Joe Micatrotto Jr. mentors students at NRA conference

Nation's Restaurant News, June 8, 2009 by Dina Berta

Growing up in the restaurant business and majoring in hospitality in college, Joe Micatrotto Jr. had plenty of mentors. Now he is returning the favor. Micatrotto, a former managing partner of a Buca di Beppo restaurant, is president and chief executive of the Micatrotto Restaurant Group LLC, a Las Vegas-based franchisee of Raising Cane's, an 80-unit fast-casual chicken concept out of Baton Rouge, La. With four units and a fifth planned for later this year, MRG gave $50,000 to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Part of the money is to be used to annually send two UNLV hospitality students to the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago. This May Micatrotto escorted UNLV sophomore Jeffrey Holloway and junior Michael Tomorsky around the show and to some of the sights and restaurants in Chicago.

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Micatrotto and his brother, Justin, vice president of marketing, became Raising Cane's franchisees in 2005. Their father, Joe Micatrotto Sr., is the former chief executive of Buca Inc. who spent a year in jail for misappropriating company funds. He is not an owner in MRG.

How was the trip to the NRA show?

It was great. It was definitely a fantastic learning experience for them. They had never been through anything like that.

Did it remind you of your first time there?

Actually, it was my first time.

You're kidding!

No, really.... But it was nice to see it through the eyes of college students. We were learning together. They were baptized in the Chicago food scene. We took them to Rosebud, Joe's Stone Crab and Gino's East. They saw Wrigley Field. They also spent time with Clay Dover and Ian Vaughn [president and chief marketing officer and chief operating officer of Raising Cane's, respectively].

Are you partnering with UNLV as a way to recruit students?

We didn't start this as a recruiting tool for the Micatrotto Restaurant Group. Whether they choose quick service or to become chefs or run some place in Chicago, we want them to get the full experience of the industry without thinking in the back of their mind that they have to come work for us. These two young men were great. There is a good possibility we'll hire both of them.