Michael Lapidus Email & Phone Number

I suppose you could say being an entrepreneur has always been in my blood. My mother was a 28-year-old single woman with two boys who started her own business, and her entrepreneurial ventures eventually led to inventing the original thermos with a pop-up straw (The Sipper) and everyone’s favorite bug zapper (Bug Lite) that glowed blue while killing backyard mosquitos. My mom wasn’t around much but when my mom was around, I did learn some valuable lessons from her that helped me when started my own businesses years later. She often had clients over and I watched closely to how she paid attention to every detail to make them feel comfortable and welcome. Fast-forward a few years, and I met my wife in college. We hit it off right away because of our common interests, and it wasn’t long after we got married that we embarked on our entrepreneurial path together. We started with one restaurant franchise, leading us to then become the master franchisor in Illinois. Unfortunately, that franchises ended up failing. But we weren’t ready to give up. So, we doubled down and started our own concept. BBQ was about to go mainstream, and we were leaders as it rose to a culinary trend. We nabbed 2 Michelin Bib Gourmands and grew to 5 locations and 200 staff. That was going so well, we decided to complement our BBQ with a hot dog joint. Everything we’d hoped for seemed to be coming true and over the next few years I was making my way on every local Chicago TV/radio food segment and was ready to grow even faster. And that’s when it came tumbling down. My addiction to alcohol started to get messy and all the emotions and baggage began to pile up. So much that I was forced out of my restaurants and had to face some formidable demons. Today, I’m sober of alcohol and vanity and more importantly clear on my purpose; to give two incredible boys a father that is present, engaged, and playful who loves and adores their mother. And with those parts of my life under better control, we’re off to the races again. In 2021, my bride Jaclyn and I embarked upon a journey to help serve restaurant owners in a new way. A way that we needed years ago. A way to handle and do things differently. A way to talk about some of the pits we were in but learn about those who came out bigger and better. We started a community called Ate Degrees. We have a podcast celebrating the messiness of being restaurant owners and we are building an App that will connect restauranters in a community with purpose. I hope you’ll join us along the journey!

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  Northern Illinois University