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The Restaurant Group That Refuses to Look Like a Chain
BOKA built a national hospitality business by making each restaurant feel singular. Behind the scenes, a shared operating machine lets chefs, designers and service teams do the visible work.
The 500-Bottle Bet Behind Barcelona Wine Bar
A 38-seat Connecticut experiment became a 24-location lesson in scaling atmosphere. Its operating trick is to standardize the wine expertise, then leave room for chefs, neighborhoods and a little nightly chaos.
The Restaurant Empire That Refuses to Look Like a Chain
For 55 years, Lettuce Entertain You has scaled restaurants without sanding off their personalities. Its real product is a partnership system that lets dozens of distinct ideas share one very large back office.
Altamarea Group
Ahmass Fakahany walked away from the top of Merrill Lynch to open a seafood restaurant across from Central Park. Two decades later, Altamarea Group runs more than 25 dining rooms on three continents.
Smith
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.