FOXBUSINESS.COM PROFILES ENTREPRENEURS AGE 35 AND YOUNGER

Even on a good day, New York is a tough town to start a restaurant. With a belt-tightening recession under way and thousands of free-spending Wall Streeters losing their jobs, the dining-out business is brutal. 

But try telling that to the crowd jamming into Dell’anima, a hot new eatery in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village that is projected to pull in $2 million in revenue in 2008 -- a 25% increase over earlier expectations.

So what’s Dell’anima’s secret? Co-owner Bobby Werhane, a restaurant business veteran at age 30, attributes its instant success to finding the right business partners. Picking 24-year Joe Campanale, a recent NYU grad and sommelier, to go into business with might look like a long shot on paper, but Werhane says it was a key decision. 

"Joe is young and energetic and passionate, a lot like me when I was his age…and we both have this drive. We’re a great check and balance…he can go at things a little differently than I do, but at the end we meet in the middle and make great business decisions.” 

Hiring Gabe Thompson, the chef at Dell'anima, which has been named one of New York magazine’s four best new restaurants of 2008, was also crucial, says Werhane. With Thompson’s cooking, Campanale’s extensive knowledge of wine, and a lot of hard work, says Werhane, Dell’anima (which means “of the soul”) took off. "Luck," concedes Werhane, "also had something to do with it."

But staying hungry and never taking success for granted is always top of mind. As "long as we continue to execute our product consistently, we will have decent staying power,” says Werhane. “We talk about this in our meetings all the time with our staff…that someday, sometime the phones are going to stop ringing and it's our job to keep it so they stay ringing.”

Still, Werhane, Campanale, and Thompson seem so confident they have found a winning formula that they just opened a second restaurant, L'Artusi. Recession, hah!

To learn more about Werhane, see the video below.

THE SIX SHOOTER

1. Where were you the moment you decided your business plan?

I was in the process of opening another one of my restaurants.

 

2. What was the one thing you didn't know that you had to bluff your way through? 

How to properly set up a wine list. But that what I have Joe [Campanale] for.

3. What one life lesson did you learn that helped you build your business?

My college athletics experience taught me to never give up and that hard work will prevail.

4. Who is your role model or inspiration?

My father. He's in the real estate business, and I've looked up to him my entire life because he's the hardest-working person I know.

5. What do you wish you had more of: time or money?

Money. There's plenty of time when you're dead.

6. What is the one word your employees would use to describe you? 

Hard-working. I like to give off the perception of being everywhere at the same time, and in order to do that I have to be the first one in and the last one out.

 

Want to know who's next? Check back every other week for more Young Guns...And if you know a young entrepreneur with an interesting story, e-mail us at youngguns@foxbusiness.com.

PODCAST	VIDEO
Download Podcast Have an iPod or iPhone? Get the Podcast available on iTunes	Video Archive Browse, search and watch your favorite Young Guns videos