Meet the Boys in Your 'Hood

Peter Levy
Managing Partner

This self-proclaimed restaurant junkie loves creating the animal, whether it's transforming a shell of a space into an inspirational people magnet or writing whip smart, pithy web copy for the unique personalities of each Chow Foods restaurant.

Peter came to Portland, Oregon in the 1970s, leaving behind his San Francisco area stomping grounds. In 1976, while working full-time for a construction company, he stumbled into an opportunity to open his own sandwich shop, Déjà vu, in Lake Oswego.

He eventually sold his interest in the shop but stayed in the restaurant business, bartending and training as a manager at T.G.I.Friday's in Portland. There he met Jeremy Hardy, his future restaurant co-conspirator. From Friday's, it was onto a brief bartending post at McCormick and Schmick's and then to a three-year assistant management post at Jake's Famous Crawfish, both in Portland. By 1985, McCormick and Schmick's brought Peter on as general manager for their new Seattle restaurant. His last job working for another man's restaurant was Bill Kimpton's Kuleto's in San Francisco.

A year later he returned to Seattle with his wife, Betty, and opened the Beeliner Diner in March 1988. Jeremy joined Peter shortly thereafter, and have since partnered in the succession of Chow Foods charismatic neighborhood restaurants.

When he's not dreaming up a scathing one-liner or pitching a great restaurant concept, Peter, a family man at heart, spends quality time with his wife, Betty, and their two kids: Katie and Lou.

Jeremy Hardy
Managing Partner

With a stealth acumen for sniffing out the next big thing and the motivation to get the job done right, Jeremy is Chow Foods', "diviner of the diner."

This New York native began slinging dishes as a young teen in the South Boston kitchen of Page's Diner. By his early 20's, bartending classes eventually put Jeremy behind the bar of a German military officer's club. He returned to Boston, working his way to bartender at T.G.I.Friday's. The employer–and fate–led him to his future business partner, Peter Levy at Portland's T.G.I.Friday's.in 1979. The pair left Friday's to work for McCormick and Schmick's in Portland, where Jeremy later became general manager.

In 1988 Jeremy moved to Seattle to open McCormick and Schmick's steak house and The Cajun Corner, but within a few months, he couldn't resist joining Levy at his Beeliner Diner. The partnership was forged, and the two have since opened The 5 Spot, Coastal Kitchen, Jitterbug (formerly the Beeliner Diner), Atlas Foods, Endolyne Joe's, the Hi-Life and Mioposto.

A super-achiever by nature, Jeremy sails (he competed in the 1977 pre-Olympic World Sailing Championships in Holland) and enjoys music, tennis, and running. He studied at Northeastern University, Nasson College, and in Vienna, Austria. Hardy and his wife, Tiah, have a house full of kids: Spencer, Megan, Emma, Peter and Aja.