# Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants

> Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants is a family-owned Chicago hospitality group that creates, owns, manages and licenses a broad portfolio of dining concepts, from neighborhood counters to chef-driven fine dining. Its unusual advantage is organizational: restaurant entrepreneurs operate with meaningful autonomy and partnership economics while sharing the scale, operating expertise, loyalty infrastructure, technology and purchasing reach of a national group.

- **Founded:** 1971
- **Headquarters:** Chicago, United States
- **Founders:** Richard "Rich" Melman (Co-founder and Chairman), Jerry A. Orzoff (Co-founder and early business partner)
- **Team size:** 7,000+ employees nationwide, according to Lettuce Consulting; the supplied company record lists 7,000.
- **Products:** Restaurant portfolio, Restaurant management and licensing, LettuceEats and Frequent Diner Club, Gift cards, Private events and catering
- **Notable:** Built more than 280 concepts since 1971 and currently operates more than 50 brands, according to Lettuce Consulting., Serves more than 15 million guests annually across roughly 115 establishments., Founder Rich Melman won the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Restaurateur award in 2011 and Lifetime Achievement award in 2015.

## Products & services

- **Restaurant portfolio** — Ownership and operation of more than 50 active concepts spanning fast casual, neighborhood dining, nightlife and fine dining.
- **Restaurant management and licensing** — Management and licensing of concepts in markets around the United States, including hotel, airport and destination settings.
- **LettuceEats and Frequent Diner Club** — A cross-brand app and loyalty program for discovery, reservations, ordering, gift cards, points and reward redemption.
- **Gift cards** — Physical and digital stored-value cards redeemable at participating restaurants, including discounted bulk orders.
- **Private events and catering** — Venue matching, party planning, private dining and catering across the restaurant portfolio.
- **Lettuce Consulting** — Enterprise assessments, operations management, concept development and guest-experience consulting for hospitality businesses.
- **Festivals and live experiences** — Production of food-and-music events including Windy City Smokeout and Lone Star Smokeout.

## Achievements

- Built more than 280 concepts since 1971 and currently operates more than 50 brands, according to Lettuce Consulting.
- Serves more than 15 million guests annually across roughly 115 establishments.
- Founder Rich Melman won the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Restaurateur award in 2011 and Lifetime Achievement award in 2015.
- Windy City Smokeout won the Academy of Country Music Festival of the Year honor for 2021 and 2024.
- Developed and later sold Maggiano's Little Italy and Corner Bakery to Brinker International.
- Opened Michelin-recognized restaurants including Everest, Tru and the three-Michelin-starred L2O.
- The original R.J. Grunts remains open in Chicago more than five decades after its 1971 debut.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Windy City Smokeout introduced a Beyond the Pit culinary series presented by OpenTable.
- **2026-04** — Gus' Sip & Dip earned a place on the North America’s 50 Best Bars list.
- **2026-02** — Lettuce announced that Aba would enter Dallas with a late-2026 restaurant in the Design District.
- **2026-01** — Ema opened its first Texas location at Domain NORTHSIDE in Austin.
- **2025-11** — Sushi-san opened in Nashville, the brand's first location outside Chicago and Lettuce's second Nashville restaurant.
- **2025-10** — Crying Tiger opened in River North with chef-partner Thai Dang, focusing on Southeast Asian culinary traditions.
- **2025-09** — Aba opened in Nashville, marking Lettuce's entry into the market.
- **2025-01** — R.J. Melman became CEO while remaining president; Kevin Brown moved to executive chairman and increased his focus on Lettuce Consulting.

## Links

- Website: https://www.lettuce.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lettuce-entertain-you-restaurants
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/lettuceeats
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lettuceentertainyou/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lettuceentertainyou/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lettuceeats/

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Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-13