“I love the people at RBAC. They guided me through the process very well, and I love the whole program and how it works.”

Fresh local ingredients meet casual cool vibes at Russell D’Anton’s B2 Bistro. With eight locations, Russell knows a thing or two about running a successful restaurant, but his expansion story started by turning a “what if” into a “why not”. 

The first B2 Bistro location was a success, but when Russell wanted to open a second, he ran into some issues with his traditional bank. We saw an opportunity to help a restaurateur grow and we jumped at the chance. 

Russell’s mission: Expand the B2 concept to a new location

When Russell came to RBAC, he was already running the first B2 location in a rented space and was ready to expand. “I had some employees who were interested in growing with the company,” he says. “An opportunity came up that made a lot of sense for my employees and for myself to see if the B2 concept would be able to expand.” 

But the plan wasn’t just to purchase another location—Russell wanted to buy a property that needed a lot of work and take on an entire renovation to align it with his vision for B2. To cover the purchase and the transformation, he needed financing and a partner he could count on.

The roadblocks: Hesitation from a traditional bank

Despite running an established restaurant, Russell ran into some issues when he went to a traditional bank to finance the second location. The bank, shared Russell, couldn’t lend him the full amount. He thinks that he could have pushed harder and gotten the bank to work with him, but ultimately working with RBAC was “a better approach to conserve some cash.”

The route: Predictable payments and the right partners

Russell’s Realtor had worked with RBAC on other deals and suggested that he give us a call. When he sat down with one of our loan officers, he recalls that, “it seemed to make a lot of sense.” After getting to know Russell and his plan for the B2 expansion, we saw where he was going and wanted to be a part of it. Russell qualified for a fixed-rate SBA loan with a 20-year term, and the predictable payments meant he could focus on the restaurant and renovations. 

“The restaurant locations that I purchased were all in pretty bad shape, so [RBAC] enabled me to not only buy the property but to renovate them fully. It just turned out to be a great way to get capital.” With the freedom to renovate the properties to get them fully aligned with B2’s vision and vibe, Russell was able to transform his single restaurant into multiple locations throughout New Jersey and into Pennsylvania.

The destination: The B2 vision in action

Russell knew where he wanted to take B2, and says, “I felt like I knew this was going to work, and if the second restaurant worked out, it would be an avenue for me.” It turns out that Russell’s instincts were spot-on, and he “ultimately did a few more restaurants in the same way.” 

The second location was such a success that he partnered with us to purchase a third property and then a fourth. Bringing things full-circle, Russell actually bought the original city B2 location. Today, B2 Bistro has eight locations and Russell owns the properties for five of them, including the four he worked with RBAC to finance. 

The RBAC experience: Partnership through uncertainty

Russell worked with us on the first two purchases prior to 2020, and when the pandemic hit and turned the restaurant world upside down, we continued to work alongside him. Those were uncertain times, but he says “The way they treated me during COVID with all of the nightmares going on, I really couldn’t have been more pleased with them.” 

That’s the sign of a true partner—someone who will be with you when times are good and stay with you when times are tough. After partnering with us for his initial expansion to now running eight restaurants, Russell has proven that his model works. “Ultimately, they’re all very successful restaurants, and without RBAC, I’m not sure I could have done that,” he says. “It gave me the flexibility I needed. I didn’t have to raise extraordinary amounts of money or get into extraordinary amounts of debt.”

When you have a vision, we want to dig in with you. We’ll sit down and get to know you and your business to get an idea of where you want to go and what’s standing in your way. Then, we’ll work together to remove the roadblocks and clear the path, so you can do what you do best.