Berg Hospitality grows in Texas, plans Buttermilk Baby with Carvel

Berg Hospitality Group goes for variety, from the recent opening of pan-Asian-inspired Soy Cowboy at the new Loews Hotel in Arlington, Texas, to the upcoming Buttermilk Baby plans with Roark Capital-owned Carvel.

The first restaurant was B&B Butchers, which opened in Houston in May 2015. The group has since opened 16 restaurants throughout Fort Worth, Houston, and now Arlington.

Benjamin Berg, CEO and founder of Berg Hospitality, said the group has only replicated two concepts so far because it doesn’t like to do the same thing over and over. Instead, the team gets “curious about different cuisines, different restaurant concepts,” he said.

The company has B&B Butchers in Fort Worth and Houston and two BB Lemon units in Houston.

Within the next six to seven months, Berg expects to open a speakeasy in Houston and a rooftop bar called Canopy Social.

“From there, we really will be opportunistic or — if I get some crazy idea in my head about a concept I've seen or something I've seen somewhere else and I want to bring it to Houston or bring it to [another] city — we'll do that,” Berg said.

Berg said his company has partnered with Roark Capital-owned Carvel to create Buttermilk Baby, which will be the group’s first fast-casual concept. Set to open in Houston, Buttermilk Baby is a version of the nostalgic soda fountain.

“I'm from New York City originally,” Berg said, “and I grew up with Carvel, which I consider the best soft-serve ice cream.”

The second location is planned for Sugarland, Texas, and Berg said they plan to open 10 in the next five years.  

“Then after that, it's really taking our Butcher concept, our French brasserie — which is Annabelle's Brasserie — and our kind of more rustic, little romantic Italian concept — Trattoria Sophia — and then Buttermilk Baby and expanding those into different markets.”

Soy Cowboy, which opened in June near the baseball park in Arlington, is the company’s largest restaurant to date.

Berg Hospitality also opened Turner’s Cut, a steakhouse it plans to open in Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.

Berg said the company is dedicated to service.

“Philosophically, we want service first,” he said. “We are really shooting to create that culture and to be the employer of choice in our industry, in the markets we're in. I think we always lead. We lead with our service. We lead with hospitality.”

Berg got started in hospitality in college.

“I worked in bars and restaurants in college, and right from there I actually went into hotels first,” Berg said. “I was a bellman at the Lake Placid Lodge [in Lake Placid, N.Y.]. It was a beautiful Relais & Châteaux property.” He went on to serve as a maître d’ and continued in hospitality.

Berg Hospitality is the fulfillment of his dream.

“You see something in your travels or you get an idea,” he said. “You go down a rabbit hole of a certain kind, of a food or cuisine, and then say, ‘Hey, how can we do this? How can we add to the story?’ That's really, that's the fun part.”

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