Friends of Branded!
Happy Saturday and I hope you had a great week.
In 1871, the National Rifle Association (“NRA”) was founded by Union Army veterans Colonel William C. Church and General Geoge Wingate, and its initial purpose was to promote and improve shooting skills and marksmanship following the Civil War. Poor shooting skills among soldiers was the key driver of the establishment of the NRA.
In the early 1900s, the NRA expanded into shooting sports & training and the organization was credited with playing a key role in military’s preparedness around World War I and into World War II.
Starting in the 1940s, the NRA became more involved in shaping gun legislation and in 1977 at the NRA’s annual meeting in Cincinnati (“The Cincinnati Revolt”), the organization emphasized Second Amendment rights and political lobbying.
In 1919 (48 years after the National Rifle Association was formed), the National Restaurant Association ("NRA”) was founded in Kansas City, Missouri (yes, the city where the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals currently play) with the goal of advancing the interests of the restaurant industry.
In the 1920s, the Restaurant-NRA began hosting small annual meetings that focused on sharing best practices, showcasing equipment, and addressing key industry issues (such Prohibition).
For those that don’t know or maybe question why I added the word ‘Restaurant’ in front of the NRA above, I did so for the following two reasons: (i) the Rifle-NRA was founded before the Restaurant-NRA by almost 50 years and (ii) let’s face it, the NRA I’m involved with is far more focused on “grilling” and less so on…moving on…
Starting in the 1950s, the Restaurant-NRA annual meeting grew in size & stature, and this mirrored the growth of the US economy and specifically the booming restaurant sector following World War II. The Restaurant-NRA "Show" was born, and this event attracted a broader range of exhibitors including equipment manufacturers, food producers and service providers.
In the early 1970s, the Restaurant-NRA found its home in the great city of Chicago’s and landed at the McCormick Place as its home. The Show continued to expand its focus and included international exhibitors and became a hub for innovation in areas like kitchen automation, point-of-sales systems and food safety.
In the 2000s, the Show began to integrate technology with a focus on reservations, delivery logistics and mobile ordering. The Show experienced its first cancellations in decades at the start of the 2020s b/c of COVID (obviously) but returned with a heightened focus on technology including off-premises dining, labor-solutions and sustainability.
And starting today, May 17th, 2025, The Branded Team will once again proudly be attending the annual Restaurant-NRA’s Show at McCormick Place.
As Branded’s “Finance Guy”, let’s put some numbers around this year’s NRA event.
The Restaurant-NRA 2025 Show is expected to welcome over 60,000 attendees, over 2,000 exhibitors and qualified buyers from all 50 states and 124 countries and will showcase the entire foodservice ecosystem which includes restaurants, hotels, catering, bars, institutional foodservice and of course, technology vendors.
Here’s one more number for you – the number 2!
That’s right, two companies, Branded Hospitality and CBS NorthStar, along with a most wonderful growing army of friends, peers, colleagues, competitors, and strangers (which are really friends we just haven’t met yet) is launching the first every Swag-Swap at the NRA where we invite people to meet, greet, and if you’re so inclined, exchange a cap. This isn’t high-tech folks, this is back-to-basics!
Readers of the H^2 know that Branded's strongly held conviction is that we operate in a people-first industry.
The Restaurant-NRA and therefore this entire Show started as a small gathering of folks that wanted to advance the interests of the restaurant industry and to share & promote best practices. As the creative folks at both Branded and CBS NorthStar were collaborating about how we could add a little fun to our industry’s Super Bowl, the Swag-Swap or Caps-and-Connections idea was born.
How do you make the industry’s largest event of the year feel like a far smaller gathering?
You invite everyone attending to participate (if they’re so inclined), to trade a hat, snap a photo, and post it to LinkedIn (with #CapsandConnections + #SwagSwap). After that, rinse and repeat and by that, I mean keep doing what you do at the Show and keep swapping hats and taking photos!
One could also take a little creative liberty or privilege and use the Top of the Fold of your own newsletter to boldly publicize this first-ever NRA swag-swap, but that’s just me, I’m a risk-taker!) 😊
Will you meet more people? Will you learn a thing or two about other companies that you might not have expected? Will I receive an unusually large number of comments about sanitary concerns or my contributing to this year’s NRA being a super-spreader event for lice? These are all things I don’t know (except for the certainly of lice jokes at my expense).
The Branded team takes our work, clients, partners and portfolio companies extremely seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
Yes, 80% of Branded’s investments are in emerging technology companies, but we don’t ever want to lose sight that our business starts with a smile and a handshake (sorry, not sorry, we’re not packing enough hand sanitizer for 60,000 people).
Branded and CBS NorthStar’s goal for the NRA’s 2025 Show is to make this feel like one of the smallest events ever oversubscribed at McCormick Place by having people enthusiastically search for fellow hat wearers in which to engage, chat and maybe even swap a hat with.
That’s right, the days of “no hats allowed” ends right here and right now!
I admit neither Branded nor CBS NorthStar are ready to lend our voice to those that refuse to wear shoes or shirts, but to all you hat wearers, this year’s Restaurant-NRA is for you!
For those attending the Restaurant-NRA this year, I look forward to seeing you in Chicago!
It takes a village.
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The Restaurant-NRA Show and the week leading up to it was the driver of this week's Shoutout section!
The first Shoutout goes to our friends and partners at Craveworthy Brands!
Yes, this is a company that appears in the Shoutout section often, but when you’re among the fastest growing emerging restaurant companies in the world, it seems the least I can do is acknowledge this hard-working crew that Branded appreciates working with.
This week, it was announced that Mr. Jon Taffer’s the host of TV’s “Bar
Rescue” and Mr. Gregg Majewski, the Founder & CEO at Craveworthy
Brands, formed a joint venture to
expand and grow Taffer’s Tavern.
Taking a page of Dr. Shaquille O’Neal and Mr. Josh Halpern’s playbook with Big Chicken and the agreement reached with Craveworthy, Taffer’s Tavern and Craveworthy will become 50-50 partners with Taffer’s Tavern joining Craveworthy’s 17 other franchise concepts and acting as the Managing Partner of the business.
You can read Gregg Majewski’s post about Craveworthy’s partnership with Taffer’s Tavern here: Big news from Craveworthy Brands!
According to the one of the articles I read on this coming together, Mr. Taffer sees the Craveworthy as “great operators” and as Branded identified and Mr. Taffer made clear, “they’re incredibly tech savvy and are a very forward-looking company.”
Great operators and tech-savvy? Yes, Branded can get behind that! We also love their hats! 😊
The second Shoutout this week goes to our friends at MicroTouch and their North America Tech Revolution Tour!
Branded believes in showing up, so as we roll into Chicago today, it’s not lost on me that Schatzy just returned from Atlanta and the MicroTouch event! We want to give a big thank you to Mr. John Dittig and his team that worked so hard to bring such a fantastic crew together to talk tech and specifically how to help operators.
I also want to recognize our friend Mr. Brian Klinger, a key person at MicroTouch’s event and one of the industry’s great “Technology Guys” and a key partner of ours at Comcast Strategic Enterprise.
Brian is one of the hardest workers we know in the industry and his commitment to the Giving Kitchen and its mission to help foodservice workers in crisis is something he’s most proud of (and we want to recognize).
We see you Brian and I while I wasn’t able to make it to the event, I still want to represent the organization that does so much for the industry we love.
The third Shoutout goes to our friends at PepsiCo and please know that I fully understand the risk one takes when they single out 1 of the over 2,000 companies exhibiting at the Restaurant-NRA Show but let me explain.
This is a company that truly embraces all that this event stands for and while Branded & CBS NorthStar are doing what we can to bring people together with a Swag-Swap, PepsiCo is showing up for the NRA in such a big, and I dare say, magical way.
Yes, they exhibit (booth 3224 in the South Hall if want to check out one of the coolest exhibitors each year), but they do so much more and important things!
PepsiCo committed $1mm from the PepsiCo Foundation to the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.
They support the Women’s Foodservice Forum and its Empower & Connect event.
They support the Prosper Company’s Accelerator Mixer (in partnership with our friends at Middleby) and the Society for Hospitality and Foodservice Management, the only association focused on workplace hospitality and amenities in the foodservice industry.
Finally, they’re such amazing supporters of IMFA The Food Away from Home Association’s Gold & Silver Plate Awards dinner at Saturday night at Union Station (the Branded Team wants to again congratulate you on your Silver Plate award, Mr. Geoff Alexander, and we’ll be cheering for you to take home the gold!).
Yes, our friends at PepsiCo deserve to be recognized for not just showing up for the Restaurant-NRA, but for making it such a special for so many!
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It seems a day doesn’t go by where I’m not reading about another P/E group, family office or company making its move into the world of sports.
While this isn’t the Shoutout section, I do want to express my appreciation for the good people at Boardroom for their great breadth & depth coverage of this topic and for helping to keep me up-to-speed on the many facets of the business of sports.
As a foodservice and hospitality focused investment & solutions platform, we see the world of sports as a target rich environment for our work. We fully understand and acknowledge that the game, match, fight, contest, etc. being played out on the court, field, pitch, ring, octagon, etc. is the primary focus and main attraction, but we also know one universal truth - food & beverages are consumed during sporting events. And that’s where Branded plays, in venues that sell or serve food & beverages.
We know how much the brands matter and it has become crystal clear that so too does technology.
Through friends, Branded was connected with our now partners at ComAve (the Commercial Avenue), the super app for sports fans all over the world. At its core, ComAve is thinking beyond the traditional marketplace model and is singularly focused on the deeply engaged global sports community.
The exact size of this community is debatable, but it’s in the billions of people and this a community that’s inspired by a strong sense of belonging. Branded’s enthusiasm for ComAve and the community it serves was fostered by the similarities we see it has with hospitality industry and the intersection with hospitality as a result of the importance of food & beverage offerings desired by fans when they’re enjoying games at or away from the venues.
Sport fans, like hospitality guests, want personalization, they want their passions met, they want access, and they want value. Loyalty, engagement, and rewards all enhance the fan experience just as it enhances the guest experience at restaurants. Branded believes in content and ComAve also believes that fans want brand-first experiences. Engaged fans are among the most valued, and they are also the most loyal.
The world of fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands see the value of connecting with deeply engaged sports fans and ComAve is the marketplace for focused commerce.
Click to watch video: 76ers and ComAve
· 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗔𝘃𝗲 𝘅 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗮 𝟳𝟲𝗲𝗿𝘀!
· Why Shopify Retailers Are Expanding to Community-Driven Platforms Like ComAve
If the above resonates with you and if connecting with the global sports fan community is important for your brand, let’s discuss.
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Featured Episode - From NYC Slices to LA Burgers: Digital Hospitality & Food Industry Wins with CEO Lawrence Longo
In this episode of Hospitality Hangout, we sit down with food entrepreneur and CEO Lawrence Longo, visionary behind Prince Street Pizza, Off the Menu, and Irv’s Burgers. Lawrence shares entertaining and inspiring stories about growing a household name in New York pizza, transforming family legacy into a hospitality empire.
Get actionable guidance on restaurant ownership, digital hospitality, and building powerful hospitality networks. Learn how Lawrence’s unique approach to leadership, entertainment, and restaurant transformation has fueled his success in hospitality and made him a standout CEO in the food industry. Whether you're an aspiring restaurateur or a seasoned operator, this episode is packed with real-world hospitality advice you don’t want to miss.
Tune into the episode and subscribe to our channel here: Hospitality Hangout With Lawrence Longo
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That’s it for today!
See you next week, same bat-time, same bat-channel.
It takes a village!
Jimmy Frischling
Branded Hospitality Ventures
jimmy@brandedstrategic.com
235 Park Ave South, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10003
Branded Hospitality Ventures ("Branded") is an investment and solutions platform at the intersection of foodservice, technology, innovation and capital. As experienced hospitality owners and operators, Branded brings value to its partners through investment, strategic counsel, and its deep industry expertise and connections.
Learn more about Branded here: Branded At-A-Glance