How to Scale Without Losing Control

The Playbook With David Meltzer

David Meltzer, Entrepreneur.com

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s episode, I sit down with Gregg Majewski, the former CEO of Jimmy John’s and current founder of Craveworthy Brands, along with hospitality icon Jon Taffer. We talk about what it really takes to build and scale restaurant concepts with staying power—everything from team culture and real estate strategy to celebrity partnerships that actually work. Jon explains why he chose Craveworthy for his new concept, Taffer’s Tavern, and how trust and hands-on involvement shaped the deal. Gregg shares the structure that allows him to run 19 brands at once, and how shared models, smart pivots, and the right people make all the difference.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Entrepreneurs of Playbook. I'm David Meltzer. Thank you for your patience, gentlemen. I am blessed to be here at the National Restaurant Association Show. It is the biggest news here in Chicago. I am excited to be here with Greg Mujuski. He's the head of crayworthy brands as well as my friend John Tapper. Welcome gentlemen to the playbook. Good to be here.
0:23.2	This is pretty cool. We're like in a fishbow. It is a massive fishbow. And you're listening to us
0:28.5	out there so be careful. It is crazy. Well, look, you guys have so many different projects going on.
0:33.9	And one of the questions that a lot of people wonder is prioritization. You have so many
0:38.6	different businesses. You have your own podcast. Obviously, Craveworthy has so many brands. And now we
0:44.1	have Taftlers Tavern. How do you prioritize this project? I know you're opening, you have three
0:50.0	open and you're opening 20 different locations already and you have a lot else going on.
0:55.3	I think a lot of people that are in their first startup trying to figure out how you could
1:00.0	actually do one business, can't even fathom how you guys are handling all of the different
1:05.2	prioritized opportunities that you have. Greg, why don't you start since you have the most?
1:10.0	I mean, we have 19 brands today
1:12.4	and getting continued to grow, but in my eyes, a brand is a job. It's a element that you're
1:18.7	going to go and lead. It's the playbook and the people that you need in place to build it. So if you
1:22.7	don't have an incredible team, you can't build one. But when you build an incredible team with
1:27.2	incredible culture and you have that set up, But when you build an incredible team with incredible
1:27.6	culture and you have that set up, then it's just rinse and repeat over and over again. Different brand,
1:32.6	different DNA. But how you operate in the four walls of a restaurant doesn't really change.
1:38.5	If you do it right and you do it well, it's easy to go and keep going. And John, how did you pick
1:44.0	and prioritize the right partner?
1:46.1	Because I'm sure you're pursued by so many different brand organizations.
1:50.1	How'd you choose Craveworthy?
1:51.6	Well, you know, I chose Craigworthy because of Greg's DNA.
	...

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