Context-First Restaurant Creation

“I feel the entrepreneurial spark when some instinct tells me that a certain dining “context” doesn’t currently exist but should exist. I then ask myself a series of questions that force me to examine and challenge the status quo—and then change it. Each question begins with these five words: “Who ever wrote the rule…?” Who ever wrote the rule, for example, that you shouldn’t be able to enjoy a refined dining experience, with the finest ingredients, served on Limoges china, in a rustic tavern? Or that you can’t serve slow-smoked pulled pork with a glass of champagne or Chianti Classico, just off Park Avenue? Or that you can’t create a classic burger-and-shakes drive-in in New York City, where no one drives? Or that live jazz sounds good only in a late-night club and only if everyone around you is smoking?”

“Context is everything. What has guided me most as an entrepreneur is the confluence of passion and opportunity (and sometimes serendipity) that leads to the right context for the right idea at the right time in the right place and for the right value. I have never relied on or been interested in market analysis to create a new business model. I am my own test market. I am far more intuitive than analytical. If I sense an opportunity to reframe something I’m passionately interested in, I give it my absolute best shot.”