Washington, D.C.-based group KNEAD Hospitality + Design has become one of the most significant restaurant players in the nation’s capital since it was founded in 2015, growing to 20 locations across 10 concepts in the last eight years.
Anchored by concepts like Succotash (launched in partnership with James Beard Award winning chef Edward Lee) and Mi Vida (a collaboration with renowned chef and Mexico City native Roberto Santibañez), KNEAD has thrived as a multi-brand portfolio offering a distinct experience and aesthetic within each of its concepts.
Jason Berry, KNEAD’s cofounder and co-owner alongside his husband Michael Reginbogin, joined the latest episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches to talk about how the pair pay close attention to details to build those unique concepts. That includes in the aesthetic as well as in the way they’ve crafted their team benefits package, which features a Four Days at Work program that strives to limit how much certain employees have to work.
In this conversation you’ll learn more about why:
- Developing a new concept is much harder than replicating an existing one, but might be the right decision based on your available space
- The intersection of dining and eating is a tough but rewarding category
- Concept diversification provides a more stable business model
- Customers eat with their eyes, and the visual details besides the food matter
- It’s hard to have economies of scale when you’re spread out geographically
- Paying for extra team benefits up front has a big payout later on
Contact Sam Oches at [email protected].
