Rich Melman is Founder and Chairman of Lettuce Entertain You, a Chicago-based restaurant group that owns over 125 restaurants. Lettuce has done over 200 concepts to date and is known for founding some of the most celebrated restaurants in America. Melman formulated the widely-used philosophy based on the importance of partners, of sharing responsibilities and profits with them, and of developing & growing together. People claim Melman invented the salad bar- tune in as he settles this debate once & for all.