Outsize ambition: $400m restaurant man

Stephen Starr has become one of America's most successful restaurateurs, making and replicating dining magic at places like Pastis and Osteria Mozza, writes Christine Speer Lejeune from Philadelphia and Nashville

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“I need somebody to come out and park my car,” Stephen Starr commanded into his phone one drizzly September evening. “I don’t have time to park.”

The prolific restaurateur swept down the narrow streets in his black S-class Mercedes before pulling up to Borromini, his buzzy new Philadelphia trattoria. Mr Starr strode through the double doors and was greeted by a young man in a suit who looked like a host - welcoming diners with a warm nod - but turned out to be a Secret Service agent.

Joe and Jill Biden were celebrating a grandchild's birthday at a long table on the restaurant's first floor, lined with antique mirrors and bathed in honeyed light.

Mr Starr has hosted the former president several times, and the men greeted each other like old pals, Mr Biden's hand disappearing into Mr Starr's beefy double grip.

How many places was Stephen up to now? the former leader of the free world asked Mr Starr, hand on the shoulder of the restaurateur's Zegna jacket. Was it 42?

“No,” the former first lady chimed in. “It’s 43 now, isn’t that what you said?”

She was right: Forty-three restaurants in six cities. Nine were among the 100 highest-grossing independents in the country last year, with Parc in Philadelphia and Pastis in New York alone grossing nearly $100 million. And more always more are in the works.

After the glad-handing, Mr Starr retreated upstairs to an intimate table in the 320-seat, $20 million restaurant that he had opened barely a week ago.

A few weeks earlier, he had opened a Pastis location in Nashville. A few weeks later, he planned to reopen Babbo in Manhattan. The reimagined version of Mario Batali's former restaurant once the most acclaimed Italian kitchen in the United States before multiple accusations of sexual assault derailed Mr Batali's career will have the Batali protégé Mark Ladner as its chef.