Photograph by Andrew Doench
Have you ever seen Big Night? It’s a classic piece of storytelling considered essential viewing for anyone interested in food. The film tells the story of two Italian immigrant brothers (real-life foodies Tony Shaloub and Stanley Tucci) as they squabble and scuffle through dinner service at the struggling New Jersey restaurant they own and operate.
The Queen City has a number of similarly sibling-owned eateries, often mimicking the front-of-house/back-of-house breakdown immortalized in the movie. But none of them have stories of fisticuffs or impassioned beachfront screaming matches. In fact, sibling food-industry pairings work well on the local front.
“It was something that really came naturally,” says Neil Barraco, who co-owns Milford restaurants The Governor and Flamingo Drive with his brother Paul. “We both worked in the industry for so long.”
Neil notes that growing up in a food-centric household led both brothers to pursue food service careers, and the eventual decision to work together just made sense. “Paul was always the back-of-house guy,” he adds. “I was always a front-of-house guy. We’ve been doing it for a long time, and we’re good at it.”
Childhood experiences and an inherited love of coffee influenced Tony and Austin Ferrari in their decision to open Mom ’n ’em Coffee. “Our father’s from Italy,” Tony says. “Espresso every two hours is a very normal thing in our household.”
Photograph by Andrew Doench
The Ferrari brothers made their way to San Francisco’s culinary scene, but when they decided to open something together, their attention shifted homeward. “We always joked around that we love coffee so much [and] spend so much money on it, why don’t we just open up our own [coffee shop]?” he explains.
The two moved back home, pulling their mom Theresa into both the name and daily operations, and opened their first location in Camp Washington in 2019.
Troy McAndrews, who co-owns The Establishment in Hyde Park and Walnut Hills’s Rusk Kitchen + Bar with his brother Brendan, sees the sibling bond as a real benefit in their operations. “You get to spend time together, which can sometimes be a double-edged sword,” he says. “But at the end of the day it’s truly a blessing. There’s also a deep level of trust and a genuine understanding of each other’s talents, which makes collaboration more natural and decisions more confident.”
That double-edged sword stays top of mind for these sibling restaurateurs—they’re bringing lifetimes of intimate familiarity to their professional lives. Samir Daoud started Frankie’s Sips & Savories with his siblings Muna, Samar, and Samir as a tribute to their father, Frank Daoud, who cofounded Gold Star Chili with his brothers in 1965. Samir sees trust, communication, and buy-in as central to keeping business and personal feelings in line.
Photograph by Andrew Doench
“With each other, we don’t hold anything back,” he says. “It’s not always pretty. And [we] know that we have a one-for-all-and-all-for-one mentality. We understand the strengths and weaknesses of each other and allow for each sibling to lead where they have the most expertise.”
That dual sibling/business partner relationship requires a special touch, though, as both operating dollars and blood ties are on the line.
“There are days when there can be conflict,” admits Tony Ferrari. “It’s easy to kind of get ticked off about something. [But] we end up coming back together as a family, brushing it off and just working through it.”
It’s also important for sibling business partners to recognize individual strengths in a working relationship, especially when decisions need to be made. For the Ferraris, Barracos, and Daouds, individual experiences span hospitality, kitchen, and other roles, creating specialized lanes for each person. “Because there’s that natural divide, we established a line from back of house to front of house that we try very hard not to cross,” Neil Barraco says. “We let each other do our own things.”
A food service business is incredibly time consuming, involving professional interactions for most of a day’s waking hours, so it’s important for siblings to stay intentional in maintaining boundaries between business and family relationships.
“When you’re at work, you really need to try to find ways to keep the personal stuff out of the way,” says Paul Barraco. “We’re always trying to figure out ways to do things better, but we try to focus on talking about the restaurant mostly while we’re working—and we’re working a lot.”
McAndrews seconds the need to keep business and brother times separate. “Boundaries are important, especially since our businesses are far from a 9-to-5 schedule,” he says. “We make a conscious effort that, when we’re spending time outside of operating and making business decisions, we focus on being family, not business partners.”
Photograph by Andrew Doench
The Ferrari brothers, who also produce a canned cold brew and bottled olive oil and operate a Covington event space, stay fiercely intentional about being just family outside of business obligations. “We try our best to keep family and business separate,” Ferrari explains. “When we’re doing family dinner, we try to stick to current affairs and stuff like that rather than bickering about business.”
Samir Daoud, however, feels that the business layer actually adds to sibling relationships. “If anything it heightens them,” he says. “By celebrating wins and inspiring discussion around issues/opportunities, it’s just one more thing to enjoy around the dinner table.”
The sibling owners are all keenly aware their personal relationships have wide-ranging effects beyond just getting along. Like the Ferraris involving their mother, the Barracos have brought their parents into operations, and Neil’s two children have roles in the restaurants, too. Similarly, the Daoud family has grown into a multi-generational endeavor. The second-generation family members are already spearheading the day-to-day operations, led by Nimmer Naber, Muna’s son, and assisted by almost all of his cousins.
Then there are patrons who spend time and money in the establishments as well as the community of workers who support daily operations. “We have to make sure this restaurant is successful,” Paul Barraco says. “We want to run something that, when people come in, it’s obvious there’s no tension in the room. But I think that when the personal relationship is good, the work relationship will be that much better.”
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