Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises
5419 N Sheridan Rd Ste 116, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Overview
Since 1971, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc. (LEYE) has maintained a sense of humor and enjoyment while creating high quality, successful restaurants. Due to the innovation of LEYE’s Founder and Chairman, Richard Melman, and his creative team of partners and employees, LEYE currently owns, licenses or manages more than 100 establishments in Illinois, California, Arizona, Maryland, Virginia, Minnesota and Nevada. The founding of LEYE was the result of joining Melman's food ideas with the confidence and support of Jerry A. Orzoff, Melman's first partner. A successful real estate agent and North Michigan Avenue haberdasher, Orzoff (who died in 1981 at the age of 45), played a crucial role in Melman's life as a friend and mentor. "Jerry was a guy I respected and related to," says Melman. "He believed in my ideas. Meeting him was the turning point in my life." After meeting Melman for the first time in 1970, Orzoff liked his off-beat ideas, and believed in his ability. Working together as new friends and partners, Melman and Orzoff raised a total of $17,000 to create an upbeat eatery geared toward young singles interested in rock music, casual clothes and healthy food. Melman hired bright, attractive waitresses and bartenders and filled the location with hanging plants and modern artwork. The menu was designed to appeal to a variety of tastes, and included everything from vegetarian and macrobiotic foods to hamburgers, sandwiches, milkshakes and the first fruit and vegetable-laden salad bar. Melman and Orzoff paired their first initials, added the sound a pig makes when eating and baptized the establishment R.J. Grunts on June 10, 1971 in Chicago's Lincoln Park. Despite a lackluster response in the opening weeks, Orzoff provided the much needed confidence and enthusiasm to keep Melman optimistic until his dream became reality. After one month, Grunts became a success.
- Total investments
- 1
- Lead investments
- 0
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 1
Sector focus
- Hospitality
- Restaurants
Investment portfolio
- Tock
Participated · Equity · Nov 2018
Tock provides a unified cloud platform for reservations, event bookings, CRM, and carryout operations for restaurants, wineries, and pop-ups. As of February it served nearly 3,000 venues across 28 countries in over 200 cities and has seated tens of millions of guests. The company has booked nearly $1 billion of pre-paid reservations, deposits, and events and has enabled the service of 1 million To Go meals. During the COVID-19 pandemic Tock rapidly built and deployed Tock to Go to enable pickup and delivery, adding nearly 1,000 restaurants in April alone and allowing millions of diners to access elevated carryout and delivery. Tock charges a flat 3% fee for carryout service versus over 25% charged by many third-party delivery apps. Upcoming product initiatives cited in the announcement include a digital concierge called Tock Time and a JPMorgan Chase integration to launch Ultimate Rewards Dining, plus tools for contactless payment, dual dine-in and carryout operations, data-driven reporting, and marketing integrations. Tock provides a cloud-based reservations, table management, CRM, and marketing integration platform for restaurants, wineries, pop-ups, and events. Its technology-agnostic system works on any device and integrates bookings across Google, Instagram, Facebook, Maps, and the Tock app. The company powers nearly 1,000 restaurants in 23 countries and hundreds of wineries and event-based businesses, and has seated millions of guests through free reservations. Tock has also booked $369M in prepaid experiences, which the company highlights as an industry first. It maintains an exclusive partnership with Chase Pay to enable bookings using Chase cards and Ultimate Rewards points. The company says the new funding will accelerate growth and expand its offerings into other hospitality sectors.
Team
Richard Melman
Founder