NYC Restaurant Legend
Sheldon (Shelly) Fireman founded Café Concepts in 1974 with the opening of Cafe Fiorello at 1900 Broadway – directly across the street from Lincoln Center. The restaurant was an instant success, partly due to its signature thin-crust pizza, which received New York Magazine’s accolade “Best Pizza in New York”. Fireman has developed an organization of both seasoned and contemporary industry professionals to help execute his vision for design, food, and genuine hospitality.
Tackling large spaces in high-traffic areas, the company has grown steadily. Shelly Fireman has nine restaurants under his belt between NYC and Washington, D.C. Concentrating on the cultural centers in New York City such as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Theater District, the company opened Trattoria Dell’ Arte, Brooklyn Diner (across from Carnegie Hall), Redeye Grill, Bond 45, and Brooklyn Diner in Times Square.
What is less well-known is that Shelly Fireman has been a sculptor for many years. A Native New Yorker; he studied briefly at the Sculpture Center and the Art Students League for his first formal training. Following that, Fireman began the process of self-education approaching sculpting with the same artistry and intense commitment he brings to his restaurants.
Total Food Service had the opportunity to chat with Shelly Fireman as he prepared to reopen the Redeye Grill.
Can you share your career path?
I grew up in the Bronx and around age 7, I had my first job as a delivery boy for the neighborhood butcher on Saturdays. Then I did everything from selling door to door newspaper subscriptions to helping hang drapes. I then went on to work in an ice cream parlor and even delivered ice cream and flowers.
I worked for the post office twice, a clothing factory on the cutting table , a bellhop. And swept floors in a factory. I worked in kitchens at 16 and even managed to play football in college. When I got older I had a number of interesting selling jobs. They included selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door (or attempting to), selling advertising space for a newspaper. I even travelled the state of California selling women’s sportswear and dresses.
Where did you get the knowledge and money you needed to open your first restaurant?
The education was free, I learned everything in the bookshelves at the New York Public Library. Many of those books I started to read when I was twelve years old also inspired me along the way. I saved $500 of my own money and borrowed another $500 from the bank and opened up my first restaurant on McDougal Street. It had about 10 seats. I couldn’t afford chairs at the beginning so we used wooden orange crates. I laid the floor tile, it was linoleum. I made the menu, I cooked the food, I worked the till.
Who were some of the mentors that had an impact on your career?
My mother and father mentored me for sure.. I have had many supportive people in my life with my wife Marilyn at the top of that list. I have been blessed to have really special friends: William R. Berkley, Bertrand Russel, Walter Sotomer and Paul Milstein. I have also been touched by several people that changed my life with Ted Mann, Al Ellis, and Henry Saia at the top of that list. I also need to express my special thanks to Columbia Teacher’s College for Speech Impairment and Dr. Green’s Hospital for Speech Disorders, because I grew up with an acute stutter.
What were some of the lessons you took from those mentors and have become part of who you are today?
Well some of them are secret formulas for success, and I’m not getting paid enough for this interview to give my formulas away [laughs]. You want the secret to my success? It’s like asking me for my first born. Why would I give it away. I worked very hard for it. I will say this: I will help stutterers who write me. I will give them that formula, because that’s a tough one. I built this company on the cornerstone of my parent’s and uncle’s and aunt’s values and sense of hospitality.
You’ve just reopened your Redeye Grill concept this week. You are known for being able to re-invent – what can your guests expect?
We’ve been open just a few days and it’s the best opening I’ve ever had. People are blown away and I’m not done yet. I want to go there every evening. Our guests can expect a wonderful evening. [laughs] The place is marvelous, the food is marvelous, the hospitality is marvelous — and the price is wrong! [laughs]
We first met you at Alice Elliot’s conference 25 years ago. I don’t think people understand how many times you have in fact re-invented yourself and your business? How and why?
Why did I reinvent myself? Because I never reinvented myself… I just became sensitive to the marketplaces I’m in. I’m in this business to cater to others, and if I’m in the marketplace that I’m in, I’m willing to put on the tie if it’s a formal affair and take it off if it’s a casual one. Without being too amiable, I’m here to please others not myself. We ONLY think about the guest. We don’t think about turning tables or check averages. We just think “are they having a good time that they’ll want to come back?” Everybody talks about hospitality, very few times do I get real hospitality at most places. That’s what WE give. We’re huggers. The concept has never been reinvented. We’re just always thinking about the marketplace. What do YOU want. It’s like a good date is when the guy asks the girl a lot of questions about the GIRL and cares about HER. Who wants to date a guy who only thinks about himself?
Is bigger better?
Success is better. If it’s tiny, I have to stay there all day and watch it. Bigger, I hire competent people and they watch it. Bigger is not “bigger” in my eyes, but an opportunity to be more successful financially and makes my life easier. We have some wonderful people who take charge as the company continues to scale. It’s not me, it’s the company.
You have had some real bright folks come and stay or come and go and make their mark on the industry. Are you a teacher? A coach? A mentor?
I think I spend about forty-five percent of my time mentoring others.
You’ve seen the New York restaurant scene reinvent itself many times. What did it look like when you started? What does it look like today?
When I started people went out with a jacket and a tie, they expected a tablecloth, they expected a waiter to have black pants, white shirt and bow tie, and black shoes. There was a time when beardless, no nose rings and walking in the room with a clean white napkin was expected. Wow, have things changed.
Now, customers expect nothing, Not even a smile at the door. They come out looking as shabby as they can – in expensive shabby clothes – and are waited on by a tattooed earringed bearded long haired, sneakered unclean-uncollared waiter who, on occasion, smiles. There’s no tablecloths. Sometimes the food is good, sometimes it’s very good, sometimes it’s a big joke,but it gets written up ‘cause it’s clever. The guests now do want more expensive drinks. (Not that it gets them any drunker) And so they spend more money on that. And there’s no artwork on the wall – you don’t need it. The artwork is on the arms and legs of the waitress, in the form of all their tattoos [laughs] Beards and crazy hair and jewelry. And it’s still fun. Who knows, in the future there could be nude restaurants and nobody will care. Anything you can imagine will happen. And then one day someone will have the old fashioned white table cloths with dapper waiters like from before and it will be such a novelty that that will be the popular hip new thing.
The new way of restaurants are what makes it all interesting. It’s like having a party with the village eccentric. The party would be dull without him. Restaurants are not going to be duller. The more courage restaurants have to be eccentric, the better. We need more novelty because we got to have things to take people away from Netflix and HBO. They need experiences.
You’ve run restaurants all over the planet. What makes New York unique?
The competition is overwhelming. A lot of smart people.
Every restaurateur complains about regulation and minimum wage. People like you seem to always find a way. Thoughts?
We find the way. We’re chopping down the trees. We’re finding the way. We work hard at finding the right path.
There’s technology everywhere today. Front of the house… Back of the house… How has it changed the business?
It gives us more and faster information. It makes us smarter and wiser and more-informed with less guess-work. And appreciative of it. It helps us do our homework. It gives us information that helps us with our homework. It’s like a tutor. We can find ways to reduce unnecessary expenses without having to guess. We have a better probability of doing the right thing.
Many folks don’t realize that you are a renowned sculptor. What does your art mean to you?
It means giving me the opportunity to think about something other than the food and the restaurant business. It gives me an escape into pleasure. I don’t play golf. I sculpt. It gives me another outlet to be creative and a way to be remembered long after my restaurants are gone. LeRoy Neiman told me while we were having dinner that he would be remembered longer than me, because I just have restaurants, but he has created artworks. So I started sculpting. Some of our restaurants will be around another hundred years or more if I play my cards right, and my sculptures will be there in the restaurants longer than I’ll be there and can last longer than that.
Crystal ball. What are your goals for Redeye? What’s next?
Well we were offered an opportunity to build one at the airport. We’re building a Brooklyn Diner at the LaGuardia airport, and two years down the line may be doing a Redeye too at an international airport. We could also put it in hotels. Because I am nervous about the future of shopping malls. It’s not like 30 years ago where you just went into malls. So hotels, airports, are the goals. Especially since Redeye is air-travel-themed. Here was the idea behind Redeye, taking California food and New York food. Named after the Redeye flight between California and New York. And if the concept went to Singapore, it could have American food and Singapore food. It’s endless.
To learn more about Shelly Fireman’s Redeye Grill, visit their website.
