Danielle Mercuri started working in the restaurant industry when she was just 14 years old. And after she had a desk job for a few years, she realized she wasn’t made to sit at a desk. When she lost her job to raise her three children, Mercuri decided to waitress at her Rise N Shine.
Eight years later, she owns a hot brunch spot and an unconventional burger shop, Loded. She also plans to partner with local entrepreneur Adam Weitsman to open an Italian restaurant in her circle of careers in the fall.
The menu is as unique as her other two restaurants, with only classic, old-fashioned Italian flavors, she said. She said the atmosphere inside the restaurant would make dining at the restaurant a complete experience.
“It’s super high-end,” said Mercuri.
She hired Filippo Di Paola, a Northern Italian native who has lived in the United States for seven years, as the chef for her new restaurant. The tastes and flavors are authentic to Di Paola’s hometown, but plated “our way”. This means more exotic and unexpected food combinations.
After running Rise N Shine for several years, Danielle Mercuri opened an unorthodox burger spot called Loded. | | Meghan Hendricks, Photo Editor
During her four years as a waitress at Rise and Shine, Mercuri became particularly close to then-owner Peter Henessey. And they learned from each other. He taught her how to cook in a standard kitchen, and she taught him marketing tactics to improve her business.
Some time later, Hennessy was diagnosed with leukemia. While she was in the hospital, she asked Mercuri to take over the restaurant. She renovated the building and changed the menu, but she wanted to keep Pete’s presence in the business.
“His homefly is literally the same homefly as it is now,” she said. “I never changed the recipe”
In another way, Mercuri has made a small diner her own. From traditional egg dishes and pancakes to indulgent milkshakes and savory pancakes her flight, she originally turned DeWitt’s Thompson Her Road into a quaint breakfast spot packed with long lines waiting for tables. changed to a restaurant.
According to Mercuri, sales were consistently growing at an average of 30% year-on-year, and the restaurant’s small building couldn’t keep up with demand. She decided to move Rise and Shine to Westcott Street in a modern redesign.
However, Mercuri kept the old Rise N Shine building. Last year she converted it into Loded. She built her ’90s-themed burger joint to generate revenue and jobs during the pandemic.
Loded’s second location is already underway, but Mercuri has yet to disclose when and where. In addition to her ongoing Italian restaurant, she hopes to open more Rise N Shine stores across the East Coast, and perhaps in the next few years she hopes to expand her Loded franchise.
Her two current restaurants are bizarre mashups, with bulgogi toppings on hot dogs, fixed trash plates on burgers, and Benny pork belly and frizzled onions piled atop poached eggs and English muffins. Especially known. Culinary creativity extends to sauces as well. Rise N Shine dips her waffle fries into her cinnamon toast crunch cereal butter.
Al Ferenti, District General Manager of both restaurants, will focus on the new Italian restaurant once it opens. Mercuri’s hands-on approach shows great promise for expansion, said his Ferenti, who now has about 100 employees.
“I know this company will grow. I know it will grow fast and (and) I know it will be big,” Ferenti said. .
Mercuri took the restaurant business by storm with its exotic cuisine and entrepreneurial spirit, earning staff accolades in the process. But as a woman, she didn’t always have that kind of support, she said.
“Being a woman in this industry, having men under you, how men feel about working for women is a big deal,” Mercuri said. “There were quite a few people who couldn’t handle me being the boss.”
Aside from the new chef and Italian cuisine, Mercuri doesn’t reveal much about the greenfield restaurant, including its name. But she said she expects to hear more about her latest restaurant endeavor in the coming months.
“Three is just the beginning,” Ferenti said.
Published September 4, 2022 at 7:13 PM
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