Special thanks to Stefano Fabbri of ‘Pomo Pizzeria Napoletano for hosting the July Get Your PHX. I think Stefano and master chef/co-owner Mateo have made a huge Italian splash in downtown.

I’m excited to announce what many of you have been waiting for and probably already know —Brad and Kat Moore of Short Leash food truck have now also opened Sit…Stay, the restaurant. Whom in Phoenix hasn’t had a Short Leash hot dog? Maybe you’ve had an Igby Dog at the Willo Home Tour. Maybe you’ve had the Moki at Food Truck Fridays. Maybe, if you were really lucky, you had a Costanza Dog, which appears only once a year at Phoestivus.

So, if they are so ubiquitous, why do we need to do a Get Your PHX there? Well, we are for several reasons. First, Brad and Kat have been huge supporters of local businesses (check out the list on their website of locally-owned vendors that they buy from) and we want to thank them.

Second, they will share their story and answer questions  –how often do you get a chance to interrogate a successful local start-up like this?

Third, Brad and Kat are just great people and we at Get Your PHX believe that our city develops better when the local business owners get a chance to come out from behind the counter and build more relationships with we mere mortals.

Finally, they are going to give out samples!

For those of you who don’t know, Short Leash took to the streets three years ago when Brad and Kat, both tired of the work they had been doing previously. It was a running joke for years between Brad and Kat that they should start a restaurant. Brad had experience in Small Business Administration lending in the financial industry and Kat was known to be a great cook.

One day Brad made a serious proposal to open a restaurant and Kat scaled back his proposal to the more realistic food truck concept. We are happy they did it this way. We’ve seen so many restaurants fail, in part, because they tried to grow too quickly.

Brad and Kat will share a number of lessons they learned as they started and grew their business. I found something that Brad said particularly salient (as it is similarly true in real estate): “Many people get in to business and think they will park food truck on corner and a million people will come. You really have to get out and build those relationships and take a grass-roots philosophy.”

So, if you are thinking that you want to start a business in Phoenix, this is your opportunity to hear directly from an inspiring couple –while you eat some of their delicious food.

Don’t forget, of course, we will host the monthly Get Your PHX raffle. We already have one free night at the Clarendon Hotel on the list of raffle items you can win. If you own a business and you want to support our local business community by donating a prize to the raffle, please contact Ken at 602-456-9388.

Stay tuned on Facebook for more raffle items and updates.