Unlock the secrets to 7-figure online businesses Special offer: Join Starter Story

7 Restaurant Success Stories [2023]

7 Restaurant Success Stories [2023]
Start A Restaurant

If you love cooking and are passionate about entrepreneurship, starting a restaurant can be a fun and lucrative business.

To get started, choose a great location, and hire an excellent support team. You will need a chef to inspect the food and line cooks, waiters, and waitresses to serve the customers. No matter the restaurant type, you need great culinary and business skills to make your dream come true.

If you plan to open a restaurant , gain insight from consumer preferences and focus on serving modern consumers what they need.

Here are some real life success stories of starting a restaurant:

1. One Life Meals ($1.56M/year)

Andrei Calinescu (from Toronto, Ontario, Canada) started One Life Meals over 10 years ago.

Revenue
$130K / month
Team
1 founders / 29 employees
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Case Study

Hi, I’m Andrei Calinescu and I am the Founder and CEO of One Life Meals.

starting-a-1-5m-healthy-meals-delivery-business

2. Rosa's Thai Cafe ($24M/year)

Alex Moore (from London, England, United Kingdom) started Rosa's Thai Cafe almost 17 years ago.

Revenue
$2M / month
Team
2 founders / 373 employees
Location
London, England, United Kingdom

Case Study

My name is Alexander Moore and I’m the co-founder and Director of Rosa’s Thai Cafe. Rosa’s is a Thai food restaurant business I set up with my wife, Saiphin in 2006. We now have 18 sites spread out across the UK and sell authentic modern Thai food, to the beautiful people of all shapes and sizes of the United Kingdom!

Our dishes combine homely authentic Thai food with local ingredients in a casual cafe environment. We built this business from a humble weekend market stall in the East End of London in 2006 and our current run rate revenues are now in excess of $25mil per year and growing.

how-this-couple-started-a-2mm-month-business-selling-authentic-thai-food-on-18-locations

Learn more about starting a restaurant:

Where to start?

-> How much does it cost to start a restaurant?
-> Pros and cons of a restaurant

Need inspiration?

-> Examples of established restaurant
-> Marketing ideas for a restaurant
-> Restaurant slogans
-> Restaurant names
-> Restaurant Instagram bios
-> Restaurant Instagram captions

Other resources

-> Blog post ideas for a restaurant
-> Restaurant manufacturers
-> Restaurant quotes
-> Restaurant hashtags

4. Grain ($1M/year)

They run a full-stack service that handles all aspects of the supply chain from sourcing ingredients, preparation to delivery.

Yi Sung Yong, Ernest Sim, Gao Rifeng, and Isaac Tan (from Singapore) started Grain over 9 years ago.

Revenue
$83.4K / month
Team
4 founders / 60 employees

Case Study
  • Sung along with three other co-founders — Ernest Sim, Gao Rifeng, and Isaac Tan — founded Grain in 2014. It is Food and Beverage Services brand based in Singapore.

  • It's a multi-brand online restaurant that offers ready-to-eat meals, meal plans, catering services, packaged drinks, and more.

  • Grain's mission is to provide wholesome nutritious meals packed with lots of flavors that one can eat daily without compromising their health or making a hole in the pockets.

  • The founders at Grain are all die-hard Marvel fans and their store also has a line of Marvel merchandise for their customers.

  • In 2015, Grain was among the first few cloud kitchens to provide food to customers without a physical location. Their goal is to transform lives through memorable culinary encounters.

article

Read the full story on vulcanpost.com ➜

5. Shake Shack ($740M/year)

In less than 20 years, Shake Shack has transformed from a small hot dog stand into a gourmet burger and milkshake chain that operates in over 270 locations around the world.

Daniel Meyer (from New York, NY, USA) started Shake Shack over 19 years ago.

Revenue
$61.7M / month
Team
1 founders / 3386 employees

Case Study
  • Daniel Meyer established Shake Shack in 2004. When it started, he used to just sell hot dogs from a cart in Madison Square Park.

  • Meyer has gradually transformed the hotdog cart into a kiosk-style restaurant that serves gourmet burgers, hot dogs, milkshakes, and crinkle-cut french fries.

  • In less than 20 years, Shake Shack has grown from a single hot dog stand to a global fast food chain with over 270 locations.

  • Shake Shack offers a lively & fun community hangout place with wide appeal thanks to its fresh, high-quality, and delicious food at an incredible price.

article

Read the full story on successstory.com ➜

6. Urban Smokehouse ($60K/year)

Andrew Buehler (from New York, NY, USA) started Urban Smokehouse 9 months ago.

Revenue
$5K / month
Team
1 founders / 1 employees

Case Study

Hello, my name is Andrew Buehler, and I am the founder of Urban Smokehouse, the world’s first digitally native BBQ brand.

To date, we have spent zero dollars on marketing. I am now exploring digital marketing strategies to drive traffic to our website and events. I expect a significant uptick in traffic from the word of mouth and organic social media we have relied on thus far.

how-we-hit-our-goal-within-24-hours-on-kickstarter-and-raised-30k-worth-of-preorders

Pat Walls,  Founder of Starter Story
Want to find more ideas that make money?

Hey! 👋 I'm Pat Walls, the founder of Starter Story.

Get our 5-minute email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.

Starter Story
Unlock the secrets to 7-figure online businesses
Dive into our database of 4,418 case studies & join our community of thousands of successful founders.
Join thousands of founders