Marc Forgione at Peasant
Welcome to In the Weeds, a newsletter and publication that was recently described by another newsletter writer as “serving big insights and small stories about the independent restaurant industry.”
This edition is part one of a three-part series I’m calling “Under New Ownership.” Opening a new restaurant is hard, but what about taking over a restaurant that’s already operating? It’s complicated. I spoke to three restaurant owners about the process of buying and operating an established restaurant.
And there are a lot of opportunities to buy restaurants right now. The business broker We Sell Restaurants told me they are seeing a 15%-18% increase in listings, thanks to factors like demographic shifts. “A large number of restaurant owners are reaching retirement age without succession plans,” Robin Gagnon, the co-founder and CEO of We Sell Restaurants, said.
Also in this edition: A spot of good news on drink sales, how the quiet luxury trend is manifesting in fine dining, and the importance of the human touch in restaurants.
If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here.
During an event he hosted at Peasant in 2019, Marc Forgione delivered a speech expressing his appreciation for the restaurant and its longtime owner, Frank DeCarlo. Marc told attendees why he and many chefs keep coming back to the restaurant, which opened in New York City’s Nolita neighborhood in 1999 and is known for its wood-fired cooking and candlelit glow.
“I gave the welcome speech and professed my admiration and love for Frank and what he does,” Marc recalled during a phone conversation last week. “It was a stripped-down version of everything you wish you could do.” Peasant even influenced Marc’s eponymous restaurant in Tribeca.
Less than a year later, when Frank was ready to sell, he asked Marc if he was interested.
It was complicated, but he was.
“It was just, like, the weirdest thing. It’d be like a kid who likes the Yankees, somebody being like, ‘Do you want the Yankees?’” he recalled.