Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc. (LEYE) is a restaurant group currently comprising 120 or more restaurants mainly located in the Chicago metropolitan area. It was founded by Rich Melman and Jerry A. Orzoff in 1971.
History
The first restaurant, R.J. Grunts in Lincoln Park, opened on June 10, 1971.[1] It is still in operation, as of 2025.[2]
The company lists nine original partners: Bill Higgins, Melman, Bill Frost, Bob Wattel, Charles Haskell, Orzoff, Marvin Magid, Danny Koval and Fred Joast.[3] By 1976 the company had 5 restaurants and a band called Fresh Lettuce.[4] The partners continued expanding the company's network of restaurants. By the mid-1980s, the company employed over 2,000 people and had annual revenues of $40 million.[4]