R.J. Melman grew up working in his family’s restaurants, starting as a busser and moving up to a prep cook and restaurant manager. Since 2017, he has served as president of Chicago-based multi-concept group Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE), after taking over day-to-day operations from his father and company founder, Rich Melman.

Melman joins the Buzzworthy Brands podcast to talk about how his company comes up with new concepts, the difficulties of creating virtual brands and what he has learned from restaurant failures over the years.