Doner Haus: A Kebab Specialist Opens Its Third NYC Location—More To Come

Forbes

2 days ago

At the opening of Doner Haus in the East Village, crowds form, and now there are 3 of them in NYC.
According to founder and CEO Nikolaus von Solodkoff, Doner Haus, his NY City eatery with 3 locations in the East Village on East 14th Street, Astoria and recently opened Bayside, Queens, means Kebab House in German. That's where Solodkoff grew up in a small town of 40 people 'with more cows than people,' he says.
Doners are usually served on a plate with rice, fries and salad. In the U.S., he says, doners are often confused with shawarma, gyros, or placed into a wrap with a few toppings. But German and Turkish-style doner begins with marinated meats cooked on a vertical rotisserie and then sliced in thinly-cut ribbons, and placed into hot crispy Turkish pide or flatbread.
Solodkoff says this doner version didn't exist in NYC or the U.S. and he saw a clear path to preparing it the way it is done overseas. He says back in his homeland people joke that 'Doner was invented in Turkey but perfected in Germany.'
But he came to New York City to work in finance at J.P. Morgan Chase in 2010 at age 25 and lived there for 15 years, and helped launch Embargo, an overseas hospitality restaurant tech firm that garnered over 3,000 clients, where he was COO. Its focus was on loyalty tools, point of sales (POS) integration and data that drove repeat business.
Running Two Businesses At Once
He's still one of its largest shareholders, but not actively involved. However, he also runs Patron Security, a hedge fund out of Miami, and usually devotes 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to it and then turns his attention to running Doner Haus.
Despite Solodkoff's learning a considerable amount about the intricacies about what makes a successful restaurant, he recognized that 'not working inside a restaurant, you miss how chaotic and unforgiving it really is. Things fall apart quickly,' and technology can't solve everything.
Why NYC Works For Launching His Restaurant
When Covid struck, he moved to Miami, but when he wanted to launch Doner House, he decided that NYC was the perfect place for his eateries because the city 'runs on speed, flavor and value. Doner hits all three.' He maintains an apartment in NYC, making it easier to visit.
But No One Said NYC Would Be Easy
But savvy to the city's logistics, he notes that 'New York is one of the hardest places in the country to run a restaurant' because permits can take months to be issued, rent and labor costs are high. But he figured 'If the concept can work here, it can work anywhere,' sounding like the lyrics from the Kander and Ebb song 'New York, New York.'
When he opened his first outlet in the East Village in 2023, he capitalized it on his own, with, 'No investors. No loans. No SBA support,' so he'd have full control. But his goal from the outset was to build Doner House into a successful franchise operation.
Running Lean
In developing Doner Haus, he stripped everything away 'that did not serve the core mission.' Hence it offers either no or very limited seating, no servers, no host stand, a small footprint and streamlined menu, operated by a small team. 'The result is a system that runs lean, trains fast and holds up at volume,' he declares. And yet all the meat served is 100% halal, 100% filler-free, 100% gluten-free and 100% organic.
The East Village space is 1,000 square feet, including 200 square feet of basement storage space. The Astoria and Bayside both have 2 small outside tables and that's it for seating.
After a year, the East Village location generated a $1 million in revenue, proving his concept, and launching him toward franchising.
After Doner Haus was sued because of logo infringement, it drew attention to it. Von Solodkoff garnered almost 1,000 franchise inquiries due to the publicity, though he says only about 1 in 100 turns out to be legitimate. It did lead to its first franchise that recently opened in Bayside, Queens.
And the third company-owned Doner Haus is due in mid-to-late July in Hell's Kitchen on 9th Avenue and 47th Street.
Consumer reaction on Yelp to dining at its original East Village location was rather positive. Maria from NYC wrote that it was 'the best doner in town, very close to German doner and very good for the money.' Wei from Dumont, N.J. liked the original chicken sandwich, fries and special seasoning but thought it should have been layered more and said the service was quick.
And Vanessa from NYC liked her doner combo and noted that were only two tables outside, and felt as if it would draw more of a crowd with more seating. 'The beef was the standout,' she said.
But when this reporter stopped for chicken doner salad at the 14th Street outpost, he was struck by two things. At a time of shrinking portions, it was huge, and lasted for two meals. But there were only two staff members, with one preparing the food and one serving customers, but when another patron arrived followed by 4 construction workers, service slowed down.
Asked about the slow down, Solodkoff says it hires two people to prepare food on weekends, but try their best to keep the line moving weekdays.
Solodkoff expects that the growth in kebabs will mirror that of sushi in the U.S. When sushi first entered the U.S., some people were surprised about eating raw fish and now it's become quite popular. Now kebabs have swept through France and the U.K., and Solodkoff expects that the U.S is next.
In the next few years, he expects Doner Haus to grow through franchising in places such as Florida, Texas, and Los Angeles, without any more corporate-owned locations. He expects there will be 25 Doner Haus's in the next few years.
Asked the keys to its success, he replies, 1) Staying lean and efficient, 2) Training franchisees intensively including on-site training and joining them at their new site, 3) Staying ambitious; 'We'd like to dominate this growing field,' 4) Keeping our royalties of 3% in check.