What has the new owner of Beverly Hills Grill been up to this past year? Michael Raphael maintains what guests have come to expect from the restaurant where everybody knows your name.
Often, when a restaurant changes ownership, there’s a complete remodel, the menu is scrapped, and several employees are let go.
But, when Raphael Michael took ownership of the Beverly Hills Grill last year, he made a promise to founder Bill Roberts that he wasn’t going to do that.
“When I met with Bill, he told me he didn’t want someone to take over the grill and abandon everything he had built over the last 34 years. Bill had a very deep loyalty to his staff, and he wanted to make sure his predecessor would take care of them. I told him, ‘If you choose me, I will continue your legacy,” he said.
And that’s exactly what Michael has done – maintaining what guests have come to expect from the restaurant while keeping all of Roberts’ employees on the team.
“The staff here is amazing. Once I took over, everyone who was here before – they all stayed on. When they realized that my best interest was their best interest, they accepted me as part of the family,” he said. Michael has worked in the restaurant industry since he was a student at Eastern Michigan University, starting out as an assistant manager at Happy’s Pizza in Ann Arbor when he was 19. At age 24, he bought the pizzeria’s Kalamazoo location, where he stayed for the next 12 years before moving to metro Detroit and taking over Beverly Hills Grill in October 2022.
Since then, his only changes have been to bring back brunch, which halted during COVID-19, and hire more employees to keep up with the demand. In December, only two months after taking ownership, he launched a breakfast/brunch/lunch menu, which is now offered every Wednesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
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