The NYC Food & Beverage Industry Partnership
NYC’s food and beverage industry is critical to the city’s economic strength, and vital to its social fabric and status as a global destination.
The NYC Food and Beverage Industry Partnership team, housed in the Department of Small Business Services and led by industry veteran Steven Picker, acts as a convener to drive alignment and collaboration among NYC food service sector leaders, operators, chefs, educators, workforce development orgs, service providers, innovators, philanthropy, and City agencies.
We lead strategic thinking to guide the City’s investments in industry-informed programs and initiatives, and continually seek to identify new, actionable ways the City can demonstrate its commitment to support NYC’s food and beverage businesses and workers.
Our Areas of Focus
Convening
We bring together NYC food and beverage business owners and other industry stakeholders to identify shared priorities, develop strategies and solutions to address challenges, and align on unified messaging to represent the interests of the sector.
Policies, Regulation, and Investment
We represent the voice of NYC food and beverage sector businesses through all stages of NYC planning on decisions related to policy, regulatory reform, and City investment that will impact sector growth and resiliency.
Download our 2022 Status of the Industry report
Workforce Development
We leverage the proficiency of the NYC Dept. of Small Business Services and other City offices to develop and scale culinary workforce trainings that create a robust talent pipeline, expand business education and entrepreneurship resources that support equitable development and opportunity, and improve industry employers’ ability to strengthen workplace culture, employee engagement, and retention rates.
Strategic Planning and Innovation
We work to improve NYC industry resiliency by supporting business sustainability, adoption of new technologies, building talent pipelines, creating a more flexible workforce, reducing the regulatory burden on small business owners, and building greater synergy among sector stakeholders.
Advisory Groups
NYC Hospitality Council
Our advisory group of prominent NYC food and beverage business owners and executives is aligned in seeking innovative, ambitious solutions to industry challenges.
Council members provide valuable insight and feedback that directly informs our long-term strategy work to create a stronger, more resilient NYC food and beverage sector.
Adam Eskin
Amanda Cohen
Andrew Tarlow
Bill Bonbrest
Brian Diamond
Dan Kluger
Dean Martinus
Dino Lavorini
Einat Admon
y
Elizabeth Murray
Ellia Park
Geoff Gljiva
Gregory Tomicich
James Mallios
Guy Vaknin
Jeffrey Lefcourt
Jennifer McMahon Elliott
Jeremy Merrin
Jeremy Wladis
John Meadow
John Rigos
Joseph Tarasco
Liz Neumark
Marty Shapiro
Nathaniel Young
Phillippe Massoud
Robert Severini
Simon Kim
Whitney Sanchez
F&B Small Business Roundtable
Our working roundtable of NYC food and beverage business owners engage in regular discussion on topics related to the operational challenges facing small businesses and the interaction between these businesses and city agencies.
This group understands the unique needs of operators juggling the daily challenges of running a small business in NYC. They support the development of clear, plain-language guidance on city rules, regulations, and best practices that is critical to their success.
Anthony Ramirez II
The Bronx Beer Hall
Ayala Donchin
Barbara Sibley
Daniel Grace
Dawn Kelly
Dudley Stewart
Franco Ortega
Julian Plyter
Kaarin Von
Luca Di Pietro
Mark Connell
Morgan Taylor
First Course NYC is the City’s industry-informed collaborative model for training qualified New Yorkers to become entry-level restaurant cooks - directly connecting them with good jobs and careers - designed to meet ongoing industry demand for culinary talent and delivered in partnership with respected NYC restaurants.
The program makes professional culinary job training accessible to disadvantaged New Yorkers, unable to afford the high cost of culinary training or facing other barriers to success, who are committed to jump-starting their career as a restaurant cook.
Our restaurant partners commit to cultivating potential by focusing on Best Practices in employee onboarding and training to drive retention and build a bench of new talent.
NYC Restaurant Hiring, Onboarding
and Training Playbook
A best practices guide to help NYC restaurants improve employee retention.
This Playbook provides strategies and tools that any restaurant (or other foodservice business) operator can use to create a more supportive and productive experience for your new hires resulting in higher retention rates.
The information contained in this playbook includes more than two years of key learnings from the onboarding and training of more than 250 New Yorkers as restaurant cooks through the city’s First Course NYC training, as well as decades of combined experience in NYC restaurants.
This content was developed by the Food & Beverage Industry Partnership team at NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and Empowered Hospitality – a NYC-based HR & talent consultancy specializing in the hospitality industry.
