Smith is an Asbury Park-based hospitality group that grew out of a 1990s branding and design studio. Beginning in 2006 with Brickwall Tavern, its partners helped restart a stalled downtown, then built a collective of restaurants and bars - Porta, Pascal & Sabine, Homesick, and Lovesick - that pair scratch kitchens with art-filled rooms. Smith treats hospitality as an instrument of urban renewal, designing, branding, and operating each venue in-house.
Spain Salinas is the chief executive at Global Gourmet Catering, the San Francisco caterer that feeds Silicon Valley's biggest companies and largest events. He started as a sous chef in 2004 and worked his way up to running the company, which Apple, Google, Netflix and Salesforce hire when they need restaurant-quality food at stadium scale.