The smell of cured meats hanging from the ceiling. The sound of the slicer working through fresh mozzarella. The constant rhythm of customers calling out orders while bread bakes in the back. For a young Mike in the 1970s, working in his Uncle Tommy’s New York deli wasn’t just a job—it was the beginning of […]

Most family businesses don’t make it to the second generation. The statistics are brutal—only about 30% of family-owned businesses survive the transition from founder to child. The restaurant business? Even tougher. The hours are unforgiving, the margins are thin, and the work never stops. Mike has spent 50 years building Wise Guys, starting from that […]