LeaseQ announced a partnership with local chef and Food Network “Cutthroat Kitchen” winner Jared Forman to finance equipment for his Worcester restaurant and café, deadhorse hill. Named for the city’s famous hill, deadhorse hill opens as a destination dining spot during Worcester’s historic downtown revitalization movement.
“Bigger cities like New York and Boston have had great restaurants for a long time, but they’re becoming saturated with good chefs opening their own places,” Forman said. “Worcester has a great history, and here we have a chance to transform a dining community and be a big piece of it.”
Forman, former chef at Strip-T’s in Watertown, and his business partner Sean Woods, former bar manager at Ribelle in Brookline, left their respective posts in late 2014, recruited a business and finance expert and secured a grant from the City of Worcester to renovate an existing, downtown space. With some equipment on-hand, the pair consulted restaurant supply company TriMark to help identify and finance the missing pieces. TriMark recommended LeaseQ, who facilitated a loan for more than a dozen items such as a high-end coffee and espresso machine, refrigeration units and an ice cream machine.
“As a restaurant or startup, you can’t get anything from a bank,” Forman said. “LeaseQ matched us with NFS Leasing, who asked about our story, our expertise and our vision. The partnership with LeaseQ has been very special to us, and the scope of the restaurant changed because of it.”
“Partners like TriMark and NFS Leasing allow us to help chefs like Jared open new restaurants,” said Cory Damm, vice president and general manager for the Food & Beverage Vertical Market Group at LeaseQ. “It’s especially cool that this is a completely local transaction, with a local vendor, local lender, local chef and local marketplace. We’re proud to be a part of it.”
Forman, a New York native, previously worked in some of the finest restaurants in New York City, including Per Se, Momofuku, Ssäm Bar, Marea and Gramercy Tavern, among others. deadhorse hill is his first restaurant, and second chef position in Boston.