Restaurant Founder Adds Consultancy to the Menu

0

Vic Branstetter, co-founder of restaurant chain Houston’s, has set his entrepreneurial sights on a new venture.

Branstetter announced last month the launch of Branstetter Group, a hospitality, lifestyle and retail consulting firm that he co-founded with hospitality executive Ian Sephton and retail and turnaround consultant Matt Lawrence. The Santa Monica firm provides a range of services, including assisting in capital raising, management of a restaurant or hotel, and even providing growth capital to startups.

“We came together as a group of organizational entrepreneurs,” Branstetter said in an e-mail interview. “We see opportunities in great ideas and concepts that lack execution.”

Branstetter Group’s first clients include Atlanta restaurant 10 Degrees South, which serves South African fare and is set to open its first L.A.-area location by the end of this year, and Bru Haus, a German-inspired gastropub set to open in West Los Angeles in the coming weeks. The firm has invested in hybrid bicycle maker Derringer Cycles, and is helping to manage and grow the L.A. company.

“We get to work with a lot of really interesting people,” Sephton said.

Premium Man

7 for All Mankind’s new president, Barry Miguel, moved from New York to Los Angeles last week, and then spent his first day on the job mingling with reporters at an event staged by the downtown L.A. premium denim brand at West Hollywood’s Sunset Tower Hotel.

Jet lag aside, Miguel, who most recently served as chief executive at New York’s Tracy Reese, is excited about his new life.

“There is a huge upside opportunity for the business,” Miguel said.

7 for All Mankind has evolved from a premium denim maker into a lifestyle brand with the addition of such clothing as dresses and button-down shirts for men, and its own freestanding retail stores.

SBE Staff

Sam Nazarian’s hospitality and real estate development firm SBE LLC has had some executive check-ins.

Hospitality veteran Josh Fluhr joined this month as vice president of development and openings at SBE Hotel Group, a division of SBE, headquartered on Beverly Boulevard near the Fairfax District. Fluhr rejoined SBE after a stint at White Plains, N.Y.-based Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

SBE’s hotel division is set to open a Miami location for SLS Hotel by March next year.

Staff reporter Alexa Hyland can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235.

No posts to display