WWE Hall of Famer Brie Bella is scheduled to appear Friday at JP Brasserie and Sports Den in Las Vegas to mark the restaurant’s opening, an event tied to her Bonita Bonita wine brand, which she runs with her twin sister Nikki.
In a recent interview with OutKick Dropkick, Bella said building the wine business over the past decade required learning lessons she never got in a classroom.
“I feel like, literally through my different business ventures, it’s like I had to learn the hard way what people learned in business school,” she said. “I mean, hiring employees and expecting people to have the same passion and vision you have for your company, it’s like, no, they’re employees, they’re just showing up to work and they do a great job. And all of a sudden, it’s like, awesome, the wine costs this, but no one told me the shipping would be higher in summer than it is in the fall.”
She added that budgeting was especially difficult early on. “All these different things with budgeting and just the numbers was really hard on Nikki and I at first, but we’ve been in the wine industry almost 10 years now, so, I’ve learned, I’ve made a lot of financial mistakes, I’m not gonna lie, but I’m now in a really good place and understand everything,” Bella said.
She said she and Nikki regularly review sales data to figure out what is and isn’t working. “Nikki and I, the big thing we do is we’re always being like, OK, so the numbers, we didn’t hit them this month, like, what held us back? One, is it because we didn’t promote enough? Or two, is it because no one was filling whatever wine we put out,” she said. “We always like look and see like, how we’re doing things, and then we switch it.”
Bella said the company is planning changes for 2027 aimed at pushing growth further, and credited the brand’s customer base for keeping it stable. “We’re really lucky that we have a millennial buyer. I mean, we have Gen Zs too, but like the millennials are everything, and they like to drink, so it’s been good for us,” she said.
A Different Kind of Vegas Night
Bella described JP Brasserie and Sports Den as having a speakeasy-style atmosphere meant to feel warm and intimate rather than loud or crowded.
Asked what her ideal day in Las Vegas looks like now, Bella said it starts with a spa visit. “Well, always a spa day, because the spas in Las Vegas are unreal,” she said. “My favorite one’s actually at the Wynn Hotel, because they have a cold plunge in their spa. I mean, you can do the works there. Nikki and I love it because then we’ll get like the hydration IV.”
From there, she said, it’s dinner with atmosphere. “I love a really great dinner. Like, I want to feel like I’m somewhere else. I want all the details, I want the smells, I want the music. That’s why we always go to Delilah’s ’cause you get some music, live music, and the food, everything in there is fabulous. And I love a show, a good show,” she said.
Bella said she avoids nightclubs in favor of quieter lounges, and keeps an early bedtime even when traveling. “I don’t like clubs. That’s why Nikki and I love JP’s because we like a lounge. I can’t have chaos. I go to bed at 10 p.m. When I’m home, I go to bed at 9, but if I’m in Vegas, I still go to bed at like 11 p.m.,” she said. “So that’s how I enjoy Vegas. It’s different than my twenties. Now that girl would have told you something way different.”
Add comment