When Mark Wahlberg’s big brother Paul, a chef, first approached him about opening a burger concept, he thought it was a fantastic idea.
But when Paul floated his proposed name for the concept, Wahlburgers, Mark was less, uh, enthusiastic.
“Fuck no,” Wahlberg told a packed ballroom in at the JW Marriott Resort in Phoenix Monday during the first full day of the Restaurant Leadership Conference, presented by Restaurant Business parent company Informa. “Listen, I’ve worked way too hard … I’m trying to be credible as an actor. But then I realized, Oh, this is actually a wonderful opportunity.”
Wahlberg sat for a wide-ranging conversation with Informa EVP Chris Keating, discussing his rough early years as one of nine children (including some prison time in his teens), his music career (Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch in the ‘90s), ongoing acting career (including an Oscar nomination for “The Departed,” critical acclaim for “Boogie Nights” and supporting role with a pot-smoking teddy bear in “Ted”) and his work as an entrepreneur in businesses ranging from restaurants to tequila to fitness to the prayer app, Hallow.
“If you go out there and you put your head down and you do the work?” Wahlberg said. “There isn’t anything you can’t accomplish.”
Wahlberg grew up in a house where creativity was celebrated, including in the kitchen, where his parents were always “making something out of nothing,” he said. “What seemed like very little food turned into an enormous meal for everybody.”
Brother Paul became a chef and opened the Mediterranean and Italian restaurant Alma Nove in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 2010.
The first Wahlburgers location opened nearby in 2011. The restaurant concept became the subject of a reality TV show that ran on A&E from 2014 to 2019. (Just as Wahlberg hated the name for the burger chain at first, Paul originally hated the idea of the TV show, Wahlberg said. “They went from not liking the show or the idea of the show, to being mad when the show was going off the air,” he said.)
Celebrities often lend their names to products and businesses without much hands-on input, Wahlberg said. Not so for Wahlburgers.
“I’ve been very involved,” he said. “Paul and I, especially from the very beginning, have been the ones driving this business.”
Wahlburgers grew to 109 locations by the end of 2023, according to data from RB sister firm Technomic. In January, however, the 79 Wahlburgers locations inside Hy-Vee grocery stores in the Midwest shuttered.
When it came time for questions for the audience, someone asked Wahlberg about the obstacles he had encountered in the food and beverage industry and what he would do differently if he could do it all over again.
“Not do it,” he deadpanned. “People always say how tough the restaurant business is. There is no easy business … It’s a very, very tough business.”
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