Todd English Enterprises has successfully transferred management and operations of Olives New York under a licensing agreement. The restaurant will continue to carry the name and offer the menu and ambiance Chef English created over the past decade.
This is part of an overall strategy by Todd English Enterprises to reposition itself as a licensing, ideation and hospitality consulting company.
“Over the course of the last year, we have been shifting the focus of our business from restaurant ownership to a licensing model,” explains Oliver English, Vice President at Todd English Enterprises. “As a company, we have spent a significant amount of time rethinking our business model and realized that we want to remain rooted in the creative side, and not have to deal with dramatically escalating rents and other factors out of our control. The licensing model is allowing us to do this and is also giving us more time to devote to projects and our current roster of licensees.”
In the past year, Todd English Enterprises has closed several of its unprofitable ventures including Isabelle's CurlyCakes and Olives Charlestown, and is still in the process of assessing the viability of several other establishments. “The reality is that rents and overheads are death blows in a business with such low margins,” explains Chef English. “You either have to be huge and have hundreds of restaurants and work on an industrial model or run your own little bistro. That's where you'll find me someday, but in the meantime, I want to keep cooking and developing concepts and to continue working with people who want to see them flourish in their own backyards.”
Some of those projects include expansions into locations such as Asia. Todd English will be opening his newest restaurant later this month in Manila, Philippines. The Food Hall by Todd English will be located at Manila's luxury mall, SM Aura Premier. “The Philippines is a country I find fascinating for its melding of cultures from South East Asia, and I look forward to bringing my Food Hall concept to these shores.”
Todd English Enterprises will also soon be announcing several additional restaurant openings for 2014 and 2015. They would also like to remind everyone to support the ONE DROP Foundation and help raise funds by bidding on his current auction. The winner will be able to invite 11 friends to a dinner at his own home hosted and prepared by Todd and Oliver English. All proceeds will benefit ONE DROP's global water-access initiatives. To bid on the home dinner with Todd and Oliver, please visit the One Night for ONE Drop auction page.
Todd English is a renowned chef, restaurateur, author, entrepreneur, and television personality based in Boston, Massachusetts and New York City. He is a four-time James Beard Award winner and inductee into the James Beard Foundation's “Who's Who in Food and Beverage in America.” He is the CEO of Todd English Enterprises which owns, manages and licenses over 20 restaurants worldwide including Olives, Todd English Food Hall, Todd English P.U.B., Figs, BlueZoo, Ça Va, Todd English Restaurant and Tuscany.
