Award for Community Partnership


Lessing's Food Service Management

 

 

“When Maxwell Lessing founded Lessing’s Hospitality in 1890, he aimed to be on the forefront of innovation. He ended up making history.”

 

Lessing’s Hospitality Group is one of the oldest family-owned, continuously operated and highly diverse food service companies in the United States. What started as a lunch counter on Wall Street has amassed to a multidivisional company, covering everything from catered events to fine dining restaurants to food service management.

 

Maxwell Lessing saw an opportunity in the urban labor boom hitting New York City at the end of the 19th century.  Back then, Lessing’s Inc. was just a single storefront serving sandwiches and Coca Cola.  But his lunch counter concept evolved into what would become the foundation for the Lessing’s Food Service Management division - operating lunchrooms and staff cafeterias within corporate buildings, and bringing his hospitality and service directly to his customers. 

 

When the Lessings bought the Bay Terrace Bar in Breezy Point in 1977, it opened yet another door to a new division of the company - restaurants.  The Post Office Cafe opened in Babylon Village in 1978 and quickly became a neighborhood favorite.  Over 40 years later, it’s still a village gem.

 

Today Lessing’s is comprised of over 120 locations throughout the Northeast and Florida, including 17 wedding and catering venues, 10 full-service restaurants, over 80 corporate and academic dining centers, nine Blaze Fast-Fire'd Pizza franchises and a historic inn.  The company has also pledged a commitment to creating a positive social impact through its various “Do Good” initiatives, such as fundraisers, beach cleanups and “green” campaigns.

 

While the company continues to evolve and grow, the same innovative spirit and pride in providing remarkable hospitality lives on within every member of the company 130 years later.