Articles on companies that have grown by building an impressive portfolio of restaurant concepts.
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September 23, 2014
Marco Moreira, left, and Jo-Ann Makovitzky
New York
Annual Sales: $12 million
Units: 4
Key Personnel:
• Jo-Ann Makovitzky, owner
• Marco Moreira, owner and executive chef
• Roger Dagorn, master sommelier
SINGLE CONCEPTS:
• Tocqueville (French-American)
• 15 East (Japanese)
• The Fourth (American greenmarket)
UPCOMING PROJECTS:
• Botequim, a Brazilian restaurant, will open in September.
• A rooftop sushi restaurant, to be called Chu Chu, is also in the works
WHY IT’S COOL: Husband and wife Marco Moreira and Jo-Ann Makovitzky bring concepts that are reflective of the partners’ ancestry, backgrounds and culinary experience. The different cuisines offered at One Five’s four New York restaurants each just… well… make sense. Both studied French cuisine and then gained vast experience in the space while working together at Dean & Deluca’s flagship store in SoHo, which led to the 2000 opening of their first concept, Tocqueville, a French-American restaurant with a European sensibility. Moreira also studied Japanese cuisine and served as Dean & Deluca’s sushi chef, so when the couple moved Tocqueville to a new location, the original space was transformed into a modern Japanese restaurant, 15 East, in January 2007. Moreira and Makovitzky are in the throngs of opening Botequim, an authentic Brazilian restaurant inspired by Marco’s native city of Sao Paolo. This won’t be your typical Brazilian steakhouse; instead the menu will be driven by traditional Brazilian dishes like Feijoada and Moqueca de Camarão. Makovitzy says Botequim will embody the spirit of Brazil, which is carefree and easygoing but with high culinary standards. She says the couple has no intentions of launching new concepts—they’ve opened all the concepts that are familiar to them—but they would like to see current concepts expand. “They’re true to what they do,” Makovitzy says of her restaurants. “Be true to yourself—you can’t fake it or people will know.”
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