Our Roots

About Rise

Founded in 2015, Rise embodies a confluence of factors: passion, expertise, pragmatism, attitude and style perfectly reflect Rise’s business approach.

With an affinity for helping Independent restaurant concepts flourish, Rise takes a time tested approach to the Food & Beverage industry. Dedicated to our client’s success, we can guide from Idea to Implementation, entry to exit.

Helping owners and operators who don’t have the bandwidth or perspective to take on strategic analysis and operational challenges is what we do best - building culture around shared values is what we aspire to.    

We provide only the strategy you need, from performing focused tasks within your current system to executing an entire Restaurant start-up, rebrand or turnaround.

Ready to Rise to the occasion… Drop us a line today. 

About Jon

Raised in the family hotel business, our President and Founder, Jon Nassif’s exposure to hospitality began at a young age. Starting in the dish-room of his family’s Chautauqua, New York hotel, the hard work of running a kitchen soon began to mesh with the energy, excitement and sense of pride the hospitality business offered.

Following a cooking stint at a wilderness lodge in Alaska - and graduation from Ithaca College, NY - Jon moved to Denver with his young family. Once there, his deep-rooted entrepreneurial spirit came to fruition with the start-up of GREEN: Fine Salad Co, which he grew to a multi-unit restaurant and franchise company. 

Two decades on, Jon has held every restaurant-role from cook, to start-up, CEO and strategic advisor. This variety of experience and exploration, positions him as an industry expert learning from the inside out. He understands the significance of people coming together around food, and is focused now on using his expertise to advise like-minded people as they develop their own F&B organizations.

Our Qualifications

Jon founded Rise F&B Strategy initially as a way of sharing his knowledge of restaurant start-up with new restaurateurs who were driven by good ideas and a will to succeed, but inexperienced in a challenging industry.

Jon and team have helped launch, improve and turn-around restaurants across diverse food concepts. As dramatic shifts in the industry evolve as a result of COVID-19, Rise can advise how to make a fast pivot and keep clients solvent.

As a 20 year restaurant veteran, Jon remains immersed in the industry as a restaurant owner, advisor, food critic and cook who keeps his clients on trend and from making costly mistakes.