About McNinch Restaurant Group
After 40 years of individual experience, John McNinch is partnering with his son, Tucker, to reinvent the restaurant industry. The new father-son company, The McNinch Restaurant Group, hopes to take a step back and change the way the industry operates, and reinvent the perception of industry workers.
John McNinch grew up In Lenox, MA, and was raised at Eastover Resort, where he met his now wife, and Boston native, Jackie. After making the move to Boston and working in the restaurant industry out in the city, they both knew it was time to come back to the Berkshires and start their family. Having two young kids, they quickly realized there weren’t many family-friendly places to get a meal at a reasonable price. So, in 2000, John bought The Olde Heritage tavern and created one. For the next 20+ years, The Heritage would become a staple to the Lenox locals, and quickly became a favorite to the ever-growing tourist population of The Berkshires.
Unlike most his age, after 5 years at Northeastern University, Tucker made the decision to move home to the Berkshires and start a business. He has always felt that there was no way for the younger generation get ahead in the Berkshires, so it was a goal of his to prove that you can. With a dual degree in Finance and Economics, Tucker had been working as the head of finance and operations at the Heritage, and will be stepping into a partner role with John.
Through the sale of The Heritage, and with the ever-changing “normal” the pandemic has created, Tucker and John decided that this was the perfect time to create the change they’ve always wanted to see in the industry. The hardest thing about the industry has always been staffing. Because staff turnover has always been so high in the restaurant industry, The McNinch Restaurant Group will offer incentives like profit-sharing and Insurance to make jobs with them feel more like careers, as opposed to interim opportunities. They also hope to create training programs within the company that will teach people newly entering the industry, and then find a placement for them within one of their restaurants, or one of the many other berkshire restaurants that they hope to create partnerships with. The McNinches have always strived to create a sense of family in their work environments, and are looking for ways to make those bonds even stronger than before.
