From baking cookies to opening eight locations, Sydney Grims is writing the next chapter of Fearless Restaurants
Built across four decades and two generations of the Grims family, Fearless Restaurants (Fearless) is a restaurant group with 14 unique locations, each with its own character and cuisine. Family-owned since its inception, the company is dedicated to creating memorable dining and hospitality experiences through exceptional service and thoughtfully sourced food. At its core, Fearless is about people, including its team, guests and local communities; a commitment upheld through its focus on leading with integrity, creativity and warmth. Sydney Grims, Partner and Director of Business Development, tells us more about what it means to carry that philosophy forward.
“My father is third generation in the restaurant business, making me the fourth. He grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, spending his childhood hanging out at my great-grandfather and grandfather’s bar, Central Tavern. After studying at Cornell University, he returned home and went on to open The Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel here in Philadelphia. After two years, he struck out on his own, opening his first independent restaurant, La Fourchette, followed by Taquet, Passerelle, Bravo, and many more. Growing up, I spent every weekend in the restaurants with him, which was essentially my Saturday daycare as both my parents were working. I would bake cookies with one of the pastry chefs, get muddy playing outside and catch lizards and snakes in the creek out front. In many ways, I was raised in those restaurants,” she begins.
Reimagining culinary concepts
Fast forward 20 years, Sydney followed her father to Cornell to study hospitality, then spent four years working in restaurants in New York. The group was formally rebranded as Fearless Restaurants in 2016, just a year before Sydney moved back to Philadelphia and began opening restaurants alongside her father. Since then, the pair have opened eight locations together.
The latest to be added to Fearless’ portfolio is Martini & Roz, an Italian concept in Wayne, Pennsylvania, set to open its doors this summer. Sydney shares more about this milestone, of which she is particularly proud. “This location is a little more of a risk, which is part of what makes it so exciting. I think one of the intricacies of opening a new restaurant is making sure it genuinely resonates with people, and Martini & Roz has a design that is more risky, modern, trendy and cool. That is not necessarily what this area is known for; I would say that Wayne is more classic and traditional, so, it was a deliberate creative push. We are actually planning to rebrand this location under a new name with a completely new concept, which is something we are very excited about,” Sydney shares.
This new restaurant is “a great American Italian restaurant with a funky, fun and genuinely different vibe. We are trying to bring a new flair to Italian dining in Philadelphia, where people are used to experiencing Italian food in a very specific, traditional way. Martini & Roz is a reimagined Italian concept, the kind of place where you are not sticking to the floor or staring at fake flowers on white tablecloths. It is a fresh take on what an Italian restaurant can be.”
Women in business
Fearless’ willingness to take creative risks is not limited to Martini & Roz, given that each concept across its portfolio is designed to fill a gap. The Triple Crown, its newly launched restaurant at the Radnor Hotel in Radnor, is a great example of this. There, the company offers corporate breakfast, Monday through Friday from 7am, which is a distinctly unique proposition for the area. Typically, those looking for an early breakfast meeting are limited to much more casual dining options that are not always conducive to doing business. The Triple Crown fills that gap, offering a polished, welcoming environment where corporate guests can sit down, do business and enjoy a tasty breakfast.
Aside from opening thriving restaurants, Sydney is dedicated to empowering women in leadership roles across hospitality and beyond through her Fearless Femmes program. “Fearless Femmes is a women’s networking organization that partners with other women’s groups across a wide range of sectors and anything connected with women in business. Essentially, we use the Fearless brand as a platform to champion women in business, with a focus on cross-brand educational events, career development, health, fitness and the support of other women-owned businesses in the greater Philadelphia area. Fearless Femmes is something I feel strongly about. Moving back to this area and being able to genuinely support the local community has been really important to me, because at the end of the day, our restaurants are neighborhood restaurants,” she reveals.
Looking ahead to the coming year, Fearless Restaurants aims to strengthen its relationships with local corporations while also developing new partnerships. The focus is on building strategic collaborations that are genuinely aligned with each partner’s goals. By working closely with businesses and communities to understand their objectives, Fearless Restaurants seeks to identify meaningful and mutually beneficial ways to collaborate.