It is far more difficult—and risky—to open a restaurant now than it has ever been, contends restaurateur Stephen Starr.
This from a man who owns one of the highest-grossing multi-concept restaurant companies in the country.
“It’s not a worthwhile investment anymore to open a fairly large restaurant,” he said in an interview with Restaurant Business. “Things are too expensive. Food is too expensive. Labor. The labor laws are strict and rising. The payback, in terms of what you can make as profit, is getting smaller.
“I can’t open restaurants any longer if I don’t get a significant contribution from the landlord,” he added.
Starr owns Starr Restaurant Group, which operates more than 40 restaurants in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, D.C., Miami and, soon, Nashville.
On the 2024 list of Top 100 Independent Restaurants, Starr Restaurants has more concepts than any other restaurant company.
Nine of the 100 top-performing restaurants nationally are owned and operated by Starr Restaurants, including Makoto in Miami, which generated $28.3 million, Le Diplomate in Washington, D.C. ($27.8 million), Pastis NYC ($25 million), Parc in Philadelphia ($24.8 million), Buddakan NYC ($21.8 million), Electric Lemon in New York City ($13.9 million), Barclay Prime in Philadelphia ($12.7 million), Le Coucou in New York ($12.5 million) and El Vez in Philadelphia ($11.8 million).
And 2025 is already proving to be an incredibly fruitful year in terms of opening potential future Top 100 contenders.
In March, for example, Starr opened the recreated 1906 restaurant The Occidental at the historic Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., just a block from the White House.
Designed by Ken Fulk (Carbone Miami, ZZ’s Club), the new-and-improved Occidental is retro swank, with a hint of political intrigue—a place where the banquettes are velvet, the martinis are very, very cold, and the room evokes “Casablanca” or “Boardwalk Empire.”
In reviving the 280-seat restaurant, the key word was “glamorous,” said Starr.
“We wanted to make it feel exciting, and that was something that Washington doesn’t really have,” said Starr. “A sort of sexy but powerful place to eat and meet. The space alone did it for me. And the fact that it was one block from the White House.”
The menu also evokes a certain era, with pheasant under glass, shrimp Louie, steak Diane and The Pork Chop That Saved the World. The latter is a dish reportedly ordered by an ABC News correspondent who dined with a KGB station chief in 1962 and devised a deal, later embraced by Nikita Khrushchev, that ultimately ended the Cuban Missile Crisis. The dish was so renowned, the booth where it was served had a plaque, which Starr preserved in the renovation.
The Pork Chop that Saved the World at The Occidental. | Photo courtesy of Birch Thomas
At a time of particularly divisive politics in Washington, opening a restaurant that highlights Capitol Hill statesmen and powerbrokers could easily become a minefield.
But Starr said he just ignored the politics of it all.
“We don’t take a side or a position,” he said. “Whoever comes in, comes in. We are near the epicenter of power, whoever may be there.”
Starr is not new to D.C.’s political power games. The group is already known for the brasserie Le Diplomate, as well as the American tavern St. Anselm, and the Mexico City-inspired El Presidente. And Starr also partnered with Los Angeles restaurateur and chef Nancy Silverton to bring her concept Osteria Mozza there, which opened in Georgetown in November.
Osteria Mozza in Georgetown. | Photo courtesy of Rey Lopez.
Next up is Nashville, a new market for Starr. This summer, the group will open Pastis, a concept that was first developed by Keith McNally (Balthazar, Minetta Tavern) in New York City that closed, and then was revived with Starr Restaurants in 2018. Starr Restaurants now also has Pastis locations in D.C., and Miami.
Starr said he also plans to bring St. Anselm to Nashville’s Pie Town neighborhood. And, perhaps, also a location of Osteria Mozza.
“I want to see how things go,” he said. “But we feel very positive about Nashville.”
And there’s more coming to New York City. Starr has acquired, and plans to revive, the iconic restaurants Babbo and Lupo, both famous as Mario Batali concepts with Joseph and Lidia Bastianich. Batali, of course, was forced to divest his share in 2019 following a sexual harassment scandal, and the Bastianich family later sold to Starr.
Now Starr is bringing back Babbo’s original chef, Mark Ladner, to revive that concept.
Babbo is scheduled to reopen in August, followed by Lupo later this year. “Both are iconic restaurants, but Babbo is especially beloved,” said Starr.
It may be a challenge for the restaurant to shake off the stink of the allegations against Batali, but to that Starr said, “There’s a new sheriff in town, me, and we’re bringing back the original chef, a guy who’s gotten Michelin stars and James Beard Awards and four stars at the New York Times when he was at Del Posto.”
Ladner was already working with Starr on yet another new concept coming this year to Starr’s hometown of Philadelphia, where the restaurant group is continuing to virtually surround the historic Rittenhouse Square in Center City.
There, Starr Restaurants already operates the 363-seat French bistro Parc, as well as the high-end steakhouse Barclay Prime. Slightly off the square the group also has The Love, with chef Aimee Olexy (also of Talula’s Garden); a British-style pub called The Dandelion; and an eclectic concept called The Continental.
Coming later this year to Rittenhouse Square is the new concept Borromini (developed with Ladner), a 200-seat trattoria that Starr describes as like Parc, but Italian.
And Starr recently signed a lease for yet another concept a few doors down from Parc on the square. He’s not sure yet what the group will develop there, and it won’t be this year.
Makoto generated more than $28 million in revenue in 2023. | Photo courtesy of Start Restaurants.
And, finally, this year Starr Restaurants also plans to open a steakhouse in Bal Harbour, Miami, in the same property as Makoto.
It’s actually the spot where Makoto first opened. Later, Makoto moved upstairs and another concept took the first floor. Now Starr has taken the first floor back and plans to create something new for the 6,000-square feet space.
Makoto does “crazy business,” Starr said. But Bal Harbour lacks a good steakhouse, so that’s the plan.
Starr hasn’t decided on a name yet—he likes the sound of “Slim’s,” which is a reference to a character in the movie “To Have and Have Not.”
“Regular steakhouse names are boring,” said Starr. “It’s prime this, steak this, boom, boom, boom.”
The concept will be more feminine and sexy, as opposed to the “super-masculine” steakhouses that are more traditional, he said.
Stephen Starr | Photo courtesy of Starr Restaurants.
Looking forward, Starr said he’s not done. He’d really love to open a restaurant in London at some point, he said.
“I want to go to London probably more than anywhere because I believe it completes our journey, and it’s the most international city, I think, in the world,” he said. “I really want to be there.”
But beyond that, Starr is not sure there are many more markets in which he’d be interested in opening restaurants. “At this stage, I just want to be in places I really like going to,” he said.
Opening restaurants—especially the 250-350-plus seaters that Starr Restaurants is known for— has just gotten too hard.
When Starr first started, a restaurant might cost $2 million to open, he said. Now that’s just the cost of the kitchen.
“I don’t think I could do what I did again if I started now,” said Starr. “I don’t think anyone can build $15 million or $18 million restaurants anymore, without money contributed by the landlord.”
Starr said he sometimes thinks about doing a much smaller 45-seat restaurant that wouldn’t cost so much to open.
“And I could make a couple hundred thousand dollars out of it, and that’s it,” he said. “But it would have to be something I would be really proud of and excited to do. Something a little different.”