Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Hogan.
Hi Thomas, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Mexico City, so from early on I was wired for culture, food, and the idea that a meal or a place can be a whole experience in itself. I moved to San Antonio in 2007 to study at UTSA, where I ended up completing two majors, International Business and Marketing and where I also met Gerardo De Anda, who’s been my best friend since.
While in school, I went in a completely different direction and opened an exotic car dealership. I ran that for about eight years. It was a great business, but when I sold it, I knew I wanted something bigger, something built around experiences rather than transactions. Gerardo and I had traveled extensively together over the years, and every trip, whether it was Spain, Mexico, the Mediterranean, coastal Europe, we’d come back with the same thought: why can’t San Antonio have something like this?
I joined Gerardo by opening the second Toro location and Cellar Mixology together, and from there we formalized everything by founding Gusto Group. I’ve been COO since day one. Today we operate six concepts across eight locations in the city, each one rooted in a real place, a real culture, a real sensory memory we wanted to share.
SeaSpice came out of a trip I took to the French Riviera with my wife. I’d been before, but this time something clicked differently, the way the light hits the water at sunset, the effortlessness of the dining, the way the whole atmosphere transitions from refined and relaxed to charged and alive as the night sets in. I remember thinking: San Antonio doesn’t have this. Not even close. That feeling became the brief. Everything at SeaSpice the cold bar, the rooftop, the music programming, the tableside service; is trying to recreate what I felt sitting on that coast, without anyone needing to buy a plane ticket.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Far from smooth. We founded Gusto Group right as COVID was hitting, and instead of pulling back, we leaned in — we opened two restaurants during the pandemic. That’s either confidence or stubbornness, probably both.
The hardest part wasn’t the logistics or the restrictions. It was the human side. A lot of operators made the difficult decision to let staff go, and I understand why — the economics were brutal. We made a different call. We kept every single one of our employees through the entire crisis. Not because it was the easy path, but because these are people who had built something with us, and we weren’t going to walk away from that when things got hard. On top of that, we ended up donating around ten tons of food to people in our community who needed it. That period really clarified what Gusto Group stands for.
Beyond COVID, the hospitality industry tests you constantly. Margins are thin, the economy creates pressure, and the bar for what guests expect keeps rising. But honestly, that tension is what keeps you sharp. Every concept we’ve built, including SeaSpice, has come out of asking how we can do something better and more meaningful than what already exists — not in spite of the difficulty, but because of it.
As you know, we’re big fans of Gusto Group / Sea Spice. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Gusto Group is a San Antonio-based hospitality group built on a simple but difficult idea: that a restaurant or bar should feel like a genuine escape, not just a place to eat and drink. Every concept we’ve created traces back to a real trip, a real meal, a real moment that one of us experienced somewhere in the world and couldn’t stop thinking about. Toro Kitchen + Bar came from Spain. Cuishe came from a deep love of authentic Mexican culture and agave. That’s how all of it works, we travel, something moves us, and we ask ourselves whether San Antonio deserves to have that feeling too.
Today we operate six concepts across eight locations in the city, each one with its own distinct identity, its own music, its own design language, its own food and drink philosophy. What holds them together isn’t a formula. It’s a shared commitment to quality and to the people in the room, both our guests and our team.
That last part matters a lot to us. During COVID, when the industry was in freefall, we didn’t lay off a single employee. We also donated roughly ten tons of food to people in our community who needed it. That wasn’t a marketing decision — it was just who we are. We believe a business that only takes from a community isn’t doing its job.
What sets us apart is that we don’t build concepts from trend reports. We build them from experience. There’s a reason each of our venues feels like it belongs to its own world, because it does.
SeaSpice came out of a trip my wife and I took to the French Riviera the kind of experience where everything just works: the light, the food, the energy of a place that moves effortlessly from a long, relaxed lunch to a charged, alive evening without ever losing its elegance. I came back thinking San Antonio had nothing like it. So we built it.
SeaSpice is a rooftop dining and nightlife destination on Broadway near the Pearl, at the top of the Jefferson Building. By day, it’s a refined coastal restaurant — fresh seafood, a raw bar, a caviar program, tableside martini and champagne cart service, and food inspired by the Mediterranean coast. As the sun goes down, the energy shifts, music evolves, the rooftop comes alive, and it will become one of the most compelling nightlife experiences in the city.
The brand promise is simple: No Passport Required. We want guests to walk in and feel transported to somewhere warmer, more sophisticated, more alive than their Tuesday. Every detail, from the way the cold bar is set in the morning to the music we program at sunset, is built around that feeling.
What makes SeaSpice different from anything else in San Antonio isn’t just the concept, it’s the execution. Yacht-style service, a genuine caviar program, a curated music program that actually reflects how venues on the French Riviera sound — not generic lounge music — and a rooftop that’s genuinely beautiful. We didn’t cut corners because this is the kind of place you only have one chance to get right.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think anyone who tells you they don’t take risks in this business is either lying or not paying attention. The question isn’t whether you take risks, it’s whether you take them with your eyes open.
The first big one was personal. I had a successful exotic car dealership for eight years. It was a good business, it was working, and I walked away from it to start over in an industry I’d never operated in professionally. Most people thought that was a strange move. But I’d watched what Gerardo and I kept talking about every time we traveled, these experiences we couldn’t stop thinking about, these places we wanted San Antonio to have and I realized at some point that those conversations were either going to become something real or they weren’t. Staying comfortable wasn’t going to make them real.
SeaSpice is a big bet as well. We’re bringing a concept to San Antonio that has never existed here at this level, a French Riviera rooftop with a genuine caviar program, yacht-style service, and a nightlife experience that transitions the way a real Riviera evening does. A lot of people ask if San Antonio is ready for this. My answer is that San Antonio has always been ready, it just hasn’t been given the option. That’s a conviction-based risk, not a data-based one.
That’s really how I think about it. I’m not a reckless person, I have a business background, I ran a company for eight years, I understand margins and operations. But at a certain point, analysis only takes you so far. The rest is whether you genuinely believe in what you’re building. Every risk I’ve taken has come from a place of real conviction, things I’ve seen, experienced, and felt strongly enough about to bet on. That’s different from gambling. Gambling is random. This has never felt random.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.seaspicerooftop.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seaspicerooftopclub
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1CeUz9URJF/?mibextid=wwXIfr
