Model Restaurant Group was founded in 2024 by Chef Grant Rico and Or’el Anbar with a focus on great food and great service. We create chef-centric dining concepts and customized, scalable solutions that solve many of the challenges of building successful restaurants. At Model Restaurant Group, we believe that restaurants are community builders, and each project reflects our commitment to bringing that belief forward.
Or’el Anbar, Co-Founder
As Chief Financial Officer of Happy Corner Hospitality Group, Or’el played a key role in driving the company’s strategic growth as it nearly doubled in size. Prior to Happy Corner, he served as Vice President of Digital at Just Salad, a national multi-unit restaurant chain based in New York City, where he led digital innovation and customer experience enhancements.
Or’el began his career cooking in renowned New York City restaurants, including Jean-Georges and Del Posto, before earning a B.A. in Anthropology and an M.A. in Quantitative Methods from Columbia University.
If he’s not cooking at home, Or’el is probably eating sushi with his wife Heather or reading a memoir with his dog, Tobiko, nearby.
You can find Or’el on LinkedIn.
Grant Rico, Co-Founder
Grant opened Seabird, a fine dining restaurant in Bainbridge, WA, as Executive Chef in 2022. Previously, he served as Sous Chef at Element 47 at The Little Nell and spent a year refining his craft at the acclaimed SingleThread in Sonoma, CA.
Grant earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Humboldt State University in 2013 before attending the Culinary Institute of America in New York, where he graduated with honors in 2015.
Both avid runners, Grant and Or’el met running in the woods behind their culinary school. When he’s not cooking in one of our restaurants, Grant is probably out foraging for seaweed, dreaming up new ways to cook carrots, or spending time with his wife Jenna and dog Frank.