Paul Mangiamele has always understood what it feels like to get knocked down. His father and uncle were boxers and, naturally, so was he. Sometimes officially, sometimes not. After getting out of the Naval Academy, Mangiamele had a goal to fight in the Olympics. He was schooled by legendary trainer Cus D’Amato, a forthright titan known for guiding Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres to world titles and helping launch the career of Mike Tyson.
Mangiamele says D’Amato taught him structure and to fall forward. “In simpler terms, he said, ‘Paul, whatever you want to do, you don’t do. That’s discipline. And whatever you don’t want to do, you make yourself do. And that’s discipline.’”
It’s a “get-up” mentality that’s stayed with Mangiamele, 73, over his life and definitely was there when he acquired Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale—the only two brands Norman Brinker ever created—in 2015 along with his wife, Gwen.
Atalaya Capital Management, Bennigan’s owner out of bankruptcy, brought Mangiamele, a former CEO of Salsarita’s, on to lead a turnaround. But Mangiamele saw it differently.
And this wasn’t just any filing. Bennigan’s had barely a pulse in 2008 when Chapter 7 erased all 150 of its corporate restaurants. Close to 140 franchises sliced in half during proceedings and whittled down to single-digits soon after.
Mangiamele, decided, though, to put the gloves on one more time. He ignored skeptics and acquired the assets from Fortress Investment Group (today the backer of SPB Hospitality and Red Lobster) to see if he could revive two of the category’s most iconic chains.
“I was told to my face, ‘you’re wasting your time. You’re wasting your money. These brands are dead,’” Mangiamele recalls. “And no brands have ever come back from Chapter 7. And so, I had a myriad of responses that were New York City street talk [like D’Amato, Mangiamele was born in the Big Apple] and instead, I said two words, ‘watch us.’”
“If this isn’t the comeback of the century for our brands,” he adds, “I don’t know what the hell is.”
Bennigan’s has growth movement happening stateside and internationally.
Bennigan’s this year celebrated turning 50. It’s doing so with some LTOs and nostalgic kicks, yet also with tailwinds. Mangiamele says the brand appreciated double-digit same-store sales increases over “the last several years.” Some of which owe to menu upgrades and bundling, but also to a larger value perception effort. Customers know they can count on Bennigan’s to deliver experience, he says, and much of the chain’s turnaround roots in resiliency and living up to a legacy Mangiamele feels personally responsible for (he was a friend of Brinker’s).
“The equation, if you extend it out, equals revenue generation and profit generation for our franchise partners,” he says.
And it’s only become more pressing of late given inflationary realities. Customers aren’t forgiving of receiving less for spending more.
Legendary Restaurant Brands—the parent company Mangiamele formed with his wife—has held to that principle. More recently, as Mangiamele noted, Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale rolled out updated F&B menus and saw unit-level profitability increases systemwide.
There’s a fresh ground-up Bennigan’s in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and an LOI inked for an area development agreement for Steak and Ale to expand in DFW, as well as another Steak and Ale slated for Anderson, South Carolina. Additionally, the company secured a 30-unit Bennigan’s On The Fly (the host kitchen/non-trad model of Bennigan’s) project via partnership with Franklin Junction.
Internationally, Legendary Restaurant Brands signed a master franchisee agreement to scale into the triple-digits in the Republic of India and executed a multi-store one for both concepts in Panama/Central America. The company finalized a deal to develop in Guyana and expects to scale further into the Middle East, dependent on regional tensions.
Per its website, there are six domestic Bennigan’s today alongside 33 Bennigan’s On The Fly and 15 international spots.
Overall, the company claims to have more than 100 stores open or under contract globally.
Opening-day celebrations at Steak and Ale in 2024.
Legacy and leading ahead
While Bennigan’s turned half a century in 2026, Steak and Ale reached 60. That brand, even more so than Bennigan’s, was left for dust. It vanished for 16 years before remerging in July 2024 in Burnsville, Minnesota. You had to revisit the final months of George W. Bush’s presidency to find a customer who had eaten there. Yet there were tens of thousands (currently there are 61,000) of followers in a Facebook group asking for its return.
Giving people something they’re clamoring for is a rather different task than sparking demand, Mangiamele says. There’s a weight of stewardship that comes with answering the call. It’s why, he says, the company was deliberate in everything from fixtures to partner to pricing—you can get Hawaiian chicken, rice pilaf, sautéed broccoli, salad bar, and scratch bread with honey butter for $18. And why the company took as long as it did to open the restaurant.
Mangiamele, more broadly, operates Legendary Restaurant Brands along this framework. He says the last few years have forced brands to adapt, his included. Consider it a “consumer-driven redefinition of value.”
“The traditional view of value is rooted in low prices and discount promotion,” he says. “What it’s been evolving into is a comprehensive experience.”
Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale have deep-seated wells of sentiment. But that’s just the beginning. Can they deliver beyond cost?
Bennigan’s still offers tableside Irish Coffee. Steak & Ale makes Caesar salads while customers watch.
There’s value derived from entertainment. And a more holistic proposition, Mangiamele says, drives frequency. Expectations do, too. If customers are scaling back visits and pocket watching, they don’t want to feel let down.
Mangiamele says Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale will continue to upgrade offerings, invest in remodels, train and retrain employees, pay attention to attributes like music and décor, and follow the threads that matter.
As he shares, there’s a reason so many executives in casual dining have come from the Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale school. Texas Roadhouse founder Kent Taylor managed a Bennigan’s in Dallas in the 1980s. Current CEO Jerry Morgan directed a Bennigan’s in Arlington, Texas, that decade as well. He was connected to Texas Roadhouse through former COO Steve Ortiz, who also began his career at Bennigan’s and spent 14 years there from 1982 to 1996.
Mangiamele says many leaders today adopted and replicated the training programs old Steak and Ale Corp. was famous for. “And I think that’s such a compliment because we’re preserving that culture,” he says.
In some respects, Mangiamele tries to follow the same path Brinker did at Chili’s when founder Larry Lavine sold it to him in 1983. Systems came over, and so did history. “That’s a legacy that I respect, I honor, and I try to preserve,” he says.
Concerning Bennigan’s On The Fly, which gives franchisees a flexible, hybrid mode designed for smaller, high-traffic locations, Mangiamele says they have 50 under agreement. He adds some category setbacks for tighter-footprint chains, like QSR, have opened opportunity for conversions. It’s a brand that can modify and adjust what it offers, such as alcoholic drinks.
In addition to the countries mentioned before, Mangiamele sees future growth in South Korea and more domestic Steak and Ale possibilities, perhaps Texas and Colorado.
However, Mangiamele says, the company won’t become a “victim of hyperbole.” You won’t see it toss out proclamations like “1,000 restaurants in two years.”
“I don’t think it’s practical to talk in those terms anymore,” he says.
If Legendary Restaurant Brands, under its arsenal of concepts, can open three to four full-service restaurants a year (not including Bennigan’s On The Fly), he’ll consider it a healthy pace. The approach allows the company to grow with intent and retain sight of why customers show up and why they return.
And again, Mangiamele has a lot riding on this. He invested millions of his own money behind belief in Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale. That changes how Mangiamele engages with operators and what “partnership” means when so much is at stake.
The company today holds zero debt, he notes. Mangiamele paid loans off to get started, and the balance sheet is strong.
Bennigan’s anniversary menu was available until April 1.
So, Legendary Restaurant Brands can instead invest in training programs, like a “University” platform Mangiamele created, and take advantage of technology. Employees and managers tap modules that cover “everything soup to nuts” online, he says.
“And I think that’s a tremendous advantage for us to not only train, but retrain, and cross train, to become a lit bit more labor efficient across the board,” Mangiamele explains. “And because we’re debt free and I don’t have to chase after the 90-day conversations … we can be a little bit more deliberate in terms of our growth.”
The blueprint isn’t complex. Mangiamele searches for franchise partners invested in nurturing Brinker’s legacy. It’s a soft approach; not hard facts or metrics. “But these are the things that added to the culture and the legacy that people want to be a part of,” he says. “It helps recruiting people because they know our brands and want to be a part of our brands.”
Mangiamele refers to this as “perpetuating our righteous mission.” If a prospective operator doesn’t feel that way, he moves on.
And if you haven’t noticed by now, Mangiamele lives by a mantra of “newstalgia,” as he was talking about five years back, where modernizing also means remembering how you got here.
Mangiamele began working in restaurants at 9 years old at his uncle’s trattoria in New York City, getting a few silver dollars tossed over at the end of the night to make him feel wealthy. Mangiamele was the “DMO.” AKA, designated machine operator. Also, AKA, dishwasher.
Even today, it’s the first place he’ll go when he visits a restaurant. Mangiamele considers it an overlooked position, but also a good touchpoint to ruin everything. Your front-of-house can hum and repeat every training prompt a manager orders. Yet if the food shows up on a dirty plate, or there’s cheese stuck to a fork, it’s headed back.
“I think it pays to be true to your brand, true to your people.” Mangiamele says. “And support the external guest as well as the internal guest who is part of your system.”
Mangiamele grew into positions over the years. He worked the line. Greeted customers. Bussed. Served. Bartended. Managed.
And as his path developed, from the Naval Academy to being an alternate at the Olympics (he did close in on that dream), Mangiamele kept coming back to foodservice. Like many people, it funded his journey until it became it. Mangiamele was considering teaching before a counselor told him to go be an entrepreneur. He was drawn to the frenetic atmosphere.
At 73, he says he feels 33. No mystery why. “Because I love it,” Mangiamele says. “The driver for us is passion. … You’ve heard me say a billion times, it’s all about passion. It’s all about your culture. It’s all about people. Of course you’ve got to have a good brand, you’ve got to have all the ambiance factors and components that make up a good dining experience. But if you don’t have those things going for you, you will fail. I guarantee it.”
Concepts arrive and flame out in this industry. Mangiamele has seen it all over the decades and likes to say, “don’t follow the fad, follow the trend.” He’s held steadfast as movements come and depart, whether it’s plant-based burgers or a more recent protein craze.
And while restaurants chase ebbs and flows, Mangiamele feels what makes Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale resonate boils down to what they guard and where they show restraint.
Customers still want to indulge, especially in a spending arena where everything feels pricier. They want that “little slice of enjoyment,” he says.
“I think it pays to be true to your brand, true to your people.” Mangiamele says. “And support the external guest as well as the internal guest who is part of your system.”
Mangiamele adds the market for casual dining today is “wide open.” Prices have leveled the playing field and given brands that major in experience a chance to tell that story (look at Chili’s).
It’s a talking point, Mangiamele says, that was there all along. A lot of casual brands merely lost the narrative. As he explains, “the guest never gave up on casual dining—casual dining gave up because they failed to grow at the time. They failed to innovate.”
Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale, he promises, won’t take guests for granted as their respective comebacks march on. Mangiamele will continue to focus on “experiential” over “transactional” and chase market share through details and feedback.
“I really think, the 15 years I’ve been hammering away at this, we’re ready to explode internationally as well as domestically,” he says.
