Lane Cardwell

Restaurant Whisperer

There was a movie called The Horse Whisperer which starred Robert Redford. His character had a remarkable gift for understanding the motives, needs and desire of horses. There is a TV show called Dog Whisperer which stars Cesar Milan. He is a real life person who works in rehabilitating and restoring balance to dogs with problems. In our industry there are Restaurant Whisperers, often as rare as their horse and dog counterparts. They know what the customer, the staff, the physical facility and the financial aspects require. And they know how to achieve it in a seamless fashion. 

Restaurant Whisperers can exist at all levels in our industry. They can be the exceptional general manager or owner/operator that always just seem to "get it". They can be the leader of a restaurant organization that possess a second sight when it comes to understanding what makes a successful restaurant chain tick. Or they can be anywhere in between. The Whisperer knows when it is time to change, before the need for the change is apparent. They pull, guide, instruct, coach, develop and grow everyone around them without leaving fingerprints.

I have had the pleasure of working with several of these talented individuals throughout my career. There is one who deserves to be singled out more than any other for their mastery of the restaurant industry. I have never worked for this person, but I have had the privilege of working with him for a few years while he was an integral part of helping the leaders at Brinker and Chili's rediscover their culinary culture. 

Rich Melman is the preeminent Restaurant Whisperer.

Rich is the Founder and Chairman of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE), a Chicago-based restaurant organization that owns over 75 restaurants in six states, with 35 different concepts. Since the opening of the first restaurant in 1971, Rich's organization LEYE has always been known for the creation and operation of high quality, authentic, enjoyable restaurant concepts. They run the gamut from quick-service (Wow Bao), to several fine dining concepts, and everything in between. Most restaurateurs, at some point in their career, begin their masters degree in restauranting with a tour of Lettuce's concepts in the Chicago market. With 29 different concepts in Chicago alone, it can easily take a few days. Truly understanding what you have seen can take a lifetime.

Rich will be the first tell you that the key to the success of LEYE is one of partnership. Many people will say that they believe in partnership, as long as they get the controlling vote. The only way that an organization as diverse in concepts and geography as his can continue to thrive for so long is to develop partners that are entrusted with a true voice in the business. Lettuce has 55 partners who own and operate the restaurants, or nurture the corporate programs. Rich today still maintains the name of his co-founder of the organization, Jerry Orzoff, on the list of partners, even though he has been deceased since 1981. With Rich, partnership is forever.

If you have dined in any or many of the restaurants under Rich's leadership, you don't need for me to try and tell you what a Restaurant Whisperer does. You experience it with every meal. As famous as Rich and his partners are for creativity and operational excellence, they are a lot less known as a force in the restaurant consulting field. Lettuce Consulting Group is available to assess the effectiveness of your culture, systems and procedures, service and hospitality, culinary efforts, and the training and development of your management and staff. At times Rich seems more proud of his organization's back of the house and systems prowess than their ability to create new concepts.

I have worked with many leaders in our industry. Norman Brinker, Phil Romano, Ron McDougall, and many others through the years. Each was great in their own way. However, for an all-around mastery of all elements of our industry, from creation, to wowing the quest, to making money, my Restaurant Whisperer title would have to go to Rich Melman. Our industry is in a better place because of his talents and those of his talented partners.

Posted by Lane Cardwell on December 22, 2008 | Comments (4)