Jack Niemann, and Exuctive Chef and World Class Restaurateur…. name behind Black Forest.
It all started with Jack Niemann and a flaming grill.
Jack Niemann, born in Germany in 1938, immigrated to Canada in 1955. Apprenticed as a chef de cuisine with Canadian Pacific Hotels (Banff Springs Hotel and Palliser Hotel Calgary). Attended college – Accounting and Business Administration. In 1960, purchased an existing restaurant, tripled the business within 1.5 years and sold the same for triple the purchase price.
Including Black Forest chain, he has established 35 subsequent restaurants. First Black Forest, built on King George Highway in White Rock (in 1968), was called “an oasis in a culinary desert,” where driving a 60 mile round trip just for dinner was quite common place. “We would have to turn away up to 300 patrons per night.”
After 12 glorious years of operation, Jack sold this particular Black Forest.
“Every restaurant I have built has its own story. In 1991, as a challenge, I built a Black Forest in a small town in Washington, called Everson. Not too many people even know of this town, with a population of 1,200 people, reachable by a secondary road, the most unlikely venue for a first class dinner house. The Everson Black Forest, against all odds, became an overnight success, turning away hundreds of aspiring patrons per night, year after year.”
Another restaurant story:
“Expo ’86, Jack was chosen by the Soviet Union to build and own the Moscow Restaurant Expo ’86 in the Soviet Pavilion. The Pavilion housed 600 plus seats, all full service and the single biggest day of sales was $110,000, with average monthly sales of $1,500,000. Jack successfully amortized an $850,000 investment over a six month period.”