Meet the innovative, inclusive and industry changing leaders of the 2021 NRN Power List
Tom Colicchio, chef and owner of Crafted Hospitality, is a familiar face on TV, known mostly as a judge and producer of the Bravo series “Top Chef.” His restaurants include the acclaimed Craft, Riverpark and Temple Court in New York City, as well as Craft Los Angeles, Heritage Steak and Craftsteak in Las Vegas and Small Batch in Garden City, N.Y.
Over the past year, however, Colicchio has become known as a voice for the independent restaurant community, which has been hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Kevin Boehm
(Bloomberg) The passage of the recent $900 billion relief package was a bitter pill for the restaurant industry. Before the pandemic, restaurants employed more than 12 million people, according to the National Restaurant Association. Since March, however, the industry has been decimated, with tens of thousands of restaurants forced to shut their doors permanently. Many that have managed to remain open have had to lay off workers as well. Yet Congress and the administration, which have directed billions of dollars to the airline and the entertainment industries, have not seen fit to give any direct aid to restaurants.
Kevin Boehm is an independent restaurateur who was deeply involved in the effort to obtain some badly needed help for the industry. Boehm and his partner Rob Katz founded the Chicago-based Boka Restaurant Group in 2002; today they operate more than 20 high-end restaurants. I spoke to him recently about why that effort failed and what it has been like to
Restaurants grateful for new round of aid but still fighting for additional relief chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.