Executive Profiles: Brett Schulman, CEO, Cava Grill

Published on The Washington Business Journal

Image published by The Washington Business Journal. Image credit to Joanne S. Lawton

This job, he savors - Brett Schulman, CEO, Cava Grill

Money wasn’t enough for investment banker Brett Schulman. He wanted to have a passion for what he did. After a conversation with three like-minded friends of a friend — Cava Grill co-founders Ted Xenohristos, Ike Grigoropoulos and Dimitri Moshovitis — he took the helm of the restaurant chain, leading its fast growth and, now, a California expansion.

Biggest current challenge: Scaling our organization. I want to make sure we maintain the organization’s culture as we grow geographically, ensuring that we keep that family atmosphere.

Your next big goal: To successfully expand Cava Grill beyond our home market.

Hardest lesson learned: It isn’t as much a lesson as it is a philosophy. But it is the idea that everything that happens, happens for a reason. What may seem like a short-term negative can be a long-term positive. Then there is the idea that you cannot do everything by yourself. If you try to do everything yourself, you will crumble.

Best lesson from your mentor: We’re not so much defined by our success, as that of our adversity.

Why leave the investment banking industry? I left investment banking to do something I was more passionate about. While I liked the industry, I got to a point where I was a little burned out on it. So, I wanted to do something more interesting, something that felt as if I were building and creating something everyday.

Why the restaurant industry? I was fortunately introduced to the original founders of Cava Grill — Ted, Ike and Dimitri — by a friend from college. We eventually partnered and created Cava Grill.

What do you love most about your job? From a conversation me and Ted, Ike and Dimitri had five to six years ago in a room is now 400 employees, eight stores and growing. It is to see the fruits of everybody’s labor, to see a lot of people benefit from this growth, to create jobs and solve a problem for consumers and customers by bringing a healthier product. That is what I get passionate about.

The hardest part of leaving the investment industry: Giving up the income and stable job. That was a huge leap of faith, kind of like leaping off a diving board into the pool. It was giving up that steady paycheck for a lot of unknowns. Especially when my wife and I just had our second child. Here at Cava, we like to say it is a lifestyle, not a paycheck. I am happy because when I jump out of bed, I am jumping out of bed to build something and that is what gets me amped.

The hardest part of starting a restaurant in D.C.: There isn’t one particular issue. It is a lot of things that come together to make it difficult. It is a competitive landscape. The 2000 recession has attracted a lot of businesses to come here because the D.C. area didn’t feel as much of the economic hit. There is the regulatory environment you have to control to be able to build and open a store. Then there is licensing and many other things. I have heard a lot of stories about the constraint about being able to hire talented people because there is so much competition for them.

The biggest misconception about the restaurant industry: It is the idea that because someone makes good food means they can open a restaurant and serve it. What goes on behind the scenes or back-of-house also is a component. A lot of people don’t realize how many moving parts and how much work goes into ensuring that these long lunch lines move seamlessly. There is also making the food and service consistent every day for the thousands of people we serve every day and making sure each of those experiences are the best. To do that thousands and thousands of times a week. That it is no easy task. I respect anybody that takes on one or even multiple restaurants and the long hours that are involved with it.

Your favorite dish to eat: I would say a greens and grains Cava bowl.

Your favorite dish to make: I am kind of old school. I like cooking burgers on the grill at home.

Your special grilling recipe: I do seasoning and a little spice seasoning. Actually, there is a guy named Mathew Ramsey — he has got a little spice seasoning that I use recently that I have become a big fan of. I also have my own grounds short roots blend.

Earliest memory: It is probably my parents taking the family to see the Blue Angels Air Show. That was sort of my dad’s passion. My dad went to Embry-Riddle University and, for a period of time, he really wanted to be an airline pilot. When I was born, the second of two children, he had a wife and children and he had to work to support his family. So, he left his initial dream and went into the car business. But he was always a huge fanatic on airplanes. Always understanding the sacrifice that he made for us as a family, I have always respected the way he provided for us and brought us up in a great household. I always remember the Blue Angels in the air with all the acrobatic stunts and just remember how much flying meant to my dad.

Did he ever pursue flying? It is funny, but right before 9/11 happened, he went to celebrate his 50th birthday by going to United Airlines in Denver, where they used to let people do this. But he got certified in their flight simulator to fly a jet. That was his passion and dream. I remember him saying that if I wanted to grow up to be an Olympic skier, then he wanted to grow up and be a pilot. So, he was actually qualified to fly a jumbo jet. He actually had a commercial pilot’s license and used to take us up in his Bonanza airplane.

What did you want be when you grew up? I wanted to be an Olympic skier or ski instructor. My parents were afraid that I would grow up to be a ski bum.

Personality in high school: I was social, outgoing and active. I liked to play sports, whether it was playing summer league baseball with friends or just hanging out.

Favorite childhood show: I loved “Underdog.” It was an old cartoon about a super dog with a white “U” on his chest. He used to say, “Have no fear, Underdog is here.” It was just funny.

What one word would you use to describe yourself? Committed, because whatever I am involved in, I am committed to making sure that it is as successful as possible or that I devote my bandwidth to it and that I am present for it.

Guilty pleasure: If you asked my wife, it would be watching Terps sports. I am a big Terps fan.

Something most people don’t know about you: Only the closest people know this about me, but I am kind of a weather geek. I am just a big fan, which helps when it comes to deciding when to do store closings. When I grew up in elementary school, I used to stand in front of my class and give the weather report.

Favorite restaurant: My friend, Aaron Silverman’s restaurant, Rose’s Luxury on Eighth Street SE up on Capitol Hill.

Favorite place outside of the office: Traveling to the Big Island of Hawaii with my family. It is one of the few times I can decompress. I have been there four times. The Big Island is pretty cool because it has a lot of different topography, such as lava rock, Kohala Coast, the snow on top of Mauna Kea, and the prairies and coffee plantations.

Your favorite local spot: I really enjoy putting on my headphones and going trail running. I like to run through Dumbarton Oaks, through Wisconsin Avenue and then through Glover Archbold Park. There are really cool trails back there.

What keeps you up at night? Everything. I am a light sleeper. But more specifically, it is making sure as we grow as an organization that our culture doesn’t change and ensuring that it remains as strong as it stands today. We have a good deal of expansion ahead of us and as we grow an organization, I cannot have as much one-on-one time as I have now. I want to maintain the passion and the excitement for the business.

Pet peeve: Lack of ownership or divisiveness within an organization. We have built a very flat culture and organization where everybody feels like they have stage to speak their mind and nobody takes offense to it. It creates really productive ideas. There is nobody really working behind the scenes trying to undermine the culture. Culture is really important to us. I really don’t have patience for people who don’t speak their mind if they have an issue and create divisiveness because of that.

If you could invite anyone person to dinner, who would it be? Elon Musk. I think he is an incredibly creative thinker, and I enjoy his ability to think outside the box.

Businessperson you most admire: Steve Jobs because of his commitment to making the best and most perfect product. He never settled and he was just so focused on the details, and that is something we try to do here.

Favorite hobby: I love to listen to and curate music. I curate playlists for my family. I also love going to live shows. I also like collecting vinyl records. I collect everything from Radiohead to The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan to Ben Harper. There’s a lot of cool vinyl.

Your go-to karaoke song: I’m not really a big karaoke person, but if I had to pick a song, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by The Rolling Stones.

What is on your iPod? Radiohead. I am a huge Radiohead fan. Then there is some The Black Keys, Edward Sharpe, Ulco Bed and The National.

The basics

Name: Brett Schulman, CEO, Cava Grill
Age: 43
Education: Bachelor’s in social studies, University of Maryland
Family: Wife Mary; kids Sunny, 10, Sadie, 8, and Luke, 3
Residence: Bethesda
First job: Washing cars at a dealership

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