I knew a guy back in the early 2000s who made a business of starting up restaurants across the US, getting them going, then selling them for a healthy profit. This was before I joined the Navy, I was in my early 20s, he was in his early 40s, and we could pass as brothers, dude was fit and extremely young looking. Yes, he did use that to his advantage. So far as I'm aware he dated quite a few of his eventual employees. Oh well. Went to a few of his restaurants in FL when I lived there. Not a single fat employee. The service and the food were always excellent. It almost sounds too good to be true, except, well, I've seen it firsthand. I wish more establishments would use the playbook you two obviously shared.