From The Ground Up: 20 Restaurants With The Most Inspiring Success Stories
Let These Stories Be Your Motivation
Opening a successful restaurant, whether a high-end concept or a fast-food chain, takes hard work, passion, and determination. Restauranteurs experience stress, financial hardship, and personal struggle like no other profession. Many don't make it past the initial uphill battle, but if they find success, the reward is worth the struggle. From McDonald's to Michelin-starred establishments, here are 20 restaurants with the most inspiring success stories.
1. Soup Kitchen International
Soup Kitchen International was a popular soup restaurant in New York City, immortalized in an episode of Seinfeld. It was opened by an Iranian refugee who reinvented his life. His soup restaurant grew into a successful chain called The Original Soupman which closed in 2006.
2. Nobu
Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa's story is one of perseverance and determination. He opened the Peruvian-Japanese fusion restaurant Nobu, now a global empire of 29 restaurants with Robert De Niro's celebrity backing, after multiple failed restaurant attempts and hovering on the verge of bankruptcy.
3. McDonald's
It may be a multi-billion dollar global empire and the world's biggest fast food chain now, but let's not forget its humble roots. McDonald's started in 1948 as a single burger stand in California and revolutionized food production with its assembly-line style kitchen.
4. Red Rooster Harlem
Head chef of Rooster Harlem, Marcus Samuelsson became a celebrity chef after a tumultuous childhood. He was orphaned in Ethiopia before being adopted by a Swedish couple and eventually making his way to Harlem. His restaurant helped revitalize the neighborhood.
5. Hope Street Cafe
Australia's Hope Street Cafe is as much a social justice project as it is a restaurant. It was established by Micah Projects, a community organization whose mission is tackling homelessness, domestic violence, and inequality. The restaurant redirects food waste, offers free meals to those in need, and paid traineeship programs to people facing employment challenges.
6. Saison
Chef Joshua Skenes opened Saison in 2009 as a pop-up with no formal kitchen. He made immense financial and personal sacrifices to make his vision come to life but eventually grew Saison into a 3-Michelin star restaurant. The innovative restaurant was the first fine dining establishment to use open-hearth cooking.
7. Le Fantastique
Chef Robbie Wilson overcame depression and career burnout to open Le Fantastique, a raw fish and wine concept inspired by Japanese listening bars. It was nominated for a James Beard Award and named one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America in 2023.
8. Baba's Place
What started as the owner's attempt to capture the "wog" experience in a converted warehouse grew into Sydney, Australia's most trailblazing restaurant. By tapping into their Lebanese and Macedonian roots, the owner wanted to capture the immigrant experience in food and resonated with countless people.
9. Hartwood
A couple moved to the jungle of Tulum to open the off-grid restaurant that became a destination dining spot. The zero carbon footprint restaurant sources everything hyper-locally, uses sustainable fishing practices, cooks over an open fire, and is dedicated to regenerating the mangrove environment.
10. Hankies Cafe
Chef Anirudh Arora has been bringing Indian flavors to London's dining scene with his restaurant Hankies Cafe. Dedicated to unearthing ancient Indian flavors and recipes, he was also the first to bring tapas-style Indian food to Soho.
11. Habesha Ethiopian Restaurant
Toronto's Habesha Restaurant is run by a family of Ethiopian refugees. In addition to serving up delicious traditional foods, it serves as a cultural center and a second home to the city's Ethiopian community.
12. Zahav
Chef Michael Solomonov opened Zahav, a restaurant focused on Israeli and Jewish cuisine after his brother, an Israeli soldier, was killed on Yom Kippur during a military campaign in Lebanon. His cookbook Zahav: A World of Israeli Cuisine was nominated for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Book Award.
13. Pho Bac
Pho Bac in Seattle, Washington was opened by Vietnamese refugees. It was originally called Cat’s Submarine with a focus on American cold cut sandwiches but soon the restaurant's patrons emphasized their cravings for nostalgic Vietnamese dishes and they started serving pho as a weekend special. It became so popular that the sandwiches became obsolete.
14. Pink’s Hot Dogs
What started as a humble hot dog stand that the family opened with just $50 grew into one of Hollywood's most important institutions, selling thousands of dogs a day. It's flocked to by tourists and locals alike who are drawn in by the funky and inventive flavors.
15. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
Divorced mother of two and then lab technician Ruth Fertel did something unheard of in 1965: she convinced a bank to give her a loan to buy a business. Despite everyone's doubts, Fertel learned everything about working in a steakhouse, including how to butcher meat, and she grew it into a successful franchise.
16. Café Nicholson
Before it closed in 1999, Café Nicholson was a meeting place for artists and literary types in NYC from Tennessee Williams to Jean Renoir. It was opened by the son of Romanian immigrants who pivoted from his dream of becoming a fashion designer after experiencing burnout. It was co-owned with Chef Edna Lewis, the granddaughter of freed slaves.
Orlando Fernandez on Wikimedia
17. The Halal Guys
Opened by three Egyptian immigrants to New York City, The Halal Guys' story is the perfect example of the American dream. They started out selling traditional Halal food to Muslim cabbies in the 90s and have grown into the largest Halal franchise in the world.
18. Rasa
Rasa was founded by Das Sreedharan in 1994 who originally moved to London to study accounting but found his passion for sharing food from his home, Kerala, instead. It's now one of the best-known vegetarian concepts in London, with multiple successful locations serving up healthy, fresh meals.
19. Jollibee
Jollibee is The Phillipine's largest fast-food chain. Dr. Tony Tan Caktiong took his passion for food to open the original stand in 1975 with the help of his wife and in-laws. In 2015 it was one of only two Filipino companies that made it onto Forbes Asia’s Fab 50 list.
20. Alinea
Just two years after opening Alinea, innovative Chef Grant Achatz was diagnosed with stage four tongue cancer. He underwent treatment that took away his ability to taste and offered slim chances of survival. He trained his staff to taste for him and continued working through this difficult time to build Alinea into one of the world's best restaurants.
KEEP ON READING
The Most Popular Signature Dishes Around the World
