When Danny Grant set out to open a steakhouse concept in Chicago in 2015, he describes the general feeling as, “Chicago has plenty of steakhouses—why do we need another one?” But he saw an invisible gap in the market that others missed. An underlying mission started to take shape as Grant and his team realized they wanted to disrupt the “masculine” steakhouse narrative that was pervasive in the early 2010s.
And thus, a new concept was born from the ashes of steakhouses past: Maple & Ash.
“We wanted to use our pedigree and our team and our culture to disrupt what that narrative was at the time. If you look back around that time, everything was always very masculine in a steakhouse,” Grant says. “When we initially started this, it was to appeal to foodies and to be a bit more feminine and sexy and less masculine, and we’ve been playing that game for a while now.”
The growing steakhouse concept from the two-Michelin-star chef Grant and Maple Hospitality Group has become a standout in Chicago, where it became the city’s highest-grossing independent restaurant in 2024, with sales of more than $35 million and an average check of $160. It has since expanded to other cities including Miami, Scottsdale, and Boston, and is headed to New York City next.
- HQ: Chicago
- Cuisine: Wood-fired steakhouse
- Units: 4
- Year founded: 2015
Maple & Ash blends an upscale wood-fired steakhouse and seafood destination with high-energy hospitality and high-end design elements. A moody interior design created by Studio K mixes mid-century modern style with chic textured mirrored glass walls, clad in custom Benheim glass.
The dinner menu features dry-aged steaks, wagyu, fire-roasted seafood towers, caviar, wood-fired specialties, and other specialty entrées like Pillows of Love, a signature hand-folded ricotta agnolotti pasta dish bathed in brown butter and topped with shaved winter truffle. The team leans into more cutesy names, with a section of the menu dubbed “Arm Candy” offering luxury steak toppers and sauces like Alaskan King Crab Oscar, roasted bone marrow, and beefed-up butter.
Guests can also opt for the tasting menu option, labeled “I Don’t Give a F*ck”—a signature, multi-course chef’s tasting experience featuring the steakhouse’s most popular and extravagant dishes, with a collection of fire-roasted shellfish, boutique farm steaks, freshly caught seafood, and seasonal delicacies. It’s priced around $225 per person depending on the location, with optional wine pairings available at an extra cost.
Then there’s the beverage menu, which follows the same maximalist, luxury-forward approach. Signature cocktails sport names like Reckless Jorge, Good Trouble, Shady Lady, and Unnecessary Attention, alongside elevated takes on classics such as a Maple & Ash Old Fashioned made with the restaurant’s Blanton’s barrel selection, Amaro Montenegro, sherry, Japanese maple sugar, and house bitters.
The spirits list is similarly expansive, stretching from rare bourbons, Japanese whiskies, and high-end Scotch to prestige tequila, mezcal, cognac, and caviar-studded martinis, while a “No F*@king Alcohol” section keeps the energy going for sober-curious guests with zero-proof cocktails built around Seedlip, Pathfinder, fruit, botanicals, and spice.
For Grant, the ability to create a concept that pushes the boundaries of what a steakhouse can be—with an unapologetically indulgent experience that diners find worth the higher cost—comes down to building trust. “First and foremost, get people to trust you. Gaining the trust of our guests is one of the most important and critical things of opening a new restaurant and running an existing restaurant,” he says.
“I go into some markets and I bring a ton of dry-aged steaks. I go into others, I bring hardly any because [it’s] just not what they like, so that’s up for us to understand,” he explains. “But it’s not only about a menu that’s driving that price. That’s when we’re getting into that kind of conversation. We’re talking about [the guest] experience.”
A Long Island native, Grant began cooking at a young age with his family in New York before moving to Chicago in his early 20s, when he began cooking for Bruce Sherman at North Pond for five years. After leaving to cook abroad in Paris and Italy to hone his skills at the French Pastry School, he returned and served as sous chef for Nomi. His career took off in 2009, when he became executive chef for Ria and Balsan restaurants at the former Elysian Hotel. During his tenure there, his French bistro-inspired menus earned him Food & Wine’s “2012 Best New Chef” award.
Grant earned two Michelin stars in 2011 and 2012, making him the youngest U.S. chef (at the time) to be awarded the prestigious accolade. After his tenure at Ria, Grant opened 1826 in Miami, which was named “Best New Restaurant in South Beach” by the Miami New Times in 2013. He returned to Chicago again in 2015 and joined the predecessor to Maple Hospitality Group as chef and partner. His creative vision and operations expertise have created an award-winning portfolio of brands including Maple & Ash, Monarch, and Kessaku.
Because Grant had built name recognition and familiarity in Chicago and Miami, opening Maple & Ash locations there felt like a smooth and natural progression. “And that actually plays into our opening strategy when we open in different markets, is that I can be more playful, color outside the lines in an already established market, because I’ve built guests that already we’ve gained their trust,” Grant says.
“We’ve celebrated their anniversaries. We’ve embraced their successes together. We’ve been there to help support them when they were going through something tough. They trust us,” he continues. “So, I’ll play a little bit more aggressive and creative on the programming. [But] when we’re going into a new market, we’ll show off a little bit, but it’s really important to be able to get the guest and the team speaking our language, learning who we are, and kind of understanding us—and us understanding the new market—because every market is different.”
Boston was the brand’s first foray into the Northeast in April this year, which will be followed by a fifth location planned for New York City in Midtown Manhattan. Each location is designed to deliver a dynamic and immersive experience, marrying elevated cuisine with a sense of theater and modern luxury.
While the idea of scaling Maple & Ash was present in Grant’s mind from the start, he recognizes not every concept is meant to scale.
“This was one that I always thought had the ability to scale and had the legs to be able to go on the road,” he says. “But anytime I’m looking to scale, if you can’t do the first one right and make the first one amazing, then there’s no sense to even talk about, location two, three, four, down the road. We plan to be successful. We don’t plan to fail. But it was always important that we needed to get home base done first, and then we just kind of see how it evolves.”
Yet, Grant doesn’t believe in endless expansion. After the New York location of Maple & Ash, he thinks there are about two other U.S. cities he wants to enter—but otherwise, “we’re probably reaching our domestic cap of where Maple should be expanding to,” he says.
