What We Do

After setting and operating fourteen establishments in France and the United States, ChefStable understands what is required to create and sustain exceptional restaurants. We know when to step out of the way and how to empower chefs by managing administrative responsibilities that are essential, but commonly neglected among start-up restaurants.

Our job is to take care of anything and everything that chefs choose not to. From finding exactly the right space and negotiating a lease, to securing licenses and permits, to managing daily operations, the services we offer are extensive and will streamline systems and highlight what counts most in a remarkable restaurant: the quality and consistency of the food and service.

Based upon their needs, the responsibilities ChefStable assumes with each chef we partner with are individually tailored. In cases where chefs may lack the financial means to become owners of their restaurant, we can help there, too—ultimately, if a chef is talented enough, we will find a way to help build them a restaurant.

The association has successfully negotiated reduced, group rates with vendors for everything from credit card processing, to insurance premiums, to service contracts; independent restaurant owners are the beneficiaries. Restaurants who opt to join pay a fee based on their first year’s savings, and in return, remain a part of the association for as long as they choose, free of any additional fees. These savings are implemented with as little impact as possible on members’ day-to-day operations. Participating restaurants benefit from the ongoing volume-based discounts that ChefStable negotiates. Membership in the association places no further obligation on the restaurant.

If you are interested in finding out more about the restaurant association, please contact us at admin@chefstablegroup.com

The trajectory of ChefStable projects starts with selection. Amidst an explosion of culinary media and heightened consumer awareness, there is no shortage of potential projects or of aspiring restaurant owners. To develop the right projects, ChefStable applies a strict filtering process to a steady flow of culinary opportunities. Paramount among criteria include the chef’s talent, demonstrated either through prior ventures or in an apprenticeship role, the conceptual fit of the proposed project within the market, an analysis of real estate, ,capital requirements, profitability potential of the concept determined through detailed forecast modeling, high quality personal references among the partners and fit within the portfolio of ChefStable projects.

Building on this disciplined filtering process, ChefStable ensures a timely and efficient launch of each project:

• Lease Negotiations: Few commitments will be as long lasting and impactful as the restaurant lease. ChefStable manages lease negotiations to catch both the obvious and the subtle issues that will cap liabilities and provide opportunities for growth.
• Permitting: Navigating the world of permits can be a bureaucratic mess, or a clear formulaic path. ChefStable has mapped the permitting process into a streamlined system that minimizes delays, eliminates headaches, and reduces transaction costs.
• Construction Management: Having built out a dozen restaurants in the US and France, ChefStable brings deep experience in selecting and managing general contractors and subcontractors alike. Both the successes and failures of past ventures are leveraged to minimize the cost of buildouts, while maximizing the value that’s brought to each project.
• Equipment: CapEx can encumber a project financially from day one and inhibit smooth operations in the kitchen, if poorly selected. ChefStable brings both preferential procurement terms on equipment and the experience of having designed a score of kitchens to ensure that the right capacities, quality, design, and pricing of the equipment line are in place to facilitate the success of the restaurant’s engine.
• Environment: Customers will confront three elements in every restaurant: Environment, Service and Product, and although we build our businesses on an absolute commitment to product and service excellence, the restaurant environment remains the most important of the three. Front of house design, service functionality, music selection and levels, furniture, signage, lighting and other components of the environment have to be thoroughly thought out and managed to assure that the quality of food and beverage is supported and celebrated.
• Branding: ChefStable has partnered with makelike, a design collaborative based right here in Portland, Oregon. The illustrators, artists and designers at makelike work on our identity, branding and design. Each restaurant has it's own considered look and feel, which reflects the personality, atmosphere, values, cuisine and concept of each unique project.

With a solid foundation in place, ChefStable buttresses each project with a Suite of Services designed to support the restaurant with business management while the chef executes in the kitchen and on the table. The ChefStable Suite of Services facilitates preferential terms with vendors through the ChefStable Group’s scale and enables control of the business through data driven decisions.

• Pre-opening promotions: Prior to opening, ChefStable designs a launch plan which includes a mix of soft opening events customized to the project. These events serve to generate viral buzz, media interest, pre-opening revenue, and customer input.
• Pricing: A restaurant cannot leave money on the table by underpricing, nor sacrifice sales to overpricing, yet consumer input is typically absent from the pricing thought process. ChefStable employs a willingness to pay exercise with each project to price dishes based on feedback during the pre-opening period to ensure that revenue is maximized.
• Cost Comprehension: With pricing dialed in on consumer input, a restaurant must understand the profitability of each dish to drive decisions on procurement, menu, promotion. ChefStable leads chefs through a rigorous and detailed costing exercise that calculates inputs and labor of each dish. An understanding of profitability empowers management and chefs to make decisions that control the success of the project.
• Service Protocol: ChefStable’s server and management training focuses on execution through professionalism. Each restaurant demands a type of service that is appropriate to the concept itself, and defining what the service style is, from dress code to staffing levels to how we greet the guests, is a critical component of the coherency of the concept.
• Payroll Alignment: ChefStable synchronizes the labor cycles internal to the restaurant with Payroll services and handles all tax related commitments.
• POS: A slew of POS options can be overwhelming and misguiding. ChefStable has tested the good and the bad and now implements the right POS solution for each project.
• GM Mentoring: ChefStable provides each project with a GM Mentor for the first 90 days of operations. Our GM brings experience from across the ChefStable portfolio to troubleshoot, back up, and train during the most critical days of the venture.
Monitoring and feedback program: Periodically during operations, ChefStable conducts an anonymous customer feedback program that informs management candidly on all elements of the restaurant’s performance. This information is fed back into venture to recalibrate and direct management resources where most needed.
• Social marketing:
• Economies of scale: With five current projects and nine member restaurants, ChefStable has consolidated a volume of business that benefits each additional project with preferential procurement terms. Insurance rates are reduced by pooling policies. Credit card service rates are reduced to an industry low based on aggregate revenue of all 12 restaurants. Purchasing power for food and beverage inputs is pooled across the ChefStable portfolio, providing lower input costs to projects.
• Employment: Each additional restaurant affords the group with increased leverage in terms of top talent – specifically for management positions. We can provide management support and oversight that is unparalleled in the world of independent restaurants which allows us to attract ambitious talent.