Sponsored By

Not Your Average Joe’s names Peter D’Amelio president, COO

Founder and CEO Steve Silverstein to retain his role

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

September 29, 2017

2 Min Read
Peter_D_Amelio
Not Your Average Joe's

Peter D’Amelio, former CEO of the Matchbox Food Group, a multi-concept restaurant company in Washington, D.C., has joined casual-dining chain Not Your Average Joe’s in the newly created position of president and chief operating officer, Milton, Mass.-based Not Your Average Joe’s said Thursday.

D’Amelio will be responsible for all day-to-day operations at the 24-unit chain, including food and beverage, purchasing, marketing, human resources and training, according to a press release. 

D’Amelio is an industry veteran who spent 17 years with The Cheesecake Factory, rising to the position of COO there before working at Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants and then Great American Restaurants, a multi-concept group based in Washington, D.C. He was president and COO at both of those companies. 

Steve Silverstein, founder and CEO of Milton, Mass.-based Not Your Average Joe’s, said he was glad to bring a restaurant veteran to the company.

“I always hoped to succeed in building something so compelling as to attract an industry pro to help take us to a level beyond what an entrepreneur like me was capable of,” Silverstein said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to say we have reached that day. Peter brings decades of industry leadership and knowledge to help us develop the systems, processes and operational capabilities necessary for our next phase of growth.” 

D’Amelio said he was thrilled to join Not Your Average Joe’s.

“Steve has built a great restaurant company that has a strong brand, an amazing culture and significant upside,” he said. “I look forward to working with Steve and the entire team to take Not Your Average Joe’s to the next level.”

Silverstein, who founded Not Your Average Joe’s in 1994, will remain CEO, focusing on strategy, design and site selection for new restaurants.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

Subscribe to Our Newsletters
Get the latest breaking news in the industry, analysis, research, recipes, consumer trends, the latest products and more.

You May Also Like