Eureka! Restaurant Group has reorganized its management, promoting Eric Berman from chief restaurant operations officer to the newly created position of president while CEO Justin Nedelman has left the company and resigned from the casual-dining chain’s board, effective Jan. 7, the company based in Hawthorn, Calif., said Friday.
The 24-unit chain offered no further explanation for Nedelman’s departure except to say that, as a co-founder of the restaurant, which is known for its creative scratch cooking and sophisticated bar operations, he “was instrumental in building the company into what it is today.”
Eduardo Gomez Senderos, previously the company’s chairman of the board, is taking on the role of CEO, a spokesperson said.
Berman, before his promotion, effective Jan. 7, had been Eureka!’s chief restaurant operations officer for the past four years. Before that he spent nine years as a senior regional vice president for BJ’s Restaurants, where he oversaw 45 restaurants.
He’s a veteran of The Cheesecake Factory, where he worked for 15 years when that chain grew from 5 locations to 100.
“Eric’s passion and leadership are contagious; his ability to motivate, inspire and maximize the performance of every restaurant is best in class, that’s the ‘lead by example’ behavior that challenges our team members to mirror his success,” Eureka!’s co-founder and chief development officer Paul Frederick said in a press release announcing Berman’s appointment and Nedelman’s departure. “I look forward to working with him in his new role as Eureka!’s president and the positive impact we know he will continue to deliver at Eureka!”
Eureka! owns and operates restaurants in California, Idaho, Nevada, Texas and Washington.
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