"Stephen Starr" is a restaurateur and head of the Starr Restaurant Organization. His honors include "Restaurateur of the Year" accolades from both Bon Appétit and Zagat. Travel + Leisure noted that "Starr creates complete environments with an artistic, almost cerebral approach". USA Today identified him as "the 'It' guy of the city’s food scene", while Restaurant Hospitality reported his winning the annual Richard Melman Innovator of the Year award in 2013 and cited his popular restaurants in Philadelphia as "arguably the key reason for the city’s revitalized culinary scene".

A lifelong devotee of music and pop culture, Starr began his career at the age of 21 with Grandmom

Minnie’s, a converted diner serving food by day and comedy by night, in Philadelphia’s Old City. He next

opened Starr’s, a cabaret that featured then-emerging acts such as Jerry Seinfeld and Pat Benatar, and

later Ripley Music Hall, a venue that showcased acts like U2, The Eurythmics, Cyndi Lauper and Bruce

Springsteen. He founded The Concert Company to bring large-scale stadium acts to Philadelphia, and

was responsible for many memorable shows in the city, including Madonna, Lionel Ritchie and George

Michael. His company was purchased by Electric Factory Concerts in 1990, giving Starr the opportunity to

More Stephen Starr on Wikipedia.

Restaurateur of the Year.

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This is one of the greatest honors of my career. It's a wonderful feeling to be acknowledged on a national level.

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As soon as you enter Buddakan, it transports you to a magical new world, ... You could be in an exotic Asian land or in a sophisticated metropolis like New York or Hong Kong.

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