2 days ago
They Said ‘Don't Join the Family Business.' They Did It Anyway.
When Michael Stillman checks his mailbox, he often finds a large yellow manilla envelope stuffed awkwardly inside the small slot. The 45-year-old CEO of Quality Branded — the restaurant group behind Quality Meats, Italian spots Bad Roman and Don Angie, and Asian fusion-y Twin Tails among others – knows who it's from: Alan Stillman, his 88-year-old father and the founder of Smith & Wollensky.
Inside are newspaper clippings, magazine stories, and a print-out of the restaurant group's latest P&L, highlighted in neon yellow with hand-written notes. 'Quality Italian's wine sales were highlighted with a note: 'This isn't as good as it should be.'' says Michael. 'He wasn't wrong.'
The restaurant business often draws kids into the family legacy. Many go off on their own rather than work with mom and dad on a daily basis. Danny Meyer's daughter Hallie is the founder of Caffe Panna and Marguerite Zabar Mariscal, the granddaughter of Eli Zabar, is the CEO of Momofuku, for example.
Some take the more complicated route of working alongside their baby boomer parents. Michael Stillman followed in his father Alan's footsteps. Massimo Lusardi has several restaurants with his dad Mauro, who made a name for himself on the Upper East Side decades ago with Lusardi's. George Spiliadis works with his father Costas, founder of Estiatorio Milos. Bilena Settepani runs her family's namesake restaurants and bakeries with her parents. These are their stories.
Alan Stillman, who founded T.G.I. Friday's and Smith & Wollensky, didn't encourage his son to follow in his footsteps when he was younger. Michael, a Brown grad, considered politics but ended up in the restaurant business first with Danny Meyer at Tabla. That led to a job with his father, opening Smith & Wollenskys across the country. 'You're 25. Go have a good time and open restaurants and learn the business,'' he says.
In 2006, Michael convinced Alan to hand over Manhattan Ocean Club to him, transforming a onetime seafood power spot that had lost is luster into Quality Meats. He enlisted chef Craig Koketsu and design firm AvroKO, selling off restaurant art to fund the project.
From there, Michael built Quality Branded, which now has 12 concepts in New York and Denver. Alan credits his son's creativity and risk-taking. 'We are 40 years apart, and that age gap allowed him to take risks and to make mistakes that I didn't.'
Massimo Lusardi started as a teen coat checker at Lusardi's, his father Mauro's Upper East Side mainstay since 1982. While Mauro didn't push him toward the business, Massimo was all in — working the floor, trying the kitchen, and learning every part of it.
Like Alan, Mauro did not encourage his son to join the business. 'This industry is not exactly what you wish for your child. You are always working: not around for the holidays, you miss things.' But Massimo was all 2005, when Massimo was 22, they expanded the Second Avenue footprint, opening Uva, a wine bar a few blocks from Lusardi's. In 2021, they opened Uva Next Door, and then Massimo branched out on his own (with his father's support) to open the speakeasy cocktail lounge Keys & Heels with his partner Jayne Moore, and most recently, a bistro called Nightly's, which shares a wall with Lusardi's. All are on Second Avenue, between 77th and 78th streets.
There are conflicts, but Massimo says they don't derail the process. 'It's like when you're playing jazz. You know when it's someone's turn to play rhythm and when it's someone's turn to play lead.'
Costas Spiliadis, who opened Milos in Manhattan in 1997, told his son George to finish university before touching the restaurant world. But George spent summer breaks waiting tables and staging in the kitchen. After graduation, he officially joined the team.
At his father's encouragement, George built his own strengths, developing Milos's wine program and championing Greek winemakers. In 2024, he became chief business officer. The Spiliadises now run 12 restaurants globally, including in Athens, Dubai, and Singapore, and have recently opened Milos and Milos Wine Bar in Hudson Yards. A Midtown mezze spot is on the way.
Bilena Settepani grew up in Settepani, her parents' Williamsburg bakery (1992) and Harlem restaurant (2000), where the chef packed her school lunches she developed an entreprenurial streak by selling her family's focaccia to friends at school. At the time, her father Nino, a Sicilian baker, and her mother Leah Abraham, an Ethiopian-Eritrean restaurateur, discouraged their children from joining the business. But both Bilena and her brother Seyoum both work with the family.
For Bilena, it wasn't always that way. After Leah was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, Bilena quit her job in the fashion industry to help with the Harlem restaurant. She urged her dad to focus on the Brooklyn bakery, and her mom on healing.
Then she enrolled in culinary school at night to build her pastry skills. Bilena has since added to the bakery's line of cannoli, torta del nonna, sfogliatelle, and launched a panettone of the month with modern flavors like Nutella, almond, and rainbow cookie. She has also helped develop the company's ecommerce and social presence, and began a monthly partnership with Massimo Bottura's Refetorrio. Seyoum has created partnerships with About U and the Harlem Jets, which create opportunities for youth and promote community growth.
In addition to the original Settepani bakery in Williamsburg and the restaurant in Harlem, the siblings help has allowed the family to branch out to Brooklyn's Time Out amid the intensity of work, Leah says they keep their priorities clear.
'At the end of the day,' says Bilena, 'we are family.'
