Creating and sustaining a successful restaurant requires a thorough and realistic approach to finance and real estate.
Realistic Financial Planning for Successful Restaurants
About
Putting the Pieces Together
Michael Staub has the right experience and approach to navigate food-related enterprises toward their goals. With an eye for detail and sure focus, he works closely with diverse clients to develop bankable business plans, appropriate and affordable capital structure, and realistic goals for operators and investors. He also negotiates leases that are assets not liabilities.
Staub helps talented chefs make smart choices so that they can do what they do best: create memorable food and experiences.
Services
Locate, Evaluate, Negotiate, Operate
From getting started through expanding and even selling the business, Michael provides support for every stage of a restaurant’s development. He is particularly well versed in the complicated process of preparing for opening day. A short list of his pro forma services include:
- Developing a business plan
- Advising on site selection
- Putting together the capital structure
- Negotiating the lease
- Securing participation of investors and lenders
- Team building
- Providing financial oversight of construction management
- Creating a pre-opening checklist
Once a restaurant is open, he provides ongoing operational oversight, benchmarking of results, and evaluation for restructure or expansion. After all, success comes with its own complications. And when it is time to sell, Staub can help create an exit plan that makes sense.
Experience
Both Sides of the Table
Michael Staub brings an usually multi-faceted perspective to his work. He is a former chef and restaurant/bakery owner who knows what it takes to run a kitchen. He also has an MBA (from Boston College), is a licensed real estate salesperson, and has built long-standing relationships with banks, developers, lawyers, accountants, and investors. He understands the intricacy of restaurant economics from “both sides of the table.”
At the root of it all is Staub’s passion for food. He began his career with a rigorous training in French cuisine, working for renowned Boston restaurant L’Espalier. From there, he was a partner in the Charcuterie
Restaurant in Wellesley and Panini Bakery in Somerville – and then later negotiated the profitable sale of both businesses. Staub remains a dedicated and inventive home cook.
Since starting his consulting practice in the 1990s, he has worked with dozens of high-profile restaurants and food service operations, helping them launch, relocate, and expand. He often collaborates with Real Food Consulting, which helps both start-up and existing restaurants with their vision, operations, and growth. Staub is also a founding member of the Restaurant Investment Group, which is dedicated to funding and supporting independent, chef-driven restaurants.
Clients
Michael Staub has provided business consulting to over 70 food-related enterprises in the Boston area and beyond: restaurants, gourmet shops, cafes, and bakeries that have been among the most visible, well reviewed, and successful in their field. A selected list includes:
80 Thoreau
Alcove
Area 4
Asta
Automatic
The Beehive
Bergamot
Briar Group
Bronwyn
Café du Pays
Cask n’ Flagon
Catalyst
Commonwealth
Craigie on Main
Dave’s Fresh Pasta
Eventide
EVOO
Fat Hen
Firefly’s
George Howell Coffee Co.
Il Casale, Belmont
Kirkland Tap & Trotter
La Brasa
L’Espalier
Life Alive
Lucca
Mamaleh’s
Mooncusser
Semolina
Shepard
Siena Farms
State Park
Stoked Pizza
Tatte Bakeries
The Wellington
Contact
