General Manager

Sarah began her career in restaurant operations with Hillstone Restaurant Group, becoming one of the youngest general managers at a $10m+ location before transitioning to a corporate HR role. After several years as an HR director, however, her position was eliminated, prompting her to pursue a similar HR leadership role in NYC's bustling hospitality industry. To her dismay, many of the small hospitality businesses she was drawn to simply did not need full-time HR support, despite their struggle with HR. In many of these initial conversations, Sarah instinctively pivoted her interview into a strategy session, focusing not on her career goals but on the HR needs of each business - often offering to complete small HR projects as a freelancer. A few months of working in this capacity was all Sarah needed to embrace her calling to build a sustainable, scalable consulting business. Empowered Hospitality was born.

Sarah earned her bachelor’s in political science with honors from Yale and holds SHRM-SCP, WSET Advanced (Wine & Spirits Educational Trust), and CSW (Certified Specialist of Wine) certifications. Sarah was selected as a 2021 Tory Burch Foundation Fellow for her passion for building an equitable, collaborative, and socially conscious small business, is a perennial speaker at the annual FAB Conference in Charleston, SC, a frequent panelist on topics related to people and organization for the James Beard Foundation, and a guest lecturer at the School of Hospitality Administration at Boston University.

Ideal Restaurant Experience

Visiting home in Massachusetts always involves a highly anticipated trip to the local clam shack, where we would go in the summertime as kids. There's no happiness quite like catching up with friends and family over fried clams and 'lobstah' rolls in a place with so many memories!

What does "creating workplaces where people thrive" mean to you?

Creating workplaces where people thrive means fostering growth, transparency, and well-being. It means defining the larger purpose that drives you, and building a team that believes equally in that purpose.

Bradley was always fascinated by restaurants; while other kids wanted to be doctors or astronauts, Bradley wanted to be a waiter. In 2005, while studying Mathematics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Bradley got his first restaurant job as a server and cemented his passion for hospitality. Bradley turned his passion into a career and moved to New York City in 2012 to join North End Grill, part of Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG). Bradley grew in his career by earning his level 2 Sommelier Certification, teaching classes at Murray’s Cheese, and later joining the opening management team at Marta. Bradley thrived at USHG in a variety of roles, including as a Business Intelligence Analyst on their corporate finance team, where he was actively engaged in the Hospitality Included, non-tipping initiative, as well as finance, technology, and human resources. In 2022 Bradley led the opening of Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi as the General Manager, working to create an employee-first culture of inclusion and excellence that helped lead to the restaurant’s vibrant success. Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi quickly became a cultural destination, earned a coveted 3-star review in the New York Times, and was named the #1 restaurant in New York City.
Bradley is excited to bring nearly 20 years of hospitality experience to Empowered. He believes that people are the center of every great restaurant and is excited to support our incredible clients in building better work practices and cultures for people to truly thrive.

Ideal Restaurant Experience

My ideal restaurant experience always revolves around sharing and experiencing as much of the menu, and restaurant, as possible. I love to go to a new restaurant, or an old favorite, with 2-3 friends and order an array of appetizers and entrees for the table while enjoying a bottle of wine (or two). I’m especially excited to see items the food or beverage menu that I’ve never tried, and I always ask the service team for their favorite hidden gems.

What does "creating workplaces where people thrive" mean to you?

Everyone in life wants to feel valued, appreciated, trusted, and respected while having a clear understanding of how they can succeed individually and as a team. Creating workplaces where people thrive means creating clear expectations and frameworks for your team to understand what success looks like for them while also creating an environment where people feel appreciated and their time and work matters. People are our greatest asset!