Berry and Reginbogin chose the D.C. area deliberately to build Knead.
“It’s very central, everybody comes to visit and it’s very convention oriented,” said Berry. “We have a little bit of a big fish/small pond mentality. It’s easier to make yourself in a city that really welcomes restaurants and new opportunities and ideas.”
Knead works with chefs who “want to cook and create but don’t necessarily want to deal with the intricacies of running big operations” in the nation’s capital, said Berry. Knead restaurants tend to be 300-400 seaters in high-volume developments.
“It doesn’t make sense to have one offs in a lot of different cities,” said Berry. “You need to cluster them so you can move people around without having people to leave the company or the city.”