Who is CNBC’s reality series “Billion Dollar Buyer’s’ newest star, Tilman Fetitta? He’s a self-made billionaire. That’s right. Billionaire, with a “B.” How did he earn the title of Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Ernst & Young and become the second youngest inductee into the Texas Business Hall of Fame? How did the 58-year-old become known as “the world’s richest restaurateur”?
Fertitta is the Chairman, CEO, and sole shareholder of Landry’s, Inc. He oversees more than 500 properties and over 50 leading restaurant, hotel, and entertainment brands, including Mastro’s, Morton’s The Steakhouse, Rainforest Café, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Saltgrass Steak House, and five Golden Nugget Casinos.
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Now, adding reality star to his resume, Fertitta will be traveling all over the country to scope out the most innovative new products that America’s budding entrepreneurs have to offer. In each episode of “Billion Dollar Buyer,” Fertitta will spend time with two small businesses, sample their goods, get to know their owners, and contemplate over whether he wants to invest in their business. He doesn’t have to pick just one. He could pick both! Or none.
In the premiere, Fetitta finds himself in Houston, Tex., meeting dessert makers, Sakaina and Mohamed who funded their shop, Macaron by Patisse, with their parents’ retirement savings. The brother and sister team make a delicious homemade product, but Fetitta worries about their wholesale price and the owner’s too-soon kitchen expansion costs.
The billionaire then meets with Bravado Spice hot sauce makers, James and Jeremiah. Everything seems to going well, until Fertitta actually tastes their sauces, and claims they are made with way “too much vinegar.”
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Will the man whose company has revenues over $3.4 billion and assets of more than $3.5 billion adopt one of these businesses into Landry’s Inc.? Fertitta, who also serves as Chairman of the Houston Children’s Charity, and the Houston Police Foundation, mulls over each business thoughtfully with his southern twanged voice, explaining in simple animated diagrams whether it’s a smart investment or not.
While Fertitta can seem very warm one moment, and like Gordon Ramsey from “Hell’s Kitchen,” the next, it’s fascinating to see him contemplate these business investments, as he clearly knows what he’s talking about. Each company may just be a feather in his cap, a shot in the bucket if it’s a total loss, but he treats each budding company with due respect for what they’ve accomplished so far, whether he invests or not.
“Billion Dollar Buyer” premieres Tues., March 22, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CNBC.