Dumplings headline the menu Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, which also serves bowls, chicken sandwiches and bao buns.
Brooklyn Dumpling Shop added to its roster of big name investors this month with Keith Lee, a food critic and influencer.
The Asian-influenced restaurant franchise touts “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, Broadway’s Patti LaBelle, Miami Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross, The New York Yankees and RSE Ventures as financial backers.
Last year, the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop executives discussed the possibility of adding another investor and who that backer could be. A Dallas resident, Lee had tried the food before and enjoyed it.
Keith Lee, a food critic and social media influencer, invested in Brooklyn Dumpling Shop.
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“Keith’s all about trust and authenticity and honesty,” said CEO Jeff Gallety. “We started talking about a partnership investment and it came from a place that he loves … and it was then able to grow organically from there.”
This is Lee’s first brand investment. The social media creator has more than 20 million followers across platforms and appeared at a Brooklyn Dumpling Shop store in Dallas earlier this month. Today he hosted a “FamiLee Day” festival in New Orleans, where 22-unit Brooklyn Dumpling Shop was a vendor.
“It’s not just a brand partnership,” Gallety said. “In Keith’s own words, he’s putting his money where his mouth is. He really believes in Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, in our food, in our vision, in the ways that we’re building and growing this business.”
Brooklyn Dumpling Shop’s footprint spans Canada and the United States. It has nontraditional restaurants in New York City at Resorts World Casino, Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium.
The brand’s menu includes unusual dumpling flavors such as bacon cheeseburger, mac & cheese and buffalo chicken, in addition to classics like pork & cabbage. Lee’s favorite dumplings, according to the menu, are the Korean BBQ ribeye and Kung Pao chicken.
Stratus Morfogen founded the brand in 2021 as an automat-style restaurant that relied on technology and didn’t have customer-facing employees. But when Gallety took over as CEO in 2024, its business model shifted.
Jeff Galletly joined Brooklyn Dumpling Shop as CEO in January 2024 and has since worked to strengthen the brand’s foundation.
“The brand was launched during Covid. It made a bit more sense then to have less human interaction,” Gallety said. “As a new brand entering new markets, having the opportunity to engage with guests, bringing a spirit of hospitality to those interactions, being able to walk folks through our menu, highlight top sellers and add a bit more personality to the brand—that’s really important.”
In the last two years, Brooklyn Dumpling Shop put in the work to up its food quality, tech stack and restaurant operations, he said.
The ideal franchisee already owns and operates other brands. As a unique concept, Brooklyn Dumpling Shop has less competition and can grow in an operator’s existing market. The brand’s variety of markets—from British Columbia to Miami—show its ability to take on different types of cities, Gallety said. Franchisees must sign up for at least three locations.
“We could plug and play into their systems, where they might be tapped out for growth, or territories are all gobbled up in other brands,” Gallety said. “They can go and take on a large territory and grow with white space. … We’re now really able to support that with food quality, operations, technology, marketing, support, brand building.”