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JIM CAFARELLI
'A niche industry' | For Hub Restaurant Designer, the Customer Is Always Right
July 11, 2005
By Ashley Wilkins
Jim Cafarelli can walk into a space and, in a matter of moments, see exactly what the finished product should look like. In less time than it would take a customer to select a starter course, the self-employed restaurant designer, owner and developer already has imagined the flow of foot traffic, the exact shade of the burgundy stain and the particulars of every place setting.
"In every restaurant I've ever designed, I saw it the way it should be in about a minute. I look around and instinctively there are assets that are valuable and assets that are not valuable. No matter how much I tinker with it after that, I always go back to how I originally saw it," Cafarelli said.
The Dorchester native insists that his skill wasn't bestowed upon him by some omnipotent source, but rather is the product of many years on the job.
"Any expert at what they do can make it look easy. It's not a God-given talent; it just came from a lot of experience," he said.
Experience is one thing that Cafarelli certainly has in abundance. Even before he studied at the Boston Architectural Center, he entered into the construction industry at the age of 17. He started working for Braintree-based The Flatley Co. under the supervision of Thomas Flatley, someone he considers instrumental in his career.
"Mr. Flatley is as much of a mentor and father figure to me as anyone. He guided me in some ways. I am the person I am today and lead the life I do because of the things he taught me as a young man," said Cafarelli, who, judging by his employment record at The Flatley Co., certainly learned a lot. "As I grew in his company I became the 'youngest' everything: the youngest project manager, the youngest field construction manager, the youngest vice president and the youngest executive vice president. Along the way I sort of achieved the equivalent of a master's [degree] in real estate development by developing projects all over New England."
Making an Impression
Cafarelli took the experiences he learned climbing up corporate ladders and building business techniques and started his own real estate company, CAFCO Development, in 1988 with then-partner Joe Thibert.
Cafarelli's success building restaurants began with a partnership with chef Lydia Shire to build Biba (now the Excelsior) on Boston's Boylston Street in 1989.
"Her operation was coming in higher than her budget could afford. Through my evaluation of the job, I said I could do it for a certain number, and we did it. We didn't make any money at it, but it put us on the map. That was the beginning of starting to do restaurants for me," Cafarelli said.
For Cafarelli, building a single restaurant was almost easy in comparison to the work he had done at The Flatley Co.
"With Mr. Flatley we would build entire hotels with three restaurants, so building one was no problem. When I first started I didn't realize that restaurants were a niche industry you could build an entire career upon," Cafarelli said.
But build he did, slowly at first and then more rapidly once he hooked up with Jack Sidell of U.S. Trust, who provided financing for start-up restaurants.
"I can't tell you how many restaurants we did with U.S. Trust, not directly, but they'd have an application and say 'who is going to do the work?' and we got our fair share. It opened up a door to a whole new world," said Cafarelli, who estimates the number of restaurants built at around 250.
That world led to another - one filled with celebrities, high-profile jobs and ultimately, the blues.
In 1992, Cafarelli sold his share of CAFCO Development to his partner and focused his energy solely on consulting for restaurant projects.
That same year, Cafarelli met Isaac Tigrett, the founder of the House of Blues. At that point in his career Cafarelli was involved with a variety of other endeavors, but was soon asked to hone his scope to just one.
"I had other entertainment clients. I was working for Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Co., David Copperfield, Quincy Jones, to name some," Cafarelli said. "House of Blues came to me as an investment group and said, 'We don't want you to work for the competition.' They wanted to make me an exclusive developer for their chain."
Cafarelli took the job and moved his family out West, where they stayed until the House of Blues was bought out. Soon after the sale, they moved back to the East Coast, where Cafarelli returned to Boston and flung himself full force into the restaurant scene.
In 1998 he partnered with chef Todd English in a venture dubbed the Olive Group Corp. and created a series of successful eateries including Olives Las Vegas, KingFish and Rustic Kitchen. Ultimately, the partnership did not endure and ended in a highly publicized legal battle in 2003, after which Cafarelli gained full control of the Rustic Kitchen franchise, a project he has poured his time, finances and heart into since its inception.
"I completely designed all three [Rustic Kitchen restaurants] from top to bottom, from program layout to door knobs," said Cafarelli of the franchise's Faneuil Hall, Cambridge and Hingham locations. A fourth location is slated to open its doors next spring.
Although his career has evolved from big-picture construction projects to detail-oriented design work, the connection between Cafarelli's beginnings and his current business is striking.
"There are similarities between the construction industry and the restaurant industry. Both are people industries - people are customers and we provide them with a product. On top of that there are many moving parts to developing a piece of real estate, literally in terms of how you make everything fit together properly. And there are also many moving parts in the restaurant industry including people, creation of products and how you present everything," said Cafarelli. "You apply the same techniques in each business. The only difference is that the restaurant side was always my passion. As a kid in Dorchester we didn't go out much, so it was all so very romantic. I thought it was a great way place to make people happy. Perhaps because of that, through design and also on a personal level, I strive to make an impression on every customer."
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