Q+A: RON MANCUSO:

In search of immortality through music and food

Ron Mancuso is COO of The Bootlegger Italian Bistro Restaurant and also has a music studio off his office on Thursday, June 9, 2017. L.E. Baskow

Ron Mancuso is a rock musician and chief operating officer at the Bootlegger Italian Bistro, a longtime staple of the Las Vegas culinary scene. A guitarist with Beggars & Thieves who also wrote jingles and music for Fox TV and Fox Sports, Mancuso returned to Las Vegas after his son was born so the child could grow up around family, and so he could help protect the business his mother and grandparents created. “We’re very Italian,” he said. “We think in generational terms. We want to go on for centuries.”

Do you have any recent news you’d like to share?

I have been trying to implement more health-conscious choices into our menu. Aside from gluten-free options and some dishes we created in collaboration with a certified nutritionist, I have been focused on paleo and low-carb recipes, as I’ve been eating only paleo over the past year and lost a lot of weight, so I’m passionate about it.

On the entertainment side, I just finished a new Pia Zadora album in our Las Vegas studio, and I’m about to start a new album for a German label with vocalist Mandy Lion, so I’m very busy.

How has the Bootlegger restaurant scene and menu evolved in the past 10 years?

If anything, I’ve always been overprotective of the recipes created by my grandma, Mama Maria Perry. You just don’t touch things like her sauces, lasagna, meatballs, sausage, etc. But with that being said, we are always adding new dishes to stay current and improve whenever possible. Besides the health-conscious dishes, we have added many new salads, fish dishes and appetizers. I believe you need to keep the core items that people have loved for almost 45 years, but add new things to keep it interesting.

As far as the restaurant scene, the Bootlegger has always drawn a diverse crowd as well as quite a few celebrities. It’s just more diverse now than ever before. My mother, Lorraine Hunt-Bono, and her husband, Dennis Bono, draw all the classic Vegas performers. I pull all the rockers, and now with my son, Roman, we are starting to get DJs and EDM performers stopping by. Plus, the hip-hop guys always loved the old-school vibe, so we attract that audience as well.

What is your most popular dish?

After all these years, it’s still lasagna, chicken and eggplant parmesan, and spaghetti and meatballs. Our seafood diavalo and New York steak are still holding strong.

What is the best business advice you’ve received?

Look at your money every day. Set deadlines so things don’t go on forever. Delegate, but follow up. When in doubt, defer to the experts. Those all seem to work well.

What is your greatest professional achievement?

There are a few.

• Sitting in Ahmet Ertegun’s office, co-founder and president of Atlantic Records, when my band Beggars & Thieves got signed to Atlantic records. I kept thinking this guy signed Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin and so many of the bands I grew up listening to. It was humbling.

• Hearing a song I played for the first time on the radio.

• Seeing my first video on MTV.

• Resurrecting Beggars & Thieves, making what I consider to be our best album (“We Are The Brokenhearted”) and playing Firefest in England and in Palermo, Sicily.

Most recently, we toured Europe in 2014 and played the Download Festival in England, opening for Aerosmith, and now sitting here in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., working on songs with Ace Frehley. I mean, I had his poster on my wall as a kid. I was huge Kiss fan.

Describe your management style.

Laid back and kind — I truly care about my employees. I got their back. But then again, I don’t suffer fools lightly, and I do have a Sicilian temper.

If you could have dinner with any three people, who would they be?

The Dalai Lama, Richard Branson or Tim Cook, CEO of Apple (it’s a tie), and Jimmy Page, just because he’s Jimmy Page.

Have you ever been star-struck?

When I was working with James Murdoch, I was at a party with Rupert Murdoch and met him briefly. Not that I necessarily agree with the way he thinks, but he was such a powerful presence.

If you could live anywhere else in the world, where would it be?

London, Manhattan, Rome, Prague. Those are my favorite cities besides Vegas, which has really turned into a world-class city.

Whom do you admire?

My mother, my grandma and grandpa, my cousin, Larry Ruvo, and anyone out in the real world who bucks the system and fights for the truth.

What is something that people might not know about you?

Well, I’m pretty much an open book. Anybody who spends time with me sees me, flaws and all. I don’t like too many secrets. Also, I’m a voracious reader and always like to learn new things.

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