Chip Wade, a longtime restaurant industry veteran and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), was named the Gold Plate Award winner on Saturday by IFMA, the Food Away from Home Association.
Wade was among nine winners of the Silver Plate Awards who were honored at a ceremony on Saturday, the first day of the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago. The awards honor leaders from throughout the foodservice sector, including restaurants, convenience stores, grocers and on-site providers like hotels and education facilities.
“Chip is a culture man first,” former Darden Restaurants CEO Clarence Otis, Wade’s mentor, said of Wade during the ceremony. “People who follow him because he cares about everyone on the team, and the team’s success is what matters most to Chip.”
Wade’s career has spanned three decades. He worked with TGI Fridays in the 1990s and then spent years with several full-service brands, including Smokey Bones, Legal Sea Foods and Red Lobster.
He was named president of USHG in 1999 and was promoted to CEO in 2022. At the time, Danny Meyer, the founder of Union Square, called Wade “an exemplary operational leader, wholly dedicated to our team members and committed to their professional and personal growth.”
In his acceptance speech, Wade credited Union Square’s 3,000-plus employees “who work tirelessly every day at Union square Hospitality Group.”
Wade was selected over a prestigious group of Silver Plate Award winners, including:
Jerry Morgan, CEO of Texas Roadhouse
Scott Murphy, chief brand officer of Inspire Brands and brand president of Dunkin’
Jeff Palmer, executive director, campus dining and retail at the University of California San Diego
Danielle Bock, director of nutrition services at Greeley-Evans school district in Colorado
Leisa Bryant, executive director at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Brad Haga, SVP prepared food and dispensed beverages at Casey’s
Sally Minier, head of workplace strategies at Jane Street
Sean Gamble, CEO of Cinemark
Dick Marriott, chairman with Host Hotels and Resorts, was the recipient of the 2026 Legends Award for his contributions to the restaurant and hospitality community by the National Restaurant Association.
Marriott is a former chairman of the association and is the driving force behind the Richard E. Marriott Gold Invitational, a fundraising event for the trade group’s Restaurant Advocacy Fund. He started out working in his parents’ Hot Shoppes restaurants a 16-year-old.
He became a manager. What would become known as Marriott Corporation, a massive hospitality business that ran numerous restaurant chains over the years including Big Boy, Roy Rogers, Howard Johnson’s, Rustler and others, usually through acquisitions.
“I’m often asked, how did I decide to get into the restaurant business,” Marriott said. “My answer is, I never did decide. I was born in it. It was the best decision I never made.”
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