It was mid-afternoon on Mother’s Day of 2009 when Scott Frost’s life irrevocably changed.
Frost, a Las Vegas entrepreneur, was working on a business proposal at home when a friend suggested they take their motorcycles out for a ride. Within the hour, the pair were off-roading at a rain-retention basin in the desert — the same area of Henderson that’s now the master-planned community, Inspirada.
“At 1:47 p.m., I shut my computer down,” Frost recalled. “ … It’s really eerie. You go on this motorcycle ride, and in 40 minutes I was paralyzed from the neck down. I would never walk inside my house again. I would never sleep in that bed upstairs again.”
Frost was riding on what he thought was a level road, when it dropped off about 5 feet, his bike tipped forward and he landed on his head.
After nearly an hour of communicating with first responders on the phone, Frost, his friend and a bystander that he hopes to someday track down and thank, were eventually able to get a life flight to their location. He was taken to University Medical Center, where he said he was “freaking out” as doctors set out to assess the damage.
“The sensation of being paralyzed is uniquely terrible,” he said. “You’re looking at things and they won’t move and it’s like you’re encased in concrete — but there’s no concrete. It’s just the most bizarre feeling in the world. And it’s like you’re teetering on full-on panic. And I’m just calling out like, is it severed? Is it severed? Is it severed?”
What he would learn is that a crushed disc was pushing on the back of his spine, creating an ischemic event and robbing it of oxygen, ultimately killing cells in a part of his spine and resulting in a permanent disability. From then on, Frost was quadriplegic.
He underwent intense physical rehabilitation, slowly regaining movement in certain parts of his body. Before long, he could move his left thumb, followed by his right big toe.
“I just said, ‘You know, this is going to be the greatest comeback story in history,’” Frost remembered. “‘Just get your cameras ready.’”
Meanwhile, he made sure his business partner picked up the proposal he had been working on before the accident, and they ultimately won a bid to open a nightclub in another state. They also finalized a lease for their restaurant, Hussong’s Mexican Cantina.
“And I made a really bad joke — I guess I should break my neck more often because it seems to be good for business,” he said. “Because we were struggling to get our first deal. I break my neck, (and) we get two. But I attribute that to desperation breeds inspiration. Something like this focuses you. And I became extremely focused. I had a family to provide for, andbusiness became my oxygen tank.”
Just seven months after his accident, leaning onto others for balance and with a mariachi band cheering him on, Frost walked into Hussong’s at the Shoppes at Mandalay Place on the Las Vegas Strip.
Now, Frost — co-founder and CEO of Las Vegas-based Titan Brands Hospitality Group — oversees a growing portfolio of businesses, including multiple Hussong’s locations and Slice Of Vegas Pizza Kitchen and Bar.
“I think we do everything right,” said Brian Norris, president of Titan Brands Hospitality Group. “We do everything right, from the product that we want to serve, the hospitality that we want to provide … We’ve always just stuck to our guns and what we do best, and just see the longevity. In our industry, restaurants don’t stick around for as long as we have.”
The company has still had its fair share of challenges, however. After the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting on the Strip that killed 58 people, a third of Frost’s business disappeared overnight, he said.
“We were two of three restaurants in all of Luxor and Mandalay Bay that were opened the next day,” he said. “And people said we need to shut down, we need to do this and I said no — what we need to be is, we need to be together. Because we all have stories and we have people that have come here from all over the world, and we need to show them the best side of Vegas.”
And business was just coming back to capacity when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, he said. Although it initially seemed like a major challenge, Frost said the pandemic ending up being “one of the best things” to happen to the business.
Titan Brands Hospitality Group was just the right size of company for programs meant to bolster restaurants and other businesses during low points of the pandemic, he said.
“So we were able to use that money to buy new equipment,” he said in a back room at Slice of Vegas, next door to Hussong’s on the Strip. “We remodeled this room. And we had enough money left over to pay off debt … And now we have a better-looking balance sheet than we ever did before.”
His advice to fellow entrepreneurs: Be willing to fail, to take criticism and learn from others, then make incremental improvements to eventually reach success. And along the way, he emphasized, treat people with dignity and respect
“We have bartenders and servers and executive chefs — people that have worked with us for over 10 years,” said Frost, who noted that it’s a privilege to play even a minor role in the hospitality that Las Vegas provides, and that he makes a point of being present with guests when the restaurant has a full house. “And I attribute that to creating a good work environment — showing people that sympathy and compassion and empathy.”
Norris echoed the sentiment.
“What it really comes down to is the culture that we have there,” he said. “It’s really unlike any other. A lot of places talk of good culture, and never quite live up to those standards. And we have our same core values that we’ve had since the beginning and we go back to those. And it’s about creating a sense of family and friendship.”
Frost said he says a prayer every morning, and practices gratitude for the continued support of his family, friends and team, as well as all that he is still capable of.
He’s grateful for all the gifts he’s maintained despite the accident, which are largely intellectual instead of physical. Not only do those gifts allow him to keep running his business, Frost said, but being quadriplegic has also taught him to be less of a micromanager.
“I can’t get behind the bar and do that, or I can’t jump to the back of the restaurant and carry plates out,” he said. “I can’t go around and talk to customers. So it was such an incredible experience, that whole journey of navigating the loss of your physical body.”