From Rags to Ritz-es. Tommy Greco

Bob Wheeler:
Tommy, thanks for joining us today.

Tommy Greco:
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I

Bob Wheeler:
Well,

Tommy Greco:
really

Bob Wheeler:
I first,

Tommy Greco:
appreciate it.

Bob Wheeler:
I gotta congratulate you. You’ve got a 17 year anniversary of the Ritz coming up, like big

Tommy Greco:
I sure

Bob Wheeler:
birthday

Tommy Greco:
do.

Bob Wheeler:
party. That’s pretty awesome. You’ve been running this bar for 17 years in New York City. Can you give us a typical day in your shoes overseeing the craziness that is your life?

Tommy Greco:
Um, you know, over the years, now 17 years into it thing, the machine is built and things get a little bit more routine, um, in the beginning, the first quarter, everybody says, what’s your normal day? I said, I just wake up and I’m like, I go down and I receive whatever is thrown at me besides the daily tests.

I don’t know who’s going to walk in the door. I don’t know. what frame of mind all these employees are going to come in and, you know, it’s, uh, it could be a smooth day. It can be in my office screaming at drag queens and go-go boys. It could be outside dealing with homeless. Who knows?

Bob Wheeler:
And were there any of those days where you thought, nobody’s coming to the club tonight. This is the last day. Or even if they do come, I can’t pay the bartenders. Like it’s the end. Did you ever have those moments?

Tommy Greco:
Fortunately, I never had a moment in regards to money. Now I did have one part where the city came down on me really hard with a multi-agency task force, which they call a march for a raid after you get so many complaints, and they literally padlocked the place for five days.

Now that’s when I was like, okay, how do I get this done? And in those five days with attorneys, court, everything, I persevered, I got the place back open. But I tell you, boy, I never wanna have that feeling again. But besides that type of intervention,

Bob Wheeler:
Wow.

Tommy Greco:
I never had an issue where I didn’t think I could pay the bills. But I definitely did have times where I didn’t think anybody was coming, super storm Sandy, when half New York City didn’t have power and I had…

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
Um, the other blackout that had happened, uh, where it was not really known, but midtown Manhattan had lost power for like a day

Bob Wheeler:
Wow.

Tommy Greco:
and, uh, we never shut down. The Ritz never shuts down seven days a week from four in the afternoon till four in the morning, never shuts down. Even during the storm, everything I had people coming up from the Lower East side.

I had extension cords charging everybody’s phone. I live upstairs with my family. I had people coming in, showering. I must’ve made a hundred pounds of pasta in my kitchen for people just coming to eat. But you know, as they say, the show goes on, you

Bob Wheeler:
The

Tommy Greco:
know?

Bob Wheeler:
show goes on. I can’t even imagine now is your favorite part of the job staying up till four in the morning because I’m a morning person. I’m up at five thirty. Four o’clock is a little late for me. I don’t know that I could do a nightclub every night.

Tommy Greco:
So in New York, it’s not four in the morning. In New York, you gotta close, get everybody out, count the money, it’s like I’m home at 5.30. And that’s just up two flights of stairs. So over the years, I don’t do that anymore. My manager closes it and lock the door. I mean, I’m gonna be 48 this year.

I opened up Ritz when I was 29. I celebrated my 30th birthday there. So it’s just like, I can’t do that late stuff anymore. I’m a morning person now. Kids will do that to you. Uh, but, um, you know, it’s a lifestyle. It was, it surely was a lifestyle for a good decade, 10 years, seven days a week.

I mean, they used to yell at me and they just go on vacation. So I’d go literally go down to my office in the middle of a Saturday night, book a plane ticket for out of JFK at six in the morning, lock the club, get in the cab with a cocktail and go down to Miami for three days to sleep. Yeah. I’m always

Bob Wheeler:
That’s

Tommy Greco:
still

Bob Wheeler:
for

Tommy Greco:
alive.

Bob Wheeler:
some, that’s a vacation. That is definitely a vacation for

Tommy Greco:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
some. How did you get from, you were in finance, you majored in finance, economics, all that kind of stuff, and you were in that. One day you’re like, I think I’ll just run a gay bar

Tommy Greco:
Ha

Bob Wheeler:
and

Tommy Greco:
ha.

Bob Wheeler:
get some, maybe I’ll find a wife but I’ll have some go-go boys and a couple drag queens and we’ll call it a party.

Tommy Greco:
Yeah, I wish it was like that easy. So how it happened was when I was in college, I was a bartender. I bartended my way through college. It’s how I paid for school. And everybody always asked me, what’s your profession? I said, at heart, I’m a bartender. Forget the degrees, the finance, the trading, owning, I’m a bartender. And one of the best nights to work up in Connecticut in New England was Sunday night, which was the gay night to go out. and they were used to fight for those shifts. S

o I got that shift and I held it for the three years I was there. So I met everybody in the scene in New England, but at the time I was still promoting parties for the college kids while I was in school. And then I worked with some nightlife personalities, you know, in the late 90s, where I would bring the Hartford college crowd to these night before Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve parties,

I ran the list. So people like Noah Teppenberg and Jason Strauss, when they used to do New Year’s Eve parties at Mirage or Friday nights at Envy and Saturdays at Eugene’s and then Tuesday, baby, Tuesday Club Life, I used to was able to run a sub list. So now here I had a lot of friends in the LGBT community and then

I had a lot of friends in, let’s just say, the very straight social community in New York. When I moved, to Manhattan in 97, 98, I kept getting bar gigs, cause in the apprenticeship program, they pay you nothing and you have to afford to live in New York. So I kept the bar gigs A to make money and B that I can be out and not spend money on booze,

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
just drink behind the bar, not mine.

Bob Wheeler:
Exactly. Okay. So, let’s

Tommy Greco:
So between that, I had a lot of friends

Bob Wheeler:
see.

Tommy Greco:
in both, let’s just say community. It was a little bit more divided back then and much more divided. And so if I was out with more of my gay friends, we go to where they wanna go. If I was with this crew, I went out to go with my friends, you know,

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
to hang with the people I was friendly with. I didn’t go because it was this particular type of event or whatever, it was very fluid, let’s say. And then when the internet bubble burst in March of 2000, I saw kind of the writing on the wall. I started to get less and less involved in my career. And my brother had a restaurant in the West Village called Philip Murray.

And I used to go there and I bartend. And my brother said, hey, I have this bar. I’m starting up on a 51st street in Hell’s Kitchen. I’m gonna make it a gay bar. It’s called Posh. Why don’t you help me do it a little bit?” And I said, all right, I was helping him. And then I fully got out of trading and he said, why don’t you go up there and bartend and run the place?

Cause I’m gonna, he was a chef. So he was gonna focus on his restaurant and I’ll run the bar. And what I did was I just identified people in and out in the scene that were popular. You know what I mean? This is before

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
social media. This is

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
before all of that stuff, you know? Promoting used to be handing out flyers and doing stuff like that.

Bob Wheeler:
Yep.

Tommy Greco:
So I identified a lot of people that I hung out with that were super popular. And one of them was one of my closest friends who had recently, who has recently passed away. His name was Javier, Xavier Azua. And then when I met him, he was a cocktail waiter at Barracuda. It’s funny, like the song, when you were a cocktail waitress when, yeah, that song.

Bob Wheeler:
Right, right.

Tommy Greco:
So we became really good friends and I said, listen, what are you cocktailing here for? Come bartend with me. He was so popular. So he said, okay, he made the jump. So him and I would be behind the bar. And then I brought in, if you know Caswell, Caswell’s like a rapper slash artist.

I brought him up from the East Village. to start bartending, very eclectic, but very popular. And so our claim to fame with Javier and I, we started a night on Monday night in the theater area, because that’s where we were in Hell’s Kitchen, because all the shows are dark on Monday called $2 Margaritas. It was so cheap that you couldn’t

Bob Wheeler:
you.

Tommy Greco:
not go, you

Bob Wheeler:
You

Tommy Greco:
know?

Bob Wheeler:
had to. You had

Tommy Greco:
Yeah,

Bob Wheeler:
to.

Tommy Greco:
so we got so busy. We had this one DJ and she would show up, not show up. And Javier’s like, listen. I got tons of CDs, I can DJ this. And I was like, all right, you just get behind there and figure it out and I’ll bartend. So with his popularity, his music, the drink special, the location, the Broadway kids, all of a sudden it all came together beautiful.

And that’s how his DJing career, DJ Javier, launched. And after running Posh for about… let’s say four and a half, five years. Unfortunately, my brother and I didn’t see eye to eye because the deal was you stay there, I stay there. And the minute we started coming near each other, we had friction.

So I had left and in my true style, I said, okay, well, I’m leaving and I’m gonna open up down the street, put you out of business. So I went for, it was at 51st. I opened up on 46th and 9th on Restaurant Row. and everybody said I’m crazy, it’s a tourist trap.

And then I went down there and I brought everyone that I had been out with and hired and worked with over the past half decade and just moved them down there. And when we built the place, just like anybody has a business that works somewhere else, you make improvements on what you wish you had at the other place.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
And that’s. basically how the Ritz was born.

Bob Wheeler:
And do you, um, you know, as I’m listening, I’m wondering what were the influences of your parents maybe in terms of money? Cause you said money really was never an issue. Um, did you worry about all that? You just knew how to do budgets. You knew how to like. How did all that play into it? Was there ever like in the back of mind, I’m putting all this money in, it’s going to be gone

Tommy Greco:
Yeah,

Bob Wheeler:
or.

Tommy Greco:
yeah, absolutely. Listen, money is always an issue. I came from, I came, my mom was an X-ray tech raised with a single mother. We were not very well to do, you know, like I said, I bartended my way through college. I never, I stressed about money, but I never worried about it because I’m a hustler. I’m a worker, just like any hardworking waiter, bartender, promoter, you know, as long as I can get out there, I can make the money.

You know what I mean? So, but with regards to RIT, with RIT, so when I was at Posh, I have a mutual friend that introduced me to this gentleman, my friend Jimmy, Jimmy Glenn. And Jimmy and I, they’re just two people that just hit it off and connect like, where have you been my whole life?

And Jimmy, is an attorney, not really practicing at the time, an art collector, dealer, and stuff like that. And he was coming to Posh, he’s gay, and he always said, hey, if you ever wanna do something, let me know. So when everything went down, I called him. I said, hey man, you said this, and you know, 99.99% of the people are filled with you know what.

Bob Wheeler:
Right,

Tommy Greco:
So

Bob Wheeler:
exactly.

Tommy Greco:
I called him and I said, hey listen. I found the place, I left there, it’s on Restaurant Row. I said, you wanna be in the gay bar business? He goes, brother, I’ve been waiting five years for you to ask me this question. He goes, let me grab my account and I’ll be in New York in 24 hours. And he invested a lot. I invested everything I had. And unfortunately, at the same time, I couldn’t afford the apartment and the business.

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
So I didn’t tell anybody. I literally slept in the back of the club while I was building it.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
And, you know, I didn’t, I obviously wasn’t really dating at the time because when we had to, hey, want to come back to my

Bob Wheeler:
Great.

Tommy Greco:
cardboard boxes?

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah, exactly. Check out the food. I’ve got lots of food.

Tommy Greco:
Yeah, so it wasn’t until we were just about to open and Jimmy came up and he’s like, where’s your apartment? Let’s go to your apartment. I broke down, I told him, I said, dude, I’ve been living here for the past month and a half. He’s like, you gotta be out of your mind. And I was driving out to Jersey to my mom to wash clothes and shower

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
and. He’s like, this is ridiculous, brother, let’s get an apartment. We’ll get something today. We found something right across the street from the place. This is before we purchased the building and it was a two bedroom and he had a back bedroom. So when he came up on the weekends, he had it. I lived in the front and we did that for a few years.

Uh, but it was, it, I didn’t stress. I stressed about budget and things going over budget and fixtures. But the thing, failure wasn’t an option. And I know people say that all the time, it’s cliche, but it wasn’t an option. Like I was on a cardboard box. I mean, any lower is just being dead in a hole. So

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
it’s gotta work. Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah, no, and I, you know, the, maybe that ties back to being, you know, saying you’re a hustler, but making things happen. But when you really want something to happen, you’re, you gotta be willing to go all out. You have to think outside the box. So, I might not be sleeping in an apartment for a few weeks, or I may have to make some choices that in the short term aren’t joyous, but in the long term are gonna pay big dividends when you actually get your traction going.

Tommy Greco:
Yeah, I mean, that’s, I mean, that’s the advice to this newer generation. You know, everybody thinks, you know, cause of, you know, all the social media and Instagram and everything. Oh, I can just do this. And in three weeks, I’m going to be making. It’s not true. I mean, listen to good things. Do those lucky things happen? Absolutely.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah, sure.

Tommy Greco:
But you know, we’re numbers people and probability says that’s not probable. Uh, but. When someone talks to me about starting a business, whether it be in the bar, restaurant, hospitality, or anything, I tell them, you know, if I don’t know the specifics of that field, I said, with anything, you have to be so laser focused. You can’t be half in, half out.

Oh, during the week I’ll run it, but on the weekends I’m out paddle boarding. No, like. You’re in your life at times. You know, I felt you know, listen, everyone’s like wow, you got this business I said, yeah, but I’m alone. I’m dating anybody. I didn’t have anything going on it was seven days a week like this tunnel vision

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
and until The wave then starts to carry you is when then you can adjust your schedule, but that sometimes takes Two years three years, you know It took a while. I mean, it exploded. Let me tell you, it exploded lines down the street, seven days a week. I mean, it exploded to the point where I had police knocking on my door on, on a daily basis. You know, they don’t, they don’t ticket and find people who aren’t doing business. Just remember

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
that. You know, people who fail don’t get sued.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s so important that you talk about that tunnel vision. Um, that’s often the way when I want something done, I have to obsess and tunnel vision it and let nothing distract you. Um, you got to stay the course, got to stay the course. And I think a lot of times people are like, look, there’s a pretty car. There’s a, and they, they get off track. So

Tommy Greco:
Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
yeah, got to stay the course. Um, Tommy, we’re going to take just a minute to test your nerve. We’re going to shift the energy just real quick. Test your nerve is brought to you by the money nerve calm To the listeners out there our financial fears keeping you up at night face your money monsters at test your nerve calm

With our free money mindset quiz don’t let the boogeyman win visit it today. All right, here we go. Here we go Can you dish out a celebrity encounter that left you starstruck behind the bar?

Tommy Greco:
Yes, there was one right away and one after effect. One right away was Madonna. She rented out the second floor of the Ritz for her trainer at the time, Tracy Anderson’s birthday. And I was like, yeah, I’ve seen everybody. But there was something about her. She walked up the stairs and I met her in the foyer little area.

and I’ve never seen that on anybody else before in my life. She had a glow around her. And it was just the coolest thing. I’ve never had it and I’ve met a million other people, but Madonna had a glow.

Bob Wheeler:
Wow.

Tommy Greco:
The after effect one would be Lady Gaga. She came to the bar before she was even popular. She came with one of my drag queens and DJs. We got drunk, we were partying. I think we might’ve… made out or something and she left. I called my DJ, I was like, dude, was I making out with some drag queen last night? I was like, cause she, you know, and they said, no, whatever, whatever. Had no idea who she was. And then like, I don’t know, a couple months later, poker face came out and I was like, I should have hung around for that.

Bob Wheeler:
That’s not a drag queen. Definitely not a drag queen. Let’s see. Can you tell us about a moment that you had you saying, yep, we’re doing something truly unique here. Like when was that moment you knew?

Tommy Greco:
So that moment that I knew we were doing something truly unique was probably our first New Year’s Eve. Actually, no, it was our first Gay Pride. So we opened on September. So we went the course to the next year into June and it was my first Gay Pride. And that Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night.

We had a line to get into the place from the minute we opened to the minute we closed. I literally went down the line with drink tickets, apologizing to people that I couldn’t let them in because we were closing, but I wanted them to know that I’m so grateful that you came to my place, so please come back and have free drinks. But that’s when I was like, definitely got a tiger by the tail.

Bob Wheeler:
That’s so

Tommy Greco:
Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
cool. What’s the most extravagant tab someone ever ran up at the Ritz, making you check your heart rate when you saw the bill? Are they going to be able to pay this?

Tommy Greco:
Uhhhhhh McQueen, the designer’s brother. I forgot his first name, but he, I guess he liked one of my bartenders as a friend, you know what I mean? And it wasn’t, he rang up a big tab. He ran up a decent tab, but he left the bartender a few thousand dollars.

Bob Wheeler:
No.

Tommy Greco:
And I was like, hey man, he’s like, it was a black card. And it was the… you know, McQueen the designer’s brother. And I said, okay. I said, but I can’t give you the money tonight. The charge has got to clear. If it clears and we don’t get a renege,

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
you’re good. And yeah, I showed up and gave my bartender the cash. Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
Wow, that’s,

Tommy Greco:
A week later, yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
that’s cool. What’s one splurge that you, uh, you always treat yourself to, even if your inner accountant is saying, don’t do that.

Tommy Greco:
I have to say travel and eating and they’re two in the same. So when I feel like I’m about to hit the wall or I’m really grinding, I get out of dodge. And I don’t go to someplace, you know, I’ve seen more outside the US than I’ve seen inside the US.

And I don’t mean go down to Miami or to the Caribbean or something. I’ll go to Barcelona. or I’ll go to Berlin or I’ll go to Copenhagen, somewhere that I was never been to and just go to like, I was in Copenhagen, I went to Noma and just to show myself, it did pay off. I have to trick myself, because I’m not

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
into, yeah, I don’t have Ferraris and Porsches and you know what I mean? I like to save because I fear and remember that day on cardboard boxes of sleeping. Um, but so, but every once in a while, I like to step into that realm to remind yourself, this is the air smells pretty good here.

Bob Wheeler:
It’s something’s working. Something’s working.

Tommy Greco:
Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
What’s a money myth about running a bar, a thriving bar that you would love to debunk?

Tommy Greco:
There’s no cash. There’s no cash in it. Everybody thinks you got suitcases of cash. And when I first opened, we had cash, but in the digital age, there’s no cash. These theories of people owning bars with wads of cash always around and money, there’s no cash. Everything is… uh… is credit card these kids today and i think you see that i because i still feel like i’m twenty one inside but

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
the younger generations state they don’t even have any idea what cash is uh…

Bob Wheeler:
I think that’s true.

Tommy Greco:
and yeah everything they pay with their watch the pay with their phone they pay with credit cards and what’s a sheen is it that type of culture now And the one culture that I still do all the time, and you can see people light up, is the handshake. Tipping the maitre d’ at a restaurant with a handshake. Tipping the valet guy, not like, oh here and here’s for you. You know what I mean? The handshake.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
Or tipping before I even go in. Or tipping when he takes the car. Because they don’t know what it is and the mannerisms of cash, you know?

Bob Wheeler:
Right. Yeah. I think that’s, you know, I. I helped run a club and when everything stopped being cash, yeah, there’s no cash. But on the other hand, there’s no cash and employees don’t have much cash to put their fingers on to skip out of the bar. We saw an increase in our profits pretty dramatically when not everybody was touching, especially in a bar, the myth or at least the couple of clients I had historically when it was cash. You know,

Tommy Greco:
Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
they factored in 15% or 20% sticky fingers. You know,

Tommy Greco:
Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
they had a margin of error that they could live with.

Tommy Greco:
So, I mean, the cash never disappeared. You know, you hear these old stories where people, they used to fold bills and pad the draw and stuff like that. That’s not, you know, maybe that happened in some places. The cash part used to be, and everybody that knows in the industry, it’s the same 20 that we all passed around town. So right when you go in and you ordered one drink, and you just put the 20 out there, or now it’s like a 50. Um, and that 50 then goes into the tip bucket and you don’t pay for your next couple of rounds. You know what I mean? That’s the type of theft that I

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah,

Tommy Greco:
worry about. Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
yeah, for sure. And that’s hard to track even with cameras.

Tommy Greco:
Yeah, because you see the money coming in and

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
it’s funny now because it’s easier to do it now with sliding the cash because the bartenders are always so busy. They’re like secretaries now

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
because they’re doing so much paperwork and receipts and signing and tips and closing tabs. And you know, now these kids got smart for a little bit. They would run a tab on their debit card. Okay. They’d come in with whatever local bank and they had their debit card. Here’s my card. They’d run up a tab, a hundred, 200 bucks, and they would leave.

Who cares? You have a debit card of some name, which is garbage. They just go to their bank the next morning. Hey, I lost my debit card. They print it right there and you’re back out on the street and they put money in their account. Um, so now we take the license and you know, you know, but you have all this information behind the bar, licenses,

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
credit cards, passports. It’s crazy.

Bob Wheeler:
It’s crazy that I the joy of running a bit like it’s not all fun. You got to do there’s paperwork. There’s paperwork and you got to do taxes.

Tommy Greco:
No, no, no taxes, you know, you have to pay your sales tax. That’s my advice. If you get into any business, just pay your freaking sales tax.

Bob Wheeler:
pay

Tommy Greco:
You can

Bob Wheeler:
this.

Tommy Greco:
screw everybody else, but the people who collect the tax is the strongest and most powerful mafia in the entire planet.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
Pay them their money. You know.

Bob Wheeler:
And that does not matter what state you’re in. That

Tommy Greco:
No.

Bob Wheeler:
is so, that I’ve had clients go, but I just needed to borrow it. It’s not your money. Do not touch the sales tax money. It

Tommy Greco:
Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
is

Tommy Greco:
You

Bob Wheeler:
not

Tommy Greco:
don’t

Bob Wheeler:
yours.

Tommy Greco:
charge tax. You only collect it, you know? Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
Right. You’re just holding it for safekeeping. Now your bar is known for being really all-inclusive. A lot of celebrities show up there. Like you like people show up. But what was the driving force behind the ethos of all-inclusive? Like what really drove that?

Tommy Greco:
So all include, listen, it’s an LGBTQ plus establishment. I mean, it’s all inclusive. And then, yes, so from the theory, everybody’s welcome, everybody’s included. From running the business, you having that type of genre is great because you have so many different subgroups within this large group. And from a business standpoint, you use it as a benefit for programming.

So I don’t have the same cookie cutter thing every night where if I don’t go to the Ritz on Monday, I’ll go on Saturday or I’ll go on Wednesday, happy hour is this and this and that. No way. You give a little something to everyone. So this way, if you came in on Monday, and then you came back on Thursday, it would be a totally different experience.

You know, on Monday nights, we have more of a Brazilian feel. On Tuesday nights, we do one of our most successful parties called Papito. It’s a party that’s mostly geared to like a gay Latin, but like, island Latin style crowd. Not really South American, but more like that. And then Wednesday is college night. So it’s gay, straight, all college kids. And we do that because of the type of DJ we have there, the type of drag queens in shows, and obviously inexpensive drinks. I never used the word cheap. Ha ha

Bob Wheeler:
Mm-hmm.

Tommy Greco:
ha. Inexpensive drinks. And then Thursday night, we do a party called Do The Right Thing that I started probably 12 years ago with Peppermint, who’s on Broadway, who’s the first. a transgender individual that’s on Broadway, and Caswell, who’s a big DJ and nightlife personality, he’s now out in LA, we started it. It was a throwback hip hop party for gay African-American men. And then when Caswell went to LA, we put in a different DJ, then when Pep got on. RuPaul’s and went to Broadway.

We put in Morgan Royale and now we still have Morgan and our DJ is Kate Styles, who’s a straight blonde woman. And the two of them just work and we have that. And on the weekends, we do a combination because we have two floors. We’ll do pop on one floor, maybe hip hop on one. And then the next night we’ll do Latin on one floor. and pop on the other and then, you know, we always are changing. That’s the most important thing.

Bob Wheeler:
Well, that’s fun. You got to keep it fresh. And look, everybody likes to party at some point. So if you welcome everybody, like why not? The more the merrier, right?

Tommy Greco:
Yeah, the wider, the biggest net catches the most fish.

Bob Wheeler:
Absolutely. Why wouldn’t I mean, I don’t know any business that wouldn’t want to be all inclusive like in the scheme of things just from a business standpoint Cast a wider net cast

Tommy Greco:
Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
wider net. Absolutely

Tommy Greco:
And at the end of the day, I’m, you know, I’m a very extremely open person. I don’t, I don’t have anything, you know, I get along with people. I don’t care. You know, this, that I get along with people. If you’re going to person and we connect and that we have the right energy, then, you know, everything’s good. It’s just, uh, it’s frustrating to see a lot of things that are going on in the world. And, you know, I think why the Ritz works is. I just apply my personal feelings to how I operate in life, to my business. And here we are 17 years later, you know.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah, I love that. How did COVID impact all that? Because a lot of stuff got shut down. It was tough.

Tommy Greco:
Okay, so I told you the Ritz never shuts down.

Bob Wheeler:
You did say that.

Tommy Greco:
So, yeah, so when COVID hit and you were mandated, everything was closed. Then New York City started to allow you to do to go beverages. So I literally put the bar by the front door and people came up from the street and got to go beverages. Then they started. You know, every week, oh, but you now you have to have food. So we gave you a drink and chips.

Oh, you have to have substantial food, not chips. So it was a drink and a hot dog. Okay. Now you can have people come in just to get it, but they have to leave. Then they, we were doing that every day. We never stopped.

Bob Wheeler:
Right.

Tommy Greco:
And then they said, okay, you could put tables and chairs out on the street. So I literally created the rifts from two o’clock in the afternoon until we had to. clothes, I think it was nine o’clock or something like that, eight or nine, I put it outside. I put drag queens outside. I put go-go boys outside. I had waiters running. I had drink machines going. Anything that I could do, not only to keep us in business, but you know,

I have people that have been with me since the day I opened. They had to pay their rent. They had to eat. They, you know what I mean? I did whatever I do to make sure they had work. We opened back up and it, but if you remember in December, the city shut indoor dining down again.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
And what do you do? So we had heaters outside, extension cords, even with it snowing. The one drag queen says to me, she goes, it’s snowing. I said, that’s great. And she goes, what do you mean that’s great? I said, it gives you a theme for tonight. She goes, what? I said, you’re a snow

And I gotta tell you, she did great. And you know, we just had to keep pivoting and pivoting and pivoting. And the landscape just kept moving and the city. I mean, listen, do I blame New York and do I blame this and oh, the guy in Florida was so right? I don’t blame it. We didn’t know anything. And

Bob Wheeler:
We didn’t know.

Tommy Greco:
you want to say conspiracy theory, all the people at the top, they knew what was going on. Great. But all the local officials and the council people and the mayor people know anything.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
And, you know, we got through it. Say at the end of the day, unfortunately there’s people that didn’t get through it and I feel for them, it was tough. I mean, I had a lot of years of experience and, you know, when I had to, as I said before,

I had to relaser focus during that time. because that wasn’t a moment where you could sit back and, oh, the manager says everything’s good. I had to be there. We had to do this. And we had to make sure everybody had a mask on and everything was labeled. You had to be hyper vigilant, you know?

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah, it was crazy times. It was crazy times. And

Tommy Greco:
Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
we didn’t know. And not a lot of people knew. And

Tommy Greco:
Nobody

Bob Wheeler:
I’m not even…

Tommy Greco:
knew, and anybody

Bob Wheeler:
Nobody…

Tommy Greco:
that says they did is, that’s just my personal opinion. I think

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
they’re full of it, yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah, I hear you. I agree. I agree. Well, Tommy, we are at the M&M moment of the show. We’re at the sweet spot of money and motivation. I’m wondering if you have a practical financial tip or a piece of wealth wisdom you could share with our listeners.

Tommy Greco:
So it’s something funny that everybody always says, a rainy day fund, you know, it’s a funny thing but it’s so freaking important that you have, and I don’t call it a rainy day fund, I call it an oh shit fund,

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
and things happen and they happen at the worst times. And you know, AC units break, coolers break, things break, and they don’t break when you’re in your busy season. They break. on a weekend in the middle of August when you’re at your low point. And

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah.

Tommy Greco:
I always, you know, you’ve got to find what your number is, if it’s 50 grand, 100 grand or something like that. But I always, you know, and whether you in the best way to do is keep it in cash, keep it in a, in a box somewhere in a wall. I’m not going to say that’s legal

Bob Wheeler:
On the third

Tommy Greco:
anymore.

Bob Wheeler:
floor behind

Tommy Greco:
Yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
the book series called…

Tommy Greco:
But just make sure you have that because Having that just little, you know, get out of jail free card in the back of your mind means the world to difference because when something does break and the situation is tense, you’ll have that little bit of, okay, I’m okay, I got it, here it is, get it fixed, let’s move, and then as soon as you can replace that, replace it, but always have that backup funds.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah, I think that’s so important, especially in this day and age where everything’s electronic. If the bank system shuts down and you

Tommy Greco:
comment.

Bob Wheeler:
can’t get money out of your ATM or your Venmo, not going to be good. So I love that.

Tommy Greco:
Yeah. Cash gets everything not only done, but especially in New York, when you call the HVAC guy or this person and say, hey, I’m going to pay you in green. They’ll be there in 20 minutes.

Bob Wheeler:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Before I forget, are you having a big celebration for the 17th anniversary? Are you?

Tommy Greco:
Yes, yes, we are doing it on Wednesday, September, I don’t call it the day, it’s the 27th or 28th, something like that, whatever

Bob Wheeler:
All

Tommy Greco:
that

Bob Wheeler:
right.

Tommy Greco:
last Wednesday is. But we’re gonna have a big party. I have my guy, Steve Sidewalk, who’s a famous, old school DJ, he’s been DJing me since the day I opened. He used to DJ at Heaven and Rush and Splash back in the day. He’s going to be there. We’re going to invite everybody that used to work for us to come, all the people in the nightlife industry to come and we’ll do a lot of giveaways. It’s going to be a really nice time.

Bob Wheeler:
That sounds fun. Well, Tommy, listen, I, this has been such a fun conversation, but the, for me, the biggest takeaway. And I think you talked about, like, when you talked about, um, a normal day and you said, I just take what comes my way. I mean, that sort of sounds like a philosophy of life.

We sort of just have to take what comes our way. And then are we able to pivot when we need to pivot and, you know, being able to know when you need to be laser focused. And when you can actually say, oh, I’m going to go sleep in Miami for three days. Um,

Tommy Greco:
Hehehehe

Bob Wheeler:
right. To be able to, but to have that awareness of, yeah, things are going to come at me. I don’t know what the day is going to look like. I think most of us don’t know what our day is going to look like. We have an idea. Um, but then can we pivot? Can we rise to the occasion? Can we get creative?

Like you’re talking about with COVID and putting stuff outside and not like what I’m not hearing is. Oh my God, all these things happened to me. And it was so, and then I had to live in a cardboard box. You know, I know here’s what’s going on and here’s how I’m showing up today. And I think, um, the fact that you’re just like everybody’s welcome. Um, you know, if you’re a nice person, if you’ve got some kindness in your heart, you’ve got some empathy, compassion, come along. Let’s.

Tommy Greco:
And you have cash. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Bob Wheeler:
And you have cash. Have some cash. Um, but. or a clean card, no debit cards. But I, yeah, I mean, I just think that that’s really the way we go through life is being able to say, how am I going to pivot? And can I stay focused on the things that are important so that I can have an outcome where I’ve said, hey, I think this is paid out, paid off. And the air is pretty good up here.

Tommy Greco:
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Bob Wheeler:
Where can people find you online, social media and all that good stuff?

Tommy Greco:
Yeah, so personally, I’m T-Grex, T-G-R-E-X-S on Instagram and then I’m Tommy Greco on Facebook and then, so it’s funny, there’s different things. So it’s on Instagram, it’s the Ritz Bar New York City or the Ritz Bar NYC on Instagram. You’ll find us. We have so many followers. You know, after this many years, it’s hard not to follow us, you know? Or find us, more or less, yeah.

Bob Wheeler:
You will be found.

Tommy Greco:
Well,

Bob Wheeler:
You will

Tommy Greco:
we will.

Bob Wheeler:
be found. You will. You will. Well, Tommy, thanks again so much. I appreciate you sharing your stories and your wisdom and yeah, thanks so much and congratulations again on 17 years.

Tommy Greco:
Bob, I really appreciate it. Thank you.