Innovative Restaurateurs: Guiding Lettuce Entertain You's Explosive Growth

If you’ve dined in restaurants across Chicago anytime in the last 48 years, it’s likely that one of them was owned by Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises. Name a category, and the restaurant group run by the Melman family has some kind of presence in it. There’s fast casual, with Wow Bao, featuring Asian buns and dumplings, and Big Bowl, offering noodles and curries. There’s also casual Spanish cuisine, with Café Ba-Ba-Reeba, which first introduced many Chicagoans to tapas. There’s even upscale dining, in the form of RPM Steak and Italian restaurants. [caption id="attachment_6199" align="alignleft" width="221"] R.J. Melman[/caption] And Lettuce is no longer simply a fixture in the Windy City. Its outlets have spread to nine states, and Wow Bao is now in airports like Reagan National in Washington, D.C. Lettuce president, R.J. Melman, part of the family’s second generation to run the company, said there’s no master growth plan in place to expand the empire. Instead, Melman explained, the privately held group is enjoying the rare luxury of doing pretty much what it wants. “Want to do fine dining? Let’s do it,” Melman said. “Want to do quick casual? Let’s do it.” That strategy has led to 60 different restaurant concepts, 120 restaurants and 7,500 employees, as well as a 2015 James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award for Melman’s father, Richard. The company currentl