6 Questions with Paolo Neville from 95a Bistro and Co about Being a Father in the Restaurant Industry and The Opportunities on Tik Tok

Read Time: 6 minutes

By Sophie Braker

This article is from an interview with Paolo Neville. If you want to know more about him, watch his videocast episode BSP369: Paolo Neville on Going Viral on Restaurant Tik Tok to Gain Audience and Investors

Chef Paolo didn’t want to waste time on another social media platform. But Jensen and others kept saying he had to get more content out there, so he started making Tik Toks, and had a lot of fun doing it. Now his silly hotdog videos have the potential to transform into a real restaurant, because an investor reached out to him and wants to finance his vision for the Urban Hotdog Collective. Read more about Paolo’s backstory to get to the Urban Hotdog Collective below.

What was your first job in the industry?

My first job was at Round The Corner. It was very corporate. I’m really grateful for that because it taught me systems right off the bat. There was a phone at every table in the dining room. The customers would pick up the phone and I would pick up the phone in the back. I’d take their order, make it, and when their food was ready, the phone would light up so they would come pick it up. Then we didn’t need servers. I don’t know if it’s still around anymore. 

What’s the food that you always have in your house?

I have teenage kids now so we always have lots of cereal in the house. My kids’ favorite cereals are Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Life. I think we try to get them to eat healthier cereal. Stay away from Captain Crunch or Lucky Charms. I grew up on rice chexs. I would eat a package of those a day with honey when I was a teenager. My mom didn’t have refined sugar in the house when I was growing up. I always have one of those pre-cooked hot chickens. Like the Costco chicken. They’re really versatile. I can make whatever I’m feeling like curries, soups, or I can put it on a salad. 

What’s it like being a father and a chef?

Obviously when my kids were born, it changed things a lot. When they were really young, I was working a lot, one day off a week, 14 hour days. It contributed to the downfall of my relationship for sure. I realized after their mom and I split up that I wasn’t going to do that anymore. It’s really important to have time with our families. That’s really changed from when I was in my twenties and most of my thirties. 

The other day I went to pick up my kids late from a baseball game at school. I got mobbed by some of their high school friends. They all wanted to take a picture with me because I’m the hot dog guy from TikTok. It was kind of uncomfortable. Very weird. And kinda cool!

What was the catalyst to start taking care of yourself?

I was up in the wine country in California running restaurants. But I didn’t have any clue what taking care of myself looked like. When my first marriage fell apart, I ended up in rehab. That was the catalyst for wanting to change. That started the journey of balance. Realizing what was important. It’s specific stuff like taking a moment to sit down and eat a meal instead of standing over the trash can, shoveling down food in ten minutes. 

What have you seen from acknowledging people in your business?

People just want to feel important. That they matter. I know that we feel like we’re these bodies that just come in and run our asses off to serve other people. I’ve worked in a lot of places that felt like a family. I wanted to develop that feeling even further. When I started sharing content about my team, I thought that I really knew these people who I was working with. I realized that I don’t really know them at all. People love to talk about themselves so if you ask a few questions you can learn about them. 

It’s been a huge eye opener for me. I think it’s just made us all tighter. We’re really lucky we’ve retained a vast majority of our staff from the beginning of the pandemic. It's attributed to that family-feel, understanding what people are going through, and looking out for each other. 

We just did a post about Raul. He’s a staff member from Mexico. He’s so smooth! I didn’t realize that he’d been in a band for most of his life. He played the trumpet in a mariachi band but he didn’t bring his trumpet with him so we working on getting him a trumpet.

What made you decide to start making content on Tik Tok?

I fought it for a long time. I do plenty of posts on Instagram and Facebook. I thought it was a lot of work to get another fucking account. People kept telling me how great it was though. I finally gave in last year. I decided I was just going to post one thing. In the middle of the pandemic, we were exploring doing a ghost kitchen with three different concepts and one of those was a hot dog concept. I thought I’ll make a hot dog Tik Tok. Then in December, one of my coworkers bought me a shirt with “Fucking Hotdogs” on it. So I wore it on the Tik Tok and it blew up. People create opportunities for themselves on TikTok. My teenage son is starting a Shopify business to start selling the shirts I wear on the show. So it’s created opportunities for me and for my family.

Paolo Neville is an Executive Chef and author with 30 + years in the service industry. With two amazing sons and a passion for food and the restaurant industry, Chef Neville strives to create deeply satisfying cuisine sourced from local ingredients. He can be found hosting monthly wine dinners at 95A Bistro & Co in Lafayette Colorado where he grew up on an organic farm just outside of Boulder.