come in, stay for hours, mingle, and talk to people. Thus, a venue like Delilah is different from a nightclub where you're walking in with people to dance, rather than hanging out at the bar and conversing with someone. 

 

You are definitely seeing more and more Delilah-like places popping up and less nightclubs opening, but they are not up to the standard of Delilah. It's a really tough balance to have and I don’t think a lot of places have done it correctly. People want more of an experience today. I don't think anybody wants to walk into a restaurant and have a four-ounce piece of filet mignon with a pea tendril and a baby carrot and get charged $87 or $90. They want every sense of theirs to be working. They want the lighting, they want their sound, they want the touch, the smell, and the sight. All five senses should be working when you walk into a venue. 

 

What the waiter or waitress is wearing matters, how they say hello matters, what the bottom of your table feels like matters, and the difference between a $2 napkin or a $0.10 napkin matters. Everything matters. I do see that the whole industry is shifting to that. If you want to be successful and if you really want to build a brand, you have to worry about every detail. The right people notice when you do things the right way. Therefore, the whole landscape of the L.A. hospitality industry is changing.

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h.wood group real estate news

“ Location does matter, even though I think that we built a destination brand. ”

Which h.wood Group venue is the most special to you?

In my heart, I love The Nice Guy. There are venues here in L.A. that have that timeless feel: Dantana's and Sunset Tower. There are a couple of places that are so great to go to. The Nice Guy is such a special place because you really feel like you're getting hugged when you walk in. It's built so perfectly that you get to see everybody and everybody gets to see you. 

 

When John was designing it, he wanted to do this special shaped bar and everybody was like, “You know, dude, you cannot do this. It's crazy. We're losing seats. That's just not how things are supposed to be and you can't do a bar this way!” And yet aesthetically, it's perfect. Going back, everyone was so off, but John stuck to his vision and in turn, the room was perfect. People are often a little shocked by the lighting with the initial opening of the door and the reveal but it really is an amazing venue.

So much time and thought goes into these openings but how important is the choice of the location? 

 

The choice of location is definitely extremely important and a lot of our venues are destinations. The venues are destination driven, but that doesn't mean that you should just open a  space on the wrong block. The destination definitely matters, the city matters, and where you are in the city matters. We always want to make sure that we are easy to get to, but at the same time, that we are creating the right room. 

 

Delilah, Miami to me right now is so special. Being on the water, nobody wanted to touch that place but the neighborhood of Brickell is having a great moment. It's tough to foresee an area growing before it's there, but ultimately, you want to find places that are in their infancy stage, and that will be the next hotspot for the next 20, 30 years. Overall, location does matter, even though we have built a destination brand.

What is next for The h.wood Group? What does the company’s growth look like in the next fiscal year?

We are excited for the venues that we plan to open this year, such as a Delilah in Dallas. Beyond that, we are always researching and always looking at cities. We definitely want to keep building but to also build smart. It’s not about opening the door in every city, and it's not about opening every venue in every city. We're at a point where every decision matters and there is no reason to rush into it. You lose the mystique, you lose the clientele, and you lose the brand when you do that. It's important that we stay true to what Delilah is, and we stay true to what the Nice Guy is. If you step outside of that, people notice and then you begin to lose the essence of your brand. We are applying the right research and once we structure and finalize, we will hopefully get to see you all through our doors soon enough. 

Can you please walk us through how you started at The h.wood Group, your role as the VP of Corporate Partnerships, and your growth throughout the company from 2011 until now?

I came in and I always felt like I was a fireman. If there was something special that we needed to get handled, if there was a problem, I had a role. Every night I was at every single venue trying to make the right decision for the business and then it turned into coming into the office every single day and figuring out how we make one venue, two venues, five venues, ten venues, the best that they can be. We were really a small business, we were a mom and pop, and as we got bigger, we continued to bring on the right talent. We hired operators that know the industry better, who have seen successes and have seen failures and learned by mistakes, and we started to find holes that we needed plugged. I've always been a people's person. Today it’s an art to have a conversation, but I’ve always had that gift of gab. I'm extremely loyal and my ability to maintain conversations has escalated and elevated, especially while working with multiple brands.

How do you define The h.wood Group? What was your understanding of h.wood before you leaped into it and how can we define that for other people from a third point of view?

It was with Bootsy Bellows and The Nice Guy that The  h.wood Group really became The h.wood Group. You had these two guys who really knew a lot of people and knew the right people. LA is such a big city, but it is a small town. There were four or five people you needed to know in Los Angeles and John Terzian was definitely one of those guys. When Bootsy opened it was a period where bottle service was coming to the West Coast and instead of 700 people walking into a venue and going to the bar, they said “Hey I want some real estate and I want to buy that table.”

 

It's very tough to get liquor licenses, especially until 2am, seven days a week, full liquor, in the city of Los Angeles or the state of California, since each venue is grandfathered in for the liquor license. You will continually see the same property over the years reinvent itself because the liquor license is so important. We were the only candy store on the block for a year or two and it was the perfect group at the perfect time. It was that age group that wanted to go out, had money, and wanted to be at the hot, hip places. 

 

The beauty of what we’ve done at The h.wood Group is that every single venue is not massive. It’s not about overcrowding, and it’s not about putting 1,500 people in a room. It’s about putting in the right 300 people. When you go after the right group, everybody grows together.

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