Latest news with #RestaurantInfluencers
Entrepreneur
17-06-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
How a Smashed Window Actually Helped His Business
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Nick Rodriguez doesn't consider himself calm under pressure. But when a man threw a glass bottle through the window of his cupcake shop, he didn't yell, panic or fight back. He shut the door, checked on his staff and kept going. It wasn't the first time he'd bet on grace instead of anger. Rodriguez is the owner of Famous Creations, a bakery and catering business based in Fairfield, California, known for its outrageous cupcake flavors — think chicken and waffles, Patron margarita and one literally called "Heart Attack." But it's not just the treats that keep people coming back. It's Rodriguez. "People can get cake anywhere," he tells Shawn Walchef of Cali BBQ Media on the Restaurant Influencers podcast. "They come here because of how we make them feel." Related: Giada De Laurentiis's Major Deal With Amazon Is a New Frontier for the Chef and Entrepreneur When his shop went viral on Instagram, with a video that reached 11.2 million views, he didn't pivot into a victim. He stayed rooted in what's made his business work for 12 years: authenticity, creativity and relentless service. The now-infamous video shows a man shattering Famous Creations' storefront window with a bottle. Rodriguez never retaliated. He didn't even raise his voice. "Getting mad wasn't going to fix the window," he says. What followed was more telling than the incident itself. Customers flooded in, not with sympathy donations, but with cupcake orders. And behind the scenes, his insurance provider, NEXT (a Restaurant Influencers sponsor), stepped up fast, covering the damages and helping him move on with barely a hiccup. This wasn't his origin story, but it reflected it. Related: These College Friends Wanted to Sell Better Food. Now, Their Company Is Publicly Traded. Follow your passion Rodriguez used to work at AT&T, but he hated it. He jokes that he got himself fired on purpose, and maybe that's true. But he already had a backup plan. After raising over $1,200 at a charity bake sale, he went all-in on baking from home. Within 15 months, he'd opened his first storefront. He built the business without investors or loans, just a lot of butter, hustle and community buzz on social media. Even today, with two locations and over 150 cupcake flavors, Rodriguez still keeps it scrappy. His second store doesn't have a kitchen, so his staff bakes everything in Fairfield and shuttles it over by hand. And while some entrepreneurs obsess over perfect branding or viral content, Rodriguez posts whatever feels right. "My followers hear my voice in what I write. That's what matters," he says. "If you're a small business owner, just post. Be messy. Be real. Not everyone's going to like you. That's okay." Related: Fans Are Tattooing This Pizza Brand's Logo on Their Skin for a Year of Free Slices That attitude came in handy when the window story blew up online. Comments rolled in, some supportive, and some vicious — the kind that try to tell you who you are, how you think and even who you voted for, all because of how you handled a stranger's outburst. Eventually, Rodriguez turned off the comments. What he didn't turn off was the message. The same mindset that got him through corporate burnout, two storefront launches and a few viral firestorms is the one that pushes him forward. "No one's ever going to love your business like you do," Rodriguez says. "You have to protect it. Build it smart." The window broke. His voice didn't — and neither did the business. Related: This Chef Lost His Restaurant the Week Michelin Called. Now He's Made a Comeback By Perfecting One Recipe. About Restaurant Influencers Restaurant Influencers is brought to you by Toast, the powerful restaurant point-of-sale and management system that helps restaurants improve operations, increase sales and create a better guest experience. Toast — Powering Successful Restaurants. Learn more about Toast. Restaurant Influencers is also supported by NEXT INSURANCE. See why 600,000+ U.S. businesses trust NEXT for insurance.
Entrepreneur
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Entrepreneur
Inside Giada De Laurentiis's Deal With Amazon
Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis discusses turning a two-minute demo into a two-decade career, going all-in on content and commerce and what she's building next with Amazon. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Giada De Laurentiis didn't set out to become famous. She wasn't chasing TV deals or dreaming of launching a digital brand. When Food Network first asked her to submit an audition tape, she resisted. "I just wanted a job so I didn't have to rely on my family," she tells Restaurant Influencers host Shawn Walchef. The camera saw something she hadn't planned for. So did the culture. Before the Emmy Awards and restaurant openings, De Laurentiis was a quiet kid in a very loud family. Born in Rome and raised in Los Angeles, she grew up in a household where tradition mattered, and heritage wasn't negotiable. Related: These College Friends Wanted to Sell Better Food. Now, Their Company Is Publicly Traded. Her grandfather was a towering presence. A pasta maker turned film producer, he brought the whole family to the United States, chasing the promise of success in Hollywood. Their world was a fusion of food and film. De Laurentiis remembers afternoons spent at her grandfather's Italian food hall, watching customers marvel at imported cheeses, hanging salamis and ingredients they had never seen before. This was long before Italian food had gone mainstream in America. The experience was immersive, almost theatrical. It left an imprint. She didn't know it at the time, but those after-school visits would shape how she thought about food, emotion and hospitality. What drew people in wasn't just the flavor. It was the feeling and the story. "I wanted to do something that created that same reaction," she says, thinking back to how guests responded to her grandfather's markets. Even as she studied food anthropology, trained in Paris and worked in fine dining, the storytelling instinct never left — it was part of her DNA. And when she finally said yes to a taped audition, it showed. "I honestly had no desire to be in front of the camera," she admits. "There was no plan." Everyday Italian became a breakout hit. But in De Laurentiis's mind, the goal was never stardom: it was independence and self-definition. Related: Fans Are Tattooing This Pizza Brand's Logo on Their Skin for a Year of Free Slices Building her Giadzy brand Giadzy, the lifestyle brand De Laurentiis launched in 2016, started as a simple blog. It's now a curated marketplace, media hub and ecommerce platform that reflects her take on Italian living: simple meals, joyful hospitality and stories that matter. With recipe kits, travel tips and premium pantry staples sourced from Italy, Giadzy is a direct extension of De Laurentiis's upbringing and personal ethos. That foundation has positioned her for bigger moves. She recently partnered with Amazon on both a digital storefront and a new multi-year Amazon Studios unscripted series deal for Prime Video. She and Amazon are blending content and commerce in a way that lets her audience go from watching to cooking to shopping — all in the same digital space. At the same time, she's expanding her restaurant footprint. De Laurentiis's Las Vegas location just passed the 10-year mark, a major milestone anywhere, let alone on the Strip. When she opened it, the Vegas dining scene was overwhelmingly male-led. As one of the few women stepping into that space with her name on the marquee, many doubted she would last. She didn't just last — she built something that redefined what Vegas dining could feel like. Related: This Chef Lost His Restaurant the Week Michelin Called. Now He's Made a Comeback By Perfecting One Recipe. She's now bringing the same approach to Chicagoland, where she's launching two new restaurants: Sorellina and Sorella. One casual, one elevated. Both are designed to feel warm, bright and inviting — no moody steakhouses or overdone menus, just intentional design and food that speaks. "I'm not trying to do what everyone else is doing," De Laurentiis says. "I'm trying to create places that feel like me." That's what her brand has always been about. Not chasing trends, but staying rooted in something deeper. "I don't know what I'm doing half the time," she laughs. "But I keep learning. And that's what keeps me going." About Restaurant Influencers Restaurant Influencers is brought to you by Toast, the powerful restaurant point-of-sale and management system that helps restaurants improve operations, increase sales and create a better guest experience. Toast — Powering Successful Restaurants. Learn more about Toast. Restaurant Influencer is also supported by NEXT INSURANCE. See why 600,000+ U.S. businesses trust NEXT for insurance. Related: How a Spot on 'The Montel Williams Show' Sparked a Restaurant Power Brand for This Miami Chef
