Today we’d like to introduce you to Brad Ingarfield.
Hi Brad, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My first restaurant job was bussing tables to pay for university. I thought it would be temporary, but I liked the pace, the people, and the feeling of being part of a team that could make a busy night work. It was where I first fell in love with running a business. I’ve been in the restaurant business ever since.
I owned and ran a lot of restaurants before coming to Chandler. I’m proud of every one, and each taught me something, usually the hard way. One lesson stayed with me: restaurants do better with good neighbors. A few good places on the same street can draw a crowd that none could attract alone. When we moved to Arizona in 2014, I wanted to put that experience to work in one downtown.
Historic Downtown Chandler had what I was looking for: old buildings, walkable streets, and people who actually talked to each other. In 2016, I bought Murphy’s Law. The pub was struggling, but it had a good building, a good location, and regulars who kept showing up anyway. People already cared about the place. Our job was to give them a better version of it. We worked on the team, the food, and the room, and customers started coming back.
Murphy’s gave us a place to build from. Each new concept began with the same question: what’s missing from this street? In 2019, we opened Bourbon Jacks in a building dating back to 1918. BlackSheep Wine Bar & Merchant followed in 2021, then Lola’s Liquors in 2022, a cocktail lounge open just Thursday through Saturday. Each offered a different reason to come downtown, with all four places within a few minutes’ walk of one another.
We do our homework before opening a door, but I’ve learned not to fall in love with the plan. In 2025, we rebuilt Bourbon Jacks as Rebel & Rogue Social Hall, a rock and roll room with live music and DJs. After six years, Bourbon Jacks was doing fine. We just thought it could be better. Customers always know something we don’t, and listening to them sometimes means changing something we’ve put a lot of work into.
Today, all four venues are run by Thrive Social, with a team that’s far better at the day-to-day than I am. A fifth concept is in the works on the same street. I still see plenty of room to add something worthwhile here.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No. I don’t think anyone in this business gets a smooth road. If they tell you they did, they probably haven’t been open long enough.
We opened Bourbon Jacks in late 2019. A few months later, the world shut down. We had a brand-new venue, little cushion, a full staff, and empty sidewalks downtown. We kept as many people working as we could and figured things out as we went. That experience changed how I run the businesses. I don’t let a venue operate without a reserve now.
BlackSheep brought a different challenge. The patio expansion took years of back and forth with the city before we could build it. I understand why historic districts need rules, but the bills keep coming while you work through the process. We were paying staff and keeping the business going without being able to use the space as we’d intended. It’s hard to plan around a process when you don’t know how long it will take.
Then there are the pressures that never really go away: finding good people, keeping them, and managing food and labor costs that rise faster than you can raise menu prices. Some of the harder decisions involve a concept that’s doing fine but hasn’t become what you hoped it would. Once you’ve put money and years of work into something, it can be difficult to look at it honestly and decide what needs to change.
Having several venues close together has helped. When one has a hard year, the others can help carry it, and staff can move between them. That was part of the reason for building the businesses this way. But it depends on people being willing to help beyond their own job or venue. We’ve been fortunate to have a team that does.
As you know, we’re big fans of Thrive Social Company. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Thrive Social Company is a hospitality development and management group based in Historic Downtown Chandler. We formed it in 2023 to bring together work our team had been doing for years: developing concepts, building out spaces, and running restaurants and bars. We manage four independently owned venues, all within a few minutes’ walk of each other.
Each has its own personality. Murphy’s Law is a traditional Irish pub with a full kitchen, a long bar, and live music. Some regulars sit in the same seats on the same night every week, and we like it that way. Rebel & Rogue Social Hall is a rock and roll room in a 1918 building, with live bands, DJs, dancing, and food for a long night out.
BlackSheep Wine Bar & Merchant combines a wine bar with a retail shop. You can try something unfamiliar, find a wine you love, and take a bottle home. Lola’s Liquors is a cocktail lounge with disco balls and bold martinis, open Thursday through Saturday until late.
Most groups build one concept and repeat it. We’d rather build one downtown and give people reasons to walk it. You might start with a glass of wine at BlackSheep, have dinner at Murphy’s, and end up dancing at Rebel & Rogue without moving your car. Being close together gives people choices and lets an evening take its own course.
Our team stays involved through the whole process, from the design and buildout to hiring and daily operations. We’re the people who have to work in the spaces after they open, so decisions about how a bar is laid out or how a room flows matter well beyond how it looks on opening night.
Being part of the neighborhood also means contributing beyond our own doors. Through donations and volunteer time, we support local organizations that help first responders and families, mentor small-business owners, and create career opportunities for young people.
What I’m most proud of is the relationship people have with the individual venues. They have a favorite bartender, a regular table, or a place they always bring friends who are visiting. People call Murphy’s their pub. They don’t call it a Thrive Social property, and I’m happy with that.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Most of the advice you’ll hear is about passion. I’d skip that part. If you’re opening a restaurant you already have the passion, or you wouldn’t be doing something this hard for this little sleep. Here’s what I wish someone had told me instead.
Spend as much time thinking about the street as you do about the concept. Who’s already there? Why do people come? What would give them another reason to visit? Good neighbors can do more for your business than you might expect. You don’t have to offer everything yourself.
Do your homework, but assume your plan is wrong somewhere. You’ll learn things in the first few months that you couldn’t have known before opening. Pay attention to what customers actually do, give your team room to tell you what isn’t working, and be willing to change your mind. Putting a lot of work into an idea doesn’t make it right.
Keep money in reserve. It’s tempting to spend everything getting the place exactly how you pictured it, but you still need enough left to operate while you find your feet. I wish I’d understood earlier how much a reserve matters to the quality of your decisions. It’s hard to think clearly when every problem is also an immediate cash problem.
Give hiring at least as much attention as the food, drinks, and design. You can be in love with every detail of a place, but the people working there are the ones customers will remember. Listen to them and give them what they need to do the job well.
And know your numbers from the beginning. A busy room feels good, but you need to understand what it costs to fill it. Look at sales, labor, food costs, and cash every week. The sooner you notice something is off, the more options you have to fix it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thrivesocialhospitality.com
