Benjamin Berg is the founder and CEO of Berg Hospitality Group, the team behind B&B Butchers and more than a dozen restaurant concepts across Texas. Ben started out as a bellman at the Lake Placid Lodge, worked his way through fine dining in Las Vegas, Mexico City, and New York, earned his master’s at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, and spent over five years at Smith & Wollensky before striking out on his own.

In 2015, Ben opened B&B Butchers in Houston with $1.7 million raised and no prior track record as an owner. His first-year revenue hit $9 million, eventually growing to $17 million annually with 28–30% profit margins. That success fueled the growth of Berg Hospitality Group, which now operates 14 restaurants and employs more than 1,400 people.

Ben also shares his losses and mistakes. In 2023, Ben opened a modern Chinese concept he believed would take Houston by storm. Instead, it cost $5.5 million to build-out, had six-figure monthly losses, and closed within 14 months. In this episode, Ben breaks down what went wrong, the rules he broke, and how that failure reshaped his playbook for growth.

We also dive into the real economics of steakhouses, why private dining drives profit, how he manages margins across concepts, and what it takes to scale a hospitality group without losing touch with the guest experience.

We cover:

• How a bellman became a multi-concept restaurateur
• Lessons from Cornell’s hospitality program and Smith & Wollensky
• Opening B&B Butchers with $1.7M and hitting $9M in year one
• Scaling to $17M and 28–30% margins on a single unit
• The waterfall effect: how steakhouse economics really work
• How Houston’s dining scene evolved and why local ownership matters
• The $5.5M failure why it happened and what he’d never do again
• His rules for site selection: parking, access, visibility
• Why 12–14% margins are now considered excellent post-COVID
• The future of Berg Hospitality and why he’s focused on scaling fewer, better brands

If you’ve ever dreamed of opening a steakhouse or building a hospitality group, this episode is a brutally honest masterclass in restaurant economics, site selection, and scaling smart without losing your shirt.

Resources & Links
Berg Hospitality Group: https://berghospitality.com
B&B Butchers: https://bbbutchers.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/berghospitality
Benjamin Berg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-berg-5b180976/

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