We take the risk because we believe in you. You get the reward.
That’s the heart of CRAVEZ
Chef Gallery · your name on the wall · your plate on the pass
Story 01 · The heart
Every great chef starts with a dream.
For some, it’s a family recipe passed down for generations. For others, it’s years spent perfecting a single dish after long nights in someone else’s kitchen.
Too often those dreams stop for one reason: the cost of opening a restaurant.
A build-out can cost hundreds of thousands — even millions — before a single guest is served. For talented chefs, that barrier has little to do with skill. Everything to do with capital. We believe some of the best New Orleans and Louisiana talent is still waiting behind that wall.
CRAVEZ was created to change that. We take the risk because we believe in you. You get the reward. Not by lowering standards. By lowering barriers. That’s why we have the heart for this.
Instead of asking you to build an entire restaurant, CRAVEZ already provides what usually takes years:
A stunning dining room
Professional servers & dishwashers (we pay)
Shared commercial kitchen infrastructure
Live entertainment
Marketing · hotel guests · tourists · local regulars
A destination people already want to visit
Your responsibility is simple: create unforgettable food. Everything else has already been built around you.
At CRAVEZ, we don’t ask chefs to build a million-dollar restaurant. We build it for them — so they can build a legacy for their family.
That’s the promise
A full room · a table that feels like the reason you cooked
Story 02 · More than a commissary
Not a ghost kitchen. Not a food hall. A restaurant platform.
Six independent culinary identities. One unforgettable destination.
Every chef has their own identity. Their own menu. Their own loyal following. Their own story. Together, they create one of the most exciting dining experiences in Louisiana.
People won’t come because it’s convenient. They’ll come because nowhere else offers this — visitors staying upstairs, birthday tables, date nights, business dinners, tourists crossing the bridge, locals discovering a new favorite chef. Every visit feels different because six culinary visions live under one roof.
When guests walk through our doors, they won’t remember six businesses behind the scenes. They’ll remember the atmosphere. The music. The celebration. The people at their table. And the meal they couldn’t stop talking about.
When chefs walk through our doors, we want something different: not the feeling of renting space — the feeling of finally finding a home worthy of their talent.
Arrival energy · your food is why they cameOpen pass · house servers · you plate · they run
Story 03 · A destination for New Orleans
The best restaurants don’t have to be national chains.
Every day, thousands of people drive Manhattan Boulevard. They pass the names everyone recognizes.
Target · Sam’s Club · IHOP · Chili’s · Copeland’s
Those brands have scale. But in Louisiana something else is equally true: some of the busiest dining rooms are local — built on recipes, reputation, hospitality, and community.
People will drive across town for gumbo they’ve been thinking about all week. Wait an hour for the right crawfish. Celebrate birthdays where it feels authentic. Great food creates loyalty advertising can’t buy.
CRAVEZ believes the next great Louisiana restaurant already exists — in a food truck, a commissary, a catering kitchen, a church kitchen, a weekend pop-up. The talent is already here. The opportunity isn’t.
We’re not looking for tenants. We’re looking for the next restaurant that deserves to become a Louisiana institution — the next place people recommend before they recommend a chain. The next chef whose name becomes part of the city’s food culture.
Imagine what happens when a talented chef no longer has to worry about leasing a premium-strip box at $5,000+/mo rent alone, hiring servers and dishwashers from scratch, designing a dining room, or paying for expensive common infrastructure.
Instead, they step into a professionally designed environment where guests are already arriving. That changes what’s possible.
Instead of spending years trying to open a restaurant… they spend their time becoming a better chef.
The biggest risk is already gone. You don’t buy the building. Don’t build the dining room or the stage. Don’t hire servers and dishwashers before you know if people love your food. Don’t spend years hoping they find you.
You arrive in a destination designed to bring people through the doors. You keep what you earn — your recipes, your menu, your reputation, your future.
This isn’t a lease. It’s a launchpad.
Talent should never be limited by access to capital.
Our mission
XPRES · hostess hands it over · nothing sitting outFounding Six energy · not alone in the building
Story 05 · They don’t work for us
They work for themselves.
Every plate. Every recipe. Every customer earned. Every five-star review. Every regular who comes back asking for their food — belongs to them.
Not CRAVEZ. Not an investor. Not a corporate chain. The chef owns the brand. The chef owns the customer relationship. The chef owns the dream.
We don’t take your restaurant. We build the stage. You perform.
You don’t spend years raising millions to build a dining room. You don’t spend your life savings on construction. You don’t hire dozens of employees before you know if people love your food. We’ve already built that. You walk into a world-class destination and do what you were born to do. Cook.
When a guest orders your signature dish, they’re not making a corporation richer. They’re helping a chef pay a mortgage. Helping a parent send a child to college. Helping someone finally own a business with their own name on the menu. Every plate matters because every plate belongs to someone.
When you tell your people, “Come see me at CRAVEZ,” they’re not coming to support a corporation. They’re coming to support you.
“Where do you want to eat tonight?”
“Let’s go to CRAVEZ.”
“Which chef?”
“Yours.”
Your food deserves an address that matches your talent.
Imagine putting your restaurant on one of the busiest commercial corridors in Louisiana — not years from now, not after spending millions. At CRAVEZ, your name can stand alongside the biggest brands on the strip.
Target · Sam’s · IHOP · Chili’s · Copeland’s · You
Tens of thousands of vehicles every day. Not an industrial warehouse. Your front door on Manhattan Blvd. You didn’t buy the land. You didn’t finance the development. You earned your place in it.
CRAVEZ isn’t looking for tenants. We’re looking for six chefs whose food deserves a stage — passion, discipline, stories worth telling. The Founding Six will shape CRAVEZ from day one and become part of a culinary destination people travel to experience.
01Founding chef
02Founding chef
03Founding chef
04Founding chef
05Founding chef
06Founding chef
Build your legacy — not your building.
Plant your flag
We don’t ask chefs to build a million-dollar restaurant. We build it for them — so they can build a legacy for their family.
CRAVEZ
Manhattan Blvd · a destination already filling seats
The real math
What a full restaurant with full staff actually costs — vs planting your flag here.
These aren’t scare numbers. They’re what independent operators see on a premium strip — $5,000+/mo rent alone, plus servers, dishwashers, and a payroll that doesn’t sleep.
Traditional restaurant · your own
Entry — before one guest
~$375K
U.S. median to open an independent restaurant · often $175K–$750K+ · full-service higher
Build-out / renovation$80K–$350K+
Kitchen equipment$50K–$150K
FF&E, POS, licenses, deposits$25K–$80K
Pre-opening payroll & training$15K–$40K
Working capital (3–6 mo runway)$50K–$200K
Cash to open the doorsHundreds of thousands
CRAVEZ Founding Six station
Entry — plant your flag
$4,500
First month + brand/menu deposit + security · then cook
First month rent$1,500
Brand & menu deposit$1,500
Security deposit$1,500
Dining room · stage · FOH · dishwashersAlready built
Shared hood, dish pit, walk-insAlready built
Cash to start$4,500
Traditional · every month with full staff
Monthly burn — whether you’re busy or not
~$35K–$70K+
Illustrative mid-size full-service on a premium strip · before food cost
At $30,000 food sales: $6,000 to CRAVEZ — about what rent alone runs on this strip — and you still get staff + dishwashers + the room. You keep $24,000 before food cost.
We take the risk because we believe in you. You get the reward.
The heart of CRAVEZ
Why we have the heart for this
Because greatness shouldn’t need a million dollars to be seen.
We have the heart for this because we’ve watched extraordinary cooks stay invisible — stuck in someone else’s kitchen, a truck, a weekend pop-up — while the people who could build a dining room already had the capital. That isn’t a talent problem. It’s a barrier-to-entry problem.
We believe some of the best New Orleans and Louisiana talent is still undiscovered. Not because they aren’t ready. Because the door costs too much to open. So we open it. We take the risk because we believe in you. You get the reward — your name, your food, your following, most of the check.
On this strip, rent alone is often $5,000+/mo. Typical owners who carry all that risk keep ~3–5¢ of every dollar. At CRAVEZ — $4,500 to start, $1,500 + 15% — after ~25% food you’re looking at about ~55¢ on the dollar. Belief isn’t a slogan here. It’s a building, a staff, and a stage with your name on the wall.
Hard way · you take every risk
Open your own · keep pennies
~$1K
At $30k/mo sales, ~3–5% owner profit ≈ nine hundred to fifteen hundred bucks — after you already spent a fortune to open.
To open$200K–$400K+
Rent alone here$5K+/mo
Dishwashers · servers · utilYou pay
What you usually keep~3–5¢ per $1
Your reward for all that riskPennies
Smart way · we take the risk
Plant your flag · keep the money
~$16.5K
Same $30k food month. After $1,500 + 15% and ~25% food — about sixteen five in your pocket. That’s the point.
To start$4,500
Platform fee$6,000 (you still have ~85%)
Dishwashers · servers · room · addressWe pay / we built
Your food (~25%)− $7,500
You keep~$16,500 (~55¢ per $1)
One dollar. Two outcomes.
You open alone on this strip~5¢ left
You plant your flag at CRAVEZ~55¢ left
Who took the building risk?We did
Who keeps more of the food dollar?You do
We take the risk because we believe in you. You get the reward. We don’t own your dream. You do.
That’s the heart · Founding Six · $1,500 + 15% · $4,500 to start
One platform fee on a premium strip where rent alone is often $5,000+/mo — before dishwashers, servers, or utilities. No NNN stack. No staff pool on top.
Manhattan Blvd premium addressIncluded
Dining room · Chef Gallery · stageIncluded
Hosts · servers · bussers · expoWe pay
DishwashersWe pay
Hood · walk-ins · common cleanIncluded
Utilities (reasonable / approved gear)Included
Building · premises insuranceHouse carries
Marketing · entertainment · XPRES pathIncluded
Founding Six Year 1$1,500 + 15%
What you still pay
Your food costYours
Help inside your stationYours
Your coolers / approved gear / smallwaresYours
Your liability insurance (+ WC if you hire)You carry · CRAVEZ as additional insured
No NNN util CAM · no staff % on topLocked
To start$4,500
Fine print
Founding Six Year-1: $1,500 + 15% + $4,500 to start. Not $1,800 + 18% today. Later standard/renewal may step to ~18% with the same include list — raise the % instead of adding NNN lines. Excess utility beyond approved load may be surcharged. Food sales = POS-tagged dishes before tips. Application ≠ a seat. Counsel finalizes COI limits.
After the six stories · Apply
If your food is ready for the corridor — tell us who you are.
You just read the heart of CRAVEZ. Now write yours. Not a résumé — the hunger, the dishes, why your name should be in the conversation.
