Ryan Hibbert, CEO of Riot, met Valley native and country music star Dierks Bentley through a mutual friend at a benefit concert in 2011. The two started talking and Hibbert learned the chart-topper had thoughts of opening a restaurant/bar of his own. Hibbert walked Bentley over to the downtown Scottsdale El Hefe, Riot’s first venue that opened in 2010, which was near the concert venue.
With El Hefe, Hibbert crafted a venue that hit a precious intersection of restaurant-bar-nightlife. At the time, this business model didn’t exist, he said.
“It’s always exciting to be first in the market. Once people understood the concept, it absolutely exploded,” Hibbert said.