Team
Howard Wein Hospitality is an advisory and venture firm serving the global hospitality community.
Established to leverage years of successful senior leadership in the restaurant, bar and entertainment spaces, HWH works with real estate owners and hotel management companies to develop restaurant, bar and entertainment concepts for their assets. Wein also owns and operates The Alvah Stone in Montague, MA. For more information please visit www.thealvahstone.com.
Howard Wein, President/CEO
Howard Wein is an experienced Hospitality Developer and Operator, with unparalleled leadership success in the cutting-edge culinary, restaurant and entertainment industries. He has extensive experience in the most competitive markets, having designed, developed, opened and operated in New York, Miami, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Phoenix, Los Angeles, London and Las Vegas.
Prior to founding HWH in early 2011, Howard was working with MorgansHotel Group, where he directed over $150M in revenues as Senior Vice President of Food and Beverage. The first to hold such a position since Ian Schrager started the company in 1984, Howard oversaw all restaurant, nightlife and entertainment throughout the company’s global portfolio of lifestyle hotels.
Howard also served as Starr Restaurants’ Chief Operating Officer from 2004 through 2008, and as President of Starr’s Hotel Food and Beverage Management Division beginning in 2007. Under Wein’s leadership, the company grew from $45M to over $100M, including the iconic openings of Buddakan and Morimoto in New York City. He led over 2,000 employees and 11 different concepts ranging from Modern Asian, Japanese, Sushi, Boutique Steakhouse, American Comfort, Global Tapas and Nuevo Latino — with the full range of check averages from $15 to $115.
After obtaining an MBA from the prestigious Cornell School of Hotel Administration, Howard served as Corporate Director of Food and Beverage for Starwood Hotels where he launched W Hotels and went on to manage over $2B in owned and managed FNB revenue for the Starwood portfolio.
Most recently on the venture side of HWH, Howard opened The AlvahStone, an authentic American restaurant and bar in Western Massachusetts. The restaurant serves as a base for HWH where Howard keeps his hands in day-to-day operations and tests culinary and cocktail concepts with his world-class team.
Joe Wein,
Chief Development Officer
Joe Wein has served as the Chief Development Officer for Howard Wein Hospitality since 2011 when the company was founded.
As CDO for the company, Joe plays both a big picture leadership role for the organization and a detailed tactical role in each project. Globally, Joe manages all new business and growth opportunities for HWH and selects new projects. Locally, Joe drives all marketing and public relations related to each HWH engagement, including social media initiatives.
Prior to HWH Joe founded JR Partners in 2001 a full-service executive search firm specializing in global capital markets, hospitality, and emerging lifestyle brand sectors. JR Partners is a strategic partner for HWH as the firm is engaged to recruit talent for our projects and partners.
John Rothstein,
Chief Operating Officer
John Rothstein has been working in the restaurant/bar/hotel industry for the last 21 years, most of it alongside Howard. He has fine tuned his experience across the industry segments, from a casual burger concept in Hong Kong to the 16,000-sq.-ft. Asian inspiration of Buddakan in the Meatpacking District of New York City.
John has combined a balance of hotel operations to bar volume and freestanding restaurant experience throughout his career, which has made him extremely comfortable in any setting whether corporate or super independent.
Upon graduating from the Eller College of Business, University of Arizona, he was with Starwood Hotels as a Corporate Pre-Opening Assistant on some of the largest ventures Starwood had done at that time: Westin Diplomat (Hollywood, FL), Sheraton Wild Horse Pass (Phoenix, AZ), Kai Restaurant (Phoenix, AZ).
From 2004 – 2007, John worked at Starr Restaurant Group’s Barclay Prime in Philadelphia as the Beverage Manager and Sommelier where he created a wine list that was given the “Award of Excellence” by Wine Spectator in their first year and voted “Best New Restaurant” in 2005 by Philly Magazine. In 2005, John was named one of “29 and Under, Up and Coming Sommeliers” by Food & Wine magazine. Following Starr Restaurants, John joined Chef Laurent Tourondelas Global Corporate Beverage Director to oversee 17 units from Hong Kong, Hawaii, California, Atlanta, Miami, Puerto Rico and New York. After an amazing opportunity to work with one of the most talented chefs around the world, he moved to Montauk, NY in order to open and operate Surf Lodge and Ruschmeyer’s with some of the most successful club operators in the market.
Michael Fiorello, Chief Culinary Officer
Since graduating the Culinary Institute of America in 2003, Chef Michael Fiorello has held multiple leadership roles in the restaurant and hotel industry. As Chief Culinary Officer at HWH, Fiorello conceptualizes, develops and executes all culinary programs including menu content and design throughout the HWH portfolio.
Before joining the team, Michael was the Executive Chef at 5-time James Beard Award Winner Tom Colicchio’s Crafted Hospitality Operations at 1 Hotel South Beach. Prior to that, he was the Director of Culinary Operations at Garces Group running all BOH operations and overseeing 18 restaurants across the United States.
Michael has a long list of accolades including being named a StarChefs’ Rising Star Chicago nominee and has regularly appeared as Sous Chef on Iron Chef America.