Ninety-three rejections couldn\u2019t blur Justin Rosenberg\u2019s vision for honeygrow.<\/p>\n
His ironclad faith in his business plan proved well-placed \u2014 pitch number 94 landed an enthusiastic investor.<\/p>\n
Skip forward 14 years, and Rosenberg\u2019s fast casual stir fry and salads concept continues its conquest of the northeastern U.S. market.<\/p>\n
Rosenberg founded the first honeygrow, which stands for \u201chonest eating + growing local,\u201d in Center City, Philadelphia in 2012.<\/p>\n
His company now has 74 locations, and he plans to open about a dozen more by year end.<\/p>\n
A Penn State alumnus, Rosenberg held a talk at Penn State Berks in March.<\/p>\n
![\"Sadan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Penn-State-Rosenberg-intro.jpg\")
Sadan Kulturel-Konak, Professor of Management Information Systems and director of the Flemming Creativity, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Center at Penn State Berks, introduces honeygrow founder Justin Rosenberg at a talk in March 2026. (Keith Dmochowski \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n
Rosenberg said the seeds for honeygrow took root when he was a history major at Penn State main campus.<\/p>\n
He would frequent Green Bowl, a restaurant in State College known for its authentic Chinese noodles.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreen Bowl was my jam,\u201d Rosenberg told the audience during a public Q&A session at Penn State Berks, on March 25. \u201cThat was the genesis of honeygrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosenberg graduated from Penn State in 2004, but his love affair with stir fry didn\u2019t end upon leaving Green Bowl.<\/p>\n
A quest to improve his health after having his first daughter saw Rosenberg incorporating plant-based and whole foods into his diet.<\/p>\n
Being a full-time employee, father, and MBA student at Temple, Rosenberg was quick to realize that local restaurants didn\u2019t have many fast options for his foods of choice \u2014 salads and stir fry.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, the fast casual landscape was Chipotle and Panera,\u201d Rosenberg said. \u201cYou had some salad concepts in New York, burgers and Mexican, but no one doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faced with a glaring opening in the market, Rosenberg wrote a plan for a restaurant that would offer fresh, cooked-to-order noodles.<\/p>\n
He picked up another job at a kitchen on weekends to hone his recipe making chops.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no finance experience, no entrepreneurial experience, nothing,\u201d Rosenberg said. \u201cPitched 94 people, the 94th guy said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first location was a hit, so much so that Rosenberg described its level of foot traffic as \u201ctotal chaos.\u201d Its popularity saw new honeygrows sprouting like wildflowers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first four years were wonderful,\u201d Rosenberg said. \u201cWe raised more capital and grew really quickly\u2026Then we really had the pressure to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
That pressure drove honeygrow to open locations in six new markets in major cities throughout 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had an all-new executive team,\u201d Rosenberg said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the same honeygrow. The grit, the passion for the customer. We were getting bigger and did it in a way that wasn\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the restaurant soon became overextended financially, leading to a brush with near-bankruptcy in 2018.<\/p>\n
More capital from investors carried the company to another turning point \u2014 an evaluation of priorities to ensure the budding chain could thrive on its own terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy 2019, we ended up closing Chicago,\u201d Rosenberg said. \u201cWe stopped growing, made cuts on the corporate side. We just had a great team of people and worked our butts off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Its customer-first strategy, along with the debut of new restaurant prototypes in 2020, positioned the company for success during the COVID-era spike in food delivery orders.<\/p>\n
Since then, honeygrow has grown roughly three-fold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still learning lessons as we go,\u201d Rosenberg said. \u201cMy team is fantastic. For me (what I look for in a team member is) the right fit, right culture, right passions, right focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosenberg noted that he\u2019s \u201cnever sold a share\u201d of the privately held business, and the company has avoided franchising.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is to make this a national company,\u201d Rosenberg said. \u201cWe\u2019re on the path to 100 (locations). But it takes a lot\u2026We\u2019ve got more work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Question-and-answer<\/p>\n
Following his talk, Rosenberg took questions from the audience:<\/p>\n
Q: Does it make more sense to cluster locations by region?<\/p>\n
A: It\u2019s definitely better (in terms of efficiency) to do that. From a district manager standpoint, that\u2019s exactly what we do, but there are only so many restaurants we can open in a market.<\/p>\n
In terms of growth, one of the mistakes I made was going to Boston, going to Chicago in the same year. It\u2019s like pursuing a brand new company in each one of these markets. Nobody cares what you\u2019ve done in Philly, you have to prove yourself. And we didn\u2019t (in Chicago). We didn\u2019t have the right real estate, the right team. Whereas Boston, we\u2019ve been there for nine years and it\u2019s our best market sales.<\/p>\n
So for growth, (we\u2019re going for) more of a concentric circle. I don\u2019t want to fly to Dallas and start opening. Let\u2019s do Cleveland; Cincinnati; we\u2019re doing Columbus. We\u2019ll get to the Detroit suburbs. What about Indianapolis? That concentric circle creep allows you to leverage your existing team.<\/p>\n
Q: How do you choose a target market?<\/p>\n
A: There are a lot of variables. What\u2019s the demographic, population, income, how are other concepts doing? We look at a range from Starbucks to Chick-fil-A. Any anchor tenants in the market. We love a Wegman\u2019s or Trader Joe\u2019s. You would think colleges are where you\u2019d want to be, but we\u2019ve learned our best stores tend to be strong supermarket or Target-anchored shopping centers. We\u2019ve learned a large percentage of our customers are moms making (food) decisions for the family. So we want to be in those centers.<\/p>\n
Q: How is honeygrow using AI?<\/p>\n
A: I\u2019m still mixed on AI. I\u2019m a liberal arts major\u2026so that is a thing. But at the same time, analyzing data has been great. We\u2019ve input a lot of real estate data into it. For example, we have a location in Ohio which doesn\u2019t fit all the check boxes but does unbelievably well. Other restaurants do fit all the boxes but aren\u2019t outperforming. The question becomes why? We (still) have to educate AI (on other variables). We\u2019re not there yet.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s been helpful. Certainly, in customer service, we\u2019ve been using it on our website and our app. We have a wonderful person doing customer service but she\u2019s human. She can\u2019t work nights, and she should get her weekends off. But on weekends, (customers) should get a response as fast as possible and we should fix it as fast as possible. That\u2019s where AI comes into play, which is pretty cool.<\/p>\n
Q: How are you able to network and generate interest from investors?<\/p>\n
A: I started out with my network, which wasn\u2019t big. I then signed up for various (networking) events in Philly. I needed to figure out a way to scale it because it wasn\u2019t happening fast enough. So I joined the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. They were super nice to me. I was just like \u2018Hey do you mind making intros?\u2019 They were great, I met a ton of people (through the Chamber of Commerce.) A lot of people aren\u2019t interested, but they (introduce you) to people who are interested. So it\u2019s kind of like God, plus luck, plus grit. Just keep going.<\/p>\n
Q: As you\u2019re opening more locations, do you struggle with letting go and letting your team handle things?<\/p>\n
A: The journey of leadership is really hard. You want to be in control and do everything, but at the same time, you\u2019re going to micromanage the team and they\u2019re going to resent you and not feel empowered. But at the same time, you can\u2019t let go, because it\u2019s going to be pure chaos.<\/p>\n
In the beginning, I had to approve everything, get my hands on everything. I drove people crazy. But in the beginning, you kind of have to do that. You are the big bang creating this universe, that\u2019s my philosophy.<\/p>\n
But as you begin to scale, you can\u2019t. It\u2019s just different skillsets. I had to learn the balance of observe, trust and value. A lot of it is finding the right person. Here\u2019s an example: Our finance guy is wonderful, way better than me at finance. He\u2019s very cool (under pressure) he\u2019s super consistent. Those variables I look for (in a top performer.)<\/p>\n
There are certain things I will do better than you. Most things you will do better than me. I can then take a step back. There\u2019s a bit of a training wheel phase where you have to hover a bit. Then you can let go a little bit (at a time). It\u2019s a process.<\/p>\n
Q: If you knew then what you know now, what would you have done differently to avoid the near bankruptcy scenario?<\/p>\n
A: I think one of the mistakes I made in that era was hiring more for resume than fit. There were certain folks involved with taking companies public that had unbelievable experience. Resume is wonderful, but not what you need at that phase. I hired way too many people, but not the right people.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a firm believer of you don\u2019t need a big team. As a company, we have maybe 30 to 35 employees in the corporate office. I have four reports now, back then I had like nine or ten, thinking I needed to know what was going on with everything. But really, I don\u2019t need a lot of people.<\/p>\n
Q: Do you see any other (companies) as competition?<\/p>\n
A: In terms of direct competition or replicating our concept, we don\u2019t really see anyone else doing salads and stir fry. (We think about) what is it going to take for someone to walk down the block and choose you over someone else? Everything matters. We want to be the best in hospitality, food, music at the right volume, clean environment, clean bathrooms, all of the above. We\u2019re competing with everyone in that regard.<\/p>\n
Q: Is honeygrow looking to sell frozen meals in grocery stores?<\/p>\n
A: It\u2019s something we\u2019ve walked about, for sure. I just don\u2019t think we\u2019re ready yet. We\u2019re so focused on restaurant growth, I think it would be a bit of a distraction today. But we talk to our noodle vendors about doing stuff like that. Maybe, down the road.<\/p>\n
Q: Do you create your own menus?<\/p>\n
A: I\u2019m still involved with it, very much so. We just hired a culinary consultant. I\u2019m excited.<\/p>\n
Among honeygrow\u2019s locations are one restaurant in Berks County, one in Chester County, two in Delaware County, and five in Montgomery County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ninety-three rejections couldn\u2019t blur Justin Rosenberg\u2019s vision for honeygrow. His ironclad faith in his business plan proved well-placed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,60,1557,182,200,28,128,130,129,435,289,706],"class_list":["post-153210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-business","tag-chester-county","tag-local-news","tag-montgomery-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-restaurants-food-and-drink","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}