Q. You spent much of your childhood in Hawai'i. Did you expect to eventually return with a business?

A. I think growing up here, you never know. I mean, I probably wanted to stay here more than I wanted to leave, so it's good just to come back — that I had the opportunity to come back.

Q. For people who aren't familiar, you opened a Yard House in Waikiki last week. What's been the experience so far with the restaurant?

A. We opened on a Sunday night, and every night since we opened at 6 o'clock we've had about an hour wait. And we also open for lunch at 11, and the crowd that I've been seeing coming in is really mostly locals, so that's a good sign and I'm happy they're coming in.

Q. How big is the restaurant?

A. It's almost 12,000 square feet and has seating for about 375 people.

Q. How about employees?

A. We hired about 300 employees, and we interviewed about 600.

Q. How much in annual sales do you expect from the new Hawai'i restaurant, and how does that compare with Yard Houses on the Mainland?

A. We have 16 Yard Houses, and the average unit sale right now is about $8.6 million per store, with our highest being about $12 million and our lowest about $5.5 million. I just think with the location we've chosen and the excitement of Waikiki Beach Walk and what's happening here — and knowing what Cheesecake (Factory) and Duke's and Tiki's (Grill & Bar) does — we're shooting for about $15 million in this location.

Q. You mentioned this is the 16th restaurant; what has it been like growing the chain you established in Long Beach, Calif., in 1996?

A. It's been a great journey. We've accelerated our growth rate in the last three or four years. It took us almost three years to build the second one, and then about another two years to build the third one. So that's about five years. So, we've really built about 14 stores in five years. Being in the restaurant business for as long as I have, I understood that philosophy (that) you had to wait to really get all your systems down and create your duplication factor. And I think we've done that, and I think it shows here in this store.

Q. How much does the chain generate in annual revenue?

A. Last year we did about $115 million. This year we're expected to do about $130 million.

Q. That's pretty high. You've also had some extreme lows in business. Can you tell us about that?

A. I've gone bankrupt, once, which I think everybody needs to do to understand what it's like. It actually hits your reset button and makes you succeed. I think there's a law in the United States that you can't go bankrupt twice, so it's kind of a self-motivating factor. The greatest thing about the low part is you really learn how to achieve the high parts, more so than doing it the first time.

Q. You had to climb back up. I heard that you were a car salesman for a while, and a bartender. What was that like? To rebuild?

A. After owning the biggest nightclub (in Denver and successful restaurants), which was back in '91 — I moved from Denver back to California and thought I could open another nightclub right away based on my success in Colorado. And I found that to be very difficult, which told me I was very fortunate to get where I was in Colorado. I purposely wanted to hit bottom, because I felt that was the only way to motivate me to go forward — bankruptcy being part of it, but it was also starting all over again like I did in college ... to start over again with those first jobs. So I actually bartended and sold cars, and that kind of motivated me again to say, hey, let's move forward and do it again, and that's what I did. So I started writing a business plan, and by 1996 I opened my first Yard House.

Q. Does having gone through such a swing in fortunes make you a better businessman now?

A. It makes you a lot more humble, a lot more grounded and a lot more appreciative of what you have now. Because I've lost everything. It's good to respect the things that you have, and working hard and waking up every morning and hitting your reset button — and starting every day just like it was your first. That is really what it taught me.

Q. What personal quality would you say has most helped you as an entrepreneur?

A. The biggest thing an entrepreneur has really is taking risk. So I've always believed in taking risk, and a great thing about going bankrupt and losing everything is you have nothing to lose when you take that second risk. So the first Yard House, I took a lot of risk but I had nothing to lose. I just had other people's money invested. But I was very confident in the concept, and I think that spilled over to my investors, who I think saw it in my eyes. The first investors in the first Yard House are getting a great return over the last 10 years. The value of their stock has gone way up.

Q. What are some management strategies that have helped you prosper?

A. We treat management here as part of our family. The biggest incentive we've created is offering them a 10 percent equity stake in the company. So every manager that comes in with the company, we give them stock that's vested over four years, and then at the end of four years they can sell it back to us, which is like a bonus, and start again with another four years of vesting. So it's really making our management team like owners of the company. It's made a huge difference.

Q. How many more Yard House restaurants do you expect to open?

A. After Waikiki we have three more for 2007, and then it looks like we're going to have about six or seven in 2008.

Q. What kind of revenue goal have you set for yourself?

A. I think there's only one other (full-service restaurant) company that hit 100 units and $1 billion, and that was Cheesecake. That's kind of who I'm gearing up to follow. So hopefully, Yard House will be the second restaurant chain to achieve that milestone.

Q. Is another Yard House in store for Hawai'i?

A. I think there's a chance I might, depending on the success of this one, and how the locals support it. We could either go Kahala way or North Shore way, or even possibly another one in Maui down the road.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.