Upon moving to Chicago, Dewjee and his wife quickly discovered that the food experience they grew up with was not readily available in the city. With Bombay Wraps, they hoped to “break the misconception that Indian food or ethnic food has to be a hole in the wall.” He and his wife wanted to craft a place that offered authentic ingredients and flavor combinations in an environment that was modern, clean, and accessible to people of any background.

Charles Bililies, the CEO and founder of Souvla, shares his vision for the fast-fine dining restaurant on this episode of Emerging Brands. Based in San Francisco with four current locations, Souvla—a reference to the Greek word meaning “spit” or “skewer”—offers a modern version of traditional Greek gyro and souvlaki sandwiches with rotisserie roasted and naturally-raised meats, and features the only all-Greek beverage menu available in any United States restaurant. Frozen Greek yogurt is...

On this episode of Emerging Brands, Joe DeLoss—the founder of fast casual restaurant chain Hot Chicken Takeover—discusses bringing Nashville-style fried chicken to Columbus, Ohio. Inspired by Nashville restaurant favorites Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack and Monell’s, Joe DeLoss decided to create his own hot chicken restaurant chain. Monell’s had family-style southern meals every day of the week,” says DeLoss. “You would join a table with ten other people, and I fell in love with the communal...

An emerging restaurant brand has to be so much more than just an innovative food concept. Nowadays, the market is highly saturated, especially in the QSR and fast casual segments. But emerging brand concepts are outperforming the rest. They are not only doing this by resonating with customers but are also redefining the restaurant business. The California-based Starbird Chicken hasn't been just wingin' it. "Starbird Chicken is really different from other chicken concepts in that we have...

Samantha Stephens, chef and founder of OatMeals shares with Foodable the origins of her single-ingredient fast casual concept and how she built it from the ground up.

Tom Holt, Founder and CEO of Urbane Cafe, shares insightful information about focusing on the consumer and their demands to sustain growth.

Seasoned food industry leader, Joe Guith, President of McAlister’s Deli®, shares his ideas about the future outlook of the brand.

Top executives from emerging brand Tupelo Honey talk on how building an engaging lifestyle brand can help you build a rockstar brand through people.

Hunter Pond of East Hampton Sandwich Co. shares the early challenges that came with opening a restaurant brand with zero experience under his belt at the young age of 25.

Nicole Marquis, Founder and CEO of HipCityVeg, tells us how she developed her restaurant to show people that plant-based cuisine can be delicious. Her mission started when her desire to help her father fix his high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes became a debate about genetics versus diet. Nicole knew that she needed to show, not tell, her father that he could eat well and not give anything up that he loves about food, to instill a lifestyle change.

In 2010, Steve Schulze was working to become a healthier version of himself, just like everyone else. But after learning that the “healthy” juices he was drinking were actually made with additives and fillers, he knew society needed a better option for all the consumers trying to improve their lifestyles. So he began his mission with Nekter to become the “people’s juice;” affordable, accessible, and truly healthy. Now with 100 locations across the U.S., Nekter provides juices, smoothies and...

Sam Polk was a hedge fund manager before he had, what he calls, a “crisis of conscience.” He was awakened by a number of structural inequalities he saw in our society, especially those in our food system. So he set out to confront those inequalities, first with his nutrition program Groceryships, and now with Everytable. Everytable is first and foremost a business just like Tender Greens or McDonalds. But Polk’s mission is a little loftier. Seeing that access to healthy food is scarce in...

The Little Beet emerged out of a partnership between Andy Stern and John Rigos’ company Aurify Brands (formerly Five Points Partners) and Andy Duddleston. After a trip to LA, the team was inspired by the restaurant concept Lemonade and wanted to bring a sort of vegetable-focused healthy concept to New York. At the time, the team would look for healthy concepts in the city but could only find salad shops and wanted to provide another option in their market. Offering 11 different vegetable...

By the time he was 24, Scott Davis was working as a manager at Au Bon Pain with soon to be CEO of Panera, Ron Shaik. He helped evolve Au Bon Pain into Panera Bread and there spent 25 years as the chief concept officer. Through his years of experience with one of America’s most widely known brands, he has learned many lessons which he carried over into his position as the president of Corelife Eatery. Some of the most important lessons being that, as a company, you must always be ready for a...

CEO of Shake Shack, Randy Garutti, has 18 years of experience with Union Square Hospitality under his belt. He’s learned directly from one of the greatest minds in our industry, Danny Meyer, and it shows in Garutti’s leadership style. As the chief executive of Foodable’s highest-ranked emerging brand, Garutti knows a thing or two about creating a successful, loved, and lasting brand. There are few key factors Garutti lives by. Firstly, Garutti believes success begins with those in...