 |
 |
|
Founder and Chairman of the Board of ICON
LLC.
Founder and Chairman of the Board
of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc.
Richard Melman is Founder and Chairman
of the Board of ICON LLC. He is also a Founder and Chairman of the
Board of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, a Chicago-based corporation
that owns and licenses over 40 restaurants nationwide and in Japan.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
The restaurant business has been Melman's
life work, beginning with his early days in a family owned restaurant,
and later as a teenager working in fast food eateries, at a soda fountain,
and selling restaurant supplies. After realizing that he wasn't cut
out to be a college student, and failing to convince his father that
he should be made a partner in the family business, Melman met Jerry
A. Orzoff, a man who immediately and unconditionally believed in Melman's
ability to create and run restaurants. In 1971 the two opened R.J.
Grunts, a hip burger joint that soon became one of the hottest restaurants
in Chicago. Here Melman and Orzoff presented food differently and
with a sense of humor, creating the youthful and fun restaurant which
was a forerunner in the trend towards dining out as entertainment
that swept this country in the early '70's. |
|
| |
|
| |
Melman and Orzoff continued to develop
restaurant concepts together until Orzoff's death in 1981. Through
his relationship with Orzoff, Melman formulated a philosophy based
on the importance of partners, of sharing responsibilities and profits
with them, and of developing and growing together. Today, Melman has
over 40 working partners in the Lettuce organization, most of who
have come up through the ranks. |
|
| |
|
| |
In founding ICON with his Lettuce partner
Gerard Centioli and his personal and business lawyer Michael Fox,
Melman remains true to his philosophy. The ICON purpose of forming
partnerships with bona fide foodservice icons supplements Lettuce,
as does ICON's practice of engaging Lettuce to provide administrative
and support services for ICON's establishments.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Melman's guiding philosophy is that
he is not interested in being the biggest or the richest restauranteur,
just in being the best he can be. ICON's focus on concepts that are
indisputably "best in class" is based on the same philosophy. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
Melman's personal life revolves around
his family. He and his wife Martha have been married for twenty-three
years, and have three children. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
icon_logo.gif){kind=logo}
