Jose Andreas - honorable mention
José Andrés
President at ThinkFoodGroup
Any serious student of real estate over the past two decades has recognized the importance of food.
The neighborhoods that have blossomed and thrived are the ones that eat well; they are the ones where people want to spend their leisure time, or even their work time. They are as much a part of the landscape as any other factor. And when the Spanish-born José Andrés came to Washington, D.C., in 1993 to helm the kitchen at Jalos at age 23, the District didn’t know just how badly it needed a figure like him.
Today, Andrés counts an unparalleled list of D.C. restaurants in his empire: Oyamel, China Chilcano, Zaytinia and, of course, Minibar, which has two Michelin stars under its belt and where the prix fixe runs a jaw-dropping $295 per person. (Before he was president, Donald Trump also was fleetingly – and disastrously – in business with Andrés to headline the restaurant at Trump International.)
Moreover, Andrés’ realm has stretched well beyond Washington; his restaurants have cropped up in Las Vegas, the Bahamas and Chicago. When Stephen Ross needed a celebrated chef to feed the crowds at Hudson Yards in Manhattan, he turned to Andrés.
We have honored Andrés on this list in the past, and we’re not usually in the habit of giving laurels to restaurateurs multiple years. However, at a time when ESG takes on ever more importance in commercial real estate, it is worth honoring someone who has truly gone beyond platitudes and put himself at the center of societal change.
When he was on the list back in 2019, we highlighted that Andrés’ World Central Kitchen (WCK) brought earthquake disaster relief to Haiti in 2010, served more than 3.5 million meals to Puerto Ricans devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017, and was on the ground for Hurricane Harvey in Houston and Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas, not to mention California wildfires.
But we were humbled, yet again, by Andrés’ efforts. As refugees flooded over the Ukraine-Poland border, Andrés was there on the ground to greet them and feed them, with WCK doling out some 250,000 meals per day to refugees, per CNN. And, in a final move that would inspire admiration from veteran heart-string pullers, he was even arranging blue and yellow Easter baskets for child refugees. If commercial real estate is serious about doing well by doing good, they can start by learning from José Andrés.
