While some owners might have chalked it up to an off night, Loco’s general manager, Mike Shaw, took it to heart. From there on out, he wanted to ensure the restaurant focused on the food just as much as the fun. So the 1.5-star review became their fuel — a rallying cry internally to do better. Loco painted the stars on the side of the restaurant and a few ride or die team members even got the 1.5 stars tattooed on their body.

For their five-year anniversary, Loco called upon GYK Antler to help celebrate their humble beginnings and the progress they’ve made since. And we tapped into our network of York Creative Collective venture companies to get this party started RIGHT. We enlisted the help of Kompany39’s country singer Rob Bellamy to perform a specially written song called — what else — “1.5 Star” that would become the restaurant’s new official closing tune. We created custom 1.5-star kicks from YCC footwear brand, YORK Athletics, and our in-house production team, Big Brick, shot a “mockumentary” of the crazy anniversary celebration with Loco’s biggest fans. Drawing from the power of our Collective, our team’s creative entrepreneurialism took Loco’s party from a 1.5 to a five-star event.