Becker behind 2 new eateries
THE pandemic has devastated the restaurant industry and the new Omicron wave continues to darken the picture, but there have been some bright spots for a lucky few.
For Chef Franklin Becker, business is good — and the growth has been lifechanging after the 52-year-old met his new wife, Melissa, 51, on a dating app a month before lockdown.
She now works with him on new business development.
“I have mixed feelings about the pandemic. I wish it never happened. Many people lost their lives. But it also shed light on what is important in life — family, community and friends,” Becker said.
Beet goes on
Business also accelerated for Becker. During the pandemic, Little Beet — a chain of healthy fast-food eateries that Becker founded in 2013 — closed but gobbled up Le Pain Quotidien and Maison Kaiser and is now reopening after a restructuring. Becker’s online healthy-grocery store, Hungryroot.com, also grew at an “accelerated” pace. It’s now valued at $750 million and set to go public, Becker said.
Now, Side Dish can exclusively reveal that Becker has also cooked up two new restaurants that are slated to open this spring — a seafood spot, Uptown Trout, located inside the revamped Franklin Hotel at 164 East 87th St., and an “old school” American chophousestyle eatery, The Press Club Grill, inside The Martinique New York hotel at Broadway and 32nd Street.
“Unfortunately, the pandemic devastated our industry,” Becker said. “It created a tremendous amount of supply-chain issues, which led to higher costs for goods, which will lead to higher costs for the customers — along with labor shortages and endless other issues.”
He was able to secure a “core” team and keep its members on board through the height of the pandemic thanks to an innovative new profitsharing plan and other incentives.
Also, he said, “I was able to grab opportunity when it presented itself and go after locations and different things that other people didn’t have the means to do.”
Becker’s F. Becker Hospitality has partnered with Seasoned Hospitality’s Stephen Loffredo and Tora Matsuoka to open Uptown Trout and the Press Club Grill.
Until 2012, Becker helmed Catch, Lexington Brass and the now-shuttered Abe and Arthur’s, as executive corporate chef for the EMM Group, now known as the Catch Hospitality Group.