Sam Belanger

Sam Belanger has been a General Manager with Chef Driven Hospitality for 10 years.

Sam began working in restaurants as a singing waiter while attending college in Massachusetts. Restaurants were always a side hustle while performing and doing theater throughout New England. When he eventually moved to NYC 30 years ago, to continue his performing career, Sam actually worked for 3 months as a server at the French Roast he now runs, before leaving to tour the country on the National Tour of Annie. 

For 10 years in NYC Sam went back and forth working in restaurants between theater jobs. Eventually wanting a steadier lifestyle restaurant work became the obvious option. Sam worked his way up the ladder to his first Floor Manager Position with ARC Restaurants and their UWS institution Ernie's . At Ernie's Sam quickly moved from being a Floor Manager to their Events Manager hosting events for SNL, Lincoln Center and Various Film and Theater Openings . Moving on to Assistant GM Positions at the Chelsea Eatery " Elmo" and "The Eatery" in Hell's Kitchen, Sam then moved on to his first GM Position with Eat Rice Restaurants in SoHo. Sam worked  for Eat Rice Restaurants for 13 years as the GM of two SoHo Asian Landmarks Kin Khao and Kelley and Ping. 

In 2015 Sam returned to Chef Driven Hospitality as the GM of French Roast Downtown and a year and a half later moved uptown coming full circle as the GM of the French Roast where he was once a server.