Rush Bowls founder leaves financial world for restaurants

Restaurant Operator

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, talks to Rush Bowls founder Andrew Pudalov, who started out in finance before trading dollar signs for menu items.

Pudalov said 9/11 was a trigger for leaving the financial world. His wife worked in the Twin Towers and her first day back from maternity leave was the day the towers came down. He moved his family to Boulder, Colorado, and looked for something "dynamically different," he said.

"I loved entrepreneurship and I was pretty darn good at what I did," he said, "so it afforded me the opportunity, quite frankly, to try something very different and kind of fine tune my skillsets."

He said living in Manhattan 20 years ago, there was little thought to health and wellness in the restaurant industry. He launched Rush Bowls in Boulder.

"When I started this idea of a meal concept, I wanted to go somewhere near a college where students would be more adept at testing and trying new things than a more mature clientele," Pudalov added.

To listen to Pudalov's journey as he launched Rush Bowls, click the link above.