Welcome to First Bite, a Nation’s Restaurant News podcast, your daily source of news from NRN hosted by Holly Petre.
Today, we’re talking about Rock & Brews.
Adam Goldberg grew up a “huge rock and roll fan” with a Kiss poster on his bedroom wall, so it’s a bit poetic that he is now the CEO of Rock & Brews, a casual dining chain founded in 2012 by Kiss' flashy front men Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, among others.
Goldberg, a restaurant veteran who co-founded Fresh Brothers Pizza, took the helm four years ago. He just so happened to live down the street from the Rock & Brews headquarters in California and knew the founding partners well – including Michael Zislis and Dave and Dell Furano – through community outreach efforts both of their restaurant brands facilitated. When Rock & Brews hit some stumbles, including a franchisee’s bankruptcy, the partners asked Goldberg to look at the books and he’s been running the company ever since.
It wasn’t necessarily a plan he anticipated. But there’s some serendipity at play he couldn’t ignore – the rock and roll, the location, the familiar faces, the restaurant industry.
Learn more about the concept and its plans for growth in the years ahead from Alicia Kelso.
Plus, catch up on all the top news of the day with our daily news recap at the beginning of each episode.
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