For the Love of Restaurants

New Book · Fall 2026

For the Love
of Restaurants

An Insider's Guide from Daydreams to Opening Night.

Matt Holt Books

There is no secret ingredient to opening a successful restaurant - in this business, everything matters.

It's one thing to work in an established restaurant and a whole other beautiful challenge to turn an empty room with exposed plumbing and unpainted drywall into a stage for the complicated performance of prepping, cooking, and serving that transforms four simple walls into a living, breathing, welcoming place.

For the dreamers and admirers of the restaurant world who long to open their own place or simply crave a peek behind the line, For the Love of Restaurants is a multi-course romp through the processes of leasing, funding, designing, building, menu development, hiring, and opening a restaurant's doors to the first guests.

A curriculum-in-your-pocket for making your dream a reality.

Adam Weisblatt, cofounder of Last Word Hospitality and partner in its growing list of celebrated restaurants, traces the full journey from concept to opening of the company's first spot, Found Oyster. Along the way, he shares everything he knows about imagining what future guests will love and what will make them want to return again and again.

For the Love of Restaurants is an invitation to more deeply appreciate the places you love - and the people who make them possible - each time you hear your table is ready.

Adam Weisblatt

Cofounder · Last Word Hospitality

Adam is cofounder of Last Word Hospitality and a partner in its growing list of celebrated restaurants, beginning with Found Oyster in Los Angeles. He writes about the practice of building restaurants from the empty room up.

Inside the book

A practical restaurant book for the road from idea to opening night.

For the Love of Restaurants is written for aspiring restaurateurs, operators, chefs, hospitality students, and readers who want a real look at how independent restaurants get built.

From the first lease conversation to the first table seated.

Adam follows the decisions that turn a hopeful idea into a working room: the location, the money, the buildout, the menu, the team, the guest promise, and the strange charged moment when the doors open and the plan meets real people.

Contact

Press, events, bookstores, and publishing inquiries.

Adam Weisblatt is the author of For the Love of Restaurants, published by Matt Holt Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster.

For media, speaking, bookstore, event, or publisher conversations, use the contact page and include the nature of the inquiry.

Contact Adam

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© 2026 Adam Weisblatt · Published by Matt Holt Books · Distributed by Simon & Schuster
For the Love of Restaurants