Meet the Restaurateur Who Built a Steakhouse Pipeline from Pasture to Plate

Written by Eric Barton | Aug. 5, 2025

AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.

On Sundays, Nicholas Scalisi goes quiet. No butcher shop deliveries to sort, no restaurant to manage, no cattle to check on. Just a day at home with his wife and kids, grilling something simple—something he probably raised, butchered, and aged himself. “Sunday’s become pretty sacred,” he says. “It’s about family, fresh air, and good food.”

That kind of full-circle simplicity is what Scalisi has been chasing his entire career, from his earliest days unloading produce trucks in his family’s food business to running a West Palm Beach restaurant group that now includes Fern, Steak Shop by Rancher’s Reserve, and the soon-to-open Rueshaw. He’s one of the few American restaurateurs who can tell you exactly how the animal on your plate was raised, right down to the stress level of its final days.

Nicholas Scalisi

Why does that matter? Because Scalisi is trying to solve a problem that’s both deeply personal and maddeningly widespread: how to deliver truly great food without losing control of the process.

“We know exactly how our animals are raised, how the meat is handled, and how it’s served,” he says. “No shortcuts, just something we can be proud of.”

That obsession with doing things the right way started early. At 15, he landed his first restaurant job, bussing tables and running food. “I didn’t know much, but I liked the energy, the pace, the teamwork,” Scalisi says. “Those early jobs taught me that hospitality isn’t about being perfect—it’s about making people feel welcome, like they matter.”

Steak Shop sandwiches

He opened Fern without a formal business plan, only a sense that he wanted it to feel personal, elevated but accessible, rooted in seasonal cooking and honest service. “Somewhere you could eat something thoughtful without it feeling over the top,” he says. The farm-to-table ethos wasn’t a marketing angle—it was the inevitable result of a guy who kept asking where his ingredients came from and eventually decided to grow his own.

The filet at Fern

Scalisi at the Steak Shop

That led to Rancher’s Reserve, a wagyu cattle operation born from equal parts curiosity and stubbornness. “I didn’t grow up on a ranch,” Scalisi says. “Those early days were a mix of excitement, trial and error, and a lot of learning the hard way.” But the lesson stuck: quality comes from control. That meant raising the animals himself, opening a butcher shop to manage the cuts, and building restaurants where nothing got lost in translation between pasture and plate.

Nicholas Scalisi Fern short ribs with chimichurri

Short ribs with chimichurri at Fern

Which brings us to Rueshaw, his next restaurant and his most ambitious yet. “It’s going to be bold and focused, but still warm and welcoming,” he says. “Think upscale, but with plenty of good laughs and the freedom to eat with your hands if that’s how you roll.” Where Fern reflects the heart of his early hospitality career, Rueshaw brings the beef front and center—his beef, his ranch, his story, all under one roof.

Still, Scalisi isn’t trying to build a food empire. His mission is more personal, more grounded. “We’re not here to preach,” he says. “We just do our best to do things the right way and let the food and hospitality speak for themselves.”

And maybe take Sundays off.