Helen Johannesen: Ownership Isn't the Win You Think

**Josh Kopel** (0:00)
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**Helen Johannesen** (0:54)
It's hard for people to understand when they see top line sales, but they don't see the take home. And it's like, well, we had to replace an AC and we had a leak in our roof. And like a lot of people don't want to play on that scale of improbability.

**Josh Kopel** (1:09)
Welcome to FULL COMP, a show offering insight into the hospitality industry, featuring restaurateurs, thought leaders, and innovators, served up on the house.
What if owning a restaurant isn't the win that you think it is, but a risk that most people misunderstand? Helen didn't just step into ownership, she sacrificed for it. Walking away from financial stability and taking a major pay cut, she bet on herself in a single restaurant that could have gone either way. Today, she's a partner behind one of LA's most respected hospitality groups, and the force behind a wine brand built on trust, not intimidation. In today's conversation, we unpack what ownership really demands, and why it's not a universal path. Helen then goes on to break down the illusion of revenue versus profit, why equity isn't the right incentive for most teams, and how she built a wine program that rejects exclusivity in favor of access. If you're chasing ownership or at this point questioning it, this episode is a reset.

**Helen Johannesen** (2:18)
I worked at Kraft in Los Angeles, and I met a chef there, I worked with a chef there, who ultimately introduced me to John and Vinny. It was right at a moment when I thought about leaving hospitality forever, because it had been a slightly disheartening toxic experience.
I met them, and I was like, Oh my God, let's go. I think we could do something. And that was when they just had Animal. And so fast forward to John and Vinny's. About 11 years ago, we opened our first store as partners. So I went from being an employee of theirs to us being business partners in what is now John and Vinny's and Helen's Wines.

**Josh Kopel** (2:58)
Let's talk about that, because I think that one of the critical issues within our industry is that like every owner on the planet goes, like nobody gives a fuck. Like everybody wants to treat it like it's just a gig. And like, I want people to see it as a career. But we're not really giving them the roadmap, the path, the opportunity to see it that way. What did that look like for you with John and Vinny?

**Helen Johannesen** (3:20)
I think I saw the opportunity and took it, to be honest, and I'm not discrediting them. I think to their credit, the partnership came to be because I said I was going to leave. I love you guys. You're my brothers. I want more.
I want to be creative and I want to own a business. They knew this when they hired me. I was very upfront about my goals. So it wasn't like I blindsided them. And they said immediately without skipping a beat, whatever business you're in, we want to be in too. And that's how the conversation about partnering on John and Vinny's came. And look, that pathway was not like, oh, I'm here and I'm going up even more, which I think optically from the outside, people probably see. I took a huge pay cut and basically all the gains I had made in my career thus far. And I think for me, it was never about the titles, but you do reach a certain amount of making money, you adjust your life to that, to gain a percentage ownership of this business that we didn't know what it would be. It was just one restaurant. I had to take a huge financial step back and that was my Vegas moment. That was the dice roll that I just believed in. And they did open the door to that opportunity. They could have been like, you know what, we love you, bye. And I would have done something else. And I think pathways to ownership are something that should not be guaranteed. I firmly believe that. And I'm not trying to say like gatekeep, but it's really complicated. And I don't think every single person has what it takes to become an owner.