"Whoever doesn't bring in 150,000 shekels a month is not a business": The Tel Aviv restaurateur exposed
Tel Aviv chef and restaurateur Tal Rashevsky opens up the numbers behind his empire, explains why he is not willing to compromise for less, and reveals which of his businesses is not profitable but remains open.
Tal Rashevsky, who earned the nickname "Pasta Nazi," is a chef, restaurateur, and Tel Aviv internet personality who became famous following a viral video on the "Dokutim" program on Kan 11. Despite the antipathetic and dismissive attitude he displayed toward work and customers, Rashevsky became one of the most successful and respected restaurateurs in the city, specializing in a mono-product format — places that offer only one product with a focus on extreme perfectionism.
As a guest on the "Lashevet Lakachat" (Sit and Take) podcast with Nadav Burshtein and Kfir Arbiv, the economic model of LAVA, the pasta restaurant he owns operating in Tel Aviv on Nahalat Binyamin, was revealed. Rashevsky spoke about the restaurant's economic success:
"We opened LAVA relatively cheaply, and today we all understand that it is a gold mine, one of the most profitable in Israel today."
He explained that the secret lies in the high volume of work, which allows him to cope with rising operating costs: "LAVA sells with a food cost of less than four times, but LAVA is very profitable because I earn on the labor, I am working on crazy masses."
When asked about the return threshold he demands from his ventures and about profit distribution, Rashevsky presented a position regarding business viability:
"From my point of view, whoever does not bring the business owner 150,000 shekels is not a business; I will not enter such a business. At a minimum, I need to take 150,000 shekels home from the business at the end of the month. I'll be fine with 100,000, and with 80,000 I probably won't leave, but with 40,000 I will ask who wants my share, because it's probably not interesting and it drains my energy."
The only exception to his rigid financial model is Tomtomato, the small and popular homemade pasta stand that operated on Washington Boulevard in Florentin and became a culinary institution around which long lines formed. Rashevsky admitted that the place operates today mainly out of an emotional and sentimental connection: "Tomtomato does not earn 40,000 shekels a month, but I keep it because there is something magical about it; it is my lucky charm."
Beyond his private business, Rashevsky provided a fascinating analysis of the structural changes in the entire restaurant industry, which stem from a sharp increase in labor costs: "The profitability component today in the restaurant business, in order to earn — it used to be 33%, today it is a maximum of 25% food cost because labor has risen dramatically, so you have to sell at 4 times the price today to make a living." He even defended colleagues in the industry who charge higher prices: "There are places that sell at 6 or 7 times the price; I don't see them as greedy, because in the end, this is not medicine; no one forced me to eat."
Alongside LAVA and Tomtomato, Rashevsky's mono-product empire also includes Oscar's, a schnitzel and mashed potato venture at the corner of Nahalat Binyamin and HaMesila Park. The place offers an elite schnitzel experience while strictly adhering to standards, including bread baked especially on-site for the breadcrumbs and butter-rich mashed potatoes, illustrating how his uncompromising approach translates into a prominent culinary and business success in Tel Aviv.
