When we formed our company, T.Y.P. Restaurant Group, Inc. and launched our first Tender Greens restaurant, we were well into our 30s. Old enough to have logged significant time in the restaurant industry, but young enough to know we’d still be working for many more years after our Ten Year Plan (T.Y.P.) reached its projected end.
What brought the three of us together was a shared belief that we could build a thriving restaurant business by designing an enterprise model around a set of core values. That belief, plus the need to share our collective courage to stop working for others and stake a claim of our own. We began by creating a company culture that would value all our stakeholders—team members, suppliers, investors, guests, and neighbors.
The business we built, Tender Greens, founded in Los Angeles, California in 2006 is a pioneering “polished casual” brand. Our mission was to make healthy, delicious, locally sourced food available to more than the elite 1% able to afford high-quality restaurants.
The Authors
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David Dressler
David began his hospitality career at age six, working in a family-run hotel in the Adirondacks. After graduating from the École Hôtelière, David built a career in luxury hospitality with Four Seasons hotels. Combining his professional experience with his personal style, he shaped and scaled Tender Greens’ distinctive heart-centered culture.
After leading Tender Greens as President and Chief People Officer, David founded Quiet Advisory where he holistically coaches and advises purpose-driven entrepreneurs. He is married to Randi and they have two amazing kids.
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Erik Oberholtzer
As chef and co-founder of Tender Greens, Erik helped create the now ubiquitous “fast casual” restaurant trend. Based on its mission to democratize good food and its chef-driven operations, Tender Greens prospered, growing to thirty locations across the United States.
In 2019, Erik joined Cohere as an advisor to founders of conscious brands as they navigate the headwinds of scale. Currently, he lives and farms (organically) in Princeton, New Jersey with his partner, Antoinette.
Follow the journey of three young entrepreneurs who in 2006 opened a radically fresh, disruptive restaurant concept in the heart of Los Angeles.
Defying the long odds stacked against everyone in the restaurant industry, the founders and their skilled team built Tender Greens, named by Conde Nast Traveler one of “The Ten Best Restaurant Chains in the World,” and by Forbes as one of the “25 Most Innovative Consumer Brands.”
We designed Tender Greens for growth—not simply to grow profits, but to operate at a volume that would make a difference.
