Meet Restaura Hospitality Group, the newest player in senior dining

On Oct. 1, Restaura Hospitality Group kicks off its quest to bring the latest in tech and culinary to every facet of dining operations for senior living communities, focusing on active senior living communities rather than skilled nursing facilities. The founders, Richard Schenkel, founder and former exec at Unidine and Joe Cuticelli, former Sodexo exec, have high hopes for this new venture, and are offering 35% of the company to employees for part-ownership, a move intended to strengthen the company’s culture.

While today marks the launch of Restaura, it’s been in the works for the past 18 months. 

“We’ve done extensive research and we went into this really looking at the market and understanding where the gaps were,” Cuticelli says. “Clearly, the Baby Boomers are coming into this space and have a different set of expectations.”

Cuticelli and Schenkel, both in that age group, asked themselves, “Where would I want to eat?” and went from there, they say. 

While strong culinary is paramount, Restaura is positioning itself as a leader in technology, “and we’re not talking robots,” Schenkel says, adding that the technology’s main purpose will be to gather real-time feedback and harness data-driven insights and state-of-the-art solutions, not to take away resident-facing interactions.

The healthcare industry tends to gather customer feedback in a more formal way, with surveys that often come out just once a year. Restaura’s model allows for gathering data on a day-by-day basis, allowing for better customer satisfaction, theoretically, with customers and the client sharing what they’d like to see.

Restaura’s future clients will be empowered to make big decisions, but “we’re not going to get driven by clients who say they don’t want any technology; that would bastardize the brand,” Schenkel says. “It’s not that we won’t be flexible, but we believe that culture is so important, the only way we’ll operate a facility is 100%. People need to understand this is an offering built on lots of research and a lot of study.”

Part of the culture is the decision to allow employees to be part owners of 35% of Restaura.

“We are fundamentally aligned that culture is what makes the difference in an organization and propels world-class organizations to be the best,” Schenkel says. “Providing ownership to employees does that.” 

Both Cuticelli and Schenkel see an opportunity for senior dining to become less “nursing home” and more “longevity culture,” following the link between eating good food and living longer.

They cite the work of the MIT AgeLab as an inspiration for Restaura, with its multidisciplinary research into translating technologies into practical solutions to improve people’s health and allow them to be active throughout their lifespan.

Looking ahead to the future, growth is planned. “As we grow and expand in scale there are lots of opportunities for us to hire,” Cuticelli says. “We really want people aligned with our core values, and with the ownership piece and the culture of our brand identity, we’re going to become a very attractive employer.”