After 31 years in the foodservice industry, Jay Silverstein, vice president of conference and dining services at Credit Suisse in New York, sees his greatest role as a cheerleader. Silverstein’s ability to cheer and lead his staff has led to a variety of accomplishments during his career—everything from a full renovation to bringing in street foods and ultimately growing his annual sales volume to $12.6 million.
Silverstein strives to live up to the staff restaurant name by offering high-quality items like sushi.
“I think [the design] was innovative and cutting-edge at the time,” Silverstein says of Credit Suisse's facility, which he helped design in 1997. “It’s set up as several stations with a huge island in the middle with a salad bar. All the production was moved in front of the customer. We used expensive pots and china to serve food in because we really wanted the place to live up to its name. It’s not a cafeteria; it’s a staff restaurant.”
The international buffet at Credit Suisse offers authentic options from around the globe.
Since the staff restaurant was redesigned, Silverstein says his department has been able to upsize and downsize as the environment has changed. This salad bar is one of the most popular stations.
The team has fit new concepts into the existing stations, but the important thing, according to Silverstein is that they have been trying new things like this dumpling concept.
“For example, we’re in the midst of a program based on the food truck trend,” Silverstein says. “We wanted to bring those street foods inside. Restaurant Associates has a program working with Marcus Samuelsson that offers those types of foods. That inspired us to bring in other outside New York vendors to the restaurant. All of a sudden you are getting restaurant food and you don’t have to go out for it.”