On today’s episode, Eli welcomes Lauren and Peter Lemos, owners of Wax Paper in LA. With over 30 years of hospitality experience between them, they launched their restaurant in 2015 on a shoestring budget in a shoebox-sized space. Now with two locations of Wax Paper Co., a growing team, and a new restaurant concept called Lingua Franca on the way, Lauren and Peter sat down to share their story of opening a restaurant and truly figuring it all out along the way. If you are an industry veteran looking to start your own thing, this episode is definitely for you. Get ready for a wide-ranging and expansive conversation that touches on build-outs, the health department, trying to get a bank loan, cooking with constraints, how to build a better business for the long term, and of course, navigating a restaurant during Covid.