Restaurant real estate, from both sides of the table.
The F+B Group advises restaurant and hospitality operators looking for space, and developers, landlords and hotels looking for the right operators. Offices in New York and Colorado.
The F+B Group advises restaurant and hospitality operators looking for space, and developers, landlords and hotels looking for the right operators. Offices in New York and Colorado.
JULIAN HITCHCOCK
julian@fandbnewyork.com
Julian Hitchcock is the founder of The F+B Group. His extensive hospitality background includes working with international hoteliers Ian Schrager and Morgans Hotel Group, as well as restaurateurs Alain Ducasse and The Tao Group. After working in restaurant and hotel operations, Hitchcock began to focus on real estate. Mr. Hitchcock served as Vice President for Barrington Partners, Inc., a real estate development and management company in Florida. Combining these two fields, Hitchcock now works as a broker and consultant focused on the food and beverage space. Clients include Death & Co., Blue Bottle Coffee, AvroKO, Lettuce Entertain You, NoHo Hospitality, Quality Branded and many others. He was the lead consultant and curator of Gotham West Market for the Gotham Organization. Zagat described Hitchcock’s lineup at Gotham West as “an all-star team of established, authentic small business badasses.” He is a native Coloradan and a graduate of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado.
WINSTON GITONGA
winston@fandbnewyork.com
Winston Gitonga has enjoyed over 20 years in the hospitality industry working throughout New York at esteemed restaurants such as Morell Wine Bar, Tao Asian Bistro and STK Steak in every capacity from back to front. With his zeal for entrepreneurship, Winston created his first solo venture in 2005 with Shiftdrink.com, a web based company that catered to hospitality professionals. With the success of Shiftdrink.com, Winston opened his own bar, MYBAR, in Chelsea on the west side of Manhattan. An unfortunate clause in his lease for MYBAR caused him to lose the space. Determined to never let that happen again, Winston began to study retail leasing and obtain his New York State Real Estate License. He now enjoys helping fellow restaurateurs avoid the same pitfalls when seeking spaces. Winston resides in the suburbs of Jersey City with his wife and their young daughter.
PHILLIP MORGAN
phil@fandbnewyork.com
A multidisciplinary design and strategy leader with 25+ years of experience building brands and places where people love to be. A serial entrepreneur opening the first of his many restaurants in 1994 and later founding a notable restaurant design firm in Brooklyn, creating 150+ incredible new spaces in the hospitality market. Renowned for his dedication and commitment to distilleries, consulting on process improvement in the creation of high-quality spirits. Continues to have a profound impact on the New York culinary and spirits community. Fluent in French.
The Infatuation rated Los Tacos No. 1 Penn Station an 8.2. F+B represented Los Tacos No. 1 on the lease.
Cherry Cricket opened its fourth location in Broomfield on August 25, 2025. F+B represented Cherry Cricket on the lease.
SunLife Organics chose Twenty Ninth Street in Boulder for its first Colorado cafe. F+B represented SunLife Organics on the lease.
Locanda Verde opened its second location at 50 Hudson Yards in November 2024. F+B represented Locanda Verde on the lease.
Modern and classic, a red sauce joint and a modern steakhouse all at the same time, Quality Italian is just about to launch in the Cherry Creek North neighborhood, inside Halcyon Hotel at 241 Columbine Street.
The industrial yet warm space designed by AvroKO surprises with pleasant contradictions and subtle elements. Owner Michael Stillman of the Quality Branded group, created a unique Denver sibling to the New York City counterpart of this Italian-American steakhouse. Custom art installations dominate the sophisticated space in Denver that seats 125 guests inside with another 20 on the patio. Look closely at the light fixtures and notice butchery tools being incorporated. Study the vintage family tree photos that dot the Legacy Room and find film icons like Sophia Loren in their midst. Observe how the Canary Room, one that can serve as a private dining room, is separated to create intimacy and you'll discover painting frames that show off the back side of the art piece.
Ivan Orkin, whose Slurp Shop for ramen is a popular draw in the Gotham West Market, is opening his second venture there, Corner Slice. This Italian takeout counter has coffee drinks and a concise selection of pizzas, sandwiches and pastries.
August 11, 2016
It’s no secret that many New Yorkers make real estate decisions based on restaurants. They long to live where they love to eat. Depending on your stage of life, the impossible dream might be a one-bedroom just a stone’s throw from Superiority Burger in the East Village, or a three-bed, two-bath around the corner from Bubby’s in Tribeca. Real estate developers have honed in on this feeding frenzy. They’re saying goodbye to anchor tenants like Cheesecake Factory and CVS and instead putting a beloved local chef in a restaurant just downstairs.
Beverage retailer Pressed Juicery will squeeze into an eighth location in New York City this year.
The company, which sells cold-pressed juice, has signed an 825-square-foot lease at 7 East 14th Street, Commercial Observer has learned. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Cold-pressed juice and juice cleansing company Pressed Juicery has found a new location in Midtown East: the lobby of a Triangle Assets building.
Pressed Juicery is taking 450 square feet of lobby space that is being converted for retail use at 369 Lexington Avenue near East 41st Street, Commercial Observer has learned.
Competition is fierce for restaurant real estate all across the country. But one type of restaurant space has proven particularly elusive: one with a small-ish footprint that's ideal for fast-casual dining. Everyone from national chains to locally owned fast-casuals to independent restaurateurs seeks out these types of spaces, ranging from about 1,500 to 2,500 square feet — imagine a Chipotle or a Chop't. In Portland, Oregon, where local fast-casual concepts like Lardo and Little Big Burger have sprung up in recent years, restaurateurs call the offices of the brokerage firm Urban Works three to four times a day asking for second-generation restaurant spaces about that same size.
New York foodies have never had it better.
Indoor food halls have become one of the hottest trends in the city's culinary scene, giving New Yorkers and tourists alike an array of cuisines all under one roof.
Aside from the variety in foods, with anywhere from four to more than a dozen vendors in one space, the halls offer restaurateurs the option of branching out at a lower cost.
In the ten years I’ve been in Shanghai, the only things I’ve seen get cheaper are avocados—but they started at $5 each and were ripe for a price war. There is such a deep faith that the price of everything will continue to rise that when real estate developers lower the asking price for new apartments, early customers are liable to trash their showrooms.
Blue Bottle Coffee — the Oakland, Calif.-based coffee wholesaler, roaster, and retailer — is moving its Williamsburg location just around the corner to 76 North 4th Street from 160 Berry Street. The company’s new 2,100-square-foot space is in the Lewis Steel Building, a recently renovated 1930s warehouse that’s being developed into a mixed-use luxury rental by Cayuga Capital and Jacob Toll, the son of real estate mogul Robert Toll. Blue Bottle signed a 10-year lease. - See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/01/05/blue-bottle-coffee-switches-williamsburg-locations/#sthash.M15rbgFa.dpuf
Lately it feels like every restaurant in Manhattan is closing — or will be soon — because of real estate issues: Union Square Cafe will move when its lease expires at the end of 2015. Wylie Dufresne will shutter wd~50 later this year. Meanwhile, favorites like August, Sorella, Bereket Kebab House, and others are all goners, too. (And Grub hears at least one big-name chef's rent has recently doubled.) It's alarming, but does it really indicate a larger problem, or is the timing just strange coincidence? To find out, Grub talked to Julian Hitchcock, an NYC real estate veteran who brokered all nine leases for Gotham West Market through KAM Hospitality,
Manhattan property group The Gotham Organization clearly ascribes to the “Field of Dreams” school of real estate development: Bundle first-of-their-kind/best-in-class commercial amenities into luxury residential rental projects and deep-pocketed residents will (hopefully) come. Such is the case with Gotham West, a brand-new rental scheme on the farthest end of West 45th Street.
Lettuce Entertain You’s Aba is coming to The Seam in Dallas’ Design District in late 2026. F+B represented Lettuce Entertain You on the lease.