Stratis Morfogen Of Brooklyn Dumpling Shop: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restauranteur

… Failure is part of the process if you want to be an entrepreneur. You have to learn to be okay with making a mistake, but then it’s extremely important to reflect and learn from that mistake so you can learn from it.

As part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restaurateur,” I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Stratis Morfogen.

Restaurateur Stratis Morfogen has a flourishing past in the hospitality industry. He was the partner and owner of several well-known establishments in New York, including Philippe Chow, Club Rouge, Gotham City Diner, and more. He teamed up with partners Robert “Don Pooh’’ Cummins and Dave Thomas to create Brooklyn Chop House. The most popular combination is the LSD, which includes a 2 lb. salt and pepper lobster, 2 lb. ginger and garlic lobster, 3 lb. dry-aged porterhouse steak, and 7 lb. authentic Peking duck. The game-changer and the uniqueness of the restaurant’s menu came by taking the staples of his father’s Hilltop Diner such as Pastrami, Lamb “Gyro,” Reuben, Philly Cheesesteak, Bacon Cheeseburger, and French Onion Soup and turning them into dumplings. The dumplings became so popular that Patti LaBelle partnered with the team at Brooklyn Chop House to bring a frozen version to Walmart stores across the nation next year. Morfogen’s first book, “Damn Good Dumplings,” from Macmillan / Page Street Publishing, is available online and in bookstores nationwide. His latest book “Be a Disruptor” is coming out in May exclusively on @Amazon from SkyHorse / Simon & Schuster.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know’ you a bit. Can you share with our readers a story about what inspired you to become a restaurateur?

I was a restaurateur from the womb, it’s my birthright. I knew what I wanted to do from the early age of 6 years old. My family owned 14 restaurants; my grandfather owned a restaurant Pappas Taverna which opened in 1910. But that is just one part of the reason for me becoming a restaurateur, the other is that a lot of 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation immigrants don’t embrace what their parents or grandparents were doing, but I did. I became passionate about the restaurant industry. Literally from age 6–18 I didn’t take a weekend off until my Prom when I was 18 years old. I would have rather gone to the Fulton Fish Market and worked than go to Disney World. That’s the level of passion I’ve always had for the restaurant industry.

Do you have a specific type of food that you focus on? What was it that first drew you to cooking that type of food? Can you share a story about that with us?

My father owned 14 restaurants from a Greek Diner, to a Catering Hall, to a Steakhouses to a Fish House. So, I grew up in all types of restaurants. As far as my personal love, I’m a disrupter. I want to disrupt everything I touch. And what I mean by that, when I opened my first diner, I brought in a 3 star New York Times chef cooking at Gotham Diner. When I opened my Italian restaurant Cucina Ciano, we were the first restaurant to do a half wine program, meaning that bottles from $80-$3000 could be split up and ordered by the glass. When it came to my love of Chinese food, I went to Mr. Chows for the first time and I realized Chinese food didn’t just have to be take-out, that it could be fine dining. Although I became so disgusted with the customer service, I basically stole the chef my Mr. Chow and created Philippe Chow and I did it my way disrupting his model. I continue to disrupt in everything I do. I believe that there are good parts in some existing brands, but I also believe there is another part that can be reimagined and I’ve done that with Dumpling Shops, Chinese Food, Chop Houses and now I’m going to do it with Greek restaurants. I’ll be the first wood burning oven in a Greek restaurant in the industry. Disrupting has always been my way.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you became a restaurateur? What was the lesson or take away you took out of that story?

The funniest story happened to me when I used to own nightclubs. In June 1994 I opened a club called Rouge right off Park Ave and 54th St. At that point I was just a kid from Garden City, Long Island and the only celebrity I knew was my neighbor soap opera star Susan Lucci. So, opening one of the biggest night clubs in NYC was totally foreign to me, from what I grew up with, this was a new stage for me. So, for our pre-opening we had a private black-tie birthday party for businessman David Koch. That party was on Thursday night, then we would open to the public on Friday. I have 50 first cousins, like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, so I made sure they all knew that the grand opening was Friday and not Thursday, as I didn’t think my big family would be suited for a Park Ave private black-tie event. Two hours into the night, I’m sitting in a back private area away from the party when I get a call from a person at the door saying, “We need you in front to make a call on if someone can come in.” When I get to the front I see a young black man with gold chains and du rag on, he was with a young blonde woman in a Yankee jacket and hat. My immediate reaction was to wave my hand across my throat and say they had no shot of getting in, as we were having a private black-tie event and they just weren’t dressed properly. I woke up the next morning to my phone ringing off the hook with people saying, “What did you do?” This was at a time before the internet, so I had to get dressed and go to my local deli and get the New York Post, and when I opened it up it had a 2 page of me with my hand waving over my throat with the headline “New Kid On The Block Rejects 2 Pac and Madonna.” Suddenly this created all kinds of mystique around me. This taught me that even when you make mistakes you can be in the Forrest Gump realm and be really lucky. I thought that would have destroyed my business, but it actually became the greatest thing that happened for that restaurant/night club as well as me. Of course, had I known at the time who they were I would have handled it a lot differently and welcomed them in, but by turning away the hottest couple in entertainment it helped me become really “cool” by mistake.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? How did you overcome this obstacle?

Anyone that tells you entrepreneurship is a checkmark; they are not entrepreneurs. You have to experience failure to succeed, I always say that when I come into guest lectures at colleges, which is something that’s really important to me because I like speaking to young kids. I want to teach them not to make certain mistakes, but also want to teach them to expect mistakes and I also want them to accept that failure is part of the game. If they think that the checkmark is a degree of success then they are mistaken, the path to success is like a ball of yarn, it’s up and down, left and right, upside down there’s no checkmark. I want to show them if you do have a checkmark, that means that you haven’t risked enough. And that’s nothing to be proud of because you haven’t pushed yourself enough, because if you did play with that ball of yarn you would probably be more successful today. I also tell students your time to fail is in your 20’s, and then your 30’s is where you fix that mistake. I always tell people that the old model of grinding it out in your 20’s and conforming to the status quo until you retire at 60, is an old rule that’s bullshit. Now a days you should fail as much as you can in your 20’s, then don’t make the same mistakes in your 30’s and retire in your 80’s, it’s important to remember that the old model was developed over 120 years ago when people lived till 64 years old, so really none of those rules apply today with people living on average to 84.

In your experience, what is the key to creating a dish that customers are crazy about?

You have to keep failing until you get it right. When I created the Cro’Sumplings™ we had over 10 variations before it finally succeeded. Fortunately, or unfortunately, you have to try out products with the consumer, which can result in a few bad reviews in the beginning, but there’s a few items like Cro’Sumplings™ that if you compared the original to the version being sold now it’s night and day, but we needed to go through that process to get to the Cro’Sumplings™ we have today.

Personally, what is the ‘perfect meal for you’?

LSD, which includes a 2 lb. salt and pepper lobster, 2 lb. ginger and garlic lobster, 3 lb. dry-aged porterhouse steak, and 7 lb. authentic Peking duck never fried, always roasted and cut table side.

Where does your inspiration for creating come from? Is there something that you turn to for a daily creativity boost?

I never take anything served on a platter. When we created the Brooklyn Chop House menu and it got down to the sandwiches, and you figure after just having created LSD as well all the cultural smash ups we did with Beijing cook and steak house, that we would stop there. But I said no I don’t want to stop there, I wanted the French onion soup dumpling, I wanted lobster bisque soup dumplings, I wanted to do funky dumplings that were once sandwiches. So, for me you can serve it on a platter but if you give me a little time I’m going to change it. I hate doing something that someone has done before me in the same way.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? What impact do you think this will have?

With my new restaurant Brooklyn Dumpling Shop I’m disrupting the whole QSR market, bringing back the automat. Following the success of the dumplings at Brooklyn Chop House, I told my partners in 2019 I wanted to create a 2-ounce sandwich shop. They looked at me like I was crazy, so I said, “what’s a dumpling to you because to me it’s a 2-ounce sandwich.” I had the idea to continue what we had already started creating more dumpling/sandwich options like PB&J, Turkey Club, Matzo Ball Soup and more. Creating a really cool and unique sandwich that really has no comparison to the great Chinatown dumpling shop but has more comparison to a Katz’s Deli. Once I had this idea, I started researching ways so many fast-food restaurants chose, and number 1 reason is high payroll. So, my idea was to get rid of cashiers the same way toll booth clerks are no longer needed on bridges or tunnels as they have implemented technology to scan your license plate without the need for you to stop and make a transaction with a clerk. Similarly, when ordering food, you should be able to order off your phone, book your time from when you want to pick it up, pay ahead and get a QR code sent to your phone via text. Then you can simply walk in and scan your code, get your food and go without having to wait in line or converse with anyone behind the counter. Because at the end of the day people are just on the run and aren’t dining in as much these days. With that said we have created Brooklyn Dumpling Shop and we have reimagined not just what a dumpling could be but we have also reimagined what sandwiches can be. And then by applying the automat and making it viable to your phone, where you as a consumer can control the whole order process, I found that extremely appealing. Then Covid hit 6 months later after we had already figured everything out with Panasonic. I hate to say this but the timing was perfect. Why I say I hate saying that is because a lot of people experienced pain and loss. But I created this whole 100% contactless concept in 2019 and in 2020 we get Covid-19. Weirdly enough the original automat that was created by Horn and Hardart exploded after the Spanish Flu a hundred years prior. History has really repeated itself and I was in the middle of it because I didn’t factor in this thing called Covid-19. With that said we are the only fast food/fast casual/quick service that sold over 50 franchises prior to opening store one, which has never happened in the history of restaurants, and I believe it happened because of timing. People thought we created our version of the automat because of Covid, but we didn’t create it for safety reasons, it was created for economics because 7 out of 10 restaurants fail within 3 years. I knew that if we could bring payroll down to 15% from the industry average of 30%, I knew that 7 out of 10 might not fail, in fact they may succeed. We are proving this model over and over again as we open up a new Brooklyn Dumpling Shop every 3 weeks. It’s the hottest QSR franchise concept in the industry and it was all done by luck.

What advice would you give to other restaurateurs to thrive and avoid burnout?

My best advice to thrive and avoid burnout is diversification. During Covid I had a lot of restaurateurs who I respected and admired and they were having a problem paying their bills, like many others did. I said to them you have to have a consumer product; you have to have online ordering. You need to spread yourself out and diversify, you can’t just be a restaurant that appeals to people walking inside your space. You have to have a main order component, that’s what we have done with Brooklyn Chop House and Brooklyn Dumpling Shop. I did the same thing in 1997 when I brought the Fulton Fish Market online, and everyone called me crazy. I told everyone in early 1997 that “this thing called the web isn’t a business card like most restaurateurs are using it for, it’s going to become a part of our lives and is going to be part of our revenue.” So, when Covid hit, a lot of restaurants got exposed because they didn’t have an online ordering platform, they basically just had a static website that was a business card with at most an open table link. This hurt many restaurants because they didn’t diversify, they didn’t expand enough and then during Covid they had to scramble. I think the next big wave, which we will be the first to open, will be NFT’s. Like I said in 1997 about websites, I’m saying it today in 2022, NFT’s will be the next phase of hospitality. I believe that by 2025–26 everyone will have an NFT program on the metaverse. I’ve already been called crazy, but this is Web 3.0 and if people don’t do this now, they are going to be late to this game as well. That’s why we are launching the first ever private NFT cellar at Brooklyn Chop House Times Square.

Thank you for all that. Now we are ready for the main question of the interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started as a Restaurateur” and why? Please share a story or an example for each.

1 . Failure is part of the process if you want to be an entrepreneur

∙ You have to learn to be okay with making a mistake, but then it’s extremely important to reflect and learn from that mistake so you can learn from it.

2. You need to be aware that being a restaurateur/ entrepreneur is a 24/7 job and the stress of this will be felt by those around you.

∙ This commitment can result in some relationships ending, so it’s important for those close to you to understand what this career really takes not only from you, but those around you.

3 License instead of owning everything.

∙ When you take on the financial commitment on your own, one downturn can cause your whole life to unravel. While with licensing you have 4 or 5 groups who are taking a smaller percentage. In turn you don’t have to worry about day to day issues like if the plumbing breaks or if the rent is paid. Of course, you want them to succeed, but not all the burden falls on you.

4. Surround yourself with smarter people.

∙ Instead of owning 100% of everything, own 25–40%, but make sure that the people who own the remaining 60–75% are smarter than you. Sharing equity with people who are smarter than you or bring more to the table. I’m a very top line kind of thinker so whenever I had a CFO who can handle bottom line issues, I have been able to thrive even more because they were watching the bottom line as I was watching the top line.

5. I don’t believe in post graduate studies

∙ I think you should extern/intern for the company of your dreams. Rather than going to six years of education and leaving with 100K+ of student loan debt. Get your undergraduate degree, but then you should jump right into the work you want to do.

What’s the one dish people have to try if they visit your establishment?

It’s not one dish, but a whole concept — LSD, which includes a 2 lb. salt and pepper lobster, 2 lb. ginger and garlic lobster, 3 lb. dry-aged porterhouse steak, and 7 lb. authentic Peking duck never fried, always roasted and cut table side. #LSD has been hash tagged so many times by people at Brooklyn Chop House that I actually received a letter from the FBI that I’m under investigation for the promotion of narcotics. They then removed #LSD off of Instagram because it was being used so much by people eating at Brooklyn Chop House.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

When Covid hit and many others were hiding, I took it as an opportunity to strike. I was able to close two of the biggest deals in NYC, one was 25,000 Sq ft for Brooklyn Chop House Times Square and the other was 14,000 sq ft, being my grandfather’s restaurant Pappas Taverna back. So never run away from a burning building, run into it. What I mean by that is when shit hits the fan you have to strike. Because you never strike in an up market only in a down market. Normally Times Square was never a place for small guys like me, but now Times Square is for me because during Covid the opportunities were out there, and nobody was grabbing them. A great example of how this can apply to others is a story I heard when doing one of my guest lectures last year. I met a young woman named Linda, who told me about her father who owned an Italian restaurant for 35 years but had lost it due to Covid. Since losing his restaurant her dad fell into a deep depression, as he thought that at 65 his life was over. I told Linda to sharpen her boot and give her dad a hard kick in the ass, because no matter what he has lost he still has intellectual property. I know 25 landlords that would want to speak to her father because he ran a successful restaurant for 35 years. These landlords have lost restaurants as well and they are willing to put money behind someone with a track record. And that at 65 he’s only in the heart of his career, but he has got to pick himself back up because nothing is going to happen sitting on the couch. Lucky happens to those that work hard, as well as when preparation meets opportunity.

Thank you so much for these insights. This was very inspirational!

Thank you for having me!