Hey everyone, Kevin Denny, Grand Island Police Chief here for the season finale of the business feed.

And we're at first and walnut with Wave Pizza.

It's not just a pizza, it's a Wave Pizza.

So let's go inside and talk to Brent.

So Brent, thank you very much.

Awesome for being on the business beat with us.

And tell us a little bit about yourself.

Brent Lindner.

Both mom and dad are from Nebraska.

My sister and I were born in Milwaukee.

Moved here in 72, went to Trinity Lutheran Bar Junior High, Grand Island Senior High, and then bounced out to the left coast.

Spent some time in Southern California, the Laguna Beach, Orange County area area, and then uh uh spent some time down in Australia.

Always been in food and booze.

Really like it.

I'm coming up on 39 years in the business.

Right.

So that and I've been working on a book, and it originally was gonna be called like 15 years behind bars.

25 years behind bars.

But I'm a little behind, so it's just gonna be called Life Behind Bars.

It's a good play on words, especially when you're talking to the police chief, right?

Yes.

The the crazy business that that we're in.

But I I still really love it, even though these last years have been challenging.

Uh but yeah, moved back here and would be 92 and started working and uh got more involved in the the bars and restaurants, ended up buying one and what brought you back to Grand Island?

Uh I actually came back to finish school at Hastings College.

I was uh back visiting my mother and father.

Uh uh there's a gal I went to high school with who worked at Hastings College, and I said I'd love to take you to lunch or something if I could before I head back to California.

She goes, Well, you can take me to lunch, but we gotta take a campus tour because I'm working that day.

And and she goes, I'll buy lunch, the Hastings College by that.

And I just something resonated.

I was like, this is a great school, and I need to finish up because I was on like spattering of schools all across the country, across the world.

Uh nine years in college, which you know, some would call you a doctor, but you're trying to trying to weave all the different classes together into something that was a four-year degree, I guess.

Yeah, I was at like Long Beach State, Irvine, Saddleback Community College, University of New South Wales, and in Sydney, Australia, making classes here with a Mishmosh.

But yeah, it resonated, so I actually then moved back here to finish school and met my wife Michelle, and and it was done done from there.

So I've I found a a good woman and that puts up with your degree.

Yes, and I did get my degree from HC's College Fund.

Yeah.

So and then just it continued in food and beverage and uh bought our for a first bar, the glass bar in 96, then worked with Jeff Richardson.

We started balls in 97, then sold out four years later to him, and then started Wave Pizza Company and Jay Alfred Proof Rox, and then God 10, 10 years ago.

For Sin City.

So uh we're inside Wave right now.

Yes.

And so tell me about starting Wave Pizza and how that's been just as this one business because you're such an entrepreneur.

You're such a mover and shaker here in Grand Island.

But but just tell me about Wave and Sin City too, because I've I've I've been to Sin City a bunch of times, love the hamburgers over there.

Um talk yeah, but talk about talk about Wave and and what's unique about Wave Pizza here in Grand Island.

Well Wave Pizza was kind of started.

I looked at the landscape of Grand Island and we didn't really have like a good local pizza joint.

You know, it was chains, and I was like, well, I want to do a good fresh pizza, make our own dough, we make our own sauces, cut cheeses and things like that.

And then just being on the beach, my mom and dad were nice as a kid.

They took us to Hawaii on business trips and stuff, took us out to California.

So I've always had a love of the ocean and the water.

So when I lived out there in in Southern California and then in Australia, just was very involved in the water.

The people I work for in Australia uh started Quicksilver Surf Ware, so I was heavily involved with the the surfing part of it.

And I was like, you know what?

I need something that reminds me that there's a beach out there, even though I'm not on it.

And I'm about as far as away from the beach as you can be.

Yeah.

So it was kind of an ode to just the the beach beach lifestyle.

I was like, I want a little broken down surf shack in Grand Island and like all the pizzas and sandwiches are named after different places I've served and people I've I've met that are surfers and stuff, and uh just uh really like that, and one of the best compliments I think we get here is when people come in and sometimes they're sitting in the garden or whatever here and they're like, God, we don't even feel like we're in Grand Island.